18

Chapter 18: Teaching and the Summit

"I refuse," Lilium stated firmly.

Keijutsu looked at her, exasperated. "Seriously? It's only for a couple of hours," he said.

"A 'couple of hours' is a long period of time, especially when it is spent doing something unpleasant," she countered.

"It's only one piece of clothing!" he exclaimed.

"A piece of clothing that is small enough to be redundant with regards to its purpose."

"Every other female student will be wearing it!"

"That is not a valid reason. If everyone else thought that jumping out of an airplane without a parachute was a good idea, would you join them?" she stated dully.

Keijutsu's expression turned deadpan. "I can hardly compare wearing a skirt to jumping out of an airplane," he told her.

"And I can hardly ignore the fact that you are avoiding my point," his daughter said.

Keijutsu felt like screaming.

It had been all of one week after his successful creation of a human being, and things had been rather hectic since then. He and Sona had finally concocted a plan for how to explain Lilium's creation. According to their story, Keijutsu had been experimenting with random strands of DNA from humans and Devils and had used them in a highly volatile process to create a living being.

That process was so unpredictable that, between the random surges of energy that occurred during it, the unstable nature of the magic circle and the flaws in the runic arrays, there was practically zero chance of Keijutsu ever being able to do it again, much less alter the ritual for any purpose other than making humans.

This version of events would dissuade any groups interested in breeding their own army, or trying to create new members of their species, like the Angels. It also provided a small amount of cover for if—and when—the news of Lilium's Power of Destruction came about. After all, Keijutsu had never experimented with Bael clan DNA before, so how was he supposed to know that one of the samples used contained the same properties?

Throughout the entire ordeal, Keijutsu had been able to keep exactly which member of the Bael whose DNA he used, even from Sona. While he was sure that the violet-eyes Devil was curious, her response when he asked had been surprising. Apparently, Sona did not know whose DNA he used, did not want to know, and hoped to never find out. In her own words, "The less I know, I better off I'll be in anyone finds out". Something he had no problem agreeing with.

Although neither of them knew it, the fact that Keijutsu was single and thus not in a relationship with the owner of the other DNA set also helped Sona reach that decision.

Once they had finished spending the afternoon concocting that story as well as any other fabrications they needed for those with more questions, they moved onto the next part of the plan. That plan was to have Lilium enrolled in Kuoh Academy as a student after the Faction Meeting. By doing this, she would remain near not only Keijutsu, but the Student Council and the Occult Research Club. Anyone who wanted to question or kidnap his daughter would have to go through him, the peerage he was part of, and Rias and her peerage as well.

Getting Lilium the needed papers to be enrolled hadn't even been that hard either. Apparently, Rias's father, Zeoticus Gremory, was an administrator in the school, and had been the one to arrange for the enrollment of Asia Argento and Xenovia Quarta. All it took to convince him to do the same for Lilium was a personal request from Serafall during the Open House, who was in turn asked by Sona.

Granted, Sona did have to "bribe" her older sister with the promise of a "sisters' night out" for her to do it, but there were worse things Serafall could have demanded. And once the deal was made and the request made, Zeoticus saw no reason to defy a favor/order from one of the four Satans.

Now with a working story for Lilium's creation and her place as a new student (she would be introduced as Keijutsu's sister, home from studying abroad) all that had been left was to get Lilium ready for interacting with other people besides the two of them. It was on this step that they ran into problems.

Apparently, there were limits to what information the Book of Wisdom was able to pass onto a person. Sure, the Book had made Lilium very intelligent and given her a plethora of academic knowledge on many subjects, it did not give her as much information about social knowledge. This could have been because, unlike something such as mathematics or grammar, social knowledge could only be obtained through participation and experience.

So, why the Book had enabled Lilium to know the meaning of words of phrases and such "manners", "social conduct" and "proper behavior", it did not tell her what those things actually were. Having realized this, Keijutsu dedicated the remainder of the week to educating his daughter on the rules of proper behavior that would expected of her.

