Cid was well aware that his body's senses were rather dull. He knew that much about himself. Even so, he still believed his detection ability was second to none, and the two were not contradictory.
If someone attacked him from behind, the left, or the right, then unless the attack was strong enough for his body to sense it as a threat or loud enough to make an enormous noise, no matter how flashy it was, Cid would not notice it at all.
Because there was no need to care.
But by the same logic, if the attack was not coming from a blind spot and was instead right in front of him, then he certainly did not mind sparing a little attention to take a look.
A thunderous crack rang out in the sky, and a dense swarm of lightning lashed down toward the Devils on the ground. Every single bolt was as thick as a bucket.
"BOOM. "
The lightning crashed down, blasting apart the concrete around them and kicking up clouds of dust several meters high.
In just that one strike, more than thirty out of the group of over forty went down. Some of the weaker ones were nearly killed on the spot.
"Cough, cough, cough. Akeno, Koneko, Yuto, Sona, are you all alright?!"
When the attack came, Rias had been near the back of the group. She reacted in time, pulled Cid over, and raised a barrier that barely blocked the strike. Coughing a few times, she looked at the ruined surroundings blasted apart by lightning and shouted loudly.
"Cough. Rias, I'm fine. Koneko seems to have passed out, though. Yuto is up front, but with his physical condition, he should be alright too."
Holding the unconscious Koneko in one hand, Akeno Himejima used magic power to blow away the dust and looked up at the sky with an ugly expression.
"Ugh... dizzy. My body feels numb."
Having quickly pretended to be blown to the ground by the blast and deliberately gotten blood from the fallen Devils on himself to cover up the blood plasma he had already burst apart before the lightning landed, Cid swayed as he stood back up.
What rotten luck. The blood plasma was wasted, and because of Rias's barrier, he could not even pretend he had been knocked unconscious.
"This is Holy Light..."
Looking grimly at the glow lingering around the wounds, Tsubaki Shinra identified the source of the attack.
"What exactly is your Church trying to do? Start a war?"
Looking up at the figure in the sky with five pairs of white wings spread wide, Sona Sitri shouted angrily.
Whether it was this massive area attack carried out in public, or the pure Holy Light itself, both were enough for Sona Sitri to judge who the attacker was.
As though he had heard Sona Sitri's voice, the figure in the sky beat his wings and descended to the ground.
The true form of that figure with five pairs of wings was a blond, green-eyed young man with gentle features.
But at this moment, the tension in his face ruined that natural gentleness. His eyes were cold as he stared at the people still standing.
As the young man landed, several fully armed Church personnel in white coats appeared around them as well.
The instant they saw the young man's face clearly, both Rias and Sona Sitri's expressions changed drastically. Their entire bodies tensed as they watched him warily.
"Captain Rias, you know him?"
Cid did not recognize the young man, but seeing how wary Rias was, he put on a cautious pose himself and asked.
"Yes. My brother specifically told me about him. The Joker among Heaven's reincarnated playing cards, wielder of the second strongest Longinus, [Zenith Tempest], Dulio, who became an Angel after reincarnating and is known as Heaven's trump card. It's said he has strength enough to fight a Devil King [SS]..."
Seeing the confusion on Cid's face and on some of the others present, Rias quickly began explaining the young man's background, in case they ended up fighting.
And when they heard that he wielded the second strongest Longinus, [Zenith Tempest], and possessed Devil King-class strength, everyone still capable of moving sucked in a sharp breath.
Either one alone was a terrifying label that would draw attention anywhere. Put together, they made his strength unquestionably monstrous.
"This one person alone is enough to put the entire Underworld on full alert, let alone..."
At that point, Rias paused. Her expression darkened as she swept her gaze around at the Church warriors surrounding them, and the color drained even more from her face.
"These are all famous Church warriors as well. Even the weakest among them has a record of defeating an Upper-Class Devil [A] in single combat. You could say that, aside from those two legends, the Church's highest-level combat forces are basically all here."
