I've had this chapter ready for a few days, but it seems like this site suffers glitch after glitch.
The sun was just beginning to rise, small rays of light reflected off of broken glass made the field barely visible.
What could be seen was a huge arm, littered with slashes and bruises on the little skin left that wasn't completely charred, lying next to a half destroyed building.
The only remains left of a newly dead being.
A figure looked at the arm from above, cloaked perfectly as to not alert the Devil King's little sisters - as if it was needed, they were mere children, despite their embarrassing attempts to not appear so - though, one of the new devils supposedly wields the Boosted Gear, so it would be best to cloak on the off chance Ddraig would notice.
It was almost sad, to see the arm laying there; forgotten. Such a waste of a creature, to have been that weak.
There's a far greater purpose it could be used for.
The figure descended down next to the scorched appendage.
A yellow magic circle lit up next to the arm while the figured muttered a few words in a language that hadn't been spoken in thousands of years.
Satisfied, the figured, still shrouded in shadows, rose into the night sky again.
A few seconds later, the area was completely barren again.
Except for the arm, which began to shake.
Issei noticed two things when he woke up.
The first was how utterly exhausted he felt. It was as if he had not slept at all.
The second, that he wasn't in his bed. Instead, he was laying on the floor. He hadn't even changed out of his school uniform.
How did he end up here?
[BOOST]
For the fourth time, the distinct voice of the Red Dragon rang out, in his head anyway, he wouldn't want to alert his parents because of the sealed dragon's booming voice.
This was the second part of Issei's training. After all of the physical training he did before and after school, he would return home and try to boost as many times as he can.
Sweat lined his forehead, and he visibly struggled to handle the effect of doubling his powers four times over. Though he felt that he was starting to get used to the power that flowed through him.
[BOOST]
He could keep going. He wants to get stronger. He has to get strong-
[RESET]
Fuck.
Groaning, Issei picked himself off of the floor and flopped onto his bed. He should still have a little bit of time before he would have to get ready for school.
The ringing of his alarm clock filled his ears a moment later.
The book Rias had been sleeping next to fell to the floor with a booming sound, instantly waking her from her slumber. Her head shot up, looking around for a second, not remembering what she was doing the night before.
She looked to the floor the noise originated from.
Right. The books.
She was looking through the extensive amounts of Sacred Gears the devils knew of and had put in a series of books. She was trying to find one that described an aura like Issei's.
Three full books, thousands of pages, a couple nights of very little sleep later, and she had nothing to show for it. Not a single gear she looked at described anything remotely close to what she was looking for.
She looked down to the book she was looking at last night.
The page she was on before falling asleep was now wet with drool.
Ew.
A simple spell and the book was in pristine condition once again.
As Rias went through the mundane tasks of her morning, her mind wandered, as it often did these days, to her new pawn.
Issei was kind enough to them, despite their probably obvious faked kindness towards them, but he spent no more time than what was absolutely necessary around the rest of the peerage. Rias had never seen this, the rest of her peerage had always created a bond with each other fairly quickly.
Even Koneko was starting to get close to them at this point in the beginning of her reincarnation.
But Issei? He stayed distant.
She wondered what they could do to get closer with him.
Rias looked at the clock and nearly jumped. It was almost time for classes to start.
A sleepless night, showing up almost late to school, and two pop quizzes that he certainly failed later, Issei dragged himself into the club room.
Definitely not being in the mood for the others fake politeness, he grabbed the flyers and left without even looking at them.
The now familiar aura washed over Rias again, gaining a shiver from the heiress as her pawn opened the door.
He looked around the room after noticing her, not expecting her to be alone.
"Issei," She tried saying it with kindness, but if his reaction - or lack thereof - was any indication, she wasn't doing a very good job.
"Thank you for passing out the flyers. Now, there is a summoning request request that no other member is available for. I need you to take care of it. Think you can handle it?"
Of course not. "Uh, yeah, sure. Where is it?"
She gave him the directions, and he was gone without another word.
It was starting to get dark by the time Issei got to the house. The first thing he noticed was that the lights, at least the ones he could see from outside, weren't on. Strange.
