181 Chapter 171: Sylvia’s Scheme - Part 1

As Kel, Rias, and Koneko made their way deeper into the forest, they found little to no suspicious activity despite heading deeper which made Kel now increase his caution. 'According to Sylvia's instructions, it should be at any moment now,' Kel thought to himself while cautiously looking around which caused Rias to turn to him. "You seem very alert, I don't think we'll need to worry that much—!"

Before Rias could finish talking, a large magic circle appeared beneath them which instantly caused them to fall to their knees, all except Kel. After this happened, some laughter could be heard as one figure revealed itself as a beautiful woman atop a tree.

"Wow, I'm impressed you can still move, being under all that pressure. Doesn't matter, what can you do alone after all." The mysterious woman snapped her fingers and multiple figures began to reveal themselves. "Kel! If you can still move, retreat out of the circle and get help, we'll be fine." Rias quickly advised after looking at the numbers.

"You should listen to your cute little girlfriend and leave, we'll be sure to put her to good use." The woman licked her lips sensually as she said this but Kel only showed a smile. 'Leave it to Sylvia to organize a scenario to make me look good, just how strong is her mind control?' Kel thought as he slowly folded his sleeves and turned to the mysterious woman with a smile on his face.

"I don't have any cool edgy lines prepared, so I'm just going to ask you to [KNEEL]!" As Kel gave this command, his demonic voice resonated through the forest before every devil present dropped to their knees. After doing so, he closed his hand into a fist and punched the magic circle below him, instantly shattering it and freeing Rias and Koneko.

"Are you two alright?" Kel asked with faked concern as he approached the two to help them up. "How dare you ruin our fun!" The mysterious lady yelled out before multiple magic circles appeared above Rias, Kel, and Koneko. 'The things I do to look good,' Kel thought as he hugged Rias and Koneko tightly, shielding them from the barrage of attacks that followed.

The mysterious woman let out a sinister laugh as she observed this scene with pure joy in her eyes. "How long will you handle that many fatal attacks, huh?!" she asked as the barrage continued, Kel's body had now become bloody and the upper part of his uniform had torn (war hero style) as the last of the attacks hit him once more.

"Kel!" Rias and Koneko exclaimed as they saw blood trickle down his mouth while his eyes became dimmer. "Koneko, take care of Kel, I'll finish this," Rias ordered; with a look of anger in her eyes and prepared to attack those that hurt Kel.

Living up to her title as a prodigy at destruction, she took nearly all the rogue devils in an instant before approaching the mysterious woman who now wore a fearful look in her eyes. "Please, I'm sorry, forgive me! I was only following orders... sike, you privileged bitch!" she exclaimed as she lunged forward and attempted to stab Rias.

However, in that split second before contact, Kel's figure appeared and took the hit before gripping the woman by the neck. "Have mercy—arck!" With a loud cracking noise, Kel snapped the woman's neck despite her pointless pleas. "Kel..." Rias muttered as she looked up at Kel's bloody figure still standing after all that happened.

[PR/N: Ahh our hero!!!!! RIP L let us pray for his life]

She and Koneko rushed to his side since he looked ready to fall over at any moment. "You'll be alright, Kel, I promise..." Rias muttered in a worried tone to which Kel just smiled and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile, at the abandoned warehouse, Julius and the others had arrived in front of the large ominous-looking warehouse. "If you're too scared to enter then leave this to me. I won't allow any lady to get hurt in my presence," Julius confidently said as he prepared to open the warehouse doors while Issei just looked at him blankly.

'I don't know what's worse, his attempt at flirting or the fact that he considers Raynare a lady,' Issei thought just as Julius managed to forcefully open the doors.

The inside of the warehouse was almost completely pitch black as the group walked in. Once they reached the center, multiple beams of light could be seen high up, but these weren't any regular lights. "Spears of light!" Raynare yelled out causing everyone to immediately grow alert as they now heard the sound of wings flapping.

"We can't fight like this, it looks like they're too many. Let's retreat!" Sona immediately instructed, but Julius simply sneered and prepared to attack. "Hear me, you foul fallen—arck!" His speech was cut short as two spears of light were thrown at him and pierced his legs.

"Dammit," Sona muttered as she attempted to rush in and help but as she did so, another spear came flying at her but Issei held her and dived out of the way, only getting grazed from it. "Fuck, that hurts!" Issei yelled out while holding his shoulder causing Sona to realize fighting like this would only work at their disadvantage.

"Let's retreat quickly." Left with no other choice, she ordered them to fall back out of the warehouse which they managed but upon exiting the warehouse, a barrier appeared completely engulfing it.

"A barrier... we can't handle that many without a strategy either, plus one of us is captured and another injured." Sona clicked her tongue in annoyance as she began to worry about what would happen.

"I've already sent a message requesting help from the other teams, let's come up with a plan and break this barrier for now," Raynare advised as she didn't look the least bit worried, however, she knew the longer they delayed breaking the barrier the worse things would become for Julius.