It'd be a massive spoiler to get into the specifics, but kind of. Remember the team has a few Sacred Gears keeping Abby alive. Plus, she can mix SS's Crimson Tears with Sephiroth Graal to steal others. She just hasn't figured it out.
Secret missions used to be cool, they used to be entertaining. Nowadays they simply worked like regular orders given by the higher ups, but with the added steps of being stealthy and going incognito. Which got increasingly more annoying to Fate Weaver the longer he had to put up with them. Not only because he could think of a few ways of avoiding all the extra work, but because the moment that his Miracle Child name came out, literally everyone would know who he was and would want to interact with him in some capacity. Be it because they worshiped him as the grandchild of God, or because they wanted him dead. There was little to no in between, except for the secret third option of people wanting to fuck him. But those cases were rare, and he didn't have much interest in them since they weren't any of the girls from the series.
They'd probably be a waste of time.
"Ise~!"
"Oof! Good to see you too, Shinon."
The team was summoned to one of the Grigori headquarters, urged to keep a low profile and basically only interact with the members of the fallen that his mom accepted. They were, officially, in the Vatican recovering from one mission or another, and would be kept protected until they were ready to head out again. In reality, this just meant that the team went to one of Azazel's more… Private labs, and managed to squeeze a little bit of the totally-non-existent ties they had to the Underworld. Ergo… Shinon was finally with him again.
"I missed you so much!" The brunette clung to Fate Weaver's neck with so much intensity that he wondered if she wasn't a [Rook] now "I was worried about you, y'know?"
"I couldn't stop thinking about you either." Fate Weaver gave her a little peck on the forehead "I know Sona's fine, but being so far away after everything that happened…"
"Yeah." The brunette hid her face on his chest "I know. I was scared too. That thing… I heard it was bad."
"It was." Xenovia approached them, still with that hoarse tone of hers "But we dealt with it."
Shinon didn't like that tone very much, but Fate Weaver cradled her so she wouldn't pay Xenovia too much attention.
Honestly, when was the blue haired girl going to open up a bit? Fate Weaver couldn't help being annoyed by her attitude. It sort of reminded him of… Well, his brother. So sure in herself, stating things like they were the obvious. Except that, at least, Xenovia didn't pretend to be any smarter than she actually was. That alone made her a lot more tolerable but…
"I'm glad she didn't come with us. We couldn't make sure she'd be safe." Irina didn't stay behind for long "Hey there, Shinon-chan."
"Irina-chan!" Shinon released Fate Weaver a little too soon, and hugged Irina with the same intensity. Getting the ginger girl to return the hug and shake the brunette a bit.
"You're fine! I'm so glad…" Irina released her, turning around to see Asia shyly getting closer. Not because she didn't trust Shinon, but because her mood hadn't improved all that much in the following days from… The news.
Maybe Fate Weaver's mood was still held by the memory of his previous life, chained to the small hands of that little devil. Or, well. Since Diodora hadn't been that small, normal-sized hands? The point being, it felt like everything he'd worked toward was now being dragged down into the mud. Tainted by a presence he'd long thought forever gone. Somewhere that'd never be able to reach Fate Weaver.
Oh, how wrong he'd been.
"Come in, come in!" Shinon took the hint and kindly pushed Asia along. Making sure to give her a warm welcome as she motioned toward the entrance "Akeno-san and Kiba-kun are here too. There's some catching up to do!"
Fate Weaver didn't show it, but the news made him a little confused. Shinon was part of Sona's peerage, and had special privileges thanks to being in a relationship with Fate Weaver. However, both Akeno and Kiba didn't like leaving Rias' side for long. Not even when Fate Weaver tried to get them to follow him into some of the missions he still did for the church.
Why were they here? Was Rias here? Did it have to do with his brother's 'peerage'?
The last question didn't seem directly related, but Fate Weaver just couldn't shrug it off at all. He'd dreamed of him, and their sister and the bastards that raised them. It felt like he was less Fate Weaver and more the isolated child that he'd been before. He felt less in a way that he couldn't describe, and that ruined his mood no matter what he did. He thought that seeing Shinon would help, given that none of the girls had acknowledged his advances, but even now things weren't working out.
