When he opened his eyes, he saw Hell.

Mud seeped out from the earth and drowned people in its malice, as if the world itself had been poisoned. Screaming turned to a sputtering silence as everything perished. The ground shook and trembled as everything fell apart. The sky itself was painted ghastly blood red.

He saw Hell.

Familiar roads and streets melted and cracked as everything turned to ashes. Chasms opened up and swallowed it all without discrimination. What was once a normal town resembled the husks of a battlefield.

He saw Hell.

Walls of flame sealed all paths of escape in every direction he looked. Black tar flowed across the ground like livid snakes, burning the soles of his feet until his ghostly nerves were no longer able to feel. The bloody prints he left behind became lost in the ash and rubble.

He saw Hell.

It could be said he was lucky to still be alive. Perhaps he happened to be in a spot further away from where the flames began. Was he in his home? Was he already outside? He couldn't remember anymore. His head felt like a broken hammer, with only an endless ringing.

He saw Hell.

It was eerie, being the only thing left that kept its original form. He alone was who remained, even as the flames ate away at his flesh.

Everyone else's flesh had already been consumed by the blistering purgatory. Their skin peeled off before their bones became brittle and crumbled.

He saw Hell.

The boy was no longer concerned with what would happen next. He was not concerned with not being burned up like all the others.

It was as if his emotions had been taken instead of his life. More than a desire to live, he merely just wanted to escape this place.

Smoke filled his lungs and made them rot.

Nothing but screaming seemed to echo in his ears.

Shaking eyes felt as if they were stinging with acid.

He saw Hell.

His body would survive, but it seemed everything else had been lost as payment. Because when a child loses their family, their home, their innocence…

There's nought else but a dark, hollow pit.

That night, in order to survive-

He saw Hell.

In order to survive-

He saw Hell.

In order to survive…

HIs heart died in that very same hell.

.

Finally waking up, he found himself in a white room in a white building. It was clean and safe, but it was also isolated and barren.

It had been that same dream once more. The only dream he ever had.

Strangers from strange lands visited him, asking questions and checking up on him. Sometimes they would speak words he couldn't understand. He didn't think they were doctors.

Underneath their clothes, he would occasionally see a silver cross peaking out. A simple and pretty shape he did not yet know the meaning of.

He felt pain all over his bandaged body, even at the bottoms of his burnt feet. His throat felt as if it had been squeezed, ripped apart, and then sewed back together.

It was like a memory of agony.

He was no longer in Hell.

He could breathe again.

But something was still buried back there.

Something important.

When he looked out the window, he could see an unbelievably beautiful blue sky. He could remember the past few days, but even so, he was little more than a newborn infant unknown to the world around him.

He couldn't see the future ahead of him.

That woman appeared just when he started to become afraid of the uncertain tomorrow.

She was a very frail woman of pale skin and white hair. Her right eye was covered by a patch. But she was also a very beautiful person, like a pure flower that falls apart when the wind comes.

Her smile was kind, as if she understood everything that was wrong and yet would find a way through it regardless. A smile no less welcoming than the deep blue sky.

At the time, she seemed more like an older sister than a mother. She was very young. She hadn't much time to see the world herself either, not the pleasant parts.

When it was safe to walk on his own two feet, he often found himself having to support her as she walked with him outside the hospital.

It seemed that she was born that way.

She would laugh abashedly and apologize for being sick.

He didn't understand then why a person in pain would apologize. There were many things he didn't understand about that woman.

But when asked if he wanted to go with her, he nodded his head. It was between her and the orphanage.

He knew nothing of what an orphanage was like.

So he went with her.

When they were at the hospital gate, she gasped as if she had forgotten something. "Oh! I should tell you something about me first."

She touched her chest and frowned as something was missing from it. She patted the fabrics of her dress as if a pocket would magically appear with what she was looking for.

The woman turned back to look at him with a slight blush of embarrassment. "Well, I seem to have misplaced my cross, but I'm an exorcist in fact."

