The presence of the leaders of the Three Factions almost made Fate Weaver shrink. Both figuratively and physically. The room had so much white light that the walls and floor blended in almost completely, making it as close to nondescript as physically possible without going full Matrix white room. A big triangular table carved in antique and extravagant wood stood tall at the center, with two leaders on each side except for the Underworld.
Azazel and Kokabiel, Michael and Gabriel, and Serafall Leviathan on the last side. The devil lady wore clothes that looked like a mix between greek and renaissance clothes, with dark blue being the predominant color, golden badges encrusted here and there; and a small beret of the same blue color lying on top of her head.
Behind her, a girl with black hair and gray eyes rested her back against the wall, just in a similar way to how Bel did. This girl wore some kind of strange mix between a school uniform and military outfit. With sharp lines and a contrast of white and black with the first color being the predominant once, as well as black stockings and military boots in the same color. She caught Fate Weaver staring, and the expression she wore had such neutrality in it that Fate Weaver wondered if he wasn't looking at an image that failed to convey any human emotion.
Dulio Gesualdo stood behind the angels, and at least he offered Fate Weaver a small nod before he went back to his position of guard/non-representative of his faction. Ignoring the moment when Fate Weaver and Star Seeker were released from their bindings and got to touch the floor for the first time in several hours.
Kokabiel sneered but said nothing, fixing his sunglasses and lying further back to murmur something to Bel that Fate Weaver didn't catch. The gray-haired girl showed a big grin and shook her head, with Azazel mimicking her but covering his mouth before the expression escaped him.
"Well, then. Seems like our guests of honor are here." He stood up and motioned to the Miracle Children to cover up for his faux pas, but his choice of word made Bel release some air from her nose.
Kokabiel almost barked out a laugh, but kept his teeth touching each other. Still smirking, but not opening his mouth at all.
"Let's go through this again, just for clarity's sake." Azazel added before anyone could point out his subordinates' attitude "I am the Governor General of the Fallen Angels, Azazel. And I will serve as the intermediary between the matters at hand. With me is my brother, Kokabiel. And my protegée, Bel."
"'Sup." Bel motioned with her hand, giving everyone a self-assured smile before Azazel could continue.
"On my left I have the representative of the devil faction, Serafall Leviathan."
"Hello, hello~." Serafall made peace signs with her hands before demurely placing them on her lap.
"And on the side of Heaven, we have Michael and Gabriel. With the addition of Dulio Gasualdo as stand-in for the human church."
"We're sorry for doing things like this on such short notice." Michael spoke up with solemnity, almost as if regretful.
"Thank you for having me." Dulio bowed for a moment, before clasping his hands together in a silent prayer.
Fate Weaver's mom remained silent.
"Is this for our sake, or are we getting our own presentations?" Star asked, her hand up at the same time as she asked. Fate Weaver stole a glance her way, but she didn't seem to notice how out of time she spoke.
She reminded Fate Weaver of his previous sister. Oblivious to her own shallowness, always ready to pounce on anything that caught her attention. But charming enough that everyone wanted to take care of her. His friends all thought she was hot, so that might've helped her a lot. But it was the one person that Fate Weaver wondered the most about. Because, if he won the case in the end, his sister would be the one that suffered without money to spend leisurely the most.
"Relax, girl." Azazel's reply came affable enough, almost like he expected it "We're getting there. We've obviously already made our introductions, and discussed some things. You were called here to give your side of things, and to clarify points that've been made before."
"I see, I see…" Star nodded, satisfied.
"Any other question?" Azazel patiently asked.
"Yeah. Who's that?" Star pointed at the raven haired girl, reaching out with her arm as far as it could go. Almost touching Michael's halo in the process.
This girl…
"We've met before." The girl sounded a bit troubled when she answered.
"Hey, I know that voice… You were with the devil back there…" Star put a finger on her lips, wondering "Yuni, right? I remember you looked differently back then."
Yuni merely shrugged, and motioned with her hand for Azazel to continue. Fate Weaver also felt like he knew her from somewhere, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe on a secret mission, and if Star was to be believed then Yuni would've changed her appearance for the sake of her own privacy.
So she was one of those secret agents… Cool.
"Sorry about the dumb questions." Fate Weaver nodded at Yuni, but the girl didn't respond to the signal at all.
