All Know It's Name (part 1)

Notice:

Dang I saw people bombing the scammer's book with one stars, but five minutes later it all got deleted. Nice try guys, sucks that authors can just delete reviews so easily.

Really gets on my nerves.

=======Chapter 8 (part 1)==========

It was all I could do to bite back the scream that threatened to tear its way out of my throat, whether it was from pain or frustration I did not. I lost. As I laid on the ground, broken and defeated, I felt nothing but shame fill me at the thought. What made it worse was I had no one to blame but myself.

He was right. I did not know why I kept Durandal hidden for so long, but he was right. If I had just used it from the start I may have stood a chance of winning, no matter how small. At the very least I would have fought him with my full power, but instead I let the chance slip by without even getting the chance to use my sword.

It made so much sense when I had first thought of it. I felt so smart, so cunning, to have a hidden ace. One that would catch the enemy off-guard and allow me to turn the battle in our favor. But he was right. What's the point of having a trump card if I lost before I could even use it?

And now as I cradled my broken arm to my chest I laid defeated, helpless, on the ground. All I could do was watch the red-haired Devil, the same one who almost shatter my Excalibur in his bare hands, calmly stand as he was surrounded from all sides by the spears of the Fallen.

I did not understand the words he spoke or why he called himself a bone of his sword, but the Fallen around him decided to take it as a provocation and responded with deadly force.

It was over in an instant.

The dozen Fallen thrust their spear as one at his body. Surrounded, their attack came from every angle, leaving him no room to maneuver or escape. Even to my eyes there was no hesitation or imperfection in their form. Unlike the comrades I had trained with and fought with in the Church, there movements were flawless, their coordination was perfect, inhumanely so.

It was then, as I watched the unnatural gracefulness of even the weakest among them, that I truly understood what we faced were not human. These were Angels that have lived for millennia, who have fought and survived a Great War and have been training for the next one ever since. Warriors and veterans, every last one of them, and it showed as their thrusts flew unerringly towards the unmoving red-head.

It was over in an instant.

Before I could so much as blink a bloody mist erupted into the air, painting the night crimson as the bifurcated corpses of the twelve Fallen fell to the ground around the Devil.

I didn't even see him move.

Fast! I could feel my eyes involuntary widening at the sight of the Devil standing in the middle of the corpses of Fallen, having not moved a step form his original fast, not even Griselda could move that fast! But that's-

"With a Body of Iron, And a Heart of Fire"

I felt the words reverberate through me like the ringing of a bell. I did not know why but those words, they felt heavy, magical. So much so, that I felt the thoughts in my head derailed and grind to a halt as they washed over me.

"That sword!" Irina yelled from where she fell just a few yards away from me.

It was then that I noticed the sword he held in his hand and I felt my eyes widen again, "But that's-"

"-Excalibur Rapidly!" Griselda finished for me, sounding equally unnerved as we did by the sight of the blade in his hand. I glanced at this down at the hilt she refused to relinquish from her grip, where only a fragment of the ruined blade remained attached, before I looked back up only to be stunned again.

That was not Excalibur.

I did not know what happened but the sword he held in his hand was no longer Excalibur Rapidly. Though the wooden hilt remained unchanged, the blade had not. It had elongated and broadened, turning the once elegant rapier into an unwieldy claymore. Its once smooth unblemished surface was fragmented, cratered by hundreds of splinters. It had become fragile, it had become brittle.

It had become broken.

Before any of the surrounding Fallen were even able to respond or comprehend what had just happened, not that I was in any position to fault them for their confusion, he flicked the Not-Excalibur into the air over his head. The blade shot in the sky faster than any arrow, flying unerringly towards the group of Fallen that hovered above him.

The Fallen were caught completely off-guard by his actions. Unprepared, they could do nothing to defend themselves in time, not when they were that close to him, not with the speed his sword was traveling.

Even as some of them called upon their spears or desperately tried to dodge, I knew it was already too late for them, there was nothing they could do to save themselves. The attack was too unexpected, the blade traveling too fast, for the Fallen to do anything but watch as the sword flew right towards them and…

"…he missed?" Irina gaped in disbelief as we watch the blade tear past them, flying between their numbers as it failed to hit any of them.

