The peaceful atmosphere of the mountain mansion shattered the moment the communication crystal pulsed with its frantic, rhythmic alarm.
Jay watched the color drain from Lavinia's face, her sapphire eyes widening as she absorbed the frantic report coming from the other end.
"Tobio and Natsume are fighting with Satanael," she repeated, her voice trembling slightly with a mix of fear and adrenaline. "He has been found. They are in the forest near the northern shrine district."
Jay set his teacup down on the wooden veranda. Initially, his instinct was to remain detached.
He had no loyalty to the Grigori and even less interest in the internal politics of Fallen Angels. But then he looked at Lavinia. She was already moving her fingers, tracing a circle in the air to initiate a teleportation spell.
She was still recovering and her mana reserves barely half-full, yet she didn't hesitate for a second.
"The coordinates," Jay said, standing up and brushing the crumbs of his snack off his black shirt. "Give them to me."
Lavinia paused, looking at him with surprise. "Illya-kun? You don't have to do this. This is a Grigori and Grauzauberer matter."
"You're going regardless of what I say, aren't you?" Jay asked rhetorically. "And since you're still a mess both physically and mana, I'd rather not have to explain to Glenda why her favorite pupil got herself killed while I was drinking tea. I've visited that district during my patrols. I can teleport there instantly."
He didn't wait for her to argue. He reached out and grabbed her hand, his own mana surging forward to hijack her spell.
He refined the messy, frantic calculations she was making and anchoring them to a specific clearing he had scouted during his first week of Kyoto visit. Even though Lavinia had been a magician longer than he had, when it came to Spatial Magic, he was confident he could hold a candle to anyone in the world.
With a sudden violent ripple in space, the mountain mansion vanished replaced by the dense humid greenery of the Kyoto woods.
They materialized near the fight located.
The clearing was a chaotic mess of gouged earth and shattered timber. In the center of the fray, Tobio Ikuse was barely holding his ground. He was accompanied by a massive, terrifying creature made of solid shadows, a canine beast that seemed to flicker in and out of existence.
This was Jin, the manifestation of his Longinus, Canis Lykaon. The shadow dog moved with predatory grace, wielding blades of darkness from its paws and mouth, clashing against a barrage of golden light spears.
Natsume Minagawa and Kouki Samejima were also there, engaged in a desperate struggle against two other men. These weren't Fallen Angels, but humans wielding twisted, artificial Sacred Gears. They were the Nephilim Abyss, a rogue splinter group formed by the man himself, they are Satanael's followers.
Jay watched the fight for a moment, his eyes scanning the battlefield with clinical detachment. He remembered Azazel mentioning a school called The Nephilim, an institution built by the Grigori to train and protect human Sacred Gear users.
Jay had been cynical about it at first, assuming Azazel was just harvesting talent for his own ends. But seeing Tobio and the others fight with such disciplined coordination made him realize that Azazel had actually given these kids a fighting chance in a world that would otherwise have devoured them. His opinion of the Governor General shifted a few degrees higher.
He still an annoying eccentric man though, that won't change.
Lavinia didn't stay to spectate. She lunged forward, her summer dress fluttering behind her like a pale cloud. She was an incongruous sight in a war zone, but the power she wielded was anything but delicate.
"Absolute Demise!" she cried out.
A wave of crystalline frost swept across the clearing. It moved with the speed of a landslide, instantly encasing the two Nephilim Abyss members in pillars of solid, unbreakable ice. They didn't even have time to scream before they were turned into frozen statues.
"Lavinia!" Everyone's face lit up as the emergency support arrived.
The sudden intervention caused the fight to freeze like the other two man. Satanael, a man with a regal, arrogant face and twelve wings of midnight black, turned his gaze toward the newcomers.
Jay looked at Satanael, he is a tall man dressed in some sort of fallen angel battlesuit, having brown hair, silver eyes, and masculine facial features.
He didn't look panicked at the sight of his subordinates being neutralized. In fact, a thin, amused smile played across his lips.
"The Ice Princess of Absolute Demise and the Scorch Magician of the Incinerate Anthem," Satanael said, his voice smooth and resonant. "It is truly an honor to meet you both on such a fine evening."
Lavinia narrowed her eyes, her breath coming in short frosty puffs.
She stood in front of Tobio and Natsume, her icy mana forming a protective mist around them. Jay, however, remained in the back. He stood with his hands in his pockets, leaning against a half-broken cedar tree. His casual attire made him look more like a tourist who had taken a wrong turn than a Longinus wielder who just got famous in Japan. Patek on his wrist though.
He watched Satanael with deep interest. According to Azazel, this man had once been a respected teacher at the Nephilim school. But his obsession with the evolution of Sacred Gears had turned him into a fanatic. He had taken his most promising students and vanished into the shadows to form the Abyss Team.
"Why are you doing this, Satanael?" Tobio demanded, his shadow dog growling beside him.
"Why?" Satanael asked quietly. "Let me ask you something, Tobio Ikuse. Why do you think God granted humans the Sacred Gears?"
"To protect the ones you love," Tobio replied. "And to survive."
Satanael laughed a sound devoid of warmth.
