"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money

they cannot be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with.

its just that some men, just want to watch the world burn"

- Alfred (Batman)

-XxXxXxX-

The rest of the flight from turkey airspace to the Romanian airspace was probably the most uncomfortable plane ride I had even experienced in my long lasting career with the church, due to the previous knowledge learned I was as quiet as a mute sloth while the other two seemed joyful to an extent, the two with me were more relaxed but they to seemed aware of my emotions. My thoughts were aligned more on what the horizon held than the childish joy the other two felt in their speedy ascent in rank from regular exorcists, to high ranking heaven division operatives to now full scale holy sword wielders in the span of a few days

I guess anyone without my sheer level of knowledge would be blocked by the bliss of ignorance to feel the same emotions they were experiencing and for a moment you may ask 'how excited are they?'

Well I would normally answer in a realistic manner then what you'd normally would expect, since the two before me were raised in catholic lives there forms of 'bouncing up and down in excitement' was much different than that.

Instead

Xenovia looked much more energetic then her usual self and she seemed more restless in her seat then before, and the amount of anger she had seemed to have been dropped slightly, a good observation was needed to even notice that and that was without me even using my abilities

Irina however seemed more her age then her stoic and angry counterpart, the engagement with Malthus at the Eastern Orthodox Church was almost lost on the pig tailed exorcist and her previous expression of confusion and hopelessness was replaced with a near permanent smile

I for one, was different

For hours, I remained serious, the added stress of the past events was weighing heavily on my mind and my current thoughts were definitely not on the holy sword indoctrination ceremony scheduled to take place after our landing

'for some reason I miss the old days, hunting vampires and rogues seems so much less taxing then this' it was a small sin on my end, laziness for those forged in divine light were not subject to simply lounging around but rather guiding or guarding some kind of objective

Didn't mean I hated the better days, the sudden change in events and added stress was extremely worrisome for myself, I had expected this to go along the lines of forting another attempt at war, find the culprits, erase them, then erase our presence entirely... Just another day in the Vatican's black ops division, too bad that wasn't what I got

Even now while we fly in controlled and protected airspace I had not relaxed a minute since my engagement with Malthus

When we fought, I knew full well that neither of us had used our true abilities but even with that on my side I still felt trepidation, Malthus was a demon and one that's skills and powers were long forgotten in the records, even heaven was disconnected a tad bit, I may have a trump card that has saved my life and the life of others many times but the unknown skill track I had on Malthus was making it really hard to put my absolute faith in my sword

It has been centuries since any real conflict was fought and even longer since a demon took the field, the only ones I knew who could answer my questions about Malthus would've been the Satan's or Azazel – one of the oldest fallen angels since the beginning of the great war – but meeting them wasn't a preferred path in keeping my cover secret

I have killed devils before, many I can confidently say were bad and vile, ones who were not for peace nor cared for what happened if war actually started... not to mention the ones who committed atrocities for fun

I have no regrets for destroying them but I doubt that would quell the devil kings wrath any less then what I believe he had

This was the base line of my thoughts mostly, confused and lost sentiments of a possible future and events forged in the simple emotion of doubt... funny really, you wouldn't expect an angel to feel fear and doubt right?

Well you would be right but after curtain events the eyes of use angels have been opened and with the death of our father – yes I'm aware of that! – left many of us experiencing emotions we were not meant to feel...

"I-I...Di-didn't...do...it" came a cold voice to my left, I felt a cold chill roll down my spine at the familiar tone the voice had, for whatever reason my head turned to the source of voice on its own and suddenly my body stiffened when the person who spoke those words was Amelia who sat on the edge of the leather cabin seat beside me

Sockets devoid of eyes and excreting small amounts of smoke the ghost of Amelia smirked when she saw my gaze "why... c-couldn't... you, Sa-save me?" questioned the ghost darkly; the image that was the sweet girl was distorted and demented but soon, it vanished

My eyes snapped open a second later from the nightmare

From the looks of things all was the same, Irina and Xenovia still looked excited in their own way and the haunting image of Amelia was gone, it would seem somewhere down the line my body shut down causing me to fall asleep, it must've been the way I awoke as Irina noticed something about me that confused her

"You alright senpai?" she asked sweetly while tilting her head, rubbing my eyes calmly I sighed before answering "I'm fine, I just... remembered I have a plane to fly"

"Bad dream?" she pressed, I must have some kind of odd appearance going on

Ignoring her question I changed the subject "how far are we till we arrive at Vatican City airstrip?" I asked, Irina silently watched me for a second before she took the hint

"Ten miles tile we enter the protected airspace, about five more till the strip is in sight" she said normally, I noticed Xenovia glance at me before she spotted my gaze and looked away

'still angry it seems' from a person who had a female partner for twenty years I've come to understand that if they don't start the conversation then you don't push one on them, it just makes it worse

With that in mind I digressed the idea of talking with her to a later time, lifting myself from my seat on the jets passenger couch I carried my groggy ass over to the pilot seat and sat down, I didn't override the autopilot, we still had about a haft hour before we landed so I just sat there away from the eyes of the others

When I said we angels weren't supposed to experience curtain emotions I meant it, doubt, fear I could handle, trepidation was a small source but I never truly felt despair but the one thing eating me up was guilt

'Guess this is what they meant, the more your around them the more you become like them' I thought jokingly, my long time friends back in the 'white palace' always told me stories about what happens down in the human world

Most of it myths and all, one of them I believe even said that the longer your down here the easier it is to fall – Fall as in become one of the Grigori mind you – but most of us always had something about the human world, be it stories or jokes we always had something to say

*sigh*

'Those were the good days' I thought while smiling at the memory, the ignorance I had towards everything then was blissful but now I could actually say I missed those ignorant days

Did I wish them back? No, I was young and joyful sure but I was ultimately weak in the long run, I guess being aware of the bullsh_t around me was the small cost to pay for the strength I have now so no, I didn't wish to have my younger days back... I just fondly remember them as simple 'good' times

All I wished for right now was to be able to give Amelia's days back...

For a moment I simply sat there, mulling over crap I should move past before the planes air traffic radio sprung to life and a familiar commanding voice was heard on the other side of the line "this is the Gendarmerie Air force naval intelligence command, code named 'castle', you are entering Vatican City air space, state your business or change course immediately"

After his order three Vatican fighter jets apart of the Gendarmerie air force swooped down and positioned themselves in a triangle formation to our left, our right and I guessed our rear

Seemed my thoughts of the past are farther away now them before, lifting the jets comm's headset I replied professionally "I read you castle, this is Paladin of the secret Vatican division, requesting permission to land on Vatican airstrip 'Juliet'"

There was a pause on the other line before he started up again "copy that Paladin, proceed to Run way Juliet, any deviation will be an act of aggression against the city and its safety, counter measures will be used in return" he said with dead seriousness, I guess the situation on the ground was more chaotic then I thought or expected

"Copy that castle, proceeding to runway Juliet now" I replied before I readjusted the flight plan and locked in the flight path to the designated runway, as I made the readjustments Irina sat in the passenger seat to my left

"Did you get us a ticket in?" she asked, ticket? Oh yeah that's right she hasn't been in that seat until awhile ago

"We'll be down on the ground in about twenty minutes or so" I said, didn't take much to know the info caused Irina to feel even more excited but I ignored it

"How's Xenovia doing by the way?" I asked suddenly before the girl sputtered off, from the way her expression went from excited to confused made me think my asking was rather redundant

"Oh... I'm not sure, she seems... kinda off right now" was her confused reply before she looked to me with the same expression "Have any idea why she's that way right now? Normally I can talk to her but so far she seems distant"

I nodded at her words and remained silent but after feeling a pair of eyes drilling at the side of my head I turned to her to see her pouting blankly at me as if she knew I was the culprit "it's because of before right?" she asked plainly

"Before what?"

For the first time ever Irina looked like a serious individual with zero flamboyancy to spare, obviously Irina and Xenovia were close in friendship and partnership was an important key in keeping them alive and as such, Irina had noticed the chink in Xenovia's mental armor and now she was looking at 'the new guy' to see if I was the cause of said disturbance

For a girl who lacks curtain viewpoints she sure can find the ability to do so quickly

"You know what I'm talking about, I've worked alongside Xenovia for about 3 years since we graduated and one key thing I've seen her carry with her all this time is her stubborn nature in not abandoning her allies... almost like what happened at the church in turkey" she said serious

She sighed before she continued "I may not get you to actually regret your choice but what happened may have hurt her, I'm not sure if it's the fact you can't really trust us as much but –"

"Don't think for a second that I don't trust you two" I interrupted calmly, Irina stopped and looked to me as if waiting for me to proceed, I humored her

"From the start of your graduation you and Xenovia grew into strong capable exorcists fit to take on not many female exorcists can face even with the best training available, your swords skill are both equal to that of a bladed wall of iron and your teamwork is accurate to near perfect synchronization... a lack of trust on my end is not what's important"

"Then what is?"

"Your lives... quite possibly... You think I'd be able to face Griselda again if I returned with two body bags when I had the chance to make sure that wouldn't happen?"

From my quick replies I could see that Irina was starting to understand my judgment, Malthus had said it himself that killing Xenovia would've been Childs play but since I took the steps in making sure she wasn't in his range had saved her life, weather she liked it or not

"I'm fully aware of the hurt I put on Xenovia but if I had that choice in front of me again then I'd take it, no regrets, no hesitation... besides, if she dies I do as well..." Irina looked to me with confusion before I finished with a smirk "ya know... being the substitute guardian of Xenovia and all has some... quirks" I finished while smiling slightly

I'm guessing the image of Griselda's wrathful anger passed through Irina's mind because soon after the confusion left her and in its place was a giggling teenager laughing whole heartedly into her palm

"She finds it funny..." I mocked jokingly while rolling my eyes before I mocked her laughing expression with my own "heheh... I sure as hell don't"

She just kept laughing, probably harder than before too

Don't laugh at my pain women!

"Paladin, this is the Vatican city watchtower, call sign "checkmate", run way is clear, you cleared for landing" the conversation I was having with Irina must've really killed the time

"Copy checkmate, on our approach now" I replied

Adjusting main controls I switched off main flight planes and took the reins, flying planes seems easy but since I was rather rusty the landing was much rougher than the normal landings the real pilots were capable of doing, I did learn flying over a farm house in the states a few years back, flying a luxurious jet plane was a little bit more then I could chew but since I was a man of action the landing was... substantial... to a point

SCREEEEECCCCCHHHHH!

The initial landing was a dusty and rough jolt in the plane cabin as well as the passenger cabin, and since I hadn't taken the necessary time to slow the plane we were moving to faced, however my landing positioning was spot on so the landing gear didn't shatter or blow out, instead a lowed screech was heard before a louder and prolonged one followed due to my fight with the breaks and momentum
in a matter of seconds the plane slowed before it completely stopped causing me to release a deep breath I was holding

"Huh" I sighed "well that was harder than I thought I'd be" I muttered in a relaxed yet nervous voice

"S-senpai?" called out Irina's stuttering voice

"Yes" I said while looking at her, my expression shuddered in a fit of laughter when what I saw was rather hilarious

Irina sat frozen in her seat while white knuckling the co-pilot seat handles, some of the fabricant also looked to be ready to give out under the inhuman amount of stress it was withstanding

"Yeah... Laugh it up senpai" she said lowly while I tried my hardest to not laugh, about a minute and my hysterics dropped "I thought you said you knew how to fly?" she asked just as lowly as before

I simply shrugged my shoulders "we landed didn't we?"

Irina simply frowned at my vague response

Unbuckling me from my seat I stood up and unbuckled her seatbelt for her "don't be so cross Iri-chan, we did land didn't we?"

The chestnut haired teen simply eyed me with a questioning look before I just changed the subject for her "Don't you two have an indoctrination ceremony to be at?" I asked before she suddenly widened her eyes and sprouted up quicker then I could register... that was easy

"Oh! Xenovia hurry up! We gotta get going!" she yelled out causing even Xenovia to suddenly gain some spunk in her step, not a second later and I was being waved at in farewell by Irina before she and Xenovia hightailed it, well Irina did, Xenovia just hung on for dear life, in a cloud of dust the two were gone leaving me alone on the plane

"Why couldn't I see that hustle in the field?" I asked myself, sure they were faced but they had literally gathered their stuff and bolted within a 6 second time frame... far faster than myself in a rush

After sifting through the plane for some of my belongings I exited the planes right side door before I saw a passenger carrier bus outfitted with Vatican class protection armor come striding up to the jet, from inside the bus came multiple exorcists whom with many bows and nods moved past me and into the planes interior

Standard security mind you, back in I believe the 50's a group of zealots from an undisclosed terrorist group plotted an attack on the Vatican, so from then on security sweeps were necessary – I'm pretty sure the jet will be taken apart for added assurance, the security response priests looked to be on extreme alert add the previous attacks effects kinda left the Vatican tighter then the pentagon on 9-11

Stopping one of the female nuns before she passed me I relayed a message "there are three Vatican operatives inside the storage bay, treat them with care please" I said softly

The female women about 23 years of age looked at me softly before she replied "of course father Blackburn, we will handle them well" nodding to her respectfully I treaded to the airport's terminal

-XxXxXxX-

The other two most likely waved a taxi down for them which left me back at the terminal, it was better this way since quite frankly, the indoctrination ceremony was a ritual I saw close to satanic worship –yeah I saw the holy sword ceremony close to satanic worship – as if mentioning enough wasn't good enough for ya

Anyways, the longer I took in getting to the Vatican was best for myself, the research used in making the ceremony work was such hypocrisy I was damned near close to knocking someone out the minute I heard about it, the higher ups sure did notice my anger towards it and on off shore instances the ones who ordered it sanctioned asked for forgiveness from yours truly

I did say only a few knew of my 'gift' but that only stood to those in field work, Griselda being the only but the higher ups however have keen eyes and with my rise in status and rank in the Vatican stood out to them well... then add the fact that after twenty years I still looked like I wasn't a day passed 19 years old rung a lot of bells

So yeah, the pope and some of his archbishops know I'm an angel... after much explaining that is, and I gotta say for a situation like that one I suspected to be going back to heaven but luckily the higher ups remained silent on the issue... perhaps it was Griselda's sheer negotiating skills that kept them quiet

She always had a way with words I guess

Well since then I've become the sort of the silent parent in the Vatican for a good... 40 years? But anyways you can say that I was the one keeping the fanatics from starting the crusades again and there were a lot of moments were it did come close to that

A few promises of damnation there a little bit of all mighty pushes there and yeah... your welcome

With some time to kill I whipped out my phone and dialed a number via 'texting', I think that's what Griselda said it was?

A few seconds later and I got a reply... very surprising

Osteria dell'Angelo, window seat

I don't know why he has to be so vague about it but whatever

With a wave of my hand a taxi driver signaled me to his vehicle and I directed him to the obvious restaurant I was told to meet at

Within a few minutes I was dropped off at the four... or was it five star restaurant? But anyways the restaurant was located on the left of the road with open windows and raised security shutters, since the time was about 2 o clock the restaurant was moderately busy but since it was a week day the food joint wasn't as busy as you'd think

With the time I had inside the taxi I was able to change into simple urban clothes, light blue jeans, sneakers, and a black t-shirt with a black dress coat over top of it, with the top haft of my coat open my crucifix was visible... it was hard to explain my confusion when the taxi driver asked about the white flash of light in his back seat to which I simply told him I accidently turned on my phones flashlight function to maximum output

He didn't look fazed at all though

Handing the taxi driver a generous amount of money I thanked him before I entered the restaurant before he pressed the issue, from inside I took a familiar notice of the brown sleek wooden design, the white table cloths and red fabricant for chairs before I walked to the podium

"Is a Gesualdo in?" I asked politely, the man working the podium simply looked through his customer book before he nodded and pointed at a window seat to his right side

"Just over there sir"

Nodding thank you to the gentlemen I walked over to the table to meet a friend of mine

"I guess I've won a lottery today or something..." I started while catching his attention "usually making contact with you is a hassle and most of the time I'm usually I'm going from hunting one ghost to another"

From my words the young man that sat at the table smirked and then turned to greet me "nice to see you to Isaac... care for some chips?" he asked, he had blonde hair and green eyes but unlike myself he still wore his priest outfit then a normal set of cloths

Dulio Gesualdo, one of the strongest Vatican operatives alongside myself and a few others. I had met and befriended him a few months after he joined the Vatican 6 years ago... it was during the time Xenovia and Irina witnessed him actually challenge someone to a sparring match, namely me

I really don't think he's done that since

Oh and did I mention he loves food... like really, no joke

The minute he finds out about some kind of food his entire presents literally vanishes off the face of the earth, one minute he's beside you then the next minute he's across town eating the hell outta some creampuff delicacy restaurant

He may sound a tad bit off his rocker but his... hobby, wasn't all for his own pleasure, I guessed his previous church he was stationed at was the kind that fed only soup and stale bread and I guess it must've triggered some kind of vigilantly-esque persona cause whenever he'd return back onto the grid he'd have a variety of menus and cookbooks to stuff down the throats of all the cooks back at the Vatican

He would rather die than let the orphans back at the orphanage just eat that 'crap' all their life, so you can say the kids are kinda liven in luxury... he's a damn hero though

Ugh, soup and bread... even I'm sick of it

Nodding to him kindly I plumped my ass down on the seat across from him and sighed before he pushed a plate in front of me, from what it looked like I guessed nacho's was what he was trying today "long day huh?"

Again a sigh escaped me "you have no idea"

He waved his hand downwards and I quickly sensed a sound barrier sprout up around us, he was proficient in magic on a moderate degree but it wasn't his specialty "I've heard of your situation from Arndell before he... ya know, kicked the bucket" he started while I nibbled on the rather tasty nacho's

"Hm, what else have you heard?" I asked calmly, no sense in being shocked about it, Dulio was just as good as myself and stood head over heels among the others and I even remember him on station before me and the other two left for st. Paul's cathedral... I hadn't really acknowledge it before since, I thought it was gonna be another of the record mission

It wouldn't be entirely ludicrous for him to have been updated on the situation, since ya know, everything has gone to lunch – no pun intended – Arndell was known for forging contingency plans even before shit hit the fan... I gotta say it was a good choice though

"I was informed on everything, the theft of two Excalibur's not counting the one stolen from the Vatican and the ones responsible for do it" he listed off lazily, he looked lazy but his muscles were stiff and his eyes were narrowed slightly

I studied him before I lightly asked "and who was responsible? If I may press the matter"

Dulio looked confused before his eyes slightly widened by my uncharacteristic frown "if you think it was all fallen angels then your only partially informed on the situation" I added seriously and by his expression I guessed he was only practically in the door

"The situation on hand is far larger than a simple rouge platoon of fallen angels led by a simple hunch, I guess Arndell kept you out mostly just in case we handled this before it got out of hand, however, it is outta hand, that being the case I'm sure you're aware of our close watch on Kokabiel?" I asked to which he nodded

"We still have only guesses on that matter. Since you are the next in line on this as well as I feel it would be best for you aboard I'll give you clearance to this otherwise classified Intel" from his sudden shift in his seat I'm guessing my seriousness was enough to break him of his lazed character

Dulio was usually a laid back character and so was on in some cases, and not many can really trouble him to a serious extent, however for a while now I've come to realize my words can often trigger his seriousness to uncharacteristic rise

"Who was it then?" he asked

"Our first investigation on st. Paul's cathedral yielded critical information on the one directly responsible for the attacks on the churches... you are aware of the Excalibur's thefts, yes, but the fallen are only assisting in this endeavor. From our investigation –" Dulio politely stopped me by raising his hand

"Ah, who do you mean by 'we'? I was only informed of your involvement because of the orders you advised to Arndell, the other two were not mentioned nor listed as involved" he asked

Nodding I replied "the situation was at a dire panicle and Arndell's time was limited so he simply reassigned mine and Griselda's apprentices to the operation" Dulio's eyes soon widen in mild surprise at the ones involved alongside me

"Xenovia and Irina were involved huh? I Knew those two were good... isn't Xenovia a real holy sword wielder?" he asked to which I nodded calmly

"She is but her sword skills are not honed enough for her to wield Durandal without it taking her arm in the process" I replied evenly, still nibbling the nachos

Dulio nodded before he waved me to carry on "anyways, our investigation inside the cathedral turned haywire after some digging, turns out the cathedral was housing the Excalibur blueprint that which was also stolen" Dulio tightened his fist slightly before I continued "and get this, two rogue priests were also inside the basement, their objective was the silencing of a single survivor – failed obvious – two highly trained sword wielder's was almost over kill"

"After helping the survivor we dug some more through... The mess that remained, we found the blueprints holding cylinder but it was holding something different... guess what it was" I then left Dulio to his knowledge test

A good minute passed before he answered "I'm stumped, I haven't encountered any type of residue or trail in my hunting jobs so what did you find?"

"Sulfur" I said plainly, sugar coating wasn't my style

I continued to eat my or his nachos while Dulio simply sat there staring at me with silent shock, his eyes were the only thing wide but I could tell the presence of the public was keeping him from destroying his controlled character

"Sulfur?" he asked to which I nodded while humming a sound eerily close to agreement

"His name his Malthus, the demon that incites war and erects pillars with weapons and ammunition... now you can understand the degree we are currently standing in, Malthus's title is almost self explanatory" I said, Dulio for the first time ever looked lost

"here's where we stand, currently Malthus and his small platoon of loyal fallen angels hold three Excalibur's and the blue print, the combined force in constructing those three swords would be enough to level a large scale city... that would be enough to not just aggravate the hornets' nest but full on piss it off and we both know that if that happens then the world would be sprung right back into a full scale war with three fractions were really don't want to be caught in the middle of" I explained

"In other words, if this actually comes to pass then the extinction of not just all three fractions but ours as well" he said, exasperated, I nodded solemnly at his statement

"So, what are you going to do?" he asked

Sighing softly I replied "so far we have zero leads on where Malthus is stationed or the city he plans to wipe out, so right now I'm just activating anything or anyone I can get my hands on" Dulio smirked at me before he replied

"That includes me right?"

I simply shrugged my shoulders before I smirked at him "this OP is off the books and currently doesn't exist, the pope has no idea of our actions and all others remain in the dark; however, only a few know of this, that being Griselda and our two apprentices, while Claire is our information specialist... Arndell was the commanding officer but Griselda filled in those shoes quickly"

"So in other words, this is technically another day at the office... except with a whole lot of deadlines on fast approach" replied Dulio, his expression was serious and by the sound of my own voice I'm guessing Dulio's attention was undivided

"If only that metaphor was as messily and mundane as it sounded... but yes, with the storm looming on the horizon I've taken notice that three operatives against one demon isn't enough, especially when there's a possibly Cadre class fallen involved, that divides our skills dangerously" I explained stress on the matter was causing my eyes to cloud a little... ugh, so troublesome

After a while Dulio smiled "when my brothers and sisters are in trouble I always make the time to help but when it comes to stopping a megalomaniac hell bent on throwing the world into chaos... Well, were not just talking about my brothers and sisters but rather every innocent man, women and child as well... so in summary, you had me at 'hello'" he revealed

I smirked at his words "glad to hear it" I said with a feeling to a few pounds of stress lifted off my shoulders. With Dulio on board I'd say that our chances of winning was even closer than before, there was a line of accusation in the air with rumors of Kokabiel's involvement with Malthus's ultimate goal IE: destruction, we have files and documented records on physiological reports on Kokabiel, war is his game and death leaves no marks on him... he may see the fallen angels as superiors but he'd have to be an idiot to ignore or fight Malthus on simple fraction principles... if anything, he is either involved or isn't, either way my choice in activating Dulio was the best choice we had and strengthening our OP was the best choice to success

Before I could sit back in my chair while Dulio called a waitress over, my cell phone rang, taking the call I picked up the phone before I reared it away from my ears at the familiar terrifying voice on the other end

"Isaac, where the hell are you?!" yelled Griselda angrily

"Cool your jets Grisy" why the hell am I speaking like that?

I could almost hear the sound of a pencil snapping violently when Griselda heard the context in which I spoke previously, not only did I use that nickname but I also sounded like a street thug stuck in the 90's

Oh how I hate speaking before thinking

"~Isaac, unless you have more important matters to attend to then I highly suggest you –" I pushed the phone far enough from my ear at the obvious build up of rage, a second later and my choice was applauded by Dulio's thumbs up

"— GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE NOW!" when she's pissed, she's pissed... I was hoping the phone speakers weren't quivering at having to sustain that punishment

Giving it a second before replying I calmly placed my phone back against my head before calmly and politely replying with "Be right there hunny" then I hung up

I was so dead, damn you Dulio and your lazed personality! You're a Bad influence

"She pissed?" he asked

"You think?"

