The ritual chamber stank of blood and dying hope.
I burst through the doorway, Light Lance already forming in my hand, and the pain of it burned through my palm like gripping a live wire. Worth it. Because Asia Argento was strapped to that altar, green light bleeding from her chest in wisps that coiled toward the ceiling like escaping souls.
She was dying. Right there. Right in front of me.
"The boy with the strange Sacred Gear." Raynare's voice slithered through the dark. She stood at the altar's head, her hands raised, black wings spread wide. Power crackled around her fingers, feeding on the light escaping Asia's body. "You came."
I didn't respond. My eyes were locked on Asia, on the way her head lolled to the side, on the tears still wet on her cheeks, on the peaceful expression that shouldn't have been there because peaceful meant giving up and I hadn't fought through a church full of fallen angels just to watch her give up.
[RITUAL STATUS: 70% COMPLETE]
[TARGET: TWILIGHT HEALING - SACRED GEAR]
[EXTRACTION: IN PROGRESS]
[HOST VITALITY: CRITICAL]
Seventy percent. The system's cold assessment felt like a slap.
"You're too late, you know." Raynare tilted her head, studying me with the same expression a cat gives a particularly stupid mouse. "Even if you kill me, the ritual will complete. Her Sacred Gear is already mine. It's just taking its time leaving her worthless body."
I raised the Light Lance. The Fragment-stabilized light burned against my devil nature, but it was a tolerable burn now. A price I could pay.
"Then I'll just have to be fast."
Raynare laughed. Not the practiced, seductive laugh she'd used before, but something sharper. Hungrier. "Power Level forty-five, little devil. You're at what, thirty-eight? Forty on a good day?" Her Light Spear materialized, longer and brighter than mine. "This won't be fast. It will be educational."
She threw the first spear.
I dodged left, feeling the heat sear past my cheek. My return throw went wide, the Light Lance embedding itself in the wall behind her. She hadn't even moved.
"Disappointing." Her next spear came faster. "I expected more from someone who killed Dohnaseek."
The name hit me somewhere deep. Dohnaseek. The fallen angel whose technique now lived in my hands. Whose combat instincts had bled into my Echo percentage.
I formed another Light Lance and threw it without aiming. My body moved on its own, positioning, angling, calculating trajectories I'd never learned.
The spear caught Raynare's sleeve, tearing fabric.
Her eyes widened.
"Interesting," she said, and there was less amusement in her voice now. "You copied more than his technique."
Yes, something whispered in my head. Something cold. Something that wasn't quite me. Aim for the wings. Ground her.
I threw again.
The fight became a dance of light and pain.
Every Lance I formed burned. Every throw cost me something, devil flesh rebelling against the light I was forcing it to contain. But Dohnaseek's instincts whispered through my movements, adjusting my stance, correcting my aim, turning a self-taught brawler into something that could almost keep pace with a fallen angel centuries old.
Higher. She favors her left wing.
I adjusted. My Lance grazed black feathers.
Raynare snarled and the seduction act dropped completely. "You're a thief! A parasite feeding on power that isn't yours!"
"Said the woman stealing a Sacred Gear from a dying nun."
I closed the distance. Light Lance against Light Spear, our weapons screaming where they met. The impact rattled my teeth and sent pain lancing up my arm.
She was stronger. Faster. More experienced.
But she was also monologuing.
"You don't understand." Raynare's spear pressed down, forcing me to one knee. "Twilight Healing is wasted on that girl. She'd use it to heal scrapes and bruises. To help the weak remain weak." Her smile turned triumphant. "In my hands, it becomes a tool for ascension. I will rise to Azazel's side. I will-"
I headbutted her.
Not elegant. Not tactical. But Dohnaseek's Echo hadn't prepared me for extended speeches, and my patience had died somewhere between the church entrance and the altar where a teenage girl was having her soul ripped out.
Raynare staggered back, nose bleeding.
I pressed the advantage. Three Lances in quick succession, forcing her toward the wall. She blocked the first two, but the third caught her shoulder, spinning her around.
"You're pathetic!" She recovered too fast, a new spear forming in each hand. "A Pawn. A single Pawn piece. Do you know what that means? It means your King thought you worthless. It means-"
The church wall exploded.
Rias Gremory stepped through the rubble, crimson hair blazing, Power of Destruction crackling around her hands. Behind her, the rest of the peerage: Akeno with lightning dancing between her fingers, Kiba with three swords manifested, Koneko cracking her knuckles with a sound like breaking stone.
"It means," Rias said quietly, "that he's not alone."
The battle stopped being about me and Raynare.
