Kiyoshi was located several dozen kilometers away from the place where Rizevim had been massacred. At the moment, he was finishing setting up the ritual to free Ddraig. In front of him was Hedo's body. Various runes and symbols were carved all over the demon's skin, leaving rare intact areas. At the moment, the Sekiryuutei did not have any shackles — there was no need for them anymore.
Much to the phoenix's surprise, Issei did not break even after Rias Gremory and Xenovia Quarta were killed before his eyes. However, the final point in the life of its host was put by the Red Dragon Emperor. Taking advantage of the demon's overflowing rage, I Ddraig Goh directed all the negative feelings of the previous owners of the mechanism directly into Issei's consciousness.
The teenager's shattered and fragile psyche could not cope with the surging tsunami of emotions. Hedo's personality was destroyed into small pieces, turning the guy into a living vegetable. This is exactly the result that Zankoku was trying to achieve, in order to be able to replace the dragon's soul with a demon, thereby giving freedom and control over the freed body to the Heavenly Dragon. Unfortunately, this method is not a complete liberation from the shackles of the Boosting Mechanism, only a temporary measure. But time is limited only by the life of the body of the glove's wearer, and as long as Ddraig does not expose his new vessel to mortal danger, he can live in freedom for a millennium.
Having finished the final touches, the phoenix launched the magic. Due to the peculiarities of this ritual, the blond could not carry it out in his homeland or use Ophis's trick. After starting the process, the body could not be moved or touched in any way — this could end badly for Ddraig. Therefore, flaming puppets lined up around them, ready to defend the demon with their bodies.
— And here are the latecomers, — the blond muttered cheerfully when a mass teleportation circle lit up in the sky nearby. — Judging by Euclid's words, they haven't finished dealing with the summoned monsters and the failed rebellion yet. So there's no point in expecting help from the demons yet.
Even despite his expectations, a wave of goosebumps ran through Kiyoshi's body. He wasn't afraid. No. Phoenix was incredibly excited when the entire sky before his eyes was filled with white-winged figures. Tens and hundreds of thousands of angels led by Seraphim looked at Zankoku with righteous anger. Heaven brought most of its forces to deal with the impending threat and save their home from destruction.
In addition to His army, the forces of the Church also appeared on the battlefield. The best exorcists and warriors gathered in this place for the sake of killing a single creature. Among this crowd, one massive figure stood out, clad in the white armor familiar to Phoenix. The man's head was not yet hidden by a helmet, and his face revealed his identity. Vasco Strada is the strongest man, capable of defeating Kokabiel with his own strength in the past. An incredible feat for an ordinary person.
— Can you deal with the new host of Albion? — the blond addressed the creature hiding among his legionnaires. — I won't be able to hold back both him and the Seraphim at the same time. He is too strong and will definitely disrupt our plans.
Kiyoshi was not afraid to admit his own weakness against the enemy who had appeared. The dividing mechanism itself is a very problematic thing, but the old man still has Durandal in his hands. Phoenix could still fight one on one, but the current situation is not conducive to a duel. Any mistake or stray attack will put an end to his plans.
— Ha-ha-ha! You know how to find strong enemies, — the man laughed, standing next to the phoenix. — When you promised me fights with the strongest opponents, I did not expect much. But how glad I was wrong!
— I'm happy for you, Crom, — Kiyoshi replied dryly. — Now go and have some fun.
Watching the dragon rush forward with a cheerful laugh, Zankoku recalled with irritation what he had to go through to recruit Crom Cruach to his side. At first, the mention of the phoenix's list of enemies had ignited the evil dragon's fighting spirit. He had no loyalty to Rizevim, accompanying the demon only for his own purposes, so Zankoku had expected an easy recruitment. However, things did not go so smoothly.
Crom Cruach set a condition — to inflict a significant wound during their sparring, and only then would he join the phoenix's plans. For over half an hour, Kiyoshi was literally destroyed, not allowing him to do anything significant. Each of these hundreds of "deaths" made the blond angrier, until the temperature of his flames became so hot that it began to cause discomfort even to the dragon. From that moment on, the bored Crom began to enjoy the fight and soon missed a blow, exchanging his wound for his opponent's head.
Kiyoshi himself was not idle. He retreated with his army away from Ddraig, leaving a couple dozen legionnaires next to him. Now the blond was waiting for his own reinforcements, restoring the strength he had spent earlier. Immediately upon the appearance of his enemy, the phoenix contacted his wife and Yasoka. They must prepare the second part of the mass-produced evil dragons from the captured fallen.
