Author's Comment

So yeah, I became a lazy bastard between the last chapter update and now. At some point I hit a motivation wall while writing this story, kinda lost the fire for story writing during the week. I want to keep going, but even if I say that I'm not sure if people are liking this enough for me to continue. I'm starting Fall semester now so time could be limited in some regards. Not to mention my disdain for the government at the moment for proposing a law that is outright idiotic, turning my favorite hobby next to video games into a crime, but I digress.

Enjoy the belated chapter and if you've been enjoying the series so far, please leave a few words of motivation in the review. It helps me push more chapters forward for you to enjoy. Bye bye bye!

~ 20 ~

The bastard finally fucking did it now. Declaring to everyone to hear that God died in the Great War. Everyone was shocked and couldn't believe what they just heard. That God... is dead.

"It's normal for you guys not to know about it. Who can say that God has died? Humans are an incomplete bunch. Without God, they cannot control their hearts and obey the laws, you know? Even us, the fallen-angels, and devils couldn't tell this to those below us. You won't know where the information about God will be leaked from. Even among the three-powers, only the people at the top and certain people know it. Though Balba noticed it earlier, and your pet dragon was aware all along."

Of course I was aware of his passing. Ever since I came to know who I am as a being, the first thing I learned after that was the passing of God. When my relatives said my birth was something of a miracle, they weren't kidding. Holy and Demonic under normal circumstances wouldn't mix, but with the deaths of the four Maou and God it paved a way to something more. Kiba's ability to merge the two into his swords as his Balance Breaker is one were seeing right now...and myself.

"After the War, what was left were the angels who had lost their God, the devils lost their Maou and the majority of high-class devils and fallen-angels who lost their numbers apart from their leaders. So it wasn't a mere exhausted state. All of the factions fell so low, that they had to rely on humans to continue their generations. Especially the angels and fallen-angel that could only continue their generation by mating with humans. Fallen-angels can increase if the angels fall, but pure-angels can't increase their numbers after losing God. Even pure-devils are rare, right?"

"...Lies...it's a lie..."

Further away from me, Xenovia looked like she was about to collapse with a panicked expression too unbearable to look. God's servant. A person who lived her life as a mission to serve God. Her meaning to live went right out the window. This is what I was afraid of...those who've committed their life to him, only to realize that those prayers fell on dead ears.

"The truth is that another big war wouldn't happen unless you do it on purpose. It means that all three-sides went through hell in the past war. Everyone decided that it was meaningless to continue having a war if the start of it all, God and the Maou, were dead. Even that bastard Azazel declared that 'there is no second war.' after losing the majority of his men in the war! It's hard to bear! It truly is hard to bear! To lower your gun once you already shot it!? Don't fuck around. Don't fuck around! If we continued on from there, we could have won! Even so, he...! Is there any value in fallen-angels who can only live by inviting humans who possess Sacred Gears!?"

"...God doesn't exist? God...is dead? Then the love we were given by him is..."

"That's right. It's normal that there is no love from God and no divine protection from him. God is gone already. Michael is certainly doing well. He's taking the place of God and is taking care of the angels and humans. Well, if the "system" used by God is operating, then the prayer to God, the blessing to God, and exorcism would function. But if you compare it to the time God was present, the number of believers decreased. That Holy-demonic sword brat over there was able to create the Holy-demonic sword because the balance between God and the Maou broke. In reality, Holy and demonic powers cannot merge. If the ones who rule the power of Holy and demonic powers, God and the Maou, disappear, then lots of unique phenomenons occur." hearing his words, Asia dropped to the floor on her knees.

"Asia!" I call out to her. It shouldn't be a surprise that she would react the worst of those who lived their life serving God. Going as far as to keep her faith in him despite being a Devil. Kiba had his life believing in God also, then rebelling against him at some point. Everyone felt complicated about the information.

I just felt simply, purely...enraged.

~ Narrator's POV ~

"From here on out, I will start a war! I will take your heads as a gift! Even if it's only me, I will continue from where we left off! I'm going to show Sirzechs and Michael that we, the fallen-angels are the ultimate beings!" raising his fist in the air, Kokabiel declares war on Heaven and Hell.

