Capítulo 22: Chapter 18: Revelation, The White One, Destruction & Life After Kokabiel
A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
[ ] : Spells, Techniques and Sacred Gear Casts,
"Bold text" : Ddraig & Albion.
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Issei POV
That night had been one crazy thing after the other. We fought Cerberus, twice, Ruki singlehandedly beat down one of the leaders of the fallen angels, and Kiba unlocked his own Balance Breaker. But none of that was able to prepare us for what we heard come out of Kokabiel's mouth, or for who we met.
Flashback
After Kiba had killed Valper, and Sona-seikotaichou had come here with Xenovia, Irina and her peerage, Ruki dragged Kokabiel and tossed him onto the floor. We had thought that the crow bastard was knocked out, but he grunted out in pain as he hit the ground, right as I had deactivated my Balance Breaker, leaving only my arm covered by the Boosted Gear.
Xenovia, who was closer to me, looked at my arm in shock, while Irina looked and almost immediately had some plan whirring up in her head.
Ruki grabbed Kokabiel's head and asked him why and how he did all this, but he didn't answer. He just looked at all of us with disgust and disdain. "To think I'd see the day that the Church would join hands with devils." He was able to eke out some words before he got slapped by Ruki.
Irina and Xenovia seemed to go into prayers as he said that, but he started laughing madly, shaking them from the prayers. "You foolish brats, don't you know that He wouldn't answer you. I guess that even after losing your masters, the devils and followers of God can still fight." He said through the pain.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ruki asked him with his eyes narrowed. "Hahahahaha. *Cough X4.* How would someone that is dead answer the living?" Kokabiel said through bloody teeth.
Asia, Xenovia and Irina received a shock unlike any other. "That's not possible." Xenovia murmured, trying to get her head around what he just said.
"Do you think only Satan died in the war?! God is dead! Do you think that if He was still alive, the Church would get away with what it's been doing?! Do you think the devils would be able to roam so freely in this world if God was alive?! Do you think that any of the three factions would have depended on humans to continue their existence?!" Kokabiel started shouting, ignoring the pain that I was sure he was feeling.
".... Lies.... It's a lie..." Xenovia continued to grapple with the admittedly insane truth bomb that was being dropped right now. I looked at Asia, and although she wasn't in the same mental state as Xenovia and Irina, she wasn't too far off.
I grabbed her and hugged her, trying to console her. "I know what I said, but I didn't think it'd actually be like this." I said audibly. She just hugged me and put her head in the crook of my neck. "It's not your fault, Issei. It never has been." She said as she cried into my shirt.
"You blind fools. If no one forces it, there wouldn't be another big war, after all, all three factions had gone through hell in the last war, reducing our populations greatly. Now, there are so few pure devils and angels, and the fallens are now having to mate with filthy humans and invite the few with Sacred Gears just to stay afloat. And that bastard, Azazel, went ahead to declare that there would be no second war, after so many of his men had been killed in the war. He chose to lower his gun after firing, like a coward!" Kokabiel said with anger, either ignoring the pain, or being made to not feel it by Ruki.
"And Michael, although he has taken over heaven's system, he is nowhere near adequate, otherwise such a strange thing would have never had the chance to come to fruition." He said that as he struggled to look at Kiba's sword.
"Not that he is fully at fault, after all, if God and Satan were still alive, as the beings that rule over holy and demonic powers, they would have kept it from happening." He said, his energy seemingly exhausted.
"I see. Well, it's too bad for you, the three biblical factions are never going to go to war again, so even in your death, your plans will never come to fruition, Kokabiel." Ruki said, and before Kokabiel had the chance to talk back, the hand that Ruki was using to hold his head was suddenly engulfed in thick, black flames that looked like Buchou's Power of Destruction, and Kokabiel's body was swallowed by the flames.
Before I had the chance to breathe a sigh of relief, a new pressure that seemed to be on the same level as Ruki fell on us. Sona and her peerage members were shaken by the pressure, but stayed on their feet, albeit with a bit of struggle.
