NMHA Ch 58 - Starfall
A/N -
I'm not going to keep you here long. But I did want to say, this is a longer chapter over a shorter period of time, to properly represent the sheer level of clusterfuck going on in Kuoh, between Luna and Kokabiel's battle, the schemes, Issei and Asia's efforts to try and find out the truth with their own efforts, as well as the reactions of other parties. One could say it's the climax of the Kuoh Arc, so to speak.
Naturally, it's a two-parter.
So with that in mind, strap in, make yourselves comfortable, and read on dear viewers. This is going to be one hell of a ride.
Also, changed the genre from Parody to Drama. This really isn't a 'comic' distortion of DxD after all, lol. A twist on it, sure, but definitely more 'dramatic' than 'comical'. Another relic of a bygone era erased, lol
Boosted Gear flashed into existence around Issei's arm immediately upon seeing Raynare lift a spear at them, placing himself in front of his girlfriend(?) to defend her from the Fallen.
"You'd kill us if we kept going?" he asked, lifting a brow. "...Then I guess we'll have to force our way past."
"Ise-kun..."
"She's already made up her mind," the brunet said, shaking his head. "There's no room for diplomacy now."
"At least I still have mine!" the Fallen in question snapped back. "But if you're so insistent on your mission, I'll help you along to the end result faster!"
She lunged forward, and unlike when he fought Freed, Issei could see Raynare coming. She was fast... but he knew he was faster.
BOOST!
And suddenly, he was even faster than that. Issei crossed his arms and let his armored one catch the side of her light spear, pushing it aside while he lunged forward and drove his unarmored one into the Fallen's stomach.
"Guh-!"
He was expecting some sort of reaction. He was expecting her to stagger back and continue to try and stop them. He remembered the way she callously killed him all those times in the visions he'd experienced.
Back then, she was unstoppable.
He expected her to at least make him struggle to get past.
But as Raynare crumpled to the ground, arms clutched around her stomach, futilely coughing, gasping for air, all Issei could feel was… no, he couldn't feel anything. His fist didn't even sting, he felt empty.
This was the woman who had tormented him through so many visions? This was the Fallen who'd exploited his desire for connection to cut him down? This was the nightmare that he'd been forced to live with for so long!?
'...Where did that come from...?' He hadn't had to live with Raynare's shadow looming over him... right? Or was that a lingering feeling from those visions?
He shook his head, Boosted Gear vanishing as his eyes were drawn toward the flashes in the sky.
"Come on," he heard himself say. "We need to keep moving."
"R-right! We're sorry, Raynare-san, but we can't stop now."
As he turned to hurry away, he felt something grab onto his ankle. A hand?
"W-wai...t..." her voice was hoarse, quiet, to the point where Issei could barely hear it. "P-p-l-lease..."
But he could, just as he could feel her hand, shaky and weak, as even those two words caused her to break down into coughing.
As he looked back, his mind flashed back to the visions. Specifically, the very last one before he woke back up from them.
'...These roles... they were reversed before, weren't they...?'
And unlike him, Raynare didn't have a patron in the shadows to pick her back up.
She wouldn't die by his hand... but who knew what awaited her if they just left.
'Let it happen. She doesn't deserve forgiveness.'
'She isn't the same Raynare, though. Just like I'm not the same Issei.'
'Issei is Issei. Raynare is Raynare. She was going to kill you both anyway. Leave her.'
Like she left him? Stoop to her level?
'She'll be fine, you just disabled her with a punch. She'll live. You didn't.'
Yet when he met her eyes, there was something there. Something that caused a lump in his throat.
Had he looked at her the way she was now?
'But she's not dying.'
But she looked like she would if they left.
'She acts all the time. She's a Fallen, an agent of the Grigori, and a spy.'
But right now, she just looked like... a defeated young woman, trying desperately to reach out to the only people that could see and hear her.
He sighed.
'...Damn it.'
"You're not going to stop us," he said, pivoting in place to kneel in front of the fallen black-winged Angel, before reaching out to pick her up in a bridal carry. "But that doesn't mean you can't come with us."
Raynare's eyes, though hazy, widened. "E-...eh...?"
Asia blinked, as well as flushed faintly, as she observed his casual display of strength, picking up the downed Fallen. "Ise-kun?"
"I'm not going to leave someone behind if I don't have to," the Red Dragon Emperor declared, glancing her way. "That's not the kind of person I am."
He wouldn't act the way that Raynare did, not when the roles were reversed.
He'd be better.
"...I-id-idiot... N-no..."
"Do you want me to leave you here then?" he asked the woman in his arms archly. "Because you're not going to stop us either way if I'm able to drop you in one punch. That's the choice you get; come with, or stay behind."
Raynare stared at Issei again, her own gaze clearing, though still gasping for breath. He could let Asia heal her, but he wasn't sure if she'd try to stop - or kill - them again. Better to leave that to an emergency.
Finally, she dipped her head. "...F-fine..."
He turned to Asia and nodded once, a nod she returned with a smile.
She understood, just like she always seemed to.
They continued onward, with another passenger in arms.
When Masaomi knew he was going to be late, he didn't realize he'd be late, but in his defense he lost track of time after being able to finally and fully resonate with the very sword that stole his ordinary life away. Between that, listening to the responsibilities bestowed unto him as a wielder of Imperial Regalia, and the tea he and the two Youkai shared afterward, his time had been eaten up with quite a bit more gusto than expected.
There was also something about the way that Yasaka looked his way which sent shivers down his spine. He wasn't quite sure what he meant, but considering their shared history with Komamura Sajin, at the very least it didn't seem hostile; otherwise, he wouldn't have been allowed near the Kusanagi to begin with.
He was expecting that Asia and Issei would already be at his house, the brunet likely complaining about his disappearing without warning, and his adoptive daughter just looking onward in mild bemusement and a burning curiosity.
Those expectations shattered when his eyes turned to the sky, and saw the vast number of black-feathered people in the air, and the light spears they all seemed to be hurling repeatedly toward a single destination.
Thankfully, they didn't seem to take notice of him, so Masaomi was able to book it toward his apartment and barge in.
"Issei! Asia!"
"They're gone."
The statuesque bluenette that spoke up, rising from the table, was not what he expected either, though it was little surprise when she extended her wings.
"Hello, Masaomi-san," she said, lips curling upward slowly. "I was wondering when you might get back from your business trip."
"Where are they?"
"I can't tell you; I don't know myself." She shrugged. "They said something about finding the truth with their own hands before taking off; maybe they're headed toward the location my brothers and sisters are currently bombarding."
A pit settled in Masaomi's stomach as his mind flashed back to where those light spears all shot off to. That was Kuoh Academy, wasn't it?
Then were the Devils there at risk too?
Even the sheer number of Fallen that had made this incursion into Kuoh would destabilize the ceasefire. If Kuoh Academy was bombed to the ground and the Devils there killed...
'The less said about that outcome, the better.'
