A/N: Uhh, hi.
discord. gg /JV97AUmAr7
Chapter 29: The King's Spear
So, this is death,Rias Gremory thought to herself.
Black wings unfurled, devouring moonlight and pressing down on her world with an ocean's worth of unholy power. Rias could feel the bones in her knees creak from the sheer weight of Kokabiel's presence.
She looked upon the Fallen Lord, his pale mien expressionless as he gazed down at them. Those void-like black eyes swept over them one by one.
The Ten-Winged Fallen then gestured with his right hand, and Rias narrowed her eyes as a dark shadow manifested above their heads and spiraled into a circle little more than a meter across. Suddenly two figures fell from the conjured darkness and landed hard onto the ground before her and Sona.
"Irina!"
From behind her, Issei ran out towards one of the crumpled figures, bringing the Holy Sword wielder up and cradling her to his chest.
Rias frowned as she beheld the sight of the two exorcists. While she had noted their absence in the earlier battle, she had assumed that they had run away or perhaps went to gather reinforcements. She assumed that Kokabiel, or more likely his underlings, had captured the two at some point.
Issei looked up panicked. "Asia! Can you please heal them!"
"R-right!"
The blonde ran over to where Issei was and knelt, both hands hovering over each exorcist and radiating a soft golden-green light.
"Twilight Healing."
Rias' gaze immediately jumped to the Fallen above.
"I have seen that particular Sacred Gear many times over the centuries," Kokabiel said thoughtfully. "A pity your mastery is sorely lacking. Moot point, that it is. You will be dead, all too soon. But I can empathize with having your last moments being comfortable at the very least."
She grit her teeth and Rias said balefully, "My brother won't let you get away with this!"
"My dear girl," Kokabiel's voice softened - almost kind. "I am counting on it."
The Fallen looked up and threw a searching gaze over her head and past the ruined school, before turning back to look at her. She met those black eyes with challenge.
"Sirzechs will come," he said, before turning towards Sona with an acknowledging look "as will Serafall. And with them the Dread Legions of Hell. And they shall do what Lucifer's brood have always done best: make war."
Beside her, Rias could see that Sona's hands balled into fists.
"So that's what you seek?" Sona asked angrily. "Luring out two Satans from the Underworld and trying to kill them?"
A powerful pang struck through Rias' heart, and she bit the inside of her cheek hard enough so that the metallic taste of her own blood filled her mouth. The immense regret of having essentially led her entire peerage to their deaths was damning enough, but the realization that her beloved older brother would march to war to avenge her was gut-wrenching.
Not but a few days ago she sat in the Gremory manor, surrounded by her entire family, and the memory of her older brother's words rang clear in her head. He has called her his pride and joy. Better than anyone, she knew how much he loved her. How much he cared for and provided for her. Where her parents were oft the hand of discipline and direction, he would always offer her leeway and comfort with smiles and his ridiculous antics so antithetical to his station in life.
Tears welled in Rais' eyes as heartbreak tore through her. She would die here, and as a result, the empire her brother sacrificed so much for over the centuries would be consigned to the chaos of war.
She dug her nails deep into her palms, painting their tips red with her own blood.
"While seeing two hate-bred Satans dead would be a worthy endeavor," Kokabiel said wistfully as he folded his hands gingerly under his navel, "I am afraid that is but a tertiary ambition of mine. For this night, at any rate."
Rias frowned in confusion, and the rest of the Devils shifted. Her eyes flitted from the Fallen's frame to the thousands upon thousands of black winged warriors in the sky.
"So, what then?" she asked angrily. "You intend to bring the Great War back for simple chaos?"
Black eyes fell heavy on her, and Kokabiel's brows raised slightly in light amusement. "Chaos is many things, my dear. But never is it simple."
Kokabiel regarded them all for a moment before tilting his head and bobbing it to side in consideration. "Very well. I suppose a few moments longer won't change anything."
As he floated closer to them, the Fallen Lord's gave a slight nostalgic smile. "In the old days, we would trade taunts and jeers before clashing weapons against our foes. However, you are children, and it would be rather boorish of me to do so with you. Nevertheless, making light conversation before I send you to your deaths would be the polite thing to do."
