I don't own anything. All characters and all rights belong to Ichiei Ishibumi*
M for mature topics. No children allowed. *
The Broken Boosted Gear
By Try Another Time
Rias, Shirone, and the members of her brother's peerage had arrived at a waterfall not too far from the location in which the Holy Sword Project had been taking place. They had been traveling around Europe and visiting different places at random while searching for candidates for her peerage.
"Are you sure that you want to rest here?" Okita asks.
"Yes. I feel like this is a good place for us to cool down. We have been using teletransportation too much and we haven't found any adequate candidates yet." Rias says.
The area was cold but it was also pretty appealing to the eyes. So, resting around the area wasn't a bad option.
"Rias you're lying," Shirone says.
"Why would I be lying?" Rias looks tense after hearing Shirone's reply.
"After you communicated with your brother and heard about Issei being close to this area you wanted to come here to see him." Shirone looks at her king and judges her actions. They had been together for several days and Shirone had learned many of Rias's secrets. Her interest in the Welsh Dragon was one of the first things she learned about her. "You mention him during your sleep and you have compared every candidate to him."
Shirone was very perceptive and Rias was an open book to her.
Rias looks away. "That is not true, Shirone. I have deemed this place to be an adequate resting place for us. I did not choose this place because he is around here." She tries to sound confident but her voice was far from being that.
Souji, Beowulf and Enku join Shirone. Their eyes are judging her. They were supposed to look for candidates. This was a serious affair and not a search for the Welsh Dragon.
Rias feels the pressure and gives up after a few moments. "Alright, I admit it. I did it because I wanted to see if we could meet him. I knew that none of you were going to accept that we interfere with the mission he is taking care of, so this was the other alternative."
Beowulf sighs. "Princess, we both know that he won't come here to meet you. He is taking care of something important and your friendship with him is never going to come first when a mission is in progress. You need to think about your actions and take this seriously."
Rias says nothing and continues to watch the waterfall. Several days had passed since the last time she saw him. She heard about the event that took place with the cursed island and just a few hours ago she learned about Diodora's demise and the alliance as well. "I just want to see if you're ok. So many events in just the course of a few days maybe are too much, even for you."
While she watched the waterfall and reflected on the words of her bodyguard, Rias noticed a weird object approaching the fall. "What is that?"
Rias points at the weird object.
The other members of the group look at it but Souji is the first one to identify what it was.
"Souji?" Beowulf notices that his partner opens his wings.
Souji flies head-on and catches the object before it falls to its doom. "My eyes are never wrong." In his arms lies a barely alive Isaiah.
Fate has unexpected ways of leading people to meet each other.
Back in the institute.
The charred corpses of several humans lay around him as he walked through the building.
"This can't be real." Said a guard as he backed away and tried to protect the container of one of the swords. "Has God forsaken us?"
"You ask for him when you know that you have been disregarding the lives of those children. You and every single adult within this building don't have the right to ask for the Bible God to come and save you. Your faith is all a lie. You don't practice what you preach." Issei continues to approach the man.
Behind him, the army of flaming copies was starting to demolish the whole place. Nothing was left standing and nobody was being spared.
"You are a monster."
"So are you and everyone who works at this place. You help those researchers so you're as guilty as them. Don't ask for mercy because there's none to be found." Issei kneels before the man. He can see the tears running down his cheeks and the fear in his eyes. His right leg was broken and he didn't have a weapon that he could use to fight back. "Close your eyes and I will make it fast."
The man cries but without any available option at his disposal, he chooses to close his eyes and await his end.
Issei does the deal and the head of the man falls to the floor. A quick execution for someone who didn't show mercy to the children they were killing for four years.
Issei shows no regret and just grabs the container that the man was trying to keep away from him. He opens it and finds the fourth sword that was left. Excalibur Ruler, the last one of the seven. He grabs the sword and swings it around to check it out. His hand is injured due to the energy emanating from the sword. The sword is rejecting him as its owner due to his lack of holy energy.
