Chapter 424: Kouhei Vs. Via, Part 1
However, something about this situation was different.
Via was an infamous fallen angel.
His reputation wasn’t based solely on strength, either. Other fallen angels despised him, feared him, and treated him as someone who was dangerous even by their own standards. Someone with that kind of reputation shouldn’t have been defeated by a simple opening like this.
Aria’s instincts immediately screamed that something was wrong.
"ARIA!" Yuuna suddenly shouted.
The warning came too late.
Aria’s eyes widened as she finally sensed the danger behind her.
Before she could turn around, a sword plunged through her back.
The blade emerged from the front of her chest, passing between her breasts as the sudden impact forced the air from her lungs. Aria stared down at the weapon sticking out of her body, her expression frozen in disbelief for a moment before the pain finally reached her.
She coughed violently.
A mouthful of blood spilled from her lips.
"Aria!"
Yuuna’s voice was filled with panic as she desperately tried to summon another Crimson Dance.
Her hands moved as she attempted to recreate the technique, but the mana simply wasn’t there anymore.
Yuuna had already spent nearly everything she possessed on the previous attack.
She tried forcing more power out of herself anyway, but her body refused to cooperate. Her breathing became heavier as she struggled to even gather enough energy for another attack, and the realization that she couldn’t immediately help Aria made her frustration boil over.
"Oh, dear," Via said as he looked at Aria’s wounded chest.
His voice carried a strangely casual tone despite the situation, almost as though he were commenting on something mildly inconvenient rather than having just stabbed someone.
"It looks like you’ve hurt yourself," Via continued. "That’s rather unfortunate, isn’t it? Thankfully, you didn’t damage your breasts. It would have been quite unfortunate if they ended up with holes in them, wouldn’t it? You have an impressive body, after all."
"Damn you!" Yuuna shouted.
Her anger surged as she tried once again to gather enough mana for another attack.
She didn’t care if she had to burn through the last scraps of energy inside her body. Aria was injured, and Yuuna wasn’t about to simply stand there and watch Via do whatever he wanted.
The situation was even more dangerous because Via was a fallen angel.
Yuuna immediately realized that there was a possibility he had infused the sword with holy power. If that was the case, then Aria’s injury could be far more serious than an ordinary sword wound.
Via seemed to notice the fear in Yuuna’s expression and laughed.
"Fuhaha! You don’t have to look so frightened," he said. "I only injured her with an ordinary sword."
Via glanced at the weapon currently embedded in Aria.
"If I created a sword entirely from my heavenly power, this maid would die immediately."
He paused before his grin widened.
"That doesn’t mean I can’t coat an ordinary sword with my power, though. So, if you don’t want her to die..."
Via’s tongue slowly stretched out as he leaned closer to Aria.
One of his hands began reaching toward her breast.
"...then you’ll have to do exactly what I say from now on."
However, before Via could continue, something suddenly changed.
He felt a presence.
It was unlike anything he had sensed before.
The bloodlust pouring from the newcomer was so intense that it seemed to suffocate the entire area around them. The sheer killing intent was overwhelming, carrying such hostility that even someone like Via couldn’t casually ignore it.
Bloodlust normally didn’t bother him.
Via had encountered countless powerful individuals throughout his existence, and many of them had possessed enough killing intent to frighten ordinary people. He had always found that sort of thing entertaining at best.
This was different.
The pressure coming from this particular presence was heavy enough to make even him stop what he was doing.
Via slowly turned his head toward the source.
"You... what do you think you’re doing?"
The man Via had noticed earlier had finally appeared.
Kouhei had arrived.
Via stared at him for a moment, slightly confused by the intensity of the presence surrounding him. At the same time, however, a smile slowly formed across his face.
All of the people he had been waiting for had finally gathered.
The situation had suddenly become much more interesting.
"Good," Via muttered with a grin. "Perfect timing. Now I can finally..."
He never finished the sentence.
Kouhei suddenly dashed toward him.
The movement was so fast that Via’s expression changed almost instantly. Kouhei crossed the distance between them with terrifying speed, his body moving directly toward Via before a concentrated Blade of Light formed in his hand.
The blade wasn’t an ordinary manifestation of light.
The power packed inside it was extremely dense, and Via immediately recognized the nature of the energy surrounding it.
His eyes widened.
W-What the?!
Holy power?!
Via couldn’t understand what he was seeing.
A demon was wielding holy power.
That should have been impossible.
Demons and holy power were fundamentally incompatible, at least according to everything Via knew. A demon shouldn’t have been able to properly wield such an energy, much less condense it into a weapon capable of threatening a fallen angel.
Yet Kouhei was doing exactly that.
The Blade of Light in his hand was unmistakably infused with holy power.
Via’s expression finally became serious.
He had no choice but to release Aria.
His hand immediately moved to intercept Kouhei’s attack, forcing him to abandon his previous position and focus entirely on the incoming threat.
The moment the two powers collided, the force of the impact spread through the surrounding area.
Via realized something important.
He had underestimated Kouhei.
If he hadn’t underestimated him, he would have simply killed Aria the moment he had the opportunity and dealt with Kouhei afterward. Instead, he had allowed himself to become distracted because he had never considered Kouhei to be an immediate threat.
That mistake had cost him his advantage.