Coming back to life was a strange experience, especially feeling your cranium come back together.
Taking a deep breath ,Thomas opened his eyes, scanning around him to see where he was. He immediately recognized the ceiling of his shop. That surprised him, but it wasn't unwelcome.
He raised his torso, sitting up. He noticed Rias next to him, her eyes red and swollen like she had just cried and around her, her peerage protectively surrounding the girl. He also noticed the hole in the wall from which he could catch a glimpse of light going off every so often.
Finally the smell of blood hit him, all around him. His eyes landed on the body of issei and the puddle of blood he himself was in, all around him an complex array of symbols arranged in a strange manner. He glanced at the writing on the ground and quickly realised what had happened.
"I'm under contract ?" He asked Rias directly, she seemed to struggle finding an answer but in the end simply gave a shaky nod. Thomas looked down at his blood-drenched clothes.
"Well then, I suppose I have to help you now." He said, suddenly standing up, he felt the small hint of magic working through his body helping him keep his equilibrium. The weight of coming back to life really wasn't something to be ignored, but he had to move right now.
Thomas took a deep breath, and did something he avoided doing since the moment he had gotten here. He used his charge. In a second, all the power he had accumulated to be used in case of urgency was spent.
He began by choosing two things to make sure he could bring Issei back to life.
The first one was a fate defying power allowing him to forcefully bring back a dead to life, as the power put it: no one is too dead to not be resurrected. It generally made no situation too bad to not be untreatable. No wound too deep, no illness incurable.
The other was even simpler, he simply chose the god of life itself. Xerneas, legendary pokemon. Thomas cracked a small smile at the idea of summoning pokemon in real life but quickly refocused back on the task at hand.
The rest of the charge was spent in about five different powers at once, all with the same end goal. Kill Kokabiel. And do it well. The first one made him just generally really good at fighting, the next one allowed gradual control over heat with training. In truth that one wasn't as immediately useful but he couldn't pass the occasion of throwing fireballs around.
The third honed further his instincts and pushed his body far beyond normal human limit into the supernatural.
The last two had a singular goal, it taught him how to kill, one modified his eyes to see life itself and strike as to cut it, the other gave him a path to the death of his target. They were very similar but the duo didn't cover exactly the same realm, as such the combination of both only empowered them, turning the just converted boy into a death machine.
Thomas took a step towards Issei and looked down at its body. For a few tense moments he did nothing, but suddenly he waved his hands.
Once again only silence filled the shop, that and the occasional clash of the monster outside. However before anyone could really start questioning what was going on. A light flashed right next to Thomas. Said boy didn't even glance at it and simply issued a command.
"Heal" One word, and Xerneas moved.
The thing that words fail to catch within godhood is always its nature, so far beyond what the mortal can even comprehend that the only way to describe its actions is always magic. For logic fails where the mind cannot explore.
Issei's body twitched and slowly rose up to its feet. His empty dead eye ever so gently filled with the spark they were missing minutes ago. A few more seconds and a breath escaped his lips. He opened his eyes, and before the boy could even utter a word Rias had already wrapped her arms around him and pushed his head in her bosom. Forcing the newly living to make strangled sounds as he was, figuratively, being hugged to death.
Thomas turned around and the god followed. Xerneas' horns glowed with an impossible light as they both passed through the entrance made by Kokabiel and Sirzechs fight. Both being ricocheting around in the sky as they ever so slowly chipped away at both of their powers.
Thomas caught from the corner of his eye the rest of Sirzechs peerage trying their best to evacuate the humans out of the situation. No matter how strong they were, this wasn't a fight they could participate in. For an instant all sound stopped and Thomas realised the demon and fallen angel had stopped fighting. He quickly gazed up to see both beings standing in front of each other.
Sirzechs had dozens of magic arrays circling around him and to Thomas' surprise, Kokabiel had an all too familiar dagger in his hand. The boy swore as he realised that his newly repaired artificial sacred gear had somehow ended up in the fallen angel's hands.
From where he was he couldn't see precisely what the two were doing but he guessed they must have been talking from the way they moved like they had just heard a shocking revelation. No matter how serious things got, this was still an anime world in the end. They probably would have found a way to bring Issei back to life without his help.
