A/N: Alright, episode 5 and its already march. Man… I planned to update this at either the new year or even my birthday but I am so busy that I did not manage to finish this on those times. Okay, here is chapter 5 which contains the showdown between our heroes and the duo of siscons.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Highschool DXD and Fate / Apocrypha or the other fate series, both works belong to their respective creators. This is a work of fiction, this doesn't relate to any existing individuals and organizations.
"talking" ""talking in unison""
"thoughts" ""thoughts in unison""
Flashbacks / dreams
*Background music/ O.S.T.*
[Ddraig talking] [Ddraig talking with telepathy]
(Albion talking) (Albion talking with telepathy)
Chapter start
At the outskirts of Kuoh town
In an open field just outside Kuoh, Scathach now wearing her battle dress is now standing across the two Maous and the two devil peerages. When the two devil heiresses learned of their respective older sibling's arrival, Sona Sitri was shocked but Rias have already anticipated their sudden arrival. It was all according to her plan; she falsified her report and made Scathach a high level threat then the two Maous will get rid of the threat which is the warrior queen herself and she will comfort Sieg and Karna from their grief of losing their mentor and obtain their trust, and that will be the time she can include them to her peerage. In all honesty, Rias Gremory loathes this part of being a devil, resorting to underhanded means and being manipulative just to get what they want but she was desperate, she wants to be free from her engagement and to freely choose who she will marry. The Gremory heiress looks at Scathach and the warrior queen also meets her gaze.
"I'm sorry but this is for my freedom and you are in the way for me to obtain it." Rias said in her mind.
"So Lady Scathach of the Celtic pantheon, what are you doing in a place that is designated as devil territory? From what I know, your faction has ceased on involving themselves to any supernatural affairs. Is the Celtic faction trying to emerge again?" Sirzechs started his interrogation.
"Hmm… Would you believe me if I say that I am in a vacation here? And even I got permission with the Shinto and Youkai faction to enter their grounds?" Scathach replied to the devil king in a relaxing manner.
"Do you think I would believe that? A being of your caliber cannot be overlook by anyone especially if that one being is capable of killing a god. What if this just your ploy to execute whatever you are planning." Sirzechs answered as he flares his aura, increasing in every second.
"That's funny coming from a race that are expert at lies and deceit. Was it you devils have ploys yourselves?" The warrior queen said sarcastically as she also flares her aura and a potent bloodlust spread all over the area and all the devils became wary of the threat. Serafall and Grayfia erected a large barrier strong enough that even a low ranking deity class being won't be able to enter and leave.
"Enough with the chit-chat Zechs, her presence here is a danger to both Rias-tan and Sona-tan! Let's just eliminate the threat and be done with it." Serafall said as she prepares herself to battle holding her wand that seems to be designed for a magical girl.
On the side of the devil peerages with Grayfia, Sona Sitri was surprised on what her older sister said. From her knowledge, they have come to a compromise of non-interference to both sides and for the two Maous to come here saying that Scathach is a threat that must be eliminated and that made her suspicious. How did they learn of the warrior queen's existence in Kuoh? She did not even include it to her report.
"What is my sister is talking about, Lady Grayfia?" Sona asked the silver- haired maid.
"Lord Sirzechs has received a report on your encounter with the God slayer, so we rush here immediately to confirm it for ourselves and deal with it." Grayfia answered in a polite and monotonous tone.
Now that her question was answered, she widens her eyes in realization and looks at Rias. There is only one person who could have reported it to the Maous and if it is not her, then the only culprit is her best friend, Rias Gremory. Her friend is making another foolish decision again and just would not let them go.
"Rias, what have you done!? You are making a big mistake!" Sona said in her mind. She just really hopes that nothing bad happens but she could not rid the feeling of something really bad will happen.
Scathach observes the devils, it is clear to her that the Gremory and Sitri peerage will not fight and Rias Gremory herself would want to see her fall. In all honesty, she can wipe the floor on them without breaking a sweat but the two devil kings in front of her were a different case. She must fight them seriously but enough to not show her full power on them to not give them the idea how powerful she is. Scathach loves to fight and likes strong people so she was a little bit- no, she is happy that after centuries of her eternal life, she is now facing strong beings to fight. The warrior queen sets her eyes to the devil in maid clothes, she is wondering why she is with the two devil peerages and not here facing her together with her Lord and Lady. By her estimation, Grayfia Lucifuge is one of the devil faction's strongest and has a power close to the current devil kings.
"Is your maid not going to join us?" The warrior queen asked the glaring Maous in a lax tone.
"No, Me and Serafall are enough to defeat you, God slayer." The stand-in Lucifer replied.
"Grayfia, take care of Rias and the others." Sirzechs commanded and Grayfia responds with a nod.
"Now then, if you are finish chatting then come at me, Devil kings!" Scathach said in a tone filled with authority, her blood red spear pointing at Sirzechs and Serafall.
"You're going to eat those words bitch!" The stand-in Leviathan said aloud as she made the preemptive strike by creating a very huge boulder of ice over the warrior queen and made it fall on her.
Scathach watches the huge debris of ice falling over her head with a confident smirk on her face. The ice boulder crashes on the open field and a huge shockwave exploded.
…
*Cue Opening song: Period by Chemistry*
…
*Cue Battle B.G.M.: Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans ost- One Way*
Sirzechs and Serafall look at the towering boulder of ice observing if the warrior queen survives or not on their preemptive strike, and as they have expected, the battle is not yet over as they see the boulder of ice having cracks all over then the cracks glow red and the ice boulder explodes to many pieces. The two devil kings covered their eyes from the strong gust and while they are disoriented, Scathach emerges from the mist charging towards the Leviathan in high speed. The warrior queen thrusts her spear targeting Serafall's heart but the Maou's battle instinct kicks in and she redirected the spear with her wand, after the failed attempt, Scathach follows up with a barrage of stabs while Serafall created a blade of ice on her wand and tried to parry even though she barely follows Scathach's attacks. Serafall could only dodge the stabs and parries the attack that comes close to her but she could not make a counter attack because the warrior queen's attack has no holes to be exploited.
Meanwhile, Sirzechs moves into action to help Serafall as he conjures his Ruin the Extinct and fires them to Scathach. The warrior queen disengages in her battle on the Leviathan and evades the demonic bullets that seems to follow her wherever she goes, she flips around the field narrowly avoiding all the projectile and with swift motion of her swing, the blade of Gae Bolg slices through each ball of power of destruction while the warrior queen gracefully move.
Scathach activates a fire rune and three fire shuriken shaped projectiles manifested circling around her and with a wave of her arm, the three fireballs flies to their intended target which is the Lucifer. Sirzechs in reponse erected a magic circle in front of him shielding him from the attack but he was unaware that the warrior queen is moving fast approaching him from behind. The stand-in Lucifer widens his eyes on shock in how fast the god slayer moves, he made a makeshift sword made from demonic power to parry Scathach's strike but the warrior queen did not relent her attacks and continues to thrust, twirl and swing her spear which Sirzechs barely evades.
Serafall conjures icicle spikes hovering on both her sides and launches them towards Scathach who has no choice but to disengage once more. Once Scathach got busy on deflecting a hail of icicle spikes, Sirzechs fires a big ball of Power of Destruction which the warrior queen dodges by jumping up. An explosion occurs which obstructs their sight and while that was happening, Scathach who is currently on mid-air conjures hundreds of Gae Bolg replicas hovering behind the god slayer and then she launches them raining down to the two Maous. Sirzechs and Serafall darted away while dodging the rain of death and deflecting away the spears that comes close to skewer them.
While the two Maous are distracted, Scathach landed smoothly to the ground then made a mad dash towards the devil kings. With two spears on both hands, the warrior queen throws the spear from her left hand and the red spear flies towards its target, to Sirzechs Lucifer. The Lucifer blocks the spear with his magic circle but the spear did not relent on its pressure resulting to Sirzechs being pinned down in place, meanwhile, Scathach is already preparing to throw her other spear and this time she is imbuing it with more power as the red spear glow in a violent wave of crimson aura.
"Gae Bolg Alternative!" The warrior queen shouted as she unleashes her noble phantasm.
The red spear pierces through the air as it moves like a meteor falling to the earth, but before the spear reaches the target, walls of ice were erected layer by layer each reinforced with a defensive magic circle. The walls of ice are about seven layers; the first five layers were easily pierced through by the spear due to the short time the walls are summoned and before it can even stabilize, but the spear met a resistance on the sixth layer and it took ten seconds before it breaks until the spear finally reaches the final layer. The Lucifer did not wait for the spear to reach him as he charges a high powered Power of Destruction while he holds back the first spear then he unleashes his attack in the form of a large beam of black and red energy obliterating everything in front of him. The whole area shakes but luckily the barrier withstood all the attacks that they made on the whole exchange, and on the outside of the barrier, the impact only makes it look like an earthquake occurs.
The Gremory and Sitri peerages plus Grayfia are now spectating from above using their devil wings, to say all of them were in awe to see a battle between beings in a deity class level of power, especially to the warrior queen who can take on two devil kings at once, as expected from the god slayer. Rias Gremory is getting nervous that she underestimated the power of the immortal being and due to Scathach's eternal life she must have accumulated experiences more than Sirzechs and Serafall did. On Grayfia's side, she is starting to worry on her husband and friend. They only heard rumors and stories about Scathach but now that they are seeing it personally, she has assessed that the warrior queen exceeded the stories and rumors.
