Chapter 14: Eventful Reincarnation & Arrangements

A/N:

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

[ ] : Spells, Techniques and Sacred Gear Casts,

"Bold text": Ddraig & Albion.

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

Narrator POV

After their anticlimactic defeat, Xenovia and Irina leave the ORC members to themselves. Asia walks over to Issei, checking if he had been hit, despite the fact that he and Yuuto weren't even grazed by any of the girls' attacks.

Haruki walks to Yuuto, sensing the slight bit of relief that he feels from defeating someone who could very much count as a member of the church's elite force. "Hey, Kiba. Good job. But don't forget, we've still got the ringleader to take care of, and if my gut is right, he isn't all that far off from showing himself." He says, cautioning Yuuto to be prepared to face Valper.

After clearing the area of the bits of damage left by the duel, Haruki hits them with news that they didn't expect. "You all don't have to come for the training sessions for the time being." Everyone looks at him, rightly confused at the abrupt announcement.

"But why? Is there some problem that you can't tell us about?" Rias asks with a worried voice. "It's nothing much. It's just that you've all reached a good enough level of power and skill, so right now, you don't need to come for training, if you don't want to." Haruki says, clearing the small knot of insecurity that was starting to form in Rias' heart.

"Also, it's mainly so I can properly focus on training Sona and her peerage. They may have gone through training of their own before now, but nothing as intense as our normal training. I'm sure you could see that from the last few days of training." They all nod in agreement, as they remember that Sona and her peerage had a considerable bit of difficulty adapting to the more basic parts of Haruki's training.

"So while you don't necessarily have to come for training, you can still come if you feel like you've not gotten strong enough." He says to them, letting them know that the prospect of training them is still open, but not necessary.

"Oh, okay. I guess that makes sense." Rias says with a sigh of relief. "But wait, if that's the case for all of us, doesn't that mean...." She says as she looked at Issei with a greedy gleam in her eyes.

Haruki notices this and sighs. "Yes, it means that Issei and Asia are both at the peak of Middle Rank and are therefore free game for you and Sona to take in as your peerage members." He says, much to the shock of Asia and Issei.

Despite being wholly human, Asia actually had the easiest time growing in power, when compared to the others. This was mainly because her ceiling of power was not necessarily as high as theirs. But this also meant that she was inherently weaker than most other beings at the same rank.

Haruki knew of this as he had noticed it during the numerous times that he had inspected her. He was also able to find a very easy solution to this problem, a race change, of which a turning to a devil was the easiest.

As for Issei, while his power ceiling was also considerably higher than other humans, he was also growing much faster due to the enhancements coming from the influence of dragon blood, leading to the abrupt acceleration in his power growth.

"I see. Hehehehehe." Rias says with a gleeful laugh. "Well, Issei. Will you become part of my peerage?" She says with her arms outstretched. Issei lets out a breath and nods, then he turns to Asia.

"Hey, I know what I said to Xenovia about God wasn't really something you'd have wanted to hear, but I was very serious about what I said about our relationship. I want to fully be your lover and I will stand with you regardless of what happens. So, will you join me?" He asks her as he tenderly holds her hands.

His declaration leaves Asia a blushing mess, but at the same time, it also leaves her in a dilemma. He is asking her to become a devil. She, who had dedicated her life to following God, is now being asked to become the one thing in full antithesis toward the beliefs that she had built over the years.

But at the same time, she thinks of her life in the church. The love she had shown others, in following God's word, was in no way reciprocated. This had made her fall victim to a plot that she still doesn't know of, causing her to be excommunicated from the church and treated as a witch.

'He's not like them at all. He actually loves me and cares for me. Oh Lord, please forgive me for what I'm about to do.' She thinks to herself as she comes to a decision, one that would change her life forever.

Looking into her lover's eyes, she steels herself. "Yes. Yes, Issei. I'll join you." She says and wraps Issei in a hug which he subconsciously returns.

Meanwhile, Rias is absolutely thrilled with the progression of events. 'Ahhhh, a two for one deal. Satan must be smiling at me.' She thinks with glee. Clearing her throat, she takes the attention away from the two lovers. "So now that you've decided, I believe it's time we begin the ceremony." She says with a soft smile and a snap of her fingers, teleporting everyone to the ORC clubroom.

"Your teleportation has improved quite a bit." Haruki says with an approving tone. Rias proudly puffs out her chest with a smug smile. "Thank you. I've been working on it." Haruki smiles at her antics while everyone except for Issei and Asia takes a seat.

"So, what are we meant to do? Is there some ritual or dance that we've got to do before being turned into devils?" Issei asks with genuine curiosity. Rias chuckles at the notion of an elaborate ritual being done for the reincarnation of a devil to take place.

"No, there's no need for any of that. I just called it a ceremony because it's important to me." She says softly. "You just need to stand in front of me, I'll do all the work." Nodding, they stand about 50 centimeters apart and wait for Rias to begin.

Walking over to Issei, she wills her remaining Evil Pieces to come out, with the ones that would fit Issei the most having a subtle glow on them. As they glow, her face was twists into a confused grimace, as only one type of Evil Piece comes forward for Issei, the pawn. However, Issei is seemingly worth her using all her pawn pieces to reincarnate.

