But Kokabiel was no re fallen angel. He was the Star of God, the one who'd fought Michael himself during the Great War. A human boy would not make him cower.
"Ha!" Kokabiel threw back his head and laughed, the sound echoing across the mountainside. "Is that supposed to frighten ? Your parlor tricks are nothing compared to true divine fury!"
The lie tasted bitter on his tongue. This wasn't parlor tricks. This was sothing primal, sothing that made his every instinct scream warnings. But appearances mattered. His followers needed to see strength, not doubt.
"You want to know about your precious parents?" Kokabiel's grin turned vicious. "Your father begged, you know. Actually got on his knees and pleaded for your mother's life. Pathetic. And your mother—oh, she was so brave right until the end. Right until she realized how far she had to fall."
The temperature spiked again. Kokabiel felt sweat bead on his forehead despite the Alpine cold.
Good. Anger makes warriors stupid. Let him charge up here in blind rage.
"Twenty-seven seconds," Kokabiel continued, his voice carrying easily across the distance. "That's how long it took her to hit the ground. I counted. I wanted to savor every mont of her terror as she fell to her death!"
Leon still hadn't moved. Still hadn't spoken. The silence was sohow worse than screaming would have been.
Kokabiel's left wing twitched involuntarily.
Why isn't he attacking? Why isn't he flying into a rage and charging up here like every other grief-stricken fool I've ever faced?
Behind him, he sensed his followers shifting nervously. Even they could feel it now, the sense that they were staring down sothing far more dangerous than anticipated.
"What's wrong, Mishima?" Kokabiel called out, forcing mockery into his voice. "Lost your nerve? Or are you finally smart enough to realize you're outmatched? I have twenty fallen angels at my back! This is my prepared ground! You're nothing but a spoiled rich boy playing with toys he doesn't understand!"
Then silence, for a mont everything was tense.
"Are you done?" Leon said,
Before Kokabiel could say more, Leon moved.
One mont he was standing at the base of the mountain, the next he was in front of Kokabiel, close enough that the fallen angel could see his own reflection in the golden glow of Leon's eyes.
Kokabiel's eyes widened. Up close, he could see past the golden glow to what lay beneath. These weren't the eyes of a grief-stricken boy anymore. They were the eyes of sothing terrifying and primal, sothing that had decided that rcy was no longer an option.
Before the fallen angel could move, Leon's hand gripped his face.
"What—" Kokabiel started to say, but the words got cut off as Leon's fingers tightened around his skull like a vice.
Then Leon slamd him down.
The mountaintop exploded. Rock and ice flew everywhere as Kokabiel's body carved a crater three feet deep into solid stone. The impact sent shockwaves rippling outward, making the other fallen angels stumble.
"My lord!" one of them shouted.
Kokabiel tried to push himself up, spitting blood and debris. "You little—"
Leon's boot connected with his ribs. The crack echoed like a gunshot.
Kokabiel flew sideways, tumbling across the rocky ground before slamming into a boulder. The rock split in half from the impact.
Kokabiel snarled and launched himself forward, his wings spreading wide. Light spears materialized in both hands as he thrust them toward Leon's chest.
Leon didn't dodge. The spears hit him dead-on, but the divine armor flickered to life across his body just before impact. The weapons shattered against the protection like glass hitting steel.
"Impossible!" Kokabiel gasped.
Leon grabbed the fallen angel by the hair and lifted him off the ground.
He then threw Kokabiel straight up into the air, then leaped after him. His fist caught the fallen angel in the stomach mid-flight, folding him in half around the blow.
They crashed back down together, Leon driving Kokabiel face-first into the mountain. Another crater ford, this one even deeper.
Kokabiel rolled away desperately, his face a mask of blood and dirt. "Attack him!" he scread at his followers. "All of you! Now!"
Three fallen angels dove toward Leon from different angles, light spears crackling in their hands.
Leon caught the first one by the wrist and used him as a club to bat away the second. The third one's spear scraped along his armored shoulder, leaving barely a scratch.
