After Cao Cao's 'Chatsuka Ratana' that had destroyed Xenovia's Ex-Durandal, he immediately followed it through with the side-effect of this ability, an invisible and fast spear that punched a hole straight through Xenovia's stomach.
Crying out loud, Asia immediately ran towards her fatally wounded friend to heal her. However, due to her wound, she wouldn't be able to heal anyone else until Xenovia was out of danger.
Enraged, Issei and Kiba simultaneously attacked Cao Cao. However, the latter only dodged them and used the second ability of his Sacred Gear, 'Itsutei Ratana', which rendered all women's unique powers useless, and aimed it towards Rias and Akeno, taking them out of the fight.
Finally finished charging her magic, Le Fay used her strongest attack magic and aimed towards Georg and Samael, however, Cao Cao's third ability made him able to teleport a person or group of his choosing to his desired location and orientation.
Using it against Le Fay, he displaced her and her attack now was aimed towards Xenovia and Asia who're defenseless. Seeing this, Issei immediately used his Welsh Sonic Boost Knight form and purged most of his armor to gain the much-needed speed to help the girls.
But he couldn't do anything else after reaching the girls as there was a lag between his transformation and ended up taking Le Fay's attack without much armor. No matter how strong Issei's body became thanks to Kisuke's training, it wasn't enough for his bare flesh to resist such a strong magic attack, 'Damn it... I should have learned how to use Ki instead of just increasing my body's strength!' Issei thought as he took the hit.
Due to his decision to go for the sustainability of his Scale Mail, he focused on strengthening his body instead of learning how to use TouKi like Sairaorg. Although not fatal, he was effectively kicked out of the battle temporarily until he recovered.
With five people unable to continue fighting, Vali and Azazel made their move in their Balance Breakers. However, even if they worked together, Cao Cao already understood the weakness of Armor-type Balance Breakers.
According to him, since it was largely based on powering up the user, it became obvious where the power is coming from, and became easier for Cao Cao to read their flow of aura and predict their next moves.
While dodging their attacks, Cao Cao revealed that the eye that Issei had destroyed back in Kyoto was replaced by Medusa's eye, and petrified Azazel's legs, giving an opening for Cao Cao to strike. After stabbing the Holy Spear through Azazel's stomach, his golden armor crumbled as he fell down on the ground while coughing blood.
Seeing that the person he considered as his father being harmed, Vali's anger shot through the roof and gathered a large amount of his Demonic Power, shooting it towards Cao Cao. It was then that Cao Cao used his fourth ability, 'Mala Ratana'. It's the ability to redirect an attack sent towards him to another target, and that target was Rias and Akeno.
Irina immediately went in front of them and gathered as much Holy Power as she could to offset Vali's attack. Irina was able to block the attack, but it resulted in a large explosion, injuring her severely. Akeno cried out and immediately assisted Irina using her almost nonexistent healing magic that was weakened by Cao Cao's ability more.
Seeing that it wouldn't get them anywhere, Vali decided to go into his Juggernaut Drive to overpower Cao Cao. However, Cao Cao was concerned that Vali's Juggernaut Drive might distort the artificial spell, so he reminded Georg to do something.
Controlling Samael, Georg commanded him to attack Vali and with a single attack from him, the White Dragon Emperor fell down from the sky, already on the verge of death.
Even though he knew he can't do much, Kiba still tried to attack Cao Cao with his sub-species Balance Breaker, Blade Blacksmith: Glory Drag Troopers, but was instantly destroyed by the latter due to sheer difference in skills.
After his short bout with Kiba, Cao Cao faced Georg and asked, "How much were you able to take?" Calculating the time, he thought that it's about time they ended this.
"More than three-quarters. I would say most of it. I won't be able to connect Samael to the present world more than this." Answered Georg.
Cao Cao nodded at him and said, "Excellent. That's enough." Snapping his fingers, the block that was covering Ophis burst, and Samael sank back to the magic circle that summoned him, leaving this plane.
Ophis who was just released looked practically. However, she looked towards Cao Cao and said, "My power was taken. This is what Cao Cao aimed for?"
"Yeah, that's right. Ophis. We wanted to put you underneath us and use your power. But having you do as we wish was very hard. So we changed our mind."
Cao Cao pointed the tip of the Holy Spear to the sky and added, "We will take your power and create a new 'Ouroboros'."
While puking blood, Azazel muttered, "...I see! You used Samael to trim down Ophis's power and give birth to 'it' by using the power you took... The new Ophis."
