The Saint Devil

Chapter 12

--- "My only orders are to kill my target... For the sake of the kingdom."

"Why would you!?-"

Taiyo bursts into anger questioning Bastien's reasoning, but his angry shout gets interrupted by my voice, calmly answering Bastien.

"So this is how it is. He got tired of trying to keep me in place, so he decided to get rid of the trash..."

"Akushi..."

Taiyo looks at me with a sad expression, but I quickly follow up my last sentence raising my head and looking right into Bastien's eyes.

"-but! I didn't find a goal for myself just to die here now! Also, I am not alone anymore!"

Taiyo looks at me while I shout my resolve, quickly changing his sad expression into a smile.

"You're right! We're going to fight them! Aren't we...?"

"Yeah..." I answer with a calm tone approaching Taiyo a little to whisper to him the details.

"I will use "Uriel", when I start gathering, run inside and get mister Kein."

"Understood! Don't do anything stupid, please," whispers Taiyo back to me, asking me to be careful.

I am sorry Taiyo, but even though you want me to play it safe, I'm afraid that this entire plan is a stupid idea. At least you can escape with mister Kein.

I nod at Taiyo's request of being safe, and then start saying Uriel's chant,

"Come... The light that destroys the depths of hell, Uriel!" and then quickly grasping the sheathed sword I shout,

"Gather!"

At the moment I started the gathering, Taiyo started running where Kein was supposed to be talking with the innkeeper, but as soon as he entered the inn, he quickly left it again.

"Kein is not there!"

Looking at me Bastien starts talking about my chosen power, telling me even details I didn't know about it.

"Uriel, the guardian of the Garden of Eden. I can feel the pressure from the power gathering around you, but at your level, you don't realize your flaws. Before I started hunting you, I got some details about your "chosen" powers. When you chose to stay and fight, you condemned yourself to a pitiful death."

When Akushi uses "Uriel", he needs to charge the curved sword with holy power. He can't dodge attacks, not even move while he is in the gathering stance. Bastien knew that, and he knew the potential effects following his reckless move.

"This is the end, "Lost Prince of Wanborne"."

Bastien raises his "Red Hand" towards Akushi, launching a strong magical attack of concentrated power in the form of a red spear.

"I- can't move! Just a bit more!" I close my eyes out of fear, hearing a desperate voice calling for me,

"Akushi!!"

After opening my eyes, I find out that I am still unharmed. Looking in front of me, I see Taiyo standing there, trying to shield me.

"i***t! Why did you do that?!"

"My body moved on its own, I think this is what happened with Tsuki as well back then..."

Looking with a fearful expression, Bastien takes a step back and says,

"That power! It can't be!"

"Yo kid... Tell your body to keep still if it can't productively move on its own."

Neither of us realized what happened, but Bastien understood at a first glance. Taking a better look behind Taiyo, I start seeing it too. The reason why we escaped unharmed from Bastien's attack was...

"The Wind Wall?"

Bastien looks at the top of the inn in front of which we were fighting, seeing Kein standing on its roof.

"The Guardian Angel, Kein Shimada... What a surprise. Since when did you become a babysitter?"

"It's more relaxing than going to useless raids with lots of boring people."

"So you're going to turn your back from The Kingdom again?!"

"The Kingdom, huh? You guys won't resist without destroying others' lives for a minute, won't you? And by the way, you didn't do your homework well."

"Hmm? Is there something wrong with killing that child while he can't move?"

"In a normal scenery, it would've been the best way, but you know only half of his chosen powers. Forcing his "Gather" to stop by killing him, would most likely get you killed as well."

"What do you mean? I am only following my orders! The king personally told me how to deal with his "chosen" powers!"

"Astaroth... You would force him to show himself, possessing that kid. It's like a way to keep the kid alive in this kind of situation. "The Double Chosen", "The Failed Experiment of the Greedy King", "The Saint Devil". Not knowing how to deal with him would bring another great war, and probably get us killed on the spot."

Hearing all of this, I learn more and more about the powers that I didn't know I have. It's kind of sad that others know more about me than myself.

"Then why are you willing to side with him?!"

"Because... He is the only person I believe can change something in this world, and as young as he is, he is more of a king than that i***t!"

At first, I didn't realize it, but Kein actually believes that I can achieve my goals. He helped me so much and I am really grateful for this. For all this trust that Taiyo and Kein have put in me, I'll show surpass my limit and send the opponent standing in front of me home!

"Gathering complete!"

As I shout this, I draw my long straight sword, signalling Kein that he needs to take Taiyo from there and take distance. After doing so, I unleash my gathered power,

"Light Cannon!"

The emanated light temporarily blinded everyone on the battlefield. "Light Cannon's" power was so great that it left a huge crater all the way to where Bastien was standing.

Some of the knights were looking at the scenery and wondered how did they escape unharmed.

"General Bastien!"

Bleeding from the place where his right arm was supposed to be, the place where "The Red Arm of Orion" was, stayed Bastien in front of the soldiers, after taking all the damage from "Uriel".

"I am fine. I just ran out of power to maintain my arm's shape..."

He protected everyone behind him with the cost of one arm. The title of "Bloody General" wasn't necessarily given to him for his crimes, but for the way he bled anytime it was needed, protecting all his subordinates.

Looking at the place where Kein was standing a few seconds ago, Bastien starts telling himself.

"Guardian Angel, I can never tell what's in your head. Even now when you could defeat us all by yourself, you run away. The same as in the past..."

In the blindly light of "Uriel", Kein took Akushi and Taiyo and ran away to their next destination.

"We have to hurry our plans, because, after this outcome, we are running against time!" says Kein while holding both Taiyo and Akushi that fainted after using too much power.