-The Underworld
Not long ago, the Fallen Angels had lost one of their executives to Issei, and so they convened an emergency meeting. The agenda was simple.
"So Kokabiel was defeated by that human?"
"He was a bastard who deserved to die, but he was still one of our executives. We can't just ignore this."
"And yet an executive was taken down by a human..."
"Humans have reached the point where we can't afford to look down on them anymore."
"With the previous great war weakening the three factions, now it's humans, huh..."
The discussion centered on Kokabiel's death and the human boy who had carried it out. The executives each voiced their positions, with their leader seated at the center.
"Well, it's unfortunate, but a dead man is a dead man. There's nothing to be done about it."
Azazel didn't seem particularly bothered. In the first place, he had intended to let the troublesome fool fall on his own and bury the matter, but the other executives had dragged the issue into the open, leaving him in this situation.
"But are you really going to stand by after a human took down one of our executives?!"
"If we just sit here after being beaten by a human, the Devils and Angels will look down on us!"
"Just thinking about those filthy Angels laughing at us is already making my blood boil."
The three executives who had built up their own factions all wanted revenge for Kokabiel.
"Hmm... That's a little surprising. I didn't realize you all cared so much about Kokabiel."
"No, it's not like that."
With the troublesome man gone and the matter not yet known anywhere else, Azazel couldn't help but suspect them. Either they had some connection to Kokabiel, or they were trying to use his death for their own ends.
"That's a harsh way to put it. This isn't personal; it's for order."
"The more you stir this up, the more widely it'll spread. You do realize that would only throw order into greater chaos, don't you?"
Azazel wasn't easy to push around either. The pretext of avenging an executive was a convenient excuse to start something, and if he thought about it for even a moment, he could see what they were really after. The fact that they were pressing this so hard meant they must have thought he was easy to fool. As he kept his eyes on the three executives pushing the matter, they seemed to feel the pressure and deliberately avoided his gaze.
"Still, it's true that we can't just ignore an executive's death. As for that human, I'll handle everything myself. You have no objections, do you?"
Politics was never simple. If he simply ignored the opinions of those on the opposing side as he pleased, their resentment would only deepen and they might do something reckless. So for now, the right move was to accept part of their argument and then deal with the matter his own way. Or so he thought, just as he was about to end the meeting—
"Lord Azazel! It's an emergency! Akatsuki is attacking our Fallen Angels indiscriminately all across the Underworld!"
"Urgent report! Six individuals believed to be from Akatsuki are heading this way!"
A soldier rushed in breathlessly with the report, and another followed, dropping to one knee to deliver the same news. The executives were all stunned.
"Akatsuki?"
"So after the Devils, now it's our turn."
"Those fools need to be taught a lesson. To think they'd invade here, into Grigori."
The executives erupted in anger all at once. In truth, with the Devils already broken, they were outnumbered compared to the Devil side and couldn't afford to take on such an enemy. Even so, the executives trusted their own strength and decided to treat Akatsuki as nothing more than a terrorist group, choosing to counterattack and annihilate them. All the executives personally went out to greet the six members of Akatsuki, and when they reached the castle entrance—
"Ghk! Save me!"
"A monster!"
There were soldiers already being mercilessly trampled by summoned beasts called forth through the [Human Path of the Six Paths]. The castle of Grigori was already half-ruined, crushed and shattered into near wasteland, and standing at the center of it all was a man.
"Are you the Fallen Angel executives?"
The orange-haired man among the six members of Akatsuki, with his unusual eyes, spoke as if he had been waiting for them.
"You arrogant terrorist! Do you know where you're invading?!"
"Know your place!"
The executives unleashed their magical power, and then—
"Black magical power!"
"Hraaaah!"
"Die!!"
The three executives launched their attacks. Each spell was large enough to blow away an entire city, and the black, red, and purple magical power gradually merged into one massive strike aimed at the orange-haired man. But—
[Human Path of the Six Paths]
""!!!""
An invisible barrier blocked it, and then the attack vanished as if absorbed. The executives were all shocked, and only one being looked on with interest.
"Hmm~. That technique..."
Azazel, who had been observing Kokabiel's situation for some time, had seen it before: that transparent barrier that absorbed the Fallen Angels' attacks right before his eyes. As he continued watching with interest—
"You bastards dared attack Lord Pain!"
When Pain was attacked by multiple executives, the Akatsuki members from other races who had come with him flew into a rage and charged the three executives.
"How dare terrorists—!"
