DXD SI : Chapter 66 : Lol! Serafall can't seem to catch a Break! (Patreon)

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

Somewhere in Norse territory

–Magdaran Bael–

“Interesting,” Odin muttered to himself, Gungnir floating by his side, as the Norse God knelt by his Mother Tree, his magic a heavy presence in the air. 

Now, interesting could mean a whole lot of things, so his heart skipped a beat at the bad implications, despite being aware that if something had gone wrong, he should have known by now.

“Interesting how?” He asked Odin, standing by his side, eyeing the floating Gungnir, a weapon more than worthy of being called above the entirety of the Sacred Gear system, if Odin was the one who was channelling his full power through it.

The True Longinus probably came close, but that was only under a specific set of conditions, with the wielder of the Longinus needing an exceptional amount of skill to unlock all the power hidden inside that particular Sacred Gear.

Odin didn't reply, which just increased the anxiety within him, until Odin stood up, looking at the top of the Mother Tree before he snapped his fingers, laying down pretty strong wards all over his Garden.

“Interesting, as in this tree should not have grown as big as it did, or as strong as it did, without horribly mutating into something else, as Demonic Energy often did that.”

What? Other people could do this too? 

“What?” Odin chuckled while looking at him, “You thought you were the only one who could figure out how to use your kind’s energy constructively?”

Well, in hindsight, it was foolish to assume that no one could do what he could do, just with a different method instead of having to use something as OP sounding as Conceptual Destruction to create big, strong trees that were absolutely ordinary without even a hint of something special, relative to all the things that the Devils of Old could do, especially the Zagan who were such a big horror on the battlefield that Heaven had to sacrifice two Twelve Winged Angels to make sure that line died on the battlefield.

Odin took his silence in stride, as he waltzed into the Garden, sometimes kneeling down to check on a sapling, entirely ignoring the Sitri soil he’d promptly placed into the Garden after he’d teleported here with Serafall, and after doing what seemed like a thorough checkup of the Garden, came to stand in his original position, right next to the Mother Tree.

Only this time, Odin was looking straight at him, “Brat, this is what you have been fretting over?”

“Yeah,” he answered somewhat defensively, knowing full well how it looked from the outside, but it was what it was, and he was not going to–

“Fine. No need to get pissy at me.” Odin replied before stepping out of the wards cast over the Garden. He followed suit, grumbling about Old Men and their infuriating manners.

“I assume you are going to do your experiments far more freely now? Should I be expecting to add an eldritch druid flush ward over the current network just in case?”

He chuckled, “Yes, I am going to be more free with what I can do with my powers, but no, I don’t think you have to worry about that. I won’t be starting with something as big at the beginning. It will be far smaller stuff. Something that is going to surely surprise you.”

Odin looked at him with narrowed eyes, but he did not budge one bit on revealing the fact that he was going to be now making plants that could actually create leaves and fruits that were saturated with a singular type of magic, something that should help people with that specific element.

Utterly useless to the likes of Odin, or even him, but for the vast majority of the supernatural world? It would fetch quite the price, and he knew just who was going to become the face of said product and fetch him that money.

It would seem that his partnership with the Norse and Odin specifically was going to be so much more beneficial than even he had expected to be.

He felt a light smack on the top of his head, his head snapping to Odin, who had already walked ahead of him, the smacking done through a precise burst of magic, "Wipe that evil smirk off your face, brat. We have work to do.”

More like you have work to do, he thought silently but did not voice out loud.

Within minutes, Odin had analysed the nodes used to safeguard the whole thing, muttered about wasted designs before knocking all of them out of the Garden itself, and stepped into the center of the Garden, right next to the Mother Tree, Gungnir in hand, glowing a brilliant golden colour with a high concentration of magic all around them.

It made goosebumps rise on his body as he stayed out of the Garden, waiting for Odin to do the thing. Only, he forgot who Odin was and what he could do.

“What are you waiting for, brat?”

He gave the God a confused look, “I thought I was supposed to meet you at the other site?”

Odin looked at him with amusement, “What, you think me as inept as those Devils?”

No sooner had Odin said those words than he felt a strong pull towards the Garden, as the entire boundary of the Garden began glowing yellow as well; a glitch in reality itself was all he felt before his vision flashed white. It cleared up nearly instantly, but by the time he could see properly, they were done.

