If it were anyone else doing something this manipulative, what Raize would be holding in his hand wouldn't be this little cat—it would be a severed head.
So he let Kuroka finish what she wanted to do and then hurry up and get lost.
"Mm…"
Koneko was left dazed by the sudden change in the situation. After coming back to her senses, she wanted to struggle, but her entire body was unable to move.
She could still speak and make facial expressions, but after being glanced at by Raize's cold and oppressive gaze, everything she wanted to say was completely swallowed by fear.
And so, in front of her older sister, she could only look pitiful and helpless.
"Bastard! Let go of Koneko!!"
Issei, whose brain finally caught up with what was happening, saw that Koneko he was supposed to protect had been suddenly snatched away. He immediately snapped. Even knowing how strong the opponent was, he still charged forward without hesitation.
Whoosh—!!
The green jewel embedded in the crimson, ferocious gauntlet on Issei's arm emitted a blinding light. As he swung his fist at Raize with reckless abandon, several crimson demonic bullets streaked through the air, drawing arcing trajectories as they flew in.
"Heh…"
Raize casually handed Koneko in his grasp over to Kuroka for her to hold, completely unconcerned about Issei's attack.
Holding the immobile little cat, Kuroka glanced at the unconcerned Raize and likewise had no intention of intervening.
Her indifferent gaze lightly swept over the incoming crimson demonic bullets, and in the next instant, an invisible surge of spiritual pressure crushed outward.
Before the bullets could even get close to Raize, they completely dissipated.
Like colorless alcohol evaporating under the blazing sun, they vanished from sight in an instant.
"I won't let you take Koneko!"
Issei wasn't the only one who cared about his companions. Kiba was the same. Suppressing the fear in his heart, he entered high-speed movement, manifested a demonic sword in his hand, and attacked from the flank.
The demonic sword, radiating an ominous aura of energy, swayed with cursed and corrupt fluctuations as it slashed diagonally toward Raize. The attack was so fast that it couldn't even be captured by the naked eye.
Faced with the high-speed strike, Raize made no move at all. The look he gave his opponent was like that of an adult watching a baby learning how to walk.
In his eyes, this so-called speed was simply laughable—and childish.
Clang—
Allowing the demonic sword to strike his neck, Kiba saw with his own eyes that the attack landed, and he could indeed feel that he had hit something—but the sensation in his hands sent a chill through his spine.
"Haah!"
Kiba gripped the demonic sword with both hands and began to pour strength into it, pressing it against Raize's neck.
The demonic sword was stuck there, unable to move an inch. It hadn't even cut a single strand of Raize's hair.
At such close range, staring directly into Raize's eyes—eyes so indifferent they held not a trace of emotion—Kiba felt that although Raize's gaze was directed at him, he wasn't truly being seen.
As if he were nothing more than a self-overestimating moth flying into a flame.
"A sword wielded with fear cannot injure me."
Raize raised his hand and lightly rested it on the demonic sword pressed against his neck. When his fingers moved ever so slightly, force at a microscopic, cellular level instantly spread out.
Sensing something was wrong, Kiba instinctively released the hilt of the sword—but he was a fraction of a second too late.
The demonic sword abruptly turned into fine dust, and along with it, Kiba's finger, which hadn't left the hilt in time, also burst into a mist of blood.
"Boost!"
"Transfer!"
Seeing Kiba about to suffer disaster, Issei immediately switched to a support role, directly transferring the boosted power to his companion.
When they trained together, they had naturally practiced teamwork as well.
"Try this!"
With support from his companion's power, Kiba refused to give up, as if he suddenly felt he could do it again.
Enduring the minor injury to his hand, he drew on the transferred power and released his demonic energy at full output.
The Sacred Gear Sword Birth immediately demonstrated its effects. Hundreds of demonic swords manifested around him and shot forward, while even the ground erupted with swords thrusting up like bamboo shoots after spring rain.
Kuroka, holding Koneko, instantly moved backward to take a position. As someone who had teamed up with Raize before, she naturally knew just how strong he was. If this kind of attack actually worked, that would be strange.
The swarm of demonic swords fired like a rain of arrows, while another torrent surged across the ground like a landslide.
Aiming at Raize's vital points all over his body, they seemed intent on skewering him like a hedgehog. An ordinary person would have been doomed beyond redemption in the face of such an assault.
But the current Raize had already begun to move beyond the definition of "human."
Eternal Destruction had transformed him into a "Demon."
Anyone who used this ritual would suffer chronic murderous impulses as a side effect. But for Raize, who possessed the trait of Nothingness, this was nothing.
The human souls he slaughtered would be devoured by the holy relic.
And those devoured souls, as a spiritual armor entwining the user, would proportionally enhance the user's defensive power.
Raize hadn't even had the chance to kill many ghouls yet, but the extraordinary quality of his soul went without saying.
High-pressure fluctuations of Soul constantly circulated around him.
So, at the instant the sword tips touched Raize's skin—
Click—!!
Crisp cracking sounds rang out in unison, like fragile glass shattering.
The demonic swords, brimming with killing intent, lost all meaning the moment they made contact. They left nothing behind on Raize—let alone injuring him.
He couldn't even be bothered to move. Why still fail to see the gap?
Fragile—far too fragile. Having companions by your side gives you the courage to swing a sword despite fear? Then what use is that power?
In front of Raize, these demonic swords were like scraps of paper. Even if their number reached into the billions, it would be meaningless, because these swords were hollow.
Shattered fragments of demonic swords scattered through the air. The mirror-like shards reflected the shocked expressions of Kiba and Issei.
"Hehehe…"
A trace of ridicule suddenly appeared on Raize's otherwise indifferent face. The way he looked at Kiba was like he was watching a ridiculous clown.
