Yet just as the two Spears of Light were about to strike the girl, they eerily stopped in front of Miss Moonlit, utterly motionless.
It was as if they had been paused!
"How is that possible?"
Seeing her attack halted, Raynare's eyes widened. She continued attacking, creating seven or eight more Spears of Light and firing them all at once.
However, Miss Moonlit merely raised a hand and waved, and the Spears of Light turned into motes of light and vanished.
"Just as expected, a brainless idiot of a Fallen Angel..."
With such an enormous difference in strength, this fool still charged in recklessly. She would only make Miss Moonlit angrier, wouldn't she?
Was she afraid she would not die quickly enough?
"This ends here."
Before her words faded, Miss Moonlit's body vanished instantly.
Raynare had not reacted at all before the girl appeared behind her and grabbed her pair of black wings.
Then, with a violent pull, she cruelly tore both wings off.
"Aaaahhh!!"
A pained scream rang out. Then, in the next second, another powerful force struck her, and Raynare collapsed weakly onto the ground.
"Alright! You can die for a while now."
Before she could finish hearing those words, Raynare completely lost consciousness.
Looking at the Fallen Angel girl's corpse before her, Miss Moonlit planned to later test Sephiroths Cup's resurrection abilities and its power to overturn the laws of life.
Whether she would subdue Raynare could wait. First, she could use her to practice with the Cup's power—making use of waste! Besides, this Fallen Angel was not only stupid, but also had an unrequited crush on Azazel and plenty of schemes of her own.
Unfortunately, Azazel was not interested in women now. He was only obsessed with researching Sacred Gears.
Walking over to Issei Hyoudou's body, Miss Moonlit discovered in surprise that he had not completely died. Perhaps because of the Sacred Gear inside him, there was still a faint trace of life left...
But it was not much different from death. Even if he were rushed to a hospital immediately, he could not be saved.
"I'll help revive you. All I need in return is the Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet!"
After saying that to Issei Hyoudou's body, Miss Moonlit stopped hesitating and began using Sephiroths Cup to heal and revive him.
Issei Hyoudou, who had already died, rapidly healed from the enormous wound in his chest. His body recovered quickly as well, and before long, he was completely restored.
He simply had not woken up yet...
After successfully bringing Issei Hyoudou fully back to life, Miss Moonlit finally began stripping away his Sacred Gear.
"Buzz!"
At that moment, crimson light bloomed, and a red magic circle appeared not far away.
Immediately afterward, the red-haired Rias teleported out of the magic circle.
"Wait!"
Seeing what Miss Moonlit was doing, Rias instinctively called out to stop her.
However, Miss Moonlit did not listen at all. Instead, she split her attention in two, a flash of light passing through her eyes as she single-handedly froze Rias in time!
Indeed, if she had not appeared.
This would have been the moment when Rias arrived and used a Devil Piece to revive Issei Hyoudou, reincarnating him as a Devil and gaining a retainer with a Sacred Gear.
And Issei Hyoudou would have thus begun his great career as the King of Harem.
But the girl would not give up a Sacred Gear already within her grasp just because of some original story. Even if she had no use for it, selling it would still bring in tens of thousands of Crystals!
The system's stripping of the Sacred Gear went exceptionally smoothly. Moreover, Issei Hyoudou had not awakened. He only unconsciously felt pain, as though the most important thing in his life was about to leave him.
Accompanied by a tremendous dragon roar, everyone in Koma Village seemed to hear it at that moment. At the same time... Miss Moonlit's second Sacred Gear had finally fallen into her hands.
"So this is... the Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet!"
Looking at the Sacred Gear she had obtained, it was indeed completely different from the Cup. It was as though she could see that incomparably arrogant Heavenly Dragon, who regarded neither the Four Great Original Demon Kings nor God of the Bible with any importance.
Though he had paid the price for that arrogance, being turned into a Sacred Gear along with another Heavenly Dragon.
Having obtained the Sacred Gear, the girl did not immediately fuse it into her body. This was a Sacred Gear, not an ordinary Sacred Gear. If not for the system's overwhelming power stripping it away, ordinary people could never control it.
In short, if she did not spend Crystals, Miss Moonlit would have to face the Red Dragon Emperor himself in order to master this Sacred Gear.
Unlike the previous Cup, while the Cup contained a fragment of God of the Bible's consciousness, it was extremely weak. Furthermore, Ai-chan had indeed done her job after taking the money, so everything had gone smoothly.
But the consciousness inside the Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet was not some fragment. It was the complete consciousness of a Heavenly Dragon, along with the wills of every previous host of the Red Dragon Emperor.
They had all walked the path of tyranny, yet they were also beings cursed by it.
This time, Miss Moonlit would not spend Crystals to master the Sacred Gear. Ai-chan would definitely fleece her again, so she chose to face it herself...
She could not rely on the system's power for everything.
With Moonlit Oath's ten thousand years of longing, she was confident that she could master this Sacred Gear.
After putting away the Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet, Miss Moonlit finally released Rias from time stop.
"You..."
After recovering, Rias naturally had no idea that Issei Hyoudou's Sacred Gear had already fallen into Miss Moonlit's hands while time had been stopped.
She only felt that something strange had happened.
Before she could think further, Rias walked to Issei Hyoudou's side, examined his body, and revealed an expression of utter disbelief.
Other than the large amount of blood staining his body, this student named Issei Hyoudou had no wounds whatsoever. What made Rias's expression change even more was that the fluctuations of the Sacred Gear on Issei Hyoudou's body had completely vanished!
Connecting that to the strange feeling from earlier, Rias raised her head and looked at Miss Moonlit beside her.