He rang the doorbell, not receiving an answer. After a few moments, he pushed the button again. Still nothing. The brunette resorted to knocking, each one louder than the last until he was practically pounding on the door.
[I don't like this…]
Issei chose not to answer the dragon. He didn't like it either, but what choice did he have?
Giving up, he tried to open the door, surprised when it was unlocked.
"Hello? Anybody home?" Issei called out. He headed towards the only room with a light on. He instantly regretted it.
On the floor in the living room, sprawled out and covered in blood, was most likely the person who had summoned him. His legs were bent at angles that Issei didn't think was physically possible for the lower limbs and internal organs were spilling out from a huge gash in his stomach.
His death, clearly, was a painful one.
Bile rose in Issei's throat, he pushed it down and slowly started to back up. A voice came from his left, freezing him in place.
"I will punish the world for it's evil, and the wicked for their sins."
Issei was made acutely aware that he wasn't alone.
There was a white haired man dressed in priest robes sitting on a couch.
[This man has to be an exorcist. Watch out.]
Any suggestions?
[Flee. You can't win this battle.]
"That was Isaiah 13:11, if you didn't know. Which I'm guessing you didn't, considering your devil scum."
Just how casual he said that struck Issei as odd. There wasn't any real malice in his words.
He sounded more amused than anything.
Eyes half lidded, tongue hanging out, he had the look of a deranged man.
He got up and began walking towards Issei, who matched his pace by backing away.
"You… you did this?" Issei asked, horrified at the sight in front of him.
"I did! Isn't it beautiful?" The man started cackling.
"No! He was a person!" Issei protested.
"NO HE WASN'T. He gave that up when he tried to summon a devil!"
"W-what?"
The deranged priest carried on as if Issei had said nothing. "Father Freed Selzen is my name." He gave a small bow before pulling out a sword hilt and pistol. "I'd ask yours, but it doesn't matter because you'll be dead soon!" With a maniacal grin, he lunged at Issei.
[BOOST]
Issei barely jumped out of the way in time, and materialized his gauntlet.
"Ooh, what a shiny toy you got there, I can't wait to mount it on my wall after cutting your arm off!"
Freed lunged at the brunette a second time, who dodged again, quicker this time.
The exorcist seemed to be ready for this, however, because he had shot where Issei jumped, striking the teen in the knee, causing him to cry out in pain and fall to the floor.
[BOOST]
As Issei tried to get back to his feet, the deranged exorcist positioned his sword above Issei's head, ready for the killing blow.
A scream rang out in the room, getting the attention of both the devil and the exorcist.
"What the fuck? What are you doing here Asia?"
It was... the nun that Issei had shown to the church. With all that's been going on, he had forgotten about her.
She was staring at the body, an even more horrified look than Issei's on her face.
"How could you do this?" Asia cried out, staring at the body.
[BOOST]
"Quiet! You… he summoned a devil!" Freed yelled back, gesturing wildly at Issei. Asia, just noticing his presence for the first time, gasped again.
"No... it can't be. You're a devil, Issei?"
"What? Wait…" A grin slowly spread across Freed's face. "Do you know him?" He started laughing. "Oh my God! It's a devil scum and holy sister love story! It's so heartwarming I want to puke my guts out just like that guy!" He gestured at the dead body with his sword.
[BOOST]
"SHUT UP!" Freed screeched, more at the gauntlet than at Issei. He swung his sword at the devil again, until having to suddenly halt again when Asia jumped in front of Issei.
"Please, Father! I beg you, show mercy!" The nun pleaded.
"What? No! He's a devil, you little slut! He doesn't get mercy! Get out of the way!"
"No, please!"
"ENOUGH" Freed grabbed Asia and threw her out of the way.
But instead of turning his attention back to Issei, he kneeled over the nun and began grabbing at her clothes. The nun tried to push him off, but was frozen in shock or pain when the back of Freed's hand collided with her cheek.
"The Fallen said I couldn't hurt you, so I'll just have to be a little gentle…"
Issei felt something inside of him snap as he glared daggers at the priest.
[BOOST]
A green aura began to form around the devil.