He slightly raised his hand, pinching a small shard of a broken demonic sword, and suddenly spoke.
"I… want revenge! Why was I the only one who survived…? Right—someone like me, who houses the Sacred Gear Sword Birth, doesn't match so-called holy swords at all, does it? Then my enemy must be the so-called 'holy swords'! The mission of the one who survived is to destroy holy swords"
These sudden, inexplicable words stunned Rias and stirred the twisted emotions deep within Kiba's heart.
Those were his inner goals and thoughts. Could this man read minds!?
Staring in disbelief at Raize, who was speaking to himself while looking at him with mocking eyes, Kiba then heard words that completely robbed him of his sanity.
"Your family-like companions died, so you seek revenge against holy swords? Revenge against the swords held in people's hands as weapons—or revenge against holy swords that can't even resist? What a laughable way to escape reality."
Raize possessed mind-reading abilities like Eu's, but he normally had no need to use them. However, when this fool thought that having companions made him capable again—
Even without actively reading his mind, the swords he attacked with already carried information, since they were demonic swords constructed from his own imagination.
Raize mocked this fellow who also carried a so-called revenge backstory: companions died, so he takes revenge on "holy swords."
It was like saying a bandit shot and killed someone's family member, and instead of taking revenge on the bandit, the person seeks revenge on the gun.
What—do you want a world with no guns at all (no holy swords)?
Every time a holy sword appears, you destroy it, just to satisfy your hollow sense of revenge?
What a pathetic coward. A sword like that has no right to appear before him—disgusting trash.
"What are you even swinging—demonic swords? Why do they look more like blunt knives? And using a blunt knife to cut me… you and your sword both have no core."
You and your sword both have no core.
This merciless ridicule and mockery twisted Kiba's expression.
The dignity of a swordsman was trampled and crushed without mercy. His so-called inner goal was stripped bare and degraded to nothing. In the other man's eyes, he was nothing but a pathetic sissy.
Struck simultaneously at his identity as a swordsman and at his deepest emotional wounds, Kiba's eyes instantly bloodshot, veins crawling across them.
"What the hell do you know—!?"
With his will denied, Kiba looked like a crazed beast. He once again manifested demonic swords and rushed at Raize, swinging them wildly in a desperate frenzy.
But this time, he couldn't even make contact. The demonic swords shattered completely.
One sword after another broke apart. Kiba kept manifesting new ones—one shattered, then he grabbed another.
Unwillingness and rage seeped into the blades.
Why!? Why!?
Why can't I hit him anymore? My demonic swords are not blunt knives!
In Raize's eyes, Kiba was nothing more than a shrieking clown, baring his fangs and claws in utter weakness and absurdity.
"Your will and your sword are equally ugly. Looking at them makes me sick."
This guy's background is a bit similar to mine? Who the hell is the coward running from what truly matters!?
Raize's icy gaze erupted with a ferocity so intense it felt tangible. A strange force of separation exploded outward with the murderous glare of his eyes.
Just a gaze… merely a gaze could do this!?
By the time Kiba realized it, it was already too late.
He could no longer feel what was happening to his body.
Everything was being stripped away from him. As part of a reincarnated devil, the Sacred Gear Sword Birth within him—and all of his demonic power—were forcibly separated out.
In an instant, it was as if he had been cast down to the mortal world, all supernatural power abandoning him.
Kiba felt as though the world had been thrown into a washing machine, spinning violently. He couldn't even sense his own body anymore.
It was like being hit head-on by a high-speed train.
With countless bones shattered beyond counting, Kiba was blasted away like a cannonball, slamming straight into the unreacting Issei. Together, they were launched like projectiles, as if about to be flung completely out of the school.
Fortunately, Grayfia intervened in time, using a spell to teleport them back. Otherwise, the two of them would truly have been blown out of the boundary.
"Issei! Yuuto!"
Rias's expression was frantic as she immediately ran to the unconscious Issei and to Kiba, whose limbs were twisted as he lay passed out.
Grayfia stared in shock at the objects floating before Raize—masses radiating demonic energy fluctuations: the Sacred Gear Sword Birth and a cluster of demonic power.
All of it belonged to Kiba!
Looking down carefully at the unconscious Kiba, Grayfia could sense that aside from having his Sacred Gear stripped away, he was no longer a reincarnated devil.
He was merely a severely injured, dying human.
To have something so vital taken away with nothing but a glance—Grayfia now truly understood just how dangerous this place was.
Not encountering those giant dragons was one thing, but running into a human with this kind of power…
"Sir, please stop. We have no intention of continuing this conflict. Take Koneko and leave as you wish."
"Grayfia!?"
Rias and Akeno looked at Grayfia in disbelief. They couldn't believe such words had come from her mouth. Even Riser, who was just watching the spectacle, raised an eyebrow.
This meant yielding—and even abandoning Koneko, allowing the other party to take her away?
"If you're leaving, then hurry up and take these nuisances with you."
Raize cast Grayfia a cold glance, erased everything before him except Sword Birth, casually stored it away, and turned to walk toward Kuroka.
He truly had no intention of continuing to fight. In fact, he had never been interested in these people to begin with.
If they could take Rias and the rest away, all the better—it spared him the trouble of using force.
"No. I will never abandon my servants. I will never abandon Koneko!!"
Having her servant taken away was something Rias would absolutely not allow. She could not stand by and watch Koneko be taken.
Destructive demonic power surged around her, crimson demonic energy wrapping around her full, graceful body.
Suddenly, abandoning all restraint, Rias raised her hand toward Raize and clenched it.
A crimson beam of destructive demonic power shot out.
Grayfia was nearly driven mad with anger by Rias's action.
Do you think I retreated for nothing? Even if I fought him myself, what could you weaklings do—line up one by one to die?