"Does this have to do with Luna?"
"It has everything to do with her. Seems like she and Lord Kokabiel settled on a battleground; Lord Kokabiel thought it prudent to bring sufficient firepower to put her down."
"Damn it all." Masaomi cursed, turning to leave before he felt something prodding his back. Something holy.
"...Sorry, but I've got my own duty to fulfill." As the exorcist's head turned back, Kalawarner's smile turned sad. "I'm tasked to guard the household and its master. I might be willing to let those two go, but I can't do the same for you."
"You don't want to do this," he warned, slowly lifting his hands.
"I don't," she agreed. "But if word gets out that a legion of Fallen have descended upon Kuoh, that means the end of the ceasefire. I'd use magic to keep you from doing so, but you're an individual of special interest in Kuoh."
He furrowed his brow
"And you think I'm part of the Church?"
"You run one," was the simple answer he got in turn.
"As an independent Christian, not an exorcist of the Vatican," he fired back.
"A deserter, then?"
"No. Discharged for dishonorable conduct." His lips quirked upward. "For following the spirit of His message, rather than the letter of theirs."
"I didn't take you for a heretic, Masaomi-san," she drawled. "From what Raynare-san said, you've been a paragon of divine virtue."
"I'm more a Protestant than Catholic. One does not need the Church to follow God, for God's light resides in us all."
Kalawarner frowned, thoughtfully. "Not in Lunarunn."
"Perhaps not," he allowed. "But that doesn't mean I do not see something worth fighting for."
"Oh?"
Masaomi closed his eyes and smiled. "I see a human soul, and one that burns brighter for all she has been dealt."
He snapped his fingers, and Kalawarner's eyes widened as a barrier sprung up in front of her, cutting the light spear in half with its own radiance. She glanced back and recognized that she was completely enclosed.
"You forgot to check for wards," he stated the obvious as he turned around. Then, to her surprise, he bowed. "Thank you for your concern, Fallen-san. However, I do not need your assistance, and your worries are unfounded. Do please continue to look after the house during my absence, though."
"Wait!" Her voice went unheard as Masaomi turned and ran back out the door. "Masaomi-san, wait!"
Once more, her shouts went unheard, leaving Kalawarner standing in the prison of light that the exorcist had tricked her into.
Her lips turned upward, and she huffed out a derisive snort.
"Go figure that the church girl's daddy is the wily sort."
Light fell like rain, a holy barrage meant to erase her from the earth.
Lunarunn swiped a hand to the side, letting the torrent fall on a pane of solid air, breaking against the barrier like drops on a windshield.
Though she could feel the patter of the assault against her mind, she paid the mild nuisance no heed as her gaze turned back up at the cadre himself - the true threat.
He stared down, watching, gauging her reaction to the other Fallen and their bombardment.
She felt a twinge as the spears intensified, becoming less like a continuous barrage and more like waves of force. Already, the air support was adapting.
Still a nuisance, but slightly more dangerous now. Waves always were compared to currents.
Luckily for her, staying put and letting herself get swallowed by them was never in the plan.
Luna moved, letting the barrier dissipate shortly after - to keep the school itself from becoming damaged - as she sped to the side and made for the nearest non-cadre Fallen. The sooner she got rid of the extras, the better, even if they were of little real concern.
Immediately, she was beset by the Watcher of the Stars, a blazing, radiant blade on a collision course for her neck.
She leaned back, sliding beneath the horizontal guillotine with a grunt before the concrete rooftop answered her call and launched her into the air by way of a pillar. As she spread her wings to truly take to the sky, the torrent from all around followed, glowing missiles streaking after her while the cadre himself kept a wide berth.
Luna noticed something as she held out a hand to stop all the spears in midair and telekinetically crush them into stardust. The instant she directed that hand in the direction of one of the Fallen, ready to fire the stolen light bac- 'Fast!' - Kokabiel was there, this time with a flurry of disruptive jabs. She disengaged and continued to ascend, where cover was minimal and she was even more of a target by the Fallen legion providing fire, the holy projectiles a constant harassment..
'A combination of bombardment by the legions, with Kokabiel himself running interference. He means to limit my mobility and force me to waste stamina on blocking the unceasing barrage.'
It was smart, dangerous even, especially to a caster-type fighter. Perhaps the worst they could do was divide her attention, but against someone like Kokabiel, maybe that was the point.
'Best do something about that.'
Luna's eyes flickered with every color as she threw out two hands in a guard before throwing them out. In that same instant, the light spears bearing down around her snapped, their remains forming a ring around her, flickering dangerously.
She shot further into the sky, her miniature ring of holy light detonating beneath her as the cadre approached, releasing shockwaves that - while they stung something fierce due to her nature as a Devil - catapulted her further into the sky with a powerful crack. By the time she stopped and looked back down, Kuoh had vanished within the cloud cover far below.
Yet despite the near-instantaneous movement, she could see a bolt of light shooting upwards and stopping a short distance in front of her hardly a moment after.
Penemue had suggested that Kokabiel was the strongest Fallen in the Grigori, all those years ago.
If he'd only kept training since then... Luna was inclined to believe that was true now.
But he was still holding back. Testing her? Or determining just how dangerous she was?
The other Fallen would take a few seconds to catch back up; she was already miles above the city. So instead of striking back, Luna stayed back, readied but not aggressive, something that Kokabiel noticed with a scowl.
"What is your game?" he demanded. "Not using Trihexa's power? Are you mad?"
"Why didn't you attack me back when you first found me?" she demanded back. "I could feel your power. You were debating whether or not to strike me down while my back was turned."
"I'm the one questioning you here!"
"Consider it an intellectual curiosity," she replied, gesturing to the clouds beneath them. "There's so many of them, there's so many people in the world; what's a wiped-out city compared to the death of the 'pet of the Beast'?"
"You know its name," Kokabiel pointed out.
"Of course I would," she replied back, a sardonic smirk spreading across her face. "I know many things I shouldn't. I know God's dead. I know the name of the Beast whose seal cost Him His life. I know the Red Dragon Emperor lives here. I know this place is going to be a hotspot of supernatural activity, now and going forward."
"Bits of knowledge that monster would already know."
"Just because I was touched by Trihexa, and given a shard of its power, doesn't mean I have a cordial relationship with it. I didn't exactly ask for it to try and eat me when I was at my lowest," Luna shook her head. "If I could, I'd kill the damned thing myself."
Kokabiel grit his teeth, and Luna gestured to the clouds again, with Fallen rising through and regathering, quietly regrouping after being scattered by the concussive blast the brunette had used.
The cadre wasted no time in lunging for Luna, and the brunette's hand flew in front of her.
He smashed into another screen and bounced back, reeling at the sheer force of the psionic imposition, allowing Luna to direct the lifted palm at the densest gathering of Fallen Angels rising through the clouds.
Her hand clenched into a fist, calling on the memory of her first meeting with Masaomi and Touji; the pain from that holy bullet, and the way the world reacted to her panic.