"I dunno; I put a sound barrier around you the minute you replied... Oh! And by the way, smooth" he finished with a simple thumbs up

Blankly, I stared at him

"What?" he asked

"Nothing... let's get outta here" with a wave of his hand the teen simply showed me a piece of paper before he stood up, it must be the ingredients to the nachos, he had a way with getting it that which confused me greatly however I dismissed it

"com'mon, let's face that women's wrath head on" he said encouragingly while we left the food joint

Instead of signalling a taxi like Dulio wanted I simply told him to follow me down an alleyway before I summoned a white magic circle to port us to the Vatican head quarters in record time, from the look on Dulio's expression as we appeared in my room I guessed he thought of porting like that in the opposite direct of good cuisine was a waste of magic energy but unlike him his hobby was his own and not mine

"Serious waste of energy doing that" he muttered but I ignored him

Before we left the room I summoned a second magic circle that replaced my urban clothes with my original priest outfit thus causing Dulio to look at me blankly

"What?" I asked innocently

"And they call me lazy" he said before he opened the door

From outside my room I registered the chaotic nature the Vatican security was having, since my quarters was located in the secret section of the Vatican I was close to the region of the attack, small explosion points decorated the walls and marble flooring while the human military group called the Gendarmerie hustled around. Each of them were trained and briefed to top secret information regarding the supernatural so the attack on the Vatican was well handled and kept out of the ever watchful eye of the public all the while the Gendarmerie remained focused and on task

"Things are more chaotic then I realize" I muttered

Dulio simply nodded before he signaled me to follow him "things were crazy, I was here during the attack but sadly I was the only one capable of fighting the two fallen leaders that came here"

"Did you get one?" I asked, hopefully I was wrong with the lack of leads and maybe Dulio was a life saver

"No, I did nick them both good but sadly they both ran away when their followers got what they came for" brushing by a security officer Dulio paused in his step before he turned right down the hallway, directly towards the archbishops office room

After a few minutes of walking and brushing by medical crew and fire men, each of whom worked for the Vatican, we finally stopped at the archbishops head office

Stopping before the door Dulio gestured me to go first to which I looked at him confusedly, he simply smirked "I believe you have a bomb to defuse before we go on to pressing matters, simply enter first, I'll handle the rest" he winked at me before I smirked and pushed the door open

From inside the dimed archbishop office I noticed Griselda first, standing over the medium sized fire place with a serious expression on her features and then I noticed both Irina and Xenovia standing over the table that was placed in the center of the room

Each of whom radiated a high dose of holy energy, the large cloth on Xenovia's back was evident that she had been given the largest Excalibur 'destruction' while mimic was given to Irina; it wasn't visible due to her obvious choice of concealing the weapon on her person then presenting it out right like Xenovia's sword

From my presence as well as the door closing the three turned to me with three different expressions, Irina was obviously as flamboyant as before, Xenovia was stoic with the small expression of anger present as well and Griselda was kind of worse than Xenovia

Anger and annoyance was her largest expression but controlled was the third expression and I guessed it was the only thing keeping her from rounding on me like a rabid dog

"It's about time you showed up, what took you?" asked Griselda, it took one small stare to explain to her exactly why I was so late

Before Griselda went to change the subject Irina interjected with her happy expression "Senpai, look!" she sounds like a child trying to impress a parent

Grit and bare it Isaac, grit and bare it

Gesturing to her arm she showed me a strand of rope wrapped around her bicep muscle "I got the Excalibur mimic... oh I'm so happy!" she's on a field day it seems, never seen her this... childish before

Smiling at her with professional force I replied "yes that's really nice to see, I'm glad you finally fulfilled your wish" I felt almost close to cutting something right then and their until the subject on Irina's fulfilled goal was changed back to Griselda's annoyed tone

"Anyways... I was meaning to ask, Isaac, but where were you for the last 30 minutes?" she asked, annoyed

"Filling in some gaps" I replied before the door opened up revealing Dulio standing in the door way with a lazy wave of his arms like he was addressing a crowd

Griselda's throat hitched and Irina squeaked while Xenovia looked genuinely shocked to the bone, Dulio sure did have a fan base it seemed... I'm not including Griselda in that mind you

I think

"Hello my sisters, how you doing today?" he greeted with mock enthusiasm... baseline cringe worthy

"Dulio-sama..." muttered Irina lowly enough only Xenovia and myself heard it

Griselda fought through her shock and looked quickly to me expectantly "where in god's name did you find him?" she asked

"Down the street" I replied plainly, if Griselda was younger – touchy subject Isaac – then I'm sure she'd have fallen over commercially at my response by now, even Dulio giggled slightly

"Your serious?"

"Absolutely..."

Giving up Griselda sighed before she walked away from the fire place and stepped over to the table that I finally distinguished as a large OPSAT station that showed the whole world map and many different comm's frequencies, she even had energy sensors activated on all seven continents, it's a long shot but at least they'd point in the right direction

"Dulio, can you lock the door please" she asked causing him to nod before he turned around and locked the door as well as add a few layers of barriers on it for safety measures

"Now... What do we know so far?" she started

Right to action it seems

Xenovia started up first... surprising

"We know now that the main opposing force is a demon called Malthus who's in league with a rouge party of fallen angels suspected to be a part of Kokabiel's forces, but sadly we have no evidence in confirming his involvement" she listed off seriously

"We have the targets but currently we have zero leads on what base they are stationed," added Griselda before I stepped in

"Has there been any suspicious actions taken on the fallen angel's side? Namely troop movements, disappearances... possibly deaths? " I asked, Griselda shook her head

"None at all, Claire has been watching out for any of those for the past few hours" replied the older retired exorcist "she hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary, and currently she is in the process of finding us a system that which we can use to track our next target"

"What's she planning?" asked Irina

"You know what she's like, when she's got a plan she works to forge it, so I simply left her to her devices without asking any questions" Griselda replied before silence fell

After a minute Xenovia piped up "it's more than likely possible that Malthus and his forces are in hiding, attacking three highly important churches simultaneously is dangerous and considering his forces strengths I doubt he has the man power to survive the Vatican's retaliation force"

"That's the most obvious route to think of, if you're a being who's soul instincts are military tactics then hiding from a looming force that could wipe out his easily is the best guess" again Griselda answered coolly

"The best choice we have then is taking the offensive, find an opening, and attack while his forces lick their wounds" I started causing Griselda to eye me closely

"Yes, however, with no clear idea of the enemies where about's we'd just be firing blanks or worse, we'd be firing at the wrong people entirely, Malthus wouldn't need to proceed with whatever plan he's cooked up because we'd have already started the war"

"I know that, and I'm not saying to grab the nearest blunt object and run at them blindly, foaming at the mouth in the process... I'm just saying that if we are going to do anything we need to do it now, Claire has a plan, and she's good at that"

"You flatter me father Blackburn" she said while pushing up the rim of her glasses, a sweet smile edging her lips

"I'd say speak of the devil but that doesn't really sound fitting" muttered Dulio quietly

Ignoring the rather funny jib from the room's comedian I smiled to Claire "can you assist us in the matter?"

"Just direct me and I'll see what I can do" she said

"How does analyzing fallen troop movements with the nexus Sound to you?" Claire reeled back at the risky task, she may have been following troop movements before we arrived but I was talking about the more dangerous and risky kind of eavesdropping, the kind that involves hacking into fallen angel comm's relays from their main headquarters, the Grigori, and follow their exact movements illegally

"That seems rather... off base don't you think?" she asked slightly troubled, the others, namely, Dulio and Griselda looked slightly nervous at the idea I had while the two 'rookie' holy sword wielders looked on in confusion

"Right now we're currently out center field so we could use any info possible to get us back on base" nodding, Claire walked over to the OPSAT briskly before she set down a small computer and plugged in a wire into the OPSATS main terminal controls

"Ok, no talking everyone... I need to focus, hacking into a supernatural computer built by Azazel himself seems easy on paper however you'd be terrified of the security he has" she explained, in reaction to her words we all remained silent

"Bypassing cryptosystems... breaching fifth layer security wall... now to distracted the security search AI" in a flurry of movement Claire tapped rapidly on the key board before she quickly uploaded a few files, I could tell by the massive words "UPLOADING" on a loading bar menu "now that the AI is discreetly distracted time to... bypassed *sigh*... I'm in" she said through a nervous but relieved expression

Dulio quickly tapped her shoulder "nice... glad to see those skills are as sharp as ever" he said causing Claire to smile albeit nervously, she had just hacked a HIGHLY defensive security system built by an individual who models and creates sacred gears... for fun, computer based skill wise, Azazel is a genius and Claire had just hacked his system, barely by the look of relief on her face

"Good job Claire... now can you display all troop movements for us?" I asked calmly, she nodded

"I will after I safely secure my spot in this theatre" typing quickly Claire began her defensive protocols in case the distraction she used against the AI did last "setting up cybernetic spider-hole, and... done... may not sound like much but I'm in and burred deep, it'll take a few hours for the AI to configure through that distraction and even longer to notice me... now about those troops" she said, more aloud then to herself then anything

Tapping at rapid speeds I can only dream of reaching Claire uploaded various details before she finished by tapping a single button, the effect was instant, the OPSAT's entire mapping system was modified with an entire world viewing map but what she added to it was a variety of red dots scattered all around the world each in large quantities to small

"Ok, I've uploaded a mapping of fallen troop movements within 24 hours, I even made it so it updates every 30 seconds" Claire explained to which I nodded, I smiled to her in thanks

"So now we just study the map until we see anything suspicious?" asked Dulio, Claire simply shrugged her shoulders

"Pretty much" Dulio leaned back in a chair he found and pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose in boredom

"How do you judge whether or not its suspicious or simply normal" asked Griselda as she eyed a clump of red dots closely

"We all know the fallen are based in the underworld so I took the liberty in marking teleportation marks with the Satan stars... as you can see" she started before she pointed at a small clump of red dots before they disappeared in a black Satan star "each Satan star marks the disappearance of a contingent of fallen in the region, it lasts until the 30 second update"

"Do you think you can drop the time to a possible 15 seconds, following a pattern with a delay of 30 seconds seems rather tedious to follow, we may even miss our opening" questioned Xenovia, Claire nodded before she tapped her screen and changed the update speed to the designated time frame

This was the majority of the operation we were conducting, all of us stood over the OPSAT computer screen table like hawks, each eyeing a large or small contingent of red orbs like they'd suddenly lung at our faces if we so much as looked away

After some time we all fell into continental control, I watched over the Australian continent while Dulio watched over Russia, china, and Japan, Irina watched over Britain, Ireland, and Scotland while Xenovia watched over Italy, Africa, and Pakistan, that left Griselda with Canada, America, and Greenland to her while Claire watched all of the Caribbean

The locations of the remnant fallen angels weren't as in large mass as you'd may think, about a dozen or so dots covered each continent and some of them were extremely far stretched out to be even considered as operating units, 500 miles of land covered the gap in between each dot, namely the ones in Canada and Africa while America had a slightly larger contingent then its fellow allies while Japan had a much larger clump then china, Russia looked to be holding a large quantity of fallen but that was probably because of the sheer size It had then the other countries

If anything caught my eye then it would be Japan, out of the five to six in Australia a good 10 to maybe 15 dots caked Japan, Britain had a good chunk but it seemed in the close 10's then what Japan had

"Anything yet" asked Irina with a bored expression

"I may have something; give me a few seconds... yup, definitely odd" Replied Dulio as he reenergized, I had noticed before when he seemed transfixed on a small location outside of Kyoto

Wheeling over to him on my office chair Dulio pointed at a small location outside of japans popular city Kyoto, a second later and I noticed a clump of red dots disappearing suddenly and without any Satan star at all

"Can you rewind the last thirty seconds and play it with a 2 second update time?" requested Dulio towards Claire who nodded and tapped away on her computer "done"

Refocusing on the location Dulio suspected we watched as five of the ten red dots converged on the location pinned then a second after they joined up they all disappeared without any Satan star marking or nothing, they just vanished into thin air

"Claire, lock the coordinates and prep a jet for flight... we have our window" I ordered seriously, everyone soon fell into action Xenovia and Irina walked up to me and Dulio who had also reenergized, the sitting was eating away at our energy and the thought of finding a single lead was the basic equivalent to a red bull shot

Claire had remained at the OPSAT terminal while Griselda phoned the Vatican controlled airport; pretty soon all four of us left the room and were on our way to the jet that Griselda was clearing for us

There was no time for goodbyes, a window was a window and it remaining open for good goodbye kisses seemed implausible... we needed to move

-XxXxXxX-

-With Isaac and co. on route to suspected rouge fallen rendezvous point/ 1100 hours-

"So far Isaac I read zero contacts in the area, and the other fallen in the region are well enough away... consider the operation a go" advised Griselda

"I'll monitor the OPSAT and keep you all updated on the locations of any in bound fallen in the area" added Claire

"Your only objective is reconnaissance, keep outta contact with the fallen and away from view, do not divulge anything if your caught" pressed Griselda

"I hear you Grisy – stay low and outta sight – I get it" I replied sarcastically

"Just don't do anything stupid... and don't call me that"

"Right... radio silence please"

"..." good, they got the message

"Senpai? You coming?" called out Irina as we approached the last known location, each of us had black cloaks over our personal combat attire, their duty was to keep our divinity and our magical energy down to unnoticeable levels, since we were outside city limits keeping our presence unnoticeable would help a great deal

Our journey to Japans Kyoto was... eventful to say the least, case and point being Irina's family lineage being brought up inside Kyoto then moved to kouh city about 2 hours drive from here

Anyways, since Irina was as energetic as she was Dulio found it funny and pitched in with a few questions of his own thus fueling the friendship between him and Irina to nearly skyrocket, Xenovia was more open to conversing with the Vatican's strongest but she still showed reservation in her speech

When we arrived about a haft hour ago we left the airport and immediately moved to the location listed, thankfully it wasn't close to civilian populated areas and it pretty much took the complete opposite, in the middle of no man's land disconnected from even the shrines was an abandon one about a few years old, probably 20 years

It covered a few square yards of land, probably the size of a football field, various buildings stood while others lay broken and shattered, only a large building and a small one to its right stood while many tents and field operating camps stood by them, there wasn't any physical sign of dark energy decay but I could feel it in the air

This was what we were looking for, the others may not know it but I've been the only one to fight Malthus on my own, I could feel his presence... fleeting but I could feel it was here about... and hour ago and I tell ya, there wasn't a single feeling of relief pass me by when I distinguish Malthus wasn't here for the party

Dulio may be on board but that still didn't quell the disturbed feeling I got when thinking of facing him

From the looks of things from our little vantage point up the mountain hill I could see that our presence was completely unnoticed when we slipped by them a moment ago to get where we are now

Dulio's the wielder of the second strongest sacred gear listed, his power –zenith tempest – wasn't a joke, like a god of the storms, nature was his ally, using the wind ability was perfect for masking any loud movements we may have created and get this

Zenith tempest doesn't have any distinguishable energy signature

Good thing to, cause if it did then we'd be facing truck loads of fallen in the middle of no where

"See anything" asked Xenovia as Dulio scoped out the 'camp' with a pair of binoculars

"So far all I've seen is small troop movements and cargo shipments... nothing the size of a sword, then again I could be wrong" he replied

I simply watched from afar with my own binoculars as well, the fallen below us seemed to be ignoring their powers and moved around like humans, no wings were shown nor was there any release in corrupted light, however, their attitudes towards each other were not human, yelling and swearing and poking fun at each other was practically all we could hear

Something confused me about that, no matter how much they'd try the nexus's computer system worked using advanced human tech and some advanced energy detecting magic from heaven, even if they were leader class their energy signature would still be seen on the OPSAT screen

"Something's odd about this" I started up, looking to the others I pressed forward "I can sense the divinity from the fallen down below just fine... so why is it that the NEXUS couldn't pick it up?"

Dulio looked puzzled as well before Irina added in "maybe there's a barrier?" she asked in return

"That's possible, some rogue fallen have been known to use barriers... But none were as potent as this one" replied Dulio

"You can thank our friendly demon for that" I added

Sighing to myself I stood up "were not getting anything from just sitting here"

"What do you suggest then, ask them nicely?" asked Dulio sarcastically; I just looked at him not at all troubled or against such an action

Fortune favors the brave ya know

"Then what's your plan?" asked Xenovia, first time she's actually talked to me since the shenanigans back at turkey

Closing my eyes for a second I felt a sudden fluctuation before I felt a pulse extend over my body starting from my left hand, opening my eyes I smirked at the blue berry before I was completely invisible to them

"What the? Where did you go?" Questioned Irina

"Right here" I answered from behind her causing her to nearly jump, she almost did but I stopped her by putting my hand over her mouth "shhhh, its only me, can you sense me at all?"

Dulio stood up from his spot and eyed the place he thought I was standing "you sure have a lot of tricks Isaac but no... All I feel right now is us three; I don't know what it was that did that but you've literally fallen off the grid"

"Then now you can see what my plan is – no pun intended" I revealed, Xenovia widened her eyes while Irina did as well

"You're going down their?" she asked

Dropping my incognito mode I answered her with a shrug "Obviously, we aren't learning anything here as of right now so I was thinking a closer look was needed" I replied simply while Dulio nodded a second after

"Isaac's right, I haven't seen anything other than a few troublesome fallen walking around so seeing if they are actually enemies or not kinda helps things move along quicker, and I'm guessing that most of the action is taking place inside rather than out in the open" he said, exactly!

"I don't like it... with you down there makes things complicated if things go south on us" added Xenovia, whoa there sister! Where the heck did this come from?

Ignoring it I played her worry off calmly "things won't go haywire if we all remain as quiet as possible, keep radio silence and don't use any unnecessary magic energy... simple" I replied but Xenovia looked to be against my reasoning

"I wasn't talking about us, I was talking about you"

With the level of worry she was showing right now kinda flattered me and at the same time annoyed me, was I the rookie or was she? Hmm... I wonder

"Xenovia, this isn't my first operation that doesn't exist... I've been through thinker positions then sneaking around a few fallen... I pretty much do that every other Tuesday Actually"

Xenovia went silent for a second before she added in a line I was predicting "Then let me go with you"

Yup, saw that coming

"No, Xenovia I hate to sound like I hate team play but I've handle stealth operations before, and this isn't as bad as the one in Cambodia... so no, I'll only be gone for a five minutes anyway – in and out – no questions, no detours" I replied leaving zero room for argument

Xenovia looked ready to press it but a narrowing of my eyes stopped her, seeing as though my tone wasn't exactly helping me rekindle the wound in between me and Xenovia Irina chose that moment to agree with me in a professional yet childish matter

"He's fine Xenovia, remember he is our senior after all" she added with a friendly wink which caused the bluenette to hitch in her next words, it seemed the reminder was enough to settle her worry down but she still persisted

"What if he's here and you have to face him alone again?" she asked

"two answers, if he was here then he'd have already found us and we'd be locked in combat and the other would be simple, I see him, I pop a signal – second verse same as the first – ... I'm not soloing the operation Xenovia I'm simply the curious cat looking for a better view"

After my defusing words hit her Xenovia meekly stood there before she relented and nodded

"Alright... you two done your couples bickering?" Dulio asked which plainly threw me off guard while Xenovia took it even worse than I did, I did not take Dulio as the kind to poke at that kind of stuff

After Irina's giggle fit at the red that caked Xenovia's face the mood went from cushy to laid back within a matter of a few words

However I dropped that quickly

"I'm off" I said and before anyone could say anything or start another sappy chick flick moment I jumped down the large cliff and landed a few yards from the outskirts of the fallen base camp

Seeing as though my invisibility was disabled I reactivated it before I entered the motor pool side of the camp, why they needed a motor pool was beyond me as the thought of the fallen starting a drag racing shop was lost on me

A few seconds after sifting through questioning thoughts and I cleared my way into a camp tent to the farthest right of the main building and entered it

Confusion was the best word to describe myself upon discovering the contents of the first tent, aside from a single fallen angel all that was inside the tent was a drawing board on the far side and a few tables lined around the outside, a few blueprints were seen scattered on them

Moving as silent as air I walked/crawled to the closest table and scanned the blueprint

Vary odd designs it looked, some looked to be swords but nothing close to neither the holy swords design nor the described design of Excalibur, all it was, was a simple rapier and another looked like a shield... was that a captain America styled shield?

I shook my head softly, the title of the weapons on the blue prints were named 'shield of freedom' for the obvious shield and 'thruster buster' for the rapier... wat? That last one was... odd

Sacred gears... modified and artificial sacred gears by the looks of it, but why would Malthus be interested in having sacred gears?

'Towers and ammunition, of course' if Malthus could arm his fallen allies with powerful sacred gears then he'd have a larger chance in his assault on whatever country chosen, but I haven't heard of any rise in sacred gear power as of lately so where did he get all of these sacred gears?

Ignoring those thoughts I pressed onward, when I arrived at one of the other tents I came across a few of the same thing, except instead of small arms I was looking at fortress type sacred gears, one like weapon emplacements and turrets, I didn't look at any names but a simply glance to one or two helped in completing my exploration of this tent

'things look to be in the right place, everything here looks like it belongs to Malthus' I thought as I snuck my way towards the second building to the main one, each of the tents seemed to carry prototypes of the sacred gears listed, long range, close range, fortress types and lastly... explosive type sacred gears as in ones that create big explosions for added chaos

Nothing says war then a few hundred bombs going off

Michael Bay would be proud

So if I wanted to learn more then I needed to broaden my exploration horizon and in order to do that then I needed to target the buildings and not the tents, since the second building looked to be a barracks I simply stuck my nose in their to see what I was hoping to see

Since this was an obvious tower of Malthus I was expecting to see a moderate some of fallen in the area but think of my surprise when all I saw was rogue priests and a few lower class fallen walking about and talking like they were close buds

A rather disturbing sight honestly

Diving to one of the corners of the room I stopped just about 5 feet from a small group of fallen and rogues chatting about before I listened in

"- so how's preparations going down in tent 3?" asked an obvious fallen

The rogue in the group simply rubbed his chin before he replied "close to finishing the final touches on one of the prototypes, but most are ready for testing"

"Good, I've been bored with just waiting around; at least now I can test out one of the governorstoys he's been keeping to himself" the governor? Is he talking about Azazel?

"Say, how did he manage to gather all of those toys out there?" asked another rogue to which a fallen smirked

"Ha! He made it look easy; he did a simple raid on his own about a few hours ago after he stole the last Excalibur fragment... all you see outside is stuff that fool Azazel hogged all to himself"

Ya know, for a bunch a beings who think themselves superior to the other two they sure talk too much... I was beginning to wonder if they ever talk about anything else other than their accomplishments

It was easy to distinguish the level of malice the fallen felt towards their former leader Azazel and the multiple comments also suggested to me that they were talking about Malthus as the defacto raider

It explains a lot actually, the sacred gears outside were in such large mass that I was wondering where Malthus got all of this without the Vatican's know how but with the words of the fallen helped me realize the sacred gears weren't the demons but rather stolen from Azazel

For some reason I knew that was going to happen, Azazel was a horder when it came to sacred gears, sure if one broke he'd get rid of it but if one show even a little bit of promise then he'd toss it to the side for further attention... attention that was obviously forgotten a moment he found a new project

I guess this is what happens when you leave your toys lying around

With all that evidence I chose that moment to leave the barracks, I had everything needed to confirm that this was one of Malthus' bases but just out of curiosity I walked over to the main building and glanced in through the window... which wasn't tinted

Security does help kids, be sure to use it well

We were cleared hot for action so I was tempted to rushing the barracks like a nut... would be funny to the see their faces when I come bowling in there sword a blazing but I thought against it

Xenovia wouldn't like that very much

Say I'm whipped... I don't care

DO IT!

Anyways, the interior I saw inside the obvious dojo building was a standalone command center out fitted with outdated tactics tables and city maps, a few fallen were seen inside the dojo talking strategies or possible mission objectives for later dates

Whatever it was, it was a gold mine of Intel just calling out to me

You got a map of highlighted locations for possible attacks, objective files on bulletin boards alongside the wall to the farthest side... I want it

Seeing as thought we had what we needed as well as our targets I smirked before I retreated back from which I came

Time for some payback

-XxXxXxX-

The others almost jumped when they saw me suddenly appear amongst them, Dulio seemed too look almost ready to fall asleep while Xenovia and Irina looked nervous... that was until I returned to which Dulio didn't move nor register my return because he was asleep while Irina and Xenovia jumped when I appeared before them sitting campfire style

"Howdy" I said plainly

From what I guessed the two looked the most worried... kinda a no brainer since they were the only two in the real world and not dream land

Before the two sputtered of greetings and words of relief I simple gestured a 'shhhh' motion with my finger which kept them silent, looking over at the sleeping exorcist I narrowed my eyes before calling him "Oi, sleeping beauty, wake up"

Groggily, Dulio woke himself from his small nap and looked at me lazily "Oh... *yawn*... your back, how'd it go?"

"Good actually, we have our target" I replied

"What was it that you found?" Pressed Irina

"I found a tower with weapons and ammunition inside of it... sacred gears liter all of the tents while the second building houses the soldiers in a make shift barracks... the main building holds a gold mine of Intel I'd rather have than them" I answered while Dulio rubbed his tired eyes

"Sacred gears? Where'd they get those?" asked Xenovia but then she figured it out herself a second later "Azazel... He's the only one known to have so many sacred gear users in his fraction, most of which artificial"

Nodding I added in my two cents "from what I learned from a few loose mouthed idiots down there, Azazel is not aware nor the defacto weapons dealer but rather a victim... turns out Malthus' has been busy raiding Azazel's secret stashes all around the world"

"I can only guess how he found the locations" Dulio said catching the other two's attention

"Kokabiel... The only other high ranking fallen angel who disagrees with Azazel and his leadership, he has most likely learned of Azazel's sacred gear stashes long before this even took place... the odds of him being involved in this grows by the minute" I added

Xenovia's eyes narrowed while Irina simply nodded to me and Dulio "what do we do now... Boss-sama, said that all were to do is recon and retreat when we learn what we need" she said

I simply raised a finger and shook it "yes that is true but only if the camp we find is a real legit fallen angel encampment... this one however isn't sooo..."

"We engage them" finished Dulio lazily to which caused me to smirk

"Exactly, there is literally a gold mine of Intel about whatever Malthus is planning just down there; I only counted about, hmm, fifty or so targets down below? Some fallen and some rogue priest – give or take"

The others looked ready – minus Dulio's bored shrug of his shoulders – and seeing as how we didn't need to worry about being hidden from the eye of the public things would go by much smoother

The others, namely Xenovia and Irina took to readying themselves for the attack, we still kept our black cloaks on just to keep the element of surprise but those would be disposed of the minute we started the attack

"So what's our plan?"

