Poke. Poke.
Momonga poked the naked body floating in the filthy swamp-water with a long stick, just in case it was some sort of trap.
The naked, dead body of Sona Sitri was indeed dead.
Rave let muffled sounds as she stared at the interaction from her place next to a crooked tree, where Momonga had plopped the tied-up and gagged girl.
'...Why is she here?' Momonga recalled the girl from the student council room of Kuoh. 'Rias seems fond of her, and she's apparently Serafall's sister... Could it be that she came after Serafall and got ambushed and killed? Serafall isn't around, however...'
Momonga focused on the fairy he had created and indeed, did not find it in the Underworld, meaning that it had likely moved itself to some other plane of existence. The same seemed to have happened to the Elder Lich as well, or it had been killed as the thread of the undead creature was not present either.
Still, neither piece of information helped Momonga decide what to do about the body floating in the gross water. 'Should I just leave her here? I could just claim that she had floated nearby... Although I imagine Serafall would be quite crass with me if I did that. The least I should do is to keep her body with me so I can present it to her...'
He thought about the web of possibilities opening for him with a corpse belonging to the sister of such a powerful entity. 'She could be useful for experiments, and I could get another powerful servant if I summoned an undead creature into her body, like turning her into another Elder Lich, but... If Serafall finds out, I'll instantly ruin my reputation with her. Resurrecting Sona as part of my Peerage would have merits, though, since I still have a few Pieces left... That'd give me a hostage against Serafall just in case.'
Momonga brought out a Pawn piece, one of his four remaining ones, and placed it against the dead body. He didn't feel a 'number' from the dead body, but he guesstimated that Pawn might be enough- if not, he could just add three more just in case she was stronger than he thought she'd be.
Nothing happened, however, and the trend continued when Momonga brought out his three remaining Pawns. 'Hm? The body's rejecting the Piece?'
Momonga thought back on his experiences with the Pieces and came across the memory of Serafall's eyes bulging out as she tried to 'recruit' Momonga with her Knight Piece, but failed because Momonga was a 'King' already. 'Is 'Peerage system' tied to one's soul? So even if she's dead, she won't cease to be 'King' even if she's no longer alive?'
He recalled 'Riser's Peerage and their King-lessness, but also recalled that he had used [True Death] on Riser Phenix when he had first arrived in the world he now found himself in, which he guessed had destroyed the man's soul- assuming what Ddraig had told Momonga of his spell's effects had been correct. Thus, he felt quite justified in calling his theory 'likely to be correct', which also meant Sona was beyond resurrection via Pieces.
With one plan foiled, Momonga considered his next step all the while ignoring the muffled sounds that came from Ravel's direction. 'I could use [Wand of Resurrection] next, but they're consumable items and I don't have infinite supply of them either... [True Resurrection] would work as well, I think, but I'd have to equip a ring that blocks some of my other abilities until I can take the ring off... Using [True Resurrection] would require the [Ring of Holy Priests] that would in turn disable all of my Overlord- and Necromancy-related abilities and spells for a duration, which means I won't be using that unless absolutely necessary...'
Momonga scratched his chin as he considered a fourth option. 'Since resurrecting someone seems to be quite unusual without using a reagent, like a Piece, I should probably leave using those to last resort... I've managed to more or less skirt under the notice because what spells I've displayed haven't been too far out of the 'norm' of this world and what resurrections I've done I've done with Pieces... but if Rias's reaction to those two dead Exorcists is anything to bo by, a straight-up resurrection is a no-go at least for now.'
However, he figured he could use a workaround that'd draw the attention to something else, or someone else. 'Technically, I can summon a creature that can resurrect, and that in turn can resurrect Sona... She won't be part of my Peerage if I do that, however, but I should be able to gather quite a bit of goodwill from Serafall and Rias from resurrecting her either way. I can just blame my summon if they consider its ability odd.'
'Not to mention this allows me to reinforce my status as 'Supreme Being' in Ravel's eyes, causing her to accuse me of being one in front of others...' Deciding on a course of action, Momonga equipped a YGGDRASIL cash-shop ring that would essentially allow him to cast spells as if he had Neutral Karma.
After all, summoning a NPC was usually affected by one's class and Karma, with Evil-Karma creatures being harder to summon properly by Players with Good-Karma, and vice versa. By having Neutral karma he'd gain bonus towards Neutral summons, like animals, but having Neutral was better than Evil since Angels of all beings were most affected by Karma values.
Granted, the Angels he'd summon would be few tiers weaker than their properly-summoned counterparts in terms of stats and the summoning would take more mana compared to normal due to Neutral-Karma, but Momonga felt that he could make an exception since he wasn't planning on summoning a truly high-tier angels, or near-equivalents to something like the Cherubim Gatekeepers he had summoned back in Human World.
