A few days passed and Cassius had spent his time tracking the fallen angels. He already knew where their base was, but he needed to ensure he had eyes on them at all times, especially with Asia arriving sometime soon.
Currently he was following Issei after his first failed contract with that Dragon Ball z rip off weeb.
He knew Kalawarner would be arriving soon, and this time he intended to send a message to the fallen in the church, even if it meant sending her back to them in a box.
His Alpha Stigma was currently active so he could see better and potentially cancel out any barriers or spell that may appear.
Issei was currently riding his bike down the street as he made his way towards his house, however a light spear impaled the concrete before him and caused him to spin out and fall from the bike.
"Ow..." he groaned as he picked himself up.
"Tch- I missed..." a feminine voice called out as a barrier appeared around them.
Issei panicked as he hastily looked around for the source of the voice and soon saw a certain busty fallen dressed as a sexy secretary.
However Issei was more focused on two very noticeable parts of her body...
Her wings! Get your heads out of the gutter pervs!
She possessed black feathered wings, just like that guy in the park... just like Yuuma.
"A fallen Angel..." Issei muttered as he took a step back from her.
"I'm not surprised that Raynare failed to kill you. Either you're as resilient as a cockroach or... the Devil Hunter saved you that night in the park. I find the later to the most likely." She said as she summoned another light spear and rushed at him.
Issei said nothing he was primarily focused on what Rias and Cassius had told him about sacred gears.
"Visualize strength... and use my will to survive to awaken it, my-" he cut his own thoughts off as he spoke aloud.
"Sacred Gear!" He shouted as he mimicked the motion he has seen Cassius do during his fight with the male fallen angel, with his demonic left arm.
Green energy exploded from his left arm and sent the fallen plummeting back in the direction she came.
Kalawarner stabilized herself before she looked back at the new devil, whose left arm now bore a red bracer that covered the back of his hand, a large green orb was dead center on the back of his hand, with two yellow spikes pointing back towards his body.
"Is that your sacred gear?!" Kalawarner exclaimed knowing what it really was, having experienced its powers once before.
"Yeah looks like it to me!" He shouted back, doing his best to imitate Cassius' trademark smirk.
"I'm not dealing with this! This is out of my pay grade! Raynare's on her own! I'm out of here!" Kalawarner said with fear in her voice as she turned to fly away.
"Too late for that." Cassius said as he appeared above her with his devil bringer already in motion.
Her eyes widen at his voice.
"Wai-!" She was cut off by his demonic fist impacting her in the back and sending her down to the concrete below.
Cassius landed softly and began to walk towards her slowly.
"I already warned you. I told you to leave. I said that the next time I saw any of you I would kill you. I may be close with Azazel but your existence threatens my little sister... so I'm ending you here and now." Cassius said as he watched her get up and try once more to fly away.
Lashing out with his phantom arm he grabbed onto her ankle.
"Where do you think you're going?" Cassius asked as he pulled her downwards and slammed her into the ground creating a small crater in the stone.
Kalawarner coughed up blood from the blow and looked at him pleadingly.
"Pwa-pweashe, hab Merrshy!" She begged through broken teeth.
"Sorry, mercy's not on the menu today and neither is holding back." he said as he summoned Hollow S Jack and raised his leg high above his head and slammed it down, silencing her.
Cassius looked at the body with no emotion on his face. He hated moments like this, when he needed to be cold and callus to someone's pleas for mercy.
But for Asia's sake he would.
"Ahem..." the voice of Issei called as he cautiously approached.
"Oh hey Issei." Cassius greeted without looking back at the boy.
"Thanks for coming again... you came to save me right?" He asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, I thought they might come after you again, so I followed you. I would've intervened sooner, but you seemed like you had it under control. Plus, you got that sacred gear of yours unlocked." He said as he picked up the fallen angel and slung her over his shoulder.
"Right... thanks. I remembered what you and Rias told me." He said.
"Oh yeah? Rias had you picture something strong right? What was it? Probably some anime skill right?" Cassius asked with a chuckle.
"A-actually... I remembered that attack you did against the fallen angel guy... and then it just kind of... happened?" Issei said with a scratch of his head
Cassius blinked at the boy having not expected that response.
"Well... I'm flattered that you think so high of me. But I guess having seen a real life example of strength would be more effective for the imagination than an animation." Cassius said with a smile.
Issei looked away embarrassed before looking to the fallen on the older teen's shoulder.
"What do you plan to do with her?" He asked.
Cassius paused at the question, before speaking.
"Send a message. You should go report to Gremory, I'll see you tomorrow." he said before he turned and walked away from the perplexed boy.
