Chapter 16: Chapter 13: Church Girls are Overrated
A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
[ ] : Spells, Techniques and Sacred Gear Casts,
"Bold text": Ddraig & Albion.
Sorry for the late chapter. Right now, we're experiencing a power outage in my neighborhood and we dont know how long it's going to last for, so we can only depend on backup generators for power. It's unpleasant news, but I hope y'all enjoy the chapter.
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Narrator POV
Thirty minutes have passed since Issei and Asia returned to the Hyoudou residence, and the two girls from the church had finally left. During that time, Asia stayed in Issei's room to avoid them, as she didn't want to involve herself with people from the church.
Not long after the girls left, Haruki had returned with Rias and her peerage, who despite having calm or smiling faces, were still clearly irritated, with Rias looking the most alarmed.
"Glad to see you're doing alright. So what were they doing here?" Haruki says as he puts a hand on Issei's shoulder. "R-right. Thanks. So, as it turns out, one of them was my childhood friend, the one from the photo. And, uhh, plot twist, she's a girl. She came by to visit me, maybe as a bit of nostalgia."
"Hah, thank Satan you're both alright." Rias says as she hugs both Issei and Asia. This causes Issei to widen his eyes and look to the side at Haruki with alarm. Haruki smiles at him. "I'll explain this to you later." Issei hears in his mind.
"Hm, I see. Well, we can be sure that they won't attack any of us." Haruki says out loud. "How so?" Kiba says with heavy skepticism. "Sona told me that she met with them earlier today, and as it turns out they want to meet with Rias. Since they don't know the details of the contract she signed, they still think that she's the one in charge of this town as her territory." Haruki explains.
"Wait a minute. Members of the church want to negotiate with a devil? But why? I thought they were enemies." Issei says while rubbing his neck that had been in Rias' arm not long ago. "I'm not entirely sure what they are planning, but they're coming to the clubroom tomorrow and have sworn in God's name that they won't harm us." Rias says as she pats Issei and Asia's heads.
"I guess they must really be under pressure, if they've come to make a deal with devils, especially since every other priest that has come to Kuoh has died." Haruki's words make them all turn to him in alarm. "But how?" Rias asks.
"I'm honestly not sure. But whoever's been killing them knows how to avoid my surveillance, and that's a pretty bad problem." Haruki says with a frown. "Not to mention, those two are pretty devoted, so they're definitely going to cause some problems tomorrow. Seeing as they won't have even a slightly good image of devils." Haruki says, causing Rias to nod sadly.
"But how would you know that they are all that devoted?" Kiba asks. "It's simple. The holy aura they had left behind wasn't coming only from them." They all look at him with confusion at first until Yuuto, Rias and Asia seem to realize something. "Holy Swords!" Yuuto says with anger.
"Well, we can't worry ourselves so much over this. We'll face tomorrow's issues tomorrow, but now, it's almost time for tonight's training, so go get ready." Haruki tells them and they later congregate and have their training session for the night.
Haruki POV
Today had been hectic enough, with Xenovia and Irina coming by, but to hear reports of multiple priests being killed in my territory without my knowledge was highly unexpected.
I had killed Freed before he could become a problem and marked most places in Kuoh with sight wards, so the only questions that were coming to mind was who Valper had taken under his wing to replace Freed and what powers that person had.
"Hey, Ruki, you all right?" Issei asks as he continues his weighted squats. "Yeah, I was just thinking about something." I say as I continue levitating the different blocks of metal I have around me.
Issei suddenly stops and looks at me seriously. "Ruki, we need to talk about Rias." Lifting a brow, I slowly drop all the blocks to the ground. "I'm listening."
"I noticed something strange earlier today. Rias was looking at me quite, how do I say this now..... seductively? No, no, no. I guess possessively is the right word. I know that she is your woman and all, but I don't know what to do or say about what she's doing." He explains to me, genuinely confused and concerned about this.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you about that." My words cause him to elicit a confused "Huh?" "Yeah, it's something I should have told you about a while ago. Okay, you know how Koneko is part nekomata and Akeno is part fallen angel while also being devils, right?" He nods.
"Well, that doesn't happen naturally. There's a conversion process that one of the Satans, Ajuka Beelzebub, was able to create. You know of it yourself." Issei looks at me in silence for about a minute until it clicks. "The Evil Pieces." He says in realization.
