Kokabiel of the Grigori. Once, a very long time ago, one of the highest servants of Heaven. An Ophanim, or Throne. One of those who would travel with God himself. Only the Seraphim truly stood above them, and yet he was no longer one of them. He had fallen, his ten wings stained black by his trespass against God's will. Now he stood as a leader among the Grigori.

His hair was jet black, his skin ashen pale. His face narrow and angular, more bat-like than angelic, even more pronounced due to his long and pointed ears. His expression was amused, fanged teeth peeking through his smile.

He had made not a single hostile action. Only a vague threat. But no one below was under any illusions of what was happening. If they made the wrong move here, they would all die.

"Kokabiel of the Grigori," Sona spoke first. Willing to make a move but a tendency to err toward probing and careful openings. "May I ask what your intentions are in our town?"

"My intentions?" the Fallen leader echoed, still smiling. "I thought it would be obvious given my greeting, but you young devils must be a little slow. Or..." His eyes shifted a little from the one he was talking to. "Maybe you think I'm slow. That I won't notice as that one goes for the building?" he asked, watching Tsubaki who stopped in her tracks. He raised a hand that sparked with holy lightning as a light spear formed in it. "I assume for a means of contacting your doting sibling?" With barely more than a gesture, it flew from his hand.

Tsubaki raised her arms to defend, to call upon Mirror Alice again. She wasn't fast enough.

But someone else was.

Mash interposed herself between the Queen and the deadly spear, her fractured shield covering nowhere near enough of the impact to fully protect her. The spear drilled through the shield, the ruined defense fracturing further. But with sword held in a reverse grip, Mash stabbed into the spear, letting her cursed holy blade drain it of its divine wrath.

The final impact of it still blew the Knight away as the spear exploded from the instability.

"Mash!" Lelouch shouted.

"Tsubaki, go!"

"Tsubaki, stay," Kokabiel interrupted before anyone could make another move. Another raised hand, and a gesture that sent more light spears bombarding the main building. Each one an explosion of holy lightning. He raised his hand again, gleeful as his aim changed. From the main building to the old building where he had watched all of the weak, injured vulnerable members of the three peerages retreat.

"NO!" Rias screamed, gathering her power in a desperate attempt to intervene. But her power was made to destroy, not to protect. And against a bombardment of holy power, it was feeble.

"Territory Creation! Permafrost Empire!"

Sona's talent for water magic joined Anastasia's hasty casting of her most powerful spell, the arctic freeze greedily taking the water to form a massive structure, an enormous shield of ice. The light spears hammered into it, carved through it bit by bit.

"Akeno!" Rias called out. Her Queen made the attempt, hoping to divert the fallen's attention for long enough with her own lightning. But Kokabiel simply raised a hand, laughing as he fended off the assault with casual ease.

"You must be Baraqiel's half-breed spawn! I don't know who to thank for providing such an enjoyable and satisfying slaughter all in one place!"

All while the rain of death continued. The spears eating through the shield until it broke. The top half following the light spears ready to crash down on the building.

... And then it stopped.

"... What?" The fallen angel frowned, staring at the completely unmoving light spears, the enormous block of ice hovering in the air.

Their adversary might not have understood, but the devils did. There was only one thing that could have so thoroughly halted the danger posed to those inside the building. Timid and unassuming Gasper Vladi and his Sacred Gear, Forbidden Balor View. Able to stop time for everything within his sight.

It was a miracle. One Rias wouldn't waste. "Kiba!"

"I'm on it, Buchou!" the swordsman acknowledged, moving so fast as to have seemingly disappeared as he rushed to the building to evacuate the occupants before the effect would end.

"Hm." And Kokabiel continued to watch from above as someone entered the halted area seemingly unaffected, telling him all he needed to know. "It seems you think I can't just do that again." He raised his hand–

And was forced to evade as a horrific cascade of destructive power threatened to fully consume him.

"STARK RUIN CANNON!"

There were two factors that determined the destructive power of the Bael gift. Output of demonic power, and concentration. The more power expended over a smaller area, the more destructive the use of it would be. The understood upper limit of that was Sirzechs Lucifer, who could create small spheres of Destruction he could control at will, so dense that they could break down anything they touched into the subatomic as it was removed from existence.

