The Yukinoshita Family, Guest Room.
Since the living room had been left in a terrible mess, and there was also an outsider present, the three Yukinoshita women didn't return to the living room. Instead, they moved to the Guest Room.
It was just as luxurious as the living room, so no one would feel neglected. Yet the atmosphere in the room was strange, making it hard for anyone to speak up.
On closer inspection, Mrs. Yukinoshita and Haruno Yukinoshita, the two heads of the Yukinoshita Family, were sitting together primly, their backs straight. They looked more like guests than Leo, who was actually visiting.
Leo, on the other hand, sat there casually, sipping a cup of black tea as he pleased. He looked far more like the master of the house than the three Yukinoshita women.
Only Yukino Yukinoshita sat beside Leo, her expression downcast.
Looking at Yukino like that, Leo set down his teacup.
"Are you still thinking about the battle just now?"
Leo saw through Yukino's thoughts at a glance.
"...I should have been able to win."
Yukino didn't stubbornly deny it as she usually would. Instead, she said it with a hint of dejection.
In her eyes, she had held the upper hand throughout the battle. She had practically driven Sharon into a corner, and surely she would have won in the end.
But what happened?
Sharon seized the fleeting opportunity and turned the tables, nearly killing Yukino.
It shouldn't have happened that way.
Yukino felt dejected about it.
However, Leo bluntly pointed out the truth.
"That's just an illusion," Leo said calmly, unconcerned by Yukino's stunned expression. "I've been going up against that woman for three years, and I've never beaten her once. What makes you think you could?"
"Granted, if you went all out now, you might be stronger than I was before I awakened the 'Peerage Transformation' trait. But that woman just showed you that you can't use that immense power however you want."
"You think you could win because she put on a convincing act and made you believe you could. That way, you'd use your power recklessly until you left yourself open."
"I can tell you with certainty that you can't beat her yet. Even if your strength has surpassed hers, she can still defeat you with her extraordinary combat experience, countermeasures, and cunning. She'll make you suffer defeat again and again."
Yukino bit her lip and fell silent.
Naturally, she wasn't convinced. But the fact was, she'd lost and nearly died. Anything she said now would just be an excuse, making her seem petty, as if she couldn't even admit defeat with dignity.
With her sister and mother right there, Yukino didn't want to look so miserable.
So, while swallowing the bitter pill of defeat, she couldn't help asking, "That woman... Is Sharon Holy Grail really human?"
It was no wonder she asked.
Even setting aside Sharon's combat experience, countermeasures, and cunning, her performance had hardly seemed human. She seemed more like a superhuman.
Could a human shatter ice pillars and Ice Gravel with a casual blow?
Could a human sprint at a speed invisible to the naked eye?
Could a human leap around like a monkey, running up walls and over rooftops?
Could a human shatter the ground with a kick and leap ten meters into the air?
Sharon could do all of that with ease. She was nothing like the priests Yukino had encountered at the unfinished Entertainment Facility last time.
In Yukino's eyes, those priests still seemed within the limits of what a normal human could achieve through training. Sharon, on the other hand, had gone far beyond those limits.
After all, it was already rather abnormal to be able to face a High-Class Devil alone.
Hadn't Leo said that taking on a High-Class Devil required assembling a team of exorcists before they could even attempt it?
So Sharon's abilities were undeniably inhuman, nothing like those of an ordinary person.
Leo glanced at Yukino, who was thinking this over, then said, "There are some extraordinary people among humans, too. They're definitely not as weak as you imagine."
"Take Sacred Gear Users, for example. An ordinary Sacred Gear User might not have much power and may just know how to use a special ability. But what about you and Asuna? If humans could use your Sacred Gears freely, do you think those Sacred Gear Users would be weaker than Devils?"
"Besides Sacred Gear Users, there are also human mages and Senjutsu Users who have mastered supernatural abilities. They can threaten Devils, too."
This world also had what were known as sorcery and magic.
Sorcery and magic were powers that manipulated and created supernatural phenomena by constructing Spell Formulas and magical formulas.
Ancient sorcerers and mages believed that every phenomenon in the world followed certain laws. If they could observe, calculate, and guide those laws, even humans could achieve the superhuman.