The more she said, the more Rias understood just how terrifying the force surrounding them was. Holy Light already countered Devils by nature. Against a lineup like this, even a Devil King-class Devil or a god would likely die here in a shower of blood.
"Heaven's trump card is openly attacking Devils in the outside world, and three of the targets are heirs of the Seventy-Two Pillars. Is Heaven... trying to tear up the ceasefire agreement?"
Moving past Sairaorg, the group silently and tacitly let Sona Sitri step forward, since she was the best negotiator among them. The rest who could still move gathered around her and stayed on guard.
"...Hand over the culprit."
Hearing Sona Sitri's voice, Dulio answered only with a cold voice heavy with anger.
"I'm very sorry, but we truly do not know what you mean. If possible..."
Sona Sitri exchanged a glance with Rias and Sairaorg. Seeing that neither of them knew what this was about either, she did her best to speak in a sincere tone.
"I think there may be some misunderstanding between us, so I hope we can sit down first and talk through everything that happened. As for this attack on us Devils, we can also..."
"Captain, there's no need to talk to this bunch of Devils. Just take them all down and interrogate them one by one."
Before she could finish, a young priest with spiky blond hair stepped forward, pointing at everyone present as he spoke in a voice full of hatred.
As if stirred up by the young priest's words, all the Church warriors surrounding them moved at once, holy light flaring from their bodies.
"Huff, huff..."
The sheer scale of the Holy Light made it hard for Rias and the others to breathe just by being in its presence.
Just as the atmosphere on the field became razor-sharp and both sides were on the verge of fighting, Dulio raised a hand and stopped the Church warriors.
"Yesterday, a group of men in black broke into our Churches around the world and stole the Excalibur enshrined there. Now... hand over the thief who stole our Excalibur. As long as this matter is settled, we'll leave immediately."
Dulio's voice was calm, but Rias and the others could all feel the unimaginable fury contained within it.
"Dulio-dono, we can understand the Church's anger over Excalibur being stolen, but that does not mean the Devils were responsible."
Boom-!!
A bolt of lightning tore across the sky, announcing Dulio's rage to everyone.
"We have evidence."
"Then please present it, Dulio-dono. A false charge is easy to make."
Dulio narrowed his eyes and stared straight at Sona Sitri as an intense burst of Holy Light erupted from his body.
Bathed in that Holy Light and pinned down by Dulio's aura, Sona Sitri felt as though a hammer had slammed into her head. Her vision went dark, and she instinctively tried to take a step back.
"Cough!"
A hand caught her just in time, keeping Sona Sitri from losing ground in this negotiation. The cough also snapped the Devils affected by the Holy Light back to their senses.
Sona Sitri shot Cid a strange but grateful look, then forced herself to stay alert and met Dulio's gaze without the slightest retreat.
Cid simply kept looking ahead as if nothing had happened. The Devils beside him were still affected by Dulio's Holy Light, so none of them noticed his small action just now.
Dulio gave Cid an odd look, noting that he hadn't been affected by the Holy Light at all. After a brief silence, he looked back at Sona Sitri and the others, retracted his wings and holy aura, and summoned a communication Magic Circle in his hand.
"You want proof? I'll give you proof."
A minute later, a lively girl with orange twin-tails hurried over from elsewhere and appeared on the scene.
"Irina Shidou. One of Excalibur's wielders, and one of the people attacked that day.
Irina, tell them what you sensed that day."
After briefly introducing the newcomer, Dulio issued his order to the girl who had just arrived, Irina Shidou.
"Mhm."
Irina Shidou nodded. A sword appeared in her hand as she turned to look at Rias and the others, her hateful gaze sweeping across the group. But when her eyes landed on Cid, surprise briefly flashed across her face.
Still, after that momentary pause, Irina Shidou quickly looked past him as though she didn't know him.
"That day, when the man in black attacked me and my partner Xenovia, I sensed the filthy aura of a Devil from him.
Later, during the battle, Excalibur also reacted violently to the aura on that man in black, which only confirmed my suspicion. Only an evil Devil could make Excalibur react that strongly."
