How's everyone doing? No one getting the Coronavirus? I hope everyone's doing well. Oh, and everyone, give a round of applause to Indigoisblue. She was nice enough to beta this chapter since Praetor was unable to due to the current state of things.

"Speech"

Thought

"Telepathy

'Familiar bond'

Six years later twins age 16

Shiro hissed in pain as he deflected the kick from the massively large ghoul he and Maruta were fighting. The ghoul stumbled before lashing out wildly at Shiro, who was just a little too slow and felt a drain on his reserves as his magic absorbed the shock. As he was flung away the ghoul lunged forward after him, but roared in pain as Maruta spewed flames from his mouth. A flicker of silver-grey of intent among the warped colors. Shiro called out "get back!" only for the ghoul to pulse with magic, emanating a deadly gas that caused the flies formerly buzzing around the animated corpse to decay into nothing before they even hit the ground.

The cloud grew quickly, too quickly for Shiro to escape in time, but he didn't need to. He felt a wave of reassurance across his bond and knew backup had arrived. Right before the gas hit him he felt talons wrap under his arms, as Sylvia yanked him into spectral form with her as she ascended from the gas, while Maruta was snatched by a fire dragon. An insect dragon swooped past high above and an orb of acid fell on the ghoul.

"Really Shiro? For the Paladin you sure do get bailed out of tight spots an awful lot," Izumi joked at the near death experience. "One might even think that the fabled mage you are rumored to be is someone else entirely."

"Yeah yeah very funny. I wouldn't have been able to recite its fatal verse with just me and Maruta, it's a little strong for that, Maruta wouldn't be able to keep it off me on his own because surprise surprise, it's not arrogant."

"Cut the chatter you two, it's an A rank demon, we need to focus." Shiro watched from the corner of his eye as Seishiro reached an arm out and materialized an anvil about 55 feet ahead of his silver-blue dragon, who reached out and caught it in his claws as soon as it was fully materialized. After a powerful flap he gained a little altitude as he spun a rapid roll, twisting mid air with a dive before flaring his wings and flying overhead the demon, dropping the anvil as the ghoul raised its arm to block it. With a resounding crack the arm broke and the demon roared in pain and rage. The anvil slowly faded away as the bone visibly moved inside the arm, pulled back into place by the muscle and sinew around it.

Shiro frowns as he watches it put itself back together. 'It has a regeneration factor, of course we can't get a break.' he looks around noting the lack of tall buildings in the area.

Sylvia snarled as she tucked one wing to swerve into a dive to dodge a car thrown by the ghoul. 'What do you expect,' she asked amused before sobering. 'I'm just glad we were able to evacuate the area early on. It is causing a lot of damage, I don't even want to think about how things would be if there were still civilians here.'

"We will use strafing runs, me and Sylvia will go first, while it's distracted you are to go in next Sei, Chrono, then maruta while it is slowed I want you and Pyre to hover and let loose continuous fire for a couple seconds." Shiro quickly commanded, "During that time I want Arsenic and Sei if you get the chance to drop acid and explosives on it. Might also want to summon a salamander to add in even more fire. Naoya, Nautilus, you are on standby for when things go wrong."

"Such a slave driver, you aren't even doing anything," Sylvia jabbed as she tucked her wings diving towards the rampaging ghoul. When she was fifty feet away she spread her wings and swerved left to go in front of the ghoul. With a hard flap she pulls a sharp one eighty to face the ghoul head on before letting out an ear splitting ethereal screech which blows in windows for blocks.

The ghoul stumbles back eyes wide with terror clouding them as a whistling sound rises over the ruined neighborhood.

'Now Syl!' Shiro urges as she starts twisting to fly away. Just as the ghouls eyes start to clear it gets tackled as the silver-blue Chrono roars in its face. The air seems to slowly ripple as Chrono digs his talons in before leaping off once more taking to the skies. Pyro swoops down and flies past slowly both him and Maruta unleashing a torrent of flames scorching away large swathes of flesh and large globs of acid drop from arsenics jaws landing on the open wounds of the ghoul eating away at the flesh.

A red salamander, five feet long with flames licking at its jaws, falls on the ground and crawls up the ghoul glowing with heat as it bites at the larger demon's leg.

After ten seconds the ghoul lurched, falling over as it roared in pain, already the flesh beginning to regrow, as it emanated more deadly fumes. The salamander's body easily dispatched by the toxins. Nautilus dived and swooped up as she flew past Pyro, the turbulence slowing the fumes so he could turn around and get out despite the volume. Nautilus narrowed her eyes as she quickly judged her distance and speed before twisting her slender neck and spitting a highly pressurized jet of water that punched straight through the ghoul's head and it collapsed.

"NOW!" Shiro called as Sylvia dove before flapping with all her force to drive the majority of the gas away. "Hurry up and finish it off before it regenerates!" All the dragons dive down and start mauling the demon. Seishiro summoned a .50 caliber rifle and started unloading into it, while Maruta focused on using his fire continuously to keep the head from regenerating, and Naoya jumped off nautilus holding knives and started hacking at the body as well at superhuman speeds. After five minutes it stopped regenerating.

