The air shook, and there was a buzzing in my ears. Kokabiel emitted an air wave from his other hand and made Xenovia’s body float. Then Kokabiel kicked Xenovia’s stomach. “Gaa!”
Xenovia flew back with an anguished cry. “It depends on the wielder. Girl! You still can't control Durandal! The previous wielder was someone who had unrivalled strength!”
Xenovia adjusted her stance in the air and landed on the ground. She then went on slashing towards him once again. I also continued slashing towards him at the same time! “Kokabiel! I will eliminate you with my Holy-demonic sword! I'm not allowed to lose anyone any more!”
“Ho! Attacks at the same time from a Holy-sword and a Holy-demonic sword! Interesting! Good indeed! Come! You can't defeat me unless you do that much!”
Kokabiel created another sword of light with his other hand, and clashed with our swords! My holy-demonic sword. Xenovia’s Durandal. He was taking on our attacks as if it was nothing. Ku! Even in terms of swords, Kokabiel was above us! “There!”
Koneko-chan thrust her punch from behind him…
“Naïve!”
His black wings turned into sharp blades and cut up Koneko-chan’s body. Her body fell down to the ground, while blood came out of her body. “Koneko-chan!”
“Hey, looking away while fighting will easily get you killed!”
I let my guard down because of the damage Koneko-chan took, and Kokabiel’s sword of light came at me. GIIIIN! “Wha…!”
A crack appeared on my Holy-demonic sword! Ku! The strength of the solidness depended on my thinking. If I lost my concentration for a moment, then for that period of time, the hardness of my sword will go down as well. He grasped into that slight instant. DON! Xenovia and I were helpless against the shockwave created by Kokabiel’s body, which sent us flying. I somehow fixed my stance…… But Xenovia and I were breathing hard. ……We can’t win. That’s what went through my mind. The power difference between us is absolute. Even though I reached Balance-Breaker, there is still this much difference. The leader of the fallen-angels. He’s this strong!? No! I have to put that thought aside! We have to win! We can’t survive unless we win! I will win and live on! Asia-san and Ise-kun went to Koneko-chan’s side. Asia-san’s Sacred Gear activated and started to heal Koneko-chan’s wounds. That’s a relief. With this, Koneko-chan’s life will be safe. “Kokabiel! It’s not over yet!”
I put strength into my Holy-demonic sword and stood up again! The crack on my sword disappeared and I went forward slashing towards him with no flaws! “Hahaha! You still come at me? All right! Come!”
“Holy-demonic sword.”
ZAN! I surrounded the fallen-angel by making swords covered with holy and demonic aura. With this I made my opponent stuck in that position. The only thing left was to attack then! “You think you’ve captured me with this?”
The 10 wings of Kokabiel, who was smirking, started to become like swords and began breaking the swords around with ease. Ku! It didn’t work! I went forward slashing at him from the front. But the fallen-angel didn’t flinch at all, and he stopped my Holy-demonic sword with just two fingers! “Is this it?”
Kokabiel sighed. My Holy-demonic sword that had been stopped couldn’t be moved at all! I created another Holy-demonic sword but that was also stopped with his other two fingers…… It’s not over yet! I opened my mouth wide, and imagined to create a Holy-demonic sword around my mouth. The third one! I held the grip with my teeth, and moved my neck to the side roughly! It seemed like he didn’t think of the third strike. He let go of my swords and stepped back. Did he receive damage from that attack just then? When I checked Kokabiel, there was a single scratch on his cheek. There was a bit of blood coming out of it. Even with that attack, I could only give him that much damage. So this was the power of one of the top echelons of fallen-angels…… Everyone here was making expressions of despair and breathed violently. Only Kokabiel who was at an advantage was smirking. “But. Seeing that even after losing the masters you serve, you devils and followers of God can still fight, huh!”
Suddenly Kokabiel spoke. What was he trying to say? “……What do you mean?”
Buchou asked with doubt. Kokabiel started laughing aloud as if he found it truly amusing. “Fuhaha, fuhahahahahahahahahaha! That’s right! I totally forgot! The truth wasn’t revealed to you lower guys! Then I will tell you. In the war between the three sides, not only the Yondai-Maou but also God died.”
……! ……Wh…what…… What did he just say……? Everyone here was shocked and couldn’t believe what he just said. “It’s normal for you guys to not know about it. Who can say that God has died? Humans are an incomplete bunch. Without God, they cannot control their hearts and obey the laws, you know? Even us, the fallen-angels, and devils couldn’t tell this to those below us. You won’t know where the information about God will be leaked from. Even among the three-powers, only the people at the top and certain people know about it. Though it seems Balba noticed it earlier.”
……God didn’t exist any more? No……that couldn’t be…… It was impossible……… Then what did we believe in while living in that institute……? “After the War, what was left were the angels who had lost their God, the devils that lost their Maou and the majority of high-class devils and the fallen-angels who lost most of the fallen-angels apart from the leaders. So it wasn’t a mere exhausted state. All of the factions fell so low, that they had to rely on humans to continue their generations. Especially the angels and fallen-angels that could only continue their generation by mating with humans. Fallen-angels can increase if the angels fall. But pure-angels can’t increase their numbers after losing God. Even pure-devils are rare, right?”
“……Lies………it’s a lie………”
Slightly further away from me, Xenovia seemed like she started losing strength. She had a panicked expression that was too unbearable to look at. The active believer. God’s servant. A person who lived by serving God as her mission. If the existence of God was rejected and she lost the means to live, it would be natural to become like that. Even I…… I would be biting my lips thinking what my life meant. “The truth is that another big war wouldn’t happen unless you do it on purpose. It means that all three-sides went through hell in the past war. Everyone decided that it was meaningless to continue having a war if the start of it all, God and the Maou, were dead. Even that bastard Azazel declared that “there is no second war” after losing the majority of his men in the war! It’s hard to bear! It truly is hard to bear! To lower your gun once you already shot it!? Don’t fuck around. Don’t fuck around! If we continued on from there, we could have won! Even so, he...! Is there any value in fallen-angels who can only live by inviting humans who possess Sacred Gears! ?”
Kokabiel declared his argument strongly. His face was expressing anger.