It was seven against one.

There were two hippopotamus looking demons that looked like the one Naoki melted it with his divine shot. He never encountered them before. The others were ones he knew: a Gyūki much like the other two he killed, a Tao Tie, and three Abaddon. Their ambush earlier, while cheap, was effective. It completely caught him off guard.

'This world's turning me soft, I did it twice now…' He thought as he took the first step forward to the battle. 'Let's fix that!'

Naoki let out a blood-curdling War Cry.

The cry demoralized the summoner's demons. Naoki could feel their pressure waning. The demons tightened their formation, finally realizing how seriously they should treat him. The sight was nostalgic.

He let out another War Cry. 'C'mon…'

The first to crack was the hippo demon sitting on the Ice pillar's remains. It jumped down between its companions and Naoki. It released a foggy Dark Breath. Naoki didn't let the opportunity go and opened his mouth, his Fog Breath leaking out spreading around them.

The three Abaddon suddenly erupted from the ground! Their bald looking heads and angel-like wings on top of it peeked out as the three opened their mouths, releasing a red wave of demonic energy.

"Hades Blaaaaaassst!" The three chorused.

Naoki heard Hikawa yell a 'Fly!', probably addressed to the devils. The young man didn't have the time to look back, getting struck by the demon's attack. The harbor's artificial structure was starting to collapse from underneath them! The hippo demon was suddenly beside Naoki.

'This thing's fast!'

It followed through after the Abaddon and slammed its entire body sending Naoki flying across the harbor and into one of the large metal harbor cranes littered in the area. The Fiend crashed on the crane's structure and crippled one of its pillars. He tried standing up but the crane collapsed, noisily falling down from its own weight into the young man. The area around him was filled with dust, but Naoki easily shrugged off the metal structure.

"Hades Blaaaaaassst!"

Naoki, trying to dust his head off, jumped aside before one of the Abaddon could follow up and hit its Hades Blast again. It screamed, breaking one of the protruding metal-beams down into the concrete ground. Failing to hit Naoki successfully, the demon looked around frantically.

"On your left—!"

It heard him shout and turned quickly. "Hades Blaa— ah?!"

Naoki, however, was on the right side of the demon already swinging a dozen-meter long metal piece of the crane's pillar! The young man had a shit eating grin as he sent one of the Abaddon back flying into the Hippo demon as if he was playing in a batting center. The demons were thrown back into the wall of the warehouse beside the one they destroyed. The beam Naoki hit the Abaddon with was broken in half from the force of the Fiend's swing.

"Don't shout your attacks, idiot." Naoki's grin wasn't going away soon.

"Hey, second-rate summoner." He looked at the summoner, dropping the metal beam he was holding. "You've got a good set of demons. Caught me off guard twice too. But they're kinda green with head-on fights, aren't they?"

"Oh?" That got a dry laugh from the man, but there was little amusement in his expression. "Compared to a lot of demons from my peers, they are very experienced."

"I've only fought your demons, so I can't really compare." Naoki lifted an even bigger metal beam like he was holding a javelin. He moved forward, his steps skipping like a javelin-throw athlete. "But so far? I'm not impressed—!"

With a grunt, Naoki launched the forty-meter-long metal pillar straight into the summoner!

The summoner raised his crosier casting Tetrakarn. The beam exploded when the spell's mirror like shield activated. His eyes widened when he saw Naoki behind the launched metal pillar, only a good foot away with his hands clasped together. The Fiend slammed his hands hammering the summoner to the ground, forcing him to kneel on one leg.

"Behemoth!" The summoner called.

'Is that what it's called?' Naoki took a measured step back as the Demon slammed its body forward between its summoner and him.

The demon quickly grabbed Naoki with its arms, actually managing to lock him down. The demon was six meters high; Naoki was looking up at it. It started to tighten its grip on Naoki, slowly crushing him. But looking up at it like he was, directly behind the demon was nothing but the night sky. Not wasting the opportunity Naoki clawed with one hand to break slightly free off the Behemoth, enough for him to clasp his hand in front of the demon's snout.

