16 Resilience

Adam was now in his room sitting on a chair while Mikasa was sitting on the bed.

"So what do you want to talk to me about?" Mikasa asked after getting impatient.

"Right, about that, I wanted to let you know what happened between me and Sona over the weekend," Adam said without trying to beat around the bush.

He then went over what she needed to hear. When he was done he expected her to get mad but instead, she just had a lifeless look in her eyes.

"Hey, are you okay!!" Adam asked.

"Uh, y-yeah I'm fine I just need time to think about something," she told Adam. She then got up and left the room.

Adam was left in the room feeling confused. It was the first time he had ever felt this type of feeling. 'Is this what people call guilt?' he thought to himself. After a while of mopping around in the room, he decided he would go outside and mope around town.

Now that there was no one left to shake him out of his thoughts Adam was left to overthink by himself as he walked in a straight line nonstop.

-------

The next day came and Mikasa went to school for the first time without Adam. She believed that he was just busy doing things he needed to do.

As she walked into school with Asia she caught sight of Sona and some people in a robed outfit talking to each other. She didn't know how to feel looking at her right now but she wasn't in her normal state so she decided it'd be better to not talk to her right now.

"Asia, I'll be leaving for class, take care". She didn't wait for a reply and simply left for her classroom.

"I pray that everything is fine with them," Asia prayed. Immediately afterward, she got a sharp pain in her head. "Ouch!!" she screamed out while holding her head.

Once the pain was gone she saw people were staring so she decided to leave to class before she got more embarrassed.

The day passed and Mikasa was still trying to figure out her feelings towards the situation at hand. She was about to leave home but was stopped by someone.

"Mikasa where's Adam?" the person asked.

"Koneko?" She saw it was Koneko who had blocked her way. "I don't know. I haven't seen him since yesterday. I'm sure he's just dealing with his business. Why? did you need him for something?" Mikasa said. Whenever Adam was the topic of the conversation she had a habit of speaking more than usual.

Koneko was already used to her talking more than usual so she was fine with the changes. "The President wanted to thank Adam for his help in yesterday's events so she asked me to ask him to go with me, but he wasn't in class today," Koneko said.

"I'm sure he'll be here tomorrow so you can ask him then. Now, I have to go find Asia before she gets lost" Mikasa said in a hurry but then remembered that Asia would be doing club activities now. "Nevermind, take care of Asia for me, and make sure she gets home," She told Koneko.

"Understood" Koneko simply said.

Now that she was walking alone home Mikasa was overcome by a sense of loneliness. She had forgotten what it was like to be alone since she always had someone with her whether it was Adam or Asia. She shook her head to get rid of those thoughts and made her way home. Once she arrived home she went to the backyard to distract herself by doing some training.

In Issei's house, there were two strangers currently sitting and talking with his mom.

Issie got chills as soon as he walked it. When he went to investigate who was making noise in his living room. He then found out his childhood friend who he had believed to be a guy was there and another girl with blue hair.

After making small talk he left upstairs to his room and saw was grabbed by someone. It had turned out to be Rias.

He was then told that the people who just met were sent by the church and were holy sword wielders.

The next day Mikasa wanted to talk to Adam but was only left disappointed when she walked into his room to find it empty.

She walked to school with Asia like every other day. The day went on with Mikasa getting a feeling of anxiousness. She knew it wasn't possible but she started to think Adam had just abandoned her.

By the end of the day, she was leaving for home so she could distract herself with her training but as she was leaving the school grounds she sensed something similar to Adam's holy swords. Believing it was him, she ran at full speed to the place where she felt the energy coming from.

Upon arriving at the place where the small amounts of energy were coming from she saw that it was the ORC building but didn't find it weird. She made her way inside and slammed open the door to the office only to be disappointed when she wasn't able to see Adam there.

"Oh my, what's wrong Mikasa?" Akeno was the first one to ask

"Sorry, I had felt holy energy and thought Adam might be here," Mikasas said in a disappointed tone. Since Adam wasn't there she decided it was time to bounce but was stopped by the blue-haired girl that was there.

"Why is a human being friendly with a devil? and how did you know these were holy swords?" She asked. She was grabbing Mikasa by the shoulder so that she wouldn't be able to move.

