Chapter 3 - 3

With his eyes closed, Soma was recovering his magic reserves quickly. He had spent a considerable amount of his reserves after all and he would need time to get it all back. But even then he was calm, this was holy ground that would inevitably weaken any demon to a degree. Adding to that, there was clearly a force of exorcists present.

This was likely the safest place to be in right now in this town until the demonic entity was dealt with. He found it rather hard to believe it would decide to attack anyway, this would be far too brazen after all and would only work if there was a huge difference in power. ​​

Thinking thus he relaxed his shoulder, ready to just rela-

DODGE!

Moving out of sheer instinct, opening his eyes while using reinforcement to the limit Soma managed to avoid a sword that was poised to pierce him right through the head.

"Oh, you are good for an exorcist scum. Is it something you've learned back in the church?" Kiba spoke as if he was talking about the weather even as he moved his sword he just tried to pierce right through Soma's forehead.

Soma's face twisted in a grimace, this demon reached him far too fast and Soma was too relaxed which allowed for that situation to happen.

Kiba was about to open his mouth again when Soma reacted first. His hand moved as if a blur, without even taking out his gun entirely from its place on his side Soma moved in what felt like an instant, and five holy bullets were shot at Kiba who evaded them in a hurry, he could feel sweat running down his back since the bullets got extremely close to him. There were no signs of Soma shooting until it was too late and all shots were aimed at lethal spots with no hesitation.

As for Soma, he furrowed his brows in annoyance. Kiba was far too fast for Soma to face head-on right now, his magic reserves were not fully back yet and his body was still rather weak with him only able to fight now because of the Reinforcement magic, but even that had a limit.

But, just running away was not yet an option. Kiba was faster than him, running away from him would prove fruitless and Soma did not know what Kiba would do if there were civilians around. As far as Soma could tell Kiba could kill any human he passed by to gain power by consuming their souls, who knows really.

No, he needed to incapacitate Kiba before leaving. Elimination was preferable but not a requirement since Soma did not know if Kiba had allies around, a possibility since there were exorcists close by and they must be under attack, so if he left kiba seriously injured then his friends would be too distracted treating him instead of pursuing Soma.

Thinking thus Soma acted. Taking out the trench knife he had blessed before he faced Kiba who moved to attack him, knife and sword impacting one another in a class that released sparks everywhere.

Moving his knife Soma redirected the blow Kiba sent him to the side and taking advantage of the opening formed Soma used a palm strike in Kiba's unprotected side.

"GHA!" Kiba gasped at the sudden attack on his side, unprepared for the subsequent palm strike in a critical location and feeling one of his ribs crack a bit. "That was dir-" However Soma did not let out the pressure, moving his knife in rapid succession to injure Kiba and not give him time to speak.

And yet, the knight was not to be underestimated, his sword moving to intercept the knife most times and whenever the two were in a contest of strength Kiba would come out victorious.

Only, even if Kiba managed to do that to a degree, and even if his speed and power were bigger, he was losing miserably in this competition. The sheer difference in technique made sure of that.

No matter from which angle and what speed Kiba used, Soma would redirect him and punish him for every strike. Soma was far too used to face better swordsman with greater speed and power, Soma was able to deal with Kiba clinically without that big of an issue besides the energy he was having to spend to do so as he had to keep Reinforcement in use.

'This exorcist, why is he winning?' Kiba asked himself, barely avoiding a knife swing that had just redirected his blade and was centimeters away from cutting deep in Kiba's shoulder. "He is just a human and I don't sense him using any holy power to augment himself! What trickery is this? Humans are the weakest race, I know that since I was one in the past and could not do anything. It is just by becoming a devil a human can fight, only by abandoning humanity could I face my enemies. And yet, why am I still losing to this church's dog? Is he just that much more skilled than me with a sword? No, no it can't be it. If it is just a difference in skill then it would mean I am too weak, too weak to kill a member of the church."

As these thoughts of the church and all it entailed echoed in Kiba's mind, and as Soma's knife managed to slash at him multiple times, Kiba went all but berserk. Soma's figure in front of him looking more and more like those of the scientists that killed all his friends, that methodical and emotionless face Soma was using to dismantle him in battle looking more and more like the emotionless looks of the scientists when they experimented on them.

Kiba began to hyperventilate, his pupils widening as his sword stikes became more and more erratic. Demonic swords appearing all around as if to answer to Kiba's distress as he started having a PTSD-induced panic attack.

