God is dead.
Silence crashed down on the battlefield. The kind of silence that comes after a bomb detonates, when the world itself seems to hold its breath.
Asia's hands trembled as she clasped them together in prayer position. Her lips moved soundlessly, forming the words she'd spoken thousands of times, but now they felt hollow. Empty. Tears streamed down her cheeks, each drop catching the moonlight as they fell to the scorched earth below.
"Lord... please..." Her voice was barely a whisper "Please tell me it's not true..."
Rias's expression remained composed, but her eyes betrayed her racing thoughts. The balance. The way Heaven had withdrawn from active conflict. The pieces were falling into place with horrifying clarity, each revelation clicking together like a lock opening to reveal an abyss beneath.
"The Great War," she said, her voice steady despite the revelation. "That's when it happened."
HAHAHAHA!
Kokabiel's laughter boomed across the sky, wild and euphoric, bouncing off the ruined academy walls.
"FINALLY! Someone who understands!" He spread his arms wide, wings catching the moonlight until they gleamed like oil slicks. "The mightiest being in creation, struck down in the final clash! The four original Satans fell! God fell! And we've all been playing pretend ever since!"
His grin was manic, the expression of someone who'd been holding in a secret for far too long. Spittle flew from his lips as he shouted. "The Angels maintain the system, keep up the illusion! Heaven's blessings? A fairy tale! The sacred gears function because the system runs itself, but there's no one steering it anymore!"
"That's a lie." Asia's voice was soft but firm, even through her tears "God wouldn't... He watches over all His children. He has to..."
"Does He?" Kokabiel's eyes gleamed with cruel amusement, reflecting the destruction still smoldering across the battlefield "Then where are His miracles? Where is His judgment? Why do you think the Three Factions tiptoe around each other like wounded animals? We're ALL weakened! We're ALL hanging on by a thread!"
He threw his head back and laughed again, the sound grating against their ears. "And now, I'm going to start what we stopped way back! The war will begin anew, and this time—"
"You talk a lot for someone who's about to die"
Yuuto's voice cut through the Cadre's speech in a disinterested, almost bored voice. His holy-demonic sword pulsed with restrained power, the darkness of Assault Mode writhing around him like a black smoke.
Kokabiel's attention snapped back to him, and his grin somehow widened even further.
"Oh? The revelation doesn't shake you, boy? Don't you want to despair? Don't you want to—"
WHOOSH!
Yuuto vanished.
The movement was so fast it displaced the air itself, creating a vacuum that snapped shut with a thunderous crack. One moment he was distant, the next his blade was already mid-swing, carving through space with lethal intent.
CLANG!
Kokabiel barely managed to form light swords in time, the clash sending out a shockwave that rattled windows across the academy grounds. But this time when the holy-demonic blade connected, his light constructs shattered like glass under a hammer.
SHLICK!
The sword bit into his shoulder, parting flesh and muscle. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc, droplets hissing as they hit the charged air around them.
The Cadre's eyes widened—not in fear, but in exhilaration.
"YES! THAT'S IT!" Kokabiel roared with delight as he created distance, blood trailing from his wound. "That power! That killing intent! This is what I've been waiting for! Show me more!"
FWOOOM! FWOOOM! FWOOOM!
He formed dozens of light spears, each one the size of a building, and launched them in rapid succession. The barrage lit up the night sky like a meteor shower of death, each spear screaming through the air with enough force to level city blocks.
Yuuto's expression didn't change.
SLASH!
He dismissed his current blade and summoned Aether Cleaver, the weapon materializing with a sound like reality tearing. One swing opened spatial rifts that yawned wide like hungry mouths, swallowing the massive spears whole into the void between dimensions.
Then he was moving again, closing the distance with ruthless efficiency.
CRASH! BANG! CLANG!
Kokabiel met him with savage joy, creating more light swords to match Yuuto's strikes. Their blades clashed in a flurry too fast for normal eyes to follow, each exchange creating shockwaves that rippled through the air. The sound was deafening—metal on light, reality warping, power colliding with power.
