Chapter 101: Raiding the Church
Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
Not even an hour after Rias and Sona informed James of the raid on the abandoned church, Rias and her peerage were standing in front of the church's entrance. At the same time, Sona and her peerage were scattered around the church to cut off anyone who tried to escape. Lastly, James and his peerage were hidden in the vicinity. They planned to move only when someone was at risk of dying, though.
The only person who was not present was Shion. Like she has for the past two days, she was tasked with guarding Asia. And even though Asia wanted to come along as well, she knew that she would be more of a Liability in combat than anything else, right now.
Nervously, Asia waited in the Alaverus mansion for everyone to return from the raid. Currently, only she and Shion, who was in the kitchen retrieving some of the snacks and tea Shuna prepared before she left, were present. Apparently, Leona had something to attend to in the underworld for the next few days. To everyone's surprise, however, Leona chose to leave in the middle of the night instead of waiting until morning. Eventually, Shion returned with a tray full of snacks and a pot of tea. Placing the tray on the table in front of Asia, Shion then took a seat across from the nervous girl.
"I know you're worried about everything that's going on right now." Shion said with a wide grin on her face. "But you really don't need to worry about their safety, you know."
Hearing Shion's words, Asia was a little taken aback.
"Was it that obvious that I was worried?" Asia asked with a slight blush on her face.
"Yes, it was." Shion replied with a smile. "We're a lot a like in that regard. I have the habit of wearing my heart on my sleeve, too."
Asia blushed even harder after Shion finished.
"To think, I was trying to keep my worry to myself." Asia said while letting her head hang.
"There's nothing wrong with showing that you're worried about people you care about, Asia-Chan." Shion said as she reached across the small table between her and Asia and patted the ex-nun on the shoulder.
"I know, but..." Asia said, before she was interrupted.
"Besides, like I said, there really is nothing to be worried about." Shion reiterated with a big smile on her face. "Everyone who went to raid the church is stronger than even the strongest one on the fallen angels' side."
After that, Shion and Asia continued to talk. Mostly about the members of each peerage, and Shion was happy to explain what she had found out about them over the last four months. Meanwhile, Rias and her peerage were going over the plan one last time.
"Okay, everyone, remember that Akeno and I will not be making any moves, unless things look dangerous for you all when you're fighting the fallen angels." Rias said as she crossed her arms below her breasts, which emphasized their size even more than usual. "As there are four of you and four of them, I'll expect you to each fight one-on-one."
"Bu... But what about all those scary exorcists?" Gasper asked as he raised his hand.
"Don't worry, Akeno will take care of them." Rias replied nonchalantly to which Akeno smiled gracefully.
Hearing that, everyone visibly relaxed. Then, Rias walked up to the door. Before she opened it, though, Issei spoke softly.
"[Promotion], [Queen]."
Hearing that, Rias could only smile happily. Even though it was a bit overkill, she was happy Issei was taking his first real battle, against something more than just mindless stray devils, seriously. Not only Rias, though, but everyone was happy that Issei was taking the whole situation seriously. Due to his usual actions, the nickname Koneko uses, "perverted idiot," seems more like an assessment than a nickname. However, to know that he thinks seriously when the situation is serious is a good thing to know for the rest of his comrades.
With a hand on the door, and a smile on her face, Rias flared her [Power of Destruction]. With the control she had been training for the past twelve years, Rias only erased the church's doors. After that, the group of six entered the church. Looking around the room, they saw many old and damaged pews scattered around the floor. Opposite the door, was an altar. In front of that altar, however, was an opening in the floor large enough for two adults to enter side-by-side and a flight of stairs leading under the floor.
"If I had to guess, I'd say they're all down there." Akeno said while maintaining her smile.
"If you had to guess, you would be correct." Said a male voice from down the stairs.
After that voice spoke, the sound of several sets of footsteps was also heard from the stairs leading below the altar. Shortly after, the four fallen angels from Ayame's report, followed by twenty-nine stray exorcists, made their way out of the opening in the floor.
"He's not here." Koneko said quietly as she subtly sniffed the air.
Hearing that, Rias smiled and spoke to the fallen angels.
"It looks like one of yours has run away." Rias said, taunting her opposition with her left hand on her hip while running her right hand through her hair. "It makes sense really, realizing how out classed he was must have been a shock, after all."
"Does everyone who spends enough time around James-Senpai pick of the habits of taunting and talking shit, or something?" Issei muttered to himself.
Because it was quiet in the chapel, everyone on Rias' side was able to hear Issei's muttering. In response, they all nodded without letting their enemies out of their sight.
At the same time, the fallen angels and the group of stray exorcists were immediately angered by Rias' taunting. As it turns out, Freed had been called back by their superiors, as he was needed for an experiment. Unfortunately for them, he never thought it necessary to explain how strong the devils he fought against were. Combining that with the fact that Rias and her peerage have yet to show off their powers publicly, there was no intel on how strong they were.
"Why are we even listening to this devil scum?" One of the stray exorcists shouted.
"Yeah, let's just kill them all and be done with it!" Another shouted in response.
"It's too bad they're all devils, I would love to have fun with the girls. Especially the little one with the white hair..." Shouted a third, before he was interrupted.
