My refusal hung in the night air above Kuoh Academy, heavy and final. The smile slid from Kokabiel's face, replaced by a grimace of pure, unadulterated rage. His offer of an alliance, his attempt at manipulation—all shattered against the wall of my icy indifference. He expected fear, interest, maybe even hesitation. But he received only boredom and contempt. For a being of his rank and ambition, this was worse than any insult.
"You… you will regret those words!" he roared, his voice booming, echoing off the magical barrier maintained by Sona and her council. The ten black wings behind his back spread predatorily, the air around him crackling from an excess of dark and holy energy. "I will destroy you! I will show you the true power of a Fallen Angel! Monsters! Attack! Crush those Gremory puppies! I will deal with this upstart myself!"
The order was given. Chaos descended upon the schoolyard.
Two giant, three-headed dogs—Cerberuses, summoned by Kokabiel—charged into battle, their maws spewing dark flame. Several lower-ranking Fallen Angels swooped down from the sky, hurling spears of light.
Rias Gremory's team did not flinch. They had expected this.
"Attack!" Rias commanded, her own crimson-black aura of Power of Destruction enveloping her. "Akeno, Kiba—Galilei is yours! Koneko—the Cerberuses! Issei—cover Koneko and be ready to attack the Fallen! Asia—stay in cover and be ready to heal!"
The team instantly dispersed, engaging in battle. The clash of steel, the roar of monsters, flashes of magic—the courtyard turned into a battlefield.
And Kokabiel… he ignored the fight below. His attention was entirely focused on me. He beat his wings sharply and dived down, straight at me standing on the roof. A massive spear of pure light formed in his hand, far larger and more powerful than those hurled by his subordinates.
"We start with you, Anomaly!" he snarled.
I didn't dodge. I simply raised my hand. The spear of light slammed into my palm. A blinding flash! A shockwave! But… the spear just… vanished. Dissolved on contact, leaving not even a trace, causing not the slightest harm. The "Code: Unknown" effect in action—the destruction of alien power.
Kokabiel froze in the air in front of me, his eyes widening in shock.
"Impossible…" he whispered. "My Spear of Judgment… it just… evaporated?!"
"Looks like your 'judgment' didn't pass the check," I smirked. "My turn?"
Without waiting for an answer, I pushed off the roof and shot toward him with incredible speed. My fist flew forward. Kokabiel managed to cross his arms in front of him, surrounding them with a dark-light barrier. My blow slammed into the barrier. A deafening crack rang out, the barrier shattered into shards, and Kokabiel himself was thrown back dozens of meters, nearly slamming into the invisible wall of the dome maintained by Sona.
"What… monstrous physical strength…" he wheezed, struggling to right his flight. He realized that against my speed and power, his usual attacks and defenses were useless.
"Do you think I can be defeated by brute force?!" he roared, his face contorted with rage and, perhaps, fear. "I prepared for this meeting, Anomaly! I know about your ability to neutralize magic! But I have something you can't chew through!"
He spread his arms wide, and a sword appeared in each hand. One—shining with white light, similar to those the exorcists had. The other—coal-black, emitting an aura of darkness and cold.
"A Holy Sword and a Demonic Sword!" his eyes burned with madness. "I acquired them especially for you! Let's see how your 'anomalous' power handles a simultaneous attack of Light and Darkness! Can you nullify both at once?!"
He crossed the swords, and an unstable, vibrating energy arose between them—gray, sparking, carrying chaos and destruction within it.
"This is one of my surprises, upstart!" he shouted. "Taste this! Chaos Blast!"
A gray beam of unstable energy erupted from the crossed swords and rushed toward me. I felt the threat emanating from it—this wasn't just light or dark magic. It was their collision, birthing something else, unpredictable.
I didn't dodge. Instead, I simply stepped toward the beam. Extended my hand forward, palm facing the oncoming energy.
The Chaos Blast slammed into my palm… and vanished again. Annihilated. Without leaving even a slight tingle. "Code: Unknown" worked flawlessly, erasing the very concept of this attack upon contact with me.
