Chapter 21: Christus Regnat
"What is that?" I murmured, squinting at the vague ripples of… something - though likely energy - in the air. "A barrier? The filth is outside of it, though, inspecting something we can't sense. Perhaps it's a barrier that requires less energy, hence our inability to see it - an alarm barrier?"
"Just shoot him," Priska complained, impatient to leave this 'godforsaken place'. Apparently, being seen in a Slavic nation is shameful - humiliation of the highest order. "Your speculations are as useless as your upcoming contribution in this mission. We must develop a new plan, now that there's a Devil involved."
"I don't know any diagnostic spells yet, so he's a wild card unless we decide to spy on these creatures of darkness for a few weeks and see some of his capabilities. We'll go forward assuming that one of us can take him in a one-on-one fight, which should be true because of our respective - though, for you, not respectable - Holy abilities." I noticed something at the edge of my vision - a door opening, and someone walking out of it.
It's the Vampire.
"Is your family secretly Vampiric in nature? That vermin looks related to - perhaps a long lost sister. It would explain your intrinsic aversion to studying scripture."
"I have no need for your barbed remarks," she sniffed. "Be a bit more courteous - we are comrades, as my mentor says."
"Begrudgingly. Now, let us quell this drivel. I shall surprise the Devil with a shot," I said, lining up my telescopic sight. "If the scum gets hit, then perfect - he's likely injured and ripe for more shots. An assault from you would be at a higher chance of success. If he dodges, you must handle him with minimal help from me, as I'll be handling the Vampire after the initial shots either way."
"And if he's a Rook?"
"I'll aim for the stomach, then. Their defensive capabilities are due to extremely enhanced bones and tendons, so attacking parts of the body undefended by those leaves their advantage null. The eyes and throat are too small a target from all this distance away, though."
"I meant for me. You're going to miss either way."
"Rook, Bishop, Pawn, Knight, Queen, does it matter? You wield a Holy Sword. I'd assume you're not so incompetent as to have every attack dodged, but I wouldn't be surprised. I'll be magnanimous and bestow some trust upon you to complete your duty."
Ignoring my response, she continued. "In summary, then, you snipe the Devil in front of us, I move in and continue the assault, and then you take care of the Vampire. Will you be using that…" she had to hold in laughter, "...thing?"
I didn't take my eyes off my scope to glance at the gray, conical contraption half my size.
"That 'thing' is a megaphone. It will amplify my voice enough to reach the town and be audible, as these plains don't have anything to bounce the waves back or absorb them. I'll relay some scripture while battling the Vampire from afar, which will unfortunately assist you as well."
"Very well. I'm satisfied. Commence."
I had already lined up my shot previously, so I simply pulled the trigger - letting the stock of the rifle rest against my skeletal structure rather than my muscles and exhaling while doing so.
This bullet is a fairly basic one - a simple explosive enchantment with some extra Mana, no more, no less. Having the projectile be attached with too much Mana would increase the chances of the Devil scum noticing the attack before it's too late.
It didn't matter anyway. He dodged - was that a spell that propelled him out of the way?
Never mind. The smoke cleared, and he was encased in a yellow aura.
A Sacred Gear? A bodily enhancement spell or technique would never allow so much energy to be wasted outside of its main purpose.
So he's a Reincarnated Devil. Or a half-Devil, half-human hybrid.
How utterly revolting. If the Nephilim - products of sin between the almighty Angels and humans - were so heretical, what would one call the result of a vile relationship between a demon and a human?
And as for the former possibility, how could a man betray his Creator and venture to the dark side? The only logical reason for such an action would be if they were a disgusting heathen, never having seen the Light of God.
With his skin tone, though, that was extremely unlikely.
Bile rose up in my throat from just the thought of this creature's existence.
"I told you," Priska snickered.
"Quiet, girl," I replied, firing more shots, "you're soon to face him. See if there's anything you can use to your advantage."
While aiming, I saw him look directly at me.
