"So now that everyone's here, we should nominate someone to be acting President."

"I nominate Makoto!" Irina raised her hand and answered immediately after I announced that.

"Well that was quick…" I responded.

"I mean, you are our leader," Irina commented. "It would make sense for you to act as President of the Club in the absence of Rias and Akeno."

"Okay… Any objections?"

No comment.

"Okay. Now we need someone to be Vice President."

I didn't get as instant a response on that one.

"I have to think on that one a bit more…" Xenovia commented. "Both us and the Student Council have a Queen piece as Vice President, but we don't have that one yet…"

"Hey, Asia, you've been with him the longest, haven't you?" Irina asked.

"Eh!?"

"She has a point," Xenovia said. "I believe Akeno was also the President's longest colleague. I nominate Asia."

"Any objections?" I asked.

"I'll do it!" Asia said, clenching her fists in determination.

There was then a flash of light followed by an explosion of confetti.

"Ta-da! Levia-tan has returned to grace this school with her presence!"

"Serafall!?" I exclaimed. "I thought you were with the Underworld conference."

"Well, after we heard about that little incident with the holy sword, they decided to send Ajukun and I to provide further security. Sirzechs-chan and Falbium will stay and protect the Underworld."

"Big sister, you shouldn't barge in like that!"

Sona had entered the room, closely followed by a man with slicked-back green hair.

"We need to get into position, Leviathan…" he said.

Serafall sighed and began following the man out. "Yes, Ajukun…"

"And for the last time, it's Ajuka…"

"What's going on, Class President?" Irina asked her.

"Just wanted to let you know that the representatives will be arriving shortly. I would appreciate if the Occult Research Club sent a couple representatives to meet them."

"Well, I think we just figured that out. Let's go!"

Asia and I followed Sona out where we met up with Tsubaki and we went up to the front of the school. Mother was also with us.

Shortly afterwards, a group of limousines pulled up to the gate.

I noticed each of them had a small sigil on them that was similar to the ones on the train, but they looked slightly different and was blue.

"Your family owns those?" I asked Sona.

"Yes. My family is providing transport to the representatives."

Out of the first limousine emerged a young woman in priestess garb. As far as I could tell she was quite pretty, but she also had a slightly intimidating aura about her.

"It's so nice to see you again, Sister Griselda!" Mother said to her.

"It's nice to see you too, Lady Gabriel," Sister Griselda said to her. "When I heard about what happened to the angels in Heaven, I feared the worst. Thank the Lord you managed to find refuge here."

"It was a miracle, yes…"

"And you must be Miss Xenovia's new caretaker," she said, turning to me.

I froze up for a second. "You could say that. Yes."

Judging by that comment, this must be the same Sister that Mom said was Xenovia's old caretaker.

"I'm glad someone like you is keeping an eye on her. She was always quite the impulsive type…"

Mother giggled. "Let's talk together! We have so much to catch up on!"

As Mom and Sister Griselda were walking in, I noticed, after a limousine full of priests and priestesses, an old man with an eyepatch came out the following car who was closely followed by a woman with long silver hair and a well-built bearded man with black hair, both of whom were much better dressed than the old man.

"Well, if it isn't the Legendary White Dragon Boy!" the old man said. "Legendary with the ladies, I might add, as well…"

"Will you please behave yourself, Lord Odin!?" the silver haired woman exclaimed. "That's our host's son!"

"Relax, young Rossweisse. That was a mere jest!"

Odin? As in one of the chief gods of Norse Myth? This must be a pretty serious meeting if we have not only Church leaders, but leaders of other religions…

"I will help you from here," Tsubaki said. "Let's go inside."

"Don't mind if I do, young lady!" Odin said as he and Rossweisse followed her in.

Meanwhile, the other man approached me.

"Excuse me, might I have a word with you? You're Makoto Fujiwara, right?"

"Yes, sir…"

"I have heard of the kindness you have shown to Yuma. I have no doubt you have shown even greater kindness to my daughter. I just wanted to say thank you."

He then followed Odin and Rossweisse in. No doubt that must have been Baraqiel, Akeno's fallen angel father.

Shortly afterwards, the group had a preliminary meeting. I was to join them later for the first big meeting later on.

After they broke for Dinner, Sona invited us to her house, and by house, I mean mansion.

"Oh wow!" Irina exclaimed.

