Chapter XIV: When the neighbour comes knocking.

It was quick for her to decide on the course of action.

Though perhaps a little bit longer would have been preferable, Raynare wasn't one to complain.

Not when she had something of real importance here.

Something she could show Lord Azazel.

So, with that in mind, her next actions were easy.

Issei's face twisted with a dumbfounded sense of surprise as she ran him right through the gut with a light spear. He didn't even seem to understand what was happening in the first place.

An expression she would have ordinarily felt a bit more willing to watch, but she was running on the clock now.

Shoving him off the spear, she let him tumble down the steps and into a heap on the floor.

Maybe a minute or two before he died?

But he would die, there would be no help coming for him here.

Her eyes snapped away from his body and towards the others in the room - the girl and the robot - and she decided to take action.

Watching them both had revealed quite a fair bit of useful information.

Namely a weakness she could exploit.

Barely letting her have the time to understand what happened, Raynare launched herself forwards and collided with the girl who released a frantic and panicked gasp, likely more on instinct, and her eyes locked past her and onto the robot. Who all but jumped away from the controls and swung around to face her.

Already there was a high pitched whirring emanating from their face, but she silenced that very quickly with a pointed gesture.

Yanking the human up, she brought the tip of a light spear under her chin and right against her throat in a very clear message.

In her hold, the girl stiffened like a plank of wood, the robot went quiet and stared.

"Good."

She smiled, feeling much more at peace now than she had a few moments ago, but it was hard not to be a little giddy when there was all of this.

Aliens? Hardly.

But discarded technology from an old civilisation related to something Lord Azazel was very interested in? Now that was far more pleasing to him. Especially if it kept all of this out of the hands of the Devils.

It was somewhat laughable that all of this had been right under their noses and none of them had found it.

Hmph.

Oh well, their loss was her gain.

Mind returning from the future, she inclined her head just a fraction.

"Now that we have a little understanding, I'm going to ask you to do something and I'm sure we would both-"

The girl in her grasp let out a small whimper as she pushed the spear just a little bit upwards, pressing against the skin just enough to hurt but not quite to draw blood.

"-appreciate it if you would be so kind as to move back to that control panel and to start finding us your friends, hmm?"

They did not move.

Raynare raised a brow and stared at them. "I suppose you cared more about him than you did about her, do you? Oh well."

Pushing just that little bit more, she heard the gasp and felt the hands of the girl scramble upwards.

Slinging her arm across the girl's midriff, she wrapped a hold about her and forced the arms down, keeping them there with a level of strength she could not possibly hope to fight against. It was a little pathetic, really, but very much amusing how she could feel the frantic struggles.

Raynare was sure that sooner or later there would be some begging thrown into the mix as well.

"Guess there's no need for her to-"

She pushed a little more-

The robot stepped closer to the panel and started beeping again, a bit quicker and more urgently than before.

Eugh, she asked for them to do one little thing.

"Enough with the dial tones."

Rolling her eyes, she nodded her head towards the many computers.

"I don't want you to speak unless I speak to you first, and try to communicate with a nod or a shake of the head…I'm sure you understand that much, right?"

As soon as she finished speaking, there was a weak muttering gasp from somewhere to her left.

Yep, he was still dying.

Eyes turned from her and towards the boy-

"Up, up, up!"

Raynare raised her voice, their eyes swung back to her.

"I didn't tell you to do anything now, did I? Perhaps worry less about the one dying and more about the one who might have a chance to live through this? I'm sure that you can understand that much, can't you?"

The mitten hands curled into fists, the defiant stare of the white eyes were staring to annoy her.

"Tick tock."

Finally, they obeyed her.

Good, all it took was a little bit of persuasion for them to do what she told them to do.

Excellent.

As for whether the girl would actually live…

…Raynare made no promises, so she had nothing to uphold.

The hands of the robot hovered above the keys, stopping and turning their head once again.

"Do I need to start peeling skin for you to hurry up?"

Struggling against her a little more, Raynare huffed and held tighter to the human and forced her to be still, already hearing the sniffles and wet mumbles as she suspected they were starting to cry now.

Actually, that was rather good.

The robot's face turned away from and towards the human, she watched the tremble in their arms which seemed almost as if they were alive.

It seems as though they were quite well made.

Lord Azazel would be pleased.

With a sharp turn, the robot stepped right up to the controls and dropped their hands onto them, pressing away button after button. Their hands were speeding up, head turning every few moments just to make sure she wasn't dining anything.

