"Impossible…"
Archangel Michael stared at Adrien with wide eyes. He could not sense a single trace of energy leakage from him. From what he knew, the young man standing before him had to be Adrien Agares, the devil who defeated Kokabiel. But then why could he sense no energy from him at all?
'Don't tell me… his body is perfect… No, that can't be. Only the Lord was perfect. But if not that, then what could it—'
"What you're thinking is completely right, Michael," Adrien said with a smirk, cutting through the archangel's thoughts.
Silence fell over the room. Akeno was still holding Adrien tightly. Michael seemed unable to speak, while Issei stayed quiet because of how awkward the situation had become.
"I'll leave you three to finish your business," Adrien said.
Michael quickly regained his composure. "No, please stay. Adrien, right? I would like you to be present for this."
"I'd really rather leave. This sounds like a drag," Adrien said. Then he looked down and saw Akeno staring at him as if asking him to stay with her. "Fine…"
Adrien sat on a tatami mat beside Akeno. Michael's eyes lingered on him for a moment before turning back to Issei.
"As I was saying earlier, I came to give you this Holy Sword," Michael said calmly. "This is the dragon-slaying blade, Ascalon. It once belonged to Georgius—though you likely know him better as Saint George."
Issei blinked in confusion. Before he could reply, Ddraig's voice echoed inside his mind.
'Oi, partner... that's no ordinary sword.'
"We have already performed a special rite," Michael continued, his tone steady and dignified. "Even as a devil, you should now be able to draw upon the dragon's power within it. More precisely, it may be possible for you to assimilate it into the Boosted Gear."
Issei stared at him. "Wait... hold on. That's actually possible!?"
Adrien gave a lazy shrug, leaning back slightly.
"That depends on you," he said. "Sacred Gears react to their owners' will. If you want it badly enough, it'll probably work."
Akeno glanced between them with interest, while Michael remained composed.
"Why are you giving me this?" Issei asked suspiciously.
It was a fair question. Why would Michael do something like this? He was a devil now, the enemy of all angels. On top of that, he was also the vessel of Ddraig, one of the two Heavenly Dragons who had caused enormous trouble during the Great War.
Michael, however, simply smiled.
"I see the upcoming conference as a chance for the three great factions to work together," he said. "You already know this, so I have no reason to hide it. Our creator—the Lord—died during the last Great War. The former Demon Kings also perished. As for the fallen angels, their leaders do not speak openly about it, but even Azazel has admitted that he has no desire to start another war. This is an opportunity for all of us. If we continue clashing with one another, the three factions will slowly weaken and may one day fade away. And even if that does not happen, another force could rise and destroy us if we do not learn to cooperate."
Michael then looked directly at Issei. "That is why I am offering this Holy Sword as a personal gesture of goodwill to the devil faction. Naturally, I have extended the same goodwill to the fallen angels as well. Your leaders also returned the Holy Swords that were stolen from us, and for that, we are deeply grateful."
"What do you mean by separate forces...?" Issei asked, looking confused again.
"There are other mythological systems beyond the one in the Bible," Akeno explained gently. "Normally, they stay within their own territories and do not interfere with ours. They also made a clear non-aggression pact with the three factions. But now that the Biblical God is gone, no one can say for certain what they might do. That is one of the reasons why the three factions do not publicly reveal His death."
Even after that, Issei still looked lost.
"Rias can give you the history lesson later, so let's just get this over with," Adrien said, looking bored.
Michael gave a small smile and brought the conversation back on track.
"What matters right now is the sword itself," he said. "We performed the final adjustments here at this shrine. Azazel, the Demon King, and I each carried out the necessary rites so that even a devil may wield it, provided they possess the power of a dragon."
Issei cautiously reached for the Holy Sword floating in the air.
"Focus on the Boosted Gear, kid. I'll handle the rest. Sync that blade with the energy of your Sacred Gear," Ddraig's voice echoed in his mind.
Issei focused and activated the Boosted Gear, causing the red gauntlet to appear over his arm. Then he concentrated on aligning the Holy Sword with the energy inside it.
The sword's holy aura flowed into the Sacred Gear, passed through it, and entered his body.
Sacred Gears could act like external energy points. If energy could be released through them, then it could also be drawn in through them. It was the same basic idea as when Adrien poured demonic energy into Xenovia through her energy points.
Flash!
A burst of red light exploded outward, and the Holy Sword fused with his Sacred Gear.
Michael brought his hands together with a warm smile. "Then it seems my work here is done."
"U-um, I want to talk to you about something." Issei said.
"Come to the conference. You can tell me afterward. I assure you, I'll hear you out."
Making those his final words, Michael's body erupted in light. When the flash died down, the archangel was gone.
--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>
"Some tea."
"Th-thank you."
Akeno poured a cup for Issei, then returned to sit beside Adrien.
"S-so... how long have you two been this close?" Issei asked awkwardly, glancing between them.
Adrien looked completely unbothered, casually scrolling through his phone. Akeno, on the other hand, had a faint blush on her face.
