4

Chapter 4: Culmination

Sona hummed as she looked into the magnifying glass in one of the school's chemistry labs. The golden ring she had recovered from one of the golems was on the table beneath her, looking for all the world like just a simple band of metal. Yet this thing had somehow been able to not only keep an orb of pure light trapped within its center, but it was able to convert the light emitted by that orb into the energy needed for the golem to function.

"Find anything, Kaichou?"

Sona looked up from her magnifying glass, seeing Tsubaki standing there with a tray of tea. The young heiress shook her head. "Not much. Take a look at this, though," she said, waving her forward.

Tsubaki set down the try and came close, looking through the magnifying glass. Although initially not noticeable, she could see what looked like a series of markings etched into the ring's surface.

Sona explained "At first, I thought that these were just random scratches, ones that had been created from time and wear. But when you look closer…" she said, before producing a second magnifying glass. Placing it over the first one, the scratches were largened to show that they were, in fact, a series of arcane symbols.

"You get this. My knowledge of runic magic isn't very great, but I've been able to decipher phrases such as 'gather', 'conversion' and 'supply'. I believe that these runes are how the ring acts the way it does, weaving a spell that enables it to convert the solar energy from the light orbs into electricity with any other technology to help it," Sona said

Tsubaki frowned. She wasn't well-versed in runes either, and had always somewhat disregarded it since being skilled in the art required years of practice. Yet whoever had made these golems obviously had taken the time to learn, which was a problem. One that she vocalized by saying "The number of people who have a reputation for using runic magic in Japan, much less here in Kuoh, is practically zero."

"Exactly. Which means that the perpetrator either is not from here, or they are from here but have been able to keep their abilities under wraps until now. Neither of which gets us any closer to discovering their identity. And there's nothing in the runes themselves that gives a hint," Sona said.

"So… we've hit a dead end?"

Sona shook her head. "Not just yet. You have to remember, this ring is made out of solid gold, and the rest of the golems were also made of various types of metal. Gathering the materials for building them and being able to properly forge the pieces would require a significant amount of wealth. Not only that, but transporting all of those metal creatures without being noticed would be near impossible. So, we're looking for someone with a large income who lives either in or near Kuoh," she said.

Tsubaki thought about that. Despite the prestige that the town's academy had, Kuoh itself wasn't a town with a very high number of rich people. So, looking for one with an interest in magic or construction wouldn't be hard. "Since Rias is currently governing the city, I'll see about getting the needed paperwork from her," she said, before walking out.

Sona returned to her studies of the gold ring. If it had anymore secrets to divulge, she would find them. And once this mystery was solved, she could refocus on Keijutsu and her battle of wits with him.

The next day…

No sooner had Sona begun to the metal ring and its runes again that the door to the lab burst open, and Saji rushed in. "Kaichou, we have an emergency! I just spotted another group of those weird metal guys at the edge of town. And they're heading for a couple of civilian apartments!" she said.

Sona's eyes widened, before narrowing as she assumed control of the situation. "Gather the rest of the Student Council and meet with me near the town's edge. I'll hold them off until you arrive," she ordered.

Saji nodded and rushed out of the room, while Sona conjured a magic circle to take her near the apartments. Her vision was briefly obscured by a flash of blue, and she had a sensation of weightlessness, before the light faded and she was behind one of the apartment buildings— Keijutsu's apartment, she idly noted.

She reached outwards with her senses and tried to find the energy signatures of the golems. She found them almost instantly, but this time they felt… strange. Different than the way they had before. Still, she knew where they were, and Sona rushed towards their location.

The golems were situated in a section of town that was under construction, near the abandoned warehouse from last time. A quick count showed that there were only six in total, though they also looked different from last time. The steel chest plate armor remained, but this time they each had only two arms, a pair of glass "eyes" to see with and metal hands with four fingers as opposed to the weapons they had before.

Sona hid behind one of the buildings as she thought of a plan. The idea of her running off first was to keep them from getting any closer to town until Saji and the others arrived so that they could destroy them. Bearing in mind, a preemptive attack would be the best option for her, as it would give her the element of surprise and also focus the golems' attention on her. But how to go about it?

Looking around, she could see several large barrels to use as cover, as well lumber from houses that had not finished being built yet. But what immediately caught her attention was a fire hydrant located along the path the golems were taking. Sona smirked. Perfect. A planning forming in her mind, she moved further out of sight and waited for the golems to move into the open.

A few minutes later, they did, walking into an intersection between two roads. The golem paused, likely trying to decide which route to take, when Sona struck.

