chapter 17

Chapter 17:

The Ballroom descended into panic…only for a short moment. 

Sirzechs Lucifer quickly took control of the situation and yelled loudly to stop all of the panicked screaming and shouting. "Everybody be quiet and back away from the Angel!" he ordered while releasing a bit of his aura.

For a short moment, complete silence descended upon all of the Devil's surrounding Marcus. None of them could believe what had just happened. One moment, Diodora Astaroth was proudly showing off the Church's most famous Saintess–who was going to be his final peerage member. The next moment, Diodora's body has completely turned to ash before their collective eyes.

The Heir of a Pillar Clan, Ajuka Beelzebub's own nephew, had been slain by the weapon all Devils feared above all else. The strongest of the Longinus. The legendary Sacred Gear was in the hands of an Angel that had somehow snuck into the party…

"Marcus, you came to rescue me?" Asia asked him. Tears were running down her face and she was trembling. She had been incredibly scared, and was terrified of losing her soul to an evil Devil. 

"Of course I did, Asia," Marcus replied. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to himself. 

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Asia cried as she hugged him.

All the Devils around them were starting to recover from the shock of what just happened. 

"...He killed Diodora-sama!"

"How is this possible! How is Angel scum here?"

"He h–has the True Longinus!" 

All of the Devils nearby backed away from Marcus in fear of his spear. They surrounded him in a circle, forming a 20 meter radius. 

Sairaorg was braver than most. He pushed through the gawkers and stepped closer to Marcus and Asia than anyone else. "Marcus! You're an Angel…? What have you done?" he asked while looking at the small pile of ashes on the ground. They were all that was left of Diodora at this point. 

"I did what I had to do," Marcus said. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the Spear of Destiny tightly. His eyes darted around as he prepared himself to be attacked at any time. He knew he wouldn't be able to match Sairaorg without using up one of his Balance Breaker charges. "Asia did not leave the church for Diodora. He organized an attack on the Vatican itself and abducted her. He had to die for his crimes."

"It's true! I would never willingly become a Devil. I didn't say those words earlier, I was under mind control," Asia spoke out emotionally.

Sairaorg gaped in shock at that information. "T-That's…That can't be true…" Sairaorg was at a loss for words. 

There were numerous gasps from all the Devils in the room. Organizing a direct attack in the Church? That was an act of war! Most of the Devils in the room didn't believe it, they couldn't believe a member of the nobility would be that foolish. Therefore, they naturally assumed that Marcus and Asia were both lying and that this was nothing more than an elaborate assassination plot against a proud member of their noble race!

"He lies!"

"Diodora was a true Noble Devil!"

"Kill the Angel filth! How dare he come here wielding that weapon and slay one of our noble sons!"

The crowd was growing agitated and Marcus could sense dozens of Devils calling upon their Demonic Energy. Even after living in Gotham, Marcus had never been surrounded by so much dark power all at once. It was unnerving, but he knew that he would get through it all.

Asia wrapped her arms around Marcus's waist and trembled. "Marcus, I'm scared…"

"It'll be alright." Marcus gently pat Asia's back as she buried her head in his chest. "I didn't come here alone."

THUD!

"Owie…" Serafall groaned in pain. She had been unceremoniously tossed head-over-heels directly into the center of the circle. She couldn't remember the last time someone had tossed her around so easily. For the first time ever, when she thought of her rival Gabriel, Serafall felt more than annoyance, she felt fear. 'She's so much stronger than any of us thought…' Serafall thought to herself as she stood up and rubbed her aching butt. She needed to warn the other Maous to not try and fight her!

"Serafall? What happened?" Sirzechs asked as he and Ajuka pushed through the crowds shortly after she had made her less than elegant entrance onto the middle of the scene.

"Guys, we need to take a step back here and–" Serafall was cut off as Ajuka angrily stormed past her. He didn't even spare her a second glance, she had never seen the normally collected Maou so utterly furious before. This was not good!

