The quiet uncertainty was perhaps even more unnerving than the battle against a dominating opponent. Most of it could be attributed to the general confusion but sadly, nobody had the answers.

Even Maria only knew the rough outlier of whatever plan Ruby had.

Kokabiel was gone but so were their kings. The barrier around the city was still there, so the former was still there and apparently yet to complete his objectives.

Were they supposed to follow? Or did Ruby just leave them there so they wouldn't get in the way?

Ten minutes had gone by and they were still at an impasse.

To fight?

To secure the swords and the bishop that was still hiding somewhere nearby?

Or to simply recover and hope for the best?

Right now they were quietly sitting on the ground with Asia working overtime to ease everyone's wounds as much as she could. The two exorcists were also there, just a polite distance away from the devils.

Pyrrha as the only able bodied fighter was standing guard, intently looking in the direction Ruby and Kokabiel went. The monstrous dog she brought with her went for Freed's corpse, threw it away from the re-broken Excalibur and plopped down near the shards. Its body flashed deep red and with a sound of twisting metal it condensed into a form of a normal sized corgi.

If the situation wasn't as dire, and the little dog wasn't covered in blood, most of the girls would find it unreasonably adorable.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Issei asked. He would have preferred to rush after Kokabiel, even if he was completely spent and Ddraig was taking a nap after stating that his body wouldn't handle more of his power anyway.

"We stay calm and wait. Ruby intends to get Sona and Rias out of the city so they can call for help." Maria turned at him and confidently answered. "Pretty much, we are waiting for Grayfia to show up." Or maybe Sirzechs, depending on who is closest and more angry. Meanwhile, she started collecting the fragments. This entire thing happened partly because of them, leaving them to lie on the ground was just careless.

"Drei, go find the priest and make sure he doesn't get away." While the corgi ran away after taking a few sniffs, she felt the focused stares. "What?" She turned around, collected pieces of the sword cradled in her arms.

"How-?" And yet another bomb for the rest.

Maria was casually picking up the holiest of swords.

Xenovia was a natural wielder, something that was so extremely rare that for two of them to be in the same place was close to impossible.

What they didn't know was that Pyrrha, as a partial divine vessel for Rhongomyniad, had more light element in her than two or even four winged angels. Without summoning her power in the form of Sacred gear. She still wouldn't be able to wield Durandal, the sword already choosing Xenovia.

Irina and Xenovia shared a look. Getting her away from the clutches of devils would be of the highest priority.

There was a flash of red from behind the bushes followed by a terrified scream. A moment later, Drei, in its 'combat form', was dragging whimpering Valper towards them, his leg haphazardly held in Drei's mouth.

Kiba was immediately glaring but he was no longer in a position to attack. Besides, he was now their prisoner. He would be able to get his closure later.

Something white streaked in the sky, stopping directly above them.

"Well… this is awkward."

/

He may have not been really doing his best when it came to looking for Kokabiel but he was expecting that at worst, he would arrive mid whatever battle and take the rogue cadre out.

Now he chased him down and…

Kokabiel was nowhere in sight.

And neither were the heiresses, his supposed targets.

Of course, he could find plenty of traces that they were here but that didn't help much.

Azazel was going to lose it if Kokabiel somehow succeeded. Along with a lot of other people.

Nobody wanted to restart the war between the three factions, not at this point. With how many different plans were slowly coming to fruition, the chaos that would inevitably spill into an all out divine war between all pantheons was in no one's interest.

Alternatively…

The barrier around the city still stood meaning that Kokabiel was either completely moronic and left it here for no reason or he still needed it and was probably still around.

Excalibur fragments, which must have been quite important to his plan, otherwise it would be too much a hassle to steal them in the first place, were currently broken down, not even the individual swords, and held by some redhead girl. He even had to double check if it wasn't the Gremory princess.

As soon as he announced himself she dropped the shards and summoned a short spear and a round shield.

Right… He was a partycrasher arriving late to a battle, decked out in a scalemail with no clear sign of affiliation.

/

"Who are you?" Pyrrha loudly called out and took a defensive stance in front of the devils and exorcists. They may have somewhat recovered but Asia could only do so much before running out.

"How…interesting."

It was said coldly and heartlessly, Pyrrha could feel the divine power starting to thrum within.

What is it?

"To think that I would once again stand against the white dragon…truly, history repeats." The heavenly dragons, Excalibur. How nostalgic.

Albion? She studied the armor. It was quite similar to Issei's How do you know he is an enemy? She carefully asked. He was yet to attack and was mostly just looking around, so just maybe they would be able to avoid further fighting.

"I'm curious myself. He is a threat to the world yet he is not."

What does that even mean?!

"My name is irrelevant to you." The newcomer finally answered, snapping Pyrrha out of her chat with the goddess. "Where is Kokabiel?"

"Being dealt with." She answered. "Are you here to help him?"

He snorted. "I'm here to bring him back to Grigory."

Something rustled behind the school building, a few moments later, Rias and Sona stumbled around the corner.

"Buchou!/Kaichou!"

/

The white dragon barely noticed the two princesses show up. They were alive so there was at least that. The war was put on hold for now.

Instead, he focused on a certain person who shouted out.

"Would you look at that." A hungry grin, hidden by the scalemail's helmet appeared on his face. "My fated rival."

He came here to fight and if Kokabiel was out, Ddraig and his host would also suffice.

Albion half-heartedly agreed. Yeah, he saw it too.

Ddraig's host looked rather pathetic. A final glorious battle to the death?

Nah… Taking pot shots like that was beneath both of them. Although Albion was sure to gloat about getting a better partner.