"Miss Moonlit, what did you just do?"
That strange power, along with Issei Hyoudou's resurrection and complete recovery... just how many powerful abilities did this Blood Moon Princess possess?
"Theresa didn't do anything."
However, Miss Moonlit clasped her hands behind her back and wore an innocent, adorable expression. She looked overwhelmingly cute. She simply refused to admit that she had done anything; after all, Rias did not know.
"Since Rias is here, I'll leave this place to you. I'm heading back first."
With the matter concluded and her gains abundant, Miss Moonlit prepared to leave. As for cleaning up afterward, was that not originally Rias's responsibility?
After all, Koma Village was the territory under her charge.
"Wait, Miss Moonlit. What happened to his Sacred Gear?"
Seeing that Miss Moonlit was about to leave, Rias grabbed her wrist.
She was certain that Issei Hyoudou had possessed a Sacred Gear before, and not an ordinary one at that. Otherwise, how could he have attracted the attention of both a Fallen Angel and the Blood Moon Princess?
Neither Miss Moonlit nor the Fallen Angels would care about ordinary Sacred Gears. Even the lowest-ranking Fallen Angels looked down on Sacred Gears like Dragon's Hand.
Their standards were high. After all, the Fallen Angel Governor possessed Fallen Angel Technology capable of creating Artificial Artifacts and stripping Sacred Gears. Over the years, quite a few Sacred Gears had passed through their hands.
Earlier, she had invited this beautiful vampire girl to become her retainer, only for the girl to refuse and instead ask Rias to become her retainer.
Now that she had finally discovered someone with such potential, Miss Moonlit had even taken away his Sacred Gear.
Rias had originally been ready to reincarnate Issei Hyoudou...
Was this vampire girl her nemesis?
What Rias did not understand, however, was how this Blood Moon Princess had transferred Issei Hyoudou's Sacred Gear away. Even Fallen Angel Technology could not accomplish it so easily.
"Sacred Gear? What Sacred Gear? I have no idea what Rias is talking about."
Miss Moonlit put her hands on her hips, completely self-righteous.
Although Issei Hyoudou had been Rias's retainer in the original story, had nothing happened now?
"Does Rias want a Sacred Gear? If you had said so earlier, I would have saved one for you."
"Whatever kind of Sacred Gear Rias wants, as long as you agree to become my retainer, I'll satisfy you."
If Rias became her retainer, helping her acquire a Sacred Gear would not be a big deal. The stronger her retainers were, the more feedback she would receive!
"..."
Looking at the utterly self-righteous vampire girl before her, Rias realized for the first time that she had such a side to her.
A little shameless, yet unexpectedly adorable.
"Stop playing dumb, Miss Moonlit."
"Besides, you know I'm a pure-blooded Devil. Sacred Gears are of no use to me."
Rias's tone softened somewhat. She also understood... even if Miss Moonlit had taken Issei Hyoudou's Sacred Gear first, Rias had no standing to say anything.
Even if Issei Hyoudou had been a promising prospect she had noticed first.
She was just inexplicably annoyed...
"It is not completely impossible for a pure-blooded Devil to possess a Sacred Gear, provided you become my retainer."
Because of the Cup's effects on retainers, Miss Moonlit had discovered that she could transfer her own powers to them by sharing life.
Sacred Gears should work too, as long as they were handled properly.
And even if that did not work, there were fusion techniques, were there not?
Or she could alter a Sacred Gear's settings. She could not do that herself... but Ai-chan probably could. It would definitely cost Crystals, though.
"...That still won't work."
This time, Rias did not refuse as decisively. If she could truly wield an excellent Sacred Gear, it was undoubtedly tempting.
But was such a thing really possible? A pure-blooded Devil possessing a Sacred Gear...
And even if she agreed to become a retainer, neither her family nor her brother would allow it.
The High-class Demons were now doing everything they could to preserve the bloodline of pure-blooded Devils. If she became a vampire's retainer... even if her sister-in-law Grayfia's guess was correct and Miss Moonlit was not truly a vampire, merely something similar, they would still break her legs, would they not?
"What if it were a Sacred Gear?"
Seeing Rias's hesitation, Miss Moonlit added another sentence.
"A Sacred Gear?!"
Rias's breathing grew much heavier. If it were a Sacred Gear... she truly did not know what she would decide, which only made her more conflicted.
With her bloodline and talent, so long as she grew smoothly... she would certainly become Demon King Class.
But Sacred Gears were still something that could move her heart...
Many powerful beings appeared indifferent toward Sacred Gears only because they were not human. Even if they went through the trouble of stealing one, they could not bring out its true power.
After all, Sacred Gears were gifts from God of the Bible specifically for humanity, allowing humans to live according to their own wishes.
"Rias can think about it carefully!"
The girl did not continue speaking. Nor did she care whether Rias would agree or believe what she had said.
She had not intended to win her over now, either.
The main issue was that Rias was not simple. Miss Moonlit was certain... if she forcibly bit Rias, her brother and sister-in-law could teleport before her the very next second.
At present, Miss Moonlit had no intention of fighting two or more Super Demon Kings.
No, it could even be said that it would mean going to war with the Devils entirely!
She did not doubt in the slightest how much the current Lucifer valued this younger sister. There were also the other two Demon Kings, who had good relations with him, along with all sorts of friends and relatives.
There was no telling how many Demon Kings and quasi-demon kings there were...
That Miss Sona Sitri was much the same. Otherwise, why would it need to be so troublesome?
There was absolutely no need for it. The losses would outweigh the gains.
It was not as though there were no other ways...
Before you continue