Chapter 212 — Evil God

Yuki

The carriage door opened, and Azazel-sensei flew out and stopped next to Baraqiel-san.

The two Fallen Angel leaders floated in the air across from the Norse god Loki.

Xenovia, Yuuto, Irina, and I floated in the air behind them.

If Loki was here as our enemy, that meant that members of the Norse faction had joined with the Khaos Brigade. 

If he had reinforcements, this could get bad for us very quickly.

“If it isn’t Loki-dono. It’s quite the coincidence to meet you here. Do you have some business with us?” Azazel-sensei asked calmly. “This carriage belongs to the chief-god of Northern Europe, Odin-dono. But you should already know that. Which means that you should understand the consequences of any actions you take, right?”

“I am here because our chief-god has left us to collude with other factions,” Loli said while crossing his arms. “I can not stand by as chief-god Odin makes ties with gods of other factions.”

Azazel-sensei’s casual demeanor shifted.

He scowled at Loki.

“You’re quite daring to say that so blatantly, Loki.”

Azazel-sensei’s voice was laced with anger.

Azazel-sensei enjoys peace and the calm that came with it.

He was the one to push for the peace agreement between the Three Great Factions.

He seemed enraged by Loki’s obvious disregard for peace in the Northern Europe faction.

Loki noticed Azazel-sensei’s anger and laughed.

“Fuhahahah! Now you sound more like the Governor-dono of the Fallen Angels! I normally wouldn’t want anything to do with you or these Devils, but it can’t be helped. Along with Odin, you too shall receive my punishment.”

“So you plan to remove Odin because he reached out to another faction, but you can talk to me here? That seems rather contradictory.”

Loki chuckled. 

“It’s fine if the reason we meet is so that I can destroy you. I am against the peace your faction and Odin are trying to spread. Your religion pushed into our land long ago when your missionaries came and brought the Bible with them.”

“That’s something to bring up with Michael, not me. I had nothing to do with the spread of Christianity,” Azazel-sensei replied while rubbing the back of his head. 

“It’s of no matter. The real issue is that chief-god Odin cannot be allowed to negotiate with the gods of the far east. If he does, we will not be able to have the day of Ragnarok.”

 “I will ask you one thing, Loki! Are you working alongside the Khaos Brigade?” Azazel-sensei asked, while pointing at Loki. “Though I doubt that you would be one to answer truthfully. You are known as a trickster god.”

Loki waved his hand lazily.

“I feel sickened that you would associate me with those foolish terrorists. I came here on my own as a member of my own faction. I have nothing to do with Ophis and her ilk.”

He sounded rather proud as he declared himself not to be associated with the Khaos Brigade.

If he weren’t lying, then this would go much better for us. 

Azazel-sensei relaxed slightly after hearing that.

“So you’re not with the Khaos Brigade. That explains why you are alone. But this is still a problem. So he is the problem that the North faction carries, right, geezer?”

Odin-sama and Rossweisse-san stepped out of the carriage together and stood on top of a glowing magic circle mid-air. 

Rossweisse-san had already summoned her silver Valkyrie armor

Odin-sama watched Loki as he stroked his beard.

“Hmm. Some people within my faction opposed the idea of reaching out to secure peace. There are hard-headed people like this one who are acting like fools and stirring up trouble.”

“Loki-sama! Your actions here are exceeding your authority!” Rossweisse-san shouted. “Turning against our chief god is an unforgivable offense! If you had an issue with Odin-sama’s actions, you should have raised a complaint during an official meeting!”

Loki didn’t bother to look at her as he replied.

“Silence. A mere battle maiden shouldn’t interfere in matters between the gods. Odin, tell me, are you still planning on forming ties with those outside of our faction?”

Loki looked and sounded as if this was a matter of great importance.

Odin-sama looked unperturbed.

I tensed up at that moment.

Yuuto, Xenovia, and Irina beside me did as well.

This was the point at which the conversation would turn from civil to violent.

Unless Odin-sama was able to diffuse the situation. 

“Yep, talking with Azazel and Sirzechs is far more interesting than talking to you,” Odin-sama said casually. “And I want to speak with the gods of Japan and get to know the Shinto. They are also interested in our Yggdrasil. We will make peace, and afterward we will have cultural and knowledge exchanges between our factions.”

I wanted to be annoyed with Odin-sama for not attempting to de-escalate the situation with Loki, but after hearing Odin-sama’s goal of meeting with the Shinto gods, I couldn’t be. 

He wasn’t just messing around on his trip here to Japan.

Odin-sama was attempting to forge relations and peace between two distant factions.

If he succeeded, more groups would want peace and work together against the Khaos Brigade.

Loki smiled widely after hearing Odin-sama’s response.

“I see! Then I’ve confirmed your plans here. I’m saddened that you’ve decided to make such a foolish decision. I will have to take action here because of this. Let us display our powers here since that is the case!”

A chilling wave spread out from Loki.

Intense hostility emanated from him as he directed his killing intent towards Odin-sama. 

My tails stiffened behind me from it.

“So I take it that is your declaration of battle, right?” Azazel-sensei asked.

Loki smirked again. 

