Taking Charge

Following the awkwardness created by Issei's exclamation, Kiba adopted a firm expression, causing Rias to startle as he expressed, "Sorry, Buchou, but I agree with Issei-kun."

"Not you too, Kiba..." sighed Rias, rising to her feet, moving toward her desk, and leaning against it so she wasn't stuck between two conversing groups.

"Buchou knows how I feel about the Excalibur..." remarked Kiba, directing his gaze to Xenovia and Irina as he added, "Make no mistake, I don't care if the two of you fail your mission. But if that greatsword you're carrying is another Excalibur, the Fallen will have even more in their arsenal."

Turning back to Rias, Kiba expressed, "I don't believe it's a coincidence that the Fallen brought the stolen Excalibur here. They must be planning something, and allowing them to get their hands on more Excalibur would place us at a disadvantage."

"That's certainly a possibility..." conceded Rias, crossing her arms and lowering her gaze contemplatively.

"Why do you care about the Excalibur...?" asked Xenovia, directing the question and narrow-eyed gaze at Kiba.

"Because I was once a participant in the Holy Sword Project," revealed Kiba, his blue eyes sharpening like daggers as he added, "That is until the higher-ups in the Church decided to cut their losses and have each of us disposed of using poison gas..."

"I see..." muttered Xenovia, her expression softening ever so slightly as she stated, "Then perhaps this is fate, as one of the people we're hunting happens to be the very man responsible for the fiasco that was the Holy Sword Project, Valper Galilei."

"Valper Galilei..." repeated Kiba, his hands and teeth clenched as the face of a short, portly, and bespectacled old man with puffy grey hair, a large nose, a mustache, and vacant black eyes appeared in his mind.

Inserting herself back into the conversation, Rias asked, "Out of curiosity, do you know the identity of the Fallen who stole the Excalibur? They must be someone fairly powerful."

Causing the nearby Grayfia's silver eyes to sharpen, Xenovia nodded and revealed, "It was one of the leaders of Grigori, Kokabiel, the Fallen Star of God. We have yet to confirm his intentions, but we presume he is trying to resume the Holy Sword Project..."

"Unforgivable...!" exclaimed Kiba, causing Vahn, who had been conversing with Sis, to startle as he had never heard the usually stoic and polite Kiba raise his voice, much less shout.

"Calm yourself, Kiba," said Rias, her brows furrowed and tone firm as she exhaled from her nose, turned her gaze to Xenovia, and questioned, "How can two high-school-aged Executors expect to take on a Leader-Class Fallen who has lived for thousands of years and survived rebelling against God? Even hubris has its limits."

"Regardless of the danger, we must fight," stated Xenovia, her tone full of conviction.

"That's right," affirmed Irina, nodding before appending, "Even if it costs us our lives, we must take back or destroy the Excalibur. As for our own, there's no need to worry. Even if we fail our mission, our Excalibur are set to self-destruct the moment they fall into enemy hands."

"Irina...that's not something you should reveal before a group of Devils..." sighed Xenovia, cupping and massaging her forehead before lowering her hand, meeting Vahn's gaze, and asking, "And what is the Chosen's take on this situation? You were the first to express concern over the possibility of us dying, and you've spent the past several minutes lost in thought..."

"Vahn...?" Rias asked tentatively, feeling slightly exasperated as she could predict his response.

"I agree with Issei and Kiba...I would like to help..." stated Vahn, causing the duo's expressions to gain a hint of appreciation before he added, "But I also believe this is bigger than us. As Rias just pointed out, Kokabiel has lived for thousands of years and survived rebelling against God. He isn't a foe a bunch of high schoolers should be taking on..."

Peering back over his shoulder, meeting Grayfia's gaze, Vahn's expression and tone firmed as he ordered, "Return to Sirzechs-sama and apprise him of the situation. I believe Kiba's assumptions about this being a larger plot are correct, and if the opposing side has a Leader-Class, ours should have someone comparable in the wings..."

"As Goshujin-sama wills," responded Grayfia, proving to Xenovia and Irina that she was in a subordinate relationship with Vahn by providing a steep and courteous bow before raising her head and promptly teleporting back to the Underworld.

Turning his gaze to Xenovia, Vahn surprised her quite a bit by maintaining his stern countenance and stating, "I don't care what your orders are or if you harbor dogmatic distrust toward Devils. Kuoh Town is our jurisdiction, so you will notify your superiors of your intent to cooperate with the ORC, or you will leave."

"Badass..." muttered Issei, staring at the back of Vahn's head with starry eyes.

Before Xenovia could respond, Rias sighed, rose to her full height, and stated, "If this is what Vahn has decided, there's nothing left to discuss. Either the Church cooperates with us, or they withdraw from Kuoh Town and await this incident's outcome."

"The Underworld is really going all out to pull the Chosen to their side..." remarked Xenovia, narrowing her violet-hued brown eyes.

"You're mistaken," responded Rias, shaking her head before smiling as she maintained, "We're not trying to pull Vahn to our side; this is us siding with him."

"I see..." muttered Xenovia, passing her gaze over everyone present, finding them sporting resolute expressions that indicated they agreed with Rias's assertion. Thus, after fixing her gaze on Vahn, she supplied a curt nod and conceded, "Very well. Once this meeting has concluded, we will contact our superiors to convey your decision. However, as Japanese time is seven hours ahead of our Headquarters, we likely won't receive an official response until later this afternoon..."

