"W-what was that?" Asked Serafall.
"Nothing much. Just a bit of something to push her. Though it wouldn't have worked if there was nothing to push," Kisuke answered, before turning to the rest of the Student Council members, "Who's next~?"
.
.
.
Although they were extremely hesitant, one after another stepped out to continue their 'training' after seeing Ruruko perform, and noticing the dummy's movement was a lot simpler than they remembered.
After half an hour, everyone was already back to fighting the dummies, and this time, with more enthusiasm after realizing their improvement. They knew that it's going to get harder as time goes on, but that's exactly the reason why they're training.
Although they had received artificial Sacred Gears from Azazel and took a bit of training from the Devil Kings' subordinates, they are very much aware of their weakness and very large gap in talent compared to Rias' peerage. Just when they were about to give up chasing the group since they knew it would be for naught even if they worked their hardest, Kisuke gave them an option.
But after experiencing all of this, they didn't actually know if they should be thankful for that 'Demon' who offered a deal way worse than actual Devils.
The effects of 'Dragon Pride' on Ruruko had worn off, but she still continued fighting the dummy, now with much calmness and finesse in her movements. Seeing this, Kisuke nodded in satisfaction and took a peek at Saji and Tsubaki, who were still doing their best before turning his attention back to Serafall, Irina, and Akeno, "We can leave them for now."
"B-but... It's still dangerous for them," replied Serafall.
"Please don't worry about that. I already dialed down my configurations and those dummies won't be going for the kill anymore. Though they'll still aim for a fatal injury if given a chance, they can manage themselves with the hot spring," and a harsh reply came from Kisuke.
Serafall furrowed her brows and said, "I never really thought that you're this harsh."
Kisuke instead turned around and started walking towards the lodging, "Unless there's a good reason, I never slack when I give someone training. Besides, compared to this, wars are harsher."
"...Well, that's true," muttered Serafall and followed his steps, 'I don't think any recent large-scale war has happened, but why does he sound like he's already experienced one firsthand?' She asked herself. But strangely enough, she couldn't voice it out. She has this inkling of a feeling that she shouldn't ask this and followed her gut.
Akeno and Irina looked at each other with complicated expressions before following the two.
The four of them arrived at the living room and Kisuke served some hot tea and snacks for them before going into the topic, "I called Sera-chan over here to oversee their training, but what are the two of you doing here? If it's for your bodies, I'm sorry, but it'll need two more days to be ready, so you'll have to wait until then."
Akeno shook her head, "No. We didn't come here for that. Besides..."
"Hmm?"
"No. It was nothing. We're actually here to give some news to Serafall-sama since she's been in here, not knowing what's happening outside."
"We were also curious about what the Student Council members were doing!" added Irina, "Though we never expected it to be so brutal!"
"Well, they don't have much time. This could have been a low priority option if there were still a few years of peace," Kisuke sighed. Although he's the one who designed this training method, it's really only if there are no better options left as it's still too risky despite the safety measures he added, "By the way, what news are you going to tell Sera-chan? Mind if I listen in?"
"Sure... Rather, it's about you and the mess you made. Even if you didn't listen, you already know what happened," replied Irina.
"Ah, that's what you're talking about. I don't know how the others reacted yet since I was busy with my stuff, so I'll still listen."
"The mess he made?" asked Serafall.
Akeno nodded, "Yes, Serafall-sama. This guy just went and declared war with Olympus. Right now, he's the highest-profile terrorist outside of the Khaos Brigade."
It was then Serafall recalled Kisuke's plans, "Ah, this guy indeed had some plan to attack Olympus, but what did he do exactly."
"About that, we have footage that was leaked and it contained the entirety of his actions. Though some people are still questioning its authenticity due to its..." Akeno's voice slightly trailed off, "Overwhelming contents." She then took out a terminal that is capable of displaying holographic footage which was invented by the Grigori and gave it to Serafall.
"Haah... Considering it was this guy, I wouldn't really be surprised if he did something awful to them," Serafall grabbed the terminal and started playing its contents for everyone to see.
Within the first few minutes, Serafall couldn't help but giggle at Kisuke's antics, 'I'd also like to introduce myself before I go on a destruction spree like that,' she thought.
Serafall thought that this was the 'overwhelming' part of the footage since who would be in their right mind to suddenly and openly assault the central base of a big Mythological Faction like that? Even the Khaos Brigade had to scheme a little bit before going for an attack, and never alone.
However, the moment the footage reached the latter half, where all the serious stuff took place, Serafall could only stare silently at Ares and Kisuke's battle with a dumbfounded expression.
At the start of their second round, Serafall even had to slow down the video so that she could properly see their movements. But even then, there were not enough frames to see the movements of their weapons. All she could see were injuries that would suddenly appear on both of them when they jerked their arms a little.
At the end of the second round, Serafall stopped breathing momentarily in shock as she saw Kisuke gets impaled by the spear and become extremely weak. But recalling that the person was right beside her now and doing just fine, she sighed in relief.
However, her heart was caught yet again at the last moments of the battle, and couldn't help replaying it multiple times just to understand what had happened.
After getting satisfied, Serafall closed the terminal and sighed, "This is more than overwhelming."
"Really? I think that it was a very close fight."
Serafall glared at him, "Not that! The fact that you went toe to toe with one of the strongest people in the world, almost killed him, and partially destroying an ancient and strong pocket realm is very alarming! The fact that there's someone like you moving alone will make a lot of factions change their current status quo and will scramble to recruit you in secret despite the risks! Even two of me can't hope to defeat that Ares, you know! And I'm a Devil King!"