They wouldn't win.
Even with Miyuzuin there, the exorcists had too many bodies on their side for Diodora to predict his own victory. Even if they were all weak enough to get tagged as simple grunts, he doubted that Miyuzuin and himself would be able to clear them all out before the two main exorcists attacked.
"What is the meaning of this?" Miyuzuin's voice just barely registered from how strangled she sounded.
"That's my line." The blond exorcist growled, trying to peel his gun off the blade of the girl's sword without letting her just slice through him without resistance "You do understand what you're doing, right? You're attacking an agent of the church. This won't go unnoticed."
Diodora looked up, wondering if that'd be the case. In the original timeline, Asia had been immediately let go when they noticed she helped a devil. And even in this one, Diodora hadn't found exorcists on his trail, nor did they give chase immediately afterward to even consider vengeance as something in their to-do list.
It sounded right, don't misunderstand. But he simply didn't think it'd come to that, given everything that had happened so far.
"Heh. Like hell that's the case." Miyuzuin shifted her hips, starting a motion that had her turn her blade around to push the exorcist farther from her herself.
A bad move, even Diodora could tell. But one with significance. She knowingly and willingly gave the exorcist the one thing he needed to defend himself: Space. It was more a declaration than a follow up tactic.
"If you think—."
"The church won't even blink if you die." Miyuzuin's grin grew as she interrupted the blond "It's not their way. You'll get some prayers, perhaps a whole mass to mourn you. A few candles, and then they'll run for the next silly guy with some scrap of potential."
She extended her mockery, looking at the exorcists behind Elijah that had assumed battle positions.
"That includes you as well! This guy's a moderately big shot. So just imagine how much you'll be missed by your so-called piteous masters!" She stretched her arms to either side of her body, almost as if she wanted to embrace them all at once "None of you will be missed! Not when you gleefully walked yourself into the territory of the little sisters of Lucifer and Leviathan!"
That got a reaction out of the group. Some flinched, some got so still that it looked like they had ceased breathing altogether. Others tried to deny it, reassure themselves.
Miyuzuin knew exactly what to do to break their defiance against her mental assault.
"You'll be swept clean out of the records! Purged from existence. Family silenced, goals and achievements both gone in an instant." Her smirk couldn't grow bigger, but she did her best to convey how utterly doomed they really were "Vanquished by your own foolishness."
"Enough!" Elijah stomped the ground, cocking his gun toward Miyuzuin. Anger flaring up and twisting his otherwise good looks into a hateful glare "You will not badmouth our goals or methods any further! We're here on a righteous mission, and we'll see it to the end no matter what!"
Diodora eyed the girl that stayed out of the argument. She looked amused, unworried.
He didn't like it.
"Sure, sure." Miyuzuin waved him off "And what holy mission might this be, if you don't mind me asking?"
The guy's features hardened.
"A hooligan like you has no right to know."
"My brain might've become stupid, but I remember you showering me with praise like a minute ago." Miyuzuin tilted her head, looking at the group behind Elijah and doing a motion that seemed to say 'the nerve of this guy, am I right?'. It unnerved the blond, but Miyuzuin barely bothered looking at him. In spite of the gun on his hand "I'm sorry, I'm just not blessed with good memory by the guy above, if you catch my drift."
"It's always the same with pious men." Diodora shook his head. Having waited for a good moment to interfere, and still very much shielding Genshirou with his body "Be careful, Yuni. You're a cute girl. You'll be showered with honeyed words, but you'll seldom be taken care of after they get what they want. Their deity is just too convenient an excuse for…"
A flash of light blinded him for a second. A single second that had only his left eye come back to seeing anything at all.
"Wuh?!" Diodora hunched over, both hands on his right cheek, as a burning sensation ate away at his skin and made him door and have tears roll down his right eye. The excruciating sensation being almost as intolerable as being burned alive… Or perhaps exactly like that.
Miyuzuin had seen it happen, and her eyes were wide open. Her mouth hung as if she wanted to say 'a' but hadn't due to the surprise. The mysterious beauty, too had her mouth wide open. But this time in the form of an 'o'. She still didn't show worry, and instead looked like something unexpected had happened. She hadn't attacked.
No. Elijah had shot Diodora. And the light graced him only slightly. Yet the sensation of the holy element caressing his skin felt as though a dozen spiders had bitten him all at once. Like he had cut himself and then gotten lemon and spice into the wound all at once.
"Diodora-san?!" Diodora backed out, colliding with Genshirou who got his arms on the devil's shoulders. Steading them both and preventing their fall when so many enemies were around.
The girls looked at each other, then at Elijah. Whose expression turned from anger to realization as he noticed the attention he got.
"Good enough for me."
"Fall back!" The mysterious girl ordered everyone even before Miyuzuin finished her sentence.
Diodora's face felt hot all of a sudden, and he raised his arm with a roar.
The exorcists spread out and away from Diodora's group, getting the dirty blonde girl amidst their ranks as a demonic circle appeared overhead, slamming a solid pillar of destructive force where the exorcists had been a moment before.