Issei let out a sigh before figuring he should do as told and speak to Rias about the night's events.
The next morning Raynare was sound asleep in her bed in the abandoned church, she dreamt of all the praise Azazel would give her for completing her mission on killing Issei Hyoudou, however in the middle of the dream Azazel suddenly started screaming bloody murder and she was jolted awake by the true source of the sound.
Raynare glared at Mittelt who had woken her, but immediately noticed the girl was in tears and very pale.
"Mittelt? What is it? Did something happen?" Raynare asked in a gentle tone.
"K-Kala! Sh-she's-!" Mittelt had to cover her mouth to stop herself from vomiting, as she pointed out of the room.
Raynare looked to where she pointed and made to leave and see for herself.
Upon exiting the room she nearly vomited herself.
"Kalawarner!" Raynare called out in horror at the sight of her teammate.
The angel had been strung up onto the cross of the church's prayer hall and kept there by a several long black nail shaped blades in a crude and excessively brutal crucifixion.
On the walls behind the crucified fallen angel were the words written in Kalawarner's blood.
I WARNED YOU. TOUCH HER AND YOU WILL SUFFER WORSE THAN SHE DID.
--The Devil of the Church.
Mittelt paled at the title while Raynare stilled.
"O-oh God- H-he was- that-that monster was here?!" Mittelt pleaded to a God that couldn't answer.
"Shut up!" Raynare cursed as she thought.
"What is going-" Dohnaseek froze at the sight of Kalawarner's crucified body and the words written on the wall in blood... and smiled.
"Finally! He's finally decided to stop playing! I can't wait for my rematch!" Dohnaseek's warrior's blood began to pump furiously..
Mittelt looked at him like he was crazy, while Raynare glared at him.
"You knew he was here?!" Raynare glared at the man.
"Of course. That man is my greatest rival! Only he makes my blood pump as a warrior's should!" Dohnaseek declared.
"Ok then... why the fuck didn't you tell me he was here?!" Raynare screamed at him like he was an idiot.
"I did. The stray devil I found was actually a member of the Gremory family, and was rescued by him." Dohnaseek said with a shrug.
"No... you knew before that... it was you who sent me to fight him! You sent me there to die!" Mittelt shouted at the male fallen in abject terror.
"Not my fault you couldn't handle a simple task. I asked you to invite him, yet you couldn't even do that right you useless half-breed." Dohnaseek glared at the girl who flinched.
"Enough!" Raynare hissed at them before she began to think.
"We need to leave. There's no way we can handle someone like him. On top of the Gremory and Sitri families that are here... we need to leave now." the older female fallen said with finality.
Mittelt couldn't agree more... it was Dohnaseek who had issues with the plan.
"I don't think so." he said as he pulled out a fleshy object from his trenchcoat.
Mittelt backed away in fear at the sight, and Raynare placed herself before the youngest of their group.
Dohnaseek held up the object high in the sky and several tendrils of flesh shot out from the thing and stabbed into the body of Kalawarner, which began to writhe and spasm before.
"Kyhuuuh!" Kalawarner gasped as she was revived, but she was... different. Her complexion had gone from a healthy pale to a sickly gray, and the whites of her eyes were now black with her Iris' red and heavily dialated.
Mittelt looked at the woman in horror, and backed away slightly.
Raynare however... looked curious about the woman's changes.
"What did you do?" she asked Dohnaseek.
"It was a gift from lord Kokabiel. I don't know the specifics but it can resurrect even an angel once... with some side effects of course." He said as he gestured to Kalawarner.
Without a word Kalawarner's wings unfurled from her shoulder blades and they were... wrong. Before they were a beautiful pair of raven feathered wings... but now they were rotten and bore a resemblance to those of a devil, but still retaining some of the feathers.
Mittelt couldn't handle the sight of the once beautiful wings being tarnished as they were now and vomited all over the floor.
Raynare glanced back at her.
"Fine we'll stay... but clean this mess up. Our guest will be here soon." She said before storming off.
Dohnaseek looked at Mittelt and gave a malicious smirk.
"Be careful halfbreed... Else I might just turn you while you're still alive." Dohnaseek said with a sinister tone.
Mittelt swallowed her fear and nodded.
"Good girl... now clean this shit up." Dohnaseek snapped before he walked away, Kalawarner shuffling behind him like a zombie.
Now all left alone Mittelt couldn't help the words that escaped her mouth.
"They've all gone insane..." she muttered as she took in the mess of blood and vomit.
She knew she needed to get out of here... before things get worse for her.