"A holy sword just like Ascalon. I can feel a strong amount of power contained within it. Ascalon was the same at the beginning. Let's see who is stronger." Issei releases his power and the power of the sword clashes against it.
The power of a holy sword and the power of a dragon push against each other. The red energy emanating from Issei fights against the gold one coming out of the sword. The sword tries to overcome the power of the Welsh Dragon it's quickly put down as Issei increases the amount of power. His power covers the sword and in a matter of seconds, Excalibur Ruler accepts Issei as its owner.
"Good girl. I'm going to discuss it with Rael but I believe that we're going to be good partners."
A magic circle appears in his ear.
"Issei, Tiamat, we have found the last kids. They are severely injured and need emergency treatment. I'm going back to the underworld with them." Kuroka says.
"Take them to Grigori and tell the others to wait for us over there. Tia, you have the other two swords?"
"I do. They are in my pocket dimension as we speak." Tiamat replies.
"Good. There is nothing else to do except for eliminating this place. I leave that to you, Tia. I need to go to the underground area. My treasure is deep within one of the underground caves."
"See you in Grigori then." Kuroka ends her call.
"Got it. I'll wait for you outside." Tiamat says before the transmission is ended.
Issei relaxes and creates a circle of teletransportation. It was time for the second treasure.
Tiamat's point of view.
Tia looks around one last time. She can still detect the scent of a few humans around the area. As soon as the scent of Kuroka and Issei left the area, she knew that the time was right.
She summons her wings and flies into the sky above the area before she transforms back into her dragon form.
The pale blue western dragon opens her mouth and begins to charge her attack. Her blue flames were nowhere as strong as those of Ddraig but she knew that they were enough to erase this whole site from the face of the world.
The fireball grows in size and before long the attack is ready to be used.
She looks at the site one last time and then shoots the fireball against it.
Those humans who were still alive watched the end of their lives in total desperation. The fireball consumes everything and before long an explosion takes place finishing the job.
In the depths of the mountain.
Issei reappears in a cave that is completely covered in darkness. There are no light sources nor any live animals around him or that was his initial belief.
His nose detects a peculiar scent that shouldn't be here. He creates a small flame and looks around the floor until he finds a trail of blood leading deeper into the cave.
"This blood is fresh but how?" He looks around and finds the start of the trail. "The water? No human should be able to find this cave with those currents."
Issei begins to follow the trail into the depths of the cave and it doesn't take him too long to find the source.
Tosca was laying on the floor. Her skin was very pale due to the blood loss and her body was shivering due to the coldness of the water. Her lungs were in a critical state as well. She was close to dying and Issei could feel how her heart was beating much slower with each second.
"You're one of the kids from the institute. You might be the luckiest girl around if you ended up in this place by just luck. I doubt that Asia can help you now if I try to get you back to her. I can smell the grim reaper getting closer." Issei thinks for a second and then makes a decision. "I think I have no other options except for using my treasure to try to save your life."
Tosca can barely hear his voice and she is unable to move her body on her own. She feels how Issei picks her up and starts to walk deeper into the cave until he stops.
"I'm going to apologize for not asking your opinion about this but you don't have too long before they take your soul. I need to do this to save you."
Issei uses his extra set of arms to dig and retrieve the treasure that he had hidden many centuries ago. After a few seconds, a small crimson egg is retrieved by the arms.
"Wy Gwaed Aileni, activate for me, your master."
The egg activates after hearing his voice. After a few seconds, the egg grows into a much bigger one. The egg appears to be made out of a reddish membrane.
Issei puts the body of Tosca inside the egg by pushing against the membrane. The girl floats in the liquid contained within the egg. "It's warm... I could sleep..." Her eyes closed down.
"My blood will end your life as a human and give you a new one as a dragon. Be reborn as my flesh and blood, daughter of mine." Issei cuts his wrist before re-introducing his hand into the egg. His blood starts to spread out until the inside of the egg is no longer visible. He takes his hand out of the egg and the outer membranes start to harden until it transforms into a crystal.