Lelouch was far from that level of proficiency, but with a little time to prepare, he could get quite close. It cost an exorbitant amount of demonic power, but feeding many currents into the one central beam, he could create a spell that even an Archangel couldn't ignore.

However, it still had to hit its target, as Kokabiel had ably demonstrated. But that was fine, as Lelouch kept up the spell, chasing the fallen angel through the sky, it was still fine. Every moment spent on this was a moment to plan, to come up with better ideas. To change their circumstances. To simply prevent Kokabiel from casually murdering everyone in the old building. This wasn't like before. Those people weren't disposable pawns to him, even the literal Pawns. He wouldn't let them die meaningless deaths.

Every second, every instant, was opportunity.

Yet, Kokabiel had lived a thousand of Lelouch's two lives. He had seen and revelled in wars the young devil couldn't imagine. And he had seen the limits of the spell almost as soon as he had seen the spell itself. He understood the power of it. The danger of it. He had seen the range of it. He had seen how that range did not change no matter the distance of its target. And so the ancient fallen angel made a practical decision. He swooped down to the ground, putting himself between Lelouch and the Bishop Anastasia.

And smiled as the spell stopped moving. The range was set when Lelouch cast the spell and for such an intensive spell straining his capabilities to their fullest, he couldn't adjust it on the fly. Anastasia moved, and Kokabiel moved with her, always keeping himself within the same direction as her.

"An impressive play," Kokabiel praised him, his hands raised to his sides and sparking with holy lightning, threatening anyone willing to try something stupid. Still the spell continued to loom overhead, imminent doom for him. And yet he remained calm as he approached. "Desperate, yes, but impressive. A commander willing and able to take the field. And I can see the vicious streak in you, but it's dulled. I can see it in your face. There was a time you would have ended this right now." Step by step, he came ever closer to the Bael, stooping lower, not foolish enough to let angles shifted by distance change anything. Each step looming lower, the two of them trapped together by the young devil's spell as he entered a range that would be impossible to dodge from. "Have you gone soft? You can kill me right now. It will kill her, but you know as well as I do, either you kill her, or I will. And I promise I'll have a lot more fun with it!"

That wasn't it. He just needed time. As much as he could get. He leapt backward, let his wings expand as he took to the air, the Stark Ruin Cannon still draining him dry of demonic power yet still the only thing keeping Kokabiel contained. Changing the height of the spell's origin, he could aim solely at Kokabiel. Or at least reset the situation, buy more time.

But not anymore. The fallen angel had seen through it. Seen what Lelouch wasn't willing to sacrifice. "A shame. You can tell them all how sorry you are wherever dead devils end up." Done with words, the fallen lunged forward, aiming to kill.

But at the last moment, he glanced away, and smiled. Dodging a flip-kick aimed at his skull.

"Target acquired. Eliminating."

No...!

Sara was utterly focused on her compelled duty. Her mind refined to focus on that singular command that overruled all others. Her flip twisted, then turned into a spin as she drilled herself feet-first into the fallen angel.

Lelouch's spell guttered out as he cut the flow of energy to it.

"What a loyal dog!" Kokabiel praised as he dodged another kick, and grabbed her leg. "But your owner should've trained you to know better. Oh, speaking of dogs." His free hand gestured at the courtyard below, a spell circle lighting up as an enormous three-headed hound crawled out of the ground. "Now what to do with you...?" he asked the struggling blonde, his hand igniting with holy lightning. Even as she screamed, even as raw agony coursed through her being, she still tried to fight him. Catching her other leg trying to kick him in the face, he smiled at her King.

And began to pull apart. Slowly.

Sara's screams were mixed with grotesque sounds. Her bones popping, cracking, flesh and skin splitting. The fallen angel grinned down as he watched, as he slowly, torturously, worked to rip the Rook in half.

No! Not like this! Not because of him! Not again! "Kokabiel of the Grigori! Lelouch Bael commands you!"

"Commands me?!" The fallen laughed, meeting the King's eyes again with that same vicious grin on his face. "Oh, this ought to be good! Command as you will, devil!"

No other command could enter his thoughts. He had to end this! Now!

"DIE!"

Ever unseen, the connection formed between two minds through the windows of the soul. The invocation of Absolute Obedience slipping into Kokabiel's mind.

Sara dropped from his open hands. Lelouch could see the telltale glow of his power in effect. It worked? It actually worked?