"simple, most of the troops are right now in the barracks eating and being lazy, to save us time in killing the vermin in masses we'll simply bury them away... Dulio?" I started before I caught the aforementioned blonde's attention

"When you can, I want you to level the second building to the main dojo" with a simply lazy nod Dulio understood his objective and stood on standby "when he destroys the barracks I'll have already infiltrated the dojo"

"What's our objective?" asked Irina

"You and Xenovia are on 'crowd control'... my exploration revealed to me that a variety of fallen are scattered around the camp inside the tents and some even outside the camps limits – possibly scouts or guards – neutralize them first before you enter the camp, radio silence is off the minute you two handle the sentry's on the outside perimeter, once they're down call it in... oh, and keep it quiet, I'd rather be in and out as fast as possible so our element of surprise is our best ticket in achieving that" stopping I pointed to Dulio seriously "the minute they call in, destroy the barracks completely"

Seeing him smirk lazily and then nod I nodded to him as well

"You know your rolls, no radio comm's until we go live... dismissed"

After the briefing we went in two different directions, Xenovia and Irina moved quickly and silently to the shrines main entrance way while me and Dulio went the opposite way towards the rear of the shrine, close to the two main buildings

The strategy and style I was using was what humans call 'guerilla warfare' with our lack of numbers I was resorting to stealth tactics and easy takedowns since taking on the fallen head one was time consuming, so I chose the efficient and quickest style of engagement possible, the thought of Malthus returning was in the air due to this possibly be his main field operation tower but since I didn't really know any others that was a skeptic thought then a fact

Still had me on my toes though

After some sneaking Dulio waved me goodbye before he continued to his target while I stopped and waited for the radio silence to break, from my spot in the bushes behind the main building I watched as the fallen inside the dojo building walked about before I closed my eyes and activated my invisibility

With my form completely translucent I began to walk over to the dojo's exterior wall, with a silent leap I cleared the 6 foot outer fence with ninja like silence and acrobatic ease before I ducked behind a bush on subconscious instinct, from inside the garden I took notice of a few paths of destroyed concrete and two koi fish ponds... vacant obviously, the shrines entire appearance looked to have seen better days on its past worse days

In all, the entire shrine was a clear representation of what nature does to human constructs... in a minute that would actual be demonstrated

Seeing as though the backyard was empty I made it to the main buildings rear entrance way with ease however a few fallen angels guarded the entrance way, that being two in total

With a swipe of my hands two kunai blades made from white energy were seen in my hands, the sudden appearance of divine energy caught one of the fallen's attention but with two quick swipes of my hands...

THUNK, THUNK

...Kept him and his friend from reporting the anomaly

Time dropped to a crawl as the two dead fallen angels fell towards the rough ground before them but with a sudden jolt in movement I managed to appear under them so to catch them before they made any loud landing noises

Slowly and methodically I placed the two rather light fallen against the dojo's walls slowly enough to not cause any loud noise, then when they were dealt with I scanned the next room

I could wait for the signal but if I could manage to infiltrate the building before the radio silence was broke and all hell broke loose then things would take less time

Within a second I resented to simply clearing the next room

Reactivating my previously deactivated invisibility, I entered the room to see three rogue priests within the rooms out layering interior, mental mapping told me the main dojo room was outside the room, down the hall and straight ahead

Since these priests lost their ability to sense divine energy with their desertion two of them were unaware of the sudden appearance of three floating white Kunai's while the third one quickly noticed in his peripheral vision... I took him out first

THUNK

With a loud thud, the corpse of the third man fell which caught the attention of the other two quickly, too bad they were taken down just as quickly as the first one

Seeing as though one of them was looking to run I lodge a white kunai into his forehead, killing him instantly, the last priest was ballsier then his friend and instead took to closing the distance between me and him

He'd regret doing so later

The priest looked to be hand- to-hand knowledgeable as he came at me in a modern martial artist styled palm thrust to my chest however I reacted by catching his wrist mid air before I ducked under his arm while simultaneously twisting his arm, with his arm twisted I then kicked out his right leg causing him to kneel before I finished him off by jabbing my last kunai into the crook of his neck

He fell over dead a second later

'Now I can wait for the signal' I was quite honestly wondering why it was taking them so long until I remembered that it took me only a few seconds to clear these two locations

'Sometimes skill can have negative effects' I muttered internally as I looked at the rooms interior and its contents... hmm, nothing really important, ground patrol listings and schedules was all that was scattered around the room, I guess three rogue priests was all they need to keeping organized

As I dropped down into one of the rooms many chairs I waited until after a minute, my ear piece sprung to life with the awaited report "we're clear in the front"

It always amazes me at how quick silence could be so suddenly disturbed, I wasn't one that enjoyed the sudden vacuum of noise to suddenly appear but the speed that which chaos could take hold was something else

BOOOOM

Glancing out the rear door and towards the barracks to see what Dulio did I almost felt pity roll down my sleeve when I saw the entire barracks building completely burying down to the roof, any and all oxygen would be snuffed out in minutes as instead of earth rising to bury the building the building instead sunk down until only the roof was visible... albeit barely

'Poor heretics' I thought absentmindedly

Extending my left arm outward I summoned my Zetsurin sword in a flurry of white light before I trod to the door towards the inner courtyard of the dojo building, with the sudden spike in energy you could bet the nest was agitated and judging by the large sum of rogue priests outside the door they had felt mine rise as well

So much for subtly

Jabbing the pummel of my sword against the soft fabric of the door in front of me I pulsed my energy before the door suddenly lurched forward at high speed

From outside, the sound of a sudden yelp resounded as the sight of a door suddenly flying at you at high speed could shock a lot of people, in response to the sudden occurrence the other rogues simply returned their gazes back onto the room that which the door came

In quick succession the other priests quickly armed themselves with whatever weapons they had on hand, ranging from automated rifles, shotguns, and lastly others had hand guns with knives

"Nock, nock" I muttered before I tossed my black cloak to the side to reveal my full body, at the sound of my words the remaining rogues opened fire but my speed outclassed even bullets

At speeds I could only reach, two of the six rogues fell with sudden wounds to the torso and neck, then in another flurry of movement a third fell with similar wounds

"Open fire! Take him down NOW!" yelled one of the rogues

As I torn my way into their ranks more rogues flooded into the courtyard of the dojo... which was surprisingly well kept

Seeing as though the numbers of rogues was steadily growing I got more exotic in my crowd control, with one swipe of my hand a white kunai embedded itself into the skull of one of the ranged rogues before I landed among the epicenter, the effect was immediate

Seeing a fellow ally fall is angering and since these fools hand enough of that, the fellow friends and or allies of the armed – now dead – rogue saw only red... which was what I wanted

If one were to actually see the behaviours of the rogue priest then the reference that would effectively characterize them would be the 'Decepticons' from that 'transformers' series, they related well, all with the friendly fire and uncaring personality of a raging beast as seen when I landed in front of a few close quarter specialists the armed rogues didn't so much as hold fire but simply shot at me

I dodged a nano second later thus inadvertently causing a total of 4 casualties, courtesy of friendly fire from those down below

I paid my respects to their heartlessness by landing among them... I'm sure you know where that song and dance leads

With movements untraceable by regular humans the armed rogues quickly fell from lethal slash wounds to the neck, spine and torso before they all fell in sync with the other 5 kills in five seconds

The courtyard was now full with more dead than alive by this point and the last remaining few seemed all the more interested in fleeing then fighting

However, survivors was not what I intended

Getting low I slowly placed my hand on my sword before a second later I jolted forward, appearing behind the rogues who looked ready to run

From my spot behind the frozen rogues I kneeled while I sheathed my sword, as soon as my blade clicked into the scabbard the rogues fell, dead... all six of them

"You done in there Isaac?" asked Dulio lazily "Xenovia and the others seem to be in a bind outside... help 'em out would ya"

"I'm on my way" I replied calmly, my cold exterior was taking full effect so I paid no heed to Dulio's lazy orders as much as I normally would

Walking briskly to the door to the front I stopped when two fallen angels appeared behind me, each holding light spears... well one did, the other one looked to be holding a light sword, green in color

Since I was 'in the zone' I didn't question the odd colored light sword and simply turned towards them while off handily unlocking my sword. I remember the effect this had on the fallen angel Kalawarner and by the similar reactions by the two before me this was much more then doubt

"So he's the one Malthus was talking about" Muttered a fallen lowly, not enough for me not to hear it seemed

"Paladin of light..." the other muttered as well, fear was really evident in these two

"Sorry Dulio... I'll be a second late" I reported calmly, all I got a was defeated but uncaring sigh in return

"Some of the fallen outside have armed themselves with sacred gears, the quicker you deal with the problem the quicker we can learn what we need, without any more guests" reminded Dulio

"Mhm" was my easy reply

With a simple gesture I taunted the two fallen with a 'come get me' wave of my right hand, the effect was delayed for a second but soon enough the two fallen fell into a formation

It seemed whatever they thought of was enough to refill their confidence because in a second the spear wielding fallen shot his – rather slow – spear at me while the sword wielding fallen followed seconds after

I have no idea what they thought this would do

As the light spear and the second fallen closed in I dropped to a responsive stance before I shot forward I blur of bright flashes appeared on multiple locations on the light spear before it shattered due to high damage, the fallen following then happened to be the second victim of my blade storm because a second after the light spear shattered the fallen lost his head, torso and legs in an instant

All he had on his flying head was shock

Without paying any mind to the falling body I sped directly in front of the last fallen who was way to shell shocked to respond enough in time for my upward slash,

"GAH!" he garbled as a massive gash appeared on his torso from his right hip to his left shoulder

*Click* THUD!

I stared lazily to the fallen before I sighed "If only those three showed this much teamwork" I muttered disappointedly

I was referring to the fallen angels under that other fallen angels command, Rayner was it? Or was it Raynear? Ah it doesn't matter; all I remember about those other three was lazy attacks and poor defenses all around, no real challenge, at least I had to process what these two were doing

Turning back to the intended pathway before I was interrupted I stepped out the main door to see a few fallen angles – about 7 – dancing with Xenovia and Irina who did not look in trouble at all

If anything, I may as well jump in on the fallen's side and turn this into a small sparing match, from the looks of things, the holy sword indoctrination – damn it to hell – was enough to upgrade both Irina and Xenovia's basic combat prowess by 40%

Not that I'm a statistics freak but previously I estimated the two's skills to handle a margin of about 10 mid to low ranking fallen with each of the others skills via teamwork but now it seemed that evaluation was shattered

Now the two looked like they could dance with a low ranking leader class solo while they could take on a mid to high class leader with each other... at maximum power of course, if they did that then there'd be no room for holding back

Speed, strength and combat analysis was the basic limits of the holy sword projects effects and it seemed Xenovia was handling them with extreme efficiency, Irina was close behind but she wasn't a real holy sword wielder like Xenovia but to see her close in skill even without that fact was enough merit to her skill

"They've gotten better haven't they?" Dulio asked from above me, he was lazily watching the fight from the roof of the Dojo while I simply watched from the door way

"Mmm" I hummed in dismissive agreement

"I see your not liking the change vary much" he said but I intervened

"Their growth in skills is inevitable, I just don't agree with the method in which they achieved it" I replied quickly

"You mean you don't like the holy sword indoctrination?" Dulio asked in lazy shock but soon he remembered something about it "wait; now I remember"

"I've told you the specific's in which this... 'Gift' was achieved, how innocent life was spent so carelessly" I added, much malice dripping at the mention of it

"The heretical sacrifice of young children, all for the cause of some kind of 'greater good'... yeah, I remember" I could hear it in his voice, the reminder of what was done to reach this 'historical achievement' was not at all liked by Dulio, sure, before he thought it as miracle working at its best but after he learned of the mud in between the cracks... he dropped any interest in it

"What's keeping you from speaking outwardly about it Dulio?" I asked as I watched Irina end two fallen in record speed while Xenovia hit another so hard that he went rocketing back into a tent, inevitably causing it to crash down on the obviously dead fallen angel

"As much as I hate the method, I cannot truly hate it per-say"

"Oh? Do tell the class" I pressed

"We both know the cost this project had right, but simply ignoring those sacrifices would be even worse, those poor souls that were killed did not die in vain and instead forged a weapon we could use... to honor them" reasoned Dulio

His words sounded harsh but that was because no matter how evil that disgusting project brought there was still a positive outcome in the end... no matter how much we both wanted to strangle it

I remained silent, his words may bring me a small sentiment of peace but it still did not quell my anger towards the process, Dulio fell silent after a while and soon enough the other two finished the fallen with a few minutes

"Why didn't you two help us?" asked a narrowed eyed Irina who seemed not at all tired

Dulio chuckled lightly while he jumped down from the roof "You two seemed content with the spotlight, so me and Isaac simply left you two ladies with your business" he said calmly, Irina didn't really respond after that

"Is the main building clear of heretic's?" Xenovia asked suddenly

"I don't know, why don't you ask them?" I replied while opening the door to show them the contents of the room, Xenovia looked insulted by my snarky response but remained silent

"When they say you cut loose you really cut loose" muttered Dulio as he found a chair and sat in it

"Was that a shot at a horrible pun or a comment?" I asked mocking a sour pout

"Dunno, why don't you ask them" He said simply while pointing at a dead fallen angel

Irina chuckled while Xenovia smirked – planets are in alignment – at Dulio's shot at my previous sarcastic reply to Xenovia

"And whose side are you on?"

He didn't answer; all he did was shrug causing Irina's fit of giggles to increase

Some how... I feel like some characteristic of mine was destroyed... not sure which one though

Picking up a folder of Intel I tossed it to the smart ass who caught it easily "why don't you read through that while I sift through the stuff on that bill board" I recommended, he simply smirked before he opened it

Sighing softly I walked over to the bulletin board while Xenovia and Irina sifted through a whole box load of folders

Whipping out my phone I opened the photo function before I started to snap pictures of the map spread out on the wall, it seemed like a large scale map of all of Japan. Tokyo, Kyoto, Yokohama, Osaka, and finally Nagoya were all circled on the map. Since the map was convoluted with Intel I installed it into a message and sent it to Claire for decoding

While that was sent I inspected the map closely, I read of some parts of the major cities and some nip bits about the information on why it was listed as 'hit targets'

So far though, the information mapped on the board seemed more cryptic then understandable, I could decode it myself but that'd take a while to finish but since we had a feeling more company was coming I thought against it

However, a single set of letters caught my eye THE WAR RISES HERE

After I saw those words I shifted my attention towards the location of the map and read details on where and possible time it may take place

I didn't find the information, however I did find the city the 'war' would start... guess which one

Kouh city

'Balls...' I muttered internally

I don't understand why but for some reason or another, that city seemed to be some kind of action magnet... do you know how long I've waited for a Youkai attack or something to happen anywhere other than Japan?

20 years, that's what!

Not saying I don't like Japan but I've spent enough time in oriental society that if I ever return to heaven I'd be asked to recreate my citizen ship from 'pure angel' to 'Asian angel' due to my aura alone... I've even started using those blasted honorific's for god's sake!

"Find anything guys?" Dulio started, bored of reading

Well, beggars can't be choosers right? Resigning to the fate presented to me I answered "I've figured out our next stop"

The others looked at me before I simply pointed at the map in front of me; Dulio smirked when Irina's eyes sparkled in a dangerous yet happy way while Xenovia looked confused by the sudden change in atmosphere

"Kouh city... wait, isn't that where you were raised Irina?" Xenovia asked much to the fuel of Irina's energy, both angered and happy

I can guess two reasons... can you?

"Yes it is! ~oh this must be a message from Gods wisdom~" started Irina while she prayed with stars in her eyes, Xenovia looked happy – vary hard to see by the way – at her friends sudden rise in joy while Dulio seemed intent on letting her roll around in happiness

He turned to me a second later "is that all we need?" I simply nodded in return "Good, let's get outta here"

While the others left I grabbed a few folders of information, seeing as how they were marked 'classified' I guessed their importance was substantial to further investigations into Malthus' intentions, I doubt kouh city will actually be his one and only attempt at war, there are many ways to fuel a war and Malthus was good at everyone of them so you'd bet your ass his attempts won't grind to a halt with this one being foiled by us

Before we left the camp, I ordered the others a swift evidence erase order, fire spells and since Dulio was the most fit in the matter he simply waved his hand and the entire camp was extinguished to ash, I knew he was powerful but his powers were very high up in the power range, I highly doubt Dulio would've had trouble in handling this encampment alone... with his eyes closed

With our presents concealed via our cloaks – to which I retrieved – we retreated back to Kyoto city for regroup, I still needed a call back from Claire so we could calm down and recollect our objectives inside the populated city as cover

Next stop... kouh city, again

-XxXxXxX-

About an hour or so later we found ourselves back in Kyoto city, since the time was around 12:30pm many of the cities lights were in full blaze and a lot of the cities people were around in oriental clothing, since we had just left the woods we still had our black cloaks on so our normally odd appearance was actually a normal sight for some people

Didn't mean some parents thought us as the type to stay away from

"So where do you want us to regroup?" asked Irina

I simply pointed at the nearest cafe' "we'll simmer down in the cafe' over there, I can almost assume our next stop won't vanish by morning so you to grab a seat, me and Dulio will find a hotel for us to stay the night"

Now Irina may be extremely excited but to her, staying a night in a four to five star hotel in one of japans many cities – quiet popular one mind you – was almost like a Christmas present to her

If the stars in her eyes were any indication then I'm not sure what would please her

"~oh senpai! You're so awesome~" she gushed before I was enveloped in a tight child like hug, one that surprised me and one that Dulio saw as somewhat hilarious

"Uh... Thanks?" I replied before she let me go and grabbed Xenovia in a flash before dragging the blue berry away towards the cafe'

As the girls left I glanced to the grinning Dulio who looked about ready to say something along the lines of teasing but I stopped him "Don't even think about it" I warned lightly before I walked off, Dulio following in toe

As we walked among the populous of people I spotted a nice hotel to our left, I didn't really register the name of the hotel but all I knew was A) it was at least luxurious enough for comfort and B) it was oriental, I doubt I'd get a welcoming praise if it was a Holiday Inn or something too touristy from the western culture

As we made our reservations Dulio plopped down on a chair while I got us our rooms, one for the girls and one for us guys, none of that coed shite on this OP

While the arrangements were being made I couldn't help but remember the times back when Griselda was retired, Grisy may be terrifying to the other two and possibly to Dulio for an extent but she did have a downside when you got to know her... didn't change the awkwardness I had when we had to share a hotel room for the first time

Oh the death glares were in abundance back then

I can't count the amount of times she almost swung her damned sword at me for close calls, it wasn't my fault she had a habit in walking outta the bathroom naked all the bloody time

Still was hilarious though

After a while I'd just tease her, if you're wondering where the nickname 'Grisy' came from then imaging a angry grizzly bear ready to maul you to death... you'd get close as to how violent Griselda is when her decency was in jeopardy

I did tell her –for the hundredth time- to put cloths on before she left the bath room... she didn't get the hint

"Isaac?" called out a voice, thus snapping me from my day dreaming

"Huh?" I asked plainly before I saw Dulio waving his hand in my face, shaking my head I pushed his hand from my grill before I noticed the four room keys on the desk, I nodded to the maid before me I glanced to the confused Dulio

"Tired?" he asked to which I just shook my head

"Nah, just rehashing good memories... one can get lost in them" I replied before he just shook his head

"You got us rooms then mister day dreamer?" he asked smartly

"I got us adjoining rooms near the inner most courtyards" Dulio whistled

"You really think that was necessary for one night?" he asked to which I shrugged "blank checks on operations are bad influences, but I always think it's good to live life to the fullest... Besides, after my first OP a few years ago I've sort of found a new found dislike to small and cramped hotel rooms"

"Right... anyways, is the regrouping gonna be important?" he asked calmly before he yawned and I knew full well what he was asking

"Not really so you can stay and sleep Dulio" I replied lazily

"~oh senpai your so—"

"Shut up" I interrupted blankly, Dulio smirked before he chuckled, a second after and he waved me a good night one that I responded in kind with before I gave him his room key

Now that I was left alone I sighed at Dulio's retreating form before I relented and exited the oriental hotel and rejoined the many bodies in the night crowd a minute later and I found the cafe', it was a seat yourself set up so instead of waiting to be let in I just walked in and sat down in the table the other two were sitting at

See as how I was greeted with confusion I sighed "don't worry, I tucked him in myself" I said plainly, the others still looked confused before they finally realized I meant Dulio and a round of oh's and awe's was heard at the table

"You guess order anything?" I asked with a yawn

"Yes and we got you a coffee... By the way, when was the last time you actually slept?" Irina asked brining up a rather good point

"Um... I think ever since we landed... that would probably be about, hmmm... 13 hours? I guess" I replied but Xenovia looked unconvinced about something

"You were asleep on the plane for 15 minutes... and even then it didn't look enough to give your mind some rest... so when was it that you actually slept?" pressed Xenovia

Now that they question it I'm rather stumped on when I've actually slept, was it before we went to st. Paul's cathedral? Or maybe after? No, the last time I've slept was before I went to the archbishop's room during my painful time off... five days ago

"I haven't slept in 120 hours if we're not counting small naps in between" I answered causing Irina to shoot up suddenly

"That's crazy... I'm going to see if I can get you that coffee now... then you're going to bed" she said before she walked off to the snack bar, a coffee then bed time?

Probably be a decaf

While she was gone all that remained was Xenovia and I, a few awkward shifts in her direction suggested that she may be fully acute to the situation

I now found a perfect opportunity to fix a few things; she showed to be more willing to speak to me now so I took the chance presented

"Xenovia?" I called out while leaning forward in my seat

"Hm?" she asked plainly while looking at me, cold exterior now acting as emotional defense

"I've been meaning to apologies... for my previous blunder that is" I said calmly, Xenovia's expression narrowed but she didn't show any signs in cutting me off so I continued

"Back at turkey I made you a promise" by this point I could tell Xenovia was fully listening "and I'm fully aware that somewhere down the lines I've managed to damage that promise... I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry that ended the way it ended, if it were different then I wouldn't have asked you to run and instead I would have proudly asked you to assist me"

When I finished Xenovia was quiet, since I felt I fixed my relationship with her a good bit I leaned back in my chair, content that my words carried enough

"Malthus was going to kill me... right?" she started, pulling me from my drifting thoughts to see her eyes locked on mine. I nodded

"Yes, he himself told me that he purposely spared you, outta interest and the supposed kindness in his none existent heart" I replied, then I saw something I haven't seen in Xenovia... her eyes softened, albeit very slightly but it was something extremely rare to see

"Then I must be the one to apologies instead of you, I have been angry at you for my own selfish reasons when your real intentions were for my own benefit" she said kindly while staring at the table

Her eyes suddenly shifted to longing... whoa

"Just promise me this" she started softly while shifting her locked gaze to mine, I nodded for her to proceed "promise me that when we face him, Malthus or Kokabiel, that you'll fight with me, honor me that much" she finished, a blush lining her cheeks

"It would do me a great honor to fight alongside both of you" I replied proudly causing Xenovia to pick up a happy aura, her expression still looked longing but she felt... happy

It was true, in what she felt, I even took a peak, sue me

From what I was seeing she had started to feel a sense of regret in pushing me away and now she figured out my intentions were pure and not selfish and instead of holding that previous promise she shifted it to another one... one that I will intend to keep

I cut off inspecting her hearts intentions before I delved into spoiler land, she'd keep her privacy

"Thank you" she muttered even softer then before

Now I couldn't help it

"~you're so kawaii Xenovia-Chan~" I gushed uncharacteristically, totally worth it too

"Eh?" she asked in complete shocked, as her entire face became beat red a moment after thus making her even more adorable

As the blueberry steamed under her hands in embarrassment I full heartedly laughed before I patted her head "~Oh don't be like that Xenovia-Chan~" I purred

This is what you get for letting your guard down Xenovia!

"S-s-stop I-it" she stuttered causing me to giggle even more

"~why? Your just so adorable when your fluster~" I pressed my teasing even more mercilessly even when Irina returned coffee in hand –sweet nectar of the gods- I still assaulted her mercilessly

That sounded wrong didn't it?

Doesn't matter!

"I see you two are getting along just fine" started Irina before she placed the coffee before me

Be thankful of your savior Xenovia, for she has protected you with coffee!

Stopping my teasing I picked up my coffee and sipped it, I don't know why but after tasting the coffee and its almighty goodness I started to feel how tired I actually was

"Is it good?" asked Irina energetically; a type of energy that made my head hurt just thinking about it

"Yes, and thank you but before I proceed in drowning myself in this cups bounty I want to ask you" I asked, suddenly sounding tired, Irina stopped sipping her hot chocolate to acknowledge me

"Yes?"

"Did you spike this with Xanax?" I asked suddenly, Xenovia seemed to find something funny or the question was so random it caused her to sudden choke on liquid cause soon after she was coughing; Irina on the other hand simply looked confused before finally understanding my meaning

"What?! I'm not like that!" she said quickly, way to quickly to be convincing but I knew I was pushing it so I raised my hands to calm her

"Relax, I'm not accusing you as a date raper... but if however you did spike my drink, well ~Jesus take the wheel' if ya know what I mean" I said and by this time Irina fully understood why I was so goofy

When I'm tired I get goofy, deal with it

"I'm guessing that really hit the spot then" she said plainly causing me to nod, wholly agreeing

"Uh, yeah... it really has, I'm probably two sips from a flawless knockout" after I took two more sips I placed a few bucks on the table for the other two as well as their room keys before I told them the hotel location, their room was in ours except in the next adjoining one

Wordlessly I retreated back to the hotel room where I oh so graciously thanked the heavens for a safe and fast travel back to lest I wake up a few cities over... yeah, Griselda can be a real evil prankster when she's retaliating to one

I was knocked out soon after my head was a few inches from my pillow on my hotel futon; I had noticed Dulio fast asleep but since I was on one track mind I only barely registered his sleeping form

However

If I was more aware, then I would've been more prepared for the morning's events

-XxXxXxX-

There are many situations from my past experiences to fall under the category of... 'Odd'. It's almost normal since everyone has had one of those kinds of mornings, like sometimes your fellow man – or women – could be off his rocker for unknown reasons. The notion of waking of up in the morning is usually a normal and simple routine for me and almost everyone on the planet, wake up, workout, shower, eat etc. But when it comes to curtain instances that routine is somehow blocked – rare times – things can get... weird, for everyone

For instances, a few years back when I was working with Griselda during a large scale vampire incursion in Romania – classic location, I know, it's not like that joke wasn't floating around in my head at the time – but for some reason or another my partner thought, at some point during the night, that I was far more comfortable then her own pillow – we had to share a bed, good times

For someone who, at the time, highly disliked physical contact was for some reason far more willing at the notion at night then when she was awake, that beating I received for my supposed 'angelic perversion' was, avoidable, but when it comes to a women's innocents it is a man's duty to suck it up and agree

Cause no matter how wrong they are they will always fight it

Just take a knee and tell yourself you've won... it's what I had to do

This all came down to the situation I currently found myself in, however, the person cuddling me was not Griselda, if for some reason it was then not only has she traveled hundreds of miles to shatter her character but she'd also get a hell of a new nickname

The first thing I heard in my deep slumber was voices – no I'm not insane – and by the sounds of it, Xenovia, Irina, and I think a groggy Dulio were conversing with a new voice, I was still asleep but that was changing quickly, the proximity of the new voice was close, close enough to be breathing, literally, down my neck

Keeping calm unlike those who feel it necessary to jolt themselves awake every morning I simply laid their all the while breathing calmly, the second sensation I had that came to me was a pressure – is said PRESSURE not pleasure! – close to my groan and a heavier pressure on my stomach to my chest, slowly my eyes opened and the first thing I saw was yellow, or was it gold?