Thinking back on it, he really was a child back then. He believed that woman without a drop of hesitation.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

He didn't properly know what that title meant, but he accepted those words as truth.

The sun fell down as the sky began to turn to shades of yellow and red like an aged brandy. There was a man garbed in black vestments standing in front of them, much taller and imposing than the woman, with a disturbed expression on his face.

He was a killer of heretics, and the woman's husband.

He wasn't scary at all.

There was no spark of hostility coming from him.

But the air around him was still incredibly heavy.

Both the man and the child stared at each other, not knowing what to think.

The woman smiled and rested her hands on his shoulders, presenting him like a blessed soul.

"We have a new child~!"

"Hm?"

That was how he became their son, since that time when the sky was like a tapestry. He was brought into their home and raised by them.

Inevitably, he found himself walking the same path as his father. He saw many things, many that were evil and many that were not. The deserved and the undeserved.

It was a path he walked down without hesitation or remorse.

Cogs of the soul started to turn once more.

A few years later, his mother took her own life.


At the edge of Berlin, an old hotel remained open for all hours of the day and all hours of the night. It was a remainder of another era, built and owned by an old cabinet minister during the second war, gaining much of its funding by agreeing to house soldiers and hide dealings within its multitude of rooms.

Time and time again, its ownership was passed down from father to son, uncle to niece, grandparent to grandchild, wife to husband, over and over again.

Its most recent transfer skipped two generations when the next in line died in a car crash on Allerheiligen.

Having such a grand property and stream of revenue, the new owner found himself enjoying a new life of luxurious freedom. Costing nothing but the deaths of some distant relative.

Gold watches, designer clothes, luxury cars, fine drinks, an in to every party in the country, he was now wanting for nothing thanks to a simple contract. He just had to loan a few rooms like the hotel founder did before.

He flicked a cigarette towards the balcony of the top floor and picked up another bottle of champagne from a glass bucket of ice.

His associates were playing cards at the tables and becoming lucid with whatever they could force into their bodies. They looked like ordinary men, better dressed than most, but still nothing strange to note.

The suite they were in by itself was bigger than any commoner's house.

Dimly lit by old copper chandeliers, the air was thick with the stench of old cigarettes and fermented malts. The closed off sounds of traffic and occasional honking from the street below seemed worlds away.

Classical music playing from the speakers was interrupted by the occasional muffled whimper.

On the bed, two girls lay side by side, their wrists bound with coarse rope, legs tied at the ankles, tape wrapped around their mouths.

Their eyes were half-closed, pupils dilated, chests rising and falling in slow, uneven breaths. The younger of the two, her hair dark and matted against her forehead, twitched occasionally, fingers curling and uncurling against her bindings. Her sister, slightly older, with blonde hair, was completely still, her face pale and expressionless.

They were ignored for the time being, set aside until someone was in the mood.

Suddenly, the owner flinched when he felt a presence nearby, spilling golden drink on the floor.

When the door burst open, heavy footsteps thudded against the floor before the bottle of champagne was knocked away, smashing against the wall.

Heydrich was picked off the ground by his throat.

As his throat was crushed, he futilely tried to pry off the fingers blocking the blood to his head.

"You've been getting ahead of yourself." His master's voice seemed to make the room grow cold, his eyes flickered red. "I told you that I didn't care how you entertained yourself so long as you didn't make a mess. Enough have disappeared from this illborn place that an investigation is being launched."

His fingers dug into flesh, draining blood from five holes. "And when the locals notice, others will too."

"Pfft!"

One of the lackeys had too much powder up his nose and couldn't contain himself, eyes rolled back up his head.

But when he noticed the arrival of his boss, his face paled. "I-I-"

His cranium squished itself into a pulp before he fell to the floor, spilling his insides over the carpet.

Heydrich's master didn't even need to move to kill the pawn. He just thought about it and it happened, such was the price of his gift.

"Clean this up and get rid of those two. We have new work tomorrow."

