Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Freed Sellzen had always been a battle-crazed individual. From the very start of his career as an exorcist, he exhibited an insatiable hunger for combat, relishing in the thrill of battle with an almost manic delight. He took joy in every battle of his and enjoyed it even more when he was able to overwhelm his enemies in a fight. The exhilaration he felt on tormenting his victims, both physically and mentally motivated him to fight even more. His insatiable drive to kill was what branded him as a criminal in the eyes of the Vatican, forcing him to live a life on the run constantly.

To say Freed enjoyed killing would be an understatement. Be it monsters, devils, angels, or even humans, Freed never hesitated when it came to deal the finishing blow. Being able to kill defined his very existence.

His allegiance towards anyone had always been fickle. A promise of more exhilarating fights and the chance to kill was more than enough to make him switch sides on the drop of the hat. That was how he ended up in the ranks of the Fallen Angels who were on the brink of igniting another great war between the three factions.

Freed couldn't care less for whatever their goals and ambitions were. What simply made him join their side was the chance to kill without any restraint. He believed that if another war were to break out between the three factions, he would get ample opportunity to kill devils, angels, or even humans, whoever would dare to step in his way.

"Damn that exorcist!" Freed hissed, pulling out the black key struck on his left thigh before pressing his back on one of the dilapidated machines kept in one of the abandoned factories of this town. The emotion that was visible in his eyes weren't those of excitement or thrill, which he typically felt when fighting someone. Right now, his eyes held anxiety and fear, emotions he didn't think he would experience.

Freed had faced countless enemies in the past but none of them had ever driven him to the point where he had to fear for his own life. Sure, he may have hightailed from a battle on numerous occasions, but he did that only when the fight would be meaningless for him to take part in, or he is guaranteed to lose if he were to fight. After all, he always picked fights where he was confident about winning.

With that same thought in mind, he faced off against the exorcist that was after him from the orders of the Vatican. Freed had assumed that this exorcist was simply here to capture him and wouldn't fight him with the intent to kill, unlike him. He thought he could make a quick work out of this exorcist who seemed to be of the same age.

He had no idea how wrong he was.

From the very start, the exorcist had no intention of sparing him.

Freed crawled out from behind the machine, clutching his light sword tightly. Due to his injury, he was facing difficulty in standing up. He took a quick look around him to see if the exorcist had followed him here or not.

The sound of a window shattering caught his attention, prompting him to turn. There he saw him again, dressed in simple black vestments with a golden cross around his neck. In his left hand, he held a long-handled cruciform broadsword, while his right hand wielded a set of Black Keys.

"You know what your greatest mistake was?" Lucian asked in a condescending tone, striding inside the factory premises without any care or visible sense of security. Rather he seemed confident in his abilities to fend himself. "It was not leaving this town after your previous stunt. If it were me, I would have left long ago."

"No one could find me all this time. You just got lucky!" Freed argued back, something he did purely out of habit and the next second, he was regretting giving away his location.

"That's because the devils couldn't care any less about you." The blonde threw the black keys in the direction from where he heard Freed's voice. The weapons landed on the machine, behind which the silver-haired stray exorcist was hiding before blowing up the said machine on contact.

Freed emerged, his clothes littered with burnt marks and bruises. He had avoided the impact from the explosion at the last moment by rolling away from the machine. He clenched his teeth, glaring at the exorcist intent on ending his life.

"You are the Vatican's mess, so the duty falls on the Vatican itself to clean their mess." Lucian said, pointing his sword at his target. "So, at the very least, stand up and fight. You can at least fight back for your life, can't you?"

Lucian is aware of the fact that if he wants to, he can end Freed in an instant. The stray exorcist stood no chance against him. Despite that he wanted to give him a death he deserved for all the murders he committed. The blonde also hoped he could get some vital information regarding the fallen angels and their activities. He was still in the dark regarding what their plans were.

Information has always been a vital weapon in war. The side with more accurate information automatically gains an advantage against their enemies. Utilizing the slightest bit of information can turn the tides of a battle entirely and in the most unexpected ways possible.

"Vatican's mess you say, you enlightened asshole?! I will tell you something." Freed retorted with hatred evident in his tone. He stood up with great difficulty, a sneer etched on his face. "You too are an idiot for stepping inside the enemy territory!"

The moment he said those words, Lucian swung his sword, deflecting a light spear that flew towards him out of nowhere. The deflected light spear crashed further away from him, resulting in another explosion.

"That's some reflexes you got. Impressive for the Vatican's dog."

