"I am not sure why my sister sent you." Sona Sitri said, sitting behind her desk in the class president's office. She and the two members of her peerage present were still wearing their school uniforms. "The Fallen posed a threat. A small team of exorcists sent on a retrieval mission are a minor inconvenience by comparison." Serafall had already warned her to be on the lookout for Freed and any other big players during her upcoming meeting with the exorcists, but she didn't believe all the preparations Serafall had made were necessary. "Is there any way I can convince you to leave this matter to me? You and your peerage aren't needed."

I shook my head. "Regretfully not, Heiress Sitri. I'm under orders from your sister, and her authority supersedes yours. I'll stay out of your way as much as possible, but we're not leaving."

"This is bullshit!" Sona's blonde-haired pawn seethed, storming around Sona's desk to glare at me.

"Saji–" Sona started to say, rising from her seat.

"No!" the pawn cut her off. "This asshole keeps butting into our business. We didn't need him to fight the Fallen Angels, and we don't need him now. He's just trying to use you! He wants the power he lost when he fought Rias back."

Ignoring the idiot's outburst, I turned to Sona and said, "Listen, heiress Sitri, Lady Leviathan wouldn't have sent me here if–"

"Hey, asshole!" Saji screamed as he took several threatening steps towards me. "You're talking to me now!" He shoved both of his hands forward to knock me back, but his arms were caught before they could touch me.

"Do not touch my king." Kalawarner said with the expression of an enraged lion, having darted between Saji and I to intercept his 'attack'.

"Kalawarner! Release him."

My dark-haired pawn released the now wide-eyed Saji and stepped back behind me, resting her hand on the hilt of her sword as she glared dangerously at Saji.

I let out a sigh and turned back to Sona. "I apologize for the display, but I would ask that you control your pawn. He is way out of line."

His shock morphing back into rage, the pawn glared and said, "You listen here, you–"

"Saji! Remove yourself from my office." Sona cut him off.

Saji turned around, confusion etched on his face. "But, prez, he–"

"Now."

Saji looked like a kicked puppy as he slunk out of the room, shooting one last hate-filled glare at me as he left.

"I apologize for Saji's actions. I do not know what caused him to react this way." Sona sat back down with a sigh, taking off her glasses and laying them on the table to rub her eyelids. She looked back up at me and said, "I am sorry, Riser, but I am under an incredible amount of stress right now, so I will be speaking plainly. Why do you insist on adding to my problems by being here when the exorcists arrive?"

"Serafall should have told you she received intel regarding an attack. I'm here as support for you and Rias."

"If the exorcists try anything, Rias and I will be more than capable of dealing with them ourselves. The last time you were here, my sister sent you with a specific goal. Please cut through the political bullshit and just tell me why you're here." Her posture was the antithesis of procedure and decorum. She sat slumped forward to lean on her desk, several buttons of her shirt were undone and she had bags under her eyes. I wasn't sure exactly what she'd been dealing with recently, but obviously she'd had a rough go of it.

"To cut through the bullshit, I'm here to stop a war from breaking out."

Sona's eyes focused immediately. "Explain."

"I'm not sure why Serafall didn't tell you, but she got a tip from an 'anonymous source'," I did my best to stress that the source was anything other than anonymous. "That Kuoh Town would be the target of a major power play. A…certain individual orchestrated the exorcists arriving here in the hopes of eliminating them, Rias and yourself at the same time. If they succeed, the three abrahimic factions will likely be pulled into another war."

Sona collapsed backwards, rubbing her temples as she stared at the ceiling. "As if I didn't have enough to worry about."

Sona's queen stepped up beside her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Sona, maybe you should call your sister. If this is really as bad as he says it is, she'll be willing to help."

Sona shook her head as she sat up. "She's already done all she can." Her eyes lazily landed on me. "That's why she sent you, isn't it? You're a glorified bodyguard."

"Officially, no. Unofficially?" I said, shrugging. "You know your sister better than I do."

In a move that caught me completely by surprise, Sona groaned, slamming her head into her desk. "Fallen Angels in my city weren't enough? We had to become a hotspot for stray devils and rogue magicians who attracted all sorts of beasts. Now I have to deal with some unseen mastermind plotting to kill me?"

"Stray Devils and rogue magicians?" I asked. That wasn't something that should have been happening. I wracked my brain trying to think of where they might be coming from, but I couldn't think of anything. "I know this may sound like a redundant question, but did they have any markings or symbols you could identify them with?"

Sona lifted her head off her desk, looking at me tiredly. "No. Hence why they were rogues and strays."

I ignored Sona's…curtness, turning to my peerage. "Clarissa, Valerie, I want you two to go around the town and see if you can uncover anything. Valerie, use Sephiroth Graal. Clarissa, just do what you do best. Arondight, go with them and protect them. Keep in touch with the earrings." I finished, touching the brown band attached to my ear. Clarissa had given everyone an earring before we left my manor. Now that my peerage was larger than three people, it was inevitable we'd be more spread out and thus need a method to communicate. These were slightly different from the ones we used in the Rating Game. I'd brought up the point that our communications would be cluttered if there was no way to keep unimportant conversations from spilling into the earring, so Clairssa had made a minor adjustment. Now, we had to push a small amount of mana into the earring to activate it so the rest of us wouldn't hear one person ordering a taco at a taco stand.

