Enjoy reading, rejoice and...
See you on next time
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[...Continuing]
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"That was quite a blow." Basara said calmly, meeting Micael's eyes.
His neutral voice echoed amid the falling debris.
Then, without warning, Basara's hand appeared in front of Micael's face, his fingers pulled back.
Boom!
With a simple flick, Micael was struck on the forehead and sent flying through the falling debris, that single attack being stronger than his punch.
His body traveled like a bullet, breaking through the wall and heading straight for the barrier in the back.
"Micael!"
Micael heard Rias's shout after slamming hard into the barrier, his mind disoriented by the attack and the subsequent impact against his back.
Collapsed half-crouched on the ground, his vision blurring, he lifted his eyes.
As the church completely fell apart, that man remained standing unharmed among the debris, the rubble seemingly avoiding him as not a single speck of dust appeared to touch his body.
In that sight, the enormous disparity in power between the two became even more visible, there was no chance for him, apparently, all that remained was to accept death.
But amid that terrifying atmosphere, whose silence now reigned after the church's complete collapse, Micael rose silently, blood flowing from his forehead and dripping from his chin to the ground.
Covered by the dark sky and bathed in the moonlight above, he prepared to continue, he would not give up no matter how impossible it seemed.
"Impressive, that will of yours, even knowing the difference between us you still insist on getting back up, why don't you simply give up?" Amid what used to be the church, Basara said calmly, his voice still imposing even without the church's walls.
Faced with the pure apprehension, nervousness, and fear of the others watching, Micael replied calmly.
"This fight only ends if you kill me." Micael said as a yellow aura with sparks covered his body.
Without saying anything in response, Basara continued to stare at him.
And just as Micael was about to attack, a dark red glow coming from behind Basara caught his attention.
And what he saw was Rias preparing an attack.
"Shit! Don't attack, Rias!" He shouted, but it was useless.
Raising her hand with a cold look, a dense ball of dark red energy crackling with crimson lightning and furious winds rapidly fired from her hand toward Basara.
Turning his body slightly toward her, he spoke. "So, you finally made your attack." He had been expecting something like this from the beginning.
The condensed destruction energy ball swiftly flew through the air toward Basara.
And in response, the man simply calmly raised his hand, the dark red energy ball crashing like a wrecking ball against his palm.
However, he caught that ball of destruction energy as if it were nothing.
"What!?" Rias exclaimed, completely shocked.
And she wasn't the only one shocked, Kiba, Koneko, and Akeno were equally stunned by that action, knowing the power that energy held.
The ball of energy crackled softly against his palm, as if it were just a ball of hot air instead of destructive energy.
Then, Basara slowly clenched his hand, his fingers closing around the ball little by little until fully covering it, finally crushing it and making it disperse into particles.
"The power of destruction of the Gremory clan." He said thoughtfully while looking at his palm for a moment before turning back to Rias. "Though, you're definitely not at your brother's level."
Still with a shocked look on her face, Rias felt a drop of cold sweat run down her temple, during that brief moment when the man squeezed the energy ball, she could see a faint remnant of a white aura covering his palm.
"That was touki…" She murmured with furrowed brows.
"I'm not surprised you know it." Basara said, casting a sideways glance at Koneko, who reacted by frowning, before turning back to Rias. "If it were your brother, I wouldn't be able to do this, this isn't impressive, little girl, your power of destruction isn't invincible, you should already know that."
While Kiba and Akeno were still shocked upon hearing Rias, Koneko in particular reacted even more strongly, she bit her lip, memories she didn't want to remember forcefully returning to her mind.
Averting his gaze from her, Basara then turned to Micael. "I imagine she's already told you about touki, but do you know senjutsu? That's how I strengthened the exorcists and the fallen angels, in case that blue eye of yours didn't notice anything."
Turning fully toward him and completely ignoring the others, he suddenly began to explain. "Senjutsu is an art in which you don't manipulate your life force like Touki, it allows you to manipulate the ki present in all things, with that, I imagine you alone can deduce what I did."
Holding back his charge for a moment longer, Micael let himself focus on what he said and quickly found the answer to why those five and even the ordinary exorcists seemed far too strong. "You enhanced them physically." That was the reason he hadn't noticed any change in their aura, though, that probably only happened because it was a weakened version.
"Exactly." Basara confirmed simply. "By the way, I don't think I need to make this clear, but you already know who I am and where I came from, but allow me to introduce myself properly, you know my name but not my occupation."
"You see, Senjutsu, as expected of such an art, isn't something easy to learn." He began as his hand lightly unbuttoned the top button of his white overcoat.
"It's an art that allows you to manipulate an energy as volatile as ki, learning it on your own is very difficult, mastering it is another step." Moving to the next two buttons, he calmly unbuttoned them as well.
"In short, alone, I would be incapable of such a feat, however, I was blessed by His grace and introduced to His cult, where I was able to achieve feats I never thought would be possible for me." Finally unbuttoning the last button, he pulled the collar down, exposing his chest.
"The reason I'm saying this is because I want you to understand something, Micael, within our organization, there is a hierarchy, and within it, I am part of the upper echelon referred to as Archbishops." With his hand finally lowering the fabric, there, in the center of Basara's chest, a number four in Roman numerals was tattooed. "And among them, I am only the fourth."
