When Did He Get This Strong?

"Boom!"

The deafening crash echoed through the otherwise silent night, making the entire area around the entertainment facility shake.

A cloud of dust rose from where the roar had come from. Gravel and rubble were swept away by the blast, making the scene look as if a powerful missile had struck.

The shockwave had produced no flames, but it became a force of pure destruction, stirring the air and sending wave after wave of pressure surging outward.

Yukino Yukinoshita, who was grappling with several exorcists not far away, was startled. A gale slammed into her head-on, forcing her to raise an arm to shield herself. Freezing Breath swirled around her like white mist, freezing every piece of flying rubble before it could hit her.

The exorcists weren't nearly as capable. Some were swept away by the gusts, while others were struck by the flying debris. They managed only a few short cries of alarm or pain before crashing to the ground some distance away.

Amid the destruction, Leo was the only one left completely untouched. Six demonic wings spread behind him as he hovered in midair, one arm still holding the unconscious girl while he extended the other. Terrifying Demonic Power surged around his outstretched hand, making it clear who had caused the devastation.

"Ugh..."

Sharon appeared somewhere else, seemingly having dodged the magic circle that had surrounded her at the very last moment and avoided taking the full force of that astonishing Magic Impact.

Even so, she was in no condition to fight. Her nun habit was torn in several places, as though the flying rubble had ripped it to shreds. Her exposed fair skin was covered in tiny cuts and bloodstains, and dust smeared her once-lovely face, leaving her utterly disheveled.

"You..."

Clutching one injured arm, Sharon looked up at Leo hovering in the air. Her expression had changed completely.

She was shocked. She was furious.

"When did you get this strong?"

Sharon stared at the three pairs of Devil Wings behind Leo and felt the astonishing Demonic Power rising from him. Her heart filled with anger and alarm.

It had been a while since she last dealt with Leo, but only a few months had passed.

About three months ago, she had received orders from headquarters. There had been unusual activity among the Fallen Angels, and she was to investigate.

So she had actually left Chiba Prefecture for a time and gone to Church Headquarters. She had only returned shortly before this.

While she was away, she had also heard that Leo had been promoted to a High-Class Devil. She had prepared herself for the possibility that she would face a stronger Leo upon her return.

But she had never imagined that his promotion to High-Class Devil would bring such a drastic transformation.

Six wings?

Hadn't he only had two before?

And that Demonic Power, that destructive force—how could a newly promoted High-Class Devil possibly wield such power?

His strength was almost on par with that monster she had encountered three years ago, wasn't it?

Sharon couldn't help remembering an incident that had left a deep impression on her.

It had happened before she was transferred to Chiba Prefecture.

At the time, she had received word from the Church that a Devil sealed away since the Primordial Era had been found in a remote village. The Devil possessed extraordinarily dangerous power, and if it were allowed to return, it would surely cause serious trouble.

So she and a group of elite exorcists sent by the Church had entered the Sealed Land. There, they encountered a group from an unknown faction who had received the same information and intended to break the seal.

The two sides had fought fiercely, but the result was that both suffered heavy losses.

However, it wasn't their fighting that had caused the mutual losses. The Devil had broken free of its seal, gone on a rampage, and slaughtered everyone in sight, turning the whole place into hell.

That day, Sharon had been lucky enough to escape alive. Everyone else from the Church had died on the spot, while the people from the unknown faction had taken the Devil away after suffering enormous losses.

Even now, Sharon still remembered how powerful that Devil had been. It was said that it hadn't even unleashed its dangerous power. If it had, even the strongest fighters of the various factions would have had to take it seriously.

The Leo she had known before could never have compared to such a being. But now, in terms of Demonic Power alone, he was already almost its equal.

That left Sharon both shocked and furious.

"Have you never heard the saying, 'After three days apart, you must look at someone with new eyes'?"

Leo looked down at the old rival who had constantly hounded him. Seeing how battered she was, he couldn't help grinning.

"We haven't seen each other for months, which is a lot longer than three days. Isn't it only natural that I'd have changed this much?"

Natural?

Going from Two-Wing to Six-Wing in just a few months, with her Demonic Power increasing who knew how many times over—how could that be called natural?

Sharon's chest heaved. Worse, her nun habit, which had once concealed her completely, was now tattered, revealing glimpses of skin that invited the imagination.