I have no clue, my groggy disposition was keeping me from noticing even primitive color spectrums so all I saw was yellow/gold in my vision, a part of me thought I was in heaven, the sun light that was streaming through the thin oriental hotels roof emphasised the colors brightness, then the scent hit me and it smelled like... Perfume of some exotic kind it seemed, taking the time to analyze what was in front of me I came to a quick confusion that I was seeing hair

Gold/yellow hair, the exotic scent... the cat like eyes staring into mine... I think I know who I'm looking at

"Isa-tan?" asked a sweat, flirtatious voice

"Uh..." was my intelligent reply, now that I was awake I was able to distinguish my surroundings, first I noticed blue and chestnut hair to my left and a massive amount of yellow/gold hair to my right

I had noticed Xenovia and Irina quickly because of familiarity, each of them were wearing – arguably adorable – Vatican styled pajamas, I had no idea how they got those but I was far too attached to the situation to actually care on that

What, I however, cared about was the, angry, and blushing expressions on the two female exorcists who were both holding their respective holy swords threateningly...

...At me

"Um... what's going on?" I asked confusedly, not at all threatened. The killing intent wasn't directed to me but rather...

"Isa-tan!" yelled the female voice before I felt two arms wrap around my head, a second later and my head was in a place every man wishes to be

A pair of large, exposed, breasts was the first thing I saw before I saw black again, I thought I passed out but the loud energetic voice was key enough to tell me I was in fact still awake

"~Isa-tan! It's been so long! ~" gushed the women I found to be extremely familiar

Using a small amount of my superhuman strength I gently fought out of the suffocating grasp to finally see the women straddling me

Breathing a good bit of fresh air I finally was able to fully distinguish who the women clearly was

She had a voluptuous figure underneath a shrine maiden outfit – which was being worn loosely as evident to the pair of breasts hanging out- she had long golden blonde hair with equally matching eyes that which was almost cat like in appearance, to add to her already familiar status, three fox tails were seen waging back and forth while the rest of the nine tails were coiled around me and her which answered my unthought-of question of why I felt so damn warm

The women was none other than Yasaka, the notorious nine-tailed fox of Kyoto, leader of the Youkai organization in Kyoto

Smiling I replied to her "Hello to you to Yasa-Chan" I said calmly while I did up the top part of her shrine maiden outfit, her exposed top was causing the other two to blush a large sum "and likewise, I'd say it's been a year"

Yasaka nodded cutely in reply, grunting from the mild resistance my tired bones had I sat up to notice one thing

My top was fully exposed

Now I guess Yasaka's exposed rack wasn't what was causing the blushes but rather mine as evident by the two's stares at my chest

"You two find something interesting over there?" I asked, Yasaka simply twisted around in my lap and leaned back into my chest as if using me as a chair of some kind

The other two's reaction was amusing, almost like I said something that caused physical pain of some kind Irina and Xenovia both blushed beet red before they both covered their eyes and dropped their swords down like they saw something physically horrifying

With words I can disarm it seems

"W-why are you s-shirtless?!" Irina asked, exasperated being the lightest of characterisations

Scratching my chin I looked down to Yasaka "was it you?" I asked simply, she nodded before I felt her hum

"~Yup, Isa-Chan is more comfy without his shirt on~" she said, and the shocked expressions on the others were at this point hilarious

"Hehehe, I think we can wrap this up now Yasaka" I said calmly while I spotted my upper uniforms... on the other side of the room

Well Yasaka's tails will have to do for covering me for the time being, when Yasaka finds me and manages to sit on my lap for any length of time it's extremely hard for those who don't like it to get her off

That is if you don't anger her in the process

At my words Yasaka frowned before I simply smiled down to her tiredly, a yawn came up to emphasis my fatigue "we've played along with them enough Yasaka" I said but she pouted more, if she had Anker's then I'd have seen and heard them drop... she wasn't going to move

*sigh*

"At least cover me if you're going to stay" I said lamely, a bright smile and a fur coat later and I was covered, mostly, the part where Yasaka was skin-shipping me was still exposed, albeit barely for the other two to see clearly

A minute of waiting later and the other two finally calm down and collect themselves, Irina and Xenovia stood where they were before starting the interrogation but before I did I gestured to their swords

"You won't need those" I said, Xenovia looked unmoved while she eyed Yasaka dangerously and Irina seemed to follow in her partners actions

Seems today was the kind I find myself sighing deeply

Releasing another sigh I began to pet Yasaka's head softly without saying anything, Yasaka in turn seemed far more content in the affection then the other two so to say we suddenly started to ignore the other two suggestively was an understatement

Scratching behind Yasaka's fox ears I chuckled at her reaction while in the corner of my eye Xenovia and Irina looked a little bit confused by my sudden change in explaining to them what they wanted

During that time I noticed Dulio was actually still very much asleep, even soundlessly if you say

"Isaac? Are you going to answer us?" asked Irina meekly

"Not until you withdraw your weapons into the other room Irina" I answered, still focusing on petting Yasaka, I had forgotten the amusement I had when back then I'd find more fun in petting her then actually listening to Griselda brief me on the next objectives we had to undertake

Hearing the collective sighs and clatter of weapons being dropped into the other room I noticed Xenovia and Irina both walk back into the room – both still wearing their pajama's – before they plopped down and stared at me

"That wasn't so hard now was it?" I asked, almost like a parent scolding two stubborn daughters, both girls collectively pouted at me in an angered manner causing both me and Yasaka to chuckle

"I see you've made some more friends?" Yasaka asked in her usual polite manner, her overly flirtatious actions before were, for some reason, only directed to me on times

"They're actually not as new Yasaka; I met them about roughly... 14 years ago?" I said while looking down to the women, my eyes seemed to carry a message one that she understood as keep my secret quiet... she was, extremely good in reading who and what I was so she was one of the other few who knew, my message was to not divulge anything that may suggest anything even close to what I was

She pouted at that – obvious lie – before she replied "aw, and here I thought we had more history" she said sadly

"I'd say five years is close to a history Yasa-Chan" I replied adding in a fake consoling tone

"Ok" started Irina who looked lost and confused "who is she and what is your history with my senpai?"

For a moment me and Yasaka looked confused before we glanced at each other then back at Irina

"... 'My'?" we asked in unison, Irina blushed deeply before she reeled back, embarrassed

"Y-you K-know what I meant!" she yelled back bashful of me and Yasaka's tag team teasing

Yasaka giggled lightly before she answered her "I've known Isaac for five years... uhmm Irina was it?" she asked causing the red faced girl in question to nod "we met some time ago... I think it was because of a Youkai struggle between fractions?" she started before she looked to me to confirm

"Yes, awhile ago Yasaka here was having problems with other Youkai organizations in Kyoto... a few troublesome mafia's here a foreign drug kingpin there... anyways, back then me an Griselda were the ones sent to stabilize –"

"Wait! Boss-sama was working with you back then!?" Irina asked in shock while Xenovia's eyes were wide at the information given

"Yes... She hasn't been retired for that long you two... she is still young" I replied seriously, there was no lie in my words, Griselda did in fact retire only 6 years ago. Before I tried to continue, Yasaka piped in innocently

"Wait, Grisy-Chan retired from the exorcists branch?" she asked in mild surprise, to which I nodded

"But she was so good, why did she retire so early?" she muttered

"She was working with me all that time" I answered plainly causing Yasaka to suddenly agree with a nod

"Oh..." she said as if knowing that was a full reason for Griselda's early retirement

"What do you mean by 'oh'? Is there something wrong?" Irina asked, getting off topic

Yasaka simply giggled "if you're already working with him, then you should know the answer" she replied cryptically causing Irina to adopt a confused expression

Xenovia and Irina looked back and forth between us like confused children watching their parents talk about grown up stuff

Seeing as how the off topic questions ceased I continued "Anyways, to make a long story short, me and Grisy were both ordered to stabilize Kyoto by any means necessary"

"Then why is she here, I thought you were suppose to stabilize Kyoto?" Xenovia asked in a cold tone, Yasaka frowned at her words but before she said anything or did anything I intervened

"The reason Yasaka isn't dead Xenovia is because of the basic choice me and Griselda made all those years ago" I replied before I sighed at her unmoved expression "not all none humans are evil Xenovia... learn that quickly" I warned seriously causing Xenovia to look at me shocked at my cold tone

With her tone and expression towards Yasaka I was sure the thought of killing the fox in my lap wasn't far off from the bluenette's mind and so I was going to slice that outta the air with no mercy... no damn pun intended either

With a serious expression I continued, after I glared at the two, warning them that I wouldn't answer any interruptions "when we arrived the entire city was in chaos, not total war but gangs and thugs were a norm down in the streets, all the other mafia's and drug kingpins were reeking any kind of havoc and murder was a natural thing... all the propaganda about Kyoto back in the day was actually lies created by corrupted officials in the cities system" I started before I looked at Xenovia calmly

"Yasaka was a Youkai organization leader among those in Kyoto who saw the corruption as a plague on her ancient ground... she requested our help, mine and Griselda's, in liberating Kyoto from their clutches" I said causing Xenovia's previous expression to falter "so we answered the call, it was simple to see that Yasaka had pure intentions for those in the city as well as those who wished to visit the city... without the threat of being murdered"

"It took a total of a year to cleanse the city, and 2 more to clean up the roaches under the rugs... every since then, both the Vatican and her organization have been in a close relationship, feeding anything close to Intel about heretic movements or attacks on our people to us, they even go so far as assisting our own when it was needed... I think Dulio can attest to that" I finished, the two looked to see Dulio was awake... and shirtless

"Eeeep!" squeaked Irina causing Dulio to lazily plug his ear at the high pitch sound

"Good morning to you to Irina-Chan" he said groggily before he turned to me and smirked

"I see she found you" he said before he lied back down

"Yup, you knew?" I asked in return

"She was in the room when I got in last night... we talked a bit then I passed out, guess you really didn't notice your bed mate until... this morning?" he explained before asking the final question

I shook my head "nope, I haven't slept in five days so I was out like a light, but yes I did notice her... wasn't hard to miss" I replied while patting Yasaka's head, Dulio simply whistled

"You seriously work yourself to hard, ya know that right?" he asked and I nodded but before I answered I felt pair of eyes glaring at me from below me, looking down I spotted Yasaka narrowing her eyes at me

"What?"

"Take care of yourself" she ordered, motherly instincts kicking in

"Ah... sure, whatever you say Yasa-Chan" I replied sheepishly but the look didn't leave her expression

With a small grunt from Xenovia and Irina, Dulio and I looked to see both the two girls staring at Dulio expectantly, one that he was confused of before he looked to me

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked quiet innocently

"Nope, I just told them about the time you having trouble in Kyoto a few years back... and about the assistance you received thereafter"

"Aw *yawn*... yeah, back then I think I was handling a few fallen leaders, high class, when all the sudden a few of her allies showed up and helped me out... sure did save me some time" with a nod he thanked the women in my lap before he plopped back down onto his futon

Xenovia looked confused before she looked at me "why were me and Irina taught that any none humans other than angels were heretic's? Seems to me that we were fed a good fair share of lies, cause if the Vatican is having relationships with other species means the teachings are rather... off" she said... good, she's opening up to this more easily then I was hoping for

I'll give her a cookie later

Sighing I replied "this may sound a bit personal – to me of course – but there isn't a doubt in my mind that a few of your teachers and priests back when you were in scholar school were more... fanatical in their teachings, something I despise greatly" I answered and Irina shifted slightly in her seat

"It's said in the Ten Commandments to 'love thy neighbor' not 'love thy neighbor only if he's human and believes in the lord' not a lot of people seem to remember those rules, and a those who do don't seem to understand them very well" I said while I pet Yasaka's head "most of those fanatic's have been either re-educated or stripped of their position in the Vatican, we have no room for blind murders who believe to be messengers, freed Sellzen was one of those who fell along that line" I said seriously

"It's not open very much nor is it fully welcomed among the clergy but if we can form bonds with other organizations that fit both our benefits then it is welcomed, even if it's a clan of Youkai we still can form alliances, and as you can see" I explained before I patted Yasaka's head softly "it's worked out pretty well so far"

The other two looked to be downloading the information while Dulio however was simply downloading any scrap of morning energy to get outta bed, I was ready to get up but the women on my lap was keeping from doing so... not that I wasn't uncomfortable with the tail coat but we still had a long day ahead and I wanted to get to kouh before our demon friend could

"Now that I think about it" I started while catching everyone's attention

Sifting through my pockets and any other crevice in arms reach I hunted for my phone but It seemed to be missing

"~looking for this~" purred a voice directly in my ear, I knew full well that Yasaka had somehow managed to find, why I didn't remember that was lost on me

Looking to the Kyuubi with a raised brow I almost expected her to be simply holding it in her hand but where she placed it instead was a key reason on why Irina and Xenovia were both steaming in the face in embarrassment

The spot that which Yasaka had placed my phone was directly in between her breasts, even for a man like me who at times finds himself in situations with the opposite sex and sometimes really suggestive positions with them I've managed to keep a straight even in the most... erotic of times

However, with the added pressure of the two women as well as a dazed and somewhat aware Dulio... who was lazily smirking by the way, was good enough to cause my ears to burn in embarrassment

Too bad the next words she said had caused the kicker

"Here is the one and only rule: you can only have your phone if you grab it with your teeth"

When I said I was a man who could control himself in erotic situations I did mean it however that was a first, even for her... Jesus women! When in the high heavens did she get so damn flirty!

The other two seemed almost ready to dive in to my rescue but their beat red faces as well as clear frozen embarrassment seemed to hold them down, Dulio just laid their

"You can do this Isaac... I have faith in you" he said encouragingly

"Women..." I started causing Yasaka to look at me with those damn eyes of hers, eyes that said 'I got you know boy' "this is a new level... even for you" I said but she simple smirked evilly at me

"This is punishment for leaving me hanging for a year... now if you want your phone you better man up" she said with a vixen's low tone

Damn her! Playing with my frigin pride like that

'Ya know what... screw it' with my final words I took the leap

At speeds unnoticeable by her nor expected by the others I grabbed the phone with my hand even before she could shield herself playfully but since I had already grabbed and retrieved the device she was simply covering herself

From her adopted expression Yasaka seemed to have noticed I was more victorious then her as evident by the pout but I simply teased her by waging the phone in her face "you almost had me... too bad I've been preparing for your flirting ~Yasa-Chan~" I teased causing her to develop a tick mark on her face

"That was cheating and you know it!" she yelled back but I simply smirked at her deviously

"Perhaps... but you never did specify a punishment if I broke the rule" I replied keeping my smirk poised on her now exasperated features

This was the norm for her, for whenever I returned to Kyoto after... About a week or so she'd suddenly find me the brightest part of her day and unlike those fanatics who foam at the mouth and scream out 'purge the unclean!" Whenever a nonhuman touches them I remained unmoved whenever I was brought into a powerful hug... for the millionth time

Yasaka always seemed to find herself extremely flirtatious when I'm around, for example, back when me and Griselda were helping clear out the roaches left in the city Yasaka had Intel on a possible rising organization that wished to reignite their control in the north region of the city... they were barely a threat but we still wish to finish the job, Yasaka however found that keeping the information withheld from us was a good enough leverage for her to have us do... odd games

She called it twister... now I see why she chose that game

Yeah that was odd, Griselda practically threatened to end my life if I ever uttered that to anyone else... since however I was 'innocent' at the time I found her flustered expression confusing... until now

Patting her head I consoled her "There there Yasa-Chan" I said as the other two finally calmed down from their blushing while Dulio went to get up

"Well, now that that is done, imma get ready" he said before he looked at the other two "Maybe you two should as well" he suggested while fighting a giggle at their innocent pajama's

As Dulio left the room the other two went to their own leaving me and Yasaka alone

"You good?" I asked softly

"How long as it actually been?" she replied, angered and blushing expression gone Yasaka developed a more saddened expression then her previous joyous one

"3 years... not counting the other time" I replied calmly before I took a deep breath, Yasaka sighed as well before she leaned into to my chest

"Why is that you are actually here in Kyoto?... it couldn't have been a visit, you'd have called me in advance" she asked quietly, she was aware that the privacy we had was very limited, the adjoining room was bisected with a thin wall so regular tones could be easily picked up so we were speaking in whispers

"we've come across a serious obstacle, I cannot reveal this to other's but since I trust you just as much as I would Griselda or those three I'll reveal it to you" I started "A demon has escaped heavens prison and wishes to ignite war with all three fractions, I'm warning you ahead of time that the reason we came to Kyoto was because outside of the cities borders a small contingent of fallen and rogues were stationed" I explained quietly

"Did you handle them?" she asked

"Of course, two holy sword wielders and two sacred gear possessors was good enough to almost level that base completely... however I fear that our little victory may have started a domino effect. The demon, Malthus, has his sights set on kouh city, and after our attack he may just start his assault ahead of schedule"

"Then all the more reason for you to get going" she said before she sat up in my lap and cupped my face in her hands "Just promise me that you'll take care of yourself" after she said that she placed a gentle kiss on my forehead "at least try to at least" she added

"Yeah... do you not want any protection? With Malthus' little posy at your door step I'm worried he may have his sights set on you as well, destabilizing Kyoto could agitate the three fractions" I reasoned but she simply smiled at me

"Oh how kind of you, but I'm afraid that won't be necessary"

"How so?" I was sure that she'd be a prime target now that I thought about it, she had a link to the lay lines of Kyoto and that gave her almost limitless power so I was sure she was a prime target

"You do remember that kouh holds two prime targets, I do realize my connection to Kyoto but I doubt that 'Malthus' really see's me as a target to ignite a war... agitate it yes but even that can be countered, if he wants to start a war then I'd say those to high-class devil's in kouh would be better targets" she said matter-of-factly

I stopped in my reply, I even almost faced palmed at my lack of remembering who exactly were in kouh city, preferably a curtain brown haired teen and a runaway nun but who I truly forgot was who the master of those two was

"Rias Gremory, sister to the current Satan, Sirzechs Lucifer" I said out loud, Yasaka smirked when she noticed that she hit the nail on the head

"There's also a second one... can you guess her name?" she asked but I simply shrugged, never met nor saw the other devil leader

"Her name I believe was Souna Shitori... However that is her alias, a few of my sources told me that she is a current heir to the Sitri family house and her real name is Sona Sitri, not much of a real alias but I think it was only to keep humans from noticing her real name... now can you guess who her sister is, I'll give you a hint... she's inherited the demon of envy's name" she hinted while leaning back into my chest

I took a few seconds to figure it out; it was an easy question for me since I was fully training in demonology as well as had a few pointers from my real commander about demons even before I was earth-side

The demon god of envy was leviathan; the history behind that name was due to the demons envy towards the leviathans and their 'cool' sounding name, so in the end he took it for himself because since the real leviathans were in purgatory he didn't need to worry about copyright infringements

"So this Sona Sitri is the little sister of Serafall leviathan?" I asked just to confirm, Yasaka simply giggled

"You sure are an informed one"

"It pays to be" I replied dismissively

"Now do you see who really needs protecting? Even if I'm a target of some ancient demon then I'll simply melt him down to ash for even thinking of coming to my city" she replied with a low threatening tone, Yasaka can sure sound dangerous, she was by all means a pacifist but when it came to dropping the gloves she did so at max power right off the bat

In terms of power, I'd say she was an equal match for the demon Malthus not to mention she had an entire organization loyal to her safeguard so I felt sort of bad for asking if she needed any protection because she isn't some little girl

"I guess I step outta bounds there, asking you if you need any protection seemed sort of rude" I said but she simply chuckled

"~now why would I feel insulted from that? I'd be thrilled to know I was being protected by a strong and capable bodyguard known as 'the Paladin of light'... hmmm? That doesn't sound bad at all~ she said with her trademark vixen styled tone returning, I could even feel her fox fire rise slightly

I simply chuckled "Always the lecherous one huh?"

"You have no idea" she said in return, proximity closing

*nock* *nock*

"Come on Isaac, the other two are waiting" called Dulio

"Damn... and here I thought I could have some more time with you" she said softly

I pat her head and smiled "~better luck next time Yasa-Chan~" I said teasingly before I stood up, bones and joints cracking in the process

"Always playing hard to get I see" she muttered to which I chuckled

"You have no idea" Yasaka playfully glared at me while I put my priest outfit back on

With a quick summon I checked my Zetsurin sword after I finished placing all my clothes on "Hmm, could use a cleaning I suppose" I muttered before I resealed it and bowed to Yasaka

"Thank you for your hospitality Yasaka" I said thankfully, my reunion with her was short but I figured it was good enough

She simply smiled before she waved me a goodbye "Don't even mention it Isaac, any time you need any help don't be afraid to call"

"Right back at ya, call me the minute you hear any kind of demonic disturbances... that demons caused enough pain that I wish to be the one to pay him back tenfold" I said seriously, Yasaka simply shrugged

"No promises"

"Heh, it was nice seeing you again Yasaka... see you around" by that point I was off on my marry way, short and sweet goodbyes were the best I could do as long drawn out ones tend to take forever when it came to her

Back then when me and Grisy were working here Yasaka and I really hit off as friends and probably down the lines it evolved to something more, I wasn't dense to Yasaka's uncharacteristic flirts and I was more than aware enough to see that her affection wasn't just simple flirts

However

My current life style and business wasn't the kind to take any form of close relationship kindly, here is where I stood, currently, I'm almost wanted by every high ranking vampire clan known for reasons under the same as the one for the devil society, I've hunted and killed hundreds of their kind

Were they for personal means? No

Each one I slaughtered was vile... and none of them were loyal to their respective clans/family houses but that didn't mean the clans or family houses were aware of their actions so to them I was just hunting and killing indiscriminatingly

Needless to say, I had enemies and so I basically kept any developing relationships in the developing stage or simply drop them entirely so to keep any 'would-be' second parties from getting their hands on them so to get to me.

I didn't know who was orchestrating these actions but I felt that Malthus may have some information regarding who it was, he was freed from heavens prison because there was no way he could've just got up and left, someone or something let him out and he was going to tell me one way or another

So for any developing relationships I left alone until I could either find the culprit or somehow clear my name but until then I was left playing the jolly good ol 'hard to get' shtick for the time being

After I checked us out of the hotel I regrouped with my team and we were off to the train station

-XxXxXxX-

My phone rang a few minutes into the train ride to kouh city, the caller ID was listed as unknown but the phone number was listed as Unknown as well, this was a sign that it was call from the nexus system from Claire's archive

Seeing as how this was important I looked over to Dulio and nodded to him, a snap of his fingers later and a sound barrier erupted around all of us, flipping the phone to speaker I greeted calmly

"Good morning Griselda" I greeted nonchalantly

"Isaac... we got your email from yesterday and decoded its contents" started the stressed and tried Griselda, oh now I felt bad for that greeting, the time zone we were in was almost a day ahead, I may have gotten some sleep but "archbishop" Griselda hadn't nor Claire

Forgetting that cringy start I pressed on seriously "Did it have anything regarding kouh city and the two VIP we are currently heading to right now?" I asked knowing full well the answer, the others looked at me confused but I simply ignored it, I'd fill them in during the conversation

"Y-yes... How did you figure that out?"

"We were in Kyoto all of last night Griselda... I think you can figure out who I learned that from" I replied sarcastically, I could hear the almost audible sigh before she started back up again

"Right... what else did you learn from her? Or was that all?"

