Chapter 13

Kiba looked at Rias in surprise, but then his eyes narrowed and he lowered his head, feeling a little angry at her blunt refusal.

"My brother has worked hard to bring some stability to the affairs on Earth, and I would not jeopardise things just for the sake of letting my Servant have his revenge."

Rias' words made her Peerage flinch, and even Kiba frowned as he felt a little unreasonable even though he did not know what exactly she meant when she mentioned her brother.

"Also, this is not Devil Territory. Italy falls under the Church, and Valper Galilei is an Archbishop." Akeno added, and Kiba frowned some more.

"So, you can not help me." He lightly asked, feeling a little helpless.

"Not directly." Rias smiled as she saw her Servant had calmed down. "I gave you a new life, a life full of new possibilities. If the day ever comes that we can take out Valper, you can do it yourself if you work hard and grow strong enough. And I am sure such a day would come."

"How?" The boy surprisedly asked.

"The Holy Sword Project is not authorised by the Church. Valper hid it from them, and his actions, if revealed with evidence, would ultimately lead to him being excommunicated from the Vatican." It was Freya who answered him, making all of them turn to look at her. "Okita Souji has already left to inform Sirzechs Lucifer about things that happened here. And we earlier sent the news to Satan Ajuka, so, you can expect them to inform the church about Valper's deeds."

"See." Rias beamed a smile at those words and was relieved when her Servant nodded his head, clenching his fist, this time, in determination and not rage.

Freya turned to look at Raizel, and their exchange caught the attention of Akeno and others.

They had a hunch that the silver-haired Lucifuge had something more to say, but she was asking for Raizel's permission.

Once they saw the Prince nod to her, they turned to look at Freya, and sure enough, she did have a piece of news to share.

"You are likely not the only survivor." She revealed, and Kiba swiftly raised her head, looking at her in shock. "I heard the researchers talk about a girl who seemed to have fallen unconscious inside a Barrier, something related to her Scared Gear. They can't seem to get past it, so they are planning on transferring her to another facility to do some research."

Hearing her words, Kiba's body started trembling, and he expectantly turned to look at Rias.

"Please..." He begged, and Rias sighed before turning to the only person who could possibly do something about it right now.

She knew if she wanted to save that other survivor, she would have to take Raizel's help. After all, he was someone who held great power in his hands.

"We will rescue your friend." Raizel nodded. "I was here anyway to find out if the Project yielded any results, so I need to capture one of the senior Researchers that were involved in the project."

"It failed." Kiba gritted his teeth. "We heard them call all of us failures before they unleashed the poisonous gas."

Raizel did not say anything to his words. He was not someone who would take the words at face value. He would rather reach a conclusion after learning and discovering the truth himself.

"Stay here." He told Rias before he disappeared along with his Peerage, rushing towards the hideout they had come there to check.

Arriving at the facility, all of them expertly used their Devil Magic, hiding their presence, and then they attacked the people from the Shadows, silently taking out one guard after another before the fight broke out.

Since Valper had already left, most of the stronger guards were gone as well. It was not even fun to deal with these weaklings.

Raizel calmly walked into the main chamber, utilising his Magic to cut off the sound of fighting that was taking place upstairs.

There were only some researchers on this floor, and as soon as they laid their eyes on him, they all fainted and dropped like sacks.

He spared one, who was seemingly an old man and was not really scared, just curious, but that was mostly because he was gripped in his compulsion.

"What's your name?" He smiled and asked, and the man started answering all his questions.

However, he was not interested in staying there for a long time. So, he stepped forward and sank his teeth in his neck, reading all his memories, and learning things that he would have not even thought of asking about.

The man fell on the floor lifelessly, and Raizel narrowed his eyes.

Some new questions now revolved in his mind, along with a bundle of very valuable information.

But what was important was that The Holy Sword Project was a success. In fact, it was an immense success. And the thing that interested him the most was that Valper had links with the Grigory.

