Kuoh Academy felt wrong.
Not loud.
Not chaotic.
Wrong.
Chris stopped walking in the hallway.
Students laughed. Lockers slammed. Someone argued about homework. Everything looked normal.
But inside his chest, the warmth that had always been there twisted into something sharp and unbearable.
Pain.
Then—
"C-Chris…"
Alisa's voice.
It wasn't soft.
It was breaking.
Chris grabbed the wall as golden cracks splintered through the tile beneath his fingers. His knees nearly buckled.
Koneko froze instantly. Her nose twitched.
"You smell scared."
Rias turned sharply. "Chris?"
Akeno's teasing smile disappeared. "That aura… it's unstable."
Kiba stepped forward, already alert. "Something is descending."
Outside the classroom windows, the sky darkened.
Not clouds.
A massive glowing sigil spread across the heavens above Kuoh Academy — ancient symbols rotating in a slow, merciless circle.
Students began screaming.
The air grew heavy.
Chris dropped to one knee.
Something was pulling at him.
Not at his body.
At his soul.
"Please—!" Alisa's voice trembled inside him. "It hurts— they're pulling me—"
They were trying to force her out.
The courtyard exploded in black feathers.
A tear split open in the sky, and a Fallen Angel descended slowly through it, wings spread wide, coat flowing behind him like living shadow. A spear of condensed light rested in his hand.
His presence crushed the air.
Controlled. Refined. Ancient.
His eyes locked directly onto Chris through floors of concrete and glass.
"So this is the vessel."
His voice echoed unnaturally across the campus.
Students collapsed unconscious from the pressure alone.
Rias's eyes widened. "That power level…"
Akeno's tone lowered. "He's far above the others."
Kiba drew his sword fully. "We move now."
The Fallen Angel raised one hand toward the sky.
The massive sigil pulsed.
Chris screamed as threads of golden light were ripped from his chest and pulled upward.
They were dragging Alisa out by force.
"STOP!"
Divine energy detonated outward from Chris in a violent shockwave.
Windows shattered across the building.
The hallway floor fractured beneath him.
Golden markings crawled up his arms, spiraling toward his neck.
The pulling stopped.
For a moment.
The Fallen Angel tilted his head.
"So emotional."
Rias stepped forward. "Occult Research Club — battle formation!"
Akeno leapt from the window, lightning already forming around her. "Ara ara… how exciting."
Kiba vanished in a blur of speed.
Koneko jumped from the railing, landing in the courtyard with a crater.
Chris forced himself upright, breathing hard.
Inside him, Alisa trembled.
"I'm sorry… I didn't want this…"
Rage began to rise.
Akeno struck first. A bolt of lightning split the sky and slammed into the Fallen Angel's position, shattering stone.
He walked out of it untouched.
Kiba appeared behind him, blade flashing toward his wing joint.
Metal met light.
The Fallen Angel flicked his spear backward without looking.
Kiba blocked — and was launched across the courtyard, carving a trench through the ground.
Rias fired a sphere of Power of Destruction.
The Fallen Angel raised his palm.
The crimson sphere split around him like water against glass.
Koneko attacked low, fists cracking the ground beneath him.
He stepped aside casually and drove his heel downward.
A shockwave blasted outward, throwing her back.
He didn't look impressed.
"So this is the Gremory peerage."
Rias clenched her jaw. "Don't underestimate us."
"I'm not."
He vanished.
He reappeared directly in front of Chris.
The spear thrust forward.
Time slowed.
Chris saw the tip inches from his heart.
He felt Alisa scream.
Something inside him aligned.
The spear stopped mid-air.
Invisible pressure crushed against it from all sides.
The ground beneath Chris fractured in a perfect circle.
Golden light surged through his veins.
His eyes glowed.
The Fallen Angel's expression shifted slightly.
"Oh?"
Chris stood slowly.
Air warped around him.
"You're hurting her."
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"She broke divine law," the Fallen Angel replied. "Her existence is a crime."
The pressure exploded outward.
Gravity warped violently.
The Fallen Angel's wings bent under invisible force.
The sigil in the sky flickered.