The edges of the Garden were cracking with remnants of Odin’s energy as he looked all around him, finding a similar site as before, but this was far better hidden than the earlier place. Natural barriers, along with no magical or human settlement nearby, with the potential to one day create a pocket dimension anchored to this place.

It was nearly perfect, and all he had to do in exchange for this was heal using his powers, which was frankly a much better application than what it was named after, especially if he was going to use it in favour of someone else.

As soon as the realisation set in that he was finally, finally free, a burst of happiness came from within, as he knelt next to the Mother Tree, acting as if he was just checking on the Tree, instead of trying to keep the ugly sobs at bay.

Odin probably knew instantly what he was doing; of course he did! He was a god several centuries his elder! But the Norse God did not call him out for it, only patted his head before leaving in a bright flash of yellow, probably on purpose to inform him that Odin was gone; otherwise, he knew the God of Magic was more than capable of leaving without any trace whatsoever.

After Odin left, he finally let it all out.

All the years of feeling helpless, feeling angry, feeling despair, feeling resentful at the world, at the void that robbed him of so much he still didn’t know how much he was missing, at the Underworld, at the Bael, at everything. All of it suddenly left him, making him feel far lighter than before.

It was as if he was finally breathing freely for the first time ever in his life.

He stood up, as a precise burst of his power erased the tears from his eyes, overlooking that Garden, then the snowy landscape all around him. Smiling, he let his power loose, flooding the root network with his power, as a rumbling sound all around him heralded the vast expansion of the root network, the Mother Tree acting as the perfect conduit for his power.

Within moments, the root network had made contact with water, then other roots, then more water, as he pumped his power into them, acting as the battery for the expansion of the Garden, conjuring up water and nutrients as the Mother Tree required, until he felt it was enough.

Looking at his Garden that seemed so small now, he smiled and got to work.

He finally had the space to expand his Garden. He would be a fool not to take advantage of that.

Plus, he had a feeling that once he was done with the Mother Tree, it was going to require an area far bigger than the current Garden, with many more resources.

He couldn't wait to see that vision turn to reality!

____xx___

New Lilith

–Serafall Sitri—

She was humming happily to herself, at a job well done, as with a single stroke, she had accomplished many things at once. Successfully leverage Sirzech's condition and its grave importance to the Underworld as a whole, to get Zekram to agree to their proposal of sending the Bael Heir and the next Lord Bael, from his words, out of the Underworld until Sirzechs’ issue was resolved.

After all, no matter how much Zekram might have salivated over the fact that he could finally get a Super Devil under his control, that was not the case from what she could see and two, he was not foolish enough to risk a fully realised Super Devil in favour of a potential one. 

Sure, she might have had to eat a couple of Balls of Destruction because of some of her pointed arguments, but she was more than happy to deal with that as long as one of the pillars that held the Underworld as it was aloft remained stable. Because even Zekram knew what would happen to Devils’ standing if news spread that the Strongest Devil was incapacitated, and the other Super Devil was busy tending to the former Super Devil.

She had also removed Magdaran from the current ticking time bomb situation that was his position between the Bael, their government, and his own thoughts about both of these entities. Magdarn did not seem too fond of either House Bael or them, so the best case scenario was to get him out of the Underworld.

Temporary as it was, she was glad that there was one less ticking time bomb in the Underworld. 

Thirdly, even if she did not explicitly consult Ajuka about this, she had a hunch that all of this was within his plans as well, because of how Ajuka had–

She was brought out of her happy thoughts, a rarity these days, by the door to her office being slammed open by Behemoth, the sole member of her peerage, the one she trusted the most after her fellow Satans.

“Wha–”

“He’s gone,” Behemoth said with the same bland tone, but she could detect the micro tremors in his voice, the tightening of his expression.

“Who is?”

“Magdaran Bael. I went to the Garden site, as you had requested, to deliver some supplies as goodwill, but the whole Garden is gone, and only a hole in the ground remains. There were remnants of some sort of High tier magic cast in that place. Upon further inspection, I found it to be Norse in origin.”

A chill ran down her spine at the thought of someone like Loki getting his hands on someone like Magdaran.

She stood up, not wanting to jump to conclusions, as a magical circle manifested beneath both of them, taking them straight to the teleportation site, the one place they had prepared painstakingly to ensure a seamless, lossless teleportation of a living being that large, that held no value aside from sentimental.

….It was empty.

Nothing but the hole in the ground, and as Behemoth said, signs of Norse magic being cast in the background.

…..”Fuck!”