Overlord of biblical proportions: The new Three-Sided War (11) (Patreon)

If Asia said that the tea she drank helped her figure out everything that was currently happening in her life, she would certainly be committing a sin against the truth. Neither the first nor the second, nor the tenth cup of tea brought her any understanding of her current lot in life.

Fallen angels were no longer fallen. The Biblical God, His Son, and the new Virgin Mary, all of whom died in the past but got better, once again walk the Earth. The Apocalypse will come soon, in her lifetime even.

How many cups of tea would even clarify such information? There was hardly enough tea grown in the whole world to help Asia figure out what was going on.

And yet, Asia also couldn't say that her lengthy reflections didn't lead her to any conclusion at all. That is, that she didn’t have one. Asia could say with absolute certainty and without any hesitation that she didn't understand anything.

And that was at least something that she could understand.

Because before, Asia believed that even if she wasn't the greatest scholar or even the wisest of people, she still knew some things for sure. For example, she revered the Bible and had some basic knowledge of the church structure, the Commandments of the Lord, or the fact of the very existence of gods, including the Biblical God was self-evident.

Now, as it turned out, Asia knew nothing, nothing at all.

And there was some kind of liberation from worries in that, perhaps, the realization that she needed to start anew in her knowledge of the world… It gave Asia a foothold, free from the deception that she had once believed in.

Yes, she knows nothing, but that only means that, now, she could start learning about the truth of the world, even if she has to start from scratch.

There was something even exciting about it, wasn't there?

"…and after that, I returned back to the Church, where Lord Demiurge proceeded to punish the sinners," Raynare stopped in thought for a moment, then glanced at the statue standing not far from the two. Asia looked at it as well, a statue with stark realism, depicting a man in the throes of agony. Looking at such a realistic carving, Asia felt a chill run down her spine.

The statue was so realistic, it was as if someone had taken a real sinner and turned them into stone, which couldn’t be the case, right? However, Raynare’s next words caused her to re-evaluate her assessment.

"Very much in the spirit of the Old Testament, I must say, pillars of salt and so on…"

After Raynare’s words, Asia tried to wet her suddenly dry lips, glancing at the statue again, trying to decipher what Raynare had meant by her words. There could only be one way to interpret the angel’s words, but that couldn’t be true, right?

Like any Christian, Asia revered the Old Testament, but was more inclined to those parts where the Lord commanded mercy and self-sacrifice than the story of the Prophet Elisha and the forty-two children torn apart by bears. On the other hand, Asia also knows full well about the revelation to John the Apostle, about the coming Apocalypse. Asia perfectly understood that if the End Times were coming, then God's cruelty would also be pouring out on this world.

Though, it did not at all mean that Asia would blindly follow the canons of the church. Yes, she was a staunch Christian, but she was an excommunicated heretic who showed mercy and compassion to a Devil, the enemy of God.

But that wasn’t the case, was it? Lord Demiurge and Lady Albedo were also Devils, yet at the same time were faithful servants of God, in fact, the most fervent of them, which only made things even more confusing.

Was God the same merciful God in whose service Asia grew up? According to Raynare, Lord Demiurge, and Lady Albedo, yes. But what about the punished sinners? Asia knew about the hellish inferno that was supposed to be for sinners, and being encased in stone to repent for a while was nothing when compared to an eternity in hell, but…

Argh, none of this made any sense in Asia's head!

Of course, during her time with the fallen angels, Asia came across two dozen heretical readings of the Bible and the Gospels, including the Apocryphal ones too. So, she shouldn't even be surprised that in fact the whole situation was even more confusing when the doctrines that she had followed had been incomplete.

But Asia, being the compassionate soul that she is, put mercy even above church doctrines and therefore could not simply agree with the punishment of sinners. On the other hand, the years spent among the fallen angels significantly dulled her most merciful and forgiving impulses. But even so, Asia simply did not know if she retained a full-fledged faith in God… Even if she was spoken to by messengers who personally communicated with Him.

Tea.

She needed a lot of tea.

And more time to think.

Asia exhaled, looking at Raynare, who was looking at her with…

An expression of sympathy?

Yes, perhaps it was more correct to say that Raynare really expressed sympathy for her, being a fallen angel punishing sinners, and being a sinner herself…

Asia's brain was boiling even without the memories that the girl she accidentally met earlier was the Holy Virgin.

Asia sighed before getting up after hearing Raynare’s story and walking away.