"You don't need to worry about that. Also, don't grab me". Mikasa wasn't in the mood to let a random person question her.

"Please forgive her, she is just a very straightforward person. Could you tell us if you've seen one of these weapons before?" The browned haired girl with twin tails took her friend's hand off of Mikasa.

"My b" Mikasa briefly stopped "My Friend has used some of them in the past," she said.

"A holy sword user? This is helpful information" the blue-haired girl said.

"Maybe he might be a natural user like you Xenovia," the brown-haired girl said.

"Or he might know where the holy swords we are looking for are Irina," Xenovia said. "Anyway we'll be leaving now. Also would your name happen to be Asia Argento?". Xenovia asked while looking at Asia.

"Ah yes, that would be me, why?"

"I thought it might be you, so you really are the witch," Xenovia said in disgust. "You also turned to a devil, do you even believe in God anymore?" she asked.

"I-I" Asia was shocked by the fact that someone was calling her a witch, she didn't like to think of herself as one because she didn't think she had done something wrong.

"It's funny seeing a Saint become a devil but if you still believe in our God then let us execute you at once," Xenovia said as she took a hold of her weapon.

"I'll need you to stop playing around if not then I'll have to deal with you, myself," Mikasa said as she placed her hand on Xenovia.

"Hmm? Is that a challenge for the church? You might be a human but that doesn't mean I won't be able to harm you".

"I can't have you treating her like that, because she is someone Adam decided to save and take care of, so I will also protect her," Mikasa said, not even faced by her threat. "If Adam was here then he wouldn't hesitate to go against the church," she said.

"Adam, he must be very powerful, it's kind of weird since I've never heard of him so stop dragging other people into this" Xenovia said.

Everyone looked at Xenovia like an Idiot but they were also not sure about how Adam would respond since it was an entire faction they were talking about.

"This is good, I'll help her with that as well," Kiba said. He had been acting weird since he saw a picture of a holy sword.

"Then I guess we can have a spar, that wouldn't strain the relationship between our factions". Rias was the one who suggested this.

With all of them agreeing they made their way outside to fight. Mikasa was paired up with Irina and Kiba was with Xenovia.

Once they were ready Mikasa summoned her sword and kept it in the sheath. She then got into a position to fight. Irina was surprised by the fact that she could summon a sword but didn't find it too weird since it wasn't that rare.

Irina took out her Excalibur Mimicry which had the shape of a katana and began swinging it in Mikasa's direction. She was trying to end the fight as soon as possible because she didn't want to waste her time fighting a human.

Mikasa wasn't having any trouble pairing off the strikes, both of them were evenly matched with their speeds but Mikasa's skill with a sword was better than Irina's skill was.

Catching her off guard Mikasa struck her in her ankles hard enough to cause Irina to lose her balance.

Placing the sword in front of her Mikasa said, "I guess I won, so much for a holy sword". She then unsummoned her sword and watched Xenovia fight against Kiba. 'She's stronger than this girl' Mikasa thought to herself.

Xenovia was able to overpower Kiba easily since it was an unfair match-up from the beginning.

"You weren't all talk after all. Well, we'll be leaving now, come on Irina, get your stuff" Xenovia said.

"Do you actually not know where Adam is?".Once they were gone Rias asked Mikasa.

"No, I got angry at him and left him alone. I haven't seen him since then" Mikasa said.

"I don't like asking people for help, but I'm sure we will need his help with what is going to happen, she said that a leader class fallen angel is behind all of this".

-----

The next day in the afternoon Adam was still walking and he hadn't stopped since that night. He was knocked out of his thoughts when he bumped into someone.

Looking up Adam was confused since he didn't find any place he was familiar with. "Where am I?" he asked himself.

"You're in our way, that's where you are weirdo!" someone screamed at him.

Looking up he saw a group of men surrounding a single girl. She had a school uniform on and had brown pink hair. Adam could tell that she was terrified by the situation so without thinking he chopped the back of everyone's neck knocking them all out in a second.

"You're alright now, you can be on your way," Adam said and was about to return to his thinking but was stopped by a pull on his shirt.

