Kisuke's Cero dug a deep hole and Hades was nowhere in sight. Kisuke knew that he'd be able to escape easily, as this was his domain and there should be countless escape routes that he could take in case of emergency, "Even though he's a God, he sure sounds like a third-rate villain."

'Well, I already expected this and I already achieved my goal.' Kisuke didn't care that Hades escaped. Aside from cracking his skull, Kisuke was able to hide some of his spells within Hades' body and could activate them at the most opportune time. It's the same trick he used against Aizen to seal him when he was weakened.

Although Kisuke had the advantage throughout that engagement, it's only because he caught Hades' off guard that he wasn't able to use most of his abilities. And even if he has a choice to kill him, he wouldn't do it.

Not just a lot of things may change with his death, Kisuke also still didn't know his accomplices, and killing Hades now will only make it more difficult for him in the future, 'Well then, until next time, Hades-san~.'

Kisuke then returned to his normal form and turned to Ophis, who had already teleported beside him. Reaching out his hand to her, Kisuke stated with a smile, "Let's go home."

Ophis first looked towards his hand and thought for a few seconds before grabbing it and bobbing her head, "Mmm."

Ignoring the calls from Azazel, who was with Sirzechs and Dulio flying towards them, Kisuke and Ophis teleported away.

Azazel, Sirzechs, and Dulio arrived at their spot, and Azazel couldn't help but click his tongue, "Oh come on! Couldn't you spare some of your time?"

"He probably figured out that you'd be asking a lot of questions, so he left first," replied Sirzechs.

Azazel sighed, "Hmm... I guess you're right. I'd do the same thing if I was in his shoes."

"H-he really did crack Hades-sama's skull... I thought he was just joking." They heard Le Fay from below muttering.

After the Grim Reapers saw Hades had escaped, all of them also started retreating in all directions.

Azazel turned to the young man in white armor and asked, "Vali, you're the one who brought him here?"

Vali deactivated his Balance Breaker and nodded, "Ah... He kept doing one surprising thing after another." He then turned around and instructed the others to retreat, "Contact me once he appears again. He promised us that he'd tell what happened to one of ours."

The entire Vali team then teleported away.

"Since there's nothing else, I'll be returning to report to Michael-sama." Dulio scratched his head and said his farewells before leaving for Heaven.

Azazel then faced the young man named Tobio and his large dog Jin and said, "Return to the headquarters for now. I'll go back later."

Tobio bowed at him and also teleported away with his dog.

Azazel finally turned to Sirzechs and said, "I'm going back to the kids first. I think I can get some more information from them."

Sirzechs nodded, "Very well... I still have to take care of a lot of things in the Underworld, so I'm going first."

"True, especially with Serafall removed from her position, your workload increased. Well, good luck."

Sirzechs could only sigh as he teleported to his territory.

.

.

.

When Kisuke and Ophis arrived at his hideout, Kisuke immediately detected another person inside and instantly knew who it was, "Ki-tan~!!!"

With amazing speed, Serafall tackled Kisuke, "Ki-tan! How are you!? Where's Sona-chan!? How is she!?"

Kisuke caught the normally bubbly Devil King and carefully placed her down while wiping a few of her tears. Seeing her almost crying expression, Kisuke felt bad for her, "Sona-chan is fine. Although she can't be here right now, she's in a safe place, so you can put down your worries now." answered Kisuke with a gentle smile on his face.

Serafall heaved a large sigh of relief and wiped the remaining tears still threatening to fall from her eyes, "That's great to hear! Please tell me everything that happened and how you put in your current situation! Also, how are Akeno and Irina? I heard you saved them!"

"Himejima-san and Irina are fine. They just need some rest. My story will take a while, so let me prepare some snacks and tea to go along with it." Kisuke then led Serafall to one of the facilities in the hideout to sit down.

While Ophis was busy with her snacks, Kisuke told Serafall of how Hades' men kidnapped Sona to lure him and in the process, was gravely injured along with him and Yoruichi. After two weeks, they were able to recover and Aika, Koneko and Kuroka came to the hideout to tell them what had happened within those two weeks.

But during that time, a weird incident happened and they were pulled out from this world and transferred to a completely different world. And after some time, it was only now that he was able to return, but due to the danger of traveling through worlds, it was only him who came.

After telling her this story, Kisuke removed his hat and bowed down to Serafall, "First of all, I'd like to apologize. As I have said, they only kidnapped Sona because they were aiming for me. Although it was an unfortunate incident, it was essentially my fault she got dragged into such a life-threatening situation, I have no plans to shrink away from my responsibilities regarding that."

Serafall silently stared down at Kisuke for a whole minute before sighing, "Please get up. I indeed should be angry because it's undeniably your fault for dragging her into your problems, but you also did your best to keep her safe... As such, I can only attribute Sona-chan's unfortunateness to being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

It was Serafall's turn to lower her head towards Kisuke, "Thank you for saving her."

Kisuke hurriedly helped her up, "Please don't do this. Else, I wouldn't know what to do."

"Is Sona-chan happy?" Serafall suddenly asked.

Kisuke was taken aback for a moment and recalled Sona before nodding with a smile, "Yep~. She's having fun. The only worry she has is if her big sister is doing fine."

Smiling happily Serafall replied, "Then there's nothing I should be angry about!" But then, her expression suddenly changed into a cold smirk, "But this Hades... Sorry, but I'm going to make a quick trip to the Realm of the Dead and freeze those rotten bones..."

"Don't worry about him for now. He won't be bothering anyone for some time, and even if you wanted to find him, I doubt you'll meet him."

Serafall turned to Kisuke and asked, "What did you do?"

"He cracked the old skull." Ophis suddenly spoke, answering Serafall's question.

Serafall's eyes widened at her response and looked towards Kisuke, "...Seriously? Even though I said I'd look for him, I'd have to risk my life if I want to take him on, and even then, I wouldn't be able to win 9 out of 10 times."

Serafall was aware that Hades is a lot stronger than her, however, when she heard that her little sister almost died due to his plans, she didn't care about that anymore.

"It's nothing that amazing... I just caught him off guard and managed to deal a substantial amount of damage to him before he could do anything else. He really just underestimated me severely."

But Serafall knew it wasn't as simple as that, 'Could it be that Ki-tan is stronger than me?'

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Editors:

28th00: Phis-chama with the quick delivery! She's adorable, does she count as a daughteru or a waifu? You can pat both, so it's hard to tell. Serafall finally got closure and reassurance! She also got a revelation that Ki-tan is stronger than her!? IT'S TIME A TRAINING MONTAGE! Phis-chama is probably game for making a super-devil, especially one that she likes and takes care of her. Does she view Serafall as family? They live together in their 'home' along with Hat and the rest of the girls. I wonder what everyone's reaction would be (Hestia and the other natives in Danmachi mostly) to Phis-chama popping up, and Aika instantly doing a flying dogeza in front of her and worshipping her as "An angel!". It'd be wild, not even including the existential dread that every single being would feel at a being stronger than a God using their Arcanum, just by existing.