How good was the little bastard at ruining things that even after death he messed with Fate Weaver's life?
"Hmmm?" Thinking about awful things made Fate Weaver try to remember everything good he's had in this world, and doing that made him remember that someone was missing "Star?"
The dirty blonde Miracle Child had stopped in her tracks and watched over the rest from afar, seemingly unwilling to keep moving while Fate Weaver went back to pick her up.
"Nasu?" The girl seemingly snapped out of her thoughts, and looked at him like someone who'd just woken up.
"Something wrong?" Fate Weaver asked "You're… Weird."
Star pushed him playfully.
"You can't call a girl weird! How did you get a girl with that attitude?!"
Fate Weaver scoffed.
"If you're just messing around, quit it. This is bothersome already." He pushed her a little in turn "Let's go."
Star still hung back a little, but followed without complaint. It'd be for the best, given that everyone had already gathered inside and were chatting among themselves. With there being more people than Fate Weaver expected. Actually, weren't those…?
"Ah. Aren't they the Miracle Children?" A huge young man moved amidst the people and walked up to Fate Weaver and Star. His short black hair and grayish dapper clothes let Fate Weaver know who it was immediately.
"Sairaorg Bael, I presume?" Fate Weaver reached out with a hand "I heard about you from Rias."
"Oh? Did my cousin really talk about good ol' me? That makes me kind of happy." Sairaorg took the offered hand with a smirk. Clutching it tightly but without any intention of hurting Fate Weaver. Simply giving it his best effort "I too have heard from you. Red Dragon Emperor, right?"
Behind him, a small boy walked closer. Seemingly being the spirit within the Regulus Nemea. What were they doing here?
"That's right. The one and only." Fate Weaver gave him a confident smile "Hope we're able to test each other out."
Sairaorg perked up even more at that.
"You said it." He released Fate Weaver and turned to the girl behind him "And you're… Star Seeker, right?"
"Mhm." The girl replied absentmidedly "Pleasure's all yours."
"Star!"
"Hahaha! Of course, of course. You both are basically legendary creatures, I get that." Sairaorg didn't seem to take it wrong at all. Was he dumb or just naturally kind hearted? Sometimes Fate Weaver couldn't tell those traits apart "I'm basically making history here!"
Farther into the chambers, a few people had made a circle. With a woman in nun clothes holding Saji's face in her hands, shaking him up a bit while a raven haired young woman hung back, and a girl with silver and black hair and red eyes grinned at them.
"Excuse me." Fate Weaver moved away from Sairaorg, nodding at the nemean lion while sharpening his senses. Azazel had joined this small group while he got distracted.
"...Your promise." The nun had light hair and a very lost expression. Wholly empty, or perhaps tired. She spoke so softly that Fate Weaver thought he'd imagined her voice at first. And she worded things so slowly that he didn't know what language she used for a moment.
"When have I let you down, Belen?" Azazel shrugged.
"Ummm, can you release me, Belen-san? It kind of…" Saji whimpered a little, but the nun complied all the same.
"And I got a cool power too!" The black and white haired girl chimed in, giving Saji a shit-eating grin like she'd bite him.
"It's still in development, if it feels weird…" Azazel was interrupted by the nun, who simply raised her hands and reached out to grab the girl's head.
"Eep!"
"It's… Tolerable…" The nun said.
"So I can keep it, right?!" The girl shook the hands off and energetically bounced in place.
The nun gave Azazel a questioning look.
"We'll need to do more research." He answered tentatively.
"Sure! It's alright, right mom?!" The girl snapped her face toward the nun, and immediately got a slap on top of her head "Ow?!"
"Don't… Call me… Mom…" The nun furrowed her eyebrows, but she didn't look actually angry.
"If needed, we can pick up Lint later." The raven haired young woman spoke up "Sister Belen is glad to help."
"I'm not…" The nun looked away.
"She's alright with helping." The young woman corrected without missing a beat.
"That'd be huge." The fallen angel nodded "Thanks again."
The nun shook her head.
"Don't damage her." Was all she said before walking away. Without even saying any kind of farewell.
"Well, be good Lint." The young woman excused herself and… "Oh!"
The two of them almost collided with Fate Weaver, with the nun stopping centimeters away from him but refusing to move.