He would just rough him up a bit. Break a couple bones. Stuff like that.

That would give him the motivation to train harder so their true fight wouldn't make him fall asleep.

/

She felt the aura of bloodlust, all of it directed solely on Issei. While Rias immediately stepped in between them, trying to make the invader back down and leave their territory, she wouldn't be able to enforce it.

And he knew it. He was only waiting for the hell of it, probably quietly laughing at Rias' expense.

The situation was rather quickly spiraling out of control and she didn't know what to do. Treat him like a threat to the world and let Rhongo tear him apart? Dogpile him in hopes of him leaving? Just fight him herself?

Ruby! … Call: Ruby. How the hell does that spell work?!

She heard the goddess sigh, a moment later, Ruby let her know that she was calling at the wrong time.

-WoR-

Everything was going according to her plan.

She dodged a couple of light spears, each soon breaking down as its energy was siphoned away by the very battlefield they fought on.

Just like the ancient humans chased down mammoths into pits and hurled rocks and spears on it until the beast was too tired to resist and died.

She lost count how many times she had fired the same sequence of spells. Dozens of illusory bullets, a couple decoys that barely had any power in it and the one actual bullet.

Lead the enemy into a preset field that was essentially a magic sponge under her control, keep hiding and harassing until there was no energy left in him and then move for a kill.

Although putting both of them under a deathmatch curse might have been an overkill… In her defense, she didn't have any containment spell that would have been able to keep him there and simultaneously protect others. This way he was bound to her directly through his very being, neither of them could leave until the other died.

Of course, there were some loopholes. As any type of magical contract it could be tricked with intentionally misinterpreting the wording or just having a more flexible mindset.

She wasn't running away and hiding behind the trees and several illusions, she was fighting defensively and preparing a counterattack.

She wasn't trying to avoid fighting, she was just reloading her weapon and choosing which part of his body would she target next.

She just hoped that back up would arrive soon. She was still technically winning but it was getting quite boring.

Attack, avoid counterattack, reposition, repeat.

She knew that any help that would arrive wouldn't be able to intervene directly but, come on, they were devils. If anybody would be able to find a loophole in a contract, it would be them.

So what if they couldn't attack directly? They would just need to nuke the entire battlefield and unless whoever was intervening was a complete dick, they would scale their attacks accordingly so as to not kill her too. She was in a better position to defend herself, all of the energy she took from Kokabiel throughout the battle would make for a good shield and she would still be able to add her own while stealing some power from the attack, but even with that, if someone Like Sirzechs showed up and vaporized everything… She didn't like her chances.

As for Kokabiel himself…she was getting a bit jealous about the sheer difference in energy.

Even if she was to go all out and unleash her own demonic power, she would at best be on equal ground.

That was with Kokabiel bleeding off his mana for quite some time.

Her bullets weren't meant to kill.

Well, some were, but those were sparsely used only when Kokabiel tried to gather energy for a large-scale attack or left himself in a vulnerable position. Too bad he quickly learned not to do so. And she couldn't exactly waste those, making enchanted bullets out of her silver light was rather hard because for some reason her little bit of divine might was very resistant to any kind of extra enchantment.

No, her current attacks might have been mosquito bites.

Funnily enough, this was also their function. For the most part anyway.

Kokabiel was covered in bright red spots, each one created by a successful hit of her cursed bullets.

It wasn't the actual damage she sought but what it did to his body and especially his mana system. While his body easily healed through the attacks this weak, each application of the curse was like a gaping wound on his energy tank.

And he was hemorrhaging all of his own mana into her sponge.

Simple and effective.

She honestly didn't understand the hard fought battles when two morons smack each other for days on end…

To begin with, their fight wasn't about who could muster the strongest attack. Ruby wouldn't allow Kokabiel to pause and concentrate on creating something too powerful. In the same vein, Koabiel could sense her build up and blindly shower the area in light spears. That's why she relied on enchanted bullets and not on actual spells.

"Ruby! Ruby, do you hear me?"

Ruby paused for a short while, but that was enough for Kokabiel to close up so that she was now seeing flashes of light only a few meters away, wildly slashing at the trees she used as cover.

Pyrrha! Ruby replied as she was once again scrambling to fill the area with illusions. I'm kind of in the middle of something!

"Sorry! But… there is a big problem."

What now?

"Albion showed up."

friend or foe?

"That's…hard to say. He says he is after Kokabiel but now is trying to start a fight with Issei." Pyrrha started explaining. "Then there is Rhongo who says he is simultaneously a threat to the world and not a threat…"

How does that even work?!

"I don't know!" She could actually feel the exasperation in Pyrrha's voice. Thoughts. Whatever.

Can it be something like a crossroad? Like he is yet to decide whether to be an ass or not?

"Ruby! Not the time to ponder about predetermination!"

Right, right. For now, try to stall him. Rias and Sona should hopefully finally get out from under the barrier and call for help and I doubt that the white dragon would cause trouble when the cavalry arrives.

"Yeah about that…"

What?

"Both of them are here…"

…what? But how? That was in the opposite direction! Sure, if they flew full tilt, they would probably be able to reach the edge, call out and then double back around her own barrier but neither of the two were in the condition to do so.

That left only one other possibility.

Those idiots! -fuck! Ruby dashed sideways, barely dodging the attack and only having it cause a hole in her skirt and not her leg. You know what? If they want to get themselves killed so much you don't have to do anything!

"Ruby! How-"

Oh, shush you. I don't know, okay? I can try to speed things up on my end but I can't be in two places at once. Maybe once Kokabiel is dead, he will have no reason to be here and will have to leave.

