It turned out that the president of the Occult Research Club, and Kuoh Academy's beloved big sister, wasn't just wealthy. She was generous, too.
Even after Leo reminded her to change clothes, Rias only raised a brow and shot him a teasing half-smile. She didn't bother covering up at all. Right there in front of him, she casually tore off her ruined uniform before reconstructing a brand-new Kuoh Academy outfit with demonic power.
Leo stood there, stunned.
Rias, meanwhile, acted as if nothing had happened. Or rather, as if it wasn't even worth acknowledging. She turned to Sona instead.
"You're up next."
With that, she stepped aside.
Sona had already witnessed Leo's strength, but instead of shrinking back, her fighting spirit flared. She took Rias's place and engaged him directly.
Her demonic power wasn't as overwhelming as Rias's, but her technique was on another level. The moment a water-blue aura ignited around her, streams of water surged in from every direction, gathering at her command.
Water was her specialty.
Even without creating it from scratch, she could draw every drop of moisture from the surrounding environment. That way, she conserved demonic power while manipulating far greater volumes than she could have produced herself, turning minimal force into maximum impact.
Before the fight even began, she had already surveyed the terrain, pinpointing every nearby water source. The instant she released her power, torrents rushed in, from underground veins, from distant rivers, swirling around her.
Under her control, the water shifted forms: soaring eagles, slithering serpents, roaring lions, packs of wolves, even a massive dragon. They charged Leo in a thunderous assault.
This was Sona's pride, her water arts.
But her true strength wasn't just her mastery of water. It was her calm, calculating mind.
She treated Leo like a living test subject, constantly putting her battle strategies into practice. Again and again, she made unpredictable moves.
At one point, she charged straight at him, blending herself among the water beasts. When Leo blocked the attack at close range, it became clear:
That wasn't her. Just a water clone.
Another time, she reclaimed the water Leo had scattered and reshaped it into crystalline mirrors. Her reflection appeared in every surface, filling the battlefield. Real or fake? Position indiscernible.
To fool his Magic Detection, she even dressed her water clones and mirror-images in clothing infused with her demonic aura, while she herself slipped quietly through the countless streams surrounding him, like a mermaid gliding through her own domain.
And just like Rias, she was… generous.
Completely unbothered by her lack of clothing.
Leo got quite the eyeful.
Unfortunately, Sona was generous... but not particularly well-endowed.
Still, he was satisfied.
No matter how you looked at it, he definitely wasn't losing out here.
So, to properly respond to her effort, Leo stopped holding back. He directly stripped her of control over the water, turning every drop she had painstakingly gathered into his own weapon.
"Don't forget," he said with a light chuckle as she stared at him in shock, "among the natural elements governed by Zenith Tempest, water is included."
Just like that, Sona fell.
The two regrouped and attacked him together afterward, but even united, they couldn't defeat him.
They couldn't even force him to use his Sacred Gear. As a ten-winged devil, Leo overwhelmed them purely with his demonic power and status alone, leaving the two prodigies gasping for breath.
Fortunately, they had prepared themselves mentally. Even Rias, proud and competitive as she was, set aside her arrogance. Determined to grow stronger, she kept challenging him over and over despite being crushed each time.
Leo was more than happy to oblige.
And absolutely not because the two of them occasionally provided… visual incentives.
It wasn't just the three Kings who trained this way. Throughout the separate space, others were sparring as well.
Some kept winning. Some kept losing. Some went back and forth. But victory and defeat had long since ceased to matter.
They all remembered why they were here.
Not to outdo one another, but to train. To grow stronger.
To prepare for whatever crisis might come next.
With that shared resolve, the days passed quickly.
Every afternoon after school, everyone gathered here voluntarily. They paired up, formed teams, sparred relentlessly. On weekends, they stayed all day, skipping meals and rest to squeeze out every possible improvement.
To give them real combat experience, Leo even tossed Cerberus King into the mix as a sparring partner.
The three-headed hound of hell that Kokabiel had brought to the human world had long since been beaten into submission. The night Kokabiel was defeated, Leo returned and formally contracted with the beast, making it his familiar.
He'd originally planned to leave it guarding his estate.
Now, though, it made for the perfect training partner.
As king of the three-headed hellhounds, Cerberus King possessed strength comparable to a Ultimate-Class Devil. Among the Sitri, Gremory, and Eligos servants, only Ram could defeat it. The others stood no chance.
Rias and Sona were only High-Class Devils. They weren't its match. Yukino could contend with it using Absolute Demise, but victory was out of reach. Kiba, having attained Balance Breaker, could threaten it with his Sword of Betrayer, but Cerberus King far outclassed him in raw power. As long as it avoided a direct hit, it would win.