"Hello there!" The young woman cheerfully waved her hand "You must be Fate Weaver! It's a pleasure."
"Yes, that's me." Fate Weaver gave her a small smile, given that she was cute "Sorry, but I don't know who you are."
"Right! I'm Elle, sister Belen's… Well, aidee-slash-secretary." The young woman motioned to the nun "This is sister Belen Murray. We're in charge of a small chapel close to the border of Italy."
"A pleasure." Fate Weaver nodded to the nun, but she didn't react at all.
"We're leaving." The nun said before taking a step to Fate Weaver's left and continuing to walk away.
Fate Weaver saw her go, feeling something ugly in his chest as he was ignored.
"Sister Belen is… A bit complicated. Please don't take it personally." Elle nodded to him "Sorry, would've liked to meet you with more time."
"No, no. Go ahead. Do your job." Fate Weaver offered her another smile.
"Yeah… Thank you, sir!" Elle bowed and hurried to follow the nun.
Fate Weaver's smile fell off once they were out of sight.
"Bitch…"
"Red Dragon Emperor!" The black and white haired girl slapped Fate Weaver on the shoulder, and the contact made the Miracle Child shiver. Not because it hurt, or because it took him by surprise. But because the contact felt really, really wrong to him "What's up?! I'm Lint Sellzen, we'll be working together from now on!"
"Ah, Ise, Shiki." Azazel greeted the two Miracle Children once he made sure that the bitchy nun was really gone "Good. You're already here."
"Azazel-sensei." Fate Weaver nodded at him "What's going on?"
He pointed at another small group, closer to the gate, which consisted of Akeno, Kiba, someone who he was pretty sure was the valkyrie from the anime, and a masked blonde girl that Fate Weaver didn't recognize.
"I'm getting to that. Give me a moment." Azazel winked and clapped his hands, getting the people to pay attention to him and stop their own conversations.
All in all, it was Fate Weaver's team, the devils, the valkyrie, and Bel, and…
What the hell was fucking Kokabiel doing here?
"Alright, people. Thanks for coming. You should all be up to speed with the way things are between Heaven, the Grigori and Underworld, so I'll skip that…"
"I… I actually don't know myself." The silver haired valkyrie, wearing a light suit, raised her hand sheepishly.
"Azazel-sensei? Who's that?" Star pointed at the valkyrie carelessly, not caring at all about the stares she got.
"This is the valkyrie Rossweisse. She's a master in sealing magic and one of Odin's closest aidees." Azazel put a hand on Rossweisse's shoulder.
"Eh?! So the Norse faction is here?!" Irina sounded rather alarmed, activating her Sacred Gear in the same instant that she ended her question.
"Eh… No. I got kidnapped by a young man in a hood." Rossweisse looked away, laughing pathetically as she spoke "At first I thought he had a crush on me and wanted to take me to be his bride, but he actually left me here and given how Master Odin didn't pick up when I tried to call… Well, Lord Azazel gave me a job here."
A guy in a hood? Wait, that couldn't be…
"That was Sin Devourer, yes." Azazel clapped his hands "But forget about that. We're not actually getting tied up with the Norse… Yet. What matters is that Rose is here and she knows all about sealing magic."
"I… Made my thesis about it. I used…"
"Boring!" Star yelled "Can we keep going?!"
"Star!" Fate Weaver admonished her.
"Yeah, Starry-eyes! Shut up!" The blonde in the gas mask showed the Miracle Child the finger.
Starry-eyes?
"Eli-san, please…" Saji actually put his pants on for once and managed to talk to a girl without stuttering. And he even tried to placate her! Good for him "Calm down."
"The obnoxious child is right, Azazel." Kokabiel crossed his arms with a bit of a grin on his face "Let's leave the details for later, we all have things to do."
"Right." Azazel beckoned both Kokabiel and the blonde in the mask "So, long story short, we're here to show the higher ups that we can all work together. And so, I thought of a bit of an exercise for all of us to enjoy."
He put a hand on the blonde's shoulder once she stood between him and the valkyrie. She dressed like a mix between Azazel and Rossweisse, more or less like a dapper scientist with a raincoat-like cape. Her mask was dark green and didn't reveal any of her features, but Fate Weaver could tell she was cute behind the mask thanks to her voice.
