One question remained at the forefront of Kaito's mind.
"…If you have all this planned out, why haven't you done it yet?" he asked. There had to be a reason why. Otherwise, he would have just used them already before he and Irina turned up and been on his merry way.
"Because it's really rather complicated to use them, when you're not a devil yourself you fool." Satanael scoffed, shaking his head.
Not an explanation at all.
But, Kaito would take it.
After all, his talking?
It was just a distraction.
Kaito pushed off with all his strength and rushed towards Arondight as fast he possibly could.
He moved so fast, he swore he heard a sonic boom.
Satanael's eyes bulged when eh saw what the boy was attempting and hurriedly thrust his hand hand out, launching a massive spear of light easily fifty feet in size.
It was blindingly fast, putting the speed of a bullet to shame.
Kaito lunged, his fingers wrapping around a dark metallic hilt.
And he rolled.
The ground shook as it was torn asunder by the huge spear of light.
And Kaito just narrowly evaded death, finding himself leaping to his feet a split moment later and landing on the edge of a large crater that had hollowed out the ground.
He didn't stay idle there either, as soon as he was on his feet again, Kaito pushed off.
He accelerated even faster than before, so fast, the world turned into a blur around him and he could barely see where he was going.
It worked in his favour though as a barrage of huge light spears rained down from above each one enough to catch and kill him just moments ago-
But not this moment.
Because the split moment he made contact with the hilt of Arondight, he felt a connection bridge between himself and it. He didn't know how, or why. But neither did he care, he only cared that it worked.
He zigged and zagged through the air like a bolt of lightning, dodging, evading and as he went-
He got used to more and more, bit by bit.
His new speed with Arondight in hand.
"You fool, do you not realise what you've done and what you've got in your hand right now?" Satanael called after him, hot in pursuit, not letting up for a moment, "Arondight was originally designed to slay dragons! If you fumble with that once, you're dead!"
"Then I won't fumble!" Kaito shouted in return, not looking back, "Because I'm ending this right here and now!"
Instead, the teen made a beeline straight for a large sturdy tree and thrust his foot out, smashing it into it. The tree audibly groaned and uprooted form the sheer momentum and strength packed within the kick.
But it was enough to re-route.
Kicking off the tree with all his might, Kaito launched himself backwards, spinning around to face the Cadre while at the same time, pumping all of his remaining magical power into Arondight.
Satanael's eyes widened in horror as a familiar pitch black god slaying flame erupted around the blade.
And Kaito swung, unleashing a wave of darkness upon the fallen angel.
"You wish!" Satanael roared in a fury, flaring the seven wings upon his back that were not broken by Kaito and stopping in his tracks, while thrusting his hands out and unleashing a pure beam of concentrated light energy towards the flames and stopping them in their tracks, just like Irina had before.
But unlike when it was Irina in his place, his light was the one tearing through the flames of darkness.
All it did, was buy Kaito a little bit of time, hidden from the Cadre's eyes behind the clash of light and darkness.
And he didn't waste it.
Rearing Arondight up over his head with one hand like a javelin, Kaito focused. The billowing crimson red cloak of energy enveloping his body, retracted, all of it focusing on one point.
The hand holding Arondight.
He hadn't had his Touki very long, he couldn't even extend it beyond his body, or shape it in any way like he knew most Toshi of any worth could, never mind youkai or Sairaorg Bael.
But it was enough for this!
"Fucking die!" Kaito roared and launched the once blade of Lancelot with all his strength.
The demonic holy blade flew shot forth like a meteor, tearing through the flames of darkness and once angelic light like a god slaying spear.
Before piercing straight through Satanael's chest.
The Cadre's light cut off instantly and he hung there in the air, staring at his chest and the sword piercing straight through him.
Blood bubbled up and out of the Cadre's lips, "….But I was….so close…" he mumbled as he fell from the air, landing limply on his back.
Kaito stayed there in his throwing position, panting deeply. As he did, he felt his boosts fade away.
He was utterly tapped out. Not only with his touki, but physically and magically as well.
He had absolutely nothing left in the tank.
After taking a moment to catch his breath, the teenager limped his way over to the fallen angel who was staring up at the night sky blankly, "I outwitted Azazel…bamboozled the Infinite Dragon God….ran circles around the White Dragon Emperor….survived flames that would bring a god low…" he spoke listlessly, despairingly, his silver eyes, no longer bright, but now dull, looking almost grey and dreary slowly roved over to look up at Kaito, "And yet…This is how it ends?…At the hands of a child with a mere Twice Critical."
