Preparing For Battle
928 0 12
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.
Welcome to the next chapter. This one is the official start of the fallen angel arc. This will be more of a training chapter before we get to the main action of this arc. With that let's get on with the story. 

 

As Sona and Issei finished their little date walking around town, they called their peerages and told them to meet at the Student Council office to catch up on her group's contracts and see how they were going, as the Higher Ups were still trying to figure out the best way to split the town between the three peerages, though Koneko was cleared to continue her contracts she still had active from when she was with Rias.

After they reached the school and had started the meeting, they had a knock on the council door, and they could feel two new supernatural presences outside. After both Issei and Sona gave each other a look, wondering who would be knocking on the door, and new presences at that, she told them to come in, surprised to see what looked like two high-school-aged girls walk in.

"I hope we're not intruding on anything, but we come bearing news and with permission from Governor-General Azazel and Maou Leviathan." The one with long hair said as she held up a letter and both of them not stepping too far into the room knowing that the devils were probably on high alert with everything that had happened recently.

Getting a nod from her King, Tsubaki walked over and got the letter and handed it over. After she read the letter, she passed it over to Issei and decided to give them the benefit of the doubt for now as her sister had said that she had talked to Azazel and he was working with them, so she waved the girls into the room. "What is your message?" She asked already working on figuring out a way to contact her sister and get their story verified.

"As I'm sure you have noticed but we are affiliated with the fallen angel faction, my name is Elze and this is my twin Linze Silhoueska by the way, and as Azazel is hoping to work towards peace with the three factions, we were sent here by Azazel to give both the Sitri heiress and her fiancée a heads up on an event that the rogues that are currently in this territory are planning." Getting a nod for them to continue, she kept going.

"He's been busy within the Grigori trying to quell rogue elements within and this group is just one of the latest and has been working on bringing a Sacred Gear wielder to Kuoh to pull her Sacred Gear out of her." Making both Sona and Issei think back to the nun they took to the church earlier. "We're here to pass on anything we know as well to help as needed."

"What do you mean by 'help as needed'" Sona asked, thinking about all the new information they had learned so far.

"As we said, some of the more dangerous elements have started to go rogue and rebel, and the group that has made their way to Kuoh is part of that, but only three of them are, as one has been blackmailed into helping them out."

"So basically, Azazel is wanting us to do his dirty work for him in this situation," Issei said, catching onto where this was headed before getting a look from Elze.

"Both Lord Azazel and Lord Baraqiel are working on tracking the one that is currently considered the leader of the rogues as well as the strongest, Kokabiel."

"Ok, so you say that you have permission from the Maou's to be here, which I can understand from what I've heard from my sister, but the thing I'm not understanding is how we would be the ones tasked with this with the devil councils new law of only peerages with over 6 people in them, not including the King, can handle situations like this," Sona said as a teleportation circle popped up in the room dropping off her sisters Bishop Akane and Knight Peko.

"You're right, but they can't argue against it when the Maou's personally give the order for your peerages to mobilize and handle this situation, which is why we're here to give credence to these girls words as well as help out with training," Akane said startling everyone at their quick entrance, though Sona nodded her head in thanks to the Bishop and turned her head back to the girls.

"What can you tell us about the rogues that are in my territory?" She asked, glad for the two to have shown up and now didn't have to worry about contacting her sister to clear what the girls were giving them as information that was legitimate and wasn't another plot.

"The group of rogues has been consolidating power and pulling resources to this location in secret, mostly rogue Exorcists, and has a plan in the works like I mentioned to pull a Sacred Gear out of a nun that has either recently reached Kuoh, or should be here soon. We also wouldn't put it past them to try and attack both the Gremory and Sitri heiress's while they are here if they were trying to start the war back, that would be one way to do it."

"I think she was more meaning their names and abilities than their plans, as them attacking us was almost a given in our mind," Issei said, his mind going back to what happened a couple of weeks ago, and getting another look from Elze as she recognized him finally from pictures.

"You must be the recently found son of the Maou Lucifer if I may inquire since you worded it that way?" Elze asked, having heard of him from Azazel but not recognizing him until now.

