The glass doors at the entrance of the hall opened, and Irina Shidou walked out with several other Church warriors. After a brief discussion, they hurried toward their base on Itogami Island.
From the high-rise, Cid watched Irina Shidou and the others leave, then drew the curtains.
...
Ten-odd minutes earlier.
Kokabiel? I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before.
When he heard the name Vali mentioned, Cid fell into deep thought. Had he heard that name somewhere?
"If Kokabiel is the mastermind, then the curse and the theft of Excalibur make sense."
Unaware of Cid's thoughts, Vali, who knew the most about Kokabiel out of everyone present, began explaining at length.
"Kokabiel is a war maniac. Even among the Fallen Angels, he has the worst reputation. A few years ago, he even tried to persuade the Governor General of the Fallen Angels to start a war against the Devils and Heaven. It wouldn't be strange for someone like him to create a large-scale destructive curse like this..."
Resting his chin on one hand, Vali continued sorting through what he knew about Kokabiel.
"During World War II, he was defeated by the previous wielder of Excalibur from the Church, which left him with quite a bit of trauma involving Excalibur. Because of that, even though he's a Fallen Angel, he developed a strange obsession with Excalibur. Casting a curse to steal Excalibur... that's exactly the kind of thing he would do."
"Get to the point. Where is Kokabiel now?"
Seeing Vali stop right at the crucial moment, Serafall urged him anxiously. She had not expected them to find someone more suspicious and with an even stronger motive than the Devils so quickly.
She did not want to die young. If she did not pin this on him, she would feel sorry for herself.
"...Sorry. I don't know."
Under everyone's expectant gazes, Vali fell silent for a moment before saying that.
"You don't know!?"
Vali's answer was so shocking that Rias blurted it out before she could stop herself.
"Right. I don't know."
Vali nodded and explained.
"My contact with him was limited to when we first came to this island. I remembered Kokabiel was here, so I asked him to help arrange a place to stay. Other than that, I don't know anything. I don't even know where his base is."
"So the trail's gone cold again. Tch!"
Arthur sighed, his gaze shifting back and forth between Rias and the others and the Holy King Sword Collbrande.
"Hey, what are you trying to do?"
Noticing Arthur's gaze, Rias instinctively took a step back and shouted.
"Kokabiel is suspicious, but that doesn't mean your suspicion has been cleared. For all I know, you Devils may have already joined forces with the Fallen Angels."
"That's slander! We don't know anything about this."
Faced with Arthur's accusation, Rias's expression filled with anger as she refuted him righteously.
"Then how do you explain Yuuto Kiba and Genshirou Saji?"
"Um..."
She was instantly left speechless. Arthur's words had hit Rias and the others right where it hurt. No matter how suspicious Kokabiel was now, it did not change the fact that Yuuto Kiba and Genshirou Saji had appeared during the attack. It was perfectly natural for Arthur to suspect that they had colluded with Kokabiel.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Behind Dulio, Irina Shidou and Xenovia grew excited at the sight. As Church warriors who fought Devils, Vampires, and other evil beings, they had no goodwill toward Devils at all. Rather, how could anyone possibly feel goodwill toward their enemies?
Among Church warriors, when it came to Devils, there were only radicals and even more radical radicals. That was why, when they had first heard they were going to attack Devils, so many Church warriors had followed along. They could not wait for Vali's group to kill all the Devils right now. The Devils had already been beaten down anyway, so no one could condemn them on moral grounds.
"I think I might have a way to draw Kokabiel out."
Rubbing his chin, Cid spoke up and stopped the conflict between Arthur and Rias's group.
"What way?"
Faced with everyone's confusion, Cid said nothing. He only turned his gaze toward Xenovia and Irina Shidou behind Dulio.
Being stared at so intently by Cid, Irina Shidou felt strangely uneasy. She and Xenovia each took a step to the side, but Cid's gaze moved along with her.
Irina Shidou blinked, turned to check behind her and confirmed there was no one there, then pointed at herself in confusion.
