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In the depths of the base, a clone of Damon advanced through one of the underground corridors while the walls trembled constantly from everything happening on the surface. Several parts of the ceiling had cracked, and small amounts of dust fell to the floor with each new explosion. The electricity had stopped working several minutes ago, leaving the entire place plunged into darkness.
He didn't encounter much resistance along the way. Most of the Fallen Angels had abandoned that section to try to stop the real Damon, leaving the corridors practically empty. Following the presence he had sensed from outside, the clone reached a metal door and tore it from its hinges with one hand.
The room on the other side was completely dark.
In one of the corners, Kunou remained hunched against the wall, hugging her knees with both arms while her tails wrapped around her small body. Her ears were pressed flat against her head, and she trembled every time another explosion made the ground vibrate. She didn't know what was happening outside, nor why all her captors had suddenly disappeared. She could only hear screams, impacts, and the constant sound of structures collapsing.
The noise of the door being torn off made her snap her gaze up. The silhouette of a man appeared in the entrance.
Kunou let out a small gasp and shrank even further against the wall, hiding her face between her knees. Through the darkness, she could barely make out his long hair and his figure approaching.
"Hey, little one," Damon said calmly.
Kunou didn't respond. Her shoulders trembled as she tried to make herself as small as possible, believing another Fallen Angel had come for her.
Damon stopped a few meters away so as not to scare her even more. "You don't have to be afraid. I come on behalf of your mother, Yasaka. I'm here to get you out of this place."
Kunou slowly lifted her head. Her golden eyes were full of tears and observed the stranger with obvious distrust. "R-Really, mister?" she asked in a weak, childish voice.
Damon nodded. "Yes.... Your mother is waiting for you."
The little Kitsune didn't move. Part of her wanted to believe him, but after everything that had happened, she couldn't trust a stranger who had appeared out of the darkness so easily.
Damon let out an internal sigh. Winning the trust of a terrified little girl in a matter of minutes would be much harder than he had expected, and he had no intention of forcing her to cross the entire base while she kept trembling in fear.
His eyes glowed briefly..... Kunou barely managed to blink before her eyelids began to feel heavy. She tried to keep them open, but a deep sleep fell over her and her small body relaxed slowly against the wall.
Damon approached before she could slide to the floor and lifted her carefully into his arms. Kunou unconsciously rested her head against his chest while her tails hung to one side. "Your mother is going to kill me if she finds out I had to put you to sleep," Damon muttered.
Without wasting more time, his figure vanished in a flash along with the little Kitsune, abandoning the base before another explosion shook its foundations again.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Grigori Headquarters
Inside a wide office crammed with documents, maps, and various magical devices, Shemazai remained seated behind his desk with an increasingly tired expression. He had spent hours reviewing reports that, in theory, should have passed through Azazel's hands first. However, as happened far too often, the Governor of Grigori had found some excuse to leave the headquarters and dump practically all the work on him.
Shemazai was extremely loyal to Azazel. He wasn't just his Vice-Governor, but also one of his closest friends. He trusted fully in his intelligence and in his ability to lead the faction. That didn't mean he didn't want to strangle him every time he disappeared and forced him to do both the Vice-Governor's work and the Governor's own.
Penemue wasn't being much help lately either. The woman remained constantly ill-tempered, especially since Azazel had begun concentrating all his attention on Kuoh and on the possible bearer of a Longinus located there. Every time Shemazai tried to hand her more work, she looked at him as if she were seriously considering using him to test some new form of torture.
"Gods... how I wish I were home with my wife," he muttered while leaning back against the chair.
Just thinking about her managed to ease his fatigue a little. Although lately even his conversations at home ended up revolving around Damon. Shemazai couldn't blame her too much either. After all, his wife was a demon. Obviously she stayed up to date on what was happening with her own faction, even if she lived alongside him inside Grigori territory.
The Vice-Governor let out a sigh as he remembered how his wife constantly talked about all the craziness carried out by the god. Sometimes he grew tired of always hearing the same subject, but he also couldn't deny that if a god of that level attacked Grigori territory directly, he probably wouldn't be able to think about anything else for a long time either.
Shemazai let out a small laugh at the idea. "Luckily, we haven't done anything to attract his attention." He turned the chair and directed his gaze outside through the window. Without a doubt, today is a fairly quiet day.
The office door burst open, snapping the white-haired man out of his musings.
A Fallen Angel named Neriah entered hastily, his breathing completely out of control. He didn't even stop to ask permission before advancing toward the desk. "Lord Shemazai!"
The Vice-Governor closed his eyes, already feeling the headache that was about to come... Of course... he had to open his big mouth and speak too soon... There goes his quiet day.
"What's happening now?" he asked while turning the chair again to face the frantic Fallen Angel. "You know what, better go tell Baraqiel or Penemue. Right now I'm busy and I don't have time to deal with your problems."
Shemazai tried to dismiss him quickly, without even giving him the chance to respond. He already had more than enough work on his shoulders.
Neriah didn't even seem to register the last thing his leader had said. "Sir, this is urgent! The northern sector is under attack! The surveillance systems detected extremely high levels of magical and divine power. Several patrols stopped answering our calls and we've lost contact with one of the main bases in the region."
Shemazai stood up so fast that his chair slid several meters backward. "What...? Why the hell didn't you say that first?! Who's attacking us?"