The lightning radiance of a Fallen Angel executive shot out. The members were easily blocked, however, and—
"Barakiel?!"
Among the Fallen Angel executives, the famous hardliner Barakiel stepped forward, and the members instinctively backed away a little. While Barakiel held off five of them by himself—
"You!"
"Wait. I'll take the magic."
Just as the three executives were about to attack Pain again, another executive stepped in to block them. A man wearing armor, helmet, and cloak, with an eyepatch, a wild beard, and a shield and axe in his left hand.
"I, Armaros, will be your opponent."
He was a Fallen Angel whose appearance didn't match his role at all, yet he was the one in charge of anti-magic among the executives. The executive standing before Pain with great confidence simply stared him down, and then—
"What, aren't you going to fire?"
"..."
He took his stance and didn't move until Pain attacked first. Pain was a little thrown off by the absurdity of the situation, but—
"Almighty Push."
"!!"
To test him, he pulled first.
"A gravitational pull! But anti-magic is my specialty! Hah!"
"!!"
The moment Armaros shouted, the pull was severed. Pain was slightly surprised as well.
"What did you do?"
"Didn't I tell you? My specialty is anti-magic! I have the power to neutralize magic!"
Since ninjutsu was also a technique driven by chakra, just like magical power, it seemed to be treated the same way as magic. Pain was briefly taken aback by the unexpected ability, but—
"In that case..."
He drew a short, spear-like black substance from his sleeve and fired it straight at him.
"I won't let that land!"
Another executive's magical power collided with the spear and neutralized it. As expected of those who bore the name of executives, they weren't easy to bring down. But that was only when Pain wasn't serious.
"Looks like I don't need to hold back."
"!!"
When Pain extended both hands forward and backward, a gravitational force far beyond the previous one instantly dragged in every executive except Armaros from all directions. The startled executives were pulled helplessly in, and then—
"Shinra Tensei."
They were blown back by repulsion in an instant, coughing up blood as they rolled across the ground. If they had known about Pain's power, they wouldn't have been taken down so quickly, but no one did. At least, if Azazel had shared the information the moment he noticed, this situation wouldn't have happened. But Azazel, whether this was the outcome he wanted or not, simply rested his chin on his hand and watched with interest from the rear.
"I see. So it's gravity and repulsion, plus the absorption of magic and the power to command monsters."
Azazel pieced it together from the [Shinra Tensei], [Almighty Push], the magical absorption of the [Human Path of the Six Paths], and the beasts summoned by the [Human Path of the Six Paths]—all powers like Pain's own eyes. As the governor, he had excellent powers of observation and analysis. And then—
"A troublesome combination. I can't beat him one-on-one."
With cold judgment, he concluded that he couldn't win alone.
"Even if I tried to gang up on him, the other executives are in that state... Hmm..."
Azazel sorted through the situation as if he were playing a game, and then Pain, who had been watching, said—
"Are you the governor?"
"Hmm? And if I am?"
"You'll have to be captured."
"Hmm... Sorry, but I'll have to refuse that. I do enjoy testing things, but I'm not fond of being tested myself."
Azazel spoke lightly, as if he had all the leisure in the world. Normally, such confidence would have provoked Pain into attacking, thinking he was being looked down on, but Pain didn't take the bait. He simply kept watching, down to every movement of his hands.
"Hmm... On top of that, he's calm enough not to move recklessly. He really is troublesome."
His attempt to provoke the opponent into creating an opening didn't work either. At a glance, it looked like a hopeless situation, but Azazel had his own ace in the hole.
"!"
"You're late."
His reinforcement had arrived. One of the Twin Heavenly Dragons with deep ties to Azazel.
"Vali."
"You should be grateful I came after being called so suddenly, Azazel."
It was Vali Lucifer, the White Dragon Emperor, another Twin Heavenly Dragon like Ddraig, who resided within Issei.
"Still, to think Grigori ended up like this..."
Vali looked at the Grigori castle, still being smashed to pieces by the summoned beasts, as if he couldn't quite believe it. Then his gaze shifted to Pain, the orange-haired man radiating an ominous presence.
"Is that the one?"
"Be careful. There's a range limit, but he uses gravity and repulsion to pull things in regardless of the target's will. He also absorbs magic. And he's strong in close combat too."
"A monster? ...He just has annoying abilities."
For those like them who relied mainly on magical power, an ability that absorbed magic was a serious headache. As for countermeasures against gravity, Armaros was still there, but since not all of Pain's abilities had been revealed, there was no guarantee they could hold out. More than that, Azazel genuinely didn't want to fight him.
