Chapter 5. Let the Church say Amen: The Offering
In a large open cellar a grey and black-haired teenage boy slowly opens his eyes. His vision swimming and his low light making it hard for him to adjust. When he finally had the ability to see, he took note of his surroundings. He noticed that he was still in his graphic tan t-shirt that had the American band Slipknot logo, and his grey and white plaid pajama pants. He was barefooted which caused him to shiver on the cold ground. He lifted a hand to his head to discover that he was chained to the ground.
" Where am I?" He seemingly asked himself.
" Finally awake I see." A famine voice sounded off from behind whipped his body around to see a woman in a skin tight red bodysuit with blue hair.
" We were wondering when you will come too. You took a very nasty blow to the head. I was betting our little operative beat you into a coma. But recovering in a hour is phenomenal...for a human."
" Who are you?" The boy asked in fear. The blue-haired lady chuckled and walked towards him, making him crab walk away from her as far as the chain will let him. Which isn't far at all.
" Well I am Kalawarner little boy, and you are our prisoner." She said coly. With her fully in view he could see she was a very beautiful woman. Her curvy body looked like she came from a cover from a sports magazine. Atushi's thoughts were all over the place he looked into a green-eyed lady with nothing but questions. Mostly in why she is looking at him with such pity. She squatted down to look him in his eyes. The cusped his face turning it from side to side.
" Fascinating, full recovery in a span of minutes. It seems like your gear has blessed you in many ways." She said while continuing to look him over. She gets up and walks to a corner of a room and pulls a wide array of medical equipment over to looks on in curiosity as the strange woman took a stethoscope and placed the instrument over his heart.
" Relax boy, I'm just getting your vitals." She continues to do her work. She then took his blood pressure and wrote it down on a notepad.
" Why am I here? Where are my parents?" The grey-haired boy asked. She ignores him and continues her work. When she is done she places all of her instruments back on the cart and rolls it back.
" Hey lady i'm talking to you." Atsushi presses only to get no response from her. She looks at him once more and shakes her head. She leaves the room with him yelling questions at her begging for clarity. She walks into a well lit room where three others are waiting for her. Rayneer looks at her with a questioning look.
" He has a full bill of health. He should survive the gear extraction ritual. He is ready." Kalawarner explains. " The thing is he is just a boy, you know I hate harming children Rayneer."
" I know Kal, but we have a deadline to meet. His death could save thousands of us in the future. I don't know what Lord Kokiable is planning, but we need all the strength we can get for it to work." Rayneer tells her.
" It sounds like you have gone soft Kal." A girl who looks around the age of fifteen calls out. The blond-hair girl was wearing a french maid outfit with the hair piece to match. Her blue eyes were shining with a playful mischief that was common with a teenager. " I heard of a time when you were cutting down our brothers and sisters in the rebellion. You didn't care at all who was in the way."
" That was a longtime ago, Miliet. That was before I discovered the ways of medicine. I'm a doctor now not a killer." Kalawarner rebutted.
" Regardless at least his death would serve a greater purpose, friend." The gruff voice of Dohnaseek called out. " The future of our race depends on if we succeed tonight." The fedora wearing man crossed his arms with a look of conviction. He personally didn't like the way they were trying to boost their strength, but the time table didn't give them any sort of leeway for the slower route.
" Why so serious old man?" Miliet jested.
" Why not so serious brat? You are a newly fallen angel. You weren't there when thousands of us were killed in the war. I was and I live with the regret everyday of not being strong enough to save any of my brothers. Devil's magic tore them apart, Angel's spears piercing their bodies. I bore witness to all of it." He unfolded his arms and turned to leave the room. Milite did nothing but stuck her tongue out at his back and left behind him.
" Father Freed, are the preparations complete?" Rayneer asked the third member of the room.
" Yes we are ready to begin." Freed asked while pushing up the rim of his glasses.
" Good, we're starting in a few minutes"
The room got quiet after that but they began to work. Kalawarner also sent up a silent prayer, for forgiveness of what she is about to do tonight.
Outside the church a priest was patrolling the area. He looked around for anything out of place in the woodland around the church. It was late but he didn't mind, he was enjoying the cool night air. He looked up to see a cloudless night that had the full moon showing. Suddenly he heard a noise in the woodline. Drawing his pistol he moved over to check it out. Passing the first set of trees he saw a bush shaking. He slowly approached the shrub. With his weapon pointing forward he moved,then stopped when he saw a rabbit running away. With a sigh he turned back to church to continue his patrol only for a razor sharp blade to slice open his neck across the jugular vein. He turned towards his assailant for them to cut across his neck again with four more strokes of a curved knife. Blood quickly poured out as he began to fall against a tree holding his throat. His vision darken the last thing he saw was a figure wearing a helmet and four tubed goggles.
