Chapter 21: Whether Good or Bad, I'll Knock some Sense into You!
"Wow..." Matsuda Takumi muttered the moment the Church Duo took off their cloaks.
"I'd like to shake the hand of the one who designed those." Motohama Nakakuni nodded in agreement.
"I totally agree." Issei Hyoudou himself couldn't help but gawk. "There's really no way I'm ever mistaking Irina for a boy again after this sight."
The Church Duo were dressed in battle suits which consisted of a black, skin-tight, short-sleeved leotard, matching gloves that extended to their biceps, and thigh-high boots, all of which were adorned with straps.
The only differences being that while Xenovia's attire was outfitted with pauldrons and her gloves were fingerless, Irina's left her shoulder's exposed while extending down to her thighs instead of stopping at her butt like Xenovia's.
"Is this a good idea?" Akeno Himejima fretted to her {King}. "Ise-kun is one thing, but Yuuto is explicitly one of ours. Should we be allowing this fight?"
"If we don't allow it, I don't see how I can make Yuuto back down without force." Rias Gremory sighed in frustration. "Besides, Ise did bring up a valid point. Leaving everything to just those two Exorcists is rather foolhardy. I'd personally like an idea of their own power levels before I meet with Sona to make plans."
"As expected of Devils to be nonbelievers!" Irina Shidou declared as she ripped off {Excalibur Mimic} and returned it to it's Katana form. "I shall burn my faith and skill into you all, starting with you, Ise-kun!"
"We'll do our best not to hurt either of you too much." Xenovia Quarta completely released {Excalibur Destruction}, hefting the large sword onehanded.
"Really?" Red flames burst to life around Issei's forearms, revealing the {Boosted Gear} as Issei smirked at Irina. "Kiba, did you just hear what they just said to us?"
"I did, Hyoudou-kun." Yuuto Kiba chuckled, a malicious glint in his eyes as {Sword Birth} thrummed to life, stabbing many Demonic Swords into the ground around him. "Quite the joke to make when I'm about to break the {Excaliburs} they went and brought before me."
"I see..." Xenovia gripped her sword and let it rest on her shoulder. "Before when you mentioned being my senior, did that mean that you were one of the test subjects who skipped dismissal?"
"...'dismissal'?" Yuuto growled as the killing intent he radiated tripled in essence. "Is that you're calling the purging of my friends?!"
Xenovia's eyes widened as she was forced to take a defensive pose, grimacing as Yuuto's charging strike was powerful enough to make her feet sink into the ground like a small crater. 'He's fast! But...!'
Yuuto's strikes were indeed fast and powerful, but lacked the usual finesse she'd have expected of a Gremory Devil.
"Gyaa!"
"Irin- gah?!" Xenovia turned at the sound of her partner's scream only to get hit in the face by Irina's head with the latter's face grabbed by Issei.
One minute earlier
"Hey, let's make a bet!" Issei said as he and Irina circled each other.
"A bet?" Irina tilted her head.
"The way I see it, regardless of how this ends, I'm still going to have to help you out, Rin." Issei folded his arms as he nodded in self-assurance. "But I still want compensation for the fact that I have to go through this at all just to convince you to accept help my way."
"...what are your terms, then?" Irina huffed.
"First off, when I win, you'll be taking my refusal of an alliance back to the Church after this is all over." Issei snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Second off... we take a bath together!"
"Whaaa?!" Irina shrieked in outrage.
"He went right for it?!" Tomoki Sakurai exclaimed as Matsuda and Motohama bumped fists in approval.
"Ara, ara." Akeno giggled behind her hand. "As expected of the leader of our school's most outspoken perverts."
"He's truly the enemy of all women." Koneko Toujou's eyes narrowed.
"I can't believe that my old friend became such a degenerate during our years apart!" Irina wailed as she fretted about dramatically. "First defending a witch, then accusing the Church of blasphemy and now this demand of his! Is this another of the Lord's trials?!"
"What's with her?" Issei muttered in confusion.
