Becoming the Strongest Through (Draconic) Racism - Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Cao Cao POV:

"TO BARE WITNESS TO THE CHRONICLES OF MY GREAT RED DRAGON SLAYER, AS HE ASCENDS THROUGH THIS CRUCIBLE OF DRAGONS! GO AHEAD! FEED YOUR LIVES TO MY SLAYER! MAKE MY BAKA RED SLAYER GROW!"

"OPHIS! Please stop volunteering critically important information to the enemy and who knows what else!"

"NAY! I'M NOT VOLUNTEERING INFORMATION! I, OPHIS, AM BRAGGING!"

Cao Cao always believed he would be the one to shape destiny, to be the one to bring a great change in the world. A Hero, a new legend that rewrites the current age and be cemented in history for eternity.

Right now, history was being shaped before his eyes, yet he had no hand in this design.

But rather it was the heavy hand of an absolute being that forced this change.

It was a broadcast that appeared everywhere. On any digital or electronic devices.

Across the whole world, suddenly, every television, every computer, every phone, now had a livestream to a battle were a Dragon Slayer fights a seemingly endless horde of dragons. That's how it started at least.

No one on the mundane side knew why or how this happened. The best explanation was that this was a global hacking attempt for... some reason.

Government officials not in the know called it a digital terrorist attack, or a threat. That the hacking itself was the point, for the masterminds to make a point, in making everyone worldwide watch this 'fantasy CGI battle'.

Others saw it as entertainment. Some thought it was aliens. Some thought this was a government experiment, to see how populations react to this mass control of electronic and digital devices.

No one, not even on the supernatural side, could have thought that this would be the work of the being that looked down upon gods, as gods look down upon humans. Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon, the Infinite Dragon God.

This insane event happened, because one of the two strongest beings in existence wanted to brag.

How completely and utterly absurd. Cao Cao thought, as he stood watching the broadcast with his True Longinus resting, almost lazily, against his shoulder, pommel on the ground.

Yet even more so... and as much as it made him grind his teeth in annoyance, the Ouroboros had ample reason to brag.

"Hahahhaahaha! Now that's a real warrior!" Heracles, a Spirit Inheritor of the legendary Greek Hero of the same name and Cao Cao's subordinate, shouted as he pumped his fist, after seeing the Great Red's Dragon Slayer undo a Divine Curse by literally, stabbing himself through his chest, and blasting his insides with Dragon Slaying Aura, to pull said curse out.

"Look at him go! Those dragons are actually showing fear! Hahahahaha!" Wu Song, one of Charlemagne's minion, the other leader of the Hero Faction, shouted with just as much enthusiasm as Heracles.

The two were visible shaking in their seats, that those around them would scoot away. It felt like they might soon jump out of their seats and demand someone fight them. Or they fight each other and tear the meeting room apart, and the surrounding area.

Urgh, this is why I don't like these two hanging around each other. An exasperated, annoyed look shared with his Co-Leader, Charlemagne, showed she was of the same opinion. Unlike Cao Cao, she was sitting on a chair, with her Sacred Gear, Another Longinus, blade pushing against the ground, her hands resting on the sword's pommel.

"Could one say that he has excellent battlefield control or nonexistent?" Georg, Cao Cao's Vice Leader, descendant of Johann Georg Faust, noted.

"His pure strength precludes the need for battlefield control. When he attacks, his enemies die. That's control enough." Siegfried, Artificial Human created from the genes of the Dragon-slaying hero Sigurd, said. He had an excited, almost admiring smile on his face. "That fighting style of his forces the dragons to follow Gunnar's pace, and never set their own."

"I would say his swordsmanship is one of pure speed, but the force he attacks with is unreal as well." Arthur Pendragon commented. He was descendant of the infamous British monarch, King Arthur, as well as the witch Morgan le Fay. He was the current heir of the Pendragon Family, even if he was in self-exile at the moment, by joining the Hero Faction.

"Speed, power and energy all in equal measures. He's a generalist who worked on maximizing all his stats." Vali Lucifer said with a grin. A Half-Devil descendant of the Lucifer Clan and the current generation's White Dragon Emperor.

Vali was the leader of his own Team that was more of an affiliate of the Hero Faction rather than a part of it. Today was simply one of the rare days where all the Hero Faction members, and Vali Team were together.

"He's constantly refining this sword style as he moves along." Siegfried commented.

"Oh? So I didn't imagine that." Arthur blinked as he realized his observation wasn't just him. "His attacks seem wild at first, before being incorporated into his overall fighting style."

"Tsk. Being able to constantly heal like that is hell of a cheat. Gunnar can be as reckless as he wishes, and thus learn as he fights opponents far stronger than himself." Vali clicked his tongue, as he said with no small amount of envy.

"The way he moves his body... it's almost like watching something ugly, slowly becoming beautiful. I want to look away from this carnage, but almost don't want to." Michelangelo said with a sigh. She was a beautiful woman with large breasts, a descendant of the original Renaissance artist, Michelangelo, thus chose to carry his name over her original one.

Near the group, was a Japanese girl, a guest of Charlemagne. She was Yotsuba Sasaki, a descendant of Sasaki Kojiro and provisionary member that Charlemagne wanted to invite into the Hero Faction.

"A... a hundred slashes." Yotsuba muttered. The girl was watching the battle, almost glaring at Caleb Gunnar, just as much as she seemed to admire his sword style.

There was also a girl in the back with an eyepatch. Lilebette D'Artagnan Lunaire, descendant of Charles de Batz de Castelmore D'Artagnan. She touched her covered eye, feeling an odd worry, if she ever were to meet the Dragon Slayer.

