Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. I know this chapter took a long time to be released but the thing is I have a lot on my plate these days, not to mention while writing I had so many ideas for this chapter, and actually putting them together was a lot harder than I was expecting. Still, I'm glad I was able to get so much done in this one. Hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX, and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.

"Shirou" Regular speech.

"Shirou" Thoughts.

DRAGON SHOT Attack names.

(Shirou) Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

[Ddraig] Dragon talking.

Black Magic And True Devil King's

—…

Inside the Kuoh Academy Old School Building, Ren was standing in the middle of the room that Koneko and Gasper were in when they were cornered by the Magicians. Fortunately, the two of them were now safe and sound, Gasper was sitting on the floor and Koneko was kneeling beside him. As for the Magicians, well….…

To put it bluntly, Ren's initial attack broke through any defensive magic they were capable of and immediately burned them to death. Now the room with littered with several scorched corpses in robes.

Ren sighed. "Well, that takes care of that."

"Ren-Senpai…" Gasper said quietly, still on the floor. "What should I do?"

"What are you talking about?" Ren asked though he had an idea on where this was going/

"I didn't want this, I hated that I had this power, but I tried coming to terms with it and wanted to use it to help the Chief and my friends, and yet…" Gasper grit his teeth as tears threatened to fall. "So much troubled has happened because of my weakness and I even got Koneko-chan dragged into it. I'm just a useless coward who can't help but hurt his friends."

"…Gya-kun." Koneko said softly with sympathy.

"Well, for starters you can get up off the floor." Ren offhandedly suggested. "Secondly, you can stop being so hard on yourself and not pin the blame on yourself for things that were beyond your control."

"W-What?" Gasper looked up at him surprised.

"We just met a few days ago, so we're not exactly close friends nor I am going out of my way to make you feel better, that's why you know what I'm saying is my unbiased opinion on the matter." Ren clarified before he began. "This problem may have been caused by your powers, by you have no real control over it, plus you had no way of knowing you'd be targeted and captured so this couldn't be helped. This was just the result of circumstances that you got dragged into, that's all."

"…He's right." Koneko agreed, placing her hand on his shoulder. "I'm here because I chose to be and I got captured because I couldn't beat those Magicians on my own, it wasn't your fault in any way."

"But still, I couldn't help you fight them." Gasper pointed out, still feeling down. "I wanted to learn how to use my Sacred Gear and become stronger, but I still can't do anything but let others protect me."

"Do you even hear how ridiculous you sound?" Ren rebuked him. "You spent years locked inside a room fearing your powers, and you only just started training with them for a day. If all it took to learn how to fight with a dangerous power like yours was just one or two days of practice, everyone would be unrivaled." He lectured him. "Feeling guilty about something and needlessly putting the blame on yourself are two different things."

Gasper heard his words and then just stayed silent, Koneko then stood up and held Gasper to his feet as well. Ren then turned to the door.

"If you really want to help, then let's go." Ren urged him. "Right now, odds are there's trouble going on at the conference room and someone other there know's how to unfreeze time." He pointed out. "So, let's go and find out for sure."

Gasper still looked down, but then looked up with a renewed spirit. "Okay."

His spirited reply made Koneko smile at him as the three of them walked out the door and headed for the Main School Building.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

As the Explosion Orb spell detonated inside the school building, there was now a large gaping hole in the wall and an equally large cloud of smoke. Appearing from the cloud of smoke was a virtually unharmed Cattleya Leviathan, the only real damage the spell seemed to have caused was a small burn on her shoulder.

"Well, that was mildly annoying." She commented the smoke soon faded.

When the smoke cleared completely, floating a few feet in the air at the center of the cloud was Mika, was still had a murderous expression glued to her face. Behind her, inside the remains of the conference room was a large, powerful, defensive barrier that was forming using the combined power of Michael, Sirzechs, and Azazel, with this barrier, everyone else in the room, including the people that were frozen were protected and untouched by the explosion.

Though, Cattleya just found it to be amusing. "Adorable; The Three Great Powers put up a defensive barrier together." She laughed, clearly mocking them. "Adorable and pathetic!" She then turned her attention to you. "Almost like you, I can't believe you're that same brat from all those years ago, but it makes sense that'd you'd be a worthless Low-Class Devil I suppose."

"You better savor those breaths, they'll be the last ones you ever take." Mika shot back, clearly not in the mood to play around.

Back in the conference room, the leaders lowered the barrier slightly by putting their arms down. Azazel then massaged his neck. "Geez, couldn't you have at least warned us that she was going to blow the place up, that could have been dangerous."

"Don't joke around." Shirou replied unconcerned. "You guys are the leaders of the Trinity Factions, aren't you? If you couldn't move faster than a medium-sized explosion, you'd be dead by now."

Azazel shrugged. "Harsh but true."

"Moving on, shouldn't we join the battle?" Sirzechs suggested with a serious tone. "Regardless of the situation, Cattleya is not an opponent to be taken lightly. It isn't safe to let Mika-kun face her alone."

"Unfortunately, we can't do much at the moment." Michael pointed out. "Us leaders need to keep our attention on holding this barrier to protect those who are still frozen in time until Ms. Rias' Bishop returns, we'll have to refrain from fighting until then."

Sirzechs grit his teeth before he turned to Azazel. "Azazel, if you switched places with Serafall then you could go and the barrier would still stand, wouldn't it?" He questioned.

"That would be an option, but let's save that as a last resort." Azazel grinned, acting as though everything was fine.

"What are you saying?" Serafall questioned him, narrowing her eyes. "You have no intention of fighting?"

"All of you shut up and watch."

They all turned their attention to Shirou who suddenly cut in, though he never once took his eyes off the back of his Sister who was facing off against the hostile Devil.

"Mika's a lot more capable than you all seem to think." He told them, also with a serious tone. "Just let her take care of it, she'll kill that secretary-looking cow no matter what."

"Shirou, it's not as simple as you're making this out to be." Rias went up to him, worried. "Cattleya Leviathan is a Devil King descendant that has the power of an Ultimate-Class Devil and she's a survivor of two Wars." She reminded him. "It's far too reckless to let Mika fight her without help."

Shirou turned to look her in the eye, one glance from his glare was all it took to silence her.

"Hate to break it to you, but after seeing how trashy Kokabiel was, I don't believe in hype anymore." Shirou brushed off her concerns. "Whether she can win or not can only be answered after seeing them fight, and I'm betting on my Sister." He told her adamantly.

"Shirou.…" Rias said not knowing what else to say.

"Not to take sides, but I also say we let her fight this one." Azazel chimed in, still laid back. "After all, it's not like you can talk either of them out of this. Besides, if it looks like she's bitten off more than she can handle, I'll intervene, will that satisfy you?"

Sirzechs still looked upset but relented. "I suppose that'll have to do."

Azazel looked back at the battlefield. "The Descendant of the former Maou Leviathan—One of the Monsters of the End Vs The Descendant of Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada—The Human who was chosen by God." He declared with fascination. "This fight might go down in history someday."

"It should be interesting to watch at least." Vali commented, watching with curiosity.

Back with Mika and Cattleya, as the two of them were squaring off. Mika was the first one to speak.

"Tell me, why did you come here today?" Mika asked like she was ordering Cattleya to speak. "I know it wasn't just to assassinate the leaders of Summit, you came here to make some kind of statement, so what is it?"

"Ha, I'm surprised you could figure that out, but why should I speak of my motivates to an insect, like you?" Cattleya cackled.

"Just tell me already." Mika told her annoyed. "I already know you just love hearing yourself talk."

Cattleya narrowed her eyes at her insult but spoke regardless. "If you must know; as I said before, we of the Old Satan Faction have joined hands with Ophis in order to fulfill our ultimate goal, which is world domination." She declared.

Mika narrowed her eyes at her. "What?"

"We will destroy this world and rebuild it into a new world for Devils!" Cattleya continued, announcing her grandiose plans loudly. "Then, Ophis will become the God of the new world. It's fine if he's just a symbol. The system and laws, the doctrine will be constructed by us. After all, this world is decaying and filled with foolish Humans, so we'll seize control and reform it ourselves, that will be our inheritance from the former Maou who—"

"Is this some kind of joke?" Mika interrupted her."

Cattleya stopped after being interrupted and turned her gaze to Mika. Anger clearly saturated Cattleya's expression and words. "What was that?"

"For as long as I can remember, I always imagined what kind of person you'd be." Mika went on. "But not once did I expect you to be just another copy and paste villain, this is so stupid." She hatefully mocked her.

Azazel who heard her words, held his stomach as he laughed. Vali looked amused and most of the others seemed surprised by her attitude, though Shirou's expression suggested that he both expected this and approved.

Meanwhile, Cattleya's eyes twitched and she angrily spoke. "You, a lowly wretched beast dare to insult me?"

"Can you blame me?" Mika sarcastically replied. "I mean, you came here by yourself, planning to assassinate others, yet you immediately reveal yourself to a group of people you know are stronger than you. On top of that, you say you want to take over the world even though you're just a bumbling, uncrowded successor to a dead lineage." Mika then taunts her with a smile. "It just sounds so.…. Stupid."

"She's not wrong." Shirou added.

Azazel tried harder to hold back his laughter. "Ku…Kukukukuku."

"You would ridicule us this far!"

Cattleya was enraged, and a magic aura was gushing out of her entire body. It was the atmosphere of an explosive situation.

"Tell me, why did you even start this 'mission' of yours?" Mika questioned her in a condescending fashion. "What are you hoping to achieve through taking over the world? What are you planning for a final outcome?"

Cattleya regained her composer as she answered. "That's simple. We're going to reclaim everything that was taken from us, our titles, our positions, and our thrones. As the descendants of the original Devil Kings we.… I am the one who truly deserves the title of Leviathan! I am the most suited! Me!" She declared hatefully as if she was shouting at the world.

"Cattleya-chan…" Serafall muttered.

"This is the result of surviving the Civil War." Sirzechs said with a hint of regret. "Still with nothing their hatred and reset consumed them, leaving this as the result. It's almost sad."

"Really?" Vali thought, looking at Sirzechs. "I think it's just pathetic."

Cattleya then continued. "After we've accomplished that, we'll begin reforming this world. Just as the original Maou did before, we'll attack our enemies and quickly wipe out all the Angels and Fallen Angels, along with subjugating the Humans and guiding their souls to Hell, and then we'll purge all of those filthy Half-Devils and reincarnated Devils." She then proudly held out her arms. "That's when this one will truly become a world made solely for Devils, and we'll be the Supreme Rulers of it."

The expression of most of the people in the room darkened as Michael said. "That's madness."

"If our races are to survive, the last thing we need is more large scale battles." Sirzechs agreed, glaring at her.

However, Mika's reaction was completely different from theirs.

"Do you even realize how ridiculous you sound?" Mika ridiculed, which quickly silenced her. "Your plan is one that lacks structure, detail, or any kind of game-plan that a child might as well have come up with it. And you yourself are an unstable person that sways between an outdated extremist with no ideology and an angry tween that hates society for petty reasons. How the Hell could anyone expect you to lead anything?"

"What would the likes of you know about what it means to rule?!" Cattleya angrily yelled.

"Apparently, more than you." Mika responded. "But clearly that's not saying much."

Cattleya glared daggers at Mika, her fists were clenched, she grits her teeth and flared up her darkness-orange Demonic-Aura that was gushing out of her body. "You've angered me one time too many, now I'll do what I should have done from the moment I saw you and take your life."

"I'm the one who's angry." Mika said, with ice-cold hatred as her purple-black Demonic-Aura covered her body. "My parents died because of you-people, and for what? It's not enough to kill you, I want you broken, beaten, and humiliated before you die!"

The two of them were enraged and wanted nothing more than to kill each other. It was the atmosphere of an explosive situation. Before they could begin, Sirzechs put down the barrier and took a step forward.