I could not blame her, I was pretty much in the same state as she was. I watched as the sword, our hope, soared past the first line of Fallen towards the second group that hovered behind them, higher up in the sky.

It looked like the sword was in the direct path of one of Fallen in the middle of the group but it was already too late. The surprise had been lost. While the first group had been caught unprepared and by surprise, this group was anything but. Being farther off they had far more time to react and by the time the sword reached them they were ready for it.

It shot towards a Fallen who flew near the heart of the formation. He already had a spear in hand and despite the speed of the sword as it approached him, he swung his spear at it with a perfect timing, with an almost contemptuous ease, to knock it out of the sky.

He was the first to die.

I barely turned away in time as a miniature sun was born in the skies above Kaou Academy. It was nothing but pure luck and reflex that made me look away in time to save my sight as the sword detonated, releasing a surge of fire so bright that I was certain it could be seen clear across the city.

A wave of heat, as real and dense as any tide of water, washed over me as the false sun bathed the school grounds in crimson light. It burned for but an instant before it extinguished, burning itself out, but by then the damage had already been done.

A crash, just a few yards before me, made look up. It was a Fallen, dead. No, it would be more accurate to say to it was half a fallen, as the entire left half of his frame was missing. Gone, his body ending in a line of crisp blackened flesh that ran down the middle of his body. His face, what remained of it, was frozen in an expression of pure surprise. I looked up to discover the fate of the rest of the Fallen, and most didn't fare much better.

The dozens of Fallen near the heart of the explosion are gone, completely incinerated, leaving nothing behind but clouds of ash drifting in the air. While those that were fortunate enough to not have been caught up in the blast were knocked clear across the sky from the shockwave of the explosion. Many had successfully regained their balances in the last moment while more than a few had found themselves crashing into the ground both within and outside of the school grounds.

Even the Fallen that were on the ground, thus completely safe from the blast, had instinctively leapt backwards and away from the fireball, leaving a clear open space beneath the heart of the explosion, and consequently around the red-haired Devil who now stood alone in the center of the space.

Billowing clouds of soot and ash, born from the explosion fell down from the sky, blanketing the grounds of the courtyard beneath it from sight, hiding both the ground and the Devil with it.

However, just before the clouds of soot blocked his form from our eyes, I caught sight of him. At how his eyes of solid gold shone in darkness, how they locked onto the line of Fallen before him and how the way he looked at them reminded me so much of a cat eyeing a mouse, of a hunter watching its prey.

In the very last second I saw his lips curved, as they formed out the words that he intoned.

"Utterly alone I forge my Steel"

Then he was gone, hidden behind the grey clouds, leaving behind the disordered mass of Fallen.

When I looked around at the surrounding Fallen, who fortunately were completely disregarding both me and the others, all I could see was the looks of complete shock and confusion on their faces and hear the sound of raising panic taking hold of the Fallen Host.

And how could blame them for their confusion? I barely understood what was going on anymore.

One moment they had already won, their enemy lay defeated beneath their feet and within only a single swing of achieving their goal of starting a war. Then the next moment, their barrage of spears were halted by a flower –I mean really! A flower! It was even PINK for Heaven's sake-, their comrades killed by the dozens, and what was practically a sun appearing in their midst. Even ones as ancient as them would not be able to maintain their composure after such events.

Disorientated, shocked by the both the suddenness and the ferociousness of the attack, the ranks of Fallen had dissolved into a confused mess. The order and composure they held was lost as chaos took hold, turning what was once a disciplined force into a disorganized mass of bodies.

However that only lasted for but a moment. In the next second I understood why Kokabiel's forces were among the most respected in the Three Factions. Say what you will of these accursed Fallen, and I tend to say more than a few unflattering things about them in my prayers, they were known as veterans for a reason.

Over the steadily rising murmurs of the panicked Host, shouts of commands and instructions were barked out as the senior and ranking Fallen Angel swiftly and ruthlessly took command of their men by using a combination of orders, threats and insults to get them to obey.

To my eyes, it occurred remarkably fast. The panic that was quickly building within the ranks of the Fallen was brutally and swiftly stomped out by pure discipline as their training kicked in and the Fallen snapped to attention like the soldiers they were.

Within a few beats of my heart, order had already been restored within the ranks of the Fallen and discipline had been reestablished. And it did not stop there. The instant it was clear that their men had calmed, several senior among them took command over several squads and had them surround the still lingering cloud that hide the Devil.

Once again the night was pushed back as spears of lights flickered to life in their hands, forming rings within rings of light as they circled the fading cloud. As ranks behind ranks of Fallen aimed their weapons to where their enemy lay hidden, all ready to attack the moment they caught sight of the Devil.

The flapping of wings caught my attention, drawing my eyes upwards to their source. There in the skies above the quickly settling cloud, hovered scores of Fallen blocking any means of escape from the air.

They too had their spears out, ready to take advantage of any opportunity to take down the Devil or block any attack that may come their way. I noticed how they hovered unusually close to ground and understood that this was how they intended to prevent the red-head from firing another bomb. It was clear that if he tried to fire another with the Fallen this close that he, along with the other Devils on the ground, would get caught up in the blast.

It was as I looked at this unusual formation that I remembered one of my lessons with Griselda on the history of the Great War. At the time I had just turned thirteen and was still in the middle of my training as an exorcist, having been handpicked by Griselda herself to become her student along with Irina and Dulio.

I remembered wondering why Heaven had sent the low ranking Angels into battle during the Great War. What difference could they make in a war when compared the strength of an Archangel or Seraphs? What could they possibly do against the Maous or Ultimate-Class Devils? Would it not have been better to have remained in Heaven where they would be safe and out of the way?

I still remember her answer vividly.

"Xenovia," She told me, "while it is true that battlefields of the Great War were filled by existences that could only be described as monsters, even by the standards of the Supernatural. That those monsters roamed between the battlefields of the war in their hundreds, and even the least among their numbers had the power to slaughter the average Angel and Devil one after the other by the thousands. That did not mean that they could not be fought back and certainty it do not mean that they could not be killed.

"Look at us, if the strong would always prevail over the weak than we humans will never stand a chance against even the weakest among the Devils or Fallen, Holy Swords or not. Yet that is obviously not the case. We who are physically weaker than any of the other races in the Three Factions are capable of fighting back. And how do we do it?

"By playing our strength against their weakness. By choosing when, where and how we fight. By using strategy, tactics and deceptions we, the weak, can fight back and overcome the strong. Remember Xenovia that in this world there are times that the strong fall before the weak. That who is truly 'weak' or 'strong' is not determined by the power they wield but by who remains standing victorious at the battle's end.

"Now tell me, what is the biggest advantage that a lesser Angel have over a High-Class or even an Ultimate-Class Devil?"

I though on it a while before I came up with the obvious answer, "Numbers. There are many more lesser Angels than higher ones."

She nodded in approval, "That's right. They had their strength in numbers, and they ruthlessly exploited that single advantage time and time again. They would gather by the hundreds or thousands and rain down their spears of light onto their enemies form afar when they could.

"And when they were unable to fight at a safe distance, when the enemy would come charging in, they would stand shoulder to shoulder and greet their enemy with a wall of spears. Kokabiel's Forces were famed for doing this."

"The Fallen?" I asked surprised.

"He was not always a Fallen. Once he was an Angel that stood on the side of Heaven and was among the greatest Generals in God's army. Back then his troops were held in high esteemed by all of Heaven despite being made up entirely of lower and mid-ranked Angels. And they earned that esteem by having the highest kill count of High-Class and Ultimate-Class Devils without the aid of any High-Ranked Angels. They achieved this with nothing but simple tactics and teamwork.

"When their enemies would not allow them to fight them from afar, when time came for them to fight their enemies head on, they did so behind a wall of spears forged through the strength of their numbers tempered by discipline and fortitude.

"They would stand shoulder to shoulder, organization their numbers into rectangular rows. They would then conjure spears of light that was far longer than the ones they would usually employ, and while it made them far more cumbersome in close combat it give them a far greater reach in return.

"They also made the spears far denser, infusing it with much more of their magic than usual. This made them heavier which prevented them from being thrown but gave them the ability to defect or disperse any spells they touched. And while a single one could not stop a high-ranked spell, a half dozen working together might, especially against Devil Magic.

"The front ranks of the Angels would stand shoulder to shoulder and face their enemy as one, using their spears to attack or hold back the attack enemy while the rank behind them will thrust their spears in between the front rank, filling any gaps that existed and combined with the spears in the front, will present a wall of deadly spear points to the attacking Devil.

"Those further behind them, when not ready to replace and help any injured comrades, would fire their spears overhead, either to bring down enemies that try to fly above them or rain their spears on the heads of the enemies before them."

"But," I interrupted her, "isn't that basically a Phalanx?"

"That is exactly what it is." Griselda confirmed, "What was most unusual of Kokabiel's troop's method of fighting was that it was clearly inspired by human warfare. Kokabiel has been famed for his fascination with mankind, and many speculated that he mimicked most of his military strategies from the Ancient Greeks and Romans."

And that was exactly what I was seeing before me. A Phalanx, a wall crafted from spears. Devils, both mighty and weak, found their death on the end of those spear tips.

They had slaughtered their enemies by the thousand with this method and I was about to witness as they once again brought it to bear against the new enemy that stands before them and just as the countless before him had done, they shall make him fall as well.

Even to me, someone whose only experience in large-scale warfare was within the walls of a classroom, their strategy was obvious.

Last time they were caught off-guard and unprepared, and they had paid dearly for it. It was clear that they were not about to make the same mistake again. Just like me they had seen both the Devil's speed and his wide range destructive spells and recognized them as the threats they were, and have quickly taken steps to neutralize both his advantages.

This time they will greet Serafall's Queen with a wall of spears, encircle and entrap him in its unforgiving embrace. They will leave no gap in their ranks, no weakness that can be exploited and allow no attack to slip by their gruad. He will be confined on the other side of their spears, where his speed will do him no good. And his explosive swords will not work here, not with the enemies this close to him. The cloud he had hidden himself in was barely a dozen meters wide, and even if you included the two yard gaps between its edge and the Fallen front rank, any attack strong enough to harm them will harm him in turn.

Next they will slowly close in on him step by step, shrinking what little space he had until he finds himself surrounded in all direction by their spears, where a single step down any path would cause him to fall upon their lethal tips, all the while the Fallen in the air will fire down carefully aimed attacks whenever he let his guard down or tried to attack.

It is then that he will be forced to either fly into the air where he will be venerable from attacks from all directions or remain on the ground and be skewered upon their spears. Either choice will lead to his doom.

And now the ancient Host of Fallen stood, patiently waiting for the already dissipating cloud to completely fade and reveal him to their sights so that they may come bearing down on him and drag him to his end.

If they attacked too soon they would have risked harming their own men or kick up more dust for the Devil to hide in. He had already proven himself capable of shielding himself and others from barrages of spears but it was unlikely he was capable of defending himself while simultaneously attacking.

So they waited for the perfect time to act, which was quickly approaching. Already the cloud was fading and in a few more seconds it will be gone completely, leaving the Devil nowhere to hide.

It should have been a flawless strategy, simple in both plan and execution. There was no reason to believe it will not work like it had a thousand times in the past but for some reason I could bring myself to believe that.

I did not know why but something within me, a deep subconscious instinct, told me that the Fallen had already committed a serious blunder. A fatal error that will cost them both their victory and their lives. They had decided to stand and fight but that was a mistake...

They should have ran.

I almost jumped in startlement as a scream of surprise rung throughout the courtyard. It was coming from my left and lasted only for a couple of seconds before it was abruptly cut off, leaving a foreboding silence its wake.

I turned to look but all I couldn't see anything but the backs of the Fallen that blocked my view. I didn't know why but I knew that this fight was something I need to see. So despite the my state I forced myself to stand, clenching my teeth tighter to silence the screams of pain that threated to spill as I felt the bones in my arm grind together.

Another scream rang out as was trying to stand, coming from the complete opposite direction of the first, which was soon followed by a third and a fourth. I had just barely gotten back on my feet in time to see what caused the fourth scream.

The yell came from a Fallen standing in the front rank. I had just caught sight of him before he disappeared, as something had pulled him off his feet and dragged him into the cloud. A heartbeat later his screams were abruptly silenced.

"Beneath us!" Another one of the Fallen yelled out as he leapt back, "To your feet, look to your feet!" Causing every eye to glance down.

It was then that I saw it.

They slithered around the ground like snakes, dozens upon dozens of them, crawling over and under one another in their haste to reach their prey. The light of the spears glinted off the smooth metallic surface of their thin bodies as they silently slid across the ground, quickly closing the gap between them and the feet of the Fallen.

Then without warning, like the vipers they resembled, they struck. When the vines of living steel touched the feet of the Fallen they leapt forward, blindingly fast, wrapping around the legs of their prey before pulling them down, off their feet, and dragging them screaming in the cloud that they emerged from.

The fallen line wavered and collapsed in an instant as they reacted instantly to sight. Some leaping back to escape the reach of the steel serpents causing them to slam in the Fallen behind them. Other took off to the air in their haste to escape, as the metallic tentacles searched blindly for their missing prey.

Some were too slow to escape, the tip of their toes just brushing their steel skin as they leapt in the air. That however, was enough for them to know that they were there. Like vipers striking at a bird, the leapt clear off the ground, wrapping themselves around the ankles of the Fallen before they could escape and pulling them back down to the ground and dragging them to their death like the others.

The braver or more aggressive among them attacked instead. They thrust their spears at the slithering steel serpents at their feet. Their spears of light would skid off their hardened skin and dig into the earth around them, scarring the ground with craters. And while their spears did not seem to damage the living steel much, it was enough to drive them back to where they came from.

However in their determination to harm the enemy at their feet they forgot about the enemy that stood before them.

Long thin blades of steel tore out of the cloud. They whipped forward tearing into the bodies of the distracted Fallen, piercing clear through the soft flesh of their chests and emerging out of their backs. A heartbeat later thy withdrew back into the cloud, leaving behind their stunned victims. Most of the Fallen just looked down at the holes in their chest in confusion before collapsing like puppets deprived of their strings.

A small handful of the Fallen had simply lost their nerve and flung their spears into the heart of the cloud, forgetting about their comrades on the other side. Half the spears tore through the cloud, hitting nothing, before emerging on the other sides and slamming into their surprised comrades on the other side. While some were able to block the spears in time many had not, too distracted by the writhing tentacles at their feet.

The other half of the spears did seem to hit something, however it did little better than the ones that tore clear through. The spears were somehow deflected, sending them clear up, where they were either blocked by the Fallen hovering above or went flying by them into the night sky. What I could not understand was how spears that were deflected upwards emerged from completely different location in the cloud, as if there was more than a single person in there.

The yells and clamour of the dying and alarmed Fallen army ripped me away from my thoughts, causing me to look around. As my eye scanned the battlefield and the remains of what was an organized army, a startling realization hit me.

This was the Phalanx of Kokabiel's army, a formation that has carved its way into legend on the blood and bodies of the countless of Devils and Demons that tried to break through its spear wall only to be broken instead. A tactic that till this day is taught to the exorcists of the Church, over a thousand years since it has at last been seen used in combat, due to its might in crushing Heaven's enemies.

And now that very Phalanx is falling apart at the seams, having been carved apart before my eyes by the power of a single Devil.

It took him ten seconds.

In ten measly seconds a legend was destroyed, crushed and ruined, and yet if felt like it had been hours. By the time it took me to take it all in, the cloud that hid the devil finally cleared enough to see through, revealing to all what was happening inside.

I couldn't have hidden my surprise even if I tried, "Irina! Isn't that-"

"That's my sword!" Irina yelled out, pushing herself upwards with one arm. Her eyes never leaving the swords the "That's Excalibur Mimic! Two of them!"

"No, there are more!" Griselda no longer looking beaten but as focused and serious as I had ever seen her. Her face was set in a mask of concentration as she eyed the Devil. "Six, no I count at least eight of them."

It was like a net of living steel. The wire thin metal threads that formed it whipped through the air like the tentacles of some monstrous sea beast. Constantly shifting and moving the threads came together into a shape of a sphere, no it was a hollow dome.

Hundreds of slithering metal branches covered the floor, hiding it from view. The way the countless featureless metallic serpents slithered on the ground, clawing over and under one another reminded me of a snake pit, and I involuntary took a wobbly step back at the sight of them.

I could see the corpses of the Fallen that were dragged in. Their limbs would occasionally stick out from beneath the slithering mass as gaps in their numbers revealed them to the open air before they were gone, sinking back into the writhing mass as if it were a bottomless sea. And there, standing in the middle of the sea of living metal, was the Devil.

He had his eyes close, head slightly-tilted back as his red hair fluttered in the wind created by the whipping steel. Thick cords of steal climbed up his legs and ending at both of his hands where he held the shrunken hilts of Excalibur Mimic between each of his fingers.

Slowly he opened his eyes, revealing the spheres of gold to the world once again, as he released the words;

"Knowing only Victory

Tainted with bitter Defeat"

Just as the words cleared his lips streaks of white shot down from the sky as several of the Fallen fired their spears at the now unhidden Devil.

He didn't bother to even look towards them. He didn't need to.

Just as the spear tip of the touched one of the fragile strings that made up the sphere that surrounded him, a thick tentacle shot out of the ground and whipped across the spear. It bashed it aside, deflecting it and sending the spear flying off to the side.

The scene was repeated a dozen time over in the next handful of seconds as again and again the spears were knocked to the side with an almost unbelievable ease. The attacks only stopping when the whipping steel began to accurately send the spears flying into the remaining Fallen that surrounded it.

It was when the attacks tapered down as the fallen tried to work out what to do that he struck back. Without warning, the entire mass of withering steel shot straight up in the air like geyser. It enveloped the Fallen that hovered too close, entangling then drowning them in its writhing metallic mass.

The mass of steel kept rising higher and higher in the air, forcing me to tilt my head back to keep it in my sight. It also kept getting bigger as more of the serpents from the sea of metal joined and fusion with the rising column. The sea of steel near my feet was drawn back like a tide, revealing the paved ground that was hidden beneath it.

When the upsurge of steel had finally reached its peak, dozens of yards upwards, the mass seemed to pause of a single moment, as if it were a giant beast pondering its next action, before it reversed its course and came surging back down into the earth.

Like the sprouting water from a fountain, it split as it reached its peak and fell down around. The once united mass of metal divided into hundreds of branches, thick pillars of steel, as it came shooting back down into the ground.

The Fallen tried to move, tried to run but they had not where to go. The skies above them was filled with living steel, and while those that tried to escape on the ground kept running and tripping over the mass of their fellow Fallen around them, having gathered up too close together.

Pillars of steel slammed into the ground by the hundreds, tearing through the bodies of the Fallen with ease. They filled every conceivable stretch of space, leaving no room to sand without touching one.

Dozens if not hundreds of Fallen were slain in that moment. Almost every Fallen on the ground that stood anywhere near to the Maou's Queen died. The only ones that survived the attack were those that stood even vaguely near to either the others Devils or even Irina, Griselda and myself. The attack avoided us by a large margin, leaving wide circles of open space around us.

I felt my eyes water, irritated by the dirt in the air, when a thin cloud of dust washed over me and I barley withheld the urge to break out coughing as I was forced to breathe it in. I looked around and instantly felt grateful that the air around me wasn't as bad as it was elsewhere.

The rest of the ground was filled with a thick clouds of dust and debris, having been knocked in the by the attack. When the hundreds of steel bars slammed into the paved courtyard it shattered the bricks beneath it, sending up its fragmented remains into the air.

It was thick too, preventing me from seeing anything more than a few yards away and I realized that this was probably what the Devil had intended. This was exactly the same situation that the Fallen had to face at the start. He had completely reset the battlefield back to beginning, only worse because this time over half the courtyards was clouded. He could be anywhere.

"Enough!" An angered voice called out. A six-winged Fallen quickly soared high up into the sky, before halting his ascent and glaring down at the field bellow.

"Everyone to me!" He ordered, "Take to the skies and bombarded him until he's dead." His eyes were filled with an unholy mixture of hatred and fury as he scowled at the veil of dust that hid the Devil, "And If he fires another one of his swords," A streak of light flashed into his hands as he conjured a spear of light, "just shoot it down before it gets anywhere near us."

There was a moment of complete silence as everyone absorbed his words, then the courtyard was filled with the flutter of wings as the Fallen took the skies. There were hundreds of them, easily a thousand strong.

Despite the losses they just suffered at the hands of the red-haired Devil they haven't lost any more than a small fraction of their total strength. And that fact couldn't have been made clearer to me than right now, as the entire world around me completely disappeared behind their raven wings.

They filled the sky, rising up from the ground like a swarm of locusts. Already the numbers the filled the skies were beyond what I could count and still they came, until even the moons and the stars themselves were hidden behind the pitch-black of their wings.

It was then, as my eyes followed the flight of the Fallen swarm as they soared to the night skies, that I caught of sight of Kokabiel.

He was perched on one of the peaks of the school building. He was squatting down, one hand place firmly on the floor before him while the other one was draped over his knee, as he looked down on over the courtyard.

It was like watching one of the gargoyles on the cathedral's roof. Completely unmoving, he blended in so well into the rooftop that it looked like he was carved from the stone of the building. I almost didn't see him, and if it weren't for his eyes I'm wouldn't have.

The only thing stone-like in those eyes were the coldness in them.

I felt my heart stop in my chest in and the air freeze in my lungs as I caught sight of them. They were terrifying. My body reacted on its own, moving several panicked steps backwards, trying to get as far away as I could from those eyes.

I must have caught his attention because the next thing I knew, those cold ice blue eyes turned towards me and -

ohmygodimgonnadieimgonnadiediediedierunIhavetorunjustrunawayorimgoingtodiediediedie- and looked away after a moment.

I couldn't hear a thing, the sound of my heart beating so painfully in my chest drowned out everything else. My breaths came out in short shallow pants and my throat felt painfully dry as I swallowed. I could feel myself shaking, my entire body trembling but I didn't move, didn't dare take so much as a single step in case I drew those eyes back to me.

What…What the hell was that? What happened to his eyes?

Even when we fought Kokabiel before, he when it looked like he was trying to kill us, there was something warm about him. When we traded blows it he was almost playful about it, not in condescending manner but as if he was truly enjoying himself and held himself back just to draw the fight out.

Back then it just made me angry. Insulted that after all my years of training, my countless hours of practicing with my sword, he saw my best attempts to kill him as nothing but a game, as if I were just a little child trying to whack my father with a foam sword. But now, now I no longer felt insulted, just grateful that he never decided to take me seriously.

Because if the price I had to pay was to look into those eyes, I didn't want to pay it.

I understood now, he was never trying to kill us before. When he attacked us he always held back, using just enough force to put us down without truly hurting us. Always using the absolute minimum to take us out of the fight.

But it was different now.

There was no restraint in those eyes, no hint of mercy, no holding back. This was not the Kokabiel that we faced before. The one filled with helpful advice even as he crushed us, who was disappointed in our failing as if they were his own. No, this was Kokabiel the Killer. Whose death toll in the Great War was so high that it was enough to mention him in Bible on that merit alone. The Kokabiel whose took a bunch of Low-ranked unexperienced Angels and turned them to a trained force that were feared and respected by friends and enemies alike. The one whose exploits in the field of combat has dubbed him a battle maniac.

And now that very killer has chosen the red-haired Devil as his latest prey, and there was no doubt in my mind that he was going to kill him. He will call on every scrap of power under his command, use every bit of battle knowledge and experience he has gathered in his millennia of existence, and every drop of skill in his body and bring it down on him.

That was what he was going right now. Perched like some great hawk on the ledge of the roof, he was watching his prey. Examining every attack, analyzing every detail, noting every strength and flaw in his form.

His face a cold detached mask while his glimmering blue eyes glinted like ice picks in the night gloom as they slowly drifted left and right as he scanned the battlefield for the red-head, and all the while he looked for potential weakness to attack, holes in his guard to exploit.

And when he's done finally done. When he collects every bit of information, analysis every data, thinks up plans and counter plans, and forge them in his minds into the tools he needed to win, he's going to descend on the battlefield and kill him.

A bright light caught my attention and I turned towards it, welcoming the distraction no matter what it maybe. Anything was better than looking into…those…eyes…

…Fuck my life.

As I started up into sky where the source of the light originated from I could not help but wonder if I had just jinxed myself. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse. I was wrong, Kokabiel wasn't going to kill us after all. We'll all be long dead before he gets the chance.

"We're dead." A voice off to my side coolly stated. The other male devil of the Sitri group seemed to have regained conciseness and he was calmly looking up at the sky as he lay spread eagle on the ground. "So dead."

They outshone the light of the long distant suns and have taken their rightful place as the night's true stars. They gleamed in its darkness, hundreds upon hundreds shinning jewels on a backdrop of black. From horizon to horizon they stretched, filling the sky whole, a painting of glimmering lights with the sky itself as the canvas.

A thousand and more spears crafted from the light of the planet itself hung above the skies of Kaou Academy. So bright that they illuminated the world beneath them with their light.

There before me stood the full might of the Fallen Host. Their tactics have failed, their Phalanx lay broken and so they have abandoned it. Instead they will lay to their enemy from afar, they will rain down death and destruction, and scorched the earth itself if they must to take down their foe.

This was the most basic attack for all Angels, Fallen or not. A tried and true method that was never replaced or abandoned since it was created at the dawn of time. That was because it worked, overwhelming the enemies by pouring down destructions from the Heavens until nothing but ruin was left behind.

And now we're about to experience its power first hand.

The six-winged angel who took command of the Host raised his spear over his shoulder as the rest of the Fallen around him did the same.

"On my call we fire as one." He commanded, his eyes never leaving the cloud beneath him. He cocked his arm back, "Ready!" The stars above us rippled as the entire swarm of fallen prepared their spears.

"Aim!" A thousand and more light spears shifted slightly in the grips of the Fallen, as they adjusting their lengths so that the tip of each spear was aimed at the courtyard bellow. And when the next command was given they will let loose the spear, raining death and destruction upon-

"Having seen the ending, I continue to walk down this road"

The words rippled across the battlefield, the undeniable weight it held gave pause to even the Fallen Angels high above. And as if they were pushed back by his words, the clouds of debris that hid from the Devil from our eyes quickly cleared, revealing…

The silence that fell upon the courtyard was almost deafening with intensity as every as every eye there gazed in wonder at what was they saw.

"He told me yes." The voice of the Sitri's heir drifted out a few seconds later in the absolute silence that had taken hold of the world, sounding just as shocked and disbelieving as I felt. "I asked him if he had a lot swords and he told me yes. Just yes. The jerk has been hanging around my sister for far too long."

They hung in the air, held up by invisible hands, by the hundreds, by the thousands they numbered. Enough to match each spear and more. They lined up row over row, spanning the width of the courtyard and still more kept appearing, conjured from thin air. Even the least among them radiated so much power I could almost feel it warming my skin like the heat of a bonfire.

Unlike Griselda or even Irina, I had no talent in sensing magic but I have always had an unnaturally good eyes for swords, sensing their nature far better than anyone Griselda had ever seen before. And I only needed a single glance to tell what masterpieces these swords were.

Swords with powers that could match the Excaliburs were made mundane as they hung next to swords so beautiful that I can look upon it for a day and night and still not have enough of its sight. Swords more pure than a mother's loved hung next to blades so hideous that I felt them stain my soul simply by the knowledge of their existence.

And still more came, filling the air with every passing heartbeat, all pointed upwards towards the Fallen host.

Now those swords straight out of legend, wielded by villains and hero alike, lined the air as they were brought to existence by the red-haired Devil that stood in the middle of it all. His golden eyes shone with an unmatched resolve as they locked onto the hate filled greys of the six-winged Fallen above him.

His spoke out the words just as the Fallen repeats his command, "Trace bullet-" / "Aim-"

""Fire!"" Their voice rang out as one.

From the Heavens they descended.

From the Earth they ascended.

And in between where the Heavens began and the Earth ended, they clashed.

===Chapter End======

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