The metallic stench of blood hung thick in the air. When the emergency lights flickered back on, only two figures remained standing, the old bishop, and Freed II shielding him from the front.
"What astonishing power," the bishop said, studying Rod with unsettling calm. "Were you also engineered by the Church using heroic gene templates?"
Despite the massacre of his subordinates, Valper Galilei showed no fear.
He had seen scenes like this countless times. What intrigued him far more than the carnage was the origin of Rod's strength.
As one of the researchers behind the Church's genetic development project, Valper understood better than anyone the difficulty and abysmal success rate involved. According to the information he had before fleeing the Church, clones like Freed were among the most successful outcomes of the program.
But the cloning research had eventually been halted over humanitarian concerns.
Valper had resented that deeply.
Later, he turned to research on the "Holy Sword Factor." Yet the brutal nature of the experiments led to that project's suspension as well. Those involved were arrested and interrogated.
Valper, however, received advance warning and fled.
Afterward, he entered the service of the Fallen Angels. When he learned that Kokabiel had arranged for the theft of the Holy Swords, Valper volunteered without hesitation.
And naturally, he completed his Holy Sword Factor experiment.
In the time before Rod arrived, Valper had injected extracted Holy Sword Factors, harvested from past test subjects, into Freed Sellzen II.
The procedure had succeeded.
That was why Freed, empowered by multiple Holy Sword augmentations, had survived Rod's earlier gunfire.
Convinced his deduction was correct, Valper's lips curled into a satisfied smile.
"They branded me a heretic," he sneered, "yet they confiscated all my research. And I've heard the Church later produced two Holy Sword wielders. That means someone continued my unfinished work, didn't they?"
"Damn you, Michael! You went to such lengths to paint me a sinner, yet you're no different!"
He laughed twistedly.
"Still, knowing that angel's temperament… even if he extracted Holy Sword Factors, he probably wouldn't have killed the test subjects. You could say he was at least slightly more 'humane' than I was. Hahaha!"
"Boss, why waste words on him?" Freed II interrupted impatiently. "Let me see how long it takes for the new and improved me to carve this smug bastard apart!"
He drew two Holy Swords and ran his tongue slowly along their gleaming silver blades, grinning maniacally.
"Wearing sunglasses at night? That's more pretentious than me. I've reached my limit! I'll cut him into a thousand pieces!"
Just as twisted as the original.
In the next instant, Freed's body faded, blending seamlessly into the environment.
The Transparent Holy Sword(Transparency).
Not only could the blade itself turn invisible, but so could its wielder.
Against true powerhouses, however, invisibility was little more than a gimmick. No matter how unseen the body became, one's aura still betrayed their presence.
Though, paired with Rod's Aura Concealment, it might have created something interesting.
A sharp gust of killing intent slashed forward.
Freed II attacked from the front, aiming to cleave Rod's skull in two, but before the blade touched him, Rod vanished.
Freed halted abruptly, scanning the darkness in confusion.
Then,
His world flipped.
In the split second before consciousness faded, he saw it: a headless corpse spraying blood onto the floor.
"Who… is that?"
The thought formed,
And Freed II died.
The moment his life force extinguished, his body reappeared. Three Holy Swords clattered onto the ground, ringing with a cold metallic echo.
"That's it?"
Rod stepped out of super-acceleration, gazing down at the corpse with faint disappointment.
With three Holy Swords empowering him, he'd expected something more substantial.
Turns out he was nothing but a decorative pillow, looks impressive, collapses on contact.
Across the room, Valper stood frozen.
His mouth hung open in perfect disbelief, wide enough to fit a goose egg.
His proud Holy Sword project… had failed to survive even a single move?
And what was Rod holding?
That sword,
Was that also… a Holy Sword?
But he had never seen such a blade before.
"Y-you- "
"I, I-"
Rod mimicked him flawlessly, psychological warfare as effortless as breathing.
Before Valper could recover, Rod drew a Desert Eagle from his storage space and pressed the still-warm barrel against the bishop's forehead.
"Wake up. I've got questions."
"W-what is it?!" Valper stammered.
No ordinary human could remain calm with a gun pressed against their skull, especially after their strongest weapon had been erased in seconds.
"Kokabiel. Where is he?"
Though Rod had obtained three Holy Swords, the mission remained incomplete. Clearly, these were not the true masterminds.
"You know of Lord Kokabiel?!" Valper blurted.
"Wrong answer."
Bang!
Rod fired.
Not at the head, but into Valper's calf.
The bishop screamed like a slaughtered pig, collapsing in agony. Yet when the gun lifted again, he forced himself to swallow the sound.
"L-Lord Kokabiel doesn't move with us!" he gasped. "He… he said the protagonist only has value if he appears at the final moment! That's all, he said nothing more!"
It was the truth.
Valper had only joined the plan midway, volunteering after learning of Kokabiel's scheme. Beyond the initial order to transport the three Holy Swords to Kuoh Town in Japan, Kokabiel had not spoken to them again.
Such arrogance was nothing new.
To Fallen Angels, humans were little more than insects.
Who wastes time conversing with insects?
Even someone like Raynare wouldn't bother.
"I see."
Rod pulled the trigger again.
Valper went to meet his progenitor.
Silence returned.
Rod stood alone among corpses, thinking.
How to proceed?
To complete the mission, Kokabiel would need to reveal himself.
But if Rod simply left, there was no guarantee when, or whether, the Fallen Angel would appear. And even if he did, he might not know who had interfered.
"Hm."
An idea surfaced.
Rod retrieved a brush from his storage space.
He lined the stray exorcists' bodies up neatly, then wrote across their backs in bold characters:
"Rias Gremory was here. If you're my brother, come and cut me down!"
That should do it.
When Kokabiel saw that message, he definitely wouldn't waste time chasing the Holy Swords elsewhere.
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