Nightfall over Kuoh draped the town in a quiet tension, like the world itself held its breath. Moonlight bathed the rooftops, painting silver across temple tiles and empty roads. Up on the eastern hill, Kuoh's old shrine stood in eerie silence—abandoned to the public eye, but now pulsing faintly with the energy of something unholy.
Haru Tsukihara stood at the foot of the shrine steps.
The air was different here—thicker, charged with tension. His new ring, the Celestial Core, pulsed against his finger like a second heartbeat. Around him, the Occult Research Club's elite prepared for combat.
Rias stood closest to him, regal as ever. "We've confirmed the rogue exorcist is inside. Name's Valen Cross. Formerly of the Vatican's Third Spear Unit. He was excommunicated years ago for trying to manipulate celestial constructs."
"Celestial constructs… as in, things like me?" Haru asked, only half-joking.
"Exactly like you," Akeno said. Her usual smile was absent, replaced by a quiet intensity. "He's obsessed with reclaiming 'divine equilibrium.' In other words, he wants to become a god."
Issei cracked his knuckles. "This guy's nuts."
Kiba checked his sword. "And dangerous. He's not just a lunatic—he's skilled."
Koneko, silent as always, nodded once and flexed her fingers.
Haru looked at Rias. "So why bring me?"
"Because the seal in that shrine is resonating with your mana," Rias said. "We believe it's a Tsukihara relic—something left behind by your ancestors. If it responds to anyone, it will be you."
He inhaled slowly.
"Alright," he said. "Let's finish this."
The team moved in silence, ascending the shrine steps as the night air seemed to resist them. A strange aura pulsed from the shrine gates, where old Shinto talismans had been corrupted—twisted by black holy energy, warping the symbols into something alien.
"Creepy…" Issei muttered.
As they approached the main hall, a soft chant drifted from within—Latin mixed with Old Enochian, twisted into something blasphemous. Haru's golden eyes flared automatically, piercing the illusion that shimmered across the doorway.
"It's cloaked," he said. "But I can see it. He's performing a ritual inside. Looks like... a transmutation circle, layered with gravity seals."
Rias's eyes narrowed. "He's trying to activate the relic."
Haru stepped forward, the Celestial Core glowing in sync with the circle inside. "It's calling me."
Without another word, he walked through the illusion. The barrier parted like fog before his presence.
Inside the shrine, the interior had been gutted and transformed. Holy statues had been shattered and rearranged into a makeshift altar, at the center of which stood a man cloaked in torn priest robes, his arms stretched high as glowing chains of light spun around him.
He turned as Haru entered—gray-haired, eyes glowing with unstable divinity.
"So... the last Tsukihara comes at last."
Haru frowned. "Do I know you?"
"You don't. But your bloodline cost me everything." Valen's voice was calm, but his aura radiated rage. "Your clan's archives were sealed by celestial law. You hoarded knowledge that belonged to all. I was excommunicated for chasing truths your ancestors buried."
He raised a cracked crystal in his hand. "But no longer. With this relic, I will rewrite the laws that chained us. With your bloodline and this seal, I will open the Gate of Equilibrium."
The room rumbled. Sigils ignited across the floor. The relic—a small orb hovering above the altar—began to glow in unison with Haru's ring.
Rias and the others burst through the veil behind him. "Step away from the altar, Valen," she commanded.
Valen laughed. "You're too late, Princess of Gremory. The gate opens now!"
He thrust the crystal forward—and the room exploded with light.
BOOM.
The explosion knocked Haru and Issei back. Akeno shielded Rias with a bolt of lightning, while Kiba charged forward to intercept Valen, clashing blades in a blur of motion.
But Valen had changed.
His body now surged with unstable magic, threads of corrupted light lashing out in all directions. Wings—not angelic or demonic, but jagged and crystalline—erupted from his back.
"I see it now!" he roared. "The celestial path! Gravity is but the first step! I will ascend beyond the divine!"
Haru stood slowly, wincing as his limbs shook from the blast.
But something inside the relic… called to him.
He stepped toward the altar.
"Haru, wait!" Rias shouted. "It's not stable!"
"I have to. It's mine."
He reached toward the relic—and the moment his fingers brushed it, the light surged into his body. Images flashed across his mind: constellations, moons aligning, stars collapsing into singularities.
His ring flared.
[Tsukihara Core Resonance: Second Seal Unlocked.]
The air around Haru bent sharply. The floor beneath his feet cracked as gravity surged outward, pressing everyone down for a split second. Even Valen staggered.
"What—?! That's impossible!"
Haru's golden eyes now gleamed with a second ring of light—concentric halos of gravitational energy spiraling within his irises.
He clenched his fist, and the relic orb fully integrated into his mana core.
"I remember now…" he whispered. "The Tsukihara didn't hoard celestial knowledge. We guarded it. From people like you."
He stepped forward, raising his hand—and compressed the space around Valen's left arm. A sickening crunch followed as the magic-laced limb twisted under its own weight.
Valen howled.
"You—! You think that power makes you righteous?!"
"No," Haru said, stepping closer, gravity field narrowing like a blade. "But it makes me responsible."
Valen screamed and unleashed a beam of corrupted holy energy. Haru spun, his ring creating a micro singularity that pulled the attack harmlessly aside, dissolving it into raw mana.
Kiba and Akeno moved in tandem—lightning and steel striking from opposite flanks. Valen tried to resist, but his body was unraveling from the inside.
Rias raised her hand. "Now!"
A crimson seal formed beneath Valen's feet, locking him in place. Haru unleashed his final move—compressing the air above and around the rogue exorcist, forming a pressure dome.
With a final pulse, the dome collapsed.
CRACK.
Valen collapsed, unconscious—body intact, but drained of power.
Later that night, Haru stood outside the shrine ruins, the relic now silent within his ring. The others sat nearby, resting after the fight.
Rias approached him quietly.
"You did well," she said. "The relic accepted you. That's no small thing."
"I didn't just unlock power," Haru said quietly. "I saw more. A glimpse… of what's coming."
Rias frowned. "What do you mean?"
He turned to her. "There was something beyond the Gate of Equilibrium. Something older than the Three Factions. I think my clan sealed more than knowledge."
Her eyes narrowed. "Something dangerous?"
He nodded. "Something that's waking up."
Rias exhaled slowly. "Then we'll have to be ready."
She looked at him, a softness in her expression.
"You've changed, Haru."
He smiled faintly. "Yeah. I feel like I'm becoming who I was supposed to be."
She leaned in slightly. "And who's that?"
He looked up at the stars.
"A Celestial who won't run from gravity."