"What if he attacks?"

Improvise. Really, I can't help you right now. If Rhongo doesn't like him, give him a scare but try no to kill everyone else.

"And that other thing? The whole bringing back spirits and…what else should it do?"

Are you sure about it? All things considered, we didn't go beyond some basic theory.

"Well, you said yourself that the skill doesn't matter as much as the communication and mutual agreeability."

If you are sure about it… Just be careful.

Ruby sighed and started thinking about how to proceed. She still had a couple cards to play but both of them were literally double edged swords. One because it was an area of effect curse that would hit her the same way it would anybody who was close enough and the other because it was simply completely opposite to her usual fighting style.

Regardless, right now she didn't have a luxury to play it safe.

She activated the underground magical array, bringing all of the absorbed energy under her control, a magical circle with her rose appearing adobe the forest.

It still wasn't enough. Even with all the power that Kokabiel bled out it was still too little to activate her little surprise.

She took a deep breath, connecting with her demonic power, the rose in the magical circle morphing into a four-winged horned bat and three pairs of blood red wings burst out from her back.

That would do. Time for hide and seek was over.

Paint the moon crimson and cover the Earth in carnage.

The mandala in the air spun wildly, the faster it went, the more the visible part of the moon was tinted red.

On my command, usher a night devoid of mercy.

Moon now fully red, the mandala pulsed with energy and shattered.

Transforming Crescent Rose into the scythe form she kept it in her lead hand while in her right she now held a bright red light spear.

She launched forward, the only things left in her wake were the petals that trailed from her wings.

/

It was getting quite repetitive.

Curses, curses and curses.

And as always, with the new one, he didn't immediately know what it was supposed to do. The first bound him here. The second was making him weaker and weaker while messing up the control of his magical energy. Then there were all of the stupidly annoying illusions.

But it didn't matter.

He remembered that power.

The moon being the color of blood didn't matter.

He knew this light.

Even the devil heiresses no longer mattered.

The light that began the great rebellion.

The first traitor of Heaven.

Kokabiel's eyes became bloodshot as his adversary switched her approach, dozens of magical circles appearing around and above him.

Each with his crest…

First he thought her a no-name magician. Then a wandering reaper that got involved with devils.

Much stranger things had happened.

But now…

He had a much greater target.

-WoR-

This was getting them nowhere.

In the past several minutes the white dragon had been switching between taunting and belliteling Issei, and not so subtly threatening everyone else.

He even admitted that he could kill all of them, put the blame on Kokabiel and be on his merry way. That was said in response to Sona who said that he had no permission to be here to begin with and should get lost before somebody made him.

He also burst out in laughter and asked who that somebody would be.

A typical bully, Pyrrha summarized.

Step one to deal with a bully: ignore them. Unless there was a physical aspect, and there wasn't one (yet) in her current predicament, then the bully was supposed to get bored and leave to cause trouble somewhere else. There was also a risk that by not giving a desired reaction, he might become more aggressive.

In that case step to: call his bluff. He arrived late at the battlefield and was now posturing in front of a weak and tired foe. By showing that they weren't beaten may as well spook him into retreating.

With a twist of a finger, she switched Milo into rifle form and just shot in his general direction without much aim.

"And that was supposed to be what exactly?" He turned towards her, his voice haughty, after the bullet uselessly dinged against his armor.

"A warning shot." She evenly replied.

He snorted. "If that was a 'warning' then it was insultingly we-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as he was back-handed by a small round shield, making him recoil and back away a few meters, the source of the attack in the air right in front of him.

She may not have wings but months of playing around with gravity magic sure had its benefits.

"What a farce." Albion's host scoffed. "Of all people, a human is the one to fight me." He shook his head and quietly chuckled before looking up and, probably, locking eyes with Pyrrha. "So? Bring it on!"

"No."

Almost everyone face-faulted.

"What do you mean 'no'?! You already hit me so let's fight!"

"My goal is not to fight you but to make you stop behaving like a battlehungry idiot."

"I'll let you know that I'm a genius. As for the battlehungry part…I'm the White Heavenly Dragon of Supremacy! Like hell I'm going to sit on my ass and enjoy the sights! And if you don't want to continue, then I won't leave you a choice!" With that he lunged forward, his fist aimed at Pyrrha's midsection.

At the last second, barely noticed, the armor on his hand groaned, his attack going slightly lower, missing Pyrrha by a hairbreadth as she floated up and struck out with her spear at his neck.

Unfortunately, he was significantly faster. She was still able to follow his movements, he was still slower than Ruby, but even with her touki giving her a power up it still wasn't enough.

It was a very fast paced fight, Pyrrha pressuring her opponent quite heavily, mostly due to the aerial close combat being usually composed of joust-like attacks, instead of a face to face melee master. But even then, neither of the sides was able to land a proper hit.

He was always missing by a miniscule amount and Pyrrha, while hitting him, didn't have the raw power to breach his scalemail.

They separated for a quick respite.

"Well, I have to say that you are one of the two most skilled human fighters I've met." He said and judging by his tone, he was actually being honest. "Sadly, there is only so far skill and talent can take you."

He pointed at her, a white mandala with a horned four-winged bat in the middle briefly flashing and a bolt of magic launched forward.

Pyrrha tried to block but true to his words, even if she could keep up in a melee, she was much weaker when it came to raw strength.

"Maria!" She heard Sona shout as the attack carried through the wall of the school before exploding.

Well…that didn't end well. She slowly gathered her thoughts but was yet to get up from the rubble.