As she spoke, the cord around Irina Shidou's arm transformed into a katana and pointed straight at Rias and the others. Sensing the Devil aura coming from Rias, the katana burst with intense Holy Light as well.
"What do you have to say for yourselves now..."
With Irina Shidou presenting her evidence, the Church warriors around them all grew more imposing, and intense Holy Light blazed from their weapons.
Sona Sitri wanted to argue that Irina Shidou was blinded by rage and that her testimony shouldn't count, but the situation was against them. Feeling the threat coming from those weapons, she took a deep breath.
"I'm very sorry, Dulio-dono. I never imagined that someone among us Devils would attack you and steal Excalibur. But as for this matter, most of us, myself included, were likely unaware of it.
And the actions of a few Devils cannot represent Devils as a whole. We Devils..."
"Are you saying that because you didn't know, this has nothing to do with you?"
No longer suppressing his anger, Dulio's eyes flew open wide as his furious voice rang out.
"No, we do not intend to deny it. Later, I will speak to my sister and Rias's brother and offer compensation worth at least the equivalent of Excalibur. After that, we can determine an appropriate amount based on the list of losses your side provides..."
Knowing that Irina Shidou would never lie about Excalibur, Sona Sitri chose to back down and revealed her and Rias's connections to the Four Great Satans of the Underworld.
"We do not need your compensation..."
He spoke one word at a time. By then, the sky had already been swallowed by black storm clouds.
"I do not want war, and I do not want to break the truce alliance among the Three Realms. So as long as you hand over the culprit and the mastermind, we'll leave immediately."
"We will hand over the culprit, but please give us a little time. We will give you a satisfactory answer."
"No. Today. I want to see the culprit and the mastermind today."
Dulio flatly rejected Sona Sitri's proposal. He knew far too well how these procedures between major powers worked, and he had no time to drag this out.
"You're asking the impossible..."
Standing to Sona Sitri's left, Rias had finally had enough after watching her best friend be suppressed by Dulio the entire time, both in momentum and in negotiation, and she spoke up in anger.
To avoid war, her best friend had already offered a treasure worth at least as much as Excalibur and promised to capture the traitor. Yet Dulio kept pressing them, demanding they hand over that person today. There was no way they could do that.
Dulio and the surrounding Church warriors said nothing. At the same time, they all locked their pressure onto their targets, and the Holy Light within them began to draw inward.
"Cough, cough. President Rias, I've got a little inside information. Apparently, this time the Church didn't just have Excalibur stolen. Before the culprit left, they inflicted the Church personnel with a contagious black blotch. It drains life force, and it spreads with terrifying efficiency. Even Michael-sama can only suppress it, not remove it."
After coughing a few times, Cid revealed the information he had gotten from Irina Shidou the night before.
The moment she heard that, Sona Sitri abruptly looked up at Dulio, wanting confirmation from him that it was true.
"Yes. He's right. Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, have already been infected. Among them are dozens of children only six or seven years old who had come to visit the church.
And now they're all lying in bed, on the verge of death, tortured by those black blotches. They're only still alive because Michael-sama and the others are suppressing it with Holy Power."
Dulio nodded as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him, but the five pairs of wings spread behind him and the bloodshot veins in his eyes made it clear that the fury in his heart had reached its limit.
"Wait. I can promise right now that we'll find the culprit today. We don't need..."
"Enough!"
A furious shout cut Sona Sitri off. Massive Magical Power gathered within Dulio's [Zenith Tempest], transforming into the purest lightning energy.
"You've made me realize something. There's no way you people can handle this. So now, I'm going to defeat all of you right here. After that, I'll deal with every Devil on this island, capture them all, and interrogate them one by one."
A thunder dragon more than ten meters thick burst out of the storm clouds and plunged toward Rias and the others, dense plasma crackling off its body.
At the same time Dulio moved, the Church warriors surrounding them also attacked, hurling all kinds of weapons formed from Holy Power.