A blood-red dragon's massive body swept past, plunging into the four-way melee raging in the sky.
"Oppai, Oppai, Oppai…"
Faced with the giant Dragon, Vali, Arthur, Serafall, and Dulio each wore different expressions, but all of them abandoned the nearly captured Kokabiel at the same time and moved to evade.
"Boom!"
A heavy impact rang out as the crimson Dragon and Kokabiel crashed down to the ground. The earth split apart beneath the Dragon's overwhelming strength, and a surging aura erupted along with the powerful Magical Power raging from its body.
"Hahaha, I won, I won…"
A crazed laugh came from Kokabiel, who looked utterly battered at this point. His blood-red eyes glared viciously at the people before him.
"I haven't had time to fine-tune it yet, but that no longer matters. With this modified Red Dragon Emperor, the strongest in history, in my hands, I've already won. Now let me show you the wisdom barrier of us Fallen Angels."
"Oppai, Oppai…"
As if responding to Kokabiel, the red Dragon opened its mouth and kept repeating the same word, while the green gem on its chest gave off a faint glow.
"Boost, Boost, Boost…"
Each time the Dragon shouted "Oppai," the emerald gem on its chest released a mechanical "Boost," and the terrifying power within its body multiplied several times over.
Serafall, Dulio, and Arthur all looked at Vali with strange expressions. They knew a little about the long-standing rivalry between the White Dragon Emperor and the Red Dragon Emperor. This generation's White Dragon Emperor was praised as the strongest in history, but this generation's Red Dragon Emperor seemed…
Everyone was baffled, and Vali himself was even more baffled. He had come to Itogami Island because he had received a challenge from the Red Dragon Emperor, so he had come in search of the one who was supposed to become his arch-rival. But looking at the situation now…
"Vali, I think I misunderstood something…"
"Hm?"
Just as Vali was still confused, Albion's voice rang out, though it carried a trace of awkwardness and disbelief.
"What Ddraig sent me might not have been a challenge. What he meant might have been…"
"Albion…"
Another ancient voice came from the red Dragon in front of him, cutting off what Albion was about to say in broken fragments.
"This time… I admit defeat. Kill… me. We'll… fight again next round."
"Yeah, that seems to be it. Something appears to have gone wrong on Ddraig's side, so he probably meant for you to come here and kill his host for this generation."
Inside the Sacred Gear space, Albion stared at the Dragon in front of him, the one that could only shout "Oppai," with a faint chill running through him. He simply could not imagine what he would do if something like this happened to him. Even if he died, he absolutely refused to be humiliated like this.
"Vali, can you help Ddraig? Seeing him, who shares the title of Two Heavenly Dragons with me, being humiliated like this makes me feel humiliated too."
"…Fine. It's just a bit of a shame. I thought the Red Dragon Emperor who took the initiative to challenge me would be strong. After all that effort, it turns out I only came here to help put your old rival out of his misery, Albion. Sigh!"
After nodding to Albion's request, Vali looked up at Kokabiel, who had taken the initiative to attack now that he had reinforcements, and at the Red Dragon Emperor behind him. He stepped forward and grabbed the Red Dragon Emperor by the wing.
"I'll handle the Red Dragon Emperor. You all deal with Kokabiel!"
"Got it!" "Gladly!" "Go right ahead!"
No one objected. Rather, they naturally had no issue with Vali taking on the stronger Red Dragon Emperor by himself. After all, it was only Kokabiel. Even in perfect condition, he might not have been a match for any one of them, much less now, when he was half-dead and facing all three of them.
If not for the need to capture him alive, and the fact that Kokabiel had been fighting like a man with no regard for his own life, they would have taken him down long ago. But still…
"This Kokabiel… really has gone mad!"
His black wings were torn apart, one leg was frozen in ice, and his abdomen had been pierced by a Holy Sword. Even while carrying such severe injuries, Kokabiel gripped a dim Spear of Light and broke through the encirclement, charging straight at Arthur for a head-on clash.
"Watch out for his self-destruction. Don't let him grab you and drag you down with him."
Putting away any trace of carelessness, Serafall warned Arthur and Dulio, the two fragile humans. She had seen plenty of enemies like this. He was clearly aiming to trade his life for someone else's.
"If we can't capture him alive, then kill him. We in the Underworld will explain it to the Fallen Angels."
