97)The War Begins

All around Vatican City, chaos & terror reigned as civilians frantically tried to make it to the numerous safe house entrances that led to the evacuation centre under the city while the exorcists tried their best to protect them.

High up above the city, the sky was tainted red as a gigantic barrier sealed it off from the rest of the world, blazing infernos raining down upon the city like hellfire as a dozen winged-beasts roared while trying their best to destroy everything in their path.

This was the image Rias, Sona, Jesus and their entourage was greeted by as they exited the cathedral, a frown on Rias’ face as she watched the dragons rampaging through the Church’s headquarters before turning as Jesus spoke.

“Strada! Find Griselda and make sure the citizens of the Vatican make it safely to the evacuation tunnels! Irina, you do the same with Xenovia, please!”

“As you wish, your Lordship! Come, Irina!” Vasco barked out as he threw off his priest cloak, everyone watching in awe as the scarred yet still muscular body of the old exorcist finally bathed in the scarlet light of the barrier before he reached into a pocket dimension.

Before Rias & Sona could blink, they didn’t even see him move as Vasco lunged into the sky, watching in awe as the brilliant blue blade of Durandal II shone brightly before a dragon was cleaved cleanly down the middle.

However, they along with Jesus frowned as the two halves of the dragon swiftly regenerated, watching as two new dragons were born from the corpse.

‘It knows Healing Magic? No, Dragons don’t try to learn any kind of support magic unless it can make them stronger and even then, I don’t think that Evil Dragons are capable of using Healing Magic with the rage & hatred that cloud their minds.’

“It did not heal on his own.” She turned as she heard Sona speaking, looking at her friend to see an analytic look in her eyes as she stared at the two dragons flying around right before they were both cut in half once more.

Watching as the two dragons now became four, she nodded before turning to Irina just as she decided to start running after Vasco.

“Irina! Tell Sir Strada that the dragons are not living beings! They are flesh puppets made in the image of dragons! If you find the caster and take them out, the dragons will no longer be a problem!”

“Right!” Irina nodded before rushing away, Sona taking a deep breath before smirking as Rias had an impressed look on her face.

“Not bad, bestie.”

“I must say the new generation continues to impress me. Well done, heiress Sitri.” Jesus spoke with a smirk, to which Sona gave a thankful nod before turning to Tsubaki.

“You ready?” She asked, everyone watching as the Queen scoffed before Rias’ & Jesus’ eyes widened as violet flames enveloped her form & Gáe Bulg appeared with an azure flash in her hands.

“Ready.”

“Then go.” Sona ordered while pointing at the dragon charging towards them, to which the Queen nodded before unfurling her wings & rocketing through the air, pulling Gáe Bulg back as the dragon neared her before flipping out of the way and swinging the spear downwards with a shout.

“Incinerate!” She exclaimed as Gáe Bulg pierced into the beast’s hide, everyone watching as a monstrous explosion of purple Holy flames consumed the beast, Tsubaki quickly disappearing & reappearing besides Sona with a flourish as the dragon she fougth slowly fell to the ground.

However, she frowned as the wounds on the beast healed, watching as it stood up while shaking its head before readying herself as the beast looked at her with a malicious glare.

Before it could attack, she was surprised by a deafening boom and a bright flash of neon blue light, a beautiful storm of blue lightning raining down upon the beast like fireworks before smirking as she felt Akeno standing still besides her.

“Can’t leave me to fight my own battles, can you?” She spoke with an amused smirk, to which Akeno simply gave a giggle while a pair of devil wings & four pairs of black-feathered wings appeared on her back.

“Why leave you to take care of the fodder on your own when the two of us can do it together? Rias, you, Sona & Lord Christ should head over to Sir Strada.”

“Your Queen speaks the truth. The sooner we take care of the puppet master, the sooner this all can end.” Jesus spoke with a nod as he began jogging around the dragon, Sona & Rias looking at the confident & determined looks on their respective Queen’s face before Sona sighed while Rias giggled & nodded.

