Chapter 24 - Abyss Team

"Hmm... How about Hakuren?" Fujimai suggested as she stroked the White Tiger on her lap. It was sleeping peacefully.

"Rarrr!" The White Tiger seemed to hear what she said in its sleep and growled slightly, showing no resistance to the name.

"...Hearing them give their pets cute names, I'll call you Kyuuki from now on. 'Griffon' just sounds really ugly." Natsume said with a smile as she glanced at Qiong Qi on her shoulder. Kyuuki nodded, understanding what she meant.

"Ane-sama, how about naming it Vel? I think it sounds good." Akeno suggested to Suzaku, who was still thinking about what to name the Vermillion Bird.

"Well, it sounds good." Suzaku replied with a nod. She glanced at the Vermillion Bird, which didn't seem to object to the name.

"...Aren't you two just thinking it's easier to remember because it's similar to its original name?" Shuri muttered.

"What about you?" Ryuuga asked, glancing at Momiji, the only one who hadn't named her Yellow Dragon yet.

"Um..." Momiji hesitated, unsure what to name the Yellow Dragon. She wasn't familiar with many names outside of her own family.

"How about Aurelia? It means Golden One in Latin." Lavinia suggested. She chose this name because the Yellow Dragon's color resembled gold, and it had a majestic, prideful nature.

"Okay! Aurelia then." Momiji accepted, liking the meaning. Meanwhile, the Yellow Dragon found the name pleasant but looked at Momiji with bombastic side eyes because she couldn't come up with a name on her own.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Three days later.

"So, have the locations of Tao Tie and Hun Dun been found?" Ryuuga asked the flying fairy beside him. It was Iselle.

"Yes, they were spotted moving around the forest not far from Amagase Forest Park." Iselle answered, summoning several panels that showed CCTV footage of them in the area.

Today, a general meeting was being held to discuss retrieving Nanadaru Shigune and Koga Hyousuke before Grigori found them. Everyone who had become part of Arcadia attended the meeting.

Suzaku, Genbu, and Momiji had officially become members after becoming Shuri's vassals. Ryuuga handed them over to Shuri because she would understand them the best, having been a former member of the Five Principal Clans and a former candidate for the Sacred Beasts.

Additionally, Kuro, the Five Sacred Beasts, and the two Evil Fiends had also joined the vassal system thanks to Reni's suggestion. Originally, Ryuuga intended to keep this system for his maids, but since the beasts and fiends could be considered his pets, he didn't mind. He let them become Reni's vassals since she was the one who suggested it.

"For this one, you guys will handle the underlings only." Ryuuga stated as he stood up. The enemies that might show up included Satanael and Baraqiel, cadres of Grigori, so it wasn't good for the girls to fight them yet; they weren't powerful enough.

"Why?" Natsume asked in confusion. Usually, Ryuuga would stay at Arcadia and watch them fight.

"..." Girl, how dare you question this great m-!

"... The enemy this time is beyond what you guys can handle." Ryuuga explained, pushing away the thought of punishing the impudent girl.

"Oh…" Natsume nodded and didn't ask any more questions. The other girls also didn't complain after hearing his reason.

"Be careful. Your opponents all have Sacred Gears with weird effects." he reminded his maids. Satanael himself had rebelled from Grigori along with the students of his class, now calling themselves the Abyss Team.

They were composed of students with strange and chaotic Sacred Gears, as well as Satanael himself. He was like Azazel but more chaotic, focusing on stimulating the birth of new Longinus and doing anything to achieve his goals.

He was also affiliated with the Wizards of Oz and had helped the Utsusemi Agency create the Utsusemi.

"Let's go." Ryuuga said as he led the girls toward the Dimensional Gate.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

"Still haven't gotten them back yet?" A man sitting in a chair frowned. He had brown hair and silver eyes. This was Satanael, the leader of the Abyss Team.

He had received information that the two lab rats had escaped and had ordered his students to retrieve them, but thirty minutes had passed without success.

Suddenly, he sensed a slight disturbance in the space barrier he had set up earlier and frowned.

"An intruder?" Satanael muttered, but then a smirk appeared on his face. He didn't know who it was, but he guessed it was someone from Grigori.

"Let's meet them." he said as he stood up and teleported to the point where he felt the barrier had been breached.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

"The atmosphere here is awful." Shirone said with a frown, sniffing with her cute nose. She was right—the place was filled with the negative emotions of Satanael and the Abyss Team.

As they arrived at the Abyss Team's base, Ryuuga immediately destroyed the barrier that hid the location. He did this to attract Satanael to him rather than having to go find him.

"You guys go search for Nanadaru Shigune and Koga Hyousuke." he said to the others, rubbing Shirone's head to make her feel more comfortable.

Some of them glanced at Shirone with envious eyes but nodded at Ryuuga's instructions and scattered immediately.

"Don't forget to kill any Abyss Team members you find and extract their Sacred Gears, just like we discussed." he reminded, his voice reaching the ears of his maids.

He had instructed them earlier to kill any Abyss Team members they encountered, extract their Sacred Gears, and bring their bodies back. The Abyss Team was full of students who had already killed and were filled with negative emotions, so there was no sympathy for them.

He wasn't interested in their Sacred Gears for research since he already had many powerful ones. Instead, he wanted to collect them for a new Collection Room he had created.

This room would be filled with items he obtained from his enemies, each displayed in a special glass box he made with anti-power properties, making the items immune to any influence, even from the system of the God of the Bible.

"Oh? This is not what I expected. Who might you be?" As the girls left, a teleportation circle appeared on the ground near Ryuuga, and Satanael emerged from it.