*Boom!*
Before that stray exorcist could finish what he had to say, a damaged pew struck him in the chest and drove him into a wall. At the point of impact, there were spiderweb cracks formed around an unconscious man. Around him, were the scattered remains of the pew that sent him flying into the wall. While the exorcists were in shock at how their comrade ended up, they all heard one word.
"Pervert."
When they looked to the source of the word, they found the small white-haired girl, Koneko, still in the same pose she made after releasing the pew that she threw at the unconscious exorcist leaning against the cracked wall.
"Well, Akeno, I think these fools have been allowed to speak for long enough." Rias said with a slight frown.
"Understood." Akeno said as she bowed gracefully.
After speaking, Akeno took several steps forward. Then, she raised her hand into the air.
"[Thunder Wave]." Akeno said quietly as her hand lit up with thunder magic.
After speaking, Akeno swung her hand down toward the floor. When her arm was perpendicular to the floor, the thunder on her hand shot toward the floor. When the two came in contact, the thunder quickly spread in front of her in a conical shape. As the thunder was released from Akeno's hand, the four fallen angels quickly spread their wings and flew into the air. The stray exorcists were not so lucky, however. Instead, they were all hit by Akeno's attack and rendered unconscious in an instant.
A moment later, a light breeze blew, and all the unconscious exorcists disappeared from the chapel.
"Well, they work fast." Rias said with a slight smile. "Now, my servants, go and defeat your enemies."
"Yes, Buchou." x 4
With that, Koneko, Yuuto, Gasper, and Issei rushed forward to face one of the flying fallen angels, each. And the first to engage was Yuuto. With his speed boost from his [Knight Piece] he was the fastest of the four. Quickly, using one of the demonic swords he created with his [Sacred Gear], [Sword Birth], He was in mid-air, face to face with is opponent, a tall, buxom woman with brown eyes and long navy-blue hair that covered her right eye. As Yuuto appeared in front of her, she conjured a spear of light and raised it defensively and blocked the slashing coming toward her torso. A moment later, she was shot toward the ground by the force of Yuuto's sword strike.
"Kalawarna!" Shouted one of her comrades, Mittelt, a petite blonde girl with twin-tails and blue eyes.
As the blonde girl lost focus, she was also knocked out of the air. Much like the stray exorcist from before, she was hit with a damaged pew. Carried along by its force, she was smashed into the ceiling, cracking it on impact, then fell to the floor. When she landed, she wretched a few times and coughed out a mouthful of blood.
"That makes me two for two." Koneko said calmly as she relaxed after throwing the pew.
Seeing two of her comrades being taken down so quickly and easily, the leader of this group of four fallen angels, the black-haired woman who stalked Asia over the last two days. Raynare, A slender woman with a large bust, black hair down to her waist, and violet eyes, overlooked the other battlefields as she began to consider escaping. Before she could put those thoughts into action, however, she found herself on the floor, surrounded by spiderweb cracks.
'What the hell just happened?' Raynare thought to herself. 'How did I get knocked out of the air?'
Then, Raynare saw a pair of glowing red eyes. As she made eye contact, she simply blacked out. At the same time, the last of the fallen angels, Dohnaseek, a middle-aged man in appearance with short black hair and dark blue eyes, was watching his own opponent. Meanwhile, Issei was lamenting his luck.
"Why am I the one that has to fight the only guy in the group?" Issei questioned in a depressed tone.
"Does that really matter, boy?" Dohnaseek questioned in return as he created a spear of light in his right hand. "You'll die here regardless."
"*Sigh* Classic mid-boss monologuing." Issei said with a sigh. "I guess I should just get this over with. I would much rather be looking at the ladies in my peerage than some old dude."
"How dare you belittle me!" Dohnaseek roared as he raised the spear in his hand to throw it.
Before he could throw the spear, however, Dohnaseek was immobilized. Looking at Issei, he noticed a pair of scaled, black gauntlets with claws and what looked like waving shadows running up the forearm. Then, he looked down at himself. What he saw was a shadow wrapping around his body from his legs up to his raised right arm.
"What the..." Dohnaseek said confusedly. "When? How?"
"Oh, you mean the shadows?" Issei asked casually. Then, he raised his gauntleted hands. "Shadow manipulation is the power of my [Sacred Gear], [Shadow Claws]. I gotta say, wrapping up hot girls with tentacles of shadow looks a lot better than wrapping up some old dude."
Before Issei could continue, Koneko appeared above Dohnaseek's head and slammed her fist into it. As a result of the heavy blow that he was not expecting, the fallen angel fell unconscious. Seeing that, Issei was shocked. Then, he looked around the other battlefields. Yuuto and Koneko's opponents were too injured to continue fighting. Gasper's opponent was unconscious and looked uninjured. While his own opponent had just been knocked out by Koneko.
"Is it over already?" Issei asked while scratching his head and dispelling his [Sacred Gear].
"It would have been over faster if you didn't waste so much time talking with your opponent." Koneko said grumpily.
"Now, now, Kitty Cat." James said as he appeared next to Koneko with his hand patting her on the head. "This time Ise had a reason to talk with his opponent like a third-rate villain."
"Really? Third-rate, though?" Issei asked in a dejected tone.
Ignoring Issei's whining, James continued his explanation for Koneko.
"This time, Issei wanted to distract his opponent with his idiocy." James said while continuing to stroke Koneko's head. "At least I hope he did."
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