"Ah..." The fallen choked, his mouth open in confusion. In fear. A light spear formed in his hand. "Ah..." The spear moved toward his own chest, his eyes following it, the arm shaking as if two different forces were exerted on it at once. "AHHHHHHHH!" And then the arm flung the spear down at the ground, seemingly at random, before Kokabiel soared upward.

"What's happening?!" Xenovia shouted, keeping an eye on the biggest threat as she led the charge against the cerberus he had summoned.

"Lelouch, what did you do?!" Rias demanded as Asia ran toward the fallen Rook with desperation in her eyes.

The Bael prince couldn't answer. Not then. "Ruin Cannon!" He didn't have much left, but it had to be enough! Kokabiel was fighting it but he was still compelled to die! If Lelouch gave him an ideal opportunity–!

But the fallen angel kept struggling. His evasion was slower, less sure, less confident, but he was still faster than the Bael could keep up with.

"I will not!" Kokabiel chanted desperately, demanding himself to not submit. "I will not! I!"

And then it happened.

"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth!"

The effect was instantaneous for the many devils below. The reactions varied. The young pureblood devils suffered extreme pain. The reincarnated devils were completely debilitated by just what was filling the air.

A bible verse, a desperate prayer for salvation from one who had been among the most revered of the Heavenly Host.

"Praise the Lord from the Heavens!" he continued, his hands clamped around his head. "Praise Him in the heights above! Praise Him all His angels, praise Him all His heavenly hosts! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created! And He established them forever and ever! He issued a decree and it shall never pass away!"

Far below, with her assistance temporarily neutralised, Xenovia was forced to finish the cerberus alone. It might have been spoken out of desperation from an enemy, but she was able to find comfort in the familiar psalm. The reassurance guiding her holy blade as it separated head from shoulders.

And so all eyes returned to Kokabiel, high in the sky. The fallen breathing heavily, seething in rage.

And to Lelouch's eyes only, he could see the difference. Where once there had been a sign of Geass acting on him, now there was none. Kokabiel had done what no other had yet done. He had broken Geass. Had invoked a higher power that cast him out, yet granted him protection all the same and saved him from the power that would have killed him.

"You!" he seethed. "You...! You made me pray!" he spat. "You made me pray! You made me beg! To a CORPSE!"

"... What?"

As everyone present recounted the events in their own minds, none of them could say for sure who had asked that question. Maybe it had been all of them.

"He cast me out! He created me, and all my brothers and sisters to act on His will! We obeyed, and I relished in being His instrument! And for that He abandoned me! And you made me beg for His aid, His protection! Beg like a whipped and beaten dog! God is dead, and yet He protects me?! From you?!" The enraged angel raised his arms, a storm of lights forming around him. "I needed a corpse's protection, from YOU?!"

"You're lying!" Irina shouted up at him, uncaring of the danger compared to what she had just heard. "God... God can't be-!"

"I watched it happen, mewling cunt! Do you think I care what insects believe to be true?! You don't matter anymore! None of you! I'll kill, I'll kill all of you!" The dozens of lights glowed in malevolent purple, flickering with the pure gold of holy lightning. "I only wanted a war, but now I need to make every single one of you suffer for this humiliation!"

If anyone had been able to listen over the ranting, over the threatening crackles of lightning ready to consume the entire region, they might have heard something else.

"BoostboostboostboostboostboostBOOSTBOOST!"

A sonic boom shook the world as a red blur crashed fist-first into Kokabiel's face. The power he had been gathering, the storm of lightning, all of it ripped out of existence as the fallen was punched away from the courtyard, across streets, districts, out of the city entirely.

"RESET!"

The red scale mail shattered as Kallen crashed into the courtyard. Her body a mess of minor and not so minor injuries from her previous battle. "Really hope that was the right thing to do!" she said with an exhausted smile. "Because I definitely can't bloody do it again."

"Kallen!" Rias exclaimed, looking down at her fiance's Queen. "You're... Tiny?!"

"I am?" the fellow redhead asked, looking down at herself. "Bugger me, yeah. White guy's power is halving things and he did a big finisher when I almost had him. Guess this is what it did... Really hope it wears off..."

"Buchou!" Kiba called out. "Everyone is out," he said as he carried a sobbing Gasper, the rest of the devils that had been inside still frozen in time even after they were moved.

"Buchou!" Gasper sobbed, "I'm sorry! I lost control!"

