DXD SI : Chapter 62 : Professional, Mia & An Unsuspecting Ambusher.... (Patreon)

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

Bael Territory, Underworld

–Magdaran Bael–

He handed the coordinates for the initial transport site to the team lead, the one from the Sitri House, his magic flavour gave it away, who took the coordinates and left after nodding at him, with no small talk, no attempt to even look at something else, or even pry about his Garden or something else. 

Totally professional. Nice.

With that out of the way, only a couple of days were left until he could finally call himself free. Free from the tag of Heir Bael, from the tag of being a Devil in the Underworld, from the politics here, from the many, many threats he had to constantly hide from, from the Underworld itself.

Once his garden was moved, he could move out of the Underworld and come and go as he pleased, provided that whatever it was that led to both the Satans and Zekram himself all but kicking him out of the Underworld did not rear its ugly head.

Shaking his head, he dismissed the thought that continued to come up again and again in his mind before entering his Garden once more, the mere aura of the palace relaxing him further. 

As he leaned on the Mother Tree, his thoughts went back to Mia. The Reincarnated Devil, whose age he still did not know, was a nice person to talk to at the very least. He felt more open with her than anyone else he had ever met in his short life. 

Well, one could argue that he was more open with Odin than anyone but that was more of a necessity as well as a helplessness move, as he couldn't just ignore someone who seemed genuine in their desire to help him, on top of having no incentive to lie to him, as the person in question was probably capable of defeating the single most powerful Devil alive, all by himself.

If not by himself, then in conjunction with his son, which was all the assurance he needed before he poured his heart out, figuratively, to Odin and got the help that he needed.

In Mia’s case, however, it was different. Very different. 

For one, the power difference was astronomical. He wouldn’t even feel any attack that Mia could conjure up, even if it was of the Holy affinity, for he had long since gotten used to Holy Light at the level of maybe an Eight Winged Pure Angel. He did not know the true power levels of Angels, as he had never even seen one in real life, let alone actually fight an Angel of that tier.

Angels were basically locked in terms of their population growth and actually experiencing a negative growth, simply because many Angels continued to fall or even defect from Heaven outright. Metatron, a Twelve Winged Angel, was one such extreme example, who chose to leave Heaven after the end of the Great War instead of working with the Church and Heaven, likely because Metatron knew that his father was gone and, without that guiding hand, the Church was going to go the same route most humans did, which was towards ruin.

That just made him more confident in approaching and talking to Mia, as she would never be able to hurt him, even if she had some kind of Longinus that was the antithema to all Devils. He sincerely doubted that Mia here had the True Longinus of all things. All in all, it made Mia a harmless Devil, so he let her approach him, a stark contrast to what he would have done if he was even a moderately powerful Devil, or any other being.

Plus, on top of that, she was also part of Mephisto’s peerage, a Devil very far removed from the political circles of the Underworld, a true outlier. On top of that, she herself was part of a peerage that was so far removed from the usual rendition of a Peerage that he could count on one hand and still have four digits left.

There must be some others, but it was safe to say that Mephisto was pretty much unique in that regard.

That made Mia, a reincarnated human, i.e., someone with a similar mindset to his pre Void soul, one of the perfect people who could approach and talk to him without being in danger of being attacked or being stonewalled immediately. He unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on who was asked and what kind of situation it was, was quick to slam doors in the faces of anyone who wanted to approach him without any ulterior motive.

It was kinda sad, but his inability to comprehend the fact that people could approach him without any ulterior motive or to harm him in any way had kept him alive for far longer than he had expected to be alive. Hell, if Devils truly knew what he was and what his thoughts were, they too would be astonished as to how he managed to not just survive but outright thrive in these conditions.

All of these factors aligning made it all but impossible for most beings to approach him at all. Odin only succeeded because of his overwhelming power and the fact that he had no preconceived notions about the Norse God. Mia succeeded because she was a literal unknown and was very much ordinary in terms of power, both personal as well as political.

Shaking his head, he recalled the way he had to cut their conversation short and felt genuine regret at how it ended. The fact that despite their conversations, neither one of them had shared contact information irritated him to no end.

It meant that the only way to contact her was to either wait for her in his booth in the Oppai Club or somehow get in touch with Mephisto, who, as her King, would undoubtedly know how to get hold of her. 

There was also the option of approaching the Oppai Club management, which was just Odin, and get her contact details, but he was pretty sure that it was against their Terms of Service. Even if Odin could play fast and loose for him, he was not going to owe the God yet another favour.

He was already deep in debt with the Norse God, as he had not just got him out of a pretty hopeless situation, mentally and physically, but had also gone above and beyond to help him. The Crown of Freyr was a naked gift from the God, but his latest help? The proposal to help transport his garden to a safe location so that no one from the Underworld could know of it was just the cherry on top of a very expensive sundae ice cream.

___xx__

It was the next day, and despite himself, he could not find it within him to just stay in the Garden and do nothing. The Pits was an option, but he did not want to subject himself to intense training just a few days before the Big Move, on top of any other issues that might arise from transporting the whole thing later on.

Who knows if he would have to actually use his powers to just keep the Mother Tree alive and in one piece, as every single part of his Garden was just shredded to bits during the move, because of some freak accident or worse, sabotage.

He shuddered at the thought, clawing his mind back from the dark places it found itself in whenever it was left idle, making the saying idle hands are the devil's tools that much more ironic in his case.

He tapped on the table and set down the glass of his smoothie to munch on the newly arrived crispy fries, his gaze wandering all over the bar as he tried to find that one familiar face.

He had only been here about 5 minutes, so it was understandable that she was nowhere to be seen. From what he could gleam from their little talks, she led an interesting life, so it would be wrong on his part to expect her to just be in a Bar in the middle of the day, though with how supernatural beings lived, time zones were just suggestions, instead of hard and fast rules as even the lowest of the low could stay awake for multiple days without much issues.

Tapping his finger on the table, he absentmindedly ordered yet another serving of fries and fried chicken, as he kept himself on the lookout for Mia. So far, he’d found a huge crowd who’d gathered around Thor’s usual booth and were cheering for some reason, likely because of the gambling games that Thor was usually found submerged in.

It was very much likely that Thor only did a couple of things in his life, and they most probably were just fight, fuck, and gamble.

Still, that was only interesting for a few seconds as he found his mind going back to—

His thoughts stopped as he felt someone approach him from a blind spot. They were good; he would give him that much, but not on the level required to fool him from sensing their approach, at least not from this short of a distance.

In search of Mia, he had kept his booth open to everything. Noise, Light, Energy sensing, and yes, even physical approach. The booth was in every sense open to all.

Obviously, someone took that literally and was just about to pounce on him, only for a tendril of his power to lash out and wrap around their midsection, then expand to cover their entire body in a small sphere of his Power of Destruction, of course tuned to make sure no harm came to the inhabitants of his power.

“Ah!” There was a small girlish yelp before his tendril brought forth the upside down form of one Vali Lucifer, before her excited and manic looking form was dropped on the sofa on the other side, headfirst.

That didn’t seem to bother her at all as she immediately righted herself. Of course, she did. This was the same girl who thought Thor putting her in a coma was just fine, and a regular occurrence instead of being incredibly concerning. Of course, she would not feel anything when she landed headfirst onto a soft cushion.