Akeno launched herself at the last of Raynare's lieutenants, a fallen angel whose name I'd never learned. Lightning met light spear with a crack that shook dust from the rafters. Her laugh echoed through the chamber, high and wild and delighted.
"Ara ara, you're slower than you look." Akeno's voice dropped into something dangerous. "Let me fix that."
The lieutenant screamed as holy lightning, not just devil lightning but something else, something that burned like divine judgment, arced through his wings.
Kiba became a blur of steel, three fallen angel minions falling before they could react. His movements were precise, economical, each cut exactly where it needed to be. The combat theory he'd taught me during training made sudden, brutal sense.
Koneko didn't bother with finesse. She hit a minion so hard he went through two walls before stopping. Then she turned, found another target, and repeated the process.
The peerage was terrifying when they worked together.
But Raynare was still standing. Still between me and Asia.
"Impressive friends." She'd retreated to the altar, one hand on Asia's pale throat. "But I still have her. Attack me, and my spear goes through her neck. Let me leave, and she dies anyway when the ritual completes." Her smile was bloody and vicious. "No good options, devil."
[RITUAL STATUS: 85% COMPLETE]
[HOST VITALITY: FAILING]
[TIME REMAINING: APPROXIMATELY 3 MINUTES]
Three minutes. Not enough time to be careful.
"Rias." I didn't take my eyes off Raynare. "Can you stop the ritual?"
"If the caster dies or breaks concentration, the ritual fails. But the extraction so far is permanent. Whatever she's taken from Asia stays taken."
Which meant Asia would lose part of her Sacred Gear either way. But part was better than all.
"Then distract her."
Rias's Power of Destruction bloomed beside me. "On your signal."
I looked at Raynare, at her spear pressed against Asia's throat, at the confident smirk of someone who thought she held all the cards.
The throat, Dohnaseek's Echo whispered. One clean throw. The girl might get scratched, but the fallen dies.
Cold. Calculated. Ruthless.
I shoved the thought down. Hard.
"Now!"
Rias fired. A wave of destruction aimed not at Raynare but at the ritual circle beneath her feet. The symbols screamed and cracked, power bleeding into the air.
Raynare flinched. Just for a heartbeat. Just enough.
My Light Lance caught her in the wing, the one she'd been favoring all fight. The one Dohnaseek's instincts had marked as her weakness.
She screamed. The spear at Asia's throat dissolved.
I was already moving.
Raynare's return strike came fast, but I'd been expecting it. Felt it coming the way he would have felt it. I ducked under the spear, came up inside her guard, and drove my Light Lance through her other wing.
Black feathers erupted. Blood that wasn't red, something darker, splattered across my face.
She crumpled.
Finish her, the Echo whispered. Fallen angels don't stay down. She'll heal. She'll come back. She'll-
"Enough." Rias's voice cut through the cold calculation flooding my thoughts. "She's defeated."
I looked down at Raynare. She was gasping, wings ruined, blood pooling beneath her. Broken. But still breathing.
The Echo wanted me to change that. Wanted me to drive the Lance through her chest and end the threat permanently.
Weakness deserves death. You know this. I taught you this.
I stepped back.
"Ryder?" Rias's hand on my shoulder. Warm. Grounding. "Are you alright?"
I wasn't sure. But I nodded anyway.
Asia was dying.
The ritual had stopped at 85%, but 85% was still too much. Her skin was gray, her breathing shallow, and the green light that had always seemed to glow around her had dimmed to almost nothing.
I knelt beside the altar, my hands hovering uselessly over her. The Light Lance had faded. The burns on my palms throbbed.
"She's fading," Akeno said quietly. The battle was over, the peerage gathered around, and for the first time since I'd met her, Akeno's voice held no teasing. No games. Just grief.
Koneko stood at the edge of the circle, golden eyes fixed on Asia's face. "...shouldn't have waited. Should have come sooner."
"We came as fast as we could." Kiba's hand rested on his sword hilt. Even sheathed, it trembled.
I turned to Rias. "Save her."
She looked at me, then at Asia, then back. "There's a way. But it's not salvation. It's transformation."
"Do it."
"Ryder." Rias crouched beside me, her voice gentle but firm. "She would become a devil. She would be mine. My servant. Forever. Her faith, her humanity, everything she was before would be rewritten."
"And if you don't?"
"She dies. The Sacred Gear extraction damaged her soul. Human medicine can't fix that. Devil healing can't fix that. The only thing that can keep her alive is binding her soul to mine through a Piece."
I looked at Asia. At her peaceful face. At the tears still drying on her cheeks.
She'd come to Japan to help people. She'd been cast out of the Church for healing a devil. She'd been kidnapped, tortured, used as a ritual sacrifice. And through all of it, she'd probably prayed for rescue. For salvation.
