26 Angels and Men.
"We need you to stop the Angel Fall spell nya~" The idol girl stated.
It didn't take long for them to give their true identities.
The idol girl is Touma's friend Motoharu Tsuchimikado a spy for various organizations and the other girl identified herself as Misha Kreutzev a Russian Orthodox Magician.
"First, Say 'Nya' again and I will smack you. Second, why do you think I'm the one who cast the spell?" Alex asked.
Motoharu shrunk back a little as he spoke again.
"The spell seems to be focused in this area....and you seemed like the most likely caster all things considered….." He said meekly.
"That…..does make a bit of sense. But no, I did not cast the spell." Alex said bluntly.
"My First Question: Why are you not affected?" Misha suddenly spoke up.
"My Second Question: Why are those around you not affected?" She said again quickly. Her voice very monotone and mechanical.
Alex eyed her.
He held out his hand and allowed a golden ripple to open and have a familiar dagger drop into his hand.
"It's called Rule Breaker. It can sever magic on contact." He said bluntly.
Those on the scene were a bit shocked at his explanation. He hadn't told even his group what the dagger was and what it did.
"…..thats a very powerful weapon….." Motoharu commented. He heard the rumors and the reports regarding this man. Some of the absurd things that had happened around him so he was willing to take his explanation at face value.
"But that also doesn't explain why the spell seems centered around this area. Was there anyone else unaffected by the spell?" He asked.
"Touma wasn't effected." Index suddenly spoke up without thinking.
In an instant Misha had lunged at him with what looked like a saw.
Alex moved at the same time and caught the weapon as he stared at the girl.
"No, we're not doing that." He said as he snapped the weapon with his hand.
"Explanation: Killing the caster will stop the spell." She said as she met his eyes.
"He is not the caster." Alex replied.
She just continued to stare at him for a further expalantion.
"He is an Esper, and even on the off chance he was a hybrid like that brat that just showed up, a spell of this magnitude would have killed him instantly. Also, his Esper ability negates all supernatural phenomenon so it would be impossible for him to actually cast the spell without his ability screwing with it." He explained.
Misha considered his explanation and backed down as she moved to the side.
"I never told you I was both an esper and a magician…." Motoharu said as his eyes narrowed towards Alex.
"I know a lot of things." Alex replied offhandedly.
Motoharu was about to respond until Alex suddenly turned his head towards the side of the house.
"I believe we have another visitor, one moment please." He said as he suddenly vanished.
They heard some shouts as Alex came back around dragging an odd man with him.
He started to struggle and shout incoherently, constantly mentioning something about an 'angel'.
"Misaki, if you would please?" He said towards the girl.
She understood his intent and delved into the man's mind.
A few moments later Misaki shook her head, a bit disorientated.
"He's...…insane to put it bluntly." She said.
She had been inside the minds of mentally insane people before, his mimicked those very closely. It was always a bit nauseating to experienced and left her a bit disorientated afterwords.
"See anything regarding the spell?" Motoharu asked.
"No, there's nothing regarding magic at all." She replied. She also forcefully shut his brain down and put him in a mini-coma in the meantime. He was a criminal that escaped from prison and they would have to eventually turn him back over to the police.
"This is getting weird." Mikoto said.
"You said that the spell is centered here and it has to be someone that hasn't been changed, right?" Kaori asked. She was a magician, but her specialty didn't lie in the analyzing of spells or in the domain that Angel's fall takes place.
"Yeah" Motoharu replied.
"Touma's father.....he's not effected and there should be no reason he isn't." She said suddenly.
It was almost right on que that the front door opened and Touma's father walked out.
They all turned to look at the newcomer.
Touya Kamijou. His face wasn't wearing an expression of confusion at the current situation. He appeared to understand what was going on.
"Dad…..?" Touma said towards his father.
Touya didn't answered, his look was mixed with shame and regret.
"You are the caster...aren't you?" Index asked.
He didn't answer again but the look on his face showed a clear answer.
"Why dad?" Touma asked in confusion.
"I wanted to help you...Academy city was doing nothing to solve your problem, so I dabbled in the occult." He finally spoke.
Touma had been plagued by misfortune all his life. Everyone in his home town had dubbed him the god of pestilence or a god of calamity as anything bad that happened was always centered around him.
