In Kuoh Academy, things were going from bad to worse to downright apocalyptic.

"Shit, why do you do this?" Issei asks, his arm broken from being backhanded by Kokabiel while the fallen had taken to facing Rias Gremory's full peerage by himself.

"Because, Red Dragon, I am not a fool." Kokabiel said easily, a light spear forming in his hands.

Originally Kokabiel had a plan. It was to remake the whole Excalibur and, with the energy from the ritual, detonate Kuoh as to kill the devil heiresses and use that act to try and restart the war that the fallen should have won. However, there was just one tiny problem with this plan.

Kokabiel was not a complete idiot.

He thought about staying on his throne and using others to fight, but why should he do that besides wanting to pose? Besides, if he could kill at least one of the heiresses and appear in front of their sibling still covered in their blood, the faces that the satans would make would be spectacular.

Not only that, Kokabiel also decided to try his luck on this ritual after checking how it worked and realizing that yes, it would actually be able to heal him from the conceptual damage that his father left behind during their confrontation. God had made all angels, so it was very simple for God to create lasting damage against them that no normal healing could ever deal with.

However, God was also the one to have created Excalibur together with the Lady of the Lake, and it carried with it some of God's miracles. It wasn't that much, but enough to, with the help of the former saint, heal his wounds.

Kokabiel felt a bit irritated at that last part, having changed the orders of the goons sent to take Asia Argento to, instead of capturing her, take away her Sacred Gear. If Raynare were to have the Twilight Healing she would be a very willing help in healing him during this process, but goons will be goons and their failure, while unfortunate, wasn't unexpected. Thankfully the saint did not die and instead was reincarnated by Sirzechs' little sister, so he could still complete his plan to heal himself.

"Boss man, can I keep them after we are done with this one?" Freed Selzeen, the stray exorcist and certified lunatic, questions as he holds Asia by her hair and points to the downed form of the two Excalibur users.

Kokabiel waves his hand nonchalantly.

"Do as you wish, this is the prelude of war and any female defeated can be used as a toy and males as work slaves. I do not care what you do to either." Kokabiel said and Freed gave him a big thumbs up.

"Cool, thanks, old man. I knew I had a reason to like working with you."

Kokabiel no longer cared about Freed. Having quickly defeated everyone that came to try and stop him he found the enemies lacking too much, causing his apathy and the feeling of being bored. The church exorcists barely could do anything, with the one that pulled out Durandal being an insult to that blade and the other one not even able to cut his skin when he stood in front of her without defending himself. The devils were no better, the blond guy was only able to flail around with a large toothpick without any power, the Red Dragon Emperor only taking a kick before he couldn't fight anymore, the daughter of Baraquiel not even using her bloodline ability and not able to do anything meaningful, the sister of Sirzechs not being able to do anything close to what her power should have allowed, and the nekomata...

Why did she come to fight while clearly in heat? Doesn't she understand that, while in that state, she wouldn't even be able to properly try to fight?

Kokabiel thought of perhaps going to the Sitri Heiress, to see if she would be more of a challenge, but decided against it. If the Gremory princess was any indication then the Sitri Heiress wouldn't do much better, and if she wanted to stand around creating a barrier outside instead of being here fighting, then she wouldn't be much anyway in Kokabiel's mind.

With all possible variables dealt with Kokabiel returned to the throne he had prepared and sat upon it, his eyes fixed on the Excalibur as he waited with bated breath for the ritual to complete.

"How much longer, Galilei?"

"Wait, wait, and... done! HAHAHAHA, YES! I DID IT! I put Excalibur back together! Take that, you winged bastards up above who called me a heretic, I WAS RIGHT!" Valper said with excitement, his eyes full of maniac joy at managing to complete his dream, finish fusing together Excalibur.

No one back in the Church thought it was possible, but he knew it was. He created the whole theory behind how to fuse together the fragments of Excalibur and even several other theories on how to make anyone be a Holy Sword User as well as theories on how to copy the Excalibur and other swords. However, the only theory he was allowed to test was in how to make anyone be able to use Holy Swords.