"Two Twice Critical's if it makes you feel better, I don't have my balance breaker yet," Kaito corrected him, staring down at the fatally wounded Cadre. Something deep inside told him, he didn't have to worry anymore, that it was over, "And if I didn't literally turn my organs into that of a dragons and get a hold of Arondight there at the end, I would have lost."
Satanael blinked slowly, "…Two…I see, so you are indeed special then," his lips twisted into a smile of relief, "I…can take solace in that it took someone twice chosen….by fathers will to…bring me….low…" his once bright silver eyes, slowly closed for the final time.
"Not that special mate." Kaito shook his head and looked up at the sky himself, "…Now what?" he wondered.
He'd just killed a fucking Cadre and was now actually privy to the secret God was dead in totality
He had an unconscious holy sword wielding exorcist laying not far away. And in front of him, he had a dead ten winged fallen angel, who had a legendary demonic holy sword pierced into his chest and had not only a high-class devils evil piece set on him…but the devils forbidden King piece as well.
Not that he could do anything with that.
Because he wasn't a devil and he was pretty sure, they only worked on devils. And Satanael seemed to believe so given he planned on using the Queen piece within that Evil Piece set on himself first before it.
'…Well it would be kind of telling if I just turned up to school tomorrow, suddenly as a devil and my magic power a hundred times stronger.' Kaito snorted to himself.
As it was, given his magic power had jumped up a decent little chunk again thanks to turning his organs into that of a dragons.
He would no doubt be under even more scrutiny by the devils, "Lovely, just lovely." Kaito sighed.
Well…he didn't regret it at least. If he didn't involve himself, Irina would have died for sure.
Well, nothing for it he supposed.
Crouching down, Kaito looked rifled through the pockets of Satanael's pants and a moment later, pulled out a familiar wooden box.
Which he promptly stored inside his original Twice Critical, before grasping Arondight and pulling it free from the corpse of Satanael.
"I can't just leave you here either I suppose." Kaito sighed.
…But how would he get rid of a body considering he didn't have any magic power left at the moment to burn it?
"How annoying." he palmed his forehead with his left hand, before promptly blinking, "Oh, that could work."
He pressed his left hand against Satanael's bare chest.
And stored the corpse within it.
With Arondight in hand, Kaito turned around and traipsed back through the forest towards the mansion, to where Irina was.
Purple eyes slowly opened and stared up blankly at an unfamiliar white ceiling.
Despite only just opening her eyes after falling unconscious, Irina found herself fully awake. Yet…at the same time, utterly numb and listless.
She was blank.
What point was there in even mustering the energy to think…when God…was dead?
It didn't feel real.
Nothing did.
She wished this was just a horrible nightmare. But no, she could feel the reality all too clearly.
It was as if, the moment Satanael revealed God's fate to her, that a connection she'd always felt was there…snapped and left her all alone in the dark.
What was the point…of a world without God?
The sound of a toilet flushing echoed for a moment, followed a second later by a door opening and then closing.
Her eyes instinctively glanced over towards the sound and she saw it was…Kaito making his way into the room, a yawn on his lips and ruffling his hair.
'Oh…I'm in Kaito-kun's apartment again.' she realised blandly.
Which meant, he had probably managed to defeat Satanael. Or possibly the Fallen Angel had fled, or Kaito had picked her up and fled after she had fallen unconscious.
She found it…kind of hard to care to be honest.
"Oh…you're awake, thank god for that at least," Kaito apparently noticed her awakened status and breathed a visible sigh of relief, "I can't exactly afford to get you saw by a doctor, so I could only slip you some pain killers and toss some ointment and the like on that burn of yours."
Irina snorted, "…How can you thank God for anything?" she wondered, "He's dead."
And somehow, saying it aloud made it hurt even more. Her heart creaked with pain, her chest felt like it was going to rupture.
"The same way I thank any other dead person for something that more or less came about thanks to their efforts," Kaito replied bluntly, walking over to sit cross legged beside her on the floor, "Just because he's dead for instance, doesn't mean I'm not grateful to John Logie Baird."
"….What…?" Irina asked blankly, lost.
"A total alpha male from Scotland, he's the one who created the television," Kaito explained, "Just the same way I thank God every day for my Twice Critical's."
"But…God didn't give you them like you thought, he didn't bless you…" Irina bit her lip, "God has nothing to do with you…"
"Sure he does," Kaito scoffed, denying her words absolutely, "Like I said, he's dead and he's gone. But that's life Irina, not even God was invincible in the end. That doesn't change that what he created and what he stood for, is still here to this day. Heaven's still around, people are still getting Sacred Gear's, God's gone, but his will lives on."