"…Cattleya, do you have no intention of surrendering?"

That was Sirzechs' final warning. Cattleya shook her head. "That is correct, Sirzechs. You were a good Devil King. However, you weren't the best Devil King. That's why we are aiming to be the new Devil King's."

"I see. That's too bad."

Seeing that confirmation, the Crimson Satan sighed before he recreated the defensive barrier around him and the others to keep them safe from the impending battle.

Mika unfurled her wings as levitated off the ground in order to be on eye level with Cattleya. The two of them rose in the air and suddenly Mika raised her hand to begin what would be the start of a great battle.

Mika began by summoning five magic-circles around her body and out from them fired five red lasers of Demonic-Power aimed at Cattleya.

Cattleya simply raised her hand and summoned a barrier, which easily blocked Mika's attack.

"What was that?" Cattleya taunted with a smile. "Don't tell me that's the best you can do?"

"Don't you worry, that was just a hello shot." Mika shot back.

"In that case, why don't I follow suit?" Cattleya then summoned a magic-circle and gathered her dark-orange Demonic-Power. "Hello!"

The Descendant of Leviathan proceeded to fire a blast of her own at Mika, only it was a single blast. Mika responded to summon a barrier as well, only this time, Cattleya's attack was much stronger than her's. Thus Mika put in a lot of her magic to reinforce her barrier. In the end, Cattleya's attack broke through and knocked Mika back a few feet, fortunately, the barrier absorbed the brunt of the attack and Mika herself was relatively unharmed.

Though that first exchange was enough to demonstrate the clear difference between the two of them in terms of Demonic-Power. All of Cattleya's anger had now been completely replaced with enjoyment at this point.

"I guess your bark is much stronger than your bite." She mocked with a grin.

"Don't get cocky." Mika warned her raising her arm again. "We're just getting started."

Cattleya raised her arm as well, at that point the two engaged in a fierce battle that lit up the dark sky with flashes of bright light.

While the two of them began their bitter battle, Sirzechs turned to Rias and what remained of her Peerage. "Myself, Michael, and Azazel will continue to hold the barrier around us. Mika-kun has Cattleya occupied we'll need you to keep the Magicians off our backs until Grayfia has finished analyzing the magic-circle they're using.

Rias nodded, fully grasping the situation. "I understand, Onii-Sama." She then turned to her two Knights. "Yuuto, Xenovia, can I count on the two of you to reduce the enemy forces?"

Without hesitation, Kiba nodded his head in confirmation. "Of course, Chief. Please leave it to us."

"We'll keep them off you." Xenovia stated confidently as she raised her Durandal in preparation.

"I'll go with you too!" Irina declared fiercely as she removed her white robes to reveal the same combat fatigue she wore when she was searching for the Excalibur blades with Xenovia.

"Are you sure you can work together?" Sirzechs asked as Irina joined the two Devil Knights, removing the frilly bracelet from her arm which then transformed into her Excalibur-Minic as she did so.

"Yes sir!" Irina declared with no hesitation. "Xenovia and I became friends when we were apart of Lord Michael's guard. All there of us have worked together before.

"Good. We're counting on you three to hold them off until Gasper returns and we can break the others free from his power." The Devil King instructed them before turning to Rias. "Rias, you stay here and wait for Gasper."

"Yes, of course." Rias accepted his instruction.

"Will you be joining us, Shirou-kun?" Kiba asked, turning to the Gremory Pawn.

"I'm staying here…" Shirou simply replied, never taking his eyes off the fight happening in the air.

Azazel then turned to Vali. "Vali, how about you?"

"I think I'll stay and watch as well." Vali answered, watching the fight with slight entertainment.

"Very well then." Rias then turned her attention to the three Sword-wielders in front of her. "The three of you will be responsible for dealing with the Magicians, we're counting on you."

The three of them nodded in return before charging forward and plunging into the schoolyard to begin their attack.

In the sky above the schoolyard, Mika and Cattleya's battle had now become serious and neither one of them was holding back. Cattleya held out both of her arms and unleashed another blast of Demonic-Power. This time it started out as a single, large blast, but then separated into six smaller ones that were spiraling towards Mika.

Mika put up another barrier in front of her in an attempt to block the attack, but when it made contact with her, the attack exploded. Cattleya looked pleased until she saw that there was no one there when the explosion cleared up, she then looked up and saw Mika was hovering above her a few feet away.

"Teleportation-magic huh?" Cattleya summarized, unconcerned. "I suppose it makes sense, she dodges because she's too weak to defend against my attacks."

"She's strong, no doubt about that, but still…" Mika started to analyze what she knew so far. "Strength aside her attacks all seem pretty one-dimensional. I wonder, could this work?"

Deciding to give it a try, Mika raised her arms and summoned five magic-circles around her, planning to use the same attack she fired at the start of this battle. Like before, she fired off five lasers at her foe.

Cattleya just looked at her as if she was a fool. "Are you honestly trying the same thing twice?" She summoned her barrier again. "It'll fail just like before."

However, this time as the lasers were halfway from reaching their target, Mika held her arms out and then crossed her arms around her chest. In response, her lasers all shifted and changed course, now bending in different directions, which confused Cattleya. The lasers continued to move in different directions until they were all behind Cattleya and before she could respond, they all moved in the same direction again and targeted right towards her back where she was defenseless. Hitting her perfectly on target and creating an explosion on impact.

Mika looked pleased by the result. "It worked, then my hypothesis was right which means I can exploit this."

The smoke from the attack so cleared up and Cattleya was still floating there, looking more pissed off than damaged—That's not to say she was hurt by that attack, for on her back was a large burnt mark that looked similar to a second-degree burn, but she didn't seem too concerned with it.

"Tch, such a nuisance." Cattleya complained before going back on the offensive. "But it'll take more than that to hinder me!"

This time Cattleya fired a large ball of Demonic-Power at Mika, but Mika was more than prepared and held up two fingers as she created another magic-circle.

Then with a wave of her hand, the ball of Demonic-Power Cattleya fired changed its course and flew off in a different direction, crashing into a horde of Magicians and killing them immediately.

Cattleya looked flabbergasted at what just happened.

"What in the world just happened?" Cattleya gasped.

"A lesson in magic." Mika answered, smugly looking down on her. "Magic, in essence, is simply calculation made in your head and activated using magic or Demonic-Power. However, if figure out the calculations your opponent uses to create their magic and re-define it then you and redirect and even change its course."

On the ground beneath them, the others could hear their conversation and Rias gasped when she heard Mika's words.

"That's right, Mika has done something like that before. It was back during the Rating Game, she was able to re-direct one of the explosions from Raiser's Queen." Rias remembered before she thought more about it. "But back then, it put a lot of strain on her to do it just once?"

"That was then." Shirou told her like it was obvious. "She's completely different from back then, we all are."

Rias processed his words before nodding. "Yes, you're right."

Back in the sky, Cattleya gritted her teeth at Mika's answer. "Don't screw with me. Only High-Level Magicians are capable of re-directing magic, there's no way you could accomplish the same thing."

"And yet you just same me do, I mean it's not like we just imagined your spell going off course, right?" Mika pointed out, smirking at her. "All it takes is figuring out your formula and knowing how to change it up."

"You're saying you already figured out the core of my magic?" Cattleya angrily questioned.

"Your core wasn't that deep, trust me." Mika mercilessly told her. "I'll be a good sport and admit you're stronger than me, but when Wizard-Types battle it isn't always the stronger one that wins, rather it's the one that's but at using their magic to their best of its abilities. And sadly for you, the only trick you know it aim and fire." She then raised her hand and summoned another magic-circle. "I on the other hand!"

TYPHOON TEMPEST!

From her magic-circle, Mika fired off a Wind-spell, and out from her hand came a strong tempest of wind that surrounded Cattleya and hit her with the force of a cyclone. It was like a miniature typhoon had formed around Cattleya and was threatening to push her back, but Cattleya was made of stronger stuff and was able to hold from and stop herself from being blown away, albeit with a little struggle.

"Grr, don't underestimate me!" Cattleya yelled through the gale. "It'll take more than a gust of wind to stop me!"

Mika summoned another magic-circle, overlapping the first. "Oh, I know."

MERGE; FREEZIA!

Upon her declaration, a strong ice-element spell was unleashed, and the blistering wind chilled to a sub-zero temperature and frozen, now becoming more akin to a raging blizzard surrounding Cattleya. The frozen wind swirled and ice-shards formed, it became so strong and thick that the one inside of it could no longer be seen.

After less than a minute, the blizzard burst apart and vanished like a gust of wind. The only thing that remained was a human-sized block of ice, in the exact shape of Cattleya Leviathan. At that point, gravity took effect and the frozen Devil began to plummet to the ground.

Mika watched it fall with pleasure. "Humans and Devils have almost the exact same anatomy and so being exposed to such extreme cold and harsh atmosphere without any kind of resistance would lead to the same result. The wind was a decoy to grab your attention and the suddenness of the blizzard was enough to pull the rug from underneath you."

As Mika calmly explained this, the frozen Cattleya was inching closer to the ground, but before it landed, a Demonic aura flared over it and like glass the ice shattered into nothing, setting Cattleya free. She then climbed back up in the air and stopped at the same altitude as Mika, glaring at her once again.

"It doesn't matter what trick you use, you're still too weak to actually hurt!" Cattleya declared, still looking hardly damaged at all.

"Whether I'm hurting you or not doesn't change the fact that my attacks are landing." Mika argued, still looking pleased. You may be a War-veteran, but the only fighting you know is straightforward direct combat. Meaning you aren't used to nor are able to keep up with unconventional, strategy based fighting, like me." She noted. "Basically, you're too one-dimensional."

"What difference does that make?" Cattleya questioned, narrowing her eyes. "Do you honestly believe you can stop me with cheap tricks and gimmicks? Don't insult the power of Leviathan."

"Tricks and gimmicks you say?" Mika asked, still sounding defiant. "It doesn't matter what you call them or how much damage they cause, the fact is they're still landing on you." She then squinted her eyes. "Now, I think I've gathered enough data on how you fight, it's time I start taking you apart, piece by piece."

Back on the ground, as most of the people still inside the building kept their eyes on the battle raging above them, Vali was now paying more attention to it. At first, he only watched with mild interest, but now he was giving it his full attention.

"I'm surprised she's doing so well against an opponent like that." Vali commented, trying towards Shirou. "Your Sister is quite impressive."

"Really? From my point of view, it's more like the other one is unimpressive." Shirou argued, though he never took his eyes off the fight that was still going on as they spoke. "Kokabiel and every other Pure-Blood Devil I've seen fights just like this, they're strong but they're so transparent. Even War-veterans fight like amateurs."

"Heh, I suppose you have a point." Vali looked back at the fight as well. "But can she really expect to win despite the lack of power?"

"It's like watching a fox face an eagle." Shirou told him, using an example. "Despite the fox being a strong able clever predator, the eagle uses its superior cunning and the technical advantage in the form of its wings to stay beyond the fox's reach and lowly tear away at the fox with its talons, until its ready to make the kill."

"But even if that is possible, the eagle only occasionally preys on the fox, and more often it's the fox that preys on the eagle." Vali pointed out. "So the question is; which predator will win on this occasion?"

"It's it obvious?" Shirou questioned like it wasn't worth thinking about.

"Hmph…" Vali shrugged, slightly amused. "Still I find it surprising, I assumed that given both of your intense hatred for the Old Satan Faction, you'd be more impulsive and lose control of yourselves." He casually noted. "I didn't expect you to be so composed, or her to be able to fight with such a clear mind."

"Don't underestimate us." Shirou warned him. "Vengefulness and hatred are a strong source of power, but if you can't control it you're just asking to make a mistake, which you can't afford to make during a death match." He explained. "We've been waiting our whole lives for the chance like this, there's no way she'd mess it all up by letting her rage swallow her."