Contrasting the two girls, was Jeanne. Rather than a Spirit Inheritor of the Jeanne D'Arc, she was her Reincarnation. Not a Full Reincarnation, but she held some bits of memories, emotions and skills of the Maid of Orleans. And Jeanne was staring at Caleb with her eyes almost shining like stars, with a wide smile on her face. She let out a squeal when she say the Dragon Slayer rip the Crime Force Dragon's horns from his body.

There was also a man, under Charlemagne's command who was present and sleeping lounge chair.

"Do we know if he has any relation to the actual Gunnar?" Asked Perseus, the Spirit Inheritor of the Greek Hero of the same name.

"Linage and soul identity spells keep coming back inconclusive, but..." Le Fay Pendragon trailed off. She was a descendant of Morgan le Fay as well as King Arthur, and a member of the current Pendragon Family. "It's almost like he once might have been related to the Scandinavian linage of the Hero, Gunnar Gjúkesson, but not anymore."

"How does that work? Either he's related or not. Or maybe he's the Hero Gunnar's Reincarnation rather than Spirit Inheritor?" Leonardo asked with no small amount of curiosity. He was a descendant of the genius of the Renaissance period, Leonardo Da Vinci. Usually he tends to be quiet, but Caleb Gunnar and his actions garnered too much interest, even from the taciturn Leonardo.

"Definitely not a Reincarnation, I could tell that much. I tested everything else and still the result is inconclusive." Le Fay shook her head.

"So you're saying he a Dragon Slayer, who's abilities are all his own, rather than them coming from blood or past souls?! SO COOL!" Jeanne cheered ever louder. "YEAH! WHIP THOSE DRAGONS WITH THEIR BONES AND PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN THEM!"

"Aren't we most of us Spirit Inheritors, and some even Reincarnations?" Bikou, a youkai descendant of Sun Wukong, the current Monkey King and member of Vali Team, asked, bewildered. "Why does that make him 'cooler'?"

"Because since all of us have some past karma pushing us forward, it's expected that we'd be great." Jeanne immediately answered. "But since he's someone without any baggage starting from scratch, meaning he built his fate himself, so that's even much, much more cool!" She usually didn't like non-human beings, or at least tolerated them, yet in her excitement at watching the ongoing battle, she didn't even care about answering the monkey youkai.

"Eh? I still don't understand the excitement, nyah. Although that Caleb's growth is insane, don't you guys also have a Dragon Slayer, nyah?" Kuroka, a dangerous fugitive nekoshou and Stray Devil, asked, as she laid lazily in her seat.

"Aren't you a youkai? Shouldn't you already know what makes a Dragon Slayer's existence so unique?" Connla pointed out.

"That's racist, nyah!"

"I'm afraid that's now how it works." Siegfried elected to answer Kuroka's question himself, and to clarify for the sake of others that didn't know. "Being created from Sigurd's genes, I hold all of his strength, skills and combat instincts that I trained and built off of. However I do not have Sigurd's powers as a Dragon Slayer."

"But wait, I heard you beat a rogue Dragon once when you were still with the Church?" Connla asked with wide-eyes behind his glasses.

"Slaying a Dragon makes you a hero, but despite the description, it does not make one a Dragon Slayer." Cao Cao finally elected to interject into the conversation. "A Dragon Slayer is a state of being. It originates from the soul, not the body, thus it's not something that can be replicated with simple cloning. Even if there was nothing simple about Siegfried's origins."

"Heh." Siegfried smiled at the compliment. After all, he wasn't the only one deem a success from the Sigurd Institute without a reason. He was the only one with the physical abilities and the willpower to pass that organizations' trials.

The group watched as Caleb used Grendel's horns as whips to capture two Evil Dragons and use them to beat up other dragons that got close.

"This is all very fascinating, but does no one realize the biggest issue right now?" An authoritative cold voice spoke out across the room, dowsing the mood to zero. "This whole event was brought to our attention before it ever began, and bombarded onto the world by the literal Adversary himself." Said Charlemagne with a glare focused on Satanael who was sitting in the background.

He did not bothering to hide, nor did he actively interact with the Hero Faction yet, after bringing Ophis' broadcast to their attention.

The Cadre Fallen Angel, was why the two leaders of the Hero Faction had their Sacred Gears out on standby, even if they weren't wielding them threateningly, and why their members felt safe enough to watch the broadcast and converse about it.

"Well," Satanael began with a genteel smile that didn't easy anyone. "I mainly brought this to your attention out of curiosity."

"Curiosity?" Cao Cao raised an eyebrow, trying to act casual. He hated the atmosphere in the room the more Satanael talked. Like they were walking into a trap, even though it was the Adversary of God—Wouldn't that mean an 'Adversary' to Cao Cao, who held the True Longinus, which held the Dying Will of God?—who had came to them alone and unarmed.

And somehow, Satanael was the one that all the Hero Faction felt wary off. Because that wasn't the mad scientist fallen angel M.O. at all.

"I wanted to know what a group that calls themselves the 'Hero Faction' would do about the aftermath of Romania." Satanael answered.

"What do you mean by that?" Georg spoke up, giving the fallen with an intense look.

"Speak plainly, Devil." Charlemagne spoke up, a permanent frown on her face.

"That's just it. I am." Satanael chuckled. "If you paid attention to beyond the fight, you'd see there was little to no damage to civilian areas."

"Ah, I have noticed that." Arthur nodded. "How honorable and skilled of Caleb Gunnar to fight in a way where no innocents were affected by the battle."

