"AH COME ON!" Ise grabbed the nearest column and held on for dear life as the blade struggled to free itself from his grip. Asia, Koneko and the blue haired girl came along and grabbed his arm, helping him to try and contain the blade.
...
"I got this one!" The twin-tail girl threw a rope around the katana to lasso it, but the katana glowed briefly before changing its shape into something like spike mace, tearing the rope into shreds before making its way back at me. The spears put up a bit of resistance against the weapon, but it smashed through them and made its way towards me and Reya.
"Emiya-kun! Reya-chan!" A brief flash of red and I found myself being carried away in time for the mace to miss us and hit the ground hard. I looked to find Reya in the similar position as me and a panting and pale-faced Meguri holding onto us.
"Meguri-chan! Thank you…" Reya's eyes went wide as her hand was raised to reveal blood covering her fingertips. I immediately lifted Meguri to the side and found a big gash on her back. Seemed like she got cut at the last moment and was currently feeling the side-effects of the holy blade.
Okay, now I'm pissed.
I projected the Asclepius Staff to help Meguri, before I turned around in time to find the mace transform back into a katana and aimed its edge at me before flying straight for my head. I projected Kanshou and broke it to extend its edge before slamming it at the sword to deflect it to the side, sending it hurtling in the air and embedding itself into the wall.
"ARGG!" I turned to find Ise and the girls straining to hang on to the broadsword. "Shirou, we could use a hand here!" That was mooted when the broadsword decided that it got held on enough and glowed a crimson red while radiating holy energy that managed to bypass the dragon's protection and burnt Ise, causing him to yell out in pain and releasing his hold on the sword. "Crap!"
"Oh shit!" I tried to dodge out of the way, but it seems the sword has taken a lesson from Gae Bolg as the sword seemed to bend at an odd angle and flew straight into my arm.
"AAAAHHHH!"
I let out a yell of pain as memories and visions seemed to clash in my head, rendering me immobile on the ground. With a bit of a struggle I was able to pull the sword out of my arm and threw it with as much strength as I could muster. Tsubasa came in time to catch my falling body as I stumbled.
"Hang on, I got you!" Tsubasa wrapped one arm around my frame and kicked the ground to jump out of the way of the broadsword that resumed its attempt to follow me. She grabbed hold of a tree and uprooted it with a huge tug before throwing it at the sword, but it practically disintegrated upon contact with the blade.
"Darn it! Just break already!" Kiba snarled as he plunged a bunch of swords around the katana and blew them up at once, but that only succeeded in freeing the sword from the wall and restart its rampage around us.
This situation was getting seriously screwed up, what with swords trying to stab me and everyone else in their way, female exorcists going around in tight clothes, Meguri getting hurt because of me, my blood spilling out…
And all the noise from the swords and the people around me was getting on my nerves!
"CUT IT OUT!"
To mine and everyone's surprise, the holy weapons stopped in the middle of the air, glowed once more before dropping blade first into the ground and embedding themselves deeply. Thankfully even the ringing has ceased, so I could finally catch my breath and gathered my thoughts.
That only made me realized the amount of pain I was in, thus leaving me a little overdrawn from the blood bank.
"Emiya-kun!" Tsubasa held on to me and laid me on my back as I started to cough out more blood from my mouth. "Asia-chan, I need your help now!"
"Meguri… help her first…" I pointed to the red-haired knight who was starting to have a hard time breathing properly, liking due to the holy attributes affecting her system. "I can deal with my own injuries, so help her."
"But!"
"Do it." I hissed out my answer while giving a look that made both Asia and Tsubasa give pause. "I can handle this myself." Tsubasa and Asia looked at each other for a moment before nodding, and I let out a sigh while watching Asia healing Meguri. I closed my eyes while regulating my breath before channeling my Prana to Avalon.
'Okay Avalon, do your thing.'
A bright glow of gold enveloped my body as Avalon finally got a break to heal me properly. I took in a steady breath as I could feel my wounds closing and my internal injuries feeling less painful. After a while Avalon deemed me healthy enough to stop the process, but I could still feel some parts of my body in agony.
"That light…" I could barely hear Asia's voice in my daze. "It is the same as that time my Lord saved me…"
That's it. The hell with my attendance, I needed a vacation right now.
...
"…" Lyle brought down the high-powered rifle slowly as he looked at the academy that he was spying on with a deep frown. He had uncovered a lot of things that could spell trouble for the mission.
He went ahead of Creed to scout the area so that he could mark out places for emergencies, then having finished his task earlier than expected, he decided to go ahead and find the devils so that he could identify them later.
It was not too difficult to find them; every devil emitted a certain aura that made their presence unique enough to affect humans on a subconscious level, and having been trained from childhood to detect such things, Lyle was able to identify a huge cluster of them coming from the academy. Lyle gritted his teeth lightly as he looked at all the students coming out of the gates, totally ignorant that devils were running their business there and that they were likely used as a gathering tank of souls for the devils to feast on. Normally he would disapprove of Creed's actions, but in this case he might consider letting him loose on these devils to save the humans.
He did not have to wait too long when he spotted three individuals entering the academy through the back gates and making their way to one of the older buildings of the academy. He could not help but smile grimly at the sight of a big bundle of cloth on one of the individuals' backs and what seemed to be an ordinary bandage on the other. Anyone with contact to the Excalibur Shards would be able to detect them even at a distance.
Looks like Galilei's plan was working. The church was desperate enough to send the remaining two swords for capturing the others.
He was however more concerned regarding the woman who came with the two girls. To say that his heart stopped at the sight of her was an understatement. He had met Griselda a couple of times before, and he would admit that he was both in awe and terrified of her strength. It seemed that the church was not sending out the other two swords without some insurance.
He was just about to consider sending in a familiar to spy on them after they had disappeared for an hour when he detected two other sources of the devil's aura coming near. He directed his attention and raised an eyebrow at two girls moving slowly across the yard. He adjusted the power of his binoculars to see what were they carrying, and he raised the other eyebrow at their cargo.
A human? And he seemed injured or ill to the point that those two were carrying him towards the location where the other devils were having a conversation with the church. And it seemed that he was struggling a little between the two girls by resisting their hold.
Wait, the devils couldn't be trying to use the human's moment of weakness to tempt him into selling his soul, or worse, trying to get leverage on the exorcists by using a hostage?! He would not allow it! Galilei would probably reprimand him for this, but he would ensure that the human maintained his soul and would not be involved with such a situation.
But just as Lyle readied his rifle and took aim at the girls' heads, a momentary pulse of energy directed his sights at the old building in time to see the a bright light emitting from the window before shattering and two swords flew out and headed straight for the trio. He moved his rifle back just as the man pushed the two girls away, making the blades hit him instead. To his surprise the human still lived and manage to pull the swords out, just as the exorcists appeared.
For a while Lyle watched the chaos that unfolded in front of him with a critical eye, before gasping at the sight of the swords actually responding to the man's yelling and stabbed their tips into the ground. They stayed that way while the human glowed a bright gold before getting attended to by one devil dressed in nun-clothing before he got escorted to what seemed to be the nurse's office. It was some time later that the exorcists were able to pull them out from the ground and left the academy.
This was a more volatile situation than he had anticipated. There were so many unknown variables that needed to be handled, too many uncomfortable coincidences to overlook…
And that one human…
Lyle silently took out his phone and pressed the numbers before placing it to his ear. The ring tone continued for a short while before the call connected.
"Creed, we have a problem."
...
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