Suddenly Kokabiel made a grand gesture as if to announce a great revelation and behind him hundreds of forms appeared. In the tightly packed group Thomas could make out fallen angels but also what seemed to be devils if their bat wings were anything to go by.
The newly appeared groups suddenly split and attacked the city under them. Spells began flying left and right and Thomas had to dive under a car to avoid a particularly nasty looking fireball. For a few moments the boy let out a sigh of relief before suddenly thinking about his newly acquired summon.
Sticking his head out just enough to look out from under the car, he caught the life god running around avoiding spells as if it was a thing he did any other day, all the while he healed and got to safety any innocent he found. Letting out a grunt of contentment as his summon good action the boy broke into a run out of the car protective form.
By now most newly found enemies had fallen under the cityline and the bombardement calmed down. Thomas kept on running however, rounding a corner he saw a 4 winged fallen angel. Before he could even think his newly brought power kicked in and he leaned forward still sprinting toward the fallen.
In a single fluid motion he caught a piece of rumble with his left hand, it was just big enough to be used as a weapon but any bigger and it would get hard to move around. Before the fallen angel could even realise what was going on the rock flew toward his face and impacted him right between his eyes. He stumbled back as the rock bounced back with the disgusting sound of a nose breaking.
Still in the same movement Thomas grabbed the rock out of the air and his newly found death answering eyes showed him the perfect place to hit, the rock struck down and the angel fell.
It wasn't dead yet however, the boy kept repeatedly striking down until he had only a wet paste of meat under his fist. Finally he let out a scream, it was a mix of disgust and excitement, this was the first time he really took a life. And the sensation did not feel good.
Yet within a part of himself he was shaking in glee, his newfound powers thriving in the act of killing.
Thomas released the crumbled rock from his hand, the pressure he had put on it easily shattering it. He wasn't exactly used to this strength. Standing up from his kneeling position he realised the damage he had done to the body under him. The whole upper part had been crushed by the power of his strikes and his desperation to make sure the fallen was dead.
Thomas took an unsure step forward, but with each movement he became more confident in himself. Soon the teen was sprinting through the street faster than a car, the wind whipping around him and a crazed smiling forming on his face.
The very city shook as Thomas saw Kokabiel being launched across multiple buildings by the kind of hell. He couldn't help the joy he felt inside at the idea of this man suffering. He had taken his life after all.
His thought was interrupted by a light bolt barreling toward him, barely managing to avoid it by throwing himself to the side in a roll he rose to his feet while still sprinting toward the nearest cover he could find. In front of him a few dozen metres away stood a devil. On his torso was a small emblem, Thomas barely managed to make out the complex magical circle with what looked like a pair crossing sword in the centre before he ducked yet again to avoid another attack.
"Come on little human, come out of your hiding hole, I swear I'll make your death painless" The devil shouted, Thomas shook his head hearing the very clear lie.
For a few moments nothing happened but he suddenly heard the sound of a blade being drawn. He didn't even have the time to think before throwing himself on the floor out of instinct.
Behind him, the wall he was using as cover exploded in a shower of rumble as the devil struck with his sword. The thick cloud of smoke hid Thomas for a few more moments.
Said boy didn't even hesitate and threw himself toward the devil.
The member of the old satan only heard a sound and shadow rushing toward him when the world turned upside down.
Thomas' body exploded forward in a single moment and his hand caught the handle of the sword the devil had drawn.
Before said devil could as much as utter a sound the sharp edge of his own sword passed through his neck killing him instantly. Letting the body fall on the floor Thomas let himself rest against a small heap of rubble.
The teen did his best to lower his heart rate, the disgust of taking a life had been very rapidly replaced by the sheer addictive bliss of hunting . He knew the powers could have an effect on his mind but he didn't expect them to be so strong so early.
For a few moments he did nothing but try to calm his mind and stop himself from jumping into the fight once more. No matter how strong his power had made him these two kills were only due to luck and his enemies underestimating him.
His attempts at lowering his heart rate were interrupted by the strongest queen herself crashing in the same street.