"That's not all. No human at all was harmed by that battle." Satanael smiled shrewdly.

A ripple of surprised and confusion went through the Hero Faction.

"'No human was harmed'?" Cao Cao ran that statement on his tongue, finding it unfamiliar given the situation. "Accepting casualties at battles of that size an an unfortunate reality, but for none to be affected...?" He let the statement lie, staring pointedly at the fallen angel, leaving him to answer.

"Let us dispense with the riddles. Somehow a battle of that scale between the Dragon Slayer, and Evil Dragons with strength ranging from Dragon King to Heaven Dragon Class resulted in no human casualty. How?" Charlemagne said plainly. Irritation rolling of her forcibly still frame. Wanting to act but not yet.

"Because of the Ouroboros Dragon." And that name ripped through any thought or plan the Hero Faction members had before him to nothing. "She had agreed to Caleb's request to teleport away any human that could be caught in the crossfire of his battles. She had been... overly zealous in that endeavor."

"...How many could the Infinite Dragon God have possible—" Charlemagne began.

"A third of the whole of the Romanian population." Satanael was greeted to the sight of watching nearly all the members of the Hero Faction be mouth agape. "Roughly ten million people have been dropped in Serbia, in a town called Gornji Matejevac. You should be able to get to them before they spread around too much."

For a while, no one said anything.

"But why?" Georg spoke. "I don't see how this pertain to us. The masquerade is still in effect, so those people will just be hypnotized to forget and sent home."

To that, Satanael lifted an eyebrow with a very amused look on his face.

"No." Cao Cao's blinked as he looked back to the screen showing the ongoing Evil Dragons vs Dragon Slayer battle. "With how much of the masquerade was damaged, it might get shattered today. This event is being showed live to the world."

"And yet, nothing that Mind Magics can't reverse, so as I said before, Satan. Speak plainly." Charlemagne said, focusing on the fallen.

Satanael's smile stretched on his face, as he shook his head.

"These are ten million people. Mind Magic isn't some all purpose solution. Yes, it can be cast on mass, but do you really think that ten million minds can be selectively covered over. That whomever from the supernatural side, be it the angels, fallen or devils that intervene would bother trying to be thorough in getting all ten million humans to have coherent memories, that logically makes sense of today?

"How could they pass it off? Mass delusion? On ten million people from far different regions? And what of all the videos that would be taken from all of this? Not just from the Romanian people, but the Serbians and others caught in the middle of all of this. People who might be smart enough to save these records online and offline. The supernatural responders will not be able to clean up everything completely. Something will slip through the cracks.

"And if even 1% of people find records they don't remember taking? That's a hundred thousand people, and I'm not even mentioning those resistance to memory wipes, or who remember afterwards. And the supernatural responders to this event know this. The various gods know this. So what do you think they would all do to 'clean up' this problem and ensure the masquerade stands?"

For a while, no one said anything as they thought about it. Yet even if their gut instinct already answered, they ignored it as it was too horrible of an answer to contemplate.

Until one couldn't help but voice it.

"...No, surely they... they wouldn't kill them... right?" Leonardo spoke up, the disbelief clear in his tone.

And now that they thought was voiced out loud, the Hero Faction couldn't help but feel horror and revulsion invade their hearts.

"Of course, they wouldn't, right?" Jeanne cried out. "I mean, that's ten million people for god's sake! You can't just wipe out that many people and brush it off."

"Terrorist attack." Vali spoke up. "The Romanian government's secret nuclear project went wrong. There was a problem with the safety measures and calculations. Or a rogue element acted and set up the nuke to detonate. They could even say eco-terrorist did it."

"THAT'S RIDICULOUS!" Connla shouted.

"The plethora of ready made excuses that mundane people can accept are plenty. They have been conditioned by it through cultural messaging for decades. It would take off the world's eyes off Ophis' hacking, and retroactively make it seem like a distraction for the quote-unquote 'real' event." Vali continued, his voice cold and definitive. "The simple fact of the matter is, the masquerade has such a strong belief momentum going, that up keeping it isn't all that difficult for the supernatural side at this point. It might be abhorred and heartless, but it is efficient. As much as I would like to disagree, Satanael has a point, what else did we expect to happen?"

The Hero Faction members began to be irate and frantic as everything was spelled out for them.

"We're going to do something, right, Leader?" Jeanne said toward Cao Cao, desperately.

Cao Cao crossed his arms in thought, not answering the question.

"You seem quite confident in what actions, the supernatural side would take, Vali. Lucifer" Charlemagne noted with a frown, not quite accusing, but pointing a finger at something, resembling the shape of blame.

"I thought all of you detested the supernatural factions, or at least held them in contempt. Do you expect the response to be kind and understanding?" Was Vali's reply, cutting through her argument, as those were her own, and most of the Hero Faction's, ideas thrown back at Charlemagne.

"We can fight!" Heracles shouted, getting attention on him, to show his massive grin.

"YES!" Wu Song pumped her fist in the air as agreement. "Whatever gods and monsters do, by the time they get to all ten million people, we can make them bleed for everyone they kill. Sure, they'll make up some story in the media, but they'll do it with a black eye!"

Before the argument could escalate, Satanael interjected.

"There is the solution to teleporting those people back to Romania." Satanael plainly said.

The Hero Faction paid attention to him again, in a more direct manner.

"And how would that help?" Cao Cao said suspiciously.

"Because the entirety of the land of Romania, and bits of the surrounding areas, had become consecrated grounds."

"...Say what?" Perseus exclaim, voicing the group's confusion.

