The Second Coming of the Messiah

Issei watched through bleary eyes as the black, static-like figure loomed over him while aiming the largest gun he had ever seen at Yuuma, or whomever she truly was. Like his own avenging angel.

He stared at his shaky hands, covered in the life giving fluid that pumped through his body, so thick and sticky on his skin that it made him feel ill. He thought of his classmate, Rias Gremory, and her hair. That crimson hair that was so much like the blood that slicked his hands. He wouldn't have minded dying in her arms, not in the least.

It were those thoughts that summoned that very being to his side.

The crimson flash of a seal erupted beside the wounded teenager and from that light appeared a fearful looking Rias who had been at her Peerages side when she felt the oppressive energy she knew was Makoto's roil through the land itself, many blocks away from her position in the Club Room.

Her familiar had only just appeared, warning her that Issei had been spotted in the park when Raynare revealed her true form. When she felt the contract that had been given to Issei by her familiar activate, she knew she had to respond. If not, Issei would permanently die and she would lose any chance she had at breaking off her engagement to Riser Phenex.

She snapped her head up at the black figure of Makoto who stood with his proverbial hackles raised above the dying boy she wanted to recruit. She saw him in all of his dark glory and the pitch black that suffused through the air, emanating from him. The coffins that hovered around him, the angels engraved upon them crying tears of crimson. She saw the chains that acted as if they were vicious serpents, each moving to an individual rhythm that she was not privy to.

She saw Death Incarnate, for there was only one being with a visage that black with circular, silver eyes in all of the many different Mythologies. It was seeing him with her own eyes that she remembered the stories she was told when she was young, of the being that made even her Brother, Sirzechs Lucifer, tread with extreme caution.

He left nothing but his namesake in his wake, no matter which side of the Great War you happened to fall on.

You would never see him coming, but you would certainly hear him. The rattling of chains denoted his presence, and caused many beings to flee at the sound in terror. Deities, Angels, Demons, Fallen, Devils, even Buddhas, they all fell to his hand. He had disappeared at the end of the Great War, yet there was still Death in the world.

This was the very being that had been around as long as Life itself, after all. There were rumors that he might have been sealed away by the God of the Bible, and that it was only his agent known as The Reaper who had continued his work in his stead, a being that made the "Grim Reapers" under Hades look like a fly on the face of the Sun.

It appears that the rumors of his sealing may have been exaggerated.

The sound of multiple gunshots rang through the clearing followed by screams of pain, and then a thud.

Rattling chains once again sounded out as they stretched forward from his back and wrapped around the Fallen Angel viciously. The sound of breaking bones filled the air followed by even more bellows of pain, the Fallen Angels voice eventually cracking towards the end. The chains pulled Raynare close, close, closer until she was hoisted face to face with who Rias identified as Death.

" Y o u w i l l b e c o m i n g w i t h m e ."

Raynare, barely clinging to life, tried to spit in his face in response. It dribbled down her chin as she coughed at the last second. She knew she would die. Dohnaseek was correct, Death really was in Kuoh. She should have fled when she could, but she got greedy and now she would pay the price of her folly. She would be damned if she begged for her life, though.

"Kokabiel will… come for me…" She weakly ground out through clenched teeth, blood staining the once pearly white fangs crimson.

" L e t h i m."

Makoto did not fear any Fallen Angel. He had no reason to. Instead, he would make an example of the being that had dared to attack a… "innocent" Human in his presence, no matter how perverse and depraved he was. He was not so selfish that he wouldn't come to the rescue of a classmate in distress, no matter repulsive Makoto found his personality. No one deserved to be robbed of their life by beings beyond them.

And just like that, his chains tore her wings from her back. Two black appendages flopped to the ground and shuddered once before falling still. A flash of red light later and the wounds on her back and stomach were forcefully cauterized and her two wings began to burn.

Raynare passed out soon afterwards from the pain and the blood loss. The chains binding her gained multiple seals across their lengths and one particular section of chains wrapped its way around her throat. The lock that appeared on the chain bore a symbol Rias had never seen before, though she was not well versed in seals to begin with.

The coffin to his furthest right opened up slowly. Eight ghostly white hands shot forward, wrapped themselves around the bound Fallen Angel and drugged her into the coffin before it slammed shut.

That was when he turned his terrifying, hollow eyes upon Rias.

" A n d w h a t d o y o u t h i n k y o u a r e d o i n g ? "

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His dual tone voice rang through the clearing, a sick rasp to his normally monotonous tone. Rias felt her heart beating in her throat.

"D-Death-Dono! I… I can… bring him back!"

She finally finished her sentence after struggling to speak after a few moments. He seemed to be coiled protectively over the boy, but that protectiveness was not extended to her, who lay holding the dying body of Issei close to her chest. It was from his actions and his stature that she figured that he came to the rescue of Issei, though it was a bit too late to prevent his premature demise.

He did not seem to have a mouth to speak, but she heard him loud and clear regardless.

" A n d h o w d o y o u p l a n t o d o t h a t ? "

She tried to steel herself in the presence of the being before her, but she felt it hard to breathe. To think. To see, to even exist within the same space as the thing Makoto had become.

"I can… bring him back... as a Devil!"

She began to panic as the wide, circular eyes seemed to grow bigger as he sized her up. Without warning, the blackness that covered his skin retracted inwards until Makoto stood in Death's place once more, Seven of his coffins and the chains around him began to flake away and dissolve like ash in the wind. The coffin containing Raynare sunk into the ground through a black and purple portal that opened up beneath it.

She thought he was going to allow Issei's resurrection.

That was until the brightest light she ever bore witness to exploded from his right hand.

"Samarecarm."

From the sky, a pillar of light slammed into the brown haired teenager, though it did not damage him in any form. White feathers descende around the pillar and settled around Issei in a perfect circle, while a massive, seven pointed star began to engrave itself upon the ground in white light. Green light soon replaced the soft white light and the pillar of light disappeared.

The teenager began to float above the seal as the green light grew stronger, and soon enough, the wounds that had appeared on his chest closed up at an extremely accelerated pace and his lungs once again began to inflate and deflate.

Makoto had felt that Issei's spark of life was barely holding on, and it was thanks to that source of Draconian-like energy that dwelled within his left hand. Whatever the source of energy belonged to, it tried its best to prevent its owner's death by sacrificing its energy to sustain him.

It was the crimson scales that appeared on Issei's chest in place of his wound that let Makoto know that he was correct in his assumption, and that Issei would live. Rias watched as he did something she did not know Death was capable of. He had stoked the spark of life deep within Issei until it was a roaring inferno once more. He granted a dying man life.

He turned his gaze to Rias, and she took a few steps back.

"If he wishes to be a Devil, let that choice be his own."