Ch13: The real monsters lurking in the dark

(MC pov)

If one was to consider the supernatural factions of the Japan world, you can say that there are 3 main forces. First, the Shinto gods of Takamagahara, under the leadership of Amaterasu, Susanoo and Tsukuyumi. They are the figure head of the country and the whole supernatural world of Japan follow their orders.

Next is the Japanese Yōkai, they are divided into two factions. The West Yokai faction, also known as the Kyoto Youkai Faction, are a group of Youkais led by Yasaka. The members of this faction mainly resides on the other side of Kyoto, called Urakyoto, which is an alternate dimension created in a similar way of Devils Rating Game fields. The other faction is known as the East Youkai Faction, also known as the Kanto Youkai Faction, are another group of Youkais led by Nurarihyon. They mainly reside in the Kanto region of Japan, close to the 5 Principal Clans.

And lastly, The mentioned above, The Five Principal Clans, they are five powerful clans composed of Shinto mystics who possess a divine connection to the Shinto gods and have served them for generations. All their members from ancient times have been blessed with supernatural powers over one of the five elements also regarded as the Five Phases, which is apart of their respective clans due to both their fervent faith and strict worship in Shintoism.

In addition to the power of the Five Elements and Eastern Magic of Shintoism, the five clans have command over the Five Sacred Beasts with the strongest members of their respective clans inheriting them and their names. However, those who haven't been blessed with those powers from birth become outcasts and exiled from their respective clans. Certain menbers such as Shuri and Ageha Himejima, the grandmother of one Tobio Ikuse, who violate their religious laws are either executed or even banished as the former had given birth to the daughter of a Fallen Angel; while the latter for her practice of Buddhist Magic, which is from a different religion.

This discrimination and cruel treatment resulted in the creation of a new organisation. The Utsusemi Agency was formed by the outcast members of the Five Principal Clans. And in order to overcome and seek revenge against the Five Great Families, they decided to use a source of power which differs from their clans, the Four Fiends who brought ill-fortune and later were sealed int Sacred Gears, to rival the Sacred Beasts. This soon led to the formulating of the Four Fiends Project with the Independent-Avatar Sacred Gears as their base.

To that end, the group targeted Ryoukou High School's second-year students with the required Sacred Gears, which is the source of the "Heavenly Aloha Incident" but all of them were absent during that trip forcing the group to change their original plans and instead used the kidnapped students by implanting Utsusemi, artificial imitations of independent avatar Sacred gears, into the students and use them to hunt the actual possessors of the Four Fiends. In their search for power, they allied themselves with another rogue organisation of Magician's known as the Wizards of Oz.

But still, roaming the city of Tokyo is quite the novel experience, but I wasn't really there for that. The church situation in Japsn was quite weak, as with less than 0,5% of the populace being believers. Though I honestly couldn't care less about those numbers, I was told to visit the church in the Kuoh city to talk with representative there. Through I was told that told that one of the reincarnated angels was from here, one of the 5 main families in fact.

But that is for later, what I am currently here for, is the fact that close to 2 and a half months ago, Tobio Ikuse, grandson of the exciled Ageha Himejima, who awakened his sacred gear balance breaker from birth, but was later sealed by his grandma, has reactivated his sacred gear, this time as a little pup in order to defend himself of one of his mind-controlled classmates from the cruise trip, who attacked him with a giant spider.

Long story short, he was contacted by one of the 4 Fiends weilder, Natsume Minagawa, weilder of the Griffin one. Which turns out, she is working under Grigori who helped her by sending both Vali and Lavianna, weilder of the ice longinus, absolute demise, to help them repel the combined assault of Wizards of Oz, Utsusemi Agency and the Abyss team, formed by the rogue Cadre Satannael who wishes to create a new longinus, and to invite them to the Nephilim academy, a special school under Grigori, where he and the rest involved with the incident joined.

Now why did I decide to jump in now? Well it is pretty simple, a current team of Baraquiel, Tobio Ikuse, Vali Lucifer , Laviana, Natsume Minagawa, Sae Toujou(Tobio's childhood friend) and Kouki Samejima, a weilder of another one of the Fiends, a white tiger with several tails and electricity, are heading to the location of another one of the possessors of the fiend Sacred gear who will start a battle that will be quite the significant one to end all of this.