"Don't be sorry," the Gremory King soothed, gently petting his hair. "You saved everyone."

"I did?"

Finally, perhaps due to Gasper calming down, time reasserted itself. The great block of ice and the multitude of light spears demolished the old building in the same moment that a number of devils were shrieking in confusion.

"You did," Rias confirmed with a smile, before turning her attention to her fellow custodian of the town. "My means of contacting Nii-sama was in there. You?"

"The student council office," Sona answered, confirming what Kokabiel had surmised earlier.

Rias clicked her tongue. "So we need to defeat one of the leaders of the Grigori, one who now has a blood vendetta against us for something our darling fiance did and our biggest trump card is down from an entirely unrelated battle." She looked in the direction the enemy had flown. "Do you think he might have been knocked out from that hit?"

"Do you?" Sona fired the question right back at her, to which Rias sighed.

But the discussion of what to do next was diverted by someone already having made a decision. "Sorry in advance," Issei said as he put his palms together. As holy energy flooded the courtyard.

As a prayer ignited a fresh lance of pain for all devils who heard it.

"O Michael. Let thy righteousness guide me, that I may dispense justice on those who require it, and mercy for those who seek it."

"O Raphael. Let thy protection preserve me, that I may stand in defiance against the enemies of God and defend those who cannot defend themselves."

"O Uriel. Let thy wisdom counsel me, that I may seek the path that best follows the will of God and lead others to salvation."

"O Gabriel. Let thy compassion console me, that I may follow your example knowing wherever it may lead it will return me to your comforting embrace."

With each line of recitation, the ambient holy energy he exuded condensed inwards toward him, and with each line of recitation, the reason for that condensing was made clear. With the invocation of Michael, a sword of pure light formed between his clasped hands. With the invocation of Raphael, his body was clothed in a glow of armour. With the invocation of Uriel, the ambient energy condensed fully into a pure holy aura. And with the invocation of Gabriel, a pair of translucent wings spread from his back. Yet even though the wings spread out, they always seemed to embrace him.

Irina couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had heard people talk about him, not just about his somewhat heretical ideas but about what he could do. But this was beyond her imagining. "Issei?"

He turned to look at her, with a somewhat ashamed smile. "I haven't done a single thing while everyone else has been in danger. It's time for me to step up."

"Issei, how can you...?" the desperate, shellshocked girl tried to ask, not knowing quite what she wanted to ask. She had so very recently suffered a revelation that shattered everything she ever believed in! And he was fine?!" "Issei, God is dead!" It was a statement that should have explained everything about her feelings, about her confusion. God was dead, but how could he still have faith to achieve something like this?!

"Maybe," the young priest admitted, examining the sword in his hand, how the edge seemed to ripple and flicker as though alight with flames. "But His works still live. In His children. In His angels, and us." He looked toward the devils, each and every one of them even as spread out as they were. "You all seem like good people. Ladies, you all have magnificent breasts."

Despite how impossible it was, Irina struggled to follow him as his wings launched him up and toward where Kokabiel had been thrown. "ISSEI!"

For all of their sakes, it was a good thing he had, as they could all hear as the two clashed in the distance. "We have no idea if he's strong enough to put up a fight," Sona said, not intending to be callous but believing she had no choice. "We need a backup plan."

"Then it's a good thing someone kept in touch."

-(-)-

Issei Hyoudou, Father Hyoudou, didn't know what he had been thinking. Maybe he had been thinking Kokabiel would have been weakened by that super powerful punch from that little shortstack girl. Maybe he thought it would've been enough to even the odds. But as he desperately evaded a storm of lightning spears barely carried away from danger by Gabriel's wings, he could feel how little difference it made. The fallen angel's head had been cratered, he had lost an eye, but it didn't even seem to slow him down.

Raphael's armour was self-repairing. So long as Issei held his faith, a single blow could not end him. But he had suffered many single blows over the course of this fight. Each forced him to guard, to fight more conservatively as the armour repaired. And as time went on, those switches from offense to defense were becoming more frequent. Kokabiel was learning his patterns. As Issei channelled Uriel's power into Michael's sword, he raised it high and slashed down, twisting the blade to follow with a diagonal cut. A turn aside to evade a flash of holy lightning. While Kokabiel was learning Issei's tells, Issei was also learning his. That would have hit him earlier in the fight.