I wasn't expecting Clarissa or Valerie to find anything specific in their search, but any information either of them could turn up might have helped me determine if this was a concentrated effort or just a long string of bad luck.

My three pieces all gave varying affirmations before leaving the room. When I turned back around, both Sona and her queen were looking at me in shock.

"I'm so sleep deprived I'm hallucinating." Sona said, her tone sounding as if she'd given up trying to deal with the curveballs the world kept throwing at her. "I could have sworn you just said that girl has Sephiroth Graal."

I looked between them with a curious expression. "Did you not see my Rating Game against Seekvaira Agares?"

Sona looked at me through half-lidded eyes. "I've been a little too busy to waste time watching TV."

"Let's just say your sister sent me specifically for a reason and leave it at that." I said, not wanting to get into the hassle of explaining all the madness that transpired in that match.

"Fine by me." Sona said, sitting up and fixing her clothes. She picked her glasses up off her desk and put them back on, sparing a glance at her wristwatch once they were in place. "The exorcists will be here in less than an hour. Rias and I agreed that I would meet with them alone while her peerage handles security. Even so, you need to speak with Rias before we meet the exorcists. I will not risk the two of you meeting during the meeting and causing a scene."

I nodded. "I'm not here to continue old fights. Where is Rias?"

"In the Occult Research Club. Tsubaki, please go with him and explain the situation to Rias so no one overreacts. I need to get ready to receive the exorcists." Sona pushed her chair back and stood, walking right past Yubelluna, Kalawarner and I to disappear out the door.

"If you would please follow me, Lord Riser?" Tsubaki said as she walked through the door, turning the opposite direction that Sona went.

Tsubaki led us through empty hallways past similarly vacant classrooms. It was too early in the day for me to think class would have gotten out, so it must have either been a weekend or school had been canceled. The Underworld's time scale was a little different from the human world, and I hadn't paid attention to the mortal world's calendar so either option was entirely viable.

"In here." Tsubaki said once we'd reached the end of a hall. She pulled the door open and stepped inside. "Rias, we have guests."

Knowing my cue, I stepped in after Tsubaki, Yubelluna and Kalawarner on my heels.

The room was homey. A knee-high coffee table sat on top of a square-patterned rug between two sofas. There was a larger table set against the back wall with four empty chairs around it and a door-shaped cut into the wall to our right that likely led to an attached room. There were two figures sitting on the same sofa. One had red hair, the other had hair the color of a Fallen Angel's dark wings.

"You." Rias Gremory said as she abruptly stood from the couch, staring at me as if she was trying to launch daggers from her eyes to impale me. I hadn't seen her since our Rating Game. I honestly hadn't cared enough about her to look up even a picture of her. I'd had too much going on, and I'd done my best to put that chapter of my life behind me. She looked…not bad, but not as good as she did when we'd last seen each other. Her hair was more unkempt and there were bags under her eyes. I wasn't sure if her appearance was due to the magicians and devils Sona had told me about or something else.

"Heiress Gremory." I said with a very minor nod of my head, my voice sounding stiff even to my own ears. I hadn't been planning on seeing her again.

"Why is he here?" Rias demanded, her gaze whipping to Tsubaki.

"Sona's sister sent him to offer support during the exorcist's visit. There will likely be an attack. Serafall sent him here to help." Tsubaki said, her expression uncomfortable. I imagined being caught between Rias and I was not a position she wanted to be in.

"I am not here to air past grievances." I said, stepping forward and looking Rias in the eye. "I would ask that we remain professional during the exorcists' visit. Afterwards, I will leave Kuoh Town and will likely not return unless Lady Leviathan sends me back here. All I ask is that we work cordially together until the church's delegation is gone." I was a little surprised by how little I cared about seeing Rias. There was a familiar flash of anger upon seeing her, but it faded as soon as it came. All I really saw looking at her now was a girl throwing a tantrum. Not for the first time, I was immensely pleased I wouldn't be marrying her.

"Fine." Rias bit out. "But you leave the second they're gone. Akeno? The air is stifling here. Let's go."

The black haired girl stood and followed Rias towards us, they both walked in a straight line towards the door. I motioned my peerage out of the way. If she wanted to be petty, I was willing to act like an adult. There was far too much on the line to let her attitude affect me.

Tsubaki seemed to sag in relief when Rias left. She turned to me and said, "I need to meet with Sona. The exorcists are set to arrive at the school gates at nine. We will meet you there." She hurried from the room, seemingly wanting to avoid conversation with us.

"That was interesting." I said, turning to Yubelluna and Kalawarner.

