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Devils Don't Fall in Love, Ch 174
🕑 Added 2026-01-29 16:43:44 +0000 UTCChapter 174 - The Smile of the Holy Mother
With the crisis resolved, Leo left the massive stone disk floating in midair and flew back down to land in front of Rias and the others.
“How is it? Are you badly hurt?”
He folded away the five pairs of devil wings on his back, hard to ignore just moments ago, and looked Rias over as he asked.
“I’m fine. Most of my injuries are already healed.”
Rias was being supported by Ravel. Nearby, Mahiru and the blonde girl were moving briskly among the members of the Gremory peerage, healing them one by one and steadily restoring their condition.
“Y-you’re really okay?”
Rias’s wounds did seem mostly gone. Her gaze lingered on Leo, taking in the fact that he looked completely uninjured, and her expression turned a little dazed.
She wasn’t the only one. Everyone else looked much the same.
After all, Kokabiel, the fallen angel who had just pushed them to the brink of death, had been effortlessly defeated by a boy their own age. The impact of that reality was hard to process.
Rias and the others were still struggling to wrap their heads around it.
Leo, on the other hand, looked as relaxed as if he’d just dealt with an ordinary opponent.
“Do I look like I’m hurt?” He pointed up at the massive stone disk in the sky. “If anyone’s in trouble, it’s that guy.”
That only made their expressions more complicated.
“I knew you’d grown a lot stronger after that special training,” Rias said with a wry smile. “But I never imagined it would be to this extent. It’s unbelievable.”
She had kept in close contact with Leo the whole time. Because of Sirzechs, she had also been paying close attention to everything he did in the Underworld. And since Leo never bothered hiding it, Rias already knew that this trip hadn’t just strengthened the members of Leo's peerage, Leo himself had gained the most.
Ravel, Ram, and Rem were the new servants he had taken in. One was a pure-blooded High-Class Devil from House Phenex, and the other two were Oni orphans, naturally powerful from birth. Bringing three such exceptional people into his peerage was an enormous gain for someone with the Servant Conversion trait.
Because of that, Rias had been mentally prepared for Leo to come back stronger than before.
Even so, she hadn’t expected this much of a jump.
A ten-winged devil who could casually defeat Kokabiel, a fallen angel commander who had survived since the age of myth… that was more than “stronger.” It was absurd.
Honestly, it stung.
Leo, however, didn’t think much of it.
“It wasn’t that hard. He might’ve been a fallen angel commander, but dealing with him was pretty easy.”
He meant it.
Compared to Miyamoto Musashi, who had forced him to end the fight with Balance Breaker, Kokabiel really wasn't that threatening.
They were roughly on the same level, both close to Maou-Class, capable of facing such opponents head-on. But in terms of pure strength, Musashi was far beyond Kokabiel.
Her swordsmanship was practically divine. She could suppress time and space themselves, break through infinity to reach zero. A single slash that could split the world in two was enough to make even Maou-Class beings avoid it. One slip-up, and you might end up losing to her despite having the advantage.
Kokabiel didn't compare. His greatest strength was the fallen angels' Light power. That overwhelming Light might be deadly to other devils, but to Leo, who had become a perfected devil and overcome his racial weaknesses, it was just another combat method.
That was why Leo could defeat Kokabiel so easily, yet couldn’t do the same to Musashi, despite them being on the same tier.
Ravel had mentioned it before as well. Musashi had once defeated a fallen angel commander. It just hadn’t been Kokabiel.
“Anyway, I’m just glad you’re all okay.”
Only after seeing Akeno and the others fully healed did Leo speak up again.
“So… who are those two?”
He was referring to the blonde girl still treating others, and the blue-haired girl quietly receiving her healing, a dangerous-looking Holy Sword still in her hand.
He already knew who they were, but he still needed Rias to introduce them properly.
“Now that you mention it, I haven’t introduced her to you yet.”
Rias composed herself and waved to the blonde girl.
“Come here, Asia.”
Having just finished healing the blue-haired girl, the blonde responded and hurried over, looking flustered.
“This is Asia, my new Bishop piece,” Rias said with a smile. “I told you before that I’d taken in two new servants recently, right? One of them is the current Red Dragon Emperor, and the other is this girl.”
“Yes, I'm Asia Argento.” The blonde girl bowed nervously, hands clasped in front of her. “P-please take care of me.”
Leo naturally knew who she was.
She was one of the original heroines, a former saint of the Church, born with the power to heal others. She had once been praised by everyone around her, but after healing a severely injured devil, she was branded a heretic and cast out by the Church, left with nowhere to go.
Her healing ability came from a Sacred Gear called The Smile of the Holy Mother (Twilight Healing).
It was an ultra-rare Sacred Gear, with only a handful confirmed worldwide. Not only could it heal humans and angels, it could also heal devils and fallen angels. Almost any wound could be cured, though it couldn’t restore stamina or regenerate lost body parts.
Among all Sacred Gears, recovery-type ones were the rarest. And The Smile of the Holy Mother stood at the very top, second only to one of the thirteen Longinus, the Holy Grail of the Underworld. In terms of value, it even surpassed Sacred Gears like Blade Blacksmith, Sword Birth, and others of similar caliber.
