I swear, what was it with villains and their obsession with dark basements that could only be accessed by a very long and narrow flight of stairs? It was taking up a lot of my time to get down to this damn level! If I ever met its architect, I was so going to introduce my version of Gandr to his face.
I took a moment to catch my breath before making my way towards the source of light in front of me. I could hear a fair bit of commotion through the door from which the light was coming through, guess that meant Ise and the others managed to get down here to wreck some havoc on Raynare. I peeked through the door to assess the situation.
In the centre of the relatively spacious basement, Kiba, Koneko and Ise were duking it out with a group of people dressed in more unusual church clothing similar to Freed's, each one wielding a similar blade of light of varying colours. At the far end of the room, atop a very tall podium, I spotted the girl dressed in a very thin undergarment and tied to a wooden post with several stone-faced priests standing in a circle, chanting something remotely Latin in a monotonous tone. Next to them was Raynare who was looking on at the scene with a somewhat smug expression, as if everything was going to plan.
"Asia!" Ise yelled as he attempted to push forward to the girl only to be held back by more priests blocking his way. He was clearly getting desperate at trying to get to the girl, and it only pissed me off more that the humans around the girl were the ones actively hurting her.
"You are too late!" Raynare proclaimed while opening her arms in a triumphant gesture as Asia started to scream with her body glowing brightly. "Now it is mine to bear!"
Oh no you don't!
"Trace Bullet, Continuous Fire!" I sent out a barrage of blades to take down the priests performing the spell before sending a few at the ones surrounding the devils, giving them a clear shot at the podium. "NOOO!" Raynare let out a frustrated scream as the glowing diminished and Asia slumped down unconscious, the rising and falling of her chest revealing that she was still alive. This was a good time to press forward. I pushed through the door and onwards to the podium, taking down those who managed to avoid the fatal strikes to their bodies.
"You again!" Raynare glared at me with a lot of venom in her eyes. "How many times are you going to interfere with my plans, you damn human?!"
"Shirou!" Ise let out a surprised but happy tone as I drew near him and the other two. I took a brief glance to calculate the distance between us and the podium. A little far to get there even if I were to reinforce my legs, I would end up being a big target for Raynare and a couple of the priests at the podium.
But a good throw might do the trick.
"Better clench tight, Ise." I dismissed one of the blades in my hands and reinforced my arm. "Huh?" His confused expression was all over his face at my random message. My only response was to grab him by the waistband, lift him up and threw him as hard as I could at the podium.
"WAHH!" He yelled almost hilariously as he sailed above the battlefield and towards the blonde nun. I immediately projected two daggers and directed them at the remaining two priests, stabbing them in the heart and killing them instantly, before grabbing one of the other blades stabbed in the ground and throwing that Raynare, narrowly missing her head and distracting her enough to let Ise get back on his feet, free Asia from her bounds and escaped with her.
"Go on, we will cover you!" Kiba called out to him as he took down two other priests with that dark blade of his. Ise nodded and made his way back to the church upstairs through the doorway.
"Damn it all!" Raynare glared at us, or more specifically me, with a lot of rage in her eyes. "I will deal with you runts later, I got a brat to catch!" And before any of us could react, she disappeared in a pillar of light and feathers.
Seriously, I should consider using or finding a Noble Phantasm that would allow me to disrupt teleportation. Maybe Gae Dearg ought to do the trick?
Whatever the case, I would have to consider that later. She was clearly going to finish off Ise, and finish whatever she started with Asia. I would need to take a shortcut upstairs then.
"I will be leaving the clean-up to you both." Before Kiba and Koneko reacted to my answer, I quickly sent a blade to the ceiling to blast out a hole, before using my reinforced legs to jump up high and grab the ledge, using the momentum to pull myself out of the hole and back to ground level.
Damn, if I knew how much faster it was to get here, I would have blasted the floor a long time ago and not waste time running my ass down the damn staircase.
