Vali woke up to the dull, throbbing ache of phantom pain spreading through his entire body. He could feel that his significant, life-threatening injuries, the hole in his stomach that Kenji had put through his armor, the fractured ribs, the internal damage, all the injuries he had suffered, had already healed.
He groaned as he pushed himself up, the movement stiff and his body clearly unwilling, every muscle protesting.
Kuroka, who had been sitting over acting as the ever the watchful guardian, immediately leaned over him, golden eyes narrowing with a surprising intensity of concern. She smoothed back a strand of his white hair.
"Are you alright, nya?" she asked softly, her usual playful air completely absent, replaced by professional anxiety.
"I'm fyn…" he groaned out, his voice rough with forced denial. The word was a lie, and they both knew it. "What happened?"
"You lost, nya," she said bluntly, though a small, teasing lilt in her tone did nothing to soften the brutal blow of the truth.
"I… lost?" Vali repeated, the confusion flickering across his face quickly yielding to the crushing reality. Then the memories slammed into him like a meteor strike.
The fight.
The spectacle the human had done.
The utter humiliation.
Lost would be an understatement. He hadn't simply lost a fight, he had been crushed, humiliated, and beaten with an air of complete indifference.
The way the man had gazed at him showed that he didn't care at all that all he had been was a distraction. He had been so utterly outclassed, outmatched, and crushed from the first exchange to the last without ever being a threat. Something that had never happened to him before.
Vali clenched his jaw, the taste of iron in his mouth from his blood. The anger was directed inward, a bitter, searing heat.
He was arrogant, yes, he freely admitted it, but he had earned the right to be. His very existence was a testament to impossible power. He was of the greatest devil bloodline, the Lucifer clan. Even with His half-human heritage, it wasn't a flaw, in fact, it was the ultimate source of his strength, because it granted him a Sacred Gear.
And not just any gear.
A Longinus. A god-killing weapon capable of stealing half an opponent's power. The Divine Dividing.
He was the White Dragon Emperor, a being whose entire destiny was defined by the fight for supremacy, a being who could fight and slay gods.
Even the lowest of the gods were peak High-Class or low Ultimate-Class. Most deities sat comfortably in the Ultimate-Class. And the true monsters, the equivalents of Sirzechs, Ajuka, Hades, Indra, and Shiva, were forces that even the boldest hesitated to challenge.
So for him who could go toe to toe with gods and win, this was a surprise.
Yet he lost to a human. A mere human who treated the entire conflict like swatting a particularly bothersome fly.
He hadn't been able to land a single meaningful strike. His legendary speed was rendered irrelevant. His power-halving ability wasn't useful since he couldn't even land a single hit in.
And when he finally, desperately managed to get his hands on the man, the one moment he thought he could turn the tide, the human had done something terrifying.
All Vali remembered was Kenji slamming his sword into the ground and whispering something almost inaudible. In that instant, his Sacred Gear stopped working. The connection to Albion felt… muted. Severed.
That had truly terrified him. It was a complete, instantaneous nullification of his ultimate power.
It reminded him of his grandfather. Of Rizevim Livan Lucifer, the power-hungry Old Satan faction leader who possessed an ability specifically designed to negate Sacred Gears entirely.
The sickening realization dawned on him, Kenji didn't just win, he exposed the fundamental weakness of the White Dragon Emperor. For him who had a grudge against Rizevim, it just showed him that scared gear won't help him in that fight.
If he fought his grandfather right now, he would lose the exact same way, and that was something he wouldn't allow happen.
Kuroka's expression hardened as she saw the look on his face.
"Seriously, Vali… who were you fighting?" she asked, her voice heavy with worry. "I've never seen you this beaten before. Ever. The raw power it took to stabilize your body was incredible. You almost die. twice"
Vali had always been their pillar of strength, confidence, and swagger. To see him so utterly defeated was more disturbing than any physical injury. When Bikou had called her in a frantic and screaming for assistance, she had not expected this, not the broken and beaten body of Vali.
