Chapter 23 - 22

Ravel was in shock at what was happening. This night has going crazier and crazier for a while now, first, there was Mami using her Sacred Gear to try and kill her, after that, it was Kiyoharu not only knew about her being a devil but that she also knew of her own Sacred Gear and was more than able to use it actually taking down Mami rather easily.

She thought that would be enough, thinking things could not go crazier. ​​

Then, Kiyoharu said that she knew exactly who could help them with their problems with the incapacitated Mami. Ravel was dubious, but decided to play along as she wanted to know exactly what Kiyoharu knew about and find out what was going on.

That is why the two were pulling along Mami towards a certain destination, having to change directions from time to time, only for Jeanne to show up.

Ravel was absolutely terrified of this turn of events. When Jeanne released her Balance Breaker and the dragon made of holy swords appeared Ravel was certain she would die then and there.

One must understand, while a Phenex like her is able to heal from wounds that carry the holy attribute, their recovery speed is much slower, and if they are hit with a strong enough force by something carrying the Holy Attribute they are sure to die. So, being hit by a dragon made of HOLY swords would mean certain death.

Ravel froze, this was the first real time she felt like she would die and that shocked her to the core. She tried to move, but her legs felt like lead and her attacks would be completely useless against the metal dragon.

That is when Soma showed up. Protecting her at the nick of time he actually threw that huge thing away and punched it flying.

But the most shocking thing for Ravel was not that. Well, she was shocked by the absurd strength that Soma had just displayed of course, but what shocked her was something else. The energy emanating from Soma, it was the purest light she has ever even heard off, but it did not hurt.

This light, it was kindness itself, all accepting and all-encompassing. It made Ravel's devil instincts crave for it in a way she could not explain.

Then, Soma spoke.

"So, ready to be put in your place, mongrel?"

As he spoke, Ravel felt like the illusionary state she was in breaking her from the trance and smiled to herself.

Yeah, this was still Soma. Whatever power he might have (which she would wring the information out of him later) he still is the same prideful person she knows, and she doesn't mind.

Meanwhile, Jeanne looked surprised at this before speaking.

"Weird, we studied you and have not found any sign that you have a Sacred Gear nor seen you do any magic. Were you hiding from us?" Jeanne questions as she looks at Soma with slight interest. She knew of him since he was someone they looked into a while back but upon not finding any magic or any Sacred Gear in him they ignored him moving forward.

Soma looked at Jeanne in disdain before unsheathing a sword he kept at his hips, putting himself in the right stance as he observed Jeanne attentively. His senses sharpened to the limit as he observed every detail of Jeanne's body before dashing forward, sword ready to strike as he moved with swiftness to cut her.

Moving out of instinct Jeanne produced dozens of Holy Swords forming a large shield in front of her, but that was useless since Soma's steps did not waver as he moved to the side, avoiding the swords and bypassing them instantly. Jeanne only had time to create one of her more powerful Holy Swords to defend against the strike, but after the two swords clashed she felt her arms numbing slightly.

Jeanne, like most others in the Hero Faction, learned or knew how to use holy energy to empower their bodies, the same technique exorcists of the church used. She was especially proficient in this thanks to having the soul of Joan D'Arc, being a natural genius towards the usage of holy energy, but she could not match Soma's sheer strength while he was going all out.

As her arms stopped for a moment Soma did not hesitate, sending out a kick that sent her flying towards a building. As she hit the wall she coughed a bit due to the impact and found to her shock that her holy energy that normally dulled all impact against her seemed to lose effectiveness when hit by Soma's strike.

That was only natural, in the end, both Soma and Jeanne were using what one could call holy energy right now, but while Jeanne was using energy from herself, Soma was 'borrowing' the power of God, the purest form of holy energy. Those two energies were similar, but they were ultimately not comparable.

Would a campfire's flames be able to match the sun? Of course now, and that was the difference between the two sources of energy. A suppressing effect was only natural and the power which Jeanne trusted to protect her own life just became all the weaker for it.

As she looked at Soma shocked she tried to speak, only to have to hastily dodge to the side as Soma approached with a flying kick right at where her head would have been. In fear she created plenty of holy swords from the ground all around her, forcing Soma to step back for but a moment before he slashed with his own sword against all those she created.

His sword was not overly special in terms of materials, if compared to most of those created by Jeanne his sword's materials would lose out. But the blade was made with masterful skills and without needing to put too much strength all those hasty created blades were being broken and swept aside.

In fear of the scene in front of her Jeanne jumped up and away as she commanded her holy sword dragon to strike at Soma while transferring a lot of her own energy into the said dragon, the beast becoming even bulkier and several holy swords poking out of what should be it's 'scales'.

