Lesson in Humility

A massive explosion rocked the building as everyone felt it crumbling around them; with that a cloud of dust obscured their vision and causing Sona, Tsubaki, Irina, and Xenovia to start coughing.

"Well, here's a happy occasion. The three leaders of biblical faction the ready to make our lives boring." A crazed voice exclaimed.

When the smoke cleared, the first thing they noticed was the complete destruction of the building. The next thing they paid attention to were the enemies that had expectedly interrupted their meeting. Standing before them was a ten-winged fallen angel, a blue-haired god, a well-built human man radiating Greek-aspected divine power, A lithe human young man with a red spear, a black-haired young man wielding another spear, and a legion of soldiers. While this was clearly more enemies than they had anticipated, it wasn't too surprising considering the recent attack on their forces.

The first man had long black hair, red sclera, red irises, and pointy ears. His face twisted into a permanently ugly look of hatred and disgust. He possesses five pairs of black wings and wears a black robe with detailed accessories and purple shoulder pads with gold streaks on the side. This man was clearly Kokabiel, the former star of God.

The second, was a handsome man with light blue hair that floats behind him with two small shoulder length bangs, 3 blue jewels on his forehead, and a pair of yellow earrings. On his body was a high-collard white robe. This man was Loki, the god originally destined to bring Ragnarok on the Norse faction.

The third was a well-built man with light blue hair standing at two meters tall. He had a dark blue skin tight body suit under what looked like a modified brown Greek leather armor. Based on the reports, this was the descendant of Heracles.

The fourth was a young man with short blue hair and red eyes. He wore a skin-tight blue body suit with silver shoulder pads and was wielding what looked like the Gae Bolg. This man was clearly the descendant of Cú Chulainn.

The last was a young man with short black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a combination of a Japanese school uniform and ancient Chinese attire. He was also wielding a silver spear with a blue rod and golden accents. This was the descendant of Cao Cao, the wielder of the True Longinus.

"Brother" Rias said quietly.

"Yes Rias?" Sirzechs questioned, his eyes still focused on the enemy.

"I think I'm going to have to alter the plan a bit. Cao Cao needs to die. If he lives, then the hero faction will expand to become too large of a threat." She said with a small smile.

"Go ahead, but only him. Okay?" He knew the 'for the sake of stopping the great evil' routine was a misdirection. She wanted that spear, but she didn't want him. She likely planned to assimilate its powers. It wouldn't be a bad idea either, especially with Michaels earlier request. If she could assimilate a portion of the Biblical God's will, they would have a higher chance of success restructuring the angels. That said, he needed to make this look a lot worse than it was.

Suddenly, a flash of red flew past them and aimed at Azazel's heart. With the quickest reaction he'd ever mustered, Azazel raised his arm to stand in the path of the blur. Then, it pierced through what looked like a golden gauntlet that appeared on his hand. Thanks to the gauntlet, it only pierced his arm. However, before he could return with some banter, the now identified red spear released a myriad of red spines into his arm.

"Ack!" He grunted in agonizing pain.

The spines continued to spread like a poison up his arm and to his shoulder. The pain was unbearable. Before they could reach that point, he cut it off.

Once done, the spear pulled itself out of his arm and flew back to the blue suited man.

"I missed." He said with a smirk. "You're one of the few people I've encountered who weren't skewered by that blow."

Panting, Azazel gritted his teeth as he used light magic to seal the wound. There went his prototype sacred gear.

*Sigh* 'At least it saved my life. Who knew they'd get their hands on that spear?' He thought to himself.

"Well, you've certainly made a mockery of us, haven't you?" Sirzechs said, incredibly startled by how fast Azazel had lost an arm. They had planned to take a loss, but that was pushing it. "I guess we'll need to get some points back. Won't we sister?" He said as he looked at his sister's smirk.

Within a second, she shot forward and before he could process anything further, she was already in front of Cao Cao, her sword flying at his heart. She should have been able to kill him instantly, but her power diminished in front of the spear. It seemed like God's remnant will put pressure on her power. Considering he had fought the Trihexa, she wasn't all that surprised. With a surprised expression, Cao Cao hastily pulled his spear in to block her attack.

As soon as the two weapons clashed everyone around them was pushed back by the destructive blast. Around them, everything disintegrated into atoms as the power of her authority was scattered into the shockwave.

Offhandedly, she noticed the others starting to engage in their fights. The barrier would no longer be an option it seemed. For when she looked at Loki, she saw him summoning his family members: Fenrir, Skoll and Hati. Soon, a massive black dragon serpent with beady red eyes rose from the ground and wrapped the entirety of Kuoh town with its body. This was the Dragon King, Midgardsormr. The annoying thing about him was that his presence would make it virtually impossible to conceal this event.

'Is this going to be the day when the world finds out about the supernatural? I really hope not, but I really don't see how we're going to cover this up. Meh. I'll just leave it to my brother. I'll be leaving for the land of sloth with my pillars anyway to help Hanabi after this.' With that thought finished, Rias returned to her battle.