"Sister Sharon!"

"Lady Sharon!"

The exorcists dressed as priests staggered over to Sharon. From their battered condition, it was clear they couldn't keep fighting.

"...Retreat."

Sharon forced down her anger and gritted out the order.

"But our mission..."

One of the priests hesitated, sounding concerned.

They hadn't come here to surround Leo, a High-Class Devil, at his door. Reports had indicated that people were disappearing in the area for unknown reasons, and that a Stray Devil might be involved. Sharon had led the investigation and extermination mission.

But now, before they'd even entered the mission site, they had encountered someone infinitely more dangerous than their target.

Leo Eligos was the local Devil representative in Chiba Prefecture. He had been active in the area for fifteen years, and the Church had never managed to take him down.

Rumor had it that he was the last Heir of the now-extinct Eligos Clan, with the blood of a Pure-blood Devil running through one half of his veins and that of an exorcist from their own Church through the other. As the descendant of a prestigious clan, he had continued to receive attention and support from the Underworld, making him a constant headache for the local Church in Chiba Prefecture.

After he was promoted to High-Class Devil, the local Church in Chiba Prefecture had even issued an order allowing its exorcists to abandon their missions and flee if they encountered him.

But since Sharon, who had always been able to hold her own against him, was leading this mission, they hadn't planned to give it up immediately. Instead, when Sharon engaged Leo, they had held Yukino Yukinoshita back to keep any outsiders from interfering.

Who could have guessed that the saying about looking at someone with new eyes after three days would prove so apt? Sister Sharon, who had once been able to fight Leo evenly, had been left in such a sorry state in the blink of an eye. His strength had grown by leaps and bounds, and his Devil rank had even reached Six-Wing.

Was there any point in continuing to fight?

"The mission is canceled. I'll submit the report myself." Sharon seemed to have regained her composure. "Besides, from the looks of it, he's here for the same reason we are. The Stray Devil may already have been taken down, so we haven't necessarily failed."

But compared with the news that they'd failed to exterminate a Stray Devil, the fact that Leo had become a Six-Wing High-Class Devil and grown strong enough to defeat her in a single move was surely the worst news for the Church.

Sharon could already picture the Church's leaders staring at one another in dismay before finally accepting that there was nothing they could do.

"Let's go!"

Sharon acted decisively. Once she'd made up her mind, she didn't hesitate. She kept her eyes fixed on Leo for a moment, engraving his image in her mind, then leaped toward the darkness behind her.

The exorcists dressed as priests hurried after her, not daring to linger for fear that Leo might pursue them.

Leo simply watched Sharon and the others leave without doing anything. Only after the exorcists' presence had faded into the distance did he fold away his wings and descend from the air.

"Aren't you going after them?"

Yukino Yukinoshita came over. Seeing that Leo was unharmed, she let out a subtle sigh of relief and asked him.

"If I wanted to do something to the Church's exorcists, I wouldn't have waited until now." Leo shook his head. "The Three Factions are still under a truce, after all. Killing an unruly Low-Class Fallen Angel is one thing, but slaughtering the local Church's exorcists would cause a diplomatic incident."

It was an unspoken understanding between them. They could fight fiercely and oppose one another, but it was best to leave each other some room to maneuver so they could meet again later.

Otherwise, if the Church truly wanted to eliminate Leo, a descendant of a Pure-blood Devil, who was openly stationed in its territory, it would have sent its top exorcists long ago. There'd have been no need to let the local Church's handful of nobodies keep tangling with him.

Sharon was ruthless and unscrupulous when facing Devils, but she might not dare ignore the supporters behind Leo and kill him outright. That was probably why she had kept hounding him for the past three years, torn between hesitation and resentment.

Leo didn't plan to hold it against her, either. After all, the first time they'd met, she had even tried to seduce him, and he'd enjoyed quite a few benefits...

Thinking of that, Leo couldn't help smiling. He also felt a little regretful that there had been too many people around this time. Otherwise, Pure Sharon might have given him another little treat.

"What are you thinking about?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked, suddenly suspicious. "Why are you making such an annoying face?"

What kind of face was that?

Leo swallowed a question that had almost slipped out and rolled his eyes at Yukino Yukinoshita.

"Come on. Let's go home."