You know, I believed the world has it out for me.
That thought was all I had as I jumped back to avoid the monsters that came upon us over the broken walls like a tsunami of tentacles and teeth, their eyes fixed on me with hunger and rage and teeth snapping for my flesh. With a gesture, I wrote a rune to transport the captives to a nearby shack that had my protection spells in need before I projected a couple of swords and set about eliminating their existence, and I made sure to get the right ones for the job.
Because unless I was much mistaken, this had the signs of someone I knew from before.
"What the hell are these things?!" Ise yelled as he fired off Dragon Shots like a shotgun, leveling a few of the creatures in front of him only to have several more taking their place.
"Butt-ugly, that is what they are!" Saji yelled as he tried to use his Sacred Gear on them, only for them to taken over by others whom consumed them and continued on.
"They just keep coming!" Tsubaki, Momo, Reya and Akeno were using whatever destructive arsenal they had at their disposal to destroy the creatures before us. "Their numbers are not dropping any time soon!"
"Creations from the magicians?" Michael answered as he waved a hand to blast the hounds away from him and his subordinates.
"If so, they did a fantastic job at fucking up." Azazel grabbed something from his robes and threw them at the creatures, creating small spheres that enveloped the creatures and sealed them inside before imploding spectacularly and blasting away close enemies.
"Oh shit!" Ise cursed as he got tackled to the ground by one of the hounds that was doing its hardest to bite his head off, only to be introduced to my sword as I stabbed it in the head and activated it passive ability of matter conversation, turning it into a pile of dirt within seconds with the unfortunate effect of dropping onto Ise.
"Stay sharp." I pulled him up and quickly dusted him off as I used the other sword in my hand to melt the hounds quickly. I took a quick look around to find Vali, but he seemed to have disappeared though I could feel his energy. I got the feeling he was watching us to see what we would do.
Damn it.
"Thanks, Shirou." Ise panted as he looked at my swords with a frown. "Hey how are you getting rid of them so quick?"
"These creatures you see stem from Judaism, the main ability is complete regeneration and resurrection. Each time you kill one, two will take its place." I traced a few more blades of similar nature to destroy the vanguard while creating a barrier between us and them for a brief respite. "The only way to get rid of them would be using weapons or abilities to wipe them out one shot."
"Old friends of yours?" Azazel called out from his side as he layered on light spears that pierced the hounds by the dozens.
"I wish." I poured my Prana to break the projection and threw it at the hounds to detonate it and take down a large portion of their numbers, giving a brief respite for those getting swarmed. "More like creatures of a past long forgotten and preferably remain that way."
"Well that is nice and all, but their nature limits our arsenal by a lot." Sona conjured up a huge wall of water to push the hounds back and attempting to drown a few, only to have them swim inside without any issues and forced their way out.
"The power of Destruction can eliminate them!" Rias threw a giant ball of darkness that disintegrated the hounds' bodies. "But there are way too many of them!"
"As with us!" Azazel and Michael were flinging spears of light at the hounds' heads, impaling them before exploding them in glorious gore.
"We will manage our own way! Kiba!" I called out to the knight who was holding them back with fire attacks. "Think you can make a few swords that turn anything into ashes!"
"I think I can!" Kiba leapt back to get more cover before using [Sword Birth] to call forth several swords with dark ash handles. "Everyone grab one!" Without a moment's pause, everyone except the angels and exorcists grabbed them and started to attack the hounds. I took my copy and analyzed its structure, prepping the copy in my Reality Marble while the sword did its usual bit of becoming 'whole' and wanting to fight alongside me.
That I shall oblige.
I swung hard at the few in front of me and once again got the confirmation that I somehow augmented the swords that come from [Sword Birth] when the incoming swarm ahead of us all turned to ashes within moments of the attack. I kept up the momentum and kept on firing off multiple copies of my weapons that could wipe them out, but the numbers coming at us were staggering. It would seem that the original had a lot of time and grunts to feed on to multiply to these numbers.
"This is getting us nowhere!" Megumi cried out in desperation as the hounds started to push us back to the wall.
"Indeed, this is problematic." Michael let out a sigh that was equal parts resigned and equal parts something that suggested irritation as he showered dozens of light spears at the hounds. "I don't think our situation is improving that much."
That was true, the numbers were more than I anticipated. Even for me, this was pushing it. What we needed was a way to congregate into one spot so that we could wipe them out in one shot. That was what I did the last time by getting them into a desolate temple in the middle of the Sahara Desert before blowing them up with enough explosives and acidic material to be comparable to Hiroshima. But that was in the middle of nowhere, whereas here we were close to the town, so unless I want to blow up a good portion of Japan to kingdom come, I would need a different method of getting them into one spot. I needed…
My thoughts got an answer when I watched Rias throw another ball of darkness at the monsters, its round form and general swirling reminding me of a black hole as the hounds' heads got wiped out on mere contact of it.
That was it!
"Rias!" I called out to her while thinking about the plan I was to enact. "Whose power is stronger, you or your brother?"
"What?" Rias looked at me with a frown while her brother came to our side as he fired off smaller balls of demonic energy at the creatures.
"Who has better firepower with that whole 'power of destruction' thing?" I asked with a firmer tone as I called up a wall of steel to block the creatures for a while.
"That would be Rias." Sirzechs answered my query. "She has more power inherited from the blood."
"Okay then." I created a blank spear from [Hell's Trident] and handed it to Rias. "Pour whatever demonic power you could afford into this, as much as possible."
"What do you have in mind?" Sirzechs asked as Rias took the spear with a frown.
"A crazy idea. Tell everyone to get a spot ready where they can secure themselves properly and tightly." I then turned to locate Ise, which was simple since he was coming our way. "Good timing Ise, I need your help as well."
"What do you need!?" Ise said as he narrowly dodged one of the monsters' attacks.
"I would need that [Gift] Ability of yours when Rias is done pouring her demonic energy into the spear." No sooner had I said that, Rias pushed the spear towards me, her brow lightly covered in sweat and her notably breathing hard from the exertion. I took the spear noting the feeling and mentally cataloguing the spear in both my Reality Marble and [Hell's Trident], before handing it to Ise. "Use your ability to transfer the power into this."
"How much do you need?" Ise grabbed the spear with [Boosted Gear] and prepared to pour the power into it.
"As much as you can give me!" I reduced another swarm to ashes and fired off a few swords at Ise's direction to keep them away from him as he poured the energy into the spear. My plan was heavily reliant on Rias and Ise, we need to get rid of these guys as soon as possible!
"Got it!" Ise called out and threw the spear to me. I grabbed the spear and focused on the image I needed to make this plan work. With a nod, I created another spear and placed the two together, using my Tracing ability to bring together the idea I needed. With a bright glow that temporarily stunned the monsters away, the two started to merge upon contact, the features of both spears mixing together in some weird manner of swirls. It did not take too long until the weapon was complete, revealing a product that had the designs of the two spears merged perfectly and from what I could tell, the required abilities as well.
Now I just needed a target and a spot to get all those hounds together.
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A/N : The Story Needs More Power Stones ;)
PS : if we can reach 400 Stones by the end of the week, I will throw you an extra chapter
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