Sona Sitri and Tsubaki Shinra were fleeing under the cover of night.
After a burst of desperate running for dozens of minutes, they had already reached Kuoh Town. Given Sona's keen mind, she quickly deduced Kokabiel was deliberately forcing them here, though his true intentions remained unclear.
"President, what do we do?"
Tsubaki Shinra asked.
They had managed to delay the pursuers along the way using the strange creatures conjured by her Sacred Gear, Mirror of Recollections, but that was merely buying time.
"Find a way to notify Rias. Have her contact the Underworld immediately. If even one of the Maou steps in, Kokabiel's plot will be destroyed."
Sona forced herself to stay calm and analyzed the situation rapidly. However, all viable means of communication were lost during the ambush.
She briefly thought of calling Hikaru but, like Rias, she didn't want to drag him into such a dangerous situation. Kokabiel was an extremely powerful enemy, and although Hikaru possessed a Longinus that could attain Balance Breaker, her first instinct was to be pessimistic about the odds of either side coming out unscathed. There was no reason to drag him into it.
Kokabiel watched everything from the sky.
Sona Sitri and her servant assumed they were hiding well, but in his eyes, there was nowhere they could hide.
"All right, let the game begin."
He curled his lips into a grin and ordered his stray priests and ghouls to wreak havoc throughout Kuoh Town. The pursuers, along with his minions already mixed in among the crowd, ripped off their disguises and began a massacre.
The ghouls unleashed their kagune, effortlessly tearing or impaling ordinary humans, tasting fresh blood that sent their adrenaline surging, their eyes gleaming red as they feasted on flesh. Meanwhile, the stray priests wielded Holy Light Swords, guns, and other weapons, indiscriminately attacking everyone in sight.
Though Kuoh Town wasn't large, there were plenty of people out at night. Seeing the sudden emergence of monsters slaughtering people, onlookers screamed and scrambled to flee.
"Ghouls!"
"Terrorists! W-Why are they killing people here?!"
"Run, hurry!"
Men and women, young and old, all fled in terror, afraid they too would be struck down. The scene instantly became a battlefield, fear etched on every face.
Left with no other choice, Sona and Tsubaki abandoned their escape and joined the fight. Meanwhile, Xenovia and Irina—who had been investigating Kuoh Town—also noticed the uproar. As warriors of the Church sworn to protect the innocent (as well as serve God), they considered the ghouls and stray priests their enemies too.
"Church members?"
Sona was baffled, feeling the situation grow ever more chaotic.
…
At the same time Kokabiel entered Kuoh Town, Hikaru sensed something was off. He halted his first attempt to awaken the Tyrant Dragon power and turned to Asia and Est.
"You two stay home. Est, make sure you protect Asia and the house."
"All right."
Est nodded. She understood Hikaru had something important to do. Besides, no matter where she was, if Hikaru so wished, she could instantly appear at his side, transforming into the holy sword that would vanquish his foes.
Hikaru left the villa, hopped on his motorcycle, and sped away.
The night wind whipped across him as he rode at high speed, its chill lashing his face. Thanks to his training in senjutsu, merely sensing that unconcealed aura of life energy above Kuoh Town told him what was happening.
It had to be Kokabiel causing trouble. But his actions were drastically different from how events played out in the original story. He was smarter—at least smarter than the version who only stirred up trouble at Kuoh Academy before being easily dispatched, with no ordinary residents even aware of what had happened.
Kokabiel's objective was to spark a war, so triggering chaos on a bigger scale was a more effective fuse. If Hikaru had been in Kokabiel's place, once he'd located his key targets, he would have gone all out and obliterated them along with the entire city, forcing the wheels of war to turn again.
Kokabiel was indeed more cunning this time, but still not cunning enough.
By the time Hikaru arrived at the scene, downtown was already in flames. Most civilians had fled, but the police, firefighters, and ambulance crews had sealed off the streets. With no prior warning, the human government naturally responded right away, only to be stunned by what they saw.
People who looked human were doing things that resembled a fantasy film—fighting on the ground, on walls, in the air, with bare hands or strange weapons, unleashing flashes of colorful energy. Yet their attacks were all effortlessly repelled by a six-winged figure in the sky.
Seated upon a throne without stirring, Kokabiel blocked every attack from Rias, Sona, and the others with just a flick of his fingers or wings, gazing down at them as if they were ants. As for the two Holy Sword wielders, they had already been taken out in an earlier battle and lay gravely injured, unable to rise.
"This is a real mess," Hikaru muttered.
He parked his motorcycle and walked forward. The crowd, which had been packed tight, now parted instinctively in his presence, as though moved aside by some invisible force.
~~~
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