26 Cadre - 14

One question remained at the forefront of Kaito's mind.

"…If you have all this planned out, why haven't you done it yet?" he asked. There had to be a reason why. Otherwise, he would have just used them already before he and Irina turned up and been on his merry way.

"Because it's really rather complicated to use them, when you're not a devil yourself you fool." Satanael scoffed, shaking his head.

Not an explanation at all.

But, Kaito would take it.

After all, his talking?

It was just a distraction.

Kaito pushed off with all his strength and rushed towards Arondight as fast he possibly could.

He moved so fast, he swore he heard a sonic boom.

Satanael's eyes bulged when eh saw what the boy was attempting and hurriedly thrust his hand hand out, launching a massive spear of light easily fifty feet in size.

It was blindingly fast, putting the speed of a bullet to shame.

Kaito lunged, his fingers wrapping around a dark metallic hilt.

And he rolled.

The ground shook as it was torn asunder by the huge spear of light.

And Kaito just narrowly evaded death, finding himself leaping to his feet a split moment later and landing on the edge of a large crater that had hollowed out the ground.

He didn't stay idle there either, as soon as he was on his feet again, Kaito pushed off.

He accelerated even faster than before, so fast, the world turned into a blur around him and he could barely see where he was going.

It worked in his favour though as a barrage of huge light spears rained down from above each one enough to catch and kill him just moments ago-

But not this moment.

Because the split moment he made contact with the hilt of Arondight, he felt a connection bridge between himself and it. He didn't know how, or why. But neither did he care, he only cared that it worked.

He zigged and zagged through the air like a bolt of lightning, dodging, evading and as he went-

He got used to more and more, bit by bit.

His new speed with Arondight in hand.

"You fool, do you not realise what you've done and what you've got in your hand right now?" Satanael called after him, hot in pursuit, not letting up for a moment, "Arondight was originally designed to slay dragons! If you fumble with that once, you're dead!"

"Then I won't fumble!" Kaito shouted in return, not looking back, "Because I'm ending this right here and now!"

Instead, the teen made a beeline straight for a large sturdy tree and thrust his foot out, smashing it into it. The tree audibly groaned and uprooted form the sheer momentum and strength packed within the kick.

But it was enough to re-route.

Kicking off the tree with all his might, Kaito launched himself backwards, spinning around to face the Cadre while at the same time, pumping all of his remaining magical power into Arondight.

Satanael's eyes widened in horror as a familiar pitch black god slaying flame erupted around the blade.

And Kaito swung, unleashing a wave of darkness upon the fallen angel.

"You wish!" Satanael roared in a fury, flaring the seven wings upon his back that were not broken by Kaito and stopping in his tracks, while thrusting his hands out and unleashing a pure beam of concentrated light energy towards the flames and stopping them in their tracks, just like Irina had before.

But unlike when it was Irina in his place, his light was the one tearing through the flames of darkness.

All it did, was buy Kaito a little bit of time, hidden from the Cadre's eyes behind the clash of light and darkness.

And he didn't waste it.

Rearing Arondight up over his head with one hand like a javelin, Kaito focused. The billowing crimson red cloak of energy enveloping his body, retracted, all of it focusing on one point.

The hand holding Arondight.

He hadn't had his Touki very long, he couldn't even extend it beyond his body, or shape it in any way like he knew most Toshi of any worth could, never mind youkai or Sairaorg Bael.

But it was enough for this!

"Fucking die!" Kaito roared and launched the once blade of Lancelot with all his strength.

The demonic holy blade flew shot forth like a meteor, tearing through the flames of darkness and once angelic light like a god slaying spear.

Before piercing straight through Satanael's chest.

The Cadre's light cut off instantly and he hung there in the air, staring at his chest and the sword piercing straight through him.

Blood bubbled up and out of the Cadre's lips, "….But I was….so close…" he mumbled as he fell from the air, landing limply on his back.

Kaito stayed there in his throwing position, panting deeply. As he did, he felt his boosts fade away.

He was utterly tapped out. Not only with his touki, but physically and magically as well.

He had absolutely nothing left in the tank.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, the teenager limped his way over to the fallen angel who was staring up at the night sky blankly, "I outwitted Azazel…bamboozled the Infinite Dragon God….ran circles around the White Dragon Emperor….survived flames that would bring a god low…" he spoke listlessly, despairingly, his silver eyes, no longer bright, but now dull, looking almost grey and dreary slowly roved over to look up at Kaito, "And yet…This is how it ends?…At the hands of a child with a mere Twice Critical."

"Two Twice Critical's if it makes you feel better, I don't have my balance breaker yet," Kaito corrected him, staring down at the fatally wounded Cadre. Something deep inside told him, he didn't have to worry anymore, that it was over, "And if I didn't literally turn my organs into that of a dragons and get a hold of Arondight there at the end, I would have lost."

Satanael blinked slowly, "…Two…I see, so you are indeed special then," his lips twisted into a smile of relief, "I…can take solace in that it took someone twice chosen….by fathers will to…bring me….low…" his once bright silver eyes, slowly closed for the final time.

