Although Siegfried's hostility was obvious, he ultimately did not make a move.
Jeanne drove Rod through the city and brought him to a grand, luxuriously decorated estate in the suburbs.
Since there was no need to worry about being monitored, Jeanne openly introduced the place to Rod.
"This is the headquarters of the Khaos Brigade."
After getting out of the car, Rod looked over the imposing estate, though he still didn't quite understand why the Khaos Brigade's headquarters would be built in such an obvious location.
He had thought it would be more like Umbrella Corporation in Resident Evil, with some secret underground base.
Seeming to notice his confusion, Jeanne gave a light laugh and explained,
"At first, I found it strange too. But this is Romania. Even though it's only a little over a thousand kilometers from Rome, the Church's influence can't really reach here. The same goes for the Fallen Angels, devils, and the other pantheons. Their interference here is very limited."
"And that's because this is the land of vampires."
The moment Jeanne mentioned vampires, Rod immediately understood.
When people thought of vampires, their first impression was usually Count Dracula.
And the most famous Dracula Castle was indeed located in Romania.
Rod had dealt with vampires quite a few times before. His biggest impression of them was that, unlike stray devils, they preferred to live in groups, hang out in nightclubs, and spend their days doing nothing but partying.
That was partly due to the special nature of the vampire race.
Vampires looked almost no different from humans. Stray devils, on the other hand, usually suffered from magical rampages after leaving their masters, which made their appearances more grotesque. As a result, they could only hide in dark, damp, abandoned buildings.
But vampires could easily blend into human society. Aside from not being able to endure prolonged sunlight or holy light, they had almost no real weaknesses.
Most importantly, vampires were especially popular among a portion of modern young people.
Rod felt that this absolutely had something to do with Hollywood's Twilight.
Getting back to the point.
The reason the Khaos Brigade had chosen to establish its headquarters here was quite obvious.
Although the vampire race currently only inhabited two cities surrounded by barriers, Romania was still vampire territory.
And because the vampire higher-ups usually did not interfere with human society, the Khaos Brigade had found itself an ideal place to settle.
Of course, in Rod's view, the Khaos Brigade had most likely chosen this location because they saw the vampire faction as an easy target.
The vampire race prided itself on its noble bloodline, but the number of true powerhouses among them was extremely small. There were only two true progenitor, and in terms of strength, they were nowhere near comparable to the Maous of the Underworld or Azazel, the Governor-General of the Fallen Angels.
Before entering the estate, Rod's group was stopped by a Fallen Angel.
That was hardly surprising.
The Khaos Brigade was an organization formed by people who could no longer survive in their own factions, or by those with ambitions, gathering together into one camp.
More importantly, the Khaos Brigade did not care about one's background or race. Anyone willing could join.
Especially with Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God, serving as its nominal leader.
Most of the members here had come because of Ophis's name.
After Jeanne presented identification, the three of them walked through the estate gates.
Compared to the simple barrier outside, the barriers within the estate were far more specialized, layered several times over, and no weaker than the five-layer barrier covering the Inner Sanctuary.
Besides concealment and repelling outsiders, their greatest purpose was probably to guard against Ophis herself.
At present, Ophis was the Khaos Brigade's crown jewel.
Countless underground factions had been drawn here by her name, all wanting to catch a glimpse of her.
If Ophis got a whim and simply left, the Khaos Brigade, which had only just been established, would collapse on the spot.
Though Rod felt that if Ophis truly wanted to leave, these few layers of barriers probably wouldn't be able to stop her anyway.
Otherwise, she wouldn't be called the strongest being in the world.
Inside the estate's largest building, many figures moved about.
Stray devils, stray Fallen Angels, stray exorcists, humans, witches, vampires...
There were even people from other pantheons.
It was truly a chaotic mix.
At that moment, a girl in a Gothic L0lita dress suddenly appeared in front of Rod.
With a bright smile on her face, she leaned forward slightly, revealing a pair of not-so-generous peaks compared to the others, and said,
"Eh, eh, eh? Rosen, it really is you? I never thought I'd run into you here. I honestly thought you got wiped out in Kyoto by my master's Longinus!"
The girl who had appeared in front of Rod was Walburga.
Back in Kyoto, she had been one of the members of the witch group that attacked the witches of the Five Great Houses together with the Abyssal Fallen One and Utsusemi.
Rod was also surprised to see Walburga here.
He had assumed that after the witch group was broken apart, they would have all gone back.
Who would have thought that after all those twists and turns, they would actually meet again?
"Little Rod, who's she?"
At the sight of Walburga, Jeanne instinctively felt a trace of resistance.
Perhaps it was because of Walburga's identity as a witch.
"Walburga. She was one of the witches I met in Kyoto. But her master died back in Kyoto."
Rod shrugged.
Although the person who killed her master had been him, with the disguise provided by the Superman glasses, there was no way anyone would recognize him.
"That's only because my master wasn't strong enough. Besides, who could have guessed that some guy with glasses would suddenly jump out halfway through? That guy was absurdly strong, you know! He killed my master in an instant. He really gave me quite the fright~~~"
"Oh, right, Rod, do you want to join us witches?"
"No."
It was Jeanne who answered for him.
She stepped between the two of them and looked down at Walburga, whose face still carried that cute smile.
"Our Hero Faction members all share the same ideals and ambitions. We're not like you witches."
"You sound like such an old fossil~~~ But I didn't expect the Hero Faction to have such a pretty girl like you. What a real miracle."
"Thank you for the compliment. But enough small talk. We only care about whether Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God, is really here."
"Oh, Dragon God-sama? Of course she's here. But seeing her won't be easy. After all, those devils who went in earlier have been monopolizing Dragon God-sama's time for quite a while now."
Walburga smiled innocently.
"My, my. I heard they're descendants of Maous from the Underworld. They really are important people."
Descendants of Maous?
If so, then aside from the Old Maou faction, it couldn't possibly be anyone else.
The leaders of the Three Factions had only just started showing signs of gathering for talks because of Kokabiel's attack, and yet the Old Maou faction already knew about it.
It seemed that the Underworld, just like the Church, had quite a few traitors hidden within it.
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