"Is that so?" Vali questioned, not expecting that response but somewhat not convinced. "Well, let's see how long that lasts."

As the two Dragon Emperors finished their conversation, they went back to giving their full attention to the battle taking place in the sky above them.

SLICE! SLASH! SLICE!

Kiba used his speed and zipped from Magician to Magician. He stopped to cut one down—Making them disappear, then speeds over to the next one.

"Hyah!" Kiba roared as he cleaved through the protective barriers that the Magicians placed around themselves, cutting down the individuals behind the barriers.

He had lost track of how many Magicians he'd cut down throughout the course of this battle, though it mattered little considering that for each one he cut down two more would show up to replace them.

"There's no end to them!" Kiba exclaimed as he slashed another one.

"You're telling me!" Xenovia shouted back as she slashed a Magician, cutting yet another one down before she was forced into a defensive stance when a group of Magicians took note of her and began to unleash a barrage of magical bolts at her. She was forced to use her large Sword like a shield to defend against their attacks.

She was so caught up in defending herself from their onslaught that the blue-haired Swordsman failed to notice the Magician that snuck up behind her and was poised to deliver a lethal blow on her.

WHISH!

Suddenly, before the Magician could fire at her, a metallic ribbon appeared out of nowhere and wrapped itself around the Magician, catching her completely off guard. The owner of the metallic ribbon revealed herself to be Irina who leaped over the Magician and landed next to Xenovia, using her momentum to launch the Magician away and into the air before reforming her Sword back into a blade-like shape and cutting down more of them.

"Xenovia!"

"Irina!"

SLASH!

Xenovia cut down a Magician that was closing in and made them disappear.

Afterward, Xenovia landed next to Irina and the two Swordsman moved back until they were back-to-back as they held the enemy at bay.

"Thanks for that." Xenovia grunted out a 'thanks' as more Magicians were surrounding them.

"Why?" Irina surprised her with that questioned. "Why didn't you tell me the truth, Xenovia? That you weren't a traitor but had just been exiled."

"In order to tell you that, I would've also had to tell you that God was dead." Xenovia quietly explained. "I couldn't do that to you. And I didn't have the strength to tell you."

Irina gasped as she processed Xenovia's explanation, now having a full grasp on the situation.

"Irina?"

Steeling her resolve, she smiled. "Well, come on then. We can't let these talks be thwarted, right? Because if peace gets established then Devils won't be my enemy anymore."

Xenovia smiled, happy that she could still save her friendship with Irina. "And neither will believer in God." She added. "Then let's do this! We can fight for our friendship's sake!"

"All right!" Irina cheered.

"Less talk you two!" Kiba shouted at them as he sliced through another squad of Magicians and turned his attention to a different squad that was firing magical bolts at Sirzechs and the others. "We've still got a lot to do before we're in the clear!"

BOOOOOOM!

A sudden burst of light caught Kiba's attention and he looked up at the battle being waged above them. The awesome roaring sound of power could be heard clearly as the incredibly powerful young girl fought Cattleya Leviathan with fierce determination.

Kiba turned his attention away from the two Devils in the sky as another squad of Magicians closed in on him, their spells ready to fire and their eyes filled with malice. Though three of them fired their magical bolts at him, he used his Sword to parry them away and countered by slashing them in a second, but more of them surrounded him and kept shooting from a distance, so he used his blade to keep defending against them.

Unfortunately, Kiba failed to spot one of them appear behind him and had no way of countering or defending against that one in his current position. Just before Kiba was shot in the back by the hand of that Magician, she was suddenly hit but a sudden fireball which caused her to explode and vanish in a shower of bright sparkles, disappearing off the face of the earth.

Kiba was surprised to see that before he turned his head towards the direction it came from. He smiled. "You're here!"

Ren stood proudly in a fighting stance as the arm that shot the fireball was outstretched, behind him was Gasper trying to look brave but clearly seemed worried and Koneko who was standing protectively in front of him.

They made their way over to Kiba and Ren spoke. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Don't apologize, we're lucky you were here at all." Kiba assured him with gratitude.

"Still though, I'm surprised that the bodies just disappear like that." Ren noticed the body of the Magician he just defeated was gone. "Guess their different from the burnt corpses in the club building."

"Wait, what?" Kiba asked, confused by what he just heard.

"Anyway." Ren quickly changed the subject. "Let's hurry up and get Gasper to a safe location."

"That would be best, but the School Building is being swarmed by all these Magicians." Kiba pointed out, noting that there was practically a wall of Magicians blocking them from the conference room. "It won't be easy to just get passed all of them."

"Unless you had a wider attack range." Ren pointed out, confident stepping forward. "Just step back."

The Half-Youkai then held up both of his arms, aimed the at the Magicians blocking his path, and gathered the flames in palms of his hands, preparing to fire his signature move at them.

PROMETHEUS CANNON!

FLAAAAMMMMMEEE!

With that, Ren released a strong column of fire from his hands that blasted forward, scorching through everything that got in its way and soon came into contact with the barrier protecting the meeting room, though it didn't do any real harm to the barrier itself, the flames also came into contact with a large number of Magicians surrounding the barrier and burned them to cinders. Now clearing a path for them.

Ren lowered his arms, pleased with the result. "Okay, that takes care of that."

The other three just stood behind him, processing the results of his actions.

"Woah… That was amazing." Gasper uttered, clearly impressed.

Koneko nodded. "…Hmm, destructive power is Ren-Senpai's specialty."

"It's more than that." Kiba admitted, now smiling. "When it comes to ranged attacks, Ren-kun's got more firepower than anyone, no pun intended."

"Enough small talk, let's go!" Ren instructed them and he along with Koneko and Gasper ran forward.

The three of them ran towards the building and no time, they made it to the barrier covering the conference. Sirzechs opened a portion of the barrier to let them in, once they were inside, Koneko and Gasper went to Rias.

"Chief!" Gasper cried out as he reached Rias.

Rias wrapped her arms around Gasper and held him close. "Gasper, you're safe. Forgive me, I never should have let you been put in danger like that." She then turned to Koneko. "You as well, Koneko. Please forgive me."

Koneko shook her head. "…It wasn't your fault, don't apologize. Besides, Ren-Senpai saved us." She said, looking up at Ren.

"Yes, I know." Rias then let go of Gasper and looked at Ren with gratitude. "Ren, I can't thank you enough for saving them, and bringing them here."

Ren held up his hand. "You don't need to worry about thanking me. We're friends remember, it's what I'm here for."

"Regardless, you've done us a great service, all of us." Sirzechs chimed in, also grateful. "Now that we have Gasper back, we can get started in trying to fix this time stop." He turned to Azazel. "Now Azazel put the armband on him."

Azazel reached into his pocket. "Sheesh, now you're giving me orders?" He jokingly complained as he took out the armband and threw it over to Rias. "Here, you do. He's your servant after all."

Rias nodded and took out and gently adjusted the armband around Gasper's right arm. "There you are. This should keep you more in control."

"Still though, the armband will just keep his powers in check and stop them from activating anymore." Azazel informed them. "We still need to get rid of the magic-circle the Magicians are using to keep teleporting here if we want to unfreeze time."

Sirzechs then addressed his Queen. "Grayfia, how much longer until you've finished analyzing the magic-circle?"

"A bit longer, this is a very complicated formula." Grayfia answered, still working on it.

Ren looked around before approaching Shirou. "Where's Mika?"

"She's taking care of business." Shirou answered, offering no other explanation.

Ren looked up in the sky and saw the battle raging on. "I see, for a while, I was sensing Mika's aura clashing with an unknown strong power, that explains it."

BANG!

Back to the battle at hand, Cattleya kept firing Demonic-Power at Mika and Mika was soaring through the air and dodging her attacks while firing back, but Cattleya's Demonic-Power was strong enough that her barrier was able to block most of Mika's attacks.

While she was dodging the attacks, Mika spoke. "You're wasting magic, those attacks will never hit me."

"Then I'll make sure this will!" Cattleya shouted as she gathered power.

Cattleya then created a larger magic-circle, one that quickly separated into six magic-circles that were rotating clockwise around her body in front of her. She then fired blasts of blackish-orange Demonic-Power that was in the shape of snakes from each of the magic-circles that honed in on Mika.

Mika used defensive magic to block Cattleya's attacks. Fortunately, the snake blasts didn't all attack at once so Mika was able to defend to an extent. Unfortunately, it was a continuous attack so after one fired from one of the six magic-circles another followed after, meaning Mika couldn't defend against it for long.

"Grr, I'm getting really tired of being on the defensive!" Mika cursed as she was blocking.

Unlike previous attacks, Mika couldn't redirect the attacks Cattleya was firing off right now because they were attacks she hadn't used until right now so she couldn't get a full grasp of their formula yet, and they were too strong and coming too fast that she didn't have the time to concentrate on that.

Cattleya wasn't done though, as Mika was concentrating on the current continuous attack spell, Cattleya created another. She created three more rotation magic-circles in the sky a few feet above Mika's head. And from them fired three large pillars of Demonic-Power that spiraled around each other as they came down before merging into one larger pillar of Demonic-Power.

The pillar of Demonic-Power came down on quickly, and since she was using both of her hands to block the first attack, all she could do was put more magic into her barrier and spread it around her body to try and both attacks. Unfortunately, her barrier wasn't strong enough to fully block both and it soon shattered, allowing both attacks to breakthrough and hit her directly.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

Once both attacks of Demonic-Power hit, it created a giant blackish-orange explosion that lit up the sky and spread out, even consuming some the Magicians nearby, though it was of little consequence to Cattleya, she was happy as long as she knew that Mika was in the center of that explosion and possibly dead.

"MIKA!" Rias cried out in horror.

Sirzechs clenched his fists in anger. "Dammit, we should have acted sooner."

"Yeah, this is a problem." Azazel added, scratching his chin.

"Would you guys relax." Shirou hushed them all. "She's not dead if that's what you're worried about."

Rias looked at him surprised. "What?"

"He's right." Ren backed him up. "I can still sense her, meaning he's alive in there."

"That's not the issue here, how can you both be so calm right now?" Rias asked now, surprised by how relaxed they both seem. "That wasn't an ordinary attack, she could be seriously injured or worse! That's your Sister up there!"

"You don't get it, it's because she's my Sister that I know she can handle this." Shirou clarified for her. "One or two attacks won't slow her down. She'll win this, my job is to believe in her and watch."

"But still.….?"

Rias was about to continue until she stopped and looked downwards, then she saw that despite his words, his fists were shaking angrily. That's when Rias understood what was going on in his mind.

Ren saw this as well and also understood. "Shirou, you want to go right now, don't you?" He thought before looking back to the sky. "Yet you're stopping yourself from doing so because you know how much she needs this."

Back in the sky, Cattleya just stared at the cloud of smoke that came from her attack and grinned victoriously.

"Well, that took longer than I would have preferred." Cattleya brushed off. "But still, it's always fun to kill the weak."

"I'm sure it is."

Cattleya's eyes widened when she heard that voice coming from the smoke cloud. As the smoke cleared, Mika was revealed still floating there. She was damaged though, the sleeves of her dress were singed off and completely gone, revealing the skin around her arms that had burn marks around them. here was also a small trail of blood leaking from her forehead. Yet, despite that, she still floated there with a look of unhindered confidence.

"Killing the weak must be fun for you. After all, it's the only way a loser like you can ever feel strong." She finished her sentence.

"She's okay." Rias breathed out in relief.

"Still, she didn't get out of that one unscathed." Vali pointed out.

"How… How did you survive that?!" Cattleya demanded an answer, angry about the insult, and that she was still alive.

"Oh come on, I am a Rook remember?" Mika asked rhetorically. "Defence and tanking are my specialties. Since it was impossible to fully block that attack and re-channeled my Demonic-Power around my body to increase body's defense so I could tank it instead." She explained while looking over her arms. "Still, you did leave me with some flesh wounds."

