" Hero? "
Jay asked. Now that he had seen it, that spear was radiating such an immense holy aura. And since there was only one spear he knew of, wielded by a human, that could possibly emanate such an aura, there was no doubt. He thought he knew what it was…
" Yes, we are- "
But Jay simply turned his back.
"Yeah, hold on. Let's go inside," Jay said casually. He reached over, took the plate of biscuits from Lavinia's hand, and walked back into the house without a second glance at the two visitors.
Lavinia stood speechless for a moment, her mouth slightly agape. She looked at Jay's retreating figure, then back at the two visitors. She sighed, before her gaze fixed Cao Cao and the man behind him with a sharp gaze.
"You can come… and don't forget to close the door," Lavinia said, following Jay and leaving Cao Cao and the other man staring at each other in confusion.
"You sure, Cao Cao? It's probably a trap," the man whispered.
"I don't sense any trap… but I'm not certain either. Be ready to teleport with Dimension Lost in case we're ambushed, Georg," Cao Cao replied.
Georg nodded. The two of them stepped inside the mansion cautiously and closed the door behind them. The interior was mostly wooden, but it wasn't traditional Japanese architecture. Modern, yet warm with natural wooden tones giving it a lived-in elegant feel.
Inside, they saw Jay and Lavinia already seated side by side on the couch in the living room. Without hesitation, they took their seats across from them, eyes scanning the room while trying not to reveal their tension.
"Here are some biscuits Lavi made," Jay said, gesturing to the table as the two guests sat down across from him. "Try them. They're good."
Cao Cao and Georg exchanged a long, bewildered look. Cao Cao still held the True Longinus, the spear's tip resting near his boot. He studied Jay's face, looking for a twitch, a smirk, or a sign of mockery.
Deciding to regain control of the room, Cao Cao put on his most charismatic smile. "We actually have something important to discuss with you. But first, let me introduce ourselves properly. My name is Cao Cao, the descendant of the Hero of the Three Kingdoms. And this is Georg, the descendant of Johann Georg Faust."
At the mention of Faust, Lavinia's eyebrows shot up. "The descendant of the Founding Father of Grauzauberer? Why haven't I seen you in there?"
"I never joined them," Georg answered shortly.
Cao Cao cleared his throat, clearly irritated at being sidelined by small talk. "Anyway... as you can see, I am the wielder of the True Longinus. The strongest of the thirteen Longinus. The spear that-"
"You prefer tea or coffee?" Jay interrupted, his expression entirely deadpan.
A vein popped in Cao Cao's forehead. The charismatic mask slipped for a fraction of a second after being treated like a door-to-door salesman.
"I'm joking," Jay said, though his voice remained flat.
Cao Cao forced a dry cough and smoothed his expression. "Right. Moving on. Have the two of you heard of the Hero Faction?"
"Not that I remember," Lavinia said. She looked at Jay, who simply shook his head.
"We are the Hero Faction. Humans who refused to accept the idea that the world should belong to gods, devils, or dragons simply because they were born divine. Those 'evil beings' are a cancer upon this world. Wherever they exist, humans suffer. And so we believed that they must be fought… and defeated."
Hearing that, Jay thought quietly,
'So an organization like that really exists, huh.'
"And for that purpose," Cao Cao continued, "we gather humans with Sacred Gears, humans with magical potential. We fight those beings to create a better world, one without the oppression of gods, devils, and dragons. The world for human."
His gaze settled fully on Jay.
"And so," he said calmly, "I am honored to ask the man who has already achieved something even I, the strongest human, have not."
A brief pause.
"To kill a god."
Cao Cao's lips curved into a thin smile as he extended his hands to Jay.
"Join the Hero Faction, Godslayer."
The room fell into a heavy silence when Jay's expression didn't change at all in response to Cao Cao's invitation. Four Longinus users sitting at the same table was already a miracle. That such a meeting hadn't yet spiraled into disaster felt like another.
Georg studied the man across from him. The Scorch Magician, that was the name one of his informants had used. In truth, the report had been sparse. All it confirmed was that this young man wielded Incinerate Anthem.
Yet as a fellow magician, Georg could sense something far more unsettling.
The magical imprint emanating from Jay felt… ordinary. Almost nonexistent. If Georg had encountered him on the street, he would have dismissed him as just another mundane human without a second glance.
And that was precisely the problem.
This was a young man who had killed a god. News of that feat had spread widely throughout the supernatural world. There was only one conclusion Georg could draw, Jay's control over mana was so refined that it left no excess leakage, no presence to be felt.
A true master magician.
And that led to one deeply troubling realization.
Jay had not killed Susanoo through brute force alone.
After some time.
"I must admit that you have one noble goals." Jay said, finally speaking.
"Then-"
"But... The so called evil beings you talking about. Gods, devils, vampires… they all also shared one trait. They believed they had the right to stand above others."
His eyes lifted, finally meeting Cao Cao's. With a brief pause, Jay then said.
"And so do all of you."
Cao Cao's smile faded the moment the words left Jay's mouth.
Jay didn't press him. He spoke evenly, almost detached, as if stating an obvious fact.