The area is filled with clouds of dust and both devil kings' visions were obscured, they did stop a potentially fatal attack but they wonder if they got the warrior queen from Sirzechs' last attack. Their question is answered when the warrior queen appears on Serafall's flank holding a single edge sword with purple blade, currently charging at the Leviathan with great speed. Serafall responded by parrying the sword attacks with her wand but due to the fast swings and gracefulness of Scathach's blade dance, the female Maou could barely defend. Serafall made a chopping gesture on her left hand and creates an ice blade, she attempted to slice Scathach through her torso but the warrior queen bents down and counters the Leviathan by summoning Gae Bolg on her free hand and thrust it aiming for Serafall's head. Serafall manages to lean her head to the side avoiding herself being skewered but the spear manages to graze her cheek and cut some strands of her hair.
Meanwhile, Sirzechs could only hear clashes amidst the dust and could not see what is happening, all he knows is that his friend and fellow Maou, Serafall is engaged in combat. With a wave of his hand, the whole area is immediately cleared of dust clouds and he can already see Serafall and the god slayer fighting. He shoots small balls of power of destruction towards Scathach making her disengage Serafall and distance herself but the projectiles followed her. Scathach responds by slicing the balls of power of destruction with her sword imbued with a dark purple aura then she unleashes a torrent of black and purple beam towards the two Maous. Sirzechs and Serafall adopted the same strategy that the warrior queen did as they both attack on Scathach's flanks. The warrior queen smirks and twirled her spear and then slams the butt of the spear to the ground and suddenly ice spikes manifested from the ground around Scathach, ready to skewer the two devil kings who are in shock but composed themselves quickly and defends themselves; with Serafall erecting an ice wall and Sirzechs coating his body with his aura disintegrating the ice spikes that threatens to skewer him.
"Heh! Not bad both of you. It's been a while since I experienced a battle as exhilarating as this. Keep it up and I might really get fully serious and go all out, both of you felt the same way right? All of us here are holding back." Scathach said to the devil kings.
"As exciting as it might be, but we do not want any destruction in our wake. We also do not intend to prolong this battle; you are a threat that we must deal with quickly." Sirzechs replied in a cold tone.
"He's right, as long as you are here Rias-chan and Sona-tan will be in danger." Serafall added, gone with her bubbly persona as she gave her icy glare to the warrior queen.
"Booo! Both of you are such party poopers. Funny that when it comes to your siblings you two are easily fooled, is that really what you think is going on? Foolishness! Do you really think I would go down without a fight? I'll tell you now that even if you manage to defeat me, you would not get out here unscathed." Scathach reciprocated them with her own death glare that sends chills to all the devils' spine. For a moment they swore they saw the warrior queen's blood red eyes glow.
As the tension gets heavy, Scathach suddenly blinks out of existence in a flash of red light which made the two devil kings fall into battle position. Sirzechs felt the distortion in the air behind him and he quickly turn his head to look behind him, only to see Scathach already in mid-thrust on her spear. With a solid thrust, Scathach aims to the Lucifer's head which narrowly evaded by the devil by leaning his head to the side but the warrior queen is not finished as she swings her sword in barrages of slashes. Scathach is now dual-wielding using her sword and spear, barraging the crimson-haired devil with sword swings then suddenly thrusting her spear to her opponent's blindspot which barely evaded by Sirzechs. The exchange repeats for some time until Serafall joins the fray by throwing another boulder of ice to the warrior queen forcing Scathach to disengage.
As the warrior queen distanced herself, Serafall attempts to flank her but the warrior queen kicks the ground and spikes of ice jutting out towards Serafall which made the Maou back away. While the Leviathan is distracted, Scathach throws her spear aiming for Serafall's heart only to be intercepted by a beam of Power of Destruction courtesy of Sirzechs Lucifer. The Maou Lucifer creates another batch of small balls of power of destruction and launches them to Scathach which she dodges by jumping up, but the projectiles follow her again. Once again Scathach filled her sword with power preparing to counter the attack.
"Claíomh Scáth!" Scathach roared as she swings her sword. The moment she made the slash, multiple slashes followed distorting the space in front of her then all the balls of power of destruction were sliced and destroyed.
As the warrior queen gracefully landed to the ground, Sirzechs quickly closes the distance in a blink of an eye and attacks her with a straight punch enhanced by his demonic power. Scathach blocks the attack with her sword but is sent backwards in a distance. Scathach regains herself and about to dash back to her opponents until suddenly she stops and could not move her legs. The warrior queen looks down below only to see her feet frozen up to her lower thigh, upon seeing it she slightly widens her eyes in surprise.
"Serafall! Now is your chance!" A female voice shouted from the distance. Scathach looks to the owner of the voice to see one, Grayfia Lucifuge holding both of her hands up to her direction. Apparently, she is the one responsible on freezing her legs to pin her in place.
She quickly looks to Serafall's direction only to see a giant ball of demonic power looming over her. The warrior queen closes her eyes and sighs in defeat as the attack makes contact to its intended target resulting to a very large explosion.
*B.G.M. End*
…
Back to the Hyoudou Residence
While the battle between Scathach and the two devil kings rage on, Sieg and Karna came back at the same time by teleporting in front of the house. They greeted each other by nodding and enters the lawn of the residence only for them to stop and their eyes slightly wide in shock. They felt a left over residue of mana in the air which is too potent to be mistaking it as an aura of an ultimate class being.
[This mana left in the air… it is too potent for an ultimate class being and they are owned by three different people.] Ddraig suddenly voiced out his observation.
(Agreed. But these signatures… they belong to three very powerful devils. It seems we got visitors while we're away.) Albion added.
Upon hearing both of their dragons, their expressions become tensed and they hurriedly enter the house. They found that the house was completely unscathed and no signs of battle; as they look around the house, they stumbled on a single note pinned on the refrigerator. Sieg takes the note and reads it while Karna walks to Sieg.
"What did it say?" Karna inquired to his friend.
"It says she is taking a walk at the outskirts. I can tell that nee-san is with those devils; this situation smells Gremory over it." Sieg said with venom laced on his tone.
"The outskirts huh. It makes sense since I just felt a distortion of space on that area, as if a barrier was erected there. Come on Sieg, we better hurry and can still make it." Sieg nodded on Karna's suggestion and they hurriedly left the house.
The moment they step outside the house; they jump towards the roof from one house to another with great speed. They run a straight route towards the outskirt running along long roofs and leaping through posts, they move to fast that they are just a passing wind for the people who are already awake.
…
To the outskirts of Kuoh, the aftermath of the battle
Scathach groans as she felt pain all over her body, she realized that she was knock unconscious from the last attack. She groggily opens her eyes only find herself bound on an interconnected magic circles and she was positioned like she was crucified on a cross, her battle outfit was damage where her purple body suit has some rips exposing her toned stomach and her right thigh and leg while her dark violet armor has cracks all over. The warrior queen lost the battle and got herself captured, she also assessed that she let her guard down to the maid and let herself fall to a sneak attack. Scathach really loves a good fight and she was currently enjoying her battle with the Lucifer and Leviathan but due to the interference of the maid, her mood got soured and dampened.
"Heh! I forgot that this also happens in the battlefield." Scathach thought to herself. Call it underhanded but anything factors in a fight, people of today really lacks chivalry.
"So you're finally awake, God slayer." She heard the voice of one Sirzechs Lucifer and at his back are Serafall Leviathan, Grayfia Lucifuge and the two devil peerages. She also saw Rias Gremory wearing a confident smile on her face.
"I was actually enjoying the fight and now you ruined the mood by the interference of your maid, you should have just made her join the fight in the first place." Scathach said wearing her own confident smile which made the devils annoyed. How can she still smile in the face of certain death?
"We are not going to apologize for our actions, this is a battle not a duel. We will do anything even if it is underhanded to win." Sirzechs replied with conviction.
"Well, that was typically expected to your race so I'm not expecting you to do anything honorable. So, what would you do to me now? Kill me perhaps?" Scathach said in a calm and cold tone which made the devils' spines shiver, they can still see the same glare on her blood red eyes.
"Before we actually do that, we want you to confess to us on what is really your goal here in Kuoh that is under devil territory?" The Lucifer kept his calm and started the interrogation.
"Whether you believe it or not, I have no goals or anything and just taking a vacation to one of my student's homeland." Her reply made Sirzechs raise a brow, the god slayer has an apprentice here in Japan is what he thought.
"Say Crimson Satan, I have heard rumors that your Power of Destruction can obliterate anything. Can your power have the ability to kill an immortal like me?" Scathach said that sounds like she is taunting the Lucifer.
"Hmph! Then should we test that theory?" Sirzechs replied with a confident smirk on his face but deep down he was losing his patience. He wonders how this woman can still smile while she is at their mercy. He created a ball made from Power of Destruction and over time the size increases and crackling with power, torrents of wind blows violently around Sirzechs as the ball enlarges to a gigantic size.
"This ball has imbued with the power to obliterate even the lower tier of deity class beings, so if you happen to survive this I will just reincarnate you as my servant and seal your power. I just thought on something where you can be of use." Sirzechs said in a cold tone. Even though her wish would be granted, Rias Gremory is not proud of what she has done but she wants her freedom and either Sieg or Karna has the ticket towards it. Sirzechs fired the demonic ball made from power of destruction speeding towards the captive Scathach.
