Chapter XXVII

A Queen's duty was to stand by and offer their King support in any given situation.

Some took that to be a matter of submission or… attentiveness. And while that was true in some cases, it was an almost absurdly, comically limited parody of the bond between a Reincarnated Devil and their King. Doubly so for someone in Akeno's position.

Deceptively simple, the idea that you just had to stick around the one who held the reigns and offer them advice and support was perhaps the greatest lie anyone who's ever accepted the Queen Piece had ever heard.

Being the 'Queen' was hard.

It was an exacting task which demanded one sharpen their senses and intuition to its highest point, to the point Akeno could foresee her King's needs and act as needed with little wasted time and effort. It required her to be willing to defy or work around Rias when called for, to be willing to use decorum or violence as was appropriate, or to even shield her with her own body. Because they were retainers of sorts.

Most of the time, though, it was little things like working out the Occult Research Club's budget or ordering something or another that Rias might have forgotten. Other times it included receiving guests and hosting gatherings for their friends or visitors coming to Kuoh.

Frankly, Akeno might have compared herself to more of a secretary cum manager than a Queen. And even then, she was first and foremost Rias's friend. Capable of putting her own common sense to work if needed and, frankly, it sometimes was.

This however, wasn't something she was trained to handle.
"Absolutely not."

"Brother, that's not fair."

Very few things prepared you for a meeting with one of the Four Satans.

"Three Heretics and two Campione, Rias. In one week. I think my reaction isn't being emphatic enough if you think there's any place for negotiation here."

Sirzechs Lucifer was a busy man by all accounts, only visiting them for sparingly few days out of his fairly busy schedule, usually during school events where he could afford to mingle amongst humans and enjoy the company of his family without worrying about the optics of his situation. And even that was often a compromise of sorts, with his own ancestor leading the faction that wanted to bind Sirzechs with bureaucratic chains, weaken his ability to actually implement his ideals, and rot out the man's hope for even the most mild of egalitarian reforms.

Unfortunately for them, this was not Sirzechs, but the Satan Lucifer himself. The man who butchered ten thousand enemies in a single attack, the conquering hero of all Hell, the Embodiment of the Power of Destruction, and the being so feared by even the Great Devils themselves that would never, ever confront him directly.

Here he was, coming to visit in order to handle business.

And scold them.

He'd been scolding them for a good hour now. Not that you'd notice by looking at Rias, her friend seemed just as determined to argue with the man as she did the minute he arrived, with only a few moments spared to catch her breath or organize her thoughts.

Leaving Akeno and her fellow Queen to watch on as the siblings corralled.

"The situation developed too quickly for a proper evaluation. We were effectively left with establishing a relationship with a Campione right after an attack by two Heretics… never mind the arrival of the second one."

"And not informing us of the severity of your situation was by design then? What were you hoping to achieve here, Rias? Between the Heretics, the Demon Kings, and the Monkey King, there was never a moment your life wasn't in danger."

The younger redhead rallied, though Akeno foresaw she might need a calming brew after this was all said and done. Right now it was taking everything Rias had to keep pace with the stone faced yet irate Satan.

"Yes, and it was my duty to handle the situation."

"Your duty is to report on extraordinary incidents, not to act upon them without regard for your own life or that of your peerage. We already were having trouble appeasing the Belial family over losing claim to the territory. And though that issue pales in comparison to what happened, that is your kind, not mine, that you must now deal with for the rest of your life."

The tall, red haired man ran a single shaky hand across his face.

"A Heretic God of great power was released here, the entire city of Kuoh was isolated from the rest of the world and an emergency evacuation was declared. Of which I had no knowledge of until people started flooding into our property."

Akeno grimaced.

Yes, that had been a bit of an impromptu solution.

The people of Kuoh were trapped in a city about to turn into a battleground between the Heretic God and the Campione. With the outside world inaccessible to them through Luo Hao's whims, they had been forced to make arrangements and evacuate the people to the Underworld.

And, frankly, Akeno was starting to tune the argument out a little. The two were starting to chase each other's tails and had devolved into trying to poke holes in one another's sentences.

Though, with how Lady Grayfia seemed to actually be calm, she figured things would be okay in the end.

In the end, even if they - Issei - had won, it wasn't easy. And it probably gave Rias' parents a right scare when she finally called them to help set the evacuation up.