"My eyes can't believe it. The Welsh Dragon has shown compassion for a human once more." A voice calls out to Issei.
The boy turns around and sees a purple-haired adult male who is holding a scythe. His hair is long like that of a woman but his face is cold and masculine. His yellow golden eyes are fierce like those of a seasoned warrior.
"Orcus. Of all the reapers in the realm of the dead, it had to be you. How's life for one of the oldest reapers?"
"Peaceful at least for now. I have a daughter now. She is the cutest thing ever."
"You have a family now? Who is the mother? Another reaper?"
"Human. She died shortly after giving birth but I have her soul right here." Orcus points at his scythe.
"Sorry to hear that."
"Don't worry about it. She asked me to never leave her alone and this was the only way of keeping her with me. I see that you have stolen another life away from me. First, it was your current host and now you took this girl. You have changed a lot since our last meeting."
"What can I say? I'm two minds in one body. Sorry but this girl is my responsibility."
"Hey, I'm okay with that. You took most of the kids but gave me a bunch of adults in exchange. There's also the souls that we got from the cursed island so I thank you for that. By the way, Rias Gremory also took one of the kids away from me."
"Rias? She is around this area?"
"She is. One of these kids was falling from a waterfall after being dragged by the currents of the streams under the mountain. She made him into a devil before I could collect his soul."
Issei smiles after hearing that. He needed to thank her after getting out but he still had questions for Orcus. "How's the realm of the dead?"
"In chaos. We are divided into three factions. Hades has one, Thanatos has his own and I'm the leader of the third. We have different objectives and views regarding the other factions. My faction wants peace with the other factions while the other two want different approaches. Hades is the most troublesome one and I feel that since you got this new body, he has become restless. You scare him."
"He fears what I can do to him with my flames. Does he still hate devils and fallen angels?"
"Same old Hades. He calls them bats and crows. So, what about you? What plans do you have in mind?"
"Just formed an alliance with the Four Great Satans, Grigori, and Heaven. Got two brides and formed my own faction."
Orcus goes quiet for a second before he laughs. "How did all of that happen? You, the great Welsh Dragon, killer of gods and rival of Albion- "
"Former rival. I ended the rivalry not too long ago."
"You ended the rivalry? But he is Albion. You were the one that started the whole mess."
"And I choose to put an end to it. I need to change and I'm willing to keep moving on. I can't go back to the past."
Orcus was left speechless. He didn't expect to hear those words from Ddraig and then he remembers something crucial. "Is the kid. Your current host is the one pushing you to move on."
"You can see our souls. You know what I'm doing."
The reaper looks more closely. His eyes see how the two flames are merging into one. One is smaller when compared to the other but the difference is not that much. "You're one crazy dragon. You surprise me every single time but I can see that you're determined to move on. I'm going to leave for now but expect me to visit you once more. That alliance seems like something that could benefit my faction as well."
"You know how to find me or you can also approach the rest of the alliance. Thanks for the information regarding Hades. If you need help to take care of him or Thanatos you can always look for me."
"I doubt that I would ever go as far as to attack them but if war becomes a thing I will ask for your collaboration. Take care, Welsh Dragon." Orcus disappears thanks to the use of his special portal.
Issei smiles before turning back to the egg. "I hope that Tiamat is not angry after I explain this to her." He touches the egg once more and feels the heartbeat of the girl inside it. "Hephaestus, your creation is a success."
A few moments afterward.
Tiamat was watching the egg with total shock. "Is this real?"
"Yes, I asked Hephaestus a long time ago for an artifact that could improve the shedding process and make it into a much shorter period. He asked for my blood and flesh to create it. This was the result. He went as far as to say that the artifact could transform another being into a dragon if I used my blood to activate it. This is the first time I have tried to test that theory."
"And you choose to try it on the child that you found in the cave?"
"Yes, she was about to die and even Orcus made an appearance to claim her soul."
"That's serious business. If Orcus was there, she was practically dead at that point. So, what does this process mean for the girl inside?"
"She will become a dragon that shares my flesh and blood. She would be my daughter if we talk about her relation to me."