"This is Eli. Team church, except for Ise, will be working with her today. Please treat her well."
Wait, what?
"I'm Eli!" The girl bumped her fist to the air "Church girls, Akeno… And I think that's everyone… Well, with me gals! We're gonna have fun today!"
"What is this about? Why are we going with this shady kid?" Xenovia didn't look very pleased with this turn of events.
"That's right. It's fine if you want to hurry up, but we're pretty much in the dark about today's details." Sairaorg added.
"That's why I wanted Rose to present herself…" Azazel touched his temple "Rose and I are joining efforts to study Sacred Gears, she's helping me with sealing creatures within them. And studying various types of Sacred Gears will help with that."
"Okay, but what about this girl?" Sairaorg asked again, content with letting Azazel explain himself.
"I deal with more natural powers. I have some experience and can interact with Sacred Gears a little, but I'm more interested in the way these girls use their holy weapons right now." Eli explained.
"I see… Then, the final fallen angel…"
"I am Kokabiel." The bat-faced fallen angel fixed his cloak "I don't need any introductions, you know who I am. I'll be in charge of our dragons today."
"Hold on, what?" Fate Weaver finally interrupted. Getting everyone's attention.
"That little rascal, the Prison Dragon, Bel, and the Samael girl will be training with me. Azazel gave me a couple of tools to analyze your Sacred Gears. But you all will be focusing on growing strong today." Kokabiel's smirk looked like that of a predator, filled with fangs and making his bloodshot eyes even more sinister "You're supposed to be important characters in the modern era, so it's only natural that you'd be key factors in this as well."
"Finally, Yuuto and Sairaorg will be with me." Azazel said "We'll do fun stuff together, I promise."
What about Shinon?
"Hold on, Asia-chan and I also have Sacred Gears." Irina raised her hand "Shouldn't we also go with this group?"
"Also, why does a pure-blooded devil get to go with the humans?" Xenovia added.
"That won't be disclosed." Eli was the one to answer "But don't worry. You guys just have to come with me first, then we'll join them. You were just the last to arrive."
"Oh, so it's like a checkup?" Irina sounded more relaxed.
"You got it." Eli made finger guns toward the ginger.
"What about me?" Xenovia asked again "I don't have a Sacred Gear. I…"
Azazel's expression changed immediately.
"You go with Eli first, then you and I can go to the next set of tests." The fallen angel almost spoke in a sing-song tone.
It actually surprised Xenovia a bit.
"You'd give me a Sacred Gear?"
"You wield Durandal, so it might be redundant." Azazel stated "But, if you insist, we can see if I can give you a little something. Why not?"
Fate Weaver didn't like that at all. Xenovia started following him because he told her that if she proved her strength, he might be able to do the same as he did with Irina and ask to give her a Sacred Gear. The process wasn't an easy one, because his mother hadn't liked that he resorted to such things to begin with. And he'd hoped to gain her trust before anything could derail his plans, but now it seemed like this wouldn't work at all.
He might have to kiss Xenovia goodbye after this.
"C'mon, Red Dragon Emperor." Lint put her arm around his shoulders, getting another shiver out of Fate Weaver while she grinned at him "You and I are fighting it off today. Aren't you excited?"
Given that she was with Bel and Saji, it'd seem like this girl was the one with the Samael Sacred Gear. It… Honestly, Fate Weaver couldn't trust this girl. Sure, she was cute, but the wrongness she emitted penetrated so thinly that Fate Weaver could almost feel the dragon soul sealed within him. Restless as the Miracle Child himself, but still out of reach.
"Actually, I'd like a rematch with Bel." Fate Weaver shrugged the arm off "We got unfinished business."
Kokabiel smirked at that.
"No way, dove boy. You haven't fought her." Bel crossed her arms, almost offended that he'd suggest that "I'll tenderize this guy instead."
"Eh?"
"Me?" Saji looked a little horrified.
"Why him?" For once, Fate Weaver agreed with the blond's dismay.
"Kuroka's not here." Bel grinned wildly "That means you and I can have fun without interruption. Azazel said your goal is to attain Balance Breaker, so I'll manhandle you until you unlock it."
