Chapter 17: Clash of the Ultimates & Twisted Swords

A/N:

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

[ ] : Spells, Techniques and Sacred Gear Casts,

"Bold text" : Ddraig & Albion.

We're back, baby!

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Narrator POV

With Sona and her peerage

After teleporting to the school gymnasium, Sona and her peerage members begin moving to place as many barriers around the school as possible. "When we're finished with this, we'll immediately rendezvous at the office." Sona relays to her peerage.

""Yes, Taichou!"" They respond and disperse at high speeds, placing barriers over every part of the school that they reach, and soon... "We're done, Taichou." Saji relays to Sona, while moving with everyone else to rendezvous at the Student Council's office.

As they get closer to the main school building, they all receive a different communication transmission, that comes with a subtle whine that they've associated with Haruki's clones. "We're at the entrance." A short message, but one that gave them enough information.

As they reach the entrance to the school building, they see the space at the base of the stairs shimmer, revealing Haruki's clone with a tired, but otherwise okay Xenovia and Irina. The first thing they notice apart from their presence, is the fact that only Xenovia has her Excalibur.

"So I take it that your Excalibur was taken?" Sona says to Irina, who just grumbles with a pout on her face. "Well, at least they didn't get yours. A Holy Sword as powerful as an Excalibur is already problematic enough, we don't need one that has a destruction attribute being used against us." Sona says with a sigh.

"Well, I've done my job. You guys can take care of these two, and keep them from stupidly running into the battle." Haruki's clone says as he dusts off his trousers. "Battle? Which battle?"

Immediately Saji asks that, a strong tremor rocks the entirety of Kuoh Academy, causing them to look outside. "That battle. In as much as Haruki doesn't want to offend you or look down on your progress, he doesn't want you to be in highly dangerous situations like that even more. And keeping these two out of the area will mean that they definitely won't be able to get their hands on Excalibur Destruction."

"I just hope that you didn't lie to me about the promise." Xenovia says with a solemn voice, speaking for the first time since Sona and her peerage got here. "Promise?" Sona asks with a raised brow.

"Yeah. Haruki promised that he'd help that Angela girl get free of Valper's mind control instead of handing her over to them with her mind broken by Valper. Some shit about making the Church owe him or some shit like that." He says offhandedly as he dissipates into motes of light.

Meanwhile, with Haruki, Rias and her peerage

Kokabiel furrows his brows as he notices that the school gymnasium is still standing, with only a small degree of structural damage. Looking more closely at the building and most of the environment around him, he was surprised to see that most of Kuoh Academy had already been covered by multiple layers of barriers.

As he was about to send down another one of his gigantic spears of light, he senses the presence of some devils heading towards Valper, who has been using a spell that he developed to fuse the Excaliburs that they had.

A wide grin makes its way onto his face, and he begins conjuring another spear of light. However, he doesn't notice a singular presence that is approaching him at high speeds. "Now, now, Kokabiel. I came here for you, so you're gonna have to focus on me." Haruki says, and socks Kokabiel in the face with a metal arm.

The force throws Kokabiel's body to the ground at Mach speeds, and releases a shockwave so strong that it shakes the entire school, even with the barriers that have been placed.

Taking the intense vibration as a signal, Rias and her peerage use their Shūndō and Kōku Shūndō to get further away from Haruki and Kokabiel's battle, and closer to Valper and Angela, who is guarding him.

Meanwhile, Kokabiel pulls himself out of the crater that is shaped like his body with a vicious grimace on his face as he looks up at Haruki, who is looking down at him with a grin. Haruki bring up his left hand, and flames begin forming on each of his fingers, and they coalesce in the shape of letters reading 'Come On'.

"You filthy son of a..." Kokabiel begins, but is interrupted by an explosive uppercut to the chin, as Haruki uses Shūndō to close the distance between them. "My parents aren't involved in this, so watch your damn mouth." He says and goes to deliver a spinning kick to Kokabiel's jaw.