He gathered energy towards his head, red lightning crackled around him as white light focused around his palm. Before the demon could realize what Naoki was trying to do the Divine Shot hit the Behemoth point-blank!

The beam was as big as the one earlier and cleared the clouds above even further. But Naoki's attack was cut short when an Abaddon erupted from the ground, wrapping its tongue around his neck like a rope and pulled him off the Behemoth. By the few seconds the beam hit the Behemoth it was already enough to melt its head off, along with its body up until his chest area. Its body slammed lifelessly in front of the summoner.

Naoki slammed his fist down the Abaddon choking him. "Your tongue stinks like hell!"

His punch connected and the demon sunk down, reeling from the force. Even more of the harbor's structure shook and collapsed from Naoki's attack. The young man hadn't been paying attention to the collateral damage, too focused on thrill the battle had given him. This was how it had always been for Naoki back in the vortex world. There was just him, his enemies and the question of who was going to be on top.

Just like then. He was now getting lost in the thrill of it all.

Another of the Abaddon jumped out and tried to bite Naoki, but the young man lunged his entire body slamming the demon head on. He grabbed the tongue that was choking him and swung the dizzy Abaddon slamming it to the second. His mouth morphed into a smile and the Fiend clicked his tongue, a flickering flight sparked out of it. Naoki grabbed the two Abaddon he bodied by the wings on their bald heads and aimed his mouth close to one of the demon's yellow glowing eyes.

"Eat this—" Naoki breathed hellfire out of his mouth!

The Abaddon howled in agony as its eyes melted, the second one followed suit as he gouged its eyes out like he was pulling weeds out of the ground.

The flying devils and Hikawa, who was lifted up by Kiba, was having a hard time seeing an opportunity to jump in and help. Rias, especially, had seen many Rating games before but was still overwhelmed by the unflinchingly primal way the demon battle had unfolded.

Issei was as straightforward as ever. "He can breathe fire!?"

"W-was he always like this?" She addressed to no one in particular.

"I thought he was fine when he fought in the interrogation room, but he's losing himself again." Koneko muttered. "It's just like back then."

"Tarukaja," Hikawa raised his hand with his prayer beads glowing. "So far, I have only seen him use his low-level attacks. He is holding back considerably."

"Seriously!? That beam that could split the city clean in half is a low-level attack?" Issei deadpanned.

"Compared to what I've seen him do?" Specifically, the level of attacks the young man personally used against Hikawa in the Tower of Kagutsuchi. "This is child's play to him."

The man had known Naoki the longest out of them. The devils could only imagine what would 'letting loose' entail if unleashing power stronger than a fallen angel's attacks left and right was him holding back.

Whoever this enemy was, there was one thing clear in the summoner's mind. This demon is something he should eliminate quickly. The summoner was an Adept-level summoner within their ranks. There were few in their organization who could summon a demon of this level. The man who was with this demon wasn't its master, that much was clear. The man had little to no handle of subjugation to the creature, it was more like a companion rather than a summoned demon. This begged the question, who summoned it?

The summoner touched the, still cloaked, spinning drum of Amala and telepathically resummoned close to him his remaining demons not busy with distracting the enemy: the third Abaddon, last of his Behemoth, the Gyūki and a Tao Tie.

'Gyūki, Abaddon, back the others up.' The demons moved without question. 'You two, form up with me.'

He quickly relayed his plan and his demons did little to question him. After all, the law of subjugation was at play, who were they to question his will? Their Demon enemy was fast, but the summoner noticed it was easily distracted when his demons fight it. It was battle hungry, and it was something the summoner was going to easily take advantage on.

The enemy made quick work to the rest of his demons. The summoner was looking at it, trampling over the Gyūki's lifeless body while holding the two Abaddon by their wings on each hand. The demon's glowing markings were pulsing an intimidating green while its pale-yellow eyes were staring daggers at him.