'But it was a bit awe inspiring watching Lord Zeoticus cast magic like that.' The Devil remembered with a great deal of awe and a little envy of how the man had erected a sequence of six hundred and sixty second magical circles, warping reality and space and time to evacuate an entire city, the people's pets, put them all into a healing sleep, and do it before things could spiral into panic. 'Even if the spell only affected the humans in batches, and Rias told him she was evacuating to the safe room in the ORC to monitor the situation, actively refusing his teleportation magic, he still saved everyone in less than ten minutes.'

There was also the simple fact he'd done it in a way that necessitated the minimal amount of mind magic, too.

'I suppose… I ought to be training a bit harder, huh?'

"Then it's a deal!"

Rias looked suddenly victorious before her older brother slowly held out his hand.

"A deal."

Pumping his hands with a proud look, the older redhead slowly let his carefully neutral face morph into a smirk. Apparently while Akeno was busy recalling things in her own mind, the two siblings had somehow managed to reach some kind of accord.

"And for our first day of training, we'll be apologizing to mom and dad."

"B-but you said-"

"That I would be going to visit our parents, yes, and would be apologizing for not intervening sooner. As my newly agreed apprentice, the cost of your permit to remain in Kuoh, pending agreement with the Campione on very particular boundaries, will be attending me at that meeting." The older brother suddenly overcame the leader. "Damnit, Rias, we were scared."

Bringing his hand down in a chop, he lightly bapped the top of his sibling's head and loomed over her.

"The heck do you think was going on in Hell? I had to blast a guy in the face to get him to stop griping about so many humans showing up in Gremory territory all of a sudden. The Old Satan faction thought I was allowing our family to capture human slaves! Gah!"

And just like that, with Rias holding her head, Sirzechs picked her up and hugged her.

"I was worried, Rias."

"I'm sorry, big brother."

And she hugged him back.

Akeno smiled and, when Lady Grafia caught her eye, demurely nodded and followed the taller, white haired queen.

The door to the room closed with a soft click, allowing the actually rather panicked Sirzechs time to simply be a worried older brother… and carry his doomed apprentice off to their parent's house. And they quietly strolled the large, vaulted hallways of Lucifer's palace.

The room itself had been small enough, not quite cramped, with massive ceiling to floor bookshelves ladened with records and well worn law books, eight sets of wooden filing cabinets, two full desks, a writing desk, a total of six chairs, and a liquor cabinet. That last one actually had a little dust on it, showing how rarely it had been used, and Akeno actually suspected it might be more for show than not.

That place, with soft, plush black carpets, yellow burning oil lamps, still warm dark-brown wood paneled walls, and brass fixtures had seemed homey, almost intimate. Especially since the four of them had all been standing in the little clear space they'd had.

Never mind the dozen or so photos of his wife, his child, his family, his family's peerages, his friends, and his war buddies.

But out here?

The ceilings rose up at least ten or twelve meters, with hand chiseled granite, marble flagoned floors, walls lined with ancient tapestries and softly glowing magic lit lamps. Everywhere you turned there were trophies or suits of armor or awards… or memorials. Those, too, were common. Some graven images of violence or lust or death, others somber, and a few almost… Heaven-like icons of Memento Mori.

A somber thing for beings whose essence would be bound for the Void.

A reminder, too, of all those, on all sides, who gave their lives honorably fighting for what they believed in.

That, Akeno had found, was a good point of the Devils. They could be petty, spiteful, vindictive, vain, cruel, sadistic, even, but they honored their enemies who died standing. Always. Because death for a Devil was a true end, with no possible second chance.

A cessation of eternity.

"It perhaps is not."

Grayfia laid a single hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"We do not know where the Reincarnated go, nor is the Void necessarily the end of one's soul."

She bowed her head in thanks and Grayfia returned to her posture as a maid, breaking from that stance only to open the door to her office, that of the Consort of Lucifer, and to take a seat on the small metal throne she had for a chair.

Unlike her husband, Grayfia's room held only a single decoration, that of a small, handworked symbol of the Lucifuge family, and, no, now she spotted it. A framed picture of herself, Sirzechs, and Millicas.

Well hidden on the desk of granite, the dark of the frame blended into the greater mass, dwarfing the small piece of wood and paper.

"Lady Akeno, I suppose I should be frank."

"That would be appreciated, Lady Grayfia."

The older woman's eyes softened.

"Thank you for staying with Rias."

The Devil's lips quirked.

"It is a Queen's duty. But… you're welcome."

"Well said. Still, you spent time with the God Slayer?"

"Hyoudou Issei, yes."

