"Boom!"
The deafening roar echoed in the night, which had been silent moments before, causing the entire area of the entertainment facility to shake.
A plume of smoke curled up from the source of the blast, scattering shattered stone and rubble with the shockwave, looking exactly like a scene caused by a high-powered missile impact.
There was no fire, but the shockwave transformed into the most violent force, churning the air and sending blast waves rippling outward one after another.
Yukino Yukinoshita, who was engaged in a skirmish with a few Exorcists not far away, was startled. She felt a typhoon-like gust hit her face, forcing her to raise her arm to shield herself. White, misty frost billowed around her, instantly freezing the incoming rubble and debris, preventing them from touching her body.
The Exorcists' abilities were not as strong. They were either blown away by the blast wave or struck by the incoming debris, only managing to let out a few short cries of surprise or pain before tumbling onto the ground far away.
Amidst this destructive scene, Leon was the only one unaffected. Six demonic wings were unfurled behind him, his figure suspended in mid-air. One hand still held the unconscious girl, while the other was extended forward, surging with terrifying magical power, letting everyone know who had caused the destruction just now.
"Ugh..."
Sharon's figure appeared in a different direction. It seemed she had narrowly dodged the magic cube formation that had surrounded her at the last moment, avoiding the direct impact of the astonishing magical power surge.
However, her current state was far from good. Her nun's habit was torn in several places as if scratched by rubble, and the exposed fair skin was covered in fine cuts and bloodstains. Even her usually beautiful face was smeared with dust, looking utterly disheveled and losing all composure.
"You..."
Clutching her injured arm, Sharon looked up at Leon hovering in mid-air, her eyes completely changed.
They were filled with surprise, and then anger.
"You, when did you become so strong?"
Sharon looked at the three pairs of demonic wings behind Leon, feeling the frightening magic power rising from him, her heart filled with shock and rage.
She hadn't dealt with Leon for some time, but it had only been a few months.
About three months ago, she received a transfer order from the headquarters, saying there were unusual movements on the Fallen Angels' side and instructing her to investigate.
Therefore, she had actually left Chiba Prefecture for a while and gone to the Church's headquarters, only returning recently.
During this time, she also received news that Leon had been promoted to an Upper-Class Devil, and thus she was mentally prepared to encounter a stronger Leon upon her return.
But she never expected that the Leon who had been promoted to an Upper-Class Devil would have undergone such a drastic transformation.
Six wings?
He was only two-winged before, wasn't he?
And this magical power, this destructive force—how could this be the power possessed by a newly promoted Upper-Class Devil?
This power, compared to the monster she encountered three years ago, wasn't far off, was it?
Sharon couldn't help but recall a deeply memorable incident.
It was before she was transferred to Chiba Prefecture.
At the time, she received news from the Church that an ancient devil, sealed there since ancient times, had been discovered in a remote countryside. That devil possessed dangerously powerful abilities, and its return would inevitably cause considerable trouble.
So, she and a group of elite Exorcists sent by the Church entered the sealed area and encountered people from an unknown faction who had also received the news and were preparing to unseal the devil.
The two sides clashed, but the result was a mutual defeat.
However, the reason for the mutual defeat was not the struggle between the two factions, but the newly unsealed devil immediately going berserk and slaughtering everyone, turning the scene into a living hell.
That day, Sharon narrowly escaped, but all the other Church members perished on the spot. The unknown faction managed to retrieve the unsealed devil after paying a heavy price.
To this day, Sharon still remembers how powerful that devil was. It was said that this was even without the devil unleashing its dangerous power. If that power had been fully displayed, even the top combatants of the various factions might not dare to slight it.
The former Leon was absolutely incomparable to such a being, but the current Leon, in terms of sheer magical power, was already not much weaker than that devil.
This left Sharon both astonished and furious.
"Haven't you heard the saying, 'A scholar who has been away for three days deserves to be looked at with new eyes'?"
Leon looked down at his old rival, who had continuously pestered him in the past. Seeing her in such a miserable state, he flashed a cheerful smile.
"You and I haven't seen each other for several months; it's far more than three days. Isn't it perfectly normal to have such a change?"
Normal?
To go from two wings to six wings in just a few months, with magical power multiplying countless times—is this called normal?
Sharon's chest heaved. Coincidentally, her formerly covering nun's habit had become tattered, revealing glimpses that invited imagination.
"Sister Sharon!"
"Lady Sharon!"