And she knew the perfect person to go to for help.
But would he even help her?
Perhaps not... but what if she brought him what he wanted, or rather who he wanted.
Cassius leaned back in his chair, resting soundly from the night's events... well actually his rest wasn't exactly sound. The brutalization of Kalawarner's corpse that had been committed by his hands ran rampant through his mind as he rested.
"Just another memory of suffering that I have wrought." Cassius thought with dull eyes as he stood within his dreamscape and watched the memories unfold.
He'd already grown numb to the scenes, but still he watched so as not to forget his sins.
Soon enough he found himself reminiscing of events that had taken place less than a year ago. The dream seemed to shift to match his current line of thought and he found himself watching another memory.
In the scene he sat on the porch of the house that had been home to himself, Asia, and Vali. The latter two could be seen running through a snow covered clearing, well actually Asia was practically dragging Vali along.
The two began to build a snow man that was oddly shaped, in truth it looked closer to a bipedal dragon than anything.
Cassius, the real one, found himself smiling at the scene, however it was soon wiped from his face when he saw a trio of figures coming from the forest.
One he knew as Azazel, who wore a grim expression.
Cassius' mental figment of himself stood from his spot on the porch and approached while Vali took a subtle position of defense before the oblivious Asia.
"The time has come kiddo..." Azazel said as he got closer.
Cassius closed his eyes and found himself echoing the same words he had said that day.
"So what... we're just giving her back to the church that threw her away?!"
Azazel shook his head.
"Things have changed Cassius... those in the church have decided that Asia's gift can be rehabilitated... or at least kept away from those who would do her harm..." Azazel had told him.
"Bullshit! They just want to lock her up and use her for their own ends! If protecting her really was their aim... then I am more than enough!" Cassius shouted at him, all the while being mimicked by his mental self.
Azazel however shook his head and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I understand what you're feeling... believe me I do... but this is for the best... she's not like you or I... or even Vali. She's a kind hearted girl who yearns to help those who need her. And there are people in the church who truly need her." Azazel said with a sigh.
Both Cassius' clenched their fists but ultimately found his will to fight sapped.
"You're right... I've noticed for a long time that she wanted nothing more than to help those in need. I've seen her helping the people caught in the crossfire of Jobs I've taken... that's when she always seemed happiest. If... if she wants to return to the church I won't stop her... but only if she wants to." Cassius sighed, still in sync with his mental representation.
Azazel placed a hand to ruffle the half-devil's hair.
"Don't push you're luck Azazel..." Mental Cassius glowered at the fallen leader, as the real Cassius turned away and began to walk into the darkness that had appeared behind him.
"You sure love showing me the moments in life that I regret... isn't that right... System?" Cassius stated as he glared up into the darkness.
Deep into Darkest point of his mindscape a massive golden reptilian eye with a several smaller white eyes reflected within the massive slit pupil of the golden Iris.
The Eye of the system watched him for several seconds before a window appeared before him.
[《The System does not show you regrets. It shows you the path that has been written.》] The words on the window read.
"Yeah well... I'm sure feeling helluva lot of regret right now! I wonder what that is?" Cassius said with sarcasm clear.
[《 This was the path you chose... why do you feel regret?》] Another window read.
"Yeah well... just because things happened... doesn't mean I like that they did. If I had it my way... I would have taken Asia and ran, and hide her away until she was never in danger." Cassius said as he ran his fingers through his hair.
He idle noted that his hair had gotten long enough that it was starting to cover his eyes. He would need a hair cut or something to keep his hair out of his face soon.
The Eye was silent for several seconds before sending another window for him to read.
[《Then why didn't you? The system doesn't understand》]
Cassius paused at the question before replying.
"Of course you don't understand... you're just something created by a dying God and you never bothered to experience the world until you met me. That's why something like you couldn't understand what it means to love someone enough that you would allow them to make their own choices... to decide what's best for them, for themselves." Cassius said with a small light of passion entering his eyes as he gazed into the golden eye above.
The Eye was silent once more but for an even longer amount of time than previous.
Cassius took that as a sign that he could leave and began turn away once more, but was stopped by another window appearing.
[《I will be watching... to see just what this... "Free Will" that my Father created can do... until then... continue to Survive. Just like you desired when we made our contract. Farewell Kin of Sparda. Until next we meet.》]
"Hmph... whatever." Cassius scoffed.
As he walked through the dark, the world of his mind began to become hazy and soon enough he found himself waking from his long nap in the comfort of his desk recliner.
"Nmph... that never gets easier does it..." he muttered to himself as he stretched his sore muscles.