"Shirou!" I turned to find Ise lightly cradling the nun who was lying down on one of the few standing benches. "She is not waking up, and I do not know what is wrong with her!" I quickly made my way to them, bending down on one knee to examine the girl. She was clearly worst for wear; she was heavily breathing and there were a few beads of sweat going down her pale face. I quickly used Structural Analysis on her and found her organs were barely functioning enough to keep her alive. Whatever was wrecking her body was really doing a number on her, and the possibilities were high that she may not last very long.
"Ah, what a pity for Asia." I and Ise turned to find Raynare standing with her arms clasped together and an expression of mocking sympathy. "She would have had a quick death if you did not interrupt the ritual. Now she would have to suffer as her Sacred Gear struggles to decide who the real owner is of it."
My confused thoughts on her words got answered as she raised a hand and placed it in her wounds, a brief glow of green appearing on one of her fingers as her wounds disappeared before my eyes. "Ah, how beautiful it is. Even if it is just half of its power, it is more than enough to bring me back to health!" She exclaimed with great relish. "Once I get the other half of Twilight Healing, I will finally be able to become a High-Level Angel, and maybe he would see me properly!"
Oh great, so this girl was not only the loyal type, she was also the 'obsessive love' type for her leader. I ignored that for the moment and checked Asia once more, this time noting a similar glow on her right hand, the light coming from the gem of a simple ring on her fourth finger. That must be the Sacred Gear I had been hearing for quite a while, and from what I could tell, the binder to her soul. So the ritual was to transfer the Sacred Gear from one person to another, killing the original owner in the process.
I was starting to miss the old crazy magus back home.
Okay now I got to figure out how to keep her alive. It looked like she was about to take her last breath soon and none of the healing Noble Phantasms I have would be able to help her, not even the Staff I used on Ise. Unless…
I paused as I considered the course of action. I did have one that could help in this situation, but I really did not like the implications of revealing such a hand in this area so early into any situation. If I let it out, anyone who laid their eyes on it would start asking a lot of questions, and it was those type of questions that led to my status as a Sealing Designation.
"Damn you Yuma!" Ise clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he looked between her and Asia with eyes that were brimmed with rage and despair, tears threatening to run from them. One look at him was enough to make my decision.
Screw secrecy, I was going to save this girl.
"Ise, go get her. I will help Asia." I said as I started to gather whatever available Prana I had in my circuits to pull out the item in mind. Ise turned his head in a blur, his face holding an expression of fearful hope. "Really, you can save her?!"
"Ha, don't bother mortal." Raynare dismissed my claims with a wave of her hand. "No spells you can use would save her this late in the game."
Oh is that so? Well then, sorry to disappoint you. I extended a hand towards Asia and closed my eyes, getting the mental image of the object in my mind.
"I am the bone of my sword."
The circuits in my arm flared up and travelled down to my hand, the 'Od' inside me being pulled out and manipulated to form the outline of the object in question.
"Steel is my body, fire is my blood."
In my mind, the image of a golden sheath with ornate designs appeared, the ideal of protection for the user.
"I have created over a thousand blades."
And after that image, the brief memory of 'her', standing with her head up high, her sword supported by her hands and resting on the ground, her sights set on the goal at hand.
"Trace. On."
The Prana in my hand burst in a bright radiance, receding after a few seconds to reveal the golden sheath that would bestow all with protection and heal any type of wounds and grievances. One that would certainly do the job properly.
"What?!" Ise gasped as he stared with an open mouth at the copy of Avalon. Even Raynare seemed to have been struck dumb by the brilliance of the sheath and looked at it with the type of terrified reverence that one would associate as a devotee meeting his god face to face.
I ignored their reactions and placed it on Asia, pouring in whatever Prana I could spare for the healing process. The effect was immediate, as Asia took in a deep breath and started to breathe normally, and the paleness seemed to recede almost completely. Her organs too were now getting healed back into optimal form and keeping her stable.
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