Kokabiel then waved his hand, and a sudden coldness gripped her and tightened through her chest. Rias let out a cry of pain as she felt her bones and sinew agonizingly shift beneath her skin. Similar cries from those around her let her know she wasn't the only one feeling such. She felt an alien sensation crawl up her arms and through her lungs, and she resisted the urge to turn to the side and empty the contents of her stomach. The pervasive coldness felt so utterly wrong inside of her.
However, after a few moments had passed, the cold left her bones and she found herself standing straighter, the pain in arm and the aches through her body gone. Rias lifted her hands and stared at them as she turned them over.
She cast a glance toward the others, they were in a similar dazed state.
"You-you healed us?"
Rias' gaze was drawn to the blue-haired exorcist as she stood and questioned the Fallen Lord in befuddlement. Xenovia: Rias recalled her name was.
"Indeed. I did." Kokabiel said with a light smile. "You do not need to thank me. It would be rather awkward considering I'm going to be murdering you very soon."
Rias blinked in confusion. What was Kokabiel plotting with this?
"Uhh, Mister Fallen, sir," Asia spoke up quietly. "Why did you heal us?"
Rias was almost tempted to pinch the bridge of her nose as Asia had brought both hands together, as if ready to launch into a prayer at a moment's notice."
Kokabiel peered down at her, and his eyes narrowed, though his lips twitched briefly into a smile.
"LordFallen, sir." He corrected gently. "I am a Cadre of the Grogori and my rank demands a certain modicum of respect. You would not want your final moments to be a breach of etiquette, would you?"
Asia's eyes widened momentarily before she shook her swiftly.
"What a sweet child you are." He smiled gently. "Such a pity Raynare did not deliver you to me and let her own insecurities poison an otherwise sound plan. Alas, the pittance of a lesser mind's scope."
And at the mention of the dead Fallen's name, both Asia and Issei froze up. The girl's expression went from wary to horrified and her Pawn's shoulders began to tremble. Rias frowned heavily, both carried considerable trauma that was inflicted onto them by Raynare and her team. That Kokabiel was the one to send them here; it meant he was indirectly responsible for their scars...as well as them joining her peerage.
"No matter," Kokabiel continued, "what is done is done. After tonight, Twilight Healing will be nothing more than a dog's toy compared to the endgame. Tell me children, what do you know of the so-called Three Great Factions?"
"So-called?" Sona said from beside her, an inquisitive edge to her voice. "Why so-called."
"There is nothing great about us anymore," Kokabiel said curtly. "Once upon a time our collective might was unchallenged in this and many other worlds. But now? We are but pale shadows."
"And you wish to change that?" Rias asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.
"Hardly. Let it all rot for all I care." Kokabiel gave a derisive snort. The Fallen Lord then took a pause before continuing. "Well, I suppose I might as well start at the beginning. As with all things emanating from our demesne of the cosmos, it begins with my Father."
At his words, the two exorcists perked up and Rias once again fought the urge to pinch her nose as Asia immediately clasped her hands in prayer. As if to accent her exasperation, a peal of thunder rumbled on the distant horizon.
Kokabiel looked down at Asia with an almost kind expression. "Oh, but you are a dear child. Now I am more than a little vexed with Raynere and her folly. That such darling potential be tainted with Gomory's blood is such travesty. But I digress."
Rias blinked up at the Fallen. Very rarely did she hear her grandmother's alternative names and titles. Most people had forgotten them by this age. Then again, Kokabiel was old enough to have fought her progenitor during the Great War.
Kokabiel's expression went rigged as they flicked between her and Sona. "My presence here, my army gathered, Takamagahara's eye blinded and the shattered pieces of Excalibur stolen and reforged - this glorious purpose! All of it began with my beloved Father. It began when he died."
The air went eerily still.
As she froze, it seemed the world around her did as well. She must have misheard; she hadto have misheard. There is no possible way that Kokabiel just said...