As for Soma, he was pushed back as swords started appearing all around. All reeking of demonic energy as the human-looking demon in front of him started swinging his blade around with wide abandon and demonic power being released all around.

'Shit, this thing is going berserk. I need to deal with it fast or he might go after the townspeople.' Soma thought, his gaze becoming more resolute.

One of his hands was still grasping the knife he began reciting as his other hand took out the three other knives he had kept in his person inside his hoodie.

'I will not let you attack others. If you are going berserk I can't let you just walk away from this that easily. I may not kill you, but I WILL stop you.' Soma thought to himself before launching the tree knives in his hand, they moving in intricate patterns and all piercing Kiba in the chest.

"GHAAAA!"

"Demons like you are powerful creatures, stronger than humans naturally, but as such, they have their own weaknesses. For instance, you are weaker to weapons with purification attributes such as these." Soma said, now a bit calmer since the knifes were already inside Kiba's torso. With those in place, his threat level was disminished considerably since using any sort of dark energy with these knives inside the body would not be easy. Guarding his trench knife and taking out two simpler ones instead. "Now, let us pray together. A Prayer so that you cannot injure any human or corrupt any souls."

In Kiba's ming, in the places that were not screaming in pain or paralyzed by his PTSD-induced panic attack, he wondered what this man was even talking about. Anyone who knew of how things worked in the current world knew that devils didn't go around corrupting souls or killing humans like what Soma was accusing him of.

"I Kill. I let live." The two knives Soma was holding almost flew out of his hands, both moving fast and piercing Kiba's both shoulders. Pain shot through Kiba as Soma watched dispassionately, if the demon did not enter this berserk-like state it would not have been so simple to start this purification ritual but he lost his speed advantage when he went crazy with bloodlust.

And thus Kiba lost.

And thus the prayer continued.

"I harm, and I heal. None shall escape my grasp. none shall escape my sight." Two more knives flew, these two piercing Kiba's knees even as he was in the ground already. Bluish fire emerging from the injuries made by the blades. "Be defeated. Those defeated, those grown old, I welcome you. Devote yourself to me, learn from me, obey me and rest. I am light and I shall relieve all your burdens. Ask for forgiveness here. I, the reincarnation, shall swear it. Kirie Eleison." And, with these final words, the final knife flew.

However, unlike in the proper ritual where the knife should aim for the center of the forehead, this one went to the center of Kiba's guts.

The bluish fire vanished as the ritual was completed, but as Soma wanted it was not a perfect ritual as Kiba was not killed. But even with the best of treatments, it would be a long time before he could be a threat again and he would need immediate medical support.

"Well, with luck your allies will come soon when they sense what happened here and be too distracted by you to actually come after me." Soma said easily enough before moving to Kiba's body, scorched marks covering his whole body as there was barely any movement in his chest.

Without hesitation, he took out the knives that were stuck in Kiba, all aimed at non-lethal spots of course. Kiba was to serve as a decoy to make his escape from whatever was happening easier, a dead decoy would lose its meaning.

Seeing that he had done what he had to Soma left the shed, taking a deep breath he sensed the location of the demons around and noted the presence of several of them around the front of the church just as he also sensed the presence of something different to the northeast close to another demonic energy that was speeding in the direction of in front of the church.

This was useful information for Soma who proceeded to leave to the northwest of the area. He had to escape before anything more was to happen and what is left of his magic reserves dry up.

'At least I confirmed I can deal with the demonic beings in town. Not sure how strong that guy is compared to the others though, better get back to his house and set up the protection perimeter before I can go to sleep.'

///---///

In front of the church, one could find Issei looking despondent at the scene in front of him. Due to Kiba's absence in the invasion of the church, Issei and Koneko took considerably longer to reach the nun, her death having long since transpired by the time they arrived to rescue her and Raynare had in her hands Twilight Healer.

Following that the combat got extremely fierce since the fallen angel could heal herself quickly from any injuries, and with Koneko and Issei having already gotten quite injured thanks to the scuffle with the mad exorcist Freed Selzen and the other Exorcists around it was no surprise that they were pushed back a whole lot.

Thankfully Rias arrived in time before anything more happened, dispatching Raynare rather easily using her Power of Destruction. She arrived in a hurry as she saw the light spears or Raynare being thrown around so she realized that things were likely bad, leaving Akeno behind to deal with the three fallen angels.

A pale-green light filled the church. It was Asia's Sacred Gear. Raynare's eradication under the overwhelming power of destruction seemed to have released it. Such a fact was only possible because of how fragile the link between Raynare and the gear was due to how recent the whole thing was.