This wasn't what she'd prayed for.
But dead was worse.
"Can she choose?"
Rias's eyes widened slightly. "I... yes. If she's conscious. But she's-"
"Asia." I leaned closer, putting my hand over hers. Cold. Too cold. "Asia, can you hear me?"
Nothing. Just shallow breathing.
"Asia."
Her eyes fluttered. Green, still, but dimmer. Like someone had turned down the light behind them.
"You..." Her voice was a whisper. "You came."
"I came. We all came. But you're hurt. Bad. And there's only one way to save you."
"One... way?"
Rias moved beside me, her presence warm and terrible. "Asia Argento. I can give you life. But not as a human. As a devil. As my servant. You would live, but you would never be what you were before."
Asia's eyes focused. Slowly. On me. On Rias. On the ruined church around us.
"I would... live?"
"Yes."
"And I could... help people? Heal them?"
"Your Sacred Gear would remain. Damaged, but functional. You could heal."
Asia closed her eyes. For a long moment, I thought we'd lost her. That she'd slipped away between one breath and the next.
Then she smiled.
"God already left me behind. Maybe... maybe a devil can do better."
Rias's hand pressed against Asia's chest, and the Bishop piece glowed.
The transformation was quiet.
Not the dramatic light show I'd half-expected. Just a soft crimson glow, the Piece sinking into Asia's body, and then her breathing steadied. Her color returned. The gray pallor faded to pale, then to something approaching healthy.
Her eyes opened. Still green. Still kind.
But different. Something behind them that hadn't been there before. An awareness, maybe. Of what she'd lost. Of what she'd become.
"Welcome back," Rias said softly.
Asia sat up, her hand pressed to her chest. "I feel... strange. Lighter. Like something's missing."
"Your connection to Heaven." Kiba's voice was gentle. "Devils can't pray. Holy symbols will hurt you. The Church that raised you will see you as an enemy."
"But you'll have us." Koneko stepped forward, almost shyly. "...family."
Asia looked at each of them. Akeno with her lightning and her gentle cruelty. Kiba with his swords and his formal kindness. Koneko with her strength and her silent care.
Then at Rias, crimson and commanding.
Then at me.
"You came for me," she said. "You didn't have to. You didn't even know me. But you came."
I didn't know what to say. The truth felt too heavy: that I'd paid a price she couldn't imagine to get here. That Dohnaseek's voice still echoed in my skull, cold and calculating. That my mother's voice was gone forever, and I'd traded it for the Light Lance that had saved Asia's life.
So I just nodded.
"Yeah. I came."
She smiled. Bright. Pure. Somehow untouched by everything she'd been through.
"Thank you."
We left Raynare alive.
Rias's decision. The fallen angel was bound with seals that would hold until Gremory forces arrived. "Justice," Rias said, "isn't execution without trial. Even for her."
I didn't argue. The part of me that was still me agreed. But Dohnaseek's Echo simmered, disappointed.
Mercy is weakness. She'll escape. She'll return. She'll...
I crushed the thought. Shoved it into whatever dark corner the Fragment stored the pieces of people I'd copied.
The walk back to the ORC building was quiet. Asia leaned on Akeno, still weak, her new devil senses overwhelming her with every shadow and whisper. Kiba scouted ahead, professional, alert. Koneko walked beside me, not saying anything.
She didn't need to.
Halfway back, she handed me a chocolate bar.
Same brand as the first one. Same silent offer.
I took it. Ate it. Let the sugar mask the taste of copper and ash in my mouth.
The battle went well, the Fragment said. Your tactics improved noticeably. The Echo integration is progressing
Shut up.
Silence. Surprised, maybe. The Fragment had never been told to shut up before.
I didn't care. I needed quiet. Needed to process what I'd done, what I'd lost, what I'd gained.
Asia was alive. A devil now, but alive.
Raynare was defeated. Bound. Going to face judgment.
And I had won.
So why did it feel hollow?
The ORC building was warm.
Someone had lit the fireplace. Probably Akeno. She seemed like the type to appreciate ambient fire.
Asia was settled onto the couch, wrapped in blankets, a cup of something warm in her hands. She looked small there, surrounded by devils, but she didn't look scared. Just... tired.
Rias was already making calls. Politics, probably. Explaining to whoever needed explaining why a fallen angel extraction team had been dismantled in Kuoh territory.
Kiba had disappeared somewhere. Training, maybe. Processing. He had a way of working through emotions with a blade in his hand.
Akeno was in the kitchen, humming something that sounded deceptively peaceful given the woman humming it.
Koneko sat beside Asia, not speaking, but close. Present.
And I sat in the corner, alone, and tried to remember my mother's voice.
The sound of her words. The tone of her love.