"Protection? Is that what Azazel taught you?" he said. "What a pitiful interpretation. The Sacred Gears were not gifts of mercy. They were a final legacy left by my Father, a tools left behind to accelerate humanity's evolution."
His gaze hardened.
"My intent is divine, Tobio. I seek to artificially stimulate the growth of these Gears, to force the birth of more Longinus. Humanity requires weapons capable of killing gods, no matter the chaos such a process may unleash."
He spread his wings slightly, shadows folding around him.
"Order is a crutch for the weak. Only through disorder can true strength be forged."
He turned his gaze toward Lavinia and Tobio, ignoring Jay entirely. "Join me. Both of you possess the potential to transcend your current limits. Join the Abyss, and I will help you master the Canis Lykaon and Absolute Demise. I will show you how to turn those sparks into a fire that will consume the heavens and devils."
His voice lowered, almost earnest.
"I am doing this for you too, for humanity."
"You're insane," Natsume spat, her whip cracking the air. "You're just sacrificing people for your own ego."
Before Satanael could respond, the air in the clearing thickened. Two more figures emerged from a shimmer of light.
One was Azazel, his usual smirk replaced by a mask of cold fury. Beside him was a tall, imposing man with a jagged scar running down his face and an aura that crackled with electricity. This was Barakiel, one of the leaders of the Grigori.
Satanael's grin widened. "Now, this is quite a gathering, isn't it? Azazel, and even Barakiel has graced us with his presence."
"Satanael, it's over," Azazel said, his voice echoing through the woods. "Your allies are gone. The Utsusemi Agency has been dismantled, and the Wizards of Oz have retreated. There is no one left to support your delusions. Surrender now, and we will spare your life. You will face judgment within the Grigori accordingly."
The mention of surrender caused Satanael's expression to shift. The amusement vanished, replaced by a raw, jagged rage that radiated from his black wings.
"Judgment? From you?" Satanael roared. "The Grigori have lost their way under your leadership, Azazel! You have allowed yourselves to be left out by the Heavens and mocked by the Devils. You limit yourselves with morality and human sentimentality. You are attached to this pathetic human race like a parasite to its host! Under your rule, the Grigori will crumble into dust the moment the Great War resumes. I won't let that happen. With the Sacred Gears, the legacy of our Father, I will be the one who ensures our survival. No matter how many humans I have to sacrifice, I will be the one who continues his lega—"
The speech ended abruptly.
There was no explosion, no flash of light, and no dramatic final clash.
Rupture.
The air in front of Satanael's face suddenly folded. A jagged, invisible tear appeared in the fabric of reality, slicing through the space where Satanael's neck was positioned. In a fraction of a second, the Fallen Angel's head was severed and erased from existence.
The headless body remained floating for a heartbeat, the momentum of his speech still vibrating in his chest.
Then, the realization of death caught up with physics. The body collapsed and falling to the forest floor like a lifeless bird, its twelve black wings tangling in the dirt.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Everyone in the clearing stood frozen, eyes wide as they stared at the twitching remains of one of the former leaders of the Grigori. Satanael might not have been the strongest as battle was never his forte, but he had still been powerful.
And now, only his lifeless body lay on the ground.
They turned as one to look at Jay, who was calmly lowering his hand.
"You... what did you just do?" Barakiel shouted, his voice cracking with shock. He took a step toward Jay, his hands crackling with lightning. "What did you do to my brother!?"
Azazel held out an arm, stopping Barakiel from lunging forward. His own face was a study in conflict. He had been planning to capture Satanael, to perhaps find a way to redeem him or at least keep him as a prisoner. After all, they are still brothers for eons.
He hadn't expected someone to simply execute him in the middle of a sentence.
"What do you think? Maybe because he killed humans, plotted this Utsusemi nonsense, caused chaos everywhere, and was probably planning something even more devious for the future? But I don't know," Jay asked rhetorically, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
Azazel and Barakiel found themselves unable to respond. The logic was brutal, yet undeniably true. Satanael was too dangerous to be kept alive, and he was too far gone to ever be a comrade again.
Jay's pragmatism was jarring, a sharp contrast to the complex moral codes the Grigori or even a normal human lived by.
Suddenly, a new voice drifted through the trees, calm and melodic.
"So that is the power of the Scorch Magician," the voice said. "I am truly honored to meet all of you under such... dramatic circumstances."
Everyone turned toward the edge of the forest. Emerging from the shadows was an exceptionally beautiful young woman. She was of Japanese descent, with long, flowing black hair and piercing red eyes.
She had a slim, voluptuous figure that was highlighted by her traditional yet modified attire. Beside her stood a handsome young man with spectacles and graceful features, wearing a blue blazer that looked far too formal for a forest.
Everyone reacted differently, but the most noticeable reaction came from Barakiel.
Barakiel's eyes widened, his anger momentarily forgotten. He looked at the girl as if he had just seen a ghost, his hands trembling slightly.
The young woman stepped into the light, bowing with a grace that felt ancient and refined.
"My name is Suzaku Himejima," she said, her voice carrying an unmistakable authority. "I am the heir of the Vermilion Bird of the Himejima Clan. And we have something to discuss regarding the events that have transpired in our territory."