At this moment, the few Exorcists in priest attire staggered to Sharon's side. Judging by their bruised and battered appearance, they were in no state to continue fighting.
"...Retreat."
Sharon suppressed her anger and gnashed her teeth as she gave the order.
"But our mission..."
A priest hesitated, sounding apprehensive.
They hadn't come here just to block the door of Leon, an Upper-Class Devil. They had intelligence that there were unexplained missing person cases in this area, suggesting the possible presence of a stray devil, which was why Sharon led the team to investigate and eliminate it.
But now, they had encountered a being infinitely more dangerous than the target of their mission before even entering the mission area.
Leon Eligos—this was the representative of the local devils in Chiba Prefecture, an existence that the Church had failed to capture in the fifteen years he had been active in the region.
It was said that he was the last bloodline successor of the extinct Eligos family, carrying half pure-blood devil heritage and the other half from an Exorcist belonging to their very own Church. As a descendant of a noble family, he was continuously monitored and supported by the Underworld, making him a difficult and headaches-inducing figure for the local Church in Chiba Prefecture.
After his promotion to an Upper-Class Devil, the local Chiba Prefecture Church even issued an instruction, permitting local Exorcists to abandon their mission and flee directly upon encountering him.
However, the person in charge of this mission was Sister Sharon, who had always been able to fight the opponent to a standstill. Thus, they hadn't considered abandoning the mission immediately, instead focusing on keeping Yukino Yukinoshita busy when Sharon made her move, so that no outsider would interfere.
Who would have thought that "three days away" truly meant a vast difference? The formerly equally matched Sister Sharon was rendered so miserable in the blink of an eye. The opponent's strength had increased exponentially, even reaching the rank of a Six-Winged Devil.
Was there any point in continuing the entanglement?
"Mission canceled. I will personally handle the subsequent report," Sharon seemed to have calmed down. "Besides, the opponent's purpose for being here appears consistent with ours. Perhaps the stray devil has already been defeated by him, so we haven't exactly failed."
However, compared to the news of a failed mission to eliminate a stray devil, the news that Leon himself had been promoted to a Six-Winged Upper-Class Devil with vastly increased strength, to the point where she was no longer a match for him, would be the worst news for the Church, wouldn't it?
Sharon could already imagine the Church officials looking at each other, ultimately wearing expressions of helplessness.
"Go!"
Sharon made a quick decision. After settling on it, she no longer hesitated. She stared intently at Leon for a moment, engraving his image deep in her mind, before leaping toward the darkness behind her.
The few Exorcists in priest attire immediately followed suit, not daring to delay for fear of being pursued by Leon.
Leon, however, only watched Sharon and her group leave, doing nothing until the auras of all the Exorcists had completely faded away. He then retracted his wings and descended from mid-air.
"Are you not going to pursue them?"
Yukino Yukinoshita also came forward. Seeing that Leon was fine, she subtly breathed a sigh of relief and inquired.
"If I wanted to do something to the Church's Exorcists, why would I wait until now?" Leon shook his head. "The three major factions are still in a truce period after all. Killing an undisciplined Lower-Class Fallen Angel is nothing, but if I went on a killing spree against the local Church Exorcists, that would truly be a diplomatic incident."
This was a kind of tacit understanding between them: they could fight fiercely and oppose each other, but it was best to leave a line of retreat for future encounters.
Otherwise, if the Church truly wanted to eliminate Leon, a pure-blood devil descendant brazenly stationed in their territory, they would have sent their top Exorcists long ago. Why would they let those local Exorcists, only a handful of them, continuously clash with Leon?
Sharon was ruthless and unscrupulous when dealing with devils, but she might not dare to directly kill Leon, ignoring the support behind him. That's why she had only pestered him for the past three years, likely due to hesitation and reluctance in her heart.
Leon didn't plan to hold a grudge against this woman, after all, she had tried a honey trap on him in the beginning, which had given him quite a bit of sweetness...
Thinking of this, Leon couldn't help but smile, simultaneously feeling a bit of regret that there were too many people around this time. Otherwise, this "pure Sharon" might have given him another taste of sweetness.
"What are you thinking?" Yukino Yukinoshita suddenly asked with suspicion. "Why are you wearing such a disgusting expression?"
What kind of expression is that?
Leon swallowed a question that was almost on the tip of his tongue and rolled his eyes at Yukino Yukinoshita.
"Let's go, time to head home."
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