[Chapter:8][The moment of truth(2).]

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Well…this is awkward…"

"…hehe…"

The family of four were currently sitting together for dinner.

Well…dinner would be a rather rich statement, since Echo was the only one eating.

Rhianna looked at the silent women and couldn't help but giggle.

"You two are acting like Onii-chan now, so silent."

Echo nodded his agreement, making her smile widen.

"This…"

"Well…"

Aya and Leah looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

After all, to their knowledge, the rest of their family was ignorant of the supernatural.

Or at least, that's how it was supposed to have been.

But now…

(I must say, I'm surprised.)

A deep, low voice appeared from behind Leah, as two white metallic wings releasing sky blue energy appear from her back.

(Even I, couldn't see through either of you. I didn't even feel the tens of charms and spells being cast on my own host.)

Indeed, moments earlier, after the two women revealed their involvement in the supernatural side of the world, they also displayed the spells and charms they had cast on the other members of the family, including each other.

And saying Albion, the White Dragon of Supremacy of the Heavenly Dragons, was surprised, would be an understatement.

Her own host had scores of protection and scanning and even tracking spells cast on her, yet Albion, a Dragon who had once fought against the God of Bible himself, had no idea!

The White Dragon was beyond shocked.

"Ah, that, well, my race had always been pretty good at misleading people. And I, in particular, focused on concealment due to some…circumstances…though it does bring me joy knowing one of the famed Heavenly Dragons couldn't see through me."

Aya smiled proudly, while Rhianna perked up at that.

"Race? Mom isn't human?"

"…"

"Ah…"

Leah sighed as she slapped her forehead with her hand, while Aya froze at the slip of her tongue.

"Well, no, I'm not…"

Before any of them could react, a pulse of magic, or to be more precise, of Holy Power, emanated from her body. Yet, different from an Angel's Holy Power, this one had distinct signs of darkness, of corruption.

Five pairs of jet black feathered wings appear from behind her, showing Aya's true race.

"A Fallen Angel…"

"Wow! Wings! Actual wings!"

While Leah's eyes widened in surprise, especially seeing ten wings representing her power level as a Cadre or a powerhouse even among Ultimate Class Beings, Rhianna eyes sparkled as she bolted to her mother's back, touching her wings.

"How are they?", Aya asked, slightly relieved seeing her daughter not look at her fearfully.

"Beautiful…and so soft."

Rhianna rubbed her cheeks against her wings as she murmured softly.

Then, her gaze turned towards her big sister.

"What race are you, Onee-chan?"

"Ah? Wait, you're not surprised?"

Rhianna blinked her eyes cutely at Aya's surprise.

"Surprised about what?"

"That…you know…you're human…but I am…"

"Ah, about us not being blood related?"

Rhianna looked at her mother who flinched and chuckled.

"I knew that long ago. I mean, just look at our hair colours! They're all over the place!"

She pointed at Aya's head, which sported light purple hair and eyes that looked like amethyst, then at Leah, who had dirty blonde hair and golden eyes, then at herself, who had sky blue hair and sapphire like blue eyes, and finally at her big brother Echo, who was still eating like none of what was happening mattered to him, sporting jet black hair and hollow, blank eyes.

"Even if you say we didn't inherit your hair, it's not like our 'non-existent' father who you never mention has hair of three different colours right?"

"We-well…"

Aya stuttered as she realised her 'secret' of them not being blood related, or even of the same race for that matter, wasn't kept as well as she thought it was.

"You've never been good with secrets mom."

Leah chuckled, making Echo look at her.

"And you inherited her bad drinking habit. I'm sure the church would hold a crusade against you and hunt you down to the ends of the world if they knew everything you babbled to me in your drunken stupor."

Leah's smiling face froze at his emotionless, yet slightly sarcastic statement, while Albion burst out laughing.

(Ahahahaha! I told you you're a horrible drunk, but no! You wouldn't listen!)

"Wait! Ones-chan! You drink!?"

"I…"

Looking at Aya's teasing smile, Rhianna's shocked expression, Echo's blank face, and hearing Albion's laughter, Leah's face turned crimson as she suddenly felt like crawling into a hole.

"A-anyway! My Race is *cough* a little special."

"Special? Wait!"

Rhianna's eyes suddenly brightened.

"If you're from the church, then…!"

