Cao Cao couldn't help but stare at the doors where the man who had just laid a Norse god out flat on the floor had departed. The echoing boom of the door closing seemed to resonate in the silence of the room.
For a man whose life was to see humanity overcome even the divine, this was a religious experience.
"So that is Kenji Takahashi, huh..." he whispered, a smirk playing across his lips.
There was a frantic, hungry sort of excitement in his eyes. As a leader of the Hero Faction, Cao Cao's entire existence was built on the thrill of the impossible, on the chance to see the human race ascend beyond all those creatures that take advantage of humanity.
He turned toward Loki, who was only just managing to push himself up from the crater in the floor, golden ichor trailed from his nose and lips, staining his tattered divine robes. He looked furious and humiliated, but more importantly, his hands were trembling with uncontrollable tremor.
Cao Cao let out a short, sharp laugh. It wasn't loud, but in the pin-drop silence of the hall, it sounded like a thunderclap.
Loki's head snapped toward him instantly, his eyes brimming with hate as they glowed. "What are you laughing at, you damn pest?" the god snarled, his power flaring in an attempt to reclaim some shred of his shattered dignity.
Cao Cao didn't flinch. He rested the True Longinus casually over his shoulder, leaning back as he gave the god a mocking smile.
"Nothing, just thinking," he said, his voice dripping with melodic amusement, "how quickly a so called god got buried face-first into the ground. It was quite a spectacle, Loki. Truly divine. I've seen humans beg for mercy with more grace than you showed just now."
Loki roared, magic circles manifesting in the hundreds
"Enough."
The single word dropped. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet ten degrees in a heartbeat, and the air itself became thick, like heavy syrup in the lungs. All eyes turned toward the small, pale girl seated at the head of the table.
Ophis.
She was looking at them with those blank, void-like eyes that always made Cao Cao's skin crawl. It was an instinctive reaction, the primal part of his human brain screaming that he was in the presence of something that existed outside the laws of nature.
Her word stopped them. Loki was still angry but knew better than to continue.
Cao Cao clicked his tongue and lowered his spear. He hated the supernaturals with a passion that burned in his blood, but he wasn't suicidal. You didn't argue when the Ouroboros spoke.
Katerea Leviathan was the first to find her voice, though it was softer and more strained than Cao Cao had ever heard it. She looked at the door, her gaze lingering, then back at Ophis. Her normally prideful, arrogant expression was replaced by a look of sheer, frantic disbelief.
"Lady Ophis..." she began, her hand on the table shaking so slightly that if he wasn't looking, he'd not have seen it. "Is it true? Is that man... really part of the Khaos Brigade? "
Ophis nodded \.
Katerea let out a sharp, crazed laugh, a sound bordering on genuine hysteria. She grabbed her shaking right hand with her left, her eyes wide and bloodshot. "So you mean... that thing is going to be able to come and go as he pleases?"
"Don't disgrace us any further, Katerea," Shalba Beelzebub sneered. He straightened his high-collared coat, trying to project a sense of noble calm he clearly didn't feel. "To be so frightened of a mere human... It's pathetic. You're a descendant of the original Leviathan. Act like it."
Katerea's head snapped toward him, her teeth bared. "And who was it," she hissed, "that got silenced by that human with a mere look? You didn't even breathe while he was in the room, Shalba. You looked like a cur waiting for permission to keep your head on your shoulders. Don't lecture me on dignity when you seemed to forget yours."
The room went dead quiet. Then, a few muffled, mocking chuckles slipped out from the Hero Faction members, who took great pleasure in the internal bickering of the "Old Satans." Shalba's face turned a deep, bruised purple, his mana beginning to leak out.
"You dare—!" he started, his aura flaring. "I could kill that human any time I want".
"You'd be dead before the fight even started."
Vali's voice cut through the bickering. He was leaning back in his chair, looking bored, but his eyes were fixed on the door Kenji had used. "Don't compare yourself to him, Shalba. You aren't even worth the effort of him drawing his sword."
"VALI—!" Shalba surged to his feet, but the world didn't give him a chance to speak.
Suddenly, reality glitched.