"Heh! I guess this is it for me, I can finally rest. I'm sorry Sieg, Karna. It was fun travelling with you two, it was an honor to have both of you as my family." Scathach thought as she closes her eyes waiting for death to embrace her with a smile.
Unfortunately for Scathach or even the devils, neither her death nor a total victory for the devils will come as the top of the barrier shattered and from there emerges a lance of fire and lightning descending to the area. The lance pierces through the gigantic ball of demonic power obliterating it in the process then it crashes to the ground creating a large explosion of fire, the devils shielded themselves in the barrier created by Sirzechs and Serafall while the warrior queen erected her own defensive barrier enhanced with runes. When the explosion subsides, something or rather someone descends from the sky like a meteor and hit the ground with a loud crash producing a large cloud of dust. All the occupants look at the crash site as the dust dissipates revealing Karna standing in between his mentor and the devils.
Karna glared at the devils and find themselves intimidated by his icy blue eyes which pupils are slits. The hero of charity's expression was calm and stoic but there is cold fury in his eyes, he grabs the shaft of his golden spear and swings it towards his mentor, Scathach, and then the magic that binds the warrior queen shattered releasing her in the process.
"You're late. So, how is the hunt?" Scathach casually said.
"Needed to destroy the barrier with a boosted Brahmastra Kundala to get in. We will talk later to discuss some things." Karna replied with a stern tone. Scathach realizes that Karna is royally pissed and somehow she felt apologetic.
"Plus, I did not come here alone." Karna added as a blur of blue light passes them approaching the devils.
The blur reveals as Sieg appearing in front of Sirzechs Lucifer out of nowhere, his body clad in blue lightning and currently in the middle of swinging down Balmung to bisect the Maou in two. Time seems to slow down and at that moment the eyes of Sieg and Sirzechs met; blue reptilian eyes filled with killing intent meets blue-green eyes filled with surprise but there is curiosity in it. Time goes back to normal as Sieg swings the great sword with speed like a guillotine but Sirzechs leans his body to the side evading the diagonal slash but the young knight quickly follows up with a wide arc swing which made the Lucifer to distance himself.
The other devils were surprised on the new development of the situation especially Rias Gremory, she is feeling not just shock but also fear. Now that Sieg and Karna saw what is happening and the identity of their mentor's would-be killer, she has truly cemented their claim that their race, the devils, cannot be trusted. She can feel the murderous gaze of the Dragon-Blooded knight whose reptilian eyes glare filled with hate and contempt, his whole body clad in blue lightning crackling with power with his great sword by his side ready to struck his enemies. To the devils, it seems that Sieg is stalking them like a predator, waiting for his chance to hunt and slaughter his prey. They also see the hero of charity, Karna walking to Sieg's side equipped with his divine spear also glaring at them with cold eyes.
"What do you think are you doing?" Sieg said in a tone so cold that it sent shivers to the spine of anyone who hears.
"This is none of your business, unless you two are related to the threat that we are dealing with," Sirzechs replied with his cold remark.
"Threat? There's no threat here other than you devils suddenly attacking our guardian." Karna cuts in the conversation as he pointed his spear to the devils.
"Heeeh… such bold declaration coming from those who threatens our little sisters." Serafall added her own argument with a cold smile on her face.
"Threat to your little sisters huh? It's true that we did met with Rias Gremory since she invited us to her clubroom to actually convince us to join her peerage but we refused and said we should not interfere with each other's business and as for the Sitri, she never met us and kept their distance." Karna said in a calm tone. Both devil kings narrowed their eyes as they do not detect any lies or deceit in those words.
"Onee-sama! He is right, we kept our distance to them and just observed from afar and so far they never did anything to be a threat to us and live normally like other people so I never reported them to you. My peerage members can attest to that." Sona said to her sister hoping to diffuse the seemingly escalating problem. Upon hearing the Sitri heiress, the two Maous and Grayfia were shocked and they saw the silence of the Sitri peerage while they see guilty expressions from the Gremory peerage.
"Wait! According to Rias'-" Sirzechs stops whatever he says and looks to her sister who is now averting her eyes in shame and guilt and from there the three of the strongest devils come from a realization.
"Are you sure about it, Sona-tan? Maybe you were threatened to-" Before the Leviathan could finish, Sona cuts her off and said.
"IT'S TRUE, ONEE-SAMA! For once set aside your eccentric behavior and listen to me! I warned Rias to stay away from them but she did not listen, she did what she pleases and now we are on this mess! You were trick into killing someone who Rias thought to be an obstacle to her in acquiring a peerage member!" Unable to endure the farce they were in, she shouted the whole truth much to the shock of Sirzechs, Serafall and Grayfia. Rias was also shocked to her outburst and felt betrayed at the same time to her best friend and rival.
"It doesn't matter anymore." Sieg's chilling voice reverberated to the devils as they look to the Dragon-Blooded knight whose body still clads in lightning that crackles violently.
*B.G.M. Start: GARO Honoo no Kokuin O.S.T.- Battle 2*
"I just tolerated your presence here in my hometown and now you have the nerve to attack us. You attack first, now we retaliate!" Sieg added then suddenly he blinks out of existence leaving cracks to the ground.
Sirzechs felt the shift in the air and steps aside evading Sieg's dive attack as a result but the dragon knight did not relent his attack as he swings one more time only for the Lucifer to block it with a magic circle. The two are in a deadlock until Sieg's strength overpowered Sirzechs' and the Maou was pushed back isolating him from the group of devils. Serafall was about to help her fellow Maou but she was suddenly tackled by a meteor which reveals to be Karna using his mana burst (flame) resulting the Leviathan getting isolated too.
"Sirzechs! Serafall!" Grayfia called out as she was about to help but she suddenly felt a shift in the air and then she instinctively leans back narrowly evading the spear tip of Gae Bolg.
"Your fight is with me, devil maid. After all I still want to pay you back on that sneak attack." Scathach said as she stands in front of Grayfia. She glared at the two devil peerages and warns them.
"You brats better not interfere on our fights. Right now, Sieg and Karna are both in their kill mode, so if you attempt to do that, you will be killed immediately without any hesitation." The warrior queen added as her glare intensifies. Fear struck both the Gremory and Sitri peerage upon hearing the warning and no one attempted to move from their spots. They also heard and see an explosion of dust cloud in the distance, and the only thing that they can do is watch on how this battle unfolds.
Sieg and Sirzechs are now engaged in a sword fight, the knight swings his sword in a different angle with both speed and power while the devil king uses a makeshift sword to parry and most of all dodge. Sirzechs can feel his arm going numb every time he meets Sieg's attacks, when it comes to strength and raw power, Sieg has an advantage over the Maou and Sirzechs is not actually geared in a melee fight. In order to have an advantage over the Dragon-blooded knight he fires a demonic blast in point blank range which Sieg blocks with the flat side of Balmung then the Lucifer quickly distance himself and creates homing projectiles made from power of destruction and fires them away to the young knight. Sieg uses his lightning speed to dodge and zoom along the Ruin the Extinct but some of it were very persistent on following him much to Sieg's annoyance.
"Divide times five" Sieg muttered and his sacred gear activates the skill.
(Divide!) (Divide!) (Divide!) (Divide!) (Divide!) Albion quietly said within Sieg's mind.
(Slash Dimension!)
Sieg swings down his great sword in full force and then the space in front of the knight distorted and multiple slashes appear in the air slicing off all the homing projectiles. Slash dimension is a dimension cutting technique, a new skill created on the sacred gear through the combination of Sieg's sword skill and divine dividing's Half Dimension which results to Sieg having an ability to cut through space. Mana gathered on Sieg's legs and he shoots forward to the Maou and quickly closes the distance in a blink of an eye, upon reaching his target, he slashes away to the devil king relentlessly to keep the pressure and advantage over to Sirzechs whose now once again in the defensive.
Meanwhile, Serafall manages to break away from Karna only for the hero to close their distance and unleashes a series of stabs with his fire-enchanted spear. Serafall creates a blade of ice on her wand and slashes it to Karna only for it to get melted and destroyed from the hero's spear, with this realization, she analyzes that his fire is as hot as the sun and she might in for a serious disadvantage over elements. With a burst of her aura, Serafall sent Karna back creating a distance between them and she quickly launches a barrage of ice spikes. Karna swings his spear still infuse with his mana burst (flame) resulting in a wave of fire that quickly melts the ice spikes that Serafall throws then the hero of charity shoots fireballs towards the Leviathan which she dodges in response.
Serafall fires a beam of demonic power to Karna but instead of dodging, Karna took the attack head-on by thrusting his spear towards the attack resulting to the beam splitting to different direction destroying some trees and parts of the land. Unbeknownst to Karna, Serafall is casting another spell and the hero started freezing in a rapid pace starting from his feet, when the Leviathan cancels her beam attack, there stood Karna frozen completely in ice and with that Serafall starts to relax and sighs in relief. Serafall was about to leave to aid Sirzechs neutralize the threats but she did not notice the movement on Karna's lips.
"O Agni…" Karna mutters his aria and an explosion occurs within the ice resulting to a dome of fire destroying his ice prison.
Serafall's eyes widen in shock and curse to herself for expecting that the battle is over, the dome of fire suddenly disperses revealing Karna standing tall and ready for battle. Karna disappears in a flash of red light and suddenly reappears in front of the Leviathan closing the distance between them, he starts swinging and twirling his spear attacking Serafall in every angle using both ends of his weapons. Serafall barely manages to parry and dodge each attack but the attacks of the hero of charity were relentless and she can barely counter on the exchange.