“Take it however you wish. I will not allow Odin to make ties with outside factions.”

Just as he finished speaking, a slash of holy energy crashed into Loki.

I glanced to the side and saw that Xenovia had just swung Durandel.

“Victory goes to those who act first,” she said plainly. “But it seems my attack wasn’t enough. To be expected of a Norse god. It would be disappointing if he fell with just one attack.”

After the smoke from the attack cleared, Loki was standing where he had been before, completely unharmed.

It looked like even his robe hadn’t been damaged.

I looked at him with my Veil Sight again.

I couldn’t tell if he had expended any magic power to protect himself from that attack.

If he did, it was rather minimal.

“A holy sword, huh,” Loki said as he smoothed out a nonexistent crease in his robe. “The power of that strike was impressive, but it’s not enough to take on a god quite yet. To one such as I, it’s no more than a gentle breeze.”

Beside me, Irina and Yuuto each created a sword.

Yuuto summoned a holy demonic sword while Irina formed a sword from holy light.

I readied myself to back them up.

Loki glanced at their summoned weapons and laughed.

“Fuhahaha! Your efforts will be futile! Even though I appear to be a normal man, I am a god! Simple attacks from Angels and Devils are nothing to me!”

Loki raised his hand and began gathering a massive amount of magical power.

I could feel the pressure radiating off of him increase as his attack formed.

I quickly raised my own hand and gathered my power in response.

At the same time, from inside the carriage, I heard Ddraig’s voice call out from Issei’s Sacred Gear.

[Welsh Dragon Balance Breaker!]

Issei leaped out from the carriage and flew directly at Loki using the boosters on his armor to close the gap almost instantly, with an arm cocked back.

I created a Still Mark in front of myself.

Issei swung his fist forward at Loki. 

Loki nimbly dodged.

He turned his body so that Issei’s fist passed by his face with only the smallest gap between them.

At the same time, I fired a Baleful Bolt through the mark at Loki.

I hoped to catch him off guard as Issei held his attention.

Loki moved his arm and deflected my bolt with the back of his hand.

I clicked my tongue, seeing that he was able to react to both of our attacks.

I didn’t think my attack would do any serious damage, but I was hoping to at least land a hit.

As Issei turned to face Loki, he shouted back to the carriage. 

“Buchou! I’m going to promote now!”

I felt my [Pawn] promotion ability become active.

I immediately promoted to [Bishop].

“Ah. So you’re here as well. I forgot that the current Sekiryuutei was aligned with the Devils. And you, Fox Devil, while I appreciate a good sneak attack, you’re out of your depth in this fight.”

Glowing particles of light continued to gather in Loki’s hand as he continued forming his attack.

“Yuuto-san, Irina-san.”

They each nodded, and we moved.

“You may be rather powerful, Sekiryuutei,” Loki said as he finished forming his attack. “But for you, it’s still too early to try and take on a god!”

He fired his attack towards Issei.

Issei responded with a Dragon shot of his own while his Sacred Gear cried out.

[BoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoostBoost!!]

The two attacks collided and detonated.

The intense wind from the explosion drove Yuuto, Irina, and me back.

I looked to the side and saw that Issei had been forced back as well.

Only Loki remained where he had been before.

His arm was still extended, but his palm was smoking from blocking the force of the explosion.

Loki pulled back his hand and looked it over before smiling.

“Interesting… I held back, but not completely, and you managed to block my attack. At least you won’t make this boring for me then. This is turning out to be more fun than I expected!”

As Loki began to laugh to himself, Rias, Koneko, and Akeno flew out of the carriage and faced Loki.

Rias was surrounded by a thick crimson aura of demonic power, Koneko’s fists were coated with white Ki, and Akeno’s hands were letting off arcs of lightning.

Loki noticed them and looked at Rias in particular.

“Hmm… Crimson hair. You’re of the House of Gremory, correct? You must be related to one of the current Maou. You have quite the diverse and interesting set of guards, don’t you, Odin? Two leaders of the Fallen Angels, the Sekiryuutei, and Angel, and a group of Devils. A bit over the board, don’t you think?”

“It turned out to be a good idea in the end. After all, a fool like you decided to show up,” Odin-sama replied.

Loki grinned wider and nodded.

“I’ll give you that. And since there are so many of you here, I think I’ll need to even the playing field a bit.”

Loki spread his arms wide and shouted.

“Come out! My adorable son!”

It was silent for a few seconds after Loki shouted.

Then a tear in space appeared in the air beside him.

From the large rift, a massive ash colored wolf appeared and stood in the air beside Loki.

It was roughly ten meters tall.

The second it stepped out of the rift, an intense pressure spread out from the wolf.

The wolf felt far more dangerous than Loki did by far.

But instead of being frightened, I felt an intense desire to hunt and kill it.

I felt my tails raise and shift behind me as my focus narrowed onto the massive wolf.

I bared my teeth as I leaned forward slightly as I prepared to move.

Then I froze as the wolf’s eyes landed on me. 

I felt an intense wave of chilling killing intent fall over me and the urge to flee. 

I shook my head as I realized I had been ready to throw myself at the massive creature.

I frowned at the sudden bloodlust I had felt towards the creature.