Moreover, the angel he had decided to summon would also be useful against the Maous, should his action reveal his true nature more than he intended- Angels usually dealt bonus damage or improved their damage resistance when fighting against enemies that were Evil-aligned, which he assumed the Maous were. After all, Devils were devils, and so on.
"[Summon Angel Seventh: Dominion Authority]!" Momonga's eye twitched a bit as mana drained from him at fairly huge quantities. '...Figures that traditional Angel-summoning would be quite taxing, specifically for creatures with non-correlating Karma. Even a seventh-tier Good-Karma related summoning spell is enough to cause me to pause... It's a good thing Super-tier spells don't use mana, elsewise I wouldn't have been able to cast [Pantheon] back in the Human World...'
A huge summoning circle appeared in the air and allowed a feather-covered, steel-dress wearing angel with eight pairs of wings and a massive flanged pole-mace to float up from the circle. It had no face nor features, and had a slightly tear-shaped 'helmet' that stretched from its chest to where one's head would have been and bending back so a halo of golden light could form above its 'head', and a flaming symbol reminiscent of a wide cross and a horizontally stretched circle formed in place of where it's 'face' would be.
All eight pairs of feathered wings swung open and the angel brought its pole-mace into horizontal position in front of its 'waist', which made the angel's equivalent of a 'defensive stance'.
[Dominion Authority] was a level seventy-five Angel, which was specialized in support and had limited offensive potential. For it's offense it had [Holy Smite], a seventh-tier spell which dealt Holy damage at range with small area-of-effect and had bonus damage against Evil-aligned opponents.
But it's main 'draw', at least in YGGDRASIL, was its ability to once-per-summoning boost that it could give to it's summoner's spells.
In addition to that it was capable of using a complement of supporting Auras and, importantly for Momonga's aim, a lower-tier resurrection spell.
Momomga used the wordless link between the two to order the Angel to cast [Resurrection] on Sona, hoping that the lower-level resurrection spell the support-oriented Angel was able to cast would work to bring Sona back to life with just loss of 'levels'.
In the worst case scenario the spell wouldn't work and would turn Sona's body into ash.
However, it seemed that Momonga's worry was unfounded as the spell seemed to be absorbed by Sona's body, causing her physical state to improve markedly and her chest started to rise and fall slowly.
Momonga then noted that she was, indeed, naked. 'Oh... I should probably cover her up.'
He then pulled off his dark red suit jacket that he had been clad in, as the clothes Lady Phenix had provided had a very distinct red scheme, and Momonga had figured that it'd be better than Kuoh academy uniform as far as combat-wear went so he had been wearing the suit ever since departing from Phenix's grounds.
Momonga then pulled the naked Sitri girl to the somewhat dry spot on the swamp, right beside Ravel, and covered the Sitri heiress's body with his jacket.
"Wha- Ugh- Koff!" Sona seemed to wake from the ruckus and she instantly vomited the contents of her stomach out, which seemed to be composed mostly of swamp-water and other unspeakable mucus she must have gathered in her stomach and lungs from her 'trip' in the swamp.
Momonga rubbed her back as she expelled the gross substances to the swamp-water.
'...It seems that low-tier resurrection spells still work. In other words, I can use this to provide a service called 'Resurrections' to my 'customers', the Devils, and also provide a service called 'Healing Tears' if the [Scroll of Dark Wisdom] also managed to imbue me with phoenix's powers in addition to slapping Lord Phenix's soul to me.' Momonga schemed as Suzuki Satoru sensed business potential.
He had some time to scheme as Sona was unresponsive on the account of being busy recovering and vomiting.
'I can then become an essential Company to the Underworld, making the decision to move against me analogous to moving against the Underworld, and giving the Maous a motive to keep me safe and also to keep our relationship at least coordial.' Momonga felt elated as he had discovered a product he could reliably use to both safeguard himself and Suzuki felt elated as he discovered a marketable product he could use to correct his shaky monetary situation- after all, his current money flow was entirely dependent on Lady Phenix's allowance. 'Yes, I can charge exorbitant sums for resurrections and then produce discount tears to drive Lady Phenix out of business, driving the cost of Phoenix Tears below market value as I can compensate for the loss with money gained via Resurrections whereas Tears is her only marketable product, and I can then buy out Lady Phenix's 'company' after her value drops low enough due to lack of profitability, and become a monopoly of healing items and resurrections in the Underworld, guaranteeing my safety and profitability...'
Momonga felt like cackling as the image of 'Momonga and Satoru Medical co.' formed in his mind, but a glance at utterly horrified Ravel told him that voicing his mental state would probably be pushing it, not to mention that Sona might take it the wrong way as she had finished coughing out a pile of phlegm and seemed to recover enough to talk.
