No pain, no gain.

"How disapointing." Julian said in an impassive tone while eyeing the pitiful and wrecked form of the girl before him.

He could see her fear, he could see how her body shook at each of his words, he could see the tears gathering in her eyes. Yet, he felt nothing of it.

Rotating his right arm whose sleeve was missing in an effort to ease the tingle in it, Julian's mind was on his impulsive but rather effective attack from before.

Looking at Raynare's throat which he had crushed with a lariat dashing at his fastest speed, he was impressed himself by the damage it caused.

"I guess it was expected coming from you, Raynare. As you're nothing but a frog in well." Crouching beside the broken angel, Julian had the strange and sudden urge to talk to his defeated foe.

Even if Julian himself felt like a villain monologing like that before a beaten enemy. It felt meaningfull, somehow. To talk to a character like Raynare in this life or death moment. To vent a little to someone who wouldn't be able to spit out what was said anyway.

As for the situation turning around itself while he was wasting time. Julian waited for it to happen with open arms after his anticlimatic fight.

Also, Raynare wouldn't be the only one to hear some of his words, as Issei was also present at the scene. Even if he was lost in a dazed and confused state at the moment.

Seeing how Raynare had her eyes closed and didn't want to look at him annoyed Julian. It made it seem like she wasn't really listening to him. Even if he was well aware of the opposite being true, he leaned over Raynare's face with his own and spoke. "Open your eyes, Raynare."

A glacial shuder involuntarily running up and down her spine, Raynare relunctantly and fearfully pried open her eyes, her pupils shrinking to needle point seeing her soon to be killer's face so close.

After gazing silently into the girl's terrified purple eyes for a moment, Julian leaned back to just seat on the ground, his arms placed above his knees. Still looking but with less intensity into the fallen's eyes, Julian continued his monologue.

"I mean, we all are, In a way, frogs in a well. But you, It's just sad how you can be so confident when every high-level devil out there can kill you easily. Your plan of stealing the nun's sacred gear is as pathetic as your faith in your nonexistent strength. Like seriously, you think being able to heal yourself will allow you to become a big shot?" Julian grinned at how Raynare was past the point to reacting on the fact that he knew of her personal plan and how foolish she truly was.

Losing his grin, Julian shook his head and stated in a more solemn tone. "You're dreaming if you think so, there are being out there that can regenerate any damage done to them in the blink of an eye."

Pointing at Raynare's surprisingly pristine wings, Julian continued. "Such beings would chew up your dear Azazel-Sama for breakfast. Besides, healing isn't even that special."

Summoning a barrier so that Issei wouldn't be able to see and hear what would happen next, Julian stood up slowly.

Then, more as a test and for fun than anything else. Julian placed his right palm before him and summoned a thin, orange thread of almost physical energy on it.

Pointing his index finger at the broken young woman lying before him, Julian manipulated the thread from his palm to his finger and made it float slowly in the air toward the now frantic and desperate looking fallen angel.

The moment the thread landed on Raynare's torso, it seemed like her body suddenly mended itself like it was before Julian's attack. Her crushed and deformed throat popping back in place and her limbs and bones realigning themselves right.

Raynare was, unbelievingly, made as new by who she thought was her would-be killer.

Julian just watched impassively as he saw his successfull test patient froze in confusion from the sudden lack of pain and from the unbelievable phenomena that just happened.

Julian could almost see through Raynare's eyes countless scenarios being reviewed in her mind and then discarded just a split second later. The goals of these scenarios? Keeping her life.

Not letting the girl think about it too hard, Julian said with a small smile. "It really worked, eh? Good grief, but I guess that's the end of the road for you. Don't worry though, your little group will soon join you in wherever your kind go when you die."

Casually forming a knife with his right hand, Julian went for a clean strike for the neck.

"STOP, PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU, I WANT TO LIVE!" Caught short by her eminent death just after being healed, Raynare's pushed her speed and senses to her limits, not to flee, as she knew she it was useless, but to plead instead.

Like a cold executioner swinging down on someone sentenced to death, Julian's hand didn't waver for a single moment in her path.

Multiple things were said by Raynare in the short second it really took for Julian to reach only a hair away from her neck. Unfortunately, nothing seem to work.

Almost losing all hopes at seeing nothing work, Raynare gave up on a part of herself and yelled in a hopeless last attempt to live. "I WAS WRONG!"