Touya hoped that Academy city would solve the issue so he allowed his son to live there, but they too could do nothing to solve the issue.
Their residence sat on a couple of intersecting leylines and Touya had been collecting many occult artifacts over the years. This combination is what caused the spell to come about.
"You would do this to the whole world?" Touma asked, his voice getting shaky.
"If it meant my son could live a real life then yes. " Touya said bluntly.
"Dad....i am living my life. I've always had bad luck, but that doesn't mean nothing good happens to me. I have friends...and people I care about things I would never trade for better fortune." Touma said.
Touya was about to respond until a high compressed blast of water was suddenly shot at him.
Alex moved to intercept the blow.
He stared at the origin.
"Are you finally going to reveal yourself?" He asked.
Misha's eyes began to glow a strange color.
The group stared at Misha after hearing his statement, confused to what he was talking about.
"The spell was called Angels fall, so have you all wondered where said angel was?" He said with a hint of a smile.
They stared at Misha in shock, trying to comprehend what he had said.
"The spell will end when the caster dies...…I wish to return to heaven." Misha stated, her mechanical voice ever present.
Wings began to sprout behind her, sharp crystals formed by condensing the liquid in the area.
Before she could attack again, Alex moved.
He donned his armor and brought forth his Invisible air.
He swung the blade.
"Strike Air: Hammer of the wind king"
A torrent of compressed air shot forth at the angel who brought her wings infront of her to block.
The collision blew her back dozens of yards.
The others stared at the quick exchange between the two.
"I'll take care of her, Kaori make sure no one gets hurt." Alex said.
The saint just nodded as she brought out her blade.
As he finished speaking, he walked off towards the direction that the Angel was blown towards.
The sand around the area had been displaced and a small crater was formed around where she landed. No visible wounds appeared, a testament to her level if she could withstand a blow from the activation of his noble phantasm, even if it was barely one.
He stared at the Angel who also looked back.
There were no bystanders around so he could let loose for the first time in a very long time.
He desired this on some level. A battle that could get his blood flowing as he had been holding himself back for far too long.
She wasn't at her full power as if she came to the world a different way. If she was, Alex would probably lose the fight as he was now. But he should be able to match her with both of their deteriorated states.
The Angel made the first move as one of her Crystalline wings extended and shot forth towards Alex.
He ducked and move forward as the wing shot past him, he swung his blade up to cut off a large chunk and moved towards the angel.
As he closed in, several more wings sprung into existence and shot forth.
Alex's hands and blade blurred as he swung to meet each wing with a swing of his blade. Every time a wing shattered, another formed and shot forth.
The crystalline wings began to coil around him and attack from all angles.
"Strike Air: Hammer of the Wind king" He called out as he swung his blade again. It was a bit different than the torrent of air he usually fires out. This time he let the compressed air out in all directions and fire off like a mini-hurricane.
The wings were blown away and shattered as they met the intense winds.
The Angel took this chance to shoot up into the air to gain some distance.
She began to Chant.
"Values: 40, 9, 30, 7. Total is 86."
"Respond. Mem, tet, lamed, zayin."
"Oh water, form as a Holy snake, and strike through like a sword."
It was a similar spell as the one she initially fired off at Touya, only many times more powerful.
A water projectile that was not unlike a snake was closing in fast towards Alex.
He held up his hand as a golden portal opened up before him.
"RHO AIAS" He called out as the purple transparent flower shield formed up infront of the oncoming spell.
As the spell met the shield, the sky was split between the cascading purple light and blue light at the collision.
A few layers of the shield were destroyed before the spell finally dissipated.
While the shield was very strong, its focus was on thrown projectiles. It held the concept of blocking all thrown projectiles. Since it was a spell that was fired, it merely became an exceedingly strong 7 layered bounded field.
Alex looked up at the angel.
There was silence as they both were staring at one another.
Angels in this world were not supposed to have emotions, not supposed to have wants or desires. Yet this one wanted to go back to heaven and was currently displaying an emotion that he could only attribute to annoyance.
For how little she had been in the mortal world, it apparently had affected her. It was probably a combination of the worlds laws and being thrown into the body of the girl she currently inhabited.
She didn't merely take the form of someone else, she took their true body and exhibited several quirks that the owner held.