The way it burned.
Air turned to fire and smoking wings started to drop from the spontaneous conflagration, falling beneath the now orange-stained clouds almost as quickly as they'd risen from them. A swipe of her fist extended that conflagration across the cloudline, every Fallen in its path engulfed in the blaze near-instantaneously.
She hadn't even finished a blink before Kokabiel was on her again, a snarl etched on his features as he slashed downward, but she deftly sidestepped and sped back down toward the ascending host, almost smirking at the grunt she heard him utter behind him when she used his body as a springboard.
Where she went, the Fallen fell once again. Her prismatic trail cut a constellation of cracks and cries from one winged figure to another, each one falling behind her as she tore through the sky.
Yet when one fell, two more were there to take the defeated Fallen's place, and even if she cut through them with nary an effort, the far larger problem made itself quickly known.
Luna grit her teeth and veered off as a beam of light blazed past her, Kokabiel using the break in her momentum to lunge in and drop-kick her from in the air, causing a yell as she careened back through the cloud cover. She recovered, but not before Kokabiel was on her again, slicing and slashing with all the experience of a Fallen cadre, a general of the heavenly host, and a man who had never once let up on his regimen.
His persistence was incredible and frustrating in equal measure, as he seemed hellbent to put holes in her and end the fight there.
She responded with rapid dodges, bullets of darkened air shooting from her fingers, the absolute zero bullets either crashing against Kokabiel's implacable defense or punching through the cloudline once again, from which she could see more bodies falling.
Luna knew what awaited them if they hit the ground. They were flash-frozen, so they could theoretically survive, but not if they were shattered into pieces first.
She pointedly did not look at the frozen figures as they fell below her altitude.
"Enough of this!" she cried as she sent out another telekinetic wave, knocking Kokabiel away. "Do you really have no sense of preservation for your people!?"
"They know the risks of letting you live!" Kokabiel roared back in, breaking the hasty barrier with a fist before planting his other palm on Luna's stomach.
She recognized what he was about to do, but still let out a cry of pain as that damnable light surged through her system again, burning her profane-aligned body as she rocketed through the air. The instant she recovered, he was upon her once more.
"And so far, you're proving every single one of them right!" the cadre finished with a thrust, the other hand glowing bright.
"...You're all really that convinced I need to die, aren't you...?" she murmured, almost to herself as she swayed out of a lunging spear, leg snapping up to kick away the hand that was coming down to deliver another holy palm strike.
'Not taking that a third time!'
These were people who had signed up for this. But they were people.
But these weren't humans, civilians. These were the soldiers of God; those that had abandoned His path, but still soldiers all the same.
They were literally made for this.
But they were still people.
Letting him stay close was dangerous, the brunette knew. She needed to breathe, lest he stuff her out.
Her eyes shifted to the Fallen Angels watching in the distance, back beneath the cloudline once more, though still high above Kuoh. The way that they viewed hers and Kokabiel's battle closely, spears at the ready the instant their leader broke off.
They might be made to enforce God's will, but they had chosen their own path. They were still people too.
'And like ordinary people, they need to breathe too.'
The thought rang through her head with a lethal finality, though it also allowed Kokabiel another strike, this time a bash to her side, sending contrails through the air as she spiraled across the sky. She righted herself, and braced for another clash, letting out a grunt as the barrier holding Kokabiel's spear back sent pulses of pain through her head from the exertion.
"Last warning. Call them off," she said with grit teeth, quietly this time, eyes glimmering as the next barrage of spears met another screen of force. She didn't so much as look their way. "If I can outspeed them like this; take their power and negate it, or turn it into my advantage like I could have back at the academy, they are sorely outmatched. The only one here who can challenge me is you, and if you mean to continue putting your subordinates' lives at risk against me, then I'll have no option but to claim them."
"They came here for a reason," the Fallen Cadre grunted. "And that is to slay you. They know what they signed up for."
"Because they trust in your word," the brunette insisted. "Because they're willing to die for the same cause you champion. But just because they would if they need to, that doesn't mean they have to."
He responded by pushing Luna back, before summoning a massive array of light bolts himself, enclosing the Worldweaver from every direction. She sighed.
"Then I have no choice. Know that each one that falls tonight is your responsibility."
The light spears descended.
The world became tangled, space became warped, oxygen became nitrogen, and the Fallen began to die in droves.
Kokabiel's spears turned on his host, beams zig-zagging through the air to pierce the common soldier. Some of the cadre's assault stuck, but found themselves embedded in another Fallen - slain instantly - rather than Luna herself.
The brunette in question had reappeared in that Fallen's original place, now streaking through the air; fire, ice, and blood spraying around her as she unleashed her power upon those closest to her, a comet of the elements that brooked no further mercy for those that found themselves in its path.
Even with Kokabiel chasing after her, this time Luna didn't stop. Instead, she flickered, transposing herself with nearby raven-winged adversaries, the light meant to purify her instead colliding and destroying its allies.
She quickly noticed that he never aimed at one of his own soldiers, and considering their numbers, she had little reason beyond the slowly-increasing pounding in her head to take advantage of the fact, letting his own single-minded determination to fuel the disposal of his own soldiers.
That wasn't even considering what she'd done to the air itself within the area, and after just a minute of a bloody chase, it began to bear fruit.
The Fallen started to fall wholesale, even the ones furthest from the brunette. They sagged, then shortly after fell like rocks. They didn't even notice anything wrong beyond the fact that their vision failed them, before their consciousness did as well.
'Funny how insidious nitrogen asphyxiation can be', she thought, a flash of dark humor flashing through her mind.
It was a more peaceful death than many of them had already received by her hand.
Kokabiel himself recognized immediately what was happening as his soldiers began to drop without any prior warning.
"NO!"
His final pair of wings - hidden, as she had guessed - extended in a flourish as the lights of the stars themselves seemed to move, revealing themselves as spears screaming down, around, and toward the brunette in a matter of moments, each one with the unearthly force of the star it seemingly fired from, prompting Luna to break off from her rampage in flickers, body appearing, disappearing, and reappearing in countless locations as each vanishing spared her from being struck by one of Kokabiel's falling starlights.
It did nothing to stop the pounding in her head though; working out spacial coordinates at such a rapid-fire pace just made it into a migraine, and with the pain came the anger and frustration.
"Damn it, Kokabiel! I warned you!" she shouted back as the brunette reappeared by the cadre, lashing out with a shockwave-releasing roundhouse kick - one that met an arm and a grunt - before she vanished again, blinking far enough away to lay into the strongest Fallen with a stardust barrage. "But you just won't listen! Stop fucking shitting around and call them off already!"
Kokabiel grit his teeth, snarling at the brunette as he deflected the attack and readied one of his own, but she floated in place, meeting it with one of her own.
"They're your duty too, asshole, not just humans! And unless you make your posse fall back right fucking now, every single one of them is going to die!"
