Omniscient POV
Vatican,
Max flipped through the brittle pages of old records inside a dusty Vatican archive chamber, his gloved fingers trembling slightly.
The dim lamplight cast a heavy gloom over the cracked, leather-bound files of excommunication cases.
One by one, he traced each name—twelve women.
Twelve 'fallen' holy maidens and nuns.
All supposedly corrupted. All were cast out without an official trial or appeal.
He had proven it during his visits to each of the churches involved. None had followed official procedure—they had simply excommunicated the women outright, acting like the old Church once did when hunting witches. It wasn't very good, to say the least.
What pained Max even more was that his own sister had been subjected to the same fate.
Back then, no one had allowed him to dig deep, but at least now, he held a high enough position to investigate some of it.
The deeper he dug, the clearer the pattern became.
Every single one of those girls had last been seen with the same devil—Diodora Astaroth.
The reasons listed for their excommunication were almost identical, too. All the stories bore a frightening level of similarity.
And yet, no one had been suspicious about any of it at all!
The girls were supposedly seen with that devil—helping him, conspiring with him, or so the witness testimonies claimed.
The circumstances varied, but the outcome was always the same. Witnesses would alert the entire church, and the girls would be subjected to humiliation and excommunication.
That's how it always went. And none of the girls were ever seen again...
But Max remembered seeing them. All of them, in fact.
Each one had been with Diodora the last time he saw them.
It seemed clear now—Diodora had planned this from the start to add them to his peerage.
Max couldn't contain his anger. He had personally visited the involved churches and questioned the so-called witnesses.
But how could a devil come and go from church grounds so easily? And not just once, but twelve times? That was far too unlikely.
There could only be one explanation—someone from the inside must have helped the devil enter and leave safely. The more Max investigated, the clearer it became.
"Why did you betray the church?" Max demanded, his voice sharp with fury, as he repeatedly beat the shit out of the priest in front of him.
This one was from the very church that had excommunicated his own sister.
"I didn't do such a thing! You can't accuse me like this! I will—" the priest tried to play innocent.
But Max's rage had already boiled over. He gave the priest no time to speak. Ten minutes of a one-sided beating was all it took for the man to break.
"Please stop! I—I was given money for this—" the priest cried.
But hearing that—just knowing his sister had been sold for mere chump change—Max didn't let him finish. He killed the priest in cold blood.
Moments later, Masaomi rushed in, dragging the other two priests involved.
Obviously, something this serious—excommunicating holy maidens—couldn't have been done by one low-ranking priest. Other high officials had been involved too. They had also been bribed.
And that was just this church. The other branches had their own conspirators still hiding.
"You know, we have to keep them alive to bring the truth to light. You can't keep killing every single one of them," Masaomi said, his voice edged with frustration.
He had been helping Max gather information for the case, but if Max kept losing control, they wouldn't be able to prove anything.
Eventually, Max calmed down. Together, they resumed the investigation, turning their attention to the remaining church branches.
What they uncovered wasn't pleasant at all.
Masaomi reached out to Cardinal Vasco Strada, presenting the evidence they had collected.
To say Strada was displeased would be an understatement. And when he questioned the devils, they wouldn't be pleased either.
Targeting one of the church's core members like this could lead to bloodshed on both sides.
And while nobody wanted that, at least the smarter ones on both sides understood the risks.
*
*
*
Grigori,
Azazel sat down in his office. Penemue had suddenly requested a meeting and had asked for the highest level of secrecy.
Penemue, Baraqiel, Shemhazai, and all the other Cadres were with him in his office.
The door to the office opened, and a direct subordinate of Penemue walked in.
"What was so important that you had all of us run all the way here so suddenly? Did you get something important on them?" asked Kokabiel, as his slithering tongue caught everyone's attention.
It was quite weird (and funny) how quickly they had all gotten used to seeing it, as if Kokabiel had been born with such a snake tongue all along. It matched him perfectly.
He had been away on another mission, but he had to rush here for the meeting.
Seeing Kokabiel's angered face, the Cadres quickly returned their focus to the case instead of blatantly staring at him like that.
Azazel was the slowest at this—this guy could crack a joke even when he was dying.
Penemue soon nodded to her subordinate.
"Report."
"The Utsusemi Agency, some rebel groups, the Wizards of Oz, and Satanael's followers have formed a new organisation called the Khaos Brigade.
There are rumors of some other unknown groups involved, too, but we couldn't get any more information about them.
Their goal is to artificially stimulate Sacred Gears to give birth to new Longinuses—or at least that's Satanael's goal.
Every group is in it for their own reasons.
The Utsusemi Agency wants to use the organisation to bring down the Five Principal Clans, and the Wizards of Oz are just a bunch of crazy humans researching taboo magic."
"We all know about them. No need to repeat it. Just get on with the more important report," said Kokabiel impatiently.
