Chapter 172: Reunion

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The talk went smoothly for a great part of the conversation. The envoys explained, again, why they were in town and asked the Devils to stay clear of their investigation. Stupid move in Erik's opinion since someone who could steal three pieces of Excalibur from seasoned warriors of the church could, very well, steal two more pieces from two greenhorns. Even more, if the person doing the 'spank and grab' would be Kokabiel himself. In that case, the two envoys were as good as dead already.

As expected, Yuuto Kiba's hate for the Holy Swords was very apparent, which sparked the curiosity of the church's envoys. The Devil then explained that he was one of the various guinea pigs used by the church in a research project that had as its target the creation of artificial Holy Sword users and had been the only 'guinea pig' to escape alive from the place when the higher-ups decided to scrap the project. Of course that what he had said was just the partial truth about what happened. Yuuto Kiba had, indeed, escaped from the research facility and was almost dead when Rias Gremory found him, but his friends, or at least some of them, got rescued by one of Erik's wives, Joan. The Knight stormed the place just after Yuuto Kiba escaped and managed to witness one of the girls that were still alive activating her Sacred Gear and creating a special barrier to save/extend her life together with a few of the remaining kids. After that, it was just the time to call for Erik, to have the barrier undone and the kids stabilized for treatment. The staff of the place was lucky that they had already escaped from there, or Joan would have killed them in the place for what they have done/allowed to be done. Well, not that it mattered, since she had hunted down the people responsible for the facility and brought them to justice. The only one that managed to escape was the head researcher of the project, Valper Galilei. The guy was as slippery as a snake bathed in oil. Of course, Yuuto Kiba knew that some of his friends had been rescued successfully. He had been told about it a week after the rescue when the rescued kids had recovered enough to run around and had asked about him. The boy was very happy to know that not everyone was dead but decided to continue with his revenge against the cause of all his and his friends' suffering, pledging to destroy all Holy Swords. Rias Gremory had tried to take him out of that path by explaining that a weapon doesn't kill without a holder and that he should focus his revenge on the only remaining 'free' person responsible for the research, Valper Galilei. But Yuuto Kiba was stubborn and continued to train to one day destroy all Holy Swords.

Xenovia, the blue-haired meathead that she was, managed to royally piss Yuuto Kiba by calling him an experiment failure. It was just Issei Hyoudou's hand on the shoulder of the Avenger Knight that made the boy stop before things escalated into a sword fight. And, by Xenovia's hand on the sword's handle, that was by her side, was any indication, the girl was itching to attack them. All that she needed was a reason to 'unsheath' her piece of Excalibur and use it to erase the Devils.

At that, the other church's envoy, Irina, recognized Issei Hyoudou and revealed her identity as Irina Shidou, the tomboy that Issei Hyoudou used to play when he was a child and had moved away to Europe. The boy was shocked by the identity of the church's envoy, even more now that he knew that his old childhood friend was, in fact, a girl. Even so, Issei Hyoudou was happy to meet with an old friend but the charm of the moment was broken when Irina Shidou started to 'vomit' fanatical religious words about how her friend had fallen and joined the Devils in their sinful world. Issei Hyoudou just deadpanned while hearing all that blabbing and would be laughing his arse off if he had not seen that the girl believed in every word that she was spouting, no matter how absurd it sounded to others.

But another person in the room didn't have his 'respect' for the 'old friend' and started to giggle, getting the attention of others to her. It was Aika Kiryuu. The new-Devil girl couldn't hold herself about how funny all of Irina Shidou's words sounded. That got the church's envoy a little offended, who asked for her name while glaring as menacing as a kitten could glare. Aika Kiryuu identified herself and, just to pour some salt on top of Irina Shidou, added that she was Issei Hyoudou's friend-with-benefits. Like being hit by a lightning of wisdom, Irina Shidou 'sadly' sighed before accusing Aika Kiryuu in a lamenting tone of seducing Issei Hyoudou with her Devil traits to the sinful side of the supernatural world, even going to the length of comparing 'Issei & Aika' case with 'Adam & Eve'. That got Aika Kiryuu giggling more openly, while Issei Hyoudou continued to 'deadpan' to the comparison made. It was then that Aika Kiryuu said that in terms of time being a Devil, Issei Hyoudou was older than her and that the two of them had dated for a time way before any of them even knew that the supernatural world was not just a thing of myths and legends.

With that being said, the church's girl assumed a scandalized facial expression, but if one knew her for long enough, he would notice that she had some hurt hidden in her eyes. Her companion, Xenovia, noticed that and noted in her mind to talk about it later. It was not a secret to her that her companion, Irina Shidou, promptly accepted this mission when she saw the location of it so she could see her old childhood friend.