"It was, all I learned was the names and relatives of the two VIP's. Sona Sitri and Rias Gremory are the next targets on Malthus's hit list, both of which are close relatives to Serafall leviathan and Sirzechs Lucifer..." I paused so to see if she had anything to add however I got no reply so I continued "both of which have a large degree of affection for their respective sibling, you can count on a war if even one of those two are killed"

"Then by all means Isaac... use whatever strategy you see fit to insure those two stay out of harm's way... As strange as it seems I don't want any harm to come to either of those devils, not even a scratch" she said, commanding voice over taking her more feminine tone

"Seems kinda strange... four of the strongest Vatican exorcists protecting two devils from a demon" added Xenovia strangely

"I'd rather be seen as a hypocrite then to let a war start on my watch, so I'm more than willing by this point" Dulio added

"Love thy neighbor right?" Irina rehashed while looking at me, I smiled in return

"Seems I'm commanding one of the most unorthodox church followers unit yet... stay safe you four, and good luck"

"We'll stay in contact and update you on any changes" I added and with a click the connection was killed

When all was said and done with our small debriefing with Griselda, Xenovia and Irina looked at both me and Dulio "what do you know about this territory?" asked Xenovia, seems she wants a lay of the land

Dulio simply shrugged "I haven't taken or overseen any operations in kouh city so your questions are as mine would be" he answered the others then looked at me

For a minute I contemplated my answer before I did so calmly "would you three believe me if I said that just before we left to St. Paul's cathedral, I had actually returned from said city" good to test the waters, I was more worried Irina flipping out at hearing this since quite frankly, she has been pestering me about a friend she had back then... one of her only non church related friends that is

I didn't know the names since every time she brought him up it always neglected the name part and skipped right to the memories and nostalgia

"WHAT!?" yelled the chestnut haired girl... my worries were well understood

"You actually visited kouh city? WHY?" she asked

Shifting uncomfortably at the sudden attention I answer as best as possible "professional obligations, fallen angels were stirring crap up so I was dispatched"

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked and I shrugged again

"Demon hunting... I was curtain that took precedence, no offence but I was kinda thinking more about that then a city I was in no more than a week" I answered matter of factly, instead of press on Irina went silent at my reasoning while Xenovia piped up

"So if you were here, and facing against fallen angels no less, then I'm sure you may have some kind of lead we can use" she reasoned but I again shrugged my shoulders

"They were rogues, small in numbers and barely close to mid tier fallen... and that's being generous, degenerate fallen following their own agenda or mutual agenda to gain more power for their own standings, there was no rhyme or reason in their actions so it was just another SSDD scenario... I saw no reason for me to be specifically tasked to erasing them but I guess it was due to the low staff that day" I pointed at the two 'rookie' exorcists "since you two were still on that vampire job I was probably the only one free enough to actually handle the job cleanly"

Xenovia nodded before I heard Dulio pipe in "I heard you handled that one heretic... Freed was his name right?" he asked not at all remembering him

"Yes, I encountered and dealt with him accordingly" I answered while the other two widened their eyes

"You mean Freed Sellzen? The one of the most wanted church heretic's?" asked Irina, the previous topic all but forgotten

"The one and horrible only... out of the whole situation, dealing him in 'gods fury' style was probably the high light of the operation"

"Seems weird that he'd be involved in something so... mundane" added Xenovia

"Mundane to you sure but Freed's a sociopath to higher extents, If the fallen promised him safe guard then he'd be allowed to murder all he wants without being caught" Xenovia scrunched her nose in disgust

"How creatures like him make it past natural selection is beyond me" she uttered

"Aside from him, what else happened on the trip?" Dulio asked subsequently changing the subject

"I guess I did have something else to add" I started "before I ended the heretic, I met one of the territories leaders, her name was Rias Gremory"

"Maou Lucifer's little sister" muttered Irina "what else happened?"

I simply shook my head "nothing really worth mentioning... we traded a few words and got down to a mutual benefit, I handle the rodents while she stays away from my operation without calling her brother"

"That's it?"

"That's all she wrote" I agreed simply

"So what do you think we should do when we get there?" asked Irina

"Simple, since ol Isaac here has some history with this young lady then I'm sure it would be best to talk to her then to just let her be" Dulio answered lazily

"That would be the best approach to this, she didn't really take my snooping around in her territory very well and it was only because of my compromise of small Intel to her that kept us from killing each other" I agreed with Dulio on this one (not that I normal don't) if we were to come clean and forewarn her of the danger then things could work smoother

"What of the information we have? Surely you don't want to reveal all of our objectives to them?" Xenovia added

Irina nodded but answered in my stead "we'll simply keep the knowledge of the demon to ourselves then explain everything else to them all the while enforcing the importance of secrecy... with words obviously" she answered making me feel proud at her wit, she's learning well

"She's right, but that also brings the second topic" started Dulio before he raised another point "is Kokabiel involved?"

"We don't have any necessary evidence proving his guilt so if we do keep the information on Malthus to ourselves then who do we use as a substitute? If we point fingers then that'll only add more fuel to the fire" reasoned Xenovia

"It doesn't matter..." I started causing the three to look at me "we have no means to defend Kokabiel, his historical actions and reputation images him as a loose cannon among the higher echelon of the Grigori, I've read into field reports in the past and Kokabiel's name is mentioned many times as some kind of war monger and others have even learned of his megalomaniac pride when it comes to the fallen angels" I explained

"He's stating that they are the best of the three fractions?" questioned Irina

"Sounds like he's stating a fact" replied Dulio

Xenovia rubbed her chin before she then look at me "it seems that it will be our best choice in the matter" Dulio and Irina looked at her but she pressed on before they could retort "Isaac has said that his mental state is on an almost permanent combat high, as evident by his addiction to war" I looked at her confused, how did she know that?

In a rare instance Xenovia smirked at me before she tapped the side of her head "I can read into things too" she said, I just chuckled and nodded "I can see that... carry on" with a nod I gave her a verbal cookie before she continued

"I've read that during the Great War Kokabiel is the only fallen who disliked Azazel's choice in retreating first, and before that he was seen as a veteran combatant in the war as well... case and point, he lives and breath's war, there is no reason why Kokabiel wouldn't agree with Malthus so he is the most likely of fallen to 'point the finger at'"

Dulio smiled while Irina took a minute to download the information before she to smiled

"Then I'm guessing we have everything sorted out?" I asked to finalize our next step

With three consecutive nods we were on equal grounds, since we were heading straight into devil territory with two important VIP's caution was in need of extreme use, I'd rather – for personal reasons – keep the Maou's involvement and knowledge of my location away from them as best as possible, the fact we needed to stress secrecy was saving the world's ass as well as my own

I just hope everything works out perfectly

-XxXxXxX-
- With Issei and co. post rating game, occult research club room 10:36 pm/ 10 hours until Isaac's arrival to kouh city-

It had been an odd day for the ORC members, since their victory against riser and his peerage things had been rather hectic for a while, from breakfast to lunch and then finally supper, the ORC was rifled with activity, for more on the queen and king but still flooded for the others albeit only two of them, for issei, it was a complete mess of events and for his blonde companion, it was much more taxing then the former, with being a new student to a foreign school/land as well as have a sudden shift in life style had its fair share of stress laid bare on the blonde's shoulders. Issei was wondering how the girl's class was holding right about now, since the beginning Asia had been considered his... 'Trainee' with him being her senior

Rias had tried her best to keep Asia in his classes so he could watch over her more – not that he was at all complaining – but Sona, the school council president – also a devil (big whoop there) – had made it curtain that some other classes that she wasn't qualified for would be relinquished from her, so out of the six classes, she had two separate ones from him, not at all horrible when one is music and the other is simple science class – which was full of more girls then any of the 'hormonal' boys, so he guessed most of the girls could act as a 'defensive wall' from the more shameless of males

[It's funny when you remember that, once upon a time you were once one of those 'shameless males'] piped the voice of Ddraig teasingly causing issei to grunt – he expected a shot like that.

'It's true I was... one of them' he paused when an involuntary cringe/shudder passed over him 'but I'm not one of them now – at least not as active' he finished while eyeing a particular part of the table in front of him

[whatever you say partner] came Ddraig's unconvinced reply, issei had not even retorted in defense, whatever the dragon felt inside his soul was obviously well hidden and he felt no desire to race blindingly back to being a hopeless pervert with no idea how deep of a hole he was digging for himself

School hierarchy was like that... and he was at the bottom – maybe even below that

Some part of him hoped he'd find a way out some how

So for the most part he simply signed before leaning back into the couch he was occupying with Koneko, rather dangerous spot you may think but she actually said nothing of his close proximity... she probably didn't give a damn because... cookies, nuff said

As of right now, things were surprisingly quiet. With their lack of occupying the city for a week due to, other obligations, left many requests from humans on reserve, so for a short while ago the ORC room was almost like an active public business office, so for a whole four hours things were busy, Kiba would return with completed contracts while Koneko would either follow or lead, doing the exact same thing, even Rias was called on a few, albeit more rare instance, while Akeno was as well

Even he had been called upon a few times and honestly... he was beginning to feel the light in his eyes dim... if he had to deal with that 'mitten' or 'Miltan' creature again then he'd file the beast from the east as a complete magic girl princess obsess freak in need of a brick to the head... but he'd.. Probably brush it off and 'glitter' him again

'Ugh... please god (Ow) make it stop already' the images must've finally broken loose again

Aside from petty visual scarring and embarrassing moments issei as well as Asia made a few new contractors as well, and thankfully they weren't weird

His first new contractor was a fairly old woman – about 43 – who had a harsh decline in financial aid and had no choice but to work three jobs, which left her condo open and always messy

His job was obviously housekeeping and he felt no shank to his pride in doing it, simple cleaning and maybe a small home coming meal if he had the time, to which he did, all for the aid of a struggling women... to easy

It was better in his eyes to be a 'janitor' then a 'mental retard doctor' anyways... easy completed contract, his literal first as well, and he even got a positive review, Rias informed him after that contract – as well as after congratulating him on completing his first contract – that the contractor was also in line for requesting him again

Then came the second new contractor...

He looked about 30 years old and had a foreign, almost delinquent hair style of brown with blonde, he did wear a kimono, bland style but it did indeed fit that mans bleak and somewhat morbid humor, to put it in a clearer sense the man seemed odd and almost unnaturally relaxed on the topic of summoning a devil and even joked about giving his soul just for requesting a drinking buddy – see the morbid humor? – But it did fall through very well... second contract received

It seemed that during his contracts Asia had as well done and completed two separate contracts, didn't really surprise him, no matter how innocent she always pushed through it but just to add to his reassurance; Asia told him the two she helped actually seemed like decent people

The others were glad of his double whammy but pretty much carried on shortly after, again, it was busy; they couldn't 'pop the cork' as they say since they had some low life humans to deal with – most of them were, not all of them – so his celebration was due for the future

Speaking of celebrations...

Due to the rather MASSIVE accomplishment they had achieved not a day ago, a Gremory family house party was being held in their honor for defeating Riser Phenex – a supposed prodigy in the rating game league, as much as it pained the political side in losing the relation between houses it was still an accomplishment worth notifying and when you have the full backing of a curtain red haired maou – as well as the silent and unheard backing of the other three Maou's – the party was a unavoidable event, one that would occur tomorrow morning exactly

Sounds good on paper sure but when your told a few powerful people wish to speak to you in a political manner can weigh down on ones emotions, namely nervousness, names he couldn't have been asked to remember but most of them were current or slightly older devil heirs wishing to converse with him about things he was still learning about... why devil politics involved him escape his understanding as well

'Hugh... give me a break already' he muttered internally, from the events yesterday he had yet to find time to just take a load off for five minutes, seems selfish but when you're still only adjusting to supernatural life among devils it takes a lot of time to fully sink into the grooves, then add his lacking knowledge on the politics in hell and you have a tired and confused teen

Which brings us to were the ORC was now, after a long day of requests and a redistribution of devil flyers the night was again their own, however, only a few had time to themselves, namely Koneko and to be precise, all she was doing was eating treats... nothing surprising there, Kiba was late due to contract business

This left the other four with different jobs, currently, from the other side of the table sat Akeno who was delved deep into a bundle of paper work from what issei remembered to be 'documents from the demon council' aside from having his brow raised at the mention of 'demon' he guessed that's what they called their politicians – a good relation to what humans called them – so for a good bit Akeno was basically fiddling with government material like it was history class homework while Rias schooled the newer peerage members on full blown politics in devil society

Seeing as how he must've seemed interested in what she was working on Rias dropped the current lesson and piped in "Akeno right now is signing legal documents to our rise in peerage ranking Ise, its mandatory for all peerages when they prove their worth in the eyes of a Satan" she explained causing Asia to adopt a confused expression, issei guessed the girl hadn't a clue what that really meant in the long run so he just indulged the conversation for her sake – he might even learn a thing or two as well

"I'm guessing your brother was the one who dropped the recommendation?" he asked but Rias shook her head

"Surprisingly no, he wasn't, however the maou Ajuka Beelzebub-sama was... if my brother was the one then It'd probably be seen as favoritism to a family member, which is illegal to Satan's" she said calmly

"Really?... though I'm guessing if that law wasn't standing we'd have gotten two recommendations instead of one right?" he asked to which Rias eyed him coyly

"You haven't even met him and you already understand him..." she muttered, issei clicked his tongue in return

"Your descriptions are well explained" he replied causing her to blush, aside from the two's light hearted bickering Asia sat by and delved into thought on the matter before she suddenly dropped it and developed an expression of revelation, she seemed dense but issei didn't think she was that dense

"I think I understand now, the reason your brother doesn't say anything is because of his rank in the government, if he requested his own sisters rise in ranking then it'd be seen as favoritism... which isn't professional" a silence reigned after her muttering before she glanced to issei in confusion, her expression grew even more confused when she noticed his surprised expression, in her peripheral vision she even spotted Rias' surprise as well

"W-what?" she asked

Shaking his head slightly he dropped it then smiled at her "you got it Asia" he congratulated while Rias did the same before the topic continued on

"Well if that answers your intrigue Ise, I believe we have other lessons to focus on" reminded the red head, issei hummed in response before he refocused on their previous topic

Before their return from the games yesterday, Grayfia – the grey haired Gremory maid – advised him of his popularity rise among the populous and informed him of a few topics he needed to brush up on, the first and most obvious one was his lack of devil hierarchy and government, it was quiet apparent to the two that he was lacking on the matter so that was exactly what Rias was doing right now, Asia was asked to partake in the lesson as well – obvious reason – the girl was the newest right after issei and even he had more understanding on the politics side... as strained and uncaring he was to it he still carried some knowledge

So after a few hours of grinding the information into Issei's and Asia's brain Rias had helped them understand it all, but honestly, issei found himself wondering why it was so hard to figure out from before, maybe it was because he was focusing on much more... primitive goals then he was now

Low class, mid class and high class... the devil society was basically the devils version of the feudal times back when kings and queens reigned supreme a few hundred years ago, from his own personal stand point he first had a degree of disappointment with the supposed 'supreme beings'. They hadn't even developed democracy!

Then he dashed those feelings when he learned that there was no separate countries from the main one, instead, all of the governments form one complete banner, no wars had been contrived because of land or greed... the only war fought was centuries ago against the old maou fraction and that was classified as a 'dirty cold war'. Unlike how the Americans and Russians handled theirs via Black propaganda and conspiracy followed by nuclear threats thrown about the devils had full scale invasions occur almost weekly... small skirmishes yes but they left their scars on the land

So without any other countries the main 'kingdom' was only separated into extremely large territories, issei couldn't calculate the actual land in hell since it was classified as an endless wasteland built to house the corrupt and dead humans for centuries to come but all he knew was that the main kingdom of hell was huuuuuge

Out of the 72 pillars, 34 remained and each of them were evenly distributed among the four cities which names went by like, 'New Asmodeus', 'New Beelzebub', 'New leviathan' and finally 'New Lucifer' all of those cities listed were larger then Russia as a whole continent and the main kingdom was even larger

Anyways, since the threat of the old maou fraction was still in the air there was zero borders within the city limits however there was a extremely protected border patrol on the exterior of the kingdom, it was surprising to issei, they lived in the feudal era yet they handled it much better then how humans did, rather than point fingers in a time of war and ostracize themselves in times of conflict the four cities would instead unite and contrive into one massive military force, the four great Satan's were practically the president king of their own city, his/her every action depicted the actions of his men and women and when all four Satan's gather and unite under a signal banner, all of the other militaries from the separate Maou's join forces in one of the biggest 'task force joint Ops' issei has even heard of

"Do you understand now Ise?" asked Rias from her spot on the desk, she had her eyes on him while he skimmed over the text book he was given

Looking up to his master issei chimed a grunt in agreement "it seemed disappointing a first, since, ya know, the feudal times was a complete disaster on our part not to mention the lives it cost as a result but from what I've read as well as what you've told me... I think your system has found a good groove in keeping peace as best as possible" he said before he rubbed his chin "you also said no pointless wars rose from petty differences like how we have had in the past decade, no rebellions nor were there any nuclear threats looming in the air... not to mention the constant distrust between nations... small of course but it's not like it doesn't exist"

Rias smiled at his words as well as his sudden growth in learning skills "I'm glad you see it that way... now do you understand the importance of this ball?" she asked to which issei adopted a calm sigh before he nodded

"From what I've gathered I'm guessing I'm the Rising 'white knight' among the watchful eyes of the many spectating devils, a knight with a 'baby face' so to speak... Now I'm guessing I have a small political standing among them?" he said before Rias chimed in with a smirk

"More like a 'Red knight'... fits your title much better" she said with a soft smile

"You get what I mean" he replied blandly, Rias giggled in return

From his side of the room issei smirked contently, it was quiet obviously apparent to him as well as the others that from the way Rias had carried herself as well as her sudden change in personality told all of them that she was beyond happy

Freedom from some sort does have a blissful effect after all and issei was happy to supply her that freedom, they all were

"Rias" called the voice of none other than Akeno Himejima from her spot across from issei; she had a serious expression laced over a focused one. she had been glued to the bundle of paper work on her lap for the past hour and from what he had learned, apparently, since they all showed significant skills in the rating games they were almost all eligible for mid class devil exams... suggested, not solid as of yet

They may have kicked a royal pain in the ass... in the ass, but that still didn't fully register them as a mid class material yet, but by the way Rias and Akeno conversed before he guessed the rise in status was leaning more towards their benefit then just a simple rumor

"what is it Akeno?" asked Rias in return, standing up Akeno shuffled to Rias' side before she placed a list of some sort before her

"I have a few things scheduled for upcoming events, many mundane but well be busy for a short while" advised the raven haired queen before she left Rias to read the lists contents

"ok, let's see... oh, so we have a scheduled club room cleaning coming up today" revealed Rias making Akeno nod "ok, we'll have to relocate the club for the day then... then comes, well obviously the ball would be next, brother really does want that party held" as Rias muttered the lists contents to herself, seeing as how the previous conversation was dropped suddenly

"so Asia, how was class?" asked issei calmly, eye locked on her green ones, for a second he analysed his previous question as the most 'normal' question he'd asked in a really long time

"Nothing to sudden, just normal classes..." she answered innocently now putting her text book down as well "However I think this lesson was a little bit more taxing" she added causing issei to let out a small chuckle... 'Agreed' he thought

"Ok, Ise?" called Rias, breaking his small conversation with Asia he turned to a smiling Rias

"Hmm?" he hummed in return

"The club room will be under cleaning for the day so, do you think we can have today's nightly meeting at your place?" she asked innocently, even Akeno was eyeing him... closely than normal

"Uh? Why my place? It's rather small to hold a meeting" he reasoned but she seemed unmoved from the idea

"think of it as added bonding, I'm sure your parents will be fine with the idea" she said in return and even issei shifted at the truth, his parents would be applauding the act like a gift from up high, your damn right they would be fine with it... so he simply nodded, he wasn't at all against it, he just felt there were better places for a meeting then his place but whatever, deal the cards your dealt

"Alright then, we'll hold the meeting at your place a little bit later..." stopping in her train of thought Rias glanced down to her list before continuing "Then tomorrow comes the party, since the time from this world and hell differs significantly we'll need to leave at 7 am tomorrow, we'll arrive around noon if we do" she explained, and as she explained Kiba plopped down on the couches arm rest

"Ah Kiba, your back" worded Rias as she stopped reading her list to greet him "Long request?"

"Yeah, she was running late so I had more tasks than normal, finished the contract though" he replied causing Akeno to smile

"Glad to hear it" she said before she placed another tack on a piece of paper... the score board, Rias and Akeno said it would be reviewed at the meeting later

"We'll be leaving at 7 am tomorrow for the gala" she said to Kiba making him nod

"Should probably go to bed then, wouldn't want bags under those pretty boy eyes of yours" teased issei as he smirked at the knight cheekily forcing the aforementioned knight to smirk back

"And I'm guessing there wouldn't be a difference on you then?" he replied, issei simply chuckled at the playful insult

Their bickering stopped when the club rooms phone rung causing Rias and Akeno to widen their eyes at the understanding of its significant, placing her work down Akeno answered the call with a serious expression

"I see... Understood archduke... we'll handle this... we understand the risks, we've trained for worse... thank you for the concern... goodbye" after Akeno hung up she turned to Rias with a serious expression "it was the archduke, he said the trackers have picked up stray devil code name "wraith" has been located outside of the city limits on the north end of town, B-class in ranking" she revealed causing Rias to narrow her eyes

"Did the archduke give any details on the stray's abilities?" Kiba asked

"All he said was watch out... their sources picked up heavy devil energy from its last position" replied the Gremory queen before Koneko piped up finally

"And where would that be?" she asked with her usually tone

"Shopping district, east side of the city" Rias nodded before she stood up

"Alright then... Prepare a transport sigil Akeno" after her orders the raven haired female nodded and went to the transport location in the far corner of the room and by that point everyone was on their feet, Kiba was already summoning a sword and Koneko stopped eating her treats all the while issei was following Akeno to the magic circle along with Asia who, before she could stand with the others felt a hand land on her shoulder

Confused she turned around to see Rias was the one holding her back gently "Buchou?" she asked with confusion

"this may be more dangerous than any other stray I've told you about Asia, so stay by my side no matter what" advised the red headed devil quietly; Asia remained in an innocently confused state for a second before she smiled

"hai"

With a gentle hand Rias pat the girls head softly before she walked past her and into the magic circles radius before she was quickly followed in by Asia, the others had followed in shortly after and within a small second the magic circle shone brightly, soon, all of them vanished in crimson light leaving the club room empty of all occupants

-XxXxXxX- east side shopping district/ kouh city/ 30 miles from city limits and a few blocks from a heavily populated residential area

Upon activation the ORC appeared within the small shopping district of the outer city, by appearance, the shopping district looked almost like a outdoors mall except there was glass windows covering the parts of the district exposed to the sky which were held up by metal support beams, small islands of plants and various trees marked themselves inside the shopping district for cosmetic appeal while various degrees of stores, small to medium, littered the district and by the first initial appearance they all notice it lacked the most crucial aspect of a shopping district

...Its customers

"were is everyone?" asked Kiba as he investigated the small shopping district with his eyes

"Seems abandoned... suspicious" worded Koneko emotionlessly as she produced six pink magic balls and handed them out, communication orbs... similar to the ones they used in their rating game. As they all applied the magic to themselves Akeno started the briefing

"From the archdukes in-depth reports he explained to me that this stray just suddenly surfaced around an hour ago outside of the city, and just 15 minutes after it surfaced this part of kouh fell off the grid, all electrical sources and appliances short-circuited and everything in here became a ghost town"

"all in the span of an hour" muttered Rias as she narrowed her eyes again; she was this territories leader by night and if her hunch was on the mark then a few hundred innocent humans had fallen to this strays vicious instincts, it was a high estimate and she truly hoped she was wrong in that assumed body count

If she was her past self she would have hunted this thing alone brutally, but facing the unknown with anger was foolish, she had no data or knowledge on how this creature moves or attacks, not to mention there was a significant signature of devil energy here a while ago... they'd need to do recon first

"We have no knowledge on what were facing nor do we have the luxury of keeping this prolonged for any oncoming human interference, I want this monster found and eliminated as Soon as you see it... you all have a license to kill" pointing to Akeno she dished out her first orders "Akeno, you and Kiba take to the high ground" with two expanded wings, the two aforementioned devils quickly took to the air –around the glass roofing – before she pointed to Koneko and issei "tip of the spear, move out"

Two nods and issei followed Koneko deeper into the district with in-human speed

Since Rias had no idea where the stray could be sheltering the red headed devil king took to simple tactics of flushing the stray out and into the open, before, she would use honor and execute strays herself but that wasted time and put many of her peerage members at risk so instead of wasting time she simply ordered the kill on sight order... her peerage was ideally strong enough to take down one messily stray, B-class or not, strays were still inferior to normal devils... no matter the ranking

They lacked the simple notion of running when a fight was too dangerous and let arrogance rule their minds

-with Koneko and Issei via ground floor-

For the most part, the two devils of the Gremory house hold remained silent as they traversed through the barren shopping center and this point they both knew full well what had happened here

"This is Issei; we've found the remains of what used to be the civilians... or some of them" he reported solemnly, eyes narrowed dangerously in disgusted

"Condition?" questioned Rias

"Stripped to the bone... literally" he answered as he stared down at a pair of dead and bloody skeletons of what used to be grown people, if the skeletons size was any bit smaller or perhaps skinner, identifying themselves as either a child of girl then the directional sign to his right would have faced the sudden fury of his right hand

"Damn it... finds anything else?" growled the obviously disgruntled devil king

"From the condition of the small courtyard were in, it would seem most of the struggle happened here" started Issei as he turned away from the corpses, a little bit away inside a shopping store issei found a large blanket or tarp and moved to retrieve it while Rias continued her questioning

"Akeno... any sign of movement?" asked Rias as issei placed the blanket over the bloody skeletons in respect

"I have nothing, no movement... Kiba, what about you?"