Then there was a flicker of light showing up across the screens.

A dim brightness which grew in intensity.

Raynare felt her lip twitch up ever so slightly.

Excellent.

All you needed was a little persuasion-

The robot looked at her, then down at Issei but said nothing.

The act itself was enough for her to figure out what they wanted.

"Nevermind him."

They stopped moving.

"What did I say about him? Never. Mind. You've got one still alive. You want to keep it that way?"

Further wet whimpers from the girl that was starting to become rather annoying to her, actually.

She wasn't in the frame of mind to be enjoying this right now, not when she was trying to get something done.

Pressing her head closer, she hissed into the ear of the girl. "If you don't stop whimpering, I'm going to give you something to cry about, understand?"

That just prompted them to whimper even hard, even as they were clearly trying to force themselves to be quiet.

Why did they never just want to do what she asked of them? Making everything needlessly complicated was just the way of humans, she supposed.

Her brows furrowed, something shifted.

Then her gaze dropped down and narrowed on the robot.

They stood firm, right arm by their side while the left hovered above a single button.

It dropped down and pressed, never once pulling their eyes from hers.

At once, the room started to rumble, a deep and shuddering roar of sound flooded her ears as the lights which had once been dim shone up like that of the stars. Raynare cringed at the immediate barrage against her senses, then she composed herself and glared all that harder at the robot, pressing the spear up.

"I thought I told you-"

Rapidly shaking their head from side to side, they held up their hands in a clear sign of surrender.

Likely the only thing that stopped her gutting the human here and now.

But the roar of the room was growing more intense as the seconds passed, under her feet the metal rattled and rusted scrap dropped with echoing crashes against the ground.

Raynare grit her teeth.

Had they triggered some sort of trap just to prevent her from getting it?

Fine then.

…She could at least bring them to Lord Azazel.

Yanking the girl back, she jerked her head the way they had come.

"If you care at all-!" Needing to roar above the room, she was forced to squint through the blinding lights and shrieking noise. "-you'll follow me or she dies!"

The robot advanced rather quickly, hands still raised.

Good, so they did care a little.

It was a good thing she had already told the others to follow on behind her, but they would probably have felt it by now.

She doubted these tremors were solely limited to the ship.

…Great, this would attract the Devils in no time at all, now she really was working against the clock.

It had been no more than a faint shudder for the first few seconds.

No different than if someone had accidentally bashed a table.

But then the scale rose dramatically in a mere handful of heartbeats.

Rias Gremory looked around the room and then upwards, the lights flicked above her head, the bookcase started to shudder and rattle and all around she could feel as if the very ground was trying to push up.

An earthquake?

Then there was a crash, her eyes dropped to her tea cup smashing against the floorboards and spilling the contents out across them.

Rising to her feet, she pulled her lips into a deep frown.

This was no ordinary earthquake, that much she knew.

Someone would have told her to prepare for one of those, they always knew about them weeks in advance.

This had been instant.

"Akeno."

Rias turned to her trusted friend.

"Find out where this-"

The room went dark, the lights were snuffed out in an instant.

Her words stopped then and there, her eyes launched up and then narrowed.

…Something else occurred to her, she turned around and strode across towards one of the few mobile phones she kept about on her desk and glanced down at them.

A hunch she held was proven correctly in an instant.

Dead.

As with the next one she examined.

"Rias."

Akeno spoke from across the room, tone quite serious.

"It appears as though our electronics have perished."

Yes, Rias had noticed that as well.

The room was still rattling around them, books dropped down from their shelves and plunged to the floor, Rias folded her arms and turned around sharply.

"Find out where this is coming from. I am going to-"

She stopped speaking when something else - something curious - suddenly flooded her senses and she twitched. Turning her head ever so slightly to the slight puzzlement of Akeno, but it was only momentary before it faded with a sense of understanding.

Her responsibilities would have demanded that she set this aside for the time being, but there was something about this sudden request that was earning her eye.

Especially because…ah, yes.

Hyoudou Issei.

Something had been different about him in the last week - enough that there was a Fallen hanging around him - and now there was suddenly this tremor and he was making a plea through the pamphlet she had given him to him?

Much too curious to be a coincidence.

"If Sona should stop by, tell her I am following up on a lead."

"Of course, Rias."

Taking in a short breath, she prepared herself for the teleportation.

The mountain erupted.

Though there was nothing traditional about it.

An eruption none could see with the naked eye, but it very much roared louder than any could have possibly known.

With a scream invisible to all senses, it blanketed outwards and engulfed the town in a heartbeat.

