Pushing back quite a distance and forcing to shut my eyes tight to block out the dust. It took a while for the dust to settle and the heat to diminish before I could risk opening my eyes.
The sight before made groan in frustration.
...
"HEHEHEHEAAAAA~ well that was definitely an eye-opener!" Kokabiel crackled as he erged from the flas, now sporting a few bruises, burns and so wounds that were ultimately non-fatal. Despite of those wounds being present on his body, his eyes were the most telling; they were not showing anger or frustration from all those attacks, there was a light of elation that spoke greatly of his rekindled desire for a strong fighter to take him on.
Crap.
"You seem to favor the combination of Eastern and Western Arts of exorcism, and that odd combo with the Sacred Gear. Clearly you are one who has trained a lot to utilize it in such a short while. That is good, you are ultimately the one that dealt the most damage to . If I hadn't taken another bite of the fruit before the attack, that would surely be my end." He looked at the others as spoke. "Then we have the Red Dragon Emperor, The Princess of Destruction and even the Thunder Queen who inherited the powers of Barakiel."
"Don't ntion that man's na around !" Despite the situation, I nearly pointed my blades at her out of a reflex from the sheer venom in her voice. Kokabiel rely shrugged as he looked on.
"The Sitri Princess and her small group of fighters aren't too bad in the tactics departnt. That's from the devils, then we have the Catholics who could hang on pretty well considering the power gap. Truly, the whole lot of you are able to do so well despite the loss of your masters!" Kokabiel spread his wings wide as he let out a laugh. "Truly, I am so thankful for this generation!"
"… What do you an by that last part?" Griselda asked while looking at him with a critical eye, no doubt noting the odd set of words Kokabiel used to describe us.
"Hmm~ oh yes, I forgot. Lower-ranked children are not permitted to know about this information. Oh well, since this might be the last fight you would ever have, allow to enlighten you." He paused as he waited for everyone to listen to him. "During the Great War, the Fours Maous were not the only casualties from the fight. God himself was killed."
...
If there was a record for the most amount of silence in an area, I think we just broke it. It was as though the area was covered in a vacuum, stifling everything in an instant. To the side, I could see the exorcists dropping their arms and releasing their tight grip on their weapons, too shocked at the information that was said. The devils were not too far behind in both distance and thoughts, but the ones that seed to be hit the hardest was Rias, Sona and Akeno.
"… You lie." Xenovia said softly before her voice took on a higher and sowhat shrill volu. "You are lying! There is no way that God is dead! You are just trying to distract us!"
"Oh~ am I now?" Kokabiel raised his hand and waved roughly in my direction, or rather the person behind . "Why don't you ask my forr underling over there?" From the corner of my eye, I could see everyone direct their gazes at Mitelt who had finally regained consciousness in ti to hear what Kokabiel said.
"… It is true." Mitelt looked down to avoid their stares. "Father is dead. He has been dead since the Great War"
"But it can't be!" Xenovia seed to have lost all of her strength and just buckled to the floor like a loose puppet without her strings. "How?"
"My Lord Kokabiel, is this true?!" Everyone turned to find Galilei who was no longer sporting a smile but an expression of absolute shock and despair. "Is God truly dead?!"
"Is it really that surprising? The evidence has been staring in your faces for quite a while now." Kokabiel remarked as he raised an eyebrow. "The birth of True Angels has ceased since his Death. The line of the 72 Pillars have all but disappeared along with the Four Maous. Even our side got our numbers reduced to the point that we needed ti to recover. The devils understood that pain all too well by seeking the humans for procreation or reincarnation, whereas the angels sought the prayers to maintain their strength. But what can one do with such worthless sheep? They lose so much control if they find out their Shepard was no longer amongst them, so the Higher-Ups have decided to hide the truth about it." He turned to the exorcists with a dark chuckle. "I dare say even your Pope knows a little about it."
"No, it couldn't be…" For the first ti since I t her, there seed to be a crack in Griselda's exterior, showing a hint of the despair at the knowledge. "But the Pope wouldn't…"
"As I have said, he might know or at least suspected sothing." Kokabiel seemingly, if sowhat disarmingly, tried to defend the Pope. "You should have so idea seeing as you are one of the more senior exorcists, but have you noticed the recent attempts at bringing in people to the church, how he attempted to restore the faith of people who questioned the teachings? How about the other signs that are present?"
With a hand, he pointed at . "How about the magician who could supposedly create weapons that combine the aspects of both heavenly properties and hell's? Such ideas have been present before, but none were successful before. The re hint of such a move would be catastrophic as the two would cancel each other out explosively. Soone like him should have failed spectacularly in such a creation."
He then motioned to Asia with his head. "How about the girl who was once hailed as a saint, only to be discarded for healing a devil? I have seen the Sacred Gear a few tis in the past, Twilight Healing should not be able to heal any other creatures aside from humans and Angels, thus her able to heal a devil without repercussions is proof that the system was broken."
"No…" It kind of pulled my heart a little when I saw the senior seemingly break down from the truth before her. Sothing about this scene reminded of the Holy Grail War when Rin discovered all the nasty truths about the Grail, Kotomine Kirei, the death of her parents and Sakura. As much as I would like her and the others to mull over the matters, this was not the ti and place to do so. I highly doubt Kokabiel was going to let us go so easily, and I could really use so backup for this.
… I supposed that approach would work. It did worked with Rin after she found out the truth.
'Oh boy, this is going to be so awkward.'
There was only one way to defuse this and likely resulting in a bit of head-bashing for my part. I briefly closed my eyes and took a deep breath, before letting out my thoughts.
"So what?" Everyone looked at with a surprised face. "So the big guy is dead? That is like old news. I never bothered with the whole religion thing, so I don't care."
"What~?" Despite the situation, I nearly chuckled at the sound that Ise made while the others looked at as though I grew a third head.
"I am an atheist, I don't really bother with the whole religion issue." I paused before speaking again. "Well, I call myself an atheist, but that is just part of my cover story. Considering I am a magus and there are other gods out there, that is a mistake. I guess I am more liberal in the thinking, I just don't get caught up with the idea that Gods must exist in the world. There are better ways to do things than to depend on the Gods all the ti."
"Young man, are you even aware of what you are saying?!" At least I knocked Griselda off her depression horse, now she was looking at with a hint of anger.
"So young magician, you are of the opinion that humans will remain unaffected even if the news was broken out to them?" Kokabiel asked with an amused and curious expression. "That they can carry on without God watching over them?"
"Oh there will always be a fallout. There will always be people who will lose their heads and faith once they find out the one they believed in is not really there." I recalled the worlds I travelled to, recalling the reactions by the various magus who found their own research heinous after discovering sothing so profound it consud them. Hell, the Holy Grail War was one for Rin and Luvia when they found out the true nature.
"Thing is, we humans have mostly been on the short end of the stick when it cos to the Gods, Devils or any other supernatural creatures since the old days. Those stories you hear about the 'Champions of Gods', those are mostly just people who were unknowingly chosen by the Gods to be their spokesman, their way of showing to others that they have a bigger stick than the rest."
I continued while drawing upon the mories of the Noble Phantasms, so of which were resonating in agreent with my words. "So why not? The death of another god isn't going to affect us too much, it would be likely be better in the long run. Humanity has lived long and prospered without much assistance of the gods.
Think about we have accomplished without them, I an." I pointed at the moon with a wry smile. "You think the gods like Selene or Igaluk are able to help mankind get to the moon? Are there any who could help us check galaxies for our possible second Earth? We worked our asses off to do that. We may have failed at the Tower of Babel, but we can definitely reach the stars."
"…"
...
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