At Basara's words, a tense silence followed.
His words, that even with his power he still wasn't even the strongest in his group, were terrifying to think about.
For Rias and the others, it was simply like hearing a death sentence, another confirmation of the mortal situation surrounding Micael.
But Micael showed no reaction nor said anything to him, his face remaining in its standard calm expression, seemingly unshaken.
"You're smart enough to understand what that means, so, do you still intend to fight?" Basara said, buttoning his overcoat collar back up.
His black eyes calmly staring at Micael.
Without an answer, once again Micael said nothing, his gaze simply meeting his.
Basara seemed to favor the silence, letting it grow as they exchanged stares, Micael's answer had already been clear before, his new question being more of a rhetorical one than anything real.
But while he merely waited in silence, Micael finally did something, he didn't speak, he took a stance, preparing to attack.
A stance of four.
With his skin red and veins bulging from the Advance, blue sparks of electricity flickered in his eyes. "I already said it, this only ends if you kill me." Then, with a thunderous lightning sound, he vanished.
"Micael!"
"Micael!"
Amid Rias's and Asia's desperate cries, he appeared behind Basara.
With the world moving in slow motion in his perception, Basara calmly turned his head, looking over his shoulder.
And what he saw was a mouth full of sharp teeth like a shark's, the mouth abnormally opened up to the cheeks just inches from his face.
'That's quite a unique power.' He idly thought before the apparent aberration Micael had become by transforming his mouth that way.
However, as if it were nothing, he dodged the attack, Micael's teeth snapping shut just inches from his face.
He then followed up by punching him in the stomach.
However, in his view, the boy didn't go flying as expected, instead, he seemed to have anticipated it as he quickly grabbed his arm, keeping it with him.
Blinking calmly, Basara watched as he raised his fist and punched toward his face, blood pouring from his mouth in abundance while the boy's eyes stared into his with an unchanged expression.
Then, the boy's fist reached his face.
But at the last moment, Basara noticed something, a transparent bubble enveloped his fist.
And seeing that, he raised his eyebrows almost imperceptibly.
Boooom!! Craaaaaaaack!!
The world shook, cracks spread through the air as if space itself were breaking while the entire place trembled with a shockwave spreading in all directions.
"Kya!"
"Damn it!"
While Asia screamed from the force of the wind that nearly threw her if not for Kiba, and Issei cursed from the effort of holding his ground, the others shared similar reactions, though to a lesser degree.
With narrowed eyes as the wind battered her body, Rias looked toward the epicenter of the explosion, her vision partially blocked by the dust cloud that rose.
Soon, her vision cleared, but what she saw only increased the anxiety and concern in her chest.
That was because at the center of a crater that had opened as a result of the attack, Micael, still with his fist extended against Basara's face, was sweating and breathing heavily, but that wasn't the worst part.
His eyes were bleeding heavily, blood flowing in large amounts while the veins around his head pulsed like writhing snakes, his sclera covered in red veins.
And along with that, the most impactful part, his attack had done almost nothing.
With his face tilted to the side, Basara looked at Micael with almost a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes. "You managed to make me use touki, congratulations, boy." He said calmly as a red mark began to appear on his cheek.
"However, you can't perform that same attack again, can you?" Basara asked, seeing the state he was in.
With his eyes throbbing with sharp pain and his vision already blurring, Micael stared without changing expression at the result of his attack.
He expected that.
And because he expected that, he continued his attack.
Retracting his fist, Micael followed up with another punch, however, Basara simply kicked him faster, his body twisting as the kick struck him in the side.
But reacting quickly, he used Kami-e to redirect the impact, twisting his body rapidly and stepping on the ground to gain momentum and respond with a kick.
Which Basara easily blocked with his forearm and once again, at an untrackable speed, counterattacked Micael.
But this time, he didn't give him room to breathe.
As Micael tried to redirect the force of the attack like before, a second strike followed, this time sending him flying away.
And in midair, Basara followed him.
With his vision spinning, Micael didn't have time to reorient himself before being struck again.
Then, treated like a punching bag, he was hit several more times and brutally thrown, each attack breaking more of his bones.
Until Basara stopped, letting him fall to the ground while sliding.
In the background, Rias wanted to do something, but anything she could do would be useless, yet she also couldn't simply watch as Micael was treated that way.
So, biting her lips and clenching her hands until they bled, she was about to order everyone to attack when she heard him.
"No."
His voice echoed through the area, his broken form in the distance shakily rising from the ground.
"Don't… get involved… I'll handle it."
Though blood speckled every inch of his body, injured all over as if they were mere marks on his skin, his voice maintained its usual calm tone, though the pauses showed the severity of his condition.
Still clenching her fists, Rias forced herself to stay still once more.
With blood filling his tongue and the smell of it clogging his nose, Micael stared at Basara standing.
"You'll only stop when I kill you, won't you?" Basara asked calmly.
However, without sparing him a response, with his vision half-blurred, Micael made his final attack.
"Amaterasu."
His voice uttered it in a whisper.
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[Continue...]