"I don't need any thanks. Hm?" he saw that the girl wasn't talking but doing sign language.

Adam understood what she was saying 'Thank you for saving me' she said.

Adam then replied 'No problem, now have a nice day',

'Wait!! Can I at least know your name?' she asked.

Adam introduced himself and was ready to leave but was stopped again by the girl.

'My name is Shouko Nishimiya, are you alright' she asked

'I'm fine you don't have to worry about me' he said while showing his hands to prove his point.

'Not that, you seem to be absent minded, is everything alright?' she asked.

'Ah well you don't have to worry about me, it was just a problem with a friend of mine' he said.

'You can talk to me if you want' she said happily. She had never had a chance to talk to someone that wasn't her family for this long.

Adam then thought it'd be a good idea to get help from a normal person. So he sat down on a bench with Shouko and told her what happened. He started with his relationship with Mikasa and ended it with how he ended up where he is now.

Shouko was ready to give normal advice but was stumped on how she could help him. He seemed to be lacking something everyone else had but she can't pinpoint what it is. 'Why don't you try talking to her again, maybe she came up with an answer and you guys will be able to fix it' Shouko said, it was the only thing she could think of at the moment.

'Do you think she'll want to talk to me though?' Adam asked.

'Of course, that's what I would do' she said with a confident smile.

'I think you're just too nice Shouko, hahaha' Adam laughed.

'Don't laugh at me' Shouko said with a pout.

Adam continued to laugh at her antics. 'Thank you for cheering me up Shouko. I think it's also time I head back home' Adam said.

'Do you have to leave already?' she asked while looking down. She hadn't enjoyed being with someone in a long time.

'Unfortunately, I do have to go. Here is a parting gift drink this' Adam said while handing her a bottle with a red elixir.

Shouko looked at the bottle confused. 'Drink this?' she asked.

'Yes, drink it. Here take this as well, it's my phone number if you ever want to talk to someone you can call me' Adam said.

Shouko didn't understand what he meant but decided to trust Adam and she drank the bottle. She got a slight pain in her head and screamed.

She felt something was wrong but then it hit her that she was able to hear her scream. Looking around she didn't see Adam so she searched for the paper he gave her and was able to find it.

"I ken here," she said out loud. She then realized whatever she had taken had cured her deafness. She then ran home while thanking Adam in her head the entire way there.

Adam was watching her as she ran away with a smile. His actions were cut short by a blade flying towards him. Dodging it Adam looked in the direction it came from and saw a golden-haired teen with red eyes looking at him mockingly.

"I was finally able to catch you out of that devil infested town and the annoying house of yours. Now tell me who you are mongrel"

"You're kidding me," Adam said to himself. "How were you able to track me?" Adam had to ask.

"I felt a weird connection forming a couple of years ago. I've also felt weapons that belong to me being used. They feel like they're mine but at the same time, they're not. I thought it might have been a servant like me but to my surprise, it was a human using my abilities the whole time. Too bad your fun has to end now because I have decided I would kill you. Be glad that you have been chosen to die at the hands of me" Gilgamesh boasted as he formed gates all around him

"I'm sorry to ruin your fun but I don't plan on dying just yet," Adam said as he made the same amount of gates as Gilgamesh.

They both shot the weapons at each other at high speeds but they all connected in between them.

"Why can this fake use my gate the same way I can" he was starting to get annoyed that Adam didn't die immediately. Deciding that he would go all out he opened up hundreds of gates surrounding him and shot the weapons at higher speeds.

Adam opened up the same amount of gates and shot them so that they'd intercept all the other weapons. The explosions from the weapon impacts were destroying the surrounding buildings. Adam saw what was happening and decided he would take the fight to an unpopulated location.

Running in the opposite directions from Gilgamesh Adam was trying to find anything that would help him identify where he is. Once he found out where he was he ran in the direction of the nearest mountain.

Gilgamesh saw him running away and knew exactly why he was doing it. But instead of chasing after him, he began to shoot the buildings near him. " I don't chase after people, good luck trying to protect all the peasants ahahaha!" Gilgamesh was laughing while causing destruction.

"What are you doing?! Aren't you supposed to be acting discreetly?" Adam asked, confused by Gilgamesh's actions.