Because of this ultra-rare Sacred Gear, the blonde girl had once been targeted by those with ill intent. After a series of ordeals, she eventually joined the Gremory peerage alongside Issei and became Rias's Bishop.
But now, with Issei having been noticed early by Rias and Sona Sitri thanks to Leo’s warning, and taken in before those events ever happened, Asia no longer seemed to have joined because of him.
Rias didn’t explain the details, and Leo didn’t ask.
He wasn’t particularly concerned with how it happened. As long as the saint joined the Gremory peerage like in the original story, that was enough.
As for the blue-haired girl…
“I’m Xenovia. A Holy Sword wielder of the Church.”
She introduced herself before Rias could speak.
"A Holy Sword wielder?" Yukino had been eyeing the sword in Xenovia's hand for a while now. Her gaze settled on it. "So that really is a genuine Holy Sword?"
It wasn’t a strange reaction.
She had seen Holy Swords many times through Asuna, but those were created through a Sacred Gear's ability. To put it bluntly, they were replicas.
True Holy Swords were divine weapons created through magic or alchemy by craftsmen who had reached the realm of the gods. Usually, only one suitable wielder would appear every few decades.
They were the trump cards of the Church and Heaven, and every Holy Sword wielder was an invaluable asset.
And now, one of them was standing right here.
“This is Durandal.”
Aware of how conspicuous she and her sword were to devils, Xenovia openly displayed it.
It was an oversized greatsword, entirely blue, with an exaggerated design, yet she held it effortlessly.
“Durandal, also known as Dyrnwyn. A legendary Holy Sword on par with the Sword of Kings. It’s said to be the sharpest among Holy Swords, capable of shattering anything it touches. A blade that can cut through anything, even the Bael House's Power of Destruction.”
Yukino calmly revealed the sword's true nature, then glanced at Rias.
She was simply reciting what she’d read in books, without adding any personal opinion.
Rias didn’t deny it, which confirmed the accuracy.
To be honest, the sacred aura radiating from the sword was the strongest Yukino had ever felt, far beyond any Holy Sword Asuna had created.
The only thing she had ever seen with greater Holy Power was...
She subtly glanced at Mahiru, who was running with Kiba toward the unconscious Issei.
The violet flames released by her Incinerate Anthem carried Holy Power beyond even Durandal.
Of course, in Leo’s eyes, it was different.
To him, neither Incinerate Anthem nor Durandal compared to Cao Cao's Holy Spear.
That was the true pinnacle among Holy Relics and sacred weapons. In terms of Holy Power, nothing else came close.
“I was sent by the Church to pursue Kokabiel and retrieve the Holy Swords he stole,” Xenovia said simply. Then she looked up at the massive stone disk in the sky, pressed her lips together, and added, “But judging from the situation… it seems everything I did was completely beyond my ability.”
She looked dispirited, her shoulders slumped.
That wasn’t how she normally was.
Rias and the others remembered clearly how arrogant Xenovia had been when she first arrived in Kuoh Town. Bold enough to threaten them outright, warning them not to lay a finger on the Holy Swords Kokabiel held.
But in the battle against Kokabiel, she’d suffered a far greater blow than Rias herself.
Not because she lost.
Xenovia knew her limits. Even as a rare Holy Sword wielder, she wasn’t strong enough to stand alone against a commander.
What truly shattered her was the revelation that God was dead.
Kokabiel had dropped that bombshell in the middle of the fight.
Until then, the truth had been strictly sealed off. Neither Heaven nor the Church’s upper ranks had let anyone below them know.
Learning that truth left Xenovia completely deflated.
And she wasn't the only one. Asia, who also came from the Church, had been deeply shaken as well.
For those who lived by faith in God, the news of His death was devastating enough to strip their lives of meaning.
Compared to that, nearly dying at Kokabiel’s hands felt insignificant.
"You're Leo Eligos, right?" Xenovia forced herself to straighten up and addressed him. "I know who you are."
“Oh?” Leo raised a brow. “Even a Holy Sword wielder from the Church knows a nobody little devil like me?”
"Before, you weren't worth paying attention to. But once it became known that you wield Zenith Tempest, not just the Church, Heaven itself began watching you closely," Xenovia said frankly. “I’ve heard that even Lord Michael is observing you from the shadows. If I didn’t know about you, that would be strange.”
At that, everyone tensed.
Michael, one of Heaven's four Great Seraphim, the angelic leader with twelve golden wings, revered as the voice of God.
With God gone, he was effectively Heaven’s highest authority, a figure whose status rivaled the Governor-General of the fallen angels and the strongest Maou among devils, Lucifer.
Being watched by someone like that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“How flattering.”
Leo didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
Plenty of people were watching him already. The fallen angels’ Governor-General was paying attention, and even the leader of the Hero Faction had personally sought him out. At this point, he was used to it.
Unless someone told him that the three strongest beings in the world were all watching him at once, nothing else would really surprise him.
So he changed the subject.
“For now, let’s figure out what to do with him.”
He pointed up at the massive stone disk in the sky. The others nodded silently.
“I’ll call Sona and the others in first.”
Rias spread a magic circle across her palm and began contacting the outside world…
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