"You were supposed to marry her?" Kalawarner said, staring after Rias with poorly hidden contempt. "She reminds me of Raynare, like she wants the world to bow to her whims for no reason other than she exists."

"That is not an inaccurate comparison." Yubelluna said, her eyebrows furrowed in displeasure as she looked around the clubroom.

"I'm not exactly pleased we're working with her either, but let's keep it professional, please?" I said.

"Of course, Riser." Yubelluna said easily. "Rias has already heard everything I needed to say to her."

Kalawarner shrugged. "I put up with Raynare for almost a hundred years. I can handle a different spoiled brat for one day."

"Thank you. Let's go."

We all walked out of the room and headed towards the front of the building.

"Clarissa?" I said, pushing a small amount of mana into my earring. "Have you turned up anything?"

A moment later Clarissa's voice spoke directly into my ear.

"We have not been searching long, my king, but we have found several sites where heiress Sitri's peerage or that of Rias Gremory faced a Devil or a magician. I have been able to determine little other than their locations, but Valerie has discovered something she believes to be impactful."

There was a brief pause before Valerie's voice came through the earpiece.

"Hi, Riser. Um…the magicians I found were all muttering to themselves about some 'cause'. None of them would talk to me normally, and a few of them didn't seem exactly sane. One of them was even clawing at his eyes. I don't know what happened to them, but they all seemed to be…connected. I think they might have been working together."

That was exactly what I was afraid of.

"Thank you. Clarissa, Valerie, Arondight, meet us in front of Kuoh Academy. The exorcists will be here soon."

"We will be there momentarily, my king." Arondight said. Her voice was the last to come through the earring.

"You both heard all that, right?" I said, turning to Yubelluna and Kalawarner.

Both nodded seriously.

"This does not bode well for our mission, Riser." Yubelluna said, her eyes narrowed contemplatively.

"No it does not. We need to let Sona know someone has been probing her and Rias's peerages, then we need to call Serafall. It's safe to assume the mages aren't friendly, and I wasn't expecting this level of preparation. She might alter her orders when she hears about them." I certainly wouldn't complain about her pulling us out if she came to the same conclusion that I did: that Kokabiel had been making friends that weren't Fallen Angels. That had terrifying implications.

We arrived at the simple black gate of the school before Sona. The rest of my peerage had returned from their reconnaissance by the time Sona finally arrived.

She walked forward with Tsubaki at her side, the rest of her peerage absent. "I must ask that only you and your queen remain." Sona said, her eyes cooly scanning over the faces of my peerage. "If there are too many of us here to receive them, it could be taken as a sign of aggression."

I didn't like separating from my peerage, but this was her show. "Everyone, head back out into town and see if Clarissa or Valerie can uncover anything else. We need as much information as possible." As my peerage, sans Yubelluna, walked through the gate, I turned to Sona. "That's something we need to discuss. Valerie thinks the rogue magicians you've been dealing with were in league with one-another. We don't know about the Devils yet, but the magicians alone is cause for concern. We need to get in touch with your sister."

Sona pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just one headache after another." She took a deep breath and composed herself, saying, "I will contact my sister after we have received the exorcists. They are due to arrive any minute."

Silence fell as the four of us awkwardly stared at the open gate of the school, waiting for the church's delegation to arrive. At exactly nine o'clock, three women walked through the open gate.

The woman in the lead had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a nun's habit and had a golden cross hanging from her neck. She walked in the middle of the two younger women with her.

The teen to the nun's left had long, brown hair separated into two ponytails that hung over her shoulders. She was wearing a black, skintight, one-piece uniform cut just above the midpoint of her thigh with no sleeves. There was a silver cross dangling from a chain around her neck.

The final figure was another teenager with blue hair the color of a cornflower's petals wearing the same uniform as the brown-haired girl. Where her companions had pleasant if professional expressions, her features were strained with borderline contempt as she saw Sona and I waiting for her.

Sona stepped ahead of us to greet them as they came to a stop. "Greetings. My name is Sona Sitri, heiress of the Sitri family and one of the rulers of Kuoh. This is my queen Tsubaki, Riser and Yubelluna. May I invite you into my office so we may discuss your reason for coming to my city?"

The woman in the lead held up a hand and smiled softly. "Thank you, but that will not be necessary. We hope to conclude our business quickly and be gone as soon as we can. I am Griselda Quarta." the nun said, politely bowing her head. She held her hand to the side to indicate her companions and said, "These are my students Irina and Xenovia. We are here to retrieve several stolen fragments of Excalibur. Our intelligence suggests they have been brought to Kuoh for some unforeseen purpose."

Sona didn't noticeably react. "If there are Excalibur fragments in my city, I would like them gone immediately. I am willing to offer our assistance in finding the swords."

The blue-haired girl was seething as she said, "We don't need your help, devil. Just stay out of our way."

"Xenovia." Griselda said to her side in a chiding voice. Her eyes met Sona's once more as she said, "If it would speed our progress, I would welcome your aid." The two girls at her sides looked at her in shock, but she silenced all their protests with a single look.

