Kuoh Town.
Within a rather luxurious fortress made at the edge of the town and concealed with invisibility spells, three of the four Satans sat in front of the three Angels while their subordinates stood to the side.
Sirzechs Lucifer, the current ruler of the Devils and the strongest devil.
Ajuka Beelzebub, the creator of the Evil Piece system and the only equal of Sirzechs among the devil kind that they knew of.
And finally, Serafall Leviathan. The satan in charge of foreign affairs.
To the side of the devils stood Grayfia Lucifuge, the wife and Queen of Sirzechs Lucifer.
On the Angels' side was Michael, the Prince of Heaven's Armies. Gabriel, the Messenger of God, and Aetherion, the current ruler of the Angels (not by choice, but by necessity, given how Michael basically dumped everything on him and chose to run away from all responsibilities).
Of course, as expected, the two sides had varying reactions to each other.
On the Angels' side, Gabriel was wierdly staring at Serafall with a hint of hostility in her gaze, something that no one ever expected from her, while said devil was busy staring at Aetherion from head to toe with an appraising look.
Michael held his signature smile, but was staring sharply at Sirzechs, who had a wry smile on his own face thanks to the incident that happened the last time these two interacted face to face.
Ajuka, on the other hand, was staring at Aetherion seriously as he tried to estimate the power of this new angel that he had never heard about.
Grayfia, too, was staring at the heavily armored angel who could not be bothered with the devils and their actions.
As for Aetherion, he was busy on his phone, ignoring everything that was going on.
Unable to handle the silent clashes in the room anymore, Sirzechs cleared his throat and spoke up.
"Shall we get this meeting started?"
"Not yet. There is another person who has yet to arrive."
Aetherion's words confused the Satans.
"Is it another Angel?"
Aetherion grinned.
"Technically, yes. But also, no- Ah! Speak of the devil."
A familiar teleportation circle shone on the floor, making the devis tense up as they realized who had come through.
Azazel, the Scapegoat of God, one of the original Fallen Angels, and the leader of Grigori.
And appearing alongside him was a similarly famous Fallen Angel.
Baraqiel, the Lighting of God.
Seeing the stunned faces on the Devil's side, Azazel smirked before taking the empty seat.
"Sorry about the delay, I had to take care of a few things at my institute."
Aetherion put away his phone at those words and grinned, knowing that this little scheme of theirs had worked perfectly based on the faces of the devils.
"Now, let's get this show on the road, yeah?"
"What is he doing here!?"
Serafall's outraged voice expressed what the devils were feeling as a whole, making Azazel and Aetherion's smirks widen even more.
Azazel quickly put on a hurt expression and looked at Serafall.
"What!? You don't want me to be present when you work your magic? Levi-tan~"
Serafall shuddered at the fake honeyed words from the Governor of the Fallen, making Aetherion grin even more, if that was even possible
"Please don't speak like that to me!"
"Then, you should not make a fool of yourself on live streams across the supernatural internet through your magic girl show. Seriously, do you know how traumatized I was when I first saw your show online?"
"Hey! Everyone loves my show-"
"Serafall, enough."
Ajuka's calm words instantly stopped the devil woman from speaking as he turned to look at Aetherion.
"It was you, wasn't it? Who modified the Heavenly System into what it is today?"
Aetherion leaned forward with interest and placed his face on his fist.
"Why do you think that?"
Ajuka took out a bunch of documents from his storage and placed them on the table.
"A few months ago, reports started trickling in about a new Archangel from heaven who called himself Aetherion."
"At first, it was just rumors from those who accompanied the Barbatos clan heir in his personal crusade against Cleria Belial. Then, we got confirmation from our sources from the church that it was the truth."
".....You are being surprisingly candid by talking about your infiltration of the Church."
Ajuka shrugged at Aetherion's words.
"It is an open secret. One that is no longer worth anything, given how the church has cleaned house and made it impossible to infiltrate it again with the Karma system weeding out anyone we could send in as a replacement."
"Hm. Continue."
Ajuka took out another document and started going through it.
"Right after our reports were confirmed about your existence, things suddenly changed with the Heavenly System."
Putting down the document, he stared seriously at Aetherion, but Sirzechs beat him to the punch as he spoke with a grim tone.
