The Exorcist's Arrival

"Hmm?"

In the dead of night, Leo had just emerged from the unfinished Entertainment Facility and was about to leave when he seemed to sense something and raised his eyes.

"What is it?"

Yukino Yukinoshita hurried after him with her schoolbag. When she saw Leo stop, she immediately asked in puzzlement.

"Nothing." Leo watched a certain direction, smiling as though he'd spotted prey. "Just some nuisances coming this way."

Nuisances?

Yukino looked puzzled, but before she could ask, several figures came racing toward them from the direction Leo was watching, moving at incredible speed.

They were clearly no ordinary people. Ordinary people couldn't move that fast, nor could they run along walls and the tops of streetlamps like these people, approaching soundlessly like ghosts.

"Those are..."

Yukino's expression changed when she got a clear look at them.

After becoming a Devil, Yukino had naturally gained the ability to see in the dark. So even with some distance between them, she could still make out the newcomers.

They were a group of clergy, some dressed as priests and others as nuns.

"People from the Church?"

Yukino easily figured out who they were, and her heart tightened.

Unlike Yukino, Leo was focused on just one person—the one in the lead.

She was a nun dressed in an extremely traditional habit.

Her beautiful golden hair couldn't be hidden by her veil, even in the dark. She had the features of a classic Western beauty, and her figure was so alluring that even her Nun Habit, which covered her from head to toe, couldn't conceal it. Her bright blue eyes gleamed in the darkness, stern and intimidating.

The nun led several priests straight in and stopped abruptly when she saw Leo and Yukino.

"Devils!"

The moment the priests saw Leo and Yukino, they immediately took up fighting stances.

But the nun in the lead raised a hand to stop them.

"Don't move. You're no match for him."

The nun's voice was so sweet it seemed completely at odds with her status as a member of the clergy. Anyone who heard it might feel a slight shiver run down their back.

As Leo watched her stop her companions, he suddenly smiled.

"So it really is you."

He sounded nothing like someone who'd run into an old adversary. He sounded more like he'd met an old acquaintance with whom he shared a complicated history.

"Oh, my. I never thought I'd run into you in a place like this."

The nun smiled sweetly, her smile and voice as lovely as her appearance. She greeted Leo as though he were a close friend, but there was an unmistakable chill in her eyes.

"You know her?"

Yukino found the nun's sweet demeanor a little sickening. Frowning, she asked Leo.

Leo gave a noncommittal nod, then turned to Yukino.

"Her name is Sharon Holy Grail. She's one of the strongest exorcists in the local Church here in Chiba Prefecture, known as Pure Sharon. She was transferred here from the Church's headquarters three years ago, and she's been hounding me ever since. She's gentle on the surface, but ruthless and unscrupulous underneath—a Devil Slayer."

Leo's words surprised Yukino.

"One of the strongest exorcists... and she's been hounding you for three whole years?"

Even that one sentence showed what a troublesome opponent Sharon was.

After all, an exorcist capable of keeping an eye on a High-Class Devil for three whole years couldn't possibly be some run-of-the-mill nobody.

"I wasn't a High-Class Devil three years ago." Leo could tell what Yukino was thinking and explained at once. "Of course, I wasn't far off, either. So she really does have some skill. You'd better be careful."

Before Yukino could reply, Sharon spoke first.

"Hearing you say that is rather ironic." Sharon's smile didn't waver. "If this so-called exorcist couldn't do a thing to you for three whole years, how can she claim to be the strongest?"

As she spoke, Sharon glanced at Yukino.

"That's the servant you took in a month ago, isn't it? I haven't had the chance to congratulate you on becoming a High-Class Devil!"

The last time Sharon had met Leo, he hadn't yet become a High-Class Devil.

So this was the first time they'd met since his promotion. But Sharon had clearly been keeping tabs on him, investigating every change and everything he'd done lately.

"Now that sounds like irony coming from you," Leo said to Sharon with a faintly amused smile. "What? Since you can't do anything to me, are you planning to target my servant instead?"

Yukino immediately tensed.