Her finger shot over to one of the Fallen still in the air, who was patting himself down. He was far, but not far enough to miss his panicked expression, or the way he kept drawing in deep, rapid breaths to no avail as his skin began turning blue...
"ENOUGH!" Kokabiel bellowed, turning his head to direct the other Fallen. "Fall back, I will deal with this myself!"
There was a moment of hesitation, whether that was from discipline in not wanting to turn away, or doubt that they'd be able to get away before they all died, Luna didn't know.
"DO IT!" the cadre roared when that same suffocating angel from before starting to falter, slouching over slowly, wings beginning to fail.
With that, the hesitation broke, the Fallen Angels all around them breaking ranks and racing to the ground to attempt to rescue some of their brethren.
Luna could still sense them, though. She could still prevent them from breathing oxygen, let them all choke to death on the very air they breathed.
But she didn't. Instead, she let out a deep sigh, releasing that imposition over the air that she had placed.
"...Thank you," she then murmured, turning her gaze away from Kokabiel to the cloud cover below. Her voice rose back to its usual volume afterward. "I don't like to thrash people so much weaker than I am, but you weren't going to make them back down if I didn't prove that they were all going to end up dead if they stayed."
"I should have killed you years ago when I had the chance, despite Vali's intervention," he growled, holding a hand up to the sky. This time, instead of the Fallen Angels he'd brought with him answering his bidding, the stars themselves gleamed, as though priming themselves to aid their Watcher in battle. The unexpected barrage itself had been powerful; now that he was priming that attack again... "I'm not going to make the same mistake twice."
Luna nodded once. "Good. Then you'll actually listen to me this time, instead of jumping to your own harebrained conclusions?"
Kokabiel's scowl deepened. "Nothing you say matters. One of us dies tonight, and I will do everything in my power to ensure it is you."
The brunette's nose twitched. "Bullshit. If I thought it didn't matter, I wouldn't bother with trying to spare your soldiers. I do what I must, but that doesn't mean I like it."
The cadre's brow furrowed, and then the stars fell once more.
But not without a small, almost unrecognizable moment of hesitation.
"She's downed already?" Rias asked as they hurried down the halls of the Academy, the battle far above them still sending shockwaves through the school that sent plaster shaking down from the ceilings.
"Mhm. My familiar caught it all- Ise-kun got a lot stronger in a real short time," Akeno mused, before a faint frown adorned her features. "A pity. I was hoping that Raynare would still give him and Asia-chan more pause than a single punch."
"It sounds like he wasn't lying about becoming far stronger. At least this proves he doesn't need to be looked after." Rias lifted a finger to her lips to nibble on it, the corners of which were directed upward. "My, it seems picking out a Pact for Issei was a smart idea, even if he wasn't willing to accept Peerageship. Truly a pity that I need to take the longer path, but oftentimes the longer path is the better one."
"Kh." Akeno scoffed and glanced away, earning her a side-eyed glance from Rias, whose finger lowered from her lip. The Queen's dismissive contempt for humans - and Issei, in particular - was not lost on the redhead, but she wasn't willing to risk alienating her closest confidant in favor of trying to set the matter straight. Things hadn't escalated to that point.
'Yet,' a small part of her warned.
She'd handle it when it became an actual problem. There was enough on her plate already.
"Have you determined whether or not we will be interrupted?"
"The Fallen seem just as dedicated to keeping this as quiet as possible as we are," the Queen reported. "The humans are all being kept docile, and they've set up their own communications blockade."
"Even after I spoke with their leader?" Rias sighed and shrugged. "Kokabiel sure is the paranoid type, isn't he?"
"If you want something done, what better way than to ensure it yourself?" Akeno asked in turn, to which Rias let out an amused huff.
"That would be the case, wouldn't it?" She and Akeno paused as more white flecks drifted down in front of them as a shockwave caused the building to shake. "Neither of them seem to be holding back."
"Buchou, please don't underestimate Kokabiel-sama," the nephilim closed one eye and smirked. "There is a reason he is the face of the Protectionist faction within the Grigori. Things are still heating up, I would imagine."
"Do you think he'll win?"
Akeno eyes glimmered with mirth.
"Ufufufufu. Against someone with the world itself at her fingertips? I'm not sure, but either way I'm curious to see who emerges victorious."
She stopped, Rias doing so a step later, before both created demonic circles on the wall to the side. A moment passed, and the locker in between them disappeared, revealing a secret corridor behind it.
As they stepped through, the nephilim noticed something on the ground. A disturbance in the ground beneath them. Normally, there would be a fine layer of dust. Normally.
But disturbing the sheet of dust were footprints.
Akeno's eyes widened, and immediately she started channeling her power. "Buchou."
Ria's own eyes narrowed, and she nodded once. "Someone's already here. But why, and how?"
"Do we fall back?"
As if to answer that, the wall behind them slid back into place, a circle lighting up on its center to indicate its locked status.
"Survey says 'no'," the redheaded Devil drawled. "Evidently, our visitors know that we are here, and they haven't triggered any of the more dangerous defenses. Who would we be as hosts, were we not to play the part?"
"Ufufu. Ever the negotiator, aren't you Buchou?" Akeno giggled, but her eyes were still hard. "Let's keep going."
So they continued through the winding tunnel in silence, the shockwaves getting weaker and weaker as they walked further underground.
As they entered the circular chamber, a glowing stone and two figures in the center. One of them stepped forward, an amiable smile on his face. "Welcome. I apologize for the intrusion, but we couldn't leave matters to chance."
"Isaiah-san." The redhead tilted her head, clasping her hands behind her back. "I take it Diodora has plans for Kuoh, if you're here?"
"My liege has already completed his mission here in Kuoh. Everything me and mine do now is at my behest."
"With agreement from those that are his, of course." The porcelain features of the short-haired blonde joined Isaiah's in facing the two Devils. Then, she cracked a grin. "Though I will admit, you're taking this rather well, considering how intimately we've intruded on your territory."
"Kuoh is mine, but it is merely land. I am... irritated, but not angry." Indeed, her voice remained cordial, even if her eyes narrowed. She was, however, quite irritated. "I am actually more curious about how you managed to infiltrate the clubhouse, and fool the wards."
"It is remarkable what a mentalist and a soulweaver can do in tandem," Valerie replied, her grin widening to show her elongated canines. "Just because Lord Diodora left Kuoh doesn't mean he didn't give us a parting gift to ensure our own mission goes smoothly."
She held up a small crystal, which began glowing. Rias recognized the emissions from the crystal immediately.
"You... replicated my magical signature?" Her eyes zeroed in on that crystal, resting a fist on her chin and that fist's finger on her lips. "That's fascinating. Did Heir Astaroth offer you a memory in which I channeled my power, and you used... soul manipulation...?" Her eyes widened as she trailed off, realization and horror dawning on her with equal force. "The Sephiroth Graal."
"Buchou." Immediately, Akeno stepped in front of Rias, a spear of lightning forming in her hand, crackling with barely-constrained power. "You need to leave, now."
