"Miss Kuroka, please calm down. If you go now, won't you just make things more complicated?" Asia pleaded, tugging on Kuroka's clothes.
"But I can't let Shirone marry someone else, meow! Shirone is still so small, she can't even have babies yet, meow!" Kuroka was highly agitated. She hadn't seen her sister in years, and now she was about to become someone's wife? She couldn't stand for it.
"Alright, stop being so impulsive. If Akeno tells Rias what I said, and if they really are as close as they say, they'll know what to do."
Rhode wasn't worried at all. He had said his piece; if Akeno and Koneko still chose to hide their heads in the sand, he would simply respect their fate. Aside from fulfilling his promise to Kuroka to rescue Koneko, he wouldn't interfere with the others. Even with a quest active, he had no interest in saving people who had given up on themselves.
Besides, the issues Akeno and Koneko faced weren't that severe. Frankly, their mental trauma wasn't even as big of a deal as the shut-in vampire's problem. Extreme social anxiety is quite hard to cure. Otherwise, during a Rating Game, they could just present the shut-in; the mental stimulus would trigger his "Time Stop" automatically. Even if Rias's team couldn't resist it, it would at least force a draw with Riser.
But in the original story, even when Rias was about to marry Riser, she never thought of bringing the shut-in out. One could only say that as a Devil, her way of thinking was still too humanized.
After everyone—except Rhode—persuaded her, Kuroka finally calmed down.
Night fell.
Rhode received a message from Griselda and subsequently teleported to the First Heaven of the Celestial Realm.
Heaven was as bright as ever, with angels of all ranks passing by him. They had long since grown accustomed to seeing a human unaffiliated with the Church appearing in their realm.
As Rhode looked at the angels, a wicked thought popped into his head. If he took a megaphone and announced that the God of the Bible had vanished, would all these angels fall on the spot?
He dismissed the thought a second later. Too cruel. Forget it. The Celestial Realm hadn't yet mastered the method of turning humans into angels; such a shout would likely bring the entire realm to a grinding halt.
He arrived at Griselda's private office. Pushing the door open, he saw Griselda and two other figures standing before her desk. Both were dressed in nun habits and had their backs to Rhode. Hearing the door, they turned around.
"Oh, Rhode! You're here."
The first to catch his eye was a foreign girl with delicate features. Her sleek eyebrows arched slightly, giving her a heroic air. Her lips were a beautiful red, and her smile revealed a row of neat, white teeth, giving off a sunny impression.
"It's Mr. Rhode. We haven't seen each other in a while, have we?"
The girl who spoke next with a surprised smile had chestnut-colored hair. Compared to the heroic Xenovia, her features were softer and more rounded, her long eyelashes adding to her gentle aura.
Irina Shidou waved energetically at Rhode. The two of them had met Rhode during a past mission and had fought alongside him. Though it had only been once.
"It really has been a long time," Rhode said, not particularly surprised. "What brings you two back to the Celestial Realm today?"
"We've been traveling around the world clearing out troublemaking vampires and stray exorcists, but Miss Griselda suddenly called us back," Irina said with a slight nod.
They were exorcists and Holy Sword wielders raised by the Church. Generally, their job was to eliminate enemies of the Church abroad; they rarely had time to return. New missions were usually communicated through local churches or mobile devices. Unlike Rhode, who could just lounge on a hotel bed when he felt lazy, these girls were treated like workhorses who didn't need twenty-four hours of rest, being the Church's most steadfast believers. It was only thanks to their superior constitutions that they could even handle such a profession.
"I called you here because there is indeed a very important matter," Griselda said, coughing to get their attention.
Rhode found it a bit strange. Previously, Griselda would send him mission details directly via phone. This time, she insisted he come in person without revealing anything. It was all very mysterious.
Griselda looked at Rhode and said in a low voice, "...The truth is, three of the Excaliburs have been stolen."
"Just recently, three Holy Swords stored in the headquarters of the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox factions were stolen. We can currently infer that it was done by stray exorcists and priests disguised as believers. However, they wouldn't have stolen the swords on their own initiative; we have reason to believe a Cadre of Grigori is behind this."
Xenovia and Irina were stunned. The Holy Swords had been stolen?
"How were such important items being guarded? How could they be stolen?" Xenovia's expression turned cold.
"I'm not entirely sure of the specifics, but suffice it to say the internal situation of the Church is not optimistic. This matter has already been reported to the Seraphs. They've asked me to find a few trustworthy people to track down the swords. You three are the only cards I have to play."
Griselda finished and spread a file across the desk. The group leaned in and saw the recorded times, locations, and types of the stolen swords.
"When Excalibur was shattered during the ancient war, the Church collected the fragments and used alchemy to create seven new Holy Swords. Two for the Catholics, two for the Protestants, two for the Orthodox, and one whose whereabouts are unknown."
"The stolen swords are the Catholic 'Excalibur Rapidly,' the Protestant 'Excalibur Transparency,' and the Orthodox 'Excalibur Nightmare'."
Their abilities were respectively: increasing the wielder's speed and sword-swinging velocity; turning the wielder transparent and making their presence undetectable; and creating illusions and dreams to disrupt the target's mind.
While the individual abilities might not seem like much, these were merely new-age Holy Swords forged from fragments. A complete Excalibur possessed the combined power of all seven. One could only imagine how versatile it was.
[Griselda has issued a new quest!]
[Quest: The Lost Holy Swords] [Objective: Recover the Holy Swords and investigate the perpetrator and the truth.] [Reward: Church Reputation +30. Two random rewards.]
As expected, the mission was here.
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High School DxD : Reincarnated into the Multiverse, but it's High School DxD (144 Chapters – Ongoing)
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