Xenovia and Irina were immediately pushed down to their knees, while that Angela girl was still unconscious. As for Buchou, Akeno, Kiba, Asia and I, we stayed standing, prepared to attack, as Ruki had helped us get used to dealing with his level of pressure.
As for Ruki himself, he had finished with Kokabiel and was standing with a smile. The words I heard from him were something I wouldn't have expected in a hundred years.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Vali-aniki?" Rias and Sona jolted, as if they recognized the name of the person he was calling, while I just looked at him with confusion. 'From what I know, this fucker's an only child. So when the hell did he get a big brother?'
"Partner! Be careful!" Ddraig shouted to me, and at the last second, I turned my head to see what was coming for me, and saw someone in an armor similar to my Balance Breaker, only that his was mainly white, with blue jewels where I had green, and eight light wings on his back.
During the time that Ruki had Kokabiel talking, Ddraig had loaded 3 Boosts, so I immediately transferred that power to the reactionary part of my brain, allowing me to avoid the blow at a hair's breadth, and begin launching a counterattack.
But before I could hit him, my arm and his were grabbed and pulled downward, causing him to drop to the ground, almost as if he crashed.
"Now, now, Vali-nii. I can't have you trying to kill my disciple in front of me like that, you know." Ruki said as he released my hand. I looked at the hand he used to hold me, and saw that it was covered in dark green and black scales, and the nails had slightly elongated to look like claws. I guess he really was becoming more draconic over time.
"Hey, brat. How the hell did you get a dragon's power?" I heard a deep voice come from this Vali person, but it didn't seem like it was his voice. Rather, it sounded like when Ddraig would speak out.
"A lot of things have happened since we last met, Albion-jiji." The pressure from Vali increased as soon as Ruki said that. "How many times have I told you not to call me jiji?!" Albion shouted , and it was then I noticed the flickering glow of the wings. 'So that's how he's talking.'
"Counting now, it'll be 112 times. But you don't hate it all that much, otherwise you'd have been Dividing me yourself." Ruki said with a cocky grin. I looked at his hand one more time, but this time, it was back to a normal human hand.
Vali fully stood up, and I noticed something. 'This fucker's taller than me. First Ruki now him. Come on!' I thought to myself, a small bit of anger bubbling within me.
He retracted his helmet, and I saw him properly this time, the fucker was an ikemen and was also looking at me like he was evaluating me. "Hmm, so you're this generation's Red Dragon Emperor. Well, at least you aren't pathetic." He said in an almost dismissive manner.
"Hey, don't go trying to bring down my disciple like that. It may not seem like it, but he got to the High Rank in only 4 months." Ruki said with his chest puffed out, and Vali raised a brow at that. "Your disciple?" He asked then looked at everyone else.
"Am I to take it that they're also your disciples?" He asked, and Ruki shrugged. "Yeah, but unlike them who I corrected, I basically built him up from scratch." He said confidently, which made me feel some kind of way. I couldn't tell if I was to be happy or pissed, especially with the White Dragon Emperor in front of me.
"Hmm, well, they aren't too bad." For some reason, I felt that this guy had a severe case of chuunibyou that his powers allowed him to pass off as a superiority complex. "Haah, but still, you've put me in a bit of a tough spot." He said to Ruki with a sigh.
"How so?" Vali then pointed to the spot where Ruki had burned Kokabiel to nothing. "Azazel said that I should bring that idiot, Kokabiel, to receive punishment for his actions. But you've killed him, so now I won't be able to do that." He explained.
A few seconds of silence passed, before being interrupted by Ddraig of all people. "Hey, are you ignoring me, white one?" He said, trying to gain Albion's attention. "Here I was thinking that you didn't have any manners, but you stayed quiet enough for them to finish their conversation." Albion responded to him with mock surprise.
"It's times like this that I understand why I wanted to fight you. But now that I look at it, your hostility is lot less now, white one." Ddraig said, almost as if he expected this guy to try killing me nonstop.
"Red one, your hostility is incredibly low as well. I see that you have taken up an interest in things other than fighting." Albion responded to him, and Ddraig just huffed. "It's better this way, than to obssess ourselves over things like that. Besides, it's not bad to have some fun by yourself." Ddraig said, and Albion hummed in agreement.
