13)Voice of the Almighty: Ch.13

“Isaiah 40 verse 29: He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” As uncle Touji finished speaking, Issei's eyes widened as he felt a sense of energy flowing through his body as well as his Aura Sight increasing in intensity.

Looking at the others, he saw that they looked just as surprised as he did, but he was even more surprised to see a second golden aura wrapped around their white auras.

“That is what a Bible verse does. When used by one who truly believes in our Lord, the tongue becomes sharper and more powerful than the sword.”

“S-So, can…can anyone use those?” Siegfried asked after the auras around them faded away before they all looked disappointed as the man smiled and shook his head.

“Unfortunately, if that were the case, everyone in the Church would use these. The Verse chants can only be used by those that have been blessed at birth with the ability to do so. It is the one thing that cannot be learned even if one tries their best.”

“Does that mean I can do it?” Issei smirked as he heard Irina speaking and watched as uncle Touji shrugged while going through the pages.

“That is why we're here in the library.”

“To see if I can?”

“No, to see if any of you nine are capable of doing so.” He answered and she gave a sheepish giggle as she nodded, Issei watching as he stopped on a page before walking over to the end of the line where Siegfried stood.

“Read the third line. That is one of the easiest healing Chants that can be used by any beginner.”

“R-Right. Psalm 147 verse 3: He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Issei watched as he finished reading and he was not surprised by the lack of excitement from the boy as he remembered the Siegfried was more of a sword guy.

Uncle Touji simply smiled and nodded as Siegfried handed the Bible over to Nero, who frowned slightly as he began to read.

As he did, Issei could feel the boy's light shining for a bit before it dimmed and he frowned slightly as Nero just looked disappointed while uncle Touji hummed with a smirk.

“Psalm 147 verse 3: He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” As Asia spoke, though, Issei was surprised as he felt a wave of holy energy flushing over his body, the slight fatigue he felt from not sleeping enough vanishing entirely.

“Impressive, Asia. Well done!” Touji clapped with a proud smile and Asia gave a shy smile as she nodded and handed it over to Jeanne, who smiled proudly as she read the verse next.

However, Issei gave a sympathetic smile when nothing happened, patting the pouting girl's back and taking the Bible before blinking as the letters of the book began to frantically move about.

“U-Uh, Mr. Touji, is it supposed to be doing that?” Issei asked and both Jeanne and Freed at his sides looked at the book along with Touji only for Issei to frown as the man looked at the book and back up at him.

“What is it doing exactly, Issei?”

“The letters are…moving around, I think. They're not staying in one place.”

“Hah, that's to be expected. Issei, can you do something and repeat what everyone said?”

“Okay. Um, Rok heals faal brokenhearted ahrk gronne vok nun ahranne (He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.)” Instead of English, everyone was surprised to hear the strange language that came from Issei's mouth as he spoke and even Touji was a bit shocked as it was also not Enochian like he had expected.

No, this…this sounded far more guttural and primal, like the language that a beast of ancient times spoke when it was awoke from its slumber.

However, he was further shocked when Issei's words sent out a pulse of powerful and dominant holy energy in all directions, Issei watching as everyone's eyes turned glassy for a few seconds at the influx of energy rushing over their forms.

“D-Did I do something wrong?!” He asked as he quickly held the book out to Touji, utterly bewildered and concerned at what he had done while watching as Touji smiled and shook his head.

“N-No, I…just think that your voice might have amplified the power behind the words.” Touji said as he looked at the other kids and sighed in relief as all of them seemed to be doing fine.

'Actually, they're doing much better than fine.' Touji thought with a slight frown as he saw how everyone looked wide awake and energetic, as if they just woke up and ate a full breakfast.

Looking back at Issei, he sighed softly at the hesitant look on the boy's face and knelt in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder and making him look at him before Touji smiled.

“You don't have to feel bad. I should have realized that your powerful voice would boost the effect of the words somewhat. Also, it seems no one actually got hurt. In fact, I'd say everyone feels good, right?”

“Yep! It feels like I just ate five extra large gummy worms on my own!” Irina said with a happy smile and the others nodded as even the quiet Siegfried and Mirana looked as if they couldn't stand still, Issei taking a glance at each one of them before smiling with a nod.

“You good now?”

“I'm okay now, uncle Touji.” Issei spoke with a smile and Touji nodded before ruffling his hair, chuckling as Issei grumbled while swatting his hand away before turning to Freed besides Issei and handing the Bible to him.

“Now then, let's continue.”

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“All right. I believe that while we do not have the equipment to test everyone's Holy Affinity or your Marksmanship capabilities, but with the three tests we held today, we can at least figure out a rough estimation of where everyone fall on the class rankings.” Touji spoke as he turned to the whiteboard behind him.