Kokabiel froze in the air, his jaw dropping. His trump card, his attack combining Light and Darkness… proved absolutely useless. It simply… didn't work. Pure, unadulterated terror reflected on his face. He realized he had encountered something beyond his comprehension.
"No… it can't be…" he stammered. "But… my attack… it was supposed to…"
"Doubt it'll work," I interrupted him. "Are you out of surprises?"
I rushed at him again. This time he was too shocked to react in time. My fist slammed into his chest. Not with full force—that would be too easy an end. But hard enough to break several ribs and send him flying across the entire schoolyard. He slammed into the ground with a dull thud at the feet of the combatants below.
Below, the battle was also coming to an end. Kiba and Akeno had heavily wounded and disarmed Freed. Koneko, Issei, and the newly arrived Xenovia finished off the Cerberuses and the remaining Fallen. The courtyard was strewn with debris and the bodies of defeated enemies.
Kokabiel struggled to his hands and knees, coughing blood. He looked at his defeated servants, at me slowly walking toward him across the ground, at Rias's approaching team. He realized he had lost. His plan to start a war here and now had failed. His army was broken. And the main threat—me—turned out to be too much for him.
But he wasn't going to surrender. Madness flared in his eyes again.
"Lost?! Never! If I can't win, I'll take you all with me! I will show you the true might of the Fallen!"
He began to concentrate energy, his body glowing with dark light, wings tense. He was clearly preparing for a suicidal attack capable of blowing up the entire Academy.
"He's going to explode!" Rias shouted. "Everyone take cover!"
But I wasn't going to let him do that. I'd had enough destruction for today.
I appeared in front of him a split second before he could unleash his power.
"Alas," my voice was icy, "the show is over."
And I struck. Fast. Precise. Into the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and interrupting his concentration.
Kokabiel wheezed, his eyes rolled back, the accumulated energy dissipating harmlessly. He collapsed to the ground unconscious, like a sack of feathers.
...
The battle for Kuoh Academy ended as suddenly as it had begun. Kokabiel, one of the powerful Cadres of Grigori, lay unconscious at my feet, defeated not by complex magic or holy weapons, but by brute, absolute physical force. His minions—the Fallen Angels, Cerberuses, and the mad exorcist Freed—had been neutralized.
Rias Gremory's team, though considerably battered, stood in the middle of the ruined schoolyard, catching their breath. Issei, supported by Asia, struggled to stay on his feet, but his eyes shone with relief and amazement. Kiba and Akeno surveyed the battlefield; Koneko walked up to me, her face, as always, almost impassive, but respect was readable in her eyes. Rias approached last, her gaze complex—a mix of gratitude, fatigue, and that same undying curiosity about me.
Sona Sitri and her Student Council at the edge of the barrier began to slowly weaken the protective dome, having ensured the immediate threat had passed. The air still smelled of ozone and burning.
"Is it… over?" Issei asked uncertainly, looking at Kokabiel's motionless body.
"Looks like it," Rias nodded. "We stopped him. Thanks to Jin."
She turned to me. "Once again, you found yourself in the center of events. And once again… thank you. Without you, we wouldn't have managed so quickly. And, possibly, with greater losses."
I just shrugged. "He annoyed me. Talked too much."
But our brief moment of debriefing was interrupted. Abruptly.
From the sky, piercing Sona's weakening barrier with a deafening crack and a flash of white-blue light, a figure crashed down. The speed was incredible, almost imperceptible to the eye. The figure landed a few meters from us, kicking up a cloud of dust and making the ground shudder.
When the dust settled, we saw him. A warrior, fully clad in shining white armor resembling that of a dragon. Huge mechanical wings emitting a blue glow fluttered behind his back. In his hand, he held a helmet of the same white armor. A colossal, overwhelming aura emanated from him—the power of one of the Heavenly Dragons.
"White Dragon?!" Rias exhaled, her eyes widening in surprise and alarm.
Vali Lucifer. Wielder of Divine Dividing. Descendant of the old Lucifer. He stood here, fully clad in his Balance Breaker—the White Dragon Emperor's Scale Mail.