Cao Cao nodded at Azazel's statement, "That's exactly right, Governor. We want an Ouroboros that does as we command. Truth is, Great-Red isn't a being that is that important to us. This plan all began because we are tired of pleasing her with it. And we were able to challenge and test the ideal of the Hero-faction about challenging the superior being of 'Can we defeat the infinite being and obtain it?'."
Azazel smiled wryly and replied, "...Splendid. For you to take down the infinite being in a way like this."
"No, Governor. This is different from taking it down. Actually, we do need the symbol to gather strength. In that part, Ophis was excellent. She became a propaganda tool and gathered those with power that made up a force like that. But using the Dragon God whom we couldn't read what she was thinking as our puppet isn't good."
"…Sounds like a human. It definitely is a negative way of thinking like that of a human."
Cao Cao smiled at Azazel's words, I'm very honored with your compliment. Yes, I am a Human."
Georg then interrupted Cao Cao and Azazel's conversation to ask the former, "Cao Cao. If it is now, can't you finish Vali and Hyoudou Issei off?"
"You are right. It's good to finish them off when we can….. Both are increasing their power in an impossible way. In the future, they will become more troublesome dragons than Ophis. But lately, I'm thinking that it's a waste. I can understand why the leaders of each faction want to look over the two-heavenly dragons. Only in this generation, the way of their growth is too abnormal. That also includes the people related to both of them. They are beings that are very rare in terms of data. Perhaps the ones who will unleash the full power within their Sacred Gear is not us, but rather them."
After saying that, Cao Cao deactivated his Balance Breaker. Cao Cao then confirmed from Georg that Ophis' power was sent towards their headquarters and was satisfied and intending to leave.
But before he could turn around, Vali asked Cao Cao why he was not killing them and Cao Cao replied that he already planned to take them down without killing them since his own Balance Breaker still needs a lot of tuning and he needed proper opponents to do that.
After saying that he looks down on them, Cao Cao only smirked and replied that Vali also loves doing this sort of thing. Cao Cao then faced Issei, "Hyoudou Issei the Sekiryuutei. It doesn't matter how many years it takes. Rise up to the level where you can fight me. In the future, there are less than a dozen people who can have the ultimate Sacred Gear fight, including you and Vali. ---No matter what age, the ones Heroes want to challenge in decisive battles are the Maou or legendary dragons."
Clenching both of his fists and teeth, Issei silently agreed to him and vowed that he will get stronger to the point that he'll be the one letting him off without much care.
"Georg. Call the groups of Grim Reapers. Hades is after the weakened Ophis. Also, the swapping transportation that was done by the guys from Vali's team before. Can you try that? Can you transport me and swap me with Siegfried? I will leave the rest to Siegfried."
"I only saw it once so I won't know if it will work smoothly. But I will try it."
"To be expected from the descendant of that professor, Georg Faust, who made a pact with the legendary devil Mephistopheles."
"My ancestor was so great that it put too much pressure on me. Anyway, roger that Cao Cao. Also about the information I gained before" Georg then passed on a paper to Cao Cao with a serious face before leaving to prepare for the swapping spell. Cao Cao's eyes become sharper after seeing that.
"I see. So this is the way the Old Maou gives his gratitude for saving him…. No, I knew it from the start. Well, he did cooperate with us enough." Cao Cao muttered and sighed. He then faced the Gremory team and Vali team once again, "Georg went outside the hotel. He's preparing for the swapping transportation between me and Siegfried."
"Let's play a game between the Vali team and Gremory team. Soon a group of Grim Reapers will be coming here on Hades's orders to retrieve the weakened Ophis over there. I will also have Siegfreed from my team participate in it as well. The key point of this game is whether or not all of you can get out of here safely. We don't know what will happen when Hades captures Ophis. Now, can you get out of here while protecting Ophis with your lives? Please challenge it. I want the two Heavenly Dragons to survive, but I have no intention of enforcing it to the Grim Reapers and my comrades. I think it is more suitable to fight those who overcome a crisis."
After saying that, Cao Cao disappeared, leaving everyone to their own devices. Even if they wanted to follow him, they still needed to treat those who're injured and plan out a strategy to get out of this predicament.
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Editors:
28th00: Hmm, I highly doubt they got 3/4th's of Ophis' power. She's naive, not stupid. The Hero Faction is pretty much just the Nazi's of DxD, but towards everything non-human instead of a subset of humanity. It's quite messed up, how some of the strongest of humanity are such scum, truly. Also, I highly doubt even a 25% power Ophis would ever have a single problem with a literal army of Ultimate-Class Reapers, she's not at less than 1% of her power, you know?