[I believe that your friend became a fanatic just like you.]
[How is she like me?!] Issei mentally shrieked as Irina actually held up her sword to rub her face against it.
[If I replace 'God' with 'Boobs', it's easy to see how you were best friends back then.]
Issei clicked his tongue at Ddraig's snark.
"Although, overcoming this will bring me one step closer to Him!" Irina smirked back at Issei, twirling her katana about. "Amen, Ise-kun! After I'm done using my {Excalibur} to punish you for your sins, I'll make you an Exorcist like me and have you behave!"
"Good luck with that!" Taking the initiative, Issei instantly closed the distance between them and punched Irina's cheek, surprising the twintailed swordswoman and leaving her unprepared for the kick that slammed into her stomach and sent her into a tree.
"Well... That was surprising!" Transforming {Excalibur Mimic} to take on the shape of a pistol, Irina promptly fired bullet-shaped blasts of Holy Power that had Issei frantically dodging about.
"Akeno."
With a single call of her name from Rias, Akeno promptly created a barrier around the four combatants, preventing Irina's bullets from hitting them.
"That {Excalibur} sure is bullshit!" Issei yelled as he leapt up high and punched downwards, shooting forth a stream of fire that caused Irina to transform her weapon into a massive shield that protected her from the scarlet blaze. [Ddraig, what are our chances of damaging that thing?]
[Zero. Even if {Excalibur} has been split into 7 pieces, they're still immensely powerful artifacts. Don't even bother considering scratching them when Balance Breaker is still out of your reach.]
[Yeah, I thought so.] Issei sighed as he watched Irina maneuver herself through the flames. "Let's end this quickly, okay? I have years of breast rubbing to catch up on!"
"[Boosted Gear: Second Liberation Mode!]"
[BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!]
"GYAAH!"
"Irin- gah?!"
At 16x speed, Issei blitzed forward, grabbing Irina's face along the way and accidentally slamming her head into her partner's own face. "Ah. Sorry, Kiba!"
"Just stay out of my way, you dragon pervert!" Yuuto yelled as he still went after the downed Xenovia.
Issei recoiled from the one person who had never insulted the former in his life. "Dragon... pervert..."
"Glaciate and be set ablaze!" Yuuto roared as he created {Flare Brand} and {Flame Delete} simultaneously, not even modifying them to katana forms as he usually liked to do recently.
"You've got adequate speed befitting your status as a {Knight} and a powerful Sacred Gear..." Xenovia roared as she smashed both swords to pieces with a single swing of {Excalibur Destruction}. "...but you're misusing them!"
Raising her sword high into the air, Xenovia gathered her energy and slammed it's blade into the earth.
"[Destruct!]"
The ground shook, nearly knocking several of them off their feet as the Holy Sword caused the ground beneath Xenovia's feet to be blown apart violently, upheaving many kilograms of dirt into the air.
"I hope that you take this seriously, senpai." Xenovia taunted as she easily lifted the glinting greatsword to point it at the blond standing outside her crater. "So far, you've been rather lacklustre."
"To still possess this level of destructive power even after splitting into seven." Yuuto smirked in grim determination. "Looks like I'll really be pushing it to the limit just to destroy all of them!"
"Geez, Xenovia..." Irina coughed as she was covered in dust from Xenovia's attack and put down {Excalibur Mimic: Umbrella Form}. "Well, I guess that I should be grateful we aren't on a mountain for you to cause another rockslide again."
"This is usual for her?!" Issei exclaimed, even as he dodged a slash that would have literally disarmed him.
"That cloth that Xenovia uses on her {Excalibur} is a seal!" Irina explained as she gave another slash, struggling as Issei's gauntlet effectively blocked her strike. "Without it, {Excalibur Destruction} would just keep releasing destructive energy no matter how much she suppresses it!"
"That sounds inconvenient!" Issei slammed a flaming uppercut into her stomach, manipulating the fire to produce more force instead of heat.