"And I thought our house was fancy…" I commented.

I knocked on the door.

We were greeted by Saji. "Oh, hey, Makoto! Glad to see you came!"

We walked in and were greeted by the rest of the Student Council, accompanied by Serafall.

"Hey Makkun!"

Xenovia rubbed her hands together and asked, "Okay. What's for Dinner?"

"You don't just ask the host that right as you come in!" Irina muttered.

"Well…" Sona said.

"You can do it, of course!" Serafall said to her. "You're an amazing cook!"

Saji chuckled nervously while the rest of the Student Council looked terrified, obviously afraid to protest otherwise.

Sona was turning red and trembling. "But… Big sister…"

It was obvious she had no confidence in her cooking. And, judging by the Student Council's response, she had plenty of reason not to.

"I can do it!" Asia volunteered.

The entire Student Council, including Sona, breathed a sigh of relief. Serafall, meanwhile, looked disappointed.

A while later, we all dug into the soup that Asia had made.

"Wow. This is good, Asia!" said Saji.

"Yes. This is very good." Sona commented.

"Thank you! Ms. Gabriel had been teaching me all about it!"

"Amazing. This is almost as good as So-tan's cooking!" said Serafall.

Sona gave a happy sigh, "Come on, big sister, be reasonable…"

Everyone started laughing.

We arrived back at the school as the cars returned to campus.

As Baraqiel and Odin got out of the car, Baraqiel asked him, "Wait a second. Aren't we missing someone?"

"I assumed Miss Rossweisse went with another group…"

Baraqiel looked around and sighed, "No. She did not."

"Well, that's odd…" Odin mused.

"It's not odd. You're the one who's supposed to be responsible for her!"

Baraqiel turned to us. "Excuse me, Makoto. This is embarrassing, but could you go into town and find Miss Rossweisse for us? She was the silver-haired woman who was with us earlier."

"I'll see what I can do."

"I'll make sure to get you caught up when you get back," Sona said.

Baraqiel had handed me the tab for their meal so I could find where they were last.

We took the train and headed down to the restaurant where I talked with one of the cashiers.

"Excuse me, but I'm supposed to meet up with a woman here. Nice suit, silver hair, about my height."

"I'm sorry, but I believe the person you're referring to left just a few minutes ago. She looked quite distressed. You didn't break her heart, by any chance?"

"No, but I think I know someone who did..."

"Well, I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

"No that's fine. Take care!"

I began heading back out to find where she ran off too, until…

"I have an idea where she went, nya."

Kuroka had intercepted us.

Xenovia whipped out Durandal.

"Easy, Xenovia," I said. "I believe she's on our side."

"You're not reproducing with Makoto and that's final!" Xenovia exclaimed.

"Can we go five minutes without one of you bringing up my junk?"

"Relax. If I wanted to do that, I would have met him privately next to one of those hotels, nya," Kuroka assured. "I spotted a peculiar-looking lady bolting out of this establishment a few moments ago towards that tavern across the street."

"Goodness. He wasn't wrong about her being distressed," Irina commented.

We crossed the street and entered the bar that Kuroka pointed out. Sure enough, Rossweisse had just sat down at the bar table.

"A beer please. The biggest one you got," she said to the bartender in a sullen voice.

"Uh… Can I see your ID, ma'am?"

"Excuse me," I interrupted. "I'm here to take her home."

"And who are you supposed to be!?" some guy sitting near her snapped at me, "Her dad!?"

"Yes. Now back off, creep."

"About time someone remembered me…" Rossweisse muttered.

I gently grabbed her arm and escorted her outside.

While I was in the bar, Asia had gotten a bottled water from a nearby vending machine and gave it to her as I got her to a bench.

"Is everything alright, Rossweisse?" I asked. "What happened?"

She downed the water in one shot.

"That dummy, Lord Odin, has left me behind yet again!"

She began bursting into tears.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to," Irina replied. "He probably just forgot, that's all…"

"Yeah, he forgot! He was too busy flirting outrageously with the waitress to remember. And she had a boyfriend, unlike me, who will always remain a virgin Valkyrie!"

I have no idea how to calm her down at this point. Guess I'll do the thing that always works…

I patted her on the head and said, "It's gonna be okay. We'll get you back to the meeting."