"Hey~. Human with the strange power."
"..."
"How about we negotiate?"
In the end, he tried talking, just as Sirzechs had done. He thought there might be another purpose behind this beyond simple world conquest, and tried to pry into it.
"Negotiation, huh. If you come quietly and let yourself be captured, I might withdraw here and now."
What Issei wanted was the information in the Fallen Angel governor's head. The information extracted from Kokabiel had been useful, but it still felt like a missing piece of the puzzle. He had launched this preemptive strike not only to keep the Fallen Angels and the other executives from looking down on humans, but also because half of his goal was information. As the head of a faction, Azazel would surely possess a vast amount of knowledge, and if he could obtain it, he might be able to solve the problem he was carrying. But Azazel—
"Sorry, but as I said before, I'm not inclined to do that. What do you want, the results of my experiments? Or information?"
—was, as expected, sharp. If someone wanted the governor himself, the obvious conclusion was that they wanted to pressure his faction and raise their own reputation. But if that were all, then Pain, with power like his, could have achieved the same thing simply by turning the place into a wasteland. And yet they still wanted him personally. That narrowed the possibilities, and Azazel reached his conclusion.
"You're quicker on the uptake than the Demon Kings, but I have no intention of changing my objective. Whether you're captured or Grigori falls, the result will be the same."
"Well, I'll gladly accept the compliment, Vali."
"Don't give me orders!"
In the end, Pain refused to back down, and Azazel had no choice but to choose battle. At Azazel's signal, white dragon armor wrapped around Vali's body, and he charged straight at Pain.
"Foolish."
Pain extended his hand and activated [Shinra Tensei], the repulsion of the Six Paths. Vali was blown back just like the executives—
[Divide]
—but the power had already been halved by the Sacred Gear [Boosted Gear]. Then, using the booster from within the armor, he closed in on Pain.
"!!"
"Looks like you let your guard down!"
Pain knew the ability from what he had heard from Ddraig, but he hadn't expected it to halve damage as well. Vali's kick smashed into his face and sent him flying. He crashed through the building behind him and collapsed with it.
"Not bad."
He rose, brushing away the dust of the collapsed building.
"This guy is strong... His skill is a little below the Demon Kings, but his ability is troublesome. The longer time passes, the more he halves my power. Even the strongest opponent could be dragged down to the level of an ordinary person. But it's useless if it doesn't land, and he's already hit me..."
[Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide, Divide]
Vali didn't miss the chance and kept halving Pain's power again and again and again. And yet—
"...He really is a monster..."
—there was still quite a bit of magical power left. At the very least, enough to match Vali in his normal state. But against Pain, who possessed the power of the Six Paths, it was like pouring water into a bottomless pit.
"Indeed. A troublesome ability. But lost power can simply be replenished."
Pain replenished the power Vali had stolen by drawing magical power from the fallen Fallen Angel executives through the [Human Path of the Six Paths]. Vali and Azazel couldn't easily approach because of the ability, even as he openly stole the executives' magical power.
"Seems troublesome on both sides, huh."
"No. Mine is superior."
At Vali's words, Pain raised his hand and pulled Vali in with gravity. Then—
"At this distance too?!"
Vali was startled as his body was dragged in despite thinking he had created enough distance.
"Don't forget I'm here! Go, White Dragon Emperor! No matter what happens, land a hit!"
Armaros's reappearance interrupted him. Vali seized the opening and surged forward with boosters erupting from his back.
"He'd just cancel it with [Shinra Tensei] anyway."
Armaros had already seen through the plan. But he didn't retreat, because—
"Ghk!"
"!! Impossible!"
Pain possessed the [Rinnegan]. The [Rinnegan], said to be the eyes of God and a power above the [Sharingan] and the Byakugan, dramatically enhanced both physical ability and dynamic vision simply by existing in the eyes. The reason Pain, the Deva Path, could fight the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki in hand-to-hand combat while barehanded was because of the [Rinnegan]. Vali broke the sound barrier and closed in on Pain, but Pain merely shifted his body slightly to evade, then blasted Vali away at point-blank range with [Shinra Tensei]. Vali had no time to halve the damage before blood spilled from his mouth and he was sent flying. And with Pain's calm voice following after, he was left in despair.
"Looks like I was underestimated too. I'm not quite at Madara-sama's level, but I have enough power to destroy one of your three factions by myself."
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