f his Pantheon.

More than that, there was the unspoken rule that the Christian God wasn't one to be provoked, and it was with much joy that the smaller Pantheons and Religions celebrated when news of God's death reached their ears through intelligence gathering. Only now, that intelligence appeared to be false.

A tremble travelled through Utu's body, the flickering of his expression rather subtle, but still something that was noticed. At this point, Utu understood that if he was truly facing the One God of Christianity, he had no chance of winning. Thus, all he could do was hope that whatever had caused the Christian God to disappear for so long was still affecting him either by an injury or hidden detriment.

"I am a God of Sumer, a God of the Sun," Utu bellowed before releasing the full weight of his divinity. "Do you really think defeating me will be so easy?"

The eyes hidden beneath a mask simply glanced up, not a flicker of emotion passing through them as a divine might crushed Utu against the ground. Utu paled instantly.

The rumours of the Christian God's power in the Ancient times wasn't just an exaggeration, in fact, it was simply an understatement.

"Seventy-Two were my equal and you are but one not even comparable to the weakest of them," the voice entering Utu's ears was like a blow heavier than any Divine ability, but he still persisted.

Utu's hands found purchase on the ground before forcible raising himself to his feet the exertion causing the wrinkles on his old face to crease. The expression of dismissal he had used from the beginning had long since given way to one of the deepest urgencies for there was one thing he understood. He had to get news out to his fellow Gods that the Christian God wasn't dead.

To begin with, if Utu had known that the Christian God was alive, then even with the evidence that Ig-Alima had appeared in Kuoh, he wouldn't have had dared attack. It was one thing for a religion without a God to possess a Divine Construct, and it was another thing entirely if the Religion had a God. Especially a foremost religion predominant in the world.

Speaking of regrets, Utu had many after his Religion fell out with mankind, but it didn't mean that he was willing to perish at the hands of another.

Utu git his teeth and glared.

"No matter how strong you are it won't matter!" He said, wheezing from the pressure. "Your light will not reach me!"

Utu was a God of the Sun, which alternatively gave him a domain as a God of Light. God himself from Christianity was said to possess the strongest Light, one of creation and power. However, the main aspect about Gods of Light, was that it was exceedingly difficult to kill them with a power stemming from Light.

It was the same concept of trying to smother a fire with an even greater fire. It was almost impractical, and God knew this, the pause in his actions apparent.

Utu finally felt some semblance of calm. In the end, as long as he didn't succumb to the pressure upon him, there were numerous opportunities to escape. After all, it generally took a God to restrain another God, could the Christian God watch over him forever?

Indeed, it was highly unlikely, and with this thought in mind, Utu forced himself to endure while his expression slowly grew complacent.

One could win the battle, but so long as they didn't win the war, nothing would change.

Of everyone present on scene, everyone understood this point. How could they not after waring between each other for centuries? Hundreds of lives had been lost both in Heaven and the Underworld, and yet still the war persisted. Individual battles and victories meant nothing in the long run.

The situation seemed to have come to a stand still, but that was when all felt it, Utu even more so as a shiver ran down his back, his eyes widening in confusion.

Dark tar-like tendrils began crawling up his body, the feeling like millions of ants biting upon his skin. A plague whittling away at his own divinity.

Worse, none but him could see it.

"You are correct that my light can not reach you," The voice was changing, shifting; the calm and tranquil, replaced by gruff and infernal. "But who said it would be light that would reach you?"

A domain of curses, one that instantly replaced the light in the area with a suffocating malevolence. Twisted dark swords suffused with vile energy began appearing one by one, plunging into the ground and caging Utu within who remained unmoving.

Utu just couldn't understand what was going on let alone the others watching. The change had been too sudden. Something that no one present could have had predicted much less Michael and the others who looked distinctly uncomfortable.

Only the biggest change occurred on the Devil's side as from the plunged swords sprung forth a magic crest not seen since the Underworld's Civil War.

A Nobility of the Seventy-Two Pillars. The Demon with the head of a Lion.

Many of the Old Satan Faction members who had regained consciousness after cratering into the ground trembled before staring in disbelief.

This energy.

This presence.

Adelina froze in her fight with Vali, Vali himself following suit as his attention immediately altered. As a Devil who had never participated in the Underworld's Civil War, the heaviness and malevolence of the energy blanketing Kuoh was a first. The blood within him felt like it was boiling, a resonance caused by his heritage as a Devil.

This effect was even more apparent on Sona and Rias, the two left out of breath.

Yet perhaps the one most affected by the sudden emergence of this energy was Serafall.