That was the only way Cao Cao could describe the sensation. It was as if the frame of existence had stuttered. The colors drained away until the room was a monochrome of grey, white, and static. The space around the table warped and stretched, making the walls feel miles away and inches close simultaneously.
A pressure descended that was so immense it felt like the weight of an entire world was pressing down on their skulls. Several of the weaker magicians were driven to their knees, their noses bleeding as they gasped for oxygen, others even died right there.
"I said... enough."
The voice thundered not from Ophis's mouth, but from the very air around them. It vibrated in their bones and rattled their teeth. For a split second, the image of the little girl vanished.
In her place sat a towering visage of an endless pool of cosmic darkness, a void filled with countless flashing, unblinking stars. Amethyst eyes the size of suns gazed down at them from the center of the universe, judging their worth and finding them wanting.
Then, with another glitch, everything snapped back.
The room returned to normal. The colors were back. The pressure was gone. But the silence remained. No one moved. Even Euclid Lucifuge, who prided himself on maintaining a mask of perfect, icy composure, was breathing in shallow, ragged hitches, his eyes wide with a rare, naked trace of fear.
"Kenji is a part of the Khaos Brigade," Ophis said, her voice returning to its flat, monotone state. "He provides the silence I require."
Walburga, the leader of the Hexennacht, swallowed hard, her throat clicking in the silence. She spoke up with practiced caution. "Forgive me, Lady Ophis... but if he is a member of such importance, why have we never been informed? Why has he remained a shadow until now?"
Ophis slowly turned her head to look at the witch. "Kenji is strong," she said simply. A pause followed, her gaze sweeping over the gathered "elites." "You all are weak. You did not need to know."
The statement was a blow to their pride. Several auras bristled in irritation, gods, humans, devils, and all manner of beings alike, but no one was foolish enough to argue.
Ophis had just reminded them of the hierarchy, reminded them of where they sat in power.
"I wonder how strong he really is, if even you acknowledge him," Cao Cao said, forcing a smile back onto his face despite the sweat beading on his brow. He spun his spear with a flashy motion.
"Don't even think of it, Cao Cao," Vali sneered. "You'll die."
"I'm just curious," Cao Cao replied. "If Ophis herself says he's strong, it's only natural for me, a fellow human, to want to see how far our species can go. I'd love to test the limits of his power."
"Death."
Ophis's word cut him off with the finality of a closing tomb. Cao Cao paused, his smile finally faltering. "What?"
"Kenji wins. Cao Cao dies," Ophis clarified, her voice devoid of emotion.
Silence followed, broken only by Vali bursting into a loud, mocking fit of laughter that echoed off the room.
Euclid Lucifuge finally spoke, "How strong is he?" He looked at Ophis, his mind clearly running. "He defeated Vali. He made short work of Loki. You say he is stronger than Cao Cao... that puts him beyond normal Ultimate-class. Is he Satan-class? "
"Stronger," Ophis said.
Euclid's eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Stronger than me?"
"Stronger."
Katerea felt her stomach drop into her shoes. If he were stronger than Euclid, then he had already encroached on the territory of Satan Class.
"Can he match my lord?" Euclid asked. He was referring to Rizevim Lucifer.
"Stronger."
The word echoed in the hall like a bell. Katerea felt her head spinning, the room tilting on its axis. Stronger than a Super Devil? Stronger than the son of the original Lucifer? This defied everything in the supernatural world she had been raised to believe in.
"...Monster," she whispered, the word escaping her lips.
"Do you have proof of this claim?" Euclid asked, his voice tight and strained.
Ophis raised a small, pale hand. A portal shimmered into existence above the table, displaying a picture of the events from hours ago. The images were gruesome and visceral. Sirzechs Lucifer and Ajuka Beelzebub were shown battered, their armor shattered, bleeding from dozens of wounds, and struggling to remain upright. The landscape around them was a wasteland.
The room went dead silent. Euclid stared at the broken form of the Satans, his mind reeling.
He understood the power of a Super Devil better than anyone, and seeing the two strongest devils excluding his master, even if he didn't want to admit it about that fake Lucifer, in history, looking like victims of a massacre was a shift.
"He... he did that?" Katerea whispered, her eyes glued to the image of Sirzechs's ruined form. "When?" You have to understand that a lot of devils who participated in the civil war understood just what a monster the crimson devil was, and to see him like this was something.