Rolling with the blow, Irina flipped through the air and landed shakily, trying to ignore the broken rib she just got.
"It really is!" With {Excalibur Mimic: Lasso}, Irina entangled Issei's hands together to a tree, trapping him to it. "Now, do you surrender?! Be a good boy and accept divine punishment for your perverted habits!"
"Repent?" Issei muttered silently, bent forward so that his hair covered his eyes. "No way in hell... Perversion itself is my strength...! To make such a demand of me... Just who the hell do you think I am?!"
[BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!]
Issei dug in his heels and took a deep breath before growling as he strained against the rope binding him.
"Don't bother, Ise-kun!" Irina chirped. "{Excalibur Mimic} is immensely durable regardless of whatever form it takes! Do you think you can-"
*CRACK!*
"-break... it...?" Irina trailed off as her eyes were drawn to the tree itself that Issei was straining against.
It's true that breaking a rope composed from one of the strongest Holy Swords in existence was near impossible.
*CRACK!*
But what about the normal tree it was tied to?
*CRACKLE!*
Irina watched in shock as the tree finally broke in half as Issei's growl grew into a bestial roar, allowing him to lift up the entire thing and whip the massive object at Irina!
""HOLY SHIT!"" Matsuda and Tomoki yelled in surprise.
"What's with this freakish strength?!" Irina yelped in shock as the tree smashed itself apart with each swing. "Is this the true power of the Red Dragon Emperor?!"
"If you can't handle this, there's no way you can handle Kokabiel!" Issei roared as he slammed down the tree just before Irina, throwing up another dustcloud as the shockwave knocked Irina down.
Before she could get up and recover, Issei slammed into her, smashing her down into the earth and restraining her arms with his.
"Surrender, Rin!" Issei panted as she squirmed beneath him. "Your boobs are mine!"
"Nooo!" Irina moaned piteously as she tried and failed to get him off her.
"That's Hyoudou-senpai for you..." Sohara Mitsuki hummed disappointedly the boys at her side cheered. "What about Kiba-senpai?"
*BAM!*
Issei winced as Xenovia drove the pommel of her sword into Yuuto's back hard enough to crack his spine and make him puke blood. To be honest, Issei felt like the swordsman deserved it a bit. After all the training he had gone through, with and before meeting the Red Dragon Horde, right at the sight of his ambition, Yuuto had fucked up, too blind in his rage to have used his skills and weapons correctly.
"What a shame." Xenovia commented, easily holding up Yuuto's limp body with the sword. "From what I have ascertained, your specialty was with your speed and versatility. Instead, you just abandoned that just to create swords hoping to match mine in destructive capability while constantly in a berserk state. You shame your master and friends with such behavior."
"Urgh..." Motohama, the one guy closest to Yuuto, covered his face and groaned in secondhand embarrassment.
"As for you, Issei Hyoudou." Tossing aside the useless Devil, Xenovia looked over to see Issei holding down Irina. "With your victory over Irina, will you still give us your aid?"
"Sure." Issei called over and let Irina get back on her feet. "Where do we meet up? Also..."
Issei turned to his friends. "How many of you guys are interested in joining in?"
"Sorry, Ise-senpai." Tomoki waved as he backstepped away. "Dealing with Dohnaseek was enough Fallen Angel business for me."
"I'm sorry, me too..." Sohara bowed apologetically as she followed.
"That's right." Matsuda crossed his arms in reminiscence. "Sohara nearly died to that Fallen Angel with the trench coat. I guess they'd be hesitant to go right up against another Fallen Angel who's confirmed to be stronger."
"W-Wait..." Yuuto struggled to move, only for Koneko to hold him down while Asia kept healing his injuries after the later was done with Irina's ribs and bruises.
"Stay down, Yuuto." Rias moved so that she was standing between him and Xenovia. "Rias Gremory accepts the loss of her {Knight} in this duel."