"Be glad, I found you to be a threat to my future plans. It doesn't matter if people discover me if it means I can kill you Mongrel"

"Isn't that completely backward thinking? Your plans will get ruined anyway once you're discovered" Adam said while still shooting his own weapons to block Gilgamesh's.

"if no one is alive to say anything then I don't have to worry about anything, it's very simple you mongrel, now die," Gilgamesh said. He was getting annoyed by the fact that he couldn't kill the imposter.

Both of them continued their stalemate for hours; Adam blocking all the swords coming towards him and the city, and Gilgamesh trying to kill Adam while also distracting him using civilians as hostages.

-----

At Kuoh, Issei, Kiba, Saji, Koneko, Xenovia, and Irina were fighting against Freed and Valper.

They were about to be defeated but they decided to retreat with Kiba, Xenovia, and Irina following behind them.

"Hey wait for us!" Issei called out./

"Not so fast" two voices called out from behind them.

"President" both Issei and Saji screamed at the same time with clear panic all over their voices.

"I think it's time for some punishment," both of the girls said,

In the mansion, Mikasa was feeling really worried right about now. Adam had never gone more than a day without contacting her. She decided on placing her trust in Adam and hope he comes back safely.

---------

The next day Adam and Gilgamesh were still running rampant around the town, both of them had yet to exhaust even a small fraction of the weapons that were kept within the treasuries.

Adam was now just waiting until Gilgamesh uses Ea, once he does he would use it as well. After Gilgamesh uses his trump card then Adam would try and go in for the kill, it would be better to get rid of him while he only has to deal with one opponent.

Their battle had turned most of the town into a wasteland, it had even garnered the attention of nearby Magus but none of them were brave enough to try anything.

Back at Kuoh, Rias's peerage and Sona's peerage found a barely alive Irina. Mikasa was also with them since she had been getting a bad feeling since the morning and decided that it'd best to stay with other people.

Sending back the injured Irina with Tsubaki, Issei and Saji were going to start a conversation but were interrupted.

"I managed to catch all these devil scums with my trap," someone said as he came out of the bushes.

"Freed!" everyone exclaimed at the same time. They all got into their fighting stance since they already knew what he was capable of.

"Calm down guys give me a chance to speak," Freed said in a panic.

"What do you want?" asked Rias.

"My boss wants to speak to you," He said while looking up.

They all looked up to find a tall pale man with ten black wings floating in the sky.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, the little sister of Sir Sezchs. You both really do look familiar it's infuriating"

"Nice to meet you as well, leader of the fallen angels, so what can I do for you," Rias asked.

"Well, it would be nice if you could let me kill you" Kokabiel responded.

"What will killing me get you?" Rias asked

"You and this town will be the catalyst for another war. That is all I've wanted from the beginning. I stole the Holy swords in hopes that Michael would chase me down for them, but instead all I got was a half-assed response" He said while getting angry. "Oh yes, and your little friend won't be able to save you guys like always" he added.

"Friend?" Rias asked in confusion.

"Yes, your friend. The human that has been assisting you recently. I was warned by some of my sources of his power. I had wished he was here so I could deal with him unfortunately, he was seen leaving this town a few days ago. I believe he has been in combat with the same person for over a day in a town far away from here or what used to be a town hahaha" Kokabiel laughed at the fact that someone beat him to destroy a town. "Well they're currently evenly matched, but I've sent one thousand of my finest fallen angels to get rid of that human while he's busy" He was having the time of his life with all the things that he was going to accomplish.

"What?!" Mikasa began to panic. She knows that Adam is strong but she hasn't seen him have to fight an opponent for any longer than a couple of minutes. "W-where is he?!" she asked with desperation.

As he was about to answer, an earthquake hit the entirety of Japan followed by two red beams shooting up to the sky.

They could see the sky looked like it was shattering and could still feel the ground shaking, the two red beams then fell towards each other but they didn't see any clash until they looked to their left and saw a red explosion go off inside a blue dome.

"What was that?!" Issei asked

"Now we don't have to worry about those two monsters anymore" Freed began to laugh

As Adam was still fighting Gilgamesh he was beginning to grow impatient, most of the town had already been destroyed and Gilgamesh looked like he wouldn't stop having fun any time soon. He tried his best to keep the casualties at a low number but it wasn't the easiest thing to do.