The fact that this was proving difficult was due to a couple of factors. First, while Lilium could understand the rules or codes of conducting that were based on biology or logical reasoning—bowing one's head or at the waist was a sign of deference and respect to someone of a higher station that oneself, for example—she had trouble understanding and accepting other, less formal rules—such as why staring at another person was considered rude in some cultures while not so in others.

And whenever Lilium encountered a rule or procedure that she did not think was logical or was unnecessary or inefficient, she had no issues with stating as much. Something that, Keijutsu admitted to himself, she had probably gotten from him. Want to discuss nuclear fusion vs fission? She could go on about the various pros and cons of each process regarding cost, availability, environmental hazards, etc. Ask her whether one should use a coffee spoon or a tea spoon? She'd question why you would do something as inefficient as create two different types of spoons, and then compound the issue by making each one only usable for a certain type of drink.

And whenever she asked the reason for something, if you responded with "That's just the way it is" all you received in return was a flat stare and an inquiry as to when your last IQ test had been. Something she definitely inherited from him.

So, he had to go through each social custom he could think of, one at a time, and explain how each one had developed and why she had to follow it or not. He found that explaining them from a logical or biological standpoint made it easier. Clothes were worn to protect the human body from thing such as excess heat, extreme cold, or being burned by sunlight. Students typically ate lunch as group to promote social interaction and to make it easier for the cafeteria to distribute meals.

However, for all his efforts, there were topics where his daughter remained just as stubborn as he could be. At present, the topic was Kuoh Academy's official uniform for female students.

Holding the skirt, the white-haired girl said "By your own explanation, the purpose of wearing clothing is to protect the human body from exposure to the elements. A skirt is supposed to cover a person from the waist downwards. Despite the fact that this can be more effectively does wearing trousers or leggings, skirts are more often worn by females in western cultures. The length of the skirt can also vary due to conceptions of 'modesty' and aesthetics."

"But this?" she continued, shaking the skirt. "This is something I disagree with on multiple accounts. Not only do I find no aesthetic pleasure in wearing the color magenta, but all I must do is walk at any pact faster than a leisurely stroll, and anyone is looking in my general direction will see my undergarments. Which, according to you, is a violation of preserving one's 'modesty'. And that same lack of length makes it virtually useless in protecting my legs from outside exposure."

Keijutsu held up a hand. "Look, I agree that the length of the Academy skirt does cause a girl's panties to be very easily visible. However, while the skirt does not protect your legs as much as full-length skirt would, is some protection not better than none?" he pointed out.

That made Lilium pause. He could see that she was seriously considering his statement, trying to see if there was a fault in its logic. To his dismay, she seemed to have found one, as she looked back up with that same expression from before. "So, by your reasoning, if my wearing some sort of lower garment is taken as a given, I should at least wear this skirt for no other reason that to have at least a modicum of protection?" she asked.

When he nodded, she continued "Then by that logic, why should I not wear some sort of longer skirt, even better, a set of trousers. That way, I am wearing a lower garment and am more effectively covered than I would be by wearing this?"

Keijutsu inwardly groaned. "We've already gone over this. Wearing the set of trousers from the male uniform with rest of the female uniform is not allowed, nor is any other mixing of the uniforms!" he told her, aware of how much he sounded like Sona in that moment.

Lilium nodded. "Then in that case, why don't I forgo the female uniform entirely and wear the male one? It's not as if a student wearing the uniform for their opposite gender is unprecedented, given what you've said about the vampire with the Forbidden Balor View."

The Artificer's eyes bulged, and he had to once more resist the urge to scream. The worst part was that she was right, the existence of Gasper did mean that wearing the opposite uniform—or at least, a male student wearing the female uniform—did have precedent.

Then, seeing that his daughter was not going to budge on this issue, he sighed. "I'll... talk to Sona about letting you wear the male uniform. Or at the very least, wearing a longer skirt," he conceded.