When he was released, Heydrich scrambled back and used the couch to pull himself back up, breathing heavily. He didn't dare move before his master was seated with his favorite drink in hand's reach.

Without making eye contact, he made his way over to the girls unaware on the bed, their minds drugged by cheap, ill-used magic power.

They woke up when he gripped their necks, letting out muffled pleas and beginning to cry, shaking against their bonds.

He thought it was a waste. An entire week of planning for nothing but two more corpses to dispose of. While waiting for their hearts to stop, his eyes wandered to the older one's breasts, full and shapely. She was a well endowed frau.

Not making a sound, he let go of the older sister's throat and reached towards the buttons of her blouse. Looking into her frightened teary eyes as he did so. The eyes of the helpless were his greatest pleasure. As long as they both died shortly, it would be fine.

His master pardoned worse, and he wasn't as disposable as the others.

"Mmphh!"

A soft knock sounded at the door.

"Who is it?" Heydrich growled, his voice low, almost a snarl.

No answer.

He jerked his head to one of the underlings for them to check the door. The underling only shrugged after he looked through the peephole.

Opening the door, the hallway looked empty. Nothing was to be seen from either the left nor the right directions.

Then his head was grabbed from above.

His body thrashed and struggled before crumpling to the ground with blood gushing from his throat.

Something was thrown into the room before the suite was flooded with a piercing bang and blinding light.

None of them could tell what was happening, their vision was blurry and disoriented.

All they could hear was each other's screams and struggles. When they lashed out, they only ended up stumbling or harming one of their own.

The music continued to play.

Their deaths were clean and slow as they bled over the polished floor, letting them stare at their own dying moments.

The thing that was killing them all carried the sound of metal.

Fourteen were now slaughtered, staining the room red.

Two remained.

Letting go of the younger sister, Heydrich backed away with the older sister forced against his body as a hostage, he held his finger to her throat, brushing a sharp nail against her soft skin.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!"

The intruder stilled.

He was but a boy, still wet behind the ears. Six mass manufactured blades were held in his hands, secured between the knuckles like deadly fans. Wearing only simple black vestments and a cross around his neck, the boy was an innocent looking thing.

But his eyes were like a predator's.

"Drop them, now!" Heydrich pressed his nail deep against the girl's throat, piercing the skin and letting a drop of blood spill out and flow down her neck. Sweat poured out from his back, as his eyes shook. 'This can't be happening to me! I'm not like them! I'm- I'm important! Why isn't the master doing anything!?'

The boy listened to him, and let the Black Keys fall to the ground.

When he saw this, the vampire let out a breath he'd been holding. A monster without its teeth was harmless.

He tossed the girl aside and lunged at the boy with inhuman speed and force that not even an olympian athlete could match, his face twisting and curling from a depraved smile.

A blade shot through his eye and he fell screaming. It was as if acid was injected into his brain, he felt his flesh steam and hiss.

The boy grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up, pushing three more blades into his heart, looking into his eyes as he died.

Standing up, he hid a hand behind his back and then rested it at his side, three more Black Keys were held. His breathing was heavy, but controlled.

Only one vampire remained, a low-class who was born during the Third Reich. It was he who sought out the members in this room to form a peerage, turning them into creatures like his own kind.

He remained seated at the dinner table and sipped red liquid from a wine glass. He made no move to save his underlings, nor did he attempt to run.

"I suppose it was about time to cut off loose strings."

His doll-like face had no emotion.

"Did you come alone? I suppose the Church has its favorites too. Perhaps your mother was a whore, or perhaps your father was a sinner? No matter. You'll be a final meal alongside those sisters before I leave."

He picked up the table weighing two-hundred kilograms with one arm and threw it at the boy.

The boy ducked under the table and swung his blades around, catching the nails of the vampire before his face was torn off.

Grabbing the blades, ignoring the pain as they hissed against his skin, he kicked the boy through a solid meter of limestone brick.