She looked startled for a second, but finally appeared to relax, wiping her eyes.

"Thank you. You are too kind…"

"It is not gonna be okay!"

Yuma suddenly appeared with Lint.

"What's going on?" Xenovia asked.

"Alright," I announced. "Now that most of us are here, let us begin the meeting."

"Lady Gabriel! Question." one of the Church representatives called out. "Why is there a fallen angel and a pagan god among us today?"

"Looks like someone didn't read the briefing we sent out…" Sister Griselda commented.

In spite of Griselda's calm demeanor, the representative looked terrified.

"In case you weren't informed," I said. "Both us and the devils decided to invite a representative from the fallen angels and other mythologies. Especially in light of the attacks by Kokabiel, we need to make sure that we have as much support as we can."

"Do you have any comment, Baraqiel? Odin?" Sister Griselda asked.

"After Kokabiel's attack, we need to prove that the fallen angels as a whole are still keeping to our bargain." Baraqiel said, "I would imagine Lord Shemhazai would say the same to the devils."

"Hey. We're cool!" Odin commented.

"Does that clear things up?" I asked the representative.

"Oh… Exactly…" he said.

Something's going on.

I then saw a flash of light outside and, all of a sudden, the barrier that Sona has put up was shattered!

The representative along with two others then pulled out a sword of light! Baraqiel and I were about to attack them, until…

"Don't make any rash moves, Gabriel. I will not hesitate to obliterate everyone in this room."

I saw another flash of light just outside the door. Three of the guards who were stationed outside entered the room. As they lowered their hoods, I recognized the blonde-haired woman in the middle

"Traitor!" I exclaimed.

"That's quite a rude accusation, Gabriel. We haven't seen each other in so long…"

"You opened the Holy System to Halja and the Khaos Brigade, didn't you, Iblis!?"

"Heaven was long overdue for a new ruler. When one presented itself, I simply offered my services."

"And yet innocent women like Asia Argento are allowed to be shunned while people like you remain pure!?"

"The Catholic Church is a false denomination. Always has been. We simply nudged her in the way to truly serve our God."

"You watch your tongue!" Sister Griselda exclaimed.

"You watch your place." Iblis retorted, summoning an imposing straight spear in her direction. "This is the Spear of Longinus, one half of the True Longinus that Lady Halja allowed to remain for her service. It cut through that pathetic barrier those devils put up for you heathens and will very easily cut through any of you."

"A true god would never allow the violence you and your master intend to do," Baraqiel commented.

"Would that be the same 'true god' that allowed his people to purge the surrounding nations so they can inhabit a so-called 'promised land' and later chose to cast you out, turning a blind eye when he allowed your wife to be killed and your daughter to disown you?"

"That was your god who allowed that to happen, you templar."

"Whatever the case, this is now a hostage situation. I will only set you free if the devils relinquish their control of this town to us."

"Madam," one of the guards said to Iblis, "A group is approaching the school."

"Mittelt. Deal with them…"

All of us rushed to the front of the school. Sona's barrier had been replaced with a red barrier.

"What happened?" I asked Sona, who looked heavily battered.

"Someone infiltrated the school and managed to shatter our barrier. They immediately replaced it with this one."

"I alerted Yuma about the threat when I noticed some… unique faces among the Church's guards." Lint stated. "But it all happened before you could even get here."

"None of us have been able to break it," Saji said, "Not even…"

Someone set off several explosions on the barrier that worked about as much as fireworks.

"Well that's unfortunyate," Kuroka commented.

"Big sister! You already tried that! It's not working!"

"Aw man!" Serafall exclaimed. "Even with a small fraction of my power, I thought I could do it. I guess I'll just have to…"

She began to sparkle.

"No, Lady Leviathan!" Ajuka said to her. "Using that much power will cause too much collateral damage!"

"Shoot."

"Well, look what we have here!"

Mittelt appeared near us.

"Oh, this will be easy!" Serafall said, beginning to sparkle again.

"Wait a second!" Yuma said. "I'll deal with this traitor."

"As far as I can see, Raynare, you not only betrayed Lady Halja, but you also betrayed yourself."

They both summoned spears of light and attacked each other.

"It's hopeless, Raynare," Mittelt taunted Yuma as they clashed spears, "a fake angel like you has no chance against a true one like me!"

"You're the fake, Mittelt."

