DxD : Emiya Shirou

He looked at me with knowing eyes that was filled with sorrow because of it. "Did you think that there was no to price to pay to becoming a Devil?" he questioned.

"That you merely gain a pair of bat-wings, some magic and that was it?"

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He didn't even wait for me to answer as he continued, "Humans are beings of infinite potential, though they start out as so little they quickly grow to achieve so much, immeasurably faster than any other race. But when they become Devils that potential, that glimmer of human ingenuity is lost.

"You would not be able to see at the start but give it time and it'll become apparent that something is missing. That something, that little spark of human potential which truly made you human is gone, put out like the flame of a candle. Meet an adult human every decade and they'll be an entirely different person at each meeting. 

Meet a matured Devil every decade and they are likely to be the exact same person they were a dozen meetings ago. That is what you give up in your reincarnation, your ability to truly change, to grow.

"Look at the Underworld and you shall see all the proof you need. Look at their cities, at their technology, at their greatest of monuments and you'll find that they are nothing but a reflection of human designs. That all of their immortality and eons of knowledge, they needed to imitate human science and relay on human discoveries to progress as a species instead of discovering them on their own.

"God himself command his Angels to kneel down to humans not Devils because he knew that humans were superior to both us and them. Yet look at the world now, people jumping in droves at the chance to become Devils as if they were becoming something more rather than something less."

He shook his head sorrowfully, "Why, why would they do it? They gave up their humanity, their immortal soul and for what? Power, eternal youth, carnal pleasures? For such worthless things they gave up something that would put them even above the greatest of Heaven's Angels? Truly I cannot comprehend why they would do such a thing."

"Then what about me?" I asked, "I did the same thing as the others but you don't seem to have a problem with that."

"And why did you it? Why did you agree to become a Devil?"

"…To save my sister's life."

Again he smiled. "And that my friend makes all the difference. You didn't do it for yourself but for others. I have met and heard of tens of thousands of Reincarnated Devils in my time but you would not believe how rare it is to hear of one that willingly surrendered their humanity not for their own gain but another's. I can count them all in the fingers of my two hands."

"And Asia?"

"Like I have said, Asia is like me. We are both Fallen but still we continue to follow his will."

I just shook my head, I had a feeling that there was something there that I was missing but I didn't have time to waste anymore. This wasn't what I came here for, I've gotten side-tracked from my original goal enough as it is.

"Kokabiel," I spoke with all the authority I could muster, "why did you steal the Excaliburs?"

He smiled fondly at me, not even trying to deny my accusation. Instead he held out a single hand before him and with a flash of light, he was now holding a sword in his once empty hand.

Anyone can tell in a glance that it was ceremonial sword, one unsuited for combat. It had an ivory hilt with sapphires embedded into the middle in the shape of a cross, while the pommel and the cross-guard were plated with gold. 

The blade was long and thin, and though it looked solid as it gleamed in the sunlight I knew that despite all the magic that courses through its veins it was no stronger than ordinary steel.

"Out of all the blades in existence," He twirled the sword in his grip as he looked on it with clear distaste, "there is none that I hate more than this one. It is a Holy Sword in name only, in truth it is an abomination. Something that twists then subjugates the mind and breaks the spirit. One only needs to gaze upon it see how far the Church has fallen from what it once was. 

That they would dare craft such a thing from the remains of a true Holy Sword then to call it holy," He shook his head, "I have no words to describe how sickening that is."

With another flash of light the sword was gone from his hands. He then turned his gaze towards mine and gave me his complete attention. "You ask me what my plans are." He held out his hands, "Truthfully even I'm no longer entirely what they are anymore."

"You expect me to believe that you stole the Excaliburs without a plan in mind?" Not bothering to mask my skepticism.

"Oh no," He shook his head, "I did most assuredly have a plan, a rather good one as a matter fact but I no longer believe following it through would be the best course of action." He gripped his hands together as he continued, "My original plan was to start a war by murdering both Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri."

I felt my blood freeze in their veins at his words and my heart turn to stone. Did he just…?

"Not fight them but murder them." He carried on speaking in the same tone of voice he used all day, as if discussion the murder of teenaged girls was just another normal conversation topic. 

"I planned to sneak into their homes as they slept, just like I sneaked into their city, and stab them through their cold black hearts with the broken blades of the Excalibur as they slumbered unaware of their coming demise.

"No theatrics, no melodrama, just ruthless efficient murder. And with the coming dawn I would have my war. When the Maou rush to their siblings' side and witness their corpses skewered by the Church's beloved blades they will grant me my wish. 

In their rage they will not wonder whether they were innocent of the deed or not, they will merely desire for someone to suffer their wrath and the Church will make for a convenient target. And when that happens I will lead all the Fallen I could muster to join in the battle.

"And just like that," He clapped his hands together, "the second Great War would have begun and no one would have been able to stop me."

I had never suffered from vertigo before, but I was sure if I did it would have felt something like this. Here we are still sitting in the same park that we were just having fun with Asia just minutes ago. The sun was still shining in the clear sky, it was warm beautiful day and now I find myself setting across from a monster.

The worse of it was he didn't look any different. His noble and inhumanly beautiful face didn't twist into a hateful sneer, his eyes kind eyes didn't turn blood red and fangs didn't sport from his peaceful smile. 

