Beyond Critical - Chapter 6.1 (Patreon)

"You didn't have to come you know."

"No offense," Kaito prefaced, side-eyeing the girl he was walking along the streets of Kuoh with, "I kinda did."

"It's sweet of you to worry, but I'm not weak Kaito-kun," Irina puffed her cheeks up and pouted at him, "I'm a holy sword wielder y'know, I even have an Excalibur with me!" she lifted her arm out of the cloak she was once again wearing and wiggled it in front of his face, specifically the floral bracelet she had tied around her bicep.

Which was of the good.

"I never said you were," he shrugged, "I just didn't feel like letting you go off to face a Cadre of all things, heavily weakened or not without some help."

Also, he might have been a total sap for this. But, he'd taken a liking to Irina over the past few hours. He didn't want to see her die.

Not to mention, if she died here, it would butterfly things out of his general knowledge scope for sure.

He would like to keep things on track, at least until he could get his affairs properly in order or become strong enough that he didn't really need to worry about unexpected weirdo's popping up as much.

"You said you didn't want to get involved with the supernatural side of things though," Irina pointed out, "Now it's my fault you're getting involved."

"Technically, I guess," Kaito conceded, though it was a lot more complicated than that. Not that she could understand though. He gave the girl a teasing grin, "Well if it bothers you so much, once we're here you can just pay me back with a kiss."

"…A kiss?" Irina echoed blankly.

"Yup, a kiss from a girl as pretty as you? Pshaw, why not bring Kokabiel over as well, and Azazel while we're at, I'll fight all three of them for one those from you." he replied with a laugh.

But only because Azazel would get a laugh out of and then most likely side with Kaito himself and clown on the other two for him.

Irina sighed and shook her head, but she couldn't hide the way her cheeks warmed up even under the night sky hiding her complexion, "Okay, in return for helping me beat Satanael, I'll give you a kiss." the older twin tailed girl accepted.

"Awesome," Kaito grinned, "Before that though, fill me in. What do I need to expect from this Satanael guy beyond the standard light energy package that all angels get?"

"Just that and Arondight I think," Irina tapped her chin after regaining her composure, "Arondight will be the real problem I think. It's a holy demonic sword that got tainted the the madness of Lancelot in ancient times. Usually a holy sword wouldn't be any extra effective against anything but devils and such, but with its holy power tainted by demonic power, it'll have a corrosive effect on any it wounds."

Well now, wasn't that pleasant.

Actually, now that he thought about it, didn't that sound like prince boys balance breaker? "Anything beyond that?" he asked.

"Oh, of course, that's just the holy power in it, any holy sword can do that!" Irina nodded, "Arondight has its own special abilities after all. From what I'm told, it has two abilities. The first, is that it enhances the users physical abilities, making them stronger, faster, more durable and the like. But the second, is that it can apparently absorb attributes or something like that and use them itself. So if it absorbed say, Rias Gremory's Power of Destruction, Arondight would be able to use that power itself until it was replaced by a different attribute."

….Wait, what?

"Isn't that stupidly powerful?" Kaito couldn't help but ask.

"Well…I mean, it's a sword that could rival the full Excalibur after all, of course it would be powerful silly!" Irina pointed out with a giggle.

"Point." Kaito conceded.

It was no wonder the church side of things were taking this chance to try and reclaim it while Satanael was weakened so heavily.

Granted, it was still a shoddy attempt, but then that seemed par the course for the holy faction in this world. Seeing as they, you know, sent Irina and Xenovia alone after a full power and not at all weakened Kokabiel.

Though, that did bring up a question, "Why aren't the Grigori after him as well then?" he wondered.

Honestly, he was a bit confused why the devils weren't after him as well. It was a chance for them to make sure such a powerful weapon disappeared from the hands of their enemies.

"Dunno," Irina tapped her chin in thought for a moment, before shrugging, "I never bothered to ask to be honest. It didn't seem important honestly. "

No, no, no questioning something like that should be common sense. After all, what reason would an enemy have to not care about losing such a powerful weapon.

But then…Irina was a bit of an airhead.

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Following the sigil on Irina's hand that led them to their target, Kaito was perhaps not surprised much at all to find that they ended up near the outskirts of town.

Specifically, at the large forest that lay on the outskirts. Where, above the tree tops, he could make out the form of an incredibly large, gothic looking mansion.

He knew the place.

He'd played here a few times as a kid, and it had been here for as long as he could remember.

And it had been abandoned for that long as well.

Not many people strayed towards it to be honest, and he'd heard quite a few wonder why it had never been torn down.

All Kaito knew, was that the place always made his hair stand on end whenever he came when he was younger and totally wigged him out.

Even now as he approached the building, he could feel something in the air, the same something that had always been there, yet at the same time, not something Kaito could pinpoint at all.

Irina didn't seem to notice it though, which was weird considering earlier she could feel he wasn't a devil, so she could detect supernatural beings or power in some form and he couldn't.

"Looks like he's in here," Irina noted, as she inspected her hand. The sigil on her hand had started to rapidly blink and pulse with bright light. The twin tailed girl looked to him, "You can still back out, y'know."

"And give up that kiss?" he raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a challenging smirk, "As if."

Her cheeks flushed a bit, but she smiled back, "Well, alright then." she giggled lightly, before motioning for him to follow her.

He did so, and she took the lead, walking forward and pushing the large and heavy twin doors leading into the mansion open.