Everything went dark.

Traffic lights went black, cars stopped on the street.

All of it was drowned under a silent yell.

And it was a yell which stretched further and further upwards, ascending right towards that which resided above the planet itself.

Far across the moon, buried under rubble and dust, a matching scream answered back.

The yell of the mountain earned a roar of response from the ancient husk, long since buried and now rousing from a slumber millions of years old.

Thousands of messages flung across its derelict body, cast down into the blue planet below and over its surface.

But the yell of the mountain did far more than that.

Exponentially more.

It soared upwards and outwards into the sea of stars.

Racing across the murky black and pushing faster and faster.

At speeds impossible, light-years were covered in moments.

Until at last, the shout for aid, the scream for help.

The SOS found its home.

In the murky black of space, the shout of the ship found another to hear it.

The planet of silver, its surface littered with angry bursts of light, went silent for a mere second.

Billions of ears turned as one to the yell which stole the attention of every monitor across the planet and beyond.

They knew, in that moment, there was one undeniable truth.

The race was on.

Issei struggled to think.

He didn't get very far with thinking beyond the pain.

Well, it had been pain at first.

Now it was just…cold numbness.

That felt worse, much worse.

Could he push himself up or do anything?

He tried to move his arms, except they did not even obey him.

What happened?

Why was the room so bright?

What was that ringing noise and was someone pushing him?

Each thought lasted for no more than a mere second before it just faded away and left him there.

Issei opened his mouth to breath…then something caught in his throat, he felt it lodge up in there and he sputtered out.

His face was stained with something warm a cough which he didn't even hear flung something across his lips and cheeks.

Bubbling in his throat and mouth, he was fighting to keep his eyes open.

He didn't know what happened…

Was everyone else alright?

What about Aika, or Highwire?

…Was Yuuma alright?

He didn't know and his thoughts were drifting towards them.

He wanted to know if they were alright or if they had gotten hurt like he had, it was hard to tell but he wanted to think they were fine.

That felt a bit easier to stomach, that he was the only one who got hurt.

…But what hurt him?

He didn't…

…Was there something wet underneath him now or-

The shrieking went quiet.

Light vanished and he was back under a dark blanket, so deep that he thought he had closed his eyes for a second.

Had he closed his eyes?

It didn't feel like it and-

Was that…red?

A red blob came over and right in front of his eyes, Issei stared up with some strange sense of confusion.

…Why was he seeing Gremory-senpai?

That was so weird but it wasn't bad to have her standing over him and looking down.

Heh.

…He made a silent apology to Yuuma, but in his defence…it was hard not to stare when they were literally hovering right over his face and casting a shadow in his eyes.

"...Well."

Vaguely, he heard her voice.

Slowly, the face grew closer and he could just above make out a small smile on her lips.

"...You certainly are very interesting, Hyoudou-no…I suppose it would be Issei-kun now, wouldn't it?"

…Damn, he felt like blushing.

"But, first thing is first."

Was someone touching his chest?

"Let's sort this out."

Raynare was really hating all of this going on.

The noise from earlier had stopped, as had the shrieking noise from all around, but she was not going to pretend they were out of the clear yet.

Marching forwards and dragging the human along with her, she kept her eyes firmly planted on the back of the robot as they went on ahead.

Slightest hint of danger, and she would kill the human.

If her allies could be trusted to actually do what she asked them to do, they would emerge into the woodlands with her subordinates already waiting for her command. Then they could take the robot, dispose of the witness, and then be out of here before the Devils even know what was going on.

But she would have to hide this entrance somehow.

If she had time for it.

Whatever.

The robot was the first out of the hole, marching up the slope.

She could see the moment when it stopped and went stiff, she smirked at the reaction.

Exactly as she was hoping for.

"About time the lot of you did something useful."

The words were already spilling from her lips as she marched up and dragged the girl with her.

"Now we won't have much time before-"

Raynare stopped.

Oh yes, her allies were here.

That was well and good.

…They were, unfortunately, not the only ones.

Whatever levity she felt in that moment vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by a deep scowl as she yanked the girl right in front of her - placing her as a shield - and then standing there with spear raised to the chin of her hostage.

…If that even worked at all.

"Talk about a Mexican standoff."

Great, this asshole.

"And I went and left my sombrero at home."

With a faint chuckle, their white haired exorcist ally whirled his gun around his finger.

"Though I'm sure I can fill you devil-shits with enough bullets to turn you into Maraca's."