Mittelt lunged in retaliation, knocking Yuma back. She then threw spears of light of her. She deflected the first one, but the second one grazed her side.

Yuma winced in pain.

However, Asia rushed in and healed the injury that Mittelt incurred.

"After what she did to you, you still stand up for her?" Mittelt asked Asia.

"She may have been cold when I first met her, but I now know she was one of the first people I could trust, unlike you!"

"I remember now, you were a traitor too!" Mittelt said. "You get to die as well!"

Mittelt hurled a light spear at Asia, but Yuma used a spear of her own to shatter it in midair!

"Impossible!" Mittelt exclaimed. "I'm a pure angel, I should be stronger!"

"After all that, you are still a low-level grunt, Mittelt."

Something about Yuma's statement sent Mittelt into a fury and she charged straight at her.

Yuma summoned a spear that emanated an intense aura. As Mittelt hurled herself at her, Yuma hurled the spear at her.

There was a huge explosion of light as the spear hit Mittelt, her horrifed face displaying for a split second before she vanished into dust.

"I suspected she might be a disappointment. I guess she hasn't improved much from her performance against Rias Gremory…"

That voice came from behind the enemy barrier

"So, it was you who was behind this scheme, Iblis!" Sona exclaimed.

"Now, I don't deserve all the credit. You can thank my husband for part of it."

"What husband!?" Saji inquired.

"And what have you done with Ascalon!?" I added.

"Those question do not apply now," Iblis responded. "What matters is you cannot interfere. This barrier prevents pests like you and the Demon Lords from interfering until the Underworld agrees to relinquish their control of this town to us."

"I'll relinquish you of your head, traitor!" Xenovia retorted.

"Good luck with that…" Iblis responded as she walked back into the school.

"Good grief," I commented. "How are we going to get in and kick her ass?"

"Given how easily she defeated Kokabiel, shouldn't your mom be able to take her on easily?"

"I was listening in to the conversation that was going on inside." Sona commented. "If she or Baraqiel makes any false moves on her, she puts the rest of the group in danger. Halja has given her half of True Longinus."

"Then I will have to find a way to get past her and this barrier quickly." I said, "But how?"

"The only way I can think of is to find a way to activate Balance Breaker." Irina noted.

"I do have some powerful allies…"

"What are you getting at?" Saji asked.

"Sirzechs said something along those lines when I asked him about my Sacred Gear. This might be a way to activate my Balance Breaker!"

"I suppose by 'powerful allies,' you are referring to us two?" Serafall asked me.

"Exactly. You alone weren't able to break this barrier, but I think I have a way to combine both of your power!"

"How exactly?" Ajuka asked.

I summoned my Sacred Gear and Serafall's eyes lit up.

"Dividing Gear may have uses beyond taking the power of my enemies. Perhaps it can be of use for allies to lend their strength!"

"As in, letting you Divide our power?" asked Ajuka.

"Exactly!"

"That actually sounds like it might work!" Serafall said, holding her arm out.

Ajuka followed by holding his arm out over hers.

"I'll contribute mine too, nya." Kuroka commented as she held out hers as well, "There's a reason I became such a notorious stray devil…"

"Well…" I stated. "What's your opinion Albion?"

"That will certainly give you enough power. Your current mana pool alone may not be enough to withstain taking in the power of the two Demon Lords and the nekomata, but this may be our only shot to take down Iblis."

"Only one way to find out…" I said as I held out my right arm with the Dividing Gear out over theirs.

As I joined the group huddle, there was a great flash of light!

"DIVIDE!"

And accompanying that, I felt a massive surge of power flowing through me. Initially, I felt a searing pain, but as this power spread throughout my body, the pain began to phase out into adrenaline!

I turned my attention towards the school and the enemy's barrier.

"Let's rock!" I announced.

I leapt into the sky and began to glow a brilliant white.

"VANISHING DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!"

"He actually did it!" Irina exclaimed as I charged at the barrier in midair, having transformed into my Scale Mail.

Glowing with my Retribution aura, I drove my fist straight through the barrier.

Sure enough, the attack applied a considerable amount of force to the barrier, causing it to crack… and eventually shatter!

I charged straight through an upper-floor window (sorry, Sona) and made a beeline towards the conference room. My greatest priority is to put a stop to Iblis' scheme before she can harm any innocent people!