"Of course not." Sharon smiled sweetly. "If I went after a prominent young lady from a local Chiba family, even with a legitimate reason, it would cause a lot of trouble afterward. So even if I ran into the Second Young Lady of the Yukinoshita Family outside, I'd pretend I hadn't seen her."

Rather than putting Yukino at ease, Sharon's words made her feel belittled. Annoyance surfaced on her tense face.

"You think I'll believe that?" Leo scoffed. "I know how ruthless and unscrupulous you are when dealing with Devils. Drop the act. Don't make me send you to hell right here."

The smile vanished from Sharon's face.

The next moment, a BOOM of compressed air rang out. Sharon disappeared from where she stood, leaving a fierce gust in her wake.

"—!"

Yukino, standing beside Leo, abruptly looked up at the sky, her expression changing.

Sharon had somehow leaped high into the air. She raised her long leg and came crashing down, kicking with all her might.

BAM!

It was as if a massive iron ball had fallen from the sky. Sharon slammed down with her heel, shattering the ground and sending stones flying amid a wild gust of wind. The blow was astonishingly powerful.

A split second before it landed, Leo and Yukino both leaped backward, evading the heavy strike.

"You...!"

Yukino steadied herself, her temper flaring. But just as she was about to snap, she realized a group of priests had surrounded her.

The priests pulled out hilts with no blades, but sharp blades of light quickly extended from them, setting off alarm bells in Yukino's mind.

Light is poison. That was the first thing Leo's warning brought to mind.

These priests were undoubtedly exorcists from the Church. Blessed by God, they used Light Weapons formed from the angels' Light Power to destroy Devils.

The weapons in the priests' hands were Light Swords, used for exorcism.

A Devil's instincts warned Yukino that if one of those blades struck her, it would do tremendous damage. Her wound might even be worse than the one she'd suffered when the Fallen Angel Vaden had pierced her abdomen.

"...Step aside. I don't want to fight you."

Yukino tried to reason with them.

But the priests didn't say a word. They charged at her, swinging their Light Swords and slashing at her without mercy.

"Tch...!"

Yukino had no choice. Clicking her tongue, she released her Demonic Power and summoned the cold to fight back.

While Yukino was tied up with the priests, Sharon kept Leo occupied too.

The beautiful foreign nun wielded a Light Sword the size of a dagger in each hand. She rushed at Leo like a gust of wind and unleashed an unrelenting barrage of attacks.

Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—

The air repeatedly split with a series of sharp sounds. The Light Swords slashed through it one after another, drawing long trails of light as they cut toward Leo.

Her slashes were far more skillful than the Stray Devil's reckless charges just now—and faster, too. More dangerous.

If Yukino had faced that attack, she might not have been able to deal with it in the confusion. She could easily have suffered a serious setback.

But Leo had been dealing with Sharon for three years. There was no way he couldn't handle her attacks.

"Still as merciless as ever. You can be smiling and chatting with someone one moment, then take their life without a sound the next. No wonder you're the infamous Devil Slayer."

Leo held an unconscious girl in his arms, yet his movements were still swift. He flitted about like a butterfly among flowers, shifting through the crisscrossing trails of light and dodging each of Sharon's attacks.

"Didn't you just call me ruthless and unscrupulous? Why should I hold back?"

Sharon didn't seem to expect she could take Leo down easily. As she answered, she suddenly hurled the Light Swords in her hands, sending them flying toward his face.

Leo tilted his head and dodged the two blades flying at him, only to see Sharon pull a handgun from beneath her Nun Habit and fire repeatedly at his chest.

A volley of Light Bullets shot from the muzzle toward Leo.

The gun was also a kind of Light Weapon. It wasn't loaded with ordinary bullets, but Light Bullets, so it made no gunshot noise and was hard to defend against.

Leo had only just started to dodge when a barrage of Light Bullets came flying at him. They were too fast and too close together for him to dodge a second time.

Vmmm!

Leo immediately released his Demonic Power and formed a barrier of it.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—

The Light Bullets struck the barrier, scattering particles of light like sparks.

Seeing this, Sharon narrowed her eyes and was about to charge at Leo again when several magic circles suddenly appeared around her.

BOOM!

A tremendous shockwave burst from the magic circles and struck the spot where Sharon stood, setting off a thunderous blast.