"Shut up, idiot." Raynare spat out, glaring first at him and then switching her gaze to the circle of Devils which surrounded them.

There were…a lot.

More than she supposed there should have been.

One stepped forwards, the picture of arrogance with that calm demeanour, as she adjusted her glasses with a single finger.

"I shall make this request only once."

Her words were almost bored, but Raynare could tell there was a sharpness in her eyes.

Like the string of a bow primed back and ready to loose.

"Release your hostage and leave behind the…"

The Devils eyes flicked towards the robot and narrowed just a bit.

"...construct."

That right there told Raynare that she didn't know what it was either, she was just making the demand for the hell of it.

Probably wanting to have it pulled apart and examined.

But she also focused on the part about the hostage.

"Says you."

Raynare snorted, smirking at the Devil.

"Why should I listen to the orders of a rancid wench?"

There was a crackle of lightning and the smell of ozone.

Her eyes darted upwards, floating above them was another Devil, this one with long black hair not that much unlike her own.

The comparison made her feel sick.

"It seems as though communications have broken down, President Sitri."

…Sitri?

The face of the flying Devil twisted into a smile that was bordering sadistic, all while electricity danced between her fingers.

"Pity…I suppose this means we shall have to respond."

Yeah, like she didn't sound positively saddened by this.

But none of them had attacked yet.

She looked over all of them.

A blonde with swords, small white haired girl, a flock around the girl with glasses along with another girl with glasses.

What was it and dealing with annoyances with glasses today?

"Alright, zap us then."

Raynare shrugged her shoulders.

"Go on."

She stopped for a moment and pretended to think.

"I'm a bit tougher than this one-" Nudging her hostage for effect, she huffed. "-so you'll need to cook me longer…but she'll definitely die."

Her eyes locked squarely upon the Devils who had made the mistake of drawing attention to the hostage.

"So come on then. What are you waiting for?"

What were their chances here?

Sitri…that wasn't exactly a common name.

Tch.

Of all the people…

"You shall not be leaving any time soon."

The taller of the glasses girls raised her voice, eyes narrowing.

"So why bother making this matter more agonising for yourselves? Withdraw quickly and put it to a close…or would you be willing to press your luck further?"

Yes.

She would.

This was the breakthrough she needed and dammed if she was letting it fall into the hands of Devils.

"So you say, but what of you?"

Fortunately for her, Dohnaseek took most of the attention onto himself with his words.

"Killing us, for nothing more than a mere infraction, would make you look no better…we are here only as concerned individuals, nothing more."

Kalawarner let loose a mocking chuckle as she added on.

"Yes, this mountain was trembling ever so much and we came over to have a quick look. Is that a crime now?"

Tight faces of displeasure, exactly what she wanted to see.

"Now that we're done posturing."

Raynare straightened herself out.

"I will be willing to let go of my little assistant here and then you can be going on your way-"

"Oh?"

Raynare tightened her face and stepped back, dragging the girl with her and staring at the spot she had just come from.

Hair bright red, lips curled into an almost smug grin.

That face angered her quickly.

To say nothing of the high pitched whirring of the robot.

"You, shut up!"

Hissing at them, they fell silent and turned their eyes back to her and Aika.

At least they did as they were told.

…Damn it all.

She hated Devils.

The red haired trash strode out of the hole in the ground, no worse for ware, and dragged along with her a rather bloody Issei.

…While he still had the hole in his chest, he was no longer bleeding from it.

Great.

Just…fantastic.

With a scowl on her lips, Raynare shuffled backwards.

"Now then, I would rather put this matter to rest now and attend to my newest pawn."

The red haired Devil - and with hair that red, it could only be one family - smiled condescendingly.

"So perhaps you can save us all the hassle of an encounter and scurry back to wherever you came from? I believe coming to a territory I preside over and then messing around with the humans I watch is cause for…punishment?"

…Flimsy logic which could hardly be proven.

Raynare did nothing that the Devil could confirm.

And that robot started beeping again, louder than before.

"I told you to shut-"

She wasn't going to take her eyes off the Devil, not at first.

Not until the beeping turned frantic, almost desperate.

Then the eyes of the Devil jumped upwards, that smug expression vanished quickly.

Ordinarily, Raynare would have been thrilled with that.

Except she felt something on her skin, something tingly.

So she surrendered to the urge and turned her head ever so slightly to the right…and up.

It was as if she stared at the surface of water, save for one small problem.

That being it hovered in the air.

A bright swirling mass of purple and violet floated above their heads.