Leah smiled at the sight of her little sister's excited gaze as she let out a burst of Holy Power, far holier and just as potent as her mother's, and let out five pure white wings from her back and an incomplete halo appeared on top of her head.

"An Angel! But…"

She suddenly quietness down, and even Aya's eyes widened at the sight of only five Angel swings appearing on the left portion of her back, her right devoid of the other five wings.

"Leah! What happened to your wings!?"

Aya disappeared in a show of extreme speed, appearing behind her daughter as she instinctively casted several dozens of spells, her realisation of her daughter technically being her racial enemy crushed under her motherly love.

Leah chuckled at the sight of her worried mother, knowing that them being of opposite factions changed nothing in her heart, as she let out another burst of power. Only, this one was far less holy, and on the contrary, it was full of negative emotions, almost…demonic.

*flap* *flap*

"That's…"

"Black…wings?"

While the mother-daughter duo's eyes widened, even Echo paused his eating and raised his head to look at his big sister.

To her left were five pure, spotlessly white Angelic wings emanating immense amounts of Holy Power.

And to her right were five jet black wings releasing Demonic Energy, energy that would normally be something only a Devil should be capable of wielding.

"I am..different. My real name is Leah Livan Lucifer, daughter of Rizevan Livan Lucifer and one of his many human wives, granddaughter and descendant of the Original Lucifer, but also one of the very first part-humans who had undergone reincarnation as Angels, the current host of Divine Dividing, this generation's White Dragon Empress, as well as the world's second Nephilim after the Light-bearer Lucifer himself."

Leah smiled as she felt the shocked gazes of her mother and little sister, as well as her little brother's…well, 'normal' blank gaze, not that she minded it.

"Onee-chan…"

"Yes?"

Looking at her awed little sister, Leah anticipated what her words would be. Would she call her cool? Would she say how awesome she was!?

All her thoughts, however, came to a crashing halt as Rhianna asked,

"Onee-chan…are you chuuni?"

"…" (Aya)

"…" (Echo)

(…) (Albion)

"NOOOOOO!"

Well, the owner of the above voice should be obvious, yes?

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

"Well…"

Leah cleared her throat as she began her explanations,

"The Original Lucifer had many traits, but all of them were so powerful, the most of his descendants never awoke a single one. And even if they did, simply inheriting a single one of his traits was the limit to those once in a millennium geniuses."

"And I was the same. The trait is awoke is called 'Deception'. Lucifer is an expert deceiver, to the point where he could make his lies appear more truthful than reality itself. And this allowed me to hide my Devil lineage."

"I never knew my biological mother. To me, she is just the woman who gave me the human part of blood that I had lost when I reincarnated as an Angel."

"Using my trait was almost instinctual to me, so when mom found me, she assumed I was just an abandoned human baby."

"Even I, myself, never knew I was half a Devil till it was too late. As a descendent of Lucifer, I could pray to God without experiencing the pain, so it never occurred to me that I was anything but an ordinary human child."

"I grew fascinated with the Church, and at some point, I even considered becoming a nun."

"But then, Echo came into our lives, and when mom adopted him, my dreams of being a nun were squashed by my desire of becoming an ideal and loving big sister."

Leah turned her head as she rubbed Echo's hair, making him close his eyes and enjoy the moment.

"And then, a few years later, you came into our lives too."

She gently rubbed Rhianna's hair, making her smile.

"Anyway, just because I gave up on becoming a nun didn't mean my love for the Church diminished. I attended a Christian School, volunteered at the Church every time I had free time, and at some point, I was let in on the supernatural side."

"I was given the opportunity to be a part of an experiment."

Aya's and Rhianna's faces hardened at the word, and Leah could feel Echo's body stiffen for a split second, making her smile.

"I'm fine, alright? Nothing bad happened. In fact, you could even say it was the best thing that happened to me."

"The experiment's final goal was to imitate the Devils and reincarnate humans as Angels. I was chosen as the first candidate. With my permission, of course."

"That was four years ago."

"Ahh…so that's why you went to Vatican…"

Leah nodded.

"It was a success. Well, mostly."

She flapped her black wings.

"As you can see, it wasn't entirely the needed outcome."

"Anyway, when my human blood was replaced with Angel blood, it and my Devil blood clashed."

"In the case of any other Devil, that would have resulted in the being in question blowing up like a balloon."

The three people, even Echo, froze the thought.