"You cannot get rid of me so easily." Karna said as he bats the Maou's wand with a swing of his spear leaving Serafall open then he did a roundhouse kick to her gut and then kneed her to the face then finishing it with a thrust to the gut using the butt of his spear and throws her over, making her land on the ground in a rough manner.
On the other side of the battlefield, Grayfia is taking quite a beating from facing the warrior queen; she is equipped with a makeshift sword made from her demonic power doing her best to parry every relentless attacks that Scathach is giving her. Scathach skillfully twirls her spear around which acts on both offense and defense confusing the devil maid in the process on the transition of Scathach's strategy; every counter that she makes are being parried successfully and whenever the warrior queen attacks, she could not pinpoint on where the attack is coming so she has no choice but to narrowly dodge which she sometimes earns some scrapes on her body.
In order to make a distance, Grayfia summons some ice spikes lunging their way towards the warrior queen; only to be cut away by a barrage of slashes from the spinning Gae Bolg that is moving around Scathach's body like a protective shield then she thrusts her spear with force which made a beam of red energy that literally blows the ice spikes. The range extended until it passes the side of Grayfia's head which is an intentional miss to show the warrior queen's power and her seriousness at the same time. The two glared at each other until both of them vanish on sight due to their speed and when they reappeared, the two have clashed blades and engage in a dance of blades with Scathach swinging and spinning her spear around as a form of both offense and defense, also to use it to cover her deadly attack to the enemy while Grayfia keeps on parrying and attacks when she sees an opening.
The two are in a stalemate much to the frustration of Grayfia, the reason is that whenever she thought that she had parried or avoided an attack, the warrior queen would surprise her with a thrust of her spear and when she is about to counter, Scathach would gracefully defend herself with a twirl of the spear as if the warrior queen can read her and the flow of the battle. Grayfia gathers her demonic power in her free hand and fires it to Scathach only for the warrior queen to dodge the attack in a graceful move, Scathach responds by tapping the ground with the sole of her foot and spikes of ice rises to the direction of the silver haired maid. Grayfia flies up to the air and summons a large number of magic circles around her and fires a hail of ice projectiles to Scathach, and upon seeing the attacks, the warrior queen writes a rune symbol into the air and with a swing of her spear, towers of fire rise up to defend its mistress.
The silver haired maid watches the wall of fire cautiously for any surprise attacks and as she has expected, Gae Bolg replicas burst through the fire flying towards her. She deflected the projectiles with grace and lands to the ground but only to be surprise by another attack of three flame projectiles in a shape of ninja stars or shuriken. The devil maid deflected the attacks with her makeshift sword but Scathach suddenly appears in front of her which shocks Grayfia and the two starts exchanging attacks. Their swings are so fast that it can be seen as a blur but in real time, Grayfia could only deflect the spear attacks and then being hit by the warrior queen's punches and kicks; every time Grayfia avoided an attack from the spear, the warrior queen will always hit her with her follow ups and it only repeats for several moments.
Finally, Scathach had enough and intends to end the battle as the warrior queen thrusts the butt end of her spear to the devil maid's gut, lifting the maid from the impact and she is also staggered that makes her open to attacks. The warrior queen did not waste any time as she swings and twirls her spear skillfully and in a fast pace, to the observer, they could only see some red blurs. When Scathach finishes her attack, Grayfia who was still lifted from the ground suddenly bleeds along with her clothes being shredded, her maid outfit has tears all over and the skirt got shorten to thigh length exposing her shapely legs. She also has slash marks all over her body where her blood sprayed. To finish it all, Scathach thrusts her spear stabbing Grayfia to the gut but she intentionally misses any vital organs to avoid killing the devil maid then in a quick motion, the warrior queen removes the spear and Grayfia falls to the ground lying there while she's bleeding. The devil maid could not move most of her body due to some veins being cut, and thus, the battle ended with Scathach's victory.
Up in the air, seeing the dubbed strongest queen being defeated made both the Gremory and Sitri peerage shocked and fear started to surface from within. They have come to realize how strong the queen of the land of shadows really is just like the legends about her says. They also learned that if she is still alive until the present time, then she is stronger than what she is letting on. They saw the warrior queen walking away from the downed Grayfia and just watches her students fight, this prompts both peerages to fly down slowly and move the devil maid to a safer distance for them to heal.
"How did it comes to this?" Rias asked herself in her thoughts, clenching both of her hands into fists.
"This is all your fault, Rias." She suddenly heard Sona muttered those words and when she looks at her friend, she sees Sona glaring at her.
"I have warned you before but you never listened, you're so stubborn and inconsiderate. You will do anything just to obtain everything that you want, you're just like that even when we were young kids. You never changed at all, Rias. It would have been fine if we let them be, but your pride is so big that you did not take their refusal lightly, and you even involved your brother and my sister! You better hope that our siblings win this battle." Sona scolded her friend on her foolishness and Rias could only look down in shame and guilt.
"…I-I-I'm sorry…" Is what Rias could only say at this point, there is no hint of pride or arrogance in her voice. All the members of both peerages look at the Gremory heiress with different reactions; some of them felt pity, others felt disappointment and the other is reprimanding.
Both Maous felt Grayfia's aura weaken and much to their shock and annoyance, they saw the warrior queen standing there only watching their fight and they felt they were being underestimated. Sirzechs decided to be a little more serious in a fight to show the boy their gap between their skill and experience, he is now creating more demonic bullets and rain down a barrage towards Sieg who is currently zipping through the hail of demonic power using his lightning speed. Sieg looks to the Lucifer who is about to fire another volley of Ruin the Extinct, mana started to gather within him and he uses his dimension cutting technique, Slash Dimension once more destroying all the incoming attacks. The explosions resulted in obscured visuals to both combatants but Sieg did not mind as he charges Balmung with mana making the sword's range extended by a beam of bright blue light.
Sieg swings his sword down and the beam of light cuts through the smoke. At the other side, Sirzechs was surprised as he suddenly sees a beam of light looming down on him fast so he quickly deploys a defensive magic circle and blocks the attack but then he felt that the attack is too heavy which resulted to him to be brought down to the ground and he tries to push back. The two tries to overpower the other and their struggle results to the buildup of mana until it explodes. Sieg watch the dust cloud cautiously ready to intercept any attack but suddenly a magic circle appears under the young knight as it glows intensely, his eyes widen in realization but before he could move, the magic circle detonates and explodes in point blank range.
Sirzechs emerges from the dust cloud and fires a barrage of Ruin the Extinct and then throws a basketball-size Power of Destruction to where the dragon-blooded knight is which causes more explosions in the area. When Sirzechs thought it is over, there is a retaliation in the form of a bluish white beam that emerges from the dust cloud which evaded by the devil king in time but shortly after that Sieg emerges from the smoke making a mad dash towards Sirzechs doing a ninja run and still clad on his lightning aura. The Maou immediately creates a makeshift sword and clashes blades with Sieg and then it escalates to a sword fight in a high speed swings, when they lock swords to each other, Sirzechs observes his opponent's appearance; the damage that the young man have are some cracks on his gaunlets, tears on his pants, his overskirt in tatters, and his whole shirt destroyed which exposes his toned torso with a glowing crest on it, aside from those mentioned damage, the young man is fine and receives minimal damage which surprises Sirzechs.
"I can sense a massive killing intent on you, young man. Do you hate me? That's fine by me, I only did this for the protection of my sister and fellow devils." Sirzechs said calmly which fuels the fires of anger within Sieg.
"Shut up! It's not just you who I hate, I hate all of the pure-blood devils who have a holier than thou attitude and treating us humans like shit!" Sieg retorted angrily as he gathers mana and generates a shockwave that sent Sirzechs flying.
In another part of the battlefield, Karna who is now equipped with Vijaya is currently firing volleys of flame arrows to the Leviathan. Serafall could only dodge the arrows because of the explosive power, she can endure one or more but a volley of them at the same time is another story, just one arrow can destroy the defenses of ultimate class beings. The Leviathan made a return fire using her demonic power which evaded skillfully by Karna while firing his arrows, while they are exchanging fires, the hero of charity is closing his distance little by little which did not escape the notice of Serafall. She waited until Karna is close enough, when the white haired hero reaches a certain range, Serafall fires a fireball spell towards Karna. Karna responds dodging the attack but he was surprised when the fireball explodes, it is so powerful that it can be comparable to a nuke and he got caught in the blast as a result.
Karna emerges from the explosion only for several magic circles to surround him in every angle, all the circles fire beams of demonic power and Karna has no choice but to minimize the damage that he will take. He boosts himself four times to reinforce himself and starts to deflect the attacks with the dual blades transformation of the bow, but unfortunately, he cannot deflect all of the beams and he just braces himself for the incoming attacks. An explosion once again occurs as the attacks have hit their designated target, Karna emerges from the explosion and his battle clothes took quite a beating as there are tears on it, upon landing to a ground, magic circle appears again and an ice spike came out of it which Karna evaded quickly but another circle appears behind him and another spike came out. This time, Karna uses his dual blades to slash the ice spike apart but suddenly, Serafall appears in front of him and fires a high powered beam of demonic energy enveloping the hero of charity.
