Kiba who came later took a fair bit of convincing to agree working with the girls, but he too came along as he would get the chance to destroy the holy sword.
...
They started trying to find those thieves around town, but it was quite a hassle considering Xenovia and Irina have wandered off on their own while Kiba butted heads with them over some of the more trivial matters. It was during such a situation that the bad guys decided to ambush them and they ended up fighting for their lives while near residential areas. He fought the person that Xenovia had called Lyle Wallner for quite a bit, with Koneko by his side for attack power while Saji played support. It did little to affect the gunslinger who even used some of the attacks to assist his own partner in crime to hinder Kiba and the exorcists.
He had wondered if he should have called in Shirou to help out, but considering the mess that had happened in the academy, Rias and Sona had preferred he did not get mixed up in their mess. Ise could understand a bit of it, since he was slightly pissed at the manner Xenovia seemed to brush them off easily and how she disregarded Shirou's health once she learnt that he was somewhat related to them professionally. He would love nothing more than to increase his strength with Boosted Gear and just punched her to the next block.
Of course, it was not for the lack of trying. Ise had attempted to ask Shirou a couple of times before, but he always seemed to miss him by a few seconds, and considering the urgency of the matter, he ended up dropping the task after a couple of days. He still hoped to find him sooner if only because he was more used to his attack style and Kiba's, not to mention he felt a lot safer having him around.
Then again, he would have to put up with Shirou's battle comments if he had heard about their plan. Heck if he were here now, he would probably say something like:
"Hyoudou Issei, what type of problem did you get your ass into this time?"
Like that, and if that fallen-angel girl were with him, she would probably say something like:
"He probably got himself headfirst into some sort of situation he should have avoided at all cost and is now regretting so much."
Yes, she would probably say something… like… that…
Ise turned his head slightly to find a disapproving Shirou Emiya and a smirking Mitelt by his side. Oh boy was he in trouble?
"Ise, explain. Now." Shirou's eyes had a very scary glint as he asked for an explanation. Thankfully for Ise, the answer came crashing through the wall behind me.
"YEHAHAHAHHAH!" The white-haired individual gleefully let out a crazy laugh as he blocked Xenovia's and Irina's attacks with ease while nimbly sidestepping Kiba and avoiding his strikes. He then leaped high above their heads, momentarily flipping the bird at Xenovia upside down before landing neatly on his feet and running off, with a furious Xenovia, Irina and Kiba hot on his heels.
"…"
Ise looked at them for a while before pointing them to Shirou and Mitelt. "Short summary. We search for bad guys, bad guys found us first, bad guys are now trying to kill us."
"… I can work with that." Shirou sighed heavily before turning to Mitelt. "Maybe you should hide somewhere for a while."
"No way, not happening." Mitelt crossed her arms while raising an eyebrow. "The old lady told me to look after you while you are still sick from whatever it is you are sick from, and I have been itching for a fight. I am coming along for some support at least."
"Actually, we could use her help." Ise cut in before Shirou could retort. "The guy you saw earlier is using Excalibur Transparency to fight them and it has been throwing our rhythm off since the beginning of this fight. His partner is also some gunslinger who is taking on the rest of us from a distance and that guy is very quick. Maybe Mitelt could bombard the area with spears?"
"Wait, did you say Excalibur Transparency?!" Mitelt snapped her head at him, and Ise would admit he actually shivered under the glare of her eyes. "Why is there an Excalibur Shard in this town?!"
"I can explain all of it later! Right now I could really use both your help! So will that plan work?"
Shirou frowned as he looked around the area quickly, likely assessing the effectiveness of his idea. "Don't think that would work well since we are quite close to the residential areas. We would need to be in a wider area that has no bystanders nearby."
"Well, we were trying to get to the open grounds by the canal, but it seems that Xenovia and Irina are getting too excited at the prospect of taking them out, and Kiba is not listening to a word that I or Koneko are telling him." Ise scratched his head in irritation. "Don't suppose you can help us with that?"
Shirou looked at Mitelt for a moment, then with a heavy sigh and shaking his head, he turned to Ise with a reluctant smirk. "What will you do without me?"
...
Lyle clicked his tongue in impatience as he parried a stray attack from one of the exorcist while dodging both the punches of a little girl and the tentacle sent by a boy who had a lizard like Sacred Gear on his arm. This fight was becoming a bit of a hassle for him.