"You're a bit late for that, unfortunately." Isaiah held a hand out to the side, palm facing the two girls, almost as though he were reaching for an invisible sword. "We've scoped you all out. You and Sona are both powerful Devils with good servants, Rias, and honor your kind as such. But Valerie, Gasper, and I have been trained from the ground up by some of the strongest around, modified and optimized by the powers of the Sephiroth Graal. You won't win if we come to blows."
That's when Rias realized there were only two of the Yuuto trio.
"...You sent Gasper after Sona, didn't you?"
Isaiah bowed his head once. "Got it in one. He may be the timid sort, but Gasper is more than enough for her and her's."
Rias took a step back, an orb of Destruction appearing at the tip of an outstretched finger, ready to use it at a moment's notice.
"What's your goal, Isaiah?" she demanded. "Why are you here?"
His eyes shifted between Rias and Akeno, brow furrowing.
"Where's Koneko?"
"Not here," the nephilim replied. "Buchou, in her infinite wisdom, decided to send her to aid Lord Phenex while things blew over in Kuoh."
Rias wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or insult, and so let the matter lie in favor of the larger threat. "Enough prevaricating. Why go through all this trouble to trap us here? Do you mean to kill us all and reignite the Great War?"
"The thought did cross my mind," he admitted, sending a glance to Valerie. "Though I discarded it immediately, since that's not my actual goal here."
The dhampir huffed and glanced away, crossing her arms beneath her bust defensively. "It would have been fun to pore through her soul in the here and now, and learn how to emulate the Power of Destruction. Instead, I only get to replicate her signature. You know I don't like being denied like that..."
Casual admittance to murderous tendencies aside - besides, she wasn't one to talk, she was a Devil for crying out loud - Rias lowered her arm slightly. "Then...?"
"You'll find out shortly." He glanced at Valerie. "What's Gasper's status?"
There was a moment's pause as Valerie glanced up, before nodding back at Isaiah. "Sona and her Peerage have been handled. He's on his way... ah, he's here now actually."
As if on cue, the effeminate blond appeared to the side, melting out of the shadows.
"All set!" he chirped, before glancing at . "Oh, you two are here too? That's great!"
"What did you do with them, Gasper...?" Rias asked, slowly, patience beginning to wear thin.
He put a finger to his lip briefly, glancing up. "Them... oh, you mean Sona and her Peerage?"
"Dead," Valerie cut in, voice as dry as could be. "We wanted to see your reaction to your best friends' death before we finished the job."
The blunt declaration dropped the atmosphere in the wardstone room dead, freezing Rias and Akeno in place as they processed what the Sephiroth Graal's host just said.
'W-what...?' But Isaiah just... 'What?!'
Her hand shot back up, but it wasn't the only one. There was a second, followed shortly by a third.
"Valerie!" The Dhampir winced, leaned over, and rubbed the back of her head as Isaiah cuffed it with a hand and visibly grit his teeth. "Time and place! That was way too far considering the circumstances!"
"Ngh..." she lowered her hand and glanced back up with puffed cheeks. "I thought it was funny..."
"N-not when we're talking about a l-literal life-or-death situation aboveground!" Gasper stormed up to the other Dhampir, arms crossed and glaring up at his childhood friend. "That was super not cool!"
Rias's arm started to lower again, the sphere of Destruction beginning to dissipate into the air. "Explain."
The crossdresser turned back around to the Devils before pointing down. "L-look, they're fine. See?" Shadows began pouring in front of Gasper, and from them the figures of Sona and her Peerage rose, albeit completely still as though frozen in place.
He blinked, and the other Devils started moving again.
"-ait!" Sona started blinking rapidly, before she looked around. "W-what? Why are we- how-"
The redhead released the breath she didn't know she had been holding, the sudden action leaving her sagging in relief. "Oh thank the Morningstar."
"R-Rias?" The black-haired Devil stared Rias down. "W-what's going on?"
"A joke made in terrible taste, that's what." Akeno supplied for her King, lifting a hand to gesture to the culprit.
"...Sorry," the Dhampir finally said, grimacing. "Bad joke. Got it."
Isaiah breathed out deeply, before sliding his hand back into his pocket. "Good. Okay, now that we're not going to try and kill each other, you saw what was going on, right Sona?"
"...It's mayhem up there," she replied, obliging the three with a peculiar look of concern over her face. "Last I saw before Gasper-san stepped in and did... something, to all of us, were the bodies of Fallen Angels falling from the sky. Lunarunn didn't even touch them, but it looked like they were... suffocating, if I had to take a guess. A lot of them were blue in the face based on what I could see."
"Looks like the rest of the chaff is falling back too. I saw more of them racing down to catch the bodies of their comrades from the wardstone," Isaiah added on. "It seems like the fighting's ratcheting up further."
"So... why bring us down here?" one of Sona's Peerage members, Momo, asked.
"We should be protecting the school, shouldn't we?" That one was Saji. "It's, well, our school, so isn't it something we should go down with?"
"This is way out of your pay grade," Valerie shut down that line of reasoning immediately. "We're talking about a fight between titans, one of the modern age and one of time immemorial. You'd just be turned into a smear on the wall, especially when they finally go all-out."
"I still need to head the wardstone though," Rias pointed out.
"Why?" That one was Gasper, with a furrowed brow. "...Are you going to try and break through the communication blackout the Fallen made?"
"No," Rias shook her head. "I'm actually going to reinforce it."
"Oh?" The blond swordsman raised a hand to his chin. "That is unexpected. Why not call your brother? Last I checked, Lunarunn is a criminal, and you would need him to bring her in."
"Even beyond the matter of admitting to the rest of the Underworld that I can't handle this territory - disregarding the extreme circumstances - there's something about the story of the Dark Moon that doesn't sit right with me." Rias stepped forward, face-to-face with Isaiah. "I want to see for myself what she's like when pushed to the brink. Since Kokabiel sees Lunarunn as a threat to take unprecedented action against, I made an agreement with him to assist in the information blackout and stay out of their fight in exchange for his agreement to leave Kuoh without causing any more trouble afterwards."
"And how did you manage to do that? He could just wipe the Academy off the face of the earth once he's done with her." Sona's expression was sour at admitting it, but she did all the same.
Rias smirked, and tilted her neck to the side, and shifted the collar of her school uniform. In doing so, she revealed a small circle, glowing an ominous red - her own power, the room immediately knew.
"A Last Word Pact," she explained. "Simply put, if I were to trigger it, or expire before the duration of the Pact does, something happens. In this case, my brother will immediately receive a full debriefing on what's been going on up here, at which point he will undoubtedly go on a warpath. I figured a standard seal could be undone if overloaded with sufficient holy energy, so I took, ah, extra steps, to ensure that does not happen. Considering that Kokabiel's the leader of the Grigori's Protectionist faction, if he kills me..."