"Wait, you still don't have Balance Breaker?" Fate Weaver made a noise similar to a drowned laugh "Really? Dude, you'll get murdered by her. Are you sure you don't just want to leave before you get hurt?"
"I don't have it either!" Lint raised her hand.
"Yes, that's why you people will be fighting without it." Kokabiel looked amused while walking away, beckoning them to follow "Come on, I'll explain the rules while we get to the chamber we'll use."
"No Balance Breaker?" Bel frowned "That's hardly fair."
"You think that fighting a guy without a Balance Breaker is fair when you have it?" Kokabiel laughed at Bel "This is not a real battle, Bel. Relax."
"You say that because you haven't fought this boy, old man." Bel jammed a finger onto one of the fallen angel's wings, making him hiss "You're comparing four Sacred Gears to one."
"To a Longinus, Bel." Kokabiel reminded her "If you don't want to lose, I suggest undusting your demonic power for once."
"Ummm, Bel-san actually has a bad matchup against me." Saji raised his hand "Maybe we can agree to different rules in this case?"
Fate Weaver almost choked upon hearing the guy's audacity.
"Dude, she's the strongest Vanishing Dragon of past, present, and future." Honestly, Fate Weaver kind of hated the guy. More now that he knew that he used to work for his little brother. But even he felt a little bad at the blond's messed up perception of reality "You'll get murdered. Murdered, I tell you."
Saji shrugged his hand off.
"Shut it, dove boy." Bel spoke with the same annoyance that Saji showed on his face "You speak like you're very impressive yourself."
"Ummm, what about me?" Lint interrupted.
"Lint-san, maybe it'd be better to see how someone uses a fire Sacred Gear before training?" Saji gave her a small smile, still visibly upset, and turned to Fate Weaver "I'll fight him first, then we can proceed from there."
Fate Weaver forgave Bel for a moment.
"Really? After all the time we've trained together?" He honestly couldn't believe the audacity of someone who'd never actually injured him before. No, scratch that. Saji had never even been close to hurting Fate Weaver at all "Are you sure?"
Saji turned toward Kokabiel.
"Is that fine?"
"You'll make my job easier." The bat-faced fallen angel shrugged "Are you girls fine with this?"
"We can watch." Bel looked amused too "It'll be good for this little abomination."
She put her hand on Lint's shoulder, but the girl didn't mind.
"Oh, man. The Red Dragon Emperor and the Prison Dragon?" Lint's grin was a little more feral than Bel's "Yes, yes, yes! Wreck each other's shit!"
Fate Weaver scoffed.
"Final chance." He told Saji "Are you sure?"
Saji took a lungful of air before speaking, probably trying to hype himself up because he knew he had no chance.
"Vritra?" Saji called out.
"Red Dragon Emperor." A reptilian voice spoke up as Saji became infested with black tattoos of snake all around his visible skin "I, Evil Dragon King Vritra, formally request a duel in good faith against you and yours."
Fate Weaver grinned.
"Well, can't disappoint the Prison Dragon himself." He shrugged "Fine, I accept."
"I see… No answer." The black snake tattoos receded after a moment of silence "Do your best, my Otherself. The Red One might become interested if you perform well."
Fate Weaver's face started burning as everyone looked at him.
"Let's do this." Saji let a cheeky grin peek through his lips.
"Alright, children. Forceful Balance Breaker awakening attempt number one begins… Now." Kokabiel activated some sort of barrier in the chamber, making the huge white panels light up with some sort of magic that became invisible all at once after activating.
It looked like a square stadium, and the girls sat one at each side of the fallen angel behind the invisible barrier. Both pretty excited about the two guys trapped within.
Fate Weaver and Saji had changed into nondescript yoga-like clothes. Light gray pants with a darker t-shirt which accentuated their musculature. Fate Weaver was built more like a boxer; stylized, athletic, but obviously worked. While Saji looked rougher, perhaps more like a wrestler. Still with defined muscles, but bulkier. Like he had his muscles for show.
Fate Weaver obviously didn't care about that, like, at all. And he simply summoned his Sacred Gear after Kokabiel signaled them to begin.