The boy's eyes saw two trails of red flicker across the room from the hole in the wall as the distance between them was closed. He threw the Black Keys and watched them soar through the room like bullets as he produced six more.

Two of them hit as the vampire's right arm was torn up, but it were still functional. He grabbed the boy by his head and smashed it against the ground, forming a crater that shook the entire floor.

Clenching his fist, he struck the boy in the stomach, rupturing his organs and causing blood to cough up from the internal stress.

He tossed the whelp of the Church aside and brushed back his hair before pulling out the Black Keys one by one. When he ripped out the blades, the injuries stung even more. Regardless, it mattered little.

It didn't matter if they possessed weapons, if he closed the distance, the limits of a human would be made clear.

Clearly, they were just using the boy for what he was worth.

"Mghn Mnffph!"

The vampire looked to where the sisters still lay. The older one was still bound, trying to wrench her hands free as she looked over her unconscious sister, desperately trying to make her wake.

He could smell the blood still trailing down from her neck, like sweet nectar.

His fangs glistened as he opened his mouth, breathing in and out. First the older sister as a main course, sustenance and pleasure, then the boy as a bitter cleanser, to differentiate the taste, and finally the youngest, as a little treat.

The girl didn't notice him when he approached. She was still trying to wake her sister, praying that she was still breathing.

The young one did awake, only in time for her to see a scary man grab her sister by the hair and force her up. His teeth were like a devil's.

Struggling to move while trying to scream, the girl felt cold breathing on her neck.

And then the boy tackled the vampire across the room, before they both fell off the balcony.

Wind whistled past their ears. The lights of the city looked like streaks across a black canvas. The ground that was so small and insignificant from above was approaching them like an impending hammer.

For the first time, the vampire showed emotion.

It was alarm.

'Is he trying for a double suicide? Doesn't he know this can't kill me? I'm not as fragile as a mere human! He should know that! This is just desperation!'

He ripped himself away from the boy's hold and stared at the ground.

'That. Won't kill me. It's only the witnesses I need to worry about.'

When he turned his head back, he found himself staring at the boy's wide open eyes.

They were eyes intent on killing him regardless.

It was the vampire who suddenly found himself poisoned by desperation and fear. There was something screaming. He could feel it in his cold blooded heart. An instinct that was trying to save him from death. An instinct telling him to flee.

He only recognized his own instinct when his back crashed through the metal frame of the luxury car he used to arrive, his chauffeur still waiting in the driver's seat.

Now!

He needed to kill him now! While he was still dazed from the impact! With his body and the car as a cushion, the boy could still be alive!

But when he tried to move his arms to tear the boy's head off, they wouldn't listen to him. The world suddenly started to become darker.

"Y-You…"

Deservedly, he hadn't even the life for one final curse as his head rolled off and hit the pavement. His face was still contorted with fear, blood pooling on the cobblestone street

The boy didn't move from his place atop the corpse. He couldn't. He couldn't even breathe. His internal organs resembled a pile of discarded fish guts more than anything functional.

After five minutes, he slowly retrieved a cracked phone from his pocket and dialed the numbers he memorized, feeling their position by touch.

It rang once before being picked up.

"The two missing are… on the top floor. They need… medical care. Please hurry." He gasped before the phone slipped from his grasp. At least he was able to somewhat breathe now.

As far as weekday nights went, this may as well have been his norm.

'Oh, should've warned them about cleanup.'


An average seventeen year old moaned and groaned as he tried to turn his head away from the morning sun, covering his face with his blanket.

His alarm clock which would normally sing some classic tsundere line had been shoved into a pile of dirty laundry with his foot.

One leg under the blanket and the other hanging out the bed just the way he liked it.

In response his mother pulled down the blinds and yanked away his bedsheets and pillows.

"Wake up! Issei!"

His mom's voice startled him awake, just like every other morning.

"Yeah! Yeah! I'm up!"