"First I want to take on the servant who has both the cursed Dragons; Ddraig and Albion! Sekiryuutei and Hakuryuukou! What's it going to be!? The red or the white!? Either way it'll be an interesting fight!" turning towards Takeo to point a finger.

"...Neither." dismissing Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing, but keeping Invictus at hand. "You want a fight with Heaven and Hell? Michael and Lucifer are unavailable at the moment..." cracking knuckles with a thumb. "...so your just going to have to settle with me as I am." calmly walking towards him.

"...Hmph! Such arrogance. You think you can take me on with your base powers alone?" he readies a spear and fires straight at the immobile young man.

Invictus shines a red with black light for a moment, then changing shape into a a two hand crimson ax. He swings the weapon around him, and brings the head down when the spear was close enough. The result shatters the light spear into pieces and the ground cracks at the force. Takeo charges at the fallen-angel breaking the speed of light.

No one could have been more stunned than Kiba. He prides himself as a fast warrior, but Takeo just disappeared...like before. He looks at Kokabiel to see where Takeo would appear next to him. He catches a glimpse of a red weapon howling down at Kokabiel's head. He ducks away fast enough only to have his wings clipped off from the chop. Blood and feathers goes flying out the wound, and Kokabiel looked vilely at Takeo but he didn't acknowledge it as he kept the unrelenting assault.

"Damn kid! You had a lucky strike on me is all!" blocking off the attacks marginally with his swords of light.

"..." Takeo stayed silent while the ax clashed with the light swords violently. Shifting the handle slightly, he lashes out and breaks the swords of light in Kokabiel's hands. The light burst and fades away. Kokabiel backs up at the sight of his weapons being destroyed with such minimal movement and to come up with a new plan. While he stood there aghast, Takeo walked eerily again. Dragging the ax head on the ground as if reenacting a murder scene, treading towards the fallen-angel.

"...! Don't get cocky because you caught me off guard!" readying another light spear, even larger than before and hurls it at Takeo again.

He kept his pace and raised his ax above his head. What no one expected was as he brings down the attack, the weapon ejected the main component like a slingshot! The head tears through the spear like a bullet through paper, aiming for Kokabiel. He dodges out of the way, again narrowly due to the surprise he's having of seeing his attacks being ripped through. Looking at the weapon that lost its component to kill. He smirked at this.

"I hope you don't intend to fight me with just a stick..." before he could finish, a pale blue-white light covered the handle of Takeo's ax as he pushes the weapon arm parallel to the ground. Further shocking everyone else, they recognize it's a holy aura the weapon is emanating from the staff. Or precisely, Takeo. The weapon shifts form into a scythe with feathered wing designs where the blade meets staff. "Another weapon!? This one has holy-aura to it as well! A Devil that can also use holy power?!"

Appearing little above and behind Kokabiel, Takeo swipes the scythe towards his head. He blocks the attack off with his black wings but twas for naught. The blade cuts through the feathers, nicking his neck again as he moves out of the way. Takeo lands on his feet gracefully in silence, and stares at his opponent blankly.

"You...what are you... I've never seen a Devil wield holy power aside the kid with the holy-demonic sword there. I haven't seen someone with killing intent that's silent just like his movements and attacks. Yet dense enough to take maybe even Durandal to it." shocked at how he was being pushed back, even toyed with by someone who wasn't putting much effort into his attacks.

[Noctis]: "No mercy for the vile."

Kiba and Koneko recognized these words with widened eyes. They're going back down a path they hoped they wouldn't have to see again. Noctis was looming over him in his ethereal form. But what they didn't expect were the next words Takeo spoke.

"Redemption for the damned"

—? This wasn't part of the chant from before. Even the tone in Takeo's voice was different compared to when losing Asia...

[Noctis]: "No surrender to the cruel."

"Compassion for the weak."

"No solace against our wrath." the two voices combine. The two members wince from hearing the final words, but was offset from another line of words.

"Judgment calls our name..." ending as pure black and white aura blazes around him.