Neriah stepped back at his leader's sudden change of attitude and raised both hands in surrender before answering quickly. "W-We don't know, sir. Communications are unstable and the few messages we received don't contain enough information." Neriah swallowed before continuing. "But everything seems to be happening around the installation where Lord Kokabiel should be."
Shemazai closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "Why doesn't it surprise me that the trouble comes from that idiot?"
He had never gotten along with Kokabiel. The Cadre constantly talked about war, superiority, and the need to crush the other biblical factions. Shemazai, on the contrary, supported Azazel's advances and considered that continuing a war that had already destroyed an enormous number of their comrades was complete stupidity.
Furthermore, Kokabiel had been behaving strangely for some time. He had requested resources and access to installations far from the headquarters, assuring it was simple preventive movement. Shemazai had suspected he was hiding something, but Azazel had been too distracted with Kuoh to investigate the matter personally.
And now one of those installations was under attack.
Absolutely marvelous.....
"Do we have any image of the enemy?" he asked.
Neriah shook his head quickly. "The storm covering the entire region is interfering with our systems. We only know that several barriers disappeared in a matter of seconds and that enormous explosions are being detected around the installation."
Shemazai felt a chill run down his back.
A storm... For some reason, his wife's words about Damon immediately returned to his mind. However, he quickly shook his head, pushing aside that absurd possibility.
He quickly walked around the desk without wasting more time. "Gather all the Cadres and available Fallen Angels. Send reinforcements to the northern sector and stop all of this as fast as possible." His expression hardened. "Also send someone to find Azazel in Kuoh. Tell him we're under attack, assuming that lazy bastard hasn't already noticed."
"Yes, sir!" Neriah bowed his head and quickly left the room.
Shemazai followed him while several black wings unfolded behind his back. Before leaving the office, he cast one last glance at the photograph of him and his wife hanging on the wall.
"I swear Azazel will end up leaving me completely bald." With that last complaint, he disappeared down the hallway at great speed, feeling new gray hairs beginning to appear on his already completely white hair.
XXXXXXXXXXX
With Damon
Damon kept his gaze fixed on the figure covered in white armor while a mocking smile began to form on his face. Many years had passed since the last time he had heard that voice, but there was no way he could forget it.
During the Great War, both Ddraig and Albion had decided to cross his path. Neither of the two had come out especially well from that encounter and, considering the fate both had ended up suffering, Damon had assumed that at least one of them would have learned the lesson.
But apparently, he had been wrong.
"I thought you had learned your lesson last time, along with your little red lizard friend," Damon commented, observing the white armor in the sky. "After all, that's why you ended up trapped inside a Sacred Gear. But here you are again, coming straight toward me, getting in my way."
Vali remained suspended in the sky, observing the redhead from behind the helmet of his armor. Although his face couldn't be seen, his posture didn't show the slightest trace of fear.
From the moment he felt the enormous commotion coming from the northern sector of Grigori territory, Vali abandoned everything he was doing and headed toward the place. Albion had warned him several times that approaching without knowing who was behind such power was stupidity, but Vali hadn't shown the slightest intention of listening to him.
For someone like him, the possibility of encountering a powerful opponent was more than enough. In the end, Albion had no choice but to support his bearer's decision.
"I can't control my bearer's desires," the deep voice of the White Dragon responded from the armor's wings.
Damon raised an eyebrow. "Then I suppose I should ask him directly." Though Damon knew the reality of the matter; after all, Albion was still a dragon, and dragons were proud.
With that in mind, the redhead shifted his gaze from the wings to the armor's helmet. "Who are you, boy, and what are you doing here? Did you come for Kokabiel or for Georg?" Damon lowered his gaze to the Cadre's bloodied head, which remained on the ground beside his corpse. "Because, unfortunately, as you can see, one of them is already dead."
He gave Kokabiel's head a small kick, sending it rolling several meters across the ground until it ended up crashing against the remains of a wall.
"And the other..." Damon pointed toward one of the sides of the base, where Georg remained buried among the rubble, covered in blood and barely conscious.
"He's not dead yet, but he's about to be." Vali followed the direction of his finger and observed the bearer of Dimension Lost from the hero faction. Vali didn't really know him, but they were still in the same organization, so obviously he had heard of him. But right now, the Lucifer couldn't care less about Georg's condition; he wasn't here for him...
So, without further ado, the white-haired man redirected all his attention back to Damon.
Damon shoved a hand into the pocket of his coat while his expression relaxed slightly. "I already got what I came for, so I don't need to keep fighting everyone who shows up in front of me." His gaze barely hardened. "I'm giving you the chance to leave. You go about your business, I finish mine, and we both continue with our day."
Damon tilted his head slightly. "So I suggest you get out of here before I change my mind."
For several seconds, a sepulchral silence fell over the place. The wind swept across the destroyed base, lifting dust, ashes, and a few black feathers that still remained scattered around Kokabiel's corpse.
Vali began to descend slowly. His feet touched the ground and the white armor shone with greater intensity as he extended his wings behind his back.
"My name is Vali," the white-haired man responded. He hesitated a few seconds before speaking again. "Vali Lucifer," he reiterated while a barely visible smile formed under his helmet.
"And I didn't come for either of them."
>>>
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