He succeeded in his theory, creating the method to do just as Heaven requested! He did what absolutely no one else ever thought possible. Sure, some kids died in the process, but even Heaven should understand that a price had to be paid for progress and some small sacrifices of just a small number of orphans in exchange for the revolutionary discovery he made. He even made sure to keep the number of deaths to an absolute minimum and he only killed off all the orphans because the devils found the location of the lab they were being kept and Galilei followed the procedure to destroy all records about their research as to not let any of it fall in devil hand.

But did Heaven or the Church thank him for his decades of effort and his contribution to the cause of making mankind stronger by leaps and bounds and able to truly save an untold amount of lives down the line?

NO!

No, they not only did not thank him, but they also called him a heretic for the very research they helped him execute, then took away all his results and used it without giving him any credit or consideration while trying to make themselves look like victims of a 'mad scientist' that abused his position.

Bunch of hypocrites the lot of them. Valper should have known better, but he was much too focused on his research to overly care about his colleagues and identify who is and isn't trustworthy, preferring instead to trust them as they were all supposed to be fighting for the greater good.

After those experiences and being hunted down by others for years on end, Valper utterly loathed the Church and its hypocrisy, this time they even sent one of the exorcists who benefited from his research after him for the research that she enjoyed the results from. Considering this, Valper thought that his new boss's plans to force the church into a war that would cause the church and heaven to suffer were enough to make the old scientist's heart almost skip in joy.

"Excelent." Kokabiel said, then pointing to Freed. "Bring the girl."

Freed walked along, Asia struggling as she was pulled by the hair to Kokabiel who looked at her without any care for the tears of pain from the hair-pulling and sorrow from all her friends who nearly died then and there.

"Girl, you are going to help me." Kokabiel said and before Asia could say no to his words, he created a light spear and pointed it at Issei. "Or I will kill the Red Dragon Emperor."

Asia's eyes widen in fear at that.

"Y-Yes, I will do as you say." Asia said without thinking, her mind entirely focused on Issei and only him.

"Asia, don't do it!" Rias said as she tried to get up, her body was wounded all over, scratches and bruises covered her body as she pushed herself to get up despite the pain. "You cannot give him what he wants."

In truth, Rias did not know what Kokabiel desired, but if he wanted something then it could not be anything good. She just closed her mouth tight and got up from the ground, her head buzzing from a concussion but she still got up and, with difficulty, created a magic circle with the power of destruction, launching it at Kokabiel who looked at her last struggles with a bored expression.

The light spear he was aiming at Issei changed directions and instead flew at the blast of power of destruction, piercing through the attack and going straight at Rias.

Rias was too tired to get out of the way, her energy exhausted, and could only stare as the light spear sailed towards her. Fortunately, Akeno got strength from who knows where and, with her fallen angel wings out, flew at Rias to tackle her out of the way.

Unfortunately, Akeno was not fast enough and the light spear that would have hit Rias in her abdomen instead hit Akeno in her left leg, piercing right through her thigh.

"AKENO!" Rias yelled in fright as she looked at the blood gushing out of the wound from her queen.

"It is fine, Rias." Akeno said with a weak smile, trying to be reassuring despite the pain she was feeling.

Asia wanted to scream, but she held it in and instead turned to Kokabiel.

"If I do as you ask, can you promise not to hurt the others?"

"No." Kokabiel said instantly. "But I can promise not to go after the rest for another half an hour. Perhaps someone can come to rescue you all before then."

Asia gulped, looking at everyone, and nodded her head to Kokabiel's demands as she could see that this was the only chance they truly have, and thus she followed Kokabiel along.

Approaching the ritual circle where the Excalibur was being reforged Kokabiel started to absrb the miracle of God inside it, filling up his deficiencies.

"Now girl, start the healing." Kokabiel said and Asia, very reluctantly, started to release the healing power of her sacred gear, Twilight healing.

Kokabiel smiled, relief spreading through him as energy started filling his entire being. He was once on the same lever as an archangel, he was just one step below Azael and Michael in the past. But since his injuries in the hand of God his powers declined sharply and from the Satan Class he dropped to only the power of the Ultimate class, and not a particularly strong one at that.

