Vash
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Chapter 54
🕑 Added 2025-06-25 13:26:57 +0000 UTCChapter 54
The SUV's engine strained as we climbed higher into the Alps, the road narrowing with each switchback. Heavy snow reduced visibility to mere yards ahead, and occasional gusts of wind rocked the vehicle. I sat in silence, watching the world outside gradually transform into an endless expanse of white.
Father Dante had gone quiet after our earlier conversation, his gaze fixed on the monastery map spread across his lap. Occasionally, he would make small notations with a pen, muttering to himself in Latin. While Rossweisse sat beside me, her expression was blank though I could sense her tension in the way her fingers repeatedly tapped her thighs.
We'd been driving for nearly three hours, the weather worsening with each mile. The paved road had given way to gravel, then to little more than a snow-covered track. Our driver, a local guide Rossweisse had arranged, navigated the treacherous path with surprising confidence.
"We'll need to stop soon," the driver announced in heavily accented English. "Road ends two kilometers ahead. Rest must be on foot."
Father Dante looked up from his map. "How far will that put us from the monastery?"
"Five kilometers, maybe six with snow this deep." The driver glanced in the rearview mirror. "Dangerous climb. Very steep."
I nodded, not particularly concerned about the difficulty. My enhanced physiology can easily handle the terrain. The same could be said for Rossweisse. Father Dante was the unknown quantity, though his physical condition seemed adequate for an exorcist.
"What's on your mind?" Rossweisse asked quietly besides me.
“Nothing.” It was a lie.
In truth, my mind was circling the identity of Kokabiel's mysterious ally. It couldn't be a devil; Kokabiel's hatred for them ran too deep after the Great War. Angels were obviously out of the question.
The Khaos Brigade was a possibility. Their operatives were known to work with anyone who could further their chaotic agenda. But the timeline didn't quite fit with what I knew from the anime's events.
Then there were the vampires. After my encounter with Lady Ashford and her coven, I wouldn't put it past them to align with Kokabiel just to spite me. They had certainly made their displeasure with me clear enough.
It didn't matter. Whatever being had aligned with Kokabiel, they had made a fatal mistake. They had placed themselves between me and my parents' killer. And for that, they would share his fate.
I raised my hand and summoned my grimoire, letting it materialize in my hands.
“Is that a sacred gear?” Father Dante asked.
I ignored him of course.
Flipping through the grimoire now was like reading a weapon catalog. Hundreds of spells, all ready to go. Offensive magic that could level buildings. Defensive barriers that could stop tank rounds easily. Utility spells for every situation I could think of.
I'd spent months preparing for this exact moment.
I didn’t want to be arrogant thinking I am invincible now. I knew that I was not.
The armor was incredible, I'd give it that. Attacks below a certain threshold were completely negated. The truly devastating ones would only inflict ten percent of their intended damage. Weapons that should have pierced straight through my body would leave barely visible scratches but that didn't make me invincible. There were still countless beings in this world capable of destroying me without breaking a sweat.
If someone like Great Red decided I was worth eliminating, this armor would only ensure my death was marginally less catastrophic.
I decided not to think about it for the meantime as the SUV came to a stop where the road completely disappeared into white. Our driver killed the engine and turned around.
"This is as far as I go," he said in heavily accented English. "Five kilometers up the mountain path." He pointed through the windshield at what looked like nothing but snow and rocks. "Very dangerous in this weather."
I could barely make out what might have been a trail, just a slight depression in the snow winding up between jagged outcroppings. The wind was howling so loud it made the SUV shake.
“Thank you.” I nodded to the driver, before stepping out into knee-deep snow.
Father Dante struggled out of his seat, already shivering despite his heavy coat. "You think Kokabiel's expecting us?"
"Of course he is." I reached into my inventory and pulled out my winter gear. “Months of no information about him, until now. It’s a trap.”
Rossweisse stepped out beside me, moving through the snow like it was nothing more than sand. Her breath didn't even fog in the frigid air. Clearly also used to this kind of weather, probably worse, knowing where she came from.
"But you're going anyway,"
"Tell me, Alessia, what's the most dangerous part of hunting a pack of wolves?”