Almost painstakingly she dragged her gaze away from Kokabiel's ten-winged figure to look at Sona. And her best friend too turned towards her, her eyes wide and mouth parted. They blinked slowly at each other, and at her side, Rias clenched her hands tightly and then unclenched. Again and again, she repeated the action hoping it would help settle Kokabiel's words into her mind.
The Heavenly Father is...?
"You fiend!" And it was Xenovia's venom-filled cry that snapped Rias out of her own shock and made her turn towards the exorcist. "You would utter such blasphemies?!"
But Kokabiel paid her no heed and kept his sight on Rias and Sona; a questioning gleam in his gaze. Their shock at his words was so obvious he said, "Truly? You did not know? Sirzechs and Serafall kept you ignorant of such a grand matter?"
"I-" Rias cut herself off because she didn't know what to say. What could she say? Her brother had secrets from her, of course he did. She hardly expected the sovereign of an empire to give out state secrets to his little sister, but something like this? How could she not know? How could such a thing be kept? Not just from her, but the whole general populace of Devilkind! The greatest enemy of their species was no more! Yet the matter was kept hidden?
The wind began to pick up, whipping her long red hair across her face. Using magic to bind her hair down, Rias took a moment provided by the howling wind to gather her thoughts.
No, stop. Think. I'm not a child anymore, I have to think like a noble. Why would the Satans keep this a secret from everyone?
It was Sona who gave the answer in a quiet mutter, as if reading her mind.
"The Old Satan Faction."
Rias' eyes lit up. Of course!
More than anything, from the moment the Four Satans took their thrones, they had opted for peace and stability for their new empire. They recognized the need for growth and recovery after the utter devastation of fighting in the Great War for centuries. Instead of seeking the senseless continuation of said war that would lead to their eventual extinction. The fools of the Old Satan Faction wish to carry on the ancient grudges of their fallen masters.
The fear of the Heavenly Father was a massive deterrent to any mentions of re-igniting the war. Since, as far as Rias knew, no one in the Old Satan Faction could even match against the Archangels, let alone their creator.
It made sense to Rias then, to keep their ancient enemy's death a secret.
Alleged death, she mentally corrected herself.
Sona must have come to conclusion as she did because it was at that moment her oldest friend sharply threw out, "You claim such. But what proof is there that you are not lying to us?"
Kokabiel raised a fine, black brow. "Lie? To mere children who are about to die? And about my own Blessed Father no less? Do not insult me, child. Otherwise, your death will not be so painless."
Rias took a deep, calming breath, stilling her thoughts and reminding herself to remain collected and rational even in the face of mortal peril. Momentarily she was distracted, noting the dark clouds amassed over the ten thousand Fallen amassed and obscured the full moon above. Echoes of angry thunder from clouds miles high raged down to her ears.
"Of course, he lies!" Xenovia's angry roar brought all their attention to her. And in one fell motion she summoned the Holy Sword Durandel in all its glory. "Kokabiel the Fallen Watcher! Kokabiel the Deceiver! The Blasphemer! Everyone on Earth knows of the lies you've sown in Humanity's ears for eons! You betrayed Heaven! You betrayed your own maker! The unworthy son! And you dare to say that our Lord is dead?! You are nothing more than a filthy liar who-"
BOOM
Everyone was blasted off their feet as unholy power crashed down onto the Earth and shattered the ground below as Kokabiel's fury was unleashed. Rias felt her breath freeze as the very air choked in her lungs. She couldn't even cry out in pain as the Fallen's radiance pierced through her skin and seared against her flesh.
Kokabiel's frozen visage was one of pure unadulterated rage and palpable fury. "You say I turned my back on my Father?! I?! I who loved him most of all?!I am not Michael! So blinded by devotion that he sees only ideals and dogma! Nor am I Azazel! A slave to the endless mire of his own twisted mind! And I am certainly not Lucifer! Deluded and consumed by his own jealous and foolhardy rage! I Fell because I understood our Father best! I knew his heart! I knew he wanted more of us! Better of us! I Fell so that I may look up from amongst the dredges of Humanity and see his light from the darkest of pits and striveto walk back to him on the path of strife and glorious struggle! As he intended! But it was robbed of me!"