Kaito shrugged, "Life goes on and the world keeps turning," he added, "God literally gave his life to put a stop to the guys that were trying to fuck all that up. So I'm pretty sure, he wouldn't want to see one of his big believers like you moping around like this."
"…You think so?" Irina found herself asking instinctively, rising from where she lay to latch on to the younger boy, ignoring the pain in her stomach.
"A man only truly dies, when he's forgotten," Kaito smiled at her, reaching up to pat her on the head, and she found herself sniffling without even realising it, "So come on, don't mope, you're a tough girl right? You can cry your eyes out on my shoulder, let it all out, and then soldier on, like everyone in the world does regardless of God being here or not."
"Okay…" Irina's lips trembled and tears budded in the corner of her eyes.
And she did as the boy told her, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face in his chest, she let it out and sobbed.
Irina ended up crying herself to sleep once more. Which, was probably for the best.
It was good for her to get some rest after the ordeal they both went through and having her entire world view turned upside down before shattered completely.
The only problem was, Kaito didn't exactly have another futon that he could use. Hell, he didn't even have a spare pillow or cover for that matter.
And with it being very late at night by time they returned to his place, never mind by time Irina awoke and then cried herself back to sleep…well there wasn't exactly any shops open he could pop over to buy any extras.
So, as it was, Kaito didn't bother going to sleep through the night. And come morning, he was absolutely exhausted.
"My eyes look like a dogs bollocks." he groaned as he looked himself over in the bathroom mirror.
Usually, an all nighter wouldn't really be a problem. He had endurance for days after all.
The problem being, he spent all that endurance fighting for his life last night and hadn't gotten any proper rest since then.
"…Fuck…" he groaned, turning away from the mirror and leaving the bathroom. There was no way he was going to school today.
Not only was he exhausted. But, he had a house guest he couldn't exactly just leave alone right now and on top of that, his magic power had jumped rather noticeably since yesterday after his little dragon organ stunt.
A bit over fifty percent by his estimates.
Which meant even more reason for the devils to take interest in him. And he honestly could not be bothered dealing with all the eyes on him today.
And that wasn't even getting into the…other little problem that had come about due to his actions last night.
'My perfect attendance record.' Kaito almost whimpered as he began rifling through his fridge to prepare breakfast.
Some food would at least give him a little pick-me-up.
His shoulders slumped and with a sigh he looked over to his cupboard, where a familiar dark coloured blade lay leaning against it, alongside a gleaming white katana, "Stupid Cadre." he clicked his tongue.
Stupid church.
…Stupid ugly flat Sona.
Look, just because she had nothing to do with what happened last night, didn't mean he couldn't curse her in his head.
His futon had been rolled up and packed away for now and Irina was nowhere in sight.
Which was because currently, the girl was outside his apartment with his phone.
Reporting back to her superiors.
"I bet that will go swimmingly." he snorted at the thought and shook his head. He put that thought out of head for the moment, before deciding on a simple cereal breakfast, he couldn't be bothered cooking anything this morning.
….Not very fulfilling though, "Fuck it, I need me some protein." he decided, and after pulling out his milk, grabbed his crappy blender and cheap ass big bag of protein powder.
A nice vanilla flavour that had only cost him five thousand yen and he'd had it for a year at this point and still had a quarter left.
Mostly due to his amazing self control in only using it after work outs. But, for now, he would allow himself not only to have it on a day where he hadn't worked out yet, but also…make it with milk!
"What an expensive breakfast, but It's a reward for myself." he consoled himself.
Actually….!
"Shit, I missed the gym yesterday as well!" his eyes widened in realisation…and shock!
Fucking supernatural man!
Yesterday, as far as gains went. Was a net loss for him. Or at least, he was working on that theory.
There was more than one reason why he hadn't wanted to transform his body parts into that of a dragons beyond more attention from the devils. It was because, he was very sure, that the stronger he became, the more of a boost he would gain.
It was simple math. Take what he gained yesterday. His magic power increased by roughly fifty percent or so, maybe a bit more. If he measured his magic numerically and said he had a magic power score of a thousand…he now had one of one thousand and five hundred.
But, say he had a numerical magic score of ten thousand. If he had done it then, and increased his magic power by fifty percent, it would rise to fifteen thousand.
So, if he was right, which Kaito was very sure he was, it was in his better interests to hold off doing such a thing, until he was stronger. That way, he would gain much more out of it.
So yes, it was a loss for him in the end.
"Being a good guy sucks ass." he groaned as he loaded the protein powder up into his blender, alongside milk.
Enough for two people.
Because he had a guest after all and he couldn't not show such basic common courtesy.