"Normally I would wonder how you would know about me but since I know Serafall has been in touch with Azazel, it makes sense. Yes, I am." He said, getting nods from the twins at that.

"Ah. Anyways, onto the four fallen that have moved into Kuoh currently, they are Dohnaseek, Raynare, Mittelt, and Kalawarner, the last of which is being blackmailed by Dohnaseek from what we can tell by him holding a sacred treasure of hers. They all can cast light spears and are two winged angels, but only Dohnaseek and Raynare are middle to low high tier two winged angels, so are more dangerous, though none of them have any real battle experience." She said giving them more information on the group from what they had learned.

"How long do you think we have until they're prepared to do the ritual?"

"From what our guy we have watching them has figured out, they still have to gather supplies before they can do it, and we're guessing about 3 weeks to get everything, but that's just a guesstimate." She said knowing that the letter mentioned another person was watching the group while the twins dealt with the devils.

"We can help with training as extra hands and also help in the battle as needed." She also mentioned getting a nod from Sona and Issei as Sona opened up a drawer in her desk and pulled out a contract paper.

"We will take your help, but I would ask that you get this paper to the person watching the church and it'll help out too. It's a way for them to contact us in case something happens and you aren't around." Handing it over and getting a nod before Peko stepped in to start talking about the training.

"Issei, since technically you aren't a part of Sona's peerage, you and your peerage don't have to partake in the training, but your father would like you to at least practice with your mother to help give your magic skills a boost. Either way, we will also help train the rest of your peerage whichever way you decide." She said getting a nod from him.

"I will partake in the training, but I would also like to learn more of my magic from my mother. And could you also find someone to help me train physically?" Getting a nod from her.

"If you wouldn't mind letting me know what Sacred Gear you have, I'll know what to look for in someone to help you train." She replied, getting a thoughtful nod from him as he made a decision he'd been thinking about for some time.

"If you don't mind, I think now would be a good time to let everyone know what my Gear is. Can you go get my father and anyone else that should be in the know about it?"

"That is a suitable request. Give me time to gather them." Akane said as she stepped back to take a portal and gather the Maous. She knew that the Maou's had been talking about what Gear Issei had so it wouldn't take much to get them to come. Plus, they were in a meeting right now about the upcoming situation in Kuoh so it was a simple matter this time around.

"Ise are you sure you are ready for my peerage and everyone to know what your Gear is?" Sona asked unsure if it was time or not. She could understand why he wouldn't let most people know since he was this generation's Red Dragon Emperor and she had even given him the suggestion of keeping it quiet for now, but Issei quelled her worries.

"Sona, you used two rooks to revive me. I'm a part of your peerage so they have a right to know, and it's time since only you and Aunt Griselda know what Gear I have."

Akane came back before Sona could reply, as it only took Akane mentioning why she was back for the group to come.

After everyone got settled, Issei got into how he learned about his powers and how Auntie Griselda as he knew and called her helped him out and taught him what she could before she had to leave for Europe to help train the next batch of exorcists, which caused the Maou's eyes to widen as they recognized the name.

Griselda Quarta was a well-known and renowned exorcist, easily among the top five, and she had known Issei from a young age, yet she didn't try to bring him over to the Angels' side. They didn't know whether to be worried about her coming back to try and bring him over to their side, or glad that she hadn't tried to get him to join them.

"Rather than telling you what Gear I have, I think I'll show you," he said as he drew power to his arm getting ready to summon the Boosted Gear. Deciding just to get it over with without too much fanfare, he called the Boosted Gear out and stunned everyone in the room.

"[Well, well, well. Finally stepping up your training eh partner?]" DDraig said yawning, having woken up from a nap when the Boosted Gear was called upon, causing Issei to laugh and his parents to look at him in confusion.

"What do you mean by stepping up training?" His father couldn't help but ask the dragon, putting aside his surprise at his son being the wielder of the Boosted Gear of all Gears.

"[Occasionally when he sleeps we talk in his dreamscape and also do some training as I need to make sure my host is strong, especially with who my rival is, and it would suck if someone besides my rival killed him.]"