"Shut up, Nasu." Star pouted, making a cutely angry expression "I need to know."
"Nasu?" Bel parroted with a confused expression.
"Let's get back on track, please." Michael interrupted them, which made everyone else shut up "Azazel, if you will."
"Right-o." Azazel stood up and stretched his right hand.
Boosted Gear appeared, surrounded by the same sigils that Fate Weaver had seen hours back. Azazel took it, and showed it off to everyone present. Who nodded their heads in approval.
"Again, safety measurements are in play. As the Satan here asked, we've gone out of our way to prevent any of the two from pulling any tricks on us."
"Their connection to the Heavenly Host is weakened too." Michael added "You won't find security lacking from our side."
"What about the girl's Sacred Gear?" Serafall looked at Star with a difficult to read expression "I was under the impression that all of the Miracle Children are blessed with one."
"That's correct." Gabriel finally spoke up "But it's of little use here. Only my own boy's Sacred Gear should be of any consideration."
Serafall turned to Azazel, eyebrow raised.
"More or less." The fallen angel shrugged "I really hate having to perform this restriction spell, so I took the one that was the most obvious choice."
"I can deal with her Sacred Gear." Bel spoke up "As long as Heaven's word is to be trusted, then I won't even need Balance Breaker."
Star's lips stretched out.
"If you're so sure." Why did she feel the need to interrupt like that?! Didn't she see the trouble she was getting into?!
"Girl, c'mon." Bel's expression turned smug "The output you can produce by yourself is limited. Do you think you can fight me like that?"
Star shrugged.
"Girls." Azazel's voice was cold. It was an unspoken warning "Regardless, her Sacred Gear requires close contact. So none of us will have problems as long as she is kept restrained."
Gabriel nodded, and Star Seeker's bindings came back. Making Fate Weaver's cousin yelp.
"Oh, c'mon!"
Fate Weaver sighed.
"Now then." Azazel clapped his hands "We're under the impression that this all started with you, so could you give us a brief explanation from your side… Shiki?"
"Shiki?" Star frowned.
"Look, your name's cool. But I'm not saying 'Star Seeker' every time I have to talk to you." Azazel shook his head.
"My name is cool, yes." Star said with a straight face.
"Right? So bear with me for now." Azazel clapped his hands together "Or would you like another nickname? For clarity's sake."
"I…"
"Great!" Azazel cheered "Now, if you could…"
Star frowned, a bit more confused than angry. She stared at herself, arms crossed again over her chest, and pondered.
"What do you want to hear?"
"Tell us about your first encounter with the Gremory group. What were you doing? Why were you there?"
Star stared at the bright ceiling.
"Sin Devourer." She stated, and Fate Weaver heard someone groan on the other side of the room.
Fate Weaver himself started sweating.
"I'm sorry?" Azazel blinked.
"Sin Devourer." Star repeated herself "This all starts with Sin Devourer."
"Sin Devourer's not on this side of the planet." Michael interjected.
"Let's hear Shiki out." Azazel motioned for Star to continue.
"One day, Sin Devourer started complaining about strange visions. At first, I thought he was just being his usual edgy self. But I realized it had nothing to do with his weird roleplaying schtick." Star's gaze wandered around the room, seeing if everyone was paying attention to her story.
"What schtick?" Azazel tilted his head.
"Does it matter?" Gabriel interrupted.
"It might." Azazel smiled at her.
Star looked at Fate Weaver's mother.
"Go on." She ordered.
"Well, Sin Devourer likes playing the ninja. He's all about mindgames, deception. Things like that. He speaks cryptically and stuff, I don't really get it. But he's grown to be really good at it."
"I see."
Star nodded.
"Nasu said it might have something to do with Sin Devourer's Sacred Gear, given the patterns he witnessed in his dreams. It seemed to me like Sin Devourer wanted to nudge us into investigating and doing other stuff for him, but Nasu didn't want to… So I did." Star pushed her chest out, proudly proclaiming herself as an idiot.
Fate Weaver slapped his own face, feeling defeated.
"I see." Azazel repeated himself "So you investigated about his Sacred Gear? How does that connect with going to Japan?"