He look, well, he still looked like an Angel even as he talked about cold blooded murder in the same tone of voice he spoke to be about the wonders of the human soul.

It was surreal, as if for a moment the world didn't make sense anymore.

"And how did you even plan to get close enough to them?" I decided to attack the holes in this plan while I took the time to gather my wits, "The Bounded fields that warded their homes are first class, and I checked them over myself. It would have been impossible for you to break through them before they have a chance to teleport away, let alone slip by completely undetected."

In reply he raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

A cold steel blade was pressed against the right side of my neck, so close to my jugular that it only need a quick twist to slice clean through it. Another was placed on the base of my spine; a single thrust was all it needed to paralyze me from the waist down. 

A third blade was held horizontal to the ground and pointed tip first in the preparation to pierce through my armpit and into lungs from where it was located unearth my left arm. The last blade was located on the right side of my torso, positioned between my ribs and ready to plunge into my liver. I didn't even have time to blink.

When did he!?

Though I couldn't see them I could feel the light element running through all four blades, humming to my senses like high-powered electricity though a steel cable. Even with my Queen's fortitude, I was not sure if it would slow these blades enough to make a difference.

Fortunately I didn't have to find out. With another snapped of his finger, all four blades were withdrawn and the ones who were holding them leapt over the back of bench to kneel down beside Kokabiel feet.

"Emiya Shirou, allow me to introduce you." He indicated with a wave of his hands at the four kneeling figures who waited silently by his side, "These four are my personal guards. They are the Elite of my army, my most loyal of servants and above all else they are my friends. A truer bunch you'll never find.

"They have been with me from the very beginning. They stood by my side as I defended Heaven as one of its soldiers, and they never left it even after my Fall, leaving Heaven willingly to come to my aid." The love and affection he held for them was clear in voice.

I only gave him half of my attention as he spoke while the rest of my mind tried to puzzle out the four enigmas before me. Even when they were standing before me I could hardly even tell that they were there. 

I could see them with my eyes just fine but as far as I can sense them with my magic they may as well not have been there. Hell, I couldn't even hear them! Only by reinforcing my ears was I able to hear them move and even then they were hardly louder than the sound of their heartbeats.

Their heads and faces were wrapped with a bluish grey cloth, masking their features leaving only their eyes uncovered. They were dressed in varying shades of blue and grey clothing that covered from the neck down. Grey leather amour and gauntlets were worn over their clothing, and on their feet's were some kind of greyish moccasin.

Strapped to their sides where short Japanese styled swords, a tanto. The tiny blades may have not been best for heavy combat but they were more than suitable for killing. 

Though fragile the edge of the blades were sharp enough to pierce through armour, and they had just enough light energy running through them to pierce through a Devil's defense but not enough to make them easy to detect. Not unless you were actively looking for it.

"I wouldn't bother trying, for all the years I've known them even I can't sense them any longer. Not as they are now." He looked upon them with melancholy etched in his face, "Once they were powerful six-winged angels, with enough magic coursing through their bodies that you would have sensed them from miles away. Now in their wingless states however, you wouldn't realize they were there even if they hid in your own shadow."

"Wingless?" I never heard that term before.

"They ripped their own wings offs." He nodded sadly at my horrified expression when I realized that they had mutilated themselves. 

"At their current state they barely have enough raw magic in them match an average human mage or a Low-class Devil."

"But can't wings grow back? And even if they can't it doesn't explain how they losing them ties into them to losing their magic." 

I knew that the amount of wings an Angel or Fallen had symbolized that amount of raw power they possessed, it didn't mean that cutting off their wings would destroy their power.

"If they were merely cut off then you would have been correct, but the wings were pulled out by very their roots. 

The same ceremony they used to remove them had left their bodies' internal magic system and magical capacity undamaged and till functioning but it completely obliterated their magical reserves. In their current state the amount of Mana they can generate is so little that they are no longer capable of casting any powerful spells."

"Still, that doesn't explain why I can't sense them." Even though I was far from skilled in sensing magic I should have still been able to sense something. 

Kokabiel claimed they had they magic comparable to that of human mage but as far as I can tell there was nothing there. Every living being had some magic in them, even ordinary people had some, but these four had nothing. They were like the gravel of a road, equally devoid of both life and magic.

"It is rather simple if you thing about it. Their magic has been cut to a small fraction of what it originally was but they didn't lost any of their control over it. Right now these four possess a fully functional magic system that was meant to hold and manipulate thousands of times more Mana than it currently has running through it. 

With such a powerful system still in place, combine to their not inconsiderable skills in the craft of magic, and it was far from difficult thing for them to learn how to surpass they magical presence even more."

"They stole were the ones to steal the Excaliburs weren't they." It made sense. The thieves were able to break in and out of the Church without ever being detected. It also explained why only four of the seven swords were stolen. He didn't have enough people to go after the other three.

"I believe Asia put it perfectly when she said you can't heal someone when you don't understand what's broken. It's the same concept with the wards, how can you expect them to block something when they can't even recognize them as threats. 

Even the Church's Bounded Fields registered their presence as nothing more than a gust of wind, if they even registered them at all.

"Compared to that, the Bounded Fields protecting the Gremory and Sitri would have been child's play. They would have snuck into the just as easily as they had snuck past the guards that surrounded the city and completed their missions without anyone ever realizing they were ever there."

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