"We can still turn the tide. I may not be able to act freely but if you were to try to get yourself killed I would still intervene."

No! Do you know what would happen if you did?! They are devils and you are a Light goddess! They wouldn't-

"They don't matter."

She would have none of it! She started a fight to help them to begin with! What would be the point if she then hurt them by becoming a moving, breathing Holy Land?

No. This was the exact situation she was preparing for.

For the most part.

She even out her breathing and concentrated. She wasn't some great mage so this would take all of her skill.

I solemnly swear-

Reach out.

-to be a paragon of virtue and glory.

Forge a connection.

Hear my call and feel my wish.

Intertwine.

If you abide by this reason.

Synchronize.

Walk this land once again.

Resonate.

When she opened her eyes, she was no longer laying in the destroyed room.

She was quite accustomed to the feel of her mindscape, often visiting the goddess if only to keep her personal company out of the goodness of her heart.

But this time it wasn't just two of them.

Rhongomyniad, who usually treated everybody with indifference, was slightly frowning at the newcomer.

Slightly taller than Pyrrha, spiky pale green hair, black shirt and pants with pieces of gray metal armor and long red strip of cloth tied around his chest and right shoulder.

Pyrrha respectfully bowed. "Honored ances-".

Before she could even greet him, he closed the distance between them and energetically clasped her shoulders. "Look at you! Quite a looker! Just like me!" He lightheartedly laughed. Then quickly turned towards the goddess. "Nothing on your grace, of course." He turned back to the girl. "Although I wonder where the red hair came from…"

"Uhm, I…"

"Calm down." He flashed a smile and threw his arm around her shoulders. "From what I understood you have some lizard problem, right? Let's go deal with that. Sounds like something good for family bonding!"

/

At least something came from this joke of a mission, what do you think?

"My disappointment in Ddraig and his host ruined my mood. An above average mortal won't fix it."

Yeah…

He honestly wanted to leave. This was a waste of time. He still probably should look around for Kokabiel but he honestly couldn't be bothered. The princesses were alive and Azazel would bitch one way or another. As long as no war broke out, it wasn't really his problem.

Still, he got a somewhat decent fight out of it all. He was still pretty sure that the girl was messing something up when it came to his attacks but he could say with certainty that she was on the same level as Bikou or Arthur. Maybe even a bit better. She didn't have the same power as Cao Cao, but that bastard was overcompensating with the Spear of Destiny.

He was about to leave when he felt a new energy start to gather. Before he could figure out where it was coming from or even what it was, a bright flash of light came from the hole left by that Maria girl he fought.

A few moments later, she stepped out.

The very presence was completely different. Before, she gave off a weak aura of a fighter but now she almost literally shone with heroic might.

Another change was her attire. Bronze armor changed into black bodysuit with pieces of ornate golden armor on her chest, shoulders and hands and two red stripes of cloth hanging from her back. Her hair had also slightly changed. Still tied in a ponytail but now a bit wilder and spikier.

After a few steps she stopped and started looking around with a wide grin. She took several deep breaths and to everyone's surprise, started stretching.

After a final one, and giving everyone a good look at her abs, she idly bounced on the spot and started laughing. "Damn, you are in better shape then I was at your age!" She then looked down at her chest with a small frown. "How did Penthesilea fight with those? They are throwing off my balance…"

Something was very different. Like a completely different person took over and was just moving around in Maria's body.

"Who are you?" The white dragon sternly asked.

She looked up and smirked. "It's rude to ask for a name without introducing yourself."

"Hn." A false bravado. If she had some sort of trump card, like a sacred gear, then she should have used it from the very beginning.

Do you recognise it?

"Hmm… It reminds me a bit of Regulus Nemea, but that armor looks different and I don't see any axe.

"No matter. Even if you are now stronger, it changes nothing." He raised his left arm.

DIVIDE

The blue light flashed from his gauntlet and his opponents grunted, feeling her energy get halved.

A split second later, a maroon mandala spread out from under her, lit up and contracted. The air shifted and the ground cracked.

Both Albion and his partner were wide eyed as the power that was taken was forcibly returned to the origin. "You resisted Divine Dividing?!"

She just blankly looked at him for a moment. "Apparently you are not the first magical parasite this girly had met, so she and her friend made… magical explosion." She winced. "Implosion. Something about pulling the energy back? I don't know…never was mage to begin with."

Enough with the banter. Once again he prepared a magical blast, this time twice as powerful as the first one.

She didn't try to dodge. Didn't summon a weapon. She just batted the bolt away with the back of her hand, the attacks literally bouncing away and exploding some distance away.

Inside his helmet he grinned, this was bound to be a good opponent.

And then she moved.

Compared to her previous speed, it was like night and day. One moment she stood on the ground, the second she was on him, a new longer spear thrusting straight and his chest.

Blocking the attack by smacking the shaft with his gauntlet, he also realized that her strength had also significantly increased.

And even throwing occasional spells didn't work. He wasn't sure whether it was the armor or something else but everything was either bouncing off or even sizzling out on contact.

And there was still something wrong with his attacks.

After another attack he was gripping the shaft of the spear, its blade slowly cutting through armor on his shoulder. It was way too hard to keep her in place, the weight of the attack was magnitude above what would be possible. And the way she was flying.

"I see…" He kicked away and broke the deadlock. "You are manipulating gravity. Both on yourself and on me." Decreasing or inverting it to fly and multiplying to amplify her attacks, and mess with him by making his limbs heavier or lighter mid-attack, making him screw up. How ingenious…

"Well, no wings so I have to make do." She nonchalantly shrugged. "But I'm quite familiar with fighting in the air." She smirked and whistled.