*SWOOSH*

*PAT*

Only the sound of a strong gale of wind and of a drop of blood hitting the ground could be heard in this realm isolated from the mundane world.

Stopping his hand just before cutting an artery, Julian was intrigued by these last words.

Gazing on last time in the purple orbs that were Raynare's eyes, Julian asked coldly. "Oh? And on what exactly, were you wrong?"

Releasing a shuddering breath and her body trembling all over, she replied shakily. "Everything, I was wrong on everything."

Retrieving his hand, Julian sneakily made the blood on it disapear with his power of destruction and turned his back on his foe. Walking some steps away and looking at Issei who look as lost as one could be through the one way barrier, he put his hands in his pockets and demanded. "Elaborate."

Taking deep breathes to calm her frantic heart, Raynare carefully and slowly sat up. Gazing fearfully at Julian's broad back, she did as asked. "I was wrong, in my way of life. I was wrong to think of other races as inferior. I was wrong in trying to kill your friend just because I judged him to be a bother and not worth the effort to recruit him and his twice critical. I was wrong on everything." She fired rapidly in fear of the boy before her changing his mind.

After a moment of pondering, Julian turned himself to face the purple-eyed girl, crossed his arms on his chest and asked calmly. "Why just now? What made you realize that you were wrong now and not before?"

An instant of silence passed as Julian saw Raynare's body tremble a bit and cast down her gaze, soon after looking up to look into his own eyes, saying in a soft but clear voice, full of new-found conviction. "I don't want to die."

Julian smirked, not having expected the Raynare he knew of all person to try turning a new page.

'Maybe it's one of the power of death. Everyone and everything is equal before it and put things into perspective.' Julian thought even if he couldn't quite grasp it himself.

Julian drawled. "Words are good and all, but they doesn't mean shit in the end."

Then, his smirk widening, he walked closer to Raynare until he was but a single step away from her. Crouching so that he was eyes level with her, he whispered. "If you want to live. If you truly are ready to give up on your old foolish way."

Advantcing his mouth beside her right ear, he continued. "Prove it, by ripping off those tainted wings you were so proud of."

Smilling lightly at Raynare's widening eyes, Julian stood back up.

With the presence of Melissa around him going a few years back, he had the possibility to study the biology of a fallen angel, a study that he deduced would worked for every entity of the biblical faction. Be they angels or even devils.

Because of certain observations and experiences, Julian learned that the wings of fallen angels were an integral part of their power and not just a representation of it. Indeed, in this variation of the DxD world where the power system is more logical. Wings not only serve to show one status or power, but, as they are the only thing that differentiate them from the human race, they are the direct pillar of their existence.

Indeed, magic, the innately strong body and their potential was all due to their wings. Not only they stocked around half of their total magical reserve, but they also were the organs gathering and filtering the mana in the air to convert it to their respective power.

Due to the lack of data, certain things stayed rather unclear. Like the reason why it wasn't possible for an individual to rip off the wings of an angel or devil as they wouldn't come off, and even if you tried to slice them up, they would just heal up to a perfect state. Even then, Julian was pretty sure he was right on the rest.

So, not only was his demand for Raynare was test of her sincerety, it was also a little experiment to see if he was right in his theory that wings could only be removed willingly.

If he was being honest, he wasn't hoping much for Raynare to really removed her wings. As it was like asking himself to do the same to his wings, something he wouldn't do even in the face of death.

Still, it was that for nothing. For her to live after attempting to kill Issei not one but two time. It was the maximum Julian could give in leeway.

Just as these thoughts were passing through his mind, Julian rose his brows a little seeing as Raynare stood up, brought one of her four wings before her and grabbed it with her hands before hesitating to proceed with the act.

Just as Julian shook his head thinking that he was proven right again.

*TEEEEEAAAAAR*

The sound of tearing flesh resonated in the air, prompting a trace of suprise to flash across Julian's previously unimpressed eyes.

Blood, feathers and whimpers of pain mixed themselves in an unholy demonstration of will to live. Witnessed only by a teen who was left perplexed by the feeling he himself felt from it all.

This perplexity came from the emotion he hadn't the pleasure of experiencing since a long while now.

As he gazed upon the now wingless, kneeling and passed out Raynare lying in a pool of her own blood and surrounded by the now slowly disintegrating black wings. Julian had to admit.

He was impressed.