Everyone had an intense gaze as they watch the man beginning to write their names, each of them focused on their own name as well as what they got in each of the three categories.

Class Ranking: Ex-Wire Class:

Weapon Mastery:
Xenovia
Siegfried/ Freed/ Jeanne
Irina/ Mirana
Issei/ Nero
Asia

Hand-to-Hand Combat:
Nero/ Xenovia
Siegfried/ Jeanne
Irina/ Mirana
Issei/ Freed
Asia

Chants, Tactics and General Study:
Issei
Asia
Mirana/ Jeanne
Nero/ Irina
Siegfried/ Xenovia/ Freed

“As you can see, the last category also includes general study and tactical capabilities, but since we have not held any test to let me gauge you all on those two topics, I've only taken the results we got from the Chants for that category. Now, is everyone satisfied with what they have received?”

“Yes, sir.” Isse said along with everyone else as he looked at his marks, noting that he was only in the middle of the pack in terms of Hand-to-Hand and Weapon Mastery even though Gramps tried his best to teach him most of the basics.

Him being first in Chants was not surprising even with the slight shock of him using some other language that only he could understand and speak despite watching Mr. Touji try and replicate the language.

However, he felt happy that he was at least good at the one thing that he was good at, shocking the pants off of people.

“Now, your training pistols along with the final piece of equipment will be brought here in a few days' time so until then…” The man trailed off as he reached behind his desk and Issei smiled happily while most of the others groaned as he pulled out a stack of textbooks.

Issei has never been so happy to see a Foreign Language textbook as he was now, eagerly taking it as he opened the book and began reading only to blink as uncle Touji cleared his throat with an amused smile.

“Issei, Mirana, Siegfried, let's wait until everyone has a textbook before we start reading.”

“Uh, right. / Of course/ S-Sorry.” Issei, Siegfried and Mirana apologized with sheepish smiles and giggles as they closed their books, the others giggling as Touji shook his head with a chuckle while placing the last book down in front of Freed.

“Oh, don't be. I love when a student has that enthusiasm to want to learn. Now, everyone open up page 1 and let's start with the first languages you all need to learn as exorcists: Italian and Latin.”

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“I see everyone is ready to finish off these tests, huh?” Touji asked with a smirk as he stood on the grassy field that is Castel Sant'Angelo's secret exorcist training grounds, the kids all nodding excitedly as they stared at the nine pistols laid out on the table in front of them.

Issei recognized them somewhat from the books he had read on guns, stuck on whether it was a Benelli or a Beretta since Italy was the main manufacturer of both guns if he remembered correctly.

“As you all can see, today we have the equipment needed for the marksmanship and Holy Affinity tests. Don't worry about the latter as I'll only show you what we're using for it when I'm testing you.” Touji said before smiling amusedly as they all groaned, picking up one of the nine pistols on the table to show to them all.

“All exorcists are given the standard issue Benelli B76 semi-automatic pistol to use alongside the standard issue Light sword, but since we both don't want you all to accidentally shoot each other or waste ammo, these have been modified to shoot these pea-sized paintballs.” Touji spoke with a smile as he picked up one of the loaded magazines, making sure to go slow as he loaded the gun and pulled the slide back before letting it go.

“Now, everyone, this is a very important step. Make sure you disengage the safety on the back-left of the pistol, aim at your target and fire. Now, put on your noise-suppressors.” They all quickly did as he asked, Issei watching as the man aimed at the target in front of him with one hand before unloading twelve paintballs rapidly at it.

He was in awe as the man hit the middle of the target with five of the twelve paintballs, the other seven having just barely missed the centre and hit the spots all around it.

“And that, kids, is how you shoot your target. Now, everyone step forward and here you go, Xenovia.” The man spoke with a smile as they all took off their ear-muffs, Touji handing Xenovia the pistol he was using and feeling proud at how carefully she took it from him before gesturing for everyone else to get closer.

“Okay, now for the more finer parts of owning a pistol. First, make sure there are no bullets in the chamber left before you reload or else…well, let's just say you don't want your gun to jam in battle. First, everyone, push the button just behind the trigger to release the magazine and then pull the slide back a few times to make sure every bullet is gone. Once you're absolutely sure there's none there, pick up a loaded magazine and load your gun just like I explained.”

'Pull the slide back rapidly.' Issei thought to himself as he quickly did just that, marvelling at how comfortable the gun felt in his grasp before reaching forward and picking up a magazine to load the gun.

He then listened intently as uncle Touji showed them the best position to shoot from, the best breathing pattern he's figured out to help them shoot more accurately as well as how to firmly grip the pistol so it didn't fly out of their grasp and give them a bullet to the skull.