"More! MORE!" Kokabiel's grin was ecstatic as he pushed forward with reckless abandon, his movements wild and unpredictable. "This is what a battle before a war should be!!"
But despite his enthusiasm, the Cadre was being pushed back.
Each time their blades met, Yuuto's holy-demonic sword carved deeper. A cut across the ribs—blood blooming through torn fabric. A slash down the arm, the sound of parting flesh wet and final. A thrust that pierced through the shoulder, the sensation of metal grinding against bone.
Blood painted the night sky in crimson arcs, droplets falling like red rain.
Below, the Gremory peerage watched in tense silence, the smell of sulfur and copper thick in their nostrils.
"Senpai got stronger" Koneko stated flatly, her white cat ears twitching as she tracked movements even her enhanced senses struggled to follow.
Akeno maintained her elegant composure, though her eyes tracked every movement with sharp focus and interest. "Ara ara... Yuuto-kun has been holding back quite a bit, hasn't he?" A small, dangerous smile played at her lips as electricity crackled faintly around her fingertips "How exciting."
Rias stood with her arms crossed, the stolen holy swords still secured over her shoulder, their weight a reminder of the stakes. Her expression was regal and controlled, though her eyes never left the battle, tracking each spray of blood. "Even so, Kokabiel is still a Cadre. Yuuto needs to end this quickly before—"
BOOOOOM!
A massive surge of power erupted from above, the sheer force of it pressing down on them like a overwhelming weight.
Kokabiel had created distance again, and this time hundreds of light spheres materialized around him, each one humming with barely contained energy. They began combining, merging together with sounds like glass bells ringing, forming into something larger, something that made the air itself scream in protest.
"You're strong, boy! Stronger than you have any right to be!" The Cadre's voice boomed with manic glee, blood still dripping from his wounds. "But can you survive THIS?!"
VRRRRRMMM...
The light spheres merged into a single massive construct—a spear of light so large it dwarfed the entire academy, and then shattering the barrier and still expanding. Heat radiated from it in waves, making the air shimmer and distort. The sheer power radiating from it was enough to make everyone below instinctively take several steps back, their skin prickling with the sensation of imminent death.
Yuuto looked up at the massive spear, then down at his own blade. His expression remained calm and calculating.
He raised his free hand, and the atmosphere around him began to change. The darkness of Assault Mode intensified and then multiple darkness orbs appeared. What followed next was the same amount of Aether Cleaver appeared by the side of each orb.
Reality itself seemed to warp and bend around him, space distorting in ways that made the eyes ache to perceive.
Kokabiel's grin faltered slightly as he felt the shift in power, his instincts—honed through millennia of war—screaming danger "What are you—"
'The alchemy training sessions finally paying off' Yuuto thought remembering those sessions in Infinity Castle ever since his sword birth gave birth.
"[Aether Cleaver + Trillion Dark ]"
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Yuuto compressed each blade of spatial distortion into orbs using Alchemy, the sound like bones breaking in rapid succession. Dozens of them formed around him, each one a miniature black hole that bent light around its edges. The amount of power concentrated in those orbs made even the Cadre's instincts scream danger.
"Funny thing about training for worst," Yuuto said quietly, his voice carrying despite the chaos, empty of emotion "You never know when it'll save your life. Or end someone else's."
He released them.
SHATTER!
Reality broke.
The space around Kokabiel simply ceased to follow normal rules. The massive light spear he'd created began collapsing in on itself as spatial distortions tore through it like paper in a shredder. Up became down. Forward became backward. Left inverted into right. The very laws of physics screamed in protest, the sound like nails on a cosmic chalkboard.
For the first time, a genuine alarm flashed across Kokabiel's expression.
"What the—" He beat his wings frantically, feathers scattering, trying to escape the zone of warped space. But the distortion was expanding, following him like a living thing, reaching out with invisible fingers.
But, Yuuto was already there.
CRACK!
He'd crossed the distance through a spatial rift, the sound of his arrival like thunder splitting the sky. He appeared directly in front of the Cadre with his holy-demonic blade raised, the weapon humming with barely restrained power.