"And your opinion of him?"

What was her opinion of him? Now wasn't that the million dollar question. She supposed that he was a well mannered young man who was honest about his desires and earnest in wishing to become a part of their world. The little time she spent in his company let her realize that.

Issei Hyoudou wasn't evil.

He wasn't the Tyrant most thought he was… or at least not in the common meaning of the world.

He was…

"Straight forward, eager to learn more about us. About our world. I don't think he is evil but as it is… he is clumsy. He is excitable and sometimes misjudges his own strength and those of others."

She could still feel her ears ring from their first sparring session.

A fight in which they gave it everything they got and were still handily defeated by a boy who didn't know just how powerful he really was at the time. How easy it would have been for him to kill them.

"You see the danger of leaving him be, then?"

Dangerous? Perhaps.

But Akeno could tell that whatever inconvenience he caused, it likely wouldn't be intentional.

And then it occurred to her.

That was the problem.

He was… younger than her, with more power than Rias and Gasper together, and possibly the political influence comparable to Lord Beelzebub. If only because Lord Beelzebub bitterly resented the games of political influence that he yet played to serve his sworn brother, Lord Lucifer. So what could a boy, because he was a boy, despite having gone through so much and struggled so intently, do, purely on accident, with that great a burden?

"What is the will of the Four Satans?" She bowed, weighing the options in her mind. Because there was no way they would ignore him, not everything that happened, and not after the shocking revelations that followed Issei's victory over the Heretic God unleashed by that arrogant muscle headed hag.

"Originally, the intention had been to eliminate him for his part in this incident."

Originally.

That meant the plan had changed.

Her heart still skipped a beat, remembering the sheer, overwhelming kindness Issei had shown her… had shown all of them.

"And what are their intentions now?" She tried to hide the naked relief in her voice.

"The Belial Family contacted us with information belonging to one of their contacts in Kyoto. The Yokai faction has rescinded their lease over the territory of Kuoh and are now declaring it a neutral zone. It is our belief that many groups will soon make their move and infiltrate the city."

"Ah. I see."

And she did.

This is why Sirzechs was allowing Rias and their group to stay; perhaps Serafall had done the same with Sona. Because this was a move on the game.

"Two Kings, then, to bind a pawn."

An inclination of the Queen's head.

"One, at the most, even if both wish to return."

Akeno still had not risen from her bow, standing as she was on the cold floors of the strongest queen's office. Surrounded by the raw, magical power of so many generations of Pure Bloods hammered into physical form.

"A fox's wedding is never prepared for."

Grayfia's lips actually turned downwards.

"You think he'll hurt them?"

Bowing more deeply, the young woman intentionally enunciated each word in the Japanese of her birth.

"It is with great caution that one must guard a castle and the heart of a woman."

"You suspect, then, he will fall in love with Rias or Sona? Or perhaps both, going by his dossier. His… predilections do seem to run to the non-human, monster girls, I believe they are called, and with a great deal of effort invested into… polygamous 'routes'."

Akeno said no more, knowing that Grayfia would not, perhaps could not, consider that Rias was already fond of the boy. Taking into account her own desperate need to break off her marriage arrangement, and the fact that Issei would likely take extreme objection to it if only to defend a friend, and Akeno suspected he did consider them quite good friends already, going by how he acted to protect all of their peerage. She could already see the gears turning behind her King's mind.

Sona, too, was on friendly, if hesitant, terms with the teenage god slayer. And while she didn't know her nearly as well as Rias, Akeno of all people knew just how quickly teenagers could fall in and out of love. Devil or otherwise. She had even used that to her advantage before, if only in the most gentle of manners. Her more intense emotions were reserved for enemies, after all, and not foolish classmates who simply needed to be guided to a girl more suited for them.

Though she couldn't see herself being able to do it this time.

Not when she was the one being tempted.

"Very well then. Your training will begin with me in two days. Please inform Rias's peerage that the schedule will be prepared and sent to them, as all of them will be undergoing a week of focused effort. After which a member of Lord Sirzechs' peerage will remain stationed in Kuoh to continue this training until such time he is satisfied with the security of the Devil's embassy in Japan. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Lady Grayfia. And thank you for this most excellent opportunity."

"Akeno."

Her formality dropped for a moment.

"My husband was afraid. Perhaps still is. The training will not be easy."

Akeno, too, relaxed a little and rose from her bow.

"I understand. And as one Queen to another, I understand why you must not fail him. Just like I won't fail Rias."