Issei looked at the priest until he finally stopped moving. He sighed sheathing his karambit and continued on with his mission. He was wearing his blacked out plate carrier that housed his 6 30-round magazines in front. He had on a cye framed helmet that supported headphones and his night vision goggles. He was wearing black pants and had his custommed made glock 17 holster on his pants leg and a small book bag. He flipped a switch on the night vision goggles and his world became a greenish white hue. The white phosphor vision making the shadowed area visible to him. He unslung his suppressed SCAR 16 and moved towards the front of the church.
As he moves around he sees another patrol of priests this time they are traveling in twos. They had their back to him, he raised his rifle up pressing the thumb pad of the mounted IR laser. The laser touches the head of one priest while he lets out a yawn. The priest is quickly killed with two shots to the back of his head. Alarmed his friend tries to signal for help only to be quickly silenced when two rounds find his heart and two more go into his head. Issei pauses for a second to see if any more enemies are in the area. After a thirty second stop he moves on to the main doors of the building.
Once he was at the doors he reached into his pants pocket to pull out his cellphone and sent a quick text to Rias. He opened the thick wooden doors pushing in the interior of the building, the main open room was dark and seemingly empty. Issei scans the room while moving at a snail's pace. Each step was silent as he moved around the room all his senses on high alert. Suddenly a door opens up, five priests, the masked figure and Millet and Donaseek enter the main area. Quickly stepping into the shadows while using his toki to suppress his presence, Issei watched them circled up around the fedora wearing fallen angels.
" Our outside patrol isn't responding and I heard gunshots outside." He stated while the priest looked around in confusion. " The rounds were suppressed but not quiet enough for our ears not to pick it up. Asia take these men and check the front of the church and we will check the backside."
The masked Asia noods and signals the five priests to follow her and the angels move on with their task. Issei was watching in shock at the revelation of the name of the masked figure that killed Yoshi and Erina. He would never have thought a weird but sweet girl was cabilible of such violence. Shaking his head to clear out the thoughts, he waited until he was in the clear and moved on the back of the open door leading to the cellar.
Outside the church
Rias and her pererage appeared in a flash of red light.
" Issei said that Asushi was here and he was 90% sure he was alive. So we are going to split up from here. Akeno and I will take the rear, Kiba and Kokeno will secure the front entrance." They nodded in acceptance of their task. With another flash of light the red-haired king and her queen teleported to the back of the church.
The knight and the rook move towards the front, suddenly stopping when a masked figure and a small team of priests form up in front of them. Both groups were silent, but they each started to prepare for battle. The white-haired girl slipping on fingerless gloves, the blue-eyed boy summoning two swords. Both were one handed short swords, but one had a blue handle that had permafrost creeping up the handle. The other had black handle with a red-hot blade exposed.
The mask figure drew a .44 magnum revolver and silver sword hilt. With a press of a button a shining blade of holy light appeared. The other priest drew similar holy light swords in response.
" Koneko the mask man is mine. I have a score to settle, if you need help just tell me." Kiba said with a slight grin playing on his lips.
The short girl nods, she then squatted and jumped high into the air coming down quickly on the team of robed men. Some of the priests moved out the way, except one poor man who didn't move fast enough. The man took the full blut of the earth shattering blow. A shock wave blew back the remaining priest as a crater was blasted into the earth. When the dust settled they saw the fate of their comrade. The priest's torso was completely turned into mush by the power behind that punch, with his eyes popped out of his head. Koneko stood up forcibly removing her hand in a wet squish. Blood covering her right arm as she looked around in challenge to the rest of them.
Witnessing the death of their friend they moved in to engage the middle school girl. Kiba wasn't idol himself he closed the 40 yard gap between him and his opponent in a blink of an eye, hoping to catch the helmet wearing foe off guard. His initial rush was thwarted by Asia parrying his initial blow with his ice blade. With his guard temporarily broken Asia raised the revolver up into the knight's stomach. Kiba used his otherworldly agility and spun to the nun's right side. With Asia arm fully extended to take the shot, Kiba brought down his fire blade seeking to sever the arm at the elbow. Quickly jumping was the only thing Asia could do to avoid getting her arm cut off.
While she was on the back foot she let off a shot from her holy gun, Kiba raised his fire sword up to block, only for it to snap in half and knock him back a few feet. Kiba went wide eyed for a minute to look at his sword then look back at the masked gunman.
" If I take a shot from that, I'm dead." Kiba thought as he sought to close the distance. He was at a disadvantage at distance due to that gun. He created a new fire sword and continued to blitz towards Asia. Sighing in her mask she quickly realized that keeping Kiba away from her was going to be difficult. She slips into a ready stance with her sword arm in front of her gun hand. She wondered if the others were having any difficulties with their opponents.
In the back of the Church in a more forest Rais and Akeno was approaching the back door. Their advance was halted by a series of tainted light daggers that landed in front of them.