A quick use of her water whips and she unscrewed the fire hydrant, causing water to gush forward and fill the street. Before the golems could react, the water moved to form two ten-foot waves. Sona emerged from her cover and brought her outstretched hands together, causing the two waves to crash into each other with the golems in the middle.

Although the move didn't destroy any of them, every one of them was knocked off their feet. While they were trying to get up, Sona willed the water still spouting from the hydrant to form a massive serpent. Said serpent shot down and bit one of the golems, picking it up and crushing it between its jaws.

The other golems raced towards the serpent, and Son expected it them to start punching and kicking it. What actually happened, however, took her for surprise. The remaining five golems reached out and their hands suddenly detached from their wrists, hanging by set of wires. From the hole where each of their wrists were, a metal whip shot forward and wrapped around the serpent. Then, rather than try and pull the beast down, the eyes of each golem flashed blue before their whips were enveloped in a light blue glow.

After only a few seconds, the serpent disintegrated back into just water and the sixth golem crashed onto the ground, its armor dented in several places and one of its arms ripped off. The other golems lowered their whips and looked towards Sona, the one responsible for the attack.

Cursing, Sona spread her arms out and began working her magic once more. The water around the golems took the shape of half a dozen bears, each of which released a very realistic roar before charging. The golems struck again with their whips, and just like before, the water constructs broke apart a few seconds after coming into contact with them.

'Exactly how are they doing that? Are they disrupting the spells that hold the constructs together? Or is that glow from some sort of electrical attack?' she thought.

Whatever the method, it was evident that just sending out more water creatures wouldn't hold the golems back. With that mind, she gathered the water into a wall in front as well as two large fists, which she used to strike at the metal creatures.

She targeted the one that had been weakened and sent the fists at it over and over again, further denting its armor. Whenever one of the other golems tried to wrap one of its whips around with of the fists, she'd release control over the water composing it and then will it to reform. Eventually, she caused enough damaged to the first golem that, after changing one of the water fists into several whips of her own, she was able to rip its chest armor off.

To her further surprise, the interior of the golem was different from before as well. No longer was there a light-absorbing ring powering the being, but instead there was a transparent sphere, and hovering inside of it was what looked like a lotus flower made of metal. The flower was glowing ever so slightly, and when she tried to pull the sphere holding it out, it wouldn't budge.

The golem responded to the attempt to destroying it by charging forward, heading straight for the wall of water Sona had conjured in front of herself. It shot its remaining whip forward and failed to break through the wall, but it did activate the same effect from before to try and disrupt the spell holding it together.

Sona concentrated and put more energy into maintaining her defense. But while she was focused on her wall, the other golems targeted her two water fists and destroyed them. Then they joined in trying to take down her wall, hitting it with a total of eleven whips. Sona put forth all her strength into maintain her spell, but even it failed under the combined assault.

The water wall collapsed and the whips shot forward, wrapping around Sona's limbs and hoisting her into the air. She struggled and tried break free, but then the whips glowed blue again. And it was then that she realized that the golems hadn't been disrupting her magic, but draining it. The glow around the whips was from magic that they were leeching from each of her spells. Without any magic to hold them together, each of her spells had failed, and the blue color of the glow had come from the fact she was using water magic.

Now, she could feel her own strength begin to deplete as her own energy reserves were being stolen from her. When she tried to raise another wave to knock them to the ground, the water barely rose a few feet before falling back down. Sona tried rapidly to think of a way to escape, to continue fighting the golems until her peerage arrived.

But it was already getting harder to think. Her strength was rapidly approaching zero, and her vision was beginning to dim. She had to keep fighting. But… you know, a nap sounded really nice. Her eyelids were getting heavier… She could feel sleep calling for her…

"Sona-kaichou!"

The golems looked up at the shout to see several members of the Student Council leap from the buildings above, the closest one being Saji. "Let her go, you metal pricks!" he called, calling forth his Absorption Line and extending it as far as he was able.

He wrapped it around three of the golems and tightened it, causing them to crash together. And Tomoe channeled devil energy to both her legs and her katana, allowing her to shoot forward at high speed and slice right through the whips of one of golems, the same one that Sona had already damaged.

Seeing the danger of the sudden assault, the golems released Sona and focused on the rest of the peerage. One of them tried to extend its whips and trap Tsubasa, but she merely ripped them off herself before using them to pull the golem forward. It flew towards her and she punched forward. Its forward momentum combined with her strength enabled her to punch straight through its head, disabling it.