But now, as his injuries were being healed, things would no longer be like that. He could feel his powers returning as his body returned to its peak state from before.

Valper observed it with interest, thinking if Kokabiel would mind sharing some of his blood after he was fully healed for the sake of research. He already had some from the time when he was still injured, finding the differences between the two could lead to interesting results.

Meanwhile, as all this was happening, none of the three noticed something. The barrier around Kuoh Academy changed for a moment, it wasn't much but the changes were there and then one couldn't see the differences anymore.

Sona was a smart woman, one might say she was a prodigy amongst the young generation of devils, but what was happening right now was beyond her expectations. She thought that, as a cadre of the fallen angels, Kokabiel would want to gloat and wouldn't take Rias and the others seriously, which was just fine by Sona.

Letting Rias go there and stall for the time needed was ideal since, as long as they stalled for enough time, their siblings would show up and deal with Kokabiel. Since this was a battle to stall and victory was based only on that front, Sona judged that coming with too many numbers would just incite Kokabiel into action earlier, so she just stayed back and made a barrier to stop others from seeing the supernatural going on.

Earn some brownie points with a simple job without risk, how good was that. And it was not like she forced Rias into being the one facing Kokabiel, she literally stepped forward herself and volunteered for the job to begin with. If Rias wanted to be the one risking herself, Sona wouldn't stop her. Besides, Kokabiel would not kill Rias anyway seeing as he would most likely wait until reinforcements came to do anything.

And yet, Kokabiel defied her thoughts by taking to action right away. His doing so was entirely unexpected and he completely crushed everyone around him. Sona was debating over if she should join the fray or not when-

"Hey there, would you mind letting us in?"

A calm voice said from the edge of the barrier and Sona turned to look in the direction, freezing slightly at who it was.

Ivan Evans, the new teacher in Kuoh and a dragon.

Not only that, besides him were Celestine, Olga, and Mavis. Ivan thought about bringing Aika along as well, but the girl was only around low to mid-tier devil in terms of power and would not do any good and be far too risky. Let her come out and help when she is at least High Tier in terms of power, otherwise, she would be just a burden.

Sona, who saw the four new arrivals, was shocked as they turned to one another to talk.

"Olga, can you put up a barrier around the school?" Mavis asks.

"Simple." Olga said easily. "I was able to put up a barrier around my entire kingdom to make the rest unable to ever invade." And it was true, Olga had put up several barriers around her kingdom which had stood the invasion of other nations for centuries. Putting a barrier around a school like Kuoh would be simplicity itself for her.

"Great, put one up and then follow us." Mavis then pointed at the student council members. "You all, follow us in there. There should be injured people there and we need to rescue them before anything else."

Sona was unsure of what to do, but someone else was not glad to see her being ordered around by someone they did not know.

"And who are you to order Sona-Kaichou around?" Saji, the newest pawn of Sona (and a simp for her) questions with narrow eyes. He was already not happy to see Ivan arriving since he had noticed Sona sending him sideways glances more than once when he passed by during class, so any chance to show off in front of his boss was good news in Saji's eyes.

However, he miscalculated quite a lot when he said such to Mavis who just looked at him before releasing her own energy so as not to let the others question her. She did not like this sort of action but they couldn't handle people second-guessing her every step of the way, not when others could be dying because of it.

Saji and the rest of the peerage all froze as they sensed the energy Mavis released. It was literally infinite energy that could not be scaled to a proper level and its presence was more than enough to overwhelm them.

In a distant corner of the world, a pair of purple eyes opened slightly wider as it instinctively sensed the unique energy that felt infinite like its own, but also not like its own since it lacked the draconic attribute. It felt more mellow, less wild or explosive, but there was infinity there.

As for Sona and the rest, they were sufficiently cowed into obedience as Mavis directed everyone inside the barrier. While inside she used her illusion magic to make the whole place except where Kokabiel and his cronies were be covered in an illusion.

To be more exact, she covered the place in an illusion that was just like what there was already there, but making the reality invisible. It was complicated to explain, but easy to see its effects since Sona and the others could move about and carry all the injured undetected while an illusion of those injured would still be left behind.

