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For Devils with abundant Demonic Power, traveling is never an issue.
It took Rias less than three minutes from receiving the young man's phone call to gathering Akeno Himejima and Koneko Toujou, then teleporting to the barrier boundary closest to the church.
Under the dark canopy of the sky, streetlights illuminated the streets, and the distant wail of police sirens could be heard.
The three beautiful high school girls appeared at an intersection without traffic lights. One step further would place them in the area that formerly belonged to the Church.
Separated by only one street block, the towering European classical church stood behind them.
It was a domain that they, as Devils, were absolutely forbidden to tread upon, much like crossing a national border without permission.
But now, they could.
"The barrier... is destroyed?"
Rias still hesitated slightly.
After a brief probe, Akeno Himejima nodded slightly.
"It seems Reiji did something. It appears safe to pass now."
She was the daughter of a shrine maiden family and, while not as specialized as an authentic Onmyōji from the Hanakain family, she was knowledgeable about barrier arts.
A barrier is like a radar; it immediately triggers an alarm upon detecting an individual matching a specific characteristic entering its range.
Rias, in particular, was the daughter of the Gremory family, one of the few remaining pure-blood Devil families in the Underworld. If she were discovered to have trespassed onto Church territory without permission, it would certainly be interpreted as a unilateral declaration of war by the Underworld against Heaven.
A Second Great War would then be more than just talk.
However, since the barrier was now destroyed, it was equivalent to the radar being smashed. In that case, they could proceed...
No longer hesitating, the red-haired girl waved her arm, giving the command.
"Akeno, Koneko, let's go!"
"Yes!" x2
The difference was only a small fraction of a second.
The scene shifts. Accompanied by a flash of stark white lightning, the church doors were violently blasted open amidst a massive roar.
As the dust settled, the three girls appeared just outside the church entrance.
Inside the church, Hanakain Reiji was positioned right in the center of the four Fallen Angels. Hearing the commotion behind him, he turned his head to glance at them.
"Reiji, are you alright?!"
Seeing the young man in the center of the encirclement, Akeno Himejima immediately expressed her concern before Rias could even speak.
But the young man merely dismissed her with a casual wave of his hand.
"I'm fine, I'm fine~ I originally thought there might be too many rats for one person to catch, but it turns out there are only four. I wish I had known earlier, so you wouldn't have had to make the extra trip."
Rats...
This was a profound insult, but the Fallen Angels could only tolerate it for the time being.
After all, "directly fighting the Gremory family" was not part of their plan.
Simply put, if they could easily crush them through a direct fight, they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of gathering faith to draw power.
If a fight broke out here, while they wouldn't necessarily lose, it would certainly deplete their strength, which was something neither Raynare nor the other three wanted.
And they had an easier way.
"Daughter of the Gremory family, what is the meaning of this!"
Exchanging a brief glance with his comrades, Dohnaseek, the male Fallen Angel in the thick coat, was the first to speak.
"Think carefully! This is the Church's territory. Your trespassing here and deliberately destroying the barrier is a declaration of war against Heaven! Are you trying to incite war?! Don't blame us Fallen Angels if we refuse to stand idly by!"
He was quick to resort to baseless accusations.
But the young man's calm voice from behind interrupted him: "Not 'we,' but 'I.'"
"What? You're not one of the Gremory's... Wait, you're not a Devil?"
Dohnaseek was astonished.
He had assumed Hanakain Reiji was a Devil under the Gremory family, only to realize, upon closer sensing, that this was not the case.
He's... a human?!
"Hanakain Reiji, acting head of the Kyoto Hanakain family."
The young man turned slightly, his side profile casting a sharp gaze toward them, speaking slowly and deliberately.
"I'm the one who smashed the barrier, and I'm the one who called Rias and the others here. So, if the Church has any issues, they can come speak to me..."
"I'll teach them that the most useless thing in this world is logic."
"You...!"
Dohnaseek was dumbfounded. He had never encountered such an arrogant human.
After all, this was Japan. Historically influenced by the great Tang Dynasty, Buddhism was the most widely practiced religion here. Coupled with the belief in Yaoyorozu no Kami (Eight Million Gods), did no Japanese person still believe in the idea of "Divine beings watch from three feet above your head"?
"You—you destroyed the Church's Holy Light Barrier! Aren't you afraid of God's punishment!?"
"Then let Him try."
Hanakain Reiji retracted his elbow, clenched his fingers, and raised his fist. Though no dazzling Spiritual Power hovered visibly on his body, golden light radiated from within him, gathering at the peak of his fist, seemingly containing matchless power.
The young man was expressionless.
"Spreading faith and building churches, yet sheltering heretics and demons, allowing people who abandoned their faith to wantonly slaughter ordinary civilians—"
"If this can still be called God, then I will be the one to strike down this false deity!"
"If God won't save people, then I will!"
No furious Vajra glare, no benevolent Bodhisattva gaze.
The young man's voice rang out like a booming bell, shaking the entire church. The Fallen Angels, who had been pretending to negotiate just a second ago, finally tore away their final pretense.
If bluffing with their authority wouldn't work, then it was time to fight!
Dohnaseek and Kalawarner were the first to flap their wings and ascend into the air, their palms gathering Demonic Power to condense into black Light Spears.
At the same moment, Raynare, who still had Asia tucked under her armpit, sprinted forward with all her might. Mittelt, who was prepared, had already opened the path to the underground vault for her.
They would stick to the predetermined plan: the first two would stall the enemy, Raynare would use the time to complete the ritual and steal Asia's healing ability, and then emerge to help kill the enemy!
"Watch out!"
"Be careful, Reiji!"
Rias and Akeno Himejima outside the door instantly launched their attacks in unison.
Red Destruction Power and stark white Shrine Maiden lightning energy flashed, surged, and intertwined.
But Koneko Toujou was faster than both of them.
The seemingly petite, white-haired girl moved like an agile feline. The moment the Fallen Angels acted, she crouched down and pushed off with her legs. The instant her sole struck the ground, she left a circular pit laced with spiderweb cracks in the floor. She then shot out like a cannonball, rushing into the battlefield in the blink of an eye.
Her target was one of the two Fallen Angels preparing to throw a Light Spear from the air... Eh?
As if suddenly noticing something strange, the white-haired girl's beautiful golden eyes slightly widened for an instant.
Akeno Himejima, surrounded by lightning at the church entrance, had the same reaction.
However, unlike Koneko Toujou, her eyes held a trace of nostalgia.
Like seeing an old friend after a long separation.
Hanakain Reiji, who should have been at the center of the encirclement, appeared above the two Fallen Angels even faster than them. His fists clenched tightly, his body twisted, and dragon-claw-shaped red battle-markings appeared on his forehead. Matchless fist-power condensed at the peak of his fist.
We martial artists shall have no one before us.
He threw a punch, brilliant as the midday sun.
It aimed to change the color of the heavens, forcing even gods to their knees.
It was meant to make them feel that the person before them was—
Undefeated!
[Buddha-Slaying Supreme Fist]!
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