"What the hell?" Sona lied on all fours on the swamp. "What the actual hell?"
"Ah, how are you feeling, Sona-sama?" Momonga asked while patting her back. "Take it easy, you were dead just a while ago."
Sona seemed to freeze, then pat her chest, and then turned to look at Momonga with her eyes wide, wild and full of confusion. "M-Momon-san? S-Serafall? Where- where's Serafall? Where am I? What happened? Where am I? I- died? I was stabbed? I was stabbed in the back!"
"Well, I'm not sure about everything just now, but I found you floating in the swampwater. We're in the Underworld." Momonga deliberately chose to not mention the undead alligator, which would likely drive Ravel's paranoia even further into overdrive and would serve Momonga's plot at the same time. "I, well, am not actually capable of resurrecting someone without a reagent, so I figured I'd summon something I thought was capable of such a feat."
He then waved his hand at the nearly thirty-feet tall angel with a wingspan of nearly forty feet that floated in the air above the treeline.
Sona turned towards it, and let a 'Gak?' like sound.
"I am a servant my Creator, of the Lord, His word is my law, His command is my prayer, His judgement is my weapon, His forgiveness is my psalm. You are not beyond His mercy." The voice coming from the winged creature echoed in the clearing, confirming Sona's 'question'.
'Oh, it's sentient as well...' Momonga could have guessed as much, so he mentally sent the creature an order to shut up for a while until he could establish some ground rules, as he had with the Cherubim Gatekeepers.
It did as he ordered.
"Anyway, we should probably get up. Sirzechs-san departed somewhere a while ago, and told me to watch over Ravel." Momonga lifted himself up.
"Wha-how? Ravel Phenix-san?!" Sona seemed to spot Ravel and reached for the girl's bindings.
"Ah, please don't disturb her. She actually underwent some traumatic experiences in the past day or so. She was kidnapped from my property, and we, that being me and my Peerage as well as Lady Phenix and some auxiliaries, went to rescue her." Momonga explained while grabbing Sona's arm. "Ravel's in... confused state right now. She assumed that I was this 'Supreme Being' when I came to rescue her and attacked me, and then attacked Sirzechs afterwards."
"Ah..." Sona hesitated and glanced at Ravel's condition, and blushed as she saw that Ravel was currently breathing hard, panting heavily, all the while panicking and struggling equally fiercely while her eyes were wild. "Did- did the enemy do something to Ravel-san?"
"What do you mean?" Momonga asked.
She's..." Sona blinked as she re-assessed her initial guess and looked at a spot in the Phenix girl's anatomy.
Momonga looked where she was looking, and remembered that he had force-fed some 'potions' to the girl. Indeed, the Phenix girl's breasts were perked upright, she was rubbing her legs together fiercely and although she was damp and wet from the swamp-water, it was clear that she would be equally so even if there was no swamp for her to drench in.
And all the while Ravel struggled and twitched against the binds and glared at Momonga, although luckily the gag in her mouth forced her would-be screams and words to turn to mumble.
"Well, I think that, uh, happened partly because of me." Momonga confessed to Sona who did a double-take on him.
"She was missing her arms and legs, which meant that her kidnapper had probably tortured her to the point of insanity and to the point where her energy was so drained she couldn't regenerate anymore." Momonga explained as Sona asked him to elaborate, deciding to 'alter' some key events to better suit his narrative. "So, since um, certain types of potions restore my 'magical energy', I decided to see if the same applied to Ravel, it didn't work so I used a vial of my tears, Phoenix Tears if you recall, and here we are."
"...What exactly did you feed to Ravel-san?" Sona asked while drawing the suit jacket Momonga had clad her with tighter across her chest. She then sighed as she tried to do something but failed. "...My devil energy is practically gone as well. I can't use [Power of Imagination] to clothe myself, but can I ask you to get me some clothes? I'm grateful for this jacket, but I feel I'm going to catch something foul from exposure to this swamp..."
Momonga thought about it for a while, and realized he had very limited ideas on female fashion outside suits and office ladies, so he chose to just go with what he knew and touched Sona's shoulder. "[Create Item]"
A prim and proper business-suit complete with a female suit jacket and dress pants formed around Sona, who jumped a bit from getting suddenly clad in such formal wear.
"...Thank you, Momon-san." Sona did a double-take as she rose to her feet, wobbling a bit from the lack of energy. "I'm glad you have more sensible ideas than Issei-san had. He would have likely clad me in maid uniform or something, if given the chance."
"Y-yes, perhaps..." Momonga sweated a bit as he remembered the maids in his mansion. "Anyway, if you'll excuse me I'll need to get my energy reserves up and running. This whole 'casting things and summoning angels' business is draining my reserves."