Lilium smiled and nodded, satisfied. "Thank you. Now that that's been temporarily settled, let's move onto the subject of my classes. Given the knowledge you implanted in me, is it really necessary for me to be enrolled as a third-year student and not as part of the college division?" she asked.

Keijutsu groaned and banged his head against his desk.

Night had fallen, and Keijutsu was taking this chance to go on an evening stroll to help clear his minds. So many things took up his focus now. Looking after Lilium, schoolwork, what his next research topic would be, the list went on. Times like this helped to calm him down and enable him to focus.

This time, however, he was accompanied by Rasiel, who had decided to tag along so that they could talk.

"So, what did you want to speak about?" she asked.

Keijutsu reached into his coat and pulled out the two Phantom Books. He handed them to the young girl, who gleefully accepted both of them. With a small flash of golden light, both books vanished, returned to the Library and Raziel. Once that was done, he said "I've been trying to come up with a reason for one of the results for my recent experiment. One source I had read said that the offspring of a human and Devil would in turn be a full Devil, with no human in them. Another source said that the offspring would be a Devil-Human hybrid. Yet, with regards to Lilium, neither event occurred. Instead, she is a full human, despite the fact that she can wield the Power of Destruction. I though you might have an ides as to why."

Rasiel was silent for a while, jumping from object another while she thought. Eventually, she said "I can think of one explanation. Perhaps her 'devil-hood' was taken from her."

Keijutsu looked up at her. "Taken from her? How?" he asked.

"Oh, it's rather simple," she told him, nodding even as she spoke. "Yes, I'm sure that's why. If you remember, I told you that the Book of Equivalence to transfer the knowledge from the Book of Wisdom to your daughter, the Book would take from whichever said stood to gain more. And that the value of that knowledge versus the success of your project was subjective. My guess is, whether you were aware of it or not, you considered the knowledge you were giving her to be more valuable than your success."

The Artificer grunted, already making the connection. "And because of that, the Book of Equivalence took away any Devil traits from her?"

"Exactly. Not only did you believe the knowledge you were giving her to be more valuable, your entire project was intended to create a living human being. So, when trying to decide whether to take away her humanity or her devil-hood, the Book responded to that and took away all traits she would have gained from being part-Devil," Rasiel explained, before pausing. "Well, almost all traits. It still left her with the in-born ability to use magic, including any that were unique to her DNA"

Keijutsu nodded, before sighing. "Even now, the effects of the Phantom Book still continue to amaze me. Still, this does provide an answer for how this happened, so I won't be surprised if I ever try it again."

"Speaking of which, what are you going to do now that you've proven that magic can be used to create life? Are you going to try to resurrect the dead? Create an inexhaustible source of clean energy? Oh! What about becoming immortal?" Rasiel asked, grinning at all the chances for amusement her ideas would create.

He chuckled. "No, nothing so grand—though I may save that immortality part for later in my life. No, I think now would be the time to refocus on my research into Sacred Gears. I never even finished the book you gave me that contained a list of them all. It was why I was so surprised that something like the Forbidden Balor View existed."

Rasiel frowned. "But I thought you said that your research there came to standstill after your tried recreating the Absorption Line? From what I remember, while you were able to create decent copies of it that ran off pure magic, they were all flawed in some way, or weaker than the original," she pointed out.

"True. But from what Azazel and I discussed, he's encountered the same issue with artificial Sacred Gears being weaker than regular ones. So even though he is ahead of me due to having made one, I may not be as far off as I thought. Not to mention, from my brief inspection of his Down Fall Dragon Spear, I suspect that holy energy may be required in its construction, something I've had no access to so far, for obvious reasons."

Her frown grew. "Then you'll need to develop some sort of device that can gather and store holy energy without you ever coming into contact with it. And you'll need to perform further examinations on other Sacred Gears to get an idea of how its used in the creation of one. There are enough Devils you know that the second part will hardly be any challenge. But how are you going to accomplish the first part?"

At that, Keijutsu grinned. "Ah, my dear Rasiel, you once again underestimate me. I'll figure it out, just you wait," he said.

