Tobio Ikuse supported his friend, Lavinia, as she nearly collapsed after what their adversary revealed just now.
"You-what did you say?"
The witch known as Augusta of the Purple Flame, the second generation witch of the east from the organization, the Wizards of Oz, grinned madly as she and her apprentice, Walbuga, were being tied up by a couple of Fallen Angels after they were rather easily defeated, showing how much she depended on her Longinus and ended up becoming barely a threat once its power was taken from her by the Heavenly System.
"Why? Did you not hear me? Alright. I'll say it again. The reason why I knew so much about all of your friends, especially Canis Lykaon and the power within that girl, Sae, is because of your master, Glenda, who gave me all that information willingly!"
Watching Lavinia, the disciple of Glenda, mentally collapse, the mad old woman felt glee for at least getting back at the girl who had cornered her and enabled them to capture her and her apprentice.
Tears streamed down Lavinia's face as she started to sob, unable to handle the pain of betrayal from her own master, as Tobio and his friends tried to console her.
Yet, in their efforts to comfort their friend, they failed to see how Augusta's magical energy spiked, alarming the Fallen Angels and making them strengthen the seal on the old woman's body.
But it was too late as the witch of the east activated her possession spell, targeting the mentally weakened Lavinia, hoping to use her Absolute Demise to get out of this situation since the Heavenly System sealed away her Incenerate Anthem.
Unfortunately for the witch, the system was not done screwing her plans up yet.
The moment her soul tried to take over Lavinia's body, the Heavenly System activated instantly.
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Warning: Attack on Sacred Gear user detected.
Type of Attack: Soul-based attack.
Subclassification: Possession.
Hostile intent detected towards the wielder.
Attacker Race: Human.
Scenario: PvP.
Forced PvP detected. One sided attack detected from the attacker.
Karma Value calculated.
Attacker: -400
Sacred Gear Host: +100
Hostile tagged as 'Sinner' and threat to humanity.
Updating Scenario: PvP -> PvE.
Initiating PvE Protection for the Sacred Gear Host.
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The System calculated all of this in such a small time frame that humans did not even have a unit of measurement for such a short moment in time, which meant that the 'PvE' protections of the system came online instantly for Lavinia.
After the Heavenly System was changed, its many functions now resembled a game, so it was no surprise that such game-like terms were now very familiar to the sacred gear users.
One of the terms that the wielders had grown most accustomed to, however, was PvP and PvE.
PvP was the System's designation given to a scenario where a Sacred Gear wielder is attacked by their own kind, and both sides had positive karma.
In such a chase, the heavenly system would not interfere much, aside from erecting a barrier around them to protect others from being caught in their fights.
PvE, on the other hand, is a designation used by the System when a Sacred Gear wielder is attacked by non-humans or humans that have negative karma.
This is the time when the System shows its new powers and abilities to the full.
The moment Augusta's soul tried to take over Lavinia's body, and the System designated her as non-human because of her Karma value, the old witch's fate was already sealed.
A barrier of pure Light enveloped Lavinia's soul, protecting her from harm, as the Holy Energy of the Heavens flooded the woman's body, flushing out Augusta's soul from within her on a conceptual level.
The moment Augusta's soul was ejected from Lavinia's body, the barrier of Light turned outwards from the girl's soul and enveloped Augusta's soul instead, directly capturing her in an instant.
As a soul, the woman did not have a way to scream or beg for mercy. But even if she did have the ability to do so, the cold logic of the system would show her no mercy.
Under the terrified eyes of Walburga and the Fallen Angels, the bubble of light that confined Augusta's soul collapsed on itself, annihilating the old woman's soul completely, condemning her to oblivion.
As for the human children, they were far too worried about their friend to care about what had happened, except for Barakiel, who shook like a leaf in terror at what he had witnessed.
'This heavenly system is far more ruthless and efficient than what it was under Father's control. Just what did Brother Arael do to it?'
"Wow. I heard that the Wizards of Oz were the most extreme of people, but I did not expect them to be this extreme. I guess my paranoia was justified after all."
Everyone practically jumped as the familiar voice rang out near them.
As one, they turned to see the familiar visage of the newest, technically oldest, Archangel of Heaven, who was in his human disguise.
His gentle smile did nothing to reassure the student of Augusta, Walburga, who started to struggle really hard in her restraints as the human children's eyes lit up with surprise and joy.
As for the fallen angels, they could only stare at him with awe.
Vali grinned and spoke out with a haughty tone.
"What are you doing here? Old man! Here for another fight with the great me?"