Finally, the maid's lips curled into a gentle smile.

"We shall see if you're so confident come Saturday."

Feeling a slight chill run down her back, Akeno summoned all her courage to maintain eye contact with the definitely too-pleased look of the maid. The woman known throughout the Underworld as the Strongest Queen.

But she wasn't inexperienced.

She, unlike most, could claim to have witnessed the might of Heretics and Tyrants alike, and even now could feel her skin tremble in a mixture of excitement and terror.

She could do this.

For Rias, and for herself. She would overcome this gap in strength.
'And perhaps I shall even have the excellent opportunity to show that foolish little Heretic why one should tremble before lightning.'

Oh yes, that thought was most pleasing.

"Even if I am not." Akeno couldn't help it, eyes growing lidded at the thought, flickering with lightning. "There are still those who need to be punished." Her fingers crackled. "And to be taught that one must receive as well as give."

Grayfia's eyebrows climbed.

"The Heretic Athena?"

"Oh yes." The Queen practically purred. "I think I shall make it my goal to give her a proper spanking. And then she can learn how to properly tie a knot."

"I… see. That is certainly a bold goal. You shall have to work hard to reach it."

Akeno merely smiled up at her soon to be teacher.

Because there was much to be done.

"So… you got your magic from God?"

"No, actually. I killed a god on the ship for that."

"But then what about the dragon thing?"

"Well, that one comes from God. Like, capital letter and everything."

"But you didn't kill it?"

"No! I told you I didn't."

"How did you even get that to begin with then?"

"Well, uh, you see, um, Kiba, can you, you know…?"

Issei was floundering and it didn't help that his home was absolutely full of people at the moment. And most of them were staring at him with rapt attention.

Somehow it was only Yinghua and Koneko, one of Rias's friends, that weren't seemingly enraptured by his story. And they were sitting in the living room, watching TV, and all too happily gorging themselves on take out and sweets while he was faced with a captive audience.

His mom and dad, Motohama, Matsuada, and Aika, and then Gasper, who was currently bawling his little heart out while clinging to the Campione, Kiba, who was currently cutting vegetables for dinner with a freakin' magic knife, and a very harried looking pair of agents.

"Ahem. I think I can explain a bit."

Amakasu waved the blonde pretty boy away and simply accepted a cup of tea from Issei's mom, Miki making it a point to thank the man for making a house call at this late hour.

"So, to be frank, the Buddhas and deities are real, by and large, with most myths being loosely true. More or less. Even the Abrahamics are well represented and maintain an immense presence globally. So one might say that the Lord, the Christian god, wished to give humans a way of defending themselves."

Issei manifested Ddraig's gauntlet, feeling a surge of power from that alone.

"Indeed." The salaryman smiled again, though this time it was incredibly brittle. "It seems that your son was born as the most recent wielder of a Longinus, think of it like an ultra rare class item from a game, and his previous battle awakened it."

"But why only his previous fight?" Goro, Issei's father, spoke up. "Not that I'm upset my son survived without being too badly hurt." He winced at how much shame seemed to fill his father's words at even allowing him to be hurt in the first place. "If it had been there all along, why not back on the ship?"

Smith, who had a cup of coffee, responded.

"Because Sacred Gears are not just items. At least not on the level of the Boosted Gear. Rather, think of them as inverted Tsukumogami. A spirit placed into a vessel, that becomes tied to the vessel as the vessel is tied to them."

The agent took a sip, gathering her thoughts, Issei himself listening as he absentmindedly stroked Gasper's hair.

"Truthfully, it may have been one of many reasons. That Issei's body was not capable of wielding it until he became a Campione, that he was not genuinely placed under enough stress, that he simply did not need it until the previous battle. And finally, the spirit within-"

"Ddraig!" The teenager supplied. "y Ddraig Goch."

Foreign words fell with surprising ease from his lips and Smith inclined her head in thanks.

"This Red Dragon spirit may have decided only to appear when it did, because that is when it wished to appear."

"I… I shall not disrespect it, then." Issei's mother looked rather displeased, but said no more, merely taking the opportunity to squeeze his free arm. "But please let this… Ddraig know that we are thankful for his aid."

Agreeing, his father actually seemed to swell with pride.

"It's not every father who can say their son defeated the Monkey King. Even if he needed a friend's help."

"Uhh… not that we're not grateful that you're explaining this stuff but should you really be telling a buncha normal guys like us this kinda thing?" Matsuda adjusted his glasses awkwardly, Motohama nodding sagely beside him.