"I'm seeing nothing either, wait... Issei can you see me?" in response to the knights words issei looked up to see the blonde knight wave down at him before he saw him point behind him

"do you see that?" Kiba asked before issei turned and quickly adopted a confused expression and gestured back with a shrug

"can you be more specific?" he asked calmly

"I see a trail of blood leading into the sewing store behind you, can you see it know?" upon hearing those words issei spotted the bloody foot prints before he then locked eyes onto Koneko's and gestured with a twitch of his head to follow him in

As the two approached the aforementioned store issei subconsciously activated a ting of his sacred gears gift and applied its effects to defensive attributes in case of ambushes

"Akeno, be ready to apply support if necessary" advised Rias as she herself listened in intently

"I'm already in position, call it if you need it" replied Akeno, anticipation laced in her words

"will do" as issei crept towards the store, hands raised and poised to strike, Koneko flanked him before they both stopped at the closed door

Due to the situation and its risks issei remembered how the military would handle what's universally called a 'door breach' but before he smashed his fist against the door and run in guns – fists – a blazing with fury he instead tested the doors likeliness to be locked

*Click*

His hesitation was awarded by an unlocked door that – thankfully – opened as softly as a freshly oiled gear, no squeaks and creaks

Taking a small peak into the stores interior issei spotted an over head glass window just in the center of the room's interior and stopped his entry to advise his ally "Kiba, I spotted a over head window in the center of the room, can you see anything through it?" he whispered

With his advanced hearing issei heard Kiba's un-worded reply with the sound of his moving form instead, a few seconds later he got a report "seems clear by my angle, I don't see anything but don't take my word for it... if push comes to shove, I'll drop down in case you get into a hairy situation"

Nodding instinctively issei slowly opened the door and crept in, being extremely mind full of his footsteps on the way. Once he was in he stopped while Koneko followed and closed the door slightly

During His time in the woods back in crimson week issei found a small technique that helped him expand his hearing senses immensely, a small trick taught to him by Kiba during a 'hunting' exorcise, opening his mouth slightly issei popped his ears and held it while calmly listening for anything

Few seconds, nothing... a few more seconds and Issei's now sharply acute ears picked up a sudden and heavy exhale to his 12 o' clock onto his left, narrowing his eyes issei sharpened his gifts effects and slowly crept forward

Stopping just before the next aisle issei prepared to jump the source of the sound before he felt Koneko grab his shirt and hold him back

Turning to her calmly he spotted her nod and nodded to her in response before he felt her let go, she signaled him that she had his back, a lot of communication right now was being expressed with body language and expressions, perhaps hand signals, like the one he was using now...

With a gesture of his hand issei extended three fingers before he dropped them numerically from three to zero

Three... two... one... GO!

In a sudden flurry of movement issei and Koneko lunged out from their cover and pounced the source of the sound but their actions only yielded shock and sudden disgust

In silenced shock issei and Koneko stared down at a bisected male whom seemed to have only recently passed on

"damn it" growled issei as he clenched his fists dangerously, he may have trained to near mental perfection but seeing the dead and recently dead was still a fresh subject, it didn't make him queasy – you could thank freed Sellzen for that quick lesson – but it really ticked him off when he saw it, just another innocent life spent unnecessarily due to another uncontrollable stray

Issei remained stationary as Koneko watched him, expression slightly changing to pity before she reported in her senpai's steed "survivor found... he didn't make it" she said seriously

"I hear you Koneko... issei, you alright?" replied Kiba before he addressed Issei's silence

Koneko watched as issei found a large knitted display blanket and dropped it over the man's body, with a sudden grunt issei replied "I'm fine... just really want this strays head on a pike right about now"

"Agreed, to many lives have been wasted by this strays greed... Akeno, have you picked up any devil magic signatures around the parameter?" questioned Rias, seriousness fully awoken

"Nothing yet... however Rias, I believe it would be wise to cut off all access to the shopping district, erect a barrier, maybe the sudden lack of escape routes would cause the stray to behave brashly making it much easier to find" worded Akeno

"I like it... reduces the chance of this thing escaping into the public" added Kiba

"Alright, me and Asia will work on the... hold on... I may have a lead, Akeno erect the barrier... Hey wait!" ordered Rias before the line was cut suddenly, the last thing they heard was static

"Wait a minute Rias... Rias!? Damn it, the lines been cut... Kiba, rendezvous with Koneko down below, issei I want you to get back to Rias and found out why she suddenly cut the line. MOVE!" commanded Akeno as a sudden barrier erected over head, with a lowed crash Kiba landed within the room with a sword summoned

"Issei, move like you got a purpose!" commanded the knight; issei was more than ready to move at ungodly speeds to Rias' last known location however due to the recent events something responded to the change of noise volume

"RAAAAAHHHHH!"

"GRAAAAAHHHHH"

From multiple locations various roars and loud growls resounded before the ORC spotted what they were facing

"multiple devil signatures all over the district! What's going on down there?!" commanded Akeno, her sights were not fixed on the ground floor but rather the barriers status

"STRAY'S SPOTTED!" yelled Kiba in response as he readied his sword; Koneko wordlessly raised her fists while issei – due to the unseen enemy – activated his first stage of his gear for precautions, then he remembered what Kiba said just previously

He said 'stray's' meaning multiple stray devils were on fast approach

"get outta there you three, it's too cramped in there to face that many!" yelled Akeno over the magic communicator

"get to the roof!" once issei heard the order he spotted Kiba fly back up the window he had crashed down in before Koneko soon followed, running to the only spot light in the room issei stopped under the window and glanced back to see if he could get a sighting of what they were running from and his throat hitched from shock

They ranged from 5 feet, to 4 feet to maybe 6 feet in size and wore normal human clothing albeit tattered but the size and clothing didn't throw issei off but rather their almost completely familiar characteristics

"Zombies!? Are you bloody kidding me?!" he yelled before he spotted one of them dash throw the closed door they had entered and close the distance to quickly, reacting at speeds faster than a corpse could dream issei simply smacked it so hard it flew to the other side of the room and slammed into a group of his friends, he guessed the result of his sudden physical assault had almost instantly killed the zombified civilian upon contact because it didn't get up

Seeing as how he was cornered on a very cluster phobic environment the brown haired teen flexed his leg muscles before he jumped to the roof with one simple leap, he hadn't noticed but one or two of the zombified civilians closed in on him only to have their internal organs rupture from the force he produced

Landing on the roof issei could only glance back down the window before he felt Kiba gently push him aside, a light red crystal in hand

"You as shock as me right now?" he questioned to the blonde teen whom glanced to him, issei could see only small amounts of surprise but more seriousness was present

"Can't really say... still adjusting to this myself" he answered as he placed his other hand over the red crystal, a few seconds later and the previous light crystal now glowed a deep crimson before the rather nice looking rock was dropped down the window

"Back up" warned the blonde knight before a lowed explosion cleared the room below them

VVVVP!... BOOOOOOM!

There was a resounded gurgle of noise below and by the 'organic' sound Issei suspected the remaining few 'zombies' below were batting away their last breathe. The crystal bomb Kiba had used was a form of a 'grenade', something the Gremory peerage was now more commonly using as side gear then just simply relying on their own powers, like the illusion ore they used against Yubelluna in the rating game the purpose of this was simply used as a form of cheap and inexpensive ordinance

When Rias had trained them in military tactics and procedures she damn well meant it... plus, they conserve more energy in using them

"Issei" called out Akeno as she handed the barrier control to Koneko for a moment, issei snapped his sights from the almost fully collapsed roofing and locked onto Akeno's serious eyes "I'm still feeling Rias' devil energy but she's moving fast, we'll handle the crowd of walking strays, you get to Rias, she can handle herself but I'm confused with her actions"

With a nod issei answered "I'm confused to but it could have been a possible sighting of the stray devil we're looking for" he answered reasonably "but be that as it may, it's still odd... anyways I'm on my way now" before Akeno could answer issei was already gone

The last thing issei saw before he jumped to the next roof was the main courtyard he was in before now completely flooded with 'them'

'Ddraig, have you ever seen this before?' issei asked seriously as he landed on another roof before he ran and jumped down to a lower roof

The dragon in question was silent for a moment before he answered [not in a long time partner]

'And that's the best answer you have?' Issei's patience was thinning dangerously, as weird and serial it was to actually see let alone fight ZOMBIES the loss of innocent life was still wafting in the air like a bad odder and the lack of information was weighing heavily on his temper

[Ok that may have been a little vague...]Ddraig paused when his wielder growled before he pressed on [the creatures your facing are a natural 'cannon fodder' for a few supernatural beings, vampires, for example have an almost completely identical effect called 'ghoulification', when a victim is partially consumed its more than curtain the remains will rise to defend the person with the hive mind]explained the dragon

"Long story short, whatever is summoning or controlling these things is their main source of power... cut the connection and their done, hence the hive mind you mentioned" replied issei out loudas he ran along the edge of the roof eyeing Rias' last known position

[Exactly, whatever caused your master to go rogue must be the stray were looking for, though I'd hustle faster partner, the one with the hive mind isn't usually prone to staying by unguarded]Ddraig's warning didn't go unheard because the minute he finished explaining Issei's previously soft footsteps now dug deep into the ground forcing his speed to near blinding velocity

He had an even larger motivation to move but his speed was halted for a second when he had no choice but to leap down to the ground floor... directly onto an unsuspecting ghoul

Thinking fast issei bent his legs slightly before he kicked out, landing both feet on the ghouls shoulders

CRAACK! CRUUNCH!

The speed he had previously built produced the concussive force of a freight train which had reduced the ghoul's shoulders and upper torso to spontaneously explode upon contact forcing issei shut his mouth when the sudden gush of blood splashed onto his face and shirt, he watched the damn movies, dead blood is contagious... he didn't know if these were cardboard cut outs of the original zombies but taking a chance at a zombie gut smoothie wasn't on his bucket list

'That wasn't what I expected at all, you'd think these things would have a defensive capability or something' muttered issei as he whipped his face

[Well they don't partner, I can sense their genetic makeup by the blood on you... they're not the kind I was expecting at all, usually ghouls from any Youkai creature develop a superhuman speed and sometimes they'd develop super-strength later in development, but these aren't ghouls... rather something else entirely]

"I'm glad they don't have that strength, however I noticed before they could run... any idea why they have that development already?" as issei jogged down the path way searching for his master as well as Asia issei spotted a stray ghoul meander into his path but before he could body check it hockey style Ddraig piped up

[Don't kill it, grab it with your dragon hand... the blood on you has clotted already and I can't get anything from it anymore] ordered the dragon causing issei to nod before he summoned his geared gauntlet, slamming his front foot into the ground issei forced his momentum to a grinding halt

Before the ghoul could lung at him he lashed out with his gauntleted hand and lifted the – sadly young female - ghoul up by the throat, since the hand was metal scales up to his elbow issei didn't worry about it biting, it'd break its teeth before it even scratched his red dragon hand

[Now boost, for whatever reason I still can't make out its energy circuits and origin] added Ddraig

BOOOST!

"Now can you sense it?" issei asked aloud

[Just a second, the energy I'm searching for isn't its own, since most ghouls work with a hive mind there's a possible chance the stray your hunting may have left its devil energy inside for added safety]Ddraig replied as issei watched his gauntlet pulse red before he spotted red cracks appear on the ghouls skin, around the neck and then up to the cheeks

'So technically you're hacking its energy pattern' his words forced a small chuckle to escape the inner dragon

[Basically, call it supernatural hacking if you will]piped Ddraig

'Didn't know I could do that?'

[You can't, only I can... it's sort of a partnership attribute, since you're one of the few who could actually communicate with me this ability of mine is activated, I'd have no access otherwise]

After that the dragon fell silent, causing issei to hum in amusement at the dragon's unintentional compliment. For a good minute issei watched the ghoul in his hands before he glanced around, he felt his patience draining by the minute but then he remembered that he still had his magic communicator, his devil sensing powers weren't as good as Akeno nor Kiba's and the thought of Rias and Asia being in trouble while he literally stood around was causing him to become impatient with the dragon inside of him, with his free hand issei pressed his right hand against his ear and opened the comm's link to all listeners

"Akeno, do you have status on Rias' location? I've been cut off in unknown waters" he asked, a minute later and a sound of static opened up before Akeno's choppy voice cut in

"I...you... her... location... deeper...district... *heavy static*..." seeing as how the comm's link was interfered with something issei dropped the connection after he heard the heavy static

'That's odd, never thought a magic comm's link could be jammed... damn it" looking back to the ghoul in his hands issei watched with confusion while the ghoul remained almost close to relaxed, it had ceased its feeble attempts at escaping and now looked almost sedated, the red cracks on its face had now reached the top of the head and now its eyes were fully glowing red, if issei guessed with common sense then Ddraig must've finally penetrated the ghouls 'genetic fire wall'

Still made him feel odd though

"Hey Ddraig you done yet?" questioned issei but he didn't receive an answer, however what happened next startled him

The ghoul in his grip began to glow internally, red light began to seep through the cracks on the ghoul's skin and issei felt an energy rise from the ghoul dangerously unstable to be normal

"What the hell" he worded suddenly before he quickly – by instinct – tossed the undead creature away, red electricity sparked from the sudden detachment in connection and by then the ghoul seemed to re-establish its directive and run towards issei but before it could reach a dangerous distance it exploded in a red mist

KBBOOOOM!

Shielding his eyes slightly from any possible shrapnel the brown haired teen dropped his arm to see the ghoul had literally disintegrated

"That was violent..." he said before he glanced down to his red gauntlet "Ddraig, can you hear me now?"

Silence

BANG!

In a quick motion issei slammed the gauntlet against the brick wall beside him before he again called out to his internally silent partner "Oi!... Ddraig, this silence is pissing me off, speak up!"

"Partner..."Came the voice issei had been hunting for

"Well it's about time Ddraig, what the heck happened back there?" issei was expecting an answer but he didn't get an answer and by that point he had finally registered Ddraig's previous tone of extreme seriousness

"Find your master, now"he worded, deeply serious

"Huh? I know that, I'm asking what you learned, where's the stray? Why did that ghoul explode? and why are you so damn serious all of the sudden?" issei was confused, for the month he had known Ddraig issei was fully aware of Ddraig's lack of 'energy', it was almost as if he was not at all invested in any events, only the ones involving his growth as his gear wielder but right now he felt the dragons complete undivided attention

"There's no time to answer, find you master... I'm tracking her right now, she's moving – with the blonde girl – through the plaza a few blocks to your right, MOVE! NOW!" Ddraig's command was absolute, flexing his legs muscles issei exploded into a blinding sprint with no questions pressed

Ducking and weaving through debris such as destroyed laps posts and bamboo trees issei gunned it through the first plaza before he spotted the entrance way to the next plaza to be blocked off by a large pile of rubble

Without stopping issei bent his legs before he jumped over the debris and through the destroyed glass roofing before he landed in the next plaza to see a small residue of black and red energy linger on a group of dead ghouls, a multitude of explosions resounded in the cut off section to his right forcing his sights to lock on a flurry of red and black bolts firing in quick succession at a sprinting mob of ghouls

He couldn't see Rias but he guessed the distance was closed between him and her, the trail of destruction he had followed in was evident of his master's powers

"Rias!" he yelled before he charged a powerful level of devil energy in his right hand before he released it at the cluster of ghouls, the loud call caused the undead horde to pause in their advance only to see a beam of red energy smack into their ranks, eviscerating the lot of them easily enough and inadvertently open up a path for him

"Ise?" called out the familiar voice, wordlessly the teen jogged to the now howled out plaza to see his master and Asia – both in well condition – to be holding out their position inside a destroyed convenience store

Stopping in his light jog issei stopped to assess the damage in the third plaza, all of the court yards many chairs and tables were either up turned or destroyed while some of the stores adjacent to the one his master was in had many large craters along the walls and windows and the plaza itself looked to have been the center of a firefight with dead ghouls littering the courtyard, to put it simple, it looked like a wreck

However the plaza's condition wasn't his main priority

"Buchou are you and Asia alright?" he asked as he walked over to her, his confusion levels rose when all of the sudden his master as well as Asia jumped him in joy

"Your alright... thank Lucifer your alright" whispered the red head as Asia gripped him tightly, normally he'd comfort them but their worries and emotions confused him greatly, what the hell was going on?... if this was an A-class stray devil hunt then he'd have to talk to Rias about not upgrading to the next level, first they fought a naked stray that flung acid from her tits, then exploding Zombies, what's next? Naked acid flinging zombies that explode?

He felt a migraine hit him softly at the thought

"Um?... buchou, what happened back there?" he asked suddenly, all the while ignoring the affection he was getting – wrong time wrong place – before he pressed the issue "we were fine at first but you suddenly ran, why?"

Rias sat back up from hugging him before she whipped her eyes calmly, Asia however still gripped him tightly, he wasn't complaining about it, and as a matter of fact he felt her close proximity lifted a form of stress off his shoulders

"I found a survivor running and I followed him... he's right here" she said before issei noticed a man was standing inside the store, he had black hair and dressed in a magnitude of classy attire, a black dress shirt sat underneath a leather vest while he had skinny dress pants and shoes, a few drops of blood adored his features and his young face looked scared and confused, but he looked fine none the less

"Hey..." issei called out forcing the man to lock his orange eyes with his green and slitted eyes "you ok?"

The man hesitated for a second before he nodded shakily "Y-yeah... what the hell's wrong with your eyes? He asked in shocked confusion

Issei had remembered he had yet to deactivate his dragon gift, however, because of the war zone they were in he didn't deactivate it so he simply cringed at the question before looking at Rias with a troubled expression that said 'I'm not doing it, you do it' to which Rias bite the bullet and looked at the man apologetically

"I'm sorry to say Maxus but were not humans, however, do not worry, our intentions are for your safety" she said and the man, Maxus, seemed unconvinced but remained stationary... Odd, issei expected him to run yet he just stayed put, guess Rias' acts to insure his safety before reconvicted him of his instinct to remain

'Partner...' came Ddraig's voice

But it was to quiet for issei to hear since now his attention was questioning Rias' actions "so Rias, why did you cut the connection?"

This line of conversation brought a confused expression onto the red headed devil before she answered "I didn't cut the connection" she said shaking her head but issei narrowed his eyes in further confusion

"Back when we investigated that store you gave orders and were about to erect a barrier but then you got side tracked with... I'm guessing him" he said while jabbing a thumb to Maxus "before our link with you died"

"It just died?"

In response to her issei gestured the hand signal of flat lined before he pressed his answer "heavy static, no reply... the whole shebang" her lack of knowledge on the matter was extremely questionable

'Partner...' Ddraig's voicecalled again

'Not now Ddraig, shits weird right now' he said back to the now audible dragon before he went back to Rias

"We've been trying to reach you for the past haft hour" he informed her before Rias widened her eyes

"We? Akeno and them are okay? I heard them all... they sounded in trouble" she stopped mid sentence which caused issei to watch her sudden decline into complete confusion thus forcing him down an even more confused path, if there was anything that could describe their emotions right now it would be... what? Huh?... Asia was simply lost at the reunion part

"What the hell's happening? First I hear everything collapse all around me, then I find a survivor, next I hear everything suddenly..." by this time Rias was holding her head as if in pain before she slowly looked up at him with distrustful eyes "Ise, are you really Ise?"

'how many times am I going to say 'what' before I can paten the bloody word' thought issei sarcastically,Rias' previous question sounded insulting but yet issei found no need to feel that way, everything felt like a complete mess of bullshite on a crusted roll and he felt no sudden hostility from her but rather a sudden decline down confusion road

[Partner, listen to me... now] growled the dragon dangerously in Issei's ear causing him to suddenly retract his attention from the confused red head immediately "What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?"

[Maxus isn't human]

As if the realization was the trigger issei suddenly felt a cold sensation run down his spine when he fully registered Ddraig's words, slowly issei raised his head and locked his eyes on the – previously terrified – Maxus who was now leaning lazily against the door frame of the store, an entertained expression was filling his dark smirk as he glowered down at them with glowing orange orbs

'Took ya awhile to figure it out, but I wonder... was it you who figured it out? Or was it your little dragon bunk buddy?'came a distorted voice from inside his head

'What the hell?' questioned issei suddenly, he felt almost mentally violated at the assault of voices pounding in his head whenever the voice spoke

'Careful... wouldn't want you to die from confusion there, that'd been rather anticlimactic, entertaining, but boring'came the voice a second time

'Ddraig? Is that you?" asked Issei quickly, he felt terror begin to set in at how lonely he felt for whatever reason

[Partner, calm down, he's telepathically manipulating you... SNAP OUT OF IT!" bellowed the dragon, forcing whatever that was consuming him to reverse back, red energy enveloped him and the others causing them to snap out of whatever trance they had as well, from the corner of his eye issei spotted the slightly angered expression on the man's expression at the turn of events

"I was hoping to grind out the rust on that ability" he started before he shifted his eyes too suddenly and unnaturally lock onto Issei's with a contorted frown "But it seems your dragon friend is more active then I was expecting"

Seeing the man's expression and sudden shift in stance, issei grabbed Rias and Asia and rolled uncomfortably to the side to avoid a wave of black smoke that leveled their previous location

CRASH!

With the force behind the man's swing of his hand the slightly damaged building behind them collapsed while issei lifted himself up, boosted gear gauntlet visible and his dragon gift unleashed

"BUCHOU! ASIA! Snap out of it!" he yelled catching the two's lost expression

"Issei?" they both asked, confusion levels well past annoying at this point... the man raised his hand again

"MOVE!" He barked suddenly while grabbing Asia and Rias roughly by the wrist before he jumped up to a roof top, carrying them with him

Landing on the roof Issei forced the two down and gestured 'sh' with his hands before he glanced down to the ground floor to see Maxus simply standing there, grin etched on his face as he eyed the plume of smoke left behind in their stead

Seeing as how he must've not seen them issei sighed before he looked away and hid himself from Maxus's view... however if he was still looking then he might've seen Maxus gaze suddenly look directly to the roof and vanish into smoke

Crawling back to Rias and Asia he felt almost close to face palming at their still gravely confused expressions, Maxus really did a number on their awareness it seems

Before Rias could ask the obvious question issei suddenly raised his hand with one finger outstretched "Don't ask it, please don't ask it, if I hear one more damn confused question imma level a skyscraper... just listen" he said with extremely high levels of annoyance

"A haft hour ago Rias, you cut the direct line of communication with the four of us, that being Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, and myself..." Rias looked to want to asked another obvious question but he again interrupted her "To which they are all Just perfectly fine, I'm sure they've erected a big enough body count to make Jeffery Dahmer wet himself" his metaphor was morbid but it gave the message just fine it seemed

"I-I... sorry" apologised Rias as she lowered her head "I have no idea what's going on right now, I'm only getting splotches here and there, all of it completely wrong"

[You are not at fault, Rias Gremory, if not for the manipulative field then most of this wouldn't have happened] announced Ddraig for the first time in a long time

?!

"Manipulative field?" questioned Asia as she finally shook herself from her confusion

[Yes, when I was searching for an energy source in one of those ghouls I found traces of demon energy within the corpse and after small exposure to it did I finally become aware of the magically distorting field... which explains, partner, why you weren't able to fully hear that queens words very clearly, it was because you were directly within the border of the fields effects]

As Ddraig spoke Rias' eyes widened at one word he mentioned, everything she heard made perfect sense however 'demon' was the biggest bell rung in her head

"Did... did you just say 'demon' Ddraig?"

[I did, if you don't believe me then ask him yourself] replied the dragon before they heard a sudden whirlwind of smoke develop behind them, reacting quickly Rias and issei jumped to their feet and readied themselvesas the image of Maxus step before them, angered expression lacing his features

"Maxus?" questioned Rias in confusion

"Wrong" growled the man whose name was not Maxus, the now unnamed man simply dropped his angered expression and sighed "that dragon of yours is really hampering my well thought up entrances" he said as he stopped 10 feet from them

Issei simply gestured Asia to back away some more before he redirected his gaze back onto the man while Rias' expression seemed terrified, uncharacteristically so, while he could also visibly see her trembling

[Partner, be wary, Rias Gremory's emotional state right now is critical, you may be fighting alone] reminded the dragon internally, nodding slightly issei prepared to fully activate his dragon gift

"A-are... Are you..." stuttered Rias catching the man's uncaring expression to shift onto her "Are you a... demon?" she finally finished

In a manner that seemed unfit for the moment the man smiled, however it looked painfully forced "Yes I am"

As if the answer triggered a basic instinct Rias almost dropped to the floor but she continued none the less "that's not possible...they all fell during the civil war centuries ago" she said defiantly, the idea of a demon standing before them was ludicrous so it was a pill she couldn't swallow

"Most ofthem fell, however, that seems to be an obvious lie" he replied, standing absolutely still

"Then what is your name?" she asked suddenly

The demon stood by and mold over his options before he made a 'why not' gesture

Bowing in a mock manner the demon let black smoke roll of his shoulders and torso before he introduced himself "My name is Malthus... Demon of war, and harbinger of chaos" he said making complete eye contact with the red head, eyes ablaze with orange fury "I see no worry in revealing my name to a dead woman"

For a moment all was silent and the only positive expression was the now deep and twisted smile on Malthus's face

"El Diablo" muttered Asia, her previous profession kicking in instinctively

Malthus suddenly dropped his smile and replaced it with a fake shocked expression, a raised brow soon followed "why thank you young lady" he replied before he pretended to tilt a hat to the blonde "you are to kind to complement me with such a fine title"

Dropping his fake expression he returned to a serious expression "now I do remember I had a goal to achieve here" he said before he placed a hand on his chin before he snapped his fingers "Oh, now I remember!"

Dropping to a low stance Malthus summoned two swords from black smoke before he moved at in human speeds towards Rias

"Your death" he muttered before he suddenly appeared before the terrified red head, swords placed in a scissor like position around her neck, face dangerously close to Rias'

CRASH!

Before the demon could decapitate his master, issei pulsed his dragon aura to dangerous levels causing Malthus to dodge away, a disappointed expression on his face

"Should have tanked that..." he muttered to himself before he reappeared to Issei's right side, right handed sword primed to swing "Could you be a dear and get outta of the way dragon boy" he sneered before he sung his blade

Dropping into a quick secure stance issei readied for the block all the while redirecting his gifts attributes to defensive

CLANG!

Right arm held firm and red energy pulsing off of the forearm issei completely halted the swords swing and even cracked the blade a slight bit

"Now that's interesting..." muttered the demon as he stared down at the serious stricken pawn, he hadn't a clue why this demon was so terrifying to his master – who was still paralyzed – to such levels but he didn't care, Ddraig had warned him he'd be fighting alone anyway

Without a witty reply issei quickly brought his left gauntleted hand up and sent it into the direction of Malthus's face who responded by swiftly changing his other sword to a reverse grip and parried his left hook

Smirking slightly in amusement Malthus stepped from the pretzel they found themselves in causing issei to stumble forward slightly before he quickly rolled and jumped back to his feet within a 2 second time frame

The red glass like energy around the boy was now rolling off his shoulders like a calm flame while green slighted eyes – now glowing dangerously – narrowed in a glare at Malthus's amused expression

"You got balls kid, do you have any..."