Aetherion raised a finger in anger, wishing to correct the half-devil for calling him an old man, but fell silent when he realized that the boy had a point.
With a shake of his head, Aetherion stared at Vali.
"Are you sure you can even land a hit on me now that your Sacred Gear is sealed away?"
Vali continued grinning as his Silver aura flared around his body.
"I don't care if the Heavenly System took away Albion from me because of my heritage. I will still be the strongest being in this world! even if it means doubling-no, tripling my current training!"
Aetherion simply shook his head in amusement and placed his hand on Vali's head, making the boy protest.
"Alright. Enough of that bravado. For now, I've got work to do-"
"Um, excuse me, but who are you?"
Aetherion turned towards the only teenager in the group who was still on guard even after he appeared.
The girl had long blond hair tied into a braid and heterochromic eyes, one eye blue and the other black. Given the black eye color and her mixed features, it was clear that she was half-Japanese and half-Western, probably European, given the hair color and eye color.
"Nice to meet you, young lady. I am Aetherion, and I am currently representing Heaven while taking care of a certain issue. Speaking of-"
Aetherion waved his hand in the air, making an orb of purple fire materialize from thin air.
The Longinus-Class Sacred Gear, Incenerate Anthem.
Taking the orb, Aetherion stored it away in his own inventory, making Barakiel give him a strange look.
"Brother Aetherion, did you just-?"
"I did. Barakiel. I was told that Incinerate Anthem is the only Sacred Gear that can be passed around willy-nilly by its wielder, so I came down personally to retrieve it. I could not allow such a powerful weapon to fall into the wrong hands."
Aetherion smirked.
"Not like it could be misused, give the updates I have made to the system."
"Wait! You are the one who reset all our sacred gears and limited their abilities!?"
Natsume's shout made Aetherion's smirk widen.
"Yup. Given how the Sacred Gears were being misused, I decided that something needed to change."
"Change? You caused a riot across the supernatural community is what you did."
"Can someone please explain what you all are talking about? I have no context for any of the words being spoken here."
It was only when the girl with heterochromic eyes spoke again that Barakiel and Aetherion realized that they had been ignoring the girl.
Aetherion smiled at the girl apologetically.
"Sorry about that. Miss. Can you tell me your name?"
"....Shigune Nanaderu."
Barakiel patted the girl's shoulder reassuringly.
"You will have all the answers you want after we get back to Nephelim. You can even ask your friends about everything. But, for now, we need to get going. Sataniel has already escaped, but we still captured the Abyss Team and even the apprentice of Augusta, so we need to interrogate them for information."
Barakiel turned towards Aetherion, who was grinning with a familiar mischievous expression that made Barakiel sigh in exasperation and nostalgia, knowing that when his brother had this kind of expression, someone was going to suffer for the sake of his entertainment.
"Will you come with us back to our base? Brother? I will admit, some of our people are looking forward to seeing you again, not to mention that Azazel would want to talk with you again."
Aetherion shrugged his shoulders.
"Why not? I have time until the guys in the Fifth Heaven track down what I want, so might as well catch up with you and the others. Speaking of-"
Aetherion turned towards the children. Specifically, he stared at Tobio, Sae, and Natsume.
"So, did you three manage to figure things out and become a couple? Or is it called a throuple?"
"WHAT!?"
"HEY!"
"DON'T GO FILLING TOBIO'S HEAD WITH STRANGE IDEAS!!"
"What do you mean, strange ideas!? Do you think I am that kind of a guy!?"
Natsume crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
"You are a guy! Enough said!"
"What!? Sae! Help me out!"
Tobio turned towards his childhood friend, who was smiling at him. Yet, he felt a chill go down his spine as he observed that this smile did not reach her eyes.
"...Tobio. Harems are forbidden in this era. You know that, right?"
The trio of children continued bickering, with the other children, including Lavinia, who slowly recovered from her mental collapse, starting to add fuel to the fire, making for a very entertaining scene.
A scene that Aetherion enjoyed thoroughly, as he did not forget to bring popcorn this time around.
Once again, Barakiel could not help but sigh, realizing that his prediction had come true sooner than he expected and at the expense of a different target, given that it was always Azazel, Hele, or Samael who fell victim to Arael's pranks most of the time in the old days.
Soon, the group headed back to Nephelim Institute with Aetherion in tow.
Meanwhile, the angels in the Fifth Heaven worked tirelessly to track down the remaining four artifacts that Aetherion wished to remove from the Sacred Gear system altogether because of their significance as well as the danger they posed.
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