" Well, well, well." A gruff voice sounded off from the trees above them. Dohnaseek and Miliet dropped down from their perch in the tree. " Well isn't the little sister of Lucifer? How can the humble angel help you? "
" Well for starters." Rias said while flipping her hair and placing her hands on her hips. " Do you mind telling me why are fallen angels doing in my town?" She placed a smirk of pure confidence on her lips. The fedora wearing angel gave a slight bow, while taking off his hat.
" I'm sorry Milady, but that info is currently what we called N.Y.F.B." The older angel replied with a smirk on his face.
" N.Y.F.B?" Rias said while giving him a questioning look.
" Yes, Not Your Fucking Buisness." Millite replied smuggingly.
" ...Well I see you wouldn't talk openly, and I think any chance to talk you into leaving peacefully is null."
With that last statement both Rias and Akeno magical energy grows, their bodies preparing for the call of violence. Milliat licks her lips in anticipation of her first fight with members of the Devil faction. She forms a pink spear of light to charge at her enemies, only for her older partner to stop her with a hand on her shoulder.
" Head back to the church, they may be more." Dohnaseek said with a monotone voice while sliding off his jacket leaving his white buttoned up shirt with suspenders showing.
" WHAT! This is my first fight, old man, you not taking this away from me." Millet shouted angrily at her partner.
" That's exactly why I'm doing this, you're not ready yet." He replied. He rolls his sleeves up to his elbows and shoots her a look that leaves no room for arguments. Millet stares him down, only to concede to his demand. She unfolds her wings and heads back towards the church.
" It's mighty brave of you angel-san to send off your partner, but I think you bit off more you can chew." Rias said hauntingly. Her outside appearance gave off absolute confidence that she was just facing a low class Angel, but on the inside she was perplexed. Why would he send away his back up? She is sure he knows who he is up against.
" I will be enough for this engagement miss." He said with a polite tone. The older man slid into a combat stance, with his feet apart and a conjured light spear facing down at an angle. The two sides stared each other down until the dark angel blurred out of existence. Rias quickly made a barrier out of demonic energy to be saved from a light spear to the face. Without missing a step Dohnaseek twisted his spear around to try to separate Akeno's head from her shoulders. The dark haired beauty leaps back, the attack a hair's breadth from landing.
In retaliation the queen of the Gremory peerage unleashed a torrent from her palm. The electric attack misses but it separates him and Rias. The red haired girl launches a volley of destructive orbs of energy towards him. In a display of acrobatics the older man flips away from every projectile that was heading towards him. Realizing their opponent is a bigger threat to them. Akeno raises her palms towards the sky, the fallen angel's hairs on the back of his neck raises. He quickly raises his spear over his head and spins it rapidly, while speaking the language of the messengers.
The lightning strike hit him over the head but it was absorbed by the magic circle that appeared over the man's head. When the last of the bolt was absorbed, he moved his spinning spear in front of him and sent the bolt back to Akeno. Akeno creates a magic barrier to shield her away from the blast. Only for her to suffer light shocks despite her efforts.
" How?" Rias perplex at what just happened.
" Shocked miss?...excuse the pun. I just gave your friend her gift back two fold, with a purer quality to it." Dohnaseek said with a smirk of his own. He discarded his spear just to summon two short swords of light. He sprinted towards Rias like a bullet from a gun. As he draws near Rias she makes a wall of pure destruction to impede his path. Due to him being a prisoner to his own momentum he had no choice but to jump. He jumps over the wall to see the smiling face of the Crimson Princess. His eyes went wide as he looked towards Akeno, who shot a piercing bolt of lightning towards him.
He crossed the two swords across his body but the blast sent him flying away. He finally unfolds his wings and rights himself mid air. He landed in a crouch, slowly raising up to a standing position. " I'm impressed, you two are very talented for your young age." The fedora wearing man commented.
" You are not bad yourself angel-san, and here I am thinking you would be a background character for me to slaughter." Rias said with a big smile. Akeno gave her friend a sideways look. She always thought that the pop culture of this land was affecting her friend. Sometimes she thinks Rias thought of herself as a character in an Anime, where the plot revolves arounds her. Shaking her head she moved over directly to her king's side, they both looked at the man with content full in their eyes.
" I say we kicked this up a notch huh?" Dohnaseek suggested. To the horor to the teenage devils another pair of wings unfold from behind him.
Rias' thoughts were going a mile a minute. " That's why he was so confident… aww sh..:'' Was all she could think before Dohnaseek flashed between the two a scissor kick the two. Sending them in opposite directions.
" Now, ladies, the fun just started. We can do better than that." He said while bringing a glave of light into existence. With a big grin that slowly spread on his face.