Ajuka was glaring at Marcus murderously. "You will pay for killing my nephew, Nephilim." Ajuka was instantly able to correctly deduce that Marcus was only half-Angel. His Kankaku formula was already going to work, planning the best method to capture Marcus and painfully extract all of the information about what happened from him. Before Ajuka arrived at his answer, he experienced a sudden and very painful migraine! His formula failed, it couldn't come up with for him to accomplish his goal. 'Impossible!' he thought to himself. 'That's never happened before. The Kankaku formula is supposed to be perfect? There's no way I won't be able to capture a mere four winged Nephilim!'

More gasps rang out from the other side of the room. Devils scurried away in fear as the Archangel Gabriel made her way towards her son. Her eyes never left the three Maou as she did so. If any of them tried to hurt her precious son, then she wouldn't hesitate to give them a glimpse of the power they were lucky to avoid during the Great War. 

Gabriel could sense Ajuka's feelings and knew he would be hard to reason with. "Back off, Ajuka Beelzebub. My son has spoken nothing but the truth. Diodora Astaroth has broken our fragile peace," she explained while stepping in front of Marcus and Asia. "If there is to be more violence here today, then it shall include me."

"It already did include you when you almost crushed my arm and then tossed me on my ass…" Serafall grumbled next to Sirzechs. 

"Did that really happen, Sera?" Sirzechs asked her. Gabriel had always been known to be about equal with his friend in power. "She tossed you around…easily?" 

Serafall grimaced at the redheaded Maou. "I don't know how, but she's been sandbagging us big time. I felt her power when she grabbed onto me…it was massive. Bigger than even yours when you take on your True Form," Serafall added with a hint of worry. "I have no idea what's going on, but we can't afford to start a war right now until we find out what happened. If Diodora did attack the church then that's really bad." Serafall didn't have to explain to Sirzechs any further than that. They could not afford another war.

It was believed that Fallen Angels had the lowest population of the Three Factions and that was true. They numbered around 100,000. Following them were the Angels. No one besides them knew how many Angels actually survived the Great War, but it was believed to be over a million at the very least. 

There were 3 million Devils in the Underworld. That sounded like a lot, until people started doing the math and realized that most of those Devils were actually reincarnations. Of all those reincarnations, around 99% of them were former humans who agreed to eternal servitude in return for an immortal life of sin and debauchery. They were basically just regular humans with wings, completely worthless as soldiers. The truth they worked so hard to hide as a race was that the number of actual combat capable Devils was less than 20,000. In the event of another war, the Underworld would be absolutely fucked. And now they were finding out that the Archangels may actually be stronger than anyone ever assumed. 

Sirzechs nodded at Serafall in understanding. He stepped forward and placed his hand on Ajuka's shoulder to try and calm his best friend down. "I know you're furious, Ajuka, but we have to find out the truth. It was highly suspicious that your nephew managed to acquire the church's Saintess after all. They would have never bestowed that title upon her if her faith wasn't absolute and unbreakable." Sirzechs knew the best way to get through to his best friend was to use logic. He was hoping that would work here.

Ajuka grimaced at Sirzechs's words. He had to admit, he has always been a bit suspicious of where his nephews peerage members came from. They were all high ranking female members from other factions and pantheons. Ajuka always assumed his nephew was just really good at seducing beautiful women. That wasn't exactly a crime in the Supernatural world. 

For the first time in a long time, Ajuka had no plan. He had no idea what to do. His formula wasn't working, there was no guaranteed path to victory. He had to figure things out for himself. He turned his head and glanced at his oldest friend Sirzechs. He knew that if it had been Sirzechs's little sister who had been killed, no amount of logic in the world would have stopped him from getting revenge. Ajuka wondered what gave Sirzechs the right to to stop from doing the same?

He came to a decision. He quickly pointed his hand at Gabriel, the Astaroth Clan Magic Circle appeared in front of him! "No! I won't let my nephew's murderer go free! He dies!"

"Shit!" Serafall cursed when she saw Ajuka prepare an attack spell. She couldn't believe the logical man was acting so stupid!

A blue fireball instantly appeared in front of the green haired Maou. The spell was conjured and fired faster than most Devils could even blink. Ajuka was just that good at magic.

"So it's come to this…" Gabriel frowned as the fireball flew towards her. In a flash of light, her Toga vanished from her body. It was replaced by a suit of golden armor that she hadn't dawned in a long time. A brilliant golden sword and shield also appeared in her right and left hands. With her shield, she casually batted away Ajuka's fireball once it reached her.