Gone.
I could see her face. The gray in her hair. The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. I could remember the words she'd said to me: "I'm proud of you." "Be careful." "Come home safe."
But the sound of them was just... nothing. Static where a voice should be. A shape without substance.
I'd traded it for a weapon. For the power to save a girl I'd known for less than a week.
Worth it?
I didn't know.
Some prices can be repaid, the Fragment had said. At great cost. Not yet.
Not yet. That meant someday. Maybe.
I held onto that. The only thing I could hold onto right now.
"Ryder."
Rias stood in front of me. I hadn't heard her approach. The calls must have ended.
"The Gremory cleanup team retrieved Raynare. She'll stand trial. Whatever happens, she won't be hurting anyone else."
"Good."
She studied me. That analytical gaze that saw too much. "You're not celebrating."
"Should I be?"
"We won. Asia is safe. The fallen angels are defeated." She sat beside me, close but not touching. "By most metrics, this was a complete victory."
"Right. Victory."
Silence. The fire crackled. Somewhere in the kitchen, Akeno was still humming.
"What did it cost you?"
The question was quiet. Direct. The way Rias asked things when she already knew the answer would hurt.
"What do you mean?"
"When you fought Dohnaseek. When you developed that Light Lance ability in the middle of combat. Power like that doesn't come from nowhere." Her hand found mine. Warm. Real. "What did it cost?"
I looked at her. At her crimson eyes. At the concern there, genuine and unguarded.
I could tell her. Right now. Everything. The Fragment. The price system. The Echo that whispered with Dohnaseek's voice.
But something held me back.
Secrets are currency, the Fragment had said. Spend them wisely.
And maybe there was wisdom in that. Maybe telling Rias everything would change how she saw me. Maybe it would put her in danger. Maybe...
Or maybe I was just a coward who didn't want to admit he'd sold his mother's voice for a weapon.
"It cost me something I can't get back," I said finally. "But I'd pay it again."
Rias squeezed my hand. "When you're ready to tell me, I'll listen."
"And if I'm never ready?"
"Then I'll wait."
She stood, her hand slipping from mine. Paused at the door.
"Whatever you're carrying, Ryder, you don't have to carry it alone."
Then she was gone, and I was left with the fire and the silence and the empty space where my mother's voice used to live.
Later, Asia woke from a nap she didn't remember taking.
"I had a dream," she said, her green eyes still slightly unfocused. "I was back at the church. The real one. Before... before everything." She looked at her hands like they belonged to someone else. "It felt like saying goodbye."
"Maybe it was," I said.
"Maybe." She smiled, small and sad and somehow still hopeful. "But I'm here now. With you. With everyone." She reached out and took my hand. Her fingers were warm. "Thank you. For coming for me. For not giving up."
I didn't deserve her gratitude. I'd done what anyone would have done. What anyone should have done.
But I took it anyway.
"Get some rest. Tomorrow we figure out the new normal."
She nodded, closing her eyes. Within moments, her breathing steadied into sleep.
I watched her for a while. This girl who'd lost everything and still managed to smile. Who'd been betrayed by her faith and still chose hope.
Maybe there was a lesson there. Maybe I could learn it.
Or maybe I'd just add it to the list of things I owed the universe.
The night was deep when I finally climbed to the roof.
The stars were different here. Not the same constellations I'd known in Seattle. Another reminder that I was somewhere else, somewhen else, in a world that didn't match the one I'd left behind.
You won, the Fragment said. Your power increased substantially. Your Echo remains within acceptable parameters. The acquisition of Light Lance was costly but effective.
I know.
You should rest. Tomorrow brings new challenges. The fallen angels' defeat will have consequences.
I know.
Silence. Then, softer: The voice. Your mother's. I cannot restore it. The price was paid. The transfer was complete.
I know.
But the Fragment's words were not false. Some prices can be repaid. At great cost. Not yet. But someday, perhaps, you will be strong enough to reclaim what was taken.
I looked up at the strange stars.
Someday.
It wasn't comfort. It wasn't healing. But it was something to hold onto.
Below me, Asia slept. Rias worried. The peerage rested.
Tomorrow, everything would change. I could feel it. The fallen angels were defeated, but the world didn't stop just because we'd won one battle.
More enemies. More costs. More prices I'd have to pay.
But that was tomorrow.
Tonight, I just sat on the roof and let the silence fill the space where my mother's voice used to be.
And tried to remember that victory, even hollow victory, was still better than defeat.
Asia's eyes fluttered open just as the first light of dawn touched the ORC building. Green. Alive.
"Thank you," she whispered.
I smiled.
It felt hollow.
I'd saved her. I'd won.
So why did victory taste like silence?