The moment I kick open the door, I see a bunch of people from different ethnicity surrounding a Japanese man while facing the entrance. All those extremists minus the one in the middle are holding some disturbingly familiar high-tech weapons.

   I see them pull the trigger. Lasers, bullets, missiles of all sizes start flying towards us. Thankfully, Yui is here to form a barrier right in front of us and deflect the projectiles. I, on the other hand, summons lots of skeleton fishes so that they can destroy those weapons. I made the fishes appear right on top of them, so all of them are caught off guard and couldn’t even defend themselves as the fishes chomp their weapons into pieces.

   With their weapons destroyed, the extremists have to call back their angels to protect them. Those lunatic former celestial beings fly through the door while keep on screeching at the top of their lungs. I just hope that the foundation of this building is strong enough to not collapse from their high frequency screeching.

   I’m doing my best to ignore everyone here minus the Japanese man whom I assume is Hunter since he’s doing something very worrying.

   He’s muttering something under his breath. It might be a chant of some spell or even curse since more and more weird looking tattoos are appearing on his face. Whatever it is, things might get very dangerous if he’s done with the chanting.

   I could have Yui seal him up within a barrier. The problem is, whatever he’s doing might end up overpowering the barrier, which is why we need to knock him out first.

   I raise my spear and make a huge wave made of seawater appear out of thin air. The wave surround those extremists and make them submerge in an aquatic sphere. Forget chanting, Hunter can’t even breath properly right now.

   I dive into the sphere and head straight for Hunter. I could tell that it’s actually every extremists for themselves when the fallen angels dive inside the sphere and scoop out their contractors instead of rescuing Hunter without a second thought. Some extremists are being dragged out of the sphere by multiple angles. I’m pretty sure they could at least spare one to rescue their leader. But nope.

   As for Hunter himself, he’s flailing around in the middle of the sphere while rapidly running out of air. I take it that he can’t swim. As much as it’s fun to see him flapping his limbs like he’s being electrocuted, I might get into huge trouble if he drowns. So I had to settle with knocking him out with a punch. Mu punch landed squarely on his jaw and succeeds in knocking him out. If anything, my punch is stronger since I’m underwater while holding Gáe Bulg. He stops flailing, both his eyes roll upwards, and he lowers his head as he blackouts.

   With him out of commission, I make the sphere of water disappear. All of a sudden, those extremists remembered their leader. Some of those angels that were grabbing their contractor put them down on the floor so that they could come flying at us. The rest are staying back and fending off the attack from my side.

   As for those that are heading this way, they got intercepted by my skeleton fishes that I still kept around. Kaoru, Ichika and Amesaki-senpai came over to my side to help me fight them off just in case.

   ‘How are you faring so far, Kaoru?’ I ask Kaoru loudly since those fallen angels are still screaming.

   ‘Aside from a scratches or two, I’m going to be fine aniki!’

   ‘Good to hear!’

   As the rest of us watch, Madoka jumps real high until she manages to reach one of the extremists. Before her or any of her angels manage to react, Madoka gives her a chop to the back of her head. That knocked her out cold. Almost immediately, the angels that were carrying her vanish into thin air without leaving a single trace. Not even the feathers that they shed from their wings remain. I guess their contractors need to be conscious in order for them to remain in this world. Before the unconscious extremist falls to the ground and breaks her bones, Madoka catches her and puts her down on the ground gently.

   Seeing Madoka knocking out one of their own made the rest of the extremists more vigilant. Their angels put them down on the ground, and then they cluster up with the wall behind them like a bunch of grapes.

   ‘You have nowhere to run nor hide! Surrender right now!’ Amesaki-senpai tells them.

   ‘You people surrender!’ one shouts at her.

   ‘Bow down before the might of our God!’ another shouts.

   ‘Hand over our leader and we’ll show mercy!’ a third one demands.

   ‘Well, I guess the negotiation’s broken down.’ I mumble.

   While they’re getting distracted, I secretly take out my phone and send a message to Mashiro. Few seconds later, a Destroyer with the look of a gecko and the size of a cheetah appears on top of the ceiling the extremists are standing at. It opens its mouth and breaths out a white gas.

   One by one, the extremists got knocked out after breathing in the gas. To make sure that we’re not affected by it, we quickly take out a gas mask and put it on.

   Eventually, all of them got knocked out and drop on the floor. With their contractors unconscious, the fallen angels also disappear. We could finally breath normally after taking off the gas mask and without having any fallen angels to try and take our lives.

   The first thing Yui do is stick a piece of talisman on their forehead so that their powers are sealed. She also put Hunter inside a barrier with enough holes for air to go in and out. As for me, I dismissed my skeleton fishes.

   ‘That was fast.’ I couldn’t help but note.

   ‘It’s because they got overconfident. They were so confident that whatever Hunter was doing was enough to turn the tables they didn’t think things through enough.’ Amesaki-senpai tells me.

   ‘That said, I’m extremely concerned on…whatever he was trying to do.’

   ‘He was trying to make his angel possess him.’ Yui says with a shudder.

   ‘Seriously?’