This surprises everyone else, while Haruki looks at the scene in amusement. Turning to Asia, the pieces in front of Rias change to only one pawn, and to Rias' pleasure, her remaining bishop piece.

Rias calmly pushes the bishop piece into Asia's chest, then turns to Issei and pushes all her pawn pieces into his chest, permanently changing them from humans to devils. They close their eyes as the changes begin.

A calm stream of energy glows from and around Issei and Asia's bodies for a few seconds, then it eventually stops. Opening their eyes, they begin checking their bodies, feeling the increased strength and energy that the reincarnation has given them.

Before they could begin to move, Issei's chest let out an intense green and red colored light, one that seriously surprises Rias. After the light went out, Issei starts patting his chest with concern. "What the hell was that?"

"Mutation. All of his pieces became mutated." Haruki says incredulously. "I get that he'd gotten his Balance Breaker already, but this is just crazy." He says, looking at Issei with amazement.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Issei asks. "What it means, Issei, is that you are now the second most powerful member of the ORC. Your mutation has not only increased your power ceiling, it also pushed you to the limit of the low point of High Rank." Haruki says with a sigh.

"Seriously, you went from someone who had no knowledge of the supernatural to a High Rank being in less than 4 months. Granted, you had the amps that came from holding a Longinus Class Sacred Gear, but still. I mean, even with my talent, it took me a few years of training to get to my dad's level, and here you are, almost reaching him in a fraction of the time." Haruki lets out a slew of words in frustration, while Issei looks at his left arm with awe.

Everyone else however, looks at Haruki with a deadpan expression while different thoughts were running through their heads, all with feelings along the line of: 'You're saying that when you're at the high point of Ultimate Rank at just 15, you idiot. If that's not impressive, then what the hell is?!'

Some seconds later, Sona bursts into the room with a panicked expression on her face, then she looks at Issei and Asia, then at Rias with an infuriated scowl. "Didn't you say we'd do this fair and square?!"

"Haah, those words were never used, Sona-chan. And besides, I couldn't continue letting you deceive yourself by thinking that they would have chosen you over me." Rias says with a smug chuckle that enrages Sona to no end.

In an attempt to calm herself down, she looks at Haruki with pleading eyes. "She's not wrong. Issei and Asia are way more familiar with her than they are with you, so even if you were here, they'd still be far more likely to join her." He says, shattering the last bits of hope she had to take in Issei or Asia.

"Okay, fine. But at least tell me what pieces they are." Sona says in resignation. "Oh, it's nothing serious. Asia here is a bishop, and Issei here is a pawn that cost all 8 to reincarnate." Rias says with a giddy voice, while Sona looks at Issei and Asia with greed and envy in her eyes.

Knowing that Rias would never trade them to any other devil, she turns to Haruki with a sad expression and sat on his lap while nuzzling his chest. Haruki, sensing her mood, gently hugs and pats her head, while showering her with soft kisses.

After several minutes of trying to console Sona, Haruki looked down at her face to see her asleep on his chest, with a small string of drool falling from her lips. Sighing, he carries her in a princess carry and bids the ORC members goodbye for the day.

He then carries her out of the clubroom and soon comes face to face with her peerage who were wondering where she was and what would have caused her to rush out of her office in the manner that she did. Haruki quickly explains the situation to them and tells them to prepare to come to his home as their training would become far more intense than they would have thought, then leaves after gently placing Sona on the only couch in the Student Council's office.

The evening comes by quickly, coloring the sky a soft red. Sona and her peerage go to Haruki's home for the day's training session, but they notice that Haruki is training them more intensely than the past few days. Some of them look over to Rias and her peerage, that had all decided to come despite Haruki telling them they don't need to, and notice that the training that they are going through isn't as intense as as their own.

"Hey, you mind telling us why you're going so hard on us?!" Sona's pawn, Saji Genshirou, says with a slightly offended tone. The clone that had been assigned to him looks at him with a flat expression. "You're all still behind them in power, and we're soon to have enemies at our doorstep. So I'm going to make sure that you're powerful enough to not be burdens at the very least."

Despite it being only one clone that spoke, the words reverberated in the ears of all the Sitri affiliated devils, more so in Sona herself, as she immediately begins using more powerful spells in the battle against the clone assigned to her.

The other members also ramp up their attack speed and power, trying their utmost to possibly defeat their trainers, but they are all unfortunately too weak to do so. Time quickly passes as their training goes on and eventually comes to a stop.

Sona and her peerage members go back to their collective home while Rias and hers stay at Haruki's home for a late dinner. It was as boisterous and celebratory as always.

The next morning comes by quickly, and with it being a weekend, everyone has some time to rest themselves up. However, Haruki had left his home to head to the commercial district of Kuoh.

Haruki POV

In as much as I don't want to do this, I'll have to, if I want to properly find out how Kokabiel's goons were killing anyone in Kuoh. Not to mention, it'd be quite cathartic for me to wreck his plans for anyone.