[Nature Dragon's Blazing Tailwhip.] He chants within himself, and his foot is speedily engulfed by flames as it impacts Kokabiel's jaw, hitting him with another bout of explosive force.

Using Shūndō to get above Kokabiel's body, he brings his hands together in a joint hammer fist and sings down. [Nature Dragon's Tenebrous Hammer.] He casts the spell, augmenting the blow with a heavy darkness that sends Kokabiel down even faster.

Kokabiel's body crashes into the ground, but before Haruki can dash to attack him again, he moves his body against the downward force, then begins flying away towards the area that Valper, Angela, Rias and her peerage are engaged in battle.

"Let's see if you can focus on me while they're dying against my pet from hell!" Kokabiel shouts as he summons a creature near Rias and her peerage.

From the shadows behind them, a massive monster begins to emerge. Its height easily reaching 10 meters, its legs as thick as logs, its feet fitted with gleaming claws seeming sharp enough to cut through anything, its red eyes glinting with bloodthirst and its 3 canine heads bearing a fierce visage.

"It's a Cerberus!" Rias shouts, and Issei who had been stacking Boosts finally hits the last one, and... [Balance Breaker: Welsh Dragon Scale Mail.] He enters his Balance Breaker and engages the monstrous canine, that sends a torrent of flames at him from the mouth of one of its heads.

"Hahaha. What are you going to do now, you piece of shit? Continue attacking me, or go to save them?" Kokabiel says with a vicious laughter. Haruki dashes to him and tightly grips his face. "They won't need me to intervene in their fight."

[Nature Dragon's Adamantine Claw.] Haruki casts the spell as his arm turn diamond and he slashes Kokabiel from his face all the way down to his abdomen, eliciting an agonizing shout from Kokabiel.

Deciding that he wouldn't allow Kokabiel the chance of attacking, Haruki goes all out with his Shūndō, easily moving at hypersonic speeds, but keeping the kinetic energy from from affecting the environment too badly.

[Nature Dragon's Frost Talon.] [Nature Dragon's Thunder Jaw.] [Nature Dragon's Toxic Wingbeat.] [Nature Dragon's Monochrome Weave.]

He casts spell after spell, keeping Kokabiel from even being able to act, as his body is slowed down by cold, electrocuted, impaired by poison, stabbed repeatedly by small blades made of light and darkness.

Meanwhile, Issei had barreled through the Cerberus' fire breath. "I've dealt with stronger flames, you mutt!" [Boost!]x7. He wraps his right arm in flames and channels the demonic power and touki that he had gained into his right arm and the flames, as he uses Shūndō to get right under the monster's chest.

Jumping up, he shapes the flames into the head of a dragon, and punches out an uppercut with the full power of the Boosts in his fist. ["Enryūken!" (Blazing Dragon Fist!)] The power of the punch blasts through the Cerberus' torso, the heat of the flames instantly cauterizing the flesh, and much of the flesh of Cerberus' heads receiving the same treatment.

After he lands, Issei keeps his guard up as he steadily boosts his body's capabilities, and almost as if on cue, another Cerberus emerges from the darkness, a deep growl escaping from its beastly maws.

But before it had the slightest chance to attack, Koneko, with her cat ears and tails out, appears over it, and hits it on its back with a powerful axe kick, with her leg imbued with Yojutsu fire. In the massive dust cloud created by the impact, she places her hand on the same spot that she kicked, and inputs her energy.

The Cerberus tries shaking her off, and she jumps off it then snaps her fingers, causing the bit of her energy within its body to explode with great force, leaving the only intact parts of the creature to be its heads and hind limbs.

If Kokabiel wasn't currently getting his limbs twisted out of shape, he would have dropped his jaw at how quickly two Cerberuses got killed. However, he was currently having the bones in his body crushed, the muscles in his limbs getting twisted to extreme degrees, multiple slashes were on his chest, some looking frostbitten and the rest leaking black blood, and he only had one mangled wing on his back, with the rest having been ripped off him, burned to ashes or frozen and shattered, or rotted to a stump with necrotic ooze dripping off them.