The silence didn't last long as she spread her wings and hundreds of crystalline shards were fired off at Alex.
He merely smiled as hundreds of golden ripples opened up behind him and fired off projectiles to meet them.
The crystals were not very strong, barely even able to match an [ E ] Rank Noble Phantasm before shattering.
The nameless Noble Phantasm continued through all the crystals as the Angel brought her wings forward to block any that came her way.
A few moments later after the hail of projectiles, her wings unfolded.
A few small cuts appeared on her body but she was wholly unarmed.
It appeared as though her wings could be strengthened if needed as the same wings he had cut down earlier with ease had managed to block blows that should have easily shattered them.
He didn't give her time to recover as he used his Invisible air to unleash a torrent of wind behind him that allowed him to launch up at her in the air.
Her eye's widened a bit as he swung his blade down overhead as she brought her wings up to block again.
The collision caused her to be shot down back into the beach below as he also fell from the sky.
As Alex landed on the ground, more crystals were shot out from the kicked-up cloud of sand. He swung his blade to meet each one and as the last one was destroyed, he noticed the Angel burst through the cloud of sand and swing one of her wings at him at high speed.
He moved his blade in front of him to block as the blow sent him reeling back dozens of yards.
Alex coughed up a mouthful of blood as he stood up.
"Felt that one." He said with an amused expression. He was not expecting a blow that strong all of the sudden.
"You are Gabriel are you not?" He asked towards the Angel, though he knew the answer already.
The Angel just narrowed her eyes a bit.
"Your control of water gave it away." He said with a smile.
"Are you human?" She asked, her voice still monotone and Mechanical.
"I am." Alex replied.
"You should not have been able to block that blow. I infused Telemsa into my wing. A human would have died from that." She said bluntly.
"And yet I still blocked it." He replied. Though that wasn't to say the blow didn't do damage. He felt like one of his ribs had cracked and maybe some minor internal bleeding. If she was at full power that would have easily killed him.
He was mentally going over his current options regarding her. Enkidu wouldn't work, she wasn't a true divine spirit nor did she have any divinity even if her origins were divine in nature. He had plenty of options to outright kill her, but there was the matter of the real bodies host being stuck inside there with her. He couldn't in good conscious kill that innocent girl while there were still options available.
He was trying to incapacitate her. Maybe drain her supply of mana and force her to concede to a different approach.
"There are other ways to end the spell, we could destroy the ritual site and that should send you back." He said.
The angel didn't respond.
Alex could only shake his head. He couldn't really convince her or argue the other options. Regardless of the Angel taking on human aspects, she was still a being that was unable to understand them.
In her eyes, the best solution was to kill the caster that was right infront of her, the loss of life didn't matter.
He readied himself again as he watched her quickly take back to the skies.
She raised her hand as an obscene amount of mana began to coalesce around her.
The sky began to change.
Celestial bodies became warped, Lines of blue filled the sky as a spell circle covered everything.
"You would destroy half the planet so you could return to heaven?" He asked in disbelief.
He knew she had the spell, but to actually see it deployed and use it...it was shocking.
"I will return to heaven." She stated bluntly.
"At the cost of how many lives?" He shouted in anger.
"Irrelevant." She replied.
He noticed a severe drop in her aura, her mana was probably running low at this point. To cast such an absurd spell most likely took all of her reserves. Even with the ridiculous amount of mana she funneled, it was hard to believe this spell would take hold. It probably had more to do with her Authority as an Archangel.
"Then I will destroy this spell." He declared.
"You are only human." She replied, dismissing his threat as nonexistent.
"Then I will show it to you...the Glory of Humanity." He said as the wind began to unravel from his blade.
The spell was focused on their location. The origin point, the 'eye' was right above them as it centered around the full moon above.
The Angel looked at the light that was revealed. The others that were watching from a distance were stunned as the area turned bright.
A warm light engulfed all in the area.
He held the now naked blade infront of him.
"Seal 13 Decision start." He said as the world turned silent.
They appeared once again. The ghostly forms of his knights from a long gone age. The presence they shown demanded respect even though they were not real.
"I Bedivere Declare, The enemy is more powerful and release my seal."
His focus was on the spell itself. The spell was of a cataclysmic level. It would destroy quite a bit of the planet and not even Alex would survive its activation.