[BOOST]
[Almost there…]
The bullet hole in his leg didn't seem like much of a hindrance anymore.
[BOOST]
A black, less noticeable aura formed around him as well, but that was overshadowed by it's green counterpart, which was growing brighter and more powerful by the second.
[EXPLOSION]
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
The green aura around Issei turned into flames that shot out towards Freed.
The exorcist barely had time to look over at the injured devil before he was enveloped in fire.
It wasn't powerful enough to do anything aside from singe his hair and clothes. It still hurt though. A lot.
He screamed and jumped away.
Strangely, the flames didn't hurt Asia at all, despite them also engulfing her. She still laid on the ground, petrified.
Freed lunged again, swiping wildly at Issei, who rolled out of the way.
"What the hell, you shitty devil?" he yelled. "Why wont you die!"
Freed didn't seem as fast as he was a few minutes ago, at least to Issei. The time he had to boost definitely helped.
The brunette could follow his movements a lot better, and found it easier to dodge. This didn't stop Freed from continuously swinging like a madman.
Sparks flew when light sword met gauntlet. This time, Freed pulled out his pistol and pointed it directly at Issei's head. The devil barely hit it to the side in time when it fired what would have been a fatal shot of pure light - how the hell was that even possible - into the wall.
Issei knew he was running out of time. He wouldn't be able to keep this up forever.
Freed swung again, and Issei jumped back just in time. His back hit the wall of the house.
He was trapped.
The exorcist gained a sick smile when he realized the same. He stabbed at Issei.
With no other options left, Issei threw his head to the left. The light sword connected with the wall where Issei's head had been a second earlier and got stuck. The priest took his attention off of Issei and tried to pry his sword loose.
Seeing the opening, Issei channeled all of the power he could into his gauntlet clad fist and sent it towards Freed.
What happened next felt like it was going in slow motion for the devil.
A grin spread across Freed's face.
The light sword embedded in the wall disappeared, leaving only the hilt. This was about when Issei realized his mistake.
The teen could faintly hear Ddraig saying something, probably about said fatal mistake.
Freed easily dodged Issei's strike.
The light sword materialized again and he sliced a deep cut into the brunette's back, causing him to fall to the ground.
He was vaguely aware of Asia calling his name.
Freed kicked Issei in the stomach making him roll near to the center of the room. Then, he took out his gun.
Issei had taken the bait.
BANG. A bullet right under his ribcage.
Another bullet, this one piercing his lung.
Freed was no longer trying to kill him.
He was torturing him.
Issei tried crawling away, but it was obvious he wouldn't be getting very far. He could vaguely see the outline of Freed advancing towards him.
When his death seemed all but certain, a magic circle opened behind him.
Black and Red energy poured out of of the circle, forcing Freed to jump out of the way as Rias and Koneko appeared in the house.
The priest looked towards Asia, where she had pulled herself to her feet.
"You were supposed to set up the barrier!"
"I-I…"
His boot connected with her ribs before she could finish her thought.
Koneko got into a fighting stance. Rias just stood normally, letting an intimidating black and red aura form around her.
"You dare attack one of my dear servants?" The Heiress asked, anger laced in her voice. Freed looked back, as if noticing them for the first time.
"Two more for me to kill? Wonderful! It's a foursome!" He was back to laughing, his anger from a few seconds ago vanished.
Rias laughed. "You really think you can take the both of us alone?"
"Who said anything about alone?" The priest gave a wicked grin when magic circles formed on the ceiling. Koneko stared at the circles, analyzing them.
"Fallen Angels are coming." She informed Rias.
Rias weighed her options for a moment before responding. She sighed.
"Grab Issei and lets go. We aren't prepared for a battle like this."
Koneko lifted Issei's prone form like he weighed nothing. She carried him over to the magic circle Rias had formed.
He was barely able to choke out. "Wait... Asia."
"Only members of my peerage can make the jump."
"NO. ASIA"
Her green eyes were the last thing he saw before they teleported out.
A lot of the time, I find myself cringing whenever authors write Issei and Ddraig as close friends. Few can pull it off, it just comes off as really awkward for the most part. Expect Ddraig to take a backseat for a lot of things, for the time being.