"I got bored and finished them off," It spoke.

The summoner hummed. "I see, I suppose I'll do the same to you."

He tapped his crosier once to the ground to signal his plan and casted a spell at the same time. He spoke softly. "Shibaboo…"

The enemy demon was forced to let go of the dead demons it had been holding, unseen chains wrapped around its body tightly. It could only tighten on its every miniscule movement. The demon huffed in annoyance. "This again?"

The Tao Tie was quick to pinch the enemy with both of its hooves. It released a death skill, releasing an ugly aura as the Tao Tie eyes its Hell-like Gaze to the enemy. But the demon rebuked by breathing fire straight at the summoner's demon! The Tao Tie fell down and squirmed at its slowly melting face. But the Behemoth was quick to follow through and slammed its entire body weight sending the enemy demon flying across the harbor even further than it did earlier.

It went past the area by the cranes and metal crates through the harbor's parking area and into one of the Passenger terminals.

The summoner uttered. "Tao Tie, finish it off. If you fail, Behemoth will follow up."

The two grunted and went after the unknown demon enemy.

Naoki really hated cheap attacks like bind. Each small movement bit back tenfold. It's like when your legs fall asleep, a very bad case of it and it's all over your body. He could move if he'd use a magatama to nullify the effect. But that was hardly something Naoki wanted to do if he could help it—

"Hey, you alright?!" It was a voice he had never heard before. "What the heck is with these tattoos?"

Naoki craned his neck slowly to the source, cloud of dust from whatever wall he slammed into dissipated. Where did all of these people come from? He was surrounded by civilians! It took him a good second of eyeing his surroundings when he realized he was at the tip of the harbor. In a large Passenger terminal building filled with innocent people!

A loud noise could be heard from outside.

"You heard it too, right? Bunch of awful noises out there." The voice belonged to a man on his thirties wearing a grey suit. "The guards said one of the cranes fell."

"No no no—" Naoki grunted. "Get away from me."

He tried to stand, struggling from the spell. But the man held him from his shoulder. "It's alright, the wall already fell over."

"You were unlucky, no one else was around the wall when it happened." He moved quickly, doing what Naoki assumed was an inspection around his body. "Don't worry, I'm a nurse. I want to know if it's safe for me to move you around."

"No large visible lacerations, that's good…" He muttered as he continued.

"Is he alright?" "Oh my, he looked hurt!" "Hey! Call the guards!" "What the heck happened?" "Doctor! Is there a doctor around!?"

There was already a peanut gallery forming around them, but that was hardly the concern for Naoki. He was concentrating on listening if one of the demons had—

"Look, mom! That sheep is floating!"

"Sheep—!? I'm a Vile you worthless human!"

There was a loud pop and a woman's piercing scream shortly followed. The people were suddenly in a panic, Naoki could see from the corner of his eye the Tao Tie slowly floating toward him.

'Damn it! I should've been careful!' Naoki balled his fists and tried standing up. 'Screw the drum, I won't let this monster harm them!'

Naoki suddenly smelled rusty iron in the air as more people screamed. When he looked back at the demon his face warped into a hateful glare from the sight. There was already a literal path of bodies through where the Tao Tie was walking through.

"You piece of—!" Naoki caught his breath, the bind bit back and he could only afford to roll over.

"What the hell is that!?" The man beside him hissed, slowly dragging Naoki with him into one of the larger pieces of rubble from the wall that fell over. "I'm sorry in advance if that broke something, kid."

"No…" Naoki grunted. "The people…"

"You don't understand." The man looked over the rubble, speaking as softly as he could. "There's a monster… I don't care if you're some delinquent… I— just trust me, you do not want to go out there!"

Naoki gritted his teeth. Should he ingest a magatama?

'Just a fraction of a second, just enough for the Masakados to void the bind effect…' He tried to reason with himself. But deep inside Naoki knew it was a death sentence for the city if he let himself loose.

"See all of this, little human? Think a measly sheep can do this?" He heard the familiar voice of the demon.