"I Lancelot Declare, The battle is not against an elemental and release my Seal."
It was a bit of a cop out for most situations. One rarely found themselves fighting an elemental.
"I Mordred Declare, The battle is one against evil and release my Seal."
A spell that would destroy half the planet was no doubt evil even if that was not the intention of the caster who did not know better.
"I Galahad Declare, the battle is not one for personal gain and release my seal."
It was simple. There was nothing for Alex's gain in releasing his blade except for the protection of others.
"I Gaheris Declare, the battle is not inhumane and release my seal."
There was nothing inhumane about destroying a spell that would kill innocents.
"I Kay Declare, the battle must be to live and release my seal."
Yes, if the spell continued then Alex would most likely die. It was rare that he had the opportunity to release this seal.
The last seal would be his own for his blade truly showed its power when the planet was threatened. A spell of this magnitude would deal a devastating blow to the planet.
And so his blade sung.
The motes of lights began to dance as the whole city was bathed in its warm light.
The miracle that was held within shined brightly as the torrent of light burst forth from his person. The wishes of humanity forged into a single miracle known as [Glory].
"I Arthur Pendragon Declare, This is a battle to save the world."
Words that shouldn't have been heard over the torrent or winds that were kicked up due to the sheer power the blade exuded were heard clearly.
He held the blade down and to its side as it began to glow so bright it looked nothing more than pure light.
He swung the blade upwards towards the spell that covered the sky and declared to all those who could hear.
"EXCALIBUR"
The massive beam of light covered the entire city as it shot up towards the spell in the sky.
There was no resistance as it was pierced by the holy light. Starting from its epicenter, the remainder of the spell sequence began to shatter around the world.
It took a few moments for the effects to finally clear as the sky returned to normal around the world.
Gabriel was no longer in the sky but had fallen to the ground during the blast. Her wings shattered once again but did not reform.
She layed there, in the crater that formed from her decent, and still stared up into the sky.
She could not understand.
It was not supposed to be possible.
It was not logical.
It went against everything that she knew as an Angel.
A human was not capable of THAT.
Alex was a bit further away after the light began to die down and Excalibur returned to normal. He let out a long breath. The activation still took a lot out of him.
He wasn't low on Prana yet, but he was getting there.
He walked over to the edge of the crater where she still layed,not moving a muscle.
He sat down on the edge and looked over to her.
"You lost." He said bluntly.
It took her several moments before answering.
"Yes." Was all she said.
"We will destroy the ritual site to end the spell." He said.
"Okay." She replied just as stoically and mechanically as before.
It wasn't so much an admittance of defeat as it was recognizing the best option. She still did not understand what she was doing was 'wrong'. She was incapable of understanding. She merely thought the best option had changed due to the fight.
It was best to get this creature out of the mortal world and return her to heaven.
Alex got up and left the Angel.
He needed not continue to watch over her. She would not lie, she would not trick, it was not in her nature. Her words had been enough to agree to his statement.
He met the eyes of the others who were looking at him in hesitation. He let out a mental sigh at the conversation that was going to take place after revealing himself.
"....you beat an Angel." Kaori said, still a bit shaken by the recent battle.
"I did." He replied.
"….Are you truly…." Kaori was about to ask as she was suddenly cut off.
"I guess I should reintroduce myself." He said as his demeanor changed.
"When I lived normally, I took up the name of Alexander Penn. But in an era long past, I was known as Arthur Pendragon, the King of Knights." He declared.
He caused them all to be speechless.
It was understood on some level. He was supposed to be dead by their history. He was a legendary figure that almost everyone in the world knew of and he was standing before them.
They all looked like they wanted to say something but he spoke first.
"Before we have this discussion…..we have an Angel that needs to go home. I don't know where your residence is Touma so could you please give me directions?" Alex asked towards the boy.
"It's a bit far away, how are we supposed to get there?" Touma asked, wondering if he had some kind of teleportation spell or something.
"We're going to fly." Alex replied.
"I don't think there is an airport in this city and its not far enough away to warrant a flight." Touma said in confusion.
Alex didn't answer but a very large golden ripple opened up near them infront of the beach house.
What appeared could only be described as some type of 'plane'.
