"You two, stop fooling around!"
Akeno's shout cut through the chaos, snapping both Rias and Sona out of their hot-blooded bravado. Their eyes turned to her at the same time.
"Akeno…?" Rias stared at her in surprise. "What's gotten into you?"
She'd noticed it for days now.
Ever since Akeno started going to that mercenary's house, something subtle in her had changed. Rias had assumed it was just a period of adjustment, accepting her bloodline power and getting used to it.
But now it didn't feel like that at all.
"I'm fine," Akeno said, voice steady. "I'm just… more-"
She didn't finish.
A crushing pressure descended as the ten-winged figure above closed in, filling the night with suffocating malice.
Kokabiel's vicious gaze pinned Rias and Sona like nails.
"She's right. What you two are doing is monumentally stupid, so hurry up and call Sirzechs and Serafall!"
Rias and Sona both snapped their heads up.
"I'll defeat you in my brother's stead!" Rias declared.
"My sister won't come," Sona said coldly, "but the Student Council will stake the Sitri family's honor on this battle!"
Kokabiel's smile twisted.
"You had your chance… but you still chose the hard way. Fine. Then I'll just kill you. Once you're dead, they'll come running anyway."
He lifted his right hand as if it were nothing.
A gigantic pillar of light formed overhead, thick as a utility pole, blazing with deadly radiance.
"Move!"
Akeno's sensitivity to holy light made her scream before anyone else even processed what they were seeing.
They scattered.
BOOOOM!
A split-second later, the light pillar slammed into where they'd been standing and erased the city-center plaza in an instant.
When the dust finally thinned, what remained was a vast, scorched crater,
And a massive spear of light planted upright at its center like a divine stake.
Everyone sucked in a breath.
That single strike shattered whatever resolve Rias and Sona had left about "winning with their own strength."
"Ran, did you?" Kokabiel chuckled, his shadowed face curling into satisfaction. "No matter. You won't dodge the next one."
He looked down at the girls' pale faces and laughed softly, almost pleased with himself.
"Little princess of the Gremorys… it seems your family's protected you a bit too well. You have no idea who you're provoking."
Provoking?
Rias blinked, stunned.
Who in their right mind would provoke an enemy recorded in the Bible?
They'd only met tonight.
Unless, had she said something wrong without realizing?
But that smug tone lit a fuse inside her.
More than anything in her life, she hated being told she relied on her family.
Rias didn't hesitate.
She pushed her Power of Destruction to the limit, draining her magic dry, then unleashed a blast far stronger than what she'd used to kill the Hellhound.
"Turn to ash, vanish without a trace!"
A massive wave of Destruction tore upward toward Kokabiel, its density making the very air tremble.
Kokabiel simply extended a hand and gave a casual flick.
The crimson power scattered and died, gone in an instant.
Sona struck right after, her hands pouring out a terrifying cold,
But Kokabiel swung his arm sharply, and a violent gale erupted across the ground. Several of Sona's "scratch-damage specialists" couldn't dodge in time and were slapped away dozens of meters like ragdolls. If they hadn't thrown up defensive magic at the last second, they would've been maimed.
Even so, the display was enough to grind hope into dust.
Forget defeating him.
Even if he stood still and let them hit him, they couldn't break through.
How were they supposed to fight this?
"Boring," Kokabiel said, almost yawning. "Since Heaven hasn't sent anyone, I'll start by carving up the Underworld instead."
Holy light surged again, gathering into another spear.
Bigger than the one that had annihilated the plaza.
He raised it, intent on firing, ready to bury Rias's group along with the entire city center.
And then,
A sound, so faint it almost didn't exist, drifted through the night.
Clock Up.
"Hm?"
Kokabiel's head snapped to the right.
In that instant, instinct screamed.
Every hair on his body stood up.
The giant spear dissolved immediately, compressing into a normal-sized spear of light in his hand. At the final heartbeat, he twisted and braced it across his upper chest.
Clang!
A crisp metallic ring snapped through the air.
Kokabiel's body was blasted out of the sky. He crashed into the ground with horrifying force, smashed through several walls, and skidded dozens of meters before stopping.
"Damn it… WHO?!" he roared.
The injury wasn't serious,
But the boot print on his face explained why his rage was.
Inside the accelerated domain, Rod had learned from fighting Satanael: opponents at this level couldn't follow his speed… but they could react to lethal danger.
Which meant one thing.
A killing blow might be blocked.
Everything else? Not necessarily.
Kokabiel was still "slow" in Rod's eyes as he struggled to rise.
Rod didn't waste a second.
He surged in again, both hands gripping the Excalibur, and drove the point straight for Kokabiel's heart.
Kokabiel couldn't see his attacker,
But he could sense the murder intent bearing down on him.
A spear of light formed instantly and shot forward.
Rod didn't dodge.
Seven layers of deep violet, semi-transparent, flower-shaped shields bloomed in front of him.
The spear shattered the first six layers and stopped dead on the seventh.
Rod's momentum never wavered.
Death stayed glued to Kokabiel's shadow.
He raised his spear and barely caught the thrust meant for his heart, yet his arm went numb from the impact.
Kokabiel's eyes widened with shock.
As an executive, his light power and physical strength were among the best of the best.
And yet,
He could tell now, from that single exchange, his body was being completely outclassed.
Who was this?
A Devil King? A Seraph?
If it was either, Kokabiel's senses should've been able to identify them.
So… a human?
Impossible.
A mere human couldn't hurt someone as "noble" as him.
Boom!
Rod's knee drove into Kokabiel's chest mid-rise like a battering ram.
The force slammed him back into the ground. The earth cracked outward in jagged lines from the impact point, rubble and dust exploding into the air.
Rod knew that still wasn't enough to put Kokabiel down.
"Bastard…" Kokabiel snarled, his face half-buried in the dirt.
Light erupted from him in a sudden flare.
Rod immediately retreated, thinking for a heartbeat the lunatic was about to self-destruct.
The next second, a violent shockwave blasted outward in all directions.
Using that opening, Kokabiel finally forced himself upright.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, hunched over, and for the first time,
The ten-winged executive looked genuinely miserable.
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