"Hey, I heard your master is dead." Fate Weaver didn't try to taunt him, but instead spoke out of honest curiosity "Is that true?"
He wanted to focus on pummeling this guy. Not because of his ties with Fate Weaver's previous brother or whatever, but because he'd gotten on his nerves through the years they'd known each other. So he wanted to do this with a clear mind, putting the other world matters aside.
"What are you gonna do?" Fate Weaver insisted when all Saji did was to harden his features "Thinking of running back to Rias?"
Saji moved his arms together and moved them like he was ripping something with his arms. Dark tendrils came out of his skin and created two whip-like shadows that extended beyond his body and around him. Seemingly levitating and coiling as the blond took deep breaths.
"That has nothing to do with you." Saji hissed.
Fate Weaver scoffed.
"So be it."
[BOOST!]
With a minor blessing and the surge in power from his Sacred Gear, Fate Weaver dashed forward into Saji's waiting hands. He faked the blond out, dashing sidewise and swinging his giant Sacred Gear blade sidewise following the movement of his feet.
Saji just narrowly managed to put his dark tendrils in the way of the Boosted Gear, taking the hit head on and being pushed back a little while the tendrils coiled around the blade. They tried to get Fate Weaver's hands, but he released the Sacred Gear and kicked Saji back, making the blond have to correct his stance and making some distance from him.
The Longinus host summoned two light spears, one per hand, and rushed back toward his Sacred Gear. Saji still kept it with one of the tendrils, but used the other to try to ensnare Fate Weaver himself. Shooting it out like the tongue of a frog with a pathetically focused expression.
Fate Weaver dodged the incoming tendril, and spun around to throw both of the light spears. He changed them in mid-air, having them detonate into golden flames and exploding around Saji to make Fate Weaver a real opening for him to…
Black flames erupted from the blond's open mouth, devouring Fate Weaver's holy fire and forcing the Miracle Child back again. It made Fate Weaver click his tongue in annoyance, but he simply raised his palm into the air.
[Reset]
The Boosted Gear disappeared from Saji's grasp and was re-summoned into Fate Weaver's waiting hand, getting the Miracle Child back in the game as he summoned more light spears and launched them at Saji without a second thought.
[Boost!]
Normally, his holy powers were considered lacking compared to someone like Star Seeker or Sin Devourer. With the Boosted Gear taking the vast majority of Fate Weaver's total strength. But here, he didn't need a lot of the light element. He just needed to keep faking Saji out, taking advantage of the simpleton until he got another opening. He could just hang back and wait for the timer to reset, growing stronger the more time Saji tried to take the light element head on.
The blond didn't seem to get injured, however. Not even a bit. And the places where the spears connected didn't leave smoke behind, or even any indication that the element was damaging him.
Wasn't Saji a devil? How did he get strong enough to not be easily injured by Fate Weaver's holy powers? He was a [Bishop]!
[Boost]
Saji tried to be cheeky and replicated the way Fate Weaver threw out light spears, but with his black flames. They exchanged blows like this for a bit, basically checking each other's prowess. Like a shared game of seeing who would get serious first.
That annoyed the hell out of Fate Weaver.
This guy… He'd always been useless! In canon and here! Even if he got some sort of powerup from Azazel, even when he got the four Vritra Sacred Gears… It was all useless in his hands! True, nothing massive had happened here while his brother was…
Fate Weaver gritted his teeth, rushing in to slam the edge of the Boosted Gear against Saji's face. The blond blocked it with his tendrils, but his barefoot stance broke a little against Fate Weaver's heavy blow.
[Burst]
The Boosted Gear's blade lit up and released an explosion of draconic power right on Saji's face. Throwing him to the floor and making him bounce off of it. Fate Weaver was pushed back a little too, but he was still in position to slash at Saji without restraint.
Tendrils shot out from the blond's legs, coiling around Fate Weaver's ankles and shooting up to restrain the Sacred Gear sword from behind. Forcing Fate Weaver into a strange position of having his arms above his head while being unable to swing the sword down without pulling his own legs from under him.
"You're so annoying…!" Fate Weaver gritted his teeth as he released the Boosted Gear again, seeing Saji rush toward him with a fist raised.