It was Vimana in all its glory, adorned with gold and gems.
Did he need to take this ship out to get there quickly? No, but he had wanted to try it out since he found it in the gate and he already revealed himself, what was something like this?
Of course the kids came along. Though there was only one seat for the 'driver', it had an interesting effect that those who were standing on it wouldn't get thrown off or anything of the like even if he flew upside-down. They were essentially anchored to it while the ship was moving.
It didn't take long at all to reach the house with the speed that the ship could fly.
The sound of them screaming as they shot off into the distance was a sight to behold.
Unfortunately, they had to essentially blow up the entire house. If they tried to remove the 'pieces' that comprised the spell, there could be side effects that they were not prepared to deal with so they had to 'remove' everything in one go.
It wasn't very hard, Kaori had enough at her disposal and without any rush she was able to blow up the entire place with ease.
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When they returned to the beach house, Touya had told them that the Angel had disappeared and the girl who's body she had inhabited left as soon as possible.
The people around the world had returned to normal as well by evidence of Touma's sleeping mother and Motoharu returning to normal, the former of who Touya had slipped sleeping pills when he realized what was going on. He didn't wanted her up and about to deal with the issues he caused.
Both Touma and Touya were currently standing on the beach having a long over-due talk while everyone else were sitting on the porch.
"Alright, lay it on me I know you lot held back for awhile now." He said towards the group.
So they bombarded him with questions, it wasn't every day one got to talk to a living legend. So he told them his story during his time as king.
They were a bit surprised when he said that Merlin was a woman and half succubus. He spared them some of the more 'adult' stories that seemed to follow that eccentric woman around.
He even told them about his final battle and how his kingdom fell. It was a bittersweet feeling. After the long hours of questions, the kids had finally made their way off to bed as he sat alone outside.
He felt a familiar tugging feeling once they destroyed the spell at Touma's house. It wasn't as immediate as when he was in percy's world or the fate one. It was a bit gentler, a reminder that he was almost done.
He took out his tablet and turned it on. There was now a timer showing on the screen, he had about 2 hours remaining before he was forcefully recalled, or he had the option of returning right at that moment.
"You can come out." He said towards the surroundings.
A familiar form walked out from the shadows.
"What do I can for your Mr. Spy." Alex said towards Motoharu.
"The world is going to learn of your existence." He said bluntly.
"Yes, they will." Alex replied.
"Are you not going to do anything? You could go back to England, rally every magic cabal there under your banner, take the throne and even have the backing of the church. You could rule again." He said towards the former king.
"My time as king is done. There is neither a desire nor a need for a relic like me to return to the throne." Alex said, his expression a bit saddened as he recalled some of his more painful memories.
There was silence as he spoke again.
"You are probing me for my intention, yes?" Alex asked.
The spy just nodded, there was no use in hiding it.
"Then tell them what I said, what occurred here. But also tell them my warning." Alex said as his expression turned serious.
"Tell them what wrath of mine awaits them if they dare to harm those I care about."
Motoharu shivered a bit as fear ran up his spine at the comment. It was not a threat but a promise of destruction that would follow.
He didn't answer as he turned to walk away.
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as the minutes ticked away under the moonlight.
There was only a few minutes left when the door opened and two figures walked out.
"Couldn't sleep?" He asked
The two nodded their heads as they sat down next to him.
It was Touma and Index.
"I have to leave soon, my time here has come to an end." He said
They were both a little stunned at the suddenness of his words.
Index started to tear up as she looked at him.
"….you're going to leave me?" She asked quietly.
Alex didn't answer but he wrapped up the little nun as she began to cry in his arms.
A crying Index is a critical hit.
"I will return." He said as the girl began to calm down.
"And besides, didn't someone else promise to protect you?" He said with a smile as he looked over at the blushing Touma.
As the nun finally let go, her stood up and face Touma.
He held out his hand and Touma grasped it with his own.
"Protect them Touma." Alex said.
"Of course." He said with conviction.
At his words, Alex finally started to dissipate.
"Until we meet again." His words echoed out as he finally disappeared.
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Alex opened his eyes and he was in a very familiar black room.
A certain individual sitting at the table opposite of him with an inviting smile.
"I have quite a few questions." Alex stated.
"Yes, there is much to talk about." Mr. Black answered.
