Under the cover of night, Kuoh Academy looked like a slumbering beast. Silent and unmoving, yet it exuded an eerie presence.
Kuoh Academy had never felt like this before. But tonight, it was as if it had suddenly turned into a demon's lair. Something deeply terrifying seemed to lurk within, enough that anyone with sharp senses would notice something was wrong at a single glance.
The most abnormal thing of all was this:
At this very moment, the entire academy was shrouded in a crystalline barrier.
That was...
"A barrier!"
Utaha was the first to recognize what it was, blurting it out.
"Someone's deployed a massive barrier around Kuoh Academy!"
She hardly needed to explain. As they rapidly closed in, everyone could already see it clearly. Surrounding Kuoh Academy were figures in school uniforms, continuously pouring demonic power into the barrier to keep it running.
Everyone present recognized them, except for Ram and Rem.
"That's Sona-senpai!"
Mahiru pointed toward the person at the front.
It was Sona Sitri.
The ones who had deployed this large-scale barrier around Kuoh Academy were Sona Sitri and the Sitri servants.
"Sona!"
Leo called out without thinking, immediately drawing the attention of the entire Sitri group.
"Leo!"
Sona, who had been staring at Kuoh Academy with a tense expression while continuously supplying demonic power, barely suppressing the worry in her eyes, snapped her head up at the sound of his voice. She looked toward the sky, surprise and joy flashing across her face.
"Leo-sama!"
Beside her, Tsubaki had also been visibly tense and anxious, but the moment she saw Leo, she let out an obvious sigh of relief.
"Asuna!"
"Mahiru!"
"Kasumigaoka-senpai!"
The rest of the Sitri servants noticed the girls behind Leo as well, calling out in delight.
After the previous Old Maou Faction incident, many of the Sitri servants had grown quite close to the girls from Leo's group. Seeing familiar faces again, they were naturally overjoyed.
That joy, however, froze instantly.
When they noticed the five pairs of devil wings spread behind Leo, everyone, including Sona, stared in shock.
"Ten wings?"
Tsubaki could hardly believe her eyes.
"Leo, you…"
Even Sona looked stunned.
Although she had stayed in contact with him, Leo had never mentioned that he had advanced to a ten-winged devil. She had no idea. Until now.
"Are you okay, Sona?"
Leo ignored their shock, landing in front of her. As he spoke, he retracted his devil wings.
The girls followed one after another, landing behind him and quietly observing the Sitri servants.
"We… we're fine." Sona finally snapped out of it, pushing aside the issue of ten wings. She looked surprised. "But why are you here?"
She truly hadn't expected Leo to suddenly appear here with all of his servants.
After all, she hadn't asked him for help. She only knew that he was supposed to return to the human world today.
"I tried contacting you all day," Leo said simply. "Neither you nor Rias replied. Even magic circle jumps were malfunctioning. If I didn't realize something was wrong after that, I'd be an idiot."
Only then did Sona understand why he had come.
He had just returned to the human world today. Of course he would contact her and Rias. But neither of them responded, and even magic circle travel was affected. There was no way that didn't mean trouble.
So… he came to save her?
The thought made her lips curve upward slightly, despite the situation.
But she quickly composed herself again.
"We didn't expect something like this either. By the time we realized what was happening, it was already too late."
The mastermind behind this incident hadn't tried to seal off Kuoh Town. On the contrary, they wanted the news to spread, to lure the Maou here.
However, the destructive Magic Formula buried beneath Kuoh Town was continuously gathering power, disrupting the flow of energy throughout the area. By the time Sona and the others realized something was wrong, even though they could still send out calls for help, incoming communications and magic circle jumps from the outside were heavily affected and couldn't function properly.
Left with no choice, they could only act on their own, casting spells to stall for time and waiting for the Underworld to send reinforcements.
"Who did this, Sona-sama?" Ravel asked, unable to hold back. "Was it the Old Maou Faction again?"
Yukino, Asuna, Utaha, and Mahiru, all of whom had experienced the last incident, instantly tensed.
"No. It wasn't the Old Maou Faction."
Sona shook her head.
"The one behind this is a fallen angel."
"More specifically… a fallen angel officer. Kokabiel."
The moment she said that name, everyone except Leo changed expression.
"Kokabiel?" Asuna exclaimed. "Wait, do you mean the Kokabiel I'm thinking of?"
Even if they weren't as widely read as Yukino, they had all learned the essential basics. And anyone with even a cursory understanding of mythology would recognize that name.
Kokabiel was a fallen angel recorded in biblical texts.
One of the earliest fallen angels. One of the six great officers of the fallen angels. A being who had survived since ancient times, participated in the mythological war between the three factions, and even fought Maou and Seraphim head-on. He was currently a member of Grigori.
According to legend, Kokabiel fell because he secretly passed on sacred Heavenly knowledge to others. During the war between the three factions, he had always fought on the front lines. To the new generation of devils, he was unquestionably a figure that existed only in legend.
Compared to him, everyone in the Old Maou Faction were mere juniors, even the descendants of the original Maou, and Lafei Trix, who had only appeared after the Devil Civil War.
Aside from the Governor Azazel and Vice-Governor Shemhazai, Kokabiel and the other five officers stood at the very top of Grigori and the fallen angel faction.