"Let's meet again, Ddraig." Albion said, giving his farewell. After that, Vali just looked at me. "Hey, rival. Our fight will eventually happen, whether you like it or not, so get stronger, so that it can be fun for me." He said with a grin and flew away so fast, he seemed like a single streak of light.
After he left, Ruki took the Fused Excalibur from the unconscious Angela and held it in front of Xenovia. "I believe it's time for this sword to be destroyed." He said calmly.
Xenovia and Irina looked at it with unwilling expressions, but they nodded. Xenovia put her right hand in the air. "Saint Peter. Saint Basil the Great. Saint Denis. Holy Mother Mary. Please hear my voice." As she said that, the space in front of her hand distorted and she plunged her hand into it.
"In the names of the saints whom reside in this blade, I release you, Durandal." She said as she grabbed something and pulled out her hand, revealing a Holy Sword that was letting of a very strong holy aura as well as a destructive feel.
"Hmm, so you're a natural holy sword wielder like Angela here." Ruki said as he looked at the Durandal with a complicated gaze, while Xenovia just nodded. "I would advise that you hold the sword steadily, as Durandal is quite destructive and hard to work with, even for me." She said, then let out a breath.
"Haap!" She swung Durandal at the Fused Excalibur, and upon contact, the Fused Excalibur shattered. Meanwhile, the Durandal's power caused a pressure wave that blew a great amount of the floor apart.
Ruki cleared the dust, and on the floor in front of him, were the tiny broken fragments of the Fused Excalibur. Meanwhile, Buchou was with Kiba, consoling him. "Don't worry, Yuuto. It's over now."
Flashback End.
It's been a few days since then, and now, I'm looking at Xenovia sitting in the clubroom with out school's girl's uniform on, and smelling like us. In other words, she had been reincarnated as a devil by Buchou.
Sighing, I sit down on the couch opposite her. "So, mind telling me exactly why you chose to come over to this side." I say as I pull out some snacks from my bag.
"I found out that God is gone, so I turned into a devil as my way of fully leaving the Church. I received a Knight piece from Rias Gremory when I was turned into a devil. It seems that Durandal is far more amazing than I am, so I only received a single piece." She said with a flat tone, almost as if she had resigned herself to whatever happens to her.
"Either way, this now means that I am now a 2nd year student who is a member of the Occult Research Club. I hope we can get along, Issei-kun." She says, but strangely tries to act cute, or more accurately, she tries to act ditzy. "You just tried acting like Irina does, didn't you?" I tell her with a deadpan expression.
"I tried, but it seems that it's neither easy nor convincing." She says, and I just sigh, then look at Buchou. "She has Durandal, which is a legendary Holy Sword, so having her to complement Yuuto achieving Balance Breaker is only beneficial for us." Buchou says and snuggles even tighter to Ruki, who's just sitting there, thinking.
While Xenovia is just there holding her head and mumbling something about being a devil, Asia suddenly asks out. "By the way, where's Irina and Angela?" Honestly, her question kind of makes sense, so where is she?
"Irina returned to headquarters along with Valper's corpse, and the 5 Excaliburs, and Angela followed her. Although the Fused Excalibur was shattered, the cores of the swords were still intact, so she retrieved them, completing the mission. Since the cores are intact, alchemy can be used to make the swords again. While Angela has to go back to face punishment for her actions under Valper's control." Xenovia says with a downcast look.
"Don't worry, I'm sure that they'll be lenient with her. It's as you've said, she was under Valper's control." Asia says, trying to console her.
"That's all well and good, but won't they have an issue with someone wielding a legendary Holy Sword becoming a devil?" I ask Xenovia. "The Durandal is different from the Excalibur, in that other users can be more easily chosen for Excalibur. Having Durandal is enough for me. And besides, when I mentioned God's demise, they immediately branded me a heretic, even though I had Durandal. They cut me off regardless, just like they did with Asia Argento." She says and lets out a depreciating laugh.
"I don't know how Irina ended up not hearing that truth, but she was lucky. She's always had a stronger faith than me, so if she heard that God is dead, I couldn't tell what would have happened to her." For some reason, I grew a bit suspicious of Ruki.
