A month wasn't nearly enough to leave any obvious changes in the manor. At least, not Leo's manor.
Even though Leo had taken his servants and left, the familiars remaining behind continued maintaining the estate as usual. So when Leo and the others returned, everything looked exactly the same as when they'd left. Nothing had changed.
Musashi had indeed brought people from the Underworld and set up an ambush here. Over the course of the month, they'd tried to make contact with the forces that had been keeping an eye on Leo and his group. Through Magic Detection, Leo had sensed quite a few figures lurking around the manor's perimeter, as if they'd been watching the place the entire time.
However, none of them had actually entered the manor. They were clearly trying to avoid leaving traces that someone sharp-eyed might notice.
"What a waste. It didn't help much at all."
Leo shook his head.
If he could sense their presence, then others likely could too.
There was no helping it. The Underworld couldn't afford to station too many powerful figures here. Forget Maou-level beings, even Ultimate-Class Devils held extremely high status in the Underworld. Unless there was a special reason, having them guard a group of rookie devils who hadn't even fully stepped onto the stage yet would be nothing but a waste of resources and manpower.
Those assigned to guard this place were mostly servant devils. Even Musashi fell into that category. High-ranking devils wouldn't sit around waiting for prey like this. Their time simply wasn't that cheap.
At best, the group stationed here would be made up of High-Class Devils. The only one who might reach Ultimate-Class Devil-level strength was Musashi herself. A group like that naturally couldn't escape Leo's Magic Detection, and avoiding scrutiny from truly powerful, malicious observers would be even harder.
"In the end, we still have to rely on ourselves."
The sense of urgency weighing on Leo had already eased quite a bit.
This trip to the Underworld had been incredibly fruitful, both for him and for all of his servants. Now, they finally had the basic ability to deal with various dangers.
Because of that, Leo no longer felt the same constant pressure he had before.
"Oh, right. I should contact Rias and Sona as well."
The thought suddenly crossed his mind.
He'd already agreed with Rias and Sona that he'd let them know once he returned, so they could exchange information.
"It's still early. They should be at school already, right?"
Leo glanced at the sky outside, then unfolded a communication magic circle in his palm and tried contacting Sona.
After waiting for quite a while, there was still no response.
He tried contacting Rias next, but she didn't respond either.
"Whatever. I'll try again tonight."
Leo didn't find it suspicious.
Both Sona and Rias took their identities as students very seriously. They cherished their time studying in the human world and were deeply attached to Kuoh Academy. During school hours, unless it was an emergency, they wouldn't casually accept communications from others.
This wasn't the first time Leo had run into this, so he didn't think much of it.
But when evening came and he still couldn't reach either Rias or Sona, no matter how many times he tried, he finally realized something was wrong.
"Don't tell me something happened…"
Leo frowned, then quickly headed down to the basement and stepped into the magic circle there.
The magic circle began to glow red, preparing to carry Leo through a spatial jump toward Kuoh Academy.
But before the red light could reach its brightest point, the magic circle gradually stopped functioning, the glow dimming until it faded away.
Leo's expression finally darkened.
He knew exactly what this meant.
It meant that this jump had either been interfered with by an unknown factor, or the destination itself had been sealed off.
Something had happened at Kuoh Academy.
Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture. Kuoh Town.
As night fell, an intensely crimson magic circle appeared abruptly outside Kuoh Town, and several figures emerged from it without a sound.
"With magic circle jumps, can we only arrive outside the town at most?"
Leo and his servants descended upon Kuoh Town, every one of them wearing a grim expression.
Especially Leo, Yukino, and Ram. The moment they laid eyes on Kuoh Town under the night sky, their faces grew heavy.
"What's going on?" Yukino's expression changed sharply. "Doesn't it feel like the flow of power throughout the entire town is twisted?"
Aside from Leo, she was the only one who had learned Magic Detection, so she immediately noticed something was wrong with Kuoh Town.
Nearby, Ram closed her eyes and lifted her head, as if sensing something.
The wind magic she specialized in was closely tied to the atmosphere itself. On top of that, she possessed a secret technique known as Clairvoyance, which allowed her to share wavelengths and vision with other beings, letting her see things thousands of miles away. Even without formally learning Magic Detection, her investigative abilities were anything but weak. If anything, they surpassed Yukino's.
More importantly, unlike Yukino, Ram was a magic user.
And so, she quickly discovered the reason for Kuoh Town's abnormal state.
"A ridiculously powerful destruction Magic Formula has been carved beneath this town. Once it's activated, the entire place will be wiped out in an instant."
Her words made everyone's expressions change.
"Because of that Magic Formula, the flow of power throughout the town has become twisted and chaotic. That's why magic circle jumps targeting areas inside the town are being interfered with and can't proceed smoothly."
Even though it wasn't a man-made seal, the existence of such a destructive Magic Formula was practically a public announcement that someone was stirring up trouble in Kuoh Town.
"So our communications with Rias and Sona failed because of this too?" Leo thought, frowning, before looking toward Ravel. "How is it? Have you contacted the Underworld?"
"Yes, I've already made contact."
A small magic circle was already open in Ravel's hand, prepared in advance. "They've started taking action. But considering that even we, who are already in the human world, can only teleport to the outskirts of the town, it'll probably take quite some time for the Underworld's people to get here."
"Then what do we do?" Utaha couldn't help asking. "Do we wait here for reinforcements before moving?"