Due to the short preparation time, Kiyoshi and another user of the Sephiroth Grail had to use this mechanism for several hours in a row to create as many living weapons as possible. However, unlike the protected soul of the phoenix, the second person could not withstand the consequences of the Grail's harmful influence and lost himself. Knowing that this would happen, a volunteer was chosen for this role, who had lost the ability to fight, but wanted to help his faction even at the cost of his life.
— Since you've already dealt with the first batch, it's time to continue the evening of meetings, — the blond's speech was accompanied by the appearance of thousands of dragon silhouettes in the air.
In addition to the flying lizards, his wives and a small army of youkai from about a thousand volunteers appeared next to the Shinto representative. The main part of which were representatives of the Eastern part of the youkai, led by their permanent leader Nurarihiyon.
— Should I begin the attack, Kiyoshi? — Kuroka asked with a predatory smile. She was glad to get her hands on a mechanism that was of great help to her husband's plans. — Judging by their faces, they are eagerly awaiting the beginning.
— Ha-ha! Who would have doubted it, — the blond grinned. — Especially when it has now become clear that it was we who set the last wave on them — this is how the phoenix decided to distract the winged ones from the affairs of the underworld. — Let the lizards off the leash. It's time to end this story.
Ignoring the rain of light spears, the dragons rushed towards their target, under Kuroki's command. The approaching projectiles of the angels that did not collide with a living barrier were met by the attack of the legionnaires or the fire of Kiyoshi. The sky began to be covered with dark clouds.
— Guys, it's time to give these pigeons and humans some heat! — Nurarihyon cried out enthusiastically, disappearing from the sight of those around him. — The one who kills the most will receive a prize, — a voice rang out from the void. — Forward!
These words served as the beginning of the end for the last angels of biblical mythology. The side of the fallen had already ceased to exist, because their leaders and most of the black-winged died not so long ago. Although many of the inhabitants of Heaven disliked the fallen, they had once been their brothers and sisters, so this also added an incentive to finish off Zankoku.
A real squall of clashes between the light magic of angels and the elemental attacks of dragons erupted in the sky. Additional chaos was added by Akeno's storm, targeting the weakest representatives of the birds, weakening the morale and fighting spirit of the opponents. On the ground, an equally brutal clash was taking place between exorcists and youkai, with the addition of legionnaires who attacked all enemies in their field of vision. The cherry on top of this composition was the pair of Crom Cruach and Vasco Strado, rapidly moving across the battlefield, causing chaos and destruction wherever they appeared.
The Seraphim decided to first destroy the dragons hated by their Father in order to save as many of their brothers' lives as possible. Many more dragon bodies began to fall to the ground, mixed with angels. The rapidly thinning number of "meat" did not please Zankok very much, so he decided to resort to his trump card. The last legionnaire, who existed specifically to fight the army.
A spark separated from the wings of the phoenix as usual, but unlike the other legionnaires, it was much larger. From the side, it looked like the blond launched a fireball one meter in diameter towards his enemies, so none of the angels paid attention to it, simply dodging the attack. This served as a huge mistake, which took thousands of lives.
At one point, when the spark reached the middle ranks of the army of —light—, the fire flared up with incredible force. The heat affected not only those who were directly near the epicenter, but even people on the ground. In seconds, the flame took the shape of a huge dragon, almost a hundred meters long. The flaming figure had eight heads, a massive body and the same number of tails. The legendary dragon of Japan, Yamata—no—orochi, announced its appearance with a thunderous roar of several throats. This previously sealed beast was a gift to him from Susanoo after an unsuccessful conference. The most powerful legionnaire of all. It even has echoes of its own consciousness, despite being suppressed by the sacred flame.
With the appearance of Orochi, Kiyoshi was able to act more freely. Most of his attention was now focused on fighting the seraphim and, naturally, watching over the safety of his beloved women. Neither the leaders of Heaven nor the phoenix could cause serious damage to each other, but this was quite enough for the blond. Concentrating their attention on himself, Zankoku was buying time and not allowing the birds to attack their allies.