"Well... for now, it's a little one-sided," Akeno said boldly, though her smile stayed soft. "But I'll win him over soon enough."
Her eyes shifted to Adrien's side profile.
"And aren't you going to tell us where you were?" she asked. "You disappeared after confronting the White Dragon. We thought something had happened to you. Your Familia was very worried... especially Celia and Mahiru."
Adrien slipped his phone into his pocket and replied flatly, "As if he could beat me."
"He looked really strong, though," Issei said, leaning forward with interest. "If the two of you fought, would you lose?"
Adrien frowned for a moment, then a smirk slowly spread across his face. "Was that question just a coincidence?" he asked.
Issei smirked back. In that instant, it felt like the two of them were completely on the same wavelength.
"Nah," Adrien said confidently. "I'd win."
Akeno seemed confused as she switched glances between the two, they both seemed to be grinning for some reason.
Issei suddenly slammed both hands onto the floor and leaned forward. "Gojo or Sukuna?"
Adrien answered without hesitation. "My blue-eyed, white-haired king, obviously."
"But one of your techniques is basically like Sukuna's, isn't it?" Issei shot back.
"Yeah," Adrien said with a shrug. "And I've got another one that's more like Gojo's. Anime gives you a stupid amount of ideas. There are thousands of characters, so of course you end up taking inspiration."
Akeno blinked, looking genuinely surprised. "You actually base your techniques on anime?"
"Sure," Adrien replied casually. "I'm even working on a new one right now."
Issei's eyes lit up at once. "Wait, then can you explain your teleportation technique? It's basically like Flying Raijin from Naruto, right?"
"When people normally teleport, they either move from one teleportation circle to another, or they create a circle at a location they can picture and jump there," Adrien said. "But even then, it still takes around two seconds for the circle to fully form. In a real fight, that's too slow. So instead of using teleportation circles, I move through storage spaces."
"What!?" Akeno's eyes widened in shock. "How does that even work!?"
"I use a tiny amount of demonic energy to let myself get pulled into the storage space," Adrien explained calmly. "Before that, I already prepare an exit for myself on the other side. Storage spaces can't handle a large amount of energy, so the moment I enter, the space forces me back out through the nearest open hole."
Both of them went silent.
After a moment, Akeno spoke again, still trying to process it. "But how do you even get pulled in? Wouldn't your demonic energy create a repelling force instead?"
"I didn't want to reveal it," Adrien said as he raised his hand, "but I guess it was going to come out sooner or later."
"Huh? I don't see anything," Issei said, squinting at his hand.
"The ring...?" Akeno asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
There was a silver ring on Adrien's middle finger. It looked plain—almost ridiculously ordinary.
"That's the one," Adrien said. "An artificial Sacred Gear I made myself. It's still incomplete, though."
Akeno and Issei's eyes widened at the same time.
"What...?" Issei muttered.
"You made a Sacred Gear?" Akeno asked, unable to hide her shock.
"I've always been interested in Sacred Gears, so I tried making one," he said. "It turned out to be way harder than I expected. This ring's ability is simple in theory: when I activate it, I can reverse the way something is supposed to work."
Neither of them interrupted him now. "It sounds overpowered and yeah, it is. But it's still unfinished. Forget a Balance Breaker—I can't even apply it to everything yet. As you know, the world is built on laws, formulas, and structure. In other words, math. Everything around you follows a certain formula, whether it's physical or supernatural. What this Sacred Gear does is reverse that formula."
Issei stared at him blankly, but Akeno was following closely.
"If heat is reversed, hot becomes cold. If size is reversed, big becomes small," Adrien said. "But what do you think happens when a formula gets reversed without any proper base to support it?"
Akeno's expression sharpened as she understood first.
"It would collapse..." she said quietly.
Adrien smirked. "Exactly. It would collapse. So I started thinking, why not translate formulas into magic circles instead? Magic circles can be reversed, so I began converting formulas into them."
"Some things worked, and some didn't. It mostly depends on how complex the target is. The simpler and more stable the formula, the easier it is to reverse. A storage space, for example, is built on a fairly constant formula that doesn't change much, so it was one of the easier things to work with."
Adrien raised his hand slightly, glancing at the ring on his finger.
"Using demonic energy, I created a formula that reverses the storage magic circle and inscribed it into the ring. So now, whenever I pour demonic energy into it, the ring activates automatically and reverses the storage system. Instead of pushing things out, it pulls me in—along with anything I'm touching—and then, once it deactivates and the storage returns to normal, it ejects us through the exit I prepared beforehand."
"When I want to teleport something, I just place the reversed magic circle on it and activate it. It gets pulled in, then I open an exit while deactivating the circle. Of course, anything being drawn in and pushed back out needs to have some kind of energy of its own, or at least be infused with energy first."
"So that means you've memorized the coordinates of every exit?" Akeno asked stupefied.
"Yeah when you have my mind, it's not that hard." Adrien waved his hand dismissively.
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Yo, the next few chapters are going to be yap chapters but they're important for the plot and to explain shit, after it the fights are going to be nice.