The shock had carved out a hundred metres long crevice in the pavement and overturned at least a dozen cars. Thomas sprung to his feet running toward the injured devil but a very fast and very big spear of light interrupted him in his momentum.
If not for his instincts the projectile would have ripped him in half but he barely managed to avoid it.
"Impressive, I didn't expect an insect such as you to avoid my first attack" A cocky voice sounded, A few metres ahead a 10 winged fallen angel slowly descended toward them.
Thomas whipped around to look at the voice but he didn't recognize it. Someone that was never mentioned in the series then ? The teen mused keeping his guard up.
The sound of rock being crushed resounded behind him and from the newly formed crater Grayfia lucifer crawled out, she didn't look worse for wear but Thomas knew that her magic reserves must have been nearly emptied out.
"You need to run, you're not going to be able to fight him" She shouted behind him, Thomas' grin couldn't grow any wider.
"Oh but I think I am". He responded, his confidence skyrocketing now that he had found a path.
The fallen bursted out laughing at that,
"Y-you pathetic human think you can fight me ? You're so funny, let's go then. Let's fight" He responded with a crazed smile forming on his head.
Suddenly Thomas' expression became neutral, nothing showing on his face. The fallen launched a spear of light forward but the weapon didn't even graze the boy.
Reacting instantly the ex-angel blocked Thomas' sword strike aimed at his neck however as the blade's wicked edge shone in the sunlight the fallen wondered if he had made a wrong decision.
Thomas kept focusing on the path, the instruction to certain death obvious in his mind, in combination to his other powers he was certain of his eventual success.
The heavy sword moved as it weighed nothing, the power of a predator running through his veins and pushing him farther than any man could hope to reach, with the training worthy of a hero he kept attacking.
In his eyes the lines shine as brightly as ever, his body running from pure instinct that he shouldn't possess, parrying and evading the attacks of the fallen angel always by the shortest of distances. Thomas kept extremely close to him, forcing the fallen in a defensive position against his will.
But the impossible stalemate soon broke, no matter how sharp his blade was, when hitting the target was impossible, no matter if he knew the perfect spot to it, if said spot was untouchable.
The fallen, in his irritation, took a single beat of his wing and threw himself back out of Thomas range, in his mind this was the perfect course of action to kill the pesky human.
Simply throw a spell and watch him try blocking that, he smirked at his own idea and began concentrating the mana in his hands.
Seeing this Thomas couldn't help but grin, he won. Taking advantage of the fallen inattention he pulled his arms back. And threw the sword.
Magic is not the most stable thing, especially when in a state of transformation. Those transformations, more commonly known as spells, generally fizzle out if they are to be interrupted. It is foolish however to think that magic is this simple.
The sword flew in a straight line toward the fallen hands. It had been forged out of standard steel made in the underworld. It wasn't anything particularly incredible but the standard enchantment that had been put on the blade still made it good enough for most common devils.
Magic is not the most stable thing, the fallen spell, not yet formed but still concentrating massive amounts of mana entered in contact with the blade. In itself this would have only caused the spell to fail and the sword would have continued on its merry way.
However, the precise sequence of enchantment put on this sword worked in a different manner, that is why it was withdrawn from the official underworld armies after all, a flaw in its design.
The devil from which Thomas took the blade however, wasn't part of such armies, and it seemed his only way to get weapons was by some more unconventional means.
So now, you may ask, what are the consequences of surcharging the enchantment of a defective sword such as this one? You probably already guessed the answer.
The ground shook as the blade exploded with such force that Thomas was thrown back dozens of metres, only thanks to his celestial driven power he didn't die instantly from the force of the shockwave, that and the titanium ring on his finger still acting as the strongest armour he was wearing.
That did not prevent his ears from ringing for what felt like hours. After some time, he ever so slowly stood up, limping towards the ground zero of the ,frankly, terrifyingly huge explosion that he had caused.
The whole street he was in was unrecognisable, the trench that had been made by Grayfia earlier battle wasn't even noticeable anymore. The building face on both sides had been destroyed even further, and Thomas looked up just in time to see the entire apartment on his right crumble before his eyes.