"The Dragon Slaying Aura, Caleb Gunnar constantly releases tends to sweep into the land after he absorbs all the ambient negative energy, thus allowing the land to accept the Holy Element within his aura, causing it to, well, in plain words, become holy land." Satanael explained. "So, if you can return all the Romanians to Romania, they will have a natural barrier against creatures of darkness. Sure, the different gods might act, but given the country, literally, being consecrated lands in their totality, Heaven will be forced to act to defend it."

"And why would Heaven bother with such an endeavor? It would be too costly, it would spell the beginning of the end of the masquerade, it would—" Cao Cao began pointing out, only for Satanael to answer right away.

"Because if they didn't, it will be the death knell of the Heaven Faction from the sheer amount of Angels that would Fall, should they just watch as humans pray to them on holy ground asking for help, and they do nothing for the sake of politics."

The Hero Faction took in what Satanael said.

"It could work." Said Georg as the idea made sense from a political perspective. Forcing someone to act in a lose-lose situation wasn't something he expected from divine supernatural politics, but it did make sense.

"Heh, forcing the Angels to either be hypocrites and lose, or actually do their jobs and ruin everything for everyone." Siegfried chuckled. "I wonder if the Church will follow the angels no matter what, or whatever position is more advantageous to them?"

"Oh man, does that mean we'll fight gods to make sure this plan works?" Perseus said nervously.

"How artful." Michelangelo said in awe, looking at the fallen angel. "To force Heaven to either uphold their supposed virtue or break. A masterstroke of a move, should we follow it." She said gesturing a tipping of a hat to Satanael, to which he nodded in turn.

As the Hero Faction devolved into opinions, mostly toward agreement one voice cried out.

"Yes, I suppose it entirely depends on—" Satanael began to say.

"HE'S THE MESSIAH!" Jeanne cried out.

"You—Wait, what?" Satanael blinked in surprise.

"Caleb Gunnar has clearly be empowered by Jesus to make the Earth Holy again!" She said passionately.

"Er, no? I mean he does do that as a consequences of using the Blessing of the Holy Cross but—" Satanael tried to explain but was bulldozed over by the overly enthusiastic Orleans Maiden reborn.

"HE IS THE MESSIAH!" Jeanne shouted again as if her assertion had been confirmed.

"Seriously?" Bikou asked in disbelielf at where the discussion went.

"Wait... she might have a point." Leonardo said thoughtfully holding his own chin.

"Nyah, hahahahahaha!" Kuroka laughed her head off, as others began to seriously consider Jeanne's statement.

"I think everyone is missing a very important point." Charlemagne word slammed down on the mood with authority, taking away the conversation's momentum from Satanael's grasp.

"My fellow Leader is quite right." Cao Cao interjected. "All of this depends on us actually following through on all of this. Vali and his group aren't technically part of the Hero Faction, we just work together. So they also have no reason to go along with this."

Vali raised an eyebrow at Cao Cao actually acknowledging that, just to make his own point. The Half-Devil acknowledged the descendant of the Chinese Warlord of the Three Kingdoms does have some social strategic acumen when needed.

"B-But Leader, the people—!" Jeanne began.

"Are we to simply follow the designs of one whom the title of Satan is literally derived from their name?" Cao Cao raised an eyebrow at Jeanne, before addressing the rest of those present. "Is there any reason for us, the Heroes that protect humanity, to follow the words of the literally Adversary of God? We do not even know that the picture he painted for us is transpire.

"Rather, the more likely event is for the Church to intervene, painting this as a humanitarian aid crisis, while mind wiping all those involved of the supernatural elements of what happened. The story stays in the news for a while, and people go on their way." Cao Cao's words slowly swayed his group back to his will.

"While that is a possibility." Satanael countered. "Can you really afford to be wrong?"

"We are the Hero Faction." Cao Cao smirked. "We do not bend to the whims of the Literal Devil."

"That's just the thing, Cao Cao." Satanael smiled, and Cao Cao felt less sure all of a sudden, even if he hid it well. "I don't need you to follow my whims. I do not lie, the simple fact is the truth has always been a much better weapon. That is one of my Father's designs on me I've always held to, even when I Fell." He said. "You now know the situation, what happens next is up to you. You can not say you were uninformed."

Vali stepped up.

"I'm going." The descendant of Lucifer said.

"Eh? Seriously, nyah?" Kuroka said, but didn't pause into following her leader.

"Welp, guess we're doing this. The old monkey would probably have my hide if I ignore such a peril of an unjust situation, while knowing about it beforehand." Bikou said with a sigh of false exasperation.

"I'm going as well." Arthur said, drawing more attention than Vali, that even Cao Cao was concerned.

"Brother?" Le Fay asked in surprise.

"Whether we like it or not, this isn't a situation we can ignore. To do otherwise would be dishonorable." Arthur said staring at Cao Cao, before turning toward Vali. "If you don't mind me traveling with you, I'd like to join you for this excursion."

"Do whatever you want." Vali shrugged, but glad for the addition.

"If brother is going, so am I." Le Fay said.

"Le Fay, you needed for the next mission." Charlemagne said.

"I'm sorry, Other Leader." Le Fay shook her head. "But this group needed dedicated mage support, in case they need a teleport retreat if the situation becomes one we can't continue dealing with." She looked toward her brother, who smiled and nodded at her in gratitude.