I nod in agreement then continue. "Every pure-blood devil receives a set of blank Evil Pieces that is then infused with their blood, so anyone that has an Evil Piece put in them would become a devil with a blood link to the King of that set. As for how this concerns you, Rias and Sona wanted to take you into their peerages but I stopped them. But knowing you, I felt that you'd eventually join them of your own will, so I placed a condition. You must reach the peak of the Middle Rank before they could bring up the subject, and you would only join of your own volition. And as you are, you're already almost at the high Middle Rank. So she's just really excited that she's got a leg up on recruiting you into her peerage." Issei stays silent for a while, then let's out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness that's just it. I thought you'd have to cut off your relationship with Rias or me 'cause of this." I just smirk at him. "Issei, when I say that Rias is mine, I mean it. Her mind won't ever allow the thought of taking someone other than me as her lover or even a boy toy to come into existence."
"Wait, so I was really worried for nothing? I guess I was just overthinking." Issei says before once again descending into another awkward silence. "So..uh... anything else you could teach me?"
Thoughts of what I could teach him to make himself more powerful or versatile ran through my head, until I decided on one thing. "Bring out Ignia." He summons his salamander familiar and looks at me expectantly. "Until I feel that you're at a satisfactory level, I will be teaching you fire magic. Now get ready, because if you don't, you'll not only get burned, you'll also embarrass Ddraig." He immediately got into a fighting stance, and we continued to train his use of fire magic for the rest of the session.
The next day comes quickly and the school day comes to an end even more so. Not long after the end of classes, all members of the ORC had gathered in the clubroom with our guests from the Church. Rias, Koneko and Akeno looked slightly uncomfortable due to the holy aura emanating off them, while Kiba was looking at them with rage and killing intent stewing inside him. Issei just held on to Asia's hand, as her discomfort stemmed from the fact that she had been excommunicated from the church and now had to deal with two holy sword wielders.
"Recently the Holy Swords Excaliburs that were kept by the Catholic Church Headquarter Vatican, Protestant Church and Eastern Orthodox Church were stolen." Issei looked a bit confused. "You know, since we started talking about this, you could have just asked for details about the Excalibur and why we called the swords that now exist Fragments." I say with a sigh.
"The Excalibur as you know it broke during the war between the three Abrahamic factions. In an attempt to recover the power of the sword, some of the church's alchemists took the broken fragments and made them into 7 individual swords. Two of which are being held by our guests." I explain, pointing to Irina and Xenovia.
Narrowing her eyes, Xenovia looks at me. "How would you know that we're Holy Sword wielders, or that we have any of the Fragments of Excalibur?" She asks with justified suspicion, if it wasn't me.
"My senses are far above what either of you know about, so I can tell when a powerful aura comes from a person, and when it comes from an object." I say with indifference towards her attitude.
"I see. Well, the Excalibur that I hold is the Excalibur Destruction. The Catholic Church is in control of it." She says as she unwraps the large longsword she'd been carrying around with her. I very clearly see the discomfort in Akeno, Rias and Koneko increase, while Kiba's bloodlust starts to leak out, but he soon reined it in.
She then rewraps it in the cloth that is very clearly a seal for the sword. Irina then brings out a rope that is emanating a similarly holy aura, although not as destructive as Xenovia's Destruction. The rope then moves about and reshapes itself into a katana.
"Mine is Excalibur Mimic. I can change its shape into anything I want so it's really useful to carry around. Just like this, each Excalibur has its own unique ability. This one is in the possession of the Protestant Church." She says with pride in her voice.
"Irina.... There's no reason to tell these devils the ability of Excalibur, is there?" She says with clear disdain towards the devils in the room. "Ara, Xenovia. Even if they are devils, we still have to build a trustworthy relationship with them. And besides, even if they knew my sword's ability, I won't fall behind all the devils here." Irina replies with a level of arrogance that causes me to smile in amusement.
I had taught everyone how to control their energy, and right now the only person in this room who would still get some sparse droplets of water on their hand during the checks is Asia, meaning that they know how to mask their own energy, so that other beings are left unable to tell the true extent of their power. Right now, as things are, Issei could defeat the both of them by himself without having to boost even once. The only person weaker than them in this building is Gasper.
"That's all well and good, but that still doesn't explain what that has to do with Japan, let alone Kuoh.." I say, feigning a lack of knowledge of the situation. "I was told that we would mainly be speaking to the owner of this territory, which I know is Rias Gremory..." Xenovia starts saying, but I interrupt.