However, he put his thoughts aside for now as he ventured deeper into the hideout, and eventually reached the last floor, where he found lifeless bodies of children now covered in bags.

It did not bother him at all, after all, their lives did not matter to him. What did catch his attention was a certain girl, who was floating in the air, inside a transparent barrier in the form of an orb.

She looked around the same age as Kiba, but he could not be sure since the barrier prevented him from ascertaining her age or feeling her blood.

The only sign of her life was that her Sacred Gear was still active, other than that, she was not even breathing.

He curiously walked over to her and touched the barrier, and then frowned as he felt how sturdy it was.

It was not going to be easy to break past it, as it seemed to be some sort of life-saving mechanism of the Sacred Gear that the girl possessed.

At least, he knew her name now. It was Tosca, and from the memories of the Researcher he had just killed, he had learned that she was very close to Isaiah.

A few minutes later, his Peerage assembled behind him, having taken care of everyone in the hideout.

"Seven dead, thirty-two unconscious," Freya informed him, and he nodded his head.

"No need to kill them all." He told them. "Send the bodies of the kids to where Rias and her Peerage are." He ordered, and everyone complied with his words, finishing the task in a matter of few minutes before they assembled again behind him, waiting for him to finish inspecting the barrier.

"Can it be broken?" Freya asked as she curiously looked at the white-haired girl who was sealed.

"Yes." He nodded, taking his hand off the sphere. "Hard, but possible. However, it will kill the girl inside as it seems to be some sort of a Spatial as well as a Time manipulating barrier. And it is possible that her body would be shredded into thousands of pieces, beyond saving."

"Oh." They were all surprised at his words and their curiosity rose more.

"We will have to find another way." Guts spoke, but Raizel shook his head.

"Not our headache." He said. "We will send her to Ajuka. He will appreciate the gift." He smirked, and Freya giggled at his words as she knew that giving Ajuka something interesting to research was equivalent to making him owe you a favour.

Rias was silently watching her newest Servant put the bodies of his late friends in the graves one by one, and the rest of the Peerage stood behind her as they needed to give Kiba the time to do it himself and find some solace.

Just when he put the last body in the grave and filled it, a Magical Circle appeared next to them, and Raizel and his Peerage emerged out of crimson light, together with a little girl who was suspended in the air, surrounded by a spherical barrier.

"Tosca!" Kiba, who had already figured out who his surviving friend was, rushed up, but Kuroka raised her arm and stopped him from approaching the barrier.

"Later." She told him, not giving any explanation.

"Rias, we are going to the Underworld. I need to drop off the girl at Ajuka's place. Maybe he will figure out how to get her out of this Sealing Barrier safely." He told her, and his little fiancée obediently nodded her head.

"I was thinking about going back too since everyone needs to get their Familiars." She revealed, and watched Ban and Moka narrow their eyes and accusingly turn to look at Raizel.

"I guess we can go together on the night of the next full moon." He sighed.

"You guys don't have Familiars yet?" Rias amusedly asked, and Moka pouted at her words.

"His fault. We were supposed to get them years ago, but he was always sleeping when the time came."

Riazel smirked at her words, not in the least ashamed about his laziness, and then created a bigger Magical Circle that could accommodate everyone.

Without him needing to say anything, Rias led her Peerage inside the circle, and then they all disappeared from the forest, appearing directly inside Ajuka Beelzebub's lab.

The Heiress of the Gremory was a little surprised that Raizel was allowed in here, but then she just giggled in her heart as she reminded herself who he was.

They did not have to wait long for the man they were here to see, who walked into the room only a minute later.

"Prince Raizel. It's quite an unexpected visit." Ajuka lightly smiled as he looked at Raizel, and then curiously raised his brow at the girl that was sealed inside the spherical barrier.

"We have a gift for you." Raizel grinned, piquing the Satan's curiosity.