"Hours ago," Ophis replied.
The answer people. They realized that while they were sitting here bickering, the Underworld's leadership had nearly been decapitated. Several members shifted in their seats, their eyes gleaming with a sudden ambition to finish off the weakened Satans, until the image in the portal changed. The devils were shown healed and whole.
The ambition vanished, replaced by the familiar, cold scent of fear. Katerea wanted to scoff at them. 'Cowards. They only find courage when the enemy is already dying.'
"Kenji is strong. You are weak," Ophis repeated. "Become strong... or else."
And then, she was gone, leaving.
Underworld – Lucifer's Office
Silence hung heavy in the room. Sirzechs Lucifer sat behind his desk, his fingers clasped together so tightly. He was staring at nothing, his mind replaying the moment, the fight.
When was the last time he had lost? Not a spar, but a life-or-death struggle where he had given everything and still come up short? He couldn't remember. Today, he had been outclassed in every category that mattered, and the realization was a cold stone in his gut.
"...Sirz...echs. Sirzechs!"
He flinched, his focus snapping back to the present. Serafall stood in front of him, her arms crossed and her expression uncharacteristically grim. The "Magical Girl" persona was gone, replaced by a weary ruler.
"Sorry, what?" he asked, his voice raspy.
"Everyone is here, zech-chan," she told him, her eyes soft with concern.
Sirzechs looked around the office. Ajuka, Falbium, Grayfia, Azazel, Baraqiel, and Penemue were all present.
The air in the room was somber, the usual lighthearted banter of the Satans completely absent. Even Azazel, usually the most talkative man in the world, was staring at the floor in silence.
"What exactly is he?" Penemue blurted out, her voice echoing the question they all had.
"He's... human?" Serafall answered, though it sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else.
"Is he really?" Baraqiel asked, his voice low and rumbling. "Since when does a 'human' possess the physical capacity to battle two Satans and a Governor General simultaneously? His durability alone was... insane."
"From everything we've learned, he is human," Serafall said, pouring herself a drink from a crystal decanter and downing it in one go. "I did a full investigation when he first appeared in Kuoh after the Kokabiel attack. I didn't want an unknown factor near So-tan."
"And you found nothing?"
"Nothing. No hidden lineage, no bloodline from the Hero Faction, no divine intervention. nothing. He was as clean as any normal person could be."
Azazel nodded, his expression darkening as he massaged his temples. "I did my own research. His wife, Anastasia, has ties to a family serving the Norse faction. She was exiled years ago for her lack of 'proper' talent. I thought she might have taught him some secrets, but this? This wasn't Norse magic, I know that for sure."
"No," Ajuka said flatly, his eyes glowing with a faint light. "It wasn't."
Azazel winced, remembering his own arrogance in provoking Kenji. "I initially suspected a high-tier Longinus. But no Sacred Gear in history explains that growth rate or the sheer."
"His gravity manipulation is advanced," Ajuka noted, his mind already trying to calculate. "And his spirits are high-tier entities that shouldn't even be in this world. But the real problem is the thing that keeps me awake right now."
"That sword," Azazel said quietly. "The moment he drew it.... all magic around just ceased to exist."
Falbium, the Satan in charge of defense who usually slept through meetings, leaned forward, his eyes sharp and wide. "An ability that can strip even a Super Devil of their magic is a frightening thing. If he decides to walk into the capital and draw that blade, we have no defense. We would be slaughtered like cattle."
"What about the girls?" Serafall asked suddenly, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"They're with Rias," Sirzechs replied, his gaze returning to his hands.
Serafall nodded slowly, a dangerous, calculating glint returning to her eyes. "Then we talk to them. We need a way in with him."
"I doubted They'd betray their father, Serafall," Penemue warned.
"I'm not asking for betrayal," Serafall said, a sharp, cheeky smile tugging at her lips. "I'm just... asking questions. I'm very good at making people feel comfortable. Because whether we like it or not, Kenji Takahashi just became the most dangerous thing in this world, and I refuse to let my sister live in his shadow of kuoh."
And in the heavy silence that followed, no one could find a single reason to disagree.
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