Sona stumbled a bit as she heard Momonga's words, and then had to grab a tree-trunk nearby to steady herself as she saw what he was doing afterwards.
Momonga disregarded her state, though, as he realized he needed to get his Mana reserves up to a proper level as he was running quite low after fueling the [Scroll of Dark Wisdom: Phenix], summoning a seventh-tier Angel, and from throwing a few lower-tier spells on top of it. He guessed that his current reserves were somewhere around fifty to forty percent, mostly thanks to the frankly insane amount of mana the Scroll had required.
"Ugh..." Momonga reached for a pair of six-packs of mana potions and a funnel behind his back so neither Sona nor Ravel noticed the rift, ignoring Ddraig's scratching that was starting to annoy him quite a bit, and began glugging them down.
Ravel's muffled screams echoed in the area, although Momonga wasn't entirely sure what was causing the girl so much distress.
She was staring at Momonga, so he presumed that the girl presumed that his drinking of the potions was a preamble for something else.
Momonga paused his drinking for a while to address the girl's fears, fully aware of what the potions were for the denizens of the Underworld. "Don't worry, I am not planning on violating Sona-san, or you. I am merely restoring my energy."
Ravel did a double-take on Momonga's words, then looked at Sona who was utterly pale, then back at Momonga, and clenched her legs together even harder than they had been already while giving a muted, somehow frustrated scream and a spasm which Momonga guessed was the tied-up girl's version of trying to get away.
'Haah... Well, I hope Sirzechs gets here soon so we can evacuate and I can privately take care of the 'physical reactions' that'll follow from using these potions...' Momonga thought about the situation for a while. 'Although, with Sona here it might be better to seek him out...'
Momonga grabbed Ravel to a princess-carry, ignoring the way her body spasmed and her breath quickened from the touch, and asked if Sona could fly.
Momonga then looked up at a branch on top of which the Crow created by [Lead of Yatagarasu] perched, asking it to find Sirzechs.
Receiving affirmation from Sona and a caw from the Crow, the 'devil', devil and Angel set off after the magically-created crow familiar.
Momonga ignored the shocked look Sona sent at the Crow.
.
.
.
Sirzechs was not having a good day.
Between a likely war igniting between two of the Three Factions, Supreme Being, and all the other things happening, the day was outright abysmal.
And now he had received a report from Souji stating that something foul was also stuffing its tentacles into the soup.
"Are you absolutely sure?" Sirzechs asked Souji, having spotted the already-concluded fight from the sky and arrived to help the survivors.
He was currently busy tying Rias up before she could rip her own eyes from her head, and bandaging her face which sported deep gashes she had made with her own nails.
The Maou's sister's screams rend Sirzechs's soul, and he swore vengeance for the thousandth time for whatever had caused her to end up that way. And also few times towards Momon who hadn't been there to lead his Peerage in battle, and a few times towards himself as well as he hadn't jumped to Rias's aid as soon as he had spotted the massive squid, the nature of which hadn't become clear to him until Souji's report.
"Are you absolutely, not-jokingly, seriously sure?" Sirzechs asked Souji again as the man was busy shivering like a pet rabbit during a cold night.
"The things down there, the unnaturalness, the feel, there's no doubt those things are real and are on that Supreme Being's side. Can't you feel the air? The things in the water?" Souji waved his hands towards the center of the battlefield-clearing in the swamp where there was a huge splotch of now-calm ink, and in the center floated the naked body of a vaguely humanlike figure.
"And Gasper-san somehow fought one off?" Sirzechs asked as he finished tying Rias up and put a lifejacket on her so she would float on top of the waist-deep foul water. He then moved on to do the same for Akeno who was trying to drown herself, and gulped air like fish when Sirzechs pulled the girl's head above the ink-water. "Dammit, Momon! This is a Peerage's King's job, not mine!"
Sirzechs growled as he had been forced to perform a Peerage's King's job, that being taking care of the Peerage's members and resolving their disputes, for the second time since Momon's Peerage had formed- once in Gremory mansion when Rias and Yubelluna had a dispute, and now in the swamp.
However, seeing that he had ordered Momon to wait back in the destroyed enemy base, he couldn't blame Momon too much.
"Right, Souji, gather everyone up. We need to get out of here, and get you all to hospital. I'll create a mass teleporter- Belial-san! Please bring Lady Phenix here!"
"Alright, Sirzechs-kun." Diehauser Belial smiled jovially to Sirzechs, then hoisted Lady Phenix up to a princess carry while the woman was hugging the decapitated head of her husband to her chest, crying her heart out. "I'm somewhat surprised, however- how come the current Maou happened to be in the area but seemingly, conveniently, only hopped in after the fighting ended?"
Sirzechs felt his temple pulse with annoyance as Belial told with no uncertain terms that he thought him to be a coward, but shrugged it off as this wasn't the time or place to put Belial to his place.