Not long after the explosion from the last attack, volleys of flame arrows emerges from the smoke flying towards the Leviathan, Serafall dodges in great ease but was surprised from Karna flanking her as she creates a makeshift blade on her wand and engages Karna in a sword fight both not letting up to the other slashing away as they shift in position like they are dancing. They continue their dance until they reach a deadlock glaring at each other and then push each other back making a distance apart. Karna transforms his weapon immediately to a bow and fires a flame arrow to the devil king, Serafall in response fires a fireball of her own and the two attacks collided making a large explosion. Serafall sighed in relief as she managed to counter the attack but it was short-lived when another arrow emerges from the dust cloud following the first attack, the devil king has no choice but to dodge due to the speed of attack but unknown to her, a beam of blue light is coming behind her.
"Wha-!" Serafall was able to sense the attack too late and before she could take action, she gets enveloped in the blue beam of light and meanwhile, Karna's arrow flies towards the unsuspecting Sirzechs Lucifer hitting him dead-on which creates a large explosion upon impact.
"ONII-SAMA/ ONEE-SAMA!" The two heiresses shouted in shock on what happened to their elder siblings.
Meanwhile, at the same time of battle between Karna and Serafall…
On the other side of battle, Sirzechs was sent flying by the burst of mana that Sieg unleashed. The Lucifer manages to compose himself and regains his footing to recover, after doing so, he immediately fires a barrage of demonic bullets towards Sieg who is in a battle stance grinding the blade of his sword against his armor covered wrist as blue flame engulfs the blade. Sieg dashes towards Sirzechs as he slashes the demonic bullets and then made a jump and stomps the ground with force, a large chunk of the ground was raise up and then the young knight kicks it away using it as projectile targeting the crimson satan. Sirzechs fires at the large boulder disintegrating it in the process but that is only a distraction as Sieg using his lightning speed is now at the devil king's side ready to swing Balmung.
With his quick reflexes, Sirzechs manages to block the attack and the two fighters are lock in a sword clash, no one wanted to be bested by the other as they swing, parry, block and slash. They kept repeating the cycle as they shift position and moves on one area to another, eyes watching each of their movements trying to predict each other until this fight becomes a battle of attrition or a battle of endurance which Sieg excels the most. After a few bouts, Sieg finds an opening and takes the opportunity as he clenches his left fist imbued with a crackling lightning and punch Sirzechs straight to the gut sending him flying, then he swings Balmung firing a beam of blue light towards Sirzechs.
The Lucifer dodges the attack on time but unfortunately he did not know that his fellow devil king, Serafall is on the beam's direction hitting her instead while as for him, he suddenly felt an intense pain on his back and next thing he knew, he is engulfed by an explosion and hearing the faint call of his and Serafall's siblings in the background.
*B.G.M. End*
When the explosions dissipated, both the Gremory and Sitri peerage saw the scene in shock as they see the image of the defeated form of Serafall Leviathan, lying on the ground unconscious and her body is smoking like she was burned, her magical girl uniform is in tatters and her body were riddled in wounds and burns. On Sirzechs Lucifer's case, he is still standing but he took quite the damage as his cape and shoulder armor were gone and even the top of his noble attire leaving him topless, his body has some bruises and scrapes and there is blood dripping on his forehead. He landed to the ground slowly and glared at the knight that he is facing, he also looks to Karna only to see him disengage his weapon and watch and he was thankful inside that this is not going to be a two-on-one fight.
His eyes widen as he felt mana building up, what he sees right now is Sieg holding his sword up in front of him and twisting the hilt, the gem on the hilt glows and the blade was engulfed in a pillar of blue light. Sieg is charging his sword wanting to end the battle in one attack, Sirzechs braces himself as he gathers some power to create a tough defense magic circle to deploy. Mana continuously gather towards the sword and the young knight himself silently used (Absorb) ability from his sacred gear to reach the charging to critical state. He raises his sword ready to swing down his sword but before he could it, Sirzechs asked him a question.
"Tell me young man. What is your name?" There is silence between them in that moment.
"Sieg… the Dragon-Blooded knight, SIEG!" Sieg replied as he swings down his sword shouting the name Balmung.
*Cue Battle O.S.T.- Sword Art Online Alicization Alice battle theme: She was sitting under the Osmanthus tree (last part) *
Sirzechs immediately deploys a defensive magic circle in front of him and resists the torrent of blue beam coming on him, to say that he was shocked on what he learned. Apparently, he is currently fighting the criminal that continues to slip away from them from killing a pillar heir and much to his shock, he is very young for committing such crime. The two struggles for dominance but it seems the Lucifer's defense is too tough for Balmung to crack and this made Sieg annoyed because of this much resistance.
"It's useless, boy. I have reinforced this to the point that even an EX rank ultimate class being would never break, you will need a deity class power to that." Sirzechs said with confidence as he smirks in this situation, he is gambling for a chance that Sieg would tire himself out.
That comment made Sieg ticks off, by the sound of his confident voice, he could probably imagine Sirzechs having a smug expression looking down on him. He wanted to teach the devil king to not mess with them and within his sacred gear, Albion roared in approval refusing to be insulted by a devil who just took on the name of his progenitor. Sieg temporarily removes the seal on his power and suddenly his figure is immediately clad in a suit of white armor, his head fully covered in a dragon themed visor with glowing yellow eyes. The full detail of the armor was obscured by a bright light that he is emitting and no one actually see it. But to the devils who are watching including Sirzechs, they felt the draconic power rise to the realm of deity class level which shocks all of the devils.
The torrent of blue beam increases in intensity and cracks the devil's defense with ease, Sirzechs who is currently in shock on the new development as he is too late to react and is now being engulfed to the intensified attack. The beam flew pass the open area and a large explosion occurs at the boundary of the barrier, as the attack dissipates, Sieg immediately disengaged the armor and replaces the seal in order for the devils to not figure out what he really is. When the devils recovered their sight, they could only see the dragon-blooded knight panting as the attack really took a lot of him and when they all look to the other, they were so shocked that their eyes would bulge to their eye sockets, seeing a kneeling Sirzechs who is now bloody and his whole left arm was charred.
*B.G.M. End*
Normally, that kind of attack would have ended the Lucifer but luckily for him, he was able to use his Humanoid Aura of Destruction form to at least minimize the damage that he would take but still he took a lot of damage and is now unable to fight, his demonic power is currently allocated to concentrate on his regeneration abilities. And this battle ends to the victory of Sieg, Karna and Scathach, but the young knight is not yet satisfied and his hatred is at its peak as he once again charges Balmung with mana attempting for another attack to end the crimson satan but before he could do that, a voice roared from the heavens.
"That's far enough!" The booming male voice said as lightning strikes in front of Sieg a hand held his hands back from swinging the sword.
Emerging from the lightning is a black haired man wearing a samurai armor, the man is the Shinto god of storms and seas, Susanoo. Following after him are Amaterasu, who emerges from a swirl of fire and Tsukiyomi, who emerges from a pillar of light which makes the Shinto trinity gathered in one place. All of the devils were surprised by the abrupt visit but also thankful that things will be resolved. Amaterasu looks towards the devils then to her friend and her state of dress even to Sieg and Karna, she already has an idea of what happened here but she asks anyway to confirm.
"What happened here, Lady Scathach?" The Shinto goddess of the sun asked in a formal tone.
"Well… I was visited by these devil leaders to discuss something only for them to state their intention of eliminating a threat that leads to a battle because of a false accusation. They assumed that I was a threat for the lives of the Gremory and Sitri here." Scathach said as she pointed her thumb to the mentioned heiresses.
"Lady Amaterasu, she is a high-level threat and a bane to the existence of both gods and maous. We only did act accordingly from what is reported to us." Sirzechs reasoned but in his mind, he got a feeling that there seems to be something that he does not know and they are actually making a mistake.
"You suddenly barged in on someone's home and suddenly attacking our guardian for a petty reason! How dare you, devils!" Sieg said in a loud tone, his eyes are bloodshot and emitting a huge amount of killing intent. Sirzechs glared at him to intimidate the boy but Sieg only glared back that promises bloody murder.
"Oi! Sieg I said that's enough!" Susanoo reprimanded Sieg as he holds the boy from swinging Balmung down. Sieg glared to the Lucifer while gritting his teeth for the last time then calms himself while lowering his weapon.
"I think that there is a misunderstanding on your part, Lord Lucifer. These three are here because of a request that came from us." Tsukiyomi said in a calm tone and that statement made Sirzechs' eyes widen in surprise even the other devils.
"We have notified both of the heiresses a while ago that we will be sending inspectors here in Kuoh, but we did not indicate on when they would arrive. Forgive us but we truly want to know how the Gremory and Sitri manage things without alerting any of you and also the Youkai faction leader, Yasaka requested an investigation for the loss of contact with her agents here in Kuoh. So we requested the help of someone who do not belong to any faction to do the job for us in order to avoid suspicion on us investigating the matter." Amaterasu explained which made the two heiresses nervous due to the fact that they attacked the so called inspectors.
"Well for the results, we cannot give you a passing mark. From what they reported to us, you do not patrol the area on a regular basis and there are casualties before you even move to deal with the threats. The inspectors even take it upon themselves to patrol the area and eliminate stray devils before they claim a victim." The sun goddess continued her explanation which made Rias and Sona looks down in shame for the failure as administrators of Kuoh.
"Normally, we would have you relinquish the ownership of Kuoh to us, but you are still young and inexperienced so we are giving you another chance. As for another matter, why are you all fighting in this time of the day? You would have garner the attention of the humans." The moon god added and ask the question that made Rias flinch while the other devils averted their gaze.