It flew to her left and incinerated a random noble Devil who was too slow to dodge out of the way. With his death, the ballroom once again descended into a panicked frenzy. This time, not even Sirzechs himself would be able to stop it. Noble Devils screamed and ran for every possible exit. They pushed and shoved past each other, showing none of the decorum they had all been presenting just moments earlier.

Gabriel launched herself forwards and swung her sword at Ajuka's head. 'If the Devils lose one of their leaders today, then so be it. No other faction will care if the creator of the Evil Pieces dies!' Gabriel focused her complete attention on eliminating the threat posed to her son. She knew that Ajuka was a man of determination and patience, if he was determined to kill Marcus, then he couldn't be allowed to live.

Before her golden blade could cleave his head from his shoulders, it was intercepted by another sword, one made solely from the Power of Destruction.

"Don't do this Gabriel, we can talk this out!" Sirzechs pleaded with the Archangel. His arms were shaking and his knees were buckling as he held his ground with everything he had. 'Serafall was right! Gabriel really is stronger than we thought!'

"I won't stop. He wants to kill my son, so he has to die," Gabriel said. She put more strength behind her sword, causing Sirzechs knees to buckle and the tile to crack underneath the both of them.

"Levia-tan attack!" Serafall fired a powerful beam of ice at Gabriel when she saw Sirzechs start to lose in a battle of strength! She knew this was a terrible idea, but she couldn't let her friends get killed here.

Gabriel's shield easily stopped the freeze ray in its tracks. It was a shield specially crafted for war by her father, it could negate or reflect almost all magical attacks. "That was a mistake, Levia-tan. Now I'm going to have to punish you as well after I deal with Ajuka," Gabriel said coldly. Her usual cheery demeanor was nowhere to be seen.

Serafall gulped in fear…

"You won't get the chance! You took my family from me, now I'll take yours." Ajuka declared from behind his friend. Ten magic circles were hovering in the air in front of him. Each one was loaded with a devastating spell that could maim most Ultimate Class being in a single hit.

Gabriel scoffed at his bravado. She smashed Sirzechs to the side and pointed her blade at Ajuka. "I'll have your head today, Ajuka Beelzebub!" 

She blitzed past Sirzechs, who was still recovering himself, and Serafall, who was once again frozen in indecision. All ten spell circles fired on her at the same time. One spat out lava, one spewed out highly corrosive acid, one released a cloud of toxic nerve gas. Gabriel recognized every attack as meant to maim or kill Ultimate Class beings. Ajuka wasn't holding back against her, so she wouldn't go easy on him either!

Her arms became a blur as her sword and shield slashed and blocked every single spell before they could hit her. It was all done in a fraction of a second.

Ajuka's eyes widened in shock. He'd never even seen the fastest knights in the Underworld move that fast! He grit his teeth and steeled himself. He wasn't going to lose here! He was Ajuka Beelzebub, the hero and savior of the Underworld! His whole race would have faced extinction without him!

Before Gabriel could take three steps towards him, 20 more magic circles appeared in front of him, each one armed to fire even more lethal magic than the previous 10!

"I'm not going to lose to the airhead of Heaven!" Ajuka spat out as all of his spells fired on her! "Sirzechs, Serafall, get off your asses and help me take her down!"

…

His mother was now openly fighting the three Maous. They had planned for this possibility, but Marcus hadn't really been expecting for it to happen.

"What do we do, Marcus?" Asia asked as they watched all the Devils who had been circling around them flee for their lives.

"We should get out of here too," Marcus told Asia. "I'll open a portal for us back to Earth." He started calling on his mother's power to open an escape portal for them.

"Not so fast, Marcus! You owe me a fight." Sairaorg Bael was now standing across from them, sporting an excited grin. Watching three of the Maou engage in battle had gotten him fired up!

Sairaorg wasn't alone either. Rias Gremory, Sona Sitri, and Akeno Himejima were standing next to him. The three girls looked less than pleased about the current situation but at least they didn't look like they were going to start fighting as well. 

"What the hell was that, Marcus!?" Rias yelled at him. "You can't just casually stroll in here and murder the heir of a pillar clan! There's no way you'll be allowed to join my peerage now!" she complained dejectedly. "I had everything planned out perfectly."