Thankfully, with him just making such a simple breakfast, it didn't take long before he had two bowls filled with some nice and healthy bran cereal and a two glasses filled with lovely, milky vanilla protein goodness alongside them, set up on the table.
Just in time too.
Because, as soon as he set the breakfast down on the table, the door to his apartment opened up and Irina made her way back inside.
She had…a rather confused look on her face.
"Everything go alright?" he asked, getting straight to the point. Honestly, there wasn't any point beating around the bush and it would be better to get right to the heart of the issue if any problems were going to crop up.
Irina blinked, "…Kind of?" she replied, before shrugging, "I got ex-communicated because I know Lord God is dead now."
….Yeah, he saw that coming.
"Guess you're out of a job, sorry about that," he winced in sympathy. He felt for her man, really he did, she'd planned on dedicating her life to God and his faction and now in a single day, she'd been cut loose, and it was probably worse for her considering her family had been with the Church for multiple generations if he remembered right, "What about the swords? Are they sending someone to come get them."
Irina shook her head, "That's what I don't get," she replied and looked him in the eyes, her gem-like purple iris' swirling with clear confusion, "They told me to keep a hold of them and that they couldn't risk a true believer coming in to contact with me because I know the truth now."
….What the….fuck?
Were they fucking stupid?
Like, he understood…to a degree when it came to letting Irina go. But, just cutting ties with not only Excalibur Mimic but Arondight!? Giving up such powerful weapons?
Arondight, that sword itself was bullshit overpowered! And Excalibur Mimic wasn't anything to scoff at either from what he saw last night.
"Are they retarded?" He couldn't even attempt to conceal his disdain for them. Like, what the absolute fuck?
"I don't know," Irina shrugged again, "But that reminds me…" she trailed off.
"Wha-?" Kaito began to asking, but was cut off as the older twin tailed girl walked over to him and threw her arms around his neck.
Before leaning up and pressing her lips against his.
Kaito was stunned silly for a moment, staring wide eyed down at Irina and before he could regain his faculties, she pulled back, cheeks flushed red and a pretty smile on her face, "That's your reward from last night, thanks for everything Kaito-kun." she said, voice light and warm.
Oh….oh right!
"Oh...thanks…" he coughed to hide his shock.
And of course, that single cough ruined the moment as the side effect of his decision last night made itself known to him once again. Irina yelped and dove to the side on pure reflex as a sphere of dragon fire erupted from his mouth and slammed into his front door.
"No, my door!" Kaito yelped himself and panicked, rushing towards it and promptly slapping the the dragon fire out of existence, and burning his hand lightly in the process.
Thankfully there, despite it being dragon fire, which was way hotter and more destructive than your typical average fire, there was hardly any magical energy within it so beyond making a scorch mark on his door, he slapped the fire shit in before it did any real damage.
But that was only because, he'd been draining his magic power all night long after his new little self control problem made itself known.
….To be exact, Kaito couldn't currently control his dragon fire and breathed it by accident, quite a bit.
Until he learned to control it, he was going to have to drain his magic power constantly. Lest he be caught literally breathing fire in public.
And that was only the beginning. Because, if he didn't learn to control it and let it build up, his body would start to fully go through dragonification and turn him into a full dragon.
"I didn't know you could breathe fire!" Irina was practically all sparkly eyed though as they sat down at the table with the breakfast, "You should have did that to Satanael last night, would'a sure given him a surprise."
"I couldn't until last night," Kaito shrugged, "After you passed out I knew there was no way I could beat him myself, so I used my Sacred Gear to turn my organs into that of a dragons." he explained.
"Eh?" Irina gave him a confused look, "Sacred Gear's can do that?"
"Only dragon ones I think," he ran a hand through his hair and gave her a small grin, "It's a bit of a pain, but you could say that the blood of the Red Dragon Emperor runs in my veins now, and my organs are made from his flesh and it's why I can breathe fire now."
"It's weird, but totally cool at the same time," she giggled, "It's almost like how devils can turn other races into theirs for their thingie."
"Kind of, though on that topic," Kaito's lips quirked up, "Did you know Satanael's big plan was to heal himself by turning himself into a devil? He boasted it to me last night before I beat him."
"Eh, no way!" she gasped.
From there, as they ate, he explained to the twin tailed girl how things ended up in the end with Satanael and how he defeated him.
"The one thing I don't really get though," Kaito shook his head, "Is how I could wield Arondight. Does that mean I'm a holy sword user or something? Or have some compatibility with it at least? Cuz every time I tried to pick up Excalibur Mimic it zapped me."
