DXD SI : Chapter 59 : Weirdo = Strong? Ehhh (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Bael House, Underworld

–Magdaran Bael–

“Node implanting?”

The project lead looked up from his tablet at him, processing the question for a moment before replying, “Yes, Heir Bael. We have to install nodes into the space for our spell matrix to latch onto. This way, in the minuscule chance that a phantom juxtaposition occurs, we know the material state to prioritise for transport.

Then, the man explained the phenomenon to him, and apparently, due to the nature of the spell they were going to use, there could be a delay or a paradox like situation wherein phantom matter, that is real for only a split second before it dissipates back into energy, could materialize on top of the actual transported matter, potentially confusing the spell and for that, they need solid node that acted as confirmation for the spell.

“Is that common?” he asked, concerned about the things that could apparently go sideways.

“Ah! No, don’t worry. This is just a precaution since we are transporting extremely valuable merchandise. Even if no anchors were placed, the damage done is usually immaterial as the phantom matter dissipates very fast. It is only on Satan Leviathan’s orders that all precautions are being taken.”

He nodded, “I see. Have you transported anything like this before?”

The man looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, “I have undertaken projects that require moving more than this level of mass, and I have transported living beings as well, but not at the same time. This will probably be the first time we will transport something of this volume that is also, as a whole, alive.”

“I see.” he nodded, hiding the concern inside him. “Thank you for that. You can continue working.” 

After all, it was not like he had some other opinion hiding in his pocket that could safely and reliably transport this whole thing. 

“Ah, about that,” he stopped and turned to the man once more, “We need some confirmation about the placement of the anchors as well as the safety zones. While we will do our best, there is some risk involved in the whole thing. There are safety measures that can be deployed to basically guarantee safety for certain sections. We wanted to know if you wanted a weaker shield over the entire thing or a guarantee of safety for a smaller part.”

Huh. He thought about it for a moment before raising his hand, a purple construct appearing on it, showing the current garden, before it expanded, showing the lower levels as well, with the whole root structures as well as his hidden room that was not so hidden anymore.

He closed his eyes, focused on the task at hand as his feet glowed purple as he sent in a steady stream of his Demonic Energy into the ground, with the projection updating itself based on the readings he received. When he opened his eyes, he saw the slight shock on the lead’s face for some reason, before he schooled the expression and looked at Magdaran, awaiting an explanation.

“This is a live map of the Garden, as you can tell. These are the overall root systems of the entire Garden. As you can see here, I have three different root networks, dedicated to different tasks. Now, out of these three, this,” he highlighted the thickest network, “is the most important. This keeps the Mother Tree alive. I want you to safeguard this the most. If the Mother Tree is damaged in any way, the rest of the trees will be damaged and die off soon enough anyway. The other root networks can be replaced rapidly after the Garden is on the other side, so don’t worry about them too much.

These sections….”

On and on, it went, as he explained basically everything there was to explain about his garden to the unknown man, something he never would have thought happening, as he would much rather prefer to silence or kill the people who so much as entered his Garden, let alone be told everything, but things had changed, and moving the whole thing took priority.

___xx__

He nodded as the entire team left, after over 12 hours of non stop work in the Garden. And he’d checked. They truly were working. Sure, most of that data was going to find its way into either Ajuka or Serafall’s hands or both, but that did not matter to him one bit. They could comb over the entire data hundreds of times; they wouldn't find anything that could indicate that he had the ability to conceptually affect living things as well.

An ability that he wanted to keep under wraps at the very least. Keeping his strength hidden was a boat that had long since sailed, but he could keep that part of his powers under wraps with very little effort on his part.

According to the team, once they got the data analysed, they will be able to create the custom anchors for the place, based on his inputs, and install the entire set of anchors before transporting the entire thing on one go. 