Gilgamesh was also getting impatient, the battle had taken longer than he wanted and it got more attention than he could handle. " I didn't want to have to use this against someone as low as you but you have proven to be worthy of it. Now behold my sword of Rupture" he said as he pulled out a golden key from a gate. Once it was out he turned it like a normal key and streaks of red ejected from it upwards. The digitized streaks then pulled back into the key, making a handle come out of it. It was decorated with ruins all over it, the blade of the sword was actually a cylinder that was separated into three rotating parts.

Adam was waiting for this moment so he also summoned the same weapon from his own gate. Once he touched the handle Adam felt his consciousness fading a bit but managed to stay awake. 'This weapon really was only made for one person' he thought to himself.

"You even have this eh? It's not like it matters anyway. A fake will always be inferior, try your best for me will you mongrel" He said and began chanting "I shall perform this final blow as a parting gift to you!" "I will tell you of the beginning. Heaven and Earth split, nothingness congratulated creation, my Sword of Rupture cleaved the world!"

"Mortar of the stars, heaven's hell is the eve of creation's celebration. Now you shall die and be silent..."

"Enuma Elish!"

The beam that went up to the sky from the chant fell on Adam

Adam repeated the same chant to counter it, but he knew the damage would be catastrophic to Japan, especially the citizens of the town they were in so he chose to teleport them both to the island Adam always used. With his own beam in the sky Adam brought it down towards Gilgamesh "Enuma Elish!" he said as used his magic to teleport them.

The two beams connected and they immediately reacted to each other by going off and blowing up the entire island. "Fuck it's not enough!" Adam yelled. The only choice he had was to trap the explosion in a barrier, so using his mana Adam erected a barrier with the explosion and him inside of it.

"BOOOM!!!" everything was destroyed within the barrier. Only a little bit of the energy came out of the barrier but it was enough to create shockwaves that would reach around the world.

Once the light cleared up there was nothing but water left where the island used to be. There was also a single body on top of a plank in the middle of the water. The body had a giant hole in its stomach and it was missing one of its arms.

"cough" "cough" Adam was coughing blood as his body regenerated slower than it normally does. "Ah that really doesn't feel good," he said while grabbing his missing stomach. "I need to get back," he told himself but stopped when he saw what was waiting for him. In front of him, there were at least one thousand flying fallen angels. "How? Why are there fallen angels here" he questioned but remembered the reason Azazel was at Kuoh. "Dammit I need to return" he tried to teleport back but his magic and mana weren't working.

"I see our leader was correct about you. You are a monster, we're going to have to kill you" the fallen angel with the strongest aura out of all of them spoke.

'I guess I won't be able to use any weapons' Adam thought to himself as he got into his fighting stance as best as he could with only one arm and a hole in his stomach. "Are you going to fight me or keep staring haha 'cough'" Adam said as he continued to cough up blood.

The more rash out of the bunch were easily provoked and rushed towards Adam at full speed only to get their heads kicked from their bodies.

"I don't have all day guys," Adam said while jumping in the air to attack the fallen angels that were still flying.

Adam was able to fight off the entire battalion but suffered wounds at the hand of weapons that would have normally only scratched him. The weapons were still impaled inside of him since he hadn't gotten a chance to take them out. " I need to get back," Adam told himself as if he was trying to hypnotize himself. His legs began to run on autopilot as he ran on water towards Kuoh while he was half-conscious.

"NOOOOOO!" Mikasa yelled when she saw the giant explosion. "Why did I leave him alone?" she asked herself in a solemn tone.

"Snap out of it Mikasa!" Rias yelled, "He's not dead, you have to believe in him"

"Right, he'll come back," Mikasa said while getting her thoughts in order.

"Good luck with that. I'll be starting with your school and then go for the town" Kokabiel said and flew towards the school. Freed just followed behind him while using his Excalibur to give him even more speed than he already had.

"After them," Rias ordered.

They all sprinted towards the school and arrived a little bit after them. But it was enough time for them to fuse the Excalibur pieces forming a stronger holy sword.