Rasiel was tempted to argue that but chose not to. Who knows, she thought his last project was doomed to familiar as well. Maybe he'll prove her wrong again.

A few days later…

The time had come. The summit between the Angels, Devils and Fallen Angels. This would be the meeting where, some hoped, centuries of hatred and bloodshed could finally be put to rest. Or, some others expected, the leaders of the Three Factions would commence that the war had started anew, and the killing would begin all over again.

Due to having been participants in the fight against Kokabiel, Rias had been allowed to bring Akeno, Asia, Kiba, Xenovia and Issei to the meeting, while Sona was allowed to bring Tsubaki, Saji and Keijutsu. The two groups were standing along one wall behind where Sirzechs and Serafall were seated. Across from them was Azazel, who only had a single silver-haired teen behind him. That had initially surprised Keijutsu, until he focused his senses and realized what made this teen so special. He was the holder of Divine Dividing, the White Dragon Emperor.

Between the two of them sat a man with long blond hair and green eyes, wearing a red robe with a golden cross and golden shoulders plates with a white sash. Even if the floating golden halo hadn't given it away it away, it was easy to guess that this man was the Archangel Michael. And standing behind him, to Keijutsu's immense surprise, was Irina.

Once Rias and her group arrived, Sirzechs clapped his hands together. "Perfect. Now that everyone is present, this Faction Meeting can begin," he said, smiling.

"Oh? So these are the young Devils that managed to hold off Kokabiel's assault?" Michael asked, tilting his head.

"Looks like. Sorry one of my subordinates causes you so much trouble. Don't worry, he'll be on ice for a long, time," Azazel assured them.

That did little to ease the tension on the room, which prompted Serafall to clear her throat. "Perhaps we should start with having Rias and Sona go over the events of the battle," she suggested, showing a rare moment of seriousness.

When the other three nodded, the two heiresses stepped forward and retold the events of the battle. The fusion of the Holy Swords, their ultimately failed attempts to match Kokabiel in strength—including Keijutsu's removal of the Cadre's entire light arm and his right hand—and the timely intervention of the White Dragon Emperor, who claimed to be doing so on Azazel's orders.

"The rest of the details regarding the event can be found in my official report," Rias stated.

Sona nodded, adding "As heiress to House Sitri and sibling to the current Leviathan, I can attest to the veracity of this report."

Sirzechs nodded as well, saying "That will be all. Thank you."

Unable to help herself, Serafall smiled and said "Great job, So-tan! I'm so proud of you!"

While Sona stiffened and did her best to avoid letting her face flush in embarrassment, everyone else avoided laughing at the exchange, even if one or two snickers managed to get out. As it was, Michael asked "Governor General Azazel, do you have any comment you wish to make regarding this incident?"

Azazel shrugged. "There's not much to it. Kokabiel disobeyed my orders to not start a fight and went rogue. I doubt he would have tried to destroy the whole town if he knew I was staying here, but he definitely acted without my approval," he stated.

Sirzechs's smile faded. "be that as it may, I'm still troubled by the fact that a such a high-ranking member of the Grigori launched an unprovoked attack on known Devil territory. Especially since he did so with the express intent of forcing the Great War to restart.

The Fallen Angel shrugged. "What can I say? The fact the war ended at all was something he was never happy about. If Kokabiel had his way, everyone would have kept fighting and fighting until all the was left was ruins and smoke. But I'm not interested in that," he said.

Due to standing directly across from him, Keijutsu noticed how the White Dragon Emperor—Vali, that was his name—seemed to frown further after hearing those words.

Serafall leaned forward. "He's not the only one who isn't happy with the cease-fire as it stands now. There are people on all sides who would like to to change," she pointed out.

"Exactly. So I propose that we indeed change the status quo. And set up a treaty for official peace," Azazel declared.

That caused everyone in attendance, Angel or Devil, to look at him with shock. Peace was the desired outcome of this summit, yes, but to hear it so boldly stated out loud? 'What are you playing at, Azazel?' Keijutsu thought.