In front of her, Cao Cao's hands were trembling as her power started affecting his body. The spear may have had God's Will, but it was only a remnant. Before it could get too bad though, the spear lit up in a golden light and her energy was gone.

"Well, I didn't expect to be greeted so quickly by the new super devil." He said with a wavering smile. He hadn't expected to be attacked like that. If it hadn't been for his spear, he would've been dead before he even knew what happened. The two continued exchanging blows for a few minutes before separating.

'Why is she still able to use her powers? The spear should be taking away her abilities.' He thought with narrowed eyes.

"You rely too much on that spear." She said with annoyance. This man should've been dead already.

"We humans need these kinds of tools to face the supernatural. Heroes are known for using the weapons of the gods to kill them." He said cockily. By the way she was talking and stalling, the spear was likely working. It just took a little more time. He was really glad we went into balance breaker before coming here or this would've been a whole lot harder. With it active though, this devil doesn't stand a chance. As long as he stores the treasure orbs in the spear, her power can't bypass his defenses.

"Aren't you supposed to be heroes, why join the likes of these war mongering idiots?" Rias asked.

Shaking his head, Cao Cao responded.

"They have their uses. My goal is to stop the three factions from interfering with humans. To stop all gods from doing so. The hero faction will save humanity!" He said with an arrogant smile.

"A grand goal. Good intentions too. If only you didn't decide to help these chuckleheads while trying to achieve it. You could have lived." Rias lunged forward at a heightened speed; her sword aimed at his heart.

'This one's easier. She must not be able to use that last attack freely, it did look pretty taxing. I just need to wait till she's slightly out of range and extend the blade. She'll be skewered before she even realizes it. She must not have a lot of combat experience. Most competent fighters wouldn't make a lunge that would leave them open like that.' He thought proudly. This would be an easy kill that would bring him glory like no other. Him, slaying a super devil. Even if she was inexperienced, it wouldn't matter. This would be the first step to his dream.

Before he could raise his spear though, a caramel-colored hand reached from behind him and gripped the hand that held his Longinus. As soon as it made contact, his balance breaker state reverted to normal and his connection with the gear was temporarily halted. An instant later, his heart was stabbed with Rias's Sword of Akasha.

"I read your file Cao Cao. While your intellect is impressive, your arrogance is beyond imagination. All it took was for you to see a girl your age showing countless openings and you assume me an amateur. You didn't even consider that I would have backup or that I was bluffing. When you received that initial strike, your best option would have been to teleport away and regroup to gather more information on me before re-engaging. Too late though." She said as she used the sword as a medium to amplify her energy to connect with the True Longinus. Upon doing so, it started to dissolve.

Realizing his approaching end, Cao Cao's face distorted into panic.

'I can't die here. I have so much to live for. I have a legacy to build! I can't leave my people! We were meant to save humanity from the supernatural!' His thoughts rose in volume within his mind. Soon, the True Longinus shone with a bright iridescent light and within an instant Cao Cao was teleported away by the slowly disintegrating sacred gear. Its last act was to invoke a miracle to save him by separating itself from him and sending him away with a healed body. He could still grow into a good person and the will of God inside the spear would give him that opportunity. Unfortunately for it, it was connected to a sword with an authority that would end it and was bound by the divine authority of two goddesses. It took everything it had just to send Cao Cao away; it wouldn't be able to escape itself since it was the primary target of the suppression. Cao Cao may not have realized it, but it did. Her target was always the True Longinus.

The person who helped Rias was Termini. She had asked her to spectate the battle and help her kill anyone who Rias personally targeted. Termini had used her authority 'reset'. It was her personal destruction authority that allowed her to bring something back to an earlier point in time. When she was still filling her world's destroyer role, she was given enough power to reset the world itself. Now, her powers had fallen significantly. Still though, she could easily revert a balance breaker to its normal state. The only downside is that she also restores the energy expended in its usage. She still needed to get better control when using these smaller uses of her power. Considering, she'd never used her power with this little power, it was a work in progress. If she hadn't controlled her power better, Cao Cao would have been reverted back into a Zygote, which would kill him pretty quickly. That would be bad for Rias as Heaven's system would have been able to take the True Longinus back.

Rias wasn't supposed to fight anyone today, so if she personally engaged, then the kill was important. She didn't have time for a prolonged battle where the enemy could escape. The request to Termini was to intervene and give her an opportunity to instant kill her enemy. She didn't want to rely on Termini, but she truly suspected that fate was desperate to save this man. She could feel it in her power of prophecy that this man would escape. Based on the knowledge that was slowly trickling in about the True Longinus's abilities, he even had a chance of killing her if he played his cards right. This sacred gear was just that powerful and the man himself was an extremely capable fighter. It was his own arrogance that prevented him from considering her to be a competent fighter as well. Caution is always the way to go in these types of situations it seems. It was only thanks to a person who exists outside of this word's fate, Termini, that she could retrieve the True Longinus from him today. Even then, he still escaped.

Anyways, she would store this power in a marble. Maybe she would blend its power into Medusa's regalia. She had heard Medusa used to use two thin daggers connected by a chain. Maybe the Longinus's power can be merged into that. It would certainly work toward freeing her from Athena's influence.