"I was never planning on joining your peerage in the first place…" Marcus told her pointedly.

"That should have been pretty obvious at this point, Rias. He's the son of a literal Archangel," Sona pointed out dryly. 

Rias pouted at her friend. "Darn it, I really wanted him in my peerage! Don't pretend like you didn't really want him either, Sona. I saw the way you were looking at him, you totally had the hots for Marcus!" 

Sona blushed at Rias's accusation. "Well yes… B–but that was before I found out he was a Nephilim. I don't know how you fooled us Marcus-san, but that was very clever." Sona cursed the fact that his successful infiltration of the party actually made him want him even more. She had a thing for handsome spies…

Marcus turned to Akeno who was glaring at him hatefully. "Hello, Cousin. What's with the glare? You look like you want to murder me? Were you friends with Diodora or something?" 

Akeno scoffed. "As if I would ever get along with that pompous ass. The world's probably better off without him! And don't call me cousin! We're not family! All Angels and Fallen Angels are scum! You're just like HIM!" she was practically seething after she spoke.

'Wow…' Marcus thought to himself. The anime had understated just how messed up in the head Akeno was. She was completely projecting all of her hatred for her father onto him and every other Angel. 'She's going to need a lot of therapy.'

"My big brother isn't evil! He snuck into Hell itself to rescue me!" Asia wiped the tears out of her eyes and defended Marcus. "You're just jealous!" she declared and Akeno sputtered.

Akeno shifted her scowl towards Asia. She couldn't believe the audacity of that statement! "Jealous of what? You? Why would I be jealous of you!? Just because someone swooped in and saved you and nobody ever saved me when I was running for my life from my hateful relatives!? Running from my family who wanted to kill me for being a half-breed abomination!? Do you think I care about any of that!? I don't!" Akeno's face was red as she finished her rant. 

'There's definitely a lot to unpack there.' Marcus thought to himself. 

"I'm sorry that all happened to you," Asia told Akeno sincerely. She was so sincere that her words caught Akeno off guard. "Marcus isn't like that though. He's my big brother and my hero! He saved me and I know he would have saved you too!" she declared passionately. 

Marcus blushed at Asia's enthusiasm.

Lightning had been dancing around Akeno's fingertips as she prepared to unleash her Demonic Lightning at the Nephilim in front of her. After Asia's words, the lightning faded away and Akeno frowned. She glanced between Asia and Marcus thoughtfully. "I won't interfere, let's see your 'hero' in action. Can he really protect you, or is he all talk like all the others?" Akeno asked Asia. 

Heh! Your little sister has some serious faith in you," Sairaorg said to Marcus.

"I won't let her down," Marcus replied confidently. 

Sairaorg could respect that kind of determination. "Show me what you've got then, let's fight!" A white aura sprang up around Sairaorg as if he was a Dragonball character. 

"I guess we're doing this after all…" Marcus pushed Asia behind himself and spread out his four wings. With a mere thought, they all shifted to metal and became razor sharp. He wasn't sure how tough his super powered wings really were, but he was about to find out.

"Let's go!" Sairaorg cheered as he blitzed forwards. He wasn't going to give up an opportunity to face a strong opponent. Marcus might have only had four wings, but he wielded the most dangerous weapon in the Supernatural world. Sairaorg knew that a single hit could be fatal, and yet that only made the thrill much more exciting. 

Sairaorg's fist lashed out towards Marcus. The muscular Devil was surprised when Marcus moved his wings in front of himself to block!

'What is he doing!?' Sairaorg thought that was foolish. He expected his fist to easily shatter the soft and feathery appendage. Angel wings weren't known to be particularly strong after all. They were actually known to be most Angels' weak points. Destroying a wing would severely weaken or even cripple most Angels and Fallen Angels.

That didn't happen.

Clang!

Sairaorg's eyes widened in shock as his fist harmlessly bounced off Marcus's wings. 'What the hell!? His wings are made of metal! A super strong metal!' He threw that punch at full power and he didn't even make a dent in the wings.

While Sairaorg was thrown off step, Marcus lashed out with the True Longinus. He wasn't aiming for a kill shot, but he was trying to put Sairaorg out of commission. 