"It was that human the yokai were complaining about," he grumbled out, forcing himself upright against the soft cushions.
She cocked her head to the side, processing the information. "The one that killed Kokabiel? The one they said who stole the tail?" she asked, and he gave a short, affirmative nod.
"Hm." Even she had heard the whispers. The entire Khaos Brigade knew of him after the Kokabiel incident, but few took him seriously. After all, in the end, he was just a human.
But now, remembering the state Vali had been in when they brought him back, the total body collapse, she knew she would never underestimate that name again.
The door opened, and Bikou walked in, cheerful as always, Arthur Pendragon following behind him, his expression one of sober curiosity.
"Good, you're awake," Bikou grinned, tossing an apple in the air and catching it. "Thought you'd take your time sleeping in after that ass-whooping. You looked like a pancake, man!" He punctuated the joke with a booming laugh, though his eyes held a careful watchfulness that betrayed his actual concern.
Vali growled, a low, frustrated sound. "Shut up, monkey."
"Chill, chill! I'm just playing with ya," Bikou said, raising his hands in a mock surrender.
Arthur, however, wasn't amused by the banter. He approached the bed, focused on their leader.
"What happened, Vali?" he asked quietly, the question professional and strategic. "Was it another Longinus user? One of the devil kings?"
This was the first time the King Arthur descendant had ever seen their leader in such a condition. It was a bit uneventful.
Vali groaned. He didn't want to repeat the story. It was humiliating enough to remember it himself, let alone articulate the sheer, overwhelming gulf in power. He just lay back down, staring at the ceiling, offering no answer. The others, sensing his deep reluctance, decided to drop the topic.
'Tell me, Albion, when he touched the sword to the ground. What was that feeling?' Vali asked internally, his voice tight with fear and shame.
'I don't know, Vali,' Albion's calm, powerful voice echoed in his mind, the dragon offering rare comfort, but was ultimately useless.
Albion had lived long and sealed in the sacred gear long, so he had seen a lot of things, but nothing like this. The way his scare gear just cut off from Vali, it was a little scary because even he, as a dragon, could do nothing, as even his senses were cut off from the outside world.
Vali breathed, 'just what kinda power was that that, reminded me of rizevim'.
'Precisely. But Rizevim uses his unique devil power to negate the Sacred Gear of god by canceling their divinity, so it was understandable. This human used an entirely different method.' 'Don't torment yourself too much, Vali. That human was strange. Extremely strange.'
'I've never been so outclassed. Not like this,' Vali responded bitterly, the words heavy with shame. 'I felt... weak. Pathetic. Like Issei Hyoudou.'
Albion offered a mental chuckle, a rare sound of dry amusement. 'Do not compare yourself to that walking anomaly of perversion that is Ddraig's host. You faced a phenomenal fighter. However, you are correct. You made a critical error in judgment by underestimating him. You charged in expecting a duel of legends, and he responded by teaching you a lesson in survival.'
'The lesson was humiliation,' Vali countered, closing his eyes.
'The lesson was the revelation that true supremacy requires more than just scaling power. It requires the ability to fight when your core weapon is useless. You lost, that is true,' Albion said, not unkindly. 'But you still live. Now, just train. Grow. And surpass him. The path to true supremacy is paved with failures, not false victories. Use this anger. Turn this shame into fuel, Vali. Or you will forever be just a casualty in his ledger.'
Vali finally allowed a slow, predatory grin to stretch across his face. Albion was right. This feeling, this need to rise above.
'Good point, Albion. I'll tear him apart next time. I'll make him remember the name Vali Lucifer.'
'I look forward to it, partner.'
Before Vali could answer, Bikou's expression shifted, his easy smile replaced by professional seriousness. He consulted a magical scroll.
"Well… while I'd love nothing more than to let you rest, I have to be the bearer of bad news."
Kuroka and Vali both turned toward him questionably.
"Ophis has called a meeting."