They opened with a rickety echo despite their weight and they entered. Kaito's eyes drifted from side to side as they found themselves entering a familiar foyer.

It alone was multiple times the size of his entire apartment, wide and most likely once lavishly decorated, but now, only containing the remnants of smashed and destroyed furniture and a few ruined paintings hanging askew from the wall. Mould grew along many of the physical surfaces, while cracks and holes littered the ground and walls and a decrepit chandelier hung precariously from the ceiling, looking as if it could fall at any moment.

'Eeesh, it's gotten even more trashed since I last saw it.' he winced, eyes coming to rest at the end of the room where a large, once grand staircase stood, now a shell of its former self.

"What a terrible host," Kaito's mouth worked faster than his brain, "Not even coming out to greet us."

"Really rude, yeah!" Irina nodded in agreement, "Satanael, come out! We know you're here, there's no use hiding!"

Probably not how he'd go about things, but honestly, calling the guy out instead of looking through the entire place for him, was probably a better idea.

For a moment, nothing happened and there was no reply to Irina's challenging call.

But then-

A sigh seemed to echo through the building, "So the church has sent an exorcist after me?" a distinctly masculine voice drawled almost boredly, it was a nice voice, one you'd expect from a handsome man, it had a pleasant baritone timber to it, "How terribly droll."

Foot steps echoed a moment later, and a man came into view right after, coming to a stop at the top of the staircase. He was a tall man, fine built man with deep brown hair and an incredibly handsome face, with a pair of glinting, intelligent silver eyes and dressed in a fine black suit.

….It was Armani if Kaito wasn't wrong. A suit that probably cost more money than most men made in six months.

'Fuck this guy.' Kaito decided right then and there.

After all, that was the kind of suit Kaito himself dreamed of possessing in the future when he had the money for it and became someone of note.

His silver eyes examined them disinterestedly, eyeing Irina up and down, "A church exorcist with an Excalibur fragment, boring," he rolled his eyes before looking to Kaito, "And slightly more interesting, a Sacred Gear user, dragon-type going by my senses, but nothing special, perhaps a Vritra gear? A waste of time, I've already examined all of them."

He scoffed lightly, "Children, I'll give you one last chance to leave, you're very much out of your depth here," Satanael waved his hand dismissively, "If I must exert myself at all, you will die."

Interesting, not only could he sense Sacred Gears, but on top of that, he could pinpoint what type they were that easily?

Though, more interesting to Kaito, was that he thought he had a Vritra fragment like Sona's boy toy simp.

As much as he hated to admit it, a Vritra gear was on a higher tier than his own Twice Critical. But, the feel of a dragon he radiated was a match for that?

Was it because he had two of them?

"Weird," Irina commented, narrowing her eyes at him, "I was told you weren't the type to show mercy to any enemies, no matter how much weaker than you. Did you have a change of heart maybe?"

Kaito's eyebrow raised at her words. That was indeed weird. Especially since, even if they did leave, they could just tell someone else he was here, someone stronger.

"No, I'm afraid not," Satanael shrugged lightly, very casually, a little too casually in fact, "I indeed don't show mercy to my enemies, but, if someone as powerful as myself actually considered children like you two enemies, I'd become a laughing stock I'm sure. So I suggest you take my generosity while it's good."

'Oh!' Kaito's eyes widened a bit as it clicked, even as Irina turned to him with a frown, "Erm, I'm kind of not feeling comfortable attacking someone that-"

"He's talking bullshit," Kaito cut her off, grinning up at the silver eyed man, "He doesn't want to fight, but not because of any of the crap he said, it's because he can't afford to, he doesn't think he can beat us with how weak he's gotten."

Well, well well. Now this, this he liked.

"Oh!" Irina's own eyes widened in realisation before she scowled at Satanael, "It's not cool to try and manipulate people like that y'know!"

Satanael bored facade faded away, replaced by an angry scowl that he shot at Kaito, "Perhaps, it is no secret that I am indeed weakened at the moment, and exerting myself even for ones as weak as the pair of you will aggravate my wounds," he admitted, "But do not think for a second, That I can't crush the two of you regardless, it will just be an annoyance to do so at the moment."

"The fact you say it like that, makes me like my chances," Kaito bared his teeth, something deep inside of him was practically yelling at him to strike while he was weak like this, "But I'm a nice guy, so how about you hand over Arondight and that sweet suit you're wearing while we're at it and we can pretend we never saw you."

Though just because his instinct was all but blaring that the man had fallen enough in scale to become 'prey', didn't mean he would rely on that alone.

Satanael visibly ground his teeth, while Irina tapped her chin, "That would be for the best actually, that way you can leave without getting hurt, solving things peacefully is the best and the way God would approve of the most."

A snarl escaped the fallen angels lips, "I'm afraid I can't do that, I've lost everything else you see," he bit out, "If you want Arondight, you're going to have to pry it out of my cold, dead fingers children."

That was all Kaito needed to hear.

He took off running towards the staircase.

One step in, a blazing crimson red aura surged out of his body and spread around him in a billowing cloak.

Two steps in, light flashed and gauntlets formed around his fists.

On the third, twin voices echoed from his gauntlets and he launched himself into the air with a powerful, rapid leap.

"[Boost!]

"[Boost!]

He struck Satanael like a meteor and the hallway shook from the impact of his strike.