In truth, the damage Mika took was a lot worse than she was making it out to be. Cattleya's attack hit her from two different sides so she had no choice but to use that plan, but she would have preferred to not use it if it could have been helped. And her current injuries have caused her a great deal of pain, she's just so focused on the fight in front of her that her mind is blocking out the pain. If she were to take another hit like that, she could very well be too damaged to continue.

Fortunately, neither Cattleya nor most of the others watching was aware of that fact.

Cattleya sneered at her with annoyance. "Well, aren't you clever?" She said sarcastically.

"I can say the same to you. Turns out you do know how to think." Mika noticed in a patronizing manner, before becoming serious. "But, you aren't the only one that knows how to chain their spells."

After that declaration, Mika held up her arm and Cattleya braced herself, thinking another attack spell was coming. However…

SNAP!

SPLASH!

With a snap of her fingers, a small magic-circle appeared above Cattleya's head to her surprise, and to her irritation from that magic-circle a gallon of water poured out and dumped itself right over her head.

She was soaked instantly, her hair becoming a damp, mop on her head, obscuring the upper half of her displeased face. Her sopping wet dress clung to her curvaceous body, and all seriousness of the situation was gone out the window.

Cattleya simply wiped her hair aside from her face so that she could see through her eyes and she just narrowed her eyes, looking ready to lose her temper.

"And what was that supposed to be?" Cattleya asked like she was being treated like a joke.

Mika simply grinned. "That was supposed to be a setup for this!"

SNAP!

With another snap of her fingers, a blue magic-circle appeared in front of her.

LIGHTNING CHAIN CIRCUIT!

SHICCCCKKKK!

From the magic-circle, a blue bolt of lightning shot out and sailed towards Cattleya at a great speed. However, Cattleya simply raised her hand to create a barrier in front of her and easily blocked the electricity.

"Ha! That was your plan?" Cattleya mocked confidently. "You can't—!"

SHICCCCCKKKKK!

"Aaauugggghhh!"

Cattleya cried out in pain and agony as her whole body was electrocuted before she knew what hit her. Pain became Cattleya's world. It seemed to shoot into her through her back and exploded within her chest. The sound of her own screams rose into the air but sounded distant and small as her mind was assaulted with shocks of pure torture. Her nerves sang agony as the pain was searing every cell in her body.

Then it stopped, and her body just slumped there, her tattered body was trying to hold itself steady in the air. Her nostrils were clogged with an acid, burnt smell mixed with the crisp smell of ozone. She tried to open her eyes and her hand twitched. On the second attempt, her eyelids snapped open and she that her vision was a little blurry as she could only vaguely make out Mika in front of her, who had a smug expression on her face.

"Ha….How did…? What did you?" Cattleya slowly found her voice, though her words were quiet.

"Shocking, isn't it?" Mika punned, enjoying Cattleya's pain. "I'm guessing you never learned how Circuits work."

"What are you talking about?" Cattleya hatefully asked, a little louder.

"You thought my spell was just shooting lightning at you, but there were two points you missed. One; as I said my attack was a Circuit, I created one magic-circle in front of me and another behind you." Mika explained. "Both spells fired at the same two and would connect in the center, which was where you were, but you only focused on the one you saw in front of you. Makes sense right? Who would turn around in the middle of a fight to the death?" She pointed out. "That's how you thought so you never saw it coming."

"But how?" Cattleya asked again, still not understanding. "This makes no sense, how could you have damaged me this much with just a simple lightning spell?"

"Simple, that's what the water was for." Mika answered, before elaborating. "Did you know that the Human body is 58-70% water? In other words, the body basically a giant water balloon. And despite being more durable and the use of Demonic-Power, Humans, and Devils have almost the exact same anatomy. The same composition."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Cattleya narrowed her eyes with impatience.

"Water is a strong conductor for electricity and because your whole body was dousing wet, the lightning traveled around your whole body and had a much greater effect, after entering through your back the electronic current was to target your whole nerve-system and cellular structure, and you just found out how painful that is." Mika finished with an evil smile.

"You Bitch!" Cattleya growled, gathering Demonic-Power. "I'll kill you….…?"

It was at that moment, Cattleya noticed something felt off, a second later she realized there was a serious problem. As she tried to prepare a spell to fire at Mik, she realized that she couldn't lift her arms up, in fact, she could barely make a fist.

"What's going on?" Cattleya questioned, frustrated at her defiant body. "Grr.…. Why can't I move?!"

"Wow, you really need to take a science lesson." Mika taunted before she explained. "Like I said, the strong electrical current you were hit messed up your nerve-system, and because of that your sense of touch has dulled and your motor-functions have been temporarily paralyzed. In simple terms, you can't feel your limbs for a little while."

Cattleya's eyes widened in shock before she still struggled to try and lift her arms in vain. Not planning to wait, Mika raised her hand up and summoned another magic-circle.

"Of course, I have no problem attacking someone paralyzed." Mika admitted with a smirk. "Especially in this case."

From her magic-circle, a giant fist made of pure solid stone appeared—It was bigger than Mika's entire body. With a wave of her hand, the stone fist extended forward—With a stone arm stretching out from the magic-circle—And quickly reached a defenseless Cattleya before striking her and knocking her out of the sky.

DON!

With a great impact, the stone fist smashed Cattleya into the ground and left a large imprint on the ground beneath her. Cattleya laid there with her back against the ground and her face looking up at the sky. More specifically she was looking at Mika, floating in the sky, who was also looking down at her.

"This brings back memories, doesn't it? The last time we met one of us was defenseless and in pain and the other just kept dishing out more punishment." Though Mika's tone sounded calm, her eyes were burning with rage as strong an inferno. "But this time our roles are reversed. Now watch this—"

A dozen more magic-circles appeared around Mika and coming out from each one of them was another fist of stone. Now there were twelve earth-fist floating around Mika that were all the same size and all of them were cocked back and ready to attack. It only took a second for Cattleya to realize what was about to happen.

An instant before they attacked, Mika and Cattleya's eyes met. Cattleya's eyes had a look of fear and dread, while Mika's had a look of hatred and ruthlessness. With that, Mika waved her hand and all the fists descended down upon Cattleya.

BERSERKER RUSH!

DOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!

The giant stone fists rained down on Cattleya like a rockslide, they kept hammering her body deeper and deeper into the ground, tearing apart the ground beneath her and burying her in it. Fortunately, her dulled sense of touch also exacted her pain receptors and lessened the pain a bit. But right now Cattleya might have preferred otherwise considering that pain was the only thing keeping her conscious, which is something she's really regretting right now.

After a few seconds but what felt like longer, the Berserker Rush finally stopped and the stone fists vanished into particles. As the dust around the ground cleared, Cattleya was seen laying on the ground covered in bruises and open wounds, on top of that her hair was let loose, her glasses were destroyed and no longer on her face, and the front of her dress was torn up, revealing her left breast.

"…Au….Auh…" Cattleya grunted and coughed in pain.

Mika looked satisfied by the result of the attack and seemed confident in her victory. "One more shot should finish it. But honestly, at this point, even a peashooter could kill her."

Back inside the conference room, almost everyone watching was left speechless by the direction this battle has taken.

"Simply amazing." Michael breathed out.

"Indeed, I never would have thought she could have driven Cattleya to this point." Sirzechs added, equally impressed.

"I honestly don't know how to respond to this." Serafall agreed, also blown away.

Azazel just smiled while scratching his beard. "Well, at the start of this fight she was definitely lacking in terms of power, but she was able to use her brain to turn it around, she just lucky it worked this time. Still, I gotta say it was a pretty damn impressive display." He commented, being the only one who still looked relaxed. "Guess I didn't need to intervene after all."

Rias just looked relieved by all this. "Everything should be okay now."

But, as she looked at Shirou and Ren, to her surprised neither of them shared her sentiments. In fact, both of them were frowning.

"What's wrong?" She asked them.

"Something about this doesn't feel right." Shirou told her, sounding on edge. "I don't know why, but I feel like this isn't over for some reason."

"Ha, then that means you have good instincts." Vali commented, joining the conversation. "Think about it, do you honestly believe Cattleya Leviathan would let things end like this? The fact that she came here intending to kill the leaders of the Three Factions means she must have something up her sleeve otherwise she just came here on a fool errand."

"Something up her sleeve?" Ren narrowed his eyes on those words. "And what could that even be?"

Vali shrugged. "Well, who can say?"

"N-No, that can't be." Rias insisted, not believing it. "Mika already won, there's no way she could turn things around at this point."

Shirou kept his gaze on the battlefield. "I want to believe that this is over, but…. But what is this…. This strange feeling?"

Still hovering in the sky above the school grounds, Mika pointed her finger towards Cattleya and gathered Demonic-Power. "I'm going to survive this final blow."

Cattleya, regaining the use of her arms quickly held up her hand and a small magic-circle appeared over her palm.

"Guess I have no choice…" Cattleya thought to herself. "I wanted to save this, but it's better than dying."

From her magic-circle, a small stream of black Demonic-Power with glowing orange outlines leaked out of it, and that power soon took the shape and form of a large number of snakes. Snakes that shot out and all wrapped themselves around Cattleya's body.

Mika noticed this and become confused as she frowned. "Snakes?"

The snakes continued to wrap themselves around Cattleya, much to her delight. Until soon, the color of her skin transformed into a pulsating, kaleidoscope purplish-blue, but it only stayed that way for a second, and then her skin turned back to normal, at the same time the snakes vanished. Then Cattleya grinned manically as she flared up her aura.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Cattleya's aura shot like a rocket and a large pillar of Demonic-Aura shot up from the ground like an erupting volcano. This new development shocked everyone as did the site of Cattleya ascending up to the sky, all her injuries seemed to vanish and her expression changed to a victorious one.

None were more surprised than Mika as she just stared at Cattleya with a look of disbelieve. "What the hell is going on?!"

Still having a look of victory, without saying a word, Cattleya simply raised her hand and summoned another magic-circle. After that, she created a second magic-circle overlapping the first that was twice as big as the first. From those circles, she fired a colossal-sized column of Demon-Power the same color as the snakes and this power blasted straight towards Mika like a bullet-train.

Confidence turned to horror as Mika raised her hands as fast as she could and quickly activated a spell. Cattleya's attack continued its forward march and sailed through the sky before heading towards the forest area on the school grounds, before long it hit the ground and created an explosion upon impact.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Once the Demonic-Power hit the ground, the resulting explosion was so great that it lit up the night sky and got everyone's attention, it was like a large number of explosives went off in the forest and detonated at the same time. When the explosion passed, there was a large gaping hole in the patch of land that was once part of the forest, from a bird's eye view it was like a black spot suddenly appeared in the forest.

When Cattleya saw that, she looked satisfied for two reasons, one she saw how much stronger she had become and was pleased with this newfound power. Two, she saw that Mika was no longer where she was before she fired that attack, this let her believe that she was eviscerated by the attack and was no more.

Sadly for here though, she looked to her right to see Mika was still alive and floating in the air not far from herself. Thanks to teleportation magic, she was able to escape at the last second.

"Tch, still alive huh?" Cattleya looked at her with annoyance. "You're harder to kill than a cockroach." She then smiled. "But that's fine, it just means I can enjoy this power for a little longer."

Mika broke out in a cold sweat and was breathing heavier than before. "What this hell is this?!" Mika angrily thought to herself. "This is no joke, if I had gotten hit by that I'd of died!"

Cattleya grinned when she saw her expression. "I take it by the look on your face, you grasp how outmatched you are. Well, let me say I hope you enjoyed that momentary feeling of victory because I can assure you, all you be feeling now is pain, shame, and never-ending despair."

Mika maintained her composer and glared back at Cattleya. "We'll see about that."