The sounds of wings flapping caught Lucian's attention, prompting him to look up. From the hole of the factory's ceiling, descended a group of four fallen angels. The blonde's eyes narrowed at the new arrivals. From the information he got from the Gremory Knight, he had pretty much guessed that Freed had allied himself with the fallen angels. What he didn't expect was that they would actually come to his aid.

Then again, a holy sword wielder isn't something one can afford to lose, especially when they are low on numbers in terms of capable fighting force.

"So, you all are his backup?" Lucian asked, unfazed by the turn of events. "Can't say that I am impressed."

"You think you can handle us all at once?" One of the fallen angels taunted, a red-light spear crackling in his hand. "I will show you your place, exorcist!"

"Be my guest." Lucian replied, twisting his body at the last second to avoid the spear that was launched at him. Without wasting a second, he closed in on his foe, his sword poised to strike him down.

Two fallen angels from the same group, with light spears in their hands, flew in between clashing with Lucian's sword and managed to lock him in a stalemate, momentarily giving a chance to their teammates to attack him from other directions.

The other two fallen angels conjured a set of light spears before making a jump, only to descend down towards Lucian at full speed. They thrust their spears forward upon closing the distance, only to strike the floor. Lucian had already moved away in the blink of an eye, breaking free from the stalemate at the last second, by slightly pushing back the two opponents he was engaged with.

"Where did he disappear to?" The sole female fallen angel of the group growled in frustration. She was already annoyed to begin with, considering they had to save some stray exorcist on 'his' orders, just because he could wield holy swords. She had a dislike for Freed due to his perverted nature and blamed him for the demise of Raynare's group.

"Up there!" Freed shouted, pointing towards the ceiling.

The fallen angels looked up to see Lucian hovering in the air. What shocked them more than that was a pair of white angelic wings that emerged from his back and a halo above his head.

The group was now concerned. Were their activities way too noticeable for even the angels to take action and send one of their own here? Things were already difficult to manage with the presence of the two prominent devil clans in this town. The involvement of angels might even jeopardize their entire operations.

"We have to kill this bastard here and now!" The male fallen angel, who seemed to be the leader of their group, spoke in a serious tone. "We can't let Lord Kokabiel's plans go awry!"

The other fallen angels seemed to agree with him. None of them wanted their leader's plans to fail. Not because of some measly angel. They were going to make sure no one left to spread the information to any of the higher ups of the three factions. They can't have anyone knowing it, not unless Kokabiel's plans finally come into fruition. Maybe it was worth the trouble being the backup of this stray exorcist.

'So Kokabiel is the one pulling the strings. That's indeed some useful info.' Lucian thought to himself, eyeing his opponents. 'Is there some sort of leadership conflict within the Grigori?'

An ice-blue colored light spear appeared on Lucian's right hand with which he clashed against the spears of the incoming fallen angels. He put the thought of investigating more on the Grigori group behind his mind. Right now, he has to take care of this situation as quickly as possible while also staying low on the radar. He had already revealed himself to the fallen, much earlier than he had expected.

The ideal outcome for any party involved in this scenario would be to leave behind no survivors.

The winged warriors soon became engulfed in combat, moving at speeds far faster than what an untrained eye could possibly follow. Their weapons clashed in the air over and over, with neither side yielding any ground to the other.

Much to the fallen angels' surprise, Lucian held his own remarkably well despite their numerical advantage. He presented no openings for them to exploit. Right from a young age, church exorcists were subjected to rigorous combat training in order to fight against the supernatural beings. All sorts of combat techniques are drilled into their head so that they are able to fend themselves off during their fights.

On top of being trained by the church, Lucian also had the physiology of an angel, significantly enhancing his combat abilities.

Among angels and the fallen angels, their powers are measured by the number of wings they had on them. A single pair is what every angel and fallen angel start with and it gradually increases as they progress through by gaining experience from numerous battles over their lifetimes. There are differences in individual strength and abilities even among the angels and fallen angels with the same number of wings.

The crucial point of difference between the fallen angel group and Lucian was that the latter had more combat experience and knew how to keep a level-head even with significant disadvantage in numbers.

Stabbing one of the angels in the abdomen with his light spear, Lucian delivered a punch straight on his face, sending him plummeting on the ground, a pool of blood soon forming around him as he struggled with his injury.

The other three angels didn't waste time ganging up on him. He ducked midair, dodging a spear that went straight above his head. He tilted his head to the side dodging the second spear while using his sword to block the third one. The one thing they had going for themselves was their coordination and their timing of attacks.

