DXD SI : Chapter 86 : Choices have consequences, Duh! (Patreon)

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

Asgard

–Vali–

As she broke the evacuation shelters’ protections one by one, which was a bitch and a half, as everyone who could open it from the inside was either knocked out or they probably did not trust her, as she was an outsider and the sudden crisis that had befallen Asgard, as if the entire realm was under attack from that dreadful storm.

Even though it was far from the truth, as the storm had only targeted Thor, and Thor alone. She still shuddered from the feeling she got from even mere arcs from that Lightning Bolt. It was so painful that, had it not been for Albion and her own extreme training to make sure she did not flinch in the face of pain, no matter how extreme, she would not have been able to last the scant few seconds she did before her automatic backups kicked in.

She had long since conditioned her mind to function in the case she was knocked out or not in conscious control of her body because of the pain, a torture technique that he regularly used. The last set of instructions for her mind, if everything became too much to handle, was to automatically trigger Juggernaut Drive, as a last resort, and go berserk everywhere. According to Albion, he had stopped the Juggernaut Drive because it would have just made things worse, but it had taken its toll on Albion. He was of the opinion that Juggernaut Drive shouldn’t be triggered for a few days at least, until he healed. She was going to ask Mag to heal Albion as well, though she didn’t know if it was even possible or not.

“He can heal souls, yes, but I don’t think he can go past the chains my jailer put on me. If he can do that, he will be making himself the number one target of Heaven.”

Mag won’t care about that.

“No, he will not. But can you subject him to that? To risk something that monumental instead of just waiting a few days, just because you can’t bear sitting around instead of training like a madwoman?”

She went silent at Albion’s rebuttal. It pissed her off to the point that she cut off their link- well, as much as she could while still using his power anyway- but the gesture was important here. She was angry at Albion’s statement, yes, but she also knew it to be true.

Which is why instead of confronting her feelings about why exactly she was training so much and what her final goal was, she focused all that anger into breaking all the protections Odin and his predecessors probably put into place to protect the civilian population. Only they didn’t take into account the fact that something could knock everyone out at the same time and make it infinitely harder for help to reach inside the shelters.

Her Sacred Gear worked overtime to dispel all the energy she had to take in from dividing the protections in front of her. It definitely helped that Mag gave her a big boost from his own energy before slipping into his trance to protect the whole Asgard, so she was just brimming with excess energy, to the point that cycling through this much Divine Energy, something that should have itched a bit, did not bother her at all.

Speaking of Mag and his overly absurd feat of covering an entire planetoid with his Power of Destruction, she wondered what was going on in his mind when he did that. For years, he had spent so much energy making sure that he remained hidden, that he remained out of the public eye, that he was unknown to as many people as possible, that no one knew what his true strength was, and now?

Now, he was showcasing his power for the entire world to see.

Sure, Mag was not the only one who could use the Power of Destruction at such a scale, but the only other one who could was a Satan of the Underworld, someone who would historically never be allowed on Asgard.

Doing this, Mag was also risking his other identity as the Pharmacist, and she really had to wonder what was going on in that dense brain of his to risk so much.

He could have just…..done what exactly?

The question made her stop for a second before she renewed her efforts to get inside. Apparently, the entire protection system was chained together for more strength, but it also created a single weakness, so, while a bit troublesome, once she was done breaking this, she would not have to worry about breaking into the other evacuation shelters.

As for Mag and his current choice, what else could he have done?

He was skilled enough to catch most energy disturbances from very far distances, but this was Asgard. The entire place was soaked with Divine Energy. It would have been very difficult to sense the minute energy disturbances created by some skilled God like Loki, when Loki was at the very edge of Asgard and Mag’s sensory range.

Also, Mag was one person, and most of the people capable of fighting high level threats were knocked out, save for her, so the risk in that option was high. Also, who knows which one of Odin’s old enemies might show up after seeing that not only was Odin himself out of commission, but Thor was too. Two of the biggest deterrents of the Norse Pantheon? Gone. Loki was powerful, yes, but not as powerful as the two of them, not to mention she was not sure if Loki would even help Asgard or not.

That left Mag with only one option, and that was to make sure that the realm itself was sealed from outsiders, both from an invasion standpoint and also from a divination standpoint. That alone would act as enough of a deterrent to stop someone like Loki from trying anything. 

