#ADRIAN REYNOLDS POV#
"SERIOUSLY!!!" I exclaim as I dodge another bullet sent at me and slash at it with the lightsword I took from another exorcist
"How many of them are there?" I ask out loud, but receive no answer to my question as I rush toward the closest exorcist and stab him through the chest and use his body as a human shield
Channeling some magical energy into my foot, I kick the body of the exorcist and send it flying toward another
Tightening my grip over the lightsword, I glance at the gun on my feet and kick it to my hand as I start shooting at the other exorcists
There are at least 7 of them left
I gulp as the reality of the situation hits me rather hard
I am going to die
I...am scared
I stare at the exorcists and try to think of any way to get out of this situation...
"Fuck it...If I am going down, I am going down swinging," I say as I raise the gun while channeling magical energy into my hand so that I can handle the recoil
I manage to kill 3 more of them before I run out of bullets in the magazine and everything slows down as an exorcist shoots at me
Time seems to slow down as I try to channel whatever magical energy I have left into the rest of my body
'I don't have enough left'
A chill runs down my spine as the bullet gets closer
Anger starts to surge through me as the fact that they want to kill me for using magic to make my life easier hits me harder than ever
Then again...I shouldn't really be surprised, considering the hypocrisy of the church
A burning feeling spreads across my entire being as a wave of energy is released from me, as my shirt is torn from the back
The wave of energy pushes the bullet away along with the exorcists
I am in shock at the feeling of power coursing through me
It feels like something just made my meager magical reserves much more potent...
"Incredible..." I whisper, yet my voice seems to carry out through the rest of my workshop
"An angel..." I turn around to look at a woman followed by 2 girls next to her
Instinctively, I channel my powers to form a light spear in my left hand as I channel some of my new power into the lightsword, causing the blade to start fizzling, almost like it became unstable due to the amount of power I am putting into it
"Defend the angel," I hear one of the 2 girls whose hood falls off, revealing the woman to have blue hair, and from what I can see, even her eyebrows are blue
"XENOVIA WAIT," The woman orders as the one called Xenovia slashes and an exorcist in half with a giant blue sword that seems to have appeared from nowhere
"That girl...I am going to punish her later," The woman says while rubbing her forehead
"An angel," Says the other girl, taking off her hood to reveal a really pretty girl
"Who are you?" I ask softly, looking back at the blue-haired girl finishing of the the exorcists
"My name is Griselda Quarta, the blue-haired girl is my adopted daughter Xenovia Quarta..." She stops as Xenovia looks at me after getting her blade out of the corpse of the exorcist
She comes over to me and prostrates herself
"I greet an angel of the Lord," She declares, causing me to get a sweatdrop
Not the brightest lightbulb is she?
"...and my name is Irina Shidou," The other girl says as she introduces herself with a huge smile as if I had just made all of her dreams come true
"Why are you here?" I ask them, still not dropping my guard
"We came here to stop this group of stray exorcists, but it appears that was not necessary," The woman answers respectfully while looking at the ground
With a thought, I release the transformation with a frown
Damn it all...I have a Sacred Gear
"What...you are a human?" The woman asks as Xenovia lifts her head, confused as to how I am not an angel
"No...I have a Sacred Gear that lets me turn into an angel," I answer her before I can stop myself
I don't know why, but something in my gut is telling me that I can trust them
"What is that... possible? I have never heard of one being capable of turning a human into an Angel before...," The woman starts speaking to herself in shock as she thinks about it, while all I can think of is that my life is basically ruined now
I heard stories about how people with Sacred Gears are hunted down to either recruit, enslave, or kill them
I turn around and look at the state of my workshop/home...
So many resources went into it, but now it's gone down the drain
Turning to look at a table, I see how the papers are burnt and realize that I am going to have to start over again
Damn it and I paid good money for Joshua to make the wards around my home and despite everything, I know that he did good work for the amount that I paid him given that around the 30 or so exorcists around half of them were dealt with due to the wards
"Please come with us, we can take you somewhere where you'll be safe," Griselda almost pleads with me
I let out a sigh as I understand that I don't have any other choice either
My home has been compromised and most of my notes have been destroyed...
My eyes snap open as I go over to a chest and bite my thumb
Pressing my bleeding thumb into the lock, a surge of magical energy is released, and I open the chest to see a box inside with my most prized materials and notes
"It's all here," I say with a sigh of relief before
Even the blueprint for a weapon, and a journal of Jewelcraft, given to me by a traveling kind mage who saw me practicing Reinforcement craft and admonished me for being so careless
Either way, he is the one who got me started with Jewelcraft, even though I have hit a major roadblock recently...
"I am sorry to interrupt, but I really need your answer..." Griselad says, and I turn around to look at her
Despite my aversion to the church due to my parents, I know that there are good people in it, still...
I am going to keep my guard up
"I'll go with you," I tell Griselda, causing her to let out her own sigh of relief
"Just help me get whatever is left of my stuff, please?" I ask her as she looks back and forth between the chest and me
"You are a magician," She states, staring at me
"Yeah...one with a Sacred Gear," I grumble as I know that my life will never be the same again
"One chosen by God...whatever, who are we to argue if God himself gave you that gift?" Says Xenovia, and the way she said it brought up bad memories of my parents
"Let me help you," Irina says, waving at me nervously as she starts to help get whatever is left of my stuff and places it in the chest
I am really sad about the fact that only a few tools survived
At least, the most expensive one of them all still survived
A small basin made out of a polished dragon scale that helps me imbue spells into jewels
Thankfully, I had already run out of jewels to use in my research, so there weren't any issues with them being broken
I only have a single ruby that functions as an explosive left
"Where are we going?" I ask Griselad as Xenovia easily lifts the chest over her shoulder, and Irina helps me carry some bags filled with my clothes
"We are going to a safehouse nearby, some of the members who came here must have already started cleaning the area," She answers while looking around
"Ok..."
Around an hour later, we are standing in front of a small opening
That's when it hits me...
"Where's your sword?" I ask Xenovia
"Oh, I placed it inside a small storage seal," She answers while taking glances at me
"Cool," I say while trying to hide any reaction to that
Spatial storage is rare, incredibly so, which puts their price way over anything that I have
Some of them can even go for half a billion dollars, especially if they were made by humans due to them being reliable...
"So...what's your name?" Irina asked, and I realized that I hadn't introduced myself
"I am Adrian Reynolds, sorry, I should have introduced myself sooner," I tell her with a sheepish smile
"It's understandable, given the situation," Irina says with a smile that I can't help but return
"It's open, come on in," Griselda says as we go inside of the bunker and I am left wondering how long we will be down here...