"Enough!" Charlemagne spoke up, stopping the feeling of rebellion and comradery in the air. "Did you all forget the prophecy of Indra? Currently the True Pope is in the hands of the Old Satan Faction. Having power over the prophecy of the end, having on of its elements under the control of Devils isn't something we can stand by and ignore." She glared, most looked ashamed to have forgotten that in the moment. Others like Vali met her gaze defiantly. However, most of the Hero Faction—sans Heracles and Wu Song, who wanted to fight, were annoyed at all the boring talk that denied them a good fight—seemed to be swaying back to hers and Cao Cao's side. "Not only that, having one of the Holy Relics in the hands of the Old Satan Faction, gives them leverage to control the Dragon Slayer."

Satanael snorted. Loudly.

"Do you find what I say amusing?" Charlemagne asked with a challenging smirk.

"If you had ever met Caleb Gunnar, you'd understand how utterly hilarious that statement was." Satanael said back, making Charlemagne lose her smirk back to her neutral frown. "That boy's willpower is something not even a pagan god, not even Indra could move, if he's set on a path." He gave an non-so-pointed look to Cao Cao, who was thrown back at the assertion. That Satanael meant it.

"You've met him?" Jeanne immediately asked.

"I've had the honor, yes." Satanael nodded, before focusing on Cao Cao once more. "I know the meaning of the word 'Hero' changed between ancient times and the modern era. One asks for great deeds, and one asks for noble, almost saintly deeds, however there is no reason for your faction not to do both."

"You..." Cao Cao frown as he realized Satanael's trap. Cao Cao was now in a situation where if he doesn't go through with Satanael's 'request' might have his status and respect of his comrade completely shattered, that he'd lose the ability to lead them.

A situation just like he planned to put the Angels of Heaven in. This bastard. Cao Cao held back gritting his teeth.

"Do you not wish for the first impression of your faction to the world, to be one of heroic salvation of the masses, as well as a show of your strength of standing up to the various gods that would step on mankind due to inconvenience?" Satanael said, sealing Cao Cao's side of the Hero Faction on what they'll do. "And you," the fallen turned to Charlemagne with a smile. "How about a bribe?"

"...Excuse me!?" Charlemagne lost her composure, her firm expression falling to one of complete bafflement at the sheer audacity of this fallen angel.

"Do you know why your Longinus, while holding that title isn't as strong as any other Sacred Gear in that class?" Satanael began with a sly smile. "Why you can't seem to activate a complete Balance Breaker no matter how much you train or try? Why Another Longinus always feels so lacking?"

"You know about that?!" Charlemagne spat out. "Tell me!"

"It's because it is." Satanael said, confirming a long held suspicion of the Other Leader of the Hero Faction. "Your Longinus is an Extra Longinus, a Sacred Gear that could have been a Longinus but is missing a component to true make it fearful. The reason is because it's only one third of the original Sacred Gear. Another Longinus isn't even its true name."

Charlemagne eyes widened in complete shock. A surprise shared by much of the Hero Faction.

"Other Leader was actually nerfed that much? And she is still so strong!" Wu Song said to herself in awe.

Satanael raised his hand, and summon an item from his storage space magic.

"Behold, the Virgin Mary's Cloak, the second component of Another Longinus."

Charlemagne was transfixed at the floating ethereal blue cloak, her hand unconsciously raised toward it. Before the shocked Charlemagne could utter a word, the magical cloak zoomed and flew into her body.

Immediately a burst of light shined out of Charlemagne's body, as now she wore the cloak around her shoulders like a cape changing color from its original monochromatic blue to adding more colors, along with pieces of it becoming part of her clothes as a second layer of her clothing.

Charlemagne could help but smile with a surprised joy at this development. She felt suddenly as if she could breath easier.

With a determined and confident grin, she activated her Balance Breaker.

"Balance Breaker, Another Longinus Requiem!"

With another burst of light, Charlemagne's clothing was changed into that of her Longinus' Limited Balancer Breaker.

The light receded to show Charlemagne in the new form of her Balance Breaker.

"Lady Charlemagne, you...!" Michelangelo began to say, until she saw the 'full' transformation.

The blue cape became smaller, the former bikini-esque white-golden armor pieces increased, gold become the more encompassing color and Charlemagne even gained a leotard under armor. A shimmer of a translucent cloak barrier covering all her body appeared for a moment then disappeared. Yet Charlemagne felt it was still there.

She took a moment to examine her new transformation.

Then Charlemagne felt her excitement drop. A look of deadpanned exasperation came upon her.

"...It's more armor than before!" Jeanne said encouragingly.

Indeed, Charlemagne's golden armor had expanded from covering her limb to covering her torso.

Her bottom was still armorless though, only covered by the cape and leotard. She still had her greaves and other leg armor.

"I suppose there is that." Charlemagne muttered in annoyance, before turning to Satanael, dismissing her Limited Balance Breaker back to her normal state. "Where is the last third of my Longinus?"

"I'm afraid that one I can't freely hand you." Satanael smiled. "As the kids say these days, 'first hit is free, next one costs you'."

"""Are you a Sacred Gear drug dealer!?""" Jeanne along with Perseus, Lilebette and Le Fay shouted at the same time.

"If I recall," Georg spoke up. "The Virgin Mary's Cloak should be the inner most secure treasury of the Church Headquarters in Vatican City, how did you get it?"

"Burned through all of my favors and secret agents this morning." Satanael said in a casual tone.

"...What?" Cao Cao said, for the first time openly losing his cocksure composure to show surprise.

"Yeah, hundreds of years of cultivating inside agents, generational families even who's job was to provide me information from within the inner most sanctums of the Church, have been exposed, and likely would all be defunct and burned through by the end of the week." Satanael said with a small laugh.

