Before leaving his house Soma had to think carefully in regards to what he should do before getting out. He has no idea what sort of creature might be in town and it has probably sensed his magic, thus why it came to his house earlier.

“Think, what did Ciel-sensei and Lorelei-sama had told me in regards to hunting monsters.” Soma said, remembering one of his kinder instructors and the decidedly not kind teacher he had. Ciel was a female exorcist of the highest caliber and had managed to reach the Throne of Heroes exactly because of how she was able to face off the strongest beings in the world and her immortality. As for Lorelei Barthomeloi, she was a member of the strongest Magus family and one that became a legend amongst magus due to being able to make even Dead Apostles run away in fear of her and making sport out of hunting down legendary monsters who lived for thousands of years. ​​

The two were extremely knowledgeable individuals in regards to how to deal with monsters in a modern era, and were both extremely capable and demanding instructors.

“First things first, I need to not be easily detected by the enemy. I must be the one hunting, not the other way around.” Soma said, this lesson was one both women agreed with and was thus his first decision.

For that Soma decided to construct a simple enough mystic code, ending up making one using a milk bottle cap. It was a ridiculous material, but it worked easily enough seeing as it was made out of metal and what he wanted was only to mask his magic signature further after he closed his magic circuits.

With that done Soma nodded to himself, choosing a simple pair of jeans and a hoodie to make him as average and unnoticeable as possible. The Mystic Code bottle cap safely put in his pocket, it was able to hide what minuscule amount of magic energy which could be sensed by others after he closed his magic circuits so it was now safe to go about his way.

The first place he went to what a pawn shop, these sorts of places would sell all sorts of things and it would be open at this time despite being somewhat later into the day, already dark out and all that. The shop was somewhat distant, being a one-hour walk from his house, so he just called a taxi to reach there faster. Of course, since he doesn’t know if whatever being that came to his house left a surveillance system he could not yet detect, he made the taxi stop 15 minutes away from the shop in front of another store which he entered.

Said store had a side path to leave so it would be easier to make anyone that could be following him lose him in the crowd.

Quickening his steps without reaching the point of calling attention to himself Soma reached the pawnshop.

“Welcome to Bookers and Brokers, what would you like?” A tired old man’s voice came from the back of the store. Looking over said clerk it was an obese middle-age man with little hair and a clearly uninterested face.

“I just want to take a look around, see if anything catches my fancy.” Soma said and ignored the man who also stopped bothering paying attention to Soma, it was late already and the clerk was more interested in closing the shop than paying attention to a customer that would likely not buy anything in the end.

As for Soma, he started looking around at all the items he could find. There were several knives and other such things for sale including two well-made and sharp trench knives that would work well enough as well. He also took a few good luck charms in the form of several deities and saints of different cultures, those things could be arranged in his house using feng chui that could help ward off demonic beings to a satisfactory degree.

It was not perfect, but it would work for now at least.

He also bought a bible and cross, those things were useful if a demonic being or even a dead apostle showed up since it would lower their power somewhat. And finally, there were several cheap silver rings and other such simple jewelry that he decided to buy, he could make them into more stable Mystic Codes later on to be able to protect himself.

Going to the counter the man looked at all the items for a while before speaking.

“So, you are like those weird priest guys that were in the church a few years back? Well, not that I care either way as I never really understood what the hell they needed these sort of things for.” The clerk said before doing the math and nodding to himself. “That will be twenty-one thousand yen, and if you want you can go ahead and buy this too. The others always bought these anyway.”

The man then showed him a gun of all things.

“This is a toy gun, as far as I can tell. Don’t work for any bullet I can find so it can only really be a toy to play around with. I bought from one of you guys thinking it was interesting and could be sold for a good price, but no one wants to buy this shit anyway. The gun laws and all that make people fearful of buying a gun, even if it a toy like this one. So, want to add this or not?” The clerk said, clearly wanting to get rid of the ‘toy’ gun already.

As for Soma, he took the gun and used a quick Structural Grasp on it to try and understand what it was.

‘It seems to be a rather simple Mystic Code, turning magic energy into pure light for some reason, it doesn’t seem to have any actual anti-demon runes in it but I can arrange to add them easily enough. It would be a great weapon against whatever monster is prowling the streets and, with some luck, I can snipe it before it goes on a hunt. Can’t risk letting human-eating monstrosities prowl around town and potentially decide to have a feast in those who can’t defend themselves, especially if they are Momo and her family. No one touches them in my watch.’

“I will buy it for another three thousand yens.” Soma said and the clerk smirked inside while giving out a gruff nod as if reluctant. In all honesty, the clerk just wanted to get rid of the thing that was only occupying space by now. He would have sold the thing for half that price.

With the gun laws out there even a toy gun was not something people would usually buy so getting someone to actually buy this fancy paperweight was great for the clerk.

Getting the gun in his hands together with the knives and other things Soma left the store and began his track to the local church. The last time he went there it was quite a nice place overall so it should still be quite filled with people, but the news of people carrying guns like the one he just bought there meant the place could be somewhat dangerous.