"Ok, but if that's true, how was it that he was killed and had to be revived?" Sirzechs asked, not quite sure what to think of the new information, and making DDraig sigh as while he knew this question would come up at one point, he still didn't like the answer.

"[I was asleep when it happened and he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. Otherwise, she never would have been able to kill him as even when his body was tearing itself apart, he could handle twenty minutes worth of boosts before he hit his limit, which would make him one of the strongest hosts I've ever had, and with his new body no telling how far he might be able to go.]" He sounded both sheepish at not having been able to help his partner and proud at where Issei was power-wise.

Sirzechs was happy though at what he had heard about Issei's power and how much potential he had. Based on the power he had felt from Issei when he first met him in the Student Council office, he was certain Issei would reach the upper tier of Ultimate-Class devils by 21, but after hearing DDraig, he felt certain that he could easily reach his power if not surpass it.

"[Speaking of your body Issei, I was awake when you were talking to Ajuka about your body needing time to heal from the damage done by your powers. I can say that the reason I've been asleep more lately is I've been working on repairing your body and by tomorrow morning around eight am, your body will be fully healed from the damage.]" He said surprising everyone in the room.

"Then I would like to start training tomorrow morning, as I've got to grow strong enough to protect Sona, but don't want to only train one of my powers. Mama, would you help me train my magic?"

Grayfia couldn't help but notice how grown up her boy was starting to sound at the moment and was also extremely happy at him requesting her help, becoming so overwhelmed by his words, she couldn't speak so just nodded her head at him.

Sirzechs for his part stepped in and assigned his Rook Sutr to help Issei in physical training, as well as adding his peerage, into the mix too to help get the two peerages ready. "Sutr, Grayfia, I'd like you two to stay in town while training him, as I don't feel it would be right to take him to the underworld and possibly cause his adoptive parents to worry about him. I'll also send my Knight over to help train Kaori and Yui in their abilities as Knights." He said, before remembering another factor.

"While we're at it, we should see about having Sona's Pawn Kazuki join in on the training and get stronger too." Getting a thoughtful nod from Sona as she commented.

"That's true but I'll need to talk to him about it first. I try not to call on him unless it's an emergency and leave him to his own devices most of the time." Which Sona amended after thinking about it for a second with, "Yes, this could be considered an emergency in some aspects but still." She said getting a confused look from him.

"While I can understand freedom of movement, he normally doesn't even show up for full peerage meetings from what I've seen," Sirzechs replied, getting Sona to give him the reason as she remembered no one outside of her peerage and sister knew the circumstances with her Pawn, due to it never being brought up before.

"Normally I would agree with you, but his parents were killed a few years ago and he's got five brothers and sisters that he takes care of. When I found him, he'd been killed by a burglar as he protected his siblings and I revived him as I didn't feel right leaving his siblings to go through the system, and I let him do his own thing so he can take care of them. I've helped him where I could, but he's requested that he doesn't get much help unless he asks for it, and I have let him know he can ignore group summons, and if I need him I'll call him separately." Getting a thoughtful and understanding nod from Sirzechs.

"Do you mind calling him here for me? I would like to help him with his situation if possible." Getting a nod from Sona as she pulled out her phone to call him, as it was easier for him to answer a phone call than a communications circle. Sona was also thankful for his boss being the easy-going sort of boss that didn't mind when Kazuki had to leave and do stuff for her, as it wasn't very often she had to call on him.

Kazuki was the oldest member of Sona's peerage, right at twenty years old with short and messy chestnut-colored hair. As soon as he showed up, Sirzechs pulled him into another room to have a private talk.

"Things are about to start heating up around here, both due to fallen angels causing issues here within Kuoh as well as the Devil Council has made it harder to handle some situations. Smaller peerages were starting to have issues dealing with strays, so now there are new regulations on what it takes for peerages to handle them, but the issue is that while you will need to be at a certain level training wise it won't always be enough. The problems we have incoming will require experience to handle." He started getting a thoughtful nod from Kazuki.