Satanael had assumed that whoever destroyed his barrier was a Cadre-level member from Grigori like himself. Instead, it was just an unknown young boy.

"Do you want to commit suicide, or should I kill you myself?" Ryuuga didn't answer directly. Instead, he glanced at Satanael with a condescending look. Though their ranks were the same, Ryuuga's true combat power was on par with, if not slightly stronger than, Azazel.

"Oh? Interesting." Satanael grinned. He hadn't expected a human to speak to him like this after thousands of years. The first person to do so was Adam, and although Adam had defeated him, he didn't kill him as he had promised.

Satanael's eyes narrowed, and with a flourish, he conjured a sword of radiant Holy Light, its brilliance almost blinding. Without another word, he lunged at Ryuuga, the Holy Light sword slicing through the air with a deadly hum.

But before it could reach Ryuuga, a sword appeared and intercepted the strike. A jet-black, shadowy blade materialized in Ryuuga's hand. It was the Ame-no-Ohabari of Canis Lykaon. This blade could pierce through the defenses of even gods.

Their swords clashed, shadows and light colliding with explosive force. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the ground beneath them.

"You're better than I expected, human." Satanael admitted grudgingly as they exchanged blows.

"You're quite weak." Ryuuga retorted with a grin, his voice steady despite the intensity of the battle. He parried a particularly vicious strike from Satanael and retaliated with a swift slash aimed at the fallen angel's side.

Satanael barely dodged, the tip of the shadow sword grazing his skin and leaving a searing line of darkness. He hissed in pain, his eyes flashing with fury.

"Human, die!" He summoned a barrage of Holy Light spears, each one aimed with deadly precision at Ryuuga. But Ryuuga was already moving, his shadow sword deflecting the spears with effortless ease. He closed the distance between them, his eyes locked onto Satanael's with playful eyes.

"Is this the best you've got?" Ryuuga taunted, his shadow sword arcing towards Satanael's neck.

Satanael blocked the strike just in time, their swords locking together in a struggle of strength and will.

"You will regret underestimating me, human." Satanael growled, pushing back with all his might. For a moment, they were evenly matched because Ryuuga didn't use his full power, their power and skill clashing in a dazzling display of light and shadow.

Then, with a swift motion, Satanael pulled a black sword from out of nowhere. The blade pulsed with a sinister aura, a fusion of holy and demonic power.

"This is Arondight." Satanael declared, his voice filled with malevolent pride.

"Once a Holy Sword, now corrupted by Lancelot's madness and curse. Its power is beyond anything you can imagine." He continued.

"Interesting. Let's see if it lives up to its legend." Ryuuga's eyes narrowed, recognizing the dark and holy energy emanating from the sword. He found it strange for Satanael to explain the origin of the sword, but well… he didn't care.

Satanael charged, swinging Arondight with deadly precision. The blade's unholy light clashed with Ryuuga's shadow sword, sending shockwaves through the battlefield. Ryuuga countered with fluid, precise movements, his strikes now aimed to probe the weaknesses of this new weapon.

Ryuuga pressed the attack, each strike more powerful and precise than the last. Satanael fought back fiercely, his black sword cutting through the air with a malevolent hum. But despite the newfound power of Arondight, Ryuuga's superior skill and strategy began to show.

Their battle raged on, a whirlwind of holy light, shadow, and demonic energy. Satanael's strikes were strong, but Ryuuga's shadow sword pierced through his defenses time and again, leaving dark, searing wounds that sapped Satanael's strength.

After ten grueling bouts, Ryuuga's shadow sword finally found its mark. He drove the blade through Satanael's chest, the combined holy-demonic power of Arondight flickering and dimming as the fallen angel collapsed to the ground.

"Who… are you?" Satanael rasped, his voice weak and strained. He looked up at Ryuuga, a mixture of shock and grudge in his eyes.

"Ryuuga. Remember that name in whatever hell awaits you." Ryuuga stood over him, his shadow sword still gleaming with dark energy.

With a swift motion, he pierced the blade of Ame-no-Ohabari into Satanael's chest, and Satanael died instantly. Tears seemed to form in Satanael's eyes, perhaps out of regret for Azazel or frustration over his unfinished research.

Ryuuga didn't care. It wasn't his problem. He began to absorb Satanael's power with the blade, like a vacuum.

"Haa… just one more," Ryuuga muttered after draining all of Satanael's power. He only needed one more being of Satanael's rank to ascend to the Great Perfection stage of the Grandmaster Realm.

"Satanael!!" Suddenly, a shout rang out nearby. Ryuuga looked up and saw Baraqiel, who had been sent by Azazel to persuade Satanael. He didn't expect to find his old friend on the ground, a black sword embedded in his chest.

"Oh. It's you," Ryuuga said with a smile, waving his hand to store Satanael's body in his space.

"DIEEE!" Baraqiel shouted, blasting Holy Lightning toward Ryuuga. Tears streamed down his face as he mourned his old friend. Despite Satanael's betrayal, the bonds of friendship and past emotions still lingered.

Ryuuga didn't evade the Holy Lightning and let it strike his body, but he remained unhurt, absorbing the lightning into himself.

"I'll let you live until she comes to take your life. Be grateful," he said before disappearing. Though tempted to kill Baraqiel and absorb his power, he had promised Akeno that she could deal with her father. He couldn't break that promise, right?

His maids should have already finished dealing with the Abyss Team and returned to base. Though it had only been a few minutes, their strength far surpassed that of the Abyss Team.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

A/N: Hi, I'm back. I hate thesis. Fuck thesis. By the way, the first and second visitors from other worlds will be from worlds with "SL" as their abbreviation. Can you guess?

1. SL (Orange-Haired Healer)

2. SL (Future Evil Saintess)