Miyuzuin blurred and sped up around Diodora's conjured attack. Taking out her own gun and taking out a good chunk of the surprised exorcists before they could react.
Diodora's pillar weakened, unable to be sustained even with him still powering it up.
When the dust cleared, Elijah stood in the center of the crater left behind. A verifiable circumference around him completely unharmed as he kept the cross on his hand above his head.
Diodora tensed up and remembered the four Vritra Sacred Gears. Two possibilities came to mind.
"I'll take that as you initiating the conflict." Elijah commented as he dusted himself off.
"I think Yuni made it clear who started this." Diodora argued, giving the exorcist a wide smirk as he took a step forward. Self-brainwashing spell activating and letting him think clearly through his closeness to a nervous breakdown.
The pain flowed through. Before, the spell had held it back. But Diodora hadn't been burnt with holy fire. It seemed like being injured in this fashion would be more perilous than normal.
"Like anyone would trust some chick without a hint of loyalty to her name." Elijah scoffed.
His cross went to his left arm, the gun to his right.
The bullets couldn't be avoided without Knight reflexes. Even Miyuzuin tried to avoid Elijah from shooting outright.
No choice, then. Diodora would draw Sona's ire a bit more.
"STAIN! Promotion!" Diodora infused his voice with demonic power. Not to amplify it, but to let it shoot like a signal, reverberating through Kuoh like a sonar that drew the attention of anyone marginally magic-sensitive.
He raised a barrier in the same moment, seeing it crack as light bullets tried to penetrate it. But didn't quite manage to.
Diodora let himself smirk a bit more, seeing Miyuzuin draw the crowd to herself behind Elijah. Neither had died yet, which was good enough for him. He didn't know a lot about fighting, but he knew all too well the horrors he had just summoned.
A few minutes at most, and this battle would be over.
"Elijah." The mystery girl called out, still not interfering. Still comfortable with the current situation.
"Please call me-!"
"Not the time." The girl sounded almost offended, oddly commanding now and not while an invisible shield stopped a bullet coming her way "Stop messing around, now."
The guy stopped shooting, almost reluctantly. Diodora shot his own demonic bullets but the guy's reflexes far outpaced the devil's ability to shoot.
Elijah dodged for a couple of seconds before he used the cross to create a light shield, taking a couple of seconds to look at the dirty blonde girl.
"I can do this! I don't care who comes, I…"
"Elijah Smith." The girl's voice became ice cold "This is an order."
The guy looked like he had been physically slapped. Something in the girl's voice disturbing even Diodora himself.
"Yes, Star Seeker."
Elijah dropped the gun and took the cross with both hands. Something was about to happen, so Diodora tried to call out another pillar of demonic power.
A small spark made him duck, completely instinctively.
With his cheek burning, the condensation of light power made his skin crawl. And if he hadn't been a pure-blooded devil, his instincts wouldn't have been strong enough for his spell to let him act in a split second.
With no warning, no movement from the other party, a light lance went through the air. Barely missing Diodora and Genshirou as the pure-blooded devil put a hand back to move his servant alongside.
The dirty blonde girl was smirking.
She pulled off what she wanted.
"Balance Breaker." Elijah stated, and Diodora's pulse grew stronger as his mental spell got dissolved into nothingness.
"Abhor the Witch."
Miyuzuin tumbled to the floor, her movements cut off in an instant.
Diodora felt sick, his body growing stiff and alien. Something within him screamed to get him as far away from this fight as possible. But he couldn't even conjure a reinforcement spell to do so.
His demonic power had been sealed. Even Miyuzuin couldn't use any spells. But her years of training and experience saw her retreat immediately, avoiding the worst of the light bullets that showered her position an instant later.
Diodora groaned, feeling the wound on his face hurt a lot more out of the blue.
"Kill them. Now." Elijah ordered, getting his cross to turn into a sword "I want it done this minute!"
"Too late." The girl stated, her expression becoming stone cold.
Elijah turned his head toward her, puzzled.
"...What?"
Twin pillars of light burst forth from her back. And it took Diodora a moment to notice that they were wings. Almost of solid light, they made the girl leave the floor and almost oozed up into the sky.
She looked rather displeased, but hid it with an almost innocent-looking pout.
"Star Seeker, wait!" Elijah clamored, the other exorcists falling into a panic as they saw the girl's intentions even more clearly than Diodora "I can…!"
Stain rolled into view from all sides. Its gooey form trying, and failing, to take solid shapes as its lightning-fast movements halted the next instant. Almost as if hit by an invisible wall.
The girl with the angel wings whistled.
"That's one tough-looking nightmare you got there. What is it?" It took Diodora a moment to realize that she was talking to him.
He didn't understand what was going on, but he felt compelled to answer.
"It's a miracle." Fortunately enough, he had enough mental fortitude to know better. Even without his spell in effect.