"Then you have it." Sona said, motioning towards me. "Riser's bishop will likely be able to locate the swords. He will accompany you."

Griselda looked at me, her expression a mix of interest and caution. "I was told Rias Gremory was the other King of Kuoh."

"She is. I'm only here to make sure nothing interferes with your business here." I said honestly, suppressing the urge to glare at Sona for her poorly disguised move to get me out of her hair. "If I can help you be on your way sooner, I will. If you would give me a moment to summon my bishop?"

Griselda nodded and turned back to Sona. I didn't pay attention to what they were saying as I stepped to the side, Yubelluna following after me. "Clarissa?" I said, pouring mana into my earring. "I need you to come back. The church just arrived and Sona volunteered our services in tracking down the Excalibur fragments they're looking for."

"I will return immediately, my king." Clarissa answered almost immediately. "Do you require anyone else?"

"No, but it's probably best that you all come back anyway. I don't want us to be this split up. Did you find anything?"

"Yes…but not what we were expecting. I would prefer to discuss it in person."

"Is it anything bad?" I asked, hearing the conflict in her voice.

"No. Just…unexpected. We will return momentarily, my king." Her voice faded away, leaving Yubelluna and I to share a questioning glance. Whatever Clarissa had found, it sounded interesting.

"Hey!" a shout drew my attention.

I turned and saw Sona's pawn, Saji, storming out of the school and making for the exorcists.

"That isn't good." Yubelluna said, her eyes widening.

"No it isn't." I agreed as we hurried back over to the gathering.

"You can't talk to taichou like that!" Saji said, pointing his finger at Xenovia threateningly.

"Saji, go back–" Sona began to hiss at him only for the blue-haired exorcist to cut her off.

"And what are you going to do about it? Can you even fight, or did she reincarnate you because she felt sorry for you?" Xenovia said, smiling as she noticed her taunt enraged Saji.

"I'm going to make you eat those words!" Saji screamed, a dark gauntlet materializing around his wrist.

Xenovia held a hand out to her side and a tear in reality opened. She reached inside it and pulled out a comically large, oddly shaped, blue sword. "Let's see what you've got."

"Xenovia, stand down!" Griselda yelled, stepping between her and Saji, causing Xenovia to shrink under her gaze and rest her sword against the ground.

"Saji!" Sona yelled, stepping in front of him. "Go back inside."

"But, taich–"

"Now."

Saji shot one last hate-filled glare at Xenovia before turning around to go back inside, his Sacred Gear disappearing as he turned around.

I watched nervously from the side of the group as Sona and Griselda looked at each other again. I really didn't want things to devolve into a fight that we technically started.

"I apologize for Saji's actions." Sona said. "I will see to it that he is properly disciplined."

"And I am sorry for Xenovia's lack of control. It will not happen again." Griselda turned to me and smiled. "Now I believe we were waiting for your bishop to arrive?"

I nodded, allowing myself to relax slightly as I said, "Yes. She's on her way here now. If you're willing to wait–"

"There are enemies surrounding the school!" Arondight's voice suddenly shouted in my ear. "They are casting something! Prepare yourselves for an attack!"

"We're under attack!" I yelled at Sona as Yubelluna's wings shot out her back and she flew into the sky, already looking for the enemies Arondight mentioned.

Sona's head whipped to me in a panic as Griselda fell into a defensive stance, her eyes boring into me suspiciously.

"What are you doing?" the nun asked, all traces of her polite posture from only moments ago gone.

"My peerage spotted enemies surrounding the school. We need to–"

"Above us!" Yubelluna yelled, already hurling orbs of explosive magic towards a target far in the sky.

We all followed her gaze and saw two figures floating above the school. They were too high up for me to see much other than the dark, feathered wings sprouting from their backs. The first figure had five pairs of wings while the second had six. The Fallen with twelve wings had a massive spell circle in front of him. Both of his arms were held before him as he focused on his casting. The ten-winged Fallen noticed Yubelluna's destructive magic flying towards him and summoned a massive light spear into each of his hands. He threw the spears downwards; they tore through Yubelluna's explosions with ease, scattering her spells against the air. The first spear arced down through Yubelluna's spell towards the back of the school. The second…

"Move!" I yelled, rushing towards the exorcists.

Griselda saw the attack coming and grabbed Irina's shoulder, pulling her out of the path of the spell, but Xenovia didn't see it, her eyes were fixed on me as I charged towards her. Her sword came up, slashing towards me. A hastily formed flame blade was the only thing that kept me from getting bisected as I shoved her with my free hand. No sooner had I pushed her out of the way then a bright white spear of light almost a foot in diameter slammed down into the ground she'd just been standing in, tearing through my arm as it went.

I screamed as the holy magic completely vaporized my arm. My Immortality slowly began to reconstruct the entirety of my left arm. It had been destroyed all the way to my shoulder by light magic that my Immortality was struggling to overcome. I was lucky I hadn't been a few inches closer or it would have taken a piece of my torso.

