[Diorno Strada PoV]

  Ever sihat battle, the image of that devil kept popping up in my mind. I 't stop thinking about him.

  How such a devil exist? Aren't devils known to be bloodthirsty and yearns to destroy everything in their path? My perspective and beliefs started shaking thanks to him.

  The Aaught us about the cruel nature of the devils. The Tarnished One, however, was different.

  It's like seeing a fme ihe o's body, that's what I'm feeling right now.

  Could it be that the devil was scheming? He was using kio let my guard down and go for the strike as soon as the opportunity arose. But if that's his goal, he doesn't o gh such trouble.

  Scheming or not, he still helped me and saved half of my team of exorcists.

  I should be grateful for him instead of doubting him like this.

  Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the newer in the church, his arrival came from a bright light ing from above in which the figure stepped out of the light, his presence immediately caused everyone including the Pope to feel the incredible amount of holy power radiating from his presence alone.

  His appearance was so out of this world, his blonde hair that looked sht like the sun itself, his upper body wearing a mix of armor and a deep robe tight fit robe, along with a cape that is ected to his golden pauldrons. His smiling face was radiating with kindness and holiness, just like how angels are supposed to look like.

  Without hesitation, I and the rest of the church members k on the ground, bowing our heads as we stared down at the floor, not daring to look at the person.

  Just his entry alone is enough for us to distinguish him as an angel who came from heaven. It is ied deep within our teags to treat every angel from the heaven with the utmost respect.

  "Esteemed Angel from the Kingdom of Heaven, what do we owe the pleasure to grace us with your presehe pope of the church was the one who initiated the versation, addressing the angel with deep resped reverence.

  "No need for sualities, Pope Be. I am just here to talk with the Chief Exorcist who was on the mission of devil-worshippiermination." As soon as the angel finished his words, the sweat immediately accumuted on my forehead as I could feel everyone's eyes staring in my dire.

  I bit my lip, as I khat the angel must've e here because of my failure, not only failing to fully extermihe Satanists but also being forced to retreat due to the arrival of devils. Thankfully, I didn't mention the devil who miraculously extended a helping hand to my escape along with the surviving exorcists, or else I would have been branded as a traitor to the churd immediately get myself exunicated.

  I didn't even wait for the Pope to call my name as I stood up and faced them.

  "Your esteemed Angel. I am the Chief Exorcist of the expedition. Please allow me to apologize for my failures, I should've known that the Satanists somehow mao call the devils for reinforts and caused so many casualties!" Then proceeded to bow my head and tinued with a determione.

  "Please let me atone for my sins!" My deep belief and reverence for the religion seemed to have made the Pope smile in satisfa.

  The angel, however, maintained his kind smile that looked so i and naive, as if his race was not currently at war with the devils and fallen angels.

  "As I said, let's drop the formalities, just refer to me as Michael, as for why I called for you, it's not about your failure in the mission, no. I called for a whole different thing." Although the angel said so much, his first sentence was the ohat caught not only myself but also the other's attention.

  We were expeg the ao be some sort of a principality or a normal angel. However, his introdu took us by storm. We weren't expeg to meet the leader of Angels himself, the Seraphim Michael!

  He, who vanquished the satan Lucifer to the depths of hell!

  "L-Lord Michael!" Ign what the Seraph Michael just said about dropping formalities and such, the pope took the initiative to kneel on the ground once again, following his lead were the rest of the church members, excluding myself.

  I didn't want to risk angering the Seraph by disregarding what he's been saying for the past few minutes since he arrived, so with an embarrassed expression, I just bowed my head in respect.

  True to my words, I saw Lord Michael's eyebrows twitg several times before sighing.

  "Like I was saying earlier, I am here for you but not for what you think it is." Lord Michael then snapped his fingers and a blue orb materialized on top of his palm.

  "Our father and creatod, has noticed you and decided to give you airely new mission. But before we proceed, God decided to reward you for your deep devotion and loyalty." I watched with my wide eyes as the blue orb that had beeing on his palm suddenly made a move, slowly floating towards me at an average speed.

  Knowing that the gift that Lord Michael was referring to was this blue orb, I made and simply allowed the blue orb to enter my chest.

  Lord Michael then proceeded to ahe curiosity that had been pguing my mind.

  "What you just saw that entered you is God's new creation, an artifact of some sort, called Sacred Gears, these gears will allow you to use abilities to fight against the Supernatural beings and even the Devil Pilrs themselves if you mao use it to its highest potential." I froze.

  Yes, freezing up was my only rea to that information. Sacred Gears? Allowio fight Devil Pilrs? Whose strengths are almost sed only to the Satans themselves?

  Before I could recover, Lord Michael wasn't do and tinued expining.

  "Each Sacred Gear vary in terms of abilities, as for yours, it is a Longinus, a term for a Sacred Gear that is sidered as the top among its fellow Gears.”