"Shit, that's a child!" Naoki heard the man curse at himself. "I can't do anything against that thing! What the hell is happening…"

Naoki clawed with one hand enough for half of his head to peek out of the rubble again. In one of his hooves was a child being stabbed through the chest. The Tao Tie was casually floating around waving its free hoof at the bloody scenery it painted. "I admit, I might not look much. But I'm pretty scary when I'm mad."

Naoki stood up, but fell in one knee. His entire body screamed. Everything felt like he was being doused by lava, but the sheer hate the Fiend felt from seeing a bloodied child in the hands of a demon flashed a very ugly memory:

It was the holy shrine of the Manikins, Mifunashiro. Lifeless bodies of Manikins were thrown over the bottomless pits like garbage. One of the bodies he saw was a Manikin child. It was the one who gave him the Geis magatama, the annoying Puzzle Boy who challenged him. Naoki's memory lingered at the times the boy would pester to play with him even after he solved the puzzles, it was something he appreciated. Being treated normally.

The man whispered a 'What are you doing!? Get back here!' before hiding back again when he saw the demon face their direction.

"Oh, there you are." The Tao Tie spoke casually. "Not so hotblooded now that you're tangled by my master's bind, eh?"

The Fiend was completely absorbed by the memory that he instinctively conjured two of his summoned swords.

"You unfeeling swine—!" Naoki growled. His voice, while soft, was completely fuming.

With a quick step Naoki was in front of the demon. It tried to shield itself with the child but the Fiend was quick enough to cut its arm off with a clean upward stroke. It screamed from the pain, but Naoki shut the demon up by stabbing its chest with the second sword.

The Tao Tie quickly retreated. Naoki wanted to chase it down and kill it but the people was now his first priority. He caught the child and held her in his arms. The Tao Tie's arm was lodged through the child's chest and—

Naoki felt a sudden presence behind him! From the large shadow emanated from the building's light he could tell it was the Behemoth. The child was mortally wounded and Naoki knew if he would dodge, the child would suffer from the whiplash of his inhuman movement. Naoki felt a heavy blow from his back amplified by the still lingering effect of the Bind. He can shrug off a few blows—

Slam!

Naoki didn't move, clutching the child closer in his arms.

Slam!

The Behemoth slammed both of its arms against Naoki's back again. The young man was forced to kneel on one leg.

Slam!

His bloodlust got the better of him and again innocents were paying the price. He was powerful enough to deal with these devils without incident, but his hubris led to this pathetic performance.

Slam!

Was it even worth the lives of the world he restored so he could pursue his selfishness?

Slam!

The blow didn't connect with his back.

"Enough blood has been spilled," A firm feminine voice echoed from behind Naoki. "Stop."

Naoki turned and saw a woman. The Fiend blinked twice from the sight of a glowing blonde girl who was wearing a white dress. Her emerald eyes trailed from the Behemoth's arm she stopped with one stroke she punched the demon's arm up, breaking it with a pronounced cracking noise.

The demon squealed like a boar.

Naoki didn't waste the opportunity! He quickly laid the child down and jumped over the Behemoth's head. While still in the air Naoki grabbed the demon by its long ears and, with a heave, threw it across the harbor back in the direction of the summoner!

Naoki let himself fall into the pavement but was caught by the woman— no, the angel. Twelve wings were sprouting from her back beautifully and a small halo was cutely hovering over her head. She held him as if she was holding a child, smiling as she did so.

Speaking of which…

"The child!" Naoki rolled off the angel's hold and dashed towards the wounded child.

Said child, however, had been completely healed. Their clothes had a hole punched through but there wasn't even a trace of a scar. The angel sat down beside Naoki and caressed the child's hair.

"She was still alive when you held her," She clasped the child's forehead, as if checking for a fever. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't say the same to the others."

Naoki was looking at her the entire time she was talking. He saw a single tear roll down her cheeks as her eyes looked at the dozens of dead.