"What on earth is going on?" Serafall asked, now as shocked and taken aback as everyone else watching. "Where did this sudden burst of power come from?"

"I'm not sure, but this is a disastrous situation." Michael said, with an upset frown. "Not only has her power increased, but it also looks as though a majority of her injuries have recovered."

Sirzechs simply turned to Azazel. "Azazel, do you know what this is?" He asked, noticing the Governor-General of the Fallen Angels' expression changed. "How could Cattleya have possibly attained this power?"

His smile and casual nature had completely vanished, now his expression was completely serious and glared hatefully. ""…Tch, only one answer comes to mind, that volume of aura that swelled up earlier is way more than a Devil King descendant should have, she must have gotten it from that bastard Ophis."

All three of widened their eyes when they heard that. Sirzechs was the first to speak. "You're saying that Ophis granted her a portion of his power?"

"Looks like it." Azazel grimly confirmed. "I'd say she one or two levels above Kokabiel right now."

Back in the sky, Mika and Cattleya continued their face-off as Mika spoke. "Fine, I'll ask; where the hell did this random as power-up come from?" She asked irritated.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Cattleya bragged, looking over herself. "Even I didn't think I'd get this much stronger after using the snake given to me by Ophis."

"Ophis?" Mika repeated surprised.

Cattleya smiled at her question. "Yes, he who is the Dragon that possesses infinite power. For the sake of the world's reformation, I borrowed a little of his power. Thanks to that I can fight against the leaders of the Three Factions."

"You're still weaker than Michael and Sirzechs." Mika pointed out.

"Infinite power means infinite power." Cattleya brushed off without concern. "What I'm using is less than a tip of the iceberg, as long as we have Ophis on our side, we of the Old Satan Faction can increase our power as much as we need to until we eclipse everyone else in the world." She declared proudly, but then her expression changed into a displeased one. "Still though, I planned on saving this power for my fight with one of the leaders, that fact that you of all people forced me to use it is a disgrace, one that I won't forgive!"

Mika just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I feel so bad for you, let me play you a song on the world's smallest violin." She sarcastically replied.

"Haha, always so clever, aren't you?" Cattleya chuckled, grinning evilly at her. "This whole time you've kept yourself alive by using that wit of yours. But, I wonder if you can make up for your lack of power with wit this time. Let's find out, shall we?"

With that Cattleya held up both of her hands and created a magic-circle as large as her body in front of her, with it she unleashed a ferocious attack.

DON!

Exploding from Cattleya's magic-circle was a torrent of Demonic-Power blasts the size of a Human body and they were being fired liked bullets from a Gatling-gun while covering a wide range, it almost looked like the blasts had formed a cage that prevented Mika from escaping the attack range will trying to shot her down from within.

Since she was sealed inside a limited space, Mika was swiftly and desperately maneuvering around the air to dodge all the incoming attacks, but it seemed she was only barely dodging them and wouldn't be able to keep this up for long.

Before long one of them was about to collide with Mika. However, before impact, she created a barrier to protect herself, but once the Demonic-Power hit her barrier it immediately shattered it and rocked Mika a bit.

"Just one of them completely tore down my guard." Mika inwardly cursed. "And I don't think I can keep this up, only one option then."

Deciding there was no other choice, Mika flew straight forward at a fast-paced speed. The only safe place in a storm is the eye of the storm and thus Mika was on a direct course towards the magic-circle that was firing all the blasts. She kept dodging and waiving passed any attack that came here way, which became harder the closer she got. Thankfully, before long she reached Cattleya's magic-circle and prepared her countermeasure.

"HHAAAAAA!" Mika roared as gathered her Demonic-Power.

CLASH!

Mika channeled her Demonic-Power through both of her arms and outstretched them, creating her own magic-circle that clashed with the one Cattleya made. The objective wasn't to overpower it but rather disrupt it in order to cancel it out and stop the attacks. There was a strong impact from the clashing magic-circles which was followed by a power-struggle.

After half a minute the struggle ended and Cattleya's magic-circle shattered, which made Mika relieved. Unfortunately, when she looked up she saw that to her surprise, Cattleya was no longer in front of her. In fact, Cattleya was nowhere to be seen. Mika looked around to try and fid her.

"Looking for something?"

The suddenness of that voice froze Mika's blood and before she could look in the direction it came from, she suddenly found that she couldn't move. In the sky above her, Cattleya was seen floating comfortably as she looked down at her.

The shocking thing was that Cattleya's arm had somehow grown longer, it had extended to the point where it had reached Mika despite the distance that separated them and it wrapped around her body like an octopus tentacle. Immediately after that, the arm contracted and she reeled Mika in until she was right in front of her.

"What the…?" Mika uttered as she struggled to break loose.

"Don't look so surprised, this is just one of my abilities as a descendant of Leviathan." Cattleya explained.

"Of course it is." Mika sarcastically replied.

"Not that this hasn't been fun, but I think it's time I put an end to this." Cattleya declared.

Upon saying that, Cattleya raised her arm and gathered Demonic-Power around her hand, wrapping the snake-like aura around her hand almost like a cloud of smoke. Cattleya's put on a malicious smile as she closed her fist while Mika had an expression of dread as she knew what was about to happen.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

As Cattleya discharged the aura around her fist, it detonated into a great and enormous explosion. The explosion was in the shape of a vertical column that was black with an orange outline, while in the center of the explosion was a small spot that was an even darker shade of black. Surrounding the explosion was a sphere-shaped shockwave that was let loose in all directions, causing greater damage.

"The tide has turned." Vali noted, becoming even more interested. "It's true that on some occasions the eagle can prey on a fox. But an eagle that can prey upon a lion—Well, there's no such thing, is there?" He jokingly pointed out, turning towards Shirou. "Are you sure you don't want to step in at this point? She really might die this time."

Ren had an upset expression that was full of worry. "I hate to say it but he's right, Shirou." He admitted, turning to his head. "The gap in power has gotten to big, Mika can't win this anymore. You need to step in."

"I agree, Shirou." Rias added, also turning to him. "Mika's done enough, if we don't do something she'll—?"

To their surprise, Shirou didn't respond to their words. In fact, it seemed as though he didn't even acknowledge their presence, all he did was remain there standing in that spot and looking up at the sky with his hardened expression and his completely focused eyes.

"…Shirou? What's wrong?" Rias tried asking.

".….…" Again Shirou didn't respond in any way.

Up in the sky, as the aftershock of the explosion cleared, two figures could be seen in the sky. One was Cattleya hovering in the air while holding out her arm, the other was Mika who was being held by the neck by Cattleya like a rag-doll. The damage she took from being hit by the explosion was vast, that was obvious to anyone who could see the state she was in.

Her body was extremely damaged to the point where her flesh had smoking rising from it. Her har was a mess and her eyes were covered by her bangs, the fabric of her outfit was scorched off around different parts and the skin of her legs, arms, the side of her torso around her left hip to her stomach, and her entire back was exposed—Revealing her scars to anyone looking. Worst of all, many parts of her exposed skin were burnt red or even bleeding, a streak of blood was leaking down her forehead to her chin.

"You were right, this does bring back memories." Cattleya taunted as she held her. "And now it's exactly like we met."

"….…"

Mika remained silent and motionless.

"What's wrong?" Cattleya sarcastically asked. "Run out of quips?"

"….…"

"No more witty remarks?" She mockingly continued. "Or has your sharp tongue finally gone quiet."

"….…"

The descendant of Leviathan then had a merciless expression. "Well, that's perfect for me because that means now I can take my time tearing you apart."

"Augh!" Mika coughed out in pain.

Cattleya chose to tighten her grip around Mika's neck, forcefully choking her with all her strength, and bringing greater pain to Mika. But, surprisingly enough Cattleya softened her grip and her expression changed, almost as if she looked unsatisfied.

"This just isn't enough, I need something more…" She quietly said to herself before she smirked. "And I think I just thought of something."

After those words, Cattleya extended the arm that was holding Mika again and stopped when she was only a few feet away. After that Cattleya held up the finger of her other hand and pointed it towards Mika.

BANG!

"Gugh!" Mika cried out in pain.

From Cattleya's finger shot out a small bullet of Demonic-Power power that hit Mika's defenseless body. After that, he fired another one and went on to keep firing. The bullets were small and did little damage, she even waited for a second after firing a shot before firing the next one. But she showed no sign of stopping and looked like she was enjoying every minute of it, coupled with Mika's continuous cries of agony.

"She has her completely at her mercy." Michael solemnly admitted.

"It's more than that, she isn't even trying anymore." Azazel said, frowning.

"What do you mean?" Sirzechs questioned.

"Cattleya could end this right now if she just aimed for the head, but instead she's just playing around." Azazel elaborated. "Her attacks are slow and powered down, it's basically like using a P-shooter. All she's doing is taking her time torturing her until she gets bored."

After hearing his explanation, all of them became angered and disgusted with Cattleya.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Hahahaha!" Cattleya laughed as she continued firing. "Are you enjoying this!? Huh?! Come on, where'd all the energy from earlier go?! Hahaha!"

Mika remained hanging there, not moving and not even responding to the pain anymore, she just hung there without making a sound.

"Do you understand now!? No matter where you go or how much time passes, you'll always be nothing! Just a bug that I can crush at my leisure!" Cattleya manically shouted. "That's all you'll ever be! Never forget what you are!"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Then, as quickly as the shots came, they stopped. Cattleya ceased fire and just looked at her.

"I suppose that's had enough, I still have a job to do after all." Cattleya noted, now calmer than just a moment ago. "Naturally, that means it's time to kill you."

Upon those words, she started gathering Demonic-Power into her finger and created a much larger bullet than the one from before, preparing to fire it.

With a cold smile, she spoke. "This will finish it."

Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion. Cattleya got ready to fire.

Sirzechs grit his teeth in frustration.

Michael glared daggers at Cattleya.

Serafall upset at her inability to do something in this situation.

Azazel unfurled his twelve wings and got ready to fly in, intending to save Mika.

Gasper covered his eyes, unable to watch this anymore.

Koneko looked away, not having the strength to watch either.

Ren and Rias both called out her name her desperation and fear, Rias was even teary-eyed.

Vali stoically watched, thinking the show was over.

And Shirou… Shirou just stood there calmly as he watched.… Before he smirked.

STAB!

.

.

.

In that lightning-fast moment, everything stopped and almost everyone watching paused and their eyes widened in complete bewilderment. The only one who wasn't surprised was Shirou, he just looked satisfied.

However, no one was more shocked than Cattleya herself. She paused and stopped moving or talking so suddenly it was as if she had become a statue, it was because she could feel that something was clearly wrong, she knew the feeling was coming from her body but for some reason, she didn't want to look. In the end, she forced herself to look down, only to see the grim truth.

Stabbed into her back was a metal hilt that looked like it belonged to a Sword, and coming out from that hilt was a blade of pure Holy-light that had stabbed through the flesh of her back and was now sticking out of her stomach. When she saw that her eyes widened in pure horror.

"AAHHHH!" Cattleya screamed, still unable to wrap her head around what was happening.

VENOM MIST!

Before she even had time to process all that was happening, Mika made her next move and activated a spell that created a purple smog-like cloud os poison that encompassed Cattleya's entire body.

"Gugh!" Cattleya gasped and placed her hands around her throat as the poison entered her body.

As Mika was now free from Cattleya's hold, she floated their calmly as her eyes were revealed and showed she was still conscious and a confident smirk appeared on her face. Not done yet, Mika waved her hand as the Holy Sword responded by quickly removing itself from Cattleya's body, giving her an open and sizzling wound in her stomach, which hurt her even more.

"You.…Gah…" Cattleya breathed out, struggling with both the pain and the poison. "What have you done…?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mika asked, acting as though all the pain had disappeared. "I reversed the situation and now I have you in check."

Cattleya's eyes widened. "What?"