The attitude of the fallen and his admission threw the whole of the Hero Faction off.

"Why? Why would you do that?" The voice of Yotsuba Sasaki spoke up, almost piercing through the conversation given how she opted to stay silent and observe till now. Yet, she felt an odd... not kinship nor empathy, but rather permonition looking at the fallen angel, like she was seeing herself in him, as though he was an odd mirror to her future, should she ever achieve her dream of being the strongest swordsman.

"Because I have fulfilled my purpose." Satanael said, making Yotsuba flinch. "Though not as intended, not perfectly, but as best as can be given how the world is." Satanael looked upon the group with eyes of clear resolve, that the Hero Faction couldn't help but feel respect to. "I created the Great Red's Dragon Slayer." He said, slamming the Hero Faction with another world shocking revelation. "Or at least created the conditions for his forming. And the only thing left is to ensure I aid Caleb Gunnar with all that I have till he succeeds in his destiny."

"And how is coming to us to aid the people of Romania factor into all of this?" Charlemagne asked, a little but less hostile in her tone than she had been this whole time.

"To answer your question from before," Satanael said, rather than directly answering Charlemagne's question. "The last component of your Longinus, is the Crown of Thorns," he said, making Charlemagne gasp in shock. "And it's location is within the vaults of the Fifth Heaven."

"What?!" Charlemagne exclaimed. A shock shared by much of those around her. "Why would it be there? Why isn't it already part of my Longinus?"

"Because it was deemed too dangerous to the Faith for it to continue operating within the Sacred Gear System." Satanael replied. The Crown of Thorns' ability is to receive direct revelations from the System of Heaven, meaning it's operated by sending God's direct command and will to the user, fully interpreted for them to carry out.

"And if God isn't directly telling the user what he needed of them, the Crown via access to the Heaven System can direct the user to the most urgent situations, people that need salvation, a dangerous enemy that needs to be defeated or something bad happens. Or, once more through the Heaven System, it can grant the user near-omniscient view of the battlefield they're in."

"It sounds rather potent, a literal battlefield changer. Why would the Angels cripple Another Longinus by removing the Crown?" Asked Arthur.

"As you all know, God is dead." Satanael began.

"I'm sorry, what, nyah?" A certain cat youkai blinked in confusion.

"However, the given that the Crown was still operational, the Great Seraphs didn't know how this might affect its abilities, and there was a fear that it would leak the information on God's death, thus result in a point of crisis to the Christian Faith."

"Wait, no, nyah, seriously, what does he mean 'as you all know'? When did this happen? Isn't this like a scary big deal? Why's everyone acting like this is casual information?" Kuroka said in a panic, almost losing her verbal tic the faster she talked.

"What? You didn't know? No, wait, I suppose it makes sense a random fugitive wouldn't know that." Bikou said, hands resting behind his head.

"You knew?!" Kuroka whisper-cried out. "Does Vali know? He... doesn't seem surprised, so I guess he does?"

"Hmm? Yeah, the Old Monkey mentioned it in passing while training me. Vali didn't outright tell me how he knew, but I gathered his family told him before he left them." Bikou spoke in a way, so only Kuroka would hear. She nodded and didn't say anything else.

"Eeeeh? Isn't this entire information too big for us to know?" She said mostly to herself but Satanael with a smirk answered her all the same.

"It is because it's too big that there not much worry for you to find out. After all that knowledge paints a giant target on your back, and even if you did tell anyone, who'd believe you."

The humans present looked at the two non-humans and half-devils, making Kuroka and Bikou feel slightly nervous. Vali just crossed his arms uncaring.

"...ehehehehe, n-nyahahaha..." Kuroka let out a nervous laugh.

"Yesh, I'm not an idiot. It's none of my business and I sure as well don't want a war of pantheons, so if that knowledge got out it won't be from me." Bikou said with his hands raised in mock surrender.

"I already knew because grandfather didn't care if he told anyone. Not that anyone would believe the literal Antichrist." Vali said dismissively.

"So," Charlemagne spoke, drawing everyone's eyes to her, and then back to Satanael as she focused the discussion again on the important parts. "The Great Seraphs weakened Another Longinus to plug a possible leak to the information about the God of the Bible. Does that mean you intent to use the whole event with Romania as a distraction to sneak into Heaven for the Crown of Thorns? Do you expect me to believe you did only that to help me and our Faction?"

"I can multitask. Its for accomplishing multiple goals by one move. Acquiring the last piece of your Longinus is among the many goals of this operation." The Fallen Cadre said.

"But why?" Charlemagne asked. "Why our group? Why offer this much incentive and aid?" She asked the question on everyone's mind.

"Your group will most likely be, or rather, the one naturally Caleb will end up joining, as your goals coincide." Satanael said, making Cao Cao and other members of the Hero Faction stand straighter, and more eager to prove Satanael right. "And you are all woefully too weak to be of use to him."

"Wha—?"

"Excuse you?!"

"Fight me and let's see who's the weak one!"

"Enough." Cao Cao said with a stern voice, commanding his comrades to stand down. "You say that our group is too weak, knowing all of our strengths?" He said challengingly.

"Look at the challenging he is facing." Satanael gestured at the large TV screen, where the battle between Caleb and the Evil Dragons continued, as he was now fighting Niðhöggr and Yamata no Orochi. "Look at the rate of his growth. All of you need to be much, much stronger for the fights to come. You need to face challenges and overcome them. Luckily, I'm following the trail to finding Innovate Clear. Should I succeed in that, it might be possible for all of you to gain much greater strength in a short amount of time. Maybe even fulfill the potential of your Longinuses as Godkillers."