"Their reason is to eliminate a threat to their existence. But it seems to me that someone plotted to kill our mentor, Scathach for his/ her own benefit." Karna said as he looks to Rias' direction making her flinch from the gaze.
"Let's just go straight to the point! You being a siscon makes you easily fooled to the machinations of your sister and do her bidding." Sieg said sarcastically to the Lucifer. He gives the Gremory heiress an intense glare filled with contempt before turning his back on them showing a mark on his exposed back an image of a dragon with its wing furled (AN: looks exactly of Sieg's command spell) and then he started walking away from them. While he is walking, he disappears into motes of light teleporting away from the area.
Everything is silent for a moment until Sirzechs gathers his strength to stand and looks at his sister, disappointment laced in his eyes. Rias could only look down to the ground avoiding his brother's gaze, Sona and the other devils have started to heal the unconscious Leviathan while the others heal Grayfia. Karna, Scathach and the Shinto trinity can already see a drama a mile away and it started when Sirzechs finally speaks.
"Rias Gremory. Explain yourself." The stern voice of her brother made her shiver and she sighs in resignation bracing herself for whatever will happen.
…
Kuoh Academy, Occult Research Club
After the heated confrontation, Karna, Scathach and all of the devils have relocated to a more private location to talk. The Shinto gods have long gone back to Takamagahara after settling the matter on the incidents that may expose the supernatural to the unsuspecting humans. Sirzechs Lucifer can only sigh in relief as they narrowly avoided the impending conflict with another faction, the devil faction does not have the strength to go to war in their current condition. All of them were gathered in the clubroom's lounge including Grayfia already recovered from her wounds and Serafall who is now conscious but has some bandages on her body due to the effects of Balmung's holy wave. In Sirzechs' case, he has already recovered with the exception of his left arm that he could not be used for some time. They are now currently gathered to hear from Rias Gremory on why she did what she did.
"So now Rias, let us hear the truth from you, why did you do this?" Sirzechs asked his sister with the same stern tone.
Rias swallowed her saliva while she nervously steels herself, the heiress starts to explain her side which shocks Sirzechs, Grayfia and Serafall but immediately compose themselves and look at Rias in both anger and disappointment. To think that they were deceived and made a fool out of themselves all because of the selfishness of one spoiled princess and almost did something irreparable. If Rias' schemes succeeded, there would be some backlash and tension will rise between their faction and the Shinto-Youkai faction, worst case scenario, they would be forced to relinquish their ownership of Kuoh and the devils would be banned in the Japanese soil.
"*SIGH* You know Rias; I am terribly disappointed in you right now, you are entrusted to govern Kuoh town in the hopes for you to become responsible and prepare you when you become the head of the household. But what you did is abuse your authority for this kind of reason. Rias, I love you very much and I will do anything for my little sister, but you took advantage of our love and make us dirty our hands for you." This is the first time her brother talks to her in that tone and this made her feel shame and guilt.
"I know, Onii-sama but what choice do I have? I do not want to be married off to someone who only looks at me like a piece of meat or treats me like a tool for his pleasure. Sometimes I envy Sona because she can fend off against her suitors on her own terms but I am not as smart as Sona. Eventually, we will use the rating game to decide my fate so that's why I am so desperate to find strong peerage members." Rias explained her side, her tone filled with helplessness and desperation.
"But look where it got you, young lady. Your brother and his companions almost died on our hands, me and Karna has nothing on you devils and we will kill if necessary but it is a different case to Sieg, as you already saw he is really out for your blood." Scathach said adding her two cents.
"Why? Why do he hate us so much? Why look at us with contempt and anger in his eyes? What did we ever do to him to earn his ire?" Rias asked in mix of confusion and plea.
"It is not our place to tell, but it is something to do with the event ten years ago and some of your kind did a grave offense to him, marking you devils as targets of his hate. Don't pry on us for details, even if we know exactly the reasons we will not tell you. You should have heed our advice to keep your distance with us, now that you know, even if Sieg or Karna agreed in joining your peerage, you cannot reincarnate them nonetheless due to the gap between your powers." Scathach replied in a calm tone, never mocking or offending the already defeated devils, there is only pity in her blood red eyes looking at the quiet devils especially the Gremory heiress.
"Anyway, Lady Sitri. The three of us are requesting for a leave in school, just a for two days for me and Karna but give Sieg a week he will need to calm his anger, as he is right now, he can probably kill you on sight." Scathach said to Sona which the Sitri nodded in response. After settling the matter, Scathach and Karna left the room and went home to rest.
"Rias, you know that what you did warrants a punishment. Normally we would give you a grave punishment for using us leaders for your scheme but I have decided that your punishment is to strip you of your authority and rights within Kuoh and will be pass all of it to Sona Sitri. Rias Gremory, you are no longer Kuoh town's administrator, you are to go back to the underworld after your graduation. Of course that goes with your peerage but that will be arrange after their graduation to avoid suspicion from humans." The maou Lucifer stated his verdict which shocks the red-head princess until she broke down crying. Akeno comforted her king and best friend by putting her hand on Rias' shoulder while Kiba and Koneko only looks down in a solemn expression. Sona Sitri and her peerage looks at the Gremorys in pity.
…
Hyoudou residence
Karna and Scathach arrived in their home via teleportation, they went to the living room seeing Sieg already seated on the sofa. It is still too early in the morning and the sun is still starting to rise and their new housemate Asia Argento is still asleep comfortably in her room. As they settle down in the living room, the atmosphere has become tense and the warrior queen can feel that she has to start apologizing.
"Why did you not resist when the Lucifer attacked you with his large demonic energy? Did you really want to die that much?" Karna breaks the silence and ask his mentor in a monotone voice.
"Look Sieg, Karna. I have lived for a very long time, being an immortal is not as good as everyone expects it to be. One day you would get tired and bored in watching the world as time continues while mine has been frozen long ago, every people that I met that I have come to love and cherish being taken away by time as you watch them grow old and die while I continue to outlive them and left behind. Do you know how much I felt? I want to die but the world would not allow it, that's why I try to find ways and challenged strong beings into battle hoping for someone to kill me." Scathach said to her beloved apprentices.
"Then what about us? The ones you would left behind; did you consider what would we feel when you're gone? Nee-san, we're family remember? In these past years, we did everything together, we fight the threats together, we watch each other's back and we care for each other, we also watch over and protected the world together whether in all the fun times or the hardships that we faced. I felt that we have established a bond between the three of us, the special bond that I felt once again ever since my parents died. I-I still want us to go on to many adventures together." Sieg said in a shaky tone as he struggles to compose himself trying to calm himself from his overflowing emotion.
"…" Scathach looks at Sieg with a pained expression. In all honesty, Scathach never had the intension of getting attached to anybody so that she could not be hurt by the separation that is fated to come in a distant future but her time with his two students has been fun for her, more than the times with her students in the past.
"Master, you are not alone anymore. We are striving to get in your level so that we can be by your side until the end of days, so please, do not ever think of dying once more. It would truly bother us." Karna added his point in a cool tone making sure to not make his statement too cheesy.
"You idiots! ~You both really love your big sister like that huh? I'm so touched you know, I might even fall for the two of you so hurry up and find your own woman before I jump on you and offer the friendship of my thigh. ~" Scathach smiled at her students' speech and started teasing them. The heavy tension from earlier is gone and the warrior queen might have found another reason for living.
"Nee-san, we're serious." Sieg said averting his gaze, his face red in embarrassment.
"No thank you. Please go ahead and die." Karna deadpanned as one of his eye twitches in annoyance. Seriously, they are having a serious discussion and their master started spouting some sexual innuendo.
"Geez! Karna, you're not cute at all." The warrior queen pouted.
"But thanks you two, I am lucky and blessed to have students like you." Scathach continued as she gazes at the two with a soft expression added by a very sincere smile.
Sieg and Karna flinches on the sight of their master and a slight blush crept up to their faces.
""MUST PROTECT!"" Was their collective thoughts as they witness the hidden cuteness of their mentor, Scathach.
[Hahaha! Look at them, Albion! They are so putty in their master's hand.]
(I agree with you, Ddraig.)The two heavenly dragons watch their respective host in amusement.
…
Italy, Vatican Headquarters
After reporting to the higher-ups about the incident, Jeanne is currently being escorted by a staff member to meet her teammates for the retrieval mission. As they enter into the room, she was greeted by the sight of three women; one who is a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties with a long wavy blonde hair and crystal blue eyes in addition to a fair skin complexion, she wears a veil on her head and a black dress for nuns, despite her gentle features, Jeanne can feel a powerful aura in her. The other woman is about her age with chestnut brown hair tied in twin-tails and amethyst eyes like her own, also has fair skin and wears the same so-called lewd uniform for female exorcist and lastly is another teen their age with short blue hair with green fringe, hazel eyes and fair skin, wearing the same exorcist uniform, she also has a very sharp expression that seems to scrutinize her.
"Good evening, sister Griselda. It's been a long time." Jeanne greeted the blonde woman.
"Yes, it has. You have become much stronger now than the last time I saw you." The woman that is now named Griselda smiles at the holy maiden and replied in kind.
Griselda Quarta, the most powerful female exorcist, a woman who has the power to fight ultimate class beings into stand still. She is prodigy in wielding a sword and one of the finest swordswoman in the world, she is also a devout believer of the Christian faith and unerringly steadfast on her devotion that she only offers herself to the Lord and remained pure, but that changes until that fateful day. She was on a mission with her team to track a very elusive stray devil that has been giving a country side village a problem, but unfortunately, it was a false information to lure them and was ambushed by a group of devils lead by the second son of the Astaroth house with Diodora Astaroth by his side. Griselda could not do anything back then despite her skill and power due to the devils taking her team hostage and as a result the Astaroth devil assaulted her without any resistance and continuously violates her non-stop for three days until she was saved by the rumored wielder of Balmung. After her rescue, her life would never be the same as she was being judged with a criticizing gaze commenting about her purity, a stigma that stained her reputation but not long after that, the seraph Gabriel came to her personally and appointed her as her Queen in her brave saints despite what happened to her. That day, she realized that her faith was not misplaced, the Seraph Gabriel did not judge her and accepted her so in return she serves the Seraph with all of her being.
"I have heard the reports; you were attacked on the way here. Are you alright?" Griselda said in a concerned tone.
"Yes, I was… they even took my friend hostage, but thanks to the Lord that someone saved me from a cruel fate. I have seen him again, the wielder of Balmung, but before I could thank him he disappeared without a trace." Jeanne replied.
"The wielder of Balmung huh. We need someone like him on our side and I truly want to meet him personally. Say, does the rumor true that his swordsmanship reaches inhuman levels?" The blue haired teen said in curiosity and interest.
"He has to be, Xenovia. That particular sword is very picky on its wielder, even our very own Siegfried was rejected by it. It also causes an uproar on the Sigurd Institute because it suddenly disappeared ten years ago." The chestnut brown haired girl said to the blue haired girl named Xenovia in a happy tone filled with enthusiasm.
"Ahem… Before I forget, I introduce you to your teammates for the mission. These two are Irina Shidou and Xenovia Quarta. They are both skilled with the sword and the current wielders of two of the seven fragments of Excalibur." Griselda clears her throat and started the introduction.
"Hi! My name is Irina Shidou, nice to meet you!" The chestnut brown haired girl, Irina greeted in a happy tone. Jeanne has the impression that she has a bubbly personality that makes her likable to people, she can assess that she can get along well with Irina.
"Hello, my name is Xenovia Quarta. A pleasure to meet the reincarnation of the holy maiden, Jeanne d'Arc." Xenovia introduced herself in a professional tone. Judging to her serious expression, Jeanne concludes that she is an uptight and the one who truly stick to the rules, she is the kind of person do not trust so easily unless you prove yourself to her.
"Likewise, you both can call me Jeanne but my true name is Laeticia Romee. Please take care of me." Jeanne bowed her head as she greets her comrades.
"Now that you have introduced to each other, I will now brief you on your mission." Griselda looks to the three seeing their steeled expression that meant they are now ready to receive their orders.
"As you have known, the holy sword, Excalibur was broken long ago and the church splits it to seven fragments making seven swords through alchemy. The seven swords were separated and kept to two churches, three of them was kept to the Protestant church and the other three was kept to the Catholic church. The last fragment mysteriously disappeared so the church has doubled the security for the fragments." Griselda paused on her explanation to check if the three are still following.
"But a week ago, the Protestant church was invaded by rogue exorcists and stole all the fragments that it held." She continued her explanation seeing that they followed but then upon saying the news she heard the three gasp in shock.
"Your mission is to retrieve the stolen fragments of Excalibur, there is a directive that if retrieving the swords is impossible, you have the permission to destroy the fragments and recover the cores. Any questions so far?" Griselda added indicating the orders or directives.
"Sister Griselda, do you have a lead on who are responsible for the theft?" Jeanne asked.
"We assumed that it is the work of the Fallen Angel faction, the Grigori. The incident was too well planned for it to be called just a simple theft so the mastermind behind it is definitely a Cadre. It is not Azazel because he is too lax nowadays and does not have interests in anything but the sacred gears while the others do not seem the type to stir conflict on this unstable peace that we are having so that leaves one who according to the rumors that was dissatisfied with Azazel's decision during the Great war. The Angel of Stars, Kokabiel also known as the warmonger." Griselda revealed with a grim expression on her face. Jeanne, Irina and Xenovia were shocked at the revelation, it seems the mission is harder than they thought.
"Wait! If we are dealing with a cadre here, why send only us three? This is already a suicide mission for us." Jeanne protested and Griselda internally understand her plea.
"Not to worry, the Lord is on our side and he will guide us to the right path." Xenovia said with a tone filled with conviction.
"That's right! The Lord is with us even if we are surrounded by the shadows of death! Amen!" Irina added in a positive tone while she clasps both her hands and pray.
"…"
"…"
Jeanne and Griselda silently look at the two with a complicated expression, though the reason on why they are quiet were different.
"We lack manpower and our best exorcists are still on a mission and you are the only ones available. Do not worry, I will give a request to be sent to you after my own assignment so I want you three to hang on." Griselda said to the three and reassure them that there would be help for them.
"Oh by the way, sister! Where are we going to look for the stolen fragments and their culprits?" Irina asked their superior.
"We have tracked them going to the country in the far east, Japan. And the exact location is the place you know very well, Irina… Its Kuoh town, a devil territory." That answer shocked Irina the most, it was her hometown after all, where her late childhood friend and his parents rest. But this is not the place just for a homecoming, it is a place where different fates will meet.
…
Vatican Headquarters, Dormitory area
Night has fallen in Italy and in a certain room in the Vatican HQ, Jeanne is now currently settled down in the room provided to her and resting. She is now out of her standard exorcist uniform wearing only her nightwear that is composed of her sleep shirt and underwear underneath exposing her firm and shapely thighs and legs. The room is actually big that it can accommodate up to four occupants, she actually shares the room with Irina and Xenovia who are sound asleep wearing their own nightwear; with Irina wearing an orange shirt and white sleep short and Xenovia wearing a dark green tank top and white panty. The room assignment was set for the purpose of team building and bonding between the occupants.
Jeanne got up from her bed walking towards her belongings picking up the sword that is resting on the corner, she unsheathes the blade and examines the sword raising it up in front of her; it is a European sword with intricate design, a cross-like shape with gold colored guard and pommel, royal blue hilt and fuller with a golden cross embedded on it. (AN: refer to Osmanthus blade from SAO but imagine the blade to be metallic white and the hilt blue) Her reflection can be seen on the blade as Jeanne thought back about the meeting earlier.
Flashback several hours ago…
"Kuoh?" Irina said in confusion and slight agitation, she wonders on why go there of all places, why turn the resting place of her childhood friend and crushinto a battlefield? Why ravage the place of her fond memories from her childhood?
"Yes, this particular town is under the jurisdiction of the two heiresses from the pillar houses. And they are Gremory and Sitri, the siblings of the current devil lords Lucifer and Leviathan and whatever business Kokabiel has in the devil territory needs to be stop. As you enter Kuoh town, the orders to you by the higher ups are to speak with the devils in charge of the town and ask them to stand down and not to interfere on your mission and after that is the search for the stolen fragments and the culprits." Griselda continues her explanation ignoring Irina's reaction.
The strongest female exorcists saw Jeanne, Irina and Xenovia nodded signifying that they understood their mission directives, she nods at them in return acknowledging the acceptance of the mission. Deep within her, she hopes that these three promising youths will comeback safe and sound and prays to the Lord and her king, Gabriel that she makes it in time when they need her the most.
"Also, Jeanne. Upon responding for our calls, the higher ups have decided to give you the remaining Excalibur fragment to aid you on the mission." Griselda said to the holy maiden as she approaches the European sword and picks it up, offering it to Jeanne.
"This is Excalibur Blessing; you are to train in using this sword for the duration of two weeks in order for you to be familiarize with the sword's power. After that your mission will start and you are all to depart for Japan." Griselda explained as Jeanne receives the sword.
Flashback end, Present time…
As Jeanne stares at the sword, the Excalibur Blessing emits a soft glow on its blade responding to its new master. The humming of power that flows from the sword somehow soothes and rejuvenates her, she sheathes and puts down the sword and let it rest on the wall then she walks towards the window. She sits on the chair and raise both her legs and hugs her knees as she looks to the outside of the window where the moon shines through the night.
"I will definitely get stronger so that someday I'll meet you again." Jeanne muttered to herself, determination can be seen through her amethyst eyes.
…
Chapter end
Act 5: Showdown- Heroes vs. Devil kings
(Background: Fate/ Apocrypha title screen- Sieg's command spell)
*Credits: Cue ending song- Desire by Garnidelia*
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
And that is chapter 5… well I hope the outcome will satisfy most of you. Some of you really hates Sirzechs' guts and that really surprised me, they even suggested in the reviews to kill him off, but sorry I have to reduce that into beating him up. The reason is that the peace conference arc must still happen, this story is already a deviation to the cannon as you already read in this chapter and Rias Gremory was punished for her insolence. Rias is originally a not bad character and I also noticed that I am also demonizing Rias too much so in this chapter, I explained that she is not proud on what she did and naturally people do stupid things when they are desperate right? It is also the same here.
