~ 💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 60→1ch | 100→2ch | 200→5ch ⏰ Resets Monday!
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Evening.
The forest path outside Kuoh University.
Issei Hyoudou stared at the figure suspended in midair.
His throat was dry.
His mind had gone completely blank.
He’d gone home at noon and gamed all afternoon.
It wasn’t until after dinner that he remembered he’d left his bag at school.
He figured the gates would still be open, so…
But now…
What the hell is going on?
“Um…
Fallen Angel sir.” Issei Hyoudou forced out a smile, his voice barely holding together.
“May I ask what business you have with me?
I-I’m just an ordinary college student…” The male Fallen Angel sneered, black mist churning around him like something alive.
“To think Raynare actually failed.” He muttered it low, the Light Spear in his grip slowly taking solid form.
“Lord Azazel sent me to confirm whether your power has awakened or not.” “I haven’t awakened!
I don’t have any power!” Issei Hyoudou shouted, stumbling back on instinct.
His heel caught a tree root and he lurched, nearly going down.
He fumbled frantically in his pocket.
His fingers found the jade stone.
“Whether you’ve awakened or not.” The Fallen Angel raised the Light Spear with a cold sneer.
“You die here today!” The Light Spear shrieked through the air.
Issei Hyoudou clenched the jade stone with everything he had.
BOOM!
A crimson magic circle blazed open across the ground!
The light cleared.
Rias Gremory stood between him and the Fallen Angel.
Her red hair whipped in the evening wind like fire!
She didn’t spare the Fallen Angel a single glance.
She turned her head slightly toward Issei Hyoudou, the Power of Destruction rising in her palm.
At the same moment.
Akeno Himejima had already flashed to Rias’s front.
Lightning danced at her fingertips.
She tapped once, gentle smile in place.
“Ara ara…
riffraff like this dares to run rampant here?” CRACK!
A thick column of lightning tore through the black mist.
The Fallen Angel screamed, half his wing blown clean off.
But in that same instant…
The jade stone in Issei Hyoudou’s hand rippled with faint light.
Everyone went still.
A black silhouette materialized in front of Issei Hyoudou without a sound, without any warning.
No face.
Only the faint flutter of robes at its edge.
Rias Gremory’s pupils snapped tight.
“This is…” The silhouette raised one hand and waved it.
Casual.
Unhurried.
“Hm…” Blood sprayed.
Akeno Himejima was behind Rias now, no one had seen her move.
She knelt on one knee, right hand pressed to her left shoulder.
Blood pulsed through the gaps between her fingers.
The gentle smile hadn’t left her face.
But her eyes were wide with shock.
“Akeno!” The Power of Destruction died in Rias’s palm as she lunged to her side.
“Are you alright?!” Her gaze locked onto the silhouette.
What is that?!
How did it appear?!
Why hadn’t she sensed anything, not a trace of presence, not a flicker of aura?!
The Fallen Angel was frozen in midair, staring, his voice shaking.
“Wh-what is that thing…” The silhouette turned its head slightly.
It seemed to glance at him.
The next second.
The Fallen Angel shattered like broken glass and dissolved into black smoke that scattered into the air.
Issei Hyoudou sat on the ground, completely dumbstruck.
Brother Ancheng…
A stone he just handed me…
can wipe out a Fallen Angel?!
He stared down at his open palm.
The jade stone sat there, warm and smooth.
As if none of what just happened had anything to do with it.
The silhouette turned slowly to face him.
He still couldn’t make out its face.
But Issei could feel it clearly.
It was looking at him.
“You…” The words never made it out.
The silhouette faded into nothing.
“President…” Akeno Himejima’s voice drifted over, unsteady.
“I…
I…” Each word came broken, halting.
“This wound…
is corroding my body…” Rias gently moved Akeno’s hand away.
One look, and she went rigid.
The wound…
was spreading.
Visibly.
In real time.
Not bleeding.
Not rotting.
The flesh was simply vanishing, as if invisible flames were burning it away, bit by bit, leaving nothing behind.
“This is impossible…” For the first time, Rias’s voice cracked with panic.
“Hn…” Akeno bit down hard.
Her body shook and wouldn’t stop.
Rias whipped around and fixed Issei Hyoudou with a glare, her voice sharp and cold.
“Issei Hyoudou!
Make that thing come back out!
Tell it to withdraw its power!” “I-I can’t!” Issei Hyoudou scrambled to his feet, jade stone cupped in both hands, his voice trembling.
“It came out on its own just now!
I don’t know how to call it!” He turned to the stone and poured everything he had into it.
“Come out!
Please, come out and save her!” He shook it hard.
“Please!
Someone is dying!” Issei Hyoudou’s voice broke into something close to a sob.
The jade stone stayed warm and quiet.
Akeno’s body swayed.
She nearly went down.
Rias could feel it, sharp and undeniable, the life draining out of Akeno in her arms, fast.
The demon’s natural healing ability did nothing.
The wound didn’t care.
Rias drew a slow breath.
Then something came back to her.
A small magic circle flared in her palm.
A crystal vial dropped into her hand.
“Phoenix Tears…” She cradled Akeno’s head.
“Akeno, swallow this.
It heals instantly.” Akeno’s trembling lips parted.
Rias tilted the vial and let a single red drop fall into her mouth.
Ten seconds.
One minute.
Five minutes.
“How is it not working!” Rias hurled the empty vial aside and stared at the wound, still spreading, disbelief written across her face.
What is this power?!
Is the only option left to take Akeno’s soul and perform the reincarnation ritual?!
Issei Hyoudou’s head snapped up.
The shopping street…
That afternoon, the person who had been with Brother Ancheng…
“The nun!” He practically shouted it.
“I-I’ll take you there!
I know someone who can save her!” Five minutes later.
Rias touched down outside the villa, Akeno barely conscious in her arms.
Issei Hyoudou stumbled on landing, catching himself just before he fell.
“It’s you?!” Rias’s voice came out sharp with surprise, her gaze locking onto the figure standing at the villa entrance.
Alpha stood quietly at the door.
She glanced once at Akeno in Rias’s arms, brief, unreadable, then shifted her eyes to Issei Hyoudou.
“You have business here?” “Elf sister!” Issei Hyoudou clutched at the words like a lifeline, pointing at Akeno, who had passed out cold from the pain.
“Can you — please — ask that nun to help her?
She was hurt by whatever’s inside that stone!” Alpha shook her head gently.
“Asia can treat the injury, but she can’t erase the power attached to the wound.” Rias went still.
The meaning landed without ambiguity.
Continuous healing.
No end to it.
But the source of the erosion would remain intact, untouchable.
The moment the healing stopped, the wound would resume spreading.
And it would keep spreading until there was nothing left of Akeno.
Rias looked down at her.
It would leave Akeno devastatingly weak.
But the reincarnation ritual might be the only path forward now…
Issei Hyoudou took a slow breath.
His fist closed, then opened.
Closed again.
He finally couldn’t hold it back.
“Then what about Big Brother?
Big Brother can fix this, right?!
That stone is his — he has to know how to undo this!” Alpha didn’t answer right away.
She turned her head and glanced behind her.
Two seconds of quiet.
Then she raised her hand.
The courtyard’s iron gate swung open.
“Come in.” ➤ Next: A Direct Pitch from the Demon Emperor — .—— .—— .—— .—— .—— Enjoying the story?