"Innovate Clear?" Asked Connla.

"It's one of the thirteen Longinus. It hold the power to create worlds, populated with living beings even, should their creator desire it. It's like a mix of my Annihilation Maker and Goerg's Dimension Lost." Leonardo answered.

"Woah." Connla's eyes widened in awe.

"It can also create world with different environment. Even complex conditions, like for example time dilation." Satanael said, making the leaders of the Hero Faction's eyes widen.

"So that's what you meant by gaining a lot of strength in a short amount of time. Using the world of Innovate Clear to train for months, while hours pass on the outside in the real world," Cao Cao said with interest.

"Precisely." Satanael nodded. "So, I'd like your answer soon. Do we have a deal?"

The two leaders of the Hero Faction exchanged a look. Much of the reluctance they both had before, has vanished. Even if they were playing into the Fallen's hands, they were gaining too much to refuse. Not to mention, they were put in a situation where refusal might end up hurting their group, while acceptance would aid them to rise much higher in the world.

Truly, the Devil's tongue was his most dangerous weapon.

"I have one last question before we commit to this." Charlemagne said. "You know of my goal, my wish, correct?"

"I have my suspicion based on your movements and actions since you established yourself in the supernatural world, but nothing concrete. Would you please enlighten me?" Satanael said. It never hurt to be polite.

"I wish to grant humanity back one final source of Light. To resurrect the God of the Bible. Since you're in such a sharing mood, do you know a method to my goal, or would His return be the one thing you wouldn't want?" Charlemagne said, her tone at the edge of challenging.

Satanael thought back to this very conversation which he had with Ophis.

===x===

A While Before Leaving Hexennacht HQ:

"Revive Yahweh? Yes, it is possible." Ophis nodded.

"How!? Please tell me, Lady Ophis! I'll do anything, I'll—" Satanael began to plea, only to be run over by Ophis answer.

"The return of God rests on two points. The Beast of Revelations, and Baka Red. The first part is His powers that are spread across all six hundred sixty six seals, to contain the Beast through all manners, physically, spiritually, causally, fatedly, comically and dimensionally, and in many other ways than I do not bother to pay attention to. The other piece containing his power, is the Curse forcing Great Red to not be able to stay within the Material World for long."

"That's...!"

"Part of the reason why I and Him clashed often in the past, yes." Ophis nodded, not realising Satanael's surprise was that such a Divine Curse even existed to begin with. It explained why the Great Red never left the Dimensional Gap except briefly, and why the Ouroboros Dragon lost her home. "Should those two issues are dealt with, slaying the 666 Beast and Baka Red, then God's power will be recalled, along with his scattered consciousness across a variety of Sacred Gears or biblical items."

"I see," Satanael said with tears in his eyes. "Thank you, Lady Ophis. Thank so, so much. I can not tell you the joy I feel, or the debt you have incurred, and how much I'd do anything to repay it."

"Help Caleb continue on his path. Remove the obstacles to it so he'd succeed in slaying Baka Red." Ophis said bluntly.

Satanael laughed.

"Of course, for that is my wish as well."

===x===

"So that's why you're seeking the Extra Longinuses?" Satanael asked.

"Yes." Charlemagne nodded.

"You are on the right path, but the Malebranche would have been a disastrous element to use as an energy source or a stabilizer for bring back God's scattered pieces." Satanael shook his head, much to Charlemagne's outraged and grimacing look. "However, there is a much simpler way."

"What is it!?" Charlemagne said quickly, with a look of desperation that reminded Satanael of himself a few hours prior.

Satanael pointed to the TV and Caleb fighting.

"As he continues on his path, he will deal with the two beings that stand against the return of God. The Beast and the Dragon of Revelation. Aid Caleb Gunnar on his path, and your wish will naturally be fulfilled on it's own."

"That's... It sounds too good to be true." Charlemagne couldn't help but say.

Satanael surprised her and the rest of the group by snorting.

"Just because the steps are simple doesn't mean they're easy to accomplish." Satanael chuckled and got up. "Well, it's time for me to head out, I'll leave you to your decisions." He turned to leave.

"Err, sorry but, what the heck is the Beast you're talking about?" Perseus asked in worry.

"Pick up a Bible." Satanael threw back a remark, not deigning the answer worth the effort.

And to troll the semi-cowardly demigod Spirit Inheritor.

"John, wake the hell up!" Charlemagne said to the man who was sleeping all this time.

"Wha, huh, what?" His name was John Hampton, the holder of the Extra Longinus, Salvation Engine, known plainly as Noah's Ark. John was also a descendant of Christopher Columbus.

This wasn't something he wished to advertise, thus didn't use his ancestor's name for himself.

Because of the implications.

"Yes, ma'am! Did I sleep through anything important?" John asked.

While his Extra Longinus was an engine that allowed him to turn any vehicle to a grand vessel, it was costing stamina-wise to John, that he required sleep whenever the Arktified vehicle wasn't in use, or to use an alchemical potion such as modified Immortal Peaches (which Cao Cao had some of, from his training under the original Sun Wukong), or Super Coffee (Le Fay said a friend from Golden Dawn helped her make it).

"As always, yes. Anyways, get the Super-Dreadnought Ark ready for take off. We're heading to Serbia." Charlemagne commanded, making John run off to get the ship ready.

As a dreadnought was used in the Arcification process, it was now a spaceship that could travel through the Dimensional Gap.

As everyone got ready to move, and even gather the other members of the Hero Faction that weren't around, either training, studying or sleeping, etc. a voice spoke up to the leaving Satanael.