"Well, I did some digging up. The church has a lot of exorcists, and sooner or later I was bound to find something. So, as it turns out, I found this guy that has another Sacred Gear with the same weird dreams as Sin Devourer." Star continued, looking up and to her side as if she could see the memories there.
"Referentially, that's Elijah Smith." Michael interrupted "He had the Delete Field, as you're all well aware. He specialized in killing magicians, mainly through the use of his Balance Breaker."
"Which is how our kids got trapped." Serafall added.
"That's correct." Michael closed his eyes, regretful.
Azazel gave them both an inquisitive look, but when neither added anything he motioned for Star to continue.
"So, you know, I still didn't know what that meant. If I just came back and told Sin Devourer what I found, he'd keep pestering me about it. And honestly I didn't have much else to do. Nowadays we mostly recharge the [Cross Blades] and hang around with the high priests, so I said 'why not? Let's see what happens'. And, oh boy did things happen!"
"Why didn't he do it himself?" Serafall interrupted.
"Because he's 'the ninja'." Star tried to do the quotation marks with her fingers from her position "The man behind the man, the mastermind. Which is just an excuse for him to do nothing and take credit for things."
Serafall didn't look convinced, but didn't interrupt again.
On the corner of his gaze, Fate Weaver saw Yuni's expression harden.
"And so you brought the Delete Field user along?" Azazel asked.
"Kinda. I figured they detected each other through their dreams, so I pushed him away from Sin Devourer. And the closest host was…"
"Genshirou Saji." Azazel nodded, crossing his arms "I see. That makes sense."
"How so?" Serafall asked neutrally.
Azazel raised a hand, and Bel rolled her eyes. She took a small briefcase and took a dark oil lamp from within. The flames that lit it were pitch black.
"The third Miracle Child is the host of one of Vritra's Sacred Gears, Absorption Line if I had to guess." Azazel gave the Miracle Children a look, and both nodded "It'd seem like this whole thing was triggered when Genshirou Saji got Shadow Prison. Probably made Vritra's soul react to being pieced together, even if only a bit. I've studied the Sacred Gears for quite some time, and this seems to be within the expected behavior of their hosts."
"How did you know it was Absorption Line?" Fate Weaver couldn't help asking.
"There's fours Sacred Gears: Absorption Line, Delete Field, Shadow Prison, and Blaze Black Flare. Of which there's only four hosts each." Azazel gave the lamp back to Bel "I have a Blaze Black Flare, know the Ash Beast and have about forty–six likely candidates that were born when the last host died. I also have a Shadow Prison and Delete Field, with 322 candidates for the missing Shadow Prisons, ten for the missing Delete Field, and know the missing host by name… Well, we're missing Elijah's now. But that's besides the point."
Azazel sighed, crossing his arms and pushing his chair to only stand on the back legs, playing with the balance while he thought.
"I have 42 candidates for Absorption Line… Genshirou Saji has one, and the Moon Man's still alive as far as I know. So that means it can only be Absorption Line."
Fate Weaver blinked a couple of times.
"The… Moon Man?" Gabriel asked, probably the first thing she said without sounding angry.
"Pen pal of mine. A chinese man that belonged to a village of cultivators, got shunned because of his Sacred Gear." Azazel got his hands behind his head, deep in thought "He never let me remove it, thought he'd make a name for himself. Thought the moon had energy he could harness… He was right. But the landing was too rough, and he almost died. Only his Balance Breaker saved him, and has been feeding off the celestial body's power ever since."
He let the chair slam back to standing on four legs, and had become quite solemn. To the point his voice almost didn't sound like it belonged to him.
"It's been decades since the last message he sent. I think the energies of the moon were changing him, making him more of whatever is out there instead of an immortal human… He's probably no longer something I'd recognize."
"I… See…"
"We also have a Blaze Black Flare host in the church." Dulio spoke up, digging a paper from within the robes "In fact, I think the church has had all four. Sin Devourer, Belen Murray, Elijah Smith, and Christopher Kingsley who disappeared some months ago."
"Heh… That was quick." Azazel grinned, his mood completely shifting "I thought you guys only took stock of the Mechanical Angel hosts."
"The Seven Wings are something else." Dulio shrugged "I just did a quick digging through other channels."
"Azazel." Kokabiel warned him, tone even but cold.
"Right, right. Back to business." Azazel pointed at Fate Weaver "How do you enter this picture?"