"But luckily for me, I wasn't just any Devil. As the direct descendant of Lucifer himself, the world's first Nephilim, I awakened his lineage."

"Of course, the Angels were shocked at the sudden development. And some even wanted to kill me."

'Angels…'

Echo's eyes flashed as he wondered what rewards would a quest for destroying the Heavens give him.

"But Michael-sama, the current ruler of Heaven, and Gabriel-sama, along with several other Angels, decided not to. After all, other than my Race, I was still the same young woman who sincerely loved the Church and volunteered for the experiment after earning their trust and everything."

"A series of tests including having my mind read were followed. Luckily, Gabriel-sama was kind enough to make it a personal affair between us, so she is the only one who knows of my life. That was when I realised I was adopted, by the way. I relieved all my memories, including being Ada one and later being picked up by a certain kind and loving purple haired woman."

Aya merely smiled at her with the same expression of love she always did.

"After making sure I was still trustworthy, even though my Race became rather controversial, it was decided that I would go through a year of trial, where I act as a proper Angel whenever I could, and later was allowed to officially join Heaven."

She smiled at the thought.

"Being accepted by every single Angle in Heaven was quite…how do I say it? Nice? Yeah, it was nice…"

'No pigeon genocide then…'

The above is a certain extreme sis-con's thoughts.

"Since I'm a special case, the experiment was scheduled to continue, but something unexpected happened."

"The peace offering by Azazal…"

Aya stated.

"While I'm no longer a part of Grigori, I did hear that Azazal began the basic preparations for a peace treaty."

"That's right. And part of the deal is for the peerage system of the Devils, where they turn humans into reincarnated Devils, to be shared with Grigori and Heaven."

"And since Kuoh is being managed by the sisters of two of the Satans, when it was mentioned that I and my family was moving back here, I was assigned a mission to get in contact with and possibly enter into cooperation with the Devils."

"I was told that Fallen from Grigori would also come here to lay the groundwork and see if the three races can indeed cooperate with each other…"

Aya shook her head.

"Azazal asked me if I could be Grigori's ambassador, but I refused. As I said, I retired years ago. And although I might have only been a Cadre, even the old pervert wouldn't dare order me around."

"Let me guess, it's because…"

"Because he knows if he doesn't vaporise me with a single shot after taking me by surprise, if I survive and wish to hide, I can stick a dagger through his heart and he wouldn't even know I was standing right in front of him."

Aya smiled in pride.

"Of all the Fallen Angles, I, alone, am the best at stealth. Even during my time as an Angel, I was pretty famous."

"Wait! Are you…"

Leah looked at her with eyes wide open.

"The 'Angel of Mysteries' and 'Keeper of Secrets', Cherubim Raziel."

Aya gave the three an elegant bow.

"I like the name Aya though. Still don't know why the old man gave me such a masculine name."

"No way…", Leah muttered in disbelief,

"Michale-sama told me about an Angel that fell from her God's Grace right after Lucifer himself, the second Fallen Angel who despite rebelling against God, never gained his distrust or anger."

"Ahh…the reason I fell is because, well, you know how I gave my book to Adam and Eve in the myths? That actually happened, and it's because, by nature, I was too curious for my own good."

She smiled as though remembering good old times.

"There was nothing new about Angels. After all, we see always the same, agents of God, servants of God, those closest to true perfection, blah blah blah. And humans, humans are different. They were unpredictable."

"Just as Adam and Eve disobeyed God. When they did it, I felt like my purpose in life appeared. I was so curious about what fate held for their race I ended up incarnating as a human myself."

"Of course, the old man didn't like that one of his strongest Angles technically abandoned her post, but I guess all those sons of selfless service were actually worth it. He let me 'retire', so to speak, and when Lucifer fell, he asked me if I wanted to remain an Angel and come out of retirement or stay the way I was."

Aya shrugged.

"My choice was obvious, and so I fell. I remember Michael bidding me farewell since I technically wasn't ever allowed to go back to Heaven,and Gabriel was pretty sad too. I miss her…"

"Wow…"

Listening to her tale, Rhianna actually felt more impressed than her big sister's story.

Though, Leah had a question.

"Wait, doesn't that mean you're an old ha-*cough!*"

"Hmm? What was that, young lady?"

Leah stiffened at her mother's 'smile'.

"N-nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Good."

Then, all three gazes turned to Echo.

"…"

"…"

"…"

Who just finished his dinner.

"What? I was hungry."