After all, that was still better than being blamed for starting a war and using wide-area weapons of mass destruction.
...
A fierce battle raged in the sky, and the fighting below was just as intense.
For Natsuki Minamiya, taking a dozen or so people through a large-scale spatial movement was still manageable, but the number of Devils and Church forces who could still fight easily exceeded a hundred when added together. Relying on Natsuki Minamiya alone was hopeless. They could only wait for the others to find the location and rush over on their own, just like Delta had.
As a result, aside from Irina Shidou and the Church warriors accompanying her, the only people currently able to fight Kokabiel's subordinates were the group Natsuki Minamiya had transferred over. Still, that was enough to deal with ordinary Fallen Angels. Akeno Himejima and Tsubaki Shinra quickly joined up with the Church warriors and clashed with the Fallen Angels together.
There were only two points truly worth noting. One was the battle between Vritra and Delta. The commotion from those two was in no way inferior to the battle in the sky. In fact, it was even greater.
The other was the battle between Yuuto Kiba and Rias and Xenovia.
Raising Durandal, Xenovia brought down a strike filled with Durandal's immense destructive power toward Yuuto Kiba. The destructive property carried by the sword was so powerful that even the space it passed through seemed to distort one's vision.
Yet in the face of that attack, Yuuto Kiba merely drew a Holy Sword from the bundle on his back, wrapped it in the same destructive Magical Power, and met Xenovia's Durandal head-on.
"Ah! I'll kill you! You damned Devil!"
Seeing Durandal collide with Excalibur in Yuuto Kiba's hand, and watching the two swords' destructive powers clash violently against each other, the fury in Xenovia's eyes nearly spilled over.
Why? Most likely because the sword Yuuto Kiba was using to clash with Xenovia right now was the Excalibur Destruction he had taken from her.
Yuuto Kiba gave no reply. He simply increased the output of Magical Power within his body, causing the Magical Power of Excalibur Destruction to overwhelm Durandal in an instant.
"Guh…"
Xenovia wanted to push forward with all her strength and cut Yuuto Kiba down in a single strike. But if she kept forcing a head-on clash like this, either Durandal or the Sword of Destruction would end up destroying the other. As the owner of both swords, Xenovia could never accept that, so she had no choice but to ease off and give ground.
Yuuto Kiba, who had secured an opening through that half-threatening tactic, tried to press the advantage. But a red beam and a rope shot straight toward him, forcing him to abandon the attack and switch to defense, raising his sword to block.
"Kiba, I don't remember your master ever teaching you to threaten people with their own treasures."
Rias had appeared in the middle of the battlefield at some point, her expression grim as she looked at Yuuto Kiba.
"Captain, you saved my life. I… don't want to fight you."
"But you are my servant. Naturally, I'm the one who has to defeat you and deal with this."
"…"
Rias gathered the Power of Destruction in her hand once more, her face tense. The pressure coming from Yuuto Kiba and the Excalibur on him was terrifying. She couldn't understand how he had changed this much after disappearing for only one day.
"You despicable bastard! How can someone like you have the Holy Sword Factor needed to wield Excalibur?!"
Straightforward by nature, Xenovia snapped at him without hesitation. Her Excalibur, the Excalibur meant to be especially effective against Devils, was now being used by a Devil against her. Anyone would be furious at an insult like that.
Hearing this, Yuuto Kiba, whose hand had already reached toward the bundle behind him, paused. Then he gripped Excalibur Destruction in reverse and swung it at Xenovia.
"I admit I'm despicable. But what right do you people, who stole the Holy Sword Factor from me, have to call me that?"
"What? What do you mean, stole the Holy Sword Factor?"
Faced with Xenovia and Irina Shidou's confusion, Yuuto Kiba gave a cold laugh.
"You don't know, do you…"
For whatever reason, Yuuto Kiba glanced at Rias. He did not attack right away, and instead slowly began to speak about his past.
"You know, I used to be one of you. I was even a candidate to become a Holy Sword Wielder…"
A traitor?
That was the first thought that crossed Xenovia and Irina Shidou's minds when they heard Yuuto Kiba's story.
"My companions and I grew up together, working hard with the goal of becoming Holy Sword Wielders. Unfortunately, although we had the Holy Sword Factor, it wasn't nearly enough to meet the standard for using a Holy Sword. In theory, the Church should have stopped training us there…"
Yuuto Kiba ignored the warriors moving in to surround him one after another, and his voice did not stop.