BOOOM!

Malthus stood by, eyes slightly widened at the close proximity the previous blast of energy had to the right side of his head, had he not shifted his head to the side then he might've felt that

Glancing behind him Malthus smirked when he noticed anything that stood in the way of the blast cut through all obstacles like a hot knife through butter... he would have really felt that

"Tsk... it's always something" he started before he rubbed his head as if emulating an oncoming head ache "first that damn priest scars me and then when I find my target she's protected by an actual threat... this week just keeps getting more and more complicated" he finished with a grumble, eyes lazily glued onto Issei's silent and serious eyes

"You really like to run that mouth of yours, don't you?" questioned issei dangerously

Malthus simply shrugged "Imaging being forced into silence for 5 centuries... I'd imaging you'd have a lot to say after that" he reasoned

However issei didn't humble him with a shift in understanding "I'm just bleeding with sympathy for ya..." he started "But aside from that, why are you here to kill Rias? She doesn't know you nor has she done anything to you" questioned the boy forcing Malthus to close his eyes in small amounts of annoyance

"No matter the occasion, the 'hero' always questions the motives of the villain, but nothing really comes out of it" Malthus then outstretched his arms in gesture "would you join my cause if I told you I was going out for vengeance? No, of course not, that would only disrupt the plot"

Stopping in his villainous monologue Malthus simply examined his cracked sword before dropping it and then examining his second one, clicking his tongue in affirmation Malthus nodded at it before he stabbed the sword into the roof before he leaned on it lazily

"So all you want is vengeance? What did Rias do to you to earn that? I won't ask again! An enemy of Rias is an enemy of mine" barked issei, red aura growing in intensity

Lazily Malthus chuckled "of course it is, you were brought from the dead to answer the bidding of a selfish low born hell spawn for the rest of your life... Oh! And by the way?" he sneered before he poked a finger at the red head "Did she ever ask for your permission?" he asked deeply

However issei remained unmoved before he looked at Malthus dismissively "Physiological warfare, create distrusts and orchestrate the fall of a unit from within the minds of your enemy... we've been there..." he revealed before he narrowed his eyes at Malthus "...used that"

"Oh?" sneered Malthus as he titled his head mockingly "Oh that's good... heheh Oh that's real good" by this point issei could sense the demons rise in demonic energy as if energized by his words "Only the weak fall to words alone, but your strong"

"are you going to answer my question?" questioned issei dangerously as he released more of his power, Malthus chuckled darkly before he pulled his sword from the ground and twirled it in the air for intimidation purposes

"I believe I've said enough" was the demons response before black smoke began to envelop his body

Before issei could realize it Malthus was already upon him, seeing as how his guard was down the back hand that Malthus was sending to him crashed painfully against his cheek

"Gah!" BOOM! CRASH!

"I have no time – sadly – to prance around and play with you... as much as I wish to I still have a schedule to follow" finished Malthus as he watched the concrete wall Issei had run into crumble

Looking away from where issei had landed Malthus revered his gaze onto a worried and scared Rias Gremory whom quickly noticed the cold and wild orange orbs locked onto her

A second later and a hand was wrapped tightly around her throat, a cold sensation flowed through her not just from the odd temperature the demons skin had but rather the killing intent behind it

"Now be a good girl and die for me... this may not be enough to fuel it but I'm sure I can arrange a perfect crime scene for your brother" growled Malthus as he slowly squeezed

"Gah... Ise..." wheezed the red head as she stared into the damned orange orbs before her, all Malthus did was smile mockingly

"And the damsel in distress cries for help...again" as if on command Rias suddenly saw flashes of the rating game with Riser flash before her eyes "keep on crying for help little devil, I'm curious how you'll manage that with a pencil for a neck"

Darkly, Malthus smiled down at the red head whose eyes were close to closing before something shocking happened

BING!

"Ow! Who in the –

BING!

The sound of metal hitting something caught Rias' attention and for a moment the grip on her neck weakened, opening her eyes she spotted Asia, metal pipe in hand, an angered but fearful expression on her features all the while swinging at Malthus who now let her go in favor of grabbing the metal pipe In defense

"Why you little haft breed" growled Malthus with extreme voice distortion, by the way his expression looked Rias knew full well what Asia had incurred

"ASIA! DON'T!" yelled Issei's voice from his spot in the concrete

In slow motion Malthus's sword raised high and his eyes glowed with fury rage at being assaulted twice while All issei could do was fight the concrete pinning him down

Taking a deep breath Rias collected herself and acted against her bodies desire to stay down

Red and black devil energy coiled around her arms before she pointed it to Malthus's sword arm "Don't you dare touch her!" she yelled slightly hoarsely but before she could fire her already weak destruction shot a pale yellow bolt of lightning struck the man against his chest firing him away at its pure kinetic force

'Akeno!' yelled Rias internally as she watched Koneko, Kiba and Akeno land between her and were Malthus had landed

"Rias, Are you alright?" questioned Akeno as she picked up a scared Asia, the small girl had come eerily close to death and her movements ceased completely

Shaking the light headedness from her head, Rias felt the blood rush back out evenly before she answered "I'm fine, just light headed... how is Asia?" she asked worriedly

Assessing the girl's expression Akeno could tell she was in shock, she'd be paralyzed for a short while

"She's fine, but she's in a state of shock... Rias, who was that?" questioned Akeno as Koneko helped Issei from out of the wreckage, Kiba was keeping his eyes trained on where Malthus was sent

Rias hesitated for a moment before she gritted it away and answered honestly "A demon, he called himself 'Malthus'... he wanted to kill me"

Akeno widened her eyes at the answer "A Demon? But their –

"Extinct?" answered a distorted voice,from among the shadows Malthus stepped out from behind the roofs entrance way causing the lot of them to jump into prime combat stances

"So you are the stray devil" answered Kiba as he readied a second sword, but all Malthus did was smile at the blonde's words

"Didn't that red headed low born already say what I was?" growled Malthus towards Kiba, the sudden sharp gaze of orange orbs sent a instinctual pulse through the knights body "I am far from any stray devil boy, the only stray devil here is the one who prove more of useful than anything" he said, revealing a small tad bit of information

"Useful?" questioned Rias as she stood up fully

"Yes, however... the effects it created were low substantial to my ultimate goal" Malthus's gaze trailed down to the ground floor where a horde of ghouls shambled around "very primitive, but at least it worked"

Issei's eyes darkened when he understood Malthus's meaning "You mean to tell me all of this was a simple test?!" he yelled loudly making Malthus smile at him

"Precisely... and that stray provided the means to create those smaller strays quickly... sure I had to decimate a small populace of human on lookers and consume a devils soul to unlock it but... nah wait, I don't have any soft "regretful" words to say about it" Malthus scratched the side of his head before he noticed a black and red wave of devil magic race towards him

"Tsk..." clicking his tongue Malthus batted the attack away with ease before he quickly dispersed into back smoke to avoid a double sword barrage from the blonde knight

"Hehehehe, you all are so easy to taunt!" he yelled in laughter as he landed on another building's roof, expression back to a serious one, he was about to continue but Malthus suddenly dropped his bloodlust smile in favor of frowning

"So... he's arrived" he muttered out loud, gaze locked onto the dark night sky behind him "Well that changes things" turning back around to the Gremory peerage Malthus was ready to depart but he suddenly had to stop a horizontal sword swing directed to his neck... with his bare hand

"That was rude... especially to someone with his back turned" with a low growl Kiba realized he was trapped and had no choice but to let go of the blade before jumping back away from Malthus's reach

Landing softly on the ground below Kiba was open for an attack but Koneko jumped in front of him, however Malthus wasn't attacking

"Sorry kids... parties over" he said before he began to leave

"Wait!" yelled issei causing Malthus to pause in his exit, an annoyed expression on his face

"You're just going to leave? After all that you've done" issei said

Malthus analyzed the boy's words before he narrowed his eyes "of course I am, I've got more important things to do then clean up a mess I purposely made, now be a good pawn andclean up this mess" with the demons final words Malthus went silent before he suddenly shifted his gaze towards the larger building a few blocks behind the Gremory peerage

Before Issei could word his frustration they all heard a loud roar a few blocks from their position, the barrier from before was still up and now that the magically distortion field was gone the blue shield around the shopping district was clear to see

"There!" yelled Kiba who pointed at a small section in the shopping district, the sight they all saw disturbed them, the creature they were looking at was obviously the stray devil "wraith" but its name did little to describe it

Standing at 15 feet tall, the creature looked like a hulking behemoth with a true 'demon like' appearance, it had large massive horns piercing through the top of its skull while its eyes were doubled to a total of four eyes, one above another on either side all the while glowing a deep orange, its right arm had a type of bone like expenditure that seemed close to a wrist blade while the left arm was merged with some metallic canon and it to glowed a fierce orange

"What the hell is that thing?" questioned Kiba, his calm 'pretty boy' persona was dropped long before the hunt

"I'm glad you asked Boy..." started Malthus before he eyed the creature closely "that is what happens when a devil is exposed to pure demonic energy... oh and I removed the last remnants of its human soul, it was cramping my style"

Malthus seemed to sound like a school kid on a really good day, all that was happening before them seemed close to a decisive plan unfolding "did I forget to mention that arm is a sacred gear? Primitive and weak among the Longinus sacred gears but it'll do for now" as Malthus 'taught' the class before him what his new pet was made of the massive beast suddenly, as if to demonstrate its sacred gear, charged up a massive orange shot and cut a massive trench into a horde of ghouls, vaporizing the lot of them completely

"Think of the sacred gear as a catalyst for my influence, it may be an artificial sacred gear built by a Crow but with the power of a demon at its disposal the limits are out of eye sight, hahaha... Damn, that things badass looking" Malthus's giddy words were all the Gremory's heard as the massive 15 foot behemoth rampaged through the shopping district

Their attention was halted when suddenly Malthus was standing among them, but he wasn't as close to them as he was to Rias 'frozen' Gremory "Now, this is a test... all this is, is a simple 'abnormal' stray devil hunt, you never met me nor do you know I exist, mention my presents to anyone and I'll hunt and slaughter the Gremory family entirely... am I clear?" it was dangerously evident that Malthus was not lying – the glowing orange orbs was closely evident of his intentions – so all Rias did was nod in sheer paralyzed fear

"Good, if that Satan of yours knows I exist then I'll have no choice but to start my operation early, you don't want that to happen, Kapeesh?" again, all he got was a nod, Rias wasn't even aware that Malthus's warning was all but a lie, if she wasn't so scare however she might've been aware of that

Before the others caught his presents he was gone like the wind, a black smoke was all that remained before they were left with a partially destroyed shopping district and a massive creature, who didn't seem at all happy

Rias simply stood by, frozen, the words of Malthus was almost enchanted with demonic effects, Malthus didn't warn her with words alone, he did in fact paralyze her with a type of fear inducement... fear can detour ones courage and in this case it worked perfectly

All in her mind Rias scrambled for a sentiment of solace, the fear she felt was unnatural and unwelcome – obviously – normally when a dangerous person gets up in her grill she barely even flinches but when you learn you were within kissing distance with a demon then that thought alone can creep out even the most powerful devil around, then add the small fear inducement spell that he cast on her left Rias within uncharted territory

'What the hell did we walk into?' she questioned in despair

They had arrogantly walked into a demon testing ground with only the small knowledge that all this was, was a devil stray hunt, no demon, no bloody zombies, and NO BARON OF HELL! In a case of wrong place, worst time Rias classified the situation as FUBAR and it was well past 'fucked'

The case was strange when she was batting ghouls away left right and center but what she faced after – brain splitting confusion and all – showed her that everything she thought she was prepared for was a complete ego trip on her part

And now... what she was looking at was exactly what those history books in school down in hell described to her was a full blown high ranking demon... and not just that, it was a high ranking modified demon, she first thought baron of hell but it was too large to be a baron, its rank was undistinguished and withheld due to its sheer level of horror it reaped on the battle field

To put it simply, she and her peerage were facing a straight example of what the devils in hell called "the dark ages" a time long since it came to be but its lessons never forgotten, Rias as well as a few of the others, minus Issei and Asia, knew what the creature was, not by name but rather image

The demon, Malthus, had told them all that the stray devil was exposed to high doses of pure demonic energy rendering him insane, while the mutation was out of place it didn't really need an explanation, just by remembering her many classes back in the day she knew full well that in a devils eyes, demonic energy is like a form of radiation, prolonged exposure causes madness, and even more exposure causes grotesque mutations like the one they were staring at

Hell was a borderless domain completely filled with demonic energy, Rias didn't know how the devils weren't affected by it but she guessed the four Satan's had an influence in that matter, she never really asked before but after tonight... well, her brother was going to be interrogated, and that was a promise

However, mentioning Malthus was out of the question... for the time being at least

"Buchou?" came a questioning voice, glancing towards the source Rias noticed Issei's worried expression "You ok?" he asked again

Shaking her head Rias stood back up, she hadn't noticed she was on her knees until know "I'm... fine, just give me a moment" she replied before she took a deep breath, a second after and she could feel her confidence return, that fear inducement worked but it didn't work for very long

Before she was scared but now it felt like a bad dream, Malthus was real but he wasn't here anymore, so for now, she could feel confidence and with that she steeled her emotions back, they had a stray to destroy and worrying about emotions right now was not on her bucket list

The others stood by in silence as Rias collected herself but they didn't need to wait long "alright... let's kill us a demon" she announced

The others said nothing; however they did smile at her tone of determination

Acting on instinct Akeno stepped forward "I'm counting a total of twenty five remaining ghouls present in the shopping district, most of them spread out, the stray devil killed a good chunk before but the ghouls still pose a threat of spreading. I've set a timer on the barriers life span and right now we have only thirty minutes before the barrier falls... think we have enough time?" she informed seriously

"More than enough" replied Rias before she pointed to Kiba "Kiba, your on crowd control, find and destroy all remaining ghouls, Akeno direct him on his hunt" she ordered causing Akeno to nod before she informed Kiba of his first stop, a moment later and the knight was gone

"Koneko, do you spot any weakness?" questioned Rias, Issei wasn't to invested in the subject but from what he knows so far is that Rias differs to Koneko on range evaluation more than herself, guess Koneko had sharp eyes

Shaking her head Koneko replied calmly "nothing to critical... it lacks speed and has poor lateral movement" she informed making Rias nod

"From what I can tell, that sacred gear it has fused with its arm may create some problems, id say taking it out first would make this easier" recommended Akeno, again Rias nodded all the while processing a battle strategy

"Since its movements lack necessary speed to block, Koneko" started Rias causing the white haired girl to turn to her "take out its knee's, I don't want it surprising us so do whatever you can to cripple it" with that order Koneko prepared to rush in but instead of doing so she waited for back up

"Issei, I want you to try and cripple its right arm, that bone blade has some reach, take it out" now with his orders Issei followed Koneko in for their assault

"Akeno, me and you will play as air support... same drill as always" with the small orders, the two beauties took to the skies and in a matter of seconds, the massive hulk of a stray demon was assaulted on three fronts

A large spike of pain erupted from its right leg causing It to release a large roar in anger and pain, turning its large horned head to were the pain came from it released a low almost confused snarl at the lack of aggressor but it then quickly roar again when a larger pain spiked in its right arm and again its head snapped to his throbbing limb and just like its leg it saw nothing

Koneko and issei had used quick hit and run tactics in forcing the pain and by the loud roars it released they were doing damage, but Issei knew for a fact that if a target that big Roar at a hit it usually didn't mean it hurt, but rather it pissed it off

A second latter and his theory was proven correct

The rouge demon had felt two to many hits land on its being and it be damned – heheh – if more landed, it seemed like it didn't have a mind to fight but its basic instinct to combat fast moving targets was to rampage until it destroyed all hiding spots, so it did

VVVVVVVVVVV!

A sound eerily similar to a charging energy source was picked up by both issei and Koneko who quickly turned around and spotted the rouge demon to be charging its sacred gear and for some reason its target was their general direction

"Oh shit!" yelled issei before he grab Koneko and pulsed a powerful leap out from the canons path

BOOOOM!

A massive explosion erupted from their previous location, and Issei felt a small aftershock pulsed over him as well as a small amount of demonic energy washed over them, Koneko shivered in his arms signifying that she felt it as well

"Issei, Koneko give me your status!" barked Rias over their communication link

"We'refine buchou, just a little shaken" replied issei before Koneko added in her two cents

"Its canon has a demonic after effect... Stay away"

"Alright, recommence your attack... we have 26 minutes to bring this thing down, so hustle!" the sound of loud roars and lightning showed that they were currently locked in ranged combat with the rouge demon

Glancing down to Koneko issei questioned her status "You up for round two?" he asked, Koneko simply got out of his grasp calmly before she nodded

"Its weak physically... hit harder" she advised emotionlessly

"Heh, say no more" with a flex of his arms issei activated his "stage one" dragon force, he had started to call it dragon force since 'gift' was getting old fast

The familiar green aura from before danced around him gracefully while red electricity coiled around his body, at his actions Koneko nodded before she to flexed her fingers and pounding her fist into her palm

"I'd say its legs will go first" started issei before he charged to the edge of the roof before he pounced forward at high speed, Koneko watched for the impact before following

On his speedy travel to his target issei watched as pale yellow and black and red devil magic slammed into the rouge painfully, it was bleeding from almost head to toe but it remained standing, a quick guess and Issei distinguished its bone structure was probably its strongest defense while its muscles still lacked a curtain fiber to actually do a defensive job, but so far all it seemed to do was act as a literal meat shield

[Partner, I've deduced the demonic energy inside the demon] piped in Ddraig as issei paned off from his assault

"You did? Alright then, shoot" landing on the ground below issei twisted around and punched a red dragon shot, weak in power but enough to attract its attention from the others

[It's pretty easy to make out, from its previous canon shot I felt an unstable pressure within its contents] the dragon paused when issei had to barrel roll out of the path of a flying slab of concrete

"Woah... Didn't think it could improvise" muttered the teen as he shot another dragon shot, hitting its head perfectly, in return for his accuracy the beast roared in pain but continued none the less

"Continue"

[All I can guess is that the cannon shots are based off of unstable demonic energy, quick rundown but from what I can remember it's almost relatable to nuclear energy, very destructive but highly unresponsive, the only thing it can do is fire off small portions in 'cannon' like states] as Ddraig explained his findings issei watched as the beast roared loudly before it pointed its canon arm at him, the barrel of the massive cannon lit up before a large orange ball of demonic energy sped past his being, he obviously dodged at the right time, he might be able to tank it but he didn't have the devil equivalent of a hazmat suit

BOOOM!

Rolling into a destroyed store issei wasted zero time in gunning it out the back door, a second later and the massive hulk of a rouge demon blasted through the store like a bull in a china shop

"I think I pissed it off!" yelled issei as he watched the beast almost charge after him, key word 'almost'

He may have been fighting it alone for a moment but it was only to allow his fellow peerage members to regroup and recollect themselves, he even spotted Kiba among their ranks... the ghouls were dealt with then

As he was distracting it Koneko was lying in wait, and when the chance presented its self she struck with extreme force, it didn't break its bone but the hard rook punch to the knee cap did cause it to trip and as soon as its fell on its stomach a large number of red and black spears pierced its back, one in the lower spine and two in the right side of its lower back

ROAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!

Issei expected it to be close to dead or paralyzed after the surgical strikes courtesy of Rias but all it did was roar louder than before, again they pissed it off

As it stood up issei spotted something on its back, on the left side where the shoulder blade was located looked to be a turbine, it even looked to be spinning clockwise in a manner and even when it started to charge up another cannon shot in retaliation to Rias' assault did the turbine on its back light up orange

Like any other teenager alive with experience with video games issei immediately knew it was a weak point of thought it was a sweet spot, so in a simple manner issei charged a moderate amount of dragon/devil energy into a dragon shot before aiming it at the turbine, a single air punch later and a red orb of destruction was sent towards the turbine

Issei expected it to explode violently, killing it almost easily but what happened after his attempt change his expectations, instead of destroying the arm and the beast the orb of red was simply sucked into the turbine

It did look to have startled the demon since it quickly dropped to a knee but all it did after was turn, glare angrily at him, and then shoot at him instead of Rias, red and orange energy collected together as it sped towards the shocked issei

Acting quickly issei exchanged his dragon force to dragon skin and a second later and he was sent flying back from the direct hit with the demon cannon

CRASH!

Ungracefully, issei slammed into a buildings wall and felt a good portion of his energy drain suddenly

"Issei!" yelled the peerage in worry; the attack was unexpected so none of them expected a sudden casualty like that

"Aye... imma feel that tomorrow" wheezed issei as he slid down the wall; his dragon force was long since dismissed for unknown reasons

"You're alright?" questioned Rias in confusion; he sounded perfectly fine, only winded

"Yeah..." he muttered "just a little banged up... My dragon force is down for some reason so I'm out for the time being"

"Damn it... Asia can you check on him for me?" the exchange of adapted orders was then thrown out with the lack of issei

"That was reckless" added Koneko most likely addressing his field test

Shifting in his place on the wall issei chuckled back at her "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" he didn't receive a reply

[She's right you know... we had no idea what that point on its back did until you did that] added Ddraig in a scolding tone

"Well now we do" he answered before he pressed a finger to his ear

"Buchou" called out issei, a second later and she replied "yes, what is it?"

"That point on its shoulder blade absorbs energy sources to power its sacred gear" he advised, from her spot in the sky Rias' previously serious expression shifted to interest

"Oh? How so?" she asked as she moved to see the beasts back and sure enough there was a turbine/absorption point on its left shoulder blade

"When it was charging its cannon the point on its back lit up along with its cannon, and when I tried to see if shooting it would destroy it all it did was absorb my attack... I'm sure you can exploit that for a weakness" as issei explained his findings Rias eyed the absorption point intently

"Thanks for the heads up Ise, we'll find a way" she said in thanks

"I'm sure you will"

Nodding at his words Rias jumped started her brain to run multiple scenarios on how to counter act absorbing type ability

'In any case, if a being can absorb an energy source or multiple energy sources then hitting it with magic is pointless, however, if they do have that power then there is always a limit to how much they can absorb before bursting' the mental memory of her mother teaching her magic types replayed through her head as she imagined a balloon being filled with water, a limit was reached and it burst

When she remembered that lesson Rias snapped her head up, a metaphorical light bulb lit up above her head before she reprocessed the lesson to the present... if she wished to exploit it then she needed to test it

Flying down from her spot in the sky Rias flew close to the demon all the while yelling 'covering fire', it was a self explanatory order; force the creature to defend so she could swoop in closely

When she reached the demon's back she charged a ball of destruction in her hand, when it was at a moderate level she shot it into the absorption point, only to see the ball of energy be absorbed into the disc shaped point, however, instead of absorbing and storing the energy the demon quickly growled in what seemed like pain before it suddenly pointed its cannon towards Akeno, a moment later and it fired a red and black ball of energy, it was small and carried the same amount of power that Rias charged up so dodging it was easy for the flying queen

The Gears in her head turned at high speed and in a matter of seconds Rias smiled at her discovery before she retreated to relay her new plan

"Koneko, Kiba, distract it for me, please" ordered Rias as she approached her second in command, the two aforementioned individuals nodded before they engaged the demon

"What was that attack just now?" questioned the raven haired girl

Rias simply smiled "a test... I needed to clarify Ise's discovery for myself" she replied while Akeno became interested

"What did you find?"

"An exploit... prepare to use that rail gun of yours Akeno, we'll need the fire power" before Rias left Akeno interjected quickly

"But Rias... a high density shot like that will cripple the barrier" she added in confused at her superiors orders

All Rias did was shrug before answering calmly "Trust me... after this attack we won't need the barrier" before she could hear out Akeno's confusion she left to assist with the others, she'd inform them of her plan as well

'this'll need to work in one shot, Asia is preoccupied with Ise and if this doesn't work then Akeno will be out of action as well, no... It'll work, stay focused' Rias' inner thoughts were dropped when she swooped in behind her last two servants

"I have a plan" she said as they watched the beats collect itself, Koneko and lambasted it in the gut while Kiba tripped it with his swords, a good combo if Rias said so herself

Glancing to his master Kiba raised a brow "fire away buchou, I'm all ears"

"Kiba, I'm gonna need a detonation crystal" she said before a crystal of moderate pink completion was tossed in her direction, catching it and nodding she continued on

"When Ise attack that creature from behind he spotted a single point on its back, directly over its left shoulder blade... have you seen it?" two nods and she pressed on

"I investigated what caused that attack that took Ise out and found a conclusion, the point on its shoulder blade is a high speed absorption point, when it chooses to fire it absorbs organic matter to fuel its shot at high speed"

Kiba piped in "so it's not absorbing energy right now then but rather absorbs it when it's charging a shot" Rias nodded at his understanding

"Exactly, and when I tested it myself I found that foreign energy signatures forces it to fire, lest it overcharge the cannon... case in point, I found an exploit" she finished before Koneko raised her fist

"Heads up" she said before they all fanned out from a cannon shot

BOOOM!