She locked her eyes with his. "I'm so sorry I took too long to arrive."

In his life, Naoki had never met an angel like her before. He blinked and shook his head. "No, I should've been able to handle this."

"I-is that an angel?" "Then w-was that thing the devil?" "T-this is isn't some prank, right?" "She's glowing!"

The man who helped Naoki was cautiously walking towards them. "I-is the child alright?"

The people slowly went out of their hiding spots. The angel stood up and turned at them. The entire time, her feet were stepping on the dusty floor. "Excuse me…? Would any of you happen to be the parent of this child?"

The people were silent. The nurse beside Naoki looked downcast as he walked closer.

"Please, fear not." She smiled. "I may look odd to you, but I just wanted to—"

"Miss Angel?" He was checking on the child as he looking up at her. "Her mother is probably…"

He looked at the litter of corpses. The angel, wide eyed, sat clasping the child and cried silently.

Wordlessly, Naoki stood up.

The bind spell's pain was ever-present but his chest was hurting even more. There was something from seeing the angel crying her heart out for the child that struck a chord in Naoki. He had never seen such as sight in his life. He had only seen angels vying for power or actively trying to kill him. Even the ones he had summoned were entirely opposite to the crying girl he was seeing.

Naoki huffed as he slowly walked.

Every person present were eyeing Naoki, not that the young man noticed. He was busy walking towards the bodies, the strong metallic smell of blood getting stronger with each step. Naoki hadn't been able to see who the mother was, but he was more than able to sense who it was. There was a corpse of a woman who looked as if she was trying to reach out towards the direction where the Tao Tie moved, in contrast, the rest of the corpses looked as if they were running away from it.

Naoki lifted the body of the woman and walked back to them. He laid her a few paces away from the child, who was now awake. The man quickly checked the woman's body.

"I don't know how you found her—"

"She was trying to reach for the child."

"Shit." Naoki saw the nurse rub his temple before reaching over. It only took a few seconds before the man stopped his inspection and let out a heavy breath.

"It's no use, she's gone."

By the time the man announced it, the people were already close. There were a couple of gasps. But the voice that broke through the murmurs was a lone voice of a child.

"Mom?"

"Oh no." The man moved closer to the child. "Please, rest for a bit, okay? I—"

"Mom!" The child pushed herself away from the angel and the nurse, she sat beside Naoki.

The people around them were silent. There was no one willing to say anything. There was nothing left to be said. Naoki was looking at the child. This wasn't a question of whether he should or shouldn't, was it? If it wasn't for his selfish actions for the past few days, she should have been able to carry on with her life. The same with the people in the café.

When had he become so arrogant, he's now easily weighing people's lives against his selfishness just because he was the one who restored the world? Or is it just proper idiocy on his part to ignore the effect of his power in the world at large?

It was all of it, he was sure. Naoki didn't like this newfound negligence

"I'm no better than them." He cursed at himself.

He leaned closer and released a surge of demonic energy. The bind was in full force, but Naoki pushed through despite the hellish pain. The child was hugging her mother's dead body.

"Don't cry," Naoki caressed the child's hair, imitating how the angel did earlier. "Your mom's just asleep."

"Huh?"

Naoki took the woman's hand and a gentle glow lit up the woman's body. The light's gentle rays reached the people who were looking at the event in disbelief, each ray that hit them made them feel a feeling of motherly warmth.

The light dissipated transforming into glowing feathers which rose up into the night sky. Not a moment after the glow dissipated the woman drew in a heavy breath! She sat up and began coughing. Naoki supported her, holding her by the shoulder. "W-what happened!? Nanako…my daughter, young man—"

"Mom…? Mom!"

It wouldn't be just her.

Naoki stood up and walked past the man and the angel, kneeling close to each of the dead. Each glow of Naoki's Samarecarm made the people look at him in awe. But the gaze Naoki took notice the most was from the angel. She was looking at him as if she was in a trance.

