Prophecy and Course of Action

After moving a little way away from the rest of the group, Rias set up a bounded field. She wouldn't need it for long, just enough time for a short immersive vision session.

Sitting down, Rias began her meditation. Focusing on the Graal holder and the armored knight, she slowly began receiving visions.

A blond-haired knight in what appeared to be a blue cloth portion of a knight's rider's raiment. Her armor shattered on the side. A young silver-haired man at her side. From appearances, he was taunting her.

The vision shifts forward in time.

The knight is currently chained in front of a room of vampires, lust clearly visible in their eyes. The silver-haired man smirking in the background.

The vision shifts forward in time.

The knight's limp body is tossed in front of the Graal's holder. Her eyes dead, body beaten and bloody. Semen could be seen covering almost every inch of her body. It was clear what had happened.

Rias grimaced. She had to exert serious effort to steady herself. This was not something she could stand. This was a fate worse than death and based on the amount of time that was shifted forward, this act is to be done over the course of days, clearly meant to break her spirit and any additional forms of resistance.

Watching further, she noticed the blond knight's life energy, essence, and soul being ripped out of her quite gruesomely and poured into the Graal. A glowing silver lance slowly rose out of her corpse and linked itself to the Graal. Suddenly, the silver haired man's eyes widened and began calling for the ritual elements. The vision fades to black"

As the last scene ended, Rias could infer what happened. The woman's energy empowered the Graal more than expected and the lance topped it off. They were able to finish 3 weeks ahead of the earlier vision's projection. It is likely that this girl was broken as a consequence of her friend's escape. They needed to succeed or else this woman was done for. Luckily, it doesn't seem like the second vision starts for another two days. The silver haired man probably spent a day trying to break her through conventional taunts, clearly having fun as if playing a sport. Considering his resemblance to a certain maid she's familiar with, it wouldn't be a surprise to find out that he hailed from her family. That would explain his actions. Devils who believe in the evil ways of old. The Old Satan Faction. Luckily, she didn't stall or this act of debauchery would have gone unchallenged.

Coming out of her thoughts, Rias sighed.

'It's time to get some rest. It's going to be a long day tomorrow.'

Outside the Sanguine Caverns.

The four stood outside the caverns, hidden in some high foliage near the entrance.

'It probably won't help, but it may not be a bad idea to see what Akame's gotten so far' She mused as she sent her request through the bond.

'Good morning Rias' Akame sent.

'Good morning Akame. You find anything so far? We're about to start the raid and a heads up would be useful.'

'Yes, this base appears to be a military complex. From what I've noticed, it seems to be their main military force they can deploy on a whim. Their initial objective seems to be eliminating the Carmilla Faction and unifying their race. Upon conclusion of that, they'll join with one of the three super devils to mount two simultaneous assaults on heaven and the Ars Goetia.' Shocked. She couldn't believe they would be planning something like this. As for the Super Devil, it had to be Rizevim Lucifer; he's the only one unaccounted for. The others wouldn't do something like this.

Akame continued. 'To do so, they appear to be using Valerie Tepes, the wielder of the Sephiroth Graal, to bring the spirits of their ancestors back from the dead and merge them with their legion, while using binding curses to keep them loyal. Their estimated total of Satan class beings is around 20 give or take. The bodies they chose would only last for a month or so, but that is more than enough time to cripple both forces. They had already done this with a girl named Artoria; she's a descendent of King Arthur they managed to procure from the Pendragon family in Britain. They managed to reconstitute King Arthur's spirit using the Graal and merge it into Artoria. The problem was that the heroic spirit was intricately tied to a holy spear it brought with it and the curse they would have used didn't work.'

'Well, that answers that question.' She could feel Akame nodding over the link.

'There's more though. Hanabi and Laeticia were fellow experiments. Hanabi was a corpse that appeared out of a strange Japanese-looking spell matrix. It had been found by the servants of one of the members of vampire nobility and transferred here. Considering the unique biology, it was the perfect servant. Of course, she was the reason why they needed the binding curse mid-summoning in the first place. According to the reports, she was rebellious and couldn't be bound with their unique brand of curses or vampire spell craft after the fact. It was determined that the curse should be administered during the spirit revival process. Laeticia came after and was bound in a similar vein as Artoria, but the Graal acted on its own and revived the spirit of Jeanne D' Arc and merged it with her spirit without their consent; the report noted that this may be due to a very strong blood relation and spirit compatibility. They quickly found out that dark binding curses don't work on saints. A note in the report said they were going to proceed with breaking her faith in God over the next couple of days and try to bind her again.

The result is two merged entities and a revived human chakra user. All three of them were detained for study. The two ex-prisoners were scheduled for dissection next week, though this would only happen to Laeticia if they failed in their next binding attempt; they needed to gather the necessary specialists for the task and finish weakening Laeticia's faith.'

Well, that explains a lot.

'Wait, how did you get this information so quickly?' Rias asked the question that had been sitting in the back of her mind since this conversation started.

'I broke into the base commander's office and used copy magic on his mission records. I used that camouflage you gave me to mimic his signature. I just had to wait till he went on break and worked fast.'

Impressive. Bringing in these two new pillars was likely one of the best decisions she ever made. Between Akame's prodigious talent in assassinations and Esdeath's transcendent abilities, she filled some of the biggest gaps in her skillset.

Being honest she was awful at stealth. She wouldn't have been able to stay concealed from this many vampires for any real length of time. It was clear how much work Akame put into her craft.

Debating on what to do next, Rias came to a dark conclusion. These vampires have to die. If this base is to be used to destroy our home, then they have to go. She was contemplating bringing this to her brother, but that had an annoyingly high chance of spooking them. There were most definitely spies in high places. Dismissing the notion, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

'Akame, I want you to locate key military figures and assassinate them. Tacticians, strong fighters, logistics chiefs, use your discretion. Target figures you believe are key to a military victory in these upcoming conflicts. I will trust your discretion.' She felt Akame nod.

'On our end, we'll make it a point to find either the source of the blood on this mountain or key points. Then, I will pour the death curse into it and make it unusable. In the best-case scenario, they will have to abandon this base and move elsewhere. Any further action after that can be taken care of by the four Satans.' Finishing her orders, she closed the telepathic channel and looked back toward her companions.

As she began relaying the information she received and their courses of action, Rias noticed that her two new companions were looking pretty uncomfortable, especially Hanabi.

'She might not have realized that she had been dead.'

"Alright, we can discuss the details after the operation, we need to get moving. Esdeath, Watch the gate. If I'm right, you'll be engaging the most enemies once the sound of the fighting reaches the base."

"Oh, it'll be so much fun! I've been given a lot of titles, but Vampire slayer will be a new one" she said as a manic grin overtook her face.

Looking to her new companions, she checked to make sure they were ready and began to move forward.