The ground began to tear apart and float to the sky in chunks and boulders, and Rias churned out as much demonic power as she could against the Corrupted Light of the Fallen Lord. From besides her, she could feel Sona, Tsubaki and Akeno do the same to shield themselves from the sheer presence of the enraged Cadre.
Kokabiel's baleful black eyes turned to Issei, and the boy fell to the grown thrashing in pain as he screamed.
"Ddraig," the Cadre ground out in seething fury. "Do you remember me fell wyrm? Do you remember me amongst the millions of faces you and your foul mirror-twin slaughtered that fateful gloam? Do you remember my Father, weakened by his great effort of sparing this pitiful planet from that accursed sixfold horror?"
As Issei continued to writhe in torment and agony, Kokabiel came closer to the Earth, his presence tearing stone to dust. The Fallen Lord's lips curled into a sneer. "Under your winged shadows our family stood united for the first time in eons! Our spears shattered against your scales! Our swords broke between your teeth! And our armor ran molten under your breath! And. Yet. We Pre-vailed! After an entire world burned to ash! After mad Caniel and radiant Sarathiel and foul Beelzebub were brought low in dragon fire! After constellations fell and stars were sundered! We broke through and cut you to ribbons! And even then! Even in your miserable death throes, as Father set you in your prisons, you put fire to his light and Albion put venom to his heart!"
Veins of hatred pulsed through Kokabiel's face and Rias was forced to avert her gaze as the Dark Light flowing from his mere form brought stabbing pain to her eyes.
"And how it infuriates me! That you be there! Right within reach yet glorious revenge held at bay by the very shackles my Beloved Father wrought as your prison! Oh Ddraig! Have you naught to say to me?! You who stole me of purpose! You who took light from this world! Forever left it bereaved from the one being who could bring it order and truth! AH! Foul Ddraig! Vile Ddraig!"
As Issei continued to wail in agony, Rias crawled across the broken ground and torn earth towards him, ignoring the increasing pressure from Kokabiel's monstrous power. She bled as the jagged rock of Kuoh's grounds tore and cut into her knees and palms. As she approached the screaming boy, Rias struggled to lift her arm and push her demonic power through the weight of unholy power. Once she reached him, she placed a hand on his chest and wrapped him in a protective cushion of her power, shielding him from the worst of the Fallen Lord's ire. Taking a small breath as Issei's cries eased into whimpers and his breathing shallowed, Rias turned a dangerous gaze towards Kokabiel and the Fallen beat all ten of his wings and raised himself back into the sky.
His caustic voice projected and rang through the whole of the valley and town down below. "But beyond the vices of despair I have crossed the threshold of hope! I have found SALVATION!"
SALVATION!
SALVATION!
SALVATION!
The legion of Fallen cried ten thousand strong, and the world reverberated with their combined chant and Rias could feel the hum of their voices shake her bones. She grit her teeth hard, and her fingers curled into the fabric of Issei's shirt.
Rias sent out her senses, locating each of her peerage members and assuring herself that they were still alive and breathing. For now, at the very least.
"Behold!" And a terrible light erupted as Kokabiel thrust his arm towards the sky that was now erupting with lightning. "The hope my Father left for this pitiful and decedent world! Behold the mighty Slaying Spear! Behold RHONGOMYNIAD!"
Her eyes went wide, and her breath went cold.
"That's impossible, it's supposed to be just a myth." Rias turned her head as she beheld a battered looking blonde leaning against large slab of rock jutting out of the ground, one arm wrapped around his side.
"Yuuto," she mumbled in relief, though he did not acknowledge her and kept his eyes locked on Kokabiel far above.
"Rhongomyniad, the King's Spear. King Arthur'sspear. Said to have been given to him by the Heavens." Yuuto's eyes narrowed. "But it's never been seen before. Even in the Great War it didn't make an appearance. It's supposed to be a myth!"