Moving around with Shūndō, I soon come upon our guests from yesterday, and they seem to be asking for alms. "Please give blessings to the lost lamb." "Please give charity to us on behalf of the father in heaven."

Scratch that, they're definitely begging for alms. I guess them being so indoctrinated by the church didn't exactly help them with common sense. Looking around, I clearly see that people are giving them odd looks or just straight up ignoring them.

I walk up to the two girls and see a badly drawn painting of what seems to be a saint. They don't notice me as they're arguing about the painting, which it seems Xenovia wasted all their money on.

Choosing to stamp out the headache before it could form, I grab their heads and squeeze, causing them to drop to the ground in pain. "Hello, it seems that you're both in quite the predicament." Their stomachs rumble audibly. "*Sigh*. Follow me." I say, taking them to a family restaurant to fill their empty stomachs.

Thank fuck I have a lot of money, because these bitches eat a lot, they might as well be vacuuming up the food. Seriously, they've already cost me over 25,000 yen just off them eating. If it was Issei choosing to feed them out of his own pockets, he'd be pulling his hair out.

Of course, they made sure to complain that someone who had involved themselves with devils had helped them before they started digging into the food and my wallet.

"Phew. Now I'm calm. It's the end of the world to get helped by a heretic." Xenovia, retaining her annoying ass attitude, says after she finishes eating. "Oh, so they also taught you to be ungrateful to people who help you. You're just giving me more reasons to not have an amicable relationship with the church."

"Phew! Thank you for the meal. Oh God, please give charity to the heretic." Irina says, keeping that ditzy air about her. After taking a few drinks of water, Xenovia looks at me seriously. "So, why did you come to meet us?"

"It's good that we're getting straight to the point. I've got a proposal for you. I and the devils will help you retrieve the Excaliburs and possibly destroy them, but I'll need you to help me with info on the person that killed the priests." I tell her my motives for asking for their help.

She stay silent for a few seconds, then speaks. "I guess leaving one or two swords to you guys to destroy won't be the end of the world. That's if you're even able to destroy it at all. But please, try to make sure your identities aren't revealed. It'd be a pain if our higher-ups or enemies thought that we were connected to you guys." I just look at her deadpan.

Irina just looks at Xenovia incredulously then raises an objection about having devils and heretics help them. "Irina, let's be truthful to ourselves. Retrieving the 3 Excaliburs and battling Kokabiel with only the two of us would be extremely difficult, especially if we also expect to survive."

"I know, but..." Irina starts saying but Xenovia interrupts her. "Irina, the minimum objectives that we have to achieve are the retrieval or destruction of the 3 Excaliburs. From what we've been told by Haruki, someone who has had firsthand contact with Kokabiel, the likelihood of him stealing our Excaliburs and killing us is as high as could possibly be, even with our last resort." She says solemnly, in admission of their weakness.

"But still, we came here with that in mind, didn't we?" Irina says, almost as if trying to push the notion that they actually need help from us out of her head.

"We did, mainly because the higher-ups told us to continue with our mission after taking that into account. It almost seems like self-sacrifice." Irina lightly frowns. "And isn't that what we, the followers of God, desire for?" She asks as if that level of fanaticism is normal.

"I changed my mind. It's best that my beliefs are flexible so that I can act in the best way for each situation." She says with a surprising bit of wisdom. "I always thought that your faith was weird, but this is something else." Irina replies with an exasperated scoff.

"I won't deny that my methods are unorthodox. But I believe that our duty is to accomplish our mission and return safely so that we can live and continue fighting for God. Am I wrong for such beliefs?" She asked, causing Irina to reluctantly accept her thought process, even with her objections to working with devils.

"And so, we're not going to ask for aid from the devils, but from a Dragon, after all, the higher-ups never said we couldn't borrow the strength of a Dragon or two." She says with a smile as she looks me dead in the eyes.

"You might be human, and a Dragon Slayer, but I felt the dragon power within you. You might not be as powerful as a Maou right now, but I'm sure that you could gain even more power if you worked with the Red Dragon Emperor. With the amount of power that either he could gain or what he could give you, reaching a Maou's level of power shouldn't be hard for you or him." She says, not knowing how much more powerful than Issei I am.

"Well, I'm glad to see that we've been able to come to a satisfactory conclusion for this little negotiation. Now, do you happen to have any info about who may have been killing the priests?" I say before Irina has any chance to unnecessarily lengthen the discussion.

Xenovia frowns, but she seems like she knows who it is. "This hasn't been confirmed yet, but there is a suspect that we were told to keep an eye out for." She says with a look of pain, almost as if this person had betrayed her personally rather than just the church.

"Okay, so who is it?" I say, and she lets out a deep breath. "She was one of the very few natural Holy Sword wielders that the church had, and she had a strange magic that allowed her to use the powers of angels within her own body." That description sent alarm bells ringing in my head.

"I see, and what was her name?" I ask, this time a little nervous, hoping that it didn't mean what I thought it meant. "Right. Her name is Angela Strauss." Oh, fuck me sideways.

Chapter End.

🧷 Cover Art Submissions 🧷