(*Brrrr-ring!! Brrrrr-ring!!!*)
Cassius glanced at the antique phone that sat upon his desk for a second before answering it.
"You've reached Devil May Cry. Currently all jobs are on hold for the time being pleas-" Cassius froze at the voice that spoke on the other end.
"Azazel? What is it?" Cassius asked the fallen leader.
"I've got what you asked for. They should be delivered to you now." Azazel said.
Cassius froze for a second so as to let his mind process what he had heard... before a savage smirk split his face.
"Perfect." He said to the fallen on the phone.
"What do you plan to do with them kid...? I recognize that tone... it's the same one I get when I find a new project to work on." Azazel asked with a hint of trepidation... but also a strange hint of pride.
"Simple... I'm going to replicate a couple of things. Which the final product might intrigue you more than my eyes did." Cassius stated.
"Well fine... but somehow I doubt it could be more interesting than eyes that can analyze, copy and replicate any magic that exists... seriously because of those we were able to recreate the evil piece system for us fallen angels!" Azazel practically shouted the words through the phone.
Indeed Cassius had managed to get his hands on an evil piece dropped by a stray devil he'd killed some time ago and decided on a whim to analyze the magic used to create them with his Alpha Stigma and learned how they were able to turn humans into devils. It also answered how he was able to turn a reincarnated devil into a Devil Arm.
How an evil piece set is created is through the crystallization of a devil's power and blood, which was the reason for the crimson crystalline appearance of the evil pieces. The pieces themselves are merely conduits for a power transfer directly to the human soul, which in itself was a pure energy source, the demonic power of the evil pieces gets absorbed by the human that has been reincarnated and then acts as a magical core that absorbs and changes the energy produced by the human soul into demonic power. Of course this can have side effects on the human, such as body mutations, which was why the King piece of a peerage acted as a power filter between the "King" of the peerage and their subjects. This is only temporary until the reincarnated devil's powers have stabilized and are no longer in need of regulation. Which usually takes years if not centuries for most, because while the souls of the reincarnated devil are now demonic in nature... the bodies are still partially human for a time.
Essentially all the evil pieces do is create artificial half-devils... much like Cassius but on a much lower scale.
But he digressed.
"I'll try not to disappoint you then Azzy." Cassius said with a "what can you do?" kind of shrug.
"Yeah yeah. Anyways I have another reason for calling you." Azazel said with a much more serious tone.
Cassius stilled. That tone on Azazel meant only one thing.
Business.
"What's the job?" He asked with no nonsense in his voice, already summoning his gear onto his person. Of course it didn't really matter to him, he had no intention of accepting the job, not with Asia's fate so close at hand.
"Reincarnated Devil in Shibuya. Formerly a demon from Korea, a Dokkaebi if I am pronouncing that correctly.." Azazel said.
"What house and his crimes?" Cassius asked.
"It's actually her crimes." Azazel corrected much to Cassius' annoyance.
"Who cares just get to the point." He demanded with a hint of a bite in his tone
"Alright alright sheesh. Her name Sung-ah Byeol of the Twin Side Horn tribe of Dokkaebi, and her only crime was defending herself from a master that tried to force himself on her. Of course that didn't really work... trying to overpower a Dokkaebi with strength alone is practically impossible, they're masters of almost any martial art they come across but truly excel at wrestling." Azazel explained to him.
"Ok... so I'm supposed to hunt down and kill a runaway rape victim?" Cassius said with an edge to his tone.
"On the contrary... you're going to rescue her. Her douchebag of a master managed to drug her in the fighting and decided she would have been more profitable fighting in an underground arena ran by various stray devils and other devil houses of the underworld that use it as a recruiting ground." Azazel said, with a devilish tone.
Cassius' mouth formed a smirk that matched Azazel's tone.
"Sounds good to me. Who would I be castrating?" Cassius asked.
"No one important, just a former pawn of the current head of the House of Phenex. One even his lord has shown his distaste for in recent years." Azazel explained.
"Oh joy. I just love cleaning up The Phenex clan's messes. At this rate I might have to charge them exclusively." Cassius said with clear sarcasm.
Azazel snorted over the phone.
"I would love to see that." he chuckled before another voice garbled through the phone.
"Crap I've gotta go kid. Vali's starting another fight with Baraqiel... I better stop it before things get messy. Anyways you need to get to Shibuya immediately." the fallen general said before quickly hanging up, without Cassius even having the chance to say goodbye.
"Nice hearing from you too Azazel..." He muttered just in time for a knock on his door.