Ruruko tried attacking one up close, but it wrapped both of its whips around her waist and raised her into the air, where it started to drain her energy. Tomoe cut the lines with her blade, freeing her. Momo and Reya stood back to back-to-back and unleashed a wave of electricity. The golems tried to absorb it, but quickly became overload, with two of them simply exploding it twin bursts of flames and machinery.

Tsubaki flew forward and caught Sona as she fell, releasing her once they were on the ground. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Sona nodded. "Yes, though I probably wouldn't have been if you hadn't arrived then. Thank you," she said, dusting herself off. Once she was satisfied, she glared at the remaining golems and spread her devil wings. "And now, it's time for some payback."

Tsubaki smirked and nodded, summoning naginata. The two devils shot forward, with Sona creating a pair of water swords in her hands and four more surrounding her. Those four shot forward and struck against the injured golem, tearing into it and dealing the last bit of damage needed to deactivate it. Meanwhile, the Vice President blocked the whips from another golem before severing those whips, leaving it weaponless.

That made it easy for Ruruko to approach it and knock it to the ground, where she removed its chest armor and then pulled out the metal flower powering it.

Saji aimed his Sacred Gear at one of them, but it also fired it whips at the same time, causing the two attacks to wrap around each other. Both of them began draining energy from each other, but Saji was draining energy faster than the golem could. Thus, he was able to take all the energy from its power source and cause the golem to fall over, empty.

That was the last of them, and Saji smirked. "Take that, bucket-heads! No one messes with the Student Council and gets away with it!" he declared.

Sona smiled at her Pawn's enthusiasm, and approached the golem he had taken out. "Now, let's see if you have any secrets to divulge," she said.

However, no sooner was she a few steps away from the metal creation when she sensed a spike in energy coming from it, along with seeing all of the golems begin to flail around and release a high-pitched whine continued to rise in both volume and pitch, while the flailing grew more erratic. Realizing what was happening, Sona called "Everyone, get out of here!"

She and the others all spread their wings before taking to the skies. Behind them, the energy coming from the golems spiked once more, before every one of them exploded, causing the ground to shake from the combined shock of the blasts.

The smoke from the explosions also rose up to greet them, filling their lungs and causing their eyes to water. Several of them began coughing before Reya dispelled the cloud with a gust of wind. Tsubasa coughed once more to get rid any lingering traces, and asked "What was the point of that?"

Sona looked down to where the golems had been, seeing only several piles of melted metal and parts. "That was whoever built these things erasing the evidence. Now, we have no way to use anything from here to determine the person responsible," she explained. This was not good. Whoever was making these machines was trying to keep themselves further hidden than they already had. And they didn't have one of those metal flowers to examine, which could have been a big help.

With nothing else to be done, they had the Student Council's various familiars clean up what was left of the fight while the rest of them returned home.

Keijutsu smiled widely as he looked over the notes spread out on his desk. Behind him, a small stereo blasted out Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, but that was not what had him smiling. Rather, it was the data contained in the notes, data on Sona Sitri and her peerage.

High-level water magic. The ability to reflect attacks with double their original power. Siphoning energy from an enemy to replenish one's own reserves. And more.

The abilities demonstrated by Sona and her peerage, as well as by Tsubaki when she faced off against his dolls, were all compiled here. Already he could feel his mind buzzing with ideas. Thoughts on how to replicate these feats with his own inventions, or how to counter them. Half-done schematics flashing through his mental eye like a slideshow. Calculations for just how much time and resources would have to go into each experiment. And how starting any new projects might affect the ones he already had going.

This was what he lived for. Nothing brought him greater joy than taking something insubstantial—an idea—and giving that idea real physical form. With each new bit of knowledge he acquired, be it mundane or magical, the thoughts for an invention appeared in his head, a new avenue of thought for him to pursue.

From what he had read here, the applications of magic seemed to be even more limitless than he had previously suspected. He had already glimpsed the myriad application that magic could have during his work with runes, a necessary subject to study if he wanted to get his inventions to function properly. He also knew that the use of magic itself required the ability to imagine, and then to harness one's own inner energy to bring that imagination into reality. What form someone's energy took—holy, demonic, etc.—determined how that energy interacted with the outer world when used.

But now that he had seen some magic's myriad uses, he was faced with a startling realization: He had never really pushed the boundaries of what magic was capable of. Even more so, he had heard countless tales of what magic was capable of. But he had never really found anything stating what magic couldn't do.