He heard galloping and his instincts told him to dodge. He shot upward, a chariot pulled by three horses passing under him.

Maria floated up a bit and then dropped onto the chariot, reins in hand.

And then it finally clicked. The likeness to the Greek longinus, the invincibility, the chariot and a spear that could pierce his scalemail like it was normal armor.

"Achilles." He breathed out. He of course knew about the reincarnations but it was never stated that they could literally embody their ancestors.

"Hah! So you figured it out?" The ancient hero laughed, lazily flying around on his chariot.

"Yes. One could say you are quite famous. Although I didn't know you were too sealed in a Sacred Gear."

"A sacred what? Buddy, I'm here because this one is my descendant and asked for help. And because the underworld is unbelievably boring. Hmm…I wonder how Hades will react when he realizes I went for a walk…"

"Nevermind then." he spread out his blue wings. "My name is Vali, partner of the white dragon Albion and his strongest host." He finally introduced himself. His enemy earned that right.

The rider straightened out. "Achilles, son of the hero Peleus and goddess Thetis." He-she-whatever said with a hard edge in his-her, for fucks sake, it was confusing… voice. "So, kiddy gloves come off?"

Indeed, even if they fought quite ferociously, neither fought to the fullest. It wasn't exactly what Vali wanted but the fight was exhilarating nonetheless.

"That's right!" Vali took a boxing stance. "I may have come to fight Kokabiel but you are an even better opponent!"

"Hmp! Well, if you came to fight the angel of the stars, then you are in luck!" He smirked and with a mighty leap of his horses, the chariot was dragged high into the skies, her voice echoing from the distance. "I'm something of a shooting star myself!"

HER voice, because it was a dead guy in the body of a girl… ugh, he was spending too much time around Azazel.

Vali shook his head and focused on the battle.

Achilles was nowhere to be seen. Only distant neighing and galloping.

"Xanthos! Balios! Pedasus! Run as if your life depends on it!" A shout came from above, its origin unseen in the distance.

High in the skies, amid the night stars, one of them lit up and shone brighter than any other.

And it was getting closer.

Vali felt a shiver go down his back as the sheer amount of magic was skyrocketing with the brightness and deep rumbling shaking the ground and building around.

"Troias-"

"HALF DIM-

"-Tragoidia!"

The shooting star fell on Kuoh.

-WoR-

Ruby was getting really, really angry.

The bastard knocked Crescent Rose out of her hand.

How dare he! Her poor sweetheart…

Honestly, going melee against Kokabiel was an…experience.

To begin with, when she first charged at him, he parried her scythe, which was alright. Next he let himself get stabbed through his hand by a lightspear, gave her a hate glare that rivaled Salem's final one and…

Straight up punched her in the face.

This part felt quite weird to her. He kept yelling something about her blood and light, how she was a blight on the world, yada yada.

Sure, she was a devil hybrid and he was a fallen but this felt like it was personal.

Still, she might have breached the difference in power but now she had a different problem. In a close fight, the difference in skill had become apparent.

He wasn't as skilled as her last teacher but thousands of years of experience wasn't something she could conjure. He was also still stronger than her. Not in a magical sense but by pure muscles, which resulted that even now she still had to rely on hit and run tactics, knowing that any contest in strength would end with her getting stabbed by a lightsword.

But she would still win the battle of attrition.

The curses from her bullets were still making his mana spill out and now that she was closer she could drain him even more.

And the pretty much self-inflicted wound on his hand wasn't healing, making him spill actual blood.

A night devoid of mercy.

Her personal 'fuck you' of a spell to everybody and everything that would try to power through a battle by relying on a powerful healing factor, regardless if it was magical or natural.

No injury would be healed under the light of her crimson moon.

This also applied to herself. She even had a few small scratches to show for it.

And a broken nose. The bastard!

Not that she worried much. While before she could comfortably keep up with him, now she was bordering on running circles around him.

He was obviously able to follow her movements but… So what if his eyes could see her when his body couldn't complete the task?

But somehow he was still able to block or parry the most lethal strikes. His arms and legs were getting covered in cuts and stabs but none of her attacks reached his head or torso.

In her annoyance she miscalculated and overreached. Mistake that almost cost her her left hand.

So she sacrificed her weapon instead.

Kokabiel's lightsword wasn't strong enough to really damage her sweetheart but it did send it somewhere into the woods.

Running after it would expose her.

Summoning a lightscythe would be meaningless, because it had neither the edge or the weight of Crescent Rose.

So that left her something she knew almost as intimately as a scythe combat.

The paired spearmanship of the Immortal Witch.

She threw caution into the wind.

She wouldn't need to defend herself if her enemy had no chance to attack, right?

/

Something changed.

He was about to swing at her neck, when he noticed the muscles on her left shoulder twitch.

He threw his head back, a blink of eye later a red lightspear stabbed through the spot.

He expected her to go after her primary weapon, instead she stepped even closer, spears in each hand poised for a strike.

And then the madness started.

When she stopped flying around he was slightly relieved. He was a swordsman. Dealing with an opponent who would throw dozens of attacks from a distance wasn't his forte. That was Baraqiel's problem. A caster against a caster.

But now he had doubts.

The ferocity.

The ruthlessness.

Each thrust inching closer and closer to his heart.

And the speed…insanity.

The only reason he was even now able to deal with some of his strikes was because, through experience, he could see her muscles constrict and twitch, making her attack predictable.

Not that her fighting style wasn't to begin with. Very straightforward.