After giving a careless reply like that, he pulled himself up from the cozy hug of the mattress. His hair felt like a mess.

The sunlight continued to give him a hard time. He wondered how Asia was handling it.

"Oh, that's right. Asia was living with him now…"

"! ! !"

He ran to the bathroom and shoved cold water into his face, nearly tripping on the way there, before squirting a glob of toothpaste into his mouth and furiously brushing it into a foam.

After that incident, Prez arranged for Asia to start living with him and his family. For strengthening relationships among her servants or something like that. That was fine as long as he wouldn't be expected to bunk with Kiba any time soon.

There's no fun in living with some dude.

Of course, his parents loved Asia once they met, so they went with it pretty easily.

It wasn't as if Asia could ever go back to the Church, so maybe this was the best outcome.

She was really cute too.

And his age at that. Making friends with a girl his age was a dream come true.

Coming downstairs, he could see his parents already seated at the table for breakfast. His mom made a lot since they had a guest now. Steam was still rising from the grilled fish, eggs, and rice.

That cute girl was feeling flustered with how much food his mom was offering her. She also wasn't very familiar with Japanese culture and lifestyle.

His dad was hiding behind his newspaper, but it was obvious he was really enjoying the moment.

It was peaceful.

Few days had passed since they had started living in a house together. Naturally, they walked to school together as well.

A private school. Kuoh Academy.

It's a co-ed school now, but only years prior it was a girls only institution, so the ratio of females to males was very skewed. As the grade goes down, it becomes a little more even, but the reverse was also true.

Girls definitely still had more authority, holding dominance over the many clubs and even the student council was predominantly ladies. The Student President was a girl as well.

Issei preferred things this way.

A school filled with pretty girls was paradise.

Of course, he was a shameless boy with perverted guts, so his popularity wasn't good. He had a few friends though.

Asia fit in very well in contrast, and was even rather popular due to her sweet personality and unique sort of upbringing that piqued much of the other student's interest.

They both were now members of the Occult Research Club. A club with its own unused schoolhouse to use as a base of operations.

To be precise, they couldn't very well be called researchers of the occult. They were the ones who were among the occult in the first place.

Every single member including the two of them were devils.

Though it was a recent transition for the two of them, more so for Asia than Issei. It was a difficult story to sum up in a few sentences, but Issei was glad to say it was a story with a happy ending.

And he wouldn't let something like a fallen angel or a shitty priest mess with that ever again.


The aforementioned club of devils was having a peaceful morning themselves. The afternoon was peaceful as well. The day was beautiful and sunny with only pure white clouds drifting across the sky.

With classes over, the only students and staff still remaining were the ones involved with clubs. They would be busy in a different part of the campus.

Kuoh Academy was a very well funded school afterall. Its buildings and gardens were very beautiful and well kept. Some areas resembled a mansion more than a school

Its facilities were like that of the finest universities.

That was due to the certain interest influential parties had in some of its students. Not that most of the public was aware. As far as people in Kuoh town were concerned, it was just a very nice and normal school.

And what people didn't know couldn't hurt them, mostly.

Rias was handling arrangements in a well decorated room as she usually did. Her long crimson hair which came down to her hips made her surroundings seem as if they took on a rosy glow as well. Her fair skin, which was as pure as snow, seemed to glow in the sunlight as well. Even her blue eyes were like gems.

A first class beauty through and through.

In light of recent events, she needed to figure out what she would do about the Church. In the world of humans, the Church was their greatest enemy. Against power supported by the prayer of God, they could easily be eliminated if they were unwary.

Opposing sides hardly let each other rest.

She would need to put her peerage's contracts on hold while she finalized what to do about Asia's circumstances. The Church abandoned her, but if they were to send exorcists to retrieve her sacred gear. It wouldn't be safe to be out at night alone.

Perhaps her subjects could handle a one on one encounter, but if they were isolated against a group… She found herself swallowing. She didn't want to finish that thought.

Old ties needed to be properly cut first.