Vali groaned loudly this time, pushing the words past his clenched teeth.
Of course, she had. Ophis may seem like a figurehead, and in a way, she was, but don't be fooled, she was old and smart as hell, she just rarely showed it. So the fact that she was calling a meeting meant it was something that had caught her interest.
A SHORT WHILE LATER – KHAOS BRIGADE CENTRAL BASE
The central chamber of the Khaos Brigade base was a sprawling room, large enough to fit every faction in the Khaos Brigade.
Vali sat at the massive, obsidian round table, his team standing silently behind him, Kuroka, Bikou, and Arthur. He felt the weight of dozens of eyes on his back, eyes belonging to the most dangerous renegades in the supernatural world.
Members of the Hero Faction lounged arrogantly on one side, led by the insufferably smug Cao Cao. The Old Satan Faction, including the volatile Shalba Beelzebub, Creuserey Asmodeus, would have also been here had he not lost himself to power and been vaporized by the crimson devil king. Magicians, vampires, rogue yokai—representatives from every branch of the Khaos Brigade filled the room.
Ophis must really want something if she called all the leaders of the respective factions, though he noticed that his grandfather was not here, just Euclid as always.
His thoughts were interrupted when an arrogant voice called out.
"Ah, Vali," Cao Cao called out smugly, the Hero Faction's leader never missing a chance for theatrics. He adjusted his sitting to face Vali. "I heard about your recent failiu— I mean, your recent activity. Heard you were quite injured, I hope it was nothing serious," he said smugly, " Guess you're not as strong as you brag." He let out a condescending chuckle that echoed around.
Vali's eyes narrowed sharply, the humiliation flaring into aggression. He forced himself to remain seated, fighting the urge to tear the arrogant human apart.
"Do you want to find out, Cao Cao?" His Divine Divide wings flared behind him, silver light momentarily eclipsing the dim ambient lighting, radiating a promise of lethal force.
Cao Cao smirked, summoning the True Longinus, its holy light burning the air with dangerous power, a direct challenge to Vali's demonic heritage. He could see other devils flinch at the mere sight of the weapon.
"Maybe I do," he replied, enjoying the display of Vali's wounded pride. "After all, if a common human could put you in a quiet state, perhaps the hero's blade is all it takes," gesturing to the spear.
Before either could escalate the challenge into open war, the heavy stone doors opened, and Katerea Leviathan walked in, her face set in a look of grim determination and barely concealed fury.
"If it isn't the coward," Shalba Beelzebub sneered, instantly seizing the opportunity to attack Katera, despite being under the same faction. "Fleeing a fight against a few scum? You disgrace the name of Leviathan, Katerea. You sacrificed your dignity and pride, retreating from a simple skirmish."
Katerea's eyes flashed with hatred. How dare he, how dare the coward who didn't even try, but before she could retort, before the simmering rivalries could boil over—
A crushing pressure filled the room, freezing every voice and stilling every heart.
Everyone, Vali, Cao Cao, Shalba, and Katerea, turned simultaneously toward the large, throne-like chair at the far end of the chamber.
A small girl sat there, legs dangling, expression blank and utterly devoid of emotion. Her presence was silence made manifest.
"Silence," she said, the word a flat, toneless command that carried the weight of the endless void.
And everyone obeyed instantly. The sheer weight of Ophis's existence, the Ouroboros Dragon, the Infinite Dragon God, was absolute. Her presence alone was enough to shut down every argument, every rivalry, and every petty dispute within her organization.
"Vali. Katerea," she called in her flat monotone, her voice carrying the sound of eternity and detachment.
"Yes," they both responded immediately, forced to face the being who led the geo brigade.
"What happened?"
Her eyes, empty yet ancient, stared directly at them, searching for something in them as her gaze.
She was curious. A human had defeated one of her stronger pieces,
Perhaps… She had found another being whose power could create the ultimate silence.
She had found another being who could help her remove Great Red.
And the room waited, silent, tense, breathless, to hear their answer.
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