Falling Down (3)

The devil heiresses and their peerage immediately teleported after Koneko and Kiba reported that Hyoudou-kun and his group approaching the church. There were four people wearing blue and white bodysuits and didn't seem to try to conceal their identity.

Rias' group was about to teleport in and confronted them when two of them disappeared in a blink of an eye without any sign of magic circle, leaving Hyoudou-kun and an orange haired girl. It was then three Fallen Angels flew out of the abandoned church.

One of the Fallen Angels casted a boundary surrounding the park as the other confronted the teens. They taunted and mocked, bringing up someone called Asia that visibly angered Hyoudou-kun. After a bit of stand off, the brunette suddenly exploded into action, his body was on fire as he dragged the Fallen in a trench coat. His accomplice also took action, turning into a chimera of firearms and…. A devil?

"Koneko."

"That's her, Buchou." The Rook confirmed Rias' suspicion.

Even from this distance, the devils couldn't deny the familiar yet alien demonic presence the transformed girl gave off. It felt the same yet different at the same time.

Unlike the devils that had a dark presence, the girl who fought the fallen angels felt dark and sinister. It sent goosebumps to those who watched the transformation into that…thing.

"Should we assist them, Buchou?" Kiba asked

"...No, not now." answered Rias, "Koneko, Kiba, make sure their fight didn't endanger the civilians. I have a feeling that they got this handled, but just to be sure, assist them when you think they need it."

"Yes, Buchou!" her knight and Rook nodded before teleporting away.

Sona also ordered her peerage to do the same, leaving only Tsubaki with her. The two devil heiresses watched as the Sacred Gear users fought the fallen angels. Rias was focused on Hyoudou while Sona had her eyes on the girl.

As Hyoudou traded punches with the Fallen in trenchcoat, Rias was trying to figure out what kind of Sacred Gear he possessed. Two immediately came to mind when seeing his ability: Incinerate Anthem and Flame Shake, two most known fire type Sacred Gear. but Rias doubted it was Incinerate Anthem or its subspecies because Hyoudou-kun's fire lacked Holy element, something that Incinerate Anthem was said to have.

Flame Shake was also thrown out of the window the moment Hyoudou-kun dispersed into motes of fire when attacked and reformed unharmed.

'A Sacred Gear that allows its user to make, control, and turn into fire?' Rias wondered in awe. She never heard of Sacred Gear that allows such a feat. maybe it really was a subspecies. There was no way a gear with this kind of ability remained unknown for so long. With power like this they would at least left some traces in history in some way.

She immediately recalled the scent Koneko had sensed in the boy when she passed him by chance. Smell of a campfire with a fruity scent… The combination didn't make sense now as it was then.

As Rias watched Hyoudou-kun fight with rapt attention, her mind wondered how much he was worth in Evil Pieces.

~~~~

"Haaa!!!" Dohnaseek shouted in glee as he attacked. Issei dodged a stab to his head and blew the fallen angel away, but said Fallen blocked the fiery explosion with his wings.

The brunette dashed, turned into fire. He reformed behind Dohnaseek and threw a [Hiken] on his unprotected back.

"Agh!!" Dohnaseek cried in pain as the attack blasted him away. He crashed on a statue not too far from where they currently fight, reducing it to rubble.

Sensing a brief opening, Issei quickly created a dome of fire that looks like a birdcage around 10 meters in diameter, caging him and the fallen angel. When Dohnaseek stood up and saw the surrounding fire, he immediately understood.

"Trying to cage me in, huh? So I can't fly up?" the fallen angel smirked as he summoned another light spear.

"Can't let you damage the neighborhood." Issei put up a stance, his hands and feet covered in fire.

"Not planning it, anyway. Have at you!!!"

Dohnaseek flew in quickly, a spear aimed at Issei's heart, yet the brunette didn't move nor block. The spear struck true and Issei broke apart into flakes of fire. Alarmed, the fallen angel shields himself with his wings just in time when a fiery explosion washes over him. A strong kick from his left soon followed, throwing him away again.

Dohnaseek deployed his wings and stopped his flight, his eyes focused on Issei's fiery form.

What kind of Sacred Gear he possessed? Was the first question in his head. Incinerate Anthem instantly came to mind, a Longinus type Sacred Gear that allows its user to control Holy flames that were able to burn even souls. But Issei's fire was nothing Holy, in fact it was ordinary. The fire felt mundane, yet it burned through his resistance and magical defense.

Not to mention Dohnaseek felt no Sacred Gear presence on the boy, unless he cloaked its presence somehow.

Dohnaseek flew forward, spear raised. Focusing on the oncoming attack, Issei concentrated and compressed the fires on his arms, transforming them into gauntlets of fire.

The gauntlet met the spear, Dohnaseek's eyes widened when he saw the boy caught his weapon. Issei smirked as sweat slid down his chin.

Since he couldn't catch a light spear—a condensed energy, without getting hurt, he decided to follow the same thing with his fire. He compressed and condensed the fire on his arms until it was dense enough to shield his skin from making contact with the light weapon. To achieve this he trained to create things by morphing his fire like clay for most of his training. From something soft like a feather and hard like a dildo, in the span of one and a half days he had made them all. Seeing Dohnaseek's shocked expression definitely made the training worth it.

Before Dohnaseek could react, Issei pulled hard and the next moment a fiery fist met Dohnaseek's cheek, followed by another, then another, then another.

"WAAATATATATATATATA!!!"

"NGHH!!!"

Issei screamed as a volley of orange blurs hit Dohnaseek repeatedly. As his fiery fist landed on the fallen angel, it burned through the coat and left a spot of charred skin in the shape of a fist. These spots soon covered Dohnaseek's whole body.

Issei suddenly stopped his barrage and finished the fight with a strong uppercut.

"WATAA!!!"

"Uooogh!!"

Dohnaseek was thrown away by the blow. He bounced off the ground before laying still.

Issei watched for any sign of movement, but found none other than shallow breathing. The brunette released his fire gauntlet and extinguished the cage. The sudden change in temperature caused a small swirl of wind, casting dust around the place.

Issei took a breath before approaching Dohnaseek's unconscious form. He knelt down, pulled out a [Minor Health Potion] and fed the fallen angel a half of a bottle worth of potion.

Issei downed the rest before dragging the fallen angel away by the feet.