This time, when he struck, there was zero resistance.
SQUELCH!
The sword carved through Kokabiel's hastily formed defense magic circle like it was paper, through flesh and bone, piercing clean through the Cadre's abdomen. Blood erupted from the wound, spattering across Yuuto's face in dark droplets.
Kokabiel's eyes went wide with shock and pain, his breath leaving in a wet gasp.
He twisted the blade.
CRACK!
The sound of breaking bone mixed with Kokabiel's scream. The holy energy burned, searing through corrupted cells. The demonic power corrupted, spreading like poison through holy veins. Together, they created an agony that even a survivor of the Great War had never experienced—fire and ice warring in his gut.
"AAAAARGH!"
Kokabiel's scream tore through the night sky, raw and primal.
SPLURT!
Yuuto ripped the blade free, blood gushing from the wound in thick spurts. He delivered a devastating kick to the Cadre's chest—
CRACK!
—the sound of ribs snapping like dry kindling—sending him flying backward through the air, tumbling end over end.
Then he raised his sword high, and power gathered around it. The air itself seemed to ignite, holy and demonic energy spiraling together in a double helix that defied all natural law. The blade glowed white-hot, then black-cold, the colors bleeding into each other.
"Wait—" Kokabiel managed to gasp out, pain finally overwhelming his battle lust, blood frothing at his lips.
FWOOOOOSH!
The beam of fused energy erupted from Yuuto's blade, carving through the night sky with a roar like a freight train. It engulfed Kokabiel completely, the heat intense enough to turn sand to glass, the cold absolute enough to freeze flames solid.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion lit up the sky like a second sun, the shockwave rattling the ground below.
When the light faded, Kokabiel was falling. His wings were charred black, smoking and tattered. Burns covered his body, the skin blistered and weeping, smoking with both holy and demonic residue. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
Still alive—barely—but completely out of the fight.
Yuuto watched him fall for a moment, expression unchanged, then began his own controlled descent. The Assault Mode aura faded like smoke dissipating, and exhaustion hit him like a physical blow. Every muscle screamed in protest from channeling that much power, his limbs heavy as lead.
Thud.
He landed heavily near his peerage, stumbling slightly before catching himself. Sweat dripped down his face, mixing with the blood splattered there.
. . . . .
Quest : Protect Kuoh Town From Kokabeil's Onslaught
Reward : 1 Character Card
Status : Completed
. . . . .
'This character card better be worth all the trouble I went through'
Asia was there immediately, her gentle hands reaching for him even as tears still streamed down her cheeks. "Yuuto-san, are you hurt? Please, let me—"
"I'm fine, Asia." He managed a tired smile for her, wiping the blood from his cheek. "Just exhausted."
"Senpai." Koneko walked up and simply stood beside him, her presence a quiet show of support, her tail wrapping around his leg briefly.
Akeno approached with graceful steps, her usual playful smile in place though her eyes held genuine concern. "My my, Yuuto-kun. You were quite brutal up there." A hint of approval colored her tone.
Rias stepped forward, her composure intact but her crimson eyes searching his face carefully, cataloging each injury "That was reckless, Yuuto"
"But I didn't-"
VRRRRMMM...
A surge of power cut him off, the air itself vibrating with the intensity.
They all turned to see a massive magic circle forming in the sky, intricate patterns of light weaving together.
From the circle descended two figures, which led to everyone to get on their guard, aside from Yuuto.
"Azazel," Rias said, her tone shifting to formal caution, every muscle in her body tensing.
The Governor-General of the Fallen Angels surveyed the scene with the ruined academy with its scorched earth and broken walls, the near dead defeated Kokabiel lying in a crater of his own blood, and finally, Yuuto himself, still breathing hard and splattered with the Cadre's blood.
While Benemune stood next to Azazel, gazing at Yuuto in a different light.
A slow smile spread across Azazel's face.
"Well, well," he said, a hint of amusement threading through his voice "This is quite the mess we got here"
. . . .
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