And Haruki was just standing over Kokabiel's body with 4 arms, two of which are a jet black metal and the other two a frost covered diamond.

"Haah, flesh molding on yourself is a lot more painful than most people would expect." Haruki says as the second pair of arms retract into his body as pure muscle. He then grabs Kokabiel's head, forcing him to look in Valper's direction.

"You see, I would have gloated over you with me beating you to this point, but that's not enough for me. I want you to witness your plans crumble before I kill you. I want you to die knowing that you did all this in vain." Haruki says as he glowers over Kokabiel's heavily damaged body.

Kokabiel sees the remnants of the 2 Cerberuses and shock fills his mind, as he doesn't understand how the gatekeeper of the underworld was dealt with so easily, and without the powers of a Holy Sword.

"It's complete. The 4 Excaliburs shall become one." Valper says as his magic ritual succeeds, fusing the 4 Excaliburs that they had on hand. The singular sword lets out a blinding light, before its form is revealed, glowing with a blue-white aura.

"With the light of the Excalibur's fusion, the spell that had been placed on the ground is also complete. And with this, the entire town will be leveled in only 20 minutes. The only possible way to dispel it would be to defeat Kokabiel." Valper says calmly, noticing neither the expressions of Rias and her peerage members, who were struggling to not burst into a mocking laughter, nor the fact that the magic circle that basically covered the grounds of Kuoh Academy had started blinking as if it was starting to collapse.

"Now, move, my little angel soldier, and kill these devils." He says as the magic circle on the back of his hand activates, spurring Angela to come out of her hiding place and firmly grab onto the fused Excalibur.

Against Valper's expectations, they all calmly back away, except for one of them, Yuuto Kiba, the blonde swordsman with the Sacred Gear, Sword Birth, that is Rias Gremory's knight.

Angela moves to summon her innate Holy Sword, but Valper forces her to use only the fused Excalibur. Yuuto walks forward, his dark sword in his hand, and his eyes focused on Valper.

"Valper Galilei. I am a survivor of the Holy Sword Project. Although, if we're being precise, I died that day, and was reincarnated into a devil, and I have been living, training and waiting, all so I could get my revenge on you." Yuuto says calmly, as the bloodlust that he had been keeping at bay slowly starts to leak off his body as a black aura.

"Hoho, The survivor of that project. How unfortunate I am to be meeting you in a far east country like this. It's like it's fate at work. Fufufu." Valper says with a mocking laugh.

"You see, I've always loved Holy Swords. So much so that they showed up in my dreams. I guess that would be because of my fascination with the legend of Excalibur since my childhood. So when I heard that I couldn't use Excalibur, I was plunged into despair." Valper reminisces, ignoring Yuuto's killing intent and keeping Angela from attacking.

Yuuto grits his teeth, failing to contain his anger, as the black aura flares, becoming reminiscent of flames. Valper ignores this and continues speaking, revealing something that shocks Yuuto.

"I held so much admiration for those who could wield it while I couldn't. And I had a thought; What if I could make something that could make those that couldn't wield Excalibur be capable of wielding it. And I ran an experiment, one that was successful, thanks to you and the other subjects." Valper says with a manic grin.

"A success? You killed all of us after deeming us as failures." Yuuto says as his aura starts concentrating, becoming almost tangible.

"You see, I realized that there was an essential factor needed to wield Holy Swords. So I used the numerical value of the 'elements' to investigate its capability. Most of the subjects had the elements, but not the numerical value needed to wield Excalibur. So I got another idea, to find a way to extract these elements and gather them. And I succeeded." Valper says as he brings out a blue orb that is giving off a glow and holy aura.

