Grayfia had no idea what was going on with Serafall. She assumed Serafall had also been forcibly kissed by Akuto.
Serafall likewise had no idea what was going on with Grayfia. She assumed that because Grayfia still had not married Sirzechs, she was planning to use this sort of method to get back at Maou Lucifer.
Shocked and guilty in equal measure, neither of them had any intention of pursuing the matter further.
As a result, the two of them turned their gazes toward Gabriel at the same time.
They had already figured out why they themselves were able to remain here, so… on what grounds was Gabriel allowed to stay?
Could it be because…
The same possibility surfaced in both Grayfia's and Serafall's minds.
"Me? The reason I wasn't transported away is because of the Lord's grace~" Gabriel replied with a gentle smile.
The "Lord" she spoke of naturally referred to Akuto.
However, it was obvious that both Serafall and Grayfia would only take this "Lord" to mean the God of the Bible.
Considering that the God of the Bible truly was a completely over-the-top existence, they did not associate Gabriel's remaining here with Akuto at all.
...
"Akuto-kun, what should we do now?"
After steadying her frayed nerves, Serafall turned to Akuto.
Since they had been spared because of Akuto, and since Akuto's strength was the highest among those present, he naturally had the qualifications to take command.
Under the eyes of everyone still in the room, Akuto spoke slowly:
"For now, we'll first deal with the enemies who are still in the real world. After that, we'll head to the different world lines and rescue everyone."
"This 'World Line Division' otherworldly spell is extremely powerful. In theory, it can be used to take on enemies several times, even several dozen times stronger than the caster."
"Several dozen times…? How can there be a spell that strong? Akuto-sama, do you have any way to break it?" Grayfia, too, found herself instinctively relying on Akuto.
Noticing Grayfia's unconscious reaction, Akuto licked his lips lightly, the look in his eyes carrying an obvious implication.
"…"
[Is Akuto hinting that I need to kiss him before he'll tell us?]
Grayfia took a deep breath, nodded, and at the same time cast a pleading look at Akuto.
Her intention was clear: she agreed, but this was absolutely not something she could do in front of everyone right here.
Akuto's lips curled as he went on:
"'Several dozen times' is the conservative estimate. In theory, this technique can split off an unlimited number of worlds."
"In the worlds that get split off, each of our people exists alone, but the enemy can have a copy of themselves in every single world line."
"In other words, after getting hit by this move, each of us has to face all of the enemies on their own in a different world line."
Akuto estimated that while it wouldn't truly split off an infinite number of parallel worlds, creating several empty parallel worlds was absolutely within its capacity. In practical terms, that was equivalent to straight-up multiplying the enemy's combat power several times over.
"As for how to break it, that's actually simple… you just need to completely crack a single world. As long as the spell isn't being used by its true owner in person, once you use a special method to completely break one of the worlds, the others will automatically collapse."
"Akuto-sama, what do you mean by 'not being used by its true owner'? Are you saying the actual holder of this technique isn't present?"
Grayfia drew in a sharp breath.
If the caster was not even on the scene and the technique could still display power of this magnitude, then if that person were here in person, wouldn't that be…
"That's right, he isn't here. And you don't have to worry about him coming here either. This spell comes from another world. We already struggle to cross a great world as it is, let alone crossing between two separate dimensional worlds. Crossing two worlds like that is harder than reaching the heavens."
Akuto reassured Grayfia that there was no need to concern herself with matters of the other world.
"Wait, Akuto-kun, how do you know this is a spell from another world? Don't tell me you've already run into enemies from another world? Or… that you've been hit by this move before?" Serafall quickly pressed.
Before Akuto could reply, Grayfia spoke up of her own accord.
"No, that's not it. If I'm not mistaken, Akuto-sama must have seen something with his own 'Revelation Ability.'"
"Correct." Akuto nodded.
In a certain sense, his information-gathering capacity really could be called a "Revelation Ability."
His understanding of the "plot" came from the anime he had seen in his previous life, which essentially meant it came from a higher dimension.
His knowledge regarding the system itself came from the system, which likewise belonged to a higher dimension.
His understanding of the rules of the EXE World and the DXD World came from the God of the Bible.
Given that Akuto's information sources were all either gods or higher-dimensional existences, there was indeed nothing wrong with calling his capabilities a "Revelation Ability."
"In that case, I'll place everything on you, Akuto-sama. Serafall-sama and I will follow your every command!"
At this point, Grayfia could be said to have pinned all of her hopes on Akuto.
When faced with a situation like this, even with how overwhelming Maou Alice's power was, Grayfia still had little confidence in her. But for some reason, she was absolutely full of confidence in Akuto.
Perhaps this was simply the instinctive dependence a female showed toward a male she had acknowledged.
...
"You're right. In any case, you two should head to the old school building first and protect everyone who's still in the real world."
"As for the leaders of the three factions, leave them to me. I'll be responsible for bringing them back."
With that, Akuto stretched his hand out in front of him.
"Boom!"
The next instant, a pillar of violet-gold Holy Flame descended from the heavens.