BACK AT THE CHURCH
The eight priests that remained at the church were in a small break room that led to an underground base. They were just using the small little time to relax. Four surrounded a small tv that was showing a soccer game. Animently yelling at the tv, there were two sitting at the small kitchen table playing a card game and two sitting at a table by the door playing chess on a wooden board. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
The priest watching tv turned it off, the other snapped away from their games to look at the door. One of them motions towards the door, for the other guy to check it. The one sitting closest to the door gets up to check it. The door has a slide hole on it, he slides the peep hole back only to be shot directly in his eye. Then the door went flying off its hinges, Issei angled himself from the point of entry just enough, to shoot the second guy sitting down twice in the chest before he moved in. The remaining priests reacted by drawing their weapons, two of them trying to raise their hand guns only to be shot by Issei.
One priest desperately charges at Issei with his light sword, he swung down at the armed boy. His blade was blocked by the dragon user by turning his weapon sideways. With a twist the blade slid off the rifle and the priest was butt stroked by stock. Then he receives two shots to head for his trouble. The next one was a little bit clever, he tackled Issei into the table knocking his rifle out of his hand. The priest sent a quick jab into Issei's jaw, snapping his head back. The teen retaliated by headbutting him using his helmet to his advantage. He breaks the nose of the priest and uses the chess board to hit him across the face.
The two priests in the kitchen charged at Issei with short blades, the first one to reach him swung at his neck. After quickly ducking Issei then used the flatend of the board and jammed it into the man's throat, robbing him of air. He then bashes him in the face hard enough to break the board in two. The other priest lunged at him intending on gutting him, Issei swayed around the blade. The corrupted priest made his mistake when swung too high, Issei dropped low and used the broken edge of the chess board into the side of the man's knee.
The wooden piece penetrated the man's kneecap, then Issei twisted it making the joint pop out of place. The robed man screamed in agony, only for Issei's right fist to slam into his jaw in a savage uppercut, that was followed by a left cross directly to the side of his face. Sending him to the realm of unconsciousness. The priest that Issei headbutted slammed into him again, they sprawled out into the kitchen. The priest first to get back on his feet, tries to re-engage Issei while he is still on the ground. The teen sweeps the man's legs from under him, knocking him back on the ground. Issei mounts him and slides his hands to the opposite sides of the man's collared robe. He grabs and then pulls the opposite sides and chokes the fallen priest.
The man's hand frantically claws away at Issei as he begins to turn blue. The brunette just stares into the man's eyes as he slowly stops to struggle. Issei watches the life leave the man's eyes, for good measure he uses his strength and snaps his neck. Looking around he doesn't see another threat. He retrieves his rifle, and pushes inside the cellar. When he gets to the bottom he sees a door that leads to a ritual room where he sees a boy tied up on a cross.
Issei's eyes didn't stop, there was another figure floating over the boy. Approaching with his rifle at the ready. Issei moved forward with the grace of a stalking predator, he moved as he was a shadow.
" Hello Issei-kun." The figure said suddenly. The figure turned around to reveal herself as Rayneer. Wearing the same thing as she did in the park, but the only difference was she was wearing an amulet. The amulet was made of bronze, it was decorated with different jewels of every color on the rainbow. It had angelic runes inscribed into it that radiated power.
" Rayneer. You know why I'm here." Issei said in a stoic tone. He was not in the mood for games right now.
" Oh Issei-kun, you hurt my feelings. At first no call or text lately. I understand I was a one night stand but wow." Rayneer said with a playful smile on her lips.
" Yeah i usually don't call back chicks that try to penetrate my body with their bare hands." Issei replied back, then he rolled his eyes when he realized what he just said. " Did I just set myself up for…"
" To be fair Issei-kun, you penetrated me first." Rayneer quipped back.
" And there it is." Issei thought.
" Let's get back to business here, your men are dead, you top goonies are busy right now. The devil knows you're here. You are out of options, give me the package and you will walk out here alive." Issei demanded, he trained his sights on her head fully intended to finish the job.
" Well, I'm not sure you are still in the position to make demands here." Rayneer replied back.
" And why not? You remember how this went last time right?" Issei asked.
" Something is wrong here...Draig why do feel like there's a powerful beast spirit near." Issei asked his partner.
" Well because partner…"
" I feel with you Issei, because I wasn't equipped to deal with you, but now…" Rayneer power skyrocketed as her cheeks gained whisker marks. Her eyes became slitted like a cat. On her arms and legs appeared white and black striped gauntlets and greaves. The finger-tips of the gauntlets had claws on them. She landed and an aura of silver was radiating off her.
" It is. The sacred beast Byakko."
Arthur's note: Sorry folks I had to chop this ark into three parts with the conclusion of this arc coming up. I apologize with the lack of consistency with this story but life is happening I guess, oh well. My RWBY story is spinning up soon, more to follow on that, DM me if you want the details. Please remember to leave a review.