Tiamat sighs. "I'm not mad about this but you know what this means right? She is now our responsibility."
"I know and I apologize for getting a daughter without your consent."
"You did it to save her life so I'm not mad but I still expect a child that not only has your blood but mine as well. Going back to the egg, can I use my blood to activate it and how long does it take for the process to end?"
"Hephaestus said that my blood was necessary but we can try with yours if the opportunity shows up again. The process took one week when I used it for myself so we're going to have to wait at least a week for her to come out." Issei says as he holds the egg with his extra arms.
"Can it shrink in size or do we need to hide the egg in our house back in the human world until the process is over?" Tiamat was very curious about the capacities of the artifact.
"Let's see. Wy Gwaed Aileni, shrink down."
The egg reacted to his voice and began to decrease in size until it was back to its original size.
"That's a good magical artifact. Did Hephaestus ask for a payment for this?"
"He did. I pay for the creation of this and the other artifact. We made sure that nobody knew about our transaction because of obvious reasons." Issei says before he retrieves the artifact from the extra set of arms. Once the egg was in his own hands, he could still feel the heartbeat of the child inside of the egg once more. "My first child. I feel weird. I'm not used to this sensation."
"That's your instincts kicking in. She is our child now and we have to make sure that she grows to be much different than your old self. We should also have her meet Great Red so that he can give her a title." She sounded very excited about the prospect of having a child although she shared no blood relation to her.
"We can take care of that at another time. For now, we should meet up with Rias. Orcus told me that she had saved the life of one of the kids in another part of the mountain." Issei puts the egg into his pocket dimension for safety.
"Then let's go. We still need to go back to Grigori and give the swords back to Rael."
They began to track the scent of the princess of Gremory and it didn't take them too much to find her. The pair flew for a few moments until they found the waterfall and Rias.
Rias's point of view, a few minutes before Orcus met Issei.
She was kneeling next to the kid, Okita had saved from the waterfall. The kid was pale and he wasn't reacting.
"He's dying. I don't think he is going to make it." Beowulf said.
"I know but I feel this child has potential. His clothes are also the ones of someone that has been training. I think Rias should use an evil piece for this child." Okita says.
"We don't know him." Beowulf continues. "Rias should choose people and beings that she can trust. This child is not one of those."
"But he is dying." Shirone interferes. "He is too pale and I can smell death around him. My powers aren't working on him either."
"That is not enough reason for Rias to save his life," Beowulf said.
"You better check once more my dear friend. This child has something special about him. His soul has that light that only sacred gear users have. There is potential on this kid." Enku says.
"Enku, I trust your eyes but we should think about this. An evil piece shouldn't be used just to save a life and that sacred gear might not be that strong." Beowulf argued.
Thus continue a back and forth between Sirzechs's peerage while Rias looks at the child. Shirone was trying to save him but her skills were only at their beginning stage. She was far from being Kuroka.
"What should I do? Should I do this? You haven't even said one word since Okita saved you." Rias was trying to make a choice that could mean life or death for Isaiah and then she heard one single word from this weak child.
"Tosca…. Tosca…" Isaiah said with the last strength he had left.
"You have someone you want to see again? You are about to die and you choose to call for a person instead of help. I can respect that conviction. I don't know your name or your story but I want to see how far you can go to meet that person once more." Rias summons her evil pieces and takes out a knight piece.
"Rias, don't do something you might regret," Beowulf says.
"I won't. So let me do this Beowulf. I want to see how far the conviction of this child goes." Rias says.
Beowulf sees the determination in her eyes and gives up. "Okita, I expect you to make him into an excellent knight for Rias."
"I will. I saved him from the waterfall and I will take responsibility for his future." Okita replies sounding full of confidence.
"Thanks." Rias then plunges the piece inside Isaiah's chest thus giving him a second chance and the possibility of seeing Tosca once more.
A few minutes after that.
Rias and her group watched as Issei arrived at their location alongside Tiamat.
"Issei!" Rias runs towards him and hugs him.