The armored specter reduces in size and becomes tangible. Pieces of the armor disappear to encase the young man's body; chest plate wrapping him in its embrace, pauldrons resting on his shoulders, gauntlets tighten in a fist, thigh and greaves clamping to complete the image of a knight in white armor with black underneath the plating where parts of his arms and legs were showing. His left side covered by a makeshift shield of angel and devil wing design resembling a cloak. Eyes no longer their blue and green; now dominantly black with flecks of white before hidden behind a helmet of the ghostly warrior. The design was peculiar; a full helm to protect the head and mask its master's identity through slits in the eyes. Horns jutting forward with a halo hovering above him.

"Light and Darkness incarnate. Noctis Angelo, the Nephilim that will drown you in the void between Paradiso and Inferno." pointing Invictus in its scythe form still at Kokabiel. Then driving the blade down to the ground before disappearing entirely.

"! ...where is he! Where is...Gyaaagh!" his frantic confusion cut short as some of his black wings flew up in the air. What was left were small stumps where the wings stood with blood gushing out.

"Wings of a wretched crow. A truly disgusting color. Azazel's wings are the only ones that has the right to be called everlasting darkness." brushing the feathers off his hands in disdain as though contracting a germ. "Remember what I said before. I'm the brat that will tear the wings off your back to make you heel; plucking feathers for every word you breath from that filthy mouth of yours."

"Y...You! My wings!" Kokabiel enraged at the sight and action of his wings simply torn off his back. Yet the Nephilim stood and laughed at his agitation.

"It's a symbol of your fallen grace. Why the need of wings for one who has stooped lower than the earth? Do you still plan to fly, little crow?"

"Damn child! Don't you dare mock me!" Kokabiel flies back into the sky to create a cloud of spears of light in the sky, but Noctis/Takeo looked uninterested. The shield on his left moves to create a wing effect on his back and four black devil wings sprouting out his left, which was offset by four white angel wings to his right.

"Angel wings!? What kind of joke is this!? there's no way for a Devil to have Angel's wings also...!" appalled at what he was seeing before realizing something. "...No wonder why you knew! You are the very embodiment of what happens when God and Maou passed from this world! A blasphemous existence conceived from the anomaly of Light and Dark combining!" he throws the spears downward at Takeo.

"Then Takeo is a...!" Rias realizing what and why Takeo was hiding this from everyone. A hybrid with Angel and Devil blood running in his veins. Why he kept the fact that God was dead to himself; to protect those who believed in God so faithfully and the ones he cared for.

He summons Yamato in an Iaido stance. Blue-black light surrounds him for a moment, then pillars of the same light formed in a net-like fashion in the space where the assault of light spears were about to head, then blinks away from existence. No one realized that Takeo had already drawn his sword for it to happen, only accounting for him sheathing the blade with a click. In a flash of exploding light, the spears were obliterated out of existence by the same pillars that just shot out from the night. Leaving Kokabiel shocked at how his attack was cut down before they found their mark.

"It can't be! It would have to take an Ultimate-class power to even reduce one of those attacks to nothing! Don't tell me he's something that has surpassed that, maybe even a Maou or God Class!" everyone from the club went deathly silent at hearing Takeo could exceed someone like a Maou or a God.

"Tepid." Takeo dismisses his katana, and reels the scythe from before into his hands. "If this is all you have then you've been a waste of my time." kneeling down, then bounding upward after Kokabiel.

"Damn you!" he charges at Takeo with light spear in one hand and light sword in another. But Takeo blocks the two attacks with the staff, and pushes back to cut through the weapons. Breaking the two into pieces, leaving Kokabiel open for a slash to his chest.

Takeo switches the weapons form to the familiar brawler set and sword emitter on his back. Grabbing onto the opponent's collar, he rams a knee into his stomach. Causing blood to vomit out his mouth and double over for two fists slamming into his spine. Not stopping there, the armored warrior latches onto the back of the fallen-angel's head and plummets down to the ground.

BOOOM!

The result left a crater large enough similar to the one made from the fight between Tiamat and Takeo. Only one stood as the other laid on the ground writhing in pain. The former dismissed his wings and the shield folded back onto his left side.

"...Impossible... me..."