Hm. I forgot to put an enchantment on the scope for concealment - he must've seen the light it created.
"What on earth is the use of that in this minimal time frame we have? I'm flattered that you think of me as an experienced, tactically observant swordsman, but even I have limits," she said. "He's retreating behind that barrier."
She squinted. "How is he sending ghouls? Is he actually a Vampire, and we were duped all along? I suppose Devil wings are essentially bat wings."
"Don't be foolish," I said, taking care of the five ghouls who exited the barrier with only two bullets. "He and the Vampire are surely working together. It's more likely that they were commanded by the Vampire to also follow his orders."
"Those ghouls were human, you know," she said, bringing out her sword from its dimensional container. "Don't you feel guilty?"
"Cease your prattle, woman, and go bring down that barrier. Even the blessed explosive bullets aren't doing much to it."
"I don't take commands from anyone."
I glanced at her. "What about Joseph and Cristaldi, then?"
She scowled and started running off, toward the barrier.
The barrier is strong, packed full of a large amount of energy - and, going by how he was inspecting the now-visible alarm or sensory perimeter around the place, he must've set both of them up.
So, is he a Bishop, or another piece? Or just an ordinary Devil who simply dabbles in sorcery?
Or maybe he's a Stray. But if so, I don't know why he would allow the town's population to be turned into ghouls when he could devour the souls for magical sustenance.
I shifted the focus of my scope upon seeing some movement.
Hm. He's going towards the house that the Vampire-Priska girl retreated into previously.
Also, now that I think of it, how was she not harmed by the light?
Something to figure out when we can run an autopsy on her corpse, I suppose.
The Devil's sprint grabbed back my attention.
Now that I notice it, he's not particularly fast. Was he dodging my bullets because he sensed them - or just when I fired them - approaching beforehand and thus propelled himself out of the way?
His show of speed here, independent of his Sacred Gear, rules out being a Knight, at least. I believe it's a fair guess to say he's a Bishop - his ability shown beforehand seems like a Sacred Gear, and any half-competent Devil would bestow a Bishop piece on a Sacred Gear user for the energy level boon it gives. Similarly, any half-competent Bishop would dabble in a bit of Magic with the energy level boon it gives.
Priska, who had been sending her so-called 'Smoldering Sickles' - yes, it's a name only one of the mentally impaired could come up with; my suggestion was 'Unholy Crescents', although that only served to sour my relationship with Cristaldi - made a wild gesture in my direction.
I'm not so motivated to unimpededly communicate with Priska that I have come up with a system of signals that work under every circumstance. No, I simply told her to flail around a bit when she wanted me to recite scripture.
Which I will gladly do. The barrier might be held up by the Devil's concentration, so quoting the Word might allow it to waver enough for a quicker takedown - either way, being made out of Demonic Energy, the barrier will likely see some sort of negative effect enacted upon it.
Picking up the large megaphone near me - enchanted to amplify and carry sound as far as possible with enough Mana for twenty minutes of potential usage, rather than using up a 'charge' for every breath spoken - I called upon my memory.
It did not fail.
"The Book of James says, 'There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers. There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. There are those—how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift! There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind.'"
My voice boomed out across the valley, sounding practically foreign to what I had said - it was as if He Himself descended upon this earth to spread the Word.
I liked the feeling.
I had no time to savor it, though, as - whether due to my recitation or simple coincidence - the barrier fell, and I similarly fell back to a prone position with my rifle.
The Devil crashed through the wall of the house, leaving a hole large enough to see an agonizing Vampire-Priska trying to regain her composure.
I grinned, pushing the bolt back, ejecting the unused round, and putting in something more fitting for the opportunity at hand.
Wojchiech likes to call it a 'Block Buster' for some reason, even if 'Building Buster' would make more sense as to its capabilities.
It's just a bullet enchanted with multiple explosive enchantments - enough to bring down a building.
I fired, noting that the Devil erratically 'dodged' even though I was aiming more than ten meters away from him.