She urgently needed to brew more tea.

The strongest pot of tea that could be in the world.

***

"As we expected, the Fallen have already left their territories, leaving only a few units as a rear guard or just as forward warnings about who will be coming after them." Beelzebub's words sounded militarily dry and unemotional, yet a black invisible cloud still hovered in the air above the four Satans, poisoning their mood at the moment.

Not that the story of thousands of casualties among the Fallen could by itself predispose the Devils to any festive mood. It was simply quite awkward to be sitting next to the font of barely repressed anger and violence that is Sirzechs, the person responsible for killing the Fallen in the first place.

And no matter how much the other three Satans danced around this fact, they all perfectly understood that what happened was certainly because of, first foremost of all, Kokabiel… However, Sirzechs himself had become a tool in the hands of Kokabiel, if only for his badly planned suicide. And Sirzechs, in turn, knew that they knew about it, and the Satans also knew that Sirzechs knew about it.

Of course, what happened would one day be erased and forgotten, just as the painful scars of the Civil War were forgotten, but it would take hundreds of years and several generations of Devils. But the four would still remember it, never mind the other old fogies that would definitely use the occasion to further their agenda. The Fallen Angels? Well, they would probably need the next millennium to recover from the devastation that an angry Sirzechs had handed them.

Probably also the same amount of time before the Devils could begin diplomatic relationships again, even if the relationship in this case is the Fallen Angels swearing vengeance or something equally useless. Right now, what is important is how they should handle their own faction… Which is so terribly ironic that it’s comical, that they need to worry more about their allies than their enemies.

All the Devils, knew perfectly well that Sirzechs was perhaps the most powerful Devil, knew it to the depths of their damned soul, even when compared to the original Satans. But ‘knowing’ and ‘understanding’, were two completely different things. One could talk as much as they liked about billions of dollars or mountains of gold, but until people see the banknotes stacked in an endless pile or a gold mountain, they could not understand the true scales of things.

The Fallen’s attack on the Gremory Estate had caused an explosion of hatred, vindictiveness, and a desire to retaliate against the Fallen. The Devils, quite logically, believed that the attack was a declaration of war. That was why, when news came back that the Fallen had already been defeated, their territories reduced to rubble and melted slag, they were confused.

And with the old aristocratic Devils, who remembered the Civil War and Sirzechs’s power, either because they had faced it, or were supported by it, began panicking, it only made the confusion even worse. They of course feared that this was the straw that had broken the camel's back, and the Sirzechs that they were more than happy to hinder with bureaucratic rules and lawfare had had enough. That, this time, the Crimson Devil was done taking their shit and was about to settle the scores, permanently.

They froze in horror for a moment, and then the panic began. Asmodeus tried to stop the spread of the rumors, but it was a pointless endeavor. It was not like the Fallen’s attack could be hidden in the first place, nor could the effective death of an entire faction be hidden, or of Sirzechs’s rampage.

Of course, half of the rumors were quickly discounted as lies, as they thought that the rumors were mere exaggerations. Which was funny to Asmodeus as they were in fact the truth, simply disbelieved because it was too hard to believe. Whereas the believed rumor, were in fact underestimation of Sirzechs’ abilities. The rumors in this case, on the contrary, underestimated the power of Sirzechs in order not to seem like complete nonsense, but even so, unrest ran among the reincarnated Devils.

Former humans who had gained their rebirth were, of course, accustomed to magical abilities, and even very powerful ones as shown with their Kings. But there was a difference between high-ranking Devils and the Crimson Satan.

The realization that Sirzechs could just as easily kill a million Devils with one wave of his hand came to people sharply. It is quite the experience to realize your own mortality after all, and to come at perhaps the worst time for it? Asmodeus was not surprised that the reincarnated Devils were acting as they were.

Given the flared-up wave of quite justified rage towards the fallen, and the fact that the Satans had not sent the armies after the fallen, nor did they allow the Devils to vent their aggression? The Satans were not surprised that there was a distinct smell of unrest among the Devils in the air.

Of course, no one spoke of another Civil War, the positions of the Satans and the aristocracy were extremely strong and solid, but even a small incident right now could turn into huge problems later.

As cynical as it sounded, the most correct action to do right now, was to organize an attack on the already defeated Fallen. Even if Sirzechs did not want to carry out the genocide of an entire race of beings, his former neighbors, his previous actions notwithstanding. But, between a rebellion in his own rear and a battle with a weak external enemy, there was really no choice.