"Not that special mate." Kaito shook his head and looked up at the sky himself, "…Now what?" he wondered.

He'd just killed a fucking Cadre and was now actually privy to the secret God was dead in totality

He had an unconscious holy sword wielding exorcist laying not far away. And in front of him, he had a dead ten winged fallen angel, who had a legendary demonic holy sword pierced into his chest and had not only a high-class devils evil piece set on him…but the devils forbidden King piece as well.

Not that he could do anything with that.

Because he wasn't a devil and he was pretty sure, they only worked on devils. And Satanael seemed to believe so given he planned on using the Queen piece within that Evil Piece set on himself first before it.

'…Well it would be kind of telling if I just turned up to school tomorrow, suddenly as a devil and my magic power a hundred times stronger.' Kaito snorted to himself.

As it was, given his magic power had jumped up a decent little chunk again thanks to turning his organs into that of a dragons.

He would no doubt be under even more scrutiny by the devils, "Lovely, just lovely." Kaito sighed.

Well…he didn't regret it at least. If he didn't involve himself, Irina would have died for sure.

Well, nothing for it he supposed.

Crouching down, Kaito looked rifled through the pockets of Satanael's pants and a moment later, pulled out a familiar wooden box.

Which he promptly stored inside his original Twice Critical, before grasping Arondight and pulling it free from the corpse of Satanael.

"I can't just leave you here either I suppose." Kaito sighed.

…But how would he get rid of a body considering he didn't have any magic power left at the moment to burn it?

"How annoying." he palmed his forehead with his left hand, before promptly blinking, "Oh, that could work."

He pressed his left hand against Satanael's bare chest.

And stored the corpse within it.

With Arondight in hand, Kaito turned around and traipsed back through the forest towards the mansion, to where Irina was.

_________________________________________________

Purple eyes slowly opened and stared up blankly at an unfamiliar white ceiling.

Despite only just opening her eyes after falling unconscious, Irina found herself fully awake. Yet…at the same time, utterly numb and listless.

She was blank.

What point was there in even mustering the energy to think…when God…was dead?

It didn't feel real.

Nothing did.

She wished this was just a horrible nightmare. But no, she could feel the reality all too clearly.

It was as if, the moment Satanael revealed God's fate to her, that a connection she'd always felt was there…snapped and left her all alone in the dark.

What was the point…of a world without God?

The sound of a toilet flushing echoed for a moment, followed a second later by a door opening and then closing.

Her eyes instinctively glanced over towards the sound and she saw it was…Kaito making his way into the room, a yawn on his lips and ruffling his hair.

'Oh…I'm in Kaito-kun's apartment again.' she realised blandly.

Which meant, he had probably managed to defeat Satanael. Or possibly the Fallen Angel had fled, or Kaito had picked her up and fled after she had fallen unconscious.

She found it…kind of hard to care to be honest.

"Oh…you're awake, thank god for that at least," Kaito apparently noticed her awakened status and breathed a visible sigh of relief, "I can't exactly afford to get you saw by a doctor, so I could only slip you some pain killers and toss some ointment and the like on that burn of yours."

Irina snorted, "…How can you thank God for anything?" she wondered, "He's dead."

And somehow, saying it aloud made it hurt even more. Her heart creaked with pain, her chest felt like it was going to rupture.

"The same way I thank any other dead person for something that more or less came about thanks to their efforts," Kaito replied bluntly, walking over to sit cross legged beside her on the floor, "Just because he's dead for instance, doesn't mean I'm not grateful to John Logie Baird."

"….What…?" Irina asked blankly, lost.

"A total alpha male from Scotland, he's the one who created the television," Kaito explained, "Just the same way I thank God every day for my Twice Critical's."

"But…God didn't give you them like you thought, he didn't bless you…" Irina bit her lip, "God has nothing to do with you…"

"Sure he does," Kaito scoffed, denying her words absolutely, "Like I said, he's dead and he's gone. But that's life Irina, not even God was invincible in the end. That doesn't change that what he created and what he stood for, is still here to this day. Heaven's still around, people are still getting Sacred Gear's, God's gone, but his will lives on."

Kaito shrugged, "Life goes on and the world keeps turning," he added, "God literally gave his life to put a stop to the guys that were trying to fuck all that up. So I'm pretty sure, he wouldn't want to see one of his big believers like you moping around like this."

"…You think so?" Irina found herself asking instinctively, rising from where she lay to latch on to the younger boy, ignoring the pain in her stomach.

"A man only truly dies, when he's forgotten," Kaito smiled at her, reaching up to pat her on the head, and she found herself sniffling without even realising it, "So come on, don't mope, you're a tough girl right? You can cry your eyes out on my shoulder, let it all out, and then soldier on, like everyone in the world does regardless of God being here or not."

"Okay…" Irina's lips trembled and tears budded in the corner of her eyes.

And she did as the boy told her, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face in his chest, she let it out and sobbed.