"Evil isn't born from fangs, halos, or divinity," he said. "It's born the instant someone decides their power gives them the right to stand above others."
He gestured vaguely around the room. "Gods call it providence. Devils call it hierarchy. Vampires call it lineage. And you call it being a hero."
His gaze hardened.
"I don't care about your noble cause, after all i am not a good person." Jay simply said.
Even if there was kindness within evil, even if not all devils were oppressors, it didn't matter. What kept him moving wasn't justice, or salvation, or the protection of humanity. It was the creed he had carved into himself and chosen to follow. If that creed made him evil, then so be it. This was never a path of righteousness.
It simply is.
Hearing such rejection, Cao Cao smiled.
"I see… then that's too bad."
Suddenly, the air screamed. Cao Cao moved with a speed that bypassed human perception, the tip of the True Longinus thrusting directly toward Jay's face.
CRACK
Before the spear could travel six inches, a massive pillar of ice erupted from the floor, encasing the blade in a frozen tomb. Lavinia stood up, her face a mask of frost and a faint whitish hue emanating from her skin.
Cao Cao didn't look at her. He didn't have to. A blinding, holy light exploded from the spear, shattering the glacier into a million shards of glittering dust. The tip of the spear was now just an inch from Jay's nose.
But Cao Cao stopped.
"Now, that's more like it," Cao Cao muttered with a grin.
And the reason Cao Cao stopped was because a jet-black katana was already resting at his neck, threatening to cut it at any moment.
Georg, who also specialized in Spatial Magic, widened his eyes in shock. He hadn't even realized that the blade had already been mere millimeters from Cao Cao's throat. The jet-black sword radiated an aura so intense that somehow Dimension Lost, the Longinus he wielded seemed to scream in fear.
'What is that blade?!' Georg thought.
Cao Cao slowly withdrew his spear, and Jay stepped back in tandem. The two measured each other silently before Cao Cao's gaze shifted to Lavinia.
"What about you, Ice Princess? Interested in joining?" Cao Cao asked, his charming smile in place.
"No, thank you," Lavinia hissed, her frost-tipped hair trembling slightly with restrained power.
"Very well. A shame our recruitment process failed, but it is what it is," Cao Cao said. A thick purple fog suddenly enveloped both him and Georg uses the signature ability of the Fourth Strongest Longinus, Dimension Lost.
"Then we shall meet again, Godslayer, Ice Princess. Perhaps next time… on the battlefield," Cao Cao added, his confident smile cutting through the haze.
As the mist began to swallow them, Jay made a sudden slight movement.
SHIING
A flash of black light tore through the purple fog.
"Ugh!" Cao Cao's head snapped back. A thin, red line appeared on his cheek, blood trickling down his jaw. His eyes widened in genuine shock. The attack had been so fast that it felt nearly instantaneous, a spatial bypass that ignored the distance between them.
"Next time," Jay said, sitting back down and reaching for a biscuit, "...don't bring a spear to a conversation."
The purple fog vanished, taking Cao Cao and Georg with it.
And then, their figures disappeared entirely.
Jay returned Habakiri to his pocket dimension, his expression calm as he sank back into the couch. Lavinia's gaze lingered on the spot where the two had vanished, a mixture of curiosity, caution, and unease in her eyes.
"Hero Faction… I should probably reported it to Chief Leader." she murmured.
Jay leaned back, thinking.
'The strongest human, huh?'
***
Three days later, Jay and Lavinia arrived at the Grigori headquarters, navigating the sleek, high-tech hallways of Nephilim.
"The Shinto Pantheon is breathing down my neck," Azazel muttered, rubbing his temples. "Amaterasu is demanding both of Susanoo's swords be returned immediately."
"No," Jay replied simply.
Azazel let out a long, weary sigh. "Yeah… I figured you'd say that. Since i don't have any excuse for that matter, you'd better be ready to face her because the one they're really coming after is you."
Jay just ignored Azazel.
Lavinia looked around the bustling facility. "Where are Natsume, Toby and the others?"
"Officially enrolled here at Nephilim," Azazel explained. "They need to train their Sacred Gears properly, especially the survivors from the Utsusemis Agency.."
They were soon met by Penemue, the purple-haired cadre of the Fallen Angels. She offered a rare, sharp smile.
"Sup, Penemue."
"Good Afternoon, Governor." She then looked at Lavinia and Jay, especially Jay. "You two look better... By the way, i heard the three of you talking about the kids, it is the perfect time since Tobio and Vali are sparring in the training pit right now."
Jay's heart skipped a beat. Vali?
The name echoed in his mind, stirring memories of cold nights and a shared past. They followed Penemue to an observation window overlooking a massive combat floor below.
Down in the arena, two figures were moving in a blur of motion. One was Tobio with Jin on his side. While the other was a handsome boy with light silver hair and a fierce, unmistakable look in his eyes. He was shorter than Jay remembered, or perhaps Jay had simply grown more these last few months.
But it's unmistakably him, the only one left that night.
A friend.
"Vali..." Jay whispered, his voice barely audible.