"Eh?" Saji seemed confused, but after a brief look from Sona, he bowed his head, quieting his own questions.
"So you used another priceless artifact to ensure things went the way you two agreed on. As well as put the lives of everyone in Japan on the chopping block to ensure a cadre's compliance." Sona rubbed her forehead. "You never cease to surprise, Rias."
"At least we agreed that restarting the Great War here and now would be detrimental," she replied in turn as she stepped forward to the wardstone. The swordsman stepped to the side to let her. "So you brought us all here as a matter of protection, is that it?"
"We might not be part of whatever it is Lunarunn is up to," Isaiah explained, resting a hand on the pommel of his sword. When did that get there? "But we still want to make sure that collateral is minimized." He lifted other hand. "I'll assist in amplifying the wards to reduce potential damage to school property."
"...Why?" She glanced back, narrowing her eyes as her hand rested over the wardstone. "I don't see what you stand to gain from bringing us all here."
"Simply put, we didn't trust the Fallen to not try something with Kuoh Academy." The blond let out a huff of laughter. "But it seems like you had it covered, and in a way where we didn't have to try and stop you either."
Rias shifted her gaze back over to Isaiah. "So if I had intended to call brother, you'd... what, knock us out, or use Sephiroth Graal to prevent me from doing so?"
He shrugged. "Obviously. But we didn't have to, so it's fine."
She swallowed and glanced away. The Gremory heiress's gut violently clenched at the idea that she would have been at someone else's mercy. Perhaps it would have been an even fight without, but considering the presence of a Longinus, Rias was unpleasantly certain she and Akeno would have lost a fight against Isaiah and Valerie. Still, she shoved that feeling down with her usual discipline in favor of pushing her Id into the wardstone, letting her desire to see what was going on between Kokabiel and Luna manifest.
"Go figure they'd take to the sky," Issei muttered, glancing up where light and colors collided once more, causing the ground to tremble and the wind to push against them briefly. Asia had taken to standing behind Issei, so she could use his body to block the wind.
He didn't mind being her shield. Still, that reminded him of the recovering Fallen still in his arms.
"Oi, you alright?"
"You're an idiot," Raynare repeated herself in a growl - she'd recovered her breath during their trip, but she seemed to take no motion to climb out of Issei's arms. "Can't you see just how much danger you're putting yourselves - all of us - in?"
"As far as I can tell, we're still fine," he said, shrugging briefly. "Beyond the shockwaves and wind, there hasn't actually been any collateral yet."
"Half of the Fallen sent here were part of the attack force," the black-haired Fallen insisted. "If they find you out here, they'll have to act to keep you from interfering in the mission."
He thought he'd seen wings in the sky, though now that his eyes had readjusted to the light show in the air, he didn't see any more. "...Now that you mention it, there were Fallen there before, weren't there? Wouldn't at least one or two have noticed us by now?"
But now he couldn't see anything beyond what was probably Kokabiel and Lunarunn clashing in the air- he lifted an arm and shielded his eyes as a miniature sun ignited in the cool evening air for a long second.
What in the world happened to the other Fallen?
The Longinus wielder heard a soft gasp behind him. "...Ise-kun."
"What's up, As-" he stopped speaking as the smell hit him first, before his widening eyes followed the finger his girlfriend pointed ahead of them... the sight of Fallen Angels, dozens of them if not hundreds, talking, shouting, muttering, or silent... as well as a number of them on the ground, groaning in pain, a not insignificant amount of vomit on the once-pristine grounds of Kuoh Academy, and a number of what could only have been corpses.
Though he couldn't tell for sure how many were in the pile given their condition, he could tell from the smell that was now making his eyes water that they had once been Fallen as well. Even now, Issei could see several Fallen collecting bodies, grimly stoic in their duty.
But there had to be at least hundreds more Fallen in that pile, just based on the size.
"...Oh," the brunet trailed off, swallowing harshly as he tore his eyes away from that pile, his stomach threatening to rebel as he recognized the casualties of the conflict above them.
The woman in his arms, however, did not.
"Oh God... oh God-urrrrgh-!" She started squirming and tore herself from Issei's grasp, dropping to the ground on all fours and adding to the filth already polluting the Academy grounds with the sound of coughs and retches.
Asia knelt down beside Raynare, rubbing her back and holding onto one shoulder, as the brunet stepped in front of the two girls, shielding them from the pile of remains.
"Did... did Lunarunn do this?" he asked nobody in particular.
"Aye... that she did." That was one of the Fallen, a ginger who walked up with a limp and a grimace. "Daft bint bloody well near choked me to death without so much as gettin' in ten yards. I didn't even notice I was dyin' either - she would'a done it wit' all of us if Kokabiel didn't order us ta back off."
He peered at Issei, then at Asia, and then narrowed his eyes at the Fallen. "...Didja bring the humans here, Raynare? Last I checked, ya were supposed to be keepin' em away from-"
"Barrier's not strong enough for this one- hit the deck!" one of the Fallen barked out in warning, and immediately all the Fallen who were standing up or sitting dove to the ground, Issei letting out a grunt as the redhead tackled him to the ground. None too soon, either, as the skies of Kuoh alighted.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Stars flashed in his eyes as the reverberation of what felt like a bomb bowled over him, driving the air from his lungs and leaving him coughing on the ground, rising back up to a sitting position to wipe off his brow...
'Urgh... I'm gonna need a shower after this...' He let out a small groan of disgust as he shook off the piece of gristle now on his arm. Apparently, it flew off the pile of bodies from the force of that explosion. He turned to the girls with a worried glance. "Asia, Raynare, are you two alright?"
Asia looked as though she was fine, if a bit rattled, and opened her mouth before the ginger Fallen cut in.
"Bloody hell!" the ginger swore as he rose back to a kneeling position, leaning on his good leg as he turned his head to the sky. "This is why ya humans an' newbloods aren't supposed ta be here! This is a fuckin' warzone, so scram before somethin' like that happens again!"
"We're staying."
Issei was about to say it himself, but Asia was already back on her feet, normally peaceful eyes filled with a seriousness and sharpness he only rarely saw.
"Are you mental?" the Fallen asked, incredulous.
"Ise-kun brought Raynare with us; we'd have come here whether or not he had," Asia replied, kneeling down and putting a hand on the Fallen's injured leg. "Now hold still."
"What-?" the Fallen trailed off as a pair of rings appeared above the leg he was kneeling on, glowing green as she used Twilight Healing.
"Your muscles are torn, but the bone's not broken. Your leg was dislocated, and recently reset," the healer announced. "I take it you fell, but someone grabbed your leg to keep you from hitting the ground."
"Aye, got it in one... passed out an' nearly went splat had my commander not caught me." He blinked slowly as the glow faded, and he tested his leg before rising back to his feet, stunned. "...Jesus Christ, we could'a used someone like ya a lot earlier!"
'Singing a different tune so swiftly.' Ddraig chimed in with a hollow chuckle. 'At least he recognizes when there are useful people in front of him.'