"*Sigh.* However, she got really disappointed at me becoming a devil, and I couldn't just tell her that it's because God is dead. It was quite the awkward farewell. As things are, we might face each other as enemies next time we meet." She says with narrowed eyes.
In the midst of her speaking, Koneko and Kiba walked into the room. And as Buchou saw that we were all here, she started speaking. "The Church made contact with us, or more precisely, a Satan, to talk about this incident. They said, "We would like to make contact with you because of the unclear and dishonest actipns of the fallen angels, even though we feel unsatisfactory about this." They also apologized about Valper since they made the mistake of letting him escape in the past."
So they at least had the decency to apologize for letting that psycho do the shit he's done. I guess the Church isn't all bad.
As I think that, I hear a shaky laugh coming from Xenovia. "This school is quite terrifying. With the sisters of 2 Satans attending." Oh, yeah. I almost forgot since I haven't met her elder sibling yet, but Sona-seikotaichou is the younger sister of another of the Satans. I wonder which one.
"The truth of the incident has been sent to both the devils' side and God-side by the Governor General of Grigori, Azazel. Apparently, Kokabiel stole the Excaliburs by himself, leaving the other leaders in the dark. They were planning to punish Kokabiel by sealing him in Cocytus for eternity, but Haruki killed him before their agent, the White Dragon Emperor, could reach him." Buchou says, then furrows her brows.
"There's now a meeting that is to be held between the representatives of the devils, fallen angels and angels. Azazel said that he has something to talk about with them, but we aren't sure if it's an apology. Not that I'd expect such a thing from him." Buchou says with a pout.
"Don't worry, Rias. I know that perverted crow well enough. He'll definitely apologize, but I'm almost sure that that's not all he's calling this meeting for." Ruki says as he strokes Buchou's hair, and she purrs in response. I didn't even know that she knew how to purr, and from what I'm seeing, neither did anyone else.
"The annoying thing now is that they're saying that we should also attend the meeting, so that we can give them a testimony as first hand witnesses." Buchou grumbles from within Ruki's lap, Koneko and Akeno just harrumph in annoyance.
After a few seconds of silence, I speak up. "Hey, Ruki. That Vali guy, the White Dragon Emperor. He's on the fallen angels' side, right?" He nods. "Yeah, Vali-aniki is basically Azazel's foster son. He's also the 4th strongest person in Grigori, and that's if you count the leaders."
Damn. I thought that since Ruki was pretty close to him in power, I'd have a chance, but he's in Grigori's top 5. "Wait a minute, doesn't that mean that you're also within that range of power?" He looks at me with a 'You just noticed?' look.
"Issue, if I chose to fight at my actual level of power, without any restrictions, I'd beat all of you along with Sona's peerage, very easily at that." He says, seemingly exasperated.
Xenovia suddenly stands up while muttering, then she goes into a dogeza in front of Asia. "I'm sorry, Asia Argento. You may hit me as much as you want." Asia looks at her with a soft smile, yet I feel a light chill coming from that smile.
"Are you sure, Xenovia-san?" Asia asks coolly, and Xenovia nods , hitting her head on the wooden floor a few times. "Okay then. Please stand up." Xenovia looks up with surprise, but still stands.
As she finishes standing, Asia steps closer to her, and flicks her head lightly, stunning her for a few seconds. "Keep your chin up, Xenovia-san. We may be heretics in the eyes of the Church, but we've got people who value us greatly right here. So tell you what, why don't I give you a tour around the school." Asia says kindly, while softly holding Xenovia's hand. Xenovia nods absentmindedly and starts getting dragged away for the tour.
"Okay, then." Buchou says as she claps her hands, pulling the attention of everyone in the room back to herself. "Since we're all back, I'm sure that we can get back to club activities." She says with a playful smile. We all smile and let out a loud, "Yes!", as we return to our peaceful lives, for however long said peace may last.
Chapter End.
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Word Count: 3,339
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Sica_rio
Sica_rio Dunno why, but I've been feeling a bit ill recently.
Feels shitty.
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