"No." Asuna spoke anxiously. "If we do that, it'll definitely be too late."
And she wasn't wrong.
If the destruction Magic Formula beneath Kuoh Town activated before help from the Underworld arrived, everything would be over.
At that point, the Gremory servants and Sitri servants inside Kuoh Town would likely be wiped out as well.
"Who would do something like this?" Mahiru asked softly. "Is it the Old Maou Faction again?"
"Not necessarily," Rem said quietly. "If there really are two people in this town who are closely related to the Maou, then a lot of factions would have their eyes on this place."
Since Rem had never met Rias or Sona, it was only natural for her to think this way.
When you thought about it, it made sense. Two Maou's sisters living in a place like this. Forget the Old Maou Faction, any group hostile toward devils would want to do something about that.
As targets, those two were simply too obvious, and the power around them was limited. Attacking them offered an extremely high payoff.
Nothing like this had happened before because the fact that Rias and Sona, Maou's sisters, were living in Kuoh Town hadn't spread widely. On top of that, the three major factions had been recuperating, with no intention of reigniting large-scale conflict, so things had remained peaceful.
But once the situation changed, that peace was bound to shatter.
"A destruction Magic Formula targeting the town…"
Leo narrowed his eyes, staring at Kuoh Town in the distance. He already had a rough idea of what was going on.
This was something that had happened in the original story. It had left a strong impression on him, so he still remembered it.
Still…
"The timing feels off."
If he remembered correctly, this should have happened after Raiser came to Kuoh Town to force his engagement with Rias, only to be brutally beaten by Hyoudou Issei, breaking off the engagement and leaving Raiser with lasting psychological trauma.
And Raiser's visit should've happened not long after Issei became Rias's servant.
By that logic, this was around the time Raiser was supposed to come forcing the engagement, while the incident involving Kuoh Town's destruction should have come later.
So why was it happening now?
Leo couldn't make sense of it.
What he didn't know was that after his previous encounter with Raiser, the latter no longer dared to underestimate him.
Raiser might be an arrogant playboy, but he wasn't stupid. After witnessing how unusual Leo was, he immediately went back and gathered all available intelligence on him, learning many details.
That included Leo's close relationship with Rias. Even though they hadn't known each other long, they had already formed a friendly, cooperative bond.
Coupled with Sirzechs's subtle guidance and discussions between him and the head of House Phenex, the Phenex family was no longer as eager to enforce the engagement as they had been in the original story. Out of fear that Leo might intervene, Raiser hesitated again and again, leaving the matter shelved.
As for Kuoh Town's impending destruction being pushed forward, that was also influenced by the previous incident involving Lafei Trix and the Old Maou Faction's attack.
Because of that event, both Kuoh Town and the existence of Rias and Sona entered the sightlines of various factions much earlier than in the original story. It wasn't just Leo being watched; Rias and Sona had been targeted as well, causing this incident to occur ahead of schedule.
Unaware of all this, Leo didn't dwell on it.
This world had already diverged from the original story in countless ways. His servants weren't even natives of this world, yet they'd appeared one by one. Some people had Sacred Gears that originally belonged to others, and even he himself had become the host of Zenith Tempest.
At that point, more changes were hardly incomprehensible.
Right now, the most urgent matter wasn't nitpicking the timeline. It was the safety of Rias and Sona.
"Let's go."
With just those two words, Leo made his stance clear. Five pairs of bat-like devil wings unfurled from his back as he flew toward Kuoh Town.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"
Yukino and the others immediately spread their own wings and followed without hesitation, streaking through the night toward Kuoh Town.
They were incredibly fast, like black arrows tearing through the sky, cutting through fierce winds as they rushed toward Kuoh Academy's direction.
Suddenly...
"GRAAAOOOHHHH!"
A vicious roar rang out.
"Watch out!"
Yukino and Ram shouted their warnings at the same time, prompting everyone to react instantly.
Almost simultaneously, several massive fireballs shot up from below the night sky, lighting up the darkness as waves of heat crashed toward Leo's group.
"Boom!!!"
The fireballs exploded into raging flames, forcing the tightly grouped team to scatter and dodge in different directions.
"Over there!"
Yukino's sharp eyes caught sight of the attacker.
On the ground stood a massive figure.
It was at least ten meters tall, jet black all over, its form somewhere between a dog and a wolf. White vapor poured from its nostrils, its eyes glowing blood-red with savage light in the darkness.
But that wasn't its most striking feature.
The most obvious trait was its three ferocious heads.
"A three-headed dog?" Asuna exclaimed.
"Cerberus!" Ravel cried out.
"What's a Cerberus?" Utaha asked quickly.
"It's the hellhound that guards the gates of hell. A devil beast that originally dwelled around the Underworld's gates to hell," Rem explained.
"Why would a hellish creature appear here?" Mahiru asked, voicing the question no one could answer.
"…This is getting troublesome."
Ram, who had been gathering information using Clairvoyance, glanced underground and spoke those words.
Everyone soon understood why.
"GRAA!"
"GRAAAOO!"
Around the black three-headed hound, more Cerberus began to appear.
And most notably...
At the very front stood an eight-headed beast. Though its body was only a few times larger than the others, it radiated a terrifying aura that made even Yukino and the rest tense up.
"The Cerberus King…"
Asuna stared at the massive eight-headed hound and urgently spoke that name.
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You can read up to chapter 207 on patreon.com/NiaXD.