"We'll help out with tending to the wounded," Issei offered, recognizing the opportunity immediately as he rose to his own feet. "We might be young, but we've both got experience with first aid. I might be able to do something about the barrier too."
There was a brief moment of inspection, before the male Fallen bowed his head in a nod. "Aye, lad. More experienced hands would help a great deal. Not sure 'bout tha offer regardin' the barrier, but more hands for first aid may well save lives t'night."
The ginger's gaze shifted back to Raynare, before he breathed out a sigh and rubbed his forehead. "Honestly Raynare, ya really should consider a change in career; this whole Grigori operative thing of yours clearly isn't your forte. Still, looks like it worked out in this case, so I'm not gonna be too harsh on ya."
Raynare bristled, but then grit her teeth and looked back down, fists tightening and untightening.
The redhead jutted his head at the rest of the camp, having said his piece to the younger Fallen Angel. "C'mon, follow me. The little blonde missus can help with the more severe wounds; you two can help with bandaging and supply-running."
Kokabiel roared as innumerable beams of holy energy shot out from his outstretched hand in every direction. A moment later they slowed to a near stop, before curving in to obliterate the brunette a ways away.
Luna didn't give them that chance. She jabbed her fingers together, interlocking them in a single motion, prompting the multitude of beams to collide with each other, resulting in a blast of light that would have sent her tumbling through the air had she not also created a barrier to deflect the force of the explosion.
Her eyes, however, were still recovering when Kokabiel appeared in front of her, and unlike last time she wasn't able to escape unscathed, hissing out a curse as he scored one, two, several gashes along her sides before blocking the length of the spear in a cross guard.
"Guh!" Even with the block, Kokabiel's strike sent her flying, pursued by a massive beam of light that wouldn't have looked out of place in a certain gateway anime. The Worldweaver clapped her hands together before swiping both to each side, prompting the beam of light to split before her like water before a stone. She paid no further mind to that attack before shooting the telekinetic barrier forward and sending a chain of explosions hurtling at the Watcher of the Stars from multiple angles.
All the while, a pressure lingered in the back of her mind, a proponent of the power she still held in check.
USE.
'...I'm not going to use you.'
She could put pressure on Kokabiel, but she wasn't going to be able to put him down the same way as his men, she knew. He hadn't been affected by the change in the air, suggesting he didn't need air like his subordinates, at least not in the same way. Then there was his sheer power. Luna knew that the strongest beings canonically tended to take a more caster-type role in combat - one need only look at Ajuka and Sirzechs to see how, and Shiva - the strongest living being on Earth beyond the two Dragon Gods - was beyond even Sirzechs in his mastery over the concept of Destruction.
Kokabiel, however, appeared to buck the trend. He certainly used plenty of projectile attacks, but seeing as he was finding his ranged attacks useless while her guard was up, he seemed more than enthusiastic about getting in close, and spears were a popular weapon of war for a reason.
USE.
'I refuse!'
She let out a 'tch' as she imposed a different spacial location over her own being, feeling the pulse in her head resonating in time with the change in her perspective, behind Kokabiel now as opposed to directly in front of his charge, before throwing out a hand to compact the space in front of her, a telekinetic crush to disable at least one of Kokabiel's limbs.
Before she could, he was in melee range again and she had to reprioritize in favor of not getting skewered. Dodge, deflect, twist, flip, kick, 'Nicked my leg-', get away-
USE!
'Shut up!'
Kokabiel's wings flared out as he attempted to stop his backwards momentum, but it gave Luna more time to inspect and deliberate, even as she threw out a hand and engulfed him in the spontaneous combustion of air.
'That fire's only doing so much.'
She forced the growing grimace on her face down with only a small level of success as the Fallen shot out of the blaze and prompted her to deflect another series of strikes - though not without earning herself a few more gashes for her troubles.
Thankfully, each one was a minor, almost insignificant injury, thanks in part to the searing nature of the holy energy he used. But poison could build up, and even as strong as she was Luna could recognize the hidden threat of the holy element.
'He's relentless, and his defenses are nothing to scoff at either. Damn, I could really use your advice right about now Jasp.'
LOSING, the thing in the back of Luna's mind unhelpfully added.
'Can it!'
Her Pawn wasn't here, however, so Luna would have to make do herself.
The smoke spiked, and Luna threw out another barrier, only to find Kokabiel there instead, hand already wrapping around her wrist, knee coming up-
The loud crack and the wave of pain that threatened to break her concentration told Luna everything she needed to know - as if the bone sticking out from her elbow, blood streaming freely, wasn't indicative enough, or the way she had to swallow the scream that threatened to rip its way up her throat.
FOOL.
'Kh...! Bet you thought that before you got sealed, fuckface!'
Kokabiel wasn't done there, his other leg lashing out, and Luna had to force her other arm up, leaning in closer to minimize the impact of his blow, pulling her in closer to his hands-
'Shit, shit, shit!' He also knew how to grapple, she should have figured-
Luna let out that pained yell as her usable hand slammed into his gut, though found little purchase beyond a grunt, other hand already shooting for her neck. With her arm badly damaged, at least for the moment, there was little she could do to stop it.
So she didn't.
She chose to not be there and just take it, instead.
Once more, she blinked, appearing a ways away and staring at her badly bleeding arm.
That... that wasn't good. Luna focused, letting out a faint whine as the bone pushed back into her body, the skin mending behind it.
There was a hiss in Luna's head, and an increased pressure, as she felt the shard of the Beast rear up as though incensed, and her very spirit shuddered in its enhanced presence.
YOUR 'FIGHT' IS WORTHLESS.
Still, she held firm. 'Yet I'm enough of a threat thanks to you to be hunted down by the Grigori's strongest cadre. Why do you care so much about me surviving anyway?'
There was no immediate reply, just a bestial snort.
'Go figure. You need me alive for something, don't you?'
She got no direct response to that either, but the twisted presence in the back of her mind... seemed irritated?.
USE ME.
'For the last time, no!'
Kokabiel didn't bother letting Luna heal her arm in peace, and before she was able to blink away again, he was in her face, blazing sword of holy light just an inch away from her face.
...SO BE IT.
Luna's nose started to leak a bit of blood, even as her forehead grew beads of sweat as she telekinetically held back the weapon.
'...Shit. He nearly got me.'
"Why are you so insistent on hiding your power?" Kokabiel asked, voice filled with incredulity. "Do you not remember? I've already seen it."
"...What the hell are you on about?" Luna furrowed her brow. "It sounds like you're talking about when you first tried to kill me."
"I mean the day Father died."
"Eh? I know about it, but I can't say that I know of it." She shook her head. "Besides, I already told you, I want to prove that I'm more than just Trihexa's pawn."
"Trihexa was sealed away, at the cost of Father's life," he said, quietly. "Yet Trihexa's power is free. You bear its taint. That doesn't make sense."