"Resetting the Sacred Gears of our Peerages. Making Earth a hostile territory for anyone who has 'evil' origins. Giving reincarnated humans the option to go back to being human and then transporting them to Earth through the System if they accept the deal."
"Supressing the power of all Devils who come to Earth by at least two ranks. Using the Heavenly System to erect a Space Stabilizing Barrier across the entire planet, making it really difficult to travel from the Underworld, and even the other adjacent realms connected to Earth, to the mortal realm. The Karma System. The PvE system."
As he continued speaking, Sirzechs's power started to leak with each word, trying to pressure the angels with his superior power. A move that he had used many times before and had gotten away with.
"If I did not know better, I would think you are directly targeting the Devils and the Fallen Angels with your actions."
By dragging in the name of the Fallen Angels, Sirzechs cleverly made this Azazel's problem as well and tried to make the Governor join him in trying to supress the Angels and get some concessions and benefits out of them.
Unfortunately for the current Lucifer, Azazel was not in the mood as he simply continued playing with his phone, ignoring everything.
Seeing this, Aetherion grinned and leaned back in his chair.
Suddenly, the oppressive and destructive energies in the room that were created by Sirzechs's power were snuffed out like a candle.
What replaced it was a heavy pressure that made the devils' breath hitch.
To them, it felt like they were thrown onto the surface of the sun, as the pure Holy Energy in the air seared their skin as if they were meat on a grill.
Aetherion still held a lazy smile as he leaned back in his chair with his legs crossed and his face resting on his fist.
Yet, his blue eyes were now a solid gold as his pure white wings became tainted with a similar shade of gold divinity as his eyes.
To the side, Empyrean stood tall as he too manifested his ten wings made of pure light while holding his spear, making Grayfia stand tall as well, freezing the ground around her with her power.
Seeing that standoff, Serafall and Ajuka prepared to do the usual song and dance that they were familiar with after so many centuries, because this was a routine way of doing things between the three factions.
Sirzechs would act like a hot-head, using his power to intimidate their opponents, while Serafall or Ajuka, depending on who was present, would mediate between Sirzechs and their opponents, allowing them to assert both their power as well as diplomatic power to win what they want from these meetings.
However, today, things were bound to go against the script.
Serafall could not help but gawk in shock as the ever-gentle Gabriel, who would always remain silently by her brother's side, stood up from her seat before removing her robe.
Revealing the gleaming silver armor that she had not worn since the end of the Great War, along with the Scepter that was once the symbol of fear for many a Devil back in the day. Her twelve wings spread open behind her as her holy energy joined Aetherion's within the atmosphere.
Before the Devils could respond, Michael stood up as well, showing his own armor beneath the robes and the blazing sword whose purple flames were still fresh in the nightmares of many older devils to this day.
With the combined power of the four angels present, the Holy Energy had become so strong that it was now actively harming the three satans present.
Aetherion smirked as he leaned forward, staring straight into Sirzechs's eyes.
"You do not know any better. Gremory. What you said is right. I am suppressing the Devils and taking away their military power. And not only your kind, I am targeting every race out there that causes harm to humanity."
Ajuka stood up from his seat as his own Demonic Energy erupted from his body, aiding his friend's power, just as Serafall did.
"The Reincarnation System is meant solely to help repopulate our kind-"
Aetherion did not even let Ajuka speak anymore before manifesting a large stack of files and throwing them across the table, landing them right in front of Ajuka.
"Amonel Barbatos. Former heir of the Barbatos clan. Kidnapped a human girl from Britain because she had a Sacred Gear, forcefully turning her into a Reincarnated Devil. He then traded her away when she could not keep up with his other members in the peerage, who were similarly taken from their homes by him. After his death, his peerage members, who had no say in the way their lives were destroyed, were labeled stray devils for wishing to escape the Underworld and were killed off before we even learned about what was happening."
"Altran Paimon. Heir to the Paimon Family. This guy had a peculiar habit of picking up helpless humans from the streets and then turning them into his playthings. Particularly, he targeted teenage boys. After the heavenly system rescued these young men and gave them their humanity back, many of them committed suicide, unable to handle the trauma, while those who still live curse the Paimon name. The same Paimon whose family still serves under your foreign affairs division, Leviathan."