“Good luck, you two.”

“Thank you. Now, go!” Akeno exclaimed while rocketing high into the sky, with Tsubaki racing across the ground like a violet blur before throwing Gáe Bulg at the dragon’s head, drawing its attention away from those leaving & back onto her.

“Come on, big guy! I’m right here unless you’re too...scared?” Tsubaki mocked it with a smirk as she held out her hand, making it screech in pain as Gáe Bulg ripped a chunk of its flesh away while returning towards her.

Watching as the beast took a deep breath, Tsubaki simply smirked as a giant lightning bolt flew into its mouth the moment it tried to breath out fire, the dragon’s eyes widening as the combination of demonic flames & holy lightning reacted with a brilliant explosion.

“Well, this might be fun.” Akeno spoke with a smirk as she floated to stand next to Tsubaki, who nodded as she held her spear before frowning as she looked at the sky to see four more dragons dive bombing towards her with the others quickly on their way.

“Capture them! They don’t have to be in one piece, just alive!” Tsubaki was surprised as she heard one of the dragons speaking before frowning as she processed the beast’s words.

“I guess we know why they’re here.”

“Which means that someone told them Isaiah’s Azathoth’s loved ones is coming here beforehand. Hah, just when I thought there couldn’t be a spy.” Akeno muttered before shrugging as she flew up into the sky, Tsubaki swiftly following after as Gáe Bulg began to drum with power.

As the beasts neared them, Akeno smirked as she dropped back just as Tsubaki rushed past with her violet flames, pulling her spear back before throwing it as high as she could into the air & confusing the dragons.

However, Akeno smirked as she watched her friend up a blazing stream alongside the spear before disappeared & reappearing in front of the attacks, Tsubaki smirking as the air in front of her began to shimmer before a large oval mirror with a beautiful golden edge appeared in front of her.

“Mirror Alice: Reflect!” She chanted just as Gáe Bulg and the flaming attack touched the mirror, smirking as both attacks sunk into the mirror before Gáe Bulg shot out like a crimson bullet & completely obliterated a dragon’s chest while the stream of fire fell down from the sky like a curtain.

“Heavenly Judgement!” Not one to be outshined, a large Gremory crest appeared in front of Akeno as she sent out a barrage of sharp lightning javelins, the crest glowing brightly as the javelins travelled through it before the sky in front of her was lit up by hundreds upon hundreds of thunderbolts bombarding into the dragons from below.

Both girls kept up their attacks before Akeno teleported towards Tsubaki as she finished her attack, the girls watching as the dragons fell onto the thankfully empty streets below before Tsubaki sighed & Akeno groaned as all of the damage from their attacks vanished if it was never there.

“Hah, hopefully Rias & the others are close to finishing this off.” Akeno muttered as sparks travelled around her body, Tsubaki nodding as the two girls stood ready just as the beasts stood up & got ready to attack once more.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Rah!” On the other side of Vatican City, Xenovia roared as she swung her Durandal at the dragons, cursing as her attack simply cut its head off & made it regrow into two different ones.

“Not enough power, Xenovia!” Vasco exclaimed from where he was fighting four others, his Durandal overflowing with Holy Aura unlike Xenovia’s and she watched as the man swung his sword down at one of the dragons & completely destroyed its entire body with that one attack.

‘Right! Okay, listen here. I know we have our differences, but you need to start working with me here.’ Xenovia spoke to her blade before gritting her teeth as she merely felt its boredom, looking down at the blade at the blade before exclaiming as she swung it at a dragon trying to attack from behind.

However, she miscalculated as she had only cut off its right legs, the beast grinning widely as it opened its maw and a scarlet glow shone from its throat.

“Nebula.” Fortunately, today was not her day to die and her eyes widened as a pair of water tentacles pulled her out of the way while a tidal wave raced past her & into the beast’s throat, its fire breathing cut off as the beast began to choke & gag on the hundreds of liters of water that kept itself stuck in its throat.