"It should have stopped there. But the trainer in charge of us subjected us to a wicked experiment instead…"
"An experiment?"
"Yes. If one person's Holy Sword Factor wasn't enough, then why not take the Holy Sword Factor from everyone and inject it into a single person?
"A perfect plan, isn't it? There's just one thing I still don't understand. Why wasn't it enough to take the Holy Sword Factor from us? Why did they have to kill us too?"
Everyone around him widened their eyes, Rias included. She knew Yuuto Kiba's background, but only roughly, because Yuuto Kiba himself had never known why the Church had tried to kill him.
"At first, I thought it was because my companions and I were failures, so the Church wanted us dead. But later, I learned the truth. The truth was… the Church wanted to silence us. Hahaha…"
The surrounding crowd watched Yuuto Kiba laugh, but no one said a word.
"So, Yuuto, is that why you betrayed us and attacked the Church?"
"Partly. Something as sinful as Excalibur should never exist in this world. But it's also because I found someone more worthy of my loyalty and protection than you, Captain Rias.
"So, I'm sorry, Captain Rias."
He bowed to Rias in sincere apology. Toward the person who had saved his life, he could not bring himself to mock her the way he had mocked Xenovia earlier.
"Alright. Since this is your decision, Kiba, I won't say much. Later, I'll tell Onii-sama and your master about your departure."
"But Yuuto, you don't actually think you'll be able to leave today, do you? Surrender. For the sake of our former bond as master and servant, I'll still plead with my brother on your behalf."
Her attempt to persuade him failed. Knowing Yuuto Kiba's personality, Rias understood that once he had chosen a new lord, he would surely remain loyal to the death. She hesitated no longer and chose to act.
"Too late!"
A violent mix of light and darkness erupted from Yuuto Kiba, forcing everyone to close their eyes.
When they opened their eyes again, what appeared before them was a group of hollow-armored knights clad in black-and-white armor, led by Yuuto Kiba, each wielding swords of darkness and light.
"This is the Balance Breaker my former companions and I created to protect Tosca, Sword of Betrayer - Holy Demonic Sword of Twin Supremacy. This is the power of the Holy Swordsmen of the past, the ones you abandoned and destroyed!"
"How is that possible? Light and darkness… they actually fused into one!"
Looking at the Holy Demonic Swords in the hands of the knights behind Yuuto Kiba, Xenovia and Irina Shidou trembled as they spoke in shock.
"Nothing is impossible."
Yuuto Kiba said no more. Now that the Balance Breaker process was complete, he had no reason to stall for time. With a shout, he launched his attack.
...
Whoa! I think I just overheard something huge!
At the edge of the battlefield, Cid, who had just thrown the fight and collapsed so he could pretend to be a corpse, had not expected to uncover so many juicy secrets in a single day.
But if that's the case, then the soul lingering around Yuuto must be one of the companions he grew up with.
Come to think of it, haven't I heard the name "Tosca" somewhere before?
Cid silently turned his head. The name "Tosca," which Yuuto Kiba had mentioned, sounded strangely familiar to him, but he didn't pay it much attention. He had run into familiar-sounding voices several times before, and he could usually find the source.
Forget it. It's not important. The battle in the sky looks like it's about to be decided.
Opening one eye wide, Cid looked up at Kokabiel, who was already being beaten down in the sky. He wasn't surprised at all. Magical Power, physical ability, and all kinds of full-name skills automatically stacked on top. If they still lost with that, Serafall and Dulio might as well pack up and leave on their own. It would be too embarrassing.
What truly surprised Cid was the Red Dragon Emperor. His vitality and Magical Power were absurdly powerful, and even his physical strength, the thing Dragons took the most pride in, completely surpassed Vali's. Yet Vali was handling him easily in different ways. The guy really was putting on an act.
From Cid's point of view, with the Red Dragon Emperor's boundless vitality and Magical Power, as long as he knew how to use them, he should have been able to suppress the half-crippled Vali easily, even if his upper limit had dropped a little. But for some unknown reason, the giant Dragon's immense vitality and Magical Power seemed to have a limit. Once he used a certain amount, they would suddenly stop short and withdraw. It was seriously strange.
While Cid was thinking about this, Kokabiel, under the three-person assault… was defeated.