Fate Weaver summoned a light shield to take the hit, and black flames erupted from between Saji's knuckles. Eating away at the light and showering Fate Weaver in black flames as he used up the Boosted Gear's stored power to make a better forcefield around him.
This was the trick he used to be at the top. Even if his light attribute was lacking, he could just exchange his boosted power for small bursts of holy power. It might be considered cheating since he could do it again and again, but hey. He was born this way, he wouldn't stop just because people called it unfair due to jealousy!
Saji pulled the tendrils toward himself, but Fate Weaver popped out his light wings and avoided falling on his back this way. He met Saji in the middle of a swing, kicking the idiot's face out of the way before pivoting around to face him head on. Connecting a punch on the chin which erupted in holy flames.
Saji was propelled back instead of burning up, and Fate Weaver was pulled through the dark tendrils with him. They both fell to the ground, but Fate Weaver recovered fast enough to re-summon his Boosted Gear to try and impale the blond bastard on the shoulder.
The sword cut the guy's clothes, but the edge slid off his skin and stuck itself into the floor below.
What… The fuck…?
Saji recovered, and slammed his fist against Fate Weaver's chin. Closing his mouth with a loud bang and taking some light out of his eyes as this punch felt a lot harder than the others.
The Miracle Child bounced thanks to still being connected with the tendrils, and Saji turned around to slam Fate Weaver against the floor and straddle him while driving punch after punch against the Miracle Child's face.
"Heh… Hehehe… Hahahaha!" The mad cackle didn't belong to the guy going ape mode on Fate Weaver. It was distinctively feminine, a lot more vicious than this idiot was capable of.
Fate Weaver shot a barrage of holy fire at Saji's face, making the guy flinch as his eyes burned up. Giving the Miracle Child enough time to get his bearings and hold his Sacred Gear in the proper way.
"Penetrate!" Fate Weaver drove the sword into the bastard's stomach… Or at least tried to.
The tendrils had moved beneath Fate Weaver, manifesting behind his shoulders and shooting toward the guard in such a way that it didn't let the Miracle Child extend his arms properly, only managing to kind of poke Saji with the tip of the Sacred Gear.
"GRA!" For some reason, the tendrils were too tough. Too resilient. It didn't matter that Fate Weaver had used one of the Boosted Gear's trump cards, because he couldn't stab anything like this.
Saji tightened up the tendrils, grinning as he tried to peer his eyes open and managing to snap Fate Weaver's concentration whole.
His brother, the thing with Xenovia, the failure with the Hero Faction, the annoyance of having to do all this secrecy… This and a lot more pilled up and made Fate Weaver way too angry to reason. He'd felt like shit since the day the slime retreated, but this was just humiliating. He'd thought it'd be alright to blow some steam with Saji. That it'd be easy unlike the past few days…
Life reared its ugly head once more.
"ENOUGH!"
[Welsh Dragon Balance Breaker!]
Fate Weaver released such a burst of power that it unmade the tendrils and sent Saji back against one of the barriers of the arena.
It was even more humiliating that he'd have to do this, but he'd suspected something was up since Bel was hyping Saji up so much. He didn't want to believe it. Or rather, he wanted to think it was his nerves getting the better of his judgment. But honestly, he wasn't self-absorbed enough to keep lying to himself anymore.
"Okay…" Fate Weaver wheezed as he loomed over the reincarnated devil "Playtime's over."
Saji opened his eyes, the organs themselves being bloody red but functional. Even his burnt skin seemed to be rapidly becoming normal with each deep breath he took. Fate Weaver murmured a quick blessing to his eyes, and he noticed lifeforce forcefully healing the damage done by the holy fire.
Still too little. It made Fate Weaver even more mad that this was all his partially augmented holy power could do.
"Cool." Saji slowly stood up. Not because he had troubles with it, but because he was taunting Fate Weaver "Why don't you boost yourself more, then?"
[Boost!]
Fate Weaver's eyes opened widely.
[Boost!]
"What?!"
Saji's grin grew wider as a wave of power pushed against Fate Weaver almost invisibly, only detectable because of the small blessing he gave himself.
"I told you it was a bad matchup." Saji's power grew in intensity and the Scale Mail took even longer to boost further "Let's go, child of god. I've been waiting for you!"