The gear was a pair of rings and it bathed the entire area in its warm, comforting glow as Rias took it into her hand.

"Twilight Healing, this is quite the useful gear for sure." Rias said with a light smile. The ability to heal others just like that, it would be invaluable for sure.

"B-Buchou, can you heal her?" Issei asked, cradling Asia's body in his arms, his face smeared with tears over the injustice of it all.

"... Maybe if I turn her into my Bishop. I am just not sure if it can work seeing as she has died a little while back, but we can at least try it." Rias said and Issei showed an extremely hopeful expression hearing this. He truly wishes that Rias can bring the innocent nun who never did anything wrong back from the dead, even if it was as a devil servant.

Rias smiled seeing Issei's expression, she could never really say no to her cute peerage members so she could at least try and bring Asia back from the dead.

Moving to the nun's body she took out her Bishop piece and prepared herself.

The nun looked so peaceful in death that it seemed as if she were only sleeping, no visible injuries o be seen in her and she looked as if she was an art piece. Rias placed the Twilight Healing on top of her chest, the geat vanishing inside Asia's body first before Rias put the crimson Bishop piece on Asia's chest.

"I, Rias Gremory, call to thee, Asia Argento! Heed my command! Return thy soul from the shadows of death and rise once more as my demon servant. Rejoice, for thou hast been given life anew as my Bishop!"

The Bishop Piece glowed bright and... did not enter Asia's body.

Rias looked confused for a moment before sighing and shaking her head.

"Sorry, Issei. It seems that it is too late, her soul already completely left Earth and went to the afterlife fully. It normally takes longer for this to happen, she must not have had as many things holding her back and accepted her death."

"Shit." Issei said as he began to cry all over again, going from despair, to hope, just to fall right back into despair. It was simply too much for the man.

As for Rias, she could only sigh. It was a shame she could not add the nun to her Peerage, but she can at least get the Sacred Gear and get its power anyway. She needed any help she could get if she was to win in the approaching rating game between her and Riser, the ability to heal would be very useful for it.

Rias saw that Koneko was now resting her back against a nearly destroyed pillar on the side of the church, she was quite wounded from this fight since she had to fight all the exorcists and Freed basically alone while protecting Issei since the Pawn was unable to do much of anything right now and any stray exorcist could have killed him easily enough if she did not protect him.

Koneko getting several injuries because of the Pawn's recklessness was expected, but for Rias, it still felt like someone was twisting a knife in her heart. She was far too gentle and carrying for her Peerage, not being able to see them hurt at all.

Rias sighed, the sooner she got that gear out of the body of the nun the sooner she could heal Koneko.

However, Rias was no good for this sort of thing. She didn't know all that much about most magics that wasn't blasting things with her inherent power. As such, she created a communication circle and spoke up.

"Akeno, please come here. I am in need of your help right now."

"Very well, Buchou. I am on my way." Akeno said before looking at the three fallen angels around her. Only one of them was still alive but it was extremely injured and it was a mortal wound, there was no need to worry about it and the inner sadist of Akeno was glad to let the fallen angel suffer an agonizingly slow death instead of a quick one, the sight making her wet and licking her lips. The other two died too quickly in Akeno's mind so having one die slowly in pain sounded oh so delightful for the Queen of Gremory.

... Akeno has a lot of issues and a major hard-on for hurting and killing fallen angels thanks to her hatred for her father spreading to his entire race. To her no matter how much she made the fallen suffer it was still not enough as compensation for her mother's passing and their blame for it.

While waiting for Akeno to arrive Rias looked around and found a rock suitable enough and sat in it. This whole thing was looking more and more like a huge fiasco and only obtaining the Twilight Healer would make this at least be worth it somewhat.

After about a minute, however, Koneko's nose twitched. She caught a scene she did not notice before. It was a smell she hasn't felt for a long, long time, but she could never truly forget. It was the smell that the mansion she lived in had when her sister killed everyone there.

The smell of cooked flesh.

Eyes shooting open Koneko stood up. No one in the church behind her had used any fire spell or ability and those hurt by electricity (namely, Akeno's victims) would not smell this way.

This meant it was something else and the only other possibility would be Kiba's fight. In truth, Koneko didn't even think of Kiba's fight until now since Kiba was quite strong and a single stray exorcist wouldn't be able to do anything to him, but this smell made several bells inside her mind ring in a warning.

