Two days after Issei departed the Underworld to lie in wait, the quiet peace of Kuoh Academy was shattered by an unauthorized intrusion.
In the Student Council Room, Sona Sitri and Rias Gremory sat across from each other, tea cooling on the table. They were discussing the recent, unsettling stillness in the town—unaware that this silence was the breath held before an Imperial execution.
Algernon had deliberately kept both of them in the dark, using their genuine ignorance to sell the narrative of "victimhood" to the rest of the world.
The door burst open without a knock.
Two figures cloaked in white robes entered. As they pulled back their hoods, they revealed themselves to be the "stupid little girls sent to die by church" Xenovia Quarta, with her blue hair and rigid expression, and Irina Shidou, radiating a bubbly but condescending holy aura.
"Devils," Xenovia stated, her voice flat and lacking any diplomatic grace. She scanned the room with eyes full of zealot-like prejudice. "We are agents of the Church. We are here on a mission to retrieve stolen Excalibur fragments."
Rias narrowed her eyes, her crimson energy flaring slightly. "You are in Gremory and Sitri territory. Walking in here unannounced is an act of war."
"We aren't here to fight you... unless you get in our way," Irina chirped, her tone light but her hand resting dangerously close to the weapon concealed beneath her cloak. "We know a Fallen Angel leader, Kokabiel, has stolen Excalibur fragments and is hiding in this town."
Sona adjusted her glasses, the light reflecting off the lenses hiding her anxiety. Kokabiel? A Cadre class Fallen Angel?"If a Cadre is involved, we must inform the dukes immediately. This is beyond a simple territory dispute."
"No," Xenovia cut in sharply. "This is a Church matter. If you Devils intervene, it will be seen as an act of aggression against Heaven. Stay out of it, or we will destroy you along with the Fallen."
Rias and Sona exchanged a worried glance. They believed they had to tread carefully to avoid sparking a faction war unaware of the trap Algernon has set up here.
"Very well," Rias said, her voice tight. "We will not interfere with your hunt for the Excaliburs. But if this threatens the school or the town, we will act to protect our territory."
Xenovia scoffed, turning on her heel. "Just stay out of the way, Devils. We'll handle the Fallen."
As the two Church warriors walked out, arrogant and confident in their "secret" mission, they had no idea they were walking directly into a stage play written by the Demon Emperor.
__________________________________________
The sky over Kuoh Academy was a kaleidoscope of distorted light, sealed off from the human world by the desperate, shimmering barrier maintained by Sona Sitri and her peerage.
High above the schoolyard, Kokabiel sat upon a throne of black light, floating casually in the air. Beside him, the crazed priest Valper Galilei was feverishly conducting a ritual, the seven fragments of Excalibur glowing with blinding intensity as they slowly began to merge into a single, grotesque mass of holy light.
Down below, Rias and her peerage stood back-to-back in a tight defensive circle. They were completely surrounded by a legion of lower-class Fallen Angels and Cerberus beasts summoned by Kokabiel.
Rias, now at the peak of Tier 1, radiated a crimson aura of destruction that was dense enough to vaporize any stray Fallen that got too close. Her power had grown immensely under Algernon's guidance training boost, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming.
"Hold your ground!" Rias commanded, her voice cutting through the growls of the beasts. She blasted a three-headed dog into dust with a wave of her hand. "I have already informed Algernon and brother. We just need to hold them until reinforcements arrive. Do not falter!"
Her peerage nodded, their morale bolstered by her strength and the promise of the reinforcement.
High above, Kokabiel yawned, resting his cheek on his fist. He looked down at the skirmish with utter boredom.
"Is this it?" Kokabiel grumbled, his voice amplified by magic so the entire campus could hear. "I came here to start a war. I expected Sirzechs. I expected Serafall. Instead, I get their little sisters playing soldier."
He stood up, his ten black wings spreading wide, casting a massive shadow over the academy.
"You cling to your hope, waiting for your newborn 'Emperor' or your brother. You cling to your faith," he sneered, looking specifically at the two Church warriors, Xenovia and Irina, who were fighting alongside the devils out of necessity. "But it is all meaningless."
Kokabiel grinned, a manic expression twisting his face.
"Let me tell you a little story to pass the time before Valper finishes his toy. A secret that Azazel and the other leaders are too cowardly to speak."
He spread his arms wide, reveling in the blasphemy he was about to utter.
"God is dead."
The battlefield went silent. Xenovia and Irina froze mid-swing. Rias's eyes widened.
"He died in the Great War," Kokabiel laughed, the sound grating and cruel. "Along with the original four Satans. We killed him. The System is running on autopilot. There is no God in Heaven, and there hasn't been for centuries!"
The revelation hit the gathered fighters like a physical blow. The absolute foundation of the Church's faith—and the balance of the Three Factions—was shattered in a single sentence.
"So you see," Kokabiel taunted, gathering a massive spear of light in his hand, "there is no one watching over you. No one to hear your prayers. Just me, and the war I am about to begin."
As Kokabiel launched the massive spear of light, the air screamed with the density of the holy energy. Rias, gritting her teeth, raised her hand, her crimson power flaring desperately to intercept the blow that could vaporize the schoolyard.
She never got the chance to fire.
A red glow tore through the sky, moving faster than Rias's eyes could track. It didn't block the spear; it obliterated it. With a sound like shattering glass, the massive construct of light disintegrated into harmless sparkles of mana that rained down on the stunned peerage.
Kokabiel paused, frozen in mid-air. It wasn't magic that held him, but the sudden, crushing pressure of a presence that had just materialized directly behind him. He turned around slowly, the air vibrating with a deep, guttural growl.