But that still wouldn't be enough. Even now she was pushing him back.

For every attack he avoided two new would come.

For every block, she would strike before he could move his hand into the next position.

Yet there was something about her spearmanship.

He had seen it before.

So long ago he couldn't remember.

He stepped on something.

The small mistake cost him a deep cut across his entire right arm.

Again he had to take a step back.

He noticed a silver gleam right under him.

Her weapon!

Her leg shot up, kicking up the scythe and making him spread his arms to avoid the strike of the spinning weapon.

She threw her spears, each impaling in his shoulders and grabbed the scythe.

The blade re-angled into a warscythe and lashed out towards his heart.

Time came to a crawl and he finally remembered. An image of a different warrior woman overlapping over the devil in front of him.

Over a thousand years ago, out of boredom he challenged a legend to a fight, ending with her cursed spear at his throat.

That time he was granted mercy.

He doubted her student would.

/

Crescent Rose cut into his chest with a quiet his as the blessing burned the inhuman flesh.

"And once again I'm bested by a mortal…" Kokabiel breathed out. Despite the wounds he was still standing, not even trying to use the weapon stabbed into him for support.

Ruby remained quiet, looking out for any last ditch attempts to fight back.

"Tell me, apprentice of the godslayer, what is your name?" He calmly asked.

She didn't immediately answer. What would even be the point in introducing herself to a dead man.

But…Scathach would probably smack her around for not following some sort of warrior's code.

"Ruby Rose."

Kokabiel looked at her red wings and the petals trailing down like falling feathers. "Appropriate." He looked up, peering deep into the night sky and sighed. "I've imagined meeting my end in a great battle against the mightiest of devils… "

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"No, I've enjoyed our battle."

"Sorry but I can't say the same." Ruby scoffed. "I prefer peace over being dragged into a war. Not to mention all of the insults."

"Ah yes…Forgive me, I've lost myself in the memories. I take them back." He apologized with a serene expression, blood slowly dribbling from the edges of his mouth. "As I had broken Father's laws, neither should you be judged for your ancestry."

Ruby had to consciously fight the knee jerk reaction to ask him 'what the hell he was even talking about'. She wouldn't be looking for anybody! If she had some family then they could move their own asses to say hi!

Energy swelled around his form, probably all of what he had left.

Ruby put her finger on the trigger.

"Let this be a reward for your victory." Kokabiel tiredly spoke without looking away from the stars above. "I'm Kokabiel! The Angel of the Stars! Let it be immortalized in the night's sky. For the feat of slaying me in battle, I give you a new name for the ages to come." Just as Vasco Strada became known as the Fist of God after their battle so would she be given a title to bear. "The witch of roses, the queenslayer, the warden of darkness, may eternity remember your battles." With the final burst of energy, he took his last breath.

Ruby grunted from the added weight on her weapon and let his body slide down.

As he laid before her she thought about his last words.

Not the meaning behind them but how did he know? She did kill a queen, a grimm one…in a different world altogether.

As for the other part… He couldn't come up with something less on the nose?

-WoR-

Ouch.

That's how Vali would sum up his current predicament. He was pretty sure that he had blacked out for a short while after the chariot hit him.

His chest hurt and his left arm was completely numb.

"I know you are awake." He heard the voice of his adversary. By the tone he was guessing that Achilles had his fill and that Maria girl was in control. He groaned when she stepped on his chest and pointed her spear at his throat. "Surrender, you lost."

He opened his eyes. The scalemail still held, for the most part at least. A small portion of the helmet, near his left cheek, and the entire left arm from the shoulder down got smashed to pieces and his chest piece was deeply caved in from the impact. He was also at the bottom of some sort of wide trench.

Surrender? Please, this was only the end of a warm up. He wasn't new to fighting through the pain.

With a thought the armor was repaired and the girl lived up to the expectation of being too soft, instead of using the spear on his neck, she just jumped away as he soared out of the crater. "Hmm… I actually think it's time for round two!" He enthusiastically called out.

"Wake up!"

A single red petal flew by in front of him and he felt something press against the back of his helmet.

"And I think that there was enough idiocy for one day." A new female voice spoke from behind him.

/

Her trip back to the school was at first filled with worry. Pyrrha hadn't called her about how it all ended but the closer she was getting, the clearer it was becoming that things may have gotten out of hand.

The first giveaway was a large hole right at the top of Kokabiels barrier. Of course, now that he was dead it was slowly fading away on its own but that thing could fit a building and it had to be there before his demise.

An insane amount of dust floating around the school, the countless shattered windows and thin wisps of smoke rising in the air.

Then she reached the building. Or what was left of it.

All of the windows and the entire rooftop was blown off. One of the newer parts of the building was outright missing and right behind it was a cone-shaped crater.

At least everyone was alive. She could feel them on the side of the impact zone. But they weren't important right now, they survived, which is what mattered. She just singled out Sona's and Rias' signatures because she had plenty of things to tell them.

But that could wait. They still had one extra person present that needed to be dealt with.

It looked like Pyrrha managed to contact Achilles' spirit and was now brimming with energy while showing off some new armor.

The white dragon gave her a pause. Not because of any sort of power or something like that.

It was because of how similar his energy felt like hers. Even with some discrepancies due to Albion's presence, it was way too close.

Nothing like she felt between Rias and Sirzechs, whose mana felt almost completely similar unless the two of them were directly in front of her.

But it was somewhat diluted. His demonic power that is. He of course had more than her, due to being a first generation hybrid but her own energy felt purer in a way.