While walking to the church he very silently started the process of modifying the gun into a better Mystic Code. Mostly he just erased some of the redundancies of the process of turning magic energy into pure light while also imputing anti-demonic aspects to the light generated by said gun, it was honestly quite simple using his knowledge over alchemy and how to make and program mystic codes.

He did learn from the best when it comes to these things so something to this degree was rather easy, even if the final product wasn’t spectacular or anything like that. It was just basic modifications to make the gun better, after all.

Passing by a vending machine he bought two bottles of water, drinking one immediately as he was rather thirsty, and since he did not know when combat could happen with demons in town it was better to be at the very least hydrated in case combat started.

After around twenty minutes of walking Soma finally arrived at the church, even if it was not like the place he remembers. The whole location looks quite decrepit with the church having several cracks with its paint falling off and the bushes and trees around growing all over the place. An abandoned church through and through, but for Soma that was still fine either way.

He only needed a place that can be called sacred grounds to do his holy enchanting to his knives in preparation for the hunt of the demon(s) around town. Someone had to get rid of them before they killed the defenseless humans of town, after all, and Soma did not know if this world had anyone else capable of such a thing and there was no time to wait to investigate if there were such people. The longer he waited the more humans would be eaten, that was one of the main lessons he learned from Jaques de Moleis, a legendary templar knight.

‘Being merciful to demons is the easiest way to hurting the innocent.’

Well, not that Soma hated and was against ALL demons anyway. He has grown rather close to Ibaraki Douji and the other Onis that were in the Throne of Heroes, but he had no doubts they were still dangerous beings (like most other Heroic Spirits really) and he would not blindly trust an unknown demon unless he could be sure he could at the very least survive a confrontation if that happened.

When he knocked at the doors of the church he did not expect anyone to actually open the doors, considering how rundown it was and the air of abandonment the whole place was exuding, but unlike his thoughts someone actually opened the door.

It was a young man in his late teens to early twenties, an albino with white hair and crimson red eyes. With one look Soma could tell this man had a few screws losses and was quite insane, but he didn’t really mind that all that much. Many heroes in the Throne were completely deranged, and they were great friends as long as they weren’t trying to kill him at the moment. It was all in how you would deal with them, for instance just ask Gil de Rais about Jeanne’s good points and he would become as docile as they come.

“Oh, now this is interesting. A lost lamb coming to a decrepit house of God, are you connected to one of those shitty devils walking around this town?” The man questioned and Soma looked at him as if he was strange.

“Why would I be associated with such beings? I am not dumb enough to sell my soul to a devil or make deals with them, who knows what they might demand anyway. Just look at Faust, making deals with devils is bad business who just can’t end up well.” Soma said easily enough, partially because the deranged man was using priest clothing so being even slightly pro-devil/demon was a bad idea, and part because he has been close to Mephisto before in the throne.

Crazy fucker was worse to get along with the Giles de Rais, and if you are worst than the pedophilic mass murderer who made it a point to defile everything he could and commit every single sin possible, then you know he is bad news.

“Hoho, so why have you come to this place? It is quite a wreck and it is being used right now anyway.” Freed questioned, slight curiosity in his tone. He has been here for three weeks now and this was the first time someone who wasn’t in his group or expected showed up.

Shrugging his shoulders Soma answered.

“I just need to be in some sort of sacred ground to bless some stuff, there are some dark presences on town and I’d rather be prepared in case they come after me or something. I would rather have something to stab them with in case one tries to chomp me or someone else around me, anyway. Better to be prepared if you need a weapon to eliminate them.” Soma admited as much after he noticed the gun the man had under his jacket, it was a similar model to the one he had just bought so Soma deduces the man was most likely someone sent by this world’s church to exterminate the demons that infiltrated this town.

He could have left it to this man, he looked like the type that would go out of his way to get rid of whatever dark beings were in this town, but Soma would still rather be at least able to act as well if there was an emergency. They had already found his house, after all, its better to be over-prepared than to not have any preparations set in place.

“I see, I see, I see, You want to execute the big G’s justice on some devil scum. Why didn’t you just say that earlier? Well, whatever, you can’t enter since we are kinda in the middle of something but tell you what, you can go to the hut on the side to do your shit. It should work for whatever you are doing and we won’t need to kill you for intervening. Just, if you try and make any moves against us, we will kill ya and paint the walls with your blood, hahahaha!” After saying as much Freed closed the door and Soma shrugged over the mention of his possibly being gruesomely murdered by this demented priest. He has heard worst for thousands of years now, that was nothing special.

Leaving the front door of the church Soma moved about and looked for the said shed until he saw it.

It was a small little place that had some junk in it and was close to collapsing, it was situated quite close to the back of the church. Entering it Soma started his work.

First with the trench knives, with alchemy, he began carving almost microscopic runes throughout the entire knife. They were anti-demonic centered runes, they were taught to him by Scatatch when she explained how she made Gae Bolg. Of course, the knife was not anywhere near as dangerous to demonic existences as the legendary artifact, but that was mostly due to the lacking materials. Finishing with the runes Soma proceeded to the process of blessing the weapons using the methods the Church was used to according to his teachers.