Such was the duty of a ruler, to bear the grievous sins of his reign.

However, Azazel likely understood this no less clearly than the Satans, and had fled along with the surviving Fallen Angels before the Satans could decide on some desperate action. There wasn’t even a trace of where the Fallen had disappeared to, with only the small contingent of rear guards to mark his passage.

Rear guards which, most likely, would soon completely retreat from the territory of their former home, after which the Satans could somewhat pacify the people’s anger by declaring the territories of the fallen ‘returned’ to the Devils faction. It should slightly extinguish the people's anger…

Still, no matter where Azazel had hidden himself, it would not take the Satans much time to find him, as it was extremely difficult to conceal the movement of thousands of surviving fallen. But Azazel was not a fool, and therefore he would certainly hide in such a deep crevice, from which it would be almost impossible to get him and the surviving remnants of his people out. At least, not without getting involved in another completely unnecessary conflict.

And knowing Azazel, he would dig so deep that the price of attacking the fallen would become more than unbearable.

"The only thing that worries me is the absence of bodies at the site of the… attack, on the Fallen," Beelzebub spoke up, tactfully bypassing the other possible names for the massacre perpetrated by Sirzechs, drawing the attention of the Satans to the strange detail.

Of course, logic suggested that the fallen would certainly strive to, if not to save, then at least to properly bury their Fallen, to at least save their dead comrades from one last indignity… But not in the haste in which they had fled after Sirzechs’ attack. Especially considering that subsequent intelligence reports did not reveal any new mass graves of Fallen Angels.

It was as if the bodies simply… disappeared. The fact that this included the body of the slain Fafnir, who fell from Sirzechs’ hands in the last moments of his bloody madness, did not bode well.

While it would make sense for Azazel to make some effort in transporting the Dragon’s body, a Dragon was simply that valuable, he could not see any reason why Azazel would also bring along the bodies of the other Fallen. If he had the time there was no doubt that Azazel would do such a thing, but he simply had none, survival trumps over sentimentality after all.

And no other would be feeling such a thing more starkly than Azazel. So, where did the bodies go?

The whole situation stank badly, only Beelzebub could not determine whose smell it was, thousands of fallen bodies disappeared from the scene… What would the purpose for it be?

Resurrection could be discarded as an unrealistic option.

Resurrection was one of the most costly and rare of abilities, a jealously guarded commodity of powerful gods. Even Ajuka Beelzebub's most ingenious invention, the [Evil Pieces], were only a limited version of that, and even one that is greatly limited in number and availability. They would not be able to restore even a tenth of the killed, even if assuming they had such a thing.

Necromancers? The thousands of bodies could only be taken by some of the gods of necromancy, but the only one that came to Beelzebub's mind, Hades, was in his kingdom and did not move from his place. Besides, he was unlikely to be able to move the thousands of dead in such a short time.

Unscrupulous alchemists? Some of the most vile and disgusting shadow alchemists, who do not disdain the flesh of the dead in their vile rituals? Only if Beelzebub missed the creation of such a large, branched and powerful coven with thousands of members around the world behind his back.

It was all strange and incomprehensible information that did not fit into Beelzebub's usual logic, and therefore made his hands itch, and his [Kankara Formula] tremble with anticipation and anger. His most powerful ability, unable to work in the absence of any reliable data input.

And all of this happening against the backdrop of Satoru’s appearance? Whom the Devils were forced to leave unattended without any surveillance, as they hastily retreated to their lands. It would be unsurprising for him, if he were to find that Satoru had taken over Kuoh after the Devils came out of their defensive postures.

The next time the Devils reach out to the god about continuing their negotiation, Ajuka wouldn’t be very surprised if Satoru would be welcoming them into ‘his’ Kuoh. Sure, it’s supposed to be the territory of the Shinto ‘lent’ out to the Devils, but it’s not like they have made some kind of leasing agreement.

It stinks badly of enemy actions. One that was planned so meticulously as to make sure that the Devil stays on the back foot, without revealing who they are.

And yet, even more than the troubles with the unknown god, on the horizon loomed vague reports of the so-called ‘Khaos Brigade’. A major criminal organization made up of many disparate denizens of the paranormal world, kept from acting out and led under the banner of Ophis, the Dragon of Eternity, one of the two most powerful beings in this world.