"Thankfully, the Devil Council can't cancel a direct order from the Maou's when we order a peerage to mobilize. We need to have the future leader's ready for anything, and with Sona being one of them, she's gonna need her peerage ready to go and capable to handle situations. Now I know and fully understand that you have to help your siblings, but I'm asking you to also step up and help Sona through this upcoming situation and I will help in any way I can."

"I owe her my life. She saved me and allowed me to live and keep caring for my siblings, so I will do anything to help her. If you think I need to get stronger, then that works with me." Kazuki said with conviction, making Sirzechs smile.

"Great. First, have you met Issei?"

"Yes. Great kid. I heard him and Sona finally got together, and I'm happy for them."

"That makes this easier than. He's my son, but he was kidnapped back when he was a baby, and thanks to Sona we finally found him. Now, I own the house right next to his adoptive parents and would like to give it to you, as I'm sure being close to Iseki and Emiko will help you with your siblings as I'm sure they'd love to help."

"Are you sure? I'll gladly pay you back for it."

"Consider it a gift. I'm sure it will help you in more ways than one, with Issei's adoptive parents nearby and you not having to worry about bills anymore."

"Then I thank you. Now, you were talking about getting training in for the upcoming issues. I've got some Kendo training back when my parents were still alive, and am decent with a sword. Based on that, what would you suggest? I would think you might have an idea if I may say so." Getting a nod back.

"Issei and his peerage are going to be getting trained under my Rook Sutr for physical training so I would suggest starting there for now. I can also work towards finding you a sword if you would like." Thinking he should also ask Issei's Knights if they would like him to do the same.

"I would love it if you could, but it doesn't need to be anything special. When Sona revived me we found out I had a Sacred Gear when Sona revived me called Aria of Elements, and as there are a few aria's I know I can control the element tied to it by singing the aria for it. I've used it a few times heating food or controlling the temperature in my house."

Nodding at the news, Sirzechs led both of them back to the Student Council office where Kazuki stepped forward to Sona and kneeled letting her know to call on him more often now when she needed him, and that he was looking forward to the upcoming training, causing her to smile at him and let him know he was dismissed to go and tend to his siblings.

Issei now stepped forward with a question he'd thought about while his father was out of the room. "I can understand us training to deal with this situation as we'll be the ones going in, but shouldn't Rias also be doing some training?" He asked about his Aunt. The two of them hadn't talked much yet after the whole deal at her parent's house but he was giving it time and still hoped they could work things out between themselves. And it also made sense due to the fact it had only been a day since it had happened.

Sirzechs sighed at the question. "You're right about that but they will be doing their own training on the side as they'll mainly be backups for this mission, and since everyone but her new Pawns are the only ones that need training, she's handling it herself, splitting the training between the three other devils while the ones not doing the training will be doing their own style of training."

Nodding his head as it seemed like they were getting themselves ready in their own way, Issei nodded his head making the older devils move onto finishing things for the night. After making sure Grayfia and Sutr had a place to stay while doing the training, Sirzechs asked the Kendo girls if they would like him to get them a sword to use and after getting a yes from them, everyone left for the day to get ready for the upcoming training session.

Scene Skip

The next two and a half weeks were hellish for the two peerages, but they got a ton of training in; everyone was able to learn something and were ready to deal with the fallen.

Sona was able to train her water magic up enough to where if she focused enough she could turn small amounts of water to ice and dubbed it ice bullet, and also worked with her eye magic what she could without letting too many know about it for now and can control it about seventy-five percent of the time.

On her Bishops side, they mainly focused on learning new spells, though both didn't have a specialty in any element like both Sona and Issei do. Momo for her part leaned more towards learning spells directed towards defense and barriers, while Reya leaned towards more offensive magic.

Tsubaki for her part worked on being able to control her Sacred Gear better; being able to go from only able to use it once every 30 seconds to now every 5 seconds and also able to control where the blasts were directed instead of right back at the attacker. She was also now able to make up to three mirrors to use to redirect attacks. All in all Sona's peerage was able to use the three weeks to their advantage.