"Riser!" Yubelluna cried as she was suddenly right next to me, checking me over as Sona and Tsubaki rushed towards us. Griselda's gaze was fixed on our attacker. Xenovia was sitting on the ground, having been knocked over when I shoved her out of the way. She was staring dumbly between my slowly healing stump and the crater in the ground, slowly realizing what had just happened.

"I'm fine." I said through gritted teeth as I clambered back to my feet, having fallen to a knee when the pain hit. "We need to stop that guy from casting whatever he's–"

There was a great blue flash in the sky as the second Fallen completed his spell. Spilling out from above the Fallen's head, a neon blue, shimmering barrier curved towards the ground, covering Kuoh Academy and a good portion of the buildings around it in a dome shaped shield.

Someone else had officially started something. I lifted my only remaining arm up to press the back of my right hand into my forehead. I no longer had a left hand to channel mana into Serafall's sigil with, so I was improvising.

Before my hand could reach my forehead, I felt another large gathering of magic above me. I looked up just as I was about to channel magic into the sigil and saw another spell circle appear in front of the twelve-winged Fallen – this one was aimed down towards me.

An agonizing, burning sensation drove me to my knees as the back of my hand was seared by some form of holy magic. I pressed the back of my hand into my knee and forced mana into it. Nothing happened.

I flipped my hand over and a cold dread settled into my stomach as I saw the back of my hand. Serafall's sigil had been replaced by blackened, necrotic flesh.

Distant laughter echoed down to me as one or both of the Fallen above rejoiced at the sight beneath them. They'd taken away my ability to call for help.

"Oh, shit." I said, realizing the seriousness of the situation. "We need to go now!" I said, looking between the Devils around me and the exorcists.

"I can't teleport." Tsubaki said, an expression of panic on her face as a teleportation circle fizzled into nothing the moment it spread out beneath her.

I tried a teleportation spell of my own, but it petered out even faster than Tsubaki's. We were trapped.

"Taichou!"

I turned and saw Saji running out of the school, Sona's entire peerage following behind him as well as a new face.

"Riser?" Asia said with a tilted head as she saw me. Her eyes drifted to my slowly healing, flaming stump and she said, "Riser!" She rushed ahead of the group and laid her hand on my arm, a small golden ring with a green band set in it on her finger. A dull, green glow expanded out from the ring and the flames of my Immortality were snuffed out as a new limb began to sprout from my arm instantly. The blackened flesh of my right hand fell away, replaced with healthy skin.

Sona's peerage arranged themselves around the area and all looked up at the sky.

"Sona, what's happening?" Tomoe, Sona's pink-haired knight, said in fear as she held her katana up.

"I…I don't know." Sona said breathlessly, her features hardening a moment later. "Where is Rias? We need her."

"Rias is with her peerage behind the school. They went to investigate a disturbance." a blue-haired girl I recognized as Sona's rook, though whose name I didn't remember said.

"She needs to get back here." I said, rolling my shoulder to test my new arm. I gave Asia a nod of thanks and said, "Does anyone have a way to contact her? They'll pick us off if we're split up."

"Nezzie!" Sona called, holding up her arm horizontally. A long, red salamander appeared atop it in a flash of fire. "Find Rias and tell her to meet us in front of the school right now."

The salamander opened its mouth, a sound like a creaking door pouring out of it before it disappeared in another flash of fire.

Assuming Sona had finding Rias well in hand – as well as making a mental note to see about getting a familiar at some point – I pushed mana into my earring. "Where are you guys? You need to get back here now."

"We are a block removed…from the school." Arondight said back quickly, grunting in between words. "We encountered resistance, but we have assistance. We will arrive momentarily."

I opened my mouth to ask how much resistance they were facing when a horde of robed figures poured over the wall to the school. Steel glinted against as blades were drawn and arms were raised to summon spell circles.

"The wall!" I yelled, my wings exploding out of my back as I summoned a dozen flame swords above my head, sending each of them flying into our incoming attackers.

Two mages fell over with fiery swords sticking out of them, their spells fizzling into nothing. The majority of the swords I sent towards the melee fighters were deflected, but one was too slow to block my sword before it impaled him.

Spells began flying back and forth as all hell broke loose.

Sona's peerage and the exorcists rushed as one towards the hooded figures as Yubelluna and I flew up into the air to a little less than the height of the school. The two of us began to burn and explode everything that wasn't directly next to one of our allies, prioritizing taking out the mages first as our allies mowed through the melee fighters.

A light spear flew past my head as three Fallen Angels – these thankfully only had two wings each – flew towards Yubelluna and I. Before I could turn to attack them, they were each struck by a flash of lightning. I followed the bolts to their source and saw Rias's queen – Akeno? – flying towards us, Rias and the rest of her peerage following her.

"What happened?" Rias said in a demanding voice when she was close enough to me.