"Let's see how you handle a dragon!" She shouted in glee, confident that her weapon would smash Soma right then and there.

Soma just snorted, putting himself in a sword stance.

Soma just glanced at the beast made of metal coming towards him, his focus on his blade increasing before he moved. His muscles taught and screamed in pain from the exertion but it was all worth it.

There is a sword of infinity that leads to multiplicity. A way to acknowledge "multiple possibilities" that go beyond the norm. Normally this should be a single act that is originally finite; a single slash that can only be performed at one time, in one space, a simple action leading to a reaction, but this strike goes beyond that. Bending space and reality around it, what should be one becomes three and with a single swing of the blade, three strikes are born changing reality around it.

A strike that borders the Second True Magic, the ability to interact with dimensions itself as the swing is done, nothing able to possibly block a strike that bends away what should be real, defying reality itself.

"A dragon?" Soma says as the dragon passes him by, the giant of metal breaking into several pieces as this happens and Jeanne can only stare in shock at this. "This you sent at me is but a bigger swallow."

Jeanne could only gap in shock at what she saw, believing that he must have some sort of sacred gear that allowed him to cut her dragon via some sort of trick, not believing that something like that could be achieved through simple and sheer effort and technique, that pure human skill could ever do something as absurd as that.

Not worrying about Jeanne's shock, Soma moved in and his sword flowed like water, two slashes sent out as his sword cut right through both of her arms and when she screamed in pain Soma moved his hand to her mouth and chanted a simple incantation, a blast of electricity from his palm sent out as he finished it by pushing her head against the concrete of the street.

Losing blood fast and having her mouth almost blasted to pieces, while her skull was fractured, it was a small miracle she was not dead. In truth this fight could and should have gone very differently, even if Soma is stronger than her she was no weakling and without question could have put up much more of a fight. However, she was careless and cocky, not paying attention to her surroundings nearly as much as she should and not taking Soma seriously since he did not have a Sacred Gear nor was a descendant of a famous hero of the past.

Just like that Jeanne had lost the fight, but Soma was not done. Putting a hand over her chest he sent his magical energy inside her body, towards her soul, and found her Sacred Gear there. He focused as he proceeded with his operation, breaking the link between her and the gear without killing her before pulling out the gear from inside her body.

As he held what looked like a simple featureless sword, it was rather small with a cross on a the hilt, it could easily draw the eyes of those looking but Soma just shrugged at the trinket, used to swords that exuded a much holier presence than this thing could ever match.

Looking at the dress which Jeanne was wearing, he ripped off a part of it, eliciting a gasp from Ravel and Kiyoharu that were watching what he was doing.

Soma did not care for their opinions right now. With that cloth in hand, he also pulled some of the loose rubble around and used Alchemy to turn those things into a small black plushie, with it in a hand between and the other on Jeanne's chest Soma concentrated as he activated another magic.

Flash Air, a Displacement type magecraft that substitutes something for something else. In this particular case, Soma would use it to allow him to displace the soul and consciousness of Jeanne into the stuffed animal, making it so that as long as her body was technically alive she would live inside that small plushie. He had questions for her so he did not desire for her to perish just yet, his illusion torture would be effective even if she was in a plushie now.

As for the body, Soma used magecraft to lower her body necessities to the absolute minimum before cauterizing the wounds and using just enough healing magecraft that she would survive. That would be more than enough as far as Soma is concerned.

Putting the plushie in the back pocket of his pants Soma looked at Ravel and Kiyoharu before speaking.

"You two, go somewhere safe and away from this place. When I finish dealing with this mess I will call you both so you can come to my home for us to talk. Also, take this girl with you, she won't be able to cause any trouble so it should be a simple task." Soma said and without waiting he was already dashing.

He had to go to the base of the enemies where the gear users were captured. He would not just let those who were kidnapped be taken away, OR the enemies that invaded the town manage to run away from this place. Not just because they created damage to town, but simply because they are valuable resources for him and some of his more special experiments.

He would not do living experimentation in those who did nothing against him, but to those who tried to act against him or his friends? They will be lucky if they manage to die properly.

///---///

Ravel just stared at what just happened and blinked once, twice, before turning to Kiyoharu.

"Did you see what I think I've seen?"

"Most likely." Kiyoharu nodded her head, also quite surprised even if nowhere as intensely as Ravel.

Ravel looked shrewdly at Kiyoharu before questioning.

"Were you heading towards Soma-kun just before we were attacked?" She asks and Kiyoharu nods.

"Yeah, I was. I figured that he would be the safest person to be close to right now and he should be able to help us with Mami here." Kiyoharu said, pointing to the currently sleeping Mami on her back.

Ravel just raised a brow.