This was pandemonium, and yet he never felt so good.
"Hell yeah", He muttered, just as he was about to turn around and leave, he heard a few cough behind him, turning back to see Grayfia crawling out of yet another hole, her clothes had been ripped to shred and she was clearly suffering from the "destroyed clothed in battle" fanservice. Thomas simply raised an eyebrow at the nudity and turned his gaze toward the epicentre of the explosion.
"How the hell did you do that ?" Asked a shocked Grayfia looking at the chaos around her.
Thomas shrugged "Honestly I'm not sure. I think it has to do with the sword interfering with the spell ?" His explanation was cut short by the sound of hooves hitting the floor, a few seconds later Xerneas rushed to Thomas side, the boy nearly fell to the floor but before he could fully lose his equilibrium the god of life pushed himself against his side, acting as a strong hold for him to get his breath back.
Thomas took a deep breath only for it to be interrupted by a coughing fit, blood splattered against the pokemon hide and the teen brought his hand to his nose, only to feel the blood dripping out of it at an alarming rate. It seemed the explosion shockwave had done more damage than he thought, just as he was about to browse his ridiculous library of powers in hope of finding something to fix himself up. A gentle light befell the two injured devils. Xerneas horns shone with a gentle glow.
Both felt their body being repaired from its very essence, their injured flesh knitted back itself together to a perfect state of health. Half a minute later and Thomas took a step toward the crater, to say he was brought back to full health would be an understatement, he had never felt so good.
The boy joy at his sudden recovery was stopped by the sound of something scraping to the floor, gazing down toward said the destruction he had caused he saw a charred hand desperately pulling against the floor, behind it the body of the fallen angel he had just detonated crawled, his remaining limbs barely attached together and seven of it's wing simply missing. His left leg had too gone who know where.
"I'm going to fucking kill you" He growled, blood dripping from just about everwhere on his body. His other arm slammed against what was left of the road in a disgusting wet sound as blood slowly pooled around his body. Taking advantage of the confusion of both the devil. The nearly dead fallen began forming his last spell, a last present he knew would kill all of them.
He had forgotten to account for one thing however, and as Xerneas crushed his skull under its hooves, his spell never launched. Thomas looked up shocked at what the god of life itself had done. The deer only shook its horned head and left, galloping toward other injured civilians.
Thomas sighed but quickly turned around, only to end face to face with a very close Grayfia.
"What is that thing ?" She asked ,her tone leaving no place for objection. Thomas smiled sheepishly.
"A deer I summoned ?" He offered, Grayfia huffed at his pathetic attempts to lie, nonetheless she didn't push any further. After all she had seen how said summon seemed to obey him and how thanks to it he had brought Rias pawn to life beyond all odds.
Thomas scratched his head in shame thinking about the way he had dropped Rias and her peerage at his shop.
He knew that trying to find them in this chaos wasn't a good plan and discarded the idea immediately, and for the untold time today. He was once again interrupted by an explosion and the ground shaking. Really it seemed this battle between Sirzech and Kokabiel would leave this city in ruins.
Grayfia seemed to want to add something but she was stopped by a spell hitting her square in the chest. The white haired woman flew back but the shimmering shield of ice she had formed in front of her seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage.
Before she could try anything a devil appeared a few hundred metres in the sky and began charging another spell. Thomas cursed and quickly began running the opposite way. After what felt like enough time the teen turned around to see where he had ended up.
He didn't recognize any of the streets due to the sheer damage this all out war had caused.
All around him, ruins of buildings and flaming cars scattered the place, craters that must have been dozens of metres wide littered the street he was on, and he guessed all the others around. In the distance the signs of even more damage became apparent with each second.
Thomas began hyperventilating, this wasn't right. As much as his power helped he didn't exactly understand the full scope of what was happening. But now he knew. And as the sprawling ruins began making themselves clearer in his eyes. Panic began to set him.
The trained part of his mind, the one he had gotten from his third purchase, somewhat kept calm, and within the turmoil of emotion that the teen felt, he made a decision.
Thomas closed his eyes, and let his instinct take over.