Leon easily backhanded the third attacker. The fallen angel spun through the air like a rag doll before hitting a tree so hard it exploded into splinters.
Kokabiel tried to use the distraction to escape, his wings beating frantically as he took to the air. But Leon was already moving again.
He jumped straight up, covering fifty feet in a single bound. His hand closed around Kokabiel's ankle and yanked him back down.
"Where do you think you're going?" Leon asked.
His hand shot out faster than Kokabiel could follow, grabbing the fallen angel by the front of his robes.
Leon gripped his throat as he lifted him off the ground effortlessly. The fallen angel's feet dangled uselessly as those golden eyes stared into his soul.
Kokabiel's eyes widened in terror as he finally understood.
The mana around Leon intensified, crackling like electricity in the air.
"Please—" Kokabiel gasped.
Kokabiel's vision blurred as another devastating blow connected with his ribs. The sickening crack of bone filled his ears, but the pain was nothing compared to the cold terror spreading through his chest.
Leon's grip tightened around Kokabiel's throat.
"You know what's funny?" Leon's voice was quiet. The golden glow in his eyes pulsed with each word. "I expected more from the Star of God."
Kokabiel's face was turning purple, but Leon loosened his grip just enough to let him breathe.
"You're weak." Leon tilted his head, studying the fallen angel like he was examining a particularly disappointing insect. "Pathetically weak. I thought soone who fought Michael would at least make break a sweat."
"Weak?" Kokabiel's eyes blazed with fury. "WEAK?!"
Mana erupted around him in a desperate burst of power. Light spears materialized by the dozens, hovering in the air like a constellation of deadly stars. "I am Kokabiel! I commanded legions in the Great War! I made angels weep and devils flee!"
"And now you're getting beaten up by a high school student." Leon's tone was flat, bored even. "How the mighty have fallen, right?"
Kokabiel roared and launched every spear at once. The air filled with blazing light as dozens of divine weapons converged on Leon from every angle.
Leon didn't even flinch.
The spears hit his armor and shattered like they were made of cheap glass. The golden radiance around him didn't even flicker.
"Weak." Leon said, and drove his knee into Kokabiel's stomach.
The fallen angel's breathing ca in ragged gasps, his divine power spent and broken.
"Any last words?" Leon asked, his voice carrying that sa flat, bored tone.
Kokabiel's mouth opened, but only blood ca out. His wings twitched uselessly against the rocky ground.
Leon's fist began to glow with concentrated mana. The air around them humd with lethal energy.
Then sothing sharp and cold punched through his back.
Leon's eyes widened as pain exploded through his chest. He looked down to see a blade protruding from between his ribs, dark blood spreading across his shirt.
"What—" Leon gasped, his grip on Kokabiel loosening.
The fallen angel dropped to the ground like a sack of at, wheezing and clutching his throat.
Leon turned slowly, golden eyes blazing with fury and confusion. Standing behind him, still gripping the hilt of an ornate dagger, was a familiar face.
"Alessia?"
"Oh, Leon." The voice was Alessia's, but the tone was completely different. Mocking. Amused. "You really should pay more attention to your surroundings during a fight."
Leon staggered forward, one hand pressed against the wound in his chest. His mana core was working overti, trying to heal the damage, but the blade had done sothing to disrupt the process.
"Who are you?"
The fake valkyrie chuckled. "Very good. Though it did take you getting stabbed to figure it out."
The air around her began to shimr and warp like heat waves. Her appearance started to shift and change, like a mirage coming into focus.
The modest black robes dissolved into shadows. What stood in their place was sothing else entirely.
Tall and lean, with sharp, angular features that looked like they'd been carved from marble, his skin was pale as snow, almost translucent. Long white hair that floated behind him like a tail & two chest length bangs.
"Allow to introduce myself properly." He gave a mocking bow.
"I am Loki, God of Lies, Trickster of Asgard."
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