"Your Sacred Gear really is cheating." She said and Kiyoharu laughed lightly while nodding her head, knowing her friend is not really wrong there.

Truly, the ability to read the minds of others and connect her own mind with them was an extremely useful skill. Thanks to that Kiyoharu knew that Soma should be able to protect them and help with the removal of the Mind Control that was on Mami.

In truth, Kiyoharu had known that Mami was under mind control since the first moment they touched and a link was created. Kiyoharu always makes a quick link with anyone she meets to find out about the person and if she could trust the other to try and get close. After a single touch, Kiyoharu felt something was wrong with Mami and she had no good intentions towards her, Aya, Ravel, or Soma. As such, Kiyoharu paid extra attention to Mami and soon she came to understand exactly what was going on with Mami and Trois.

Mami was originally just like any other girl, but she was kidnapped by the Hero Faction a few months ago and had her original personality overwritten by one crafted by the Hero Faction, Trois. Trois was completely loyal to her masters and had done plenty of evil and malign deeds during this time period, and Kiyoharu knew that Trois was planning on kidnapping her and her friends soon.

Kiyoharu has since been using her gear to subtly try and dispel the 'Trois' personality that was more like a parasite than anything else, but it was not easy. She lacks any offensive or defensive powers herself, if she rushed anything it could make Trois notice something is wrong and it would not end well.

The fight between Trois and Ravel was the best moment for Kiyoharu to act, doing her best to break and vanquish 'Trois', since she would be distracted from the fight, creating an opening to allow her to do that. But the pressure of damaging 'Trois' was so much that it made 'Trois' clearly start activating its Balance Breaker if the hundreds of guns appearing all at once was any indication, thus forcing Kiyoharu to stop the destruction of Trois and focus on making 'it' go to sleep.

Kiyoharu was a bit worried about what to do since she could only complete the destruction of Trois if it was awake, but if she awakened it now then Trois would instantly activate its Balance Breaker. Thankfully Kiyoharu knew that Soma could remove someone's gear safely (he thought too much about too many things and catching this sort of info was far too easy), so Kiyoharu wanted Soma to remove the gear from Mami so that she could destroy Trois once and for all.

Ravel had this all explained to her, all while she kept on trying to use a communication spell to contact her brother, not really hoping it would work since it has been failing for a while now. Only, this time it DID work.

"Ravel, Ravel is that you? Thank Satan, I was afraid something had happened." Riser spoke frenetically, he too had been trying to reach out to her for a while now since she wasn't in the battle against the Strays and no one had seen her.

In truth Riser wanted to blow in anger when he realized that Rias hasn't even TRIED to reach out to Ravel who IS her Bishop, he just didn't because his worry for her was greater than his anger over Rias' inactions.

"Yes, I am well brother. I think we will need to talk about what happened, can we meet somewhere safe?"

"Sure, we will be going to Kuoh Academy now." Riser said, while Ravel wanted to agree she decided to speak up.

"Actually, there is somewhere else I think we could meet that would be better."

"Where?"

"Soma's house," Ravel told him and Riser did not move for a while before speaking.

"Bro's place? Why would going to his house now be good? I mean, it would be nice to know he is safe and all but-"

"Trust me, big brother, we need to go there to have a talk." Ravel said, not planning to go to Kuoh Academy for now. She wanted to find out about what was going on with Soma and wanted to come clean to him about her origins, and in truth, she was already exhausted from the fight earlier, and having to deal with her King would be far too much for her patience right now.

Riser grunted but decided to heed his little sister's wishes. He too had little interest in going to Kuoh Academy and dealing with Rias right now since he was still pretty mad at her.

///---///

Reaching the base where the Hero Faction was located Soma felt something click as he froze for half a second before continuing to dash forward. A small smirk playing on his face as he reached his destination only to inhale a smell he was not expecting.

The smell of blood.

Frowning Soma did not hesitate to get closer, just in time as he saw Un and Deux already dead on the floor and Dimaria, who had followed after him after he called her bitch, above the two Hero Faction members. Dimaria had the face of a hunter who just found prey and was enjoying the hunt too much to stop and her eyes turned to the other humans in this place.

She had heard how the three awake ones all had voluntarily wanted to join the faction, and that was enough for Dimaria to kill the three. Walking towards the three the teenage boy tried to stand in front of her.

"Get the girl and leave, I will delay her." The boy said, his legs gaining armor that looked almost like turbines as he activated his Sacred Gear.

He was about to dash at Dimaria when the man who looked to be in his thirties put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, leave this to me. It looks like you can run faster and it should be an adult's job to protect the young." The man said as he pulled the boy back towards the short girl. The boy looked torn for a moment before moving to take the girl further away from this but not yet running away since he decided he would jump in to protect the older man if he needed the help.