"Me?"
...
Back in the present, after Cid drew the curtains, he turned around and saw Serafall, Dulio, Vali, Xenovia, Rias, and the others all staring at him in confusion.
"Will this plan really work? Isn't using bait a little too obvious?"
That was Serafall. She seriously doubted whether this method of luring the snake out of its hole could succeed. If it were her, there was no way she would fall for it.
"Yeah, Kagenou-nii-san. Actually, we already tried this once before. The enemy didn't take the bait and attack Irina Shidou at all."
That was Dulio. He had wanted to say this earlier, but Cid had sounded so certain that he only found the chance to speak after Irina Shidou left.
"Well, I do want to believe you, Cid, but like them, I also think this plan might be a bit too obvious."
That was Vali. For the first time, he began to wonder whether the Infinite Dragon God's judgment might be wrong. No matter how foolish Kokabiel was, surely his intelligence could not be so low that he would fall for such an obvious trap.
"Yeah, exactly. I remember mentioning this to you before when I was staying at your house, Cid. We already tried this method..."
That was Xenovia. Halfway through speaking, she stopped under everyone's stares. Only then did she realize how much information that sentence had just revealed.
"I won't ask what she meant by staying at your house, Cid. You would probably just say you somehow got to know another bunch of people anyway. In any case, I trust you, Cid."
With one hand pressed to her forehead in distress, Rias looked at Delta clinging to Cid, then at Vali, who seemed quite familiar with him, and finally at Xenovia, who had said she had stayed at Cid's house. She let out a deep sigh.
"Thank you for the support, Rias. And yes, Xenovia, your group did try this plan before and failed..."
Cid nodded in firm agreement with Xenovia.
"Then why are you..."
"But..."
Cutting off Xenovia's question, Cid's lips curved upward as he changed the subject.
"Things are different now. How many Excaliburs does he have?"
"He" was obviously referring to Kokabiel. Everyone immediately started thinking it over, and then their expressions changed with shock.
"Exactly. He stole four of the five Excaliburs held by the Church. As a Fallen Angels officer, the Excalibur in the Fallen Angels' possession should also be in his hands. And Arthur's Excalibur Ruler has already been taken by him too. That means he has gathered six Excaliburs."
Vali said that during World War II, Kokabiel was traumatized by the previous wielder of Excalibur, which gave him a strange obsession with Excalibur.
And now, he already has six of them. Maybe he could hold back at five, but with six in hand and only one missing, can he really resist?"
Cid could not help laughing, a slightly wild smile appearing on his face. This was his world-shaking Wisdom.
"Just look at Arthur. Even after being scattered by Roy, with his battle awareness and reasoning cut in half, he still dared to take the risk and steal Excalibur Ruler.
Now Kokabiel has six. If he really has that special obsession with Excalibur, just like Vali said, then even if he knows it's a trap, he absolutely won't be able to stop himself from jumping in."
Cid spoke smoothly, completely caught up in the thrill of his explanation. He failed to notice that everyone in the room had suddenly gone silent, all staring at him with searching looks.
"How... do you know we were scattered by Roy, and that our battle awareness and reasoning were cut down?"
Arthur looked at Cid in silence as he asked, a visible sharpness in his expression.
!!!
"Huh? I was there at the scene. You didn't notice me?"
Cid answered so naturally and looked at Arthur so sincerely that it was as if he found the question strange.
"Cid... you were really there?"
Vali met Cid's eyes and asked. He clearly remembered that everyone on the ground had run off to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. If Cid had been there, would Vali really not have noticed him?
"Of course."
Cid nodded again. After all, he had indeed been there. He just had not been there as "Cid."
"That's strange. We were being suppressed at the time, but if someone was there, we shouldn't have failed to notice."
"It's probably because I'm a background character, so my presence is pretty weak. Isn't it normal for a few background characters to be around beneath a battle between powerful people?"
Cid said it with a bright smile, doing his best to bluff his way through.
"He really was there at the time..."
