"AARRGHH!" The man yelled while grabbing his stump, giving the intruder a chance to grab his neck and slammed him against the wall to knock him out, before throwing a line towards the ceiling and vanishing in the darker areas of the atrium.
...
"Damn it! Where did he go?" The guards looked around frantically at every direction possible when a yell of shock made them turn around in time to see one of their own hoisted up quickly by a noose around his neck and dropping his spear, disappearing within a few seconds.
"Somebody get a light up there, we are sitting ducks out HEREEE!" One guard tried to order the others only to have a rope around his neck and pulled upwards into the darker parts of the ceiling. Then one by one, the other guards got taken out in similar fashion via other dimly lit areas, with the end result of leaving Edward alone with the earlier batch of unconscious bodies on the ground and the area looking like the setting of a death montage.
Edward panted hard as he looked around, startling at every sound he heard and every muffled groan from who knows where. His eyes seemed to be playing tricks on him; everywhere he looked, it was as if the eyes of the intruder were watching him from every dark corner of the atrium, seemingly mocking him with his stare and just waiting for him to slip up.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" Edward wildly twisted his body back and forth, his eyes darting to every dark corner and pillars for any sign of the intruder when he tripped over one of his comrade's body and fell backwards, only to be stopped by hitting something on his back. A moment of relief turned to horror as he looked up to find the mask of the intruder staring right at him, the dark eyes seemingly spelling doom to him.
"OH MY GOD!" Edward screamed as he tried to fight back, only to be hit hard in the stomach. As his eyes went dark, one thought remained in his mind.
'My lord, forgive me...'
...
The figure looked at the unconscious teenager in front of him for a moment, before turning his attention to the sword hovering at the podium. Slowly, he made his way in a somewhat reverent manner, as though to show respect to the blade in front of him. Stopping at the edge of the protective barrier, the figure took a moment to admire the blade before reaching inside his coat, where he pulled out a few charms and placed them around the podium. Standing back a few feet, he muttered an aria to activate the charms, making the barrier glow brightly before shattering loudly. After a moment to look around, the man stepped forward and lightly gripped the handle of the sword. The sword glowed briefly before turning dull again. With a quick motion, the figure took up the blade and wrapped it in a cloth to hide its aura. Then as silently as he came in, he made his way out of the room in time to avoid the sentries rushing inside.
The figure lessened his speed as he made his way out of the inner sanctum and into the outer courtyard, taking great care to hide the blade and lowering his hood even further down while walking naturally to avoid suspicion. Only after he walked out of the final gate and made some distance from the area, did he paused to look around him, then with a quick recitation and a leap, he jumped onto the roof of the closest building and continued on for a short while, ending his getaway roughly three miles from the site by dropping into an abandoned park.
Breathing a little heavily from the assertion, he slowly made his way to a pond that was surrounded by broken columns of white marble, stained from the years of polluted rain in the area. He stopped by the pond and knelt down on one knee, lightly drawing the clothed blade from his side and removing the cover to view the blade.
"Forgive me for what I had to do." The figure muttered while bowing his head in shame.
"That type of behavior is best reserved at the confession booth, you know that right?" A voice broke his self-reflective thoughts and made him turn around. Sitting lightly on top of one of the shorter columns was a teenager, roughly at the age of a high-school student. He was dressed in an unusual getup, consisting of a priest's robe that had bits of protective gear on his limbs and chest, followed by a long coat that he wore over his robes. The overall dark tones accentuated the pale skin and white hair he had, giving him a rather ghastly appearance when complimented with his red eyes and cocky smirk.
"If you want to confess, I believe there is a church nearby Lyle." The teenager motioned to the figure casually. The figure got up slowly and removed his hood and mask to reveal a face that clearly showed that he was also at the age of a high-school student. He had lightly tanned skin and dark brown hair that he lightly tied into a ponytail, with the sideburns turning grayish-white prematurely.
"Ah, you have managed to get Excalibur Transparency. That is good." The teenager nodded his head at the sight of the blade. "Together with 'Rapidly', 'Nightmare' and 'Blessing', four of the shards are now in our possession."
"As far as things go, we should be thanking our stars for this." The person called Lyle remarked as he stood up and slightly covered the blade with his coat, as though to deny the other Exorcist the sight of Excalibur. "Disregarding Excalibur Ruler, we only need to attain 'Destruction' and 'Mimicry' to get the full set."
"Old man Galilei said that problem would be settled on its own." The teenager waved the issue away lazily. "We have already announced and taken the Excalibur swords, so there is a high chance they would send others equipped with the remaining two shards to capture us."
"I see." There was a tone in Lyle's voice that disapproved of the plan. "Still, this is too much. We should be content with the ones we have."
"Yeah well, who knows what is going on in the head of the old man?" The white-hair teen lightly tapped his head with his finger. "Think of it this way. At least the blades are being put to practical use, and you are in some ways more responsible than those losers who want to use them for their politics. Those guys would probably relegate the shards as glorified paperweights."
"... Perhaps. I still don't like it, Creed. We may be doing something that would be beyond repair." Lyle frown while looking at the blade in his hand.
"Hmm..." The guy smirked while glancing around. "I noticed that you did not kill those guards. Don't you think you are taking big risks just leaving them unconscious?"
"I will counter by asking you this: was it necessary to kill those four and mutilate their bodies?" An underlying tone of irritation and wrath was present in that query. "We only needed to grab the information regarding the shifts and we should not have to raise the alarm in such a manner."
"Come on, where is the fun in that?" Creed's smirk went wider and his eyes seemed to change to slits as he raised his arms. "Don't you just love the screams they made as they are taken out one by one? Also they needed a lesson in prepping their security, it was just terrible!"
"There is no pleasure in dealing out unnecessary pain and suffering, particularly to the innocent." Lyle hardened his eyes at Creed. "We do not need to spill more blood than required."
"My word, you must have missed your calling to be part of the clergy! Do you truly believe that any of those guys are as innocent as babies? Some of them have killed as much as you or me, some probably get high from killing. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised that the Pope would be as demented as them!"
"SHRING!"
The column that Creed was sitting on started to slide at an angle before crashing to the ground with a thunderous roar, the offender having drew out a blade of crimson light and cut it so cleanly that the only evidence of the column being cut was the clean shave.
"Watch your mouth, Creed. The church is one thing, but you will not badmouth the Pope in such a manner." Lyle pointed the blade at Creed who managed to jump away from the attack and land on the floor a few feet away.
"Oh~ I am so scared, I am shaking in my boots." Creed mocking shook his body before drawing out a pair of blades himself and readied his stance. "But now you have done it. I have been itching to have a fight for a while now, so let's have some fun!"
["Enough"]
Both of them stopped short of leaping at each other, looking to the sky as though to find the source of the voice. But they knew better; the voice came from a communication charm they have on them, and right now the person in charge was speaking to them.
["The both of you are to cease your needless fighting and bring the sword here now. The guards are spreading out from the church, and you only have a small window of time before the city is locked down."]
"Tch~ fine, we are coming over." Creed kept his blades and turned towards the next building, pausing to look at Lyle. "You coming?"
"..." Lyle sheathed his blade and took care in covering the stolen sword in the cloth. Then with the package secured to his back, he activated his charms and followed Creed out of the park and onward to the final location.
...
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