Pyrrha looked like she had everything handled, so she covered herself in illusions and sneaked to the edge of the crater to observe closer.

Hmm… Her devil gramps, or granny had to be his… great or maybe great-great something. They still shared some sort of a common origin point but his power was more diverse due to having more pure-blood devils in his ancestry.

What an actual fuck? The first devil relative she meets is a fellow hybrid with a dragon sacred gear, who was a part of Grigori! This was the same all over the place bullshit like meeting Raven in Vacuo! Heh…she still remembered the mix of indignation and guilt when she called her 'auntie'. Uncle Qrow had been laughing for an entire day.

She was a bit lost in thoughts, so when he woke up and flew out, landing right next to her own spot, she was quite startled and started covering the guy in illusions.

Then he started talking about continuing to fight… Ruby had honestly enough of it for a day or even longer, so when she noticed his sacred gear scrambling the mana output in attempts to break through her illusions, she simply aimed Crescent Rose, in rifle form, at his head. He wouldn't be doing anything stupid in that case, right?

/

The day already started out like a hectic chase after Kiba and Issei.

Then Kokabiel attacked.

They were beaten. Badly. Then the savior came and… Rias didn't care how friendly Sona was with them, Ruby just can't stop herself from being an absolute ass even when she helps them and Maria can burn in hell for stealing her rightful place!

Was this what Ruby meant when she said she would take her dignity for Riser's defeat? It definitely felt like that.

At least their peerages were safe. Ruby said she would handle Kokabiel. They just had to make sure of it, then they would call the archduke and tell him about everything.

But then The White Dragon Emperor showed up. And of course went after her Issei.

They were already beaten and tired so Maria fought him instead.

And then all the hell broke loose with Achilles arriving personally to join the fight out of boredom of all things.

She was also pretty sure that Lady Leviathan would be very jealous of Maria's armor transformation.

Now if only they could have kept the fight somewhat concealed but nooo… Achilles had to literally leap into the stratosphere and then charge at Vali, destroying the large part of the school and probably waking up all of Kuoh with the shockwave.

By some miracle they didn't get caught in the explosion.

And the bastard got up!

How did Ruby get behind him?

Wait… She is here? That means…

"Ruby…" Sona breathed out next to her. "Is he…what happened with Kokabiel?"

"Dead." She replied, not taking her eyes away from Vali.

"Well shit, Azazel won't be happy about that." He lamely commented.

"He should have watched his subordinates better then."

"Eh, probably. I'll take the body then. And Valper too."

"Burned the body, as for the priest…" She looked away from him and focused on the knight of Gremory. "Kiba, here is the man you wanted. Your verdict?"

Kiba, caught off guard by the sudden attention, slowly got up and made his way over to the priest, who was laying on the ground under the pawn of the enormous mechanical dog.

Kiba scowled once he got close enough to look him into the eyes.

A little shitstained miserable excuse for a human. And this thing caused so much suffering…

But…

If his friends could forgive him for leaving them behind, was there even a point in the cold revenge? Valper had nowhere to run, nobody to help him.

Just as they were once trapped in his experiment, why not let him be trapped for a short while before his inevitable execution.

Kiba stepped away. "No." He looked at Ruby. "His death right now won't bring them back. He is now our prisoner and he will remain so until he answers for everything."

"Very well." Ruby nodded.

"Wait a sec. I was told to bring him to Grigori." Vali interjected. "I don't think Azazel will let that one go, he also wants to have a small personal chat with the little shit."

"Drei." Ruby said in a commanding voice.

The hound stepped away from the priest, who immediately started looking around in fear, as to who would be his next warden. And possibly executioner.

Drei's visor flashed red, Ruby's rose crest shining through, and the priest was erased in a beam of raw energy.

Everyone was silent in surprise.

Then Ruby decided to explain herself. "He was already captured once only to escape. Considering everything he had caused, I'm not taking that chance." She stepped away from Vali and put her weapon on her back.

Vali just sighed. "Well, at least Kokabiel got both a warrior's death and a warrior's funeral…" He turned at Ruby. "I wonder how strong you are. To beat him…hmm."

"Get lost." Ruby harshly replied. "This thing is over and if you try something, then I will do what those two-" She pointed at her and Sona. "-failed to do and call a Satan to deal with all of this madness." She held up her phone as a warning.

"Hn… That would be rather boring!" He lunged forward, snatching the phone out of Ruby's hand and breaking it in the process.

Before he could even unclench his fist, a red magical circle spread out from the phone's remains and he was gone.

"Buchou, was that..?" Akeno quietly asked.

Rias numbly nodded. "I… How could he fall for it?"

"Fall for what?" Issei also turned to her.

Next to them Sona removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "It's a common prank in the underworld. You apply a teleportation spell on random stuff like floor tiles, door knobs etc. and when somebody touches it, they get sent to the middle of nowhere." She bitterly explained.

Yeah, Rias didn't have much experience with it but she emphatically winced nonetheless. Sona had told how much headaches her sister caused her with those.

"Ooh…" Issei now understood. "Well, Maria did hit him really hard."

/

"Hey." Ruby walked up to Pyrrha. "You handled yourself quite ni-" She stopped. Pyrrha wasn't paying her any attention, instead looking around with a sad smile on her face.

"Oh right, sorry, just wanted to get one last look around."

"Achilles, I presume." Ruby guessed.

"Yep! And from what the girly told me, you are the one I should thank for having a chance to stretch out my legs. And give the boys some cardio." She motioned with her head to the three horses grazing on the short grass while still pulling the chariot around and making a mess. "Anyway, I guess my time is over. Feel free to call again. Oh! And if any of you will be close to my homeland, tell mom I said 'hi'."