"Wait!" Spoke Lilebette, who suddenly felt self-conscious at all the attention at her, but continued on. "What of the Pope? We can not deem to let him dwell in darkness!"

"The Old Satan Faction are a bunch of suicidal idiots that doesn't realize how weak they really are in the grand scheme of things. They likely see Caleb as in alignment with their goals, destroying Heaven and the world and rule over the Underworld and humanity, thus they'll strive to keep the Pope safe in order to use him as a bargaining tool to bribe Caleb to their goal." Satanael replied.

"They're trying to bribe the guy who walked into a dimension filled with Evil Dragons and asked to be sealed inside it?" Yotsuba asked, a disbelieving smile on her face.

"That's why I said they're idiots. They'll keep the Pope alive, as they need him, thus for now, he's relatively safe. However even if the Pope Nicholas were to perish..." A far away look came to Satanael before he continued. "Call it a hunch, but things will occur in a manner beneficial to Caleb."

"What makes you so sure of this hunch?" Vali spoke up.

Satanael looked at the Half-Devil White Dragon Emperor and slyly smiled.

"Because that's the Will of God." And with that Satanael teleported away.

===x===

Does he know? Cao Cao couldn't help but think.

He hadn't told anyone. He hadn't so much as mentioned as hint of it to anyone, yet ever since that day where his spear, the True Longinus summoned itself and short a beam of light to the Heavens, Cao Cao felt it.

With absolute certainty he knew, the Dying Will of God no longer resided in his spear.

If it was now in Heaven and acting to coordinate and command Satanael, or the fallen angels that follow Satanael, then it makes sense that all of that happened.

But why would the Dying Will of God do that? It doesn't have much power to sustain itself outside the True Longinus, unless... Cao Cao's mind went to Caleb Gunnar, the Dragon Slayer. Things were moving very fast, and in a certain direction ever since the Dragon Slayer took to the stage of the supernatural world. It's like script of the world is now moving at his pace.

It grated on Cao Cao how he felt like he was playing second fiddle to someone else, yet, what was worst was... everything seemed to be working out better for his group and himself.

Although he might have to clash with Indra if things keep going in the direction they seem to be going. Of Caleb collecting the Blessings and facing Great Red.

Would I fight Indra? Can I afford to?

Cao Cao might really need Satanael's training option, should the fallen angel find the holder of Innovate Clear and convince them to work with him.

The Satan might just do it with another annoyingly constructed choice. The worst part was going along with it seemed better for them, rather outright defiance for defiance's sake.

The Fallen Angel was far more dangerous and crafty than Cao Cao expected or learned about. It's like the Adversary changed his entire M.O. from the past centuries to act like an even more cunning Azazel. Cao Cao shuddered from the thought, given the history lessons he learned about the General Governor of the Grigori from Sun Wukong.

As George and John Hampton worked together to teleport the Super-Dreadnought Ark to Serbia, Gornji Matejevac to retrieve the displaced Romanian, Cao Cao thought about the logistics of how many trips they will make and how long they'd have to defend those 10 million people once they get them back to their home.

It's gonna be a logistical nightmare, but the fact that it's doable was a testament to the abilities of the Hero Faction.

Cao Cao wondered about when he finally met Caleb Gunnar what that meeting would be like. How would the Dragon Slayer fair against his Spear? Or... would Caleb have long surpassed him by then?

I suppose we'll see. Cao Cao thought. In the end, I suppose it will be a fight to see if one with destiny or one with willpower will be the one to manage to slay the Great Red. Cao Cao smirked, tightening his grip on his spear.

Cao Cao didn't notice (or ignored) how hypocritical it was, that he considered himself the one driven by hard work, when he was born wit the strongest Longinus, and placed Caleb as the one empowered by destiny in his mind, thus a challenge to overcome.

Now for the most important task.

Cao Cao headed to where he most needed to be for this operation.

===x===

The random citizens of Romania, were crowded in a remote village in Serbia, spreading out and moving about just to have a place to sit down or wait for the police or someone who speaks their language.

Some members of the local police arrived but where baffled on what to do, as there were far too many people to even begin to know how to handle this situation.

At the edge of the location of the village of Gornji Matejevac many people began to scream as they were attacked by monsters that seem to come from nowhere.

Monsters that looked like people with fangs, and could only move in shadows. Vampires.

Many people died as they couldn't react in time, or disbelieved their eyes. These vampires seemed to be running from somewhere, and where only the start of the tragedy as other types of monsters began to appear from trolls to werewolves.

Yet just as the crisis began, purple mist began rolling in toward the spot where the biggest concentration of monsters were coming from.

And then from the purple mist, what could only be described as, a giant spaceship appeared.

And standing on the far edge of the foredeck, overlooking the ship's bow was a man, holding what could only be called a Holy Spear.

"PEOPLE OF ROMANIA!" Cao Cao declared with a wide grin, and his arms spread wide. His spear shined a light and pushed back or outright slayed the present monsters. "YOUR SAVIOR IS HERE!"

And from the intercom of the ship came an annoyed female voice.

"SAVIORS!" Shouted Charlemagne. "Plural, you fucking glory hound!"

And then the Super-Dreadnought Ark fired it's weapons upon the monsters with such precision that no human was harmed.

Thus Operation Put Back the Romanians began.

===

AN: Fuck. All. This.

Fucking god dammit. Man plans and muses laugh.

Anyways, this fucking part is done, so yeah screw it. Screw idealized vision of the chapter. Let's just build up to it. Posting this now and hope for next chapter to be soon-ish.

Later.