A sparring partner this strong was too valuable to waste.
As for Leo, while he occasionally trained Rias and Sona together, most of his time was spent with Rem.
Her oni transformation was unstable and short-lived, limiting its effectiveness in real combat. Just like before, Leo worked with her repeatedly, stopping her when she lost control and helping her gradually master it.
In short, his mission this time was to strengthen the three servant groups.
Which was probably exactly why Sirzechs had arranged this.
Unfortunately, Rias's other Bishop still refused to leave his room, too afraid to come here. Otherwise, Leo wouldn't have minded helping him control his power, just as Sirzechs suggested.
Training one was training. Training a group was training.
One more wouldn't make a difference.
As time passed, news about the peace conference finally arrived from Sirzechs's side.
After mutual agreement between the three factions, the date was set for one week later.
By then, it would be exactly two months since the Kokabiel incident.
Representatives of the devil, angel, and fallen angel factions would all come to the human world to attend the summit.
The attendees had been confirmed.
From the devil side: the current Maou, Sirzechs Lucifer, and the current Maou, Serafall Leviathan.
Sirzechs was the devils' supreme leader. Serafall handled diplomacy. Their presence made perfect sense.
From the angel side: Michael, leader of the angels, one of the Four Great Seraphim, and now Heaven's highest authority, the former right hand of the God of the Bible.
From the fallen angel side: Azazel, of course. It would have been stranger if the Governor General hadn't attended.
Those were merely the official representatives.
Leo, Rias, Sona, and the others would also be summoned as participants in the Kokabiel incident.
The location of the summit was, unsurprisingly, Kuoh Academy, the epicenter of the event.
"Speaking of which, what about Kokabiel?" Leo asked from the rooftop of a building in the separate space, looking at Sona, who had brought the news. "What happened to the mastermind?"
That day, after returning to Kuoh Academy with Sirzechs, they handed over Kokabiel, still sealed inside the massive stone sphere, for the Maou to deal with.
Sirzechs took him back to the Underworld.
And then… nothing.
In the original story, Vali Lucifer had taken him away, and Azazel had punished him. Now that he was in devil hands, Leo was curious how things had changed.
"For now, the final decision regarding that fallen angel executive hasn't been made," Sona said, adjusting her glasses. "Some in the upper ranks advocate immediate execution as a warning. Others want to use him as leverage in negotiations with the fallen angels. But their reaction has been… strange. They haven't requested his extradition at all, as if they don't care what happens to him. That's made things complicated."
"Sirzechs-sama has imprisoned him. His power is sealed. He's nothing more than a prisoner awaiting judgment."
"I've heard he keeps shouting that he wants to duel the current Maou. He can't accept being a captive of devils. He'd rather die fighting a strong opponent."
That sounded exactly like the war-obsessed maniac.
The old Maou might have taken the bait. But the current Four Maou weren't battle junkies.
They wouldn't.
"The other three Maou refused his challenge," Sona said, her tone turning slightly awkward. "But my sister… the current Maou Leviathan accepted."
Leo fell silent.
Okay.
Maybe one of the current Maou did have a violent streak.
"She did it for you, didn't she?" he asked.
It sounded like a question, but he was certain.
Otherwise, that siscon Maou would never have responded to such a cheap provocation.
Sona said nothing.
That was answer enough.
"So… how's Kokabiel?" Leo asked at last.
He didn't need to think hard about it. There was no way Kokabiel could defeat Serafall.
A ten-winged fallen angel at best reached Maou-Class in power. Serafall was already Super Maou-Class.
The difference was overwhelming.
Between Maou-Class and Super Maou-Class lay a gap that couldn't be bridged. When two Super Maou-Class beings clashed, even Maou-Class fighters couldn't interfere.
Kokabiel's outcome was obvious.
"Ten seconds," Sona said.
"He lasted ten seconds against your sister?" Leo rubbed his chin. "That's not bad."
"No." She closed her eyes. "I mean he was frozen into an ice statue ten times within ten seconds."
Leo froze.
The two stared at each other for a moment, then silently changed the subject.
As expected of a current Maou.
Even if she wasn't a so-called "cheat" like Sirzechs or Ajuka, she was still absurdly overpowered.
Kokabiel had once fought a Maou before.
But that had been one of the old Maou.
Serafall had made something very clear.
The era had changed.
"Is your sister coming to the summit?" Leo sighed. "I really don't want to see her."
Sona nodded in complete agreement.
But people really shouldn't tempt fate.
Sometimes, the more you dread something...
The more likely it is to happen.
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You can read up to chapter 228 on patreon.com/NiaXD.