Sona and her peerage placed themselves around the school forming a thin barrier around it.

"You guys got this," Sona said while looking at Mikasa, Rias and her peerage.

"Leave it to me," Issei exclaimed.

Once inside the school grounds, they saw freed wielding the newly forged sword. They were all surprised by the power it had. Kiba then came out of the forest towards Freed and began to fight with him, that's when Xenovia joined in and helped him

Kiba was able to forget about his past and move on while making his holy and devil sword. Xenovia was able to take out Durandal to help him defeat Freed. It didn't take long for their combined force to overpower the fused Excalibur and break it.

Freed was still alive but Kiba was focused on Valper who was rambling on about God and the Devil King, before he could continue he was impaled by a light spear. "You were too smart for your own good Valper"

Valper wasn't able to say anything and died on the spot without ever being able to witness his dream.

"Now it's time I start the war, maybe the angel's leader will die again." He said.

"What did you say?" Xenovia who heard him asked.

"Oops my bad, well it doesn't matter. I'm trying to start a war anyway, God has been dead since the last Great War" He said while laughing like a maniac.

Everyone who heard him was paralyzed by the news. Xenovia was hit the hardest since she was one of the most devoted to God.

Kokabiel saw an opportunity to land a hit on the Durandal user so he aimed a spear to her head. Mikasa was watching Kokabiel closely so she saw that the spear was aimed towards Xenovia. She ran towards her so that she could try and save her but she wasn't able to lift both Xenovia and her sword which she was holding on to for dear life so Mikasa was caught in the crossfire of the spear.

Before the spear could land a hit on her it was stopped by something else.

Everyone looked in the direction and all they could see was a body covered in blood with wounds that would have killed anyone including devils.

"Ugh! I'm glad I was able to make it back on time 'cough!'" Adam said while coughing up more blood since he had a spear coming from the whole that was already in his body.

"Adam what happened to you?! Where were you?!" Mikasa immediately asked.

"I was lost in my thoughts and I ended who knows where. I was then caught off guard by a guy that had been looking for me. After I had dealt with him I was ambushed by a group of fallen angels that had been ordered to kill me by that clown over there" He said the last part while looking towards Kokabiel.

"What did you call me?" Kokabiel said, angered by how he was described by Adam.

"Forget it, I'm killing you anyway. Mikasa hand me your sword" Adam ordered.

"Yes," she replied immediately. She summoned the sword and handed it over to Adam.

"Azazel won't be able to save you now" Adam mockingly said as he felt someone flying in his direction. He quickly placed the sword in his hand and slashed with all his strength towards Kokabiel. His slash was so quick that it seemed as if it had disappeared to everyone else.

Kokabiel thought that he had missed but that thought was taken over by a complete feeling of dread. His body was split into two perfect halves a few seconds later.

Vali, who saw that Kokabiel died before he was able to reach him, was mad at the person who had killed him. But at the same time didn't really care as much as being able to meet his rival.

He landed on the floor and looked straight at Issei. "We'll meet again, be prepared for our future battles Red one, so get stronger than you are now because as you are you'd never stand a chance," Vali said and flew off with Kokabiel's corpse.

As soon as the last threat disappeared everyone was to relax.

Mikasa sprinted towards Adam who was still in position for another slash but once she got close she noticed that he wasn't moving. "Adam?" Mikasa asked worriedly.

She tapped his shoulder to get his attention but only got more panicked when he fell to the ground.

"Rias, get someone to help!" Mikasa screamed.

Sona was the closest person with the most magic so she got close to Adam to check his injuries but was only shocked by how bad the injuries were.

"What happened to you, Adam? Who did this to you?" She asked with clear panic in her voice.

"He told me that he was caught off guard. The explosions and earthquakes that were going on earlier were because of his fight. He usually heals immediately but I'm guessing the last explosion did this to him."

"Heal from all his injuries?"Rias overheard the conversation.

"That can wait for later, let's take him to his house so that he can rest," Sona said.

No one had any problem with that choice So they made their way to Adam's house with mass teleportation. Sona left the school reconstruction to Tsubaki. Tsubaki didn't say anything and let her friend do what she wanted just this one time.