Michael voiced those thought, and Azazel replied "That is the reason we all agreed to be here, right? The constant 'skirmishes' only push us closer to war and aren't helping anybody involved. So let's agree to put the past behind us and put all this warmongering to rest."

Before any could object, he added "But hey, don't take my word for it. Let's hear what our resident Artificer has to say."

Keijutsu had to just enough time to blink before all eyes were on him causing his own to grow huge. "Wait, me? Why do you want to hear my opinion? Shouldn't you be consulting the two Dragon Emperors? After all, they were the reason the Three Factions joined together once before," he said.

Michael nodded. "That is true. However, you are the only one besides the Vanishing Dragon that was able to land a decisive blow against Kokabiel. Powers speaks for itself, Keijutsu Hatsume, and that level of strength means that your opinion has weight," he said in his ever-gentle tone.

Not finding a real reason to argue against that, Keijutsu bit her lip and gave in. "I'm a researcher. I pose questions to myself, come up with how to find the answer, and then do it. There are times where conflict can be an incentive to progress, especially when people are trying to come up with ever more creative ways to kill each other. But overall, a lasting peace would be more beneficial to not just myself, but to everyone in the Three Factions. That's what I think, anyway."

Azazel grinned. "See, that's just my point, Restarting the Great War would help no one, so why don-" he began, before there was suddenly a burst of bright pink light.

The entire room was suffused with a light purple hue, and several people—Sona, Tsubaki, Keijutsu, Asia and Akeno—seemed to be enveloped in an aura the same color. Each of them was completely immobile, not even blinking.

Sirzechs, Serafall, Michael, Azazel, Grayfia and Rias were completely unaffected. Kiba, Xenovia and Irina were each suddenly holding their respective swords, which were emitted a soft golden light. The gauntlets that made up Issei's Boosted Gear and Saji's Absorption Line had also appeared, as did a pair of blue-white wings from Vali's back.

Issei looked around. "Is it just me, or did time stop?" he asked aloud.

Michael nodded, his smile had vanished. "Yes, though those of us with sufficient power were unaffected. Those with Holy Swords or Sacred Gears containing sentient spirits were also protected," he said.

That was when they all heard and felt a large surge of energy coming from outside, and several of the Devils present rushed to the windows to look outside. There was a giant orange rectangular glyph hovering the sky, and emerging from it were dozens of unknown figures dresses in black cloaks. Each cloak also had a design of three golden eyes on the hood, from which they were shooting small rays of energy.

Those rays impacted harmlessly against the barrier around the school, but the simple fact they were attacking at all proved these forces to be hostile.

"Who are these freaks?" Issei eloquently asked.

Serafall glared at them through the window. "They're Magicians, groups of humans who can wield magic and act as a group. They don't ally with any one side, and generally stay neutral to the Three Factions. They're also an insult to real magical girls like me!" she exclaimed, putting at that last part.

Kiba looked around. "So how were the others frozen?" he asked.

"It must have been that Gasper and his Forbidden Balor View. Something must have happened that forced him to activate it to such an extent," Grayfia said.

Just then, there was a flash of light that enveloped Keijutsu and Sona, and everyone there felt a pulse of magic energy coming from the two Devils. When the light faded, both were now moving and blinking. "Whoa! What in the world just happened?!" Keijutsu asked.

Saji blinked once, twice, and then stared. "What the hell? How did you two just unfreeze yourselves?" he questioned.

At that, Keijutsu's expression turned somewhat sheepish, and he pulled back the sleeve of his lab coat enough to reveal that his forearm was covered in some sort of cloth-metal mesh. "This is made from the same material as an invisibility cloak that I was working on. After experiencing Gasper's Sacred Gear a while back, I… modified… the material with runes to release a short burst of my magic if I was ever hit by it again. Not enough to hurt anyone, but enough to break me out of it. And afterwards, I had enough material left over for a second one, so I made one for Kaichou as well," he explained.

Azazel chuckled. "And you've been wearing it since then just in case? A little paranoid of you, don't you think?"