Maruta sighed in relief as Nautilus sprayed water on him which burst into steam. "Thanks Nautilus, that regeneration was insane, even with my fire it was growing its head back, I was about to ask Pyro for help."

Naoya laughs, "Someone's been skipping training haven't they? You used to keep your flames hotter than that. Maybe you should get an ether weapon if you are having so much trouble keeping the heat up."

Maruta groaned and Seishiro said "Hey, come on give him some slack Naoya. He and Shiro held the ghoul off for ten minutes on their own, it's to be expected his reserves were low, especially since they were always lower than ours."

Shiro rolled his eyes amused how his team were just in a life and death scenario but were already busy teasing each other like it was nothing. "Lets let them know the demon's been exorcised so people can get back to work."

Shiro pulled out his phone and waited for the mana in the air to stop interfering with the signal. Once functional he dialled the city mayor's number. On the first ring the secretary picks up. "Mayor's office we are not curr-"

"Yeah yeah not currently accepting civilian calls." Shiro interrupted, "Good thing I'm not a civilian then. Shiro Fujimoto, Paladin. The Ghoul near the residential area has been exorcised."

"O-oh," the young man stutters. "My apologies, I'll signal the All Clear right away. Anything else sir?"

"Nope that's it." Shiro hung up with a sigh. Now that that's handled, let's head back to the monastery. I could really use a nap after that."

Izumi laughed slightly hysterically. "Really Shiro? You want to sleep? Right after we beat an A rank demon? Do you even feel fear? None of us are going to be able to stay still for an hour. And we got lucky."

Shiro smirked as he replied, "Not everyone will wet themself at the idea of facing a rat ghoul alone." just then the large bell in the middle of town started tolling.

Rin paused in his after school workout when he heard the bell. Looks like the demon lost. Should be an interesting story when I get home. Without a word he switched the 100 pound dumbbell to his other hand and resumed doing pushups while holding the weight to his chest.

After he was finished, Rin put the weight back and grabbed his two liter bottle of water and drank what was left. He cleaned up what he had used and gathered up his stuff in a bag he slung over his shoulder. As he was walking home he heard a group of boys laughing. There was a twang followed by a meaty thunk. Rin narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw his classmates cheering a boy with white hair and a crossbow. Rin glanced where they were looking and his heart sank at the sight before him.

"Those damn birds are everywhere. They shit on everything and no matter how many you kill there's more. Might as well have a little fun with them." the white haired boy loaded another bolt in the crossbow aiming at the pigeon pinned to a tree by the wing.

"HEY" Rin shouted, "Leave them alone."

For a second the boy just stared before grinning and turning the crossbow and launching the bolt at him. Rin just stood there knowing it would miss. The fletching grazed his cheek as it went past, drawing a thin line of red on Rin's cheek. He frowned.

Rin turned pulling the bolt out of the tree behind him, feeling the weight before holding it like a paper airplane. He looked at the white haired boy and drew back his arm and threw it and it speared through his shoe all the way to the fletchings pinning his foot to the ground. Rin started walking towards them and the crew helped their leader away while he threw insults behind his back.

Rin turned to the pigeon feeling great sympathy. He knew it wouldn't survive it's wounds. With a heavy heart he approached the injured animal struggling feebly to get loose. "I'm sorry," he soothingly muttered to the animal. "The pain will soon be gone. After he glanced around to make sure no one could see him he placed a hand on the bird. "Now be at rest. In an instant there was a small flare of azul flames, just enough to put the animal out of its misery without catching anything on fire." Rin closed his eyes for a moment before pulling the bolt out of the corpse's wing, and holding the body. As he pulls it away he lights a much larger flame, cremating the body.

The young boy dusted the ash from his hands and resumed his trek home, wondering what everyone was up to.

I must say, I really do hope everyone's feeling well. Anyone got any fun stories about recent events? No need to say if you feel uncomfortable doing so, but we should try to look on the bright side of things. I work at an orchard and food processing plant, so I'm still working and making money. Anyway, to the review responses.

ChaoticMercy: Yukio got his done early in cannon so I thought that would hold true here too. I don't remember if they told us the age, but I just did my own thing here, I admit that. The twins will be very far ahead of most of the class in terms of combat capability. There will be some other capable members, but not many. But don't worry, the class will catch up fairly well.

ShadowWolf223: indeed. Honestly Australia is the place I'm least likely to visit. Those spiders would traumatize me. I'd be fine with everything else, but those terrifying spiders are ridiculous.

Zorgon873: that actually was not my intent. In truth Mephisto was making the best decision he could. Risk losing Rin and Yukio at a young age to Satan, who very well might have brainwashed or simply terrified them into obedience, or distract the demons and send them to a place that is accustomed to highly dangerous situations even without demons. I think Australia might have actually been a bit of a hotspot for demon activity anyway because the danger of the hosts there naturally. I think the demons would be more inclined to possess more dangerous creatures and people if they had the choice.

IndigoisBlue: he honestly is, especially if it is important to his plan. He is a demon after all, even if he is more "benevolent" than most. It is in his nature to cause chaos and destruction and pain.