"I-is he reviving them?" One of the people asked. The sheer silence of the people around them made the person's voice cut through the crowd.

Naoki was feeling the fatigue of constantly reviving three dozen people while fighting the effects of bind. The angel and the man helped the people who were revived into recovering. After the first dozen people were sitting around the building the people who kept their distance started to help Naoki and laid the rest of the dead properly aligned. After the twenty-fifth person was being revived, the angel had Naoki's arm over her shoulder.

"This will be the last. You need to rest before carrying any further." She insisted.

"Before that oversized hippo comes back, I need to finish this." Naoki hissed.

The child whose mother Naoki revived walked closer to him and hugged the angel. "Please listen to Miss Angel…"

Her mother was close behind. "You've already done more than enough, young man. We might not understand how you're doing this, but even I can tell it's taking a toll on you."

"C'mon, take a break." The Nurse patted Naoki's shoulder. "Miss Angel, please take care of him."

Naoki grunted as the angel helped him up.

"They look calm despite all this, huh." Naoki muttered as they found a place to rest.

"They're confused, afraid and tired." She answered. "I can feel their cluelessness. But after seeing the child reunite with her revived mother, I think they wanted to push through the confusion and help."

Naoki looked back at the people. This was the world the reason-bearers failed to see. The potential in humanity, something that could easily be buried underneath the stains of the surface.

Naoki let out a heaved breath as he sat a few paces away from the spot where he was reviving people. Each fragment of time he loses his concentration, the bind's power gets stronger. After the few minutes of his work no less than thirty people were revived, but it was still two thirds of the total casualties and Naoki had no way of getting rid of this damn bind.

The angel was fussing around his body.

"It's this lingering curse causing you pain, isn't it?" She asked. "I can feel the malignant grip of this curse on you, but I can't purify it. I don't know why…"

"Can you cast Me Patra?" Naoki asked.

"Me Patra?" She parroted.

"What kind of demon on your level doesn't know what Me Patra is?" Naoki muttered.

"Demon!?" She recoiled at the word. "Isn't my wings proof enough? I'm a seraph!"

Naoki looked at her like she was crazy.

"Wait, demon…" Her face was warped in thought. "You mean like ones from the Tome of Miroku!?"

"Tome of— the Miroku Scripture?" Naoki huffed, leaning against her. "That stupid book still exists here?"

Naoki could feel a shift in the aura from where the summoner should be. "Let's talk after this is over, seraph. We need to make sure these people are safe first."

"I have a name, you know."

"Does it really matter at a time like this."

"I would really appreciate it," She looked at him, resolute.

He sighed. "Let's hear it then…"

"It's Gabriel." She beamed as she helped him up.

As they walked back towards the people, Naoki was thinking. That wasn't a name he expected to hear from someone who was sincerely helping him and humans.

"You wouldn't happen know angels who are called Uriel and Raphael, would you?"

She smiled wide. "You know your angelology!"

"Not really, I—"

Both of them felt an unbridled surge of power aimed right at the building.

"Brace yourselves, everyone!" Gabriel managed to scream as let she go of him, standing between him and the source of the power.

Gabriel shielded herself, the young man and the people with a couple of barriers of light.

Suddenly, the building was blown away by a force so powerful Gabriel knew it could only come from one of those demons. Vehicles, metal containers and other different debris bounced off their shields as the barrage of the explosive force kept for a few seconds. In the end, her shield was able to hold out. The people's chorus of worry and fear dug through the seraph's ear as the explosion ended.

The Seraph let out a heaved breath as she fell on her knees. In her millennia of existence, she had never encountered an explosion so powerful since the Great War. Gabriel's body felt heavy, but she turned to looked at the young man and the people. She saw some had fainted but the others were quick to help them. The young man was looking forward, his face was warped in anger. But the curse was taking its toll him, Gabriel noticed his body subtly shaking from the pain in moving.

Collective gasps from the people shortly followed as the lights suddenly went out. The blast was powerful enough to cut the city's power lines, it seemed. There were two sources of light was then present, Gabriel and the young man's tattoos.