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(3rd pov)

Stiing in a car going on a rather desolate road, was a group of quite the varied people but to any familiar enough with the current situation there is no mistaking them. Known as the 'Baraquiel class', with the nan himself sitting in the driver seat. By his side was a young teenager close to 14 from his appearance, this is Vali Lucifer, grandson of Rivezim Lucifer and the weilder of Divine Dividing, The three people in the second row were Tobio, Sae(Tobio's childhood friend, no power), and Lavinia( Weilder of Ice longinus Absolute Demise), while Natsume and Samejima sat in the third row( Both weilders of the four Fiends Sacred Gears, Griffin and Byakisu respectively).

While driving the car, Barakiel raised a question.

"Have you looked over the material?" The material in question was a file they'd been given back when they were making preparations at the apartment complex. Tobio and the others had reviewed its contents before heading to the parking lot. Barakiel spoke.

"In all likelihood, in this present case, the probability of of exchanging blows with the remnants of the 'Utsusemi Agency', the magicians, and the Sacred Gear users is extremely high." to his inquiry, it was Kouki, the weilder of the lightning tiger-like fiend Byakisu, who answered.

"I did give the material a onceover, however, as far as their Sacred Gears go, do they not manipulate living creatures the way ours do?" to which Baraquiel answered.

"Uhuh, there are a great variety of Sacred Gear abilities. The variety that you all belong to, those abilities are classified as 'Independent Avatar Types'. As you were taught at Nephilim, and as those documents indicate, there are several other varieties as well. The possessors from the Abyss Team, their varieties are too dispersed to be grouped together." after which he clarified why he said so.

" Within the material you reviewed earlier, there's just one thing I want you to keep in mind, namely that the powers they——the Abyss Team's members hold are extremely troublesome and powerful. In a simple application, should it come to a contest of power, yours are exceedingly superior on the surface. But, their abilities, depending on the time and place, and should the conditions be met, can demonstrate atrociously brutal abilities. From the start, the team was specifically organized from possessors of abilities that were hard to handle after all." as Baraquiel said, the abilities of this Sacred Gears were quite troublesome as they are quiet close in nature to cases and capable of causing permanent disabilities as their main focus.

As the night's darkness started to descend and the silence continued, the class continued their journey before being startled by Sae's scream.

" STOP!!! There is a person ahead!" which made Baraquiel hit the brakes immediately. After which they all got down and started looking around, as the road was surrounded from both sides by the the forest. There, in front of them was indeed a person, but not just anyone.

" Shigune?!" screamed Natsume and Sae, while both Tobio and Kouki's eyes widened, recognising the girl. She was indeed Nanadaru Shigune, one of their previous School's most famous girls and like them, a survivor of the incident.

"...Minagawa-san, and Toujou-san...?" With two of her former female classmates appearing before her eyes, perhaps feeling relieved in addition to her surprise, Shigune ended up sinking to the ground right where she was.

"Woah woah woah! Are you alright!?"

"Relax, Nanadaru-san."

Natsume and Sae rushed over to the now seated Shigune in order to lend her a gentle hand. And while all of them relaxed when they confirmed the safety of one of their classmates, Kouki noticed something that was being held in Shigune's arms and spoke to Tobio.

"...Is that Nanadaru's Sacred Gear?"As Kouki said this, Tobio had been looking towards Shigune's arms. In her arms, she was holding a small quadruped that was wearing something like a mask over its face. Two horns were growing from its head. The mask meanwhile had some kind of pattern like that of a character on it. However, the mask's pattern was one that Tobio was familiar with.

When he had been investigation about the Four Fiends, he had noticed something identical in a book. That was displayed as the pattern relating to Toutetsu of the Four Fiends that was featured in Toutetsu engravings. In other words, the mysterious creature Shigune was holding, it was a Sacred Gear, one of the Four Fiends, the one known as Toutetsu.

Shigune, having been looked after and having recovered her disposition that had slackened slightly, spoke to Tobio and the others.

"We should get away from here! People using strange techniques--" Shigune only spoke to that extent, and the reason soon became clear.

Ahead of the front of the car, towards the road that remained just slightly dark in spite of the headlights, that was where the black dog Jin directed his threat. His jet black fur bristled violently and he bared his fangs.

Seeing that, Tobio and the others took defensive postures.

Natsume let out a "Chih chih chih" sound from her mouth, and with sound of flapping wings, Griffon descended from the out of the darkness. From there he perched on her shoulder.