Issei pats her head. "I have many questions but I wanna see the child first. I know what you did."
"Wait, how do you know about him?" Rias asks.
"A reaper told me. I know a lot of beings."
Rias releases him and then looks at Tiamat. "Good to see you, Tiamat."
"The pleasure is mine," Tiamat replies.
The three of them walk back to the rest of the group.
Shirone smiles after seeing him. "Issei-san."
"Shirone. You look stronger than before. I imagined that Kuroka is going to be happy about it."
Shirone smiles at him. "Thanks."
Issei then looks at the rest of the group and nods before focusing on Isaiah. "He is definitely one of the kids from the institute."
"Can you give us any information regarding what was happening?" Okita asks.
"An atrocious project was taking place in a building on the other side of that mountain. They had children there and were looking to create users capable of wielding a holy sword." Tiamat begins.
"As most of you might know, devils, fallen angels, angels and I formed an alliance yesterday. One of the conditions involves cleaning their closets from any skeletons and this one was the first that the angels needed to take care of. Based on what the angels said there have been many deaths thanks to the project and they wanted the whole thing to end. They asked me to save the kids, recover the swords and eliminate everyone involved."
Rias and her group were amazed and even shocked. For someone to have such influence that he forces a whole faction to take such drastic actions was a pretty amazing thing.
"Did you save the kids?" Shirone asks.
"They are receiving treatment at Grigori and I can't say that the mission was a total success. We lost three of the swords, one bastard escaped with them and at least a few kids died before we got to them. We need to go and check on the others. Rias, take care of this one, and when he wakes up let him know about everything that took place. If he has questions, he can come to me. He is your responsibility now. Shirone, you should also help him as the oldest member in the peerage." Issei says as he looks at both of the girls.
Rias and Shirone nod. They are confident in being able to take care of their newest member.
"It's time for us to leave. See you later." Issei gets up and departs for Grigori alongside Tiamat.
It was time to face the aftermath of the poison.
A few moments later, Grigori.
The fallen angels went back and forth within the health area of their base. Each one of the kids was in critical condition and many of them were suffering from drastic pulmonary damage. The poison had damaged their lungs and Azazel was using all of his resources to help these children to survive.
Kuroka and Asia were also helping around with each one of the children. Asia's sacred gear was useful but it was far from being the ultimate tool to save all of these children.
Rael and Raynare could only watch while hoping for the best. Rael was banned from interacting with humans except for those within Issei's group so she couldn't use her powers to help the children. It was painful for her but she was praying for each one of them.
"Rael are you sure that you can't do something for them?" Azazel asks.
"I can't. Michael and the others were very strict about this. Saving them from the institute was the only thing they allowed. The rest is outside my control." Rael admits with visible regret.
"All of you need to change your ways at some point. Angels need to advance for the sake of humans but I leave the choice to all of you. Regarding their fates afterward, are you sure about leaving them in my care? Don't you want to bring them back to the human world?" Azazel wasn't mad or against the idea but he wanted to make sure that this was their final choice.
"It's for the best. None of them have families and most of them have sacred gears. Leaving them in your care is a way of putting our trust in you and the alliance. If we take them back to the human world, we don't know what could happen to them in the future. We're still dealing with the church and we can't trust them to take care of these children." She looks at the children in the beds and her heart hurts even more. "This should have never taken place."
"I agree with you. Make sure that only people you trust get those swords in the future. We can't have a maniac running around with them." Azazel says.
"We will. Every single weapon in the hands of the church is going to be collected. We can't let them do something similar to this ever again." Rael says with total determination.
"You better do as you say. I doubt that Welsh-sama is going to accept any kind of betrayal." Raynare looks at Rael. "He is serious about the alliance and failing to reach his expectations can be the worst thing heaven can do. We don't want to make him angry."
Rael and Azazel remember the events that had taken place since the Welsh Dragon gained a new body. The cursed island, the fight against the avatar of hate, the beating that Diodora took, and then they remember the heavenly war. Their faces grow pale with each memory. None of them wanted to fight him and especially not now.