"Buchou, there is problem." Koneko said, making Rias turn to her. "I sense the smell of burned flesh coming from the back of the church. Kiba should be there."

Without hesitation Rias began to move in that direction, she had to make sure her cute knight was fine. The other two soon followed her even if Issei was still distraught over Asia's demise.

Moving around the large church Rias and the others soon arrived in the place where the combat between Soma and Kiba happened, and what they saw made Rias scream in sheer terror.

Kiba laid there on the ground, his body barely hanging up alive as his flesh was scorched in over a dozen places and his skin cracked all over.

This scene was worse than any nightmare Rias has ever had, she stood there completely paralyzed seeing the state of her precious knight and how close to death he was. All because she did not take this whole situation seriously enough, she failed to protect her Peerage.

Eyes wide she stood there, not moving a muscle, not hearing even as Koneko and Issei talked, screamed about what they should do. She was incapable of any of them as she just stood there, only after what felt like hours but was just a minute did she blink and her demonic energy flared in a pure torrent of rage and fury.

Power of destruction flying in all directions her energy warning every creature in town and making a light show out of this whole ordeal.

Thankfully Akeno arrived just in time and slapped Rias to make her think again.

"Rias, calm down." Akeno said, making Rias turn her blue eyes at her queen, rage so intense that one would think her eyes would turn red at this point.

"Calm down. CALM DOWN!? We need to find whoever did this to Kiba, no one gets away from hurting someone of my family!" Rias said and Akeno glared at her.

"What is more important, revenge or saving Kiba's life?"

At these words, Rias stopped and did not do anything else anymore. Taking a deep breath to try and calm her nerves even if just a bit she spoke.

"Koneko, Akeno, hold onto Kiba. We are going straight to the Underworld right now, he needs immediate medical care." Rias said and both nodded and, as gently as possible, raised Kiba from the ground while trying not to shake him. He was in a bad state and they did not know what could make his situation even worse.

As for Issei, he only stood there dumbfounded and was about to speak when Rias interrupted him.

"You are coming with us, Issei. We need to take Kiba to a hospital and I won't risk leaving you alone in town with whoever did THAT with Kiba present."

Issei could only nod at Rias' commanding tone. There was nothing else to say as she pulled him along, a flash of red light as a teleportation circle appeared and the Gremory Peerage disappeared from town.

///---///

As Soma was running he felt his skin crawl as the burst of demonic energy washed over him, looking back he could see the towering red of energy in the place he fought not long before, and instead of continuing to run away, he concealed instead, using all tricks the Hassans taught him to hide his presence as to not be caught if the demons tried to catch up to him.

He was already at the edge of the church when this happened but there was still some forest around which thankfully let him hide easier.

And, out of nowhere, the demonic presences in the area vanished entirely.

"... Maybe they have some way to moving to their hide out quickly?" Soma muttered, his mind flashing over the various possibilities even as he continued standing very, very still.

He stood there for another 10 minutes before he moved, but instead of continuing to move away from the place he went towards the church itself.

The demonic energy just now was extremely strong for the current Soma. If he was forced to face someone with that level of energy and was as fast as the demon he faced before he would lose. As such Soma decided he might as well go into the church right now.

He still had a dire need for all sorts of things and if a battle had just happened then there was every chance that there could be some stuff he could loot out of the battle that happened. His actions were not anything glorious since looting bodies hardly was an honorable thing and returning to the church could be a bit dangerous, but this town was already extremely dangerous from what he could tell and any advantage was something he had to look out for.

Returning to the church while sneaking towards it he would be extremely hard to see, being trained for about 85 years exclusively by all the Hassans and getting the approval of the Gran Assassin himself meant his stealth was no joke. If he wanted to not be seen then, unless the person was extremely cautious and aware of him, he would not be seen.

Getting inside the church it was clear a battle had happened. The floor was destroyed, several pillars were broken and strung over the floor, even the cross itself had lost its top and now looked like the letter T. Walking deeper inside Soma saw a passage to the underground.

Reaching there he found about 27 human bodies, all destroyed and thrown around. Limbs everywhere and blood in all walls, the innards of several blown all over, and the disgusting smell of shit, piss, and blood mixed together into a stench that could make most people vomit.

Soma didn't feel much about it besides reassigning his danger levels of the demons to an even higher level if they could so easily and quickly go about and decimate so many people. Moving about he found several guns, weird lightsabers of sorts, crosses, and several other items. Nothing of too high a quality, but Soma figured he could use those well if he used his Alchemy with them.