She had remained in seclusion after she had defeated Katarea Leviathan, unable to bring herself out of her spiraling state of self-loathing. And yet now, a glimmer appeared in her gaze before her attention shifted towards one direction, her mouth opening and closing. From her position, she could only see the back view of the man currently fighting for the sake of the Peace Talks.

But it was a back with a familiarity that caused her mind to blank even as she subconsciously began to step forward, her lips quivering.

The Fifth Demon of the Ars Goetia.

The knower of all truths and the keeper of the Twin Keys.

The power suffusing the area intensified, wisps of black manifesting and creating the image of misshapen monsters of shadow that danced and flickered ephemerally.

Utu finally began to struggle desperately under the restriction of the power weighing on him, veins popping from his arms and straining against the taint crawling over him.

Even then, it didn't matter.

For it was already too late.

Shirou stared down at Utu while persevering through the pain caused by using all the World's Evil. Already it was hard for him to think straight with the murderous nature of the curses he was bearing, but he understood one thing. He had to deal with Utu before those he held dear would be put in jeopardy.

He leaned forward, a hand filled with an even more potent curse reaching towards Utu and distorting the reality around the vicinity.

It was at that point that cracks began to appear one by one on the featureless mask he had traced; it no longer able to maintain itself after enduring such powerful energies since the beginning of the battle.

Then again, he didn't need it any longer.

Pieces of the mask chipped away to reveal a face covered in black tribal markings, piercing bronze coloured orbs glaring without emotion.

Serafall's breathing hitched, the tears welling in her eyes trailing down her cheeks.

It was the face she knew all too well.

The face of the fool that she had only been able to see in her nightmares as he faded away in her arms. She hesitated no longer and shot forward, desperate to make sure that what she was seeing wasn't just an illusion caused by her own desperation.

Meanwhile, a darkened hand encompassed Utu's head, the curses spilling forth like a torrent that caused Utu's body to go limp before Shirou let go.

What remained of Utu was a haggard appearance, one that was a far cry from the brilliance he had exuded when he had first arrived.

"Y-You," Utu said weakly, the life and divinity in his eyes gradually fading away. "You are not the Christian God."

Shirou simply nodded. In the brief moment that God had paused in his actions, God had simply allowed Shirou to take over. Light would not defeat light, but darkness could.

"No, I am not," Shirou answered Utu softly, traces of tainted energy exuding off of him. "I am Marbas, Demon of the Underworld."

Utu's mouth closed at the response, before Utu smiled derisively.

"Even the Demons thought to have had died still remain," Utu muttered as the life faded from his eyes. "What a blunder."

In a gentle breeze, Utu's body turned into dust, carrying in the silent wind that blew throughout Kuoh.

Shirou heaved a sigh. In the end, everything was over.

His gaze landed towards the members of the Old Satan Faction and the majority of them were already bowing their heads in reverence including the younger Devils, some even prostrating. Even though they had heard from their seniors about the might of the Underworld's Hero, experiencing the aura of all the World's Evil first hand was another matter entirely.

As for Heaven and the Fallen, they were even more unlikely to attack with his presence in the area. For even if he was currently exuding a Demonic aura, the Holy aura he had displayed previously was unmistakable.

It was then that a body crashed into him, the fierceness in the arms that clung around him expressing the anxiety his assailant was experiencing.

Before he could even react, it was then that he felt it. The wetness soaking into the garments he wore as the distinct sound of sobbing entered his ears.

Unprepared for the sudden attack, his body toppled over, sprawling over the ground as a mess of black hair masked his vision. And yet, he didn't dare struggle, for he quickly understood who was clinging onto him based on the softened expression on Sirzechs face.

It was a continuation of a time that had frozen in the past.

An ice that was steadily beginning to melt.

Silence descended in the area, accompanied only by the weeping of a woman who refused to let go of that which was in front of her.

That which had always faded away in her arms like a sick joke in her dreams.

Yet this time was different.

The tenderness, the concern.

They were all there just as she remembered, evident in the gaze she saw looking upon her.

She wanted to speak, her mouth opening, yet no sound came out even as the tears continued to spill. Her grasp on him tightened in her anxiety. She wanted to express the emotions she hadn't been able to before, yet no matter what she did, no words came out.

But it didn't matter. What she wanted to convey had been received long ago in the tears she had shed upon a desolate battlefield.

Arms wrapped around her, tucking her head at the crook of a shoulder; the warmth she felt was something that she had never thought she would experience again since that time in the Underworld.

His mouth opened, speaking the words she had wanted to hear the most and making her sob harder as a result.

"I'm back, Serafall."