Before any of them could say another word, Shemhazai entered the area alongside Issei and Tiamat.
"Tell me what's their status?" Issei approaches them before looking down into the treatment area.
"21 victims. All of them are in critical condition with lung damage. We're doing everything to save them." Azazel says.
"We lost 6 of them," Rael says.
"Make that number 4. Rias was in the area and one of the orphans was found by her. She used an evil piece on the boy. I also found one girl in the cave where my treasure was buried." Issei takes the egg out. "She is inside this. I took a drastic option. She is becoming a dragon as we speak. My first daughter, my own flesh and blood. Still feels weird to say."
The fallen angels and seraph look at the egg. Each one touches it and they feel the heartbeat from within.
"What is this thing?" Azazel asks. He was really curious about the artifact and its function.
"Wy Gwaed Aileni. One of my treasures. Made by Hephaestus." Issei then puts the egg away before anyone can continue to touch it.
"Your daughter? The virgin Welsh Dragon has become a dad. I can't believe this." Azazel says before he is attacked once more by Shemhazai.
"Not the time for stupid jokes," Shemhazai says. "I apologize for his rudeness. Congrats on becoming a parent. Please take good care of the child inside of that artifact. Don't be like him."
"We will. It is our daughter after all." Tiamat says as she puts her arms around Issei's neck. "We also have these for you."
Two sword containers appear in front of Rael.
"Thank you. What about the other one?" Rael looks at Issei.
"I'm keeping that one for the moment. If you need it back or find someone that is more suitable for wielding it you can let me know. That sword is a strong one and I like it. I also feel that it can help me in the long run."
Rael sighs. "I'm going to talk about it with my brothers. Please be careful with that sword. Each one is a piece of Excalibur and one day we may need to put it back together."
"I will. I'll wait for good news from heaven. Also, tell them to find that bastard that took the other ones."
Rael nods and disappears with the two swords. It was time for a discussion with the other heads of heaven.
Back in heaven.
Once she was back, Gabriel transformed herself back to her original form. Her golden hair and blue eyes were back. Her white angelic dress replaced her blue one.
"Gabriel, are those the last swords?" Uriel asks.
"Yes. Well at least for now. He has decided to keep one of the swords at least for now." Gabriel explains.
"But he doesn't possess any holy energy," Uriel argues.
"He is strong and there is a high chance that he used his power to dominate the sword," Raphael says.
"We can talk about that last sword afterward. We need to see which ones we have in our possession." Michael says.
Gabriel takes out the two swords from their containers and they begin to float until they join their other sister.
"Blessing, Mimic and Rapidly. We know that Varper took Destruction, Nightmare, and Transparency. That leaves Ruler with the Welsh Dragon. We have four of the seven." Michael says.
"Should we allow him to have that one? Ruler subjugates the will of his enemy and it's far stronger than the rest." Uriel says.
"We can't be picky about this. He took care of the problem and we got the swords. We need to work with him and give him leniency. He is the one that is going to act on our behalf within the human world." Raphael argues.
"That's true and that sword can serve him to take care of problems as well. Gabriel, what do you think?" Michael looks at his sister.
"I want to allow him to keep it. This has been a troublesome event for us. We need to change and he is the one that is going to help us. I know that father may disapprove of some of our actions but we got to be better than this. We can't go back to having him as an enemy and he is willing to help us. I will be alongside him so I'll make sure that the sword is not used for the wrong reasons." Gabriel says.
The other brothers seem satisfied with her answer.
"It's your responsibility so make sure that the sword is used for the right reasons or we will need to ask him to give it back," Uriel says.
"I understand. I need to get back. The children are still in critical condition and I need to be there." Gabriel says.
"Take care, Gabriel. We're going to continue with the rest of the plans." Michael says.
It was the beginning of a new era for the faction and with the help of the Welsh Dragon, they were going to make sure that everything changed for the best.
*Notes of the author: That's it for now. I'm drained. I'm going to need some weeks before I come back to this story. Tell me your opinions and I will see you in a few weeks.*