"That makes two of us." She looked a bit happy as she said that, but her expression quickly changed into a more serious one "Too bad we couldn't meet under different circumstances… Oh, well. Next time, maybe."
Stain wobbled in place, some parts of its gooey body almost forming a face but without fully converging. As if something was preventing it from shapeshifting.
"Gah!" Elijah surged forward, blade tip pointing directly at Diodora.
The devil created a barrier and saw himself be pushed back by the strength behind the blow. But he didn't relent.
He rolled and got to his feet in the same motion, reorienting himself to face his assailant.
No one was there.
"Nice." The girl smirked "Bye, bye devil. I hope we meet again!"
"You're leaving your troops?" Diodora growled, not stopping Stain from devouring the still-surrounded exorcists.
They'd kill him if given the chance, and Stain's enormous bulk was taking the light shots without flinching.
Then Diodora noticed. He made a shield. How? Had the spell preventing him been broken? When?
"Yep." The girl popped the 'p' without a hint of shame "Take it as an apology. I don't want to be chased down!"
Then, she shot upward into the sky. Even Diodora's eyes couldn't follow her as she vanished, rendering it impossible to guess what direction she'd take.
He powered his mental spell again, getting his breathing and heartbeat in order as Stain finished devouring his attackers.
Yuuto and Sona's Knights arrived the next instant.
"You're late, the battle is over." Diodora managed to stay confident due to the spell, but the pain still had his mood tainted. And he knew he'd be in trouble again.
"What battle?" One of the girls asked, guard still up and some very negative emotions blooming as she glimpsed the mass of the Oblex behind Diodora.
"Never mind that, the creature behind…"
"Exorcists of the church, at least two dozen of them." Diodora interrupted the other Knight, keeping the initiative "Yuni!"
The silver-haired girl sped up to his side, slightly hunched over.
She had been shot, but didn't look in imminent danger. She wasn't weak against the light like pure-blooded devils. And it appeared that it hadn't actually gone through her body. Her barrier had held the worst of it.
Miyuzuin threw down a couple of crosses and guns, which made the Knights flinch. It took Yuto a moment to figure out how to take them, using one of his Sacred Gear's swords to touch them and see the light element within be devoured by his weapon's properties.
He gave Diodora a serious nod and placed himself between the Knights and Diodora and Yuni.
"Are you light-poisoned?" He asked the girl, and Miyuzuin gave him a defiant smirk.
"I don't get that." She sounded too pained to be intimidating, so Yuuto acknowledged her words as the answer he required.
Diodora, however. Didn't have time for pleasantries or military-style reassurement.
"Call your master. A group of exorcists led by a man that can suppress magic showed up and acted hostile toward us." Diodora snapped, words cold but methodical enough to not raise aversion. He needed their attention, not their resentment "That and an angel that looks like a teenager."
That made them look at him weirdly.
"An angel? That can't be." Yuuto frowned.
"How so?" Diodora humored him, willing to learn a thing or two if it meant more safety.
"Believe me, you can feel it." Yuuto's mouth turned into a fine line "What was her name?"
Diodora didn't know.
"Star Seeker." Yuni stated, and Yuuto's eyes went wide.
"That's a name?" He couldn't help asking.
"No… Well, yes." Yuuto looked conflicted now, but a bit of panic leaked into his words "That's how Miracle Children are named."
Diodora blinked, even his mental spell unable to prevent his confusion.
"It didn't sink in until she mentioned your monster as a miracle." Yuni shook her head, covering her eyes "This is bad. Miracle Children have hacks, we'll always end up in a rough spot against them."
"Okay?" Something to take into account then, but he couldn't tell why these guy were so worried.
"I'm sorry, but what is a Miracle Child?" One of Sona's Knights asked, the worry being contagious enough that she couldn't stay put.
"The child of an angel. A true angel." Yuni looked displeased, almost like the mere mention made her dizzy "Making them the grandchildren of you-know-who."
Diodora's breathing stopped.
It made sense that Elijah didn't dare oppose her. But he still didn't understand why they'd be any different from someone like Miyuzuin or Akeno.
"You look calm." Miyuzuin told Diodora.
"Might be because I lack enough context." He acknowledged.
The girl made a face.
"They are connected to the Heavenly Host, so they're like normal angels. But they're also human, which means the system protects them." Miyuzuin explained, lifting her hands like they were two sides of a pair of scales "So that means that they are blessed, can bless themselves, and can perform miracles without assistance."
Diodora shivered in spite of his spell.
"So if you want to beat one, good freaking luck. The world itself will fight against you for as long as you last."
Diodora looked at Miyuzuin, then at the Knights. He thought getting Stain to the fight would win it for them, but the two people he wanted to defeat had escaped. Furthermore, Diodora still allowed Stain to devour people within Kuoh. He was in trouble no matter what.
He hadn't understood what performing miracles meant, but looking at his own position now made him realize how wrong his assessment of victory was.
He didn't even notice Genshirou taking it all in, silently staring at Diodora's back with the eyes of someone helplessly trying to swim for dear life.