"I... what?"
"Finding them," I continued patiently. "Once you know where they are, the rest is just execution. He's gathered all his followers in one place, set up defenses, prepared whatever nasty surprise he thinks will take me down."
I gestured at the barely visible trail ahead. "Saves me the trouble of hunting them down one by one."
Father Dante stared at us both, his breath coming out in visible puffs.
Dante looked between us, realization dawning on his face. "You're not worried about the trap at all."
"Of course I am worried. But I didn't show up here to be lightly prepared. I had months to prepare for this."
We started up the mountain. Within minutes, the SUV disappeared behind us, swallowed by the storm. Father Dante took point, breathing hard within the first hundred meters. Every few steps, he'd pause to check his compass or squint at nearly invisible trail markers.
I followed twenty feet behind, hands in my pockets, walking like I was taking a stroll through a park. The snow was deeper than Dante's waist in some places, but it barely slowed me down. When he stumbled, I was there to steady him before he even realized he was falling.
"You two are not human at all!" he panted after the third time I caught him.
I shot him a look.
We climbed for another hour. Dante's breathing got more labored. His gloves kept slipping on his walking stick. By contrast, I wasn't even breathing hard, and Rossweisse looked like she could do this all day.
"Break?" Dante gasped, leaning against a boulder.
"If you need one."
He stared at me for a moment, taking in my complete lack of fatigue, then pushed himself upright. "I'm fine."
The wrongness hit me around the two-hour mark.
I stopped walking.
"We're close," I said.
Dante checked his compass, confusion creasing his brow. "We shouldn't be. The monastery's still—"
"Just over that ridge," I pointed ahead.
"How can you possibly know that?"
Instead of answering, I reached into my inventory and pulled out three small green beans. I tossed one to each of them.
"Take these now."
Rossweisse caught hers and immediately tucked it away. She'd seen what these could do.
Father Dante stared at the bean in his palm like I'd handed him a live grenade. "This looks like..."
"Emergency rations," I said. "If you get hurt in there, eat it."
"Hurt how?"
“Just eat it.”
“Okay…” He grumbled.
We crested the ridge. The monastery sprawled below us as light flickered in maybe half the windows.
There were also movements on the walls.
"Definitely expecting us," Rossweisse observed.
"Good." I started down the slope without hesitation.
"Wait," Dante called. "Shouldn't we scout first? Make a plan?"
I smiled.
“I have a plan. Attack”
This time, my grimoire materialized in my hand, it flipped open, already reading the intent on what spell I wanted to cast.
I raised my free hand toward the monastery. The air above it began to shimmer, like heat waves rising from hot pavement.
The pages turned on their own, stopping at a spell written in burning letters. The words seemed to pulse with their own light as I read them.
"Meteor."
=====
A point of light appeared in the sky above the monastery. Small at first, like a distant star. Then it grew bigger. And bigger.
Dante's mouth fell open. "Is that—"
What he saw was a meteor easily the size of a mountain.
Holy Mary, Mother of God. Dante's knees almost gave out. He's actually summoning a meteor. This isn't magic. This is divine wrath.
The burning rock screamed through the air, trailing fire and smoke. The people on the monastery walls started shouting. Some of them pointed up at the sky. Others ran for cover.
Too late.
The meteor hit the main tower dead center. The explosion lit up the entire mountain like daylight. Stone and fire erupted in all directions. The sound was like thunder, but louder and longer. The ground shook under their feet.
Dante grabbed onto a nearby rock to keep from falling. He just destroyed half a fortress with a single spell.
"Incredible," he whispered, Dante's hands trembled as he clutched his equipment bag. Incredible didn't begin to cover it. In thirty years of serving the Church, hunting supernatural threats across three continents, he'd never seen raw power like this. The meteor had done exactly what Leon intended—removed the fortress, scattered Kokabiel's forces, and announced his arrival in the most dramatic way possible.
When the light faded and the smoke cleared, the monastery was gone. In its place was a smoking crater the size of a football field. The ancient stone walls, the towers, the chapel where his team had died—all of it reduced to rubble and ash.
But not everyone was dead.
"Movement," the woman—Alessia, said calmly. "Southeast edge of the crater."
