Disclaimer: I own neither DxD nor the Eminence in Shadow. AU should be expected for the two series to mix well, though.
The moonlight encased the abandoned church in a mystical radiance. As if, by divine intervention, it somehow retained its holiness in spite of having been in disuse for quite a while. Or at least, that's how Asia Argento saw the sacred grounds as she bid farewell to the closest thing she could call a friend since leaving the Church.
Yes, its visage left a lot to be desired. But she could see the foundation, so she had no doubt that with a bit of care and warmth this building could become a place of prayer again. A temple to God, a place where His children could go for solace and strength in their darkest hours… It, perhaps, came down to simple wishful dreaming. But Asia could hardly be blamed for it. She lost everything and everyone so fast, saw friendly faces turn into hostile words and actions so suddenly, she could hardly even process it all.
Like a bad dream she couldn't wake up from, she fled. And although her people abandoned, she still clung to the hope that God had yet to abandon her. That it merely came down to the trials and tribulations His chosen had to overcome.
With these thoughts she approached her new home. Still enthralled by the almost magical allure it possessed. She could almost hear the voice of God whispering behind her ears. Warm, caring, encouraging, yet indescriptible all the same. Like music that, in spite of having no singer, still conveyed the mysterious feeling of wisdom only the One True God could have.
A bit too much like that, actually.
It took Asia getting to the gate to realise, but the feeling behind her ears not only resembled music. But it was, in fact, music. The wind carried it to her in strange patterns, as the abandoned state of the church allowed sound to escape from many different places. It couldn't come from anywhere from within, yet the openings in windows, roof, and walls alike made it feel like it came from nowhere and everywhere.
"...!" Asia's face lit up with a spark she lacked for some time now. Music, sister Pao always said, was the language of God. The churches and cathedrals they visited together always had huge pianos, pipe organs really, that made mass so much more engaging; the words of the priests enlightened by God, so much more powerful.
She pushed through with renewed vitality. Even though the song was strange and unknown to her, it still meant people were conducting something beautiful inside. Different, for the simple fact she now resided on another side of the world, perhaps. But Asia wanted to partake in that beauty nonetheless. It felt like a signal, an answered prayer to be shown she hadn't lost her path, and that the Father still loved her all the same.
Her smile faded as she witnessed the sins within. People of the church, exorcists if their weapons said something about them, lied haphazardly across the temple's floor and comunal seats.
Blood dripped from wood and stone alike, even staining the mantles that adorned the altar, and the broken cross hanging right in the middle of the farthest wall now held the broken body of a once-man of God.
The music no longer filled Asia's heart with warmth. Instead, as she covered her mouth in abject horror, a chill like no other took hold of her very soul. She didn't dare to scream, as a primal side of her mind prevented her from alerting the monster playing the organ of her presence. But it only went so far.
She fell to her knees, feeling dizziness and trepidation turn her stomach and make her vision swim. That the standing walls had been tastefully lit didn't help, and only allowed Asia to see what the moonlight wouldn't have allowed her to, otherwise.
The piece came to a crescendo, every note going faster, with more intensity as Asia's mind swirled and folded onto itself. Being led by the now-frantic music back to her wishes, cruelly smashed to pieces as if to mock her for her naivety. It had grasped her with its whimsical tune, and now held the nightmare in front of her until it branded her mind with its visage.
The pianist played the final notes, halting the madness to the point Asia felt trepidation from its sheer absence.
Her stomach finally gave in, and she threw the contents of her lunch beside her. Staining the velvet carpet with it in a shameful display unbefitting of her station.
The monster pianist stood up from the left corner of the farthest wall, stretching almost playfully, and the light of the church unravelled its wicked frame to the broken nun.
"Ah, most splendid." The voice belonged unmistakably to a young man, yet its bombastic friendliness sounded very much monstrous to Asia's ears "It is always a delight to play for an audience. It hits different, don't you think?"
Darkness clung to him like he had come from it, or perhaps like he owned the darkness itself. It styled itself in the form of a long cloak with a hood and mask that obscured his features from the outside world. The darkness oozed like small wisps, or like fog eternally dissipating off his frame. Yet never revealing more than his humanoid body.