"There are times when the gap in power between two people is so great that no strategy can change the outcome, and when you powered up thanks to that snake, your power did reach the point where that was the case, at least that's what you believed and that's what made my plan come together so flawlessly." Mika smugly told her.

"Don't lie to me!" Cattleya angrily barked. "You were at my mercy, I could have killed you whenever I wanted!"

"Yes you could have, but you didn't." Mika pointed out. "I knew that you would prefer to torture me instead of just killing me and being done with it, that's just your nature." Cattleya grit her teeth because Mika was technically right. "Because you were so predictable all I needed to do was stay conscious and wait for the right time to spring my trap. No matter how strong a Devil becomes, Light will always be a fatal weakness, and getting stabbed by a blade of Light will mess up even you. I just needed to wait for the moment where your guard was completely down, then summon that disposable Light-Sword from my pocket dimension, and well I'm sure you get the drift."

"You mean you orchestrated all this?" Cattleya questioned, unable to believe all this. "You even let yourself be tortured and put to the brink of death just for that?!"

"People always let their guard down when they're on the verge of winning, I knew there was no way it wouldn't work." Mika simply replied, as if it was no big deal. "Still, I will admit that was close, if I wasn't a Rook I would have definitely died, but it couldn't be helped. On and in case you're wondering, that spell I used after you were stabbed was a poison spell, the poison that you inhaled will cause muscle-relaxation and stop your limbs from moving before slowing rooting them away."

"Fool, you honestly think a lowly poison spell will work on me?" Cattleya taunted at her. "I have the power of Ophis inside of me, with my level of Demonic-Power I can easily survive and neutralize the poison after a bit."

"It's too bad you won't get "A bit", right now you still can't move, so I'm ending this." Mika corrected her before she summoned another magic-circle.

WATER TENTACLES!

Upon her words, a geyser of water shot up from behind her and that geyser sooner morphed and split into seven smaller ones. The geyser then shot forward at Cattleya and four of them wrapped around each of her limbs, two wrapped around her wrists and held her arms above her head, the other two wrapped around her knees and forcibly spread her legs apart, the fifth wrapped around her neck and the six wrapped around her torso.

The final water geyser tentacle remained in front of Mika as she smiled evilly at her. "You've all seen enough Hentai to know where this is going."

As Cattleya struggled to speak with one of the tentacles around her neck, she said. "What is Hentai?"

Mika's smile became a grin. "Hahaho~ You're gonna wish you hadn't said that."

SPLASH!

With a wave of her hand, the final water tentacle shot towards Cattleya like a python and created a small splash as the pressurized water forced its way into Cattleya's mouth and down her throat. As it forced its way down, it caused Cattleya to moan in pain as she felt as though she was being gagged. Before long, the water tentacle started pulling itself out and shot out of Cattleya's mouth—Causing her to gasped for air.

"That was easier than I thought." Mika noted as she brought the tentacle over to her.

As she coughed out some water, Cattleya glared at Mika. "What *Cough* What was that about? Just what did you plan to accomplish with that last move, besides angering me?"

"Oh, quite a lot to be honest." Mika smiled, turning to the tentacle. "Notice anything different about yourself right now?"

Confused and curious, Cattleya looked closer at the tentacle of water that was near Mika and when she saw what was inside, her eyes widened. Within the apex of the tentacle, there was a small mass of black aura that was in the form of a snake.

"M-My snake?" Cattleya spoke in realization.

"That's right, I had a feeling that since that snake you used to power up had a physical mass when you brought it out, it was still inside your body somewhere." Mika deduced. "And by that logic, if the snake were to be removed, you'd power back down. Looks like I was right, notice the lack of surprise on my face." She finished before she made a fist and the water tentacle burst apart like a water balloon and the snake dissolved into nothingness.

Cattleya then noticed that her strength and Demonic-Power had dropped like a rock until it was back at the level it was on before she used the snake. This made her worry greatly as the base of most of her confidence was based around the power the snake gave her.

Then suddenly, Cattleya felt an intense pain inside of her body, it was like her organs were melting and her limbs were as heavy as metal. Through that pain, she asked. "This pain.…. What's happening to me?"

"Now that your power has dropped, you aren't strong enough to resist the poison anymore and so you're feeling it's full effect." Mika told her with a sadistic smile. "Add that to all your injuries and you'll be dead in a few minutes. You lose, Cattleya Leviathan."

Cattleya's expression was one filled with disbelief like she couldn't believe this was happening or rather she couldn't accept that this was happening, and so, she attempted her final trump card.

"You haven't won yet!" Cattleya declared as she gathered her remaining power and purple markings appeared around her face. "I still have one option left!"

"And what pray tell is that?" Mika asked, clearly not concerned.

"I'm going to self-destruct!" Cattleya proclaimed almost insanely while gathering Demonic-Power. "Even if I die, I can at least take you with—"

BANG!

Before Cattleya could finish, Mika blasted her with a bullet of Demonic-Power that hit her in the shoulder, this made her cry out in pain and the Demonic-Power she was gathering lessened.

"Is this a joke or did you actually think that would work?" Mika asked in a condescending manner. "Since you don't have your power up anymore and you've been poisoned, the only way you can self-destruct is by gathering all your power and setting it off inside of you, something the current you can't do without time and concentration. So if I don't give you either then you can't self-destruct, stupid."

"Y-You bitch…" Cattleya cursed, unable to come up with any other response.

"I told you before didn't I?" Mika started. "Beating you isn't enough, I want you to suffer until your last breath and die broken and disgraced for everyone to see."

"This can't be happening!" Cattleya screamed in pure hatred. "I am the descendant of the True Leviathan, one who was born to rule the Underworld, so how.… How could this have happened, how could a filthy worthless reincarnated Devil brat have reduced me to this state!?"

Play Ost - My Hero Academia Season 3 OST - The Power of All For One + All For One

"It's actually pretty simple, it's because you were never cut out to be a Devil King." Mika frankly answered her.

"What? Don't be ridiculous, I'm a living descendant of Leviathan!" She angrily declared as if she was insulted. "How can I NOT be cut out the be the Devil King?!"

"Because you're incompetent." Mika simply pointed out. "You might be the descendant, but that's literally all you have going for you. You got sidelined when it came time to choose a new King, you were beaten during the Civil War and in the end, you were forced to into hiding, who would want to serve a King who's nothing but a proven loser? Hell, you can't even beat me, a filthy worthless reincarnated Devil brat."

"…T-That's….…" Cattleya uttered, not having a way to deny those words, considering some of them were her own.

Not waiting for a response, Mika continued. "But that's not all that makes you incompetent. Both now and years ago when you first captured me, you could have just killed me and been done with it, in other words, you had two perfect opportunities to kill me and you squandered both of them. Why? Because you felt like being in control of whether someone lives or dies made you feel like you were someone great like it was proof that even a proven loser like you had power on some level. And the last time I checked, those who are worthy of being King don't need to go around trying to prove it to themselves. The reason you do was because, deep down you were already aware that you could never really be a Satan."

After hearing that, Cattleya looked as though she was just slapped. "No, I—"

Without letting her speak, Mika went on. "I did some research about the Old Satan Faction before today, one of the things I learned was that almost all of its members call themselves the True Satan Faction. There way of telling the world that they're the worthy rulers and want others to know it. And yet, this whole time you only ever called it the Old Satan Faction even though you're one of the leaders." She pointed out. "How much clearer could it be?"

Having been silenced by Mika's words, Cattleya just remained still, frozen as if she didn't have the ability to respond anymore.

"I can't speak for the other two, but it's painfully clear that you never truly believed you could do what you set out to do, it's just that it's so much easier to keep going forward when you've gone too far to turn back, even if it means walking off a cliff. After all, if you aren't a Devil King, you might as well be dead, that's your philosophy right?" Mika finished, not holding back.

Cattleya didn't respond, she just kept her head down. Silent as if the will to resist had but lost to her and the defiance in her eyes were gone, now her eyes just looked empty and devoid of emotion, like her whole identity has crumbled.

Mika smiled with a dark satisfaction when she saw that look.

"That's the look I wanted to see…" She thought to herself before speaking out loud. "Speaking of being dead, if I just leave you alone the poison will kill you after a while, but I don't feel like waiting. And, I've prepared a special spell just for this moment."

Mika waved her index finger and middle finger around in a circle while having Demonic-Power around her fingertips and appearing her were three blackish-purple magic-circles that were side-by-side and as large as Mika's body, all three of which carried an extreme amount of power within them. It was enough to make even Cattleya react as she looked up at them with fear and shock.

"Is that… An Amaterasu Formula?" Cattleya uttered completely shaken.

"Black Magic spells always take a while before they activate and this one more so than any other, but…" Mika smirked confidently. "I can guarantee that it's well worth the wait."

"Aaaahhhhhhhh!" Cattleya screamed in terror.

AMATERASU: FORMULA 23!

DON!

As the spell activated, the three magic-circles overlapped over each other and compressed together before a large all-encompassing flash of light consumed her. Followed by an explosion of magic that took the form of a kaleidoscope of black, purple, and violet that erupted into a pillar with everything inside of it being obliterated. The power of the spell also caused the very ground to shake.

Music Off

Among all the spells in the art of Black Magic, the Amaterasu Formula's are said to be the most difficult to master and the most deadly and lethal of them all. The potent and destructive power they possess is so great that it is said that it is impossible to be on the receiving end of one of them and come out of it with all of your limbs intact.

Speaking of which, after the spell cleared all that remained of Cattleya was an arm that only went up to the wrist, the arm fell to the ground and landed before it—Like the dead remains of any Devil faded into nothingness.

And with that, Cattleya Leviathan was nothing but a memory.

With the battle now over, the adrenalin and willpower that was keeping the pain at by and keeping Mika up slowly faded and, Mika became drowsy. So much so that after a few seconds her vision started to become blurry and she soon lost the ability to stay in the air.

With that, Mika fell back and started plummeting to the ground. Although, before she could fall for very long, her fall was stopped and she felt herself being held up by a strong pair of arms. Looking up, Mika saw that Shirou was also in the air and she was being carried princess-style in the arms of her Brother who was smiling fondly at her, she responded by smiling back at him.

"I never doubted you for a second." Shirou told her as they slowly descended to the ground. "I'm proud of you."

"Still, it was a lot tougher than I was expecting." Mika admitted. "There's a very good chance the other two will be even stronger than her."

"We can worry about that later." Shirou reassured her, brushing off that concern. "For now, how do you feel?"

"Honestly, I feel relaxed." Mika said in a refreshed tone. "It's like there's been a weight on my chest for years that's suddenly been lifted and I don't feel it anymore."

"I'm glad, now let's get you healed up."

Shirou decided as they landed on the ground and they went back into the meeting room, everyone watched them enter as those in the Gremory Peerage who weren't frozen went up to them, while the leaders just watched, remaining where they were.

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would've believed it." Azazel noted with a good-natured smile.

Sirzechs also smiled, only his one was like that of a proud family member. "It goes beyond being just amazing, her victory over Cattleya was extraordinary. Both of them never fail to amaze me."

"Yes, it truly was magnificent." Michael praised her as well. "Not only the awe-inspiring mastery of her magic but her ability to create analytical and precise strategies she can incorporate before and during battle is something I've never seen in one so young, all I can say is that it is incredible."

"What's truly incredible is that both power and her mind are still growing, and she's nowhere near her full potential yet." Serafall pointed out. "Just thinking about what she'll be in the future, that's what I find incredible."

"Well, it shouldn't be too surprising, after all. She may not be his vessel but that girl also carries the blood of Shirōu Amakusa within her." Azazel reminded them nonchalantly. "Going above and beyond just runs in the family."

None of them responded to that, but they all had an expression that showed they each silently agreed with that statement. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, the others were having their own conversation.

Rias turned to Shirou. "Shirou, where did Mika get that Holy Sword?"

