(I finally bought Grammarly Premium. Let's see how the quality improves now.)
Once Archaon received Romonus' directives, he locked them in. He was standing directly outside the cell where Sae had been locked in. Tobio's Childhood Friend and Crush. She was considered vital because she mattered to Tobio, Romonus' student and Akeno's cousin.
As such, Archaon knew she mattered the most of the 233 students. He kneeled and leaned down to examine her closely. He pointed at her face with his clawed hand.
"YOU! GIRL! Are you Sae Toujou?"
The teenage girl froze as she was being named dropped. She stuttered, but Archaon was relentless.
"SO! Are you?"
"Y-yes, I-I am."
"Good."
Archaon, with a thought, tore the bars away from her cell first. He lunged down and grabbed her by her shirt like a kitten. He lifted her off the ground, causing her and her friends to feel like this Knight was not a Noble Knight here to save them.
He was a Demon Knight, and he was here to kill them. Unlike what they imagined, Archaon used Ruin Maker to cut space open to open a portal.
"In you go."
He tossed Sae through the portal, causing her to scream like she was going to die. She closed her eyes in terror as jumping through a shimmering purple portal that looked like it would melt her to the bones was traumatizing. However, when she came out the other side, Romonus caused her to levitate in the air before she hit the floor.
"Got you."
Sae heard his voice and opened one of her eyes only to meet eyes with Romonus. He squinted his eyes and grinned, showing off his canines and sharper-than-normal teeth. A side effect of having Werewolf and Vampire blood was that it was growing stronger alongside his Demon blood.
"So you are Sae? No wonder Tobio is head over heels for you."
Hearing the thought for a moment, her face turned bright red. Hearing the name of her long-time friend after all this time made her feel a certain way.
"You know Tobio?"
Romonus nodded as he set her down on the floor.
"Do you want me to call him? I will do it in a minute since I have something to do."
---
On the other side of the Portal, Archaon made a decision. He only cared about Sae because she was valuable and a way to earn Tobio's undying loyalty. Once she was secured, he could move on with the assault.
As for the rest of the students, he ordered some of the Cultivator Shadows to get them out of the way.
"Get them out of their cells and take them to the Master. When they are dropped off, return to my side and continue the attack."
Without a single sound, the mindless Cultivator Shadows began to cut the enchanted bars of the cells with their weapons. Once the cell bars were slashed, the former Cultivators lifted the students into the air before taking them past the portal Archaon had created.
Back in England, at Romonus' home, his Shadows began to bring the students in groups of 12. Romonus instantly knocked them out with magic because he didn't want to repeatedly explain the same thing to people with no potential in the supernatural.
However, while he had this many, he activated his Eyes of the Soul and began to look at the students. He looked at the piles of 12 students quickly forming, looking for students with hidden sacred gears or magical potential.
Already, his shadows had brought back 150 students, and only one of them had a Sacred Gear. That was to be expected as Sacred Gears did not grow on trees. He waved his hand and separated that guy since even if the gear was weak, he could give him to Azazel in exchange for more favors.
When Azazel saw that, he was intrigued.
"Why did you take him from the pile?"
Romonus smiled as he explained.
"He has a Sacred Gear. From what I can tell, it is a mere Twice Critical."
Azazel nodded.
"Simple but decently strong gear. It's quite common, but the Balance Breaker is where it counts. Nice find."
Sae was the only exception to being knocked out, so seeing her fellow students come through the portal only to pass out worried her.
"Why are all of them passing out?"
Romonus shrugged.
"Simply put, they will be mind-wiped of this whole thing. We can't let the supernatural be known to many students with no place in it. Give me a second."
Romonus simultaneously telepathically linked to Tobio, Koga, Kouki, Natsume, and Shigune.
'You 5. We have located your fellow students. Including Sae and your friends.'
Hearing the words, the 5 of them dropped everything they were doing and began to run to the living room. Once he informed them, Romonus cut the link as the students piled up.
They would be fine as Romonus' mansion was massive, as was the living room.
"Azazel, you mind handling this?"
Azazel shook his head.
"No problem."
Azazel held his hand out and opened up a large portal. He didn't use his phone for this; he only used it because it was fun. He used magic to communicate with his servants to come pick up the students.
When they received the order, Azazel's Fallen Angels began to walk through the portal. When they arrived through magic, they moved the students through the portal. By then, Romonus' 5 students had arrived to see their classmates.
However, when they saw what was happening, they were confused. They walked over to Romonus to ask him directly. Tobio, on the other hand, was looking at Sae, who was kneeling by Romonus.
"SAE!"
He ran to her side and wrapped his arms around her tightly.
"I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE ALRIGHT!"
Sae, without even meaning to, began to cry as she hugged Tobio back. While they reunited, he explained things to the other 4.
"Simply put, we will all cover this whole thing up. The students involved in this will have their memories thoroughly wiped of the event. We will label this as a Terrorist Group sinking the cruise and taking the students as hostages against Japan.
Most of these students have no potential or place in the Supernatural, unlike you 4. They will return to their everyday lives, just with a lot more trauma."
At that moment, Kouki saw his best friend Nobushige among the pile. He saw the Fallen Angels pick him up and move him through the portal.
"You did say we could return to Semi Normal Lives if we wanted to, right?"
Romonus nodded.
"Yes. If you want, after you grasp your Sacred Gear enough to stop attracting evil, you can return to your normal life. Of course, with regular contact with me to ensure your Sacred Gears don't go out of control."