The Artificer shrugged. "Better to be safe than sorry, I learned at a young age," was his reply.

While Azazel merely laughed some more, Grayfia spoke up. "The fact that our they are able to attack the school directly means that the guard we set up is no longer here. Which in turn means that the Magicians were able to link their own teleportation circles to the barrier's outer defenses and force them out. That same barrier is also likely to stop us if we try to teleport out," she stated.

"So, we are truly trapped. Their timing combined with using Gremory-san's Bishop too impressive. I suspect we've been betrayed," Michael said.

Sirzechs nodded. "Indeed. We must act to remove Gasper from the enemy's hands quickly, before they can force him to activate the Forbidden Balor View any further and potentially unleash a Balance Breaker.

Rias stepped forward. "I'll get him back. My unused Rook piece is still inside the Old Schoolhouse. If I castle with it, I can get inside and then fight to free Gasper," she declared.

While Sirzechs and Grayfia were nodding in agreement, offering to let Issei go with her by using some of Sirzechs's own power to the castling, Azazel turned to Vali. "You're itching for a fight, aren't you?"

Vali smirked. "Of course, I am. There's nothing I hate more than sitting around and doing nothing," he replied.

"I thought so. Why don't you be the first to go outside and welcome our invited guests. Seeing the Vanishing Dragon on the opposing sight should give them a good scare," the Governor General suggested.

Vali didn't need to say anything word. He quickly conjured a magic circle to warp outside, where he summoned the rest of his armor and began flying towards the waves of Magicians.

Seeing that there wasn't anything that could be done until Rias and Issei got back, Keijutsu was prepared to pull up a chair and wait. However, not five minutes later there was another surge of energy, this accompanied by an orange-gold magic circle that spawned inside the room.

Everyone except the faction leaders tensed, sensing that whoever was coming through was far stronger than the average Devil or Angel. Sirzechs's and Serafall's eyes both widened, with the redhead stating, "I recognize this magic! But why…?" he said.

From the magic circle emerged a tall woman with tan skin, long brown hair tied up in a bun, and purple eyes and dull pink glasses. Her figure was very voluptuous, which was further enhanced by the low cut of her dresses and the extremely large amount of cleavage it showed off. In her right hand was a dark wooden staff

"Well, well, well, what have we here? The filthy pretenders to the names of Lucifer and Leviathan, Sirzechs Gremory and Serafall Sitri," she said, smiling happily, However, one look was enough to see that said smile was as fake as could be, and her eyes showed nothing but malice.

Serafall glared at her. "Katerea Leviathan. Why are you here?"

Katerea smile changed to a menacing grin. "Why? To bring death upon you all, of course!" she said, before raising her staff into the air. Between the two branches at the top, a sphere of burning orange energy appeared, before quickly exploding.

They had just enough time to begin conjuring a barrier before the blast enveloped them. The entire section of the school was leveled, leaving behind a smoking crater while the section of the school it was attached to had caught fire. However, before the blast could hurt anyone of them, Azazel, Michael, Sirzechs and Serafall each acted, working together to create a defensive shield large enough to envelop everyone.

"Katerea, this is madness! What are you thinking?!" Sirzechs demanded.

Undeterred by failing to kill them all, Katerea laughed. "Apparently, I'm thinking the reverse of what all of you are. Just because God and the original Satans are gone, that doesn't mean we should make peace! What we should be doing is wiping the Angels and Fallen Angels out completely while their numbers are down, and establishing a new world order!" she proclaimed.

Keijutsu rolled his eyes. 'Great. Yet another warmonger. Are they all part of some secret club or something?' he thought, before pausing to consider that thought. Actually, if there were enough strong people like this woman and Kokabiel who wanted war, the idea of them coming together to form some sort of terrorist organization kind of made sense. And forming a plan to assault a summit between the factions like one definitely seemed like something a terrorist organization would do. Crap.