   ‘I’m absolutely positive. I read his lips when we barged in here. He was chanting Hebrew and mentioned possessing a mortal flesh and blood.’

   ‘Wait, you know Hebrew?’

   ‘Yes. I’ve studied it and ten other ancient languages in case I have to seal off the deities worshiped by those people one day.’

   ‘So you know what, thirteen languages if counting Japanese and English?’

   ‘Fourteen, actually. I also studied Mandarin.’

   ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’

   ‘It’s not really. But if you really want to praise me…’

   Wordlessly, she comes nearer and lowers her head. I immediately give her a head pat. As she’s purring happily, I look at Madoka.

   ‘Good job with that extremist just now, Madoka.’ I say to her. ‘Do you want some head pats as a reward?’

   She looks at me with a death glare that I haven’t seen in ages. ‘Keep your hand to yourself if you still want to use it.’

   I suddenly hear Motome-senpai and Amesaki-senpai whispering to each other.

   ‘Go on, get some before someone else does!’ I hear Motome-senpai whispering to Amesaki-senpai.

   ‘What? No! It’s way too embarrassing!’ Amesaki-senpai hisses back softly.

   ‘Um, Do you want something from me, Amesaki-senpai?’

   She yelps loudly.

   ‘N-Not at all! Absolutely nothing! Nope!’ she stutters.

   Right next to her, Motome-senpai facepalms.

   ‘Well, I’ll be calling my colleagues here.’ Amesaki-senpai continues to say next while turning around her body.

   ‘Um, isn’t it faster to call them with your phone?’ I suggest.

   ‘Or even better, send a message to our group that you created?’ Motome-senpai reminds her.

   ‘Oh, right.’

   ‘And call for our other colleagues who were in standby. We need them to bring the vehicles over.’

   ‘Got it.’

   Looking at this exchange, it’s hard to believe that Amesaki-senpai was the student council president with Motome-senpai as the vice president. Then again, maybe that’s part of the reason her absent-mindedness was never exposed.

   Meanwhile, I call Mashiro to come over here. She drops by immediately by using her wind magic. On a side note, the message I sent her just now wrote ‘Summon the lizard Destroyer that could people to sleep’. I know it exists since Mashiro summoned it in the Season 2 of the original anime to put Yuuji to sleep so that she could act like something had happened between them.

   Right now, Madoka is kneeling down on one of the extremists and aiming her phone at his face. She does the same with the rest. Well, excenpt Hunter since he’s stuck inside a barrier.

   ‘Find something out of place?’ I ask her.

   She nods in conformation. ‘To put it simply, they had a plastic surgery.’

   ‘What’s so out of place about that?’

   ‘The traces of the surgery being done are near non-existent. This is something that the technology that regular hospitals that do plastic surgery right now can’t accomplish.’

   She then gestures towards the broken pieces of the weapons they used.

   ‘And don’t these weapons look familiar to you?’

   ‘We’ve seen them multiple times. When we were fighting the enhanced test subjects created by Professor Ryuuouji.’ Sakuya confirms.

   ‘You mean, these guys are involved with Lost Children?’ I ask.

   ‘At the very least, they’re joining hands with the remnants of the Ryuuouji Bio Lab. Further investigations are definitely required.’

   After Amesaki-senpai and Motome-senpai’s colleagues have arrived at the warehouse, they proceed to cuff those extremists and frisk them. Hunter’s barrier are disabled temporarily so that the same can be done to him.

   ‘You’re going to need a trolley for him.’ I tell Amesaki-senpai while looking at Hunter and the barrier he’s encased in.

   ‘No worries. We got plenty of those. More importantly, I’ve never heard of a priest making an angel possess him. It’s like he’s a warlock who controls demons.’

   ‘Maybe they got the idea from Japanese people allowing deities to possess them.’ Yui suggests.

   ‘Maybe. Whichever the case, they are getting more and more versatile these days. We definitely can’t afford to let our guards down.’

   I look at the pile of items being confiscated from the extremists. There are phones, wallets, passports, and some leather-bound note books no bigger than the size of an adult’s palm. All of them are soggy after their owners’ dive to the water sphere I made just now.

   ‘Is it okay if I look at one of the notebooks?’ I ask before I actually do it.

   ‘Be careful. There might be booby traps in it.’ Motome-senpai cautions.

   ‘I’ll check for them.’ Madoka says while picking one up.

   Even though she said that, all she did was shaking it a few times. She then hands the notebook to me. I absolutely trust Madoka, which is why I open the notebook without asking a single question.

   I was expecting the pages to be soggy after getting soaked in water, but none of them are affected since every single one of these pages are laminated. Wow. Talk about being over the top. That said, if they didn’t laminated the pages, there no way I could have manage to read it.

   Broken anime logic #68: Everyone can speak fluent Japanese even if they’ve never studied the language before. However, the notes or any other written material that they possess are written in their native language most of the time. In this case, it’s English.

   I don’t really have the confidence to speak English with someone who learned English as their first language, but I can speak and write them well enough.

   The first few pages wrote about their dedication to their God, the prayer they need to chant every time they’re praying, and other stuff you might find inside the notebook of a typical Christian devotee. Everything I read is normal so far. One particular page, however, shows a symbol that might incite a nation wide outrage if words of this were spread.