Sairaorg was pleased with Marcus's reaction time and instant retaliation. Every single Noble Devil he had faced in the rating games so far had buckled the second he went on the offensive against them. He had been growing agitated at the lack of a proper challenge.

"Finally! A real opponent!" Sairaorg exclaimed boisterously with a large grin. "But you'll have to do better than that to stop me!" Before it could strike him, Sairaorg caught the True Longinus by the pole with his bare hand!

Marcus's attack was stopped dead in its tracks. In fact, Sairaorg was about to completely rip the spear out of Marcus hands, before he had to let it go with a pained hiss. "Damn, that burns." He quickly let go of the Sacred Gear and took a few steps backwards. Sairaorg examined his hand, the palm was burnt black. 'Even touching the weapon in a harmless area causes immense pain. It truly is the most dangerous Sacred Gear…'

"Are you ok, Sairaorg?" Rias and Sona had stopped squabbling with each other once the fighting stopped. Rias felt deeply uncomfortable being in the presence of such a dangerous weapon, she couldn't believe her cousin was reckless enough to try and grab it! Actually…she could believe it. Sairaorg was known to be a reckless fighter in most of his rating games.

Sairaorg found that he could barely move his left hand. It was basically useless until he could get his hands on some Phenix Tears. Despite that, he still felt excited. "I'm fine, Rias. Don't interfere! This is a fight between two men!" 

The three Devils girls scoffed at his bravado.

"I already said I wasn't interfering," Akeno clicked her tongue.

"Men…" Sona groaned. 

"So cool…" Rias whispered to herself. This was like a scene straight out of her favorite manga. A handsome hero (Marcus) was defending a princess (Asia) from the Demon King(Sairaorg)! Of course, Rias hoped for the Demon King to win in this circumstance. 'Maybe after Marcus and Asia are captured, I can ask my brother to place them both in my peerage? It worked out with Koneko,' Rias thought to herself. 

Marcus was shocked by Sairaorg's immense strength just then. He felt like there was no way he could have stopped the Devil from taking his weapon if it didn't naturally burn all Unholy beings. 

"Are you ok, Marcus?" Asia asked in concern.

"I'm fine, Asia," Marcus said. He actually found a ghost of a smile creeping up on him. He could hardly believe that Sairaorg Bael just attacked him with his full strength and that he was able to drive him backwards. If this was any other time Marcus would have truly loved to have an all out fight between himself and Sairaorg, just to see how far he had come. 

BOOM! CRASH! BOOM!

Unfortunately, now was not the time for that.

Marcus glanced off to the side. His mother was adorned in her war armor and was fighting three of the Maous at the same time evenly–no, she was actually winning. Injuries were piling up on the three Maous while she still looked pristine. Despite that, Marcus knew that none of the four were even close to going all out. If they all unleashed their True Forms and full powers here, he and everyone else nearby would be caught in the ensuing chaos and most likely perish. 

"Are you ready for round two, Marcus?" An aura of Touki burst forth and surrounded Sairaorg's body for the second time. "I underestimated your impressive defense before, but I won't be holding back a second time. We're not stopping til one of us drops!" he declared passionately. Marcus almost found himself swept up in Sairaorg's enthusiasm for battle. 

"I'm going to have to take a rain check, big guy," Marcus said while stowing away his True Longinus. "I have to get Asia out of here before mom and the Maou start throwing around their dangerous attacks. Make no mistake, we will finish our fight someday soon," he promised him.

"Noooo!" Rias whined loudly. "You can't stop now, it was just getting good, don't leave your audience on a cliffhanger!" 

"At least he chooses to prioritize the safety of the girl over his own lust for battle…" Akeno commented thoughtfully. "I would be disappointed if he did anything else."

Sairaorg was disappointed that their battle was to be put on hold, but he allowed his battle aura to fade away. "I'm not sure what's going to happen after all this chaos, but I'm sure we'll meet again. We'll finish our fight then." Sairaorg walked over to Marcus and held out his uninjured right hand. "Try not to get killed until then." 

"I won't," Marcus said as the two of them shook hands. Their factions might be enemies at the moment after everything that happened, but they still had mutual respect for each other. "Next time you should bring your own Sacred Gear. I want to fight you at your best."