Finally, he spread them out in front of the targets to make sure no one hit the same target before moving to the side, putting on his ear-muffs and raising a hand to tell them to get ready before he dropped it.

Issei felt his mind dimming out everything around him the moment uncle Touji dropped his hand, his eyesight focusing intently as he stared at the target before the gun sang as he rapidly pushed down on the target.

The next moment, he blinked as he heard the gun click, focusing on his target only to be surprised and ecstatic at the fact that all twelve bullets had hit the target dead-centre.

“Not bad, Issei! Mirana, Freed, you two did incredible as well!” Issei heard him call out and looked at the respective people's target to see Mirana having hit ten out of her twelve 'bullets' while Freed had hit nine.

Surprisingly, Asia had also hit nine of her twelve 'bullets', but one of them was on the outer ring while most of the others had hit five to seven.

Well, most not including Xenovia and Siegfried, who not only got only four of their 'bullets' to hit the outer rings, but they also managed to hit the ground behind the targets more times than they did their actual target.

“…I can see why you two are more skilled with close-quarter combats than long-range combat. That's okay, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.” He spoke as they all put the weapons and their ear-muffs down on the table, smiling as Siegfried and Xenovia gave disgruntled nods before a golden crest appeared under each gun.

The next, Xenovia and Siegfried were the ones excited as the guns vanished and were replaced by sword hilts, but Issei was curious as he saw numerous sigils engraved on the sides of the hilts that he could read.

' Bind, Redirect and Blade Extend? Are those supposed to mean something?' The boy thought with a frown as Touji let them each pick up a hilt before whistling loudly to get their attention, shaking his head as some of them gave him sheepish grins before he spoke.

“Now, before anyone gets too enthusiastic, these are your weapons for your time here at the school. You will train with these day in and day out and after graduation, if need be, you'll be able to trade these in for a better and more powerful Holy weapon. However, that weapon will only be given to you all if and only IF you show that you are mature and powerful enough to handle it. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!” They all nodded and the man smiled before gesturing for them to hold out the swords with the pommel pointed towards them and the side where the blade usually is pointed outwards.

“Now, activating the blade is pretty simple. For those of you used to feeling your Holy energy, just fuel that energy into the blade and it should activate. For those of you that aren't, think of the happiest memory you have while the Lord was on your mind, whether that be praying, doing a good deed or just feeling blessed throughout your life in general.”

'So, the times when Gramps helped me access my aura, right?' Issei thought with a frown as he focused on the usual feeling he had to when he wanted to enhance his aura sight, Touji raising an eyebrow as he felt the potent Holy energy Issei was exuding.

However, he was not ready for streaks of blonde hair to appear on Issei's head as a bright golden blade grew out from the sword's hilt, Xenovia frowning slightly as hers was just a bit dimmer than his despite the fact that she's been training intensely to use her Holy energy since a young age.

'I suppose that's what being the hybrid son of an angel means for one.' She thought with a sigh as everyone dismissed the blades when Touji raised his hand to make them stop.

“Good work, everyone! For today, you all can rest, walk around or just enjoy the Castel Sant'Angelo, but tomorrow, we shall begin with your first day of training. Oh, wait! Everyone except for you, Issei. Don't worry, you're not in trouble.” The man added as Issei gave him a worried glance, smiling as the boy let out a relieved sigh before they waited as the rest of the class went off to do their own thing.

“So…what did you need me for, uncle?” Issei asked and Touji smiled as he gestured for him to follow, the boy just confused before shrugging as he followed the man to the front of the building.

“We were going to wait for a bit, but since he's just three years younger than you and since he kept asking to meet you, we decided that the two of you meeting might not be the worst of ideas.

“Uncle Touji, who exactly is 'he'?” Issei asked as the two of them turned down a hallway that led to the front entrance, the boy a bit confused at the young blonde-haired boy with dark gold eyes as well as the pretty woman in a gold and blue dress standing besides him with a smile.

“This is he. Issei, meet Teodoro Legrenzi, the second successful hybrid child born between a human woman and an Angel father, and his mother Antonia Legrenzi. Teodoro, Antonia, this is Issei Hyoudou, the only other Angel-Human hybrid in the world.”

“…Say what?” Issei asked in shock and the other hybrid boy giggled as his mom simply looked amused while Touji burst out with laughter.

'Why didn't anyone warn me about this?'

A/N: And this chapter is done~!! Don't worry, Teodoro is still too young to have joined them as an exorcist so it's going to take a few years before he trains to become one.

Also, this chapter was supposed to be part of the previous one, but I got too tired to write the previous one so I decided to just continue it here and end off their first week in Castel Sant'Angelo.

Next chapter, talking with Teodoro, timeskip and first exam!!

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

Ba-Bye~!!