After the bickering ended, the two envoys of the church were guided out of the school's grounds by the two Queens, Tsubaki Shinra, and Akeno Himejima. Erik, who was still following everything through his senses, soon took his focus out of the duo as he saw that the two of them were starting their 'investigations' in the city while talking about Irina Shidou's feelings involving her childhood friend.

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It was two days later that Erik sensed something different happening in the city. A big group of rogue exorcists arrived in the city while accompanying the fat-oiled snake himself, Valper Galilei. Together with them was an old 'acquaintance' of Erik's, Kokabiel, and the bat-shit-crazy rogue exorcist Freed Sellzen. Being carried by the group were the three missing pieces of Excalibur. As usual, Erik called Azazel to warn him of the current location of his rogue cadre. Azazel replied to Erik that he was sending someone to subdue and imprison Kokabiel, while Erik replied that he would do the 'subdue' part of the job with a smile on his face, after all, Kokabiel had a very punchable mug and he missed being on the giving side of a good beating.

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That night, the rogue exorcists tried to attack the two church's envoys that were in the city to steal their Excalibur pieces but were expertly repealed by them. At the same time that the attack was happening, Issei Hyoudou had an unlucky meeting with Freed Sellzen. The Devil was going to visit a new client of his, but, after arriving at the client's house, he found the door open and screams of help coming from the inside. Issei Hyoudou ran inside the house, to where the screams were coming from, just to be jumped on by a crazy Freed Sellzen swinging a holy sword. Because of some lucky blow of destiny, also known as an intervention on Erik's part, the Devil clumsy managed to dodge the surprise attack. That triggered a string of swears from the bat-shit-crazy exorcist about how lucky the Devil was to escape his 'new' sword. What followed was a cat and mouse, or better saying, Devil and exorcist, pursuit that thoroughly trashed the entire house. Issei Hyoudo was much stronger and faster than the exorcist, but what made everything trickier for him and erased his physical advantage over the opponent was the singular ability that came from the holy sword that the bat-shit-crazy exorcist was holding. It was the Excalibur Nightmare, one of the seven swords forged from one of the seven pieces of the shattered original Excalibur. This particular piece had received its 'Nightmare' name because of its ability to manipulate and confound the senses of the enemy in accord with its holder's wishes. So, every time that Issei Hyoudou thought that he had some advantage, Freed Sellzen took a metaphorical rabbit out of nowhere and managed to almost hurt him. It didn't take long for Issei Hyoudou's reinforcements to arrive in the form of his King and Peerage mates. Together, they managed to force the bat-shit-crazy exorcist to flee. Unfortunately, the appearance of another holy sword in the city made Yuuto Kiba snap, and, ignoring all of the direct orders that his King was giving, he went to look out for Freed Sellzen, alone, after lying that he was going to go back home to sleep.

Erik sighed while 'seeing' that. The boy's thirst for revenge was blinding his logical mind, which was probably screaming at him to not do it.

But he did it anyway. And, as expected, Yuuto Kiba found Freed Sellzen. Or better said, Freed Sellzen found him. The trade between the two went as expected. Kiba lost the fight and almost lost his life to the bat-shit-crazy exorcist, who was, this time, holding a different piece of Excalibur: Excalibur Rapidly. Just like Excalibur Nightmare, this holy sword had its special ability that, as the name suggested, boosted the agility and speed of its holder to non-human heights. Just that was not enough to win from a Knight Evil Piece, which too boosted speed and reaction time. What was happening was that the demonic swords created by Yuuto Kiba's Sacred Gear, Sword Birth, to fight were not strong enough and were being broken by the might of the Excalibur's piece. The boy only survived because the 'curse' that Erik had put on Freed Sellzen months before was still in effect, blocking him from killing anyone. Who knew that diarrhea could subconsciously teach someone to not kill others. But Yuuto Kiba was not in good condition as he got some cuts from the holy sword, which aura was, as expected, very poisonous to Devils. As Freed Sellzen suddenly remembered that he was not supposed to kill the Devils yet, he fled the fight area without any impediment, leaving behind a 'broken' Yuuto Kiba to lick his wounds and go home.

Erik sighed at the scene. Revenge was a good motivation for one to get strong. But it was not good enough and could only push you to a certain height. To progress, Yuuto Kiba would have to find himself a new motivation to get stronger. Seeing that everything was wrapped up for the day, Erik went back home to enjoy his wives' bodies and warmth.

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