"Honestly, a second rate villain who's about to met his end would say that. I wonder what's after that? 'This can't be?'. At least be original about it." Takeo laughing from the amusement he's finding in this moment. "If I didn't know better, I would have just killed you here and now. But then someone would get angry for me delivering judgment when it's not in my right." he grabs Kokabiel by a collar and cracks his other hand again.

"You! What do you intend to...!" Kokabiel takes an armored fist to his face, rendering him unconscious.

"I intend to take you to someone who will render your sentence." Certain of this, Takeo drags him out the hole he created and walks towards everyone. He was greeted with silence and amazed faces mixed with a slight terror in their eyes. Looking around them, he notices something amiss. "So while I was having a fight with Kokabiel, Freed up and left?" sighing to himself. The others notices this and were unsure what to say. "Well, here's to hoping we don't have to see him again...at least the bomb was defused." lifting the body of the defeated Kokabiel onto his shoulder.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ping! Ping! Ping!

Turning around with Luce in his hand, Takeo fired off three rounds to cancel the three shots aimed for the back of his head. The first thing he see is a tall woman in a skin tight black suit, glasses with a butterfly design near the frame, and holstering a derringer designed gun to the side.

"Well your marksmanship and reaction time is impeccable. No doubt you can make a gun dance." an English accent sounding playful as the woman stops a few yards away from Takeo.

Everyone got in a defensive stance, except Takeo who dismissed the helmet to show a small wolfish grin. His hair undone from the usual ponytail, a fading effect of white on the ends til fading black halfway to his scalp. He can tell there wasn't any killing intent in the action, though the others will say otherwise. Simple curiosity followed up by bullets. A certainly interesting method to catch someone's attention.

"Care to ask her opinion? I'm sure Luce and Ombra would love to talk all about it." spinning the 1911 in his trigger finger, then holding it by the middle to holster the pistol behind him. "Although I have an appointment. Can we reschedule for another time?"

"And here I was hoping for a little pillow talk with you." smiling coyly and sounding a little rejected. Interesting name for his pistols, she thought. Considering what she saw it was well intended that way.

"Perhaps another day. It would be a shame to have met such a lovely woman such as yourself, only to never meet again. Mind if I have a name to remember?"

"Only if you say yours first."

"So much for ladies first. Then again gentleman's courtesy. The name is Takeo Mugetsu."

"Bayonetta. I hope you will keep your word on the hopes of meeting again, little wolf." raising a hand to touch the frame with her finger to adjust it, and walks off.

The people who spectated from the side were confused to say the least. One minute they were expecting an attack, only to be thrown into a loop by the assailant and the victim if you want to call him that, chatting in a slightly flirtatious banter, and end with the two wanting to meet again.

Their confusion broken with the arrival of black feathers and four figures arriving from above to land on the ground. Raynare and the three fallen-angels from when they met at the church. Donaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt were ready for a fight.

"Takeo! Rias! Everyone! Are you...all...right...?" Raynare concerned at first, then confused at the scene she entered. She looks at everyone who were wearing even more confused than them, then turns to Takeo who was wearing an unfamiliar armor to them. "U-Um... Takeo, what's going on?"

"It's nothing, just cleaning up is all. I'll be away for a moment, taking Kokabiel here with me." the fallen angels were stunned to hear everyone else took down a leader of the Fallen-angels.

"W-Wow. How did it go? The fight between everyone and him?" Donaseek asking.

"More like only a match between Takeo and Kokabiel. He didn't put up a fight against Takeo at all." Kiba's words shocked the four who just arrived.

"That can't be right! I mean Takeo is good, but to take down Kokabiel alone is hard to believe!" Kalawarner says with disbelief.

"You had to be there to see. He didn't use any of his Sacred Gears, only using a weapon that can change forms into other weapons and the armor he's wearing now." Rias agreeing with Kiba. "I have to ask, Takeo, where are you going with him?" curious at his answer.

"Dropping him off at Azazel's." the armor dissipates from his body. His hair and eyes revert back to before in a small glow and a magic circle forms below him.

"Do you want us to accompany you?" Raynare asking concerned for him. He waves it down gently.

"No need. I can point myself where to find him." the light gets brighter for a moment.

"Takeo..." Rias calling out before he disappears entirely from everyone. She looked slightly sullen at how he didn't react.