The battles on the ground were less spectacular, but bloodier than in the sky. The youkai unleashed their instincts and rushed into the ranks of the exorcists with recklessness. Laughing, they crushed their enemies, not caring about their wounds, and retreated until they themselves fell on the battlefield. The reason for their behavior was not only the violent nature of the Eastern faction of youkai, but also the white—haired nekoshou, who also fought in their ranks. Thanks to the efforts of Shirone, the number of youkai who died did not exceed a hundred, while their opponents had already lost more than one thousand of their fighters.
Kuroka, who led a group of youjutsu specialists, contributed to reducing the number of opponents. With their magic, they launched mass attacks with poisonous fog, deprived the exorcists of their support at the most unexpected moment, softening the ground under their feet, or launched surprise attacks from the blind spots of the church warriors.
However, the most effective fighter was Nuraruhiyon. Using his illusions and stealth, the old man playfully moved among the enemy ranks, cutting the throats of commanders and the strongest angels, after the seraphim.
Soon, each angel was able to sense something unusual and vaguely familiar. Interrupting the magical background, a dragon aura spread in all directions from the sekiryutei. Gradually, the runes on his body became brighter, and a dense dragon aura accumulated, with a complete transformation of the demon's flesh into dragon's. A bad feeling came over Mikhail when the moments of the appearance of two Heavenly dragons between the three biblical factions during the Great War and the consequences of their rampage appeared in his memory.
— Attack! — Mikhail's thunderous voice echoed throughout the area. — Don't let the dragon be reborn! Stop this ritual at any cost!
Obeying the leader's order, each angel supported the seraph's actions, sending their magic into Hyodo's figure. Ignoring the dragons blocking their path, the angels continued their actions as if possessed.
The yokai did not miss the opportunity. They began to kill the distracted and stunned opponents with tripled effort. Akeno had to stop attacking the white-winged rear and focus on the dangers approaching Ddraig. Expecting this, the more experienced Nurarihiyon approached the seraphs in advance. At the most unexpected moment, he appeared behind Raphael and slit his throat. After killing one of the four strongest archangels, the old man inflicted a deep wound on another one and disappeared again to continue getting rid of the strongest angels.
Kiyoshi had to use his ability to the fullest to continuously restore the legionaries and control them in order to intercept or destroy the numerous spears of light and approaching angels. Phoenix was happy that Uriel, the angel who controls the holy flame, was lying half—dead after Rizevim's attack on Heaven. Otherwise, the fight with the seraphim would have taken place according to a different scenario. When Zankok had to interrupt the attacks of the seraphim with his body, the ruler of the Eastern Youkai appeared among their ranks. Having cut short the life of one and taken out another seraphim from the battle, he significantly weakened the pressure of the archangels on the blond. The white—winged ones now had to worry about an invisible enemy that could appear behind them at the most inopportune moment.
Unexpectedly for each Shinto member, when they were already internally celebrating the success of defending the Sekiryutei, Vasco Strada struck. Concentrating half of his energy, the old exorcist struck with the durandal, sending a powerful wave of holy power towards Issei. For such a trick, he had to pay with his hand, which he used to shield himself from Crom Cruach, who was angry at such disdain.
No one in the Blond's group had enough time to intercept the sudden attack. Phoenix was already cursing the "old bastard", thinking of tortures that he would inflict on the exorcist after, when fog swirled around Ddraig's future body. A thick stream of fog flew towards the holy power, completely enveloping it. It only took a second for Dimension Lost to move Vasco's slash into the interworld. Kiyoshi breathed a sigh of relief when he found that Ophis had helped him again. Without even showing her position in this conflict ahead of time, Ouroboros supported the blond through her puppet, Georg. The mist did not touch Hyodo's body in any way, only guarded it, teleporting any attack into the space between dimensions.
— After all this, I will owe her a lot, — the phoenix whispered. He was happy to have such a "sister". Meeting Ophis was one of the best moments in Kiyoshi's life, right after the birth of his daughter, Kumiko, and the appearance of his beloved wives in his life.
However, the situation changed again. A wave of divinity swept across the battlefield. Zeus used his power to take control of Akeno's clouds and began sending lightning bolts at the youkai. Zankoku felt anger and nervousness at the sight of several Olympian gods appearing, but it immediately stopped as he felt a certain familiar tremor in his flames.
— Ha-ha-ha! Burn! — The phoenix's spirit instantly soared. Using all his strength, he created multiple fire spears, concentrating them on Michaela and the seraphim closest to him. — Burn, for her glory. Burn, — halfway through, the purple fire turned a dark shade until it became completely dark. — In the black fire of Amaterasu. Ah-ha-ha!
