Chapter 26: DxD : A New Hero : Chapter 26
The church was of an old fashion Victorian architectural design, something that felt entirely out of place in a modern Japanese city. It was built from solid grey stone, with large beautify crafted stained windows lining its wall. The small forest of trees that surrounded it gave the impression that church fell out of some Medieval European fairytale.
The impression however was completely ruined by the McDonald and adult video store that was located across the street from it.
The church was built in the early half of the 20th century, soon after the end of Second World War. It was created in hopes of spreading Christianity in Japan. Unfortunately for this particular church, the citizens of this city had very little interest in religion and the church was soon abandoned due exceedingly low attendance.
That was one of the primary reasons why Serafall and Sirzechs had allowed their siblings to attend this city in particular. The lack of any real presence from the Vatican in this city made it an ideal location as it meant that they didn't have to worry about any Priests or Exorcist harming them.
After the church had been abandoned it was soon taken over by the Fallen and had been turned their primary base of operations in this city. That only made the lack of any presence in the place even more disturbing.
I scrutinized the church from where I stood, perched on top of one of the trees that surrounded the building and marked the beginning of Fallen territory. Reinforcing my already Devil enhanced eyes to the limit, I carefully scrutinized every inch of the structure that I could see.
The message I received stated that the Bounded Field that protected the church had fallen. Not due to lack of power or maintenance but was forcefully brought down by someone. One of the many familiars that the guards have spread out across the city had sensed it.
And since they couldn't investigate it themselves without risking their cover being blown they asked me to instead.
Which is what I have been doing for the better part of the last half hour. I couldn't just walk into Fallen territory, not without risking an incident.
The best I could do was watch them from the border between their land and neutral ground. But what I've seen so far has gotten me worried, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say what I wasn't seeing.
The place looked empty.
I raised out an arm for the familiar to perch on as soon I heard it approached. When I felt the familiar weight of the bird land onto my arm I turned my sights towards it. Just like one that delivered me the message it was a crow but this time it was one I recognized.
It was Ingrid, a familiar that belonged to the head of the guards' station here and my primary source of communication with them.
She looked pretty much like any of the other crows, expect of a single blue feather that grew just above her right eye. Whether that was her natural coloring or something that was artificially done, I never bothered asking.
"Did you notice anyone?" I asked her. I had sent her ahead to see if she could spot any signs of life in the church. She may not have been able to enter the place but with Bounded Fields down she can get close enough to listen in.
She gave me a quick shake of her head as an answer. I frowned in thought at that. It made no sense, why would the Fallen leave the church unprotected by either magic or guards.
I suspected it to be a trap for a moment before dismissing the thought as ludicrous. Not only do the Fallen here lack the firepower to fight even half the Devils in the city they also have no reason to try to bait us into their territory.
There was something very wrong here. Unfortunately it looked like it was my job to find out what that something is.
I tossed Ingrid back into the air before leaping off the tree and landing on the ground below with a slight crouch. Even now after all these months I marveled at the strength of my body, at my lack of needing to reinforce myself to survive the fall.
When I was still human it was improbable for me to make a jump like this and emerged completely unscathed, even if I had reinforced my body to the limit. Now though, it felt like skipping a step when climbing down the stairs.
It was at moments like this I begin to understand why some Pure-Blooded Devils look down on humans. They were born with bodies like this one, bodies capable of shattering stone and bending steel with their bare hands without any training.
To them, what must a human look like? A creature that they can shatter by accident simply by shaking their hands too quickly.
I stood out from my crouch and silently made my way towards the church, reinforcing my ears as I did so. As a precaution I traced the married twin swords, Kanshou and Bakuya, into my hands. Unlike Archer, these were not my go to weapon of choice.
Archer primarily favored them above all others was due to their fast tracing time and relatively low Prana cost. With my current body neither tracing time nor Prana cost were an issue.
Despite my ability to copy the skills of previous wielders, I still had some trouble dual-wielding weapons compared to simply using a single blade. It doesn't matter if you have the skill but lack the mental awareness of the situation around you.
When wielding two weapons you have to constantly be aware where the other blade was, if at any time your concentration slips you're just as likely to end up cutting yourself as you are the enemy.
In an actual fight it was worse because you had to pay attention to your enemy and your surroundings in addition to both your blades.
And while I was quite good at wielding them, and constantly getting better, I was still more comfortable wielding a single blade then two.