On to the fight, tell me… did some of you expected the outcome of the fights? Well, in reality everything can happen in a fight, if one person is stronger than the other doesn't mean that the stronger one will win. As you can see Sirzechs and Serafall are much stronger than Sieg and Karna because when it comes to magical aspect, they are above the two but Sieg and Karna fought them using their strength, agility and techniques, they excel on close quarters combat where Sirzechs and Serafall lacks so the fight can be either way. Scathach being defeated at the first part of the battle, before you get mad at me, the explanation is still that anything can happen in the battlefield and it has been a long time for Shishou since she fought a strong opponent so she got to excited and focused only to Sirzechs and Serafall which results on being ambushed by Grayfia. But well… Shishou got her revenge so it's okay. And finally, Scathach's desire for death… I don't know but base on what I observed in FGO, she actually wants to die and that is reflected here in this story but now she does not know because she raised both Sieg and Karna herself so she got attached to them and became family. Also, Sieg almost release his Balance Breaker because of Sirzechs' arrogance, good thing no one saw right? Though the devils now have the idea that Sieg and Karna have already reach deity class in full power. I will reveal the exact rank when the balance breakers are officially out.
CHARACTER STATUS:
NAME: Sieg, (former/ true name: Issei Hyoudou)
ALIAS: The Dragon-Blooded Knight, the White Dragon Emperor or Hakuryuukou, the Devil Hunter
GENDER: Male
POWER RANKING: A++ rank Ultimate class (Base form)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good
Strength: A+
Agility: B B+ (Lightning clad)
Endurance: A
Mana: C
Luck: E (EX)
NP: EX
Note:
Divine Dividing is his main NP and all longinus gears are in this rank.
Issei's luck parameter is actually canon if you translate it to parameter rules.
PERSONAL SKILLS:
Bravery - A
Battle Continuation – A
God slayer – B- ( he has a longinus gear obviously )
Dragon slayer – A++
Primeval Rune (Knight)
Mana Burst- A
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Magic Resistance – N/A (Lost because of Blood Armor of the Heavenly Dragon)
NOBLE PHANTASM:
Blood Armor of the Heavenly Dragon: A (Alternate to the skill, Armor of Fafnir)
Issei was bathed with his own blood so when he undergoes transformation all of his blood including the spilled one was converted with the blood of a dragon.
It can defend to any weapon whose rank lower than A.
Physical and Magical resistance are rank A
The rank becomes A+ if he is defending against a noble phantasm.
Dragon slaying weapons and magic can pierce through the armor.
Balmung, Phantasmal Great Sword- Felling of the Sky Demon: A++ - EX
Anti- army type noble phantasm
Sword of the original Siegfried but unable to wield by anyone ever since the original wielder died.
In Sieg's hand, the great sword develops a holy energy that is fatal to devils due to the boy's hatred of them.
Divine Dividing: EX
Anti- unit (self), Anti- Divine type noble phantasm
The usual function of this sacred gear has been change ever since the transformation and it doesn't appear as a pair of wings anymore.
The sacred gear has become particles with the DNA structure of Ablion that was mix through his blood vessels and a part of his heart that cover the hole on it until.
The sacred gear functions with the blood armor at the same time, Issei cannot divide his enemies' powers but instead, whenever he takes damage whether from magic or physical attacks, the said attack will be halved and he will only receive half damage of the attack plus the halved damage will be added on his own reserves as his power.
Aside from DIVIDE, there is also another skill called ABSORB (Another version for Galvanism), which is whenever he activates it; all the residual energy particles left in the air which came from the battle, will be absorb into him to become his power. (Issei can use ABSORB the same way Sieg used GALVANISM.)
NAME: Karna
ALIAS: The Hero of Charity, the Red Dragon Emperor or Sekiryuutei
GENDER: Male
POWER RANKING: A++ rank Ultimate class (Base form)
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Good
Strength: B+
Agility: A+
Endurance: B
Mana: B
Luck: D
NP: EX
Note:
Boosted Gear is his main NP and all longinus gears are in this rank.
Karna's parameter is slightly higher than his Fate counterpart due to the influence of the sacred gear same with Issei/ Sieg.
PERSONAL SKILLS:
Discernment of the Poor - A
Mana Burst (Flame) – A
God slayer – B- ( he has a longinus gear obviously )
Clairvoyance – C (he is an archer in the myth)
Primeval Rune (Knight)- B (Being a student of Scathach, who is a master of runes)
Uncrowned Arms Mastership - ?
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Magic Resistance – C
Divinity – C (rank down due to being a reincarnation or spirit inheritor)
NOBLE PHANTASM:
Brahmastra: O Brahma, wrap the earth: A
Anti-army, Anti-Country noble phantasm
Since he has a bow, the NP will manifest in this weapon, the Vijaya.
Karna can only use this NP 3 times in a battle with a cool down time of 5 days (if used up).
Brahmastra Kundala: O Brahma, Curse me: A+
Anti- Country noble phantasm
The projectile weapon Brahmastra combine with the sweltering heat of Karna's element and then fired.
Has a power comparable to nuclear weapons due to its power and wide range.
Can manifest to both spear and bow.
Karna can only use this NP twice in a battle with a cool down time of 2 weeks (if used up).
Boosted Gear: EX
Anti- unit (self), Anti- Divine type noble phantasm
The usual function of this sacred gear has been change and has the appearance of an emerald gem embedded to his chest.
In the base form of the sacred gear, he can specify how many boost he needed and the gear would boost him up without announcing "Boost". The downside is that he cannot boost until the current boost is released.
The Transfer ability and Penetrate still remain.
Vasavi Shakti: O Sun, Abide to Death: EX
Anti-army, Anti-Divine noble phantasm
A one-shot only spear of light that takes down even Gods
Karna can only use it once in a battle with a cool down time of 6 months and drains his energy that will take him to rest for a one whole day.
NAME: Scathach
ALIAS: The Witch of Dun Scaith, The Queen of the Land of Shadows, God slayer
GENDER: Female
POWER RANKING: D rank Deity class (Base), B rank Deity class (Full power)
ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good
Strength: B B+ (full power)
Agility: A+ A++ (full power)
Endurance: A A+ (full power)
Mana: A A+++ (full power)
Luck: D
NP: A+
NOTE: This is her actual status from D Rank Deity class to B Rank Deity class.
PERSONAL SKILLS:
Wisdom of the Haunted Grounds - A
Mortal Fate– EX (This is her skill in Fate Empire of Dirt)
God slayer – B
Primordial Rune
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Magic Resistance – A
NOBLE PHANTASM:
Gae Bolg Alternative- Soaring Spear of Piercing Death: B+
Anti-Unit noble phantasm
A combination of the two functions of Cu Chulainn's noble phantasms.
Scathach can also use the throwing function of the spear just like Cu Chulainn that converts it into an Anti-army noble phantasm.
Claíomh Scáth Sword of Shadow Clad in a Thousand Deaths Rank: A++
Anti- Army noble phantasm
Scathach's sword and grants the ability of speed swift as a shadow.
Emits a very destructive dark light clad with the miasma of death.
Gate of Skye- Gate to the Magical Realm brimming with death: A+
Anti-Army noble phantasm
Opens a gateway to the Land of Shadows and sucks all lifeforms in range. If the target could not resist it through their mana or luck, they will be instantly killed upon entering.
Scathach can choose the gate's target.
NAME: Sirzechs Lucifer (Formerly Gremory)
ALIAS: Crimson Satan
GENDER: Male
POWER RANKING: C+++ rank Deity class (Base form), A+ rank Deity class (Humanoid Aura of Destruction form)
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil
Strength: B+
Agility: C
Endurance: B
Mana: EX
Luck: A
NP: A+++
PERSONAL SKILLS:
Charisma - B
Demonic Power– EX
Instinct- C
Tactics- B
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Territory Creation – A+
Item Construction- A
NOBLE PHANTASM:
Power of Destruction: A+
Anti-Unit, Anti-Army type noble phantasm
A power Sirzechs inherited from his mother's side of the family, the Bael house.
Annihilates everything that made contact with this power.
Ruin the Extinct- Demonic Bullets of Annihilation: A
Anti-Unit type noble phantasm
Condensed demonic bullets that disintegrates enemies without a trace.
A controlled application of Power of Destruction.
Humanoid Aura of Destruction form: A+++
Anti-Unit (Self) noble phantasm
Sirzechs' manifestation of his true power and his true form that said to be ten times stronger than the original Lucifer.
The Power of Destruction that wraps the caster's whole body like a protective armor but Sirzechs could not control this form for too long due to the destructive power.
This power destroys everything around him regardless of his will.
NAME: Serafall Leviathan (Formerly Sitri)
ALIAS: Maou Shojou, Magical girl Levi-tan
GENDER: Female
POWER RANKING: C+ rank Deity class
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil
Strength: B
Agility: C
Endurance: C
Mana: A++
Luck: B
NP: A
PERSONAL SKILLS:
Charisma - B
Demonic Power– A+
Charm- B
Mind's Eye- C
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Territory Creation – A+
Item Construction- A
NOBLE PHANTASM:
Cross Celsius Trigger: A
Anti-Country type noble phantasm
Capable of freezing an entire region or area along with the caster's enemies.
NAME: Grayfia Lucifuge
ALIAS: Silver-Haired Queen of Annihilation
GENDER: Female
POWER RANKING: C+ rank Deity class
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil
Strength: B
Agility: B
Endurance: C
Mana: A++
Luck: B
NP: A
PERSONAL SKILLS:
Demonic Power– A
Mind's Eye- C
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Territory Creation – A
Item Construction- A
NOBLE PHANTASM:
Ice Magic: A
Anti-Unit type noble phantasm
That's all folks! Leave a review if you like.
Next Chapter: Atonement and Redemption….