Sairaorg raised an eyebrow at those words. "Interesting…not many people even know about Regulus. I haven't used him in a single rating game yet. You're full of surprises, Marcus Light." 

"You don't know the half of 'em." Marcus smirked before turning his head to the side. "Asia and I are leaving now, good luck mother," he called out to Gabriel who was still engaged in battle. He called upon her power and a golden portal sprang up next to him. It led directly back to his mansion in Gotham. 

Gabriel smiled when she felt her son call upon the power she had bestowed upon him to escape. Once he and Asia were out of harm's way, she could unleash more of her power and start teaching these three Maou a real lesson! "I told you that you wouldn't be able to harm my son!" She taunted Ajuka. He wasn't able to dodge her next strike unscathed, the tip of her blade barely missed his eye and struck his cheek. The holy energy infused in her sword would leave a permanent scar on his face.

Ajuka hissed in pain as he hopped backwards. He wiped the blood from his face and grimaced once he saw the brat who killed his nephew was in the process of escaping. 'Of course, Sirzechs's dumb sister and her friends are just standing around and watching him escape! Why would I expect anything different from them?' He couldn't believe that he was about to fail! He hadn't failed anything in centuries, he was supposed to be the smartest man in the world! However, as Marcus and Asia were stepping through the golden portal, Ajuka's Kankaku Formula started working again. It still didn't grant him the path to kill them, but it gave him a way to make it so they never arrived at their destination. 'I hope they end up lost forever! That will be a fitting punishment for killing my nephew.'

"Say goodbye to your son, Gabriel!" Ajuka yelled madly. He threw out a spell that he had crafted randomly a few hundred years ago. It was a spell that he had never bothered completing, it was meant to change the destination of a teleportation circle to his own choosing. The spell never worked properly though, everytime he experimented with it, the test objects ended up vanishing forever. Ajuka theorized that they ended up in an alternate dimension of some kind. 

The spell was small and subtle. It slipped past Gabriel and impacted Marcus's portal right as he and Asia were stepping through. The golden portal immediately changed into a sickly black. 

Gabriel flew into a rage upon feeling Ajuka's foul magic taint and corrupt her son's portal. She had no idea how he did it, but she didn't feel Marcus's presence arrive on Earth. He had been transported somewhere out of her reach. "You'll die for that!" she exclaimed in fury. Her twelve white wings began to shine brightly as she released more and more of her divine power. Cracks appeared in the walls and floors nearby as the Devil mansion shook from its very foundations. 

…

Rias, Sona, Akeno and Sairaorg all backed away quickly. "This battle is above our current levels. We need to leave," Sona said.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I agree." Sairaorg said. Please teleport us out of here, Rias." he asked his cousin. He was incapable of using any form of magic at all.

"Do you think Marcus is ok?" Rias asked everybody as she quickly used her Demonic Power to etch a teleportation circle into the ballroom floor. This would normally be considered incredibly rude to do in another Noble Devil's home, but Diodora was dead now so it didn't really matter. 

"Hah! My new rival won't be taken down that easily. I don't know what happened with his portal, but I'm sure he's fine." Sairaorg replied. He always trusted his gut, and his gut told him that Marcus wasn't the kind of guy who would be taken down by something like a mere teleportation accident. 

…

"That was getting pretty intense," Marcus said as they stepped through the portal.

"Your mom can be kind of scary…" Asia said, nevertheless she was immensely thankful that she had been rescued. 

"Do you smell smoke?" Marcus asked. "Huh, this isn't my mansion in Gotham and why is everything on fire…" he trailed off while looking around. Did he mess up the destination of his portal? They ended up in a city he didn't recognize, all the buildings around them were burning. 

"You two came out of a black portal. You must be villain reinforcements…" Marcus heard someone speaking Japanese nearby. He and Asia turned around and spotted a teenager approaching them. Half of his hair was white, and the other half was red. He also had a large burn scar covering half of his face. "Surrender and allow yourselves to be captured, villains." the teenager held up his right hand towards them. 

Marcus's eyes widened in shock when a massive wave of ice burst forth from the teenager's hand and surged towards them!

XXX