CHAPTER 86 - [86]:IRINA

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"I remember..." Kiba looked down and whispered, "I remember some of them treating us with kindness..."

The chamber was built to amplify sound, and even the faintest of noises drifted up towards the ceiling.

Valper sneered.

"Yes. And those were the ones that took their own lives. It's funny that way, isn't it? Kindness did nothing for them in the end. They should have listened to me and discarded the frailty that is human emotion when they became involved with my project."

Kiba shook his head and looked up.

"Tell me something, Valper. Did you feel nothing for them? Do you not have single shred of regret for what you have done?"

"Of course I do," the man replied casually, "I regret that they could not provide me with more information before they expired."

The boy's shoulders shook with wrath, but it was an entirely different person that answered. Asia, her gentle features scrunched up in anger, her hands clasped tightly together against her chest, glared upwards at the distant figure above them.

"You are... You are a very bad person!"

An indulgent smile stretched over Valper's face as he gazed down at the girl.

"Now that is relative isn't it? I'm sure I am a bad person to you, but to the ones I gift with my talents," all around him, halberds shifted in steel hands and plated digits caressed the triggers of string-taut crossbows, "I am a very good person," the man drummed his fingers on the railing, "But now I grow tired of discussing what is good and bad. Let us instead discuss your eminent fates. If you surrender now, I promise I will take good care of you. Until your time for the examination table comes, of course," the priest's look turned predatory, "I have never had devils as test subjects before."

"We'll never let you!" Issei took a step forward and Kiba crossed his blades defiantly together in a battle stance.

"As if you have a choice," Valper scoffed, "There is no way out. You are trapped here. Did you think I made small talk with you lot just for the sake of conversation? Simpletons. It was to distract you. Already Freed should be marching through the very same passageway you travelled through with the rest of our forces. Haven't you noticed?" the man's lips curled upwards into a leer, "The sounds of combat have already faded."

They tensed. A few of them cast worried gazes back towards the doors they had come through.

"Minato," Issei murmured.

The gates abruptly opened. On groaning hinges they swung outwards

"Finally. What took you so long, Freed?" Valper squinted at the approaching silhouette, his features and body cloaked by the doors' immense shadow, "Archdemon, he might have been, but he was still only one devil. And where are the rest of your men?"

Issei shielded Asia, his arm hovering protectively in front of the girl as he spun to face this new threat. Koneko frowned and did the same. Xenovia and Irina turned, holy swords bared and ready. Even Kiba, whose stare had never left the man on the gallery, tore his gaze away to glare at the newcomer.

His pace was slow and measured. The echo of his footsteps a steady, rhythmic beat. He finally stepped out of the shadows, the light revealing all. Blue hair. The slackened, almost lazy posture. His hands would have been stuffed into his pockets had they not been needed to carry the things he brought with him.

The sword was planted between Xenovia and Irina. The tip ate into the hard floor with frightening ease. Xenovia reached out falteringly, as though scared to touch it. Irina smiled at the figure that was already walking past.

They made way for him. Koneko shook her head slowly. Her gaze flickered towards the trail of blood that were left in his wake. The girl shrugged as though she had expected it all along. Issei grinned at him. The grin grew fiercer as he saw what remained clutched in the other hand. Kiba sighed. The boy's stance relaxed and a small smile spread over his face. Only Asia seemed troubled, and that was only because of the flecks of red that dotted every inch of his clothing.

He reached the front. The Templars on the balcony trained their crossbows on him. Dozens of steel-tipped bolts pointed downwards. Somehow it did not seem like a menacing gesture at all, but a desperate one. He glanced upwards at them, and then hurled the object he had carried with him all this time.

It landed with a wet, meaty slap. An arm, its fingers still twitching, spurts of blood squirting from the stump and painting the ground with crimson smears.

The boy shrugged, almost apologetically when their gazes turned to him.

"He got away," he jerked his head back in the direction of the sword, "But he left that."

The silence that followed was broken by the enemy.

"Impossible!" Valper snarled and gripped the sides of the balcony. The Knights Templar around him shifted uneasily, "A devil cannot wield a holy sword, less alone the holiest of them!"

The figure that materialized suddenly behind the boy's back proved just how possible it was.

"Greetings," it said, its voice a lilting, melodious rasp, "I am Uriel. Tell me," it cocked its head to one side, almost in thought. The smile that formed over its face did not quite match the look in its eyes, "How do you choose to die?"

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