Walking over to the door and opening it, he saw no one there. Only a pair of large crates stacked on top of one another.
A pair of green/crimson and blue/white aura were visible to the naked eye and seemed to be battling each other for supremacy.
Cassius quickly used his devil bringer to bring them inside and hastily closed the door to his shop without a second thought.
Approaching the two creates with glee he opened them both and immediately his already wide grin grew wider at the sight of the contents of the crates.
Bones and Scales, and not just any scales and bones... they were red and white dragon parts.
"Jackpot." he said as a series of emerald and azure orbs reflected from within the box with his own glacial one.
These would do nicely. Gathering up the materials he used Grave Artificer to create four separate weapons... before he chucked them all into the system's crafting menu slots.
"And now we wait..." He said as he watched a pair of timers appear next to the items being created. He had four days each until they would be finished... they would be finished during the mission... which he still debated on actually accepting, he needed to save Asia from dying after all.
As if sensing his hesitation... a system window popped up.
[《Urgent Mission assigned: Rescue the captive Dokkaebi. Rewards: ???, 300000 red orbs, 2 gold orbs, 1 Blue orbs, 2 Purple orbs. Failure to complete mission will result in player's death.》]
Cassius grit his teeth.
"You fucking bastard... are you saying I don't have a choice but to let Issei handle everything?! Like in the main timeline?!" Cassius cursed at the system for what he deemed as an attempt to interfere with his duty to protect Asia.
He received no response of course.
Releasing a hot breath of anger he forced himself to calm down.
"Fine... if that's how you want to play it.. then two can play at that game." He stood to his full height and spoke one word.
"Store."
And began to search for one single item.
"Time for a little investment... Issei you better keep her safe after how much I'm willing to spend on you." he thought as he purchased the item he desired.
The item appeared in his hands, a single skill book.
He looked at the cover of the book and prayed that this would pay-off.
"Now... time to pay Issei a little visit." Cassius muttered before vanishing through a portal he created with La Muerte.
Almost twelve hours later Cassius found himself taking the train to Shibuya. Now you may be wondering why he hadn't just used La Muerte to teleport himself there.
Well the answer was simple really... it would ruin his disguise.
Azazel had sent him an email shortly after Cassius had finished his business with Issei the night prior.
The email contained the rest of the details for the mission he was forced to undertake.
The details were mostly the same, except for the fact that Shibuya wasn't the actual base for the underground arena, instead it was where he would meet up with the person who would meet up with to take him to the arena under a false identity.
Currently he was tasked with playing the role of an orphaned Martial Arts student by the name of Takeo Kusanagi who possessed a subspecies of the blade blacksmith sacred gear and used it to create augmented melee weapons during combat.
Basically he wasn't allowed to use anything other than Grave Artificer for this mission because his skills were too well known, and Grave Artificer was a relatively unknown Sacred Gear so it could simply pass as a subspecies if he played his role correctly. He had decided on the weaponry he would primarily create and use during this mission. Playing into the role of a martial artist he decided that CQC was his best bet in terms of combat style, and as such he created a modified pair of shotgun gauntlets and shotgun greaves based off of Yang and Mercury's weapons, of course he put his own spin on their visual designs, choosing to have them appear identical to the Beowulf devil arm, but the mechanisms remained the same.
Including the storage mechanisms, which currently made him appear like he was wearing a pair of metal gothic arm and leg bands
The mission would begin the second the train entered the vicinity of Shibuya Station. Events should kick off on their own without him needing to initiate anything, at least that was what had been briefed in the email. Supposedly there would be a team from the arena staff that would facilitate his capture, and he was just supposed to allow it.
He'd go along with the plan... but he would at least put up a good show of resistance to his future kidnappers.
Speaking of... the train was now arriving at Shibuya station, if the loudspeaker for the conductor saying such was any indication.
Sighing he gathered his belongings and stood up. His reflection in the window happened to catch his eye and he was forced to take in the solid illusion that he had placed over himself with the use of his Alpha Stigma. His white hair was now the typical Japanese black which was matched by an equally dark shade of black.
His overall face structure hadn't really changed but had gained more oriental featured with the use of the illusion. The illusion also managed to make his devil bringer appear like a normal human arm.
For all intents and purposes he looked just like a regular teenager on a trip to the city... he hated it. He couldn't stand looking like another face in the crowd, not after living as stylishly as he had been.
He couldn't wait until this job was over.
"Oh well... might as well have a little fun with it." He murmured just as the train's doors opened onto shubiya station.
"Let's Rock this joint." Cassius thought with a smirk as he stepped off the train and onto the platform.