"I don't know." I said. "Those two," I pointed up to the two many-winged Fallen who seemed content to sit and watch with cocky grins on their faces while we scrambled around beneath them like a school of frenzied fish. "Erected a barrier then the rest followed. Do you have a way out or a way to contact your brother?"

"No. We can't teleport."

"We tried that too. I don't know why they trapped us here, but it can't be good."

Seeing the fighting below us end as Griselda held a spell circle in front of a prone Fallen and executed them with a ray of light – the woman was brutal – Rias and I descended, the others following behind us.

"We need to find a way through the barrier." Sona said when she saw us with no preamble. "We don't know how many there are and those two alone," she pointed at the Fallen still watching passively from the sky. "Are too much for us."

Clarissa's voice spoke from my ear, saying, "We are here, my king."

Yubelluna and I turned towards the entrance, the others following our gaze.

My peerage walked through, looking like they'd been put through the ringer. Clarissa's cloak had been torn in several places but otherwise she looked fine. Kalawarner had several patches of blood spotting her body that dripped downward as if they'd been recently healed; there was far more blood falling from the blade of her sword, held unsheathed at her side. Valerie's hands were covered in blood; her nails had blood stuck underneath them from where her claws likely rended flesh. Arondight was the most shocking. My knight's silver armor was painted red. There was blood covering the entire front of her armor. She'd likely taken the majority of their ambusher's attention to cover the others. Following behind my peerage were five figures I did not expect to see.

"Seekvaira?" I said, dumbfounded as she, Alivian, Issei and Bafeel astride Pegasus walked through the gate after my peerage. "Not that it isn't great to see another friendly face in this mess, but what are you doing here?"

Seekvaira raised an eyebrow at me as she walked forward to meet me. "My fiance departs for a potentially deadly mission and I am to remain behind? Unlikely."

Rias's shocked voice said, "Fiance?"

I ignored the Gremory heiress, walking forward to hug Seekvaira. "I am very glad to see you here." I didn't know the strength of Sona's peerage, but Yubelluna, Arondight, Valerie or I were worth all of Rias's. Having Seekvaira and her peerage with us increased the odds of our survival drastically.

"I do not wish to ruin your affectionate moment, but we have company." Giselda said, her eyes fixed skyward.

Apparently, we were now intriguing enough for the two Fallen who'd cast the barrier to take a personal interest in. They slowly descended towards us, and as they did, I was able to get a better look at them.

The first was deathly pale, his face sloped and narrow with two long, pointed ears on the sides of his head. He was wearing a black cloak and an evil smile as he stared down at us. I recognized the ten-winged Fallen from my first life as Kokabiel.

I didn't recognize the second Fallen. He had twelve wings extending from his back and looked down at us with an uncaring indifference. He had silver eyes and brown hair. A simple black suit covered him as he descended towards us.

"Satanael." Kalawarner breathed in disbelief, a tremor of fear in her voice, her eyes surprisingly fixed on the Fallen next to Kokabiel rather than Kokabiel himself.

Sona, Seekvaira and Griselda's heads all snapped to Kalawarner simultaneously before they looked back up at the twelve-winged Fallen with varying degrees of fear and apprehension.

Whoever this was, they recognized his name and were terrified of him. Considering Kokabiel seemed to be less of a threat than whoever this guy was, things were apocalyptically bad.

"Alivian, Issei, Bafeel, hold nothing back." Seekvaira ordered, her eyes narrowed as she stared up at the Fallen.

"Understood, my king." Alivian said seriously.

When they were low enough to converse with us, Kokabiel laughed and said, "This is even better than I planned! The Satans' siblings were expected, but the Agares heiress and the man who enslaved Arondight and Sephiroth Graal? You've made my job much easier."

The other Fallen, Satanael according to Kalawarner, perked up, actually showing interest in something. "Sephiroth Graal, you say? And Arondight? I would like to acquire both."

Kokabiel laughed like a maniac. "The Boosted Gear is in that one too." he said, pointing at a very tense Issei. "But Arondight isn't a sword anymore. She's the only one who bothered to wear armor."

Satanael looked at Arondight with a tilted head. "It was reincarnated? A pity. There was much I could have learned and done with that object. Nevertheless, our plan does not change. Leave the dhampir and the Red Dragon Emperor to me so I may extract their Sacred Gears."

"What do you want?" Griselda called up to the Fallen, the first person on our side to speak to them.

Kokabiel grinned at her. "At first, I wanted to start a war, but that thought was too small. No, I have a much better goal in mind now. Why start a war when you can–"

"That is enough, Kokabiel." Satanael cut him off. "Do not reveal any more of our plan."

Kokabiel narrowed his eyes at Satanael. "What's the point of keeping information from the dead?"

Satanael shook his head and said, "When their corpses have cooled, you may tell them all you desire. Until then, let us kill them."

"That wasn't the agreement." a new voice said.