I glanced to the side and noticed that all the other members of my peerage were shaking with fear from the appearance of the wolf.

Azazel-sensei, Baraqiel-san, Odin-sama, and Rossweisse-san all had grim expressions on their faces.

It seemed that everyone had felt the wolf's intense, malicious killing intent and been affected by it.

It seemed that my odd reaction hadn’t been noticed.

I focused back on the wolf and Loki.

Loki had seemed like a dangerous opponent, but that wolf was far more dangerous than he was.

“This is bad! Everyone, stay away from that giant wolf! Ise, don't go charging in! Keep back!” Azazel-sensei shouted.

Azazel-sensei looked worried. 

He was usually extremely laid-back and calm.

To see him so rattled drove home how dangerous the situation was.

“Sensei, what is that thing?” Issei shouted.

“Fenrir, the god devouring wolf.”

Azazel-sensei’s words caused another nervous wave through the group.

“Fenrir?! That should be impossible in a place like this!” Rias muttered.

“…This isn’t good. We need to be extremely careful,” Yuuto said with a grave look. 

Issei looked back at Azazel-sensei with confusion.

“Fenrir is a creature capable of killing gods. It’s known as the bane of the gods due to its fangs and claws being lethal to most anything,” I explained as I watched both Fenrir and Loki.

“She’s right!” Azazel-sensei said. “Its bite can tear through most anything. If you get bitten, your armor won’t hold up against its teeth!”

Loki patted Fenrir’s side with a smug grin.

“That's right. You’ll all need to be very careful. Fenrir is one of if not the most dangerous creatures I have created. After all, his fangs are deadly enough to kill any god. Even though I haven’t tested it, that should still be true for gods of other factions. It doesn’t matter if you're a god, a high-class Devil, or a legendary Dragon. A bite from Fenrir is enough to give you a mortal wound.”

Loki chuckled and then pointed towards Rias.

“I think that tasting the blood of a relative of a Maou will be useful for Fenrir. Kill her.”

Fenrir let out a blood-curdling howl into the night sky.

I felt my own bloodlust rise in response to it.

The Fenrir disappeared in a rush of air.

“Don’t dare touch her!” Issei shouted as his booster launched him towards Rias.

Fenrir was already in front of Rias.

Issei was about to get between them. 

I was already moving as I used Misstep.

I appeared in front of Rias.

Multiple things happened at the same time.

Rias exclaimed in fear and surprise as she lifted her arms to shield herself from Fenrir.

Fenrir opened his jaw to bite Rias.

Issei arrived between Fenrir and me, and his fist collided with Fenrir’s face.

I reached a hand out to each of them

Issei’s fist collided with Fenrir’s face.

Fenrir’s maw continued forward as if he hadn’t been struck by the Sekiryuutei.

One of my hands grabbed Rias’s wrist, and the other grabbed onto Issei’s armor.

I pushed my power as far as I could, then began to use Misstep again.

It immediately felt wrong as I tried to take both Rias and Issei with me. 

I ignored the strain I felt in my chest as I forced more power into my tail.

Fenrir’s teeth were closing towards Rias and me.

One of his front legs swung towards Issei. 

I had to protect them.

I couldn’t let either of them be hurt or killed.

They were too important to me.

I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a snarl as I forced my ability to activate.

The world twisted around us as I stepped forward and tore us through space.

We appeared close to Azazel-sensei and the others.

I let go of Issei and Rias as I began to collapse.

Rias caught me from falling out of the sky as my Devil wings hung limp behind me. 

My chest felt tight, and a sharp pain tore through my abdomen.

“Y-Yuki! Are you alright?!” Rias asked

I weakly leaned away from her and spat out a mouthful of blood before nodding.

I had needed Issei to use his [Transfer] to give me enough power to move Asia the first time I brought someone with me with Misstep.

I had been training relentlessly to control my abilities better.

Koneko had assisted me in practicing to move someone again, so I knew I could do it.

But I hadn’t attempted to move two people at once before now.

“Thanks for protecting Buchou, Yuki-san, but you didn’t need to push yourself and hurt yourself again. I made it in time to protect her,” Issei said. 

I weakly pointed at the armor on his stomach.

Issei looked down and saw a tear in his armor that exposed his layer of clothes beneath it.

Fenrir’s claws had reached him and managed to tear through his armor before I had moved us away. 

He paled immediately as he realized what had almost happened.

“Thank you, Yuki. You protected both of us. But are you going to be alright?” Rias asked.

I nodded. 

“Y-Yes… Just g-give me a moment to recover my… my strength.”

Koneko and the others reached us then.

“Yuki-senpai! Are you alright?!” Koneko asked as she reached us first, immediately using her Senjutsu on me.

“Yuki!”

“Yuki-chan!”

Akeno and Asia called out as they reached us. 

“She’s hurt but alright,” Rias said as she handed me off to Akeno while Koneko and Asia began healing me. “Making sure she is healed is important, but we still need to worry about Loki and Fenrir.”

I turned my head to see Loki watching us with interest as Fenrir stood beside him in the air.

I had already taken myself out of the fight for the moment, and it hadn't even really begun.