If they were to be believed, it should take two days to get the entire thing manufactured according to the analysis and then maybe two more days for preparation. That meant he had less than 5 days before the Garden was transported out of the Underworld, removing the shadow of threat that had been hanging over one of the most important things in his life. Now, he could finally work on expanding it as much as he wished, work on whatever he wanted to work on, and not give a fuck about anyone encroaching or destroying it.

Even if Zekram at this moment came forth and tried to stop him from leaving, he would not budge. Destroying Zekram and slipping out of the Underworld before the chaos manifested was entirely within the realm of possibility now.

If he could realise that, then Zekram must know that as well. He must know that his death timer had only shortened with this move, so why hadn’t he moved yet? Why had he seemingly agreed to the Satans? 

Once again, his mind went to all the ominous implications of the current events, but he smothered that unease by occupying himself with the Garden move, as he went into the secret hideout under the tree for a nap. While the physical exhaustion from the fight with Thor had more or less recovered, as his healing made it so that he was only running on an empty tank of Demonic Energy instead of being physically drained, the mental exhaustion from having to remain on alert after that, and answer every single question of the people working to make sure everything worked perfectly.

Hell, it could have ended much earlier, but he was adamant about knowing everything, just for his own peace of mind, and that ended up stretching the process well into the night. Credit to the team, though; they did not complain even once.

___xx__

–Serafall Leviathan–

“What?” She leveled a flat look at the lead of the project, a Sitri Mid class Devil who’d foregone the name entirely since he’d inherited the name through marriage, instead of being born into it, and had then entered Ajuka’s special research division full of people who had basically left behind their House to work for Ajuka and his insane research.

The same man had just told her, with a flat expression on his face, that there was nothing of value inside the Garden that Magdaran Bael protected so zealously, even in the face of the likes of Zekram.

It had taken them some time, but they did manage to get some insider information about the interactions of Magdaran and other members of his house. Curiously, there was none about his mother. It was as if he popped up out of thin air and was taken in by the ex head of House Bael, a political quagmire that still wasn’t resolved, as Zekram hadn’t made the news of that particular death public yet.

Apparently, Magdaran Bael has always been out of the limelight, keeping to himself and disappearing for months on end, without a single sighting from any staff inside the Main Compound. His garden, on the other hand, was completely protected, shielded, isolated from outside, and until very recently, was being visibly maintained.

After that, wards were raised that stopped people from looking at it directly. All of it pointed to a single fact.

The Garden was immensely valuable to Magdaran.

A Satan Class individual holding something immensely valuable, to the point that they kept their strength secret, remained practically a ghost within their own home, usually meant that there was something special about that thing. And that was one of the tasks she’d given the team she had basically snatched from their work for this urgent task.

To analyse and scan the whole place to see just what made it special.

It didn’t hurt that Magdaran would be extremely forthcoming with information if he was told that it was needed to better transport the whole thing. Of course, it was true, so there was no risk involved on their end.

“Yes, my Satan. There is nothing of value in that place. The Tree is of a garden variety, found in the Underworld. The only anomalous thing about it is the fact that its roots have grown beyond the pale and are then being used to fuel other smaller trees. While that behavior is a deviation from the standard, it is not enough to–”

“Nothing else? The Tree might be the biggest thing there, but there might be something else that you guys have might have missed. Something small?”

He shook his head, “I doubt it, Mam. We went through every single thing, more than required even, as Heir Bael insisted on both understanding and going through every part of the property. We have in depth maps of every single bit of that place, and I can assure you, I have gone through the data thrice before coming here. That Garden has nothing of note, except the Sitri Soil patch, but you already informed us of that.”

She nodded absentmindedly, waving her hand and dismissing him as she looked at the report on her desk.

After going through most of it, she closed it and just slumped in her chair. They were right. There was literally nothing interesting there, and she wasn’t just saying that because the whole thing was written in the most boring language possible. She was used to that. 

No, the fact that Magdaran Bael was, for some reason incomprehensible to her, protecting a Garden that housed trees and plants that could be found in the wild.

Unbelievable.

Why do all the really freakishly strong Devils have to be such weirdos?!