Everyone present turned to take in the new arrival as he seemingly appeared from nowhere in the air next to Satanael and Kokabiel. Hair the color of a faded silver dollar fell down in front of his eyes. A black coat and gray shirt covered his torso. His hands sat comfortably in the pockets of his black jeans. Two blue, holographic-seemings wings extended from his back, keeping him aloft. This was another man I recognized, and his presence chilled me to my core. If the three of them were working together…we had next to no chance of making it out of this alive.

"The Red Dragon Emperor is mine." he said, easily meeting the hard gaze of the twelve-winged Fallen. "I don't care about Sephiroth Graal or the others, but The Red Dragon Emperor is mine to kill."

"Issei, control your anger!" Seekvaira's voice cut through the tension. She sounded more desperate than I'd ever seen her.

I turned to face her and saw what had unbalanced her.

Issei's head hung from his shoulders limply, his brown hair covering his face from view. The Boosted Gear had materialized around his arm and was giving off a deadly aura. Green energy spilled off Issei's body as he seethed.

"Vali." he growled, throwing his head back to snarl at The White Dragon Emperor.

Vali looked over his shoulder at Issei as an afterthought. His expression showed intrigue as he saw Issei. He turned to fully face him and said, "I see you have grown stronger. I thought it might not be possible. If I take someone else, will you grow even stronger?"

"You bastard!" Issei screamed, a shockwave erupting from his body. His eyes were covered by a bright green glow as he glared up at Vali. "You murdered my parents!"

Vali grinned. "Yes, and it worked rather well." His eyes shifted towards Alivian. "I wonder what will happen if I take your mentor too?" Vali moved. One moment he was in the air, the next he was slamming into an immovable rift in time a scant few inches from Alivian. Vali looked at Seekvaira and saw her hand outstretched. "Irritating." He held up a hand and a spell circle appeared in front of him. Before he could cast the spell he was preparing, the needle-thin tendril I'd snaked towards him wrapped around his ankle and solidified, pulling him backwards. Vali's eyes flew wide in surprise as he followed the chord back to me, but I was already moving to follow it up.

Dozens of flaming tendrils snaked off of me and wrapped around Vali. The White Dragon Emperor tried to dodge, but he kept slamming into walls of frozen time as Seekvaira supported me. My flame chords wrapped around Vali and solidified, turning into Hellfire chains. I didn't stop. More and more chains constricted around Vali until he was completely covered in glowing red material and struggling to stay on his feet.

Vali glared at me. "I'm going to–"

"Boost!"

Issei was suddenly right in front of Vali, his scale mail enveloping his body. Issei began to pummel Vali's bound form, batting the white-haired teen back and forth like a paddle-ball.

I shot a glance up at the Fallen in the air out of fear they'd react, but they both seemed content to watch in amusement as Vali was manhandled.

"I'll kill you!" an enraged Issei snarled, grabbing the chains around Vali's chest and slamming his gauntleted fist repeatedly into Vali's head.

"Boost!"

"Bring him down!" I yelled to all of my allies as I continued layering chains on Vali, sending blades of Wind into him as he started to struggle. If the Fallen cadre were going to allow us to kill one of their allies, an ally with one of the most powerful Sacred Gears in the world, a Longinus, I was going to take advantage of that fact.

No sooner had the words left my mouth than a small vial filled with ashy, red-colored power shattered against Vali's face, causing him to inhale a large amount of the substance when he gasped in surprise. Arondight was on Vali the instant following Clarissa's vial of powder, stabbing through gaps in my Hellfire chains with Hrotti. Kalawarner was slower, but she didn't need to look at Sona, Seekvaira, Rias or Griselda for clarification like Rias, Seekvaira and Sona's peerages and the exorcists, letting her unleash a flurry of sword strikes into Vali's bound body while everyone else tried to figure out what to do.

A pained cry escaped Vali as the sword forged from half holy light burned into his body. Everything, even Hrotti, hadn't affected him nearly as much as the light magic imbued in Kalawarner's sword had. His legs gave out, and he would have fallen to the ground in a bound heap if Issei didn't still have hold of the chain around his neck to keep pummeling him.

"Boost!"

Issei was booting far faster than he had in our Rating Game. Either he was holding back then, or seeing Vali was causing his demonic power to go crazy. Either way, if it let us bring down Vali, I'd be happy.

As Issei and my peerage continued to wail on Vali, I kept waiting for him to summon his dragon armor; he didn't.

Apparently deciding that Griselda's fixation on the Fallen in the sky was an absence of orders and therefore she could act on her own, Xenovia hefted her cartoonishly large sword and dashed towards Vali, taking the other side of him from Arondight. The two sword-wielders stabbed and slashed in unison, spraying Vali's blood all over the courtyard of Kuoh Academy. Kalawarner dashed in and out whenever one of them stepped back, ensuring that Vali was perpetually surrounded on all sides.

"Boost!"

