"As you have seen, this is the reason why many others are calling for authenticity," interjected Akeno, "However, many others also contacted the Underworld for any information they had regarding Kisuke Urahara. Of course, we couldn't give any information aside from that already in circulation. And due to Urahara-san helping with the crisis in the Underworld, with Olympus in the lead, they are accusing us of hiding him, which has become a difficult matter for the integrity of the Alliance."
'Well, that's obvious. They might even leave the Alliance. Not my problem though,' thought Kisuke as he sipped on his tea.
Serafall frowned and muttered, "That would indeed be difficult, but it's not really a problem for now."
Kisuke raised his brows and asked, "Ho? Why is that? If Olympus leaves the Alliance, their allies would too, and that wouldn't be good for the Alliance's goal and image."
Serafall then put on a smug face and said, "Tch, tch, tch~ I wasn't just doing my show when I was suspended from my position you know~! I was able to gather the information that could prove useful with the diplomatic relations we have with Olympus."
Kisuke thought for a moment before asking, "You investigated Apollo?"
"Yep~! After the tip you gave me, I immediately went on to investigate in secret. Since he's the one who's gaining power within their faction in such a short period of time, I started with him. Although I wasn't able to get any conclusive evidence, the information I have on hand is enough for others to doubt the current Olympus. That's all we need to retain the status quo, giving the Underworld and the entirety of the Alliance precious time to prepare for the future."
"Heh~ Good work out there."
"Praise me more!"
Kisuke then proceeded to pat her head, "You did great, Sera-chan~!"
"Ehem," Akeno feigned a cough to interrupt them, "Moving on, in addition to Urahara-san here, Olympus also issued a bounty on Nyx, who apparently helped him disable the defense system of the city. Many were shocked at this as there was an ongoing rumor that Nyx died somewhere, but it turns out she became the accomplice of a terrorist they were hunting."
"Ah, she got caught?" asked Serafall.
"Well, to silently disable those systems, she had to use her authority. No matter how much she tries to hide it, traces of her access would be left behind, so she was already prepared for this to happen."
"Hmm... Although I haven't forgiven her for what she's done, I do feel a little bit bad for her."
"My~ You're too kind~"
"I'm not kind! I just know how to differentiate my enemies between those who only sought chaos and destruction and those who are fighting for their ideals and preservation. I honestly can't hate those who are on that latter side of the spectrum," answered Serafall.
'Well, isn't that what it means to be kind?' thought Kisuke and turned to Akeno, "By the way, is that all?"
Akeno shook her head, "Serafall-sama also needs to know what happened in Romania."
"Oh right, what happened on your trip?"
Instead of Akeno, it was Irina who answered Serafall, "It was a disaster!"
Kisuke raised his brows, "But since you're here, it should have ended on some good note."
"Yes. Thankfully, none of us died," Akeno then proceeded to tell them what transpired in Romania.
Thanks to Valerie Tepes awakening her Longinus, 'Sephiroth Graal' and unexpectedly becoming the head of the Tepes Royal Family, the feud between the Tepes Faction and Carmilla Faction worsened due to the power balance tipping over to the former's side.
The Carmilla Faction tried to get the help of the Alliance in exchange for signing the treaty.
Azazel didn't want the situation to devolve any further and tried to negotiate with the Tepes Faction to form a ceasefire but it turns out that the Khaos Brigade was pulling the strings from behind them and had been working with the second son of former King Tepes, Marius Tepes by using the Sephiroth Graal to strengthen the soldiers of the Tepes Faction.
When the time was ripe, Marius suddenly raised a coup against the Tepes leadership and exiled them except for their leader and his sister, Valerie Tepes.
Receiving word of the coup, Azazel contacted the Occult Research Club and asked the remaining members to come as reinforcements.
After arriving in Romania, Azazel revealed that the anti-government group that took power had forced the King of the Tepes and his supporters to ally with the Carmilla Faction in order to deal with the traitors. The group had then learned through Elmenhilde, an envoy from the Carmilla Faction, that Marius intended to extract the Holy Grail from Valerie in order to use its power to transform the civilians into beings without weaknesses. The Occult Research Club moved out to save Gasper's childhood friend before her Longinus was taken.
At this point, Akeno suddenly shook her head, "However, we failed."
Irina then took over, "We tried to reach the ritual site where the Sacred Gear would be extracted, but we were stopped by Evil Dragons. The first one is Grendel. Even with our numerical disadvantage, we were not able to deal significant damage to him. It was only thanks to Rias-san awakening a new power thanks to Issei we were able to defeat him."
"However, before we could deal a finishing blow against Grendel, another Evil Dragon appeared and introduced himself a Crom Cruach and we immediately recognized that name as the strongest Evil Dragon which said to be on par with the Two Heavenly Dragons."
"Not just Rias-san, but everyone else aside from Issei was tired and having a hard time to put out some power. Thankfully, however, Vali's group arrived and assisted us. But even with Issei's strongest form and Vali's cooperation, the two of them failed to do any damage against Crom Cruach. We were only alive because he was not really interested in fighting us and his job was to only delay us for 10 minutes, which he easily achieved."
"Even if we're frustrated, we went through Crom Cruach after he allowed us to pass through him. But as you might have expected, we were already too late. Valerie Tepes' Sacred Gear was already extracted from her, but instead of Marius, it was done by someone called Rizevim Lucifer."
Serafall's eyes widened, "Rizevim!? He reappeared!?"
"He didn't just reappear, he also declared a new faction within the Khaos Brigade called Qlippoth. On top of that," Akeno became quiet for a moment before continuing, "He's with someone who looks exactly like Ophis... He called her Lilith and his bodyguard."