Not a single person was surprised.
The moment Azazel spoke, the atmosphere in the room plunged to a freezing point.
Everyone frowned in unison, their gazes toward Azazel far from friendly.
But Azazel acted as though he hadn't noticed at all, carrying on at his own pace.
"Back when Kokabiel was suppressed, I already made a statement on behalf of our faction, didn't I? That entire incident was something Kokabiel carried out on his own, behind the backs of every other cadre and myself, the Governor General. Not a single one of us knew about it, and we certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to deliberately provoke a war in that fashion."
"Setting everything else aside, what would we even gain from doing something like that?"
"Steal a few holy swords, kill the little sisters of two Maou, piss you all off, and then... what? Wait for you to come beat us up?"
"If I had that kind of free time, why wouldn't I just secretly move our forces into angel and devil territory, launch a surprise attack, seize some land, and take out a few key figures first? That way, even if war did break out, at least it'd be on our terms."
"And whether we're talking about holy swords or Maou's sisters, even if they were lost, it would barely scratch the surface for the angel and devil factions."
Azazel's reasoning, while making some people uncomfortable, Rias and Sona chief among them, was undeniably sound.
If you truly wanted to start a war, why go through all the trouble of stealing holy swords and targeting Maou's sisters? A direct surprise attack while the other two factions had their guard down, seizing the initiative and securing early victories... wouldn't that be far more effective?
"Once I learned what that idiot Kokabiel had done, I immediately dispatched Vali, the current White Dragon Emperor, with the sole purpose of stopping Kokabiel's unsanctioned operation and preventing the situation from escalating."
Azazel shrugged.
"Who could've guessed? By the time our White Dragon Emperor arrived on the scene, Kokabiel had already been dealt with. We had no choice but to abandon him and leave his fate in the hands of the devil side."
This, too, was the fallen angel faction expressing its sincerity.
If one of their own important figures had caused a catastrophe and gotten captured, then by all means, do with him as you please. They wouldn't interfere. Surely that counted for something?
Kokabiel was a cadre of the fallen angels. Even if he'd committed a grave offense, under normal circumstances, an opposing faction shouldn't be the one to punish him. The proper course would be to retrieve him first, then handle things internally. That was how a major power conducted itself.
Otherwise, having your own key figure disposed of by a rival faction would be nothing short of humiliating.
Yet despite all that, the fallen angels had chosen to wash their hands of Kokabiel entirely. That alone spoke volumes about their unwillingness to escalate the conflict.
Sirzechs and Michael exchanged a glance, then turned to face Azazel together.
"Then may we take this to mean that the fallen angel faction currently has no intention of engaging in serious conflict with us, or reigniting the war?"
Michael asked the question with careful sincerity. Azazel answered with a cheerful laugh.
"Of course. Myself included, the fallen angels these days have very little interest in war. Especially me. I have absolutely zero interest in it."
"Our side is really just a bunch of idiots, honestly. Compared to war and fighting, we're far more interested in Sacred Gears and women."
"Me in particular. After fighting for so many years in the past, I got sick of war a long time ago. I'm quite satisfied with the way things are now."
As he spoke, Azazel's gaze swept across Sirzechs, Serafall, and Michael, his voice carrying genuine sentiment.
"Back then, we couldn't avoid fighting even if we wanted to. God's expressed will was to purge all evil and sin from this world. And devils, fallen angels like us... in God's eyes, we were nothing more than plagues upon creation."
"The original Maou were all ambitious warmongers too. They refused to accept being confined to the Underworld, refused to accept ruling only the world of night, and spent every waking moment plotting to overthrow God's supremacy, conquer Heaven and the human world, and become the supreme rulers of everything."
"So the conflict was inevitable. The Great War between the three factions was born from that, and it dragged on for thousands of years, bleeding all three sides so badly that none of us could survive without relying on humans."
"But now? God is gone. The original Maou are dead. Every source of the war has been eliminated. And the people leading Heaven and the devil world happen to be gentle souls like you, people who have no appetite for war. I felt an enormous weight lift off my shoulders. I could finally focus on doing the research I actually enjoy."
For once, Azazel didn't deliver those words with his usual flippant attitude. They were full of genuine feeling, full of heartfelt relief. Anyone listening could tell this was how he truly felt.
Sirzechs, Serafall, Michael, and the others fell silent. Rias, Sona, and the rest were equally caught off guard that Azazel would say something like this. Only Leo and Vali reacted differently.
Leo had known what kind of person Azazel was for a long time, so nothing about this surprised him.
Vali, on the other hand, watched Azazel with a shifting, unreadable gaze, his thoughts hidden.
"In short, I can tell you with full confidence that the fallen angels have absolutely no desire to start a war." Azazel's expression turned serious. "We should all be perfectly aware of this. Given our current state, if war breaks out again, all three factions will destroy each other. Even if a victor somehow emerged, they'd be so devastated they could no longer sustain their race. It would be the end."
Sirzechs and Michael both nodded.
"That's right. War can never be allowed to happen again."
"If war breaks out once more, this time we'll all be annihilated."
Both Sirzechs and Michael wore grave expressions.
Among those listening, some understood the current state of the three factions well, others only partially. But from the severity written on the faces of each faction's leaders, they grasped the weight of the situation.
War, for all three factions, would be nothing less than mutual suicide. The moment it erupted, there would be no good outcome for anyone.
"This summit was convened precisely to confirm the future intentions of all three factions, to confirm that we all share the same understanding." Serafall, the one responsible for diplomacy, could no longer hold herself back. She leaned forward. "Since we all share this consensus, why not seize this opportunity to formalize a peace accord?"
The moment those words left her mouth, the leaders' reactions aside, the observers were stunned.
A peace accord.