"Miss Angel, are you okay?" The child called for her.

Gabriel could only smile back at her. As the angel opened her mouth to answer the harbor's already cold atmosphere dropped. It wasn't from a sudden cold in the air, but Gabriel felt every inch of her body screaming to get out of there! There was a sudden bright bluish white light emanating from behind her. The light flashed so suddenly it didn't even reach a fraction of a second before another surge of demonic energy swelled. Gabriel quickly looked back and a blueish wave of energy expanded outwards, part of it was heading towards them!

The seraph had her body jolted from the young man suddenly grabbing her by her by the hips and putting himself in front of the blast. Gabriel put up a shield around them and the people again.

But when the wave passed them, the seraph saw the wave burning through her shields. The shields didn't break, the energy passed it as if her light shields were mere illusions! All of the people numbering a few hundred. The nurse who helped them. The mother who was just resurrected. The child.

"Noooo—!" Her mouth was agape as she screamed.

Gabriel helplessly saw the wave burning the people she just protected minutes ago, her body instinctively tried lunging to them but the young man's grip over her was firm. Her scream didn't die even when the almighty explosion dissipated. It warped from a gasping cry and into a heart wrenching sob.

The young man let go of his hold on Gabriel, the angel fell lifelessly on the ground.

Gabriel wept.

She went on for a good few seconds before an ugly desire for revenge could be felt from behind her. She turned and saw the young man was looking at the empty area where the people he had rescued should have been.

Gabriel noticed his clothes, his coat especially, was ripped apart by the blast. His black slacks were tattered, revealing more of the young man's pulsing green markings. He was silent, as if giving a prayer to the dead. The young man turned towards the source of the blast. With a single pull he ripped his coat and turtleneck leaving it to be blown by the night wind. She looked at the young man's eyes as they turned from the earlier pale yellow to a menacing blood red. His entire disposition changed.

If it wasn't obvious then, it was now. He had the presence of the demons during the Great War.

Gabriel stood up. Her tear smeared eyes was filled with sadness, but her face was warped in a scowl. Her body glowed a harsh gold and her white dress was draped over a golden gilded metallic armor covering her body. A larger glowing halo was now circling over her head and her twelve wings spread out, glowing fiercely. She stepped closer to the young man. He looked over her from head to toe and blinked once.

"I won't take no for an answer." The seraph said firmly, Naoki's eyes narrowing at her words.

In sync, Gabriel summoned a golden glowing light-spear holding it with both her hands and Naoki conjured a single long summoned sword letting it rest over his shoulder.

"Let's go." His demonic voice projected straight into Gabriel's mind.

With his words Gabriel floated a few inches off the ground and was side-by-side with Naoki as the two of them moved towards the enemy.

They were out for blood.

Message:

To the guest who asked, he's a composite Demi-Fiend.

I find it unnecessary to limit his move-set, especially in a lore-leaning fic like this one. As an example, one of his 'moves' is lunge. That's 50% raising your arms and 50% slamming your opponent with it and the game is seriously telling me he actively forgot the capability to do that move because he already stacked 8 ones in his 'stock'? I get gameplay balancing, but the heroine gets a utility belt's worth of spells in SMT1 and she was absolutely fun to have in the party.

Also, Cryocene, his title is Chaos King. I even made Masakado call him that in the first chapter.

Finally, I'm just putting this out there to limit confusion:

I put in the fic description, and even laid out allusions to it all over the fic, that the Demi-Fiend resurrected their universe and made a 'world of freedom'. That doesn't mean he is the play-by-play freedom-ending Demi-Fiend in the game. The Demi-Fiend I thought of when I came up with the fic was someone who was someone gullible enough to get roped into the events in the game but was never a stagnant character. I try to portray the Demi-Fiend here as someone who already had a character-arc in the vortex world and the values he learned there are challenged in the new one. It's like a little Epilogue of his character arc, hence the fic's title.