"You would have been right some weeks ago, but now you're wrong. I'm the current owner of this territory and Rias is closer to an assistant in its management." She shuts up and looks at Rias, as if asking for confirmation.
"Yes, he's telling you the truth. I signed off my everything to him a few weeks ago, and ever since then, all my authority over Kuoh has been given to him." Rias says as she takes a sip of her tea.
After what seems to be a moment of realization and acceptance, Xenovia continues speaking. "The Catholic Church was in possession of two Excaliburs including mine. The Protestant Church also had two, and the same goes for the Eastern Orthodox Church. The last Excalibur went missing in the previous war between God, devils and fallen angels. One Excalibur was stolen from each Church. And the ones that stole them escaped to Japan and brought them to this town."
Her explanation just made me get more exasperated with the way events would link back to us or the people of this town. 'Maybe having a so-called protagonist aura isn't a good thing.'
"Fine, so who are the ones that stole the Excaliburs?" Everyone from our side looks at me with amazement at my shamelesseness. "Grigori."
"For the fallen angels to have stolen the Excaliburs, huh. It's certainly plausible, since they harbor a great loathing for both the Church and the devils. Not to mention, holy swords are not interesting to the top brass of the devils. But I'm sure that this wasn't something sanctioned by Azazel, and Satanael has been gone from them since, so the only probable culprit would be Kokabiel, right?" Xenovia looks at me, surprised about me being able to extrapolate the culprit from her just telling us that a group of fallen angels had taken the swords.
"Yes, that's correct. But how could you be so sure?" She asks with suspicion. "That's easy. I know Azazel and most of the leaders of Grigori personally, so I know that the most likely of them to do such a thing would be Kokabiel." Her eyes seem to gain an extra hint of disdain for me, but I ignore it.
"I see. Well, our request.... No. Our order is to not have any devils intrude in the battle between us and the fallen angels for the Excaliburs. In other words, we've come to tell you not to interfere with this incident." She says with a stern tone.
"I see. But I have no need to listen to that, now do I? Understand this, Xenovia, even if Michael himself were here, he wouldn't be stupid enough to tell me what to do in my own territory. So if you don't want our involvement in this matter, then find some way to take it away from here and deal with it elsewhere, otherwise we'll deal with it ourselves. And that's final." I say coldly.
"Besides, if you're the only ones that have been sent here, then the Church might as well have delivered these Excaliburs to Kokabiel in a gift basket, seeing how weak you are. If your belief in Yahweh is what makes you think that you'd survival a battle with Kokabiel's subordinates, let alone Kokabiel himself, then it's clear as day that the belief in your teachings is as extreme as always. And that's what's going to lead you to death." My words clearly offended them as I felt some hostility start to seemingly ooze from them.
"Don't talk ill of our beliefs, you... Sorry, who are you again?" Irina says, sounding like an airhead, as usual. "Where are my manners? I'm Natsuhiko Haruki, Nature Dragon Slayer, owner of the territory of Kuoh and fiance to Rias Gremory."
"Right. It's okay for us to die, anyway. As long as we make sure to get the Excaliburs away from the fallen angels, our mission's accomplished." She tells us with steadfast determination. "I see. So you've got some secret weapon that'll do all that, huh."
"We might. But I will leave it to your imagination. Now we must take our leave. Let's go, Irina." Xenovia says and they both stand up to leave. Rias offers them some tea and snacks, since they hadn't eaten anything since they got here, but thwy decline.
On the way out, however, they both look at Asia. "When I saw you in Hyoudou Issei's house, I thought it was you. Are you the 'Witch' Asia Argento? I never would have expected to meet you in a place such as this." Xenovia says, causing Asia's body to shake, but Issei lightly squeezes her hand, calming her down.
She looks at Xenovia and Irina with calm eyes. "Yes, I am. And regardless of the Church's judgement, my belief in God still stands strong." Irina just looks at Asia with a stupefied face.
"Really? You stay in the company of devils and you still claim to believe in God?" Asia sighs and her face sports a sad expression. "Yes. It would be stranger if I didn't. After all, I believed in it my whole life."
Xenovia hearing this, pulls out Excalibur Destruction from its seal and points it at Asia. "If that's the case, then I shall cut you down this instant. At least this way, God will still forgive your sins." As the words left her mouth, before she could even start approaching Asia, Issei's hand reached her neck, with the threat of ripping out her throat.