"Who… Who are you…?" Asia whispered, her whole body shivering as the man, no, the monster that laid her people low approached her with each step.
His smirk could be called nothing but deranged. As if her words had struck his fancy, as if he couldn't wait to answer this simple question. Or perhaps like inspiration had hit him for some reason. Asia did feel that way, as he moved she realised she knew this person.
"My name is Shadow. The one that lurks in the shadows to defeat the shadows." The man, Shadow, stated. Cradling his forehead as if to contain his thoughts within.
"I know you! You were the one that attacked that devil man back then!" Indeed. The reason why Asia was excommunicated from the church, having healed a devil using God's gift… This man was responsible for it.
As if by fate, he followed her all the way across the world to this town. Yet the enormity of his malice left Asia with little room but to believe this. She would never forget that presence, that voice, that viciousness… Even though he disappeared when other exorcists arrived at the scene, the fact that he was alive and well didn't surprise Asia at all.
"Oh? That remark… Have our paths crossed before?" His smirk grew a little "I'm sorry, I've hunted down so many of them that I can't tell them apart anymore. You'll have to be a bit more specific."
"You… You monster!" Asia's fear quickly receded, a hot sensation spreading from her chest to her whole body. Giving her strength to call out the sins this monster had committed in front of her "Devils, humans… They're all deserving of life! Who are you to make the call of whose fate is to cease to be?!"
"Ah, a beautiful sentiment." Shadow remarked, as if Asia had talked in a very pleasant tone "But a sentiment is all it is. We hunt neither for sport or amusement, but because it must be done."
"There's no world in which killing in God's domain has to happen!"
"Oh? Have you not noticed?" Shadow sounded amused, but honestly curious "Your god has abandoned this place for a long, long time."
"That's… That's a lie." Asia gritted her teeth, tears running down her face as the man made fun of her with his mannerisms.
"I am here." Shadow stated matter-of-factly "I, who resides in darkness to defeat the darkness. It's all the proof that you need. Your god is gone, and I am here. Punishing the unpunished, fighting back against those the light cannot, or will not, reach."
He stretched his arms to either side, and the lights flickered for a moment. As if to give way to his dark presence.
"Carrying crosses does not make them innocent! Their voices might have sounded faithful, but their actions were nothing but."
"H-Huh…?" His words brought Asia back to reality. At least enough for her to look past the horrors around her, and let her focus on the details she had missed so far.
Strange symbols and figures were drawn in the altar, patterns that Asia didn't recognize; alongside ritualistic objects that made her think 'witchcraft' with little to no doubt.
"T-These are…"
"I presume this is what you'd call 'heresy', pardon my latin." They were speaking italian, but still.
"No… No! It can't be! This is a sacred place! Who could do such a thing in the Lord's presence?!"
Shadow smiled, having gotten behind Asia at some point while she realised what had happened in the temple.
"Precisely."
His words barely registered in Asia's mind. Figures that hadn't been there moments ago materialised around her, circling her like a pack of wolves stalking their prey. They were all women clad in all-black skin tight suits, with equally dark masks obscuring their features.
"Lord Shadow." A blonde woman stepped forward while the others bowed, a strange light appearing between both of her hands "Beta and I found this. Our research points towards this ritual being used to extract this Sacred Gear from the reincarnated devil it belonged to… I'm afraid we've come too late."
Shock ran through Asia and the other girls alike. To have one's Sacred Gear removed was akin to being tortured to death. She knew this much, although she wanted to believe the church never resorted to such things… The number of Sacred Gear holders among their ranks didn't factor into this way of thinking.
"Hmmm…" Shadow didn't leave his position, but Asia could feel his presence shift behind her. She turned her face a bit to see him, and found his hand resting on top of his chin. Thinking "What a curious thing…"
He reached out with his right hand, and not two seconds afterwards the light between the blonde's hands lit up even more.
"...!" The girls stepped back, even the one holding the Sacred Gear. All but Shadow recoiled from the strange phenomena, who kept his arm stretched even when the Sacred Gear's pure white light eclipsed the sun for a moment.
Only a moment, though. The darkness that clung to Shadow answered the next instant, shooting tendrils of black miasma onwards, and completely enveloping the radiant light. As if the abyss itself had come to devour the Lord's light.
It succeeded.