Hovering there was the Red Dragon Emperor, clad in the full crimson plate of the Boosted Gear Scale Mail. The green gems on the armor pulsed with a rhythmic, terrifying power that far exceeded anything the "Weakest Dragon Emperor" he was historically chosen.
A manic smile stretched across Kokabiel's face. His boredom evaporated instantly.
"So," Kokabiel laughed, his eyes wide with delight. "The Devils didn't send Sirzechs... they sent the Red Dragon Emperor. If I kill you and his finance Rias Gremory here, your emperor will be really furious right."
Inside the armor, Issei Hyoudou looked down at the Fallen Cadre with cold, calculated eyes. He had been hovering in the stratosphere, cloaked and silent, watching the entire battle unfold.
He had waited for Kokabiel to open his mouth. "God is dead."
That was the trigger. That was the directive from Algernon. The truth that had been hidden for centuries, the glue holding the other fractions across the world from attacking the biblical fraction, had to be exposed. Algernon wanted the chaos for his plan to unfold.
Now that the words had been spoken and heard by the agents of the Church and spies from other fractions paying attention here, Issei's waiting was over.
"Silence," Issei's voice grated out, mechanically amplified and dripping with contempt. "You speak too much for an old, senile crow."
"Now that you have spoken your last words," Issei declared, the gems on his armor glowing with a violent, rhythmic emerald light. "[BOOST]."
The sound of the boost was the starting gun. Rias, shaking off the existential dread of Kokabiel's words, roared a command to her peerage. Her crimson Power of Destruction flared, incinerating the circle of lower-ranked Fallen Angels that had surrounded them.
Simultaneously, Kiba Yuuto, his eyes burning with the vendetta of the Holy Sword Project, blurred into motion, his blade drawn as he charged straight for the terrified Valper Galilei.
But the main event was in the sky.
Kokabiel barely had time to register the insult before Issei vanished. There was no travel time—only instant displacement.
Issei reappeared directly in front of the him. Kokabiel instinctively summoned a barrier of holy light, but Issei didn't bother to go around it. He punched through it.
CRACK.
The crimson gauntlet shattered the light barrier and buried itself deep into Kokabiel's stomach. The Cadre's eyes bulged, spit and blood spraying from his mouth as the air was forced from his lungs. The shockwave of the impact cleared the clouds above the school.
Issei didn't let him fly back. He grabbed Kokabiel by the collar of his robes and hurled him downward. The Fallen Angel struck the concrete roof of the school building with the force of a meteor, cratering the structure and sending dust billowing into the night.
Kokabiel groaned, trying to push himself up, his regeneration already failing to keep up with the damage. He looked up, his arrogance replaced by pure terror, as the Red Dragon Emperor descended slowly, landing on the edge of the crater.
"Impossible..." Kokabiel wheezed. "A mere demon... a pawn of demon emperor..."
Issei walked forward, his heavy footsteps echoing. He didn't offer a retort. He simply reached down, flipped the broken Cadre onto his stomach, and planted a heavy crimson boot on Kokabiel's spine to pin him down.
Issei reached down, his gauntleted hands grabbing the thick, black plumage of Kokabiel's ten wings. He gripped them not by the feathers, but right at the root, where bone met flesh.
"I heard that you take pride in being Fallen," Issei stated, his voice devoid of mercy. "And that you take pride in these wings."
Kokabiel realized what was happening. "Wait— No! YOU CAN'T—!"
"Then you won't need them where you're going."
With a brutal, sickening tear of wet muscle and snapping bone, Issei ripped.
Blood sprayed in a grotesque fountain as Issei tore the wings cleanly from Kokabiel's back. The Cadre's scream was a sound of absolute agony that drowned out the fighting below. Issei tossed the severed, bloody wings aside like trash, leaving the once-proud warmonger writhing in a pool of his own blood, flightless and broken.
Issei muttered, looking up at the sky. "Do you plan on watching the show forever?"
The screams of the mutilated Cadre were suddenly silenced, cut off not by death, but by a overwhelming, crushing pressure that descended from the heavens.
The night sky, previously choked with dust and the crimson aura of the Red Dragon, was split open by a pillar of pristine, blinding white light. It didn't slam into the ground with explosive force; instead, it washed over the schoolyard like a tidal wave of absolute stillness.
A figure slowly floated down through the column of light. He was clad in armor that mirrored Issei's in design but was its polar opposite in nature—sleek, white plate armor with shimmering blue gems.
[DIVIDE]
The voice that echoed from the white armor wasn't loud, but it resonated in the bones of everyone present.
"The White Dragon Emperor..." Xenovia muttered, her knees buckling under the sheer weight of his presence. Her sword clattered to the concrete. " The Vanishing Dragon... Why now?"
The pressure was suffocating. Rias, her peerage, and the Church agents found themselves frozen in place, their bodies refusing to obey their commands in the face of a Tier 2 predator.
Only one person remained unmoved.
Issei Hyoudou stood amidst the white pressure, his red armor humming defiantly. The crimson jewels on his gauntlets pulsed, negating the suppression.
Issei stated, his voice calm. "You're late."
Issei reached down and effortlessly hoisted the unconscious, wingless body of Kokabiel by the back of his torn robes. He dangled the defeated Cadre like a piece of luggage.
"I suppose you want him," Issei said, looking up at the hovering White Dragon.
Issei swung his arm, tossing Kokabiel's broken body through the air. The Fallen Angel landed with a heavy thud at Rias's feet.
"But you are going to return empty-handed today."
Issei turned his back on the White Dragon, addressing Rias and her stunned peerage directly.
"You guys evacuate," Issei commanded, his tone brokering no argument. "Take the prisoner and help Sona Sitri in maintaining this barrier. And keep him alive. He is the Empire's property now."
He turned back to face the white-armored figure, crimson aura rising from him negating all the pressure others faced.
(END OF CHAPTER)
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