Spinning, Lucian broke free from the triple deadlock. He retracted his wings, in order to get away before making them reappear again as he gained some distance between himself and his foes.

The fallen angels didn't waste time, charging straight in with their spears pointed at their foe. Lucian let them close in before delivering a kick on the jaw of the one closest to him before slashing his sword across the lower left abdomen. He purposely aimed for the vitals in order to wrap it up quickly.

The female fallen swung her spear at full force, agitated on seeing two of her comrades already down for the count. Lucian titled his head to avoid the swing at the last second, ending up with a slight cut on his cheek from the edge of the light spear. The group leader snuck behind the exorcist, attempting to stab him with his red-light spear from behind. The angel, having seen the attack coming, flew away, causing the spears of the two fallen angels to clash with each other.

Seeing the winged supernaturals occupied in their battle, Freed seized this opportunity to escape. The exorcist couldn't pay attention to him as he was busy fending off the fallen angels. This would be the perfect opportunity for him to escape. If the angel-exorcist survived this, he would make sure to himself deal with him. And in order to do that, he needs to get out of here alive and get stronger.

"You aren't going anywhere." Lucian's broadsword came flying at full speed, landing right in front of Freed with a considerable impact. The stray exorcist fell on his back, the sword stabbed on the ground, inches away from his feet.

Freed looked up to see Lucian close in the distance between himself and the remaining two fallen angels, armed with his black keys. Evading their spear thrusts, Lucian struck at their vitals at a blinding speed, rendering them out of commission. They fell down on the ground with a thud, groaning in pain. The one specialty of black keys was that the damage caused by them took longer to heal.

It would be a different matter if healing-type Sacred Gears such as Twilight Healing or the legendary Phenex Tears made by the Phenex Clan of the devils were to be used.

The exorcist descended on the ground, retracting his wings. He slowly made his walk towards Freed, the latter cowering back in fear.

"I personally like the look on your face you have right now." Lucian commented, picking up his broadsword after retracting his black keys. He wasn't going to waste a powerful weapon like that on someone like Freed. Then again, he did use it once to reduce the stray exorcist to a limping man. "You seem to finally know your place."

"You bastard--!" Before Freed could swing his sword, Lucian had already sliced off his right arm in the blink of an eye. The silver-haired exorcist yelled in pain, clutching his shoulder, trying to stop the blood from flowing out.

"You are too noisy" Lucian remarked, rubbing his ears before putting his right hand on Freed's face. The latter felt a cold sensation on his face. A thin layer of ice now covered his mouth, silencing him up for good.

After that, he proceeded to sever all his limbs. All Freed could do was to cry, unable to endure the excruciating pain. He couldn't even scream, the liberty of it having been taken away from him.

"If you think this is unfair, reflect on all the sins you have committed." Lucian spoke, looking down at the stray exorcist who now had all of his limbs cut off. He raised his broadsword right above Freed's throat.

In the next moment, he stabbed Freed, ending him then and there. He swung his sword to the side, blood from it splattering on the cold floor.

"Now then." Lucian turned around, facing the fallen angels who lay on the floor, watching the scene unfold with widened eyes. All they could do was watch the execution carried out, unable to intervene. It was going to be troublesome finding another stray exorcist with the talent to wield holy swords.

But that wasn't their immediate concern.

They knew full well that Lucian wasn't going to spare them either. According to what Kokabiel had told them, angels were supposed to be pacifists in most cases and tended to avoid conflicts. They would rather have the church dirty their hands in their stead.

Yet, they failed to find any semblance of pacifism from this angel. Maybe it was because of the fact that he was trained by the church.

"Time to send off you guys as well." Lucian spoke, pointing his sword in front of him. A sphere of condensed ice began forming before him. The ice sphere began rotating at high speeds, gathering more and more ice around itself. A blue aura started surrounding the sphere while the temperature around the area dropped below by several degrees.

Stabbing the ice sphere with his sword, Lucian slammed it on the floor, freezing the entire factory in an instant, along with the fallen angels. They were completely frozen, unable to move an inch.

Putting away the sword, Lucian conjured light spears, flinging them towards the frozen fallen angels, shattering them on impact. The shattered ice soon turned into dust, erasing any trace of their bodies. He did the same with Freed's corpse, thereby removing any evidence of whatever happened here.

With the cleanup done, Lucian exited the factory premises, hands stuffed in his pockets and no visible expressions on his face. His wings and halo reappeared again before he flew towards his home.

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