A hero shouldn't leave someone to just die, after all.

"Oh, so you will face me? You don't seem like much of a warrior though." Dimaria said, a smirk on her face.

The male who was in his early thirties only chuckled as he dusted his pants and answered.

"Well, but of course. I was never a warrior during all my years until this point."

Dimaria's smirk actually vanished as he said this.

"If you are not a warrior then what are you exactly?"

"A simple criminal, my dear. You may have heard of me, I am quite well known in the region as the Gentle Criminal."

Dimaria snorted.

"Sorry, not interested anymore. You can go die now."

She advanced at the criminal who moved his hands in front of himself. Dimaria did not pay heed to this and was bounced back by the air in front of the criminal who smirked, loving when this sort of thing happened.

He was about to throw a wisecrack, but faster than he thought possible the woman he just bounced away was back on her feet and fuming as she moved again against him but even faster now. Her sword aimed right at him and he shivered, realizing he would not be fast enough to react and use his gear to escape.

SLASH

Sound of flesh being cut could be heard as Dimaria cut off one of Gentle's arms right away, the criminal screaming in pain as he clutched the stump where his arm should be.

"I hoped you could be better, guess not huh." Dimaria said dismissively as she looked at the man in pain on the ground. Raising her arm she swung it down to bisect the man in two halves.

CLANG

Thankfully, Soma managed to get there in time as he deflected Dimaria's sword away.

"Step back, little criminal. Let me take care of this." Soma said without turning his eyes away from Dimaria. On the corner further away from the devil and hero who had their swords locked with one another, the boy with turbines on his legs and the short girl with the red hair in twintails looked in surprise at this newcomer.

The criminal moved back, his face still in pain as he held onto the stump and tried to put pressure to stop the blood flow.

"Oh, now this is interesting. It seems like you are willing to fight me now." Dimaria said as she smirked at Soma who just continued to stare at her.

This was a serious fight with someone he had to go all out with, and unlike Jeanne, this one would not play around or look down on him.

With one hand keeping the swords locked together, Soma put the other on his hip, the holster containing his gun in it as he took it out and sent several bullets at Dimaria who grunted and jumped back. Not stopping his strikes Soma kept shooting, she used the sword she had as a shield to block and deflect the bullets as she did so.

After getting some distance Dimaria made a magic circle and activated her magic.

Dimaria was a bastard daughter of the Agares house who fought under Serafall during the Civil War, she was also an expert in regards to time manipulation and had developed one aspect more than anyone else in her family.

Time Stop.

As she activated her magic she only had a single second to act, but it was enough for her as she avoided the bullets already flying in her direction and moved in close to deliver a strong strike against him. Time returned just in time as her sword was about to reach him, and with widened eyes, Soma acted as well.

'Time alter - triple accel.' He thought as he used this magecraft to accelerate himself to four times his normal reaction and action speed. Moving back under this he just barely managed to avoid the strike as Dimaria's sword only grazed against his skin, failing to pierce him.

She widened her eyes as she felt him use time magic, even if it was not anything like the one she was used to. Pointing her hand at Soma she blasted him away with a torrent of water, sending him up to the ceiling.

Crashing on the ceiling, Soma looked down, his skin and bones not having allowed his body to be more than a bit rattled by the jet of water. Putting his sword back into its sheath Soma kicked off the ceiling to accelerate towards Dimaria who saw this and swung her sword again, the blade taking a blue hue as she used the water in the air to extend the reach of her blade as she swung it.

'Time alter - Square Stagnate' Soma's body slowed down to three times slower than normal speed, his sudden change of speed making the sword of Dimaria pass by without hitting him and he was free to stop the time modification, avoiding the sword that just passed him by, to redirect himself to right in front of Dimaria while also pushing the sword down and thus away from him.

Dimaria widened her eyes as she saw this and she instinctively moved her head back while making a magic barrier at the same time, which was the only reason she survived as Soma delivered a kick right at where she was previously while using Jacob Limbs to infuse it with holy energy. The impact with the shield slowed his foot just enough to let her move and save her from having her brains painting the floors of this place.

Neither truly wanted the other dead, but both were far too into the battle and refused to take a step back or risk dying since lethal force became a factor to consider. This has already turned into a fight to the death, and it was not slowing down.

///---///

AN

Sorry for the delay, this chapter took a bit longer to make than normal and the editor was busy as well.

The pool will be going until this Sunday. For those that ask, Ravel and Rossweisse will be in the harem for sure so I didn't put them in the pool. In other news, several reviews and PMs asked me for a character to be added so I am putting the option here.

If I get 60 votes/reviews asking for Chisato Hasegawa from Shinmai Maou no Testament to be added, I will add her in the harem. Now it is up to you guys, you decide here.