Kokabiel's laughter echoed between the mountains of the valley and the peal of thunder roared behind it. "Indeed! Arthur feared it. And rightfully so! After his death, the angel Doma wrapped Rhongomyniad in seven veils of silence, and Michael ordered it sealed in the vaults of Heaven, never to see the light of this Earth again."
Kokabiel brought the spear down before him, his gaze reverent, even loving. He traced his fingers across the smooth metallic shaft of the spear. "Electrum mined from Mount Olympus, consecrated by all Four Great Seraphs, forged in the waters of Avalon with Fey magick and finally, at its core, ten drops of immortal blood from my Father. Aaaaah!"
Rias tracked the Fallen in the sky as he brough the metal to his lips and kissed it affectionately. "Oh, Rhongomyniad! Brother to the True Longinus! Thou art the Spear of Finality! Imbued with primal death! A death reaped by you is final! No power may defy or deny a death granted by you! But once did Noble Arthur use you in battle, and so complete was the annihilation of that foe that you erased their existence from all of time itself! Even the moment of victory was destroyed from the realm of time! We only know of the occurrence because you deigned to allow Arthur to keep the memory! Oh Rhongomyniad! Grant us salvation! Salvation through death!"
DEATH!
DEATH!
DEATH!
As the Fallen's chant began again, Rias suppressed a wince.
"Well, this seems familiar." Rias turned to see Akeno slide down a large boulder. Behind her were Asia and Koneko. She wore a pained smile, though their was no mirth in her eyes. "I believe we already made through all the sentimental notions of dying together. Let's not do it again."
And even in the madness of it all, Rias couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Issei-san!"
As Asia ran forward, Rias reassured the girl. "He's fine, just knocked out from the pain. I've already purged the unholy light from within him!"
"So that's your plan?" Rias' head snapped as she looked past the ravaged grounds towards the direction of where Sona's yell came from. "You intend to use that weapon to murder the Satans?"
"Foolish girl," Kokabiel laughed. "Did you pay no heed to what I said before? The Satans are but a periphery! I intend to murder the world!"
She held back a choke.
"I'm sorry," Akeno said after a moment, "did he just say he's going to murder the world? As in, everything?"
"Here in this place!" Kokabiel said as he spread his arms and wings wide, the thunderous clouds behind him rippling with lightning. "The liminal veil between the living and dead runs thin and barren."
Rias blinked in confusion. What? What does he mean 'in this place'? Is there some secret to Kuoh? Another thing kept hidden from me by father and brother?
"Lucifer and Leviathan will come with your deaths! And as their armies clash with mine, and as Rhongomyniad and I clash with them, the combined might of our battle will tear the veil asunder! And the lands of the dead will bleed into the lands of the living! Hundreds of millions will die within moments! Rhongomyniad shall tear the veil wider, 'til the whole world, and all connected realms, be forced to merge with the chthonic realities! Billions upon billions of souls set loose, chaotically fluctuating between life and dead in a simultaneous primal ooze!"
She could only gape in horror as the Fallen Lord gazed down at with his teeth bared wild. Kokabiel was mad. Completely and utterly mad.
"This is your plan," Sona screamed up at him. "You're insane! You're completely insane! There's no point to a destroyed world!"
Kokabiel laughed, his eyes wide with frenetic, green energy. "What little you know! Rhongomyniad's Balance Breaker: End Maker. With its power, I can write an absolute, unchallenged ending to any narrative of reality! I will use its power with Father's blood to write a narrative that ends with every soul coalescing into one fine point: me! I will write my own death! Father's light still emanates from within the King's Spear! And with his blood fused with the power of billions of souls, I shall be sundered along with this universe! And from my dying self, Father shall be revived! Emerging into a nascent and empty reality! Free to structure it without any other immortal force and power to interfere! Free to create and define a perfect world!"
Kokabiel raised his empty hand, coalescing a sickly green light into the shape of a long, thin javelin. The flickers of thunderbolts behind him darkening his face, yet Kokabiel's baleful eyes curved grim and maniacal with eldritch green light. "I have granted thee enough words! Now, I shall gift thee with death! Farewell, children of my fell brother! Die for the new world! Die for Father!"