"Don't you remember?" Shirou asked. "It's the same disposable Holy Sword I used to kill Raynare."

"You mean you actually kept that thing all this time?" Ren asked, raising a brow.

"One thing about Big Bro is that he never throws anything away." Mika humorously told them. "Whenever he finds something that even moderately useful he keeps it stashed away somewhere in case he ever wants to use it again."

"Well, you should be glad I did, considering that saved your life this time." Shirou pointed out. "I told Mika to put a magic tracker on it so she could summon it on hand if I ever wanted to use it."

"And during that fight, I realized it could give me the opening I needed." Mika explained. "So I summoned it from behind Cattleya, used levitation magic to shot it towards her and you know the rest."

Ren grinned. "Heh, I don't know what's more amazing, the fact that you came up with all that in a dire situation or the fact that it actually worked."

"Aside from that. Mika, are you alright?" Rias asked with clear concern.

Mika shrugged without a care. "Sure, never better, isn't that obvious?"

"Of course not!" Rias snapped, not amused. "Do you have any idea how worried I was back there?"

"Oh, ye of little faith, what reason was there to be worried?" Mika shot back. "I won, didn't I? Plus I had the whole thing under control."

"You almost died several times, plus you're covered in injuries." Rias argued with a frown. "You can't even stand up on your own."

"…It does look pretty bad." Koneko added in agreement.

Mika wrapped her arms around the back of Shirou's neck. "Oh come on, who's to say I can't wake? Maybe I just love the feeling of being carried by Big Bro." She defended.

Ren stepped forward. "On a different occasion that might be the case, but it's kinda hard to notice all of the open wounds around your body, which isn't hard to notice now that your outfit is in tatters."

"Which reminds me, could you hurry up and fix that already?" Shirou requested of her with irritation. "It's uncomfortable holding you like this."

"My dress automatically restores itself after I put some Demonic-Power into it, but sadly my tank is completely empty after that fight, it'll take a few minutes before I've regained enough to do so." Mika informed him. "My injuries, however, do indeed require actual healing."

"Meaning we need to unfreeze Asia and by extension everyone else." Shirou summarized.

"Yes, that's right, even if the battle is over we haven't unfrozen time yet." Rias realized as she turned to Sirzechs. "Onii-Sama, please tell me you've thought of a solution by now."

Sirzechs understood the urgency and turned to his Queen. "Grayfia, have you finished analyzing the formula for the enemy's magic-circle yet?"

"It's a very complicated one, but I've more or less figured it out." Grayfia informed them as she was still looking it over. "Though it'll still take me a few minutes to completely disassemble it."

"Then all we can do is wait a little longer." Sirzechs said with acceptance.

"Yeah well, not that I don't trust the Queen of maids of there but I'm tired of waiting." Shirou not accepting it as he turned to Gasper. "Gasper, you unfreeze time."

"Eh! Me?!" Like a deer caught in the headlights, Gasper shriek.

"Shirou, what are you talking about?" Rias questioned, also unsure.

"Simple, even though it wasn't by choice, your powers are what froze time in the first place, so logically you're the one who has the best chance of unfreezing time." Shirou reasoned.

"But, I don't have anywhere near enough control to be able to do that." Gasper argued.

"That's not a problem, just use some of this." Shirou reached into his pocket and took out a small vial that was filled with a red liquid that could only be blood. "Drink some of this and it'll jump-start your powers enough to get the job done."

"What? What exactly is that?" Rias asked, not knowing about this fact since she wasn't around when Azazel explained it to them.

"It's Dragon blood." Mika answered her question. "When Azazel told us that drinking Dragon blood would help Gasper get a better handle on his Sacred Gear, we decided to always have some on hand in case it was needed."

"And it is needed right now, so drink it." Shirou instructed him, holding the vial in front of him.

Gasper started shaking in discomfort and hesitation, and expression showed he wanted to refuse. "B-But, I…I—"

Before he could go any further Shirou cut him off. "Just so you know, I don't even want to hear you say you refuse because you "don't like drinking blood" or anything else like that." He warned him with narrowed eyes. "You're a Vampire, Vampires drink blood and right now, you have the power to set everyone free, are seriously going to tell me you won't even try?"

Gasper was taken aback by those words as Rias stepped forward to his defense. "Stop it, you're going too far." She told him. You know it's not safe to try and force a Sacred Gear's power, it could be dangerous."

"Don't coddle him, Rias. Letting him spend all that time being sheltered is why never learned to control his powers in the first place." Shirou shot back at her.

"That doesn't mean you should let him be reckless now." Rias argued, still not agreeing with this.

Shirou then turned back to Gasper. "Gasper, I can tell by that look in your eye that no matter how much anyone says otherwise, you'll still feel like this is all somehow your fault, especially everyone being frozen." He deduced. "In that case, if you want to make up for that, then step up and at least attempt to fix it. You said you wanted to be a man and this is what a man does, or were those words just empty claims, and are you just wearing those clothes for show?"

Gasper looked up at him with surprise before he looked down feeling upset and then turned to his friends who were frozen with obvious guilt in his eyes.

"You're not being fair, Shirou." Rias spoke up again. "Think of how Gasper feels, he—"

"No, it's okay." Gasper spoke out, interrupting her. "I… I'll do it."

"What?" Rias uttered surprised.

"I don't just want to be protected anymore, I want to help this time. I want to make you all proud of me, and I want to be someone worthy of you." Gasper proclaimed to Rias with pure, raw emotion in his eyes. "I want to do this, I have to. I'm going to do whatever it takes to save my friends!"

Shirou held the vial in front of him. "Fine, then take it."

Gasper reached out and took the vial containing the Dragon blood, he then opened it and prepared to drink it.

"But—" Before Rias could protest further, Ren placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Let him do this." He requested of her. "You've got to understand that this is important to him, at least let him try. Doesn't he deserve that much?"

Rias still looked worried and concerned for Gasper's well-being but decided to relent in the end, considering he couldn't be convinced otherwise.

With that settled, Gasper proceeded to drink the blood from the vial and quickly swallowed it. In that instant, Gasper felt his power rising rapidly and stood up as the Forbidden Balor View eyes appeared over his pupils.

The young dhampir then rolled up his sleeve, grabbed the armband made to inhibit his power, and broke it off. When that happened, Gasper screamed as his powers were released and he was engulfed in a blinding pink light that was so bright some of the others had to shield their eyes.

Then everything went white.

And then it was over.

After a few seconds passed, the light surrounding Gasper dissipated into nothing and Gasper's eyes went back to normal as his strength gave out and he lost his footing. Fortunately, is caught him and helped him stay up. As they looked outside, they saw that the purple sky that represented time being frozen and vanished and returned to the previous red sky, along with all the soldiers of the Three Faction in the sky were now unfrozen and moving freely.

"It seems that he succeeded." Sirzechs noticed.

"He stopped the enemy gate to." Grayfia pointed out.

Just like she said, the large teleportation circle in the sky that the enemy was using to appear on the battlefield dissolved into nothingness and was gone, meaning the Magicians could no longer summon reinforcements or escape.

"One less thing to worry about." Serafall added.

While that was going on, everyone in the meeting room who was frozen until now was finally unfrozen and the first thing they did was look around in understandable confusion as everything liked different and things had suddenly changed in the blink of an eye from their perspective.

"What was that?" Akeno asked the second she was unfrozen.

Sona turned to Tsubaki. "Any idea what just happened?"

"I don't have a clue." Tsubaki replied as she shook her head.

Serafall then caught her Sister by surprise as she ran over and threw her arms around Sona. "Welcome back, Sona-chan~!"

She chirped happily while Sona blushed with embarrassment. "Will you get off of me?!"

"What's going on?" Asia asked as she looked around.

"I'll explain later." Shirou answered as he walked up to her. "Right now, you need to heal Mika."

"Eh!" Asia looked shocked and taken aback when she saw badly injured Mika placed in front of her. "These injuries, what happened? Why is Mika-san this badly hurt all of a sudden?"

"He said he'll explain later. Could you just heal me already, I've been playing it off but this really does hurt a lot." Mika snapped, losing her patience.

Asia nodded and Shirou placed Mika on the floor as Asia held out her hands and began healing. As Mika felt the warmth of being engulfed by the bright emerald green light of Twilight Healing, her injuries slowly started to vanish.

While she was doing that a voice called out.

"Chief!"

Upon hearing a familiar voice Rias and the others turned to see Kiba appeared on the scene with Xenovia and Irina right behind him.

"Yuuto, have you three finished off the Magicians?" Rias asked upon their arrival.

"Well we took out a large number of them, but when we saw the enemy gate vanish and that time was unfrozen we rushed over to see how things were back here." Kiba explained.

"As for the Magicians, after the Angel, Fallen Angels and Devils were able to move again they quickly began attacking them as well." Xenovia added to the explanation. "There are only a few left but they should be taken care of before long."

"I see, that's good to hear." Rias nodded, pleased.

"Cattleya has been defeated, the enemies have all but been taken care of and all of our allies are free." Michael listed down. "It would seem that this conflict is finally over."

"Not yet it's not." Shirou argued.

As he said that he reached for the top of his jacket and placed his hand on something. As he had a firm grip on it he pulled it upwards and it was revealed that he was holding the hilt of Dyrnwyn that was tied to his back hidden beneath his long jacket. As Shirou slowly drew his Holy-Sword from its sheath, his eyes were focused and sharp like he was prepping himself before a fight.

"This conflict isn't truly over yet." Shirou continued as he finished drawing his blade. "Not when the biggest threat hasn't been dealt with yet."

"The biggest threat?" Sirzechs repeated confused. "Who are you referring to?"

Instead of answering, Shirou tightened his grip on Dyrnwyn and slashed towards his left side at blinding. The result of his slash was….…

His blade cut through thin air as Vali—His intended target moved back by an inch as he narrowly but easily avoided the tip of the Sword. As almost everyone was taken by surprise by Shirou's sudden action, Vali summoned his White Dragon wings and in a flash ascendant a few feet in the air.

"Sorry, but did you honestly believe you could have killed me back there?" Vali asked slightly amused.

Shirou frowned at him. "Tch… I thought I'd at least give it a shot."

"Shirou!?" Rias called out, intending to ask what most of them were wondering. "What's going on?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Mika asked, now sitting up after a majority of her wounds were gone. "When all this began we established that the timing of the enemy's arrival and their use of Gasper was too convenient to be a coincidence and there was a good chance that someone here is a traitor who let them in."

"Then, are you saying…?" Rias quickly put the pieces together.

Vali chuckled a bit. "Just for curiosities sake, when did you figure me out?"

"From the moment you crawled out of your Mother's womb and even before then." Shirou answered him.

Vali simply smiled at that response. "I see."

"When the others said that someone here was a traitor, I wracked my brain over who it could be and no matter how I looked at it no one had a motive or any benefit to want to do it." Shirou elaborated. "But then it hit me; I wasn't able to think of anyone who would do it, but when I thought of why they wouldn't do it, everyone came out clean expect you. You're the only one here I hardly knew anything about, so I couldn't say it wasn't possible."

"But that alone didn't fully convince you, so what made you sure of it?" Vali questioned.

"It really wasn't that hard. Remember our conversation during the fight?" Shirou reminded him.

(Something about this doesn't feel right." Shirou told her, sounding on edge. "I don't know why, but I feel like this isn't over for some reason.)

(Ha, then that means you have good instincts." Vali commented, joining the conversation. "Think about it, do you honestly believe Cattleya Leviathan would let things end like this? The fact that she came here intending to kill the leaders of the Three Factions means she must have something up her sleeve otherwise she just came here on a fool errand.)

(Something up her sleeve?" Ren narrowed his eyes on those words. "And what could that even be?)

(Vali shrugged. "Well, who can say?)