And one last detail, an information that Azazel had hidden, the only reason he even survived, a trump card that he had hidden until the end, the bearer of Albion. The White Vanishing Emperor Dragon, was on the side of the Fallen.

"How untimely this all is…" Beelzebub rubbed his temples, viciously hissing through his teeth.

If it weren't for Kokabiel's attack, the Three Biblical Factions would have certainly finalized their peace treaty by now. After that, Kokabiel would have been sent to Cocytus through one reason or another, and the united Three Factions would have joined forces to fight the newly rising Khaos Brigade. The power of the Satans would have been unshakable among the Devils, and even Satoru would have had to retreat or negotiate from a much weaker position in the face of the three united factions.

But now, they are weaker than they had ever been before, not even during the Civil War.

It was as if some evil will had reached the devils and was currently knocking the ground out from under the devils' feet with perverted sadistic pleasure. And the worst thing was that this very possibility seemed the most likely to Beelzebub.

“Confusing tracks, illogical actions, oddities around…”

Beelzebub's ear caught the silent whisper of the Leviathan and turning to her, Beelzebub saw how she, looking into the void, uttered the words with a deep frown on her face. A sure sign that someone had contacted her at the moment with the help of magic. Judging by the fact that this someone did it during the meeting of the Satans, the matter was of the most urgency.

After whispering inaudibly for a few seconds, the Leviathan blinked, as if she could not believe what she was hearing, then shifted her gaze to the other Satans. "Some vampire has gutted the underbelly of Kyoto, and the youkai of Kyoto is now trying to find out if anything has happened to the Biblical Faction recently."

The news that another faction is now snooping around the peripheries was not a welcomed one.

"It's getting worse by the hour, now the youkai has started sniffing around. Soon the Shinto faction would be more active. Just what we needed right now." Beelzebub grimaced as if from a toothache, as he even resorted to using sarcasm, the least form of wit.

The worst thing was not that all these problems had fallen simultaneously on Beelzebub and all the Satans. The worst thing was that he was absolutely sure that all these were links of one chain, slowly strangling the Devil…

But Beelzebub absolutely could not determine how exactly they were connected, who was behind these events, and most importantly, for what purpose.

And because of that, the Beelzebub could only grit his teeth even more.

He just hated things he didn't understand.

***

"Tobio disappeared?!" If there were windows in Azazel's office, they would have undoubtedly shattered from Vali's furious scream as his body shook, a second away from rushing to strangle his adoptive father. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately in this case, Azazel’s ‘office’ was currently a basement, the only suitable room that the Tepes faction could provide him in his moment of need.

"He didn't disappear, it's too early to say that. Tobio is known for his… Adventures, disappearing from weeks or months on end without making any communication.," Azazel tried with all his might to calm Vali, cursing his careless student with all possible swear words, who had unexpectedly decided to cease communication in the midst of the largest crisis of the Fallen.

It definitely was not the kind of position where you want to negotiate anything, but here they are. Having the bearer of [Canis Lykaon] around could only help matters, but Tobio was nowhere to be found.

With thousands of Fallen dead, their home lost, Azazel had to agree to almost any conditions that the vampires could put before him in the future. If Vali decided to go hooky now? He might as well just strip down and spread his backside to let the Tepes fuck him in the ass now… Shit, he needs to de-stress if he has started resorting to crass jokes.

Since his last assignment to Tobio had been in Kuoh, there was also a good reason as to why he was lying low right now. With the Fallen in Kuoh probably dead, or also lying low like Tobio did, there was no way for Azazel to gain any information about his wayward student. And since there’s no way that the Fallen could step into Kuoh without immediately gaining the attention of the Devils or worse the Satans, Azazel would need Tobio himself to find a way to reach him.

Right now he had to come back, and there’s no way that Tobio didn’t understand this too, right now the fallen needed every possible pair of hands, not to mention the owner of a [Longinus].

"Azazel, why the hell didn't you tell me that Tobio had disappeared?!" Thoughts about his other students aside, right now he had to deal with an angry dragon. So much so, that Azazel did not point out the fact that the heir of the old Lucifer had just mentioned hell. Instead, he could only wearily press a hand on his temples, as if trying to keep the thoughts seeping through the pores of his skin inside his head.

And how did Vali even find out about the disappearance of his ‘older brother’?!