As he was still in his Emperor mentality, his mind suffused with a calming chill, Vahn offered a nod of his own as he decided, "You can wait here as you await their response. In the interim, Irina-san can get caught up with Issei. Once she recognizes he's the same boy he always was, she should realize that regarding him as an enemy just because he had his life saved and became a Devil is senseless..."

"Vahn..." muttered Issei, feeling grateful.

"I highly doubt we can return to being friends, but I would like to hear his story and catch up with him," confirmed Irina, directing a hope-filled gaze to Xenovia as if awaiting her permission.

"Just don't wander off too far..." sighed Xenovia, causing Irina to jump for joy, exclaiming, "Yippee~!" before surprising Issei by darting over to him and grasping his hand, her violet eyes sparkling as she stated, "Let's go, Issei-kun! First, I'll hear your confession. Then, if you seek absolution, I can pass judgment on you whenever you like...!"

"W-Wait! Absolution!? Judgment!? Are you planning to exorcise me...!?" exclaimed Issei, appearing to panic but permitting himself to be pulled along by Irina, just as he had in their youth. In their wake, Xenovia gave Vahn a slight bow and excused herself, holding her bound Excalibur with both hands as she reflected on the strangeness of the meeting that had just taken place...

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"To think a Leader-Class like Kokabiel was involved in this incident...he must be seeking to incite a war before the summit..." speculated Sona, seated with her hands folded atop her lap, completely naked in a dome-shaped sauna with circular seating, four golden sinks fixed to an ornate cylindrical column at the room's center, and several large, rainbow-hued crystals lining the periphery, providing both heat and cold depending on their settings.

"Yes...I came to a similar conclusion..." said Rias, seated a short distance away with her left leg crossed over her right, separated from Sona and Akeno by dark blue, wedge-shaped dividers. Tsubaki was also present, but she bent over with her hands on the sink, biting her lower lip and blushing as Vahn's hips impacted her perky and voluminous bottom from behind.

"What summit...?" asked Vahn, his ears perking as he continued moving his hips.

Staring at where Vahn and Tsubaki were connected, Sona calmly and dutifully explained, "The leaders of the Three Factions are planning to convene at Kuoh Academy in the near future. Bar a few exceptions, such as this Kokabiel, most of those at the top have grown weary of the three-way deadlock. With any luck, the next summit will end the long-standing conflict between Devils, Angels, and Fallen. It will likely take millennia for tensions to settle completely, but we're gradually marching toward an era of peace and cooperation..."

"I see..." muttered Vahn, lowering his gaze to Tsubaki's ass and slowing his movements to a steady, deliberate grind as he asked, "Does this have anything to do with my arrival and the support I'm receiving?"

"It's very likely," confirmed Rias, crossing her arms in a way that caused her exposed breasts to become more prominent as she appended, "Your potential and the Corridor are too impactful for any one faction to try and claim for itself. That's why we're inverting the narrative from you joining us to us joining you. That way, the other factions can't accuse us of trying to sway the balance in our favor, and you also get to keep your identity as an independent third party."

"Sounds complicated..." said Vahn, giving Tsubaki's right butt cheek a light smack before placing his hands on his hips, allowing her to move against him as he stood his ground and leaned into her each time she impacted his hips with her bottom.

"The alternative is having you officially side with Devilkind..." stated Sona, rubbing her thighs together as she contended, "But unless we make some kind of concessions, Heaven and the Fallen won't stay idle as we rebuild our population. In the worst-case scenario, both sides could join hands to cripple or get rid of us for good..."

"Mmm..."

Though he briefly considered asking if it would be better if he left, Vahn promptly dismissed the notion as he wasn't willing to let go of the people he had grown attached to or come to love. He felt his life would become increasingly complicated the longer he remained, but he was determined to see things through to the end.

With such thoughts in mind, Vahn caused Tsubaki's legs to tremble and eventually give out as he filled her with enough semen to fill her to the brim and make it shoot out of her, spattering their respective thighs and tickling to the ground in thick, viscous strands. He felt sorry for whoever would need to clean it up, but since his fluids aided in the development of the girls' Demonic Power, he didn't hold back.

"Shame on you, Tsubaki..." said Sona, moving from the olive-green stone seating to kneeling on the tiled floor, using her cupped hands to catch the semen dripping from her Queen's insides as she stated, "You need to train your body to accept all of Vahn's fluids. Allowing them to go to waste like this is unacceptable..."

Punctuating her words, Sona brought her hands to her mouth and drank the semen from her hands before licking her palms and fingers clean. At the same time, Rias and Akeno moved around behind Vahn, the former wrapping her arms around him and pressing her breasts to his back and the latter joining Sona in making sure his seed didn't go to waste. Then, as Tsubaki was temporarily down for the count, they laid her down with a rag over her forehead and continued their intimate conversation into the early afternoon...

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"I have conferred with my superiors, and they have given us permission to cooperate with the Chosen and the ORC..." stated Xenovia, sitting next to Irina in the same seats they had occupied earlier that day. Everyone else was positioned in much the same way, two notable differences being that Vahn was seated between Rias and Sona, with Tsubaki joining the lineup behind them.

"Good," said Vahn, projecting his Emperor persona as he produced a map of Kuoh Town and began breaking down how they would both search and reinforce the city's protections. Sona had coached him in advance, but as far as Xenovia and Irina were concerned, he had come up with everything himself and was taking charge of the situation...

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