Not to mention Archer's suicidal style of fighting with them was simply insane. If push comes to shove, I will not hesitate to use it especially against a superior opponent that I simply am unable to beat without putting my life on the line.
But if I have other options available to me I see no need to recklessly gamble my life. Sometimes when I looked at these blades I can't help but wonder if Archer, for all of his talk of saving people, was simply hoping to die.
In spite of their low ranks Kanshou and Bakuya were incredibly useful blades when they were paired. When I held both of them together they cause my magical resistance and physical resistance to improve.
Considering that I was about to enter the heart of enemy territory with no idea what to expect, I wanted all the protection I could muster.
It didn't take me long to make my way out of the forest and into the clearing that lead to the church's entrance. The great wooden doors of the building loomed before me, it had interact patterns carved into the wood and each door had a steel cross hanging on the front.
I slowly approached the door, keeping my guard up and ears reinforced for any approaching danger. Yet nothing came. Even as I stood close enough to the door to touch it, I neither heard nor sensed anything approaching me.
I began to concentrate on my still maturing Devil ability to sense magic and when I couldn't find any traces of magic or magical creatures in the area I decided to enter the church.
Careful to avoid touching the crosses, I grabbed onto the door handle and pulled them open. They swung open on surprisingly well-oiled hinges revealing the gloomily interior of the church's sanctuary that hide behind them.
In the first few days I had been reborn into a Devil, I had been repeatedly warned about the dangers of ever entering a church. Even if you disregard all of the crosses and holy water that could be found within them, the interior of a church is exceedingly dangerous for Devil.
As a divine place that is recognized by God as his home, any Devils who enters would be weakened by the Holiness of the place as long as they remained within its hallowed halls. How much they are weakened would depend on the 'purity' of the church itself.
Entering something like Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City would significantly weaken even a Maou and completely vaporize Low-Class Devils. A small church will be less potent but will still have a notable effect even on powerful Devils.
So when I took my first step past the threshold I braced in myself in anticipation of….nothing apparently? Huh, did the place lose its effect when it was taken over by the Fallen? Doesn't matter I wasn't about to question my good fortune, that was rare enough as it is.
Walking from the bright sunny day outside into the dark and dim interior would have left a human's eyes blinded for several seconds until they adjusted to the lack of light. As a Devil my eyes needed no time to adjust, quite the opposite in fact.
The instant I walked into the gloom my nocturnal eyes began to see far more clearly than it did compared to the world under the sun.
I had barely set a single foot into the place before I found the Fallen.
I froze in my tracks the moment I caught sight of them and quickly brought my blades up, quickly scanning the room for any signs of an attack. My eyes began darting from cover to cover, while my ears strained to catch even the slightest noise of a hidden ambusher.
However after an entire minute had passed and the end of the second one was quickly approaching, I concluded that no attack was coming.
Giving one final look all around me, I began to carefully make my way deeper into the interior of the church.
The place had no source of light except for the small amount of sunlight that streamed through the stained glass windows, coating the floor on either side of me with beautiful colored drawings of saints and angels. They however did little to illuminate the place.
Finally reaching the end of the hall I stood before the altar and looked up at the wall behind it, where the crucified corpses of the Fallen Angels hung from.
Nailed into the church's wall by their wrists and ankles with crude Iron nails, were four Fallen Angels. Three females and one male, which accounts for all the Fallen that were supposed to be station in the city. I even recognized one of the females, Yuma, Issei's supposed girlfriend and murderer.
Their upper body was left bare and they each had a large gaping hole piercing the middle of their chest, easily as wide as a fist. Around the holes, written in what appeared to be their own blood, were the words: BETRAYERS TO GOD'S WILL
There was no need to examine them to make sure if they were dead. Their open eyes were empty, void of any of signs of life and I could actually see the wall that they were hanging from through the hole in their body.
And while I could be wrong, going by the lack of blood dripping down the wall, it looked like they were killed well before they were crucified.
I spun in place once again and examined every corner of the room to make sure that there was no one else in the room with me. While I was fairly sure that there was no one left alive in the building other than myself, I wasn't going to take any chances.
I'm going have to search this place top to bottom.
I spotted a door behind off to the side on the same wall the fallen were on and approached it. It looked as good a place as any to start.
========================
I'll appreciate you guys if can throw some power Stones ;)
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to my p atreon :
p atreon.com/Aerle
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone