Harbinger of Ruin: Ch.16

“Okay, Yuuto?”

“Yeah?” I asked as I looked towards Saji, who looked just as shocked and stunned as Issei did while Gasper sat patiently in his box while wearing a white shirt and a pair of blue bloomer shorts.

“Are you sure that's a guy?”

“What Saji said.” Issei muttered and I chuckled before looking at Gasper as he looked at us from behind his black sunglasses, the lower section of his face being covered by a black gas mask that had filtered sections to allow him to breathe.

“Gasper, are you a guy or a girl?”

“A guy.”

“And why do you wear girl clothes?”

“B-Because they're cute.” He answered with a shy shrug and I gave a thankful nod before looking at Saji and Issei, the former letting out a groan while the latter fell to his knees.

“Man, my luck is so crap~!”

“…Is he really sad over the fact that Gasper is a guy?” I asked as I looked at Saji, who pinched the bridge of his nose whilst shaking his head.

“With that guy, it's best not to ask too many question. Anyway, why the hell are we here?” He asked and my eyes widened slightly before I grinned and gestured for Gasper to come closer.

“Well, from what I hear, you two have dragon-type Sacred Gears, right? So, do you think Gasper could suck your blo-Okay, nope. Bad idea, I get it.” I muttered as Gasper vanished from my sight and looked out from his cardboard, turning back to the other two before rolling my eyes at their pale faces.

“Oh, don't look like that. You two have to get used to the pain anyway considering you're Pawns and the frontline fighters of your peerage.”

“You just asked us to let a vampire suck our blood out!”

“Firstly, he's a Dhampir. Secondly, you were about to let him do much more before you realized he was a guy.” I fired back and Issei went to respond before stopping in his tracks.

“…I'm still not letting him suck my blood.” He grumbled and I rolled my eyes before nodding as I looked towards Saji.

“So, are you going to tell me what your Sacred Gears are or not?”

“Nope, Sona said that we have to keep them secret for some kind of tournament later down the line.”

“…Seriously?” I asked as I looked towards Issei, who nodded as he crossed his arms in unison with Saji and grinned.

“Yep, so you don't get to learn anything.”

“Ah, and here I was about to teach you guys how to better use them in exchange for letting me know what they are, but I suppose not everyone wishes to impress the girl they like.”

“Whoa, wait! What do you mean by helping us impress girls?” Issei asked instantly and I hid my smirk as I saw even Saji giving me a curious gaze.

'Hook…'

“Well, if you had trained up your Sacred Gears and showed Sona the results, she might have felt impressed enough to give you a chance and the other girls would have felt impressed enough to start developing feelings for you two.”

“So, you'll help us? Just like that?”

'Line….'

“Yeah. Like I said, if you guys just give Gasper some of your blood to drink to help him gain further control over his Sacred Gear, then I'll help you guys get better control over your Sacred Gears.” I answered with a shrug and watched as Saji and Issei looked at each other before smirking as Saji nodded.

“Fine, but just a bit of blood.”

'And sinker. Man, this is too easy.'

“You won't even feel it.” I said as I lifted up two daggers, their eyes widening as I slipped past them while the deep gashes on their arms slowly closed back up.

Yet, instead of being surprised by the flash of pain, both Saji and Issei just looked at each other and back at me as I chuckled while slowly slipping their individual blood into vials.

“That felt…good?”

“It's called Lilith's Lullaby. Instead of causing pain, it heals and enhances the regenerative capabilities of every demonic being it cuts while also activating the pleasure senses and shutting down the pain ones. Essentially, you feel a slight bit of pleasure with each cut.”

“…You made that with your Sacred Gear?” Saji asked with wide eyes and I grinned before nodding, dismissing the daggers and closing up the half-filled vials before sealing them into my miniature pocket dimension.

“Yep, you didn't think I had ways to boost one's control over a Sacred Gear and didn't use them on myself, did you?”

“I mean, it kind of seemed that way.” Issei answered with a sheepish smile and I rolled my eyes while creating four golden rapiers in my grasps, throwing them in a square shape around us four before they watched as we were sealed off from the world.

“The swords themselves are called Boosters and this area we're in is the Devil's Playground. Essentially, your stamina and recovery rate is boosted by a factor of five in this small area and I can make it bigger at the cost of reducing the boost factor by one for every 9 cubic meter.”

“That…is pretty awesome.”

“Wait, does it also help you learn quicker or is it just cutting down your rest time?” Issei asked and I frowned at that before shaking my head.

“For now, it's just the latter as I'm having trouble figuring out just how I'm going to get the area to let people learn faster. I have a few ideas, but for now, getting to complete a day's worth of training in a fifth of the time makes it worth it. So, who's going to show their Sacred Gear next?”

“…You go first.” Saji said to Issei who nodded before he held out his left fist and clenched it, to which I raised an eyebrow at the slightly stronger aura he was exuding as well as the red fingerless gauntlet with golden spikes on the sides that covered his left hand.

“This is called a Twice Critical, right?”

“That's right and this is mine. It's called Absorption Line.” Saji spoke up while his left hand glowed and I turned my gaze to him right as the glow changed into a small black bracer in the shape of a small black chameleon-like lizard with a deformed face and violet eyes.

However, I was more impressed by the fact that his aura was nearly double that of Issei's, the latter not looking pleased as Saji created a blue line from it that connected to my wrist.

'So, it's just draining my demonic energy, eh? Not bad.' I thought as I felt my energy being drained and while it was a bit too slow to be of any concern, I can see how this would become a nuisance when fighting in conjunction with the other members of Sona's peerage.

“Not bad.” I spoke up as he disconnected the line and he looked smug while Issei scoffed before I walked over to the brown-haired boy.

“Give me your hand.” I said and he blinked before slowly holding out the hand with the Twice Critical out towards me, to which I placed a hand upon it before letting my demonic power flow through it.

“Trace…O-!”

“I would advise you stop what you're about to do, young devil.” The sheer presence of the voice rumbling in my head was enough for me to quickly rip my hand away, looking at it with wide eyes while ignoring both Saji and Issei looking surprised.

'…That can't have been…Nah, there's no way…'

“Ah, I must thank you for removing the seals that kept me from fully awakening.” The deep voice spoke up as Issei's left arm glowed and all three of us watched in shock as the gauntlet around his arm grew to cover his entire hand and forearm in a red claw-shaped gauntlet with yellow accents and numerous green inscriptions along its length.

“…I want what he got.”

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“So…let me get this straight. You three-!”

“Four. Can't forget about Gasper.” I cut in with a smile and Sona pinched the bridge of her nose as Rias simply smiled in amusement at my words while Gasper nodded.

“You four were training and then you decided to try something with Issei's Sacred Gear only for the Sacred Gear to shift into something else. Am I getting this right?”

“Y-Yes. / Yeah/ Yep./ Correct.” Gasper, Issei, Saji and I answered respectively and Sona simply looked at us before I looked to Rias as she spoke up.

“If I may ask, is this method you tried the same one you tried to do with Asia's Sacred Gear?”

“…There is a fair chance that it may have been the same thing.”

“Hmm, I suppose since there was no harm, then I can't be mad at you.” I smirked at her muttering before my head snapped to Issei as he spoke up.

“Just so that I can know, can anyone else hear the voice speaking to them or am I going crazy?”

“They will hear my voice only when I wish for them to hear it.” Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor sealed inside the Boosted Gear itself, spoke up with a scoff and both Rias and Sona slowly looked to me as I gave a sheepish chuckle.

“Hehe~ We may have forgotten to mention that Issei actually wields the Boosted Gear and the dragon sealed inside the Boosted Gear is fully awake now.”

“…Issei, Saji, Gasper, please leave.”

“Will do. / As you wish, Kaichou./ U-Um…okay.” Issei and Saji were quick to leave while Gasper only left after a moment of hesitance, nodding at Rias and I before quickly shuffling out the door with his cardboard box in tow.

“…Do you have any idea what you have just done?” Sona began as she sat down and I sighed as I nodded.

“I do, but in my defence, I was genuinely trying to help the three of them improve their Sacred Gears. I thought if I traced their Sacred Gears, I would be able to figure out just what parts they needed to improve on.”

“Well, your help resulted in my peerage now having a giant target on its back so thank you for that.”

“Sona, careful of your tone in how you speak to my beloved.”

'Not even on a date and I'm already the beloved? Damn, I am good.' I thought in surprise as Rias spoke up, Sona turning her gaze to her friend with a frown.

“Yuuto didn't have to ask your servants for help, but he did because he wanted to ensure his friends were capable of defending themselves or are you that jealous of the fact that it was my Knight that made your Pawns stronger and not you?”

'Oh, she's definitely still salty about the Issei situation.' I would ask her to be more mature…but Rias is as petty as they come and I'd rather her focus that energy towards Sona than to me.

“Hah, you're right. Apologies for my outburst, Yuuto.”

“It was completely warranted.” I spoke with a smile, ignoring Rias' disappointed groan while Sona gave a slight smirk and nodded.

“Good. As for my Pawns, I feel like I will have to cut your training with them short as I need to think on how to move forward.”

“Understood.” I nodded before turning my head as the door opened, smirking as Akeno walked in with a happy skip before humming at the second lady that walked in after her.

While not as blessed as Rias or Akeno in the chest department, the young lady was still stacked nonetheless as her white shirt struggled to keep its buttons from popping free, the girl's luscious black hair hanging loosely all the way down to her knees while light brown eyes stared at me from behind a pair of blue, semi-rinned square glasses.

“Hey, Tsubaki. How is your day going?” I greeted with a smile and she smiled before nodding as she and Akeno walked over to stand behind their respective Kings.

“It has been quite dull to be truthful.”

“Oh, are you not going to ask how my day went?”

“Rias already told me.” I answered as Akeno spoke up, to which she pouted and glared at her smug King while Sona sighed and shook her head.

“You can leave, Yuuto.”

“Got it. See you two back at home and it was lovely to see you for the brief time I did, Tsubaki.”

“The same to you, Yuuto!” Tsubaki greeted with a smile and I smiled back before walking out of the room, amused at the sight of Gasper waiting in his box while Saji and Issei paced in front of the room.

“You're okay?! What did she say?! What should we do?!”

“Issei, calm down before you have a panic attack.” I spoke up with a pat on his shoulders and Issei nodded as he took a deep breath while Saji continued.

“The idiot was a bit hasty, but I'm just as restless. What's the verdict?”

“Well, other than you guys now no longer allowed to train with me for the time being because she wants to figure out just what is up with your Sacred Gear, there wasn't anything else of note.”

“So…no spankings? No detentions? No essays? Nothing?” Issei asked warily before he gave a silent cheer as I raised an eyebrow and shook my head, slowly looking at Saji who shook his in turn.

“Trust me when I say… you don't want to know.”

“…I'll take your word for it. Gasper, are you going to teleport back to your room?”

“Yep. A-Are you?” He asked and I hummed before shaking my head with a smile.

“No, I think a nice stroll to the manor would do me some good, especially after I nearly got my soul eaten by a dragon.”

“I did warn you so you should be thankful for that.”

“Dude! Stop doing that!” Issei hissed as he grabbed his left arm that had a glowing emerald-green crest on the back of his hand and I chuckled as I patted Saji on the shoulder in greeting while nodding at Gasper when he teleported away.

Making my way down from the top floor and out the main door, I hummed under my breath as I started walking out the front gate and down the street to the Gremory Manor.

'Ah, a nice night for a stroll.'

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'I stand corrected. This is definitely not a nice night for a stroll.' I thought with a frown as I stood at the end of a street, looking at the other end of the same street where a grinning silver-haired man stood with a sword.

“I told you I'd be back for that ass~!” Freed Sellzen growled as he slowly raised the sword towards me and I frowned at the chill of fear rushing down my spine when I looked at the blade.

It appeared to be a rather long Kris-styled design with the blade being wide with a diamond-shaped gap near the hilt as well as having spike protrusions on both sides of the diamonds.

'That's Excalibur? The holy aura coming from it is far more potent than that of the regular Light Sword.' Even from the distance that was between us, I felt the hairs on my neck standing up as I watched the man snicker while slowly swinging the blade.

In the blink of an eye, Rho Aias appeared in my grasp and I held it up right as Freed went past me, my eyes slowly widening as I lowered my arm to see half of the shield-sword having been cut away by his blade.

The metal was still steaming and I quickly dismissed the shield-sword while ducking down with a spin right as he appeared in front of me and swung at my head.

With a simple thought, Holy Devourer's blade shone as it appeared in my grasp, quickly reaching up and grabbing Freed's arm before slicing down right as he vanished from my grasp and appeared on a rooftop above.

“Huh, not bad, little shitty devil. Not bad.” He muttered as he tapped against the shallow cut on the underside on his arm, but I didn't stay still as I appeared in front of him, Holy Devourer glowing as it overflowed with energy.

As I swung at his neck, I cursed as he vanished and appeared further away on the rooftop and as I went to pursue, I quickly shut my eyes and clamped my hands over my ears right as the flashbang he threw down exploded.

Shaking my head and blinking a few times to get my vision back, I spun back around right as I watched a blade draw closer to my neck, a Lilith's Lullaby growing out from the ground and forcing me to fall by stabbing through my knee right as I swung at his leg.

He was quick though as he leapt back in rapid succession before ducking down into an alleyway and as I rushed over while pulling Lilith's Lullaby from my knee, I sighed as I saw no one there and stood up with a frown.

Looks like the Kokabiel arc is finally happening.

A/N: And we kick off the next arc: Fallen Cadre of the Stars and his Holy Trinity~!

Valper and Freed are two of the trinity and as for the last member, you'll have to wait and see.

Also, as everyone can see, Kiba's blades are but fodder to the actual holy blades so it's time for our Knight to start working on his hax.

Another also, Balance Breaker will be revealed this arc and it won't be the Sword of Betrayer.

Oh no, it's going to be something completely different.

As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one…

Ba-Bye~!!