Serafall's expression fell as disgust filled her heart while she glanced at the files that Ajuka was seriously studying.
"Vera Beleth. This woman is the heir of the Beleth family and loves to target children from the other races, acting as a mother figure for those children who were too young to know what was going on when she has them kidnapped from their families through elaborate schemes. She is cautious enough to never show her face on Earth, but we are waiting for the moment she does, so that we can kill her then and there."
Aetherion smirked, but his eyes held nothing but pure disgust as he stared at Ajuka, whose shoulders kept falling lower and lower with each word spoken.
"I believe, Lord Beleth works in one of your research institutes, yes? Oh, great Satan Beelzebub?"
Ignoring the uncomfortable devils, Aetherion continued speaking.
But the words he spoke next nearly made Ajuka shoot up from his seat in shock.
"Diodora Astaroth. Heir to the Astaroth family. Your ever beloved cousin, Beelzebub."
"He targets girls who are considered holy maidens or priestesses from various pantheons, including the Church, and makes elaborate schemes to trap them. Then, he violates them, both in body and mind, before turning them into his slaves."
The smirk finally fell away from Aetherion's face as he stood up.
Suddenly, it felt like the very world felt terrified of what was to come as a strange lance made of pure kaleidoscopic energy manifested in the Angel's hand.
For the first time in their lives, Sirzechs and Ajuka felt absolute terror as the weapon felt like an entire world pressing on their very souls, as the strange energies within it felt like they could destroy their very souls right where they stood.
"Tell me, Devils. What am I supposed to do when your kind causes such wanton destruction in the human world? What am I supposed to do when helpless mortals are targeted like this by your filthy kind for their sickening pleasures? Are we supposed to just stand by and let you do as you please?"
Serafall stuttered as she pulled herself together and tried to speak.
"T-That is just the outliers-"
"Out of the 72 pillar families of the Underworld, only 32 still live to this day. And out of those 32, there are 23 family heirs in that stack of files I gave you, Leviathan. And this is not even considering the hundreds of pure-blooded devils from minor noble families and Extra Devil families who have committed similar acts. Tell me, who exactly are the outliers here?"
Azazel finally put away his phone and sighed loudly, gaining the attention of the devils and angels.
"Alright, enough of that, brother Arael-I mean Aetherion. How about we sit down and talk about this like civilized beings?"
The deliberate slip of the tongue on Azazel's part was not missed by the devils, who filed that name away to investigate later and felt relief when Aetherion put away his lance.
With a dramatic sigh, Aetherion sat down on his seat, along with his siblings, who gave similarly 'reluctant' looks before sitting down.
Internally, Azazel could not help but praise his former siblings for their stellar acting skills, but externally, he held a serious look.
"Look, nothing comes out of fighting like this. Our three factions are already weakened to a certain extent and cannot afford another war. So, how about we reach a compromise?"
Azazel spoke lies as easily as breathing, as that was his nature.
Out of the three factions of the Abrahamic religion, only the devils were at a distinct disadvantage. Especially now that all the Angels of old who were killed had been revived and made immortal, literally.
When Azazel first learned of how Aetherion had modified the System somehow to help all the angels 'Respawn' in the Heavens if ever they are killed by keeping a tether of holy energy always connected to their souls, he had felt like he was hearing something extremely alien to the common sense of the world.
Then again, it was an idea conceived by his brother Arael, so there was no surprise that it would be completely unhinged, but would somehow end up working to his favor one way or another.
Even the Fallen Angels, who had suffered the least amount of casualties in the war, not to mention that their fertility rate, which was superior to the Devils and could produce new Fallen Angels without much problems, were superior to the Devils' these days in both numbers and power.
The only thing that the Devils had going for them was the reincarnation system and their two so-called Super-Devils.
Sirzechs and his companions did not know this fact, but they still sensed that something was wrong with what Azazel said.
However, they were currently not in a position to say no, as their entire script had been flipped on its head.
Serafall, the devil in charge of foreign affairs, finally remembered her original duty and faced Azazel.
"What do you have in mind?"
Azazel grinned as he spotted the subtle nod from Aetherion.
"How about we put away all these old grudges and reach an accord that would be beneficial to everyone?"
------------------------------------------------
Author Notes:
Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1