As Kouki was also preparing himself, Byakusa moved from his shoulder to his arm.

What appeared in the area illuminated by the headlights——was uncanny, one-legged, fifty centimeter stone statue. With tiny wings growing from its back and a single horn on its head, its appearance was one of something grotesque.

At first glance its eyes were closed but, before they could process anything they heard Baraquiel shout.

"Close your eyes!!" As Barakiel instructed, everyone closed their eyes, as Ilin an instant, the area was completely filled with a dazzlingly intense light coming from the opened eyes of the statue.

When the light stopped, Tobio and the others timidly opened their eyes. The uncanny stone statue that had been illuminated by the headlights had vanished.

Barakiel spoke with a bittey expression.

"Really, so they're sending that out first huh." to which Vali said.

" So that was Brain Shine Statue, if one directly receives that light it releases, it gradually steals their eyesight. Depending on the circumstances a person's eyes would become entirely unable to see anything. The Abyss team also have other such troublesome Sacred Gears huh" and although no one said anything, they all knew it was the truth.

the Abyss Team's members' abilities, they were Sacred Gears that dealt damage their opponents could not recover from. If they'd been hit by the attack like the one just now, they would have had their eyesight stolen, or possibly lost their hearing. Characteristics that impose severe mental pollution with serious side effect, or others that utilized insects that would parasitically feed on the opponent's body gradually from the inside.

It was then that Barakiel, Vali, and Lavinia directed their gazes towards a single point. Everyone else matched their gazes. From the soundless darkness of the road, appeared a man who letting out quite the unpleasant laugh. The man wore sunglasses, had a crooked mouth, and wore an ugly smile on his face. At his feet was the aforementioned uncanny stone statue. Its eyes were closed once again.

"...I wish to render your eyes sightless quickly. ...I wish to make you understand the sensation of having sightless eyes...." As the man spoke, he had the eyes of the stone statue at his feet open.

Tobio and the others did not permit the silent attack, and Tobio, Vali, Natsume, and Kouki all moved swiftly, attacking the statue. Jin, the black dog, charged at high speeds with a sword held in his mouth, Vali fired a powerful silver aura, Griffon took to the air, and the point of Byakusa's long tail shot towards the opponent But ut was then that Shigune shouted.

"That statue! There are two of them!" To which none of them could quickly respond as they were in the middle of the attack, but they didn't have to. A powerful light blast hit the statue destroying the statue at the same time that the other one was destroyed by the combined attack of the others. Seeing this, Tobio, Natsume and Kouki let out a sigh before saying.

" Thanks Baraquiel-sensei, that was close." But even saying that, they didn't take their eyes of the man who summoned the statues. And so they didn't see the shocked and confused looks of Baraquiel and the others.

" That wasn't me just now" said Baraquiel outloud which made the 4 stiffen, but they couldn't dwell on it as Lavianna materialised a magical circle and attacked the man standing at the road, which just phased through the man that was stilling laughing and made him disappear. After some seconds to make sure there was no second attack, they quickly regrouped around Baraquiel and the others who were looking at the source of the light attack. And from the trees emerged young man, who looked older than Tobio and the others by 2 years, with golden hair and red eyes that seemed full of amusement looking at them.

He was quite the flashy ouffit, in comparison to their school ouffits, although if looked closely at seem to be still quite practical when it comes to movement and fights. There was silence as both parties just gazed and evaluated each other before the man said.

" Well it seems I interrupted quite the interesting event, although I don't think this is the end of it" hearing this, they just continued to look at him cautiously before Baraquiel asked.

" What's an exorcist of the Church doing in a place like this? I don't think your ilk has any kind of business in this part of the land." that statement made the new kids to the supernatural quite shocked, especially since they were repeatedly warned to be careful of the Church, as they are holders of Sacred Gears but followers of another faith, making them quite effectively branded as heretics. Seeing the wariness of the other party, the man just half heartedly waved his hands before answering.

" No need for all this tension, I won't bite you or anything you know. As for my business, well I suppose you could say I heard some rumours about some unsavory individuals planning something in the village ahead, so I planned to go and check what the situation really is. Now that aside, I think introduction are due, my name is Samuel Willis, a humble servant and believer of the Lord's teaching. You can call Samuel since I'm not sure how this Japanese name thing work"

And that was how Baraquiel class met the individual known as Samuel.