So, he simply senses that there is some sort of projectile approaching him and preemptively moves out of the way, unable to sense its exact location. The Bishop piece also enhances one's magical senses - even further beyond what is the norm for Devils, considering their inherent nature - so that is more evidence in favor of him being a Bishop.
Bringing the megaphone to my lips, I uttered a few more lines of scripture to debilitate the Vampire more before the dust clears.
"The Book of Leviticus says, 'And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.'"
'Cut him off from among his people' I shall.
I chose the best verses I could for this specific target - next is the Devil filth.
Priska made no signage - for obvious reasons - but, assuming that she wasn't advancing toward the Devil because she wanted a foreword - a precautionary assurance - in the form of a verse or two, I called upon my memory again.
"The Book of James says, 'Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.'"
Now, I doubt that Priska believest that there is one God and doest well, but that is not relevant for now. The Devil is the target of the verse, not her - although, I wouldn't be surprised if a phrase from scripture would sear her flesh, considering its sinful countenance.
Something to try out later on.
Priska bounded toward the creature - and, while she was doing so, I heard a high-pitched humming, accompanied by a slight pain in my cranium. Dismissing it as an offensive spell of sorts that doesn't fully extend to my position - a powerful Devil Magician is capable of much more than a slight headache - I returned my focus to the fight.
Where I saw Priska disappear, a Demonic Circle having materialized right beneath her feet.
Hopefully, the Devil was either too distracted or too incompetent to properly direct the spell, as even I know that he could teleport her a hundred meters below the earth - an assured demise.
It seemed that one of those two options was correct, and my backup was not dead; instead, she was a few hundred meters in the air, flailing around wildly and trying to slow her descent.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the correct possibility as to the rationale behind his subpar teleportation choice was the former. I say 'unfortunately' because it means he was preparing something - that something was an eerily large golden dome that radiated outward from his position, encompassing the entire town and beyond.
Words of power radiated from the village: "𝔹𝔸𝕃𝔸ℕℂ𝔼 𝔹ℝ𝔼𝔸𝕂."
And it suddenly detonated, blowing shrubbery out of the ground and sending chunks of earth flying.
So, he's High-Class at the very least and Ultimate-Class at the very most. Realistically, it seems to be the former - an Ultimate-Class should, allegedly, be able to do much more than this.
Thanks to his gross ineptitude - or lack of time and effort spent on the spell - Priska had been teleported slightly above the top boundary of the Balance Breaker's area of effect and was thus spared of the majority of the potential damage it could've caused.
She was still hurt, of course. I could see a glowing thing shooting further upward and plummeting down into a nearby pond.
Perhaps she'll drown?
I should limit my hopes for the future, though. They're irrelevant in my current position, because my future's very existence is not certain.
After all, I now have to face a Devil who is capable of wiping an entire settlement off the map, only leaving behind a smoldering crater, while all alone.
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I'm hoping to make the actual fight between Ioann and Lars (the Devil from last chapter) be the next chapter, but no promises - knowing me, I could spiral out of control and make it two chapters long.
The next chapter will assuredly be in Ioann's POV, and if the fight continues beyond a reasonable length for one chapter, I'll do the one after that in Lars' POV.
Also, it's not like I was trying to hide it, but Lars is meant to be a sort of parallel/contrast to Ioann, which I am outright stating here because someone pointed out that the chapter from his POV 'felt like Ioann without the Bible quotes' and 'didn't fit the vibe of a Devil' - both of which were kinda on purpose, although I don't fault them for calling it out.
'X is a decently intelligent and knowledgeable Magician, one who only really has his own interests at heart, and is being forced on missions with a short, blonde, arrogant noblewoman, who he doesn't have good opinions of - constantly bickering and calling each other names, whether internally or externally.'
This could apply to either of them, after all. The contrast is in their allegiances/beliefs/mindset - I won't act like I wrote his character with the purpose of an underlying thematic message about how just one trait could change men so much, but I guess it could be used as an example for that. It kinda just turned out like this.
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