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you, because right now you're ready to damn everything and rush to look for him! Don’t even try, even a two-winged Fallen would try to knock you out of the sky just to keep you here, where you are most definitely needed. Not when your presence is the only thing that keeps our negotiations with the Tepes at least have a semblance of fairness!" Of course, Azazel was exaggerating, but Vali still winced, running his hand over his body, which must have been terribly itchy.

The remnant of his injury when he tried to steal the powers of an enraged Sirzechs. Despite his complaints about how he was taken out so easily, the fact that Vali was still standing even after shoving that much energy from the Crimson Satan was proof of his talent. Any past wielder of [Divine Dividing] would have turned to ash from the influx of uncontrollable energy. It was still not without consequence, of course.

His [Longinus] armor cracked, and Vali himself fell into a semi-comatose state that he just came to, it would still take more time before he could fully heal, a few weeks at least. If it was not for his perfect connection with Albion, who had taken on some of the absorbed power, Vali would be in a worse state than now. So, even if it would be an easy task for him, even a two-winged Fallen might actually slow him down. Not that Vali would be eager to kill more of the almost endangered Fallen Angels, of course.

Still, no matter the state he’s in, Azazel knows that Vali is a hotheaded idiot, that is why his explanation as to why Vali shouldn’t go out to look for his adopted brother needed to be immaculate.

"Tobio is not an idiot, he will return within a couple of weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s looking for a safe way to send a message to us right now." Azazel needed to skillfully maneuver with words in order not to mention that Tobio was in any danger with the Satans, definitely not mentioning that Tobio was last seen in Kuoh.

Vali is a hotheaded idiot, what does he care that fighting the Satans would put the caboose on the remaining Fallen? But he does have things that he cares about, few as they are, and so until Tobio’s safety could be ascertained. It was another reason why he wouldn’t go on his stupid rampage against the Satans, even if it would just result in his death. In fact, that last part would actually excite him more.

It’s his idée fixe, his raison d’etre, to fight against the strongest of opponents, losing or winning the last thing on his mind. If he lost and died? So be it, it was his fault to be so weak. If he lost and lives? Well, that’s just another reason to get stronger and get his revenge, again and again until he won.

Of course, there was a way to control Vali, that is people that he at least put some measure in listening to their orders, for example, his ‘older brother’, Tobio. But now, Tobio had disappeared and therefore two of Vali's motivations simultaneously worked against Azazel’s desire to keep the Fallen safe.

‘I wish he would find a woman and settle down already,’ Azazel thought with a long sad sigh, looking at Vali’s aggravated form.

And it was impossible to somehow hammer it into this fool's head that Tobio is the last thing that needed to be worried about, the [Longinus] user could take care of himself. With the Fallen on its last legs, the vultures are starting to circle above their head, and they had to find anyone or anything that could shelter them. They were so desperate for it that Azazel had to go to the Vampires, of all things! The Vampires!

The Vampires were so weak that in the past, Azazel could ape what Sirzechs did and kill all of them with barely an effort! But… With half of the Fallen’s commanders dead, Kokabiel's betrayal caused massive unrest among the Fallen, especially with his remaining loyalists, who somehow survived Sirzechs’ rampage. Those idiots are still screaming about revenge, even when it was their idiotic leader that had gotten them into this mess!

Oh, and lest he forget, the Fallen’s current location made them uncomfortably close to the seat of the Angels, the Vatican and its Holy See… Just an errant gaze from one of his past brothers, the Seraphim, and the Fallen would be put into a siege once again.

And yet, what angered Azazel the most, was Vali’s incessant complaints that he was abandoning Tobio, even if it’s the farthest thing from the truth! Tobio was not a stranger to him, he was his student, his ward, another son to him just like Vali is… But that was why Azazel needed to focus on keeping the Fallen afloat.

He trusted that Tobio would be fine, his resourceful ward would find a way to survive whatever predicament he’s in. That was why Azazel needed to focus on keeping the grim balance of his weakened Fallen, so that there would still be a place that Tobio could return to.

Besides, any Fallen Angels stepping foot into Devil's territory? There are faster and easier ways to commit suicide.

"At the moment, you can't even defeat the young heiresses, and you think you could face whatever it is that’s keeping Tobio from communicating?" Without any other clever argument, and perhaps as a measure of revenge, Azazel pressed on one of Vali's sore spots. It was not like he could keep his existence secret anyway, Vali’s appearance would not soon be forgotten by the Crimson Satan.

