"What the fuck…?" Issei muttered in disbelief.
"I'm fusing five Excaliburs into one," Valper said, sounding strangely amused by the whole thing.
"Valper," Kokabiel's voice came from above, "how much longer will the fusion take?"
He hovered in the sky with the moon at his back looking down at them from a throne-like seat suspended in the air.
"Not even ten minutes, my lord."
The Fallen Angel turned his eyes toward Rias. "So? Is Sirzechs coming? Or maybe Serafall?" Kokabiel asked with a mocking smile.
"We are here in my brother's and Lady Leviathan's place. You can—"
WHOOSH! BOOOOOOOMMMMM!
A violent shockwave tore through the area, followed by a deafening explosion.
Everyone instantly turned toward the source of the blast. The school gymnasium was gone, a massive crater had formed in its place.
"How boring. Oh well, I'll have to find another way to amuse myself."
Five pairs of wings extended from Kokabiel's back, and with a single flap, he dashed at the group. He was so fast it looked like a black flash had descended from the sky and landed between the four of them.
Everyone froze in place. He looked at the four of them, choosing his first victim. His gaze landed on a short girl with white hair. Holy energy gathered in his leg in an instant, and he drove a front kick into her face, causing the side of her face to melt in the form of an outsole. Before Koneko could even scream in pain the impact sent her flying straight into the school building, tearing through the wall before she disappeared inside.
"KONEKO!" Issei screamed.
Akeno's wings spread at once, and she flew backward to create distance. Rias did the same, pulling back to mid-range.
"Boosted Gear!", "Boost!"
Issei dashed straight at Kokabiel and threw a punch, but Kokabiel stopped it with a single finger.
"Is this the Boosted Gear?" Kokabiel said, sounding amused. "And you're the brat who got it? What a waste."
Issei's eyes widened. He tried to jump back, but Kokabiel had already grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward.
At that exact moment, two crimson magic circles appeared in front of Rias. One of them fired a condensed red orb straight at Kokabiel's back the other spread demonic energy through the ground in a 30 meter radius from.
At the same time, a whip of lightning wrapped around Issei's waist and pulled him back. His shirt tore apart, slipping him free from Kokabiel's grip.
Kokabiel's wings flapped as he tried to fly toward Issei, but the moment he stepped forward, Destruction exploded from beneath him. The underside of his foot looked badly burned, yet Kokabiel did not react at all.
"So you hid land mines inside your demonic energy so I wouldn't sense them," he said with a faint smirk. "Clever."
Akeno used her lightning whip to fling Issei farther back, then stepped in front of him.
Kokabiel raised both hands toward Rias and Akeno, pointing two fingers at each of them. In the next instant, two enormous Light Swords, each as large as a truck, shot toward them.
WHOOOOSHH!
Both girls instantly raised multiple magic-circle barriers in front of themselves.
The Light Swords slammed into them head-on.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!
A thunderous explosion erupted, throwing dust and dirt high into the air. As the dust slowly cleared, Akeno looked badly hurt. Parts of her clothes were burned, and she was breathing heavily. Rias, on the other hand, looked mostly unharmed aside from a few burns on her hands. That was the difference between a High-Class Devil and a Middle-Class Devil.
"Boost!" Issei boosted for the second time.
"Not bad, Rias Gremory. I acknowledge you," Kokabiel said with a cold smile. "But you'll have to do better than that."
Kokabiel's wings flapped again, this time with even greater force, sending violent gusts across the school grounds. Then he vanished.
In the next instant, he appeared right in front of Rias. He grabbed her by the neck, slammed her into the ground, and dragged her across it.
Akeno shot down from the sky like a bolt of lightning, a long spear of electricity formed in her hand. At the same time, clouds had condensed in the sky and multiple lightning strikes shot down at him.
"RIAS!" she screamed as she crashed straight into Kokabiel.
Kokabiel did not even bother to move. He simply raised one of his wings and blocked the attacks completely.
"So… this level of control over lightning. Are you Baraqiel's relative, perhaps?" Kokabiel asked.
"…Don't lump me in with him!" Akeno snapped, her eyes widening in anger.
Kokabiel's smile deepened. "I see. So you're the child he had with that human woman."
Lightning burst around Akeno's arm as she drove a powerful punch at him, but Kokabiel caught her fist with one hand and took the impact head-on.
Then his grip tightened with overwhelming force and crushed her hand. Blood ran down from his hand like a river.
"AAAAAAAARGHHHHHH!" Akeno cried out in pain.
Issei shot straight toward him.
"DDRAIG! I'LL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING, JUST HELP ME KILL HIM!"
"Welsh Dragon: Overbooster!" Ddraig's voice echoed from the gauntlet. "Boy, you have Ten seconds. Your body will not endure more than that."
The jewel set in the back of the gauntlet released a brilliant red flash, and a deep crimson aura wrapped around Issei.
A scarlet suit of armor appeared around him. It was a full-body set modeled after a dragon. Extra jewels, like the one embedded in the back of the gauntlet, could be seen on his arms, shoulders, knees, and chest. A propulsion device, like a rocket booster, was built into the back of the armor.