~~~~

Penny leapt back, dodging a light spear from Kalawarner. Mittlet zoomed in mid-jump with a spear aimed to her head, Penny intercepted it with her left gun-arm, parrying it aside. The blonde Fallen summoned another spear and went for another attack, but Penny forced her to back off by changing her right arm into a shotgun and firing it at Mittlet.

Both Kalawarner and Mittlet quickly retreated while folding their wings over their body. The pellets from Penny's shotgun shredded the tip of their wings, some scratched their skin. The Fallen felt the familiar pain from demonic energy on their wounds.

Upon gaining distance, Penny re-morphed her arm. She focused on the Fallens as her mind tried to plan. Unfortunately, she had no radar nor anything that usually helped her, she couldn't zoom in nor locked her aim on them. In this [Hybrid] form she was more 'human', which also meant she became more susceptible to her Emotion Core.

And now, she felt annoyed.

Penny snarled as she morphed her right arm into an AR-15 just like her left. She raised them on the Fallen and began shooting.

Mittlet and Kalawarner flew fast and sharp, trying their best to dodge the rain of demonic bullets. The projectiles were fast, faster than ordinary bullets, leaving no time to perform a counter attack.

Kalawarner zipped in the air as she waited for an opening. Once she found it, she summoned a magic circle and created a shield of light. The volley of bullets uselessly spray on the barrier and Mittlet used this moment to lobbed light spears from behind the shield.

Penny leapt to the side and began running as Mittlet continued to throw spears on her trail. She ran up a wall and sprung up high in the air.

Penny quickly changed her arms into a pair of 50 cal sniper rifles, aimed at Kalawarner, and fired. At the same time Mittlet summoned light spears and hurled them at Penny.

*BOOOM!!! CRASSSH!!!*

""AAAARRRGHHH!!!/Khh!!!""

As Penny's bullet shattered Kalawarner's shield and pierced her body, Mittlet's spears did the same to Penny. Both of them were thrown away by the force behind the projectiles.

Like a ragdoll, Penny bounced on the street, leaving craters as she went. She crashed upon a house, breaking both her momentum and the front door.

The inhabitant of the house rushed downstairs only to find Penny's dusted form buried in wooden splinters with three light spears jutting out of her chest and stomach. They screamed upon seeing Penny standing up, crying 'monster!' as they ran inside. The monster herself didn't register their shrill scream nor aware that they were there in the first place for she was focused on one thing…

"It. Hurts!!!" Penny growled.

Changing her right arm, she grabbed on the spears and tore them off her body. She ignored the burning sensation when she touched the spears, only focusing on pulling them away.

Pain was like touch to her skin; a sensation she never felt before. In fact, If she hadn't possessed a basic knowledge about it in her mind, she doubted she could tell what it was. Because no matter how hard her father upgraded her, he couldn't and wouldn't replicate the feeling of pain which unfortunately meant he also couldn't replicate a sense of touch.

And now, for the first time in her life she could feel something grazing her skin, yet the very first thing she ever felt was searing pain burning her insides.

Infuriating. Annoying. She didn't want to feel them again.

Annoyance amplified by the throbbing pain inside her, turning it into anger. The burning sensation in her Emotion Core, followed by thought of violence, was also a first for her.

Penny took out and downed a blood vial she had prepared for this fight. In an instant, the pain and wound disappeared…

"Grrr—!!!!"

…Yet the anger remained.

She burst out of the house, carving another hole on the wall. Her arms morphed in a burst of gore as she raced towards the fallen angels. She slides to a stop a few meters away from her targets. Kalawarner laid on a pool of her blood with holes on her abdomen and left shoulder, meanwhile Mittlet turned towards her the moment she arrived with light spears in hands.

