"Boom!"
A deafening blast tore through the once-silent night, shaking the entire abandoned amusement facility.
Dust billowed upward from the impact site. Rubble and shattered stone were hurled outward on a violent shockwave, like a missile had detonated right in the middle of the grounds.
There were no flames, but the shockwave alone ravaged the air, sending wave after wave of pressure rolling across the area.
Not far away, locked in a fight with several exorcists, Yukino stiffened. A gale slammed into her, forcing her to raise an arm to shield herself. Frosty mist swirled from her body, instantly freezing the incoming debris and stopping every shard of stone before any of it could reach her.
The exorcists weren't so lucky. Some were blown off their feet by the wind, others were struck by rubble head-on. They only managed a few short cries of pain before they were flung across the ground.
Amid all that destruction, Leo was the only one left untouched.
Six devil wings unfurled behind him as he hovered in midair, a limp girl held securely in one arm. His other hand was extended forward, demonic power roaring around it—clear proof of who had caused the blast.
"…Ugh."
Sharon Holygrail reappeared off to the side. She must have dodged the magic circles that had trapped her at the last possible second, slipping free of the devastating shockwave.
But her condition was far from good. Her nun's habit was torn in multiple places as if shredded by shrapnel, her pale skin exposed and covered in thin cuts and trails of blood. Even her normally beautiful face was streaked with dirt—she looked nothing like the immaculate exorcist from moments ago.
"You…"
Clutching her injured arm, Sharon looked up at Leo hovering in the air. Her eyes had completely changed—shock and fury burned within them.
"When did you get this strong?"
She stared at the three pairs of devil wings behind him, at the overwhelming demonic power rising off his body, her heart twisting with disbelief and anger.
It hadn't even been that long since she last fought him. Only a few months.
Three months ago, she had received a summons from the Church's headquarters. There had been strange activity among the fallen angels, so she'd been sent to investigate.
She had left Chiba Prefecture for the headquarters, only recently returning.
During that time, she'd been informed that Leo had advanced to a High-Class Devil. She had mentally prepared herself to face a stronger opponent upon her return.
But never—not in her wildest expectations—did she imagine this.
Six wings?
Hadn't he only had two before?
And this demonic power? This destructive force? How could any newly advanced High-Class Devil possess something like this?
This power wasn't much weaker than that monster from three years ago…
Her mind unwillingly flashed back to one of the most vivid memories of her life.
Before she'd ever been assigned to Chiba Prefecture…
The Church had discovered an ancient devil sealed in a remote rural shrine. The creature had supposedly been locked away since the distant past, its power far too dangerous to allow revival.
Sharon had gone with a team of elite exorcists to contain the threat—only to find another unknown faction there with the same goal of removing the seal.
The two sides clashed.
But the one that slaughtered them was not each other.
It was the devil whose seal broke during the chaos.
The moment it awakened, it went berserk, reducing the entire area to a hellscape.
That day, Sharon survived only by pure luck. Every other member of the Church in that mission died on the spot. The unknown faction only managed to restrain the devil after sacrificing nearly all their combat power.
Even now, she remembered—vividly—how overwhelmingly powerful that creature had been. And supposedly, that wasn't even its true strength.
Leo couldn't compare to that kind of being back then.
But now? Judging by demonic power alone, he wasn't far off.
Shock and fury churned inside her.
"Ever heard the saying: if you haven't seen someone in three days, expect them to change?" Leo looked down at his long-time pursuer with a broad grin. Seeing her so disheveled clearly amused him.
"It's been more than just three days since we last saw each other. Isn't a little improvement normal?"
Normal?
Advancing from two wings to six in a few months? Multiplying his demonic power several times over?
Normal!?
Sharon's chest rose and fell sharply. And with her shredded nun's habit barely clinging to her form, the sight was… distracting for entirely the wrong reasons.
"Sister Sharon!"
"Lady Sharon!"
The surviving exorcists stumbled over to her. Judging by their injuries, they were completely out of the fight.
"…Retreat."
Sharon forced down her rage, gritting her teeth as she issued the order.
"But our mission…"
One of the exorcists hesitated.
They hadn't come here to confront Leo Eligos. According to reports, there had been disappearances in the area—evidence suggesting a Stray Devil. Sharon had been assigned to lead the investigation.
But they hadn't even reached the suspected Stray Devil's hideout when they ran into someone far more dangerous.
Leo Eligos—local devil representative of Chiba Prefecture. Fifteen years active in the region. Someone the Church had repeatedly failed to eliminate.
The last descendant of the Eligos family, once a pureblood devil line long thought extinct. Half pureblood devil, half Church exorcist. A living contradiction watched closely by the Underworld itself. A problem the Church of Chiba Prefecture had never been able to solve.
After he became a High-Class Devil, the Church had even issued a directive:
If you encounter Leo Eligos during a mission, abandon the objective and escape immediately.
But this time, they had Sharon—who had always been able to match him blow for blow. So the team had gambled on supporting her by stalling Yukino.
Who could have predicted this?
That the exorcist who once fought him evenly would be overwhelmed in the blink of an eye. That Leo's power would grow exponentially. That he'd become a six-winged devil.
There was no point continuing.
"Cancel the mission. I'll handle the report," Sharon said coolly. "Besides, his presence here suggests the same objective as ours. If the Stray Devil is already dealt with, then we haven't failed."
But the Church would see it differently.
Leo advancing to a six-winged High-Class Devil, strong enough to crush her with no effort—that would be the true disaster in their report.
Sharon could already picture the elders of the Church staring at each other in horrified silence.
"Move!"
Sharon made her decision instantly. After memorizing Leo's current appearance with a hard glare, she leapt into the shadows.
The exorcists scrambled after her, too afraid to lag behind—even a second.
Leo merely watched them flee. He didn't pursue. Only after their presence faded completely did he fold away his wings and descend to the ground.
"Not chasing them?"
Yukino approached, subtly checking him over before asking.
"If I wanted to kill exorcists from the Church, I wouldn't wait until now," Leo said, shaking his head. "The three factions are still in a ceasefire. Killing a low-rank fallen angel who breaks the rules is one thing. Slaughtering exorcists from the local Church would be a diplomatic nightmare."
It was an unspoken agreement between all sides. They could fight, could clash, but they left a line uncrossed.
Otherwise, someone like Leo—a pureblood devil's descendant sitting right on the Church's doorstep—would have been eliminated long ago. The Church would have sent top-tier exorcists, not left the task to local small fry.
Sharon was ruthless and underhanded when fighting devils, but even she wouldn't dare recklessly provoke the powers backing Leo. That was why she had spent three years chasing him without making a decisive move.
Leo had no intention of dwelling on it. After all, she had once even tried to seduce him during those early confrontations… and he hadn't exactly complained about the benefits.
Thinking of that, he couldn't help letting out a small laugh—along with a twinge of regret. With so many people around tonight, there was no way that "Sharon the Pure" would try anything similar.
"What are you thinking?" Yukino asked suspiciously. "Why are you making such an irritating face?"
What irritating face?
Leo swallowed back the retort and rolled his eyes at her.
"Come on. Let's go home."