"Oh, so this is it's Balance Breaker? Very interesting."
Kokabiel flung Akeno aside, then turned his curious gaze toward Issei, who was flying at him at high speed.
"Nine," the Welsh Dragon's voice echoed.
The Fallen Angel stopped Issei's attack with one hand, but he felt a faint shiver run through his arm, and his hand was pushed back slightly.
"BWAHAHAHA! This is incredible! What a ridiculous power-up. Azazel may have been right. Your Sacred Gear really is something."
"Eight"
Kokabiel flicked his fingers, and a magic circle formed in the sky. From it, dozens of Light Swords rained down around the school grounds.
Even through the pain, Rias and Akeno each raised a magic-circle barrier.
Issei threw a high kick, but Kokabiel blocked it again and drove a punch into his stomach, cracking the armor slightly. At the same time, the Light Swords began striking the ground like rain.
"Seven"
Issei leaped back and forth, dodging the falling swords. Then he brought his hands together, leaving only a small gap between them, and gathered a tremendous mass of demonic energy. Without any delay, he launched it straight at Kokabiel.
The ball of raw power grew larger and larger as it tore through the air toward him at high speed.
Kokabiel's eyes widened slightly. All of his wings folded around him, and a holy magic circle formed in front of him.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!
The orb exploded the moment it hit the magic circle. It was the biggest explosion of the fight so far.
"Six."
Kokabiel burst out of the smoke. His wings had been damaged by the blast, and steam was rising from them. He flew straight at Issei and fired a massive spear of light at him.
WHOOWOOOSH!
Issei barely moved in time, avoiding the spear by a hair's breadth. But Kokabiel was already in front of him. He punched Issei's face, shattering the helmet. Issei reeled from the blow, he was knocked out momentarily.
Kokabiel slammed him into the ground, and a Holy Sword formed in his hand.
Just as he was about to finish Issei off, dozens of demonic swords shot up from the ground toward him.
"Five."
Yuuto Kiba had entered the battlefield. He leaped from the ground and came down on the Fallen Angel, swinging his sword downward.
Kokabiel caught the sword and shattered it with his hand. At the same time, Issei kicked his leg, making him lose his balance for just a moment. Then a gigantic fist of water, as large as a car, slammed into Kokabiel from behind.
He was flung away, but he regained his balance quickly and only slid backward instead of falling. Destruction exploded beneath his feet, sending smoke into the air. It was another land mine that Rias had placed.
Sona flew down at high speed. She brought both hands together in front of her face, lining up her knuckles as she compressed an absurd amount of water into a single tiny point. Then she released a razor-thin beam of water that shot forward at terrifying speed, drilling through the air like a bullet and cutting straight through the smoke.
She had entered the fight once she saw that Kokabiel was about to kill Issei, leaving the task to maintaining the barrier to her Queen, Tsubaki Shinra.
Kokabiel used his wings as a shield again, but Sona's attack blasted a deep hole through them.
Wing injuries were not easy to heal and needed time to recover. He hadn't expected her attack to be that strong since he didn't feel much power from it.
"What incredible control over water," Kokabiel said with interest. "You must be Serafall's sister, correct?"
Among the new generation of Devils, Sona Sitri did not stand at the top in terms of raw Demonic Power. In that category, she fell behind monsters like Riser Phenex, Rias Gremory, and Seekvaira Agares. But what Sona lacked in sheer volume, she made up for with something far rarer: absolute control. Her manipulation of demonic energy was so precise that, among the young Devils of her era, none could beat her in that field. Aside from Adrien Agares of course.
"Four."
Then bullets of light shot toward Kiba, but he blocked them with his demonic swords.
"You're playing around with me, blondie~, so keep your eyes on me."
Freed and Kiba had been trying to kill each other the whole way to the school grounds.
"SONA! ISSEI! Get over here! Issei, prepare Transfer!"
Both of them flew toward Rias at the same time.
Just as Kokabiel was about to attack again, a pillar of lightning crashed down from the sky right in front of him. He jumped back, choosing to avoid the attack instead of taking it head-on.
Akeno dropped to one knee. Her injured hand was still bleeding, and she clenched her jaw as she forced herself to endure the pain.
"Three."
Issei stood behind Rias and Sona and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Transfer!"
Power instantly surged into both girls.
Sona stretched out her hand, and a large demonic magic circle formed in front of her. From it, a gigantic water dragon burst forward.
At the same time, Rias closed her eyes and focused, shaping her Power of Destruction around the water dragon until it formed a crimson armor over its body.
Kokabiel started laughing hysterically as he watched the dragon rush toward him, its jaws wide open as if it meant to swallow him whole.
"What an entertaining little show! I never expected the two of you to push this far. At this rate, you might one day stand beside your siblings after all!"
Of course, the Demon Kings still possessed far greater demonic power than either of them, but Kokabiel understood one thing clearly. Given enough time, these two might truly catch up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If we get to 150 Power stones I'll drop another chapter today.
Characters that appeared in this chapter:
Kokabiel
Valper Galilei
Freed Sellzen
Rias Gremory
Akeno Himejima
Issei Hyoudou
Yuuto Kiba
Koneko Toujou
Sona Sitri