It was the last measure that Azazel could take, to speak with his stepson’s obsession in mind. After all, losing to someone that is much weaker than you simply because you fought while injured would be the height of stupidity, something that would not make Vali any stronger. It should keep Vali from doing anything rash till he’s fully healed, at least.

"Tobio will get in touch soon…"

"And if he doesn't?!" Vali, ever the eternal child, rushing from one extreme to another, tucked his hands under his arm like a petulant child while trying not to wince from the pain such action had caused him from his still unhealed body.

"What then?!"

"Then we will start looking for him," Azazel replied easily, even as he almost prayed that such a thing wouldn't come to pass.

The loss of Tobio… For him personally, it would be a tragedy. While for the crumbling Fallen faction, it would simply be another nail in the coffin. Azazel had indeed gained help, reluctant as it was, from the vampire faction even when the Vampires were a fragmented and weak faction. It was an option that only existed since the Fallen, as reduced as they were, could still tilt the balance of power between the two Feuding Vampire factions.

Having two [Longinus] meant that the Fallen still had weight to negotiate. But his position could not be called stable at all. A single gust of wind like the weakening of his position, or added pressure from the Angels, and the Fallen would again find themselves on the run. But where could they run to then?

The Khaos Brigade.

As much as it tasted like ash for someone that had championed peace so fervently, if the peace with the Vampire crumbled, he would have no other option than to join something no better than a Terrorist organization. The entire faction could go under the wing of Ophis, Azazel saw no other options before him.

And it was in such conditions that he lost Tobio, the bearer of a [Longinus], and following him, Vali, the bearer of the second? The Fallen would cease to exist as a faction entirely. Even with Azazel and the other surviving Cadres, they would be too weak to keep themselves safe anymore, especially with him losing almost all of the built-up strength he had before. The loss of his artificial [Sacred Gear], his laboratory, and especially Fafnir, Azazel was much weaker than before.

The future of the Fallen looked very bleak…

"If Tobio doesn't get in touch in a week, I'm going to Kuoh and I don't care what hole you crawl into, hiding from helping your student!" Vali's words painfully cut through Azazel's heart, but he only silently looked away slightly to the side, allowing Vali, like the teenager that he is, to rush away with quick steps from the office of his adoptive father.

"And his and my whole team will go with me!" But not before throwing one last distressing remark to him.

Azazel, having endured Vali’s diatribe for a few long minutes, sighed before folding his hands in front of him, staring at nothing in particular.

"A week. You have a week, Tobio," Azazel said slowly, addressing the empty air, before stopping himself from starting to pray once again. "Tobio… You'd better just get poisoned by ramen. Tobio… I'll even forgive you for not telling me about it…"

It was not like his Father was around to hear him.

Even so, even with him hoping against hope that his adoptive son was just suffering from food poisoning and would contact him soon, the knot of steel ropes curling in his stomach said exactly the opposite.

***

Formally speaking, the Holy See maintained a certain level of autonomy in relation to the Heavens and the Angels of the Biblical Faction that controlled them. But only formally speaking.

No one in their right mind would think that the Angels would allow the seat of its power on Earth, its main method of interacting with the other Factions, and its wing of intelligence and economic power, among other things, to not be under its full control. The fact that they actually are largely independent of Heaven, one of the simple accepted facts for the Angels.

Michael, unlike his Father, simply could not physically take care of every minor event occurring in the human world.

Given the fact that there were simply incredibly few angels in comparison to their believers, the birth rate of an Angel is beyond abysmal, taking entire decades of preparation, and risking losing two instead of adding one? The number of agents and representatives that the Angels needed to keep their Faction in order was to be expected.

The Holy See needed autonomy simply in order to continue functioning in the modern world and not fall apart into a hundred self-governing cliques and heresies, half of which would eventually completely escape the control of the [Heaven’s System]. And such a thing had happened in the past, where the teachings of Christianity, without a central governing figure, had splintered so completely that some couldn’t even be called Christians anymore.

The Angels, even when wary about allowing the Holy See to continue as they were, and especially with its many failures, still considered it the best out of a bad hand.

After all, billions of people still revered the Biblical God, and without a central guidance would greatly deviate from the original covenants of faith, forcing the Angels to continually debate a single topic without a clear answer to the question.

Questions like how should we deal with the heresy that has escaped control. Especially considering that in the past, the Angels had already tasted the bitter fruits of their attempts to influence the human world directly, and regretted it. The Reformation Wars were nothing more than a waste of life, one that had happened throughout Europe.