When the trench knife was completed and working properly as it should Soma nodded to himself. It was no Black Key, but it would work well enough. After this he did the same for all knives he bought, making each of them as powerful as he could. Nodding at the final result Soma took off his hoodie, with the bible in hand he proceeded to rip off pages of the bible and stitching them into the hoodie in layers while putting runes for protection in between the pages.

Taking off the remaining bottle of water he bought Soma together with the cross he put the two close together and proceeded to bless the water to turn it into Holy Water. The turning water into holy water demanded being in sacred grounds to be more effective but the process Soma was doing was foreign to the world he was at. Its power of purification was much more intense than the regular holy water others had, it didn’t work as if acid to devils or fallen angels, instead it was more a poison to hurt their very demonic energy, as such it didn’t have much of an effect in Fallen Angels but was extremely effective against devils, not that Soma knew that.

He was just using this to bless this simple bottle of water before splashing said water into the hoodie and using it to finish the enchantings over the clothes. It would most likely not completely stop a demon, but it would protect him more than if he did not have such precautions.

Nodding to himself after having finished the process of making basic weapons and some degree of protection Soma then took out one of the rings he had bought. It was a simple silver ring with nothing special about it besides the material, but the simple fact it was made of silver made it of good enough quality to be of use for him.

Thinking for a while Soma began the necessary process to turn it into as good a mystic code as he could manage. It would not be an over-complicated thing, just a simple depository of mana for him to be able to use in case of emergency.

He had a limited amount of magic energy he could use or produce, he would need to make several mystic codes to serve as batteries for him to when his energy depleted.

The process ended after around half an hour of intensive work to put the several runes and modifications needed Soma released a sigh, he was quite tired after all this and could really use some rest. Thinking thus he reclined against the wall of the shed and closed his eyes, he was soon fast asleep but still ready to jump into acting at a moment’s notice. Something he was taught was to always be careful and he was trained to be able to react to any sound, vibration, magic signal, or killing intent even during sleep so he could react when needed.

As such, Soma closed his eyes, not knowing what was to happen soon enough.

///—///

It was growing dark outside as the time the streetlights usually came near. The three devils —Kiba, Koneko, and Issei — were watching the church from a distance. There had been no sign of anyone entering or leaving for the last few minutes they have been there.

Nonetheless, the closer they got to the place, the greater their unease grew. It was especially so for the newest devil, Issei, who was practically drenched in his nervous sweat. According to Kiba, this sensation was proof there was a fallen angel nearby.

‘Right, so the enemy boss must be inside’ Issei thought, his hands clenching at the thought of what they could be doing to poor Asia at this moment.

“Take a look,” Kiba said as he spread out what appeared to be a set of blueprints outlining the church. It was very detailed, not something that was done in a hurry at all.

“I thought knowing the layout would come in handy whenever we needed to attack the enemy base,” Kiba said with a charming grin even though some venom was hidden inside. The thought of attacking and burning a church feeling particularly great for the young knight after what the Church made him go through. Getting information of their potential base in his town was a must for this then, the chance of killing anyone associated with the church was simply too good to pass by.

Koneko, meanwhile, looked very disinterested. She was here only because Issei was a member of the Peerage and he wanted t go inside this place anyway. Besides, she thought that eliminating potential threats to her king was a good thing and if these people were against her king then they might as well be crushed under her hands. To her, these exorcists and fallen angels were just people that she had to crush under her hands, nothing more and nothing less. Just business as usual for a devil.

“In addition to the main hall, there’s also a dormitory on the underground and a shed on the back. It’s this place we should be worrying about.” Kiba pointed to an area on the map. “This hall is more hidden and is spacious enough for the ritual to happen while not being open in many places so their security can be concentrated in fewer locations.”

“So we can ignore the dormitory and shed?” Issei asked for clarification.

“Probably. They likely wouldn’t station any troops in somewhere like that considering they are in the middle of a ritual.” Kiba said but Koneko shook her head.

“No, I smell someone in the shed in the back. It doesn’t have much of a power I can sense, but there is some holiness around him.” Koneko said and Kiba put a finger in his chin.

“It can be an exorcist sent to safeguard an escape route they prepared. If we leave it be some of the exorcists can escape from there and would make a lot of trouble.” Kiba muttered. If there was a clear escape path then the exorcists inside could run away when things get tough and who knows what they could do in the town if they are desperate.

An animal is at its most dangerous when cornered, and Kiba had no intention of letting those rats who got kicked out of the church walk away.

After thinking for a short while Kiba spoke up.

“Koneko-chan, go with Issei to rescue Asia. I will deal with the escape path of the exorcists and go help you guys afterwards.” Kiba said after a moment of thought. He was the fastest amongst the three by a very far margin, as such him being the one that goes deal with the exorcist in the shed sounded like the best option.

What is the worst that can happen anyway? It was just a human, killing him will be simple enough.