Azazel had likely come to same conclusion as well. But rather be disturbed by it, the Fallen Angel chose to laugh. "You're kidding right? Bring death on all, new world order? Can you be any more of a cliché?" he taunted.

Katerea glared at him, and they could visibly see wisps of energy beginning to rise off her. "Azazel, you dare mock me?"

"Oh, I dare indeed," he said, letting his own power begin to come forth. He stepped forward and spread all twelve of his wings, rising into the air. "A descendent of the original Leviathan, a desperate women who wants to go back to a bygone age. This should be interesting," he declared.

While the two of them flew forward and began to duke it out, Michael , Sirzechs and Serafall placed the barrier back up to avoid being caught in the crossfire. Even so, what Magicians weren't being taken out by Vali unleashed blast after blast against it, trying to break through.

Michael sighed. "Until we manage to ascertain the nature of the barrier they've placed, we won't be able to leave. We need to buy, and this barrier we've conjured won't be enough.

Hearing that, the three Holy Sword wielders looked at each, before nodding. Keijutsu looked Sona and in the eyes, raising an eyebrow. Saji smirked and Sona smile slightly, nodding as well. The six of them stepped forward, with Xenovia announcing "If you'll allow it, we'd be happy to draw their attention away and hold off their assault."

All six of them affirmed that they indeed could, prompting Sirzechs to say "Very well. Be careful, and try to steer clear of those two as they're fighting."

Serafall pouted, not wanting to let Sona out herself at risk. But even so, she could see that this would be the best course of action to dismantling the barrier as quickly as possible. "Don't you dare get hurt, So-tan!" she said.

Rather than be embarrassed for once, Sona nodded, and the six of them moved outside the barrier to confront the Magicians.

Predictably, upon seeing that they had new targets, several of the Magicians redirected their fire at them, forcing them to scatter. While Kiba, Irina and Xenovia charged straight forward, swords held high, the rest of them hung back.

"Pathetic. I'll show you real magic!" Sona called, and conjured a large orb of water in front of her. That orb then split apart and took the shape of two miniature dragons, both of whom releasedc very realistic roars before flying forward.

Some of them tried flying around to attack from behind, but Saji saw them coming and shot off the tongue from his Absorption Lin. It wrapped around the Magician and began glowing purple, draining them in a matter of seconds.

Keijutsu raised both eyebrows at that, wondering when Saji had been practicing his Sacred Gear. Eh, he could find out later. Focusing on the task at hand, Keijutsu thought 'It's too bad that this damnable barrier prevents me from teleporting anything in as well as out. Otherwise, I could call Suzuno and Fronea here and let them help out as well.' That also prevented him from summoning any of his inventions that he didn't already have on him, such as his ornithopters or golems. Then he smirked, However, just because he couldn't teleport anything in or out, that didn't make teleportation circles worthless.

He spread his arms and created large one in the air in front of him, bathing his face and the ground around him in blue light. The blasts of energy that were aimed at him hit the magic circle and vanished. Assuming it to be some sort of shield, the Magicians kept casting, not even noticing another magic circle appear in the air behind them.

Or at least, they didn't notice until the blasts they shot at him emerged from the teleportation circle, striking their casters from behind. Almost a dozen were hit before they realized what had happened, and ceased fire. Grinning, Keijutsu took the chance to stomp on the ground, creating six more teleportation circles behind him. The two larger ones he was using also faded, replaced by six regular-sized ones in front of him.

With a mental push, he sent them flying forward, aiming for the areas in the sky with the largest concentration of enemies. While most of the Magicians were able to hover out of the way, at least one person was caught in each circle, which teleported them to the circle behind him… which he conjured upside-down.

Six loud combination of squelches and crunches very much reminded Magicians why you were never supposed to teleport into the same space as another solid object.

While the collective horror the Magicians felt kept momentarily them from attacking, Keijutsu took the moment to catch his breath. Hopefully, Grayfia will have figured out how to bypass their barrier soon enough, and they could summon reinforcements. Or that Issei and Rias hurried and rescued Gasper and Koneko. Otherwise, they could be in trouble.