"No!" Yuuto yelled as he forced himself up, shrugging off Asia and Koneko despite the immense pain in his body. "This fight isn't over! I can stil-"
It happened in a flash, Rias's kick instantly smashing into his cheek and sending Yuuto down hard enough to knock him unconscious. "There. It's over."
"Uwah..." Asia silently gasped at the scene. "I think you broke his jawbone..."
Ignoring them, Xenovia resealed {Excalibur Destruction} and retrieved her cloak. "Even though we've gained your assistance, Irina and I shall be the ones in charge of this operation. Irina, after the Red Dragon Emperor is satisfied with your breasts, give him your contacts info and come find me."
"Wait, Xenovia!" Irina wailed, too shocked to struggle as Issei held her up over his shoulder. "Don't just leave me like thiiiiiiiissssss!"
Matsuda sighed as Motohama approached him during school the next day. "Let me guess, Kiba's at our Den again."
"Yes." Motohama quietly replied.
"Does Ise know?"
"He doesn't want to force him back to Gremory-senpai." Motohama took his glasses off and banged his forehead against the desk. "At the very least, Gremory-senpai is reassured of knowing where Kiba has been."
"...you want to help Kiba, don't you?"
"I'm just tired of him moping around our hanging spot!" Motohama snapped. "Whenever he's not literally training himself into exhaustion, he's just lying about like an emo and heading out who-knows-where! How am I supposed to tinker about in such a mood?!"
"I didn't know it was this bad." Issei said as he dropped into the conversation and took his own seat. "Rias-senpai told me that he just willingly went Stray last night, all to go hunt down Freed by himself. Which is why I've got a plan."
"What is it?" Motohama asked desperately.
Issei stated. "My plan is to make-"
"-me to willingly work together with these two {Excalibur} wielders?" Yuuto finished some hours later.
"Yup!" Issei cheerfully stated as the group gathered near a fountain.
After an afternoon of searching for Irina and Xenovia, they'd finally gotten the Exorcists to willingly agree that they would accept the destruction of one {Excalibur} in exchange for Matsuda and Motohama's help as well.
Well, Irina had been hesitant, up until Issei whispered something into her ear that caused her to instantly blush furiously and agree as well while pinching an amused Issei's cheek.
"Hyoudou-kun... I appreciate that you and your friends are going so far for me." Yuuto clenched his fists, resisting the urge to snarl as his gaze was transfixed on the string that was wrapped around Irina's bicep. "However, the simple truth is that I can't so much as look at these two and not be reminded of the slaughter of my friends!"
"The Holy Sword Project is regarded by the Church as a regrettable crime." Xenovia spoke somberly, none of her usual arrogance present. "The individual responsible was labelled a heretic and has been excommunicated for years, along with all of his comrades."
"His name is Valper Galilei, the Archbishop of Genocide." Irina took over the conversation. "Does that name sound familiar to you?"
Yuuto laid a hand on the stone surrounding the fountain and gripped it hard enough to crack it. "Yes. Yes, it does."
"Rogue priests and Exorcists have a habit of hanging around with each other and Fallen Angels." Irina revealed. "Considering that we're dealing with the stolen {Excaliburs}, there's a very high chance of Galilei being involved in this, considering his fixation."
"Oh? Granting me the chance to meet the man who brought about my hatred in the first place?" Yuuto huffed before smiling a bit. "Wow, I might actually ignore the {Excaliburs} just for a chance to kill him myself."
"That's settled, then." Irina smiled in approval.
"Goodbye, Hyoudou, Takumi and Nakakuni." Xenovia waved at Issei's group. "I look forward to working with you three."
"Thanks for buying us lunch, Ise-kun!" Irina cheered. "You may be a perverted degenerate, but I'm sure that the Lord will forgive you one day!"
"Just for that, the next time we share a shower, I'm not going to leave you as a virgin in there." Issei snapped back immediately, which made the twintailed girl go crimson and hasten her pace.
"Kiba." Yuuto turned to look at Motohama who was glaring at him. "I want to know what's happened to you that you hate {Excalibur} so strongly that it even affected your usual skills."