After his observation of the devils, he and Creed spent the next couple of days scouting the town for any usable leylines which they could use to speed up their operation. Much to his displeasure, the majority of the leylines found were pathetic; they had barely enough power to power a minor wind spell, let alone the ritual of their scale. Furthermore, much of their locations were in areas that were too populated or too out-of-reach for their usage, leaving very few options for them.
The first was the construction site that was near the hotel they were staying in. It had a decent leyline that could help out with their operation, but the only issue was the construction materials that could interfere with their spell casting. A basic rule of thumb for rituals is to avoid any man-made or unnatural materials around to avoid contamination.
The same went for the second option, which was an open lot a few miles away. It was relatively isolated enough that they could perform the ritual without anyone noticing, but the leyline was somewhat tainted from the factory nearby. The quality was poor and the chemicals present in the area made it clear that attempting to perform the ritual there would result in instabilities.
The last option they had yielded the best leyline of the entire town, but it was also the most heavily guarded and the one that Lyle suspected that Galilei and Creed would insist on using just for the sake of pissing him off and provoking their enemies: Kuoh Academy.
He had wondered if God was enjoying playing pranks on him just to see him suffer.
After their scouting, the two went back to discuss their options for the ritual. Unfortunately they ran into the group of devils and exorcists during their scouting and Creed decided he needed to loosen up his body. Before Lyle could process what he said, Creed charged right into the middle of the group and started attacking them viciously. With a curse, Lyle took out his sword and joined the fray. He needed to ensure the collateral damage was minimal.
It had been twenty minutes since the start of the fight, and so far they only accomplished in destroying their surroundings and Creed deliberately pissing the exorcists and one devil swordsman to the point that they were ignoring their surroundings and went about trying to hit him with their strongest attacks. Lyle was dealing with the dragon user, the little girl and the other Sacred Gear User with more success and more controlled destruction. He was able to take out the dragon user quickly and disable both the girl and the other devil boy without too much of a hassle. He was at least thankful that the princesses or Griselda were not here to complicate matters or he would be so pissed right now.
"Creed, we need to get moving!" Lyle called out to Creed while sidestepping the boy with the Sacred Gear. "All these fighting is going to attract more unwanted attention than we need, and I really don't want to fight Griselda or the princesses, let alone their peerages!"
"Fine, Mister Spoil-sport! I will be finishing up now!" Creed replied back in a bored tone while fending off Excalibur Destruction, Excalibur Mimicry and several devils swords with Excalibur Transparency easily. "While I'm at it." He let out a sneer as he grabbed the handle tighter. "I might as well be bringing back a gift for the old man."
With that, he started to speed up his attacks and forced the blue-haired exorcist back, before deactivating the ability of the sword to catch the sunlight and direct it at the other two, causing them to wince from the glare. He took that opportunity to kick the boy right into the canal behind him, before parrying Mimicry off the exorcist's hand and ending it with a slash at the girl.
"KYAHHH!"
"Irina!" The blue-haired girl called Xenovia turned to the twin-tailed girl in fear as she watched her friend fall back with a deep cut down her front that stained her clothes and the ground, giving Lyle the opportunity to take out his gun and aimed a few rounds at her blade, knocking it away from them before rushing forward to punch her in the stomach, causing her to bend over in time for him to grab her head, lift her and throw her to the canal to join her friend.
"WOOHO! Gift time!" Creed caught Excalibur Mimicry neatly in his hand before turning to Lyle and throwing both swords in his hands. "Okay, all yours!"
Lyle dashed forward to grab the swords and leaped away in time to avoid a strike from the little girl. Then with the ease and speed of one who has performed this action countless times, Lyle used the swords to etch out a circle and several lines inside it before stabbing the swords in the center of the circle. Taking out a charm from his pocket, Lyle slammed it into the circle while muttering a soft chant. The circle glowed brightly, followed shortly by the swords, then with a bright flash, the swords disappeared in a cloud of gold dust, leaving behind a smoking circle and a smoldering piece of paper.
"Done!" Lyle called out as he grabbed the arm of the other devil male and used his momentum to throw him towards the little girl. "Get moving!"
"All right then. Guess we can leave now." Creed remarked as he made to walk away.
"Like I will let you!" The white-haired devil swordsman dashed forward with the sword aimed for Creed's neck. "You will be dead before you can leave!"
"Oh~ is that so?" Creed's smile went wider as he looked on with hungry eyes.
"SHRING! CLANK!" Kiba got knocked back a few meters away by Creed who was now holding on to a double-bladed light sword.
"I like to see you try." Creed raised the sword to his eye level and motioned with his other hand.
...
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