   It’s the symbol of an upside-down pentacle. I turn the page as quickly as I can just in case the symbol has the ability to curse anyone who stares at it for too long.

   ‘What’s wrong Akira-kun?’ Yui asks in concern after she saw my reaction.

   ‘There’s, well, a certain symbol in the page I read just now.’

   I’m too scared to even mention it. I’ve learned in classes that words have power, and I don’t want to accidentally start something.

   ‘No need to worry. Those symbols carry no power unless they’re drawn in a grimoire. In human blood.’ Madoka clarifies.

   ‘Thanks Madoka, I definitely needed to hear the last part. Still, it’s kind of revolting to see these priests fallen this far. Can you imagine the reaction of Albanese-san if he ever sees one of these notebooks?’

   ‘He was in charge of raiding a Church of Satan two years ago.’ Madoka recalls. ‘He had every single book found inside the church burned.’

   ‘Yup. Typical Albenase-san.’

   I continue to read through the notebook. While I’m busy, the reinforcements that Amesaki-senpai called earlier has finally arrived. The extremists are still unconscious, so they had to be carried over the shoulder like sacks of potatoes. I had to read the notebook real quick since it’ll be used as evidence.

   After I’m done, my brain somehow thought up of a horrible, horrible hypothesis based oneverything that I’ve seen and heard so far.

   ‘Say. What are the odds of an angel beating a God in a fight?’ I ask no one in particular.

   ‘Chances are the angel will lose.’ Yui answers.

   ‘Even if there are multiple of them?’

   ‘Even if there are multiple of them. I’m not trying to be rude, but not even archangels are strong enough to defeat a God.’

   ‘And yet these extremists are trying to kill of their God’s competitions with mere angels.’

   ‘Perhaps they are just being overconfident.’ Ichika suggests.

   ‘Are they?’

   ‘Have you figured out something, Akira-kun?’ Sakuya asks.

   ‘Well, it’s just a thought. Maybe, just maybe, they’re not trying to kill our Gods.’

   ‘What are they planning, then?’

   ‘What’s the first thing you think of when I mention a pentacle or pentagram?’ I ask her instead.

   ‘A demon?’

   ‘And what are demons extremely good at no matter their size, battle prowess or rank?’

   ‘Seducing humans?’

   ‘Exactly. And Amesaki-senpai said that it’s unheard of for a priest to make an angel possess him. What about a demon? That’s more common, right? And their ultimate goal isn’t to kill Gods, but corrupting them by having demons to tempt them?’

   ‘But, that will never work!’ Yui exclaims. ‘Gods will never tolerate the sight of a demon. They will be obliterated when seen!’

   ‘The demons don’t really have to show up themselves. All they have to do is to tell their human hosts on what to say when they meet the Gods, and they will do the rest. As I said, this is just my theory, but still. And remember Tatsuya?’

   Yui’s eyes widen. ‘He got tricked by Zaimoto-san.’

   ‘Right. A mere mortal managed to trick a God. Imagine what kind of lies and sweet temptation a race of master tricksters like the demons can think up of. After the Gods got tricked, they might lay waste to this planet, and their worshippers will stop worshiping them and eventually pretend that they don’t exist. With their worshippers gone, the Gods will be nothing but distant memory. When that happens, only the God of Christianity will remain.’

   I did say that this was just a theory, but it still made everyone lose the color on their cheeks.

   Amesaki-senpai takes out her phone. ‘I’m calling the team in Nagano. We have to find and capture the remaining extremists right now.’

   ‘We’ll help out too.’ I offer.

   ‘Is it really alright? Aren’t all of you on a trip or something?’ Amesaki-senpai says hesitantly.

   ‘This is no time for that. The capture mission is much more important!’

   ‘Well, in that case, we humbly accept your help.’

   I look at Ichika and Kaoru. ‘Sorry girls. Looks like we have to delay the Kyoto tour for a bit.’

   The two of them shake their head.

   ‘It is fine. As you said, assisting them in capturing the remaining extremists is much more important.’ Ichika says to me.

   ‘Besides, we could always come back here.’ Kaoru adds.

   ‘I’m afraid that the visit to your father’s grave will have to wait as well.’ I also tell Madoka.

   She shrugs like she’s not the least bit bothered by it. ‘It can wait.’

   ‘How do we get to Nagoya?’ I ask Amesaki-senpai.

   ‘By driving, I guess. It’s much easier to spot suspicious individuals when you’re on the road.’

   ‘But what could they be doing in Nagoya of all places?’ Yui wonders out loud. ‘I would understand why they would come to Kyoto since there are lots of temples and shrines here, but there’s next to nothing there.’

   It’s true. I’ve never been to Nagoya myself, but it was deemed to be the most boring city in Japan by a local newspaper a few year back. I heard that the land is mostly occupied by automotive factory.

   ‘Maybe they think that the prefecture next to Kyoto might be a good source of information for their mission.’ Sakuya suggests.

   ‘Either way, we have to find them ASAP.’ I tell them.

   All of them nod in agreement.