Rias could only stare wide eyes, her hand tearing into Issei's shirt as Kokabiel let loose the light spear and it hurtled toward them to seal their doom.
A bolt of blue lightning fell.
Between the Cadre and the Devils, it struck Kokabiel's sinister green light and for a brief moment, a high pitched shrieking rang Rias' ears.
She heard someone scream, "Get down!"
Then the green light ruptured in a ferocious explosion.
The concussive force from the blast traveled through the air in a shockwave, and Rias could see it race towards her and her peerage. Immediately she and Akeno threw up a magical barrier, both their hands raised defensively. The unholy power tore through the ground, uprooting trees and ripping through buildings in the town of Kuoh below. Rias couldn't even spare a thought for all the human lives down in the town as the explosion slammed into her magic and her energy was instantly pushed to the limit.
But both she and Akeno were already tremendously strained from their battle earlier, their reserves of demonic power were basically nonexistent at this point. Rias felt cold dread seep through her head, there was nothing she could do.
The bones in her hands and forearms began to snap. She could feel blood flowing out her nose as the pressure began to overwhelm her.
Her breath froze in her lungs as her feet were pressed into the rock below, cracking and breaking apart. She tried to yell at her peerage. To tell them to run. But there was no air in her lungs and Rias could feel herself being pushed back as the pale, green death violently tore its way towards her.
As her hands blistered and her skin began to burn blackened, Rias could only feel some ancient grim satisfaction of dying in battle.
Her only regret being her peerage having to die with her.
Suddenly from behind her, a giant shadow bounded forward, and a deep growl shook the air. An icy fog surged from behind and pushed at the destructive light, keeping it at bay. As the pressure alleviated, Rias could only drop in an exhausted heap onto her legs.
Breathing heavily, even the muscles in her neck strained as she lifted her sight. A lone, errant thought made it's way through the frenetic mess in her mind. I'm too young for this shit.
Straining to fill her burning lungs with air, Rias turned her head and beheld the single largest canine she had ever seen. A gigantic mass of snow-white fur rimmed with a golden weave across its lower legs.
Bewildered at the snarling giant, Rias' could only watch in equal measures of hope and relief as the wintery mist pushed back Kokabiel's horrid light.
Everyone's attention was on the gigantic white wolf as it pulled back its lips and bared its teeth. A guttural growl of threat escaped from deep within its chest and Rias felt a deep chill within her bones. It's golden eyes boring into the Fallen Angels above. A clear challenge in it's snarling.
"The hell is that?!"
Rias recognized the voice of Sona's lone pawn. Turning towards her oldest friend, she peered her from under the colossal wolf's legs. Sona was looking just as befuddled as everyone else.
"Lord Sirzechs'…?" Huffed out a collapsed Akeno who was propping herself on her elbows as she laid back. Too drained to even form a complete sentence. But Rias shook her head as she understood her Queen. She was intimately familiar with her brother's peerage. There was no such beast amongst them.
Her mind flashed through several species of mythical wolves she knew, but the golden tribal markings on its legs were unknown to her.
But whatever it was, it was powerful. Her bones shook from just being next to it.
As the last vestiges of the Fallen's ripping and tearing power faded away, leaving a gaping scar in the earth below that stretched hundreds of meters wide and deep, her eyes found the visage of the cautious but furious Cadre.
"And what," his voice caustic and biting, as he eyes the wolf angrily "are you supposed to be?"
An answer came from far above. Though not the one anyone expected.
A single, sky-shattering roar.
Kokabiel spun around, his grip on the Spear of Finality tight.
The swirling black thunder clouds erupted with a terrifying blue as lightning flooded across the sky.
A lone claw broke the clouds, a brilliant sapphire color that shone and reflected off the storm's pulsing light. A peal of thunder and a flash of lightning illuminated the shadow in the amassed clouds, and immense scaled pinions that arced with lighting glided through the tempest squall.
Rias' eyes went wide as she recognized the titan in the sky from countless paintings, pictures and all too rare video recordings.
The Dragon King Tiamat
A/N: Uhh, bye.
discord. gg /JV97AUmAr7