"Right, everyone gather together." Sirzechs glanced at Yubelluna and Xuelan who were hugging each other and were breathing into each other's mouths with their unfocused eyes wide from panic and fear.
He decided that the doctors of Gremory's main grounds would have to worry about what plagued Peerage, in addition to healing the surprisingly few injuries they had suffered.
Sirzechs took a step towards Gasper, intending on tossing him on top of the group, but the moment his leg waded to the black, ink-like substance-
The world turned dark and he saw a massive eye staring directly at his soul from a world that had never seen a sky or a land.
A hand grabbed Sirzechs's shoulder and pulled him away from the ink.
"Thanks." Sirzechs thanked Souji, thoroughly shaken. "Right, so, now we have confirmation that They are working with this 'Supreme One'- or It is one of Them."
"I have visual confirmation that Ophis is working for the enemy, by the way. She opened a portal and rescued Riser's, hm, skeleton during our battle." Belial noted from the side.
"So, to recap, Fallen Angels, Ophis and They have joined forces with the Supreme Being." Sirzechs sighed.
"Is it too late to surrender?" Souji muttered to himself.
"We need to establish at least some sort of diplomatic channel." Sirzechs agreed, taking Souji's suggestion at face value just to humor the idea which was made in jest. "But, as long as we don't know what their aim is, I doubt surrender would be a good idea. The worst-case scenario is that They are looking for nests and fresh souls to plunder."
Souji shivered.
The sky seemed to part and the dark, tumultuous sky turned more serene as a massive form approached from the distance.
"Oh, you got to be shitting me." Souji cursed as he saw the white, feather-winged form of a massive angel with eight pairs of wings. "The Heavens are on the Supreme Being's side too? Man, let us catch a break!"
Sirzechs waved for Souji to stop as he reached for his katana. Indeed, the Maou had spotted something flying behind the massive, nearly thirty-foot tall creature.
It floated towards the battlefield and came to a stop, hovering a few feet above the dirty water.
And the three people behind the Angel came into view.
"Right, we found Sona-sama." Momon pointed out at Sirzechs as he flew without wings, and Sona Sitri was flapping beside him with her devil-wings out for public display. "I thought you'd like to know, Sirzechs-san."
Ravel let out a muffled scream as she was carried by Momon, the girl likely noticing her mother and causing Lady Phenix to snap out of her crying as she heard her daughter.
Lady Phenix struggled out of Belial's carry, all the while holding to her husband's head with her free hand.
"RAVEL!" Lady Phenix waded through the dirty, waist-deep water desperately and with streaks of tears on her beautiful face as Momon floated down to the water, seemingly breaking whatever he had been using to fly as he submerged into the water to his waist as well.
"RAVEL! RAVEL! Momon! THANK YOU! Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Lady Phenix hugged the tied-up girl tightly, causing the Phenix daughter to start twitching and moaning in a muffled and obscene way as her face was buried into her mother's breasts. "W-what's wrong, Ravel? Momon! Please! Help!"
"Ah, I believe Ravel is still recovering from her, hm, stay with the captor. She's a bit out of shape, and confused as well. Whatever her capturer did to her might have adversely affected her mental state so please be careful with her." Momon explained gently to the matriarch of the Phenix family. He spotted the head Lady Phenix was holding to with her free hand, and reached to grab it.
"NO!" Lady Phenix pulled the head to her chest, which brought it to Ravel's view, and caused the dead man's daughter to let a long, shrill scream that was only barely muted by her gag.
"Ah, I mean to safeguard it for a while. Please, you'll have trouble holding Ravel if you're holding to, umu, him." Momon placed his hand in front of the woman, and she hesitated for a long while before giving up the severed head of her husband.
She then hugged Ravel's twitching and moaning form tightly, all the while Ravel was sending hateful glares at Momon.
Sirzechs pulled his attention away from the massive, pole-mace armed angel that loomed over the battlefield towards Momon as he put Lord Phenix's head behind his back and pulled his hand out, seemingly making the head disappear to thin air.
"Momon! Over here!" Belial called, causing the boy to start wading over to the group. "Right, can you explain what the hell is that thing, and what is it doing here?"
The monstrous angel turned its 'head', or the teardrop-shaped helmet stretching from its chest to over where a humanoid's 'head' would be, towards Belial.
It was clear that the angel didn't approve of the tone Belial addressed it with, nor the words Belial had directed at Momon but it seemed to hold its 'tongue' almost against its will.
"Ah, I merely summoned it." Momon waved Belial's concerns off, then seemed to notice the condition of his Peerage. "Anyway, what's wrong? Umu, the Peerage's... Uh, I should have probably... Right, umu, this... Ah... Rias, right, my wife, umu, is she alright?"
