"Cardinal Galilei, all the bodies are accounted for except for that brat who escaped."
Valper Galilei simply hummed in response to the words that his subordinate spoke as he continued observing the beautiful orange barrier that isolated a girl with white hair who lay unconscious within the barrier.
While he was mainly responsible for the Holy Sword Project of the Church, he was also one of the foremost experts in Sacred Gears for the church, so it was understandable that his interest was stimulated when this dying girl manifested her sacred gear at the last moment and saved herself from the poison gas that had killed the rest of the children.
"Send word to the headquarters. Tell them that we have a potentially useful Sacred Gear awakening within our hands. This girl once belonged to the Sigurd Institute, right?"
"Yes."
"Then, tell them to make more like her. Send her genetic profile to the institution. If more of those artificial humans can gain Sacred Gears, the church could gain a rather formidable force of its own, like the Grigori."
"Of course. But what about the moderates? I heard that Vasco Strada was gathering in the main branch today, along with a few angels from heaven, about something important."
Valper raised his eyebrow at that question.
"Is that even something you need to ask, child? Avoid him and his faction of the so-called moderates at all costs. They will not understand the necessity of our actions."
"Understood."
As the subordinate left the room, Valper continued studying the barrier with various spells and instruments, trying to understand how it works so that he may try to reverse engineer this Sacred Gear's abilities.
"If only those idiots at Exuvia Agency had accepted my proposal to share their technology with me. I would have managed to decipher this Sacred Gear easily."
Suddenly, the Cardinal Priest Valper Galilei's face twisted into a sneer.
"Then again, those heathens are far too consumed in their pagan gods' beliefs, even if they are exiles of the five clans. I guess it was inevitable that they would be fools who don't see the merit in my research."
Shaking his head to get rid of those thoughts about the Exuvia Agency, or Utsusemi Agency as it is called in Japan, Valper decided to focus on the present.
However, his concentration was once again disrupted when a subordinate ran into the room with panic and awe in his voice.
"Cardinal Galilei! Angels! Angels are descending on us!"
Instantly, reverence and fear in equal measure consumed Valper's mind before he forcefully calmed himself.
"Calm down, Child. What you said is simply impossible. Now, tell me who was the blasphemous fool who dared impersonate the angels of heaven?"
"Blasphemous, is it? If we are those who blasphemed, then what does it make you? Sinner?"
The voice that sounded so melodious, yet held the undertone of an animalistic growl, made Valper stiffen in pure terror as his instincts instantly went into fight or flight.
Yet, before he could do anything, eight beings materialized from thin air in front of him.
Their lion heads gave them an intimidating appearance, while their gleaming silver armor radiating holy light would make anyone drop to their knees in reverence.
Their shields were adorned with jewels shaped like eyes, representing their all-seeing nature, while their lances, materialized from pure holy fire, represented the wrath of the very heavens.
Their four wings would make one think that they were rather low on the power scale, yet the potent holy energy radiating off of them would tell them otherwise, easily placing them in the ranks of the eight-winged or even ten-winged angels.
In YGGDRASIL, these were the angles summoned by the Super-Tier spell, Pantheon.
Cherubim Gatekeepers, they were called. The guardians of the virtuos.
In this world, however, things were different.
Staring at the beings in front of him, Valper could not help but fall to his knees with awe and fear as an ancient legend came to his mind.
It is said that in the days of old, when the God of Heaven walked among men in many different forms. In the days when the Heavens had yet to reveal themselves to the mortal world, and the Underworld was yet an untamed realm full of primitive creatures called Demons.
There existed powerful Angels that guarded the Heavens from all the many other pantheons of the world. Those who would covet the riches and powers of the Heavenly Father and would go to any lengths to gain those powers.
The Celts called them León-Ceann. The Lion-Headed.
The Olympians called them ho Léōn tou Phōtós. The Lions of Light.
The Shinto called them Tenmon Shugoten. Heavenly Gate Guardian Angels.
The names were many, but the descriptions were the same.
Angels that held the courage of the lions and the strength of one as well, led by a certain angel long gone from this world, they were the immovable wall that protected the Heavens for countless years until God decided to reveal himself and his children to the humans and other supernatural communities at large.
Unfortunately, it is believed that this legendary unit of angels was lost during the Great War thanks to the machinations of the Devils.
Valper never did find any proof of this unit of angels' existence since all of this had happened so long ago that no proper records were left behind.
But now, faced with these angels, for some reason, those legends came alive within his mind.
Not daring to stare them in their eyes, Valper bowed to them fanatically as his joyful voice resounded in the air.
"My lords! You bless me with your presence in this humble abode of mine-"
"Spare us your false reverence, heathen. Your actions have offended our lord. For that reason alone, you shall pay. However, you should rejoice, Human. Your knowledge will serve our lord well through us."
"I do not understand-"
"Enough words, guardians. Let this sinner be judged."
As the voice fell, another angel materialized in the room, but this one was quite different from the Cherubim Guardians.
He was covered in beautifully decorated plate armor from head to toe, leaving no part of him exposed, as he held a sacred sword in his hand with his ten wings made of pure light manifested behind him.
Seraph Empyrean.
The highest-ranked summoned angel from YGGDRASIL.
The moment this highest-ranked angel appeared, the Cherubim Guardians bowed as one and made way for him while the humans stared with reverence, confusion, and now, a little bit of fear mixed into their gazes.
Under such gazes, Seraph Empyrean raised his hand and pointed at Valper before invoking the spell bestowed upon him by his lord.
"[Retracognition]"
Instantly, all of Valper Galilei's memories were extracted by the angel, which resulted in the angel's ire and disgust rising by the second.
It was only when he was done that his disgusted voice rang out from beneath his helm.
"To think that insects like you would claim to be the defenders of humanity. Perish, and let your soul descend to the depths of hell."
Valper did not even get the chance to speak any words before the sacred blade in the angel's hand was swung, separating his head from his body before igniting the remains with holy fire. A fate that befell the rest of the staff in the building who took part in the atrocities committed here out of their own volition.
For those who were forced or those who were in the dark (which was an extreme minority), they would be judged properly by their own kind.
With his task done, the Seraph Empyrean turned to look at the girl trapped within the Sacred Gear and tapped the barrier with his finger, allowing his senses to probe the Sacred Gear and to see if he could break it.
Surprisingly, the item rejected his interference and strengthened the barrier further.
"A Legendary-Class item? No wonder it rejected my [Break Item]"
With no other choice, the angel spread his holy energy all around the barrier and picked up the very ground beneath the girl with a spell, taking her with him towards the chamber where his lord was located, alongside the various corpses of the many children killed by these heathens that dare claim to be doing this for the greater good.
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Cherubim Gatekeepers: (Click here for image)
Seraph Empyrean:(Click here for image)
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Author Notes: Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1