"So this is what you are! One of the Church's champions! A weakling who can only borrow power from frauds!" Kokabiel mocked as the light spear Issei hadn't seen crashed against his armour, shattering it again and forcing the priest to back off.

"They aren't frauds!" Issei answered, unable to let the insult slide even as he knew he should stay calm. "I have faith in them, and they do in me! Even if what you say is true, I'll do what I can to protect and preserve what He created! Even if I'm weak, even if you call them frauds! We're God's children! He protects us, His love is still with us! You asked Him for protection and He answered!"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

It was a mistake. It wasn't a taunt, it was a plea. Begging the fallen angel to understand how he had been blessed, even if he didn't want it. No matter what, Issei revered Gabriel, her compassion, most of all. Even if it was a lost cause, he wanted to save this lost servant of God.

So why had he done this? Put it all on the line like this? He remembered when he was little. He and Irina had played hero together. Just little kids, dreaming of being the cool people they saw on TV. There wasn't any higher thought to it, no ideals they wanted to pursue or preserve, they just wanted to be cool like that.

And then Irina was moving away, and Issei didn't know what to do. Gabriel came to him in a dream, she told him everything would be okay as he sobbed into her chest. She told him God loved them, both him and Irina, and that if He willed it, they would find each other again. Much as his faith in God was unshaken, he couldn't help but feel the slightest pang at the white lie from his beloved Gabriel.

He had gone with her. It was the first time he demonstrated the gift the archangel had bestowed on him. He had been trained in the church, thought he might actually become a hero despite everything. And yet... It was in talking to regular people that his perspective changed. The exorcists did an important job. But as he listened to people, to their problems from the simplest nothing only made a burden by those who refused to let go, to the most heartbreaking lives he had ever heard of... He learned what a hero really was. It wasn't about swinging a cool sword, or doing the Kamehameha. It was being there for the people who needed someone to be there. That was when he dedicated himself to sermons. To speaking with the faithful, or the unfaithful, or anyone at all who needed a willing ear. It was what Gabriel would do. It was what Gabriel had done. He couldn't do less than offer the gift he received to others, and hopefully help them just as she had helped him.

So why had he done this? ... They needed him. Those devils. Xenovia. Irina. They needed someone to be there, and so here he was no matter how it might end. Though at the same time... It was really cool to fly in cool armour swinging a flaming sword!

"Why are you smiling?!"

But in the end... He was someone who revered Gabriel. He loved her. Her compassion, her willingness to love anyone. To forgive anyone.

"Because God loves you," he answered with a mild smile. Giving the words every bit of genuine forgiveness, honesty and love that he could. "Even now."

"... Die!" the fallen angel growled. Too fast for Issei to even see, lances of lightning creased the sky, shattering his armour. "Die!" More, the power of a ten winged angel ripping through his body before he could even try to move. "Die for your dead God! DIEEEEEEE!"

... So this was it.

Issei Hyoudou was an idiot. But even if that was true, he was a well-meaning idiot. He hoped Gabriel would look after the others. Even the devils. There was compassion enough for everyone. It was a devil who had shown him that.

But the end never came.

"Really, it's a little early in the day for a big dramatic sacrifice, don't you think?"

Issei blinked, absolutely lost as he found himself no longer directly in front of Kokabiel. Instead he was behind some other guy in a suit, with a cute blonde girl holding the priest in her arms. "Who are you?"

The girl pouted. "When someone saves your life, you say 'thank you', you know?"

"Oh... Thank you," he said, still trying to process how he was no longer about to die. Well, not in the most immediate sense.

"You're welcome, Sir Issei!" the girl said, her tune changing to cheerful. "And as for who we are, my name is Le Fay Pendragon! And that handsome gentleman over there is my big brother and future King of Britain, Arthur Pendragon!"

"Le Fay!" the blond boy in suit and glasses said in a reprimanding tone. He raised his glowing sword to point vertically in front of him. "No more talk of subverting the monarchy!"

"It's not subverting if you're the rightful King, brother!"

Arthur Pendragon. The realisation hit almost as hard as Kokabiel's lightning. "That's... Excalibur Ruler!"

The young man smiled, though Issei couldn't see it. "Not quite."

Dozens of metal shards gathered together, circling around the shining sword.

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter seen very early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! FEAR THE P! LOVE THE P!