"I know you were trying to be mysterious back there, but the way Cattleya's power up matched the timing and wording of what you said was too match to be a coincidence." Shirou informed him. "It was like you were trying to confess that you knew she had that power beforehand."

"Yes, I suppose it was careless of me to think you wouldn't catch on to that." Vali admitted with little concern. "But honestly it doesn't really make much of a difference at this point."

It was then that the Governor-General of the Fallen Angels stepped forward with a frown."…Tch. So you're betraying me under these circumstances, Vali."

"That's right, Azazel." Vali confessed without shame. "The instant you decided on peace, arrangements were made to invoke the Sacred Gear of the kidnapped half-vampire and begin the terrorist attack."

"Geez, I've also lost my edge. For one of my followers to do this…" Azazel laughed at himself. "When? When did you decide to do this?"

"I got the offer while I was en-route returning Kokabiel to headquarters. Sorry, Azazel. This side seems to be interesting." Vali stated impassively

"Vali, has the Vanishing Dragon capitulated to Ophis?" Azazel

"No, I'm just cooperating stubbornly. But believe me, neither of us has any interest in World Domination, I simply want to use my power however I wish and joining with Ophis is the best way to do so." Vali assured him, clarifying things. "They gave me an attractive offer. "Wouldn't you like to fight against the Asgard?" When they said that, as someone who wants to test my power, I couldn't decline. Azazel, you dislike the idea of fighting with Valhalla—the Asgard, right? You dislike war."

Azazel groaned. "I told you to 'become strong', but I should have also said 'don't only make factors that will destroy the world'."

Vali shrugged at that. "That's unrelated. I just want to fight eternally."

"…I see. No, I may have anticipated somehow in my heart that you would leave my side." Azazel admitted. "Since the time we met till now, you wanted to fight with strong people. I now understand why you were working in league with Cattleya. You both had your Devil King titles stolen after all."

Everyone gasped in shock at the bombshell Azazel dropped.

"He's a Devil King descendant too?" Serafall asked in shock.

"What are you saying?" Rias demanded bewildered.

Vali hit his hand against his chest and spoke. "My real name is Vali Lucifer. I'm a descendent of the previous generation's Satan Lucifer who died. However, I'm a child of mixed blood born from a Father who was the old Devil King's grandson and a Human Mother. —I obtained the Vanishing Dragon's Sacred Gear because I'm half-Human. It was just by chance."

That revelation sent a shockwave that rocked the minds and hearts of all, except for one.

Rias looked on in shock, unable to believe what she was hearing. "No… This can't be true."

Sirzechs frowned. "It actually makes sense, there's no way we could have known that a Human carried the blood of Lucifer."

Azazel shrugged. "Yep, I think it every time I see him, his very existence is ridiculous."

"I'd prefer if you called me a 'miracle'." Vali corrected as he unfurled his Devil wings over his Dragon wings to further prove his heritage, he did so by showing he had a total of eight Devil wings that were much large than an ordinary Devil's wings. "After all, if miracles really do still exist in this world, I'm sure I can be counted as one of them."

"Look at his wings!" Asia exclaimed with fright.

Michael grimly lowered his head. "Dear God."

"Could such an unbelievable existence of a White Dragon Emperor truly be possible?" Sirzechs questioned with dread.

Shirou decided to speak up. "Of course it could." He answered not looking at him. "After all, just look at how unbelievable the Red Dragon Emperor is." He pointed out. "Why wouldn't the White Dragon Emperor also fit into that category."

Even Azazel looked at bit troubled as Vali's wings disappeared. "Yeah, you got that. I have a feeling these two will be the best Dragon Emperor's this world has ever seen, past, present, and future."

"He's right you know?" Vali turned to Shirou, agreeing with Azazel's proclamation. "Don't you think destiny is interesting, Shirou Tsukiharu?"

Shirou lessened his grip on his Sword. "In what regard?"

"On one hand, there is the Strongest existence that one can think of with a Maou + a Legendary Dragon, like me. On the other hand, there is a potentially stronger existence with a Hero's descendant + another Legendary Dragon, like you. No matter how you look at it, doesn't this seem like a bizarre twist of fate?" Vali elaborated, clearly taking pleasure in this situation. "Not only do we possess Rival Sacred Gear's, but the two who are destined to be the Strongest wielders of all time are both from the same generation. Rather than a miracle, this might actually be what they call Divine Intervention."

"Pretty strange for a Devil to be talking about Divine Intervention." Shirou said impassively. "Still I agree, this does all seem too much to just be happenstance, it almost does feel it was predestined."

"Yes, my thought exactly. When I learned about you, who's existence was as remarkable as my own, I laughed out of joy. 'Ah, so this is my rival. How wonderful.' Everything about you surpassed my expectations." Vali confessed.

Shirou raised a brow at this new information. "Back up a bit, you're saying you knew about me before the Kokabiel incident?"

"I along with so many others learned of your existence after your debut in the battle against Phenex." Vali informed him. "Your performance impressed me so I researched you, Your Father was a Magician that as unrivaled among those in the Church, your Mother was a peerless Swordsman that stood at the pinnacle of the Exorcists, not only are you a True Holy Sword wielder, you discovered the lost Welsh Dragon Sword—Dyrnwyn and claimed it, and not just are you his descendant but you're the current vessel of Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada—The Human who was chosen by God." He listened down. "That is to say, even without the Boosted Gear you are an unbelievable existence."

"But despite all that, you still think you're stronger than me, don't you?" Shirou accused him. "I can tell by the look in eyes that you're just itching to kill me."

"It's true I think that fighting you is an attractive idea, but another thought came into my mind that I think you'll also find interesting." Vali told him before he extended his hand. "Why don't you join me?"

Shirou and everyone else was taken aback by that sudden proposal.

"What?" Was Shirou's only response.

"Just think about it, if we join forces then no force in this world could touch us. Join the Khaos Brigade and you'll be able to fight against the Strongest Beings in this World, you'll gain much greater power than you could with them." Vali offered, hoping to convince him. "Not to mention you'll easily be able to find the rest of the Old Satan Faction and don't worry, Ophis won't mind if you kill them. Rather than following or serving anyone, you'll be free to follow you're own path and serve no one but yourself, doesn't that sound much more to your liking?"

The situation became tense, so much so that everyone there was on edge. Vali's words literally felt like listening to a Devil tempt someone to sin, it was nerve-wracking.

"Shirou-san?" Asia turned him, still shaking.

Rias looked at Vali almost enraged. "How dare you if think that—"

She was stopped when Ren stepped in front of her. "Don't, you can't get involved in this."

"But…" Rias looked as though she still wanted to protest.

"I gotta say, even I never thought Vali would try something like this." Azazel thought to himself, frowning. He then looked towards Shirou. "Well kid, what's your answer gonna be?"

After being silent for a while, Shirou sheathed Dyrnwyn and looked up at Vali, his expression showed that he already had his answer. "I hafta admit, that's a pretty tempting offer, almost too good to pass up."

Almost everyone's eyes widened in shock and horror when they heard those words and what they could mean.

"What are you saying?"

"You don't mean?"

"He wouldn't really?"

"…No way?"

Kiba, Akeno, Xenovia, and Koneko all thought with a twinge of fear.

Vali, however, looked pleased. "So you've agreed to join me?"

Shirou then put on a pure Shirou-styled smirked that was dripping with arrogance. "Hell No!"

Once again everyone was taken aback, but this was different from the last time and there was one person who didn't look the least bit surprised.

"Knew it." Mika inwardly bragged to no one.

Shirou continued. "Don't get me wrong, the offer is tempting and if had been a few months ago I would have agreed in a second, but now…" Shirou looked back to see the others for a moment before looking back at Vali. "Well, let's just say I have some unfinished business on this side and I don't plan on going anywhere until I've taken care of it." He continued to smirk as he placed a hand of his chest. "Besides, I don't need to be a terrorist to follow my own path and I've never served anyone but myself and my own Pride!"

Hearing his words brought a smile to the faces of those around him and Vali didn't look all that surprised.

"Shirou." Rias said happily.

"Shirou-san." Asia said also happy and no longer trembling.

"…Sempai." Koneko breathed out with relief.

"Somehow that answer suits him perfectly." Akeno added with her own smile.

"Still, he had me worried for a second." Xenovia admitted.

"I guess we should have known his response would be like that." Kiba noted also smiling.

"You're damn right you should have known!" Shirou snapped at them clearly pissed off. "Don't think I didn't notice the way you guys were looking at me! How dare you even think I was going to go the traitor route!"

Kiba raised his hands in defense and smiled nervously. "Hey, calm down, think of it from our point of view, if the first words someone said in response were the same as your's then you can't blame us for being just a little worried."

Akeno joined in, not as nervous as Kiba. "Besides, you answered that way because you were trying to fool everyone into thinking you would say yes." She pointed out. "So you can't really blame at all."

Shirou grumbled. "I'll deal with you guys later." He then became serious and went back to Vali. "Right now, I still need to take care of this."

Shirou then unfurled his wings and started flying upwards to meet Vali in the air.

"Big Bro." Mika called out to him, now fully healed.

Shirou stopped and turned his head. "Yeah?"

Mika just smiled confidently and said. "…Win."

Shirou smiled confidently back at her and continued his way up. "Naturally."

Before long, both he and Vali were floating side-by-side a few feet above the ground.

"So in the end, you choose your Pride above all else, I suppose I can appreciate that." Vali decided, still in good spirits. "Still, a part of me is somewhat relieved you didn't accept my offer."

"Let me guess, it's because since we're still enemies that means we can fight each other, right?" Shirou easily deduced.

"Don't act as though you're any different." Vali taunted him. "I know for a fact that you also unsatisfied by the abrupt end to both of our previous encounters. A showdown between the two of us where no one can interrupt us or get in our way, I know that's what you want as well."

Shirou summoned his Boosted Gear over his arm. "Yeah, you got me there."

Silence followed as they both just floated there, motionless. Not saying a word, not moving an inch, not making a sound, only keeping their gaze on each other with razor-sharp focus as if daring the other to make the first move.

Those who were watching also didn't make a sound, they just kept their eyes glued to the two above them. The fateful battle between the Red and White Dragon Emperors was finally about to begin, no one wanted to miss a second, because the outcome of this battle could very well end up changing the world.

.

.

.

WHOOSH!

CLASH!

Then, as if by some unheard signal they both moved in to make the fist blow and in the blink of an eye, both Dragon Emperors were right in front of each other and had their fists crossed against each other in a power struggle.

With all formalities out of the way and the curtain raised, they both uttered the two words that shattered the very balance of the world.

[BALANCE BREAK!]

[Welsh Dragon—Balance Breaker!]

(Vanishing Dragon—Balance Breaker!)

And that's the chapter. Man, that was a long one, I didn't expect it was going to be this long, I just hard trouble thinking of a good point to end the chapter. Regarding the fight, I wanted to fight to be a pure back and forth fight considering Cattleya wasn't fighting Azazel. Cattleya was like Kokabiel in that she's all brawn and no brain and thus Mika was able to outsmart her to an extent but not easily. Especially with the power-up that came from using Ophis' snake.

For the Amaterasu Formal, I wanted her to her a really powerful finishing move and one that demonstrates her gift for Black Magic. It will also act as a sign of her growth were she'll be able to learn stronger Formula's the stronger she becomes. And as for the way she spoke to Cattleya before killing her, I wanted to show that like Shirou she is very skilled in psychological warfare, she finds out what to say to push someone's button and can go far enough to until she says exactly what they don't want to hear, not stopping until they can't even think of a response. Considering how much she hated her, I figured it made sense for her to go that far.

The next chapter will be the last chapter of the Arc, it will cover Shirou and Vali's entire fight and wrap up everything else in this Arc. Unfortunately, the chapter will most likely be longer than this one and so it'll take longer to upload it so try to endure it.

Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review, if you like the story then click the follow/favorite, and as always have an awesome day.