On Issei's peerage side plus Kazuki, both boys were put through the wringer by Sirzech's Rook Sutr, since he had trouble holding back with the two of them. They both grew faster and made a training setup of two days of training and one day off.

Kazuki was able to bulk up more from his training and now has more prevalent muscles. Sutr even commented that if he kept it up he could earn the title of "Elemental Blade" down the line thanks to his Sacred Gear. He had also opened up to everyone in both Sona and Issei's peerage recently and gotten to know everyone and they all considered him as an older brother figure.

It also helped that after moving into the house next to Issei, his siblings were happier than ever, seeing both Issei and Koneko as an older brother and sister respectively, though they thought it was funny that she was around their height, and both of his adoptive parents loved having them around claiming them as adoptive grandchildren.

Thanks to being in Rias's peerage before being traded to Issei's, Koneko had some training in combat, but didn't have a refined method. She mainly worked on the basics, rebuilding her fighting style, and increasing her already high defense and strength stats.

With the Kendo girls, they had learned when they were reincarnated that they had Sacred Gears; Kaori had the Blade Blacksmith Gear that allowed her to create holy swords depending on the will of the user and was able to develop it enough to where she could use it as many times as she needed, though did still request the weapon that Sirzechs promised to help her get just in case something happened she would have a backup. She also tried working her way towards her Balance Breaker, which allowed her to summon a group of knights to help fight but wasn't quite able to do it within the time frame, though no one gave her any grief for it as she had just recently started working towards it.

Yui for her Gear got the Momentum Pillage, which allows her to drain whoever she is attacking's speed and use it herself, which she learned to use pretty well by the end of the three weeks and was able to even drain High-class devils speeds and use it against them, something that nobody had been certain about at first when they learned what her gear was. They both were also able to gain strength under the guidance of Sirzech's Knight Souji Okita and learned more about how the Knight piece worked and the weaknesses that came with it.

Issei, whenever he wasn't training under Sutr, was working on his magic with his mother, though it was more figuring out the boundaries he could push with it then actually learning how to use it thanks to his training with Griselda. He did learn a few new magic attacks he thought would come in handy down the line with his ice magic, as well as some other styles of attack magic as his mother didn't want him to just rely only on his ice, while also figuring out his own fighting style, which was a mix of karate, jujitsu, and kickboxing. He didn't consider himself a master in any of the styles, though he did get a good start on working that way.

On the last day before the three-week estimate was up, something the group was thankful for that they had gotten to use to train for this, the adults left to head back leaving with the words that the group should train on their own now and get some battle experience before requesting anymore help.

With that, the group met back in the Student Council with the twins giving a quick briefing from what they had learned from Vali who was still watching the church. They also warned the group that they had warned Kalawarner about the upcoming attack and would pull her out of the church right before the attack by Sona's group started, though they didn't dive into how that would happen at the time.

Issei and Koneko would be the ones dealing with Raynare as he had a score to settle with the fallen. Sona would take on Dohnaseek as she was fairly certain she could handle him, while Elze and Tsubaki would handle Mittelt and would either help out Issei and Koneko or vice versa depending on whoever ended their battle first.

Everyone else in the group would handle the stray exorcists that the fallen had gathered, though the twins did warn them that they had heard there was a crazed exorcist in the group that was unpredictable in his actions so expect anything from him and gave them his description.

Then, as night fell on the final day of the three weeks, the group made their way to the church to do battle.

 

and cut. I decided to leave it here and put the battle in the next chapter as this one was getting past where I normally like to end chapters, word count wise and had always meant to separate the battle into a separate chapter. A couple points to point out at the end.

· Momentum Pillage is a SG I got permission to use from another writer here on FF, Arumage, who wrote about it in one of his stories and felt like it could fit into this story well.

· Aria of Elements was a SG used in The Rayvenwolves version of the story, and used it as I couldn't figure out another good one to use for that OC.

· Kazuki is an OC character I made for this story with his design based off of Saijou Leonhard from Irregular at Magic High.

· Don't forget about my discord; use the code zwJu3MZ to get in.

And with that until the next chapter, which will be the fight between the two groups and ending of the fallen arc.

12