Chains of radiant light erupted around Chris, snapping forward like living serpents.
Three shattered instantly.
The fourth wrapped around the Fallen Angel's arm.
The fifth caught his wing.
The sixth locked around his throat.
Chris raised his hand.
The chains tightened.
Bone cracked.
"Chris!" Rias shouted.
She saw it.
Not defense.
Execution.
The Fallen Angel laughed even while restrained.
"Yes. Show me your wrath."
He exploded outward in divine force, shattering the chains. In the same motion, he drove his spear into Chris's shoulder.
Blood sprayed across the courtyard.
Koneko's eyes widened.
Rias's heart stopped.
Chris didn't scream.
He grabbed the spear shaft with his bare hand.
Golden light burned around his fingers.
"You think pain scares me?" he said quietly.
Inside him, Alisa sobbed. "Please stop… you're breaking yourself…"
He pulled the spear out.
Blood ran down his arm.
Then the markings spread further.
Up his neck.
Across his face.
The sky cracked with divine thunder.
The Fallen Angel felt it now.
Real pressure.
Chris moved.
He didn't dash.
He disappeared.
He reappeared above the Fallen Angel and drove him into the ground with a single downward strike.
The courtyard imploded.
Stone exploded outward.
Before the Fallen Angel could rise, chains wrapped around all four limbs and pinned him in a crater.
Chris descended slowly.
Each step made the ground tremble.
The Fallen Angel coughed blood — and smiled.
"Yes… this is the power she gave you."
He activated the sigil again.
It pulsed violently.
Inside Chris, something tore.
Alisa screamed.
Her silhouette began forming behind him — faint, trembling, unstable.
"No!" Chris roared.
The Fallen Angel forced more divine authority into the sigil.
Alisa's form was dragged halfway into reality — flickering, breaking apart like shattered light.
Students across campus gasped at the sight of a glowing goddess silhouette in the sky.
Rias's eyes filled with horror. "He's exposing her to Heaven…"
If that manifestation stabilized, divine law would detect her fully.
She would be erased.
Chris's vision went red.
The pressure spiked beyond control.
Kiba felt it and froze.
Akeno's lightning fizzled.
Koneko grabbed Chris from behind.
"Stop," she whispered.
But his aura was turning violent.
The Fallen Angel laughed through blood.
"Do it. Kill me. Break the balance completely."
Chris raised his hand.
Divine energy condensed into a spear of pure annihilation.
One strike would erase him.
Maybe more.
Inside him, Alisa's voice cracked.
"If you kill him like this… they'll come for you… please…"
His hand trembled.
Rias stepped forward despite the pressure.
"Chris," she said firmly. "Look at me."
His glowing eyes shifted.
"You are not a monster," she continued. "You are not divine wrath. You are ours."
Akeno stepped beside her. "And we rather like you uncorrupted."
Kiba forced himself upright. "We fight together."
Koneko tightened her grip around his waist. "You smell like you're leaving."
The divine spear trembled.
The Fallen Angel watched carefully.
Chris closed his eyes.
He exhaled.
The spear shattered into particles of light.
The pressure collapsed.
The chains loosened.
Silence fell.
Chris dropped to one knee.
The markings receded slowly.
The Fallen Angel stared at him — no longer smiling.
"You chose restraint," he said.
Chris's voice was weak but steady.
"I don't kill for pride."
The Fallen Angel stood slowly, injured but alive.
"This is not over. Heaven has felt her."
He looked up at Alisa's fading silhouette.
"They will come."
He tore open space and vanished.
The sigil shattered.
The sky cleared.
Alisa's form flickered violently.
She looked at Chris.
Her outline trembled like dying starlight.
"I'm sorry… I made your life a battlefield…"
He reached toward her.
"You saved me."
Her light softened for a brief second.
"I love—"
She faded before the word finished.
The courtyard was silent.
Chris collapsed forward.
Rias caught him.
Akeno exhaled slowly.
Kiba sheathed his sword.
Koneko rested her head gently against Chris's back.
Above them, the sky was calm.
But far beyond it—
Heaven had noticed.
And war had just taken its first breath.