"I had singlehandedly improved the research on Holy Swords by leaps and bounds, and yet those fools from the Church chose to banish me, calling me a heretic as they took my work. Even those two girls are clear signs that my work was successful." Valper laughs with a macabre glee as he continues speaking.

"That bastard, Michael, even uses it to make more Holy Sword wielders, after making me look like a criminal. But since he's an Angel, he'll probably avoid killing them. After all, doing so would just make him more human than me." He laughs, and as he does, the heavy aura on Yuuto seemingly disappears.

"So you killed my comrades so that you could extract the elements to wield Holy Swords, correct?" Yuuto says with a tranquil gaze, his rage seemingly absent. "Of course, and this orb is the last one from back then. I had given one to Freed, but since he didn't return, I gave two of the 3 remaining ones that I had. Now this one in my hands is the last. Unfortunately, the others that I had given couldn't synchronize with the elements and died. What a waste." Valper says as he looks at the orb of holy elements.

"But hey, I'll give this one to you, since it's not as important to me anymore. I've reached a point where I can mass produce them in the right environment." Valper says as the grin of his face gets even crazier.

"First, I'll destroy this town with Kokabiel, then I'll gather all legendary Holy Swords around the world, then mass produce Holy Sword wielders for a war against Michael and the Vatican with the combined Excaliburs. I will show the true results of my research to the foolish Angels and their followers who convicted me." Valper says, his face marred by madness. He then looks at the blue orb of holy elements one last time, and tosses it away, as if it had truly lost all value to him.

Yuuto bends down and grabs it as it rolls in his direction. He then holds it with great care and love as a tear falls from his eye. He lets out a quiet sob, and slowly, the orb begins to give off some specks of light, and they soon cover the entire school field.

Each of the specks of light starts to form into the shape of people, and with how small they are, it would be easy to see them as children, the spirits of those that were killed in Valper's experiments. They all move to surround Yuuto, and look at him with a sad and loving expression.

"... Everyone... Was it right that only I survived that day? Many of you had greater aspirations than I did, and many of you had a better outlook on life than I did. Yet I'm the only one that could even have a peaceful life... Is it right for me to have been able to experience this warmth that you were all bereaved of the chance to experience?" Yuuto says as tears fall down his face.

The closest one to him, a boy, smiles and seems to say something. His lips moved, but no sound came from him. Everyone else looks at this confused. Meanwhile... " "Don't worry about us anymore. You are still alive at least." That's what they're saying to him." Akeno says after reading the boy spirit's lips.

As Yuuto's years fall to the ground, the spirits all begin to move their lips in a rhythm, as if they were singing. "... The sacred song." Asia mumbles from the side.

Yuuto reminisces on the times that he sang this song with his comrades. How this was the one thing that supported them during the painful experiments. As they finish, he sports an innocent, childlike smile on his face, similarly to the spirits around him.

The bodies of the spirits begins to glow an intense blue-white light which becomes brighter as the seconds pass.

"We were no good alone." "We didn't have enough elements to wield the Holy Swords." "But it will be okay if we are together." The once silent spirits speak out audibly, to everyone's amazement, even Valper's.

"You have to accept the Holy Sword." "It's not scary." "Even if God is watching." "Our hearts are always..." "ONE." The spirits say as they seemingly ascend to heaven and turn into a large pillar of light that falls on Yuuto.

As the light clears away, a red crystal flies in front of Yuuto, then it suddenly makes a sharp turn in the air, and flies into his chest. As it does so, Yuuto feels a rush of power in his body so intense, that his wings pop out without his prompting.

As the surge stops, he looks calmly at Valper. "To make sure that no one else suffers the same fate as us from your hands, I will kill you, Valper." He says calmly, to which Valper scoffs. "Don't you know that all research comes with sacrifices? I'd thought that you'd have realized that by now?" Valper says nonchalantly.

"Yuuto." Rias calls out to him with a calm voice. "Defeat them and surpass the Excalibur. This is my order to you, my Knight, as your King." She says to him with confidence, and he nods.