"Don't even dare to think of it. If you even try to harm her, I will kill you, regardless of your relationship to Irina." He says, anger lurking in his voice. "So you would protect a 'Witch'?" She says without a shift in expression.
"Don't fuck with me. None of you fuckers helped her in her time of need, or even offered her kindness. Would it have killed any of you bastards to show some compassion and friendship to her?" He says, his hands inching ever closer to grasping her throat.
"Do you think the 'Holy Maiden' needed friendship? The only thing important for a 'Holy Maiden' is charity to others. Once they seek the same from others, they are finished. She could have continued to live with the love from God. Her seeking friendship only means that Asia Argento never had the right to be a 'Holy Maiden' in the first place." Xenovia says calmly, without even once shaking away from her beliefs.
However, Issei's anger had begun to multiply, to the point that his eyes had started to gain a green glint and narrow into reptilian slits. "So you guys all selfishly chose to make her a 'Holy Maiden' and abandon her because she's different from those who seek her? No matter what angle you look at it from, that's fucked up. You all just used her and threw her away when it was convenient. If that's the love that the God you serve has, then the world is better off with him dead!"
His words struck a nerve in the both of them, then Xenovia opened her mouth to speak. "Who are you to Asia?" "Friend. Family. Comrade. Lover. That's why I will help Asia, and I will protect her. So if you dare to lay even a finger on her, I will turn you all into my enemies and treat you as a dragon treats their enemies."
Xenovia's eyes narrow. "Is that meant to be directed towards us.....all members of the Church? That's a bold statement coming from you. I think that you should educate your companions better, Natsuhiko Haruki."
I choose to stay quiet as Kiba stands up and with his sword in hand. "Then this would be good timing. I'll be your opponent." He says, his killing intent being held back considerably.
"And who are you?" "I'm your senpai. Though I was apparently seen as a failure by the Church." And just to show how much more powerful he was than them, he generated scores of demonic swords that hovered in the room.
"Oh, really? I guess it might be interesting to test the strength of Rias Gremory's servants. Also, I'm interested in the strength of this so called senpai." She says, and adds that the details of the battle won't be reported to the Church.
Yuuto POV
Ever since that day that we chose to visit Issei's home, the evils of my past have been haunting me, I could even hear the screams of my friends vividly.
I hadn't given up on avenging them, but knowing that the man that was responsible for their suffering was not only still alive, but was now targeting the few other people I could call friends was infuriating.
I had sworn to destroy every Holy Sword after Buchou reincarnated me, and I made sure to hold onto that oath, until Haruki cleared my eyes yesterday.
*Flashback*
The Night before
"You know, I get your rage for what happened to you, but I don't get why you're targeting the Holy Swords." Haruki's clone said to me as he hit my sword out of my hands once more.
"If the Holy Swords didn't exist, my friends would never have had to go through all that suffering and die. [Freeze Mist.]" I said as I created an ice sword and slashed down at him.
"But the Holy Swords aren't what made your friends suffer, Valper was. Without his madness and evil, the Holy Sword Project wouldn't have happened, so he's the one that you should hold a grudge against, not the Holy Swords." He said as he parried my slash then sent quick jabs of his staff to my torso.
Quickly dashing away from the blows using Shūndō, I imbued my sword with touki then dashed at him to attack him once more, but he swung the staff at me while also spinning it, and it shattered my sword. "[Howling Gale.]" I created a wind element sword and released a few wind blades at him, but he swatted them away, then with an uncanny speed, came up to me and hit me on my shoulder, forcung me to the ground.
"So stop killing yourself over the Holy Swords. If you can channel your anger without letting it explode into rage, you can gain more power from it to kill Valper yourself." He said as he pulled me up from my knees. "Now, get back into position. Your enemies aren't likely to give you a chance to do so if they aren't sure they can kill you." He said, as his words continued to ring deeply in my ears.
*Flashback end*
Despite that, seeing people from the Church acting as if they own the place and threatening my comrades, the people who have become the closest to me, set me off.
From what I felt, even Asia would be able to defeat them if she chose to actually be hostile. Despite her warm heart and kind soul, whenever she enters combat, she gets scary, terrifying even. I still remember how she quite literally ripped a stray devil apart and acted like it was nothing. Granted it was a low rank devil, but the manner in which she dealt with it was unnecessarily brutal.
