Irina and Xenovia talk, and Kiba apologizes!

Irina and Xenovia went to pick up the pieces of Excalibur, their expressions grim. "...could it really be true? Is God actually dead?" Xenovia was asking Irina.

"...so what if it is true?" Irina replied, almost snapping from the stress of the revelation. "Heaven, and the system is still going strong, but it needs the faithful to stay that way. If anything, Lord Michael is God now. So I'm going to carry on as always."

"So... You're just going to pretend you don't know?" Xenovia asked Irina, who grimaced.

"You know that if we bring this up, the Church will excommunicate us for even daring to suggest it, and that's assuming they don't know," she sighed. "If they do, they may do worse to keep it quiet, and I wouldn't even blame them for it. You do what you want, but I'm not abandoning my faith. Maybe rethink it, but I'm never going to leave it. If you do want to pursue that line of questioning, then please, just leave me out of it, and pretend I didn't hear it. Because God knows I will... Or perhaps he doesn't if he really is gone, but that's beside the point."

Xenovia sighed, and rubbed her head. She wasn't even sure what she was fighting for anymore, and yet, despite being shaken by the revelation, Irina was going to forge ahead on her own path, in her own way. But Xenovia... She needed to rethink her life in her own way as well. Even if their paths were to diverge at this point. If God really was gone, she wanted to know. So she would ask the church leaders if it was true, but she would honor Irina's wish to not take that risk and pretend only she heard it from Kokabiel.

Meanwhile, Kiba stood over Valper's body and sighed. He didn't know if anyone was continuing his research in the Church, but for the time being at least... He was at peace with how things turned out. "Hey, how are you holding up?" Issei asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm... Well, fine probably isn't the right word for the moment, but at the very least, I know I will be," Kiba replied with an awkward smile.

Rias and the rest of the Peerage, now patched up to the best of Asia's abilities at the moment, walked up and Rias smiled at Kiba. "Good to see things have been settled for the moment," she told him. "And I'm proud of your Balance Breaker."

Kiba then knelt before Rias. "I hereby renew my pledge to you. I had, for a time, forgotten my loyalties, and let my grudge get in the way of serving you properly. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, you didn't do anything too crazy..." Rias chuckled.

"...you mean putting a sword at Issei's neck and threatening him when he tried talking sense into Kiba wasn't too crazy?" Koneko asked flatly.

Rias immediately stiffened, and a dark aura surrounded her. "...you did what now?" she asked in a dangerous tone.

"...oh, right, you didn't know about that yet," Koneko remarked dryly as Kiba gave her a horrified, betrayed look.

"...in that case, I have to punish you for your indiscretion... Threatening a fellow Peerage member is not acceptable. 1000 spanks!" Rias declared, her hand glowing with energy as Kiba squeaked in a decidedly unmasculine manner.

"...spanks?" Issei questioned, but despite the oddity of the punishment, once it got underway, he and Saji found it absolutely hilarious

Once it was done everyone then headed back to Kuoh to get some food and rest, as well as further patching up. Irina and Xenovia headed back to the Church to report, though Irina intended to omit her finding out about God being dead, Xenovia intending to pretend Irina had been knocked out for that part or something to cover for her when she brought it up herself.

Issei's mind however, kept drifting back to the body. Kokabiel's. The corpse that he had created. Even though it had been fully justified, and had happened in a life or **** situation, he had still killed. Had still taken a life. That wasn't an action he could ever take back. He felt nauseous. He wasn't entirely sure how to cope with that reality. And what scared him most was that he didn't regret doing it. He would have done it again a hundred times over. Because logically, he knew it had to be done in that moment. That didn't stop the guilt though. If anything, the realization that he didn't regret it made the guilt worse, in a way.