Kouki looked at Byakusa, the Evil Fiend Táowù of Ignorence. The small red eyes cat meowed happily at him. With a smirk, he held his fist out to Romonus.
"Nah, screw being mundane. I will stick around."
Romonus smirked back and fist-bumped Kouki.
"You made the right choice. How about you 3?"
Natsume also looked at her Sacred Gear, whom she named Griffin. Despite him being the Quongqi, The Fiend of Deviousness, she cared too much for him.
"I will stay as well. It is fun to learn magic and how to fight."
Shigune hugged Poh, her Sacred Gear.
"What will happen if I choose to go back to normal?"
She was a unique case.
"Sadly, Shigune, you can't return to your everyday life with Poh as your Sacred Gear. He is the strongest of the four Fiends, the Fiend of Gluttony. His hunger is so great that he would consume entire villages, houses, people, livestock, and crops and still want more.
Even if your parents are wealthy and know more than they should as rich people, you can't keep him fed. Eventually, he will get peckish, and an entire city will be eaten someday."
"POH!"
Poh began to whine and say that he wanted more food as if he had agreed. As a Sacred Gear, his hunger was reduced but not gone. Shigune hugged him tighter in terror as she had known him to be a friendly little pet. But as Romonus said, he was still one of the Evil Fiends.
"I see. I will think about it."
She walked off a little depressed, which made Koga shake his head.
"Out of the 4 of us, why did she have to have the biggest burden."
Blitz, his Sacred Gear, began to bark as if he found what he said offensive. Romonus also had more to say to him.
"You are also similar to her, you know. The Húndùn is the Fiend of Chaos. He attracts calamity to himself."
Blit nodded, saying that was very true. Koga held his hands up as Blitz acted like an average dog most of the time. At times, he got scarily intelligent when he wanted to. As a Sacred Beast possessor, Suzaku was the opposite of the 4 Fiends.
"You are correct in saying that. In Ancient times, the 4 Fiends terrorized Asia as they constantly moved together. It took so long to deal with them because they always fought together and for each other.
It took the 5 Principal Clans and their heads, alongside several Cultivator Sects, to kill them. The battle ended with the complete wipeout of the Sects and most of the most vital members of the Principle Clans.
They couldn't even destroy them because God descended from the Heavens and took the bodies and Souls of the Fiends afterward."
Hearing that made it clear that Romonus had to get into Heaven. Thinking of how many legendary creatures, materials, and knowledge God had amassed made it an essential long-term goal for him.
He didn't keep on this line of thought for long as Mephisto and Azazel had good news. Their forces had arrived at the location of the Agency Hideout, where Archaon was moving through.
----
Archaon, this entire time, ran through the hallways and corridors of the Agency. He was on an extermination mission, and he made sure to feed the souls of his victims to his brothers. If he ever wanted his brothers to be sentient like him, they needed more blood and souls.
As Archaon moved toward the stairs to the second floor, he was intercepted by several mages. They all held staffs, and together, they began to chant in Latin a dark ritual to attack Archaon's very soul.
To delay him, they sent their familiars and slaves forward. He could not smile, but if he could, he would be. His cape grew like a living creature as he roared and kicked off the ground to charge forward.
'MORE BLOOD!"
With dextrous skill, he began to cleave through the unfortunate monsters and slaves with Ruin Maker. The giant sword was a work of art, and it cut through scales, flesh, and bone like it was not even there.
The shield was a weapon in itself. He held it forward, and from the red and purple gem in the middle, a massive blast of Demonic Mana wiped out the mages before they could finish their chant.
Archaon, feeling proud of himself, moved forward to find more victims to slay.
---
Deep underground, Hanezu was on the brink of pulling his hair out.
"How did these monsters find us? The Separate Dimension was hidden with advanced magic. The Utsusemi aren't ready, and Satanael fucked off to who knows where. Cowardly, Leo doesn't even have a host yet."
He didn't know that his Himejima blood had sold him out. This secret lab had several tanks where floating monsters were being gestated. He was not alone, however; as luck would have it, Agusta had been here to work on the Utsusemi.
She had even brought her apprentice Walburga. The Elderly Oz Witch squinted her eyes as this was not supposed to happen. She had checked the formations and enchantments that should have even the best mages from finding them.
"This shouldn't be happening. I even reinforced the enchantments, so how were we found? What magic did they use? Unless-"
She looked at Hanezu himself.
"I think I know how they tracked us down. Aren't you Himejima, all descended from Ikutsuhikone? They must have used your blood itself to track you down."
Hanezu grit his teeth in rage.
"How does that make any sense? Satanael gave me this himself to hide me."
He showed the enchanted medallion around his neck, which Satanael charged with his magic. Agusta snarled at him.
"Magic does not follow the rules. Who is attacking?"
Hanezu brought up the camera feeds and other devices to show off Archaon and the Cultivator Shadows. They were not alone, though, as the forces of Grigori and Grauzauberer had arrived.
Armaros, one of the Cadre of Grigori, led the Grigori forces, and an Arch Mage of the order led the Grauzauberer forces. Even Archaon, who was moving quickly while slaughtering all who came his way, was an equal danger.
"I didn't sign up for this."
Agusta grabbed her staff and slammed it down, trying to teleport away. Usually, a Bound Field wouldn't have stopped her escape, but this was no average Bound Field. It was cast by Archaon The Profane, the Living Armor of Romonus.
They were trapped here with him, and they would die here by his hand.
(P-atreon.com/A_Real_Werewolf234) (Remove the -)