Sirzechs snapped off the confusion he had fallen into from hearing Momon's insane claim, wondering if Momon had been doused with the same ink which had caused the rest of the Peerage to fall into insanity. "We need to get out of here. The Underworld is being invaded, and there's a battle in the Human World- Serafall apparently flew into bloodthirsty rage and went ballistic, she's attacking Azazel and Kokabiel at the same time."
Sona paled as she had flapped over and was hovering a feet or so above the swamp-water, clearly unwilling to let herself land on it and submerge like the other devils. "S-Serafall did that? She- I think she saw me die, and must have struck out to avenge me..."
Sirzechs glanced at the girl. "You seem to be in good condition for being dead?"
"Momon-san resurrected me, if what he claims is true." Sona turned her eyes at Momon.
"Not at all, I merely summoned this one, who then resurrected you." Momon somehow managed to turn the surprising deed to outright outrageous one as he pointed his thumb at the massive angel that loomed behind him.
It didn't help that the Angel seemed to nod at the words.
"Riiight..." Sirzechs did a quadruple-take on the boy and the massive angel, and then turned to point towards the 'body' in the center of the lake of ink, seeking something to distract himself before he'd board 'SS Conspiracy', captained by Beelzebub. "Anyway, we need to get Gasper and we can teleport out afterwards. But..."
"I'll grab her, er, him." Momon seemed to be glad to move things along and waded past Sirzechs before either the Maou or the Samurai beside him could break out of their stupor from hearing the bold claims, and stop the boy.
Indeed, the two saw as Momon waded into the ink, expecting him to stop and start screaming like the rest of his Peerage had, but instead he merely waded through it as if it was regular swamp-water.
"Oh? It seems that topping up Mana was a good idea after all... [Ultimate Disturb], [Create Item]..." Momon seemed to be mildly surprised as he reached Gasper, then mumbled something and a deep ultramarine male dress suit formed around the boy, and Momon lifted the unconscious form to a princess carry.
Sirzechs broke out of the stupor and shoved the implications to the side as Momon waded back to the group with unconcious Gasper at his chest.
"Tehee... Momon-kun... that's naughty.... Nooo~ don't touch there..~" A girlish giggle came from the sleeping 'boy' that seemed ethereal somehow, and Sirzecis did a double-take.
Momon did as well and almost dropped Gasper in his surprise.
"A-uh." Souji stared at Momon as well.
Sirzechs felt more than little confused as he noted that Momon was, in fact:
Was guarded by shinto gods
Was sent by The Great Red
Summoned Angels, who were completely alien to anything Sirzechs had seen.
Angels, who could resurrect Devils.
Was the antithesis of the 'Supreme Being', who controlled Death while Momon controlled Life.
And lastly, could outright ignore the Madness of the Old Ones.
Sirzechs felt, for a long moment, fear for Rias's safety. For all creation's safety.
But also knew that with Momon, Rias would be safer than anyone else would ever be.
As long as Sirzechs managed to convince Momon to stick with Rias at all times.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, in the Human World.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! GIVEEE SONAAAA!" A echoing, warped scream caused the few buildings still haphazardly standing around the battlefield to crumble to sludge of concrete and stone.
"Seriously? Seriously." Azazel butt his now-armored head against the magical girl who butted against his, causing the former to be flung off from the impact the pink-clad brute inflicted on him.
He had brought out his Sacred Gear, a Artificial Sacred Gear he had himself created in cooperation with dragon Fafnir named [Down Fall Dragon Spear], and after it had failed to fend off Serafall Leviathan alone, brought out his weapons second Balance Breaker-form, [Down Fall Dragon: Another Armor].
Indeed, the now-golden armored Fallen Angel growled in annoyance while getting up after getting buried a few feet into the broken street below.
The battle was proving to be quite an excellent test of strength for the Artificial Sacred Gear, but Azazel was seriously disappointed by it's performance. He hadn't pulled out all the stops just yet, so Serafall was definitely still holding the lead in terms of combat, but on the other hand Azazel wasn't willing to go as far as to pull all stops, reveal the rest of his skills and gear, and potentially kill the Maou- at least just yet.
After all, the moment one side killed the other's leader, or one of them in case of Maous, all negotiations and take-backsies would be off the table and the war between Three Factions would resume from that point onwards.
Considering Kokabiel's actions, Azazel was more than willing to let Serafall's attack slide under the rug of 'diplomatic incident', but he had to find a way to disengage soon or things would get seriously hairy.
"Hey- hey hey hey! Two on two is unfair!" Azazel complained as Vali came to a crashing stumble beside the leader of the Fallen Angels, his attempt to [Divide] Serafall's power being useless on the fact that he hadn't managed to touch anything he could divide, spears of ice knocking the now-white armored boy aside like a toy soldier being toyed with by a particularly vicious children.