Therefore, despite the formal full accountability to the Heavens, the Holy See in fact had a very wide autonomy in matters of its behavior, even if they are not allowed to go beyond certain limits.

Of course, internal communications between the agents of the Church pass under that muster, even if it bypasses Heaven altogether, and the Church has many ways to do so, as expected of the most ancient and powerful of intelligence service. It was the reason why they were built in the first place, after all.

Therefore, the news that the Fallen had attacked the Devils, and the quick and devastating reprisal, delivered by one of the worst enemies of the Church, the Crimson Satan no less, made its way to the desk of the current head of the intelligence department of the Holy See, Ewald Cristaldi, even before the dust had settled. True, they were too late from preventing the Fallen from recovering the body of their dead, or from the Devil destroying it, but Ewald had already made his required penitence and reflection. He would act faster next time.

Having listened to a brief report and sent his assistant on his way, the man of unremarkable appearance, neither young nor old, crossed his arms in front of him, one thought after another appearing in his head.

Unimportant informants could afford to be stupid, their tasks were only to notice facts and transmit them up the chain to the priests to whom they were assigned to. But, even the ‘external agents’ of the church had no right to such carelessness, at least if they wished to live to their natural death.

What can be said about Ewald himself, who, like any good Christian, did not forget about the confrontation with His Enemies, but did not allow his hatred to replace his own intellect. The fact that the Devils and the Fallen had clashed with each other could not but cause satisfaction in him.

However, he was not going to simply dismiss other, more important questions and let himself be blinded by a sin like self-indulgence. Why did the attack happen, or what will happen next, are such questions that need to be asked.

Therefore, Ewald had to deal with what was happening, with all the thoroughness possible as an agent of the Church. The possibility that the Great War might start again was too important of a subject for him not to conduct an investigation with all the thoroughness possible. A tradition inherited by the church from the times of the Holy Inquisition.

A copy of the report, of course, laid on Ewald's desk, even if the Pope himself was still in the dark, His Holiness would find out about this in the near future.

As even as the plenipotentiary representative of the Heavens on Earth, the only one who had a direct connection with Michael himself, he had a rather low official authority in the structures of the Church itself.

Still with the mystery at hand, the church would send out agents to begin to collect information, first checking the battlefield itself in an attempt to find at least anything that survived…

“Hmm, no, sending humans to the Underworld would be too risky, the situation would still be too hot for them to pass the borders safely and without detection…” Murmuring to himself and coming to a decision, Ewald started writing a communiqué to the undercover agents in the Devil’s camp.

“As for the Fallen… Humph, no need to send anyone, in a couple of days, the Heretics would themselves announce where they are hiding themselves. No need to waste good Christian lives for that.”

Thumping on the reports with his finger in a rhythmic beat, Ewald began thinking on another more important question.

“Why? And why now?” Ewald, of course, was very much aware of the brewing tension between the three factions, and especially about the bubbling tension between the disparate factions in the Fallen. His position affords him nothing else than the complete knowledge about the Church’s enemies…

That was why he knows full well that the only reason that Kokabiel’s attack was as successful as it is, was because the Devils were busy with something. Something important enough that it required the full attention of all the Satans, even Sirzechs himself. For Ewald had no delusion that Kokabiel would have failed miserably without doing any damage, should the Crimson Satan, or any other of the four, were present in the Underworld.

Ewald thought for a second, then confidently nodded to himself. Indeed, the question raised before him was too important to be greedy. Sometimes a sacrifice is needed. He would need to send his agents, even if it meant their death.

Reaching for his phone, a direct line to any agents of the church, even the Pope, Ewald picked it up, and a moment later heard an answer on the other end of the phone, "Cardinal Deacon?"

"I need any records about all the significant absences of the Satans from the Underworld over the past week." Ewald did not specify a specific time and reason for the departure, nor did he talk about the attack that had taken place on the Fallen.

Who, if not the head of intelligence, knew how many ears the walls around him actually had?

"Importance?" The man on the other side of the phone asked in a businesslike manner, also without names, learning about which particular agents he was allowed to declassify in his actions.

"Very high," Ewald answered briefly, before rising from his seat and picking up the report brought to him as he headed out of his office.

And after the men on the other side finished communicating with Michael, as Ewald suspected, this same importance could grow to ‘absolute’.