Smith waved them off.

"I wouldn't worry about it. The Committee doesn't actively enforce ignorance on the individual level, merely maintains a wide spread concealing policy to keep the country from derailing over the fact the gods and myths are still around. They don't bother us, we don't bother them, and folks get to go about their daily lives without being bothered."

Aika, who was sitting beside Issei trying to pry Gasper out of his Koala hold on him, huffed.

"Outside of that crazy lady and the town getting turned into a mountain, you mean?"

Amakasu shrugged.

"There's always an exception. People like Luo Hao, and the Heretic Gods, are disruptive presences in the world. So we were fortunate that Issei was here to handle them before the situation got out of control. As it stands, we'll just have to do some clean up and have the media cover it up. It will be a bit pricey, but magic helps with the costs."

Issei rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

Or he would have if Gasper hadn't pinned his arms to his side.

It was still weird to think of himself as some sort of guardian entity meant to defeat strange mythological beings and crazy people alike. And he understood that he wasn't quite right about his original idea. The fact he was less just a powerful good samaritan and more like Luo Hao in people's minds was a mind twister.

He didn't feel like starting a cult though.

Or looking for a fight.

"So what happens now? Do I gotta sign any paperwork or meet with anyone?"

He still didn't quite understand where he fit in all of this.

"You're free to go, actually." The ninja shot him a thumbs up.

"Really? Just like that?" His father, however, wasn't buying it.

"Well, he's already done everything he could and more so it's not like we should expect him to handle this stuff. You're free to go back to school, unwind, hell, take an extended weekend while we repair the school. We'll keep in touch if we need the help but Campione have always stood apart from official organizations so we'd like to keep it that way. For the sake of both your agency and ours."

Right, right.

He was still something of a big shot, wasn't he? That was gonna take a while getting used to.

"And that's it? He doesn't get anything out of doing all that work?" Aika, however, was less enthused by the entire thing. Really, Issei had expected her to have already left by this point, but she had stood by and listened. And even now was struggling with Gasper having latched onto her instead.

Seriously, didn't he need to come up for air? He was still bawling, if more softly, as, apparently, he'd been able to watch all of Issei's fight against Wukong and Luo Hao using spells placed around Kuoh by the Devils.

"I'm sure the higher ups are thinking of a way to reward him as we speak." Not that it sounded like a good thing, considering how he said it.

She hummed, looking at Issei before nodding to herself.

"Well, he saved the city so might as well…"

Might as well, what?

And that's when he felt something touch his cheek with a feather light kiss.

"There's your reward, Mr. Demon King."

His parents laughed, his friends cheered him on, even the Devils seemed amused. For some reason Amakasu and Smith looked slightly pained, but Issei just chalked that up to the fact things were a bit crazy considering everything that had happened. But mostly… Issei was just frozen.

And yes, his cheeks were very pink.

'Maybe things are looking up, after all?'

If a black cat stumbles, do they give themselves bad luck?

Sounded like a weird question, right?

She always heard this saying, as if cats themselves somehow had a supernatural ability to cause misfortune to people around them. As a black cat herself, the assumption would normally be insulting if not for the fact that she'd had a fair bit of bad luck lately.

'Maybe I stumbled somewhere?'

The notion itself was humorous. She'd stumbled so many times in life that the rest of it was probably cursed with misfortune if that were to be the case. Or maybe being born a black cat at all was reason enough to be cursed?

She certainly fit the bill.

Parents gone.

Home lost.

Her last job didn't go very well either, but that might have been more her fault than anyone else's. Going to a Devil for help was something of a hasty last resort. But with very few people willing to take them in, it was either that or try to eke out a living working for the likes of the Committee or debasing herself and begging the five clans for help.

If they didn't exorcize her, it would have been a very unpleasant life. For all that the Devils were mocked as creatures of lust and impulse, the Clans had always cultivated their bloodlines. And any suggestions of marriage would not have been suggestions.

Not a life she wanted for herself, or for her sister.

Her latest stumble took her sister away and any sort of safety net she had left. So running away was the last resort, then peddling her skills to whoever paid more until she had a chance to climb back on the horse. From illegal contracts with mages, to eliminating fellow stray devils, to finally banding together with a bunch of misfits under an enemy faction… the past few years had been chaotic to say the least.

But now?

Now she had a chance to make things right and just so happened to be in the perfect place to do something about it.