"Uh! Yes, sir!" replied the subordinate quickly, but for some reason, he paused, looking very tense.
"What is it? Speak up," Azazel commanded.
He took a deep breath.
"We interrogated one of Satanael's followers. It seems Satanael… he plans to find Ophis and use its power for his project."
Azazel blanked out for a moment. "What?!"
"Satanael plans to bring Ophis into his organisation," the subordinate said, looking extremely pale just from mentioning the Dragon God.
Even after hearing the news twice, Azazel was still unsure.
"Are you sure?" Baraqiel asked, and he nodded.
"Yes. The guy we caught is one of the top-level members of Satanael's faction. He's still imprisoned here. We can always reinvestigate..."
"What other plans do they have?" Azazel asked, regaining his composure.
"We still don't know, sir. I came to report as soon as I found this. I thought it was important enough to be informed first."
"Good call," Azazel said as he massaged his head.
"What do we do, Azazel?" Shemhazai asked.
"This has gone far beyond simple misconduct. We don't involve 'It' in our matters. This has to be stopped before other factions are spooked. Not to mention the risks."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Prepare a team. Baraqiel will lead it and bring Satanael back. If he refuses, take him down. Shemhazai, declare Satanael rogue as soon as it happens. Penemue, inform the other factions of Satanael going rogue after this."
Baraqiel left the room to get the team ready, and Shemhazai turned to Azazel to ask for further instructions, but Azazel's cell phone rang suddenly.
It was from Valerica. It seems Tobio and his gang had found Shigune Nanadaru, another wielder of the Four Fiends Sacred Gears.
But what was more concerning was what they had discovered through her. It seemed Hyousuke Koga, the last of the Four Fiends Sacred Gear users, had volunteered for experimentation so Shigune could be freed from Satanael.
According to Shigune, Satanael, and the Abyss Team from his class had succeeded in creating something that could artificially trigger Balance Breakers.
Things had gotten far more serious if Satanael could make anyone activate their Balance Breakers freely now...
*
*
*
Somewhere on the outskirts of one of Kyoto's forests, David Cerro and Freed Sellzen could be seen fighting the remnants of the Utsusemi Agency and magicians from the Wizards of Oz.
Blood soaked the battlefield as Freed relished in the carnage.
"Teach, we should really do more of this! Where else would we get to kill so many heretics?!" Freed shouted, completely smeared in blood, seemingly euphoric.
He took pleasure in slowly torturing his victims to death, while David swiftly ended his enemies with precise strikes from his sword, Gelatine—the sister sword to Excalibur.
"Freed, how many times have I told you to control yourself?" David sighed, chastising his student.
"Even if they are heretics, killing them quickly so they may redeem themselves in the afterlife is the least compassion we can show—as warriors of God."
David often questioned whether taking Freed under his wing was the right decision. Still, he couldn't deny the boy's talent.
Given time, Freed could become a great strength for the Church—if they could overlook his freaky behaviours.
David and Freed had been investigating the situation in Japan over the past few days, which led them to this battleground, where the final confrontation between the Wizards of Oz, the Utsusemi Agency, and the Nakiri Clan was underway.
Many fallen angels, led by Baraqiel, had joined the fray. Two heirs of the Five Principal Clans were also fighting, making sure no enemies escaped.
Yet, several did—and those became sport for David and Freed.
Some distance away, Baraqiel had taken Satanael deeper into the forest. Meanwhile, a more interesting battle had broken out among Sacred Gear wielders.
One of the Four Fiends had somehow triggered his Balance Breaker, while the rest fought fiercely against the Abyss Team.
The Abyss Team is a team composed of Satanael's former students in the Grigori, assembled for the purpose of assisting him in his nefarious goals.
It is composed of individuals who suffered from isolation and neglect in their childhood, causing them to become murderous and develop warped personalities.
All of their Sacred Gears are unique—completely different from the standard types.
These Sacred Gears specialize in both offensive and support capabilities, including abilities like stealing senses, deploying wide-area poisons, and more.
Because of their unusual effects and versatility, even powerful individuals find them extremely difficult to handle.
"Teach, what do we do now?" Freed asked, bored now that no more stragglers had come their way.
"Just wait a little longer. We need to capture those Sacred Gear users—especially the Longinus holder. That kind of power rightfully belongs to the Church," David said, his voice filled with fanatic conviction. Freed grinned, liking the idea.
David, however, knew better than to engage a Longinus wielder in Balance Breaker recklessly. Waiting until they wore each other out was the smarter move.
But soon, something else drew his attention.
From the direction Baraqiel had gone, a tremendous surge of demonic energy erupted, shaking the ground slightly under their feet.
The battle here wouldn't end anytime soon.
And David made his decision.
If a powerful devil were over there, then he would be the one to bring it down.
If Vasco Strada—a mere human—could achieve such fame, then so could he...