However, its suffering was not long as dozens of icy spikes stabbed out all over its body, the beast freezing before its existence was deleted by a reddish-black sphere of corrosive energy that was nearly as big as its head.

“Man, we almost didn’t make it.” Rias spoke with a sigh of relief as she landed next to Xenovia, Sona nodding as her water tentacles placed Xenovia on the ground while Vasco nodded in thanks towards Jesus as a quick blast of his Holy energy completely obliterated the four dragons around the exorcist.

“Thank you, your Lordship.”

“No need for the thanks, Sir Strada. I thought Irina would have been here.” As if on cue, Jesus’ eyes widened as the ground in front of them exploded, watching as Irina groaned while pulling herself from the crater.

“Irina! What happened?!” Xenovia exclaimed as she rushed over to her friend, who simply gave a tired giggle while her holy sword hung loosely in her right hand.

“W-Well…I was…making it here…and then…she showed up.” She said while pointing behind Vasco, who turned around only to sigh as a slightly torn-up Jeanne D’Arc walked towards them with a holy rapier in her grasp.

“Jeanne, it’s good to see you in good health.” Vasco spoke with a smile as he turned to face her and Jeanne gritted her teeth.

“Oh, is that so? You didn’t seem to think so when you kicked me out of the church, Your Eminence Strada.” She spoke with a mocking bow, everyone watching as Strada sighed while rubbing his temple.

“That was because evidence was presented of you being allied with Valper Galilei and the Cadre Satanael, evidence that was given to us by your own master or did you forget?”

“Oh, don’t worry. That old bitch Quarta is going to get what’s coming to her.”

“Do not speak of my mother in that way, witch!” Xenovia growled as Durandal pulsed with Holy energy, Irina looking just as mad as her usual carefree smirk was replaced by a cold glare while her Holy Blade shone brightly.

“Now, now. Let us not gang up on the sweet innocent witch like this.” A new voice spoke up and everyone looked up before Jeanne’s eyes widened as she leapt back just as Xenovia missed cutting her in half, the girl quickly rushing away from the battlefield with Xenovia & Irina quick on her heels.

“Well, at least we won’t have to worry about accidentally killing our ally.” The visage of Satanael spoke with a smirk as he floated down towards the group, but Jesus frowned as he noticed something different from the Cadre as he landed a few paces away from them.

‘His energy is vile.’ Usually, Fallen Angels would have an energy signature that felt holy yet tainted with an unsettling feeling at the same time.

Now, however, Satanael’s energy felt nauseating as it radiated off of the Cadre, the holy atmosphere of the Vatican being corrupted the moment his energy touched it.

“What did you do?” Jesus spoke, drawing everyone’s attention while Satanael chuckled as he took his hands out of his pockets and shrugged.

“Oh, it’s not what he did. It’s what I did to him.” ‘Satanael’ spoke while clenching his fists, their eyes widening as dark brown scales grew to cover his arms & half of his face while the ground below him cracked as golden tree roots grew from the ground.

“We…were right. The Khaos Brigade are using the bodies of their fallen enemies to resurrect the Evil Dragons.” Jesus muttered, making Rias & Sona spin to look at him in shock while Vasco sighed as he shook his head.

“To desecrate a body for your own selfish desires…he may have been my enemy, but he did not deserve such a fate.”

“Didn’t he?” Then what would you say about the body I’m in?” A new voice spoke from besides him, Vasco turning before freezing as his eyes widened when a young man walked out of the shadows.

Dressed in a torn priest cloak with black pants & a tank top visible from under the cloak, the man looked to be gleeful at Vasco’s expression as bright silver eyes shone with malice while long black hair fluttered in the wind.

“M-Masaomi?” Vasco whispered as he watched the body of his star student walking out of the shadows, to which the man grinned while holding a holy katana in his grasp.

“Strada-sensei. It’s been a while, huh?”

A/N: A short chapter, but with it…the war begins!!

Next chapter, battles all around!

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

Ba-ye~~!