'Kuoh is a pretty big city.'

Pretty easy to infiltrate too, but that was before that mess where they isolated the city and unsealed a Heretic God. Now there were people watching the entrances and making sure no suspicious sorts were getting through.

Shame she had slipped in before they decided to pull this off.

'Now where did I leave that array?'

Losing a communication spell because the local ley lines were disrupted by that monkey doing whatever it did to the city wasn't part of the plan. In fact, she had already missed her first report because of that and if she missed too many they might think she betrayed them and left.

And she wasn't planning to do that or deal with those particular consequences.

Not yet anyway.

Still, that left her strutting through alleyways, buildings, and even the sewers at some point to look for the magic circle. Trying to set up a new one now with all the surveillance going on would definitely attract attention, so using the line she set up was the best way. After all, when the Mortals would have set up their own spells, the spell would have been in place, was well concealed, and the tiny blip of energy it emitted when transmitting would have been less significant than the average fluctuation in the lines fueling it.

Erecting any sort of spell at all in an area literally vibrating with the amount of energy being thrown around?

'That's just suicide with extra steps.'

Now if only she knew where it was.

"Gods above, I swear someone is doing this to mess with me." An hour had turned into two and then into three. "There's no way the thing drifted so far… not unless it broke from the line? But that would be… arrgh."

Her ears twitched with anger and before long evening had completely set in, the city falling asleep, too. With deserted streets and very few people out and about, it was perfect for her search and the spell she'd used to seek out her own magic power's signature amongst the many in the city.

It was like seeking a needle in a haystack.

Here she stood, robes hiked up over her hips, ankle deep in stagnant, and thankfully clean, water, her fingers covered in ochre and she smeared a sigil onto damp walls.

Reagents that cost her either pounds of silver or a few moments of unpleasant work on her knees were swiftly plucked from concealed slits in her clothes or pulled from her sleeves. Sirens gently echoed in the distance as the nekoshou worked, the low rumble of construction work ongoing 'round the clock adding a sort of ambiance to the cool, slightly foggy evening.

The moon above was waning and gibbous, neither a good omen for concealing or empowering her work, but as the kanji overlapped one another and the spell took shape, she at least felt a flicker of pride.

A small chunk of marble, little more than a fingernail's worth of soft, rose stone, was pressed into the makeshift talisman painted on the wall of the overpass.

For a moment, nothing but her heartbeat.

Then a flicker of sparks and the spell managed to lock onto her original array. The paint faded and a small, orange crane flew from the wall and guided her out of the streets and into an abandoned building, a church of all things, on the outskirts of Kuoh.

Of course, the residual faith caused her fur to stand on end as she crossed the threshold into the building itself, as if it knew she was there and wanted to let her know she wasn't welcome.

A sobering reminder of one of her conundrums.

Nekoshou or not, she remained a reincarnated devil. And thus vulnerable to the holy element and faith itself.

'Good thing this was abandoned.'

Had it been actually in use, things would have gotten… messy.

It was a somber place with a melancholy beauty.

Ever since the purges, Christianity had been a minor force in Japan and that had been centuries ago when they had happened. So the stained glass and faded altar seemed exotic, while a few broken pews had apparently been poked at and spray painted.

Still, childish vandalism was not desecration, even if it was blasphemous. So the place was holy. And powerful. Powerful enough, she supposed, to have drawn in any stray spells.

"Perhaps more than just my magic ended up in this place?"

"A reasonable conclusion to reach, given circumstances."

Kuroka's hair stood on end, body twitching as a new presence suddenly flared to life and the building seemed to become darker and colder as a sickeningly sweet smell permeated it. Fruit, wine, meat, and many other things that she wasn't comfortable paying attention to. But what gave her pause was the pressure of the magic power being suddenly unveiled.

'How could something this large be hiding in plain sight?'

The presence in the church echoed a throaty purr, its shadowy form slithering across the surface of the walls, coalescing at the altar of the abandoned church. It was both there and not, contained and free, only those who were more aware of spiritual arts like she was would be able to sense it.

It was like a soul, untethered from reality.

"Are you done undressing me with your eyes, alley cat? Then perhaps we should get down to business."

Kuroka tensed, readying herself for a fight.

Only to find her body couldn't move.

"Now, now. None of that. We are both ladies, I'm sure we can come to an accord without appealing to savagery. You are here for that magic array, are you not? A competent piece of work if a bit simplistic."

She didn't know who or what this was… but it bode poorly.