Natsuki Minamiya fluttered the folding fan in her hand and glanced at Cid.
"I was the one in charge of handling that incident. Cid was indeed nearby at the time. I saw him. But Cid, you actually stayed there from beginning to end? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"
Natsuki Minamiya frowned and looked at Cid with clear anger. A group of terrorists who could fight SS-class powerhouses, and a Child of God who could suppress Vali's group single-handedly. Even if she stepped in, she would have to worry about the enemy tracing her Magical Power back to her real body. Yet Cid had dared to watch from start to finish. Did he have no fear of death at all?
"That really is impressive."
Vali stared at Cid with excitement. Now he was genuinely beginning to believe the Infinite Dragon God's judgment. A person whose presence was so faint that they had not noticed him at all, even if part of that was because they had been fighting, could not possibly be an ordinary background character.
"Mainly because I got so scared my legs went weak. Hehehe..."
Cid laughed awkwardly, turned around, and scratched his head.
Good. Looks like I managed to bluff my way through that... Have I been too relaxed lately? I'm nowhere near as alert as I used to be. I hope I haven't accidentally exposed any flaws.
"Bang!"
A sphere that had been sitting on the nearby table suddenly exploded, instantly drawing everyone's attention. When they saw the cracked vessel, their expressions filled with a mix of surprise and delight.
The sphere was a magical tool, one half of a pair. If one was destroyed, the other would shatter as well. At that moment, the other sphere was in Irina Shidou's hands.
"It seems Irina Shidou and the others have already been attacked by Kokabiel. Just as expected. Natsuki-sensei, I'll have to trouble you to support them first."
Cid bowed solemnly to Natsuki Minamiya. With her ability to teleport through space, Natsuki Minamiya was the key to the entire plan. They had arranged for a few capable fighters to accompany Irina Shidou's group, but to avoid alerting the enemy, those fighters could only guarantee that they would hold out for a short while.
"Isn't it a little late to say that now? I'll go over first and confirm the location."
Putting away her folding fan, Natsuki Minamiya made a teasing remark about herself, and her figure vanished on the spot.
"I didn't expect this plan to actually work. That was amazing, Cid."
Xenovia praised Cid excitedly. She had already taken out her Durandal, ready to fight the moment they were transferred.
"Not at all. It was only a small trick. Besides, all of you had already thought of this plan before. The timing just wasn't right."
"Don't say that. If we really find the mastermind this time, the Church will owe you a favor, Cid-san."
Stopping Xenovia, Dulio turned to Cid and made that promise.
"Then I'll owe you a favor too. After all, if it weren't for you, Vali and I would still be used as pawns by Kokabiel. So if you ever need anything, call me anytime. As long as it isn't too unreasonable, I'll do it. I swear on my honor as a Knight."
"...Hehe."
Cid only smiled at Arthur's promise without answering. What a joke. If he accepted a terrorist's promise, that would make him the suspicious one.
"I found the location. I'm starting the teleportation now."
Natsuki Minamiya's cool voice came from the air. The moment she finished speaking, the space around them began to twist, and their surroundings changed.
They moved from indoors to outside. The street not far away was already covered in smoke and dust, and a group of figures with black wings hovered in the sky.
Their leader had black hair, a long black robe, and a fierce face that hardly looked human. His blood red eyes watched Cid's group appear on the ground with visible surprise.
The powerful pressure, the pitch black color, the sharp wings, and the five pairs of black wings behind him left no doubt. He was most likely the Kokabiel Vali had mentioned.
"Kokabiel!!!"
Vali's furious shout confirmed his identity. As the saying went, enemies grew especially furious when they met. After being ambushed and used as a pawn, Vali had two grudges to settle. He, Bikou, and Arthur charged straight forward, leaving only Kuroka Toujou and Le Fay behind.
"Let's go too."
Seeing Vali and the others move, Rias and her group quickly shouted and followed along with Sona Sitri. They wanted to know why their own Peerage Members had betrayed them.