That was one of her responsibilities as the leader.

She pulled at her long red hair as she balanced the capped end of her pen against her lip. They'd gotten out of the recent situation unscathed, but that was at the low end of things. Nothing nearing a full scale encounter.

When her new comrades arrived, she'd need to make further arrangements for their safety. She was proud of her peerage, but it was still underdeveloped. Even with the new additions, their number was only seven.

Her closest friend and vice president, Akeno, was double checking her drafts on recent contracts and connections while conversing with her.

She was a beautiful young woman with a voluptuous figure like Rias. Her dark black hair was tied in a very long ponytail with an orange ribbon. Her violet eyes could switch between being utmost gentle or cruelly sadistic.

She excels in using natural elements such as ice, fire, and water, but she specializes in lightning, being able to create thunder clouds using her demonic power, making lightning bolts rain down on her opponents. Her piece was the most balanced and overall powerful among the peerage, making her a suitable second in command.

Koneko, her cutest junior, was seated across from her on the couch, enjoying a bag full of powdered donuts. She was fairly quiet as usual.

Being a petite girl with white hair and yellow eyes, she looks like an elementary school student. The school treats her almost as a good luck charm for being cute.

Even so, despite her small size, she possesses an immense physical strength, due to her physical enhancement by the rook piece.

Kiba, her only knight, was running back and forth doing as much as he could. Finishing up old contracts and retrieving old documents that could potentially be helpful.

Many girls in the school considered him to be the most handsome boy there, with short blonde hair and a beauty mark under his eye. He never followed up on any of their advances however.

He was in possession of a sacred gear that could produce numerous demonic swords, each with its own attributes and properties at his disposal. Combined with the agility of the knight piece, he was the best direct offense under her wing.

Though the current situation was slightly erratic, it was nothing particularly stressful. Morseso, Rias always felt comforted when her peerage was there to support her.

When Issei arrived with Asia, she would have him help Kiba. She thought it would be nice if they could be good friends. Though Issei seemed slightly unwilling. Perhaps he was the sort of boy who was shy with his seniors?

She took a deep breath, and picked up another stack of papers.

There was a soft knock at the door.

She blinked, putting down her pen. 'Must be them.'

So polite of them to knock, but unnecessary. She already said such to them. "Come in."

The door creaked open, and a stranger was standing there instead.

He was a very tall stranger, a young man nearly taking up the entire door frame. He would tower over the students and staff. His hands looked large and firm.

More than that, his body was tempered and strong, reinforcing bones with muscles like iron. Broad shoulders and a solid chest, a sculpted figure like a marble statue. That could be clearly seen even through the clothes he wore.

Wearing a coffee colored suit with a dark foulard tie, he was very neatly dressed. His posture was very balanced and assured of itself. All hints of casualness were removed.

His red hair, similar to Rias, was rather long for a man, but not so much so.

It was his eyes that nobody could ever overlook. Burning hot, intense golden eyes that seemed to stare straight into the soul. The edges of his eyes were dark and tired, yet ceaselessly alert.

He showed no signs of hostility, yet the air became weighted like lead.

In the corner of her vision, Rias could see Kiba violently shivering where he stood, having dropped everything he was holding and preparing to fight. His good looking features twisting with a burst of anger and rage.

A black sword was already clenched tightly in his hand.

Across from him, Koneko responded similarly, eyes widened and breath halted, hair nearly standing on its ends.

She felt Akeno behind her tense up.

Nobody made a move yet, as if waiting for the first move.

The man at the door didn't say anything, paying little heed to the hostile atmosphere of the room. Instead, after looking around, he pulled out a small sheet from his jacket pocket. The sheet was smaller than the palm of his hand.

He held it up with two fingers for them to see.

It was a photograph. A picture of a former holy maiden, her new bishop.

"Have you seen this girl?"

His voice was calm, but it felt like a knife in her spine.

Just at that moment, her new pawn arrived with Asia behind him.

The Executor was the first to move.