Judging from its energy level, this Holy Flame had already surpassed Super Maou-class and reached God-class.
Considering that this was Holy Flame, it would deal extremely high damage upon striking devils. If it hit head-on, even the current Four Maou of the Underworld would suffer an enormous blow.
However, just as it was about to crash into Kuoh Academy…
A transparent barrier materialized out of thin air and rapidly expanded across the sky.
"Boom!"
The Holy Flame slammed into the "Supreme Barrier" like a piece of glowing charcoal hurled violently at the ground: it first flared with blinding radiance, then instantly dissipated.
"Vmm~"
In the very next moment, Akuto and the people around him appeared on the rooftop.
Looking up into the sky, they saw two figures emerge from the void.
At the same time, teleportation magic circles opened one after another in midair, and magicians wrapped in enchanted robes appeared one by one.
The "Stray Magicians" had officially joined Khaos Brigade; this had, in fact, already been foreshadowed when the three factions began their peace talks.
In the original storyline, when the leaders of the three factions were holding their conference, they too were attacked by the Old Maou Faction.
But aside from the Old Maou Faction's leaders and a large number of devil warriors, a great many human sorcerers and magicians also took part in the terror attack.
The leaders of those people were the very two currently descending.
"Yaukusta and Walburga…"
"If I'm not mistaken, the Old Maou Faction went in person to take care of the three faction leaders, and you two were sent here to hold down the fort?"
The Yaukusta Akuto mentioned was none other than the "Witch of the Kingdom of Oz" who had taken over the body of Vali's surrogate big sister, Lavinia.
So the "Yaukusta" standing before him now, who wore Lavinia the Ice Princess's appearance, was in fact occupying Lavinia's body.
Under Akuto's gaze, Yaukusta, wearing the form of "Ice Princess Lavinia," opened her mouth and said:
"That's right. The matter of the three faction leaders has been left to them. We only came here to make sure the Fallen Angels who keep pestering us take heavy losses."
"But as it turns out, it seems we've hit the jackpot."
The look Yaukusta gave Akuto was full of predatory intent, as if she wanted to see straight through him.
"I had considered the possibility that someone on the three factions' side might manage to use some special method to escape, but I didn't expect there to be someone who wasn't affected by the world line shift to begin with."
"If we hand you over to those people, the Three Kings will gain strength far beyond what they have now!"
There was a hint of madness in Yaukusta's voice.
It was just that, seeing such a twisted expression made with Lavinia's face still made Akuto feel somewhat uncomfortable.
"The one who just launched that attack was your disciple, Walburga?"
"Because you felt it would be a waste for you to wield two God-slaying tools yourself, you handed the Holy Cross over to your student, didn't you?"
Akuto turned his gaze to the girl standing beside Yaukusta in a purple Gothic lolita dress.
Just as Akuto said, Walburga was, in the original story, a cadre of Khaos Brigade's Stray Magician group "Witches of the Night" and the successor of Yaukusta, the Witch of East Oz.
From outward appearance, Walburga looked like a doll-like young woman in her early twenties. She wore a purple Gothic lolita outfit and kept twirling the purple Gothic-style parasol in her hand. Beneath her beauty lay a faintly eerie air.
That was… the air of a madwoman.
Both teacher and student, Yaukusta and Walburga, shared that same aura of madness.
Yaukusta was right: under normal circumstances, the two of them had no reason at all to attack the three-way conference.
In other words, this targeted attack was not merely a solo action by the Old Maou Faction within Khaos Brigade, but a joint operation that had mobilized several of Khaos Brigade's internal factions together.
And the only one who both had the qualification and the ability to pull a fragmented Khaos Brigade together for an operation like this was… the EXE World.
Akuto did quite like the "crazy girl" attribute, but only when the other party liked him of her own accord. Faced with these two witches who already came pre-packaged with the "crazy girl" trait, he had no intention whatsoever of holding back.
Because the value of these two witches was truly sky-high.
In terms of their bodies (as women), their souls (for research on Sacred Gear fate overlapping), and their memories (intelligence on the EXE World), all of it was worth Akuto going all-out.
...
[Looks like Himejima's intel work has been somewhat lacking.]
[Is it because he didn't show enough value and ended up marginalized by Khaos Brigade?]
As one of Khaos Brigade's leaders, he should have known the plan for this attack as well. But in reality, he only knew the approximate timing of the attack and had no idea about the concrete details or the special use of the World Line Division spell.
[The data I provided on Sacred Gears should be more than enough for Himejima to maintain his position.]
[So there can only be one reason Himejima has been pushed to the fringes: unlike the other leaders, he never accepted the "Evolution Heart" from the EXE World.]
[In other words, aside from Himejima, all the other leaders have had Evolution Hearts implanted in them and become puppets of the DXD World.]
"Seems like whatever I failed to obtain from Himejima, I'll just have to make up for it through you two!"
Snap.
With a light snap of his fingers:
[Explosion!——the World!]
Centered on Akuto, prismatic spheres of explosive magic expanded in an instant.
In just the blink of an eye, they had already grown to the point where they could cover the entirety of Kuoh City.
(End of Chapter)
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