Locked in a staredown, Penny took this chance to observe her enemy.

Mittlet's face was a mask of blankness with eyes devoid of emotion as her stare fixed on Penny. It almost reminds her of the Atlessian Paladins back home…. Now that she thought about it, during their fight earlier, the fallen angels hadn't thrown a jeer nor mockery even once. Was it because her alien demonic nature awakened something inside the Fallens? A primordial instinct from when they were angels perhaps—

Penny and Mittlet exploded into action at the same time, one creating a great gust of wind while the other cracked the asphalt under her feet as they charged one another.

—A question for later time.

Right now, she was itching to beat the hell out of this crow.

~~~~

Sona watched as the girl and Mittlet fought. Gunshots thundered the night as the fallen angel and the devil(?) clashed.

She observed as the girl (which she would call Gun Girl from now on) arms turned into any type of firearm in a burst of gore. Even with her chimeric appearance that borders on stray devil, her ability was anything but. Machine gun, shotgun, even rifles, as long as it was considered a firearm she probably could use them. The obvious answer was her Sacred Gear was a never heard before Transformation type Sacred Gear or a subspecies of a known one.

'Could it be a subspecies of Unknown Dictator or is it Annihilation Maker?' Sona wondered. But none of them were electronic nor was it organic in nature… not to mention this presence, it was unlike Tsubaki's Mirror Alice or even Saji's Absorption Line. It felt too much like a presence of a devil… yet it was more harrowing than dark.

Sealed Sacred Gear immediately came to her mind; a type of Sacred Gear that housed spirits or entities inside them sealed by the God of the bible. Sacred Gear such as Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing fall into this category. But that raised more questions than answers. One and foremost, what demonic entity that possessed power over firearms?

Gun Girl and the fallen angel's fight reached its climax soon enough. The Sacred Gear user had wounded the fallen angel using her rifle-arms fixed with bayonets. The blonde Fallen breath had become labored, her body bleeding all over. Yet from this distance Sona could still see her eyes were still focused on her adversary, obsessively so.

Then it happened…

The two fighters rushed in at the same time with their weapons raised. Suddenly, the fallen angel summoned a magic circle that shot out a pair of light arrows. The arrows flew low almost touching the ground and found their mark on Gun Girl's feet, piercing her in place. Gun Girl's movement jerked to a halt, creating a very brief opening.

And that single second was all the fallen angel needed.

*SLASH!!!*

The fallen stopped at a distance behind Gun Girl. Silence dawned on the battlefield as Gun Girl's upper body slowly slid off her hip. She landed with a wet splat, her blood dyed the ground red.

The fallen angel approached Gun Girl and as if a spell had been snapped, she blinked as she looked down on her opponent. A familiar sneer of superiority dawned on the blonde's face as she mocked Gun Girl.

"Kaichou?" Tsubaki called from her side. Sona glanced at her Queen and immediately noticed Akeno's barely concealed anger. She refocused on Tsubaki. "Permission to step in?"

Sona was about to answer when it happened…

From the corner of her eyes, she saw the fallen angel flipped Gun Girl face up. At this point, the blonde Fallen had dismissed the arrows and Gun Girl's bottom half fell to its knees.

The fallen angel stomped Gun Girl repeatedly, taking satisfaction in her death with a sadistic smile on her face.

Sona opened her mouth to answer Tsubaki's question, but it was cut off by a loud bang.

It came from the barrel jutting out of Gun Girl's forehead. It did nothing but startle the fallen and the devils watching, it was a blank shot.

Yet, seeing what happened after that, it must've been a warning shot.

The gunfire blast to her face blinded the fallen angel, forcing her to step back. The devils gasped when they saw Gun Girl's body reattach themselves. Sona who kept an eye closely on Gun Girl noticed a bandolier shot out of her upper body to her lower body in a split second before pulling themselves together.

Gun Girl roared as she jumped to her feet and drove the bayonets to the fallen angel's stomach and shoulder. The fallen angel screamed as she lifted her up as she bathed on the blood pouring out of the wounds, some even went down her mouth.

The macabre sight made the devils tensed, most came into conclusion that this form only relied on bestial instinct than sapient thought.

Gun Girl threw the fallen angel to the ground hard and kicked her towards the other fallen angel with blue hair. The blonde fallen angel laid still, the impact to the ground must've rendered her either dead or unconscious. After that Gun Girl just stood there, breathing hard.

After a while, Gun Girl relaxed her posture and her transformation melted, sliding off her skin as if it was mud. The girl then hoisted the fallen angels and met with Hyoudou Issei and they left for the church afterward.

"Sona…" Rias trailed off, brows furrowed.

"An unknown transformation type Sacred Gear user that is possibly immortal." Sona drawled as she fixed her glasses. Their siblings would be having a field day with the report of this incident. "Let's go and establish contact, but be careful, we still don't know their agenda or their threat level. Be on guard."

Rias and both of the Queens nodded seriously at Sona's warning before going to the abandoned church themselves.