Pyrrha blinked, a moment later her armor fell apart into small motes of mana.

And then she crumpled. Good thing Ruby was there to catch.

"Hard night, huh?" Ruby asked with a smirk.

"Don't start, I'm sore all over." Pyrrha replied, at least moving her mouth was somewhat easy.

"In a good way?"

Pyrrha gave her a perfectly flat stare before sighing and looking at the skies slowly turning bluer with the rays of the rising sun. "At least it's over."

"Yeah… Get some rest, I'll help you get home in a couple of minutes." Ruby carefully laid her on the ground and turned towards the group that they had to bail out. "I need to have a little chat with others."

For some reason Pyrrha really didn't like her tone right now.

/

He got caught in a portal trap…

Nobody had to ever learn about it, Bikou would never stop bringing it up.

He didn't know where exactly he was moved, only that it was way too bright to be anywhere close to Japan and that he appeared a meter above the ground. Of course he had immediately fallen down.

Albion's laughter wasn't helping either.

No matter. Mission was a fuck up but there was nothing he could do about it. Everyone he was supposed to bring in to receive Azazel' punishment were dead and with the exception of Freed Sellzen there wasn't even a body.

For now he would leave his eyes closed to help them adjust to the light, his other senses would work for now.

Immediately, he felt three magical signatures right next to him. Each magnitudes above his own. Two were around Azazel's level while the last one surpassed even that.

His eyes shot wide and he turned to the side.

He was in front of a bar. In front of a table with three people. One man and two women.

All of them were staring at him.

The only male, belying his blood-colored hair was calm and was studying him with a raised eyebrow. He brushed away a couple strands of white hair and got up. "Sorry ladies, work calls." Before Vali could react, a tanned hand landed on his shoulder, breaking through the scalemail without resistance and making Vali freeze on contact due to an abundance of some variation of light element he was feeling.

The two women were no help either. One was almost entirely covered in black robes with pieces of black leather armor occasionally showing and was glaring the hardest.

The other was probably the biggest problem. Normally Vali wouldn't mind a good fight but the woman in a purple bodysuit and a bike jacket was releasing quite a ridiculous amount of bloodlust while grinning ear to ear.

"Young man." He brought him back to reality. "I would like to ask you a couple questions."

In a flash of light they were both gone.

Back at the table, the two went back to drinking.

"You should already tell Lugh what you know. And that you took the spear."

"Oh shut up Morri, no work at the table. I'll get to it when I get to it."

"Was this-" She waved in the direction where white dragon had landed. "-also one of your brats misadventures?"

"Hmm…the crest was hers so probably. I don't mind, he looked a bit too green but it would be nice cardio."

"...I'm going to take a look at what she's doing. She still has one of our relics."

"Suure…"

"What did you do?" She sent her companion a halfhearted glare.

"Eh, the usual. Told her to shot your pets on sight."

She scoffed and turned away. The black cape on her back started to ooze out smoke which concentrated on her shoulder. Soon it formed into a raven and leapt into the sky. "She should still be in the land of the rising sun, right?"

"Dunno."

"Dammit Scathach! Start taking it seriously!"

/

/

/

Somewhat of an infodump:

Ruby's wings are pretty much Malenia, Goddess of Rot, design, just positioned on her back and not on the waist and deep red instead of that weird butterfly thingy.

Drei's battle form is a double-sized Bladewolf from MGRR.

Pyrrha/Achilles fusion armor is the armor from FGO Achilles 3rd ascension.

/

Next chapter:

Everybody's miserable.

Bird is a word.

German, Frenchwoman and Greek walk into a bar.

/

It's over 9000!, I mean, hell, longest chapter so far. And I intended for it to be longer!

Anyway, big news!

This fic has over 1k follows now! Only some 200 left before I can prove that Ruby-centric fics are the best. At least when it comes to RWBY/DxD crossovers.

/

Replies

To ArguableReader: Yes Pyrrha will have a ship. Honestly, it's actually that hard to guess who I'll go for all things considered, she does have her type. Yep, Drei is pretty much Ruby missing Zwei and making a replacement. As for the name: Zwei is 'two' in german, which implies that there had to be Ein(one) at some point and now she has a new dog, Drei(three). Biblical god, in DxD verse, is dead. Yes he can somewhat resurrect in but that would take thousands if not tens of thousands years and possibly a couple seraphs sacrificing themselves to give the final push. I have a plan about what to do with Heaven but that would be like act 4 while this fic is still in act 1. And I'm not bringing back God.

To: hnh058513: Yep! Glad somebody noticed :3

To AurelLor: Pyrrha's ship is hetero, Ruby's is undecided but the few candidates I have are girls. I've mentioned in one of the first chapters that there is actually quite a small number of male characters that Ruby would have any potential with so its easier to just make it gay.

To [Why is Ruby kowtowing to Rias and Sona so much?]: *evil laughter* Wait for the next chapter xD

To SeanHicks4: I don't think I was that harsh on Issei… Most of the story is from Ruby's PoV and she doesn't really have an opinion on Issei to begin with. Aside from being a perv. On Rais on the other hand. Well, she expects her to do better. For example, in medieval Europe, nobles at the ages 12/13 would already be ruling larger territories than Rias and from this standpoint she finds Rias lacking in a lot of areas. Yeah, I know. OoC Ruby and all that. I still hope I made it somewhat believable in a sense that this could be a logical progression of Ruby's character. I'm actually thinking about making some sort of intermission chapter which would be Remnant focused. But that's also quite far away.