In both status and strength.
Someone of that level, so famous that even reincarnated devils newly exposed to the supernatural world recognized his name. Even Hyoudou Issei, whose head was usually full of nothing but girls, had read about him.
Once you became a reincarnated devil, you were expected to at least remember the names of the Four Maou, the Four Seraphim, and the fallen angel officers. They were the highest echelon of the three factions, the strongest and most renowned figures.
All of them were recorded in mythological texts. Unless someone was truly ignorant, it was impossible not to know them.
That was why, when Sona spoke his name, no explanation was needed. Leo's group was left completely stunned.
"I know this is hard to believe, but it's the truth," Sona said heavily. "Kokabiel, one of the fallen angels' officers, attacked Kuoh Town and planted a destructive Magic Formula beneath it."
"His targets are me and Rias."
"As for his goal…"
Her expression shifted, but she didn't explain it clearly.
There wasn't time.
"He's inside Kuoh Academy right now. He's declared that he'll cause havoc here, and that if the Maou don't come, he'll destroy us along with the entire town."
"That's why he went to the trouble of setting up the destructive Magic Formula. He wanted to give us time to inform the Underworld and draw the Maou here."
"If he didn't need that, with his power, he wouldn't need such a thing at all."
Even High-Class Devils could destroy a mountain in a single strike. Someone like Kokabiel didn't need elaborate preparations to destroy Kuoh Town.
A Maou-Class being could erase a small country if they went all out. Wiping out a local city was trivial.
As one of the six great fallen angel officers, a ten-winged fallen angel who had clashed with Maou directly, Kokabiel certainly didn't need a destructive Magic Formula to annihilate Kuoh Town.
If he acted personally, it wouldn't even take half an hour.
The fact that he deliberately set up such a spell made his true intention obvious. He wasn't trying to destroy Kuoh Town. He was threatening Rias and Sona, forcing the Maou behind them to intervene.
"To stop him from running wild in Kuoh Town, I had my servants deploy a large-scale barrier around Kuoh Academy," Sona continued. "We're doing everything we can to contain the damage within the academy."
"Rias took her servants and went to confront Kokabiel."
"I don't know how things are going now…"
The worry in her voice was impossible to hide.
Everyone felt a chill run through them.
That was one of the six great fallen angel officers, a legendary figure who had survived since ancient times and faced Maou directly.
Against someone like that, even prominent figures from the devil world might not be confident of victory.
Rias was indeed the pride of the Gremory House, born with the Power of Destruction trait just like her brother, but she was still only a High-Class Devil.
The gap between her and Kokabiel was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Even with servants supporting her, she might manage against an ordinary Ultimate-Class Devil at best. Facing someone who dared confront Maou directly was nothing short of suicidal.
"Okay," Leo said decisively.
He shifted his gaze from Sona to Kuoh Academy, enclosed by the barrier.
"Asuna, Utaha, Ram, Rem. You four stay here. Help the Sitri servants stabilize the barrier. Don't let anything inside leak out."
Then he turned.
"Yukino, Mahiru, Ravel. You three are coming with me."
Before anyone else could speak, Sona stepped forward.
"Can you really do this?"
She looked at him, worry etched across her face.
"Relax," Leo said with a faint smile. "Leave it to me."
As he spoke, his devil wings spread once more.
Five pairs of jet-black wings unfurled, radiating an overwhelming presence that stirred everyone's hearts.
At the same time, inside Kuoh Academy.
Unlike the eerie silence outside, the interior was a scene of utter devastation.
"Boom!!!"
A massive spear of light, like a pillar from the heavens, crashed down onto the ground. The impact was like a missile strike, unleashing a terrifying shockwave that blasted a crater at least ten meters wide into the earth.
"Aaaahhhhh!!"
A group of students in Kuoh Academy uniforms who had been nearby were hurled away by the shockwave. Screaming, they were flung like ragdolls. Some slammed into building walls, cracking them, others smashed into the ground and rolled away in miserable states.
"President! Everyone…!"
From a distance, a blonde girl who hadn't joined the battle saw the scene and burst into tears, her face pale with panic.
"Cough… cough…"
Those who had been blown away struggled to get back up, either from the ground or against walls. Every one of them was battered and barely standing.
"President…"
Akeno's shrine maiden outfit was torn and tattered, her fair skin smeared with dirt.
"Ugh…"
Koneko held one arm limply at her side. A closer look showed it had already been badly twisted.
"He's… this strong…?!"
Kiba gripped an unusual demonic sword, clearly different from anything he had created before, and glared up at the sky.
"Damn it…"
A blue-haired girl in a tight black combat suit clenched her teeth. She held a greatsword radiating intense holy power, her body covered in wounds.
At the very front stood the two who were struggling the most.
"This is hopeless! We can't win at all!"
A young man with one hand encased in a grotesque gauntlet shouted hoarsely, gasping harder than anyone else.
"I won't… give up…!"
Rias's eyes burned with crimson demonic power as she stared upward, her expression utterly resolute.
Above them all, a figure hovered in the air.
"Now this is… entertaining…"
A wild, disdainful voice echoed down from him, filled with unmistakable malice.
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You can read up to chapter 210 on patreon.com/NiaXD.