Issei picked Vali up by his face and slammed him into the ground, cratering the cement. Issei began stomping on Vali's head the moment he was on the ground. Vali laid there and took it, his eyes unfocused and his muscles limp like a dead fish in my chains. Something was seriously wrong with him. I was only able to put it together when I saw his hazel eyes change. A red powder swelled from behind his eyes and flowed through his orbs like a dozen tributaries connecting into a larger river. Clarissa's vial had somehow paralyzed him.

Arondight must have noticed the same thing. Without wasting a moment, she tore a Kalawarner's sword out of her hand and rammed it down into Vali's neck, twisting and prying with the hilt of the blade, the holy magic imbued in the light weapon having no effect on the former holy sword.

Vali let out a weak cough, then his head rolled away from his body when Xenovia brought her sword down in the wound started by Arondight like a headsman at his block.

Stunned silence filled the courtyard as the White Dragon Emperor died.

Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Vali was dead. What the hell was going to happen no–

Maniacal laughter caused us all to regain our senses, snapping our heads to look at the Fallen in the sky.

Satanael was looking at Vali's corpse with a fierce hunger shining from behind his eyes. Kokabiel was laughing like a mental patient off their medication.

"Now that was unexpected." Kokabiel said, wiping a tear from his eye. "It seems I underestimated you ants."

"Xenovia, put the body wherever you pulled your sword out of right now." I said, my eyes focused on Satanael as he literally licked his lips, staring down at Vali's body. "He can't recover it."

Xenovia followed my gaze, and her eyes widened, she dashed towards Vali's form with her hand outstretched, a spell circle flaring to life in front of her.

Satanael saw the motion and became a blur as he snapped up Vali's corpse and head faster than any of us sans Arondight and Griselda could react. Arondight was able to catch the Fallen's leg with Kalawarner's blade, severing the limb. Griselda slammed an open palm into his chest as he flew by her, sending a blast of…something through a spell circle directly into him. The Fallen cadre didn't seem to care about either affliction.

Back in the air next to Kokabiel, the stump that used to connect to a leg spewing blood like a volcano, Satanael's expression was that of a child who'd just been told they could have all the candy in the candy store. "Finish up here, Kokabiel." he said without looking away from the prize in his arms. "I will see you back at headquarters." he disappeared in a flash of brilliant white light.

Kokabiel chuckled. "Satanael and his toys – though I suppose I have stalled long enough." He raised a hand above him and a bright red beam of energy flew straight up into the sky out of a spell circle.

For a moment, nothing happened, then we saw them.

Rising into the air were what looked to be hundreds of Fallen Angels, thankfully with only two wings apiece. We were only mostly dead. That was until four six-winged Fallen Angels rose up to flank Kokabiel – one male and three female. I didn't recognize any of them, but their wings spoke to their power. Things were not good.

As if we weren't out-gunned enough, hooded magicians shimmered into being around the courtyard as illusion magic faded. I noticed a large, vertical teleportation circle shimmering into being on Kuoh Academy's roof. Several figures I vaguely recognized from my first life fled through it in varying degrees of shock and grief, but I was more focused on the fact that they were able to teleport out of the barrier. Satanael being able to teleport made sense since he crafted the barrier, but if they could leave, there was hope for the rest of us.

Arondight handed Kalawarner's sword back, neither of their eyes leaving the assembled force arrayed against us as the exchange was made.

Wordlessly, four devil peerages and a team of exorcists sent by the church closed ranks, arranging themselves into a circular perimeter to face their adversaries. Nine devils – Arondight, Bafeel riding Pegasus, Kalawarner, Tomoe, Akeno, Issei, Alivian, Yubelluna and I – flew a fair distance off the ground to cover everyone else from the airborne threats.

"Seekvaira, trap anyone who is injured in a sphere of accelerated time with either Valerie, me, or the blonde girl to your left. Asia, raise your hand." I said without turning away from the anticipatory Fallen Angels that were slowly descending towards us. Things were about to get very deadly. If I was able to leverage Seekvaira's Time trait to allow our healers to operate unmolested, I was going to. This wasn't the time to keep my ability to share my Immortality under wraps.

I took a deep breath and centered myself. This was far worse than I'd expected, but I'd be damned before I rolled over and died.

A.N.

Sorry this took so long. Like I've said before, I hate cliff hangers, and this is a big one. I didn't want to post it until the next one was done. Expect chapter 17 in a bit.

Some people might not like what I did with Vali, but this is where the already messed up canon takes an explosive leap off of a cliff. Is Vali powerful? Extremely. Are Longinus Sacred Gears DXD's equivalent of plot armor? Yes. Does that mean Longinus users are unkillable? No. Take advantage of one opening left by an arrogant battle junky and that battle junky winds up dead. A lot of people don't seem to like my take on how fights work, but this is the reality of it. OP abilities like Time, when utilized properly, are going to be incredibly difficult to overcome no matter who you are. And no matter who you are, underestimating a foe and prancing around like you're Lucifer's gift to existence can get you killed if you aren't willing to bring out the big guns for someone beneath you. If that isn't for you, there are plenty of other stories on this site.

Thanks for reading.