The scale of someone's imagination could be virtually endless. So, it would follow that the capabilities of using magic were equally without limit. Yet he had never really tested what magic could do besides what was needed for his creations to work properly.

Keijutsu groaned. How had he missed something like that? An entire frontier of investigation, completely open for him to venture through, and he had been too focused on his own work to notice?

To him, that was unacceptable. Progress depended on trying to find your own limits, and that could only be done by trying to go beyond them. The entire future of his work might depend on what it was that he could or couldn't do with magic. He would need to perform a new series of experiments in this new subject.

The first experiment was now done, and he had performed it in hopes of trying to copy a use of magic he had already observed. Specifically, the Absorption Line he had seen Genshirou Saji perform. An extendable line that was able to wrap around an enemy before absorbing that enemy's energy? That should, in theory, before one of the easier feats to replicate.

Now, looking over the data he had acquired from the battle in the construction area, he could see that it would be more difficult than he thought. While the new batch of golems had been able to extend their whips as they wished, he had not witness any instance of the whips being retracted, which was also important.

Furthermore, readouts showed that the golems had only been able to absorb their targets physical energy. That meant that their reserves of magical/spiritual energy had remained completely intact. Unlike when the actual Absorption Line was used, which drained any and all forms of energy the target possessed. Not to mention that the golems appeared unable to store what energy they absorbed, simply expelling what they took in as heat.

"It seems I'll have to conduct further trials," Keijutsu thought aloud. Luckily, such a thing was of little issue. It appeared Sona had taken a reactive stance in their "game", and would no longer try to move against him until he moved first. So, that gave him all the time he needed to prepare. And the Student council themselves were serving as perfect subjects for him to test on.

Behind the, the Overture reached its finale and ended with the sounds of cannons firing. Yes, this was shaping up to be fun.

Four weeks later…

Sona looked over the papers Rias had given her, ones that offered all the public information she could obtain on each of the higher-income residents of Kuoh Town.

However, from what she had seen here, none of them were capable of building the metal creatures that had been plaguing her and her peerage for the past few weeks. Less than a handful of them had access to the kind of raw materials required, even fewer of them were affiliated with anything supernatural (the ones that were affiliated were clients of members of either her or Rias's peerages) and none were capable of using magic.

'Just like Tsubaki feared. Another dead end,' she thought.

And the latest sets of metal creatures hadn't made things any easier. Four more batches of them had attacked, with a new group appearing every week. Each group had sported the same set of energy-stealing whips as the first, only those same whips had become more… improved… with each attack. Which could only mean one thing: whoever was building them was still improving on their design with each "trial", making them progressively more dangerous and efficient.

The fact that the whips were similar in concept to Saji's Absorption Line had not escaped her notice either. So, this person had somehow been able to observe him use it at least once, and was now trying to replicate the ability. Sona took solace in the fact that, unless they possessed an intimate knowledge of the inner working of Sacred Gears, their unknown enemy would never be able to make perfect copy. And that kind of knowledge was something the Angels held onto tightly, despite the rumors of Azazel requesting otherwise.

But even if they remained unable to make a perfect copy, this person could still design replica Absorption Lines that were close enough to the original to be used in combat. And that idea—the idea of an army of metal monsters, each with their own replica Sacred Gears—terrified her more than anything.

Her focus was diverted from her inner thoughts by a knock on the door. Upon giving her permission to enter, the person responsible was none other than Rias Gremory. The redhead looked like she had seen better days, with dark bags under her eyes, her hair in disarray, and her uniform crumpled. Sona kept her surprise from showing on her face, and said "Rias, it's a pleasure to see you. What brought about this visit?"

Rias sighed and held up a stack of papers. "This is the latest information about anyone in Kuoh Town involved in supernatural activities. Tsubaki had mentioned that you might want to broaden your search for whoever it is that you're looking for, so I gathered the needed information for you," she said.

This time, Sona's surprise was visible. So, Tsubaki had already anticipated that she'd reach a dead end? And what's more, she had taken steps to help once she reached that point? 'I'll have to remember to give her a vacation for this,' she thought, before accepting the papers from Rias. Now that her childhood friend was even closer, she could see in full detail just how exhausted how she looked. And so, out of concern, she asked "If you don't mind me asking, is there something bothering you?"

When Rias was silent, Sona inquired further "Is it your plan to challenge Riser to a Rating Game?"