All of Kiyoshi's fire, including his legionaries, changed, receiving a boost from the divinity of his goddess. This brought even more chaos to the rapidly changing battle. The Seraphim were caught off guard by the intervention of the sun goddess. Michael and Metatron escaped with severe burns, while their brother Ramiel was unable to dodge in time. The number of Seraphim was reduced again. Of the twelve Archangels that appeared in the Underworld, only seven remained alive. Nurarihiyon did not stand still and continued to hunt the wounded opponents, killing three. Vasco Strahd's clashes with the evil dragon also damaged a careless Seraphim, who was finished off by Akeno's lightning. The Phoenix's final attack killed another Archangel and wounded two. Of the seven strongest angels, only four could continue the battle without problems. After all, they would have nowhere to return to if they could not win here.
Amaterasu wasn't the only one who came to the aid of her subjects. Susanoo had entered into a battle with Zeus for dominion over the storm. A few years ago, he couldn't even imagine competing with the supreme god of another pantheon, but at the moment, there are as many believers in the supreme gods of Japan as there are at Mount Olympus. Unsheathing his favorite sword, the God of Storms looked with a grin at the monster in which he found this blade. Susanoo closed the distance with Zeus, delivering a vertical strike. While his sister Amaterasu crossed weapons with Poseidon.
The battles continued. No one wanted to get close to the clash of the gods, leaving an empty space around them. The forces of the Bible were gradually losing ground. The morale of the youkai had remained high since the appearance of their gods, which cannot be said about the Church and the angels. With each life of a seraphim lost, a piece of the fighting spirit of His army disappeared. The turning point was the death of the strongest exorcist. Vasco's sacrifice for the sake of an unsuccessful attack on Hyodo was fatal. Crom Cruach threw aside the dead body with a pierced chest in irritation. He did not like such neglect during the fight. The evil dragon's next target was the still resisting archangels.
Slowly but surely, Shinto gained the upper hand in the war. Two more seraphim lost their lives. When it seemed that the situation could not get any worse, the accumulated aura of the red dragon emperor burst out in a shock wave.
— I-I'm b-ba-a-ck-k — Yi Ddraig Goh shouted, taking on his dragon form. Everything within a kilometer radius of the ritual's epicenter was destroyed. — Squeak, bugs! — the dragon took a deep breath. — «Blazing Fire of Hellish Inferno».
A wide beam of flame swept through the ranks of angels, destroying everything in its path, even souls. This sight was the last straw. The exorcists threw down their weapons, surrendering or teleporting away from the underworld. Michael gave the command to the remaining angels to return home, while he and the rest of the seraphim would hold off the enemies with their lives.
— How did he do it? Cough... — Zeus's astonishment was interrupted by the tip of the spear sticking out of his chest. — Long... gin.
— I hate rapists, — Kiyoshi said with disgust, pulling the strongest mechanism out of the dead god. — Although with such a leader, it's no wonder most of the gods of Olympus are like that.
— Brother! — A shocked Poseidon pointed his trident at the blond. — Bastard, I'll kill you!
The god of the sea failed to carry out his threat. Poseidon's head was separated from his body by a black clawed hand that appeared behind his back. The stranger did not hide her aura, demonstrating to everyone an aura of infinity. While everyone was stunned by the rapidly developing situation, a laughing Ddraig landed next to them. Each of the three began to gush with their power, looking towards the recording circle.
— The war between Shinto and Biblical mythology has ended, — Zankoku declared, taking his fiery form. — All disagreements with the devils have been resolved, so we are forming an alliance with them. I also want to officially address the other factions. The Shinto pantheon is not going to take any more actions. We will focus on the affairs of our homeland, — Kiyoshi's voice became threatening. — And I hope you will not give a reason to change this. Do not force me to act.
— I'm going to settle in the former Gremory lands in the underworld, — Ddraig took the floor. — I have no desire to mess around with politics and other nonsense. I'm going to enjoy my long-awaited freedom, so don't get in my way! — Flames shot out of his mouth. — Otherwise, you'll regret this!
Ouroboros stepped forward, lighting a magic sign on her hand so that everyone could clearly understand who they were dealing with.
— Don't piss me off, — she narrowed her eyes and addressed the "camera," — and you'll stay alive.