"...I see." Yuuto sighed heavily and sat down. "I guess you all deserve to know about my history with {Excalibur} if we're to truly do this."
"Behind the scenes, the Church conducted an operation known as the Holy Sword Project. At a certain facility, they performed various experiments in order to produce individuals capable of wielding Holy Swords."
Young Isiah looked around in nervousness before his hand was held by his friend beside him, her own nervous smile like a balm.
"The test subjects were young men and women who either possessed Sacred Gears explicitly geared towards melee combat or had been gifted with unusual talent for swordplay. I was an unusual factor that fit in both categories."
Grimacing as the sword slammed down against his guard, Isiah gritted his teeth before pushing forward and cutting a deep, bloody line across his opponent's lap, decisively winning his battle.
A short distance from him, a group of test subjects who hadn't been fighting were screaming while scratching his face in pain, some of them even purposely hurting themselves by scratching their arms and faces or banging their heads against the nearest surfaces.
"Painful experiments were performed on us, day after day. Foolishly believing that we might truly achieve greatness, we endured the cruel training and experiments. But in the end... We were marked for 'disposal'."
Coughing violently as the gas saturated the surrounded room, Isaiah watched in despair as his friends and fellow survivors either died or tried to fight back against their killers.
Isaiah didn't know how he had done it. He just wanted the gas gone and suddenly, a blade not yet named {Replenish Calm} appeared in his hands to blow away the gas flooding the room.
"Isaiah?"
"Get that kid! His Sacred Gear's nullifying the poison."
"No! Isaiah, you need to get away!"
"Your Sacred Gear's protecting you! If we can at least save you-"
Isaiah flinched as the man she was holding back suddenly kicked his friend sharply in her ribs and then proceeded to stomp down on her head until she started to bleed profusely.
"They all died. All killed by that so-called bishop who called himself an agent of God. Simply because we couldn't synergize with the Holy Swords."
Isaiah panted heavily as he trudged through the snowstorm, the very act of breathing causing numbing pain to his lungs. {Replenish Calm} may have blown away the toxic gas, but it couldn't do anything about the poison already in his body.
In the end, he had only managed to prolong his life for about two hours before collapsing into the deep snow.
"After watching my comrades die and managing to escape, Buchou only happened to run into me just as I was drawing my last breath."
Isaiah blinked wearily as amidst the white of the ground and the black of the sky, a figure of crimson red stood in distinct abnormality.
"If you're going to die anyway, then I'll just help you up and have you live for my sake."
"And that is how I was accepted into her household and peerage." Yuuto finished. "Still, I was only able to escape because of my comrades. That's why I must ease their regrets and make their deaths meaningful. I must prove that I am stronger than the strongest Holy Sword."
"{Excalibur}..." Issei muttered. "So that's why..."
"Kiba! I never knew that you had such a terrible past!" Motohama wailed in sympathy, his previous anger completely gone. "If it's come to this, I'm totally helping out!"
"Me, too!" Matsuda punched his fists together before suddenly coming to a realization. "Hold up, we should probably tell our Fallen Angels what's going on, though."
"Raynare already knows though." Issei shrugged. "There's no way she's gonna get involved in this if she's not getting anything worthwhile from this mess. She'll just stay quietly at home like a NEET."
Raynare... was fucked.
All she had done was just go out for a little fun in the nearby bar, get some drinks, maybe give out a pity blowjob if she felt the whim.
She felt it was a total coincidence to run into Kalawarner at one of the local bars.
It felt less like a coincidence when they both ran into Mittelt just outside the bar, whom they both knew hated alcohol in general.
Then the last of Raynare's hope died an ugly death when they all coincidentally went to a nearby park and ran into the one person in the world she was absolutely terrified of seeing again.
"Ladies..." Kokabiel, Cadre of the Grigori and Fallen Angel of the Stars, smiled pleasantly at them despite the reddish-gold glow of his eyes being colder than the vacuum of space. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
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