A treaty.
A formal agreement of non-aggression, even mutual cooperation and coexistence.
"All three factions have been reduced to a state where we simply cannot survive without humans. If we don't seek change now, then even if we avoid annihilation, we'll find it impossible to develop any further."
Sirzechs had clearly discussed this with Serafall beforehand. The moment she proposed the accord, he spoke up immediately.
"On the devil side, we believe that continuing down this path is simply not an option."
And so, a peace accord was needed. Cooperation was needed.
Only by setting aside old grudges and moving forward together could the three factions have a future.
This was the position of the current Underworld regime, led by Sirzechs.
"Ha ha ha!" Azazel burst into laughter, clapping his hands and pointing at Sirzechs and Serafall with barely contained amusement. "Well, I never would've guessed! Devils, the very symbol of evil in human eyes, taking the initiative to propose a peace accord! Talk about shattering expectations!"
Devils praying for peace, for coexistence... it really did sound like a joke.
"As I thought, devils really have changed." Michael's tone carried a mix of complexity and relief. "During the old wars, the original Maou were always the war hawks. Every time fighting broke out, the devils were consistently the most reckless, the most unhinged force on the battlefield."
"Even during the period when the Two Heavenly Dragons threw the battlefield into chaos, the devils held out until the very end before reluctantly joining the other two sides to deal with them."
"The devils of today are something else entirely. Having people like you, people who genuinely desire peace, serving as Maou... it does make things considerably easier for us."
Both Michael and Azazel had survived since an impossibly ancient era.
Sirzechs and Serafall, by contrast, were born only within the last few centuries. To Michael and Azazel, they were juniors among juniors. Children who had only just grown up.
And so, when these young leaders came together to champion reform, to champion peace, both Michael and Azazel were deeply moved.
They had witnessed devils at their most crazed and their most wicked. That was precisely why the image recorded in history was one of evil incarnate.
Bloodshed, ruin, sin, madness... all synonymous with devils, an image that had persisted since ancient times.
Yet now, thanks to the efforts of a group of young people, even the devils were beginning to change.
For Azazel and Michael, who had seen the very worst of what devils could be, the emotion was hard to put into words.
And yet...
"The war between the three factions has a long history, and the hatred that's accumulated runs higher than the sky and deeper than the earth. If you suddenly announce that it's time to let go of the past and join hands, there are going to be quite a few people who can't accept that, aren't there?"
When Azazel said this, it didn't sound like a concern or a warning. It sounded more like he was testing the resolve of Sirzechs and the others, his tone laced with provocation.
Michael nodded as well, agreeing with the point.
The enmity between Heaven and the devil world was not something that could be brushed aside. The Church had been training exorcists for ages specifically to combat devils.
For members of the Church, devils were threats that had to be eradicated. Asking them to abandon that worldview and cooperate with devils instead would deliver an unprecedented blow to their faith.
In fact, as former Church members, Asia and Xenovia looked utterly shocked at this very moment, shaken almost as badly as when they'd learned the truth about God's death.
Everyone else was the same. Especially the pureblood devils who had been born and raised in the Underworld: Rias, Sona, Ravel, and the rest. The parade of emotions crossing their faces was something to behold.
After all, the Underworld was dominated by devils and fallen angels, each occupying half the territory, and they had spent ages coveting each other's land, constantly finding ways to make trouble.
Now, all of a sudden, they were being told to make peace? To cooperate? It was a lot to take in.
Once again, only Leo and Vali remained unfazed.
They had both known this development was coming. The difference was that one accepted it with a go-with-the-flow attitude, while the other watched from the sidelines with cold, detached eyes.
Then, everyone heard the response from Sirzechs and Serafall.
"If hatred is allowed to persist indefinitely, it will become nothing more than a cancer that endangers everyone."
Sirzechs spoke with solemnity.
"Even the older generation of devils has grown weary of war. The hawks no longer have a voice, and the new generation, having grown up in the current environment, doesn't harbor the hostility toward angels and fallen angels that their predecessors did. Now is precisely the time to push forward with bold reforms!"
Serafall clenched her small fists, looking both spirited and endearingly determined.
"As expected, the current Maou really are something." Azazel laughed again, then turned to Michael. "What do you say, Archangel?"
"Our mission is to guide humanity, to watch over God's children and lead them toward a bright future." Michael smiled gently. "After losing God, we've already experienced the confusion and panic of not knowing which way the road ahead leads. After all, there will never again be a God to guide us forward."
"We can only carve out the future ourselves, forge our own path toward it."
"Peace is exactly what we have been dreaming of."
If there was one faction that could least afford the losses of another war, it was the angels.
The devil side had essentially solved its population crisis once the Evil Pieces system was developed. Dwindling numbers were no longer a concern.
The fallen angels, while the smallest of the three factions in terms of numbers, would continue to exist as long as angels did. There would always be angels who developed personal desires and eventually fell.
Only the angels truly had no way to increase their numbers after God's death.
Angels could not reproduce. Every one of them was a being created by God, and with their Creator gone, their numbers would never grow again. Losing even a single angel was a devastating blow.
Because of this, the angels relied on human power more than any other faction. Even fighting devils and fallen angels was left to the human-run Church, while the angels themselves only provided blessings and bestowed the power of light upon those human warriors.
The angels were the faction that least wanted to see war return.
As for the Church's feelings on the matter... that was a different issue entirely.
Regardless, Michael was absolutely in favor of the peace accord.
"Then it's settled!"
Azazel brought his hand down decisively.
"The three factions hereby make peace and enter into a formal accord!"
Devils, angels, and fallen angels would no longer stand as enemies.
The war that had persisted among the three factions for thousands of years had, at long last, perhaps truly come to an end...