With light at that, it stung like a bitch. He'd had to wrap his jacket around it to carry it back.
"Mmm, that's cuz of how it became a Holy-Demonic sword apparently and it's why Satanael could wield it as well from what I got told," Irina pointed her spoon at him after taking a mouthful of cereal as she explained, "Apparently the sword is infected with Lancelot's madness after he betrayed King Arthur and because of that, the sword itself can't even recognise its wielders, so anyone can use it now."
"…Huh."
Anyone included him if last night was anything to go by. Which, could be interesting considering what he learned to do last night with his Twice Critical's.
Something to think on later-
For now though, with the more pleasant side of things out in the open, he had one more thing to ask her, "What will you do now?" Kaito asked.
Irina paused as she was about to take another spoonful of cereal, before letting go of the spoon and sighing, "…I don't know to be honest," she replied, giving him a half smile, but there was nothing happy about it, "I can't go to my parents, they're both part of the church, so if I do, they'll get ex-communicated as well, and I don't really have anything but the clothes on my back and well…the swords."
Well, that was really bad. She literally had nowhere to go, huh? And the clothes on her back, were literally a skin tight body suit that had the stomach area burned away.
"I could maybe pay a visit to the Hyoudou's?" she mused lightly, "They were good friends with my parents a long time ago when we lived here and I used to be best friends with Issei-kun."
Kaito grimaced instinctively at the name drop.
Hell to the fucking no.
"Issei Hyoudou, same age as you?" he questioned, even if he already knew, "Brown hair, brown eyes, kinda scrawny?"
"Well it's been a while since I saw him so I wouldn't know how he's built, but he is the same age as me and has brown hair and eyes," she nodded, "Yeah, that's him I guess."
"Then you won't want anything to do with him," Kaito told her bluntly, making her give him a confused look, "I know the guy, he goes to my school. He's a total freak who constantly harasses and peeps on pretty girls, honestly the guy should be on a sex offender list. And on top of that, I'm pretty sure he got recruited by Rias Gremory a few days ago."
"…Oh…" Irina uttered softly, before frowning, "So Issei-kun turned out like that, huh? That's….disappointing."
"I've had to chase the guy and his perverted buddies off from harassing other girls a bunch of times, sorry to disappoint you." he gave her a sympathetic smile.
Was it manipulative of him? Yes? Did he care? No.
There was no way in fucking hell, he was risking his life for a girl, only to send her off into the arms of that fucking perverted retard.
Though on that topic, it did make him remember that there was a certain someone in Rias' peerage, that absolutely hated Holy Swords with a manic passion.
'Great, I'll have to deal with him in the future. Lovely.' he grimaced. Hell, from what he remembered, if he saw an exorcist with a Holy Sword out and about, he'd attack first and ask questions later.
Which would end up with him either murdering Irina to destroy her sword if he came across her. Or her killing him and drawing the rage of the Gremory clan.
Issues upon fucking issues man.
Honestly, there was really only one option here, wasn't there? "You can stay here with me if you want." he offered.
She perked up, "Really?" she lit up, before wilting almost immediately and casting a look around his apartment, "Are you sure?…You're having trouble as it is yourself."
She wasn't wrong.
"I'm sure," Kaito nodded instantly. A man should stand firm on decisions like this, "Besides, I've got some savings packed away."
It wasn't like he wasn't already preparing long in advance before he started to attend Kuoh after all and got paid a stipend and was allowed this apartment due to his scholarship. But, he'd been running odd jobs since he was a kid and even had a part time job all the way through middle school
…And, while he didn't really relish the thought. There were….other alternatives to money when once had become supernaturally powerful and could now move faster than a human eye could track.
Which he now could at his at maximum strength after last night.
"Ah," Irina's smile returned, wholly bashful this time, "Thanks Kaito-kun."
….He only had one problem.
'How the hell will I explain this to Yanagi?' he thought in dread.
Maybe he could sell Satanael's clothes? The shirt and jacket had been ruined, but his pants and shoes were still freaking Armani, he could probably get a good few hundred thousand yen for them.
'No, fuck that!' he decided right then and there. He was going to wear them himself, he was about the same height as Satanael, so they should fit…hopefully.
Hopefully the dead Cadre rotting in his Sacred Gear didn't have tiny feet.
And here we are again back with Chapter 8. Sorry for the long wait, I've been working on a bunch of stuff. Like wrote a few chapters for to Go Even Further Beyond, a few for Systematic Shinobi a few for Power and a few for Is it Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon. Most of that, alongside up to chapter 15 of this story is up on my Pa-atreon if you wanna check it out.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.