Reluctantly, the heiress to the Gremory House nodded and sat down. "I'm worried. I have every confidence in my peerage, even Issei and Asia, despite how new they are. And I've been coming up with strategy after strategy for how to beat him. B not a single one I can think has any substantial chance of winning. Riser just has too many advantages going for him—numbers, strength, his immortality, this list goes on," she told her.

Sona frowned. "Well, you did say from the start that it would be a longshot to win," she said, making Rias hang her head. But she continued "But that doesn't mean that you should give up. So long as the odds aren't zero, there is always the chance that you could win if you try. But if you don't try, then the odds will be zero. And I refuse to let you allow that to happen."

Rias looked up at her at that. She had always been one to show her emotions, and right now Sona could see the surprise in her eyes at hearing that. Slowly, that surprise turned to hope, and Rias nodded. "You're right. So long as there's a chance, I have to try, so that's what I'll do," she said confidently, standing up.

Sona smiled, glad to see her rival get her spirit back. Rias was about to leave when she apparently thought of something, and looked back at the papers she had given Sona. "By the way, I was wondering something. Exactly what is it that you're looking for with all this information?" she asked.

Sona paused. Mentally, she wondered whether or not to tell her. After a few seconds, however, she decided that it wouldn't hurt. "You're aware of that event several weeks ago about the stray devil? The one hiding in the warehouse?" she asked.

When Rias nodded, she continued "It turns out, the disappearance weren't being caused by a stray at all, but a group of living machines that had taken up residence there. We fought the machines and defeated them, but they were just the start. Since then, more and more of them have been showing up, and we've had to fight them week after week. To be honest, it's getting exhausting."

Looking again at the papers, Rias asked "And you think someone here in Kuoh is responsible?"

"Yes, I do. All of these creatures appeared to have been artificially built, either by one person or a group of people. And what's more, the tools and materials needed to construct, build and run these mechanical beings would be expensive. Especially for so many having been made in such a short time. So, I've been trying to see if there's anyone in town who could fit that profile, and who has some sort of connection to the supernatural."

Rias was silent, considering this. Any of the more wealthy citizens of Kuoh she could think didn't match the profile. However, a stray thought entering her mind let her to ask "What about that one student you were looking into? Geibuntu, or something like that?"

Sona blinked. "You mean Keijutsu? But he's not in any of the categories we've looked so far. No higher-income, no relation to the supernatural, not even a connection to building…" she said, before her eyes widened. A memory from their first conversation came back to her.

'My dream is to one day build a device that will bring all my knowledge together and truly benefit mankind, whatever that device may be.'

A dream of building. An unusually high level of intelligence. The failure of any of her servants of learn anything about him. Even more so, when they had been incapacitated by a set of strange wasps, and one of the wasps exploded before being examined…

Just like the golems had started doing.

"It can't be…" Sona whispered, and Rias looked at her. "What was that? I couldn't hear you," she said.

But then Sona shot to her feet, calling "Tsubaki!" Her Queen quickly rushed into the room, and she asked "Where is Keijutsu right now? I need you and the others to find him. Immediately."

Although surprised, Tsubaki didn't question the order and simply said "At once, Kaichou," before leaving in a magic circle to gather the rest of the Student Council. Sona looked over at Rias, and bowed her head. "Sorry, Rias, but we'll have to continue this another time. I think Keijutsu might indeed be the one respon-"

She was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. Sona stared at the door, and when it opened she saw that it was none other than Keijutsu himself entering, grinning like a cat who had just caught the canary.

Both Sona and Rias were frozen in shock, staring at him. Until Rias jerked as she felt something pierce her neck, and then she fell forward. The culprit was a wasp, with a copper body and aluminum wings, who flew over to land on Keijutsu's shoulder.

Keijutsu smiled at Sona. "Sona-kaichou, I can't tell you how glad I am to see you," she said, before looking down at Rias's unconscious form. "A pleasure to see you too, Gremory-san. But I'm afraid this part involves only Sona and me. We can't have any unnecessary distractions."

By now, Sona was able to overcome her shock, and narrowed her eyes. "So, it was you. You're the only who behind all those machines, and they're how you were able to avoid being spied on by me," she said.

If anything, Keijutsu's smile grew wider. "Why don't we sit down and talk, Kaichou? I'm sure we have a lot to discuss," he said, taking the seat Rias had just occupied.

Sona nodded and waved her hand. Behind him, the door to her office swung shut and was covered by a glowing blue symbol, the crest of the Sitri family. Once that was done, she sat down at her desk and folded her hands together, staring firmly at Keijutsu. "Alright, then. Let's begin."