"That's because the seal is weakening-"
"That seal is temporally-locked," the cadre interrupted. "It cannot be changed, not by anything within Creation."
"How would you know?" Luna furrowed her brow. "Isn't your realm of training in combat, astrology, and astronomy?"
"I was there. When Father sealed the Beast away. I was also there when Azazel, Sandalphon, and all of Father's other greatest minds determined exactly what He did." Kokabiel took a deep breath. "It was locked away, outside of time and space. Beyond even the Dimensional Gap, beyond even the grasp of the Elder Gods. One could say that Father's seal banished Trihexa from Creation itself."
He peered at Luna, for a long, slow moment.
"You really are not of this world, or at least not His Creation... aren't you?"
Luna's eyes widened briefly, before she let out a brief chuckle. "...Got it in one. You were right to call me an Outsider when we first met. You said it like you were calling me out for having powers that directly affect reality, but really you called out my origins too. So... what, you're suggesting I might be Trihexa reborn or something?"
"..." For perhaps the first time, at least in Luna's presence, he seemed truly lost in thought. "I meant it as an insult, but I didn't realize how true it actually was. You really are an Outsider. And one corrupted by Trihexa, no less."
Corrupted... but not Trihexa itself. Had she finally gotten through?
"Not entirely. Marked, but not corrupted. There's a difference." Something about what Kokabiel said didn't sit right with Luna though, and she scrunched her brow. "But you mean to say that there's been Outsiders before?"
"You're the second."
Something flashed in the cadre's face, an emotion that should not have been there. Luna, somehow, knew that in the very depths of her being, despite not immediately recognizing what the emotion itself was. Then he whispered something, and the brunette's eyes widened.
'...What...?'
Kokabiel's arm blurred, and Luna threw her own arm up to try and block it, too stunned by his words to create a barrier.
Just as quickly as the impact started, it was gone, replaced by an all-too-familiar burning sensation all the way through her bicep.
Her breath caught as she noticed her severed arm floating away from her body, dissolving into motes of light as its Devil nature was overcome by the holy energy Kokabiel had used to sever it, the divine infection that instantly cauterized the wound creeping upward.
The same blade he was now slashing at her unprotected midsection.
'...Ah.'
She wasn't sure if it was agony, defiance, fear, outrage, frustration, or a mix of those and more that prompted her to take in a deep, sharp breath.
But whatever it was, it happened as blood started pouring from her nose, her wings started to shimmer, and her pupils' rapid glowing of prismatic colors accelerated to a pure white.
Jaspal's eyes widened as the holographic globe she had been watching began to shudder, before sputtering out entirely. She wasted no time in swiping her hand to the side, bringing up a magic array. "Georg!"
"I know!"
Yasaka staggered as the leyline beneath her and the rest of the Kyoto Yokai Faction rumbled, the stream of life energy rearing like a mighty beast about to release an earthshattering bellow.
"What in the...?"
That beast roared.
Masaomi drove the Kusanagi no Tsurugi into the soil as he pulled out every single protective talisman he could, shouting out rapid warnings to what few Fallen were nearby and hurling those talismans their way as he slammed several of his own into the ground.
He rested his hands on the makeshift circle and began to pray, calling on Heaven to shield them from the dawn of day despite the already-set sun.
'Father, grant us sanctuary!'
The shockwave hit.
Something shot down Issei's spine, and he started moving without thinking. The water and bandages he had been carrying spilled to the ground, crimson armor forming around him as shouts sprang up around him as he sprinted through the camp of Fallen agents tending to their wounded and dead.
'No, no, no no no no nononononono-'
BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST! the Sacred Gear announced in rapid pace, the world around him turning to a blur as he rushed around the camp.
He had to move, he had to hurry, he had to find- there!
Issei's hand slammed against the back of the Fallen he noted was part of a small group who were surrounding a circle - a protective seal.
Above them, he couldn't see any more clouds.
"TRANSFER!" he yelled, knowing that it still might not be enough for-
The shockwave hit.
Rias gasped, staggering backward from the wardstone, clutching at her eyes with a cry of pain and alarm, prompting Sona and Akeno to step forward in similar concern.
"Buchou!" Akeno caught her, but her King immediately tore herself away to slam both hands back on the wardstone, face ashen.
"All of you, barrier, now!" the redhead's voice was shrill, and her aura spilled over the ceiling as she called upon every drop of power she could wring out of her reserves.
"Shit-" Isaiah ran up to do the same, as did everyone else in the wardstone room, spurred on by the panic in the Gremory heiress's voice, auras mixing in the room as they all gathered around the wardstone to pour in their power in order to-
The shockwave hit.
The Worldweaver screamed.
Night turned to day.
The clouds broke.
The sky torn asunder.
The shockwaves hit.
A/N -
FUCK I hate writing fighting, it's so hard to give a good balance of what's going on in your head and allowing the reader to fill in the rest! To say nothing of pacing! AAAAAAAAGH-
Have you read The Martian? The astronaut stuck in that story, if he failed to escape Mars, was going to flood his spacesuit with nitrogen. The human body doesn't recognize nitrogen as not providing the type of air we need to survive, which means that those who inhale nitrogen with no oxygen asphyxiate probably as painlessly as you can get with... well, dying due to a lack of oxygen. Now, I get how Fallen are still constructs of God and probably could get by without needing to breathe... if they had a biblically accurate 'true' form, anyway. DxD is a bit of a ways off from that, at least as far as the rank and file goes. Hence why they started to drop out of the sky like flies when Luna started to play with the fabric of reality more intensely. I've specified before that it's far easier for Luna to kill than it is for her to fight; this was her being merciful about singlehandedly taking the lives of an entire battalion of Fallen Angels into her discretion.
She could have, say, ripped the boiling blood out of their bodies just as easily, after all.
That being said, against Kokabiel proper she's still taking a beating. Luna might focus in speed, but Kokabiel's fighting style, aside from the difference in weapon choice, is not too different from Issei's, and the kid's been shown to fuck casters up if he's able to get into melee range. Not to mention we're talking millennia of difference in training and combat experience compared to a little over two decades. Luna doesn't have the raw physical boost from Cataclysm Eclipse, either, due to her own insistence on beating Kokabiel without it. She's way stronger now, to the point where she can solo entire armies of supernatural soldiers without breaking a sweat, but she's at a marked disadvantage when trying to square up against enemies in her own power bracket, partly due to her inexperience and partly due to the nature of Worldweave as she uses it. Even more so, since she's breaking into the realm of enemies that are resistant to things like suffocation or exsanguination. I wanted to show that in this chapter, and I hope I managed to pull it off okay.
Speaking of which - we have more plot development! I've laid crumbs for a little while now, so starting over the next couple chapters, we'll be seeing those come to fruition.
That being said, don't discount Worldweave outright. I know people have been complaining about her not using WW to its fullest extent - and that includes things like delving into nuclear physics.
We're about to see why she hasn't.
Tempura Wizard out.