GRAB

Suddenly, a hand grabbed Soma's leg. Looking down he saw it belonged to someone who was still miraculously alive somehow.

His side had a hole that looked quite bad, even if he was alive for now there was little chance of his surviving if things continued as they stood.

"... Must... Fight. Have to wi-"

Words were spoken very quietly and Soma approached to look closer and then he saw.

His eyes, the eyes of this exorcist, they did not give up. He still wanted to fight, his drive for victory and to win shining through despite his state. He still was holding onto life and some obsession with fanatical fervor.

Soma could only sigh to himself. This would be troublesome, he lacked the necessary equipment for the most part but letting someone with such eyes die because of some demon did not sit well with him.

"I will save you even if it kills you." Soma said to the young stray exorcist who looked at him intensely before closing his eyes, but his hand did not slack in the slightest.

Thankfully Soma managed to pry his leg free before doing emergency treatment to the exorcist. It was nothing much to be honest, just some basic applications of alchemy for healing purposes and projecting some cloth to put in the hole to stop the bleeding.

Saving lives and healing were two things that were hammered firmly in his head thanks to Nightingale and Asclepius, it was not easy but if Soma wanted you alive then dying would not be all that simple.

Giving the emergency treatment for the exorcist Soma stood back up seeing as he took away all the items in here with the exception of a huge instrument he did not know the use for, and even if he knew the thing was too big and heavy to just carry away.

Leaving the underground Soma was about to run away when he saw another corpse lying about on the floor. It was perfectly still and apparently very healthy despite not being possible to see any movement on its chest.

'Well, I am already trying to save lives. Maybe she is still alive but just had her heart stop.' Soma figured, such cases were entirely possible after all.

Reaching out to her, however, he felt that she was beyond a doubt dead. There was no soul in her, which was a slight shame but not anything he could do.

"Huh? This is odd." Soma said as he felt that there was something weird inside the body he was holding.

If he was to compare it would be like when one implants someone else's body with a Noble Phantasm, something that was hard to do no doubt, and removing such an item of someone alive was near impossible without the person willing for it to happen.

But with a corpse like this? A simple application of Flash Air was all it took to remove the thing from inside this body.

"A pair of rings? Weird, but not the weirdest Noble Phantasm out there I guess." Soma said before standing back up and thinking for a moment before running towards the other place where a battle happened and he sensed a demonic presence earlier.

Soma would not dare come back to this place in the near future, better to loot everything this place has to offer before calling it quits for now.

Reaching the other place of combat in the forest around the church there were clear signs of struggle. Many trees were torn and destroyed, on the floor, there were two charred corpses that were clearly dead, a man and a woman that were fried with electricity. By the expressions on the faces of both, they both were electrocuted just enough so they would stay alive for as long as possible without passing out from the pain, both suffered as can be seen by their faces locked in an eternal scream even as their flesh was seared and burned by thunder.

A third one was also there, only this one was still barely alive even if death might have been mercy at that point. There is playing with your prey, and then there is this.

She was spasming on the floor, her face was a messy chunk of meat after apparently being hit against the floor multiple times until whatever her looks once were was now impossible to discern, and burn marks covered her entire form. Only some tufts of blond hair were still present since the rest was burned away by the electricity or ripped out by hand. In her back one could also see two dark feather wings, only one of them had most of its feathers burned away and the other wing was cracked and twisted wrong in three different places. Her legs and arms were all turned this way and that in different angles as well and it was quite clear that she was made to suffer for longer.

Soma could only think that the demons in town had found this... thing as he did not know WHAT she was, after a confrontation the demons took their normal sadistic pleasure in torturing their enemies out of sick enjoyment of other's pain.

Whoever did this clearly had something against either this creature or the species as a whole, either that or it was just that special sort of twisted monster that got its kicks out of pain and suffering. Regardless, such a monster was far too dangerous to let roam free if THIS is what it would do so easily.

Anyway, seeing as this one was also alive like the exorcist he saved Soma took her over his other shoulder and ran home while making sure to avoid leaving any traces of his path OR any possible tracker. He was so careful that a path that would otherwise take no more than half an hour took one hour and a half, but at least he could be sure no one was following him.

Now, before going to sleep, it was time to start the treatment. It was a good thing these two were passed out since Soma lacked any anesthetic and, to be fair, he did not know anything about anesthetics.

According to Nightingale and Asclepius anesthetics were unnecessary, what is important is saving lives. Besides, even without anesthetics the patient would probably pass out anyway, pain does that to a patient.