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"What's this about you almost being killed?" the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess asked briskly as she walked over to him. Issei stood up as well out of politeness and walked down to meet her at the bottom of the shrine's wooden steps.
"I went to one of the last Purifier bases in Kuō that I was aware of, the site of Project Rat Poison." Issei stated bluntly. "It was a charnel house in there. Almost every member of the Purifiers in the base were dead, killed by Agent Flamberge...otherwise known as the Fallen Anger Armârôs the Lesser."
"You fought a FALLEN?!" all of the Gremory Peerage gaped at him in shock.
"And won...if only barely." the Gamer tacked on as he started removing his gathered evidence from his Inventory. "I fought her until I had only a single HP left, but I dealt her a fatal wound in exchange, so she's likely dead by now."
Rias shook her head slowly. "You...were very lucky." she said slowly. "And...this is the paperwork from the Purifier site?"
"All of it I could find." Issei admitted. "But that isn't the most disturbing part of yesterday...this dagger is."
He was nervous about even touching the disgusting thing, holding it by the hilt gingerly as if it were something foul, like a bag of dog shit.
"That weapon has quite the…nauseating aura about it." Kiba said immediately, leaning backwards slightly. Trust a Knight to sense a cursed sword.
Koneko shivered after glancing at it, before looking away and refusing to focus on it again. "Foul, evil." she muttered.
"This is called the [Dagger of the Draugar], and it was forged by the same dwarven smith who forged my [Rapscallion Waveblade]." the disguised Gamer explained. "It possesses the ability to reanimate any non-supernatural being killed by it as a zombie."
The sickened looks on the faces of the Devils confirmed Issei's opinion of them.
"That...why? Why would someone...?" Akeno asked, shaking her head in disgust.
"I suspect that it was the idea of Armârôs the Lesser to have this...thing...made." Issei very reluctantly replaced it in his inventory. "She was very much of the opinion that humans were a mistake of the God of the Bible. She really seemed to have something of a superiority complex. It was one reason why I won, despite her being twice my own level."
"She must have been one of Kokabiel's minions then." Akeno noted, eyes cold with anger. "The man is a fascist in the most extreme sense of the world and would happily slaughter every other race upon this world if given the opportunity."
"Correct. She was a member of Kokabiel's faction of the Grigori." the Gamer nodded. "I can't offer any proof of her presence other than that dagger, and even that isn't any kind of link to her though. Just about the only solid proof I have aside from the dagger is about five millilitres of her blood. My [Gamer's Gear] separated it from my sword after I put it into my inventory."
"The blood could be used for an identification spell, but I'm afraid it wouldn't do much good. Kokabiel has already covered his tracks and declared her rogue." the Gremory Heiress scowled. "He sent word to other supernatural and mythical factions that she has been rogue for quite some time in fact, and that he's only just found out about it."
"Political bullshit, in other words." Issei summarised. "Well, at least it explains some of the magical stuff that the Purifiers have access to; if a Cadre from the Grigori has been helping them out on the sly, to destabilise the other Biblical Factions..."
"And how better to cause a war than to have the younger sisters of two of the Four Maō mysteriously murdered...is that your thinking here?" Rias said faux-calmly.
"Essentially." Issei nodded.
"Kokabiel's aid would make sense for some of it, but if we take the timeframe that he sent out to be how long Armârôs the Lesser has been infiltrating the Purifiers, then it still doesn't add up; she was only 'rogue' for three months at best." the redhead said in frustration. "There must be another source of supernatural influence on them other than Kokabiel."
"Probably." the Sekiryūtei agreed. "That makes some sense. So either Kokabiel has been controlling the Purifiers from the start and Armârôs the Lesser was simply one of the agents involved, or another supernatural force helped form them and Kokabiel somehow managed to slip one of his minions in and direct them to aid his own goals. Either way at least we have at least removed one of the lynchpins controlling these insane purists."
"I'd say that the latter is far more likely. Something like this simply does not fit Kokabiel's normal modus operandi." Akeno interjected thoughtfully. "It's too subtle and offers too little reward for not enough return for the Grigori to be involved. They're the smallest of the Three Biblical Factions and I doubt even the Grigori as a whole, let alone a single faction of it, would have the sheer manpower to manipulate an organization as large as these Purifiers seem to be without it being noticed. That, and these Purifiers were also planning to target the Fallen as well. Kokabiel might be a racist warmonger to the extreme, but he still has some loyalty to his own people if nothing else."
"You seem to know a great deal about the Fallen's faction?" Issei asked curiously.
"I…someone I knew was once extremely close with one of the Fallen." the miko responded evasively.
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