Without Rod needing to do anything himself, Lavinia had already set up a defensive barrier around the two of them.
Even so, Rod could still feel an indescribable tidal surge of energy sweep across the surface of the barrier.
The tide of energy covered all of Kuoh Academy, which had already been wrapped in layers of barriers.
Every living being touched by that tide froze in place like a movie frame with the pause button pressed, remaining locked in whatever motion they had originally been making.
At the same time, Rod also noticed that the moment the tide swept over them, different powers surged out from within Michael, Azazel, and Sirzechs, the top figures of the three major factions, canceling it out on the surface of their bodies.
That meant the only people still able to move freely on the scene, aside from them, were Rod and Lavinia.
Rias and Sona had both stopped moving, but Sirzechs and Serafall each cast some kind of magical spell on their respective family members, allowing them to act again.
"What happened?"
Rias came back to herself. As a high-class devil, she was not completely ignorant, and just before time stopped, she had felt an outside power taking control.
But before anyone could answer her question, over a hundred magic circles suddenly appeared in midair outside the new school building.
Immediately afterward, roughly a hundred hooded magicians in black robes emerged from those circles. Without any hesitation or wasted words, they fired compressed torrents of magical power at the new school building where everyone was gathered.
Hundreds of differently colored streams of energy shot toward the building. If they hit, there was no question that the entire structure would collapse instantly.
But before the attack could land, Michael and Sirzechs raised their hands at the same time, and crimson demonic power together with golden holy light formed two defensive barriers.
The energy fired by the magicians vanished into them like mud sinking into the sea, without stirring even the slightest ripple.
"As expected, no matter the era, the moment a faction tries to conclude a peace treaty, someone will always try to interfere."
"Those people should be magicians. So-called sorcery and magic were originally reconstructed from the devilish magic system by the legendary magician Merlin Ambrosius through his own interpretation. Judging from the power of that volley just now, each of them is at least around mid-class devil level."
"But that isn't the most important point. The important thing is that one of Lucifer's younger sister's peerage members was taken hostage and forced to activate the time-stop function of his Sacred Gear. The real key is that this school had already been covered in powerful barriers set up in advance by our three factions, yet these terrorists still managed to teleport inside with ease. That means there is an insider among us."
At that point, Azazel looked meaningfully toward Rod.
It was not that he particularly wanted to target him, but Rod was not a member of any of the three factions, and he also had a female companion who was likewise a magician.
Even if Vali had once received help from this woman, that did not prove Lavinia was necessarily innocent.
If someone was a top-tier magician, then analyzing the barrier and providing internal spatial coordinates would not be difficult.
The people present who could still move all understood the implication in Azazel's words.
"I believe Mr. Rod is not the insider."
Unexpectedly, the first person to speak was Gabriel.
She looked at Rod, her eyes full of warmth and trust.
Rod was the one Sister Griselda, who worked with Gabriel, had been cooperating with for years. And over the course of those years, Gabriel had come to feel that Rod's way of thinking was actually very simple.
He was meticulous when carrying out missions, and aside from being lustful in a very serious and proper manner, he had no particularly bad habits.
And after meeting him yesterday, Gabriel had only become more certain of that.
Though she had no proof, Gabriel trusted him almost instinctively.
After hearing that, Rod immediately complained inwardly, "Very good. First, let's rule out one correct answer."
After all, he was a member of the Hero Faction, a member of the Khaos Brigade, and also a collaborator of the Old Maou faction.
Of course, although Rod had many identities, he really was not the one who leaked the spatial coordinates.
"I also believe Mr. Rod is not the insider."
Rias spoke up as well to back Rod.
"If he had intended to sabotage the conference, then there would have been no need for him to save me and Sona back then. After all, if we had died, the Underworld and the fallen angels would definitely have gone to war."
"That reasoning is sound. Mr. Rod cannot be the insider."
Sona adjusted her glasses as she spoke.
Seeing so many people step forward to defend him, Rod was deeply moved.
Though honestly, when he first started coming into contact with Katerea, he really had hoped the system would refresh a quest with a rich reward.
If the quest back then had not been to assist Katerea in becoming Leviathan Maou, but instead to help the Old Maou faction disrupt the conference in exchange for a generous reward, he might very well have accepted it on the spot.
Instead, it had been a task that had nothing to do with the main plot at all.
Rod was rather annoyed that the original quest had turned out to be that one.
If the system really had asked him to play the insider, he genuinely would have wanted to see what expressions Rias and the others would show when they discovered he was the mastermind.
Azazel also understood that reasoning. If Rod had really wanted to stir up trouble, then back then he could simply have joined forces with Kokabiel and killed the younger sisters of two Maou. And besides, what kind of insider would make themselves this obvious? With how many tricks that brat had up his sleeve, if he really were plotting something, it would never be this simple.
At the same time, Rias, having realized that the magicians had used one of her own peerage members, was furious. Her emerald-like eyes blazed with anger as though they might spit fire.
"They used Gasper, whom I had placed in the old school building, as a weapon for terrorists. Where exactly did they get information about my servant? And on top of that, they chose this moment to sabotage such an important conference. This is an utter disgrace!"
Crimson demonic aura wrapped around the girl's entire body. She was clearly genuinely enraged.
Rias being angry at a time like this was only natural, but Rod almost failed to keep it together.
After all, leaving a walking time bomb at the site of a summit between the three major factions without relocating him beforehand could only be described as fearing not godlike enemies, but pig-like teammates.
That was also only because the people in the Khaos Brigade and the Old Maou faction were too straightforward.
They had to choose the exact moment when all the upper echelons of the three factions were gathered together to make their move. If it were him, he would have stolen Gasper in advance, brainwashed him, and then used his time-stop Sacred Gear. The margin for error would have been much higher than staging a kidnapping on the spot.
At that thought, Rod felt that if he did not go become a villain, it would practically be a waste of talent.
Just then, two magic circles appeared on the floor of the conference room at the same time.
One of them Rod did not recognize. The other was exactly the same as the design on the emblem Katerea had given him.
Immediately afterward, two richly dressed figures emerged from the teleportation circles.
One was a man named Creuserey. The other was a dark-skinned mature woman dressed in an extravagant gown, carrying herself with stately elegance.
The real players had finally arrived.
Whether things would succeed from here on out would depend on Katerea's acting.
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