Indeed, the fight came to a small pause as Serafall landed on the street, fury blazing in her red, orb-like eyes and in her now-twisted features that looked positively nightmarish on such a cutesy body. And joining Serafall was a second Maou, one that Azazel considered the 'Billy big brain of the Underworld', and a fellow scientist extraordinaire, Beelzebub.
"Come on now, I veto! I want to get more friends in here!"
Kokabiel came to a crashing halt beside Azazel, his wings torn into little pieces during Serafall's attacks.
"I said friends!" Azazel complained again, although his words failed to garner sympathy from Serafall even as Azazel stabbed his [Down Fall Dragon Spear] through Kokabiel's stomach and pinned the Fallen Angel against the pavement.
Kokabiel let out a pained groan as he grabbed the shaft of the spear, but failed to do anything as he was utterly exhausted, mostly because he had been forced to fight against Vali, Serafall and Azazel at the same time, all the while Azazel tried to stay alive when facing Serafall.
Luckily Serafall seemed to direct most of her aggression against Kokabiel.
"I'm sorry, friend." Ajuka Beelzebub sighed towards Azazel as the Maou descended from the sky and walked beside Serafall. "In truth, I didn't want to do this. But you force my hand."
"Come on! I thought you were my friend! My pal! My fellow lab coat! I even told you about the joys of humongous boobs and fluffy tails!" Azazel fell to his knees, the armored form leaving deep craters to the street. "Don't betray me! Don't fall to Magical-Monster-Girl Levi-tan's beguile! Bros before hoes!"
"..." Beelzebub seemed to hesitate, but steeled on as he came to a stop beside Serafall. "Serafall, let's do it, let's attack together."
"AAAAH-gnhng?" Serafall's scream turned to a gurgle as she charged.
Azazel rose up to defend himself, but paused as he saw a syringe in Serafall's neck.
Beelzebub pushed the rest of the liquid in the syringe down through the needle, causing Serafall to wobble for a bit, then throw a wave of ice-spears at Beelzebub... only for the spears to turn liquid halfway though, then vaporize into mist.
Serafall sent one last betrayed look at Beelzebub before falling on her knees and flopping over, completely out for the count.
"The sedative is calculated to keep Serafall out for fifteen minutes. That's the best I can do." Beelzebub announced. "I'll preface this by saying that Serafall was likely provoked, and I'll assume that Azazel-kun had no intention of starting a war with the Underworld. I've known you for long enough to know you're no warmonger... unless you were brain-washed or replaced with someone else who looks like you."
"You're assuming correctly about my enthusiasm about war. Kok-kun is a rogue operative and I had sent Vali here to capture him, but it seems Kok-kun managed to slip his net." Azazel confirmed, twisting the spear stuck to Kokabiel's stomach. "You know, I'm fine if we call us even stevens since Serafall-san did attack me, so can we call this issue sorted and get on with our respective lives?"
"There are Fallen Angels attacking the Underworld." Beelzebub countered.
"You're a right bastard, aren't you, Kok-kun?" Azazel sighed at his wayward subordinate. "Right, this isn't good. What do you propose that we can do to stop a war from happening? I seriously don't want Biblical War 2: Electric Boogaloo. Specifically when I just got to floof some cute tails and I'm still riding down the euphoria."
"Explain what you were doing in Kuoh."
"Vali found some super cute angel chicks and told me to go check them out. They were indeed super cute." Azezel waved his hand towards the shimmering dome of gold in the distance which warded Phenix mansion. "They're keeping the dome up. They're maids too!"
Beelzebub sighed as he lifted Serafall's body on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, the magical 'girl's skirt flipping up almost as if it had a mind of its own to give the observers a good look at her chosen 'colour'. "I'm going to believe you, because I know you're a huge pervert and appreciator of the female form. But please, don't prove me wrong. But know this- Kokabiel has allied himself with powers you should not touch even with a hundred-foot pole."
"Hm?" Azezel lifted his eyebrow, even if no-one saw it due to the golden armor covering his body. "Kok-kun?"
"Oh, you know. We have allied with the Supreme One." Kokabiel rolled his eyes casually, wincing as Azazel twisted the spear.
"As far as I know, you don't make deals on behalf of the entire faction." Azazel reminded the man to let Beelzebub know Kokabiel was trying to mislead the Maou. "And I have never heard of this 'Supreme Being'"
"...This incident needs to be discussed at length." Beelzebub adjusted Serafall's weight on his shoulders. "Kuoh is Underworld's territory. Leave, and we'll send you a word for an invitation to a conference, during which we'll discuss this incident at length as well as the current situation that we're still in the process of resolving."
