However, more than the tactical details, Xenovia and Irina Shidou seemed preoccupied with something far more existential. Irina, in particular, looked utterly soul-crushed, as if her entire world had collapsed.
Ethan checked in with Rias via their soul link. She assured him it wasn't a major crisis but something they should discuss as a group later. Seeing the girls' state, Ethan pulled two coats from his storage space.
"Here, take these. You don't need to give them back," he said.
The two Holy Sword wielders looked down. During the heat of battle, they hadn't cared about their appearance, but now that the adrenaline was fading, they realized their tight combat suits were in tatters. Walking back like this would have been humiliating.
Irina nodded weakly, her long chestnut twin-tails hanging limp. Xenovia, the blue-haired girl with the green streak, seemed to regain some of her composure. "Thank you," she said softly.
After watching them depart, Ethan's group teleported back to the mansion. Women's curiosity is a force of nature, and before they would let him rest, Ethan had to explain his new Battle Form and the details of Kokabiel's demise.
"Ethan, you've grown so much," Rias said. She instinctively reached out to pat his head, only to realize he was now taller than her. When they first met, he had been significantly shorter. Between his explosive growth in power and his physical development, he was truly becoming a man.
Once Ethan finished his summary of killing a Demon King-class enemy, it was Yuuki Kiba's turn to explain what happened on her end. Nobody cared much about Kokabiel being dead; if the Fallen Angels tried to make a scene, the two overprotective Demon Kings (Sirzechs and Serafall) would handle it.
Yuuki's explanation was simple: she had resolved her inner trauma, leading to a spiritual awakening and a massive jump in power.
While Ethan had been chasing Kokabiel, the two Cerberus hounds and the mad priest Freed, aided by Valper's technical support, had briefly overwhelmed Yuuki, Irina, and Xenovia. But Rias and the others arrived just in time to prevent any casualties.
Valper Galilei, obsessed with recreating the Excalibur, had fused the stolen fragments of the Excalibur Mimic and Excalibur Destruction with the three fragments Freed carried. He used a ritual called the Earth Exchange, intending to sacrifice the entirety of Kuoh Town to fuel the fusion.
Rias's peerage couldn't stand by and watch the town be destroyed. To stop the ritual, they had to destroy the fused Holy Sword. Yuuki, wanting to erase the cursed blades from existence, led the charge. Even though the fused sword was powerful, it wasn't enough to withstand the Occult Research Club, whose average power level was now SS-rank.
When Rias and Akeno—both SSS-rank—stepped in, Freed and Valper stood no chance. However, the Holy Sword itself was incredibly durable. Even a combined attack of Rias's Power of Destruction and Akeno's lightning, which rivaled a Demon King's output, failed to shatter it.
Valper laughed like a maniac, mocking Yuuki after realizing her true identity. He pulled out a crystal containing the Holy Sword Research factors—the literal extracted souls of Yuuki's fallen comrades—to taunt her.
The plan backfired. The souls of her friends manifested, and after a tearful spiritual dialogue, Yuuki finally forgave herself. She absorbed the crystal, integrating the life force of her comrades into her own.
Without the protection of Michael, such a fusion was usually fatal. Freed was the only survivor of Valper's previous experiments, and even he had been driven insane by the process. But Yuuki, with her resolved heart and Ethan's previous influence on her energy, succeeded.
She broke through to S-rank, her body permanently shifting into its female form. More importantly, she mastered her Sacred Gear's Balance Breaker: Sword of the Betrayer (Holy-Demon Sword).
The birth of a blade that combined Holy and Demonic properties horrified Valper. As a researcher, he realized the truth: this shouldn't be possible unless God and the four original Great Demon Kings were dead. The balance they maintained was gone, allowing such "unscientific" anomalies to exist.
Valper shouted the truth of God's death to everyone present. While Rias and her peerage weren't surprised—having heard it during the summit—the Student Council members were shocked. Irina and Xenovia, however, were hit the hardest. For devout believers, learning their God was dead was a psychological catastrophe.
Xenovia was the first to recover. Her faith was strong, but she wasn't a fanatic. She summoned another blade to rival the Excalibur—the legendary "Tyrant" Holy Sword, Durandal.
Valper panicked. He couldn't believe anyone could wield Durandal. Xenovia, looking cold and regal, explained that she was a natural-born Holy Sword user—a perfect compatible.
With Durandal, the pseudo-Excalibur was shattered into dust. The crisis in Kuoh was over, and Yuuki personally executed Freed and Valper, purifying them until not even a corpse remained.
Back at the mansion, the others had gradually filtered out, leaving Ethan alone with Yuuki. As she finished her story, they were sitting close together on a sofa.
Yuuki, now a stunning, busty blonde big sister, leaned into Ethan, her face flushed. Ethan felt a bit awkward at first, but the softness of her body and the scent of her skin quickly changed his mind. When her voice, now a mature, husky feminine melody, whispered in his ear, he took the lead.
After a long battle, there was no better way to relax. Yuuki had been waiting for this for a long time. Now that she was a woman permanently, the fire in her heart was uncontrollable. Her indigo eyes were filled with a mix of lust and love. Rias and the others had sensed the mood and left them alone.