It had been the right call to let the fallen angels gather their forces before striking.
Had Kanzaki acted on the first day, he would've barely scraped together four common-tier entries. That kind of yield? Completely beneath him.
"Hm? This is..."
Issei Hyoudou groaned as he stirred awake, still dangling awkwardly under Kanzaki's arm.
"You woke up just in time."
Kanzaki casually let go. Issei dropped unceremoniously to the ground.
"Wooooooooaaah—!"
Issei screamed as he faceplanted onto the hard floor, snapping him fully out of the daze.
He looked up groggily, spotted a familiar figure looming nearby.
"Kanzaki? What's going on? Where even am I? What's with those wings?!"
"So many questions."
Kanzaki didn't bother stopping.
"If you've got time to talk, use it to remember."
Issei quieted.
Think... He had gone out this morning, met with his new girlfriend, and then—
"She said I had some kind of Sacred Gear and then shot me outta nowhere..."
He looked down at his torn clothes, the massive hole in his abdomen now crusted over with dried blood.
"Kanzaki, you saved me?"
"Yep."
Kanzaki was already walking ahead, heading toward the old church's basement.
Issei scrambled to his feet and followed.
As they descended the narrow staircase, Kanzaki explained.
The truth of the world. The reality of Sacred Gears. The war between devils, angels, and fallen.
The nature of the Boosted Gear embedded within Issei's soul.
"There's a way to take it out? Thank god!"
Issei's eyes lit up.
"Kanzaki, I'm counting on you! Please take this thing away from me!"
Unlike the story of the original wielder, where trauma sparked a path toward transformation, this Issei had no interest in clinging to power.
All he saw was danger. Death.
He had nearly died today. He had no intention of testing fate a second time.
Better to get rid of the cursed object and go back to living normally.
He followed Kanzaki to the church basement without hesitation.
...
The basement was dim, lit by flickering candles set into old iron brackets.
At its center was a glowing ritual circle carved deep into the stone floor.
"Stand inside."
Kanzaki gestured.
Issei stepped into the center of the circle without question.
"What do I do?"
"Just stand still."
Kanzaki briefly disabled his 'Soldier' entry.
He had already sifted through Raynare's memories earlier during interrogation.
The Sacred Gear deprivation ritual was straightforward, relying on divine resonance with Heaven's system.
Two main requirements:
First, a group of clergymen to perform holy Powers in unison.
Second, the Sacred Gear host had to be incapacitated and nonresistant.
The former was easily bypassed. Kanzaki simply disabled his devil attribute temporarily, reverting to a human baseline.
The latter?
That one was laughably easy.
He glanced over at the clueless Issei, who looked entirely too trusting for his own good.
Without warning, Kanzaki raised his hand and unleashed basic light based magic.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
The air vibrated. White blades of light shimmered into existence, orbiting Issei in a slow, methodical spiral.
"Huh?"
Rias's eyes widened.
That wasn't magic.
It was light magic.
What the hell?
How could Kanzaki, a devil, wield divine energy?
Rias had always known he was strange— an ability that boosts his power, senjutsu, potential awakenings, even creating demonic weapons like Kiba.
But she had made a conscious choice to respect his privacy.
Now, though?
Seeing him casually use light magic?
That was pushing it.
What kind of devil are you, exactly?
"AAAAAHHH!"
Issei's agonized scream tore through the air.
A glowing cross erupted from the center of the circle. The blades of light sharpened and plummeted downward.
In the next instant, Issei was nailed to the cross.
A red orb of light burst from his chest, floating in midair.
"Done."
Kanzaki reached out and absorbed the orb into his body.
[External power detected. Convert into Divine Entry?]
Divine-entry?
Kanzaki's eyes lit up.
He confirmed immediately.
[Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet (Divine): Sacred Gear containing the soul of Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor. Abilities include: Boost, Transfer, Penetrate, Blaze.]
Four abilities in one. A god-slaying sacred gear.
Maximum efficiency. Perfect value.
"Kanzaki... you lied to me."
A weak voice rasped behind him.
Kanzaki turned and saw Issei slumped at the base of the cross, pale and barely conscious.
"What lie?"
"I feel... so tired... like I'm about to die..."
"You're not wrong."
Kanzaki didn't sugarcoat it.
"To extract a Sacred Gear, the host must be at the brink of death."
"I used a ritual. Your life force is practically empty. You've got ten seconds left."
"WHAT?!"
Issei's eyes flew open, wild with panic.
But before he could even speak again, his body went limp. His life snuffed out like a candle.
[Hyoudou Issei eliminated. Legendary Entry obtained: "You Are All My Wings."]
...Huh?
Kanzaki blinked.
That wasn't expected.
It had been exactly a month since he first tagged Issei with the "Boost" entry.
But he hadn't anticipated this—another legendary-tier drop.
That explosion rate was insane.
"What now?" Rias asked behind him, arms crossed.
"You said nobody would die. You must have a way to bring him back."
"Of course I do."
Still stunned from the legendary entry, Kanzaki slipped on a white healing bracelet.
Faint light bloomed around his wrist.
"Your Sacred Gear can revive the dead?"
Rias looked skeptical.
"Normally? No. But things change when you go all in."
Kanzaki poured magic into the bracelet.
A loud hum filled the room. The bracelet expanded into a glowing ring, rising into the air behind him like a divine halo.
" Balance Breaker?!"
Rias gasped.
The Balance Breaker —the full release of a Sacred Gear's power.
It was a state achieved only by overcoming immense internal struggle, often against fate itself.
Few in the world had ever reached it.
"Kanzaki, when did you learn this?"
"From the start."
Entries reflected skills and talents. Once registered, they were fully active.
From the moment he first awakened, Kanzaki had possessed the ability to enter balance breaker form
He then guided the halo over to Issei.
The soul that had begun drifting was pulled back. Life energy surged into the corpse.
Within moments, color returned to Issei's face.
He breathed again.
"That's all."
***
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