Dante squinted through the smoke and falling ash. Dark shapes were climbing out of the wreckage. At least a dozen figures, their clothes singed but very much alive.
"Kokabiel's tougher than I expected," Leon said, his voice carrying no emotion at all. The grimoire's pages turned again. "Good. I was worried this would be too easy."
Too easy? Dante's legs almost gave out. He thinks summoning a meteor was too easy?
A roar echoed across the mountainside. Not human. Not animal. Something older and infinitely more dangerous.
"There he is," Leon smiled, and Dante felt ice form in his stomach. It wasn't a pleasant expression. It was the look of a predator finally spotting its prey.
Wings spread wide against the smoke-filled sky. Black feathers caught the hellish glow rising from the crater as Kokabiel ascended, his ten wings beating slowly. Even from this distance, Dante could feel the fallen angel's rage washing over them in waves.
Dante's throat went dry. There he was, the fallen angel who'd murdered his entire team. Who'd smiled while slitting Rebecca's throat. Who'd left Dante alive for reasons he still didn't understand.
"LEON MISHIMA!" Kokabiel's voice boomed across the Alps, shaking snow from the peaks around them.
"So you finally crawl out of your hole like a worm!" Leon said with a smirk.
More wings appeared behind Kokabiel. His surviving followers—at least twenty fallen angels—arranged themselves in a loose formation. Dante recognized some of them as they were the ones who'd helped slaughter his brothers and sisters.
Dante saw Kokabiel gritting his teeth clearly Leon hit a nerve.
“Worm?! I am Kokabiel! The star of God! I have fought in wars before your ancestors learned to make fire!"
Leon's grimoire materialized in his hands, pages flipping on their own. "And yet here you are, skulking in ruins with a handful of traitors and rogue priests. How mighty."
Kokabiel's expression darkened, but that arrogant smirk remained. "You destroyed nothing! A few stones, some worthless human followers—easily replaced!" He gestured dismissively at the crater. "Did you think your little fireworks display would frighten me?"
Leon laughed. "I thought it would get your attention."
“Just laugh. You cretin, I will kill you the same way I killed your parents!” Kokabiel smiled, a sight Dante hated as it reminded him of how he killed his team.
Leon went completely silent.
“They thought they could play peacemaker between the factions. Pathetic humans trying to meddle in divine affairs! You should have seen your mother's face when she realized she was falling—priceless!”
Dante felt it immediately—a shift in the air that made his skin crawl. The temperature around them didn't just rise, it spiked. The snow beneath Leon's feet vaporized instantly, turning to steam that hissed and danced around his legs.
But it was more than the heat. There was something else radiating from Leon now, something that made every survival instinct Dante had scream at him to run.
Kokabiel's grin widened, revealing teeth that seemed too sharp. "What's wrong, boy? Cat got your tongue? Or are you finally realizing how outmatched you—"
The fallen angel's words cut off as the very air around them began to distort. Dante watched in growing horror as reality itself seemed to bend near Leon. The ground cracked beneath his feet, not from impact but from pure heat. The metal components of Dante's equipment grew uncomfortably warm despite being dozens of feet away.
Rossweisse took an involuntary step back, her face pale. Even she, a Valkyrie who'd seen countless battles, looked shaken by the sheer intensity of what Leon was radiating.
"Leon-sama," she whispered, but her voice seemed to disappear into the oppressive atmosphere.
Dante had seen rage before. He'd seen fury and hatred and bloodlust during his years as an exorcist. But this? This was wrath distilled into its purest form, controlled by an iron will that somehow made it infinitely more dangerous. A dragon’s wrath.
Kokabiel's smile faltered slightly. The fallen angel's survival instincts, honed by millennia of warfare, were finally starting to recognize the magnitude of what he'd just unleashed.
When Leon finally spoke, his voice was so quiet Dante almost missed it over the sound of steam and crackling energy.
"What did you say about my mother?"
For the first time since the confrontation began, Kokabiel seemed to realize he might have made a mistake.
Comments
Streetwise
Uh oh Koke-head, are these the inevitable results of your fuck-fuck games coming to fruition? Surely not!