"Kiba, I'm gonna need you and Koneko to bring that thing down and expose its back! And if you can, slam one for your swords into its absorption point! I could use a catalyst"

Kiba's eye brow raised high up when heard those orders, the 'bring it down' part was easy but the catalyst part... Kiba ceased his confusion when he spotted a yellow light build up over his head; close inspection revealed it was Akeno

A smile graced his lips "one catalyst, coming right up!" he yelled before Koneko and him got to work

Flying over to a vantage point Rias landed on a roof top for observation, the pink crystal in hand. Placing her finger over her ear Rias opened a channel

"Akeno, when you see its exposed back, aim for the spot with the sword sticking out... but wait for my go ahead to fire first"

"I hear you, I'm primed and ready to fire on your order" Akeno's responding voice reverberated in her ear, nodding instinctively Rias got ready for her role as well

She never played western football nor did she plan to but right now she was planning one hell of a touch down

From her spot on the roof Rias watched as Kiba and Koneko fight with precise coherency and expert teamwork, Koneko created rough openings and brought brutal hits to knock the demon off balance while Kiba cut surgical slashes along key points, like the muscle behind the knee and Achilles tendons, they were trying to force a literal tree of a creature to fall forward and by the progress they made perfect attempts however the demon seemed perfectly satisfied in standing up and seemed even more determined to not fall forward

Almost like it knew its weakness was discovered

'We need an extra man down there, Kiba and Koneko are good but they can't drop a creature that big and resilient alone' as Rias' inner thoughts pressed on the growing difficulty she immediately remembered all her role was

She had extra magic to help

Standing from her readied position Rias placed the pink crystal in her left hand before she coiled black and red destruction in her other hand, first she needed a perfect opening to its back to knock it down then she needed to hustle after her strike

Before she fired her attack she felt a strange aura within her right hand rise up, forcing her to look at her hand

Nothing was wrong

The familiar black and red snake like magic was coiling around her hand like normal expect for some reason she felt a darker aura, however it disappeared just as fast as it rose

Blinking in confusion Rias quickly Shook her head of the odd feeling and recollected herself

By pure luck Rias spotted a perfect opening and even more, the creature had just recently taken a powerful strike to its up back forcing it forward, without hesitating Rias fired her destruction

However it felt and looked much different

"What!?" she yelled when the previously charged shot now fired in a sudden pulse like shot, usually she fired spheres but this was like a gauss cannon, small charge time followed by a sudden. Powerful. Impact

BANG!

ROAAARR!

In response to her sudden shot of destruction the creature released a pained roar before it fell forward, red and black magic danced around its back like an after cloud of damage

For a moment Rias remained silent and frozen

She had never trained to fire a her destruction in propulsion style nor even think it was possible but it seemed close to a rail gun to Akeno except it didn't have the queens destructive force, however for some reason deep down Rias felt as if that was capable of much more then what she wanted

Seeing as how her opening was primed and ready Rias charged in all the while shaking her confusion and shock away

Kiba had not expected a third party to assist on their endeavor but he didn't really care at this point, he was growing tired by the constant moving and recreating swords, even the sudden and unexpected shot of energy didn't cause him to faultier, and instead of staring at the incredibly damaged demon in wonder at who did that he instead did what was expected of him

Running to the other side of the demon Kiba jumped high before landing on the demons back and with quick expert precision Kiba stabbed his newly created sword into the absorption point, and luckily it didn't get immediately absorbed, he guessed it could only absorb liquid and gas type elements, not solid ones

Lucky for them

ROAR!

In a pained response to being stabbed the demon released a deep roar of pain, and Kiba wasted no time in staying put to see if he could play rodeo

Jumping to safety Kiba ran and grabbed Koneko before he gunned it to a safe distance

With her knights job done Rias raced to the back point of the demon and when she came in range she dropped the now charged detonation crystal into the now clogged absorption point

With the crystal in the hole Rias flew away before she said a single word

"Fire"

With a single word the whole shopping district was erupted into chaos, from the vary sky raced a pillar of pale yellow lightning moving at such a high speed multiple velocity rings were created by the fast moving beam of pure energy and then hell reigned

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVT!

Just like in the rating game a blinding light covered the shopping district while a barely audible roar could be heard over the loud scream of thunder and just as fast as it came did the yellow pillar vanish leaving a crater in its wake

Amidst the dust and debris Rias and her fellow peerage members fanned dust and smoke away while they dug themselves out of the store they had dived into for safety, due to rushed circumstances Akeno had zero time to wait for her superior and allies to reach a true safe distance and had no choice but to fire on command

"Is everybody alright?" Came the worried and tired voice of Akeno

"I'm good" announced Kiba as he emerged from behind the desk counter of the convenience store, Koneko following in toe

"We're alright Akeno, good work" replied Rias as she walked out of the bathroom she had flown into

"*sigh* that's good to hear... what's the status of the stray?"

"I'm verifying that right now, hold on" after she replied Rias looked to her Kiba and Koneko "wait here, I won't be long"

Kiba looked apprehensive but nodded in a trustful understanding

Without wasting time Rias ducked out of the dilapidated door way and out into what could be described as a nuclear fallout, from just a small amount of effort and Rias could feel the left over devil energy wafting in the air like a powerful cloud, the crater wasn't deep but its radios was impressive

Akeno really does have a destructive size

'I wonder how powerful this would be if she was actually mad' muttered Rias internally before she smirked at that prospect

She'd rather pass of that

After a good minute of walking and Rias found herself close to the epicenter, the ground was becoming wetter by her progress and drainage pipes as well as power lines were now visible from how deep the blast actually reached when close to the initial strike point, a few more minutes and Rias found what she was looking for

It lay in the puddle of muddy water, sprawled out like a wet rag and exerting zero demonic energy, its left arm was long gone and smoke rolled off its left side were its metal arm used to be calmly, trickles of blood leaked into the muddy water below it from its left shoulder and its eyes – or what was left of them – were wide open

When one is given an extremely high dose of electricity the energy builds up like a water balloon and when the limit is reached sometimes the victim bursts into a gory mess, but that's only if the physical make up was weak, like a devil or a human, however this thing was far beyond the physical limits of a normal devil so instead of exploding the large dose of electricity had no choice but to exit the body via any weak spot

Namely, its eyes and mouth

Any further explanation would sicken Rias even more then what she was looking at

Its eyes had liquidated at high speed as well as its internal organs, she could be curtain its heart and brain was in that list of internal casualties

In any case, the demon was dead... no need to dwell on it

Keeping her eyes on the downed monster Rias reported in

"Confirmed kill Akeno... we're done here"

-XxXxXxX-

With Isaac and co. on route to kouh city

An hour after boarding the train and we found ourselves inside what I'd call 'the hornets' nest', war is literally on the horizon and any agitation would send this nest spiralling out of control so the characterization I had so quickly made up was perfect for the scenario

During our trip to the city we all fell into our own conversations, Xenovia and Irina hit it off for a while, while me and Dulio would converse, I tried my best to make sure the conversation didn't fall on food since Dulio had a knack for disappearing whenever it's mention and as far as I could tell my efforts paid off

Pretty soon everything became serious, with our black cloaks switched out prior to our arrival to the city we all – minus Dulio – wore large white cloaks instead, for some odd reason Irina said that people in white cloaks give off a friendly vibe

I had wanted to mention their holy sword aura but they seemed uninterested in listening to that, even if I did mention it four to maybe five times

"Oh, the memories I had here" gushed Irina as she over dramatically breathed in the stale urban air

"You lived here for how long?" Dulio asked as he fixed his priest collar

"I lived here until I was... 10, seven years... Hard to believe it's been so long"

Now that she does mention it... it is hard to believe

Like I said before, I didn't get to meet the two of them until they were 14 years old, so basically for 4 years I was kept away from them until finally all of that was thrown out the window when Xenovia happened upon me during the time she called Griselda a 'grey haired ghoul'

That was 7 years ago, Jesus time flies

"Not much has changed... Isaac, how old was this Rias girl?" Irina asked suddenly cutting right to business

"18 years probably, from what I remember she wore a school uniform when I met her" I answered and she nodded

"Then I guess we're off to kouh academy"

"lead the way" I said simply before she smiled and joyfully walked in the direction I suspected the school to be, I didn't look into it when I was here before so I had no idea

I could always jump or fly up and I'd see it but limitations Isaac, limitations

For about a minute we walked, all the while gaining idle stares from the public due to our rather odd attire however after passing by a few colorful people, IE: Cos-players, all the stares ceased and we became one with the people soon after

From where I was I could make out a rather luxurious academy a few blocks from where we we're, it looked white and navy blue and oddly foreign in appearance for a Japanese city but the thought of two highly rich devils living here I guess one of them was the cause of its exotic appearance... maybe both?

As we crossed over the pedestrian bridge I suddenly felt out a devilish presents behind me, I had yet to feel anything ahead of me which confused me, I wasn't completely in the dark on how school hours operated and by the looks of things I'd say the school day was mid way

By the reactions on the others, two being uncaring while the other was serious, yet slightly relaxed told me the others had also felt out the presents

"Two devils approaching, rear flank" reported Xenovia robotically

"Stay calm..." I said soothingly before I glanced over to Dulio who smirked before he completely vanished from my senses

Dulio was exceptional at escaping tight spots and almost unavoidable situations with his magic concealment abilities as well as masking abilities his sacred gear possessed... how else do you think he manages to escape us in search of food?

Xenovia and Irina both felt the presence of Dulio vanish but before they reacted poorly I simply placed a hand on their shoulders "he's fine... it's for safety purposes"

Dulio is an SSS class exorcist along with myself but the difference between the two of us is that he cares little about reputation and those who see his physical identity while I do, I've made it my goal to keep my physical features concealed to lessen the chance of supernatural attention, if they saw my face the effect would be controlled, however if Dulio was seen... then that's a different story

From on the other side of the bridge I made out two distinct figures, the first was the easiest, long black hair reached own to her thighs and seemed almost perfectly cut at the end, blue rimmed glasses sat on her eyes while two heterochromic eyes, one blue another hazel, stared at us fiercely

Then comes the second person, female like the other, except she had short hair cut just before the hair meets the neck, red rimmed glasses sat over her narrowed and purple eyes, each of them wore a school uniform

Out of the two of them the one with the short hair radiated the most devilish energy which led me to believe she was Sona Sitri, I could tell that not just by the energy level but by the way she carried himself, brisk and disciplined almost like the way the Gremory devil did

"Try to keep calm you two" I advised before I stepped toward the approaching duo

Once they came into a breathable range they held their distance, both of their eyes were locked on the massive sword Xenovia had concealed on her back

"Do I need to ask why three church followers are currently standing within my school grounds?" she asked threateningly, testy off the bat I see... I think I'll keep the snarky reply to myself

"I'm afraid that line of conversation would be best kept from prying eyes" I replied all the while pointing at the gathering crowd of on lookers, be it students with nothing better to do or pedestrians on their way to where ever they needed to go

The short haired devil narrowed her eyes at my obvious relaxed tone before she simply sighed and –with extreme caution – walked past us and an unnoticed Dulio before she gestured for the three (four) of us to follow her

In stiff silence we all followed the devil duo into the school before we rounded a few corners, rose a few flights of stairs and entered what I saw to be as the 'student council' room... ooh, for a young devil she sure likes to put the stress on early

When we entered the extremely dim room I suddenly found myself missing Arndell's sun lit rooms more and more... this some occult stuff right here

Like seriously, no lights were seen, only candles

From inside the room I made out zero occupants minus the six of us which made things even easier, after about a minute the two finally fell serious, the one I believed to be Sona fell down into her office chair while the obvious queen stood to her left

"What is it?" she asked seriously, Sona was the one

"Right down to it huh?" I replied to which she narrowed her eyes within seconds of my wording

"Two holy sword wielders and a possibly hyper lethal exorcist walk into my territory... I'm sure you can understand the seriousness" she reasoned

I scratched my head aimlessly, the hood I was wearing was keeping my platinum hair from view but it itched now and then "I guess I can attest to that... we want a council with you and the other devil leader in this territory, her name is Rias Gremory I presume?" I asked, expression remaining calm

The Sitri girl's eyes widened slightly before she recollected herself "why?" she asked

"Find her and inform her of this meeting and you'll find out" I revealed cryptically, the two's eyes narrowed but I simply smiled at then politely "Pardon the tone... the stress is piling up" I said in between a sigh

"Where do you want this meeting to take place?" she said, I guess my nonexistent killing intent was good enough to let us actually have a meeting instead of just being kicked out, the other two beside me had remained by the door and calm whilst I stood in the middle of the room

"On earth preferably..." I started all the while getting a few shifts in response "and in this school, any location you feel is the most secluded and safe from prying eyes and eavesdroppers will do just fine"

With a begrudging nod she answered "we'll meet in the Occult research club room... just outside campus and to your left is an abandon school building, you can't miss it" she said causing me to nod

"And what'll be a good time for us to hold this meeting?" I asked

"Tomorrow sound good? Rias and her peerage have school and personal duties to attend to... I'd say 1 o' clock tomorrow will be best" she revealed making my brow raise slightly

"Personal duties?" I asked more to myself then anything however it appeared the devil before me guessed it was an actual question

"Does that really concern you?" she replied hotly, I had to place my hand out and lower it in a 'calm down' gesture when Xenovia exhibited high amounts of holy energy

"No, it doesn't" I replied shortly after all the while showing no care at all to her previous attitude

"Then I think we can dismiss this meeting" she said hinting me to 'get the hell out', smirking calmly I reached into my cloak pocket and tossed a black object onto her desk before I started to walk out

"What is this?" she asked causing me to stop in my tracks

Without looking back I answered "I believe they call it a 'Snickers bar', I bought it on the train ride in for myself later but, seeing as how you need an attitude fixing more than myself, well I'll give it to you... do enjoy it" with that I left all the while closing the door

"Hehehe" giggled Dulio from behind me, his masking ability was distorting his actually sound to high frequencies but me being me I heard it clearly

Before we faced any sort of wrath from the now humiliated devil we cheesed it before it registered, Irina was giggling while Xenovia had a content smirk on her face

That was going down in the history books of 'stupid things I've done for kicks'

Now I guess we pass time until tomorrow, the lack of a second significant devil signature from before suggested to me that perhaps the Gremory heir wasn't 'top side' but rather down below with family matters, it was good actually, her lack of a presents drops our responsibilities significantly

I didn't feel good in leaving important matters such as this for a later date when we were already here, but since the girl wasn't on earth eased my anxiety a good bit

It could wait for tomorrow

-XxXxXxX-

We were back on the street a few minutes later, from the time it looked to be about late afternoon to maybe evening

'hmm, don't remember the day going by so fast" I muttered to myself

"What time did we leave the hotel back in Kyoto?" I asked suddenly, Dulio had long since deactivated his masking ability so he answer

"I think it was around... 12:30? I don't really remember myself but I guessed it was around that time, all the fast food joints there seemed to have their normal menus on instead of the breakfast ones"

"It was 1 o' clock when we left" corrected Xenovia stoically

"And now it's 4:45" added Irina who looked like she was thinking about something

"Safe to say this day is a wipe" I said with a shrug, the only thing we did was meet a snarky and serious devil – one that we're to protect – and humiliate said snarky and serious devil... in good taste (no pun intended)

Not that all important then the meeting were going to have tomorrow, the waiting game sucks

"I guess so, all we did was get a time and meet spot for our objective... nothing to expansive" muttered Xenovia calmly

"Say, what did you use as a base of operations?" Dulio asked suddenly

My answer was to point at the hotel we were currently walking to; it was a few blocks away probably outside the residential area and stood about thirty stories high "I rented the pent house for space and workout room back when I was here, why?"

With a single yawn I got my answer

"Lazy..." I muttered much to his entertainment

"Hey, I stayed up a few minutes longer talking to that fox girl of yours so cut me some slack" he said pleadingly

"Tsk... alright, I guess we can at least get us a roof to sleep under" I relented, Dulio simply put his hands together and mock prayed at me in thanks while the other two were off conversing

"Let's go you two" I called out to them

"Wait, I have someone I want to introduce you to" replied Irina in a quick manner, I simply sighed

"Can it wait until after we grab a hotel room to stay the night? I'd rather Dulio remain in the dark until tomorrow's meeting. In fact he's our trump card for tomorrow if things go south... I'll go with you when were done, ok?" I promised

Irina pouted slightly but then relented and nodded

Smiling at her in gratitude I turned and started towards the hotel of interest, this boy Irina was so energetic about must've been a really good friend to her, her actions are like an overly eccentric child trying to show her parents a brand new friend they met

Hehehe, as childish as she is its rather refreshing to have around, bleak and serious is the norm in church operations and I was sure that If I was alone on this OP then I'd probably be sitting on my ass in the hotel polishing my sword all the while thinking of my next move

Ugh! I wasn't that serious... or am I?

Whatever the case, I was more open to joint Ops then solo ones, silence is nice but the odd conversation didn't annoy me either... just the loud ones I can't stand

For basically 10 minutes the four of us simply conversed, I was silent in my own thoughts, Dulio looked to be close to sleep – I don't know where his energy goes – and the other two just piped in small talk now and then until finally we arrived at the lobby of the hotel

It took a moment but very quickly I was the possessor of the pent house suite again

"Ok Irina, lead the way" I said while I dropped the keys in Dulio's hands, I even piped in that he could call room service if he felt like indulging in it... he looked extremely grateful

"This way, it's just a few blocks from where we were" she said enthusiastically before the three of us began to leave the hotel

I had wondered why Dulio didn't want to meet this friend of Irina's but then I remembered them talk about that during our walk to the hotel, I think he said he wished he could but his 'boss' was more worried about him standing out than anything else

Whatever the case I was just glad they'd actually talked about it then not at all, they had literally just met the SSS class exorcist and I did feel a little tad bit of nervousness before we left the Vatican but it all vaporized during the plane ride to Kyoto

Team cohesion was essential for this and their quick bonding during said plane ride was a god send, last thing I wanted was for the two to feel inadequate around him and unbearably nervous to communicate but that worry was all for the history books

I had forgotten to take in to account Dulio's surprisingly good perception and charisma; he had known of their nervousness right off the bat and acted down to their level to grind out the awkwardness with expert ease

That was a load off my back

As my thoughts progressed I had been unaware of the house we arrived at but the kind and friendly female voice of an older lady brought me back to reality

"And you must be?" she asked with a kind smile

"Uh... Isaac, I'm a friend of Irina's" I replied, slightly out of it, I was starting to lose track of time, that was quick, we must've taken a few short cuts to get here

"You've sure made a few friends over the years" said the women as she gestured us to come in, Irina nodding enthusiastically in response to her comment

Before we actually did however the women quickly adopted a troubled expression before she turned to me with an apologetic expression "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't give you my name"

Before I could shake my head and dismiss the coming apology she acted quicker "My names Azumi hyoudou, but you can call me Ms. Hyoudou if you like" she said to which I then shifted from a dismissive expression to a kind and smiling one before I bowed my head slightly

"Ms. Hyoudou's fine" I said before she placed a hand on her cheek and eyed me closely

"So kind" she muttered causing me to blink at her openness

"Uh... thanks" I said slightly off beat, usually I was fine around extremely kind people and their overuse in compliments but something about this women felt off slightly

Then a thought of a mountain cat came flying past my mind, good thing the kind lady was looking away from me because a moment after I thought of the cougar I cringed at its secondary meaning to older women

When I said people were known to openly acknowledge my features I damn well meant it, and she seemed more in control then the younger flock

Aside from the odd development Ms. Hyoudou showed us to the guest living room and offered us tea, both Irina and I accepted but Xenovia politely declined

As Irina and Xenovia took their seats on the small couch I sat down in the lazy boy chair before the polite women of the house returned with a tray of tea... fastest tea I've seen get made

With a kind smile I graciously accepted the cup of tea and a moment later I sipped it... it was pretty good

After she handed out the tea I spotted a photo album under her arm but before she handed that out she checked both me and Irina "Well how's the tea?"

"It's as good as I remember Azumi" answered Irina happily before Ms Hyoudou looked at me expectantly

Smiling I answered evenly "it's as good as Irina makes it out to be" I said as politely as possible

"Good, I'm glad you two like it" she said back before she placed the photo album she had under her arm on the table, soon after and the two fell in a conversation usually fit for long term history

Irina's chemistry with the older women was astonishing to me; I was close to Griselda yes but even then, there were boundaries even I still have yet to fully understand. The way the two before me conversed seemed like they were almost the same age, jokes, stories – some if not all of them were lies mind you – and lastly travels, any topic was as if these two were friends down to mundane topics

With a glance to Xenovia I locked eyes were hers, I shrugged, to which she did the same

"You actually visited the catacombs in London?" asked Ms Hyoudou with an astonished expression

"Yup, I even visited Egypt" added Irina

"Did the mummies get you" Ms. Hyoudou jested causing the two to fall into a laughing fit

I drowned out the conversation when I felt something approach, an odd energy feeling, almost felt dangerous but it vanished as soon as I picked up its location outside

"Mom?" Came a confused yet slightly fearful voice down the hall

Wait a minute... that sounded familiar

It seemed the voice didn't register on the other two but I spotted Xenovia's glance towards me and nodded... this feeling felt like devils energy for sure, it subsided outside but it rose back up again suddenly when the voice resounded

Not a minute later and the mystery individual stepping into view, brown hair, brown eyes, lazy urban attire and a physically hardened figure... something I didn't fully register because of my complete shock at who it was I was looking at

Issei Hyoudou...

Due to my shock at realizing who the person was I remained frozen and silent while the others seemed unaware of my mood change, Irina's eyes closed and her lips rose in a cute smile before she addressed the notorious omnipresent god of kouh city, however before she could The boy's mother – that which I did not notice until now! – addressed him before Irina could

"Oh you're back from your trip issei? Well anyways you have visitors"

I noticed a protective shift in the boys positioning from near the door, his eyes were locked on the two at the couch but since I was far off to his right he didn't notice me yet, however I did notice his acts of contingencies, like how he kept Asia clear from view and also how his muscles tensed slightly just in case he needed to move in a moment's notice

"It's been awhile huh issei?" questioned Irina causing the boy to shift more of his gaze onto her "Don't tell me you've forgotten me, it's me, Irina Shido"

The boy remained silent and almost confused but it stopped when his mother placed a picture from the photo album in his view to which his earlier confusion fell "Now I remember you, Seven years right?"

His voice... sounded deep and low as if he was fighting for communication skills, with my perception on the matter I guessed this boy was the close friend Irina was so fond of and by his tone suggested he too was fully aware of the mix his previous friendship was in, he was a devil while his friend was an exorcist

"Indeed, it's been a long time so we definitely need to catch up" replied Irina, I felt her previous energy downsize, she knew as well "And by the way, I love reunions, you have no idea what to expect" her flamboyant tone and expression however didn't falter as seen by her smile

"Issei, it's rude to ignore your other guests" Issei's mom chastised which caused him to break his gaze on Irina and relocate his gaze on Xenovia

"This young lady here is one of Irina's friends from the church, her names Xenovia" Ms. Hyoudou then went silent

Taking the mantle Xenovia dismissed her narrowed eyes, closed them and nodded to him "It's nice to meet you Issei hyoudou" she said with her usual deep tone, Issei nodded in a similar way a rusty mechanism would, before anything else was done Ms. Hyoudou piped in

"Irina even brought a friend she wanted to introduce you to" she said happily not even slightly aware of the tense atmosphere, in response to her words Irina smiled before she jumped up and grabbed Issei's hand officially catching him off guard "I've been meaning to introduce you to him for a while now, I feel you two would be great friends!" she said before she pointed at me "This is Isaac, he's a long time friend of mine from the church"

At her words Issei's eyes finally met mine, my shock had subsided a bit ago but I still had my expression held into a surprised manner, however Issei's expression went from narrowed and prepared to shocked and completely leveled

"You..." he muttered out causing Irina to adopt a slightly shocked expression

"Nice to see you again, hyoudou" I replied calmly, the two of us stared at each other for a moment while all Irina did was glance back at forth at us before she muttered a single confused word

"Eh?"

A/N: Alright boys/girls 10th chapter is out and my look at that progress

Seems by this point the canon is becoming more and more forgotten the more we close in on season 2 and its wonderful fun

Since I updated a chapter – a long ass issei only chapter – I decided to update on more of Isaac's side

*ducks from a slew of tomato's* YEAH I KNOW!

Issei and com. were in this one because it felt better then what I previously wrote

Big news, this chapter was done weeks ago, however after a good once over I dropped in motivation when I found out all that effort was for a lack luster chapter with the dreadful pacing of a horrible porno

So after a considerable amount of tears and painful and agonizing hours I deleted a good 20 paragraphs and replaced them instead fifty or less about issei and the endeavors of their events before Isaac even arrived to Japan

Malthus isn't Ganondorf

He isn't the type of villain that waits for the protagonists to get their shit together just so he can glare angrily at them up on the dramatic 'final showdown' tower

No, by all things holy/demonic my villain is a few steps ahead of Isaac and his company and simply rushing through this chapter only following Isaac seems and felt rushed and severely lacking plot wise

Not to mention if I go all the way with Isaac and ignore the hints with Malthus I'd have a M. Night, shamalamadingdong effect IE. Twist after twist after twist

Trust me, I wrote the chapter, took a day then read it over and bloody hell I nearly caked my pants with how mediocre it felt

So with serious consideration, I deleted the mediocre parts and rewrote the less mediocre parts then added in a part so we can get a bead on what's the 10'4 with Rias after the rating game and its events as well as see Malthus converse with a canon character

And like always... I never give 'em a break, heh!

So things are stirring up, Malthus was a hairs breathe away from killing Rias and Rias was a hairs breath away from one of my all time anime wishes while at the same time we get a glimpse of a possible twist on her part, via powers

A much need buff I do say so myself... further details on that will be answered close around maybe the rating game against Sairaorg... if there is a rating game for that matter

Now on to Isaac... nope nothing really worth knowing

Oh wait Yasaka is one

So Isaac boyo has a history with the fox and that's that... yes she is in the harem, and due to her already knowing Isaac it's pretty much saying I have a lack of creating an introduction and build up for their relationship

Sew me, I had planned for only Rosswiesse and Gabriel being in the harem but I feared id get flamed for making a DxD story without at least five girls in a harem

So here ya go, Yasaka is in and already primed for the taking... less work for me

On a side note I want to point something out vaguely,

The create the Gremory's faced is a direct reference to a curtain creature from a curtain game that holds the title of 'the grandfather of FPS's'... RIP AND TEAR!

Now on to why this had taken so long... fallout 4

Nuff said

Goodnight

And in the mean time I gonna drink myself to death after reading that comment about my apparent perversity... PEACE!