"That sounds ominous." Azazel noted. "Does that have anything to do with the attack on the Rating Game Grounds in the Underworld?"
"So you know."
"Oh come on, it's not like devils don't have eyes on Fallen Angels and the Heavens." Azazel rolled his eyes again, and once again the action was hidden by his golden armor. "I don't know much about this 'Supreme Being' outside rumors that it attacked the Rating Game and used Undead as his agents. I'm guessing Kok-kun here managed to actually contact him... Oh, that's right. Kok-kun, what'd you learn of this 'Supreme Being'?"
"...I'm sorry but I must ask you to turn Kokabiel to Underworld's care." Beelzebub narrowed his eyes at Azazel, clearly intending on keeping Azazel in the dark as much as possible.
"...Hm, sure. But on the condition that you won't kill him. There aren't actually all that many Fallen Angels left, see, so I can't really discard our kind willy-nilly." Azazel narrowed his eyes as well. "We don't have a Piece system, so we can't actually replenish our numbers, much like Angels... although, I don't recognize those angels back at the Phenix mansion, so I imagine Heavens managed to come up with some new method of creating Angels even with Him gone."
Beelzebub's eyes were calculating and he seemed to come to a conclusion. "Very well. In that case, Asmodeus?"
A shadow seemed to thicken to the point of forming a image of a man dozing against a nearby lamp-post, and Azazel sighed. "Three Maous? You guys really pulled all the stops..."
Well, we expected that you'd be in cahoots with the Supreme Being." Beelzebub noted. "Not to mention if Great Red's interference means what we assume, we'd need all four Maous to fight this 'Supreme Being' and even then it'd be a stretch."
"That bad?"
"Really bad and getting worse."
"Right... I'll wait for the invitation to the conference then. You'll know where to meet me." Azazel felt more than a little wary and sad that the lazy days of the past few hundred years seemed to come to an end. However he slid Kokabiel over to Beelzebub, drawing a groan from the downed Fallen Angel. Asmodeus whacked him over the head like a cook preparing a living fish, and tossed the bleeding Fallen Angel over his shoulder.
Azazel took the hint and grabbed Vali's shoulder. "Come, Vali-kun, we can flirt with the maid-Angels some other day."
The two teleported away.
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Beelzebub sighed. "I hope I didn't make a mistake by letting them get away."
"Well, I don't know about all this political intrigue and such and such, but I'm getting exhausted." Asmodeus groaned like an old man as he let the dome of [Absolute Defense] fall from around Kuoh, which had kept the damage to the world at large to the minimum, and released the energy in a pillar of light to the sky.
The pillar caused the roiling sky to part and show patches of blue, allowing a ray of sunshine through the thick cloud cover.
Serafall twitched, causing Beelzebub to hurry as he teleported away to the Underworld, aiming towards Gremory's main grounds as he figured Sirzechs would head there as well after dealing with the undead encampment of the swamp, accompanied by Asmodeus who headed towards Gremory's jail.
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Arch-Angel Gabriel blinked as she put down the mirror she had used to peer into the matters of the Human World, mostly because an area-of-effect burst of energy aimed at the sky had caused the mirror to crack.
She felt a bit shaky from what she had seen, so she instantly made a report for Michael, who had taken the throne of Heavens in His absence.
'Those Angels... The Devils... The fighting...' Gabriel's hand shook and caused ink to spill all over the parchment she used for her reports. 'H- He... He might be back!'
She resisted the urge to scream in joy.
Normally she wouldn't look into the human world, but the fight between the Maou and Azazel had drawn the attention of the Heaven to Kuoh, and had worried all who knew about it to no end- after all, it was possible that the fight was a preamble to the Treaty falling apart.
However, she had seen the six unknown Angels face against the Maou and the Fallen Angel, defending their ground with a sacred dome.
All Angels knew each other by name because of their low numbers and immortality, yet those six were alien. New.
And there was only one who could create Angels.
Yet, she also felt extreme apprehension as she knew that His return would likely cause the Great War to be re-ignited regardless of what Fallen Angels or Devils wanted, even if the two factions fighting hadn't been a breach of the Treaty.
It was well known He had been extremely strict to the point of casting Lucifer from the Heavens for blasphemy and envy, and Azazel for laying with a human woman, and countless others for various small slights.
To assume that His first order would be to bring the two Factions to heel, using violence if need be, would be completely realistic.
So, to say that Gabriel had extreme troubles writing her report would be an understatement.
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Meanwhile in Phenix mansion, a certain couple was positively panicking as they had seen a police car get flung against the massive golden dome the mansion had been engulfed in, and the car had exploded.
"W-we need to call the National Security Council! Get the Self-Defense Forces here!" Gorou Hyoudou cowered under the coffee table with his wife, Miki Hyoudou.