"I had nothing to do with this." Fate Weaver answered immediately "I got involved because I got wind of a monster eating our followers. I could not, in good conscience, let things go as they were. Not even if Star Seeker seemed to be up to something."
Star giggled.
"It was just an excuse to get him on board, true." She admitted easily enough "But I just wanted him to distract the devils, keep them on their toes… Now that I think about it, can I ask something? I've answered a lot of questions."
"Just the one." Azazel reminded her.
"It's about these Vritra Sacred Gears." Star insisted.
"What is it?"
"What would have happened if I let Elijah fight… Err… Saji?"
Azazel scoffed.
"The winner absorbs the loser's Sacred Gear, killing them instantly." Azazel spoke coldly, with neither amusement nor jest in his tone.
"So, since Elijah wasn't killed by the reincarnated devil…"
"Delete Field has joined the Sacred Gear system again, probably residing in a newborn that was born the moment Elijah died." Azazel turned to face the other leaders "Sorry. Let's continue… Serafall? A word about the monster in question?"
Serafall nodded.
"Diodora Astaroth reincarnated an Oblex as his Pawn a few months back." Serafall's words made Dulio and Yuni tense, but the non-humans remained neutral to the news. Only Star frowned, neither with worry nor fear, but more like being bothered by the topic "If it's worth anything, my own sister holds misgivings toward the creature. Although there's no proof it has rampaged anywhere but where its master has desired. We're fuzzy on where it is right now."
"But I killed it." Fate Weaver protested.
"It's a slime." Bel interjected "A mind-eating, shapeshifting, duplicating mass of decentralized living acid. I can assure you, Red one, that it is all but dead. The only thing you did was piss it off."
Fate Weaver balled his fists, looking at the floor and feeling his face grow hot.
"I… I didn't know."
Yuni sighed.
"To be fair, there's no way you'd know. I think we're the only ones we've ever seen one of those things in the flesh." Yuni looked so tired while speaking. Almost having aged in front of Fate Weaver's eyes. That expression didn't suit her "I'm not entirely sure how… Lord Diodora got it."
Fate Weaver stared at her across the room.
"Right, we're getting to that boy." Azazel spoke up before Fate Weaver could say anything "Let's wrap how things turned into the last fight first? We can all guess how the other two rounds went. We've heard enough."
Serafall and Gabriel nodded, although the two women gave each other glares as they realized.
"I sort of knew it'd happen." Fate Weaver took the opportunity to speak, given that Star didn't seem inclined to cover up the rougher ends of the story "The devils started attacking, and seemingly eating our exorcists. Star volunteered to put an end to the conflict. I was put down before she could arrive, though."
"They teleported." Star took it from there, before Fate Weaver could add anything else "And I used a miracle to redirect them. I figured something would happen if the reincarnated devil and Elijah fought. So I thought, 'gotta distract the rest of them while it happens, let's see what changes'... And then one of the devils started fighting in spite of the Abhor the Witch."
Star Seeker's expression changed, growing sharper and more smug. Fate Weaver almost didn't realize it, as he wondered how anyone could've fought in spite of the Balance Breaker in question.
"What's up with that? I blessed Elijah myself. I'm pretty sure none of them should've been able to use their demonic power through the Balance Breaker. The small one, I understand. Senjutsu is a thing, I know. The others I'm not entirely sure, but it might have to do with their respective heritages." Star Seeker's eyes narrowed, staring straight at the Demon Lord of Leviathan "And yet, he fought me to a stand still. Where is he? The one with a cocky smile and dumb face."
"Diodora is not going to wake up anytime soon." Serafall's words made Fate Weaver's stomach turn. Not because of the news, but because it was that guy again. That bastard who shouldn't have been present at all.
"You have Phenex tears, right?" Gabriel interrupted "Use them."
"We do, and we did." Serafall spoke evenly without looking at the angel "But the damage done has persisted through them. We could wait for him to recover, but while we sit on our hands these children will probably roam around freely."
Gabriel wanted to say something, but Michael interrupted.
"Star Seeker has a point." He said evenly, giving his sister a good look before continuing "How long until he wakes up?"
Serafall raised her hands, counting her fingers.
Her eyes narrowed. She was no longer the cute magical girl Fate Weaver knew her as.
"Pray to your god that he does."