As everyone was brought to where Ivan and his group were, Celestine walked forward. Since Ivan never really got to buy her new clothes (he really liked seeing them in the kinky gear they consider as clothing), it became a tad inevitable for Issei and Saji to turn their eyes to Celestine as she walked forward. Before they were too worried to actually look, but as Celestine walked forward their eyes stayed on her large chest that could beat even Rias or Akeno.

"Is this heaven, is this oppai heaven?" Issei said, half delirious from the concussions he had taken before.

"No Issei, you are not in heaven." Rias said tiredly, her gaze turning to Asia as she saw that she was being forced to help Kokabiel.

Worry flashing in her eyes she turned to Ivan and his group and asked.

"Did my brother send you all to watch over us?"

It was a logical leap of faith in Rias's part, it wouldn't be strange for Sirzechs or Serafal to send someone to watch over them, and the fact that they were now here helping them in their moment of need after requesting reinforcements seemed to collaborate with this idea.

However-

"No. I just came to this town because I felt like it." Ivan said, and it was not a lie. He did select DxD as a start just because he felt like it and he could easily have chosen any other world. His eyes scanned everyone around, stopping at Koneko who looked worse than the others, and approached her.

The white-haired nekoshou began to breathe in harder as he came over, his mouth going to her ears as he said in a whisper so only she could hear.

"If you can't bear it after this is over, come to my house. I will leave the portal open."

Turning away from Koneko he went to the front of the group and looked on as Kokabiel was being healed. Rias and the others were soon healed and even the light energy that penetrated their bodies, which would normally take a while to fully heal, was all cleanly removed from their bodies without any side effects. All injuries of the devils were healed perfectly and without any problem in a short time thanks to Celestine's powers.

Her healing ability was truly quite overpowered, it was even a popular belief in the continent that, if she was with you then you could not die even if you wanted to, which was not too much of an exaggeration. She was just that good of a healer.

As everyone got healed Issei and Rias and most of her peerage tried to go and rescue Asia. Well, Kiba was still exclusively glaring at the Excalibur sword, not paying any mind to anything else besides that sword, and Koneko was out for the count as well, the healing from Celestine cleaning her from all negative effects including the drugs that Rias was giving her to stop her heat from happening and was now undergoing the heat process in quite the extreme way, turning the already horny cat into a very much cock hungry kitten.

Just as Rias and her peerage plus the rest were about to go to fight Kokabiel, gravity around them increased several-fold and they all could only fall to their knees from the pressure.

"Stand down." Ivan said, his eyes fixated on Kokabiel. "I want to see how strong someone like he can be if healed."

"Are you insane?" Rias said, trying to stand up again.

"Get out of the way, I have to rescue Asia!" Issei said, his sacred gear answering but Draig refused to help Issei as the Heavenly Dragon could sense that trying to fight now would just mean that his current host would most likely die, and dying to any other dragon than Albion felt like a humiliation that his rival would never let down.

"Don't interfere in Church's business." Xenovia said, her hands holding a normal exorcist holy sword since her Excalibur Destruction and Durandal were taken away. Regardless, she would move to complete her mission as an exorcist.

They all were courageous and heroes in their own way, all trying to push forward despite the gravity pressing them down. Commendable, but they ultimately stopped struggling to advance as they feel suffocated from the energy due to Ivan no longer holding back his power or aura. Ivan saw that Kokabiel had finished healing and there wouldn't be any need to try and hold back in this sort of situation.

Facing Kokabiel like that accomplished two goals, the first being the bonus rewards that he could get from doing so, and the second being that Ivan was, at his core, still very much an amateur in fighting.

He needed experience in how to fight, and Kokabiel at his peak was an ideal target considering that the fallen were much too weak to truly be able to defeat Ivan, but still had rich combat experience that Ivan could use to better himself. Finding a good punching bag like that isn't that easy for Ivan, and if one presented himself it would be rude not to slap it senseless a few times before capturing and selling his ass off for more profit.

So Ivan moved forward, ready to test himself against this fallen angel cadre and announce to the world, I am Here.