The silence after Kokabiel's revelation was suffocating.
Asia's breath hitched in small, desperate bursts.
Her trembling hands covered her mouth as if she could force her faith back inside through sheer will.
Her eyes were enormous—brimming with confusion, tears, and disbelief so raw it made my chest ache.
"…The Lord is gone…? Dead?"
She whispered, each word fragile and uneven.
"Then… the love we offered Him… the prayers, the light… it was all…"
Her voice broke.
Kokabiel watched her crumble, his smile an abomination of sympathy.
"Indeed," he said, voice silk over rusted blades.
"He can offer you no protection, no guidance, no love. He's been gone for a long time now."
He paced as he spoke, his wings dragging shadows across the walls like storm clouds brushing mountaintops.
"Michael has done admirably in the meantime—taking command of Heaven's remnants, leading the angels and their obedient humans. The system you all rely on still runs, you see, but on borrowed code. Blessings and exorcisms… they still function, but weaker. Flickering connections to a dead god."
His grin widened, a wolf's grin under the veneer of curiosity.
"There are more unanswered prayers than you could imagine. And with Heaven's power waning and Hell's bloodlines thinning, the balance between holy and demonic power has decayed. When equilibrium breaks…"
He raised a single black feather and let it fall.
"...all kinds of new phenomena are possible."
Asia's knees gave out.
She sank to the floor, the sound of her sobs raw and echoing against shattered stone.
Kokabiel looked delighted.
"Oh, and before I forget—" he added, his tone brightening like a teacher resuming a lesson, "—I'm not leaving."
That statement landed like a curse.
Rias's aura flared instantly, red light staining the air, but Kokabiel's wings unfurled wider, an ocean of shadow swallowing her glow.
"You're mistaken if you think this school's magic density is what interests me," he continued.
"My true prey is standing right here—Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri."
His gaze found me then, sharp enough to cut through thought.
"If I kill the two of you," he said, "Sirzechs and Serafall will not stay their hands. Sirzechs may think first… he always does. But Serafall?"
His grin turned monstrous.
"She'll burn Heaven, Hell, and everything in between before the week is out."
The floor might as well have dropped out beneath me.
That's it… That's the reason.
He didn't come for territory or for relics.
He came for us.
For family.
For grief.
He wanted to turn Serafall's love into the spark that reignited war.
My pulse hammered in my ears.
I could feel every tremor of my body—every useless attempt to pull air through his grip around my neck.
His fingers dug in deeper, crushing, forcing me to my knees.
My lungs screamed, stars danced in the corners of my vision.
He's waiting for her to come.
He wants her to see it.
"No… Sis… don't come," I rasped, but the words came out broken, drowned by the hiss of his wings.
Rias shifted beside me, magic gathering so dense the air began to ripple.
"Let her go, Kokabiel," she said, voice shaking with fury.
"You're making a mistake you won't walk away from."
Kokabiel laughed—sharp, triumphant, the laugh of a man who had already won.
"I will usher in the next war!"
He declared, voice booming, reverberating through the ruins of the building.
"Here and now! Your heads will make excellent trophies for the rebirth of conflict! Even alone, I'll make sure the world remembers—it was the Fallen who began it anew!"
He raised one glowing hand, magic flaring around him like a dying sun.
The priest behind him—filthy robes, eyes wild with the kind of devotion that only insanity breeds—trembled in anticipation.
Then, before any of us could move—before I could form the syllables for a defensive spell—steel flashed.
A final, wet sound cut through the chaos.
Kiba's body dropped first.
Then his head.
Blood hit the marble floor in rhythmic splatters, each one louder than the last.
For a single, impossible moment, everything stopped.
No one spoke.
No one breathed.
Then Rias's voice ripped through the stillness, breaking it apart like shattered glass.
"KIBA!!"
The crimson magic that erupted from her body wasn't controlled—it was grief given form.
It lashed outward, warping the air, burning through the lingering sigils I'd placed earlier.
Akeno's face twisted in horror and rage, her lightning crackling wild and untamed, splitting what was left of the ceiling apart.
Xenovia's sword arm trembled; Irina's eyes brimmed with tears and disbelief.
Asia let out a sound—a wordless, broken wail—as she crawled toward Kiba's still form.
I felt my stomach twist.
The world blurred.
Rias took a step forward, ready to tear Kokabiel apart—
—but something in his eyes stopped her.
He wasn't afraid.
He was waiting.
He'd accomplished what he wanted.
He wanted her anger.
Our despair.
He wanted the devils to strike first.
And then he raised his hand to the heavens.
The air cracked.
A ripple tore through the sky, splitting clouds like paper.
Light poured out, not warm, not divine—cold and surgical.
Kokabiel's voice rose above it all.
"I will prove it to Sirzechs and Michael both! I will show them who truly holds dominion over creation!"
Rias shouted something—maybe a spell, maybe a name—but it was too late.
The light condensed in his palm, wild and unstable.
I recognized it instantly: a fragment of Excalibur.
The residue of that weapon's holy energy gnawed at the edges of my senses.
He was gathering it into a spear.
I tried to form a barrier—runic symbols flickered across my fingers—but his power moved faster than thought.
And in that instant—before I could blink—something else tore open behind him.
A portal.
Blue and silver, humming with the kind of power that made my blood run cold.
Serafall.
Her magic rolled through like an avalanche, freezing the world itself for a heartbeat.
The walls crystallized, the air itself seemed to shatter into glittering frost.
And then time slowed.
Because Kokabiel's grin returned.
He waited for that moment.
And struck.
Pain exploded through me, white-hot, as the Excalibur fragment drove straight into my chest.
I didn't even feel the moment of impact—only the sickening sound, the way my heartbeat faltered mid-pulse.
The world tilted.
My magic faltered, collapsing like broken glass.
I felt myself falling, weightless, the edges of my vision darkening.
Through the haze, I saw Kokabiel's smirk fade into the distance as he spread his wings, teleported, and vanished into the sky—his mission complete.
The Excalibur burned.
Holy energy crawled through my veins, fighting my demonic essence, burning everything it touched.
Time lost meaning.
All that remained was pain—and the echo of a voice I'd known all my life.
"Sona!!"
Serafall's scream tore through everything.
In an instant, she was there, her arms wrapping around me, ice magic pouring from her hands in panicked streams as she tried to stop the bleeding, freezing the air itself to slow Excalibur's corrosion.
Her face—normally bright and playful—was twisted into something unrecognizable.
"Sona, no, no, no—don't close your eyes! Don't you dare!"
Her voice trembled, desperate.
I tried to speak, but blood filled my mouth.
The pain pulsed again, violent, then dulled—like the world itself was receding from me.
"Sister…" I managed, barely a whisper.
Her power flared again, blue fire wrapping us both, sealing the world away in frost.
The temperature dropped sharply; even Rias had to shield her face from the sudden blizzard.
I wanted to tell her to stop.
To think.
To not fall into his trap.
If she lost control now, it would be exactly what Kokabiel wanted.
But my voice wouldn't come.
Everything slowed further—the light, the noise, the heartbeat in my chest turning into long, fading thuds.
Her tears froze mid-air as they fell onto my cheek.
Please, sister… don't fall for it.
Don't let him win.
I wanted to tell her that I loved her.
That I understood.
That I was sorry.
But another thought pushed its way through the haze, soft and bittersweet.
Ah… I guess I'll never get to tell Zevion how I feel.
My last breath trembled out in a whisper only she could hear.
I hope… he and you… will be happy.
The world faded into white.
Inside the entire barrier, everything was covered in pure white snow.
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