Drawing upon the power and the feelings from his fallen comrades, he wills a sword into being. "I shall become a sword, one that will stand strongly for Buchou and my comrades! Please respond to my feelings now! Sword Rebirth!"

The power of his Sacred Gear, the spirits of his comrades and the power of Siegfried the dragon slayer mixed in his body and began to form a shape in his hands. In a never before seen event, demonic power, holy power and draconic power were combining into a single power.

The power coalesces into a sword, with the left half of the sword being black, and the right side being white, with the fuller of the blade having red runic text running down it, while the pommel of the sword was in the shape of a dragon's head, and the cross guard of the sword had downward facing edges that looked like dragon claws and a red gem in the middle.

"[Balance Breaker: Sword of the Heretic.] A sword with power of light, the power of demons and the power of dragons that God harbors hatred for. This is what will be used to kill you, Valper." Yuuto says and dashes towards Angela.

Valper holds an irate grimace on his face. "Kill him. Kill them all." He says and activates the magic circle on his hand.

Angela dashes at Yuuto and clashes the Fused Excalibur against his Sword of the Heretic. As the blades clash, the aura that covers the Fused Excalibur starts to wane, as it's being erased by Yuuto's sword, a fact that Valper notices.

Angela slightly pushes Yuuto back and jumps back, away from him, then she slashes out. The sword elongates to attack Yuuto, but he deflects it. She slashes at him again, but this time the blade moves so quickly that it seemingly splits into 3, and it also becomes invisible.

Yet, Yuuto was able to dodge and deflect the attacks, a result of his senses being enhanced by the draconic power of his sword. Sensing a small opening on her attacks, Yuuto uses Shūndō to close the distance between the both of them.

As if waiting for this, Angela retracts the blade, and using the abilities of the fourth Excalibur, Excalibur Nightmare, she seemingly splits into four illusory images that begin attacking Yuuto from different directions.

Yuuto avoids the blows and dashes away using Shūndō. He looks at Angela's images and scoffs smugly, then he uses something that the others hadn't ever seen him use. "[Shūndō: Speed Clones.]"

Yuuto seems to spawn in 6 extra clones of himself, all preparing to attack Angela from different angles. Valper scoffs and commands Angela to ignore what he believes to be mere images and attack Yuuto.

As she moves forward to follow his commands, Yuuto counterattacks with all his speed clones. What Valper hadn't expected, was that each of them was an actual solid instance of Yuuto's presence, meaning that while Angela was only by herself using illusions, she was fighting 7 of Yuuto at the same time.

They all slash at her in places that would incapacitate or temporarily cripple her, and since she only had one attack heading for Yuuto, she took six hits, with 2 slashing at her wrist tendons, 2 at her ankle tendons and the last two attacks were a vertical slash at her torso, and a hit on the back of her head with the pommel. The battle had been finished almost as quickly as it had started.

Valper looks at this incredulously, and begins rummaging in his robes for the light bomb that he had used to distract them earlier. Unfortunately for him, Yuuto isn't having any of that, and he dashes up to Valper and slashes both his hands off. The magic circle on the back of the right hand collapses and dissipates, putting an end to Valper's control over Angela.

Valper lets out a bloodcurdling scream as the pain hits him, but even that is stopped by Yuuto, as he beheads him, putting an end to the Genocide Archbishop's life.

"Well, looks like y'all were doing far better than I expected." They all hear Haruki's voice, and turn to see him dragging the mangled and mutilated body of Kokabiel, while having no wounds.

Not long after, Sona comes by with her peerage members, as well as Xenovia and Irina, who immediately run to the downed Angela, that is currently being healed by Asia.

Haruki throws Kokabiel to the ground, and he grunts in pain, causing everyone to immediately go on guard. "Now then, why don't you tell me why and how exactly a piece of shit like you was able to do all this, Kokabiel." Haruki says, as he holds up Kokabiel's head.

Chapter End.

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Word Count: 3,940