So they created Spell Formulas that could accomplish this, successfully triggering and manipulating supernatural phenomena. That was what was known as sorcery or magic.
In places like Northern Europe, sorcery or magic was even said to have been created by gods and bestowed upon humans. As a result, sorcery and magic had developed into an extremely complete and powerful system. They could even recreate some of the miracles of the gods or the supernatural phenomena that only the Demonic Power of Devils could produce. Their potential was considerable.
As for senjutsu, it was an art that manipulated the flow of life, disrupting and cutting off an opponent while damaging life itself. It belonged to another system of power, whose origins could be traced back to before the Primordial Era. It was said that originally only immortals could master it, so its might was self-evident.
All things considered, not all humans were ants in the eyes of Devils. Those who had mastered sorcery or senjutsu wouldn't be utterly helpless before them.
The Exorcism Spell Formula Sharon had just used belonged to this kind of power. The commotion it had caused made it clear that it was more than capable of threatening a Devil.
Of course, Sharon wasn't a mage or a Senjutsu User. She was even more unusual.
"There's a special institution within the Church, a place for training a particular kind of warrior."
Leo suddenly revealed a secret to Yukino.
"The institution exists to cultivate people with the bloodline of the hero Sigurd."
Yukino had certainly heard of Sigurd.
He was a renowned Dragon Slayer Hero from legend, said to have killed the evil dragon Fafnir and bathed in its Dragon Blood, thereby gaining an invulnerable, immortal body.
To ordinary people, that was just a legend. But from Leo's tone, it was clear that Sigurd had been a real hero.
"The Warrior Cultivation Institution uses Genetic Modification to combine Sigurd's genes with several other genetic structures, artificially creating descendants of that Dragon Slayer Hero. The warriors born from this process possess physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary humans from birth. Calling them superhuman wouldn't be an exaggeration."
Leo explained calmly as he drank his tea.
"There are plenty of humans in this world with the genes of legendary heroes or powerful beings. They're human, but stronger than ordinary people, which is how they can fight external enemies like Devils and Fallen Angels."
That included the half-blood of a human exorcist that flowed within him.
Leo thought about it silently, then heard Yukino ask, "So that woman came from the Warrior Cultivation Institution?"
Yukino finally understood where that superhuman physique had come from.
But Leo denied her assumption.
"No, Sharon Holy Grail didn't come from the Warrior Cultivation Institution. The warriors from that institution all have white hair, so they're clearly different from her." Leo pointed this out calmly. "She came from another institution run by the Church... an Experimental Institution, you could say."
"An Experimental Institution?" Yukino was taken aback.
Leo glanced at her before continuing.
"There's no shortage of madmen in this world. Humans especially. The more they glimpse the mysteries and supernatural forces of the world, the more desperately they want to unravel their principles and gain access to that realm themselves."
"Ever since ancient times, every era of the Church has inevitably produced many heretics and fanatics. They believe that even if they violate the doctrine, it doesn't matter as long as their results contribute to Heaven and God."
"When they join forces with high-ranking officials blinded by greed, even forbidden domains of life become fair game to them."
"There was a group of people like that. They thought that since heroes' descendants could be cultivated artificially, giving humans the powers of legendary strongmen, perhaps they could also implant Devil Factors artificially, giving humans the power of Devils."
At those words, not only Yukino but also Haruno and Mrs. Yukinoshita, who had been listening silently nearby, changed their expressions.
They were both intelligent women, and they immediately understood what Leo meant.
"Looks like you've figured it out," Leo said evenly. "That's right. Sharon Holy Grail was the result of that experiment."
"That Experimental Institution has since been shut down. The test subjects either died on the spot or transformed into half-human, half-Devil monsters and were secretly purged by the Church."
"Sharon Holy Grail may have been the experiment's only successful result."
That was why Sharon was so strong.
It was simply because Devil Factors flowed through her body, giving her physical abilities comparable to a Devil's.
"Maybe that's also why she's so cold and ruthless toward Devils," Leo said with a smile. "I don't know what she went through in the past, but it certainly couldn't have been a pleasant memory."
"Don't you think it would be perfectly understandable for someone like her to hate the Devil Factor inside her and despise Devils?"
Before you continue