So I know for a fact, that any of us who'd choose to face these two in battle would be victorious. So that still brings me back to thinking who the hell these girls thought they were. If they were really the only ones that were sent here to retrieve the stolen Holy Swords, then Haruki was right. They might as well have delivered those swords to the enemy.
Right now, we're standing in the same place that we practice for most of the ball sports with Issei not far from my side and the two girls, Irina and Xenovia, standing in front of us. Around us is a barrier made from a greenish gold aura.
"Hey, Kiba. I'll take on Xenovia, you deal with Irina." Issei tells me as he cracks his knuckles. "Of course. Be careful not to get slashed by that sword. You might not be a devil, but that sword in particular would still harm you severely." I tell him as I pull out my Darkness sword. He nods in acknowledgement and readies his arms in the stance I've seen him use against Haruki when we train.
"Then let the battle begin." Haruki says, and like a bullet out of a gun, we shot towards the girls.
Narrator POV
As Issei and Yuuto shoot towards the girls, Xenovia and Irina throw off their white robes, revealing black, form fitting, battle purpose clothes, with Xenovia removing the cloth from Excalibur Destruction and Irina pulling out Excalibur Mimic in the shape of a katana.
As Issei nears her, Xenovia swings down with surprising speed, but Issei slips past the attack and moves closer to her with one hand in a fist and the other in a spear hand.
She tries sending a slash to his side, but he grabs her arms and jumps as if flipping over her to her back. Assuming that would be next his course of action, she continues turning, hoping to hit him, but Issei had taken this into consideration.
Halfway through his arc in the air, Issei uses Kōkū Shūndō to quickly return to his position that is now behind Xenovia and trips her. Grabbing hold of her sword hand, he coats his other hand in touki and hits a nerve that causes her to drop her sword.
Now unarmed, Xenovia is thrown half a meter over Issei's head, perfect distance for him to unleash an onslaught of blows on her. Removing the touki coating on his hands, he sends a punch to her liver, then her solar plexus, then her abdomen, then her sternum, and when she had lowered enough, sent a controlled chop to her neck, knocking her out.
As for Yuuto, his battle was also somewhat easy as well. Upon reaching Irina, he produced 3 demonic swords. "[Flare Brand], [Freeze Mist], [Volt Force]." Controlling the swords, the first two released a whirl of flames and cold air with silver frost, while the third was being moved into the path of movement that he would be pushing Irina into.
Irina was able to successfully dodge the the first two swords, but she was suddenly attacked by Yuuto, setting her on a collision course with the lightning charged sword. In an attempt to lower the possible damage from the pincer attack, Irina stepped backwards, just out of the reach of Yuuto's Darkness Sword, then turned around to hit away the Volt Force sword, only to see Yuuto holding both swords amd unleashing an attack at her.
Bringing her arms together to block the attack, she morphed Excalibur Mimic into a pair of metal gauntlets, her mind making a crucial lapse of judgement. Yuuto smiled and amplified the amount of energy he was pouring into Volt Force, and he struck her with a bolt of lightning that blasted her away and electrocuted her at the same time, making her body impact the strong barrier..
By the time his attack had finished, Irina had already been knocked unconscious. Seeing that his opponent had been put out of commission, he dissipated all his swords, save for the Darkness Sword.
Haruki then releases the barrier and walls over to Xenovia's unconscious body. "Hmm, as I expected, you're both way too weak." He says as he begins checking them for damage.
"Asia, think you can heal them from there?" Haruki calls out to Asia, who had spaced out after seeing Issei defeat Xenovia. "Huh? Oh, yes!" She says as her hands start glowing green with the healing power of Twilight Healing. The glow intensifies and separates into two glowing balls of healing that head to Xenovia and Irina, healing them of the damage from the battle.
After they are finished healing, Haruki snaps his fingers, releasing an electrical signal into Xenovia and Irina's brains, waking them from unconsciousness. Kiba looks at Xenovia with a small smirk. "So, was this senpai's power satisfactory?" She and Irina simply stayed quiet and put their heads down in shame.
Chapter End.
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Sica_rio Extra late chapter, really would have hoped that it wasn't like this, but it is what it is. I'll be having those exams in a little over a month, so wish me luck.
Also please add to library, leave a comment or review and if you feel so inclined to, give me some stones. Grazie and have a nice day.
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