  “Your Longinus is called Ie Anthem, it was made with the same cross where Jesus Christ was crucified. It grants you the ability to create and trol powerful purple Holy Fire, which is deadly against the creatures of darkness such as devils, vampires, ghosts, and many more, you also use it on normal races that are not among the creatures of darkness I mentioned earlier. It is just as effective as using it against devils when you use the holy fme on your fellow humans whose sins are high enough" Lord Michael’s expressiourned slightly dim as he tinued his words but this time, it was a warning to me.

  "Although I don't suggest using it towards is. Or else you’ll be fag not only my wrath but also God.” His warning made me gulp my saliva hard as the pressure he was radiating was enough to make my legs shake.

  “I-I’d rather die tha against the is, Lord Michael.” After hearing my answer, Lord Michael’s face turned back to his cheery self while the pressure disappeared as if it was here in the first pce.

  That was..scary. Seraphim are scary!

  ***

  [Chamber PoV]

  I’ve been waiting outside for almost an hour now, maybe I should go back.

  However before I could do so, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

  “One moment, you were still a devil who lost in his way but now, you’re strong enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the devil pilrs in the underworld.” I’m sorry but am I seeing God again? And this time, he was shedding a tear.

  “You’re back,” I said with a monotonous tone.

  “I’m back.” He grinned. Crossing his arms as we looked at each other.

  “….” Resisting the urge to use my magical sense on him, I breathed heavily.

  I already imagine my eyes melting from the amount of God’s holy power.

  “What? Are we just gonna stay here and keep staring at each other? Where’s my hug?” Spreading his arms wide, God expected me to hug him.

  Me? Hugging God? His entire presence radiates holy power, I’m afraid the moment I touched him, I’d be reduced to ashes.

  Seeing my hesitation, God grinned and quickly swooped in.

  I couldn’t eve when I was suddenly in the arms of one of the stro beings in this world.

  “Haha! You silly little devil, who said about redug you to ashes when you touch me?”

  “You! Are you reading my mind, old man!?” Pointing my fi him, I accused.

  “Hahaha! Reading your mind? That sounds more like something Shiva would do instead of me.” Shiva? As in THE Shiva?

  Thinking about the lore of that god, I shivered just by thinking about it.

  Now that he exists, I wonder which of them is strohe God of the Bible or Shiva?

  As if reading my mind once again, God chuckled and said.

  “There’s no such thing as who is stronger ih of us. We’re both Gods of our respective religions and equal in terms of strength.”

  “So that means you’d lose?”

  “Nah, I’d win.” I saw a smirk. And am I hearing arrogance from his words?

  Isn’t arrogance a sin?

  “…What are you even doing here?” Sighing, I finally asked the million-dolr question.

  What is God doing here? How he mao have so much time to waste when he’s dealing with war against his sons and daughters?

  “Nothing much. I just want to give you a gift.”

  “Huh? Am I hearing that right? A gift? You want to give me, a devil, a gift?” I wide-eyed stared at God in front of me who was once again bearing his usual toothy grin.

  “Well, ’t a grandpa give his grandson a gift?”

  “Who’s yrandson, you old man!” Dodging my attempt to pyfully punch God, the old man then proceeded to show me a green glowing orb.

  “…rick. But I think I do the same.”

  “Haha, my child, this is not a mere trick. But a Sacred Gear.” His words caught my attention immediately.

  “Sacred Gear?” I asked, hoping he’d shed more light about this Sacred Gear thing.

  “It’s my new iion, it's teically an artifact that gives you an edge against your oppos.”

  An artifact? Like Mjolnir or Storm Breaker?

  Excitement immediately bubbled inside me, and like a child asking his parents for dies, I looked at God with almost a begging expression.

  “Looks like someone’s excited. Here, instead of expining this, how about you take a look for yourself?” Then the green orb flew towards my chest, making me remember a certain colorful orb that did the same thing before finding myself here.

  Closing my eyes, I suddenly felt something inside of me. Resting and waiting to be summoned.

  Trying to will it out, a mysterious pocket watch suddenly materialized in front of me.

  Quickly catg it before it could fall on the ground, I pulled the pocket watch for a closer look.

  It’s just a pocket watch. Although the design itself is majestid almost resembles a Victorian-style pocket watch, I still have no idea how this thing fun as an artifact.

  I’m not the oo uimate something just by seeing its appearance, as I know that this pocket watch was created by God himself, so it’s pretty obvious it is bound to be something special.

  At the same time as I was pting, God spoke.

  “That’s a Longinus, a term to use when a Sacred Gear is way above the other Sacred Gears.”

  “…Does it have a name?”

  “Of course. I call it os Requiem.”

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  [ Chapter: Ch. 27 - os Requiem]