He surveyed the battlefield—the defeated Fallen, the wounded Freed, the unconscious Kokabiel, us. No emotions reflected on his handsome face, except for mild surprise.
"What a mess," his voice sounded calm, but cold. "Looks like I'm a little late to the party. However, the main objective is still here."
His gaze stopped on Kokabiel.
"Azazel sends his regards," Vali said and stepped toward the prone Fallen. His hand in the white armored gauntlet raised, concentrating white-blue energy. He clearly intended to finish Kokabiel off. "And asked me to take out the trash."
"Stop!" Rias shouted. "Don't! He's already defeated!"
But Vali ignored her. His strike was aimed precisely at Kokabiel's head—a strike that would leave nothing but a wet spot.
But the strike didn't reach its target.
At the last moment, a split second before contact, my hand intercepted his armored wrist.
GRAB!
A shockwave of compressed air swept through the area. Raising huge clouds of dust and forcing everyone around to shield their eyes.
Vali froze, his eyes widening in surprise. He looked at my hand gripping his gauntlet.
"You?.." he hissed.
"I said, the show is over," my voice was icy. I squeezed my fingers with effort.
A deafening CRACK rang out. The metal of the Divine Dividing armor, one of the most powerful Longinus, could not withstand my physical strength. The white gauntlet on Vali's hand became covered in cracks, and then part of it simply… crumbled into pieces, exposing his own hand beneath.
Vali yanked his hand back as if from fire, staring at the broken armor, then at me. In his eyes, usually full of arrogance or boredom, for the first time appeared… amazement? Shock? And, perhaps, even a shadow of fear. He felt my power. Power capable of breaking a Heavenly Dragon's armor with bare hands.
"What the… hell?.." he whispered, looking at his damaged gauntlet. The armor immediately began to slowly regenerate, enveloped in light, but the shock of what had happened remained.
"He's already neutralized," I said calmly, looking him in the eye. "Finishing off a downed opponent isn't very noble for a dragon, don't you think?"
"Noble?" Vali smirked, his usual arrogance beginning to return, though mixed with a new wariness. "I am following Azazel's orders. Kokabiel is a traitor and a threat. He needed to be eliminated."
"I doubt Azazel asked for a public execution," I countered. "Take him and leave. Before I change my mind and lay you down next to him."
Tension hung between us. A battle of gazes. Two beings with monstrous power standing opposite each other. Rias and her team held their breath, not knowing how this would end.
Vali looked at me for several long seconds. He was assessing me, my power, my resolve. He was strong, very strong. But he realized that I was not an opponent to tangle with unless absolutely necessary. Especially when his main mission—to retrieve Kokabiel—was at risk.
Finally, he looked away, a crooked smirk touching his lips.
"Interesting… Very interesting… You're stronger than I thought, Izayoi Jin. Much stronger. Azazel was right."
He walked over to the unconscious Kokabiel, easily lifting him with one hand.
Then Vali turned toward the exit from the barrier, which Sona had prudently deactivated at that spot. But before leaving, his gaze stopped on Issei, who was barely standing, supported by Asia and Kiba.
Vali looked at him for several seconds. There was no contempt on his face, rather… curiosity? Acknowledgment?
"Issei Hyoudou," his voice sounded level. "Wielder of the Red Dragon Emperor. It seems you still have a long way to go to awaken your true power."
He smirked.
"But don't relax. I, Vali, the White Dragon Emperor, am your eternal rival. And I will be waiting for our battle. Get stronger, Red Dragon. Otherwise… it won't be interesting."
With those words, he turned, and a complex Grigori teleportation circle flared beneath his feet. A moment later, Vali Lucifer, along with Kokabiel and Freed, disappeared in a flash of white-blue light.
Silence reigned once again in the schoolyard. The main villain had been defeated and taken away. But Vali's appearance and his words thrown at Issei made it clear: this was only the end of one chapter. And the beginning of a new, even more dangerous and unpredictable story. The story of the rivalry between the two Heavenly Dragons.