Shadow's darkness stripped the light off of the Sacred Gear, and when it detonated like a bomb of darkness and returned to Shadow's cloak, nothing of the Sacred Gear remained.
"Hoh…?" A new light, a smaller one this time, materialised on Shadow's left arm. A small artefact with golden linings and dual gemstones that resembled purple eyes rested on the front of its lizard-like 'face'.
Shadow looked at it with curiosity, but didn't comment on the strange happening any more than one would comment about dirt. He kept that amicable expression that made Asia wonder if he had known this would happen, even though the sages of the church could never decipher the mysteries carried by God's arms.
"Huh? Absorption Line?" Another one of the girls, a silver short haired girl with pointy ears looked on, puzzled "Lord Shadow, did we come to this town to…?"
Asia shuddered as the presence behind her vanished altogether.
The girls recoiled, moving in different directions an instant before metal clashed against metal.
The reverberation deafened Asia for a moment, but she still saw sparks fly where a blade collided with Shadow's weapon. A vaguely blade-like construct made out of the same darkness as his attire that oozed more darkness alongside the same.
Two young people had blades aimed at Shadow, centimetres away from his face only because of his own weapon blocking their path.
The girls bounced off from the hit, taking some distance to try again. The girl went for Shadow's left, while the boy went for the right.
Shadow jumped a few metres back, making some distance between himself and Asia. Getting closer to the altar in the process.
"Girl, are you alright?" The silver haired woman asked, covering Asia when esoteric energies were released from the swords.
"Y-Yes." Somehow, in any case. Seeing the place Shadow had stood moments before, Asia realised the sword wielding people could have hurt her should they have released their powers then and there. He protected her.
The girl raged, screaming profanities as her barrage of swings befell Shadow like a tornado of razor-sharp fury.
"Lord Shadow! These are the servants of the Demon Lords' little sisters!" One of Shadow's servants yelled, dodging the surge of demonic power that came her way a moment later.
"Oh? Is that the case?" Shadow's smile came back upon hearing this.
His shadowy blade broke as he parried a hit from the blond swordsman, but it didn't deter him. Shadow twisted around to dodge the incoming swing and grabbed the blond's neck in one swift motion.
The girl had the same treatment. In a moment, Shadow held both people in his arms. Only to lift them up and smash them against the floor with all his might.
Debris flew everywhere as the two dug into the ground, deep enough that Shadow's elbows disappeared from sight for a moment.
The new combatants froze at the sight of their friends being taken down like this. Only Shadow himself seemed capable of cutting through this wave of silence.
"A little gift, to our most honoured guests." He proclaimed, shattering the blades used to attack him moments ago with the mere grip of his hands "Shadow Garden, our business here is done."
"No, you don't!" A water serpent sliced through the roof and crashed where Shadow had been.
He stepped to the side, letting the blow destroy even more of the ground while he got splashed all over his attire.
Shadow smirked but didn't acknowledge the newest additions to his foes. He simply turned around and walked away, his followers quickly moving out of view like they indeed belonged in the darkness. Like they had never been there to begin with.
Asia saw the world blur, and suddenly she was looking directly at the stars. It took her a moment to realise the silver haired woman had carried her out of the church, where the fight had renewed with even more intensity, to the point the structure fell onto itself as more and more demonic power was released.
"Don't worry." The woman's voice was gentle, reassuring, and unworried "Judging by their servants' skill level, there's no way Lord Shadow will be defeated."
A pillar of darkness pierced the sky. Shadow materialised amidst it all, sword still in hand, and a manic grin adorning his features.
"Let's go." The woman hurried Asia "You can choose to follow us into the dark, otherwise there's a place where you can be safe."
A devil flew up in pursuit of Shadow. Her hair almost sparkled crimson with the moon, her bat-like wings spread to their full length as a miasma of demonic power unfurled from her whole being.
A sphere of demonic power shot from between the devil woman's arms as Shadow's ascension came to a halt. For a moment, peace kept its hold in the night until the Power of Destruction detonated a shower of darkness over the sky. Hiding the moon from view for a moment.
Unbeknown to Asia, however, the Power of Destruction collided with a certain artefact the eminence used for transportation.
So that night, a hole was torn in reality between the Human World and the Land of Oz.