Pausing in her relentless attacks on the defensive systems, she turned around and looked at the giant purple dome extending as far as her eyes could see, she turned around and got to work that much harder.

Maintaining something of that level could not be easy or light on his reserves. With the altercations with the shadows from earlier, she could not be sure how long Mag could keep this up. 

With a final punch to the magical enchantments, they broke apart with a shattering sound, finally revealing the giant doors to the shelters. They opened with a simple push as she entered and saw hundreds of people, of all ages, just knocked out on the ground.

Remembering her training, she got to work. Check on the adults, wake them up, put them to task. Rinse and repeat.

___xx___

–Magdaran Bael—

Fortunately, while the barrier itself was taxing, the fact that he could sense within it meant he could keep it paper thin in most places and then reinforce it at a moment’s notice, depending on any threat that might enter his radar. He was still not strong enough to create a full power barrier over the entirety of Asgard and keep it up for an indefinite period of time. As he was right now, with the state of his reserves, he could probably keep this weakened version up for weeks if need be. If he had to go all out and actively defend against threats, then that number might come down to days, depending on the severity of the attacks.

If he just had to keep a full power barrier open, he would probably last a week before he felt his reserves enter the warning level.

It really was hard to use his power on something so deeply infused with Divine Energy. It was probably doubling his energy expenditure. Still, he will keep it up for as long as need be. He was sure that Odin or Thor, either one of them, would wake up far before he ran out of energy.

In the meantime, he could sense Vali breaking the defense measures, which were really strong, and it took even Vali a while before she could breach them and wake up the Asgardians. Thankfully, once she got the process going, the other Asgardians helped her with everything else, which meant she was free to patrol around Asgard to make sure they did not miss anyone situated in the remote areas.

Vali could take care of herself and any threats that might emerge here, especially since he couldn't sense Loki at all. Either he was hiding himself, or he had left Asgard before even the competition, or maybe after it was clear that there was a grave threat to staying on Asgard. Either way, Loki was not doing anything right now, and that was for the best.

While it was within his powers to deal with the God, it was best to let Family deal with family matters. He would not want to risk his friendship with Odin by slaying his son, no matter what said son might be planning.

Vali’s rapidly moving form was visible to him, as he kept his senses focused on the outside, with only occasional glances inside, just in case someone was outside.

Within the first few hours, he felt multiple people come close, and felt dozens more have their teleportation spells rejected. His power simply locked down the space inside and did not allow most teleportation spells to have a foothold inside Asgard, resulting in spell failures.

He recognised Azazel’s energy signature, trying his best to teleport inside. He hesitated briefly before deciding to keep Azazel out as well.

No one means no one.

___xx___

After the first few hours, he realised that this too could be training. He had never done anything of this scale before, and even now, he was learning. Within the span of hours, he must have reduced the energy consumption while keeping the space locked down and the barrier at optimal levels by 1% at the very least. That was genuine improvement, and if he had the time and the circumstances to support it, he would have loved to restart and note down some truly fascinating information.

After all, where else was he going to get the permission to cast such a huge cloak made up exclusively of Demonic Energy on lands that were heavily soaked in Divine Energy. No other pantheon was ever going to let him come near them, not after this display of power.

He was aware that this was basically undoing all the efforts to make sure his power remained hidden. This was also going to draw allegations about Devil and Norse cooperation, which were going to be put to rest by both the factions, eventually resulting in his involvement becoming public knowledge.

After all, which Devil, after Sirzechs himself, could do something like this?

Zekram was dead, but the rest of the world did not know that yet. Did the Satans even know?

He was not sure. If they knew, they must be either running around like headless chickens, panicking at the thought of the old fuck’s contingencies activating, or they would be very happy as their principal opposition to their vision for the Underworld was removed.

He suspected it was a mixture of the both.

Either way, Zekram was gone, and the entire Underworld was going to go through a huge political upheaval, which meant atleast that side should be too busy to bother him, in the short term anyway.

He didn’t really have to worry about the Fallen too much, with Azazel at the helm.

The Angels were always going to hate him anyway, so that just left him with….the rest of the supernatural world.

He sighed, already feeling exhausted at the prospect of having to deal with the fallout of his actions today, not that he would change his choice with the information he had access to at the moment.

…..It’s just that dealing with people and threats was exhausting. Why couldn't he just live his farmer boi life at all times?