DXD SI : Chapter 97 : Grinding while stuff happens in the Background....... (Patreon)

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

Grigori Training HQ

–Azazel–

Seeing Vali’s frozen form, he sighed internally, disappointed in her. Despite all the trust he had in Odin and his many varied means of information gathering, sometimes even about events that hadn’t happened yet, he had hope that Odin was wrong. That, at least this once, he would be right and Odin would be mistaken in his assessment of Vali, a girl he had personally trained and seen the growth of. 

From a scared Half Devil who had barely escaped or was deliberately let go of, from the clutches of the mad Lucifer House, to a Satan Class Half Devil Longinus wielder who could hold her own against any Devil save for the Super Devils  He had seen it all, and so, he had hope that Odin was wrong, and that Vali had not thrown all that away, to join a group that would one day go on to destabilise the world as they knew it, softening it right in time for the apocalypse itself to descend upon them.

Honestly, he had thought Odin mad to even think that a being on the level of Ophis, Infinity itself, would stoop so low as to recruit, forcibly or otherwise, misfits of society, no matter their origin, for some goal that Odin hadn’t bothered telling him about. It was likely Vali herself did not know much about it, despite being recruited by them just a few hours ago, or days ago. Who knows on what scale Ophis could manipulate time. For all he knew, Vali might have spent days or weeks with Ophis and her newly found organisation, whereas only hours passed in the real world.

For a being who called the Dimensional Gap as home or ex-home, from what he could tell, there was no telling to the depths of their sheer breadth of abilities. She was a large-scale reality warper and as such, there was a non zero chance that the choices Vali made there might not be her choice, but going there in the first place absolutely was. He knew she was hungry for revenge, it showed in her day to day life, but he thought that she was also wise enough to know that if something appears too good to be true, then it probably was.

Odin’s words about it being entirely voluntary, aside from the threat of Ophis disintegrating her was disheartening, and he had hopes that maybe she agreed just for the sake of it and once she came back, she would immediately tell them and then, they could come up with a better solution than joining a terrorist group.

But her reaction when he just ripped the band aid off and told her everything was more than enough proof for him. He knew what she was going to do before she even said it, and frankly, he was far too hurt to care about what excuses she might have had for doing this. It was pathetic how he, a centuries old being who had seen all the world had to offer, had gotten attached to a Half Devil girl within years, and had come to see her as a daughter. It was just…..

“W-What non sense are you talking about? Who’s Ophis? And why would I ever be in the same room as someone from the Old Satan faction?” Vali tried to play it off, just like he knew she would do. It was useless and frankly, pathetic as Vali had never been that good of an actor. Even if Odin hadn’t told him anything, he would have known soon enough. But it still would have taken him quite a while to find out that Vali had done this.

He snapped his fingers, commanding the wards he had personally installed in the palace and thus knew every inch of it. Penemue had berated him for wasting his precious time personally installing all the wards and then even supervising the maintenance routines of the wards on all their HQs, but it certainly came in handy every now and then. Like now, when he activated a feature no one expected him to install inside Grigori HQ. 

A Light prison enveloped the entire room, invisible to their eyes as it was located behind the walls, but its presence was unmistakable, and the way Vali slumped briefly before straightening, her Scale Mail now out in the open, he realised that it was going to come down to a fight.

He sighed as his clothing burned away, revealing his armour below, the sight of which made Vali frown minutely before she refocused her gaze on his face, which was still unarmoured for now. Vali’s face was armoured, though he couldn't fault her for that. A standard precaution after one was covered in a cage made up of an opposing element.

“Last chance, Vali. Surrender now.” He said, with even a hint of a plea in it, because he really did not want to fight Vali, not over this. And that was not just because he knew that even if he eventually won, it would be a hard won fight, with plenty of chances for Vali to turn the whole thing around. The only saving grace here would be his combat experience, his ability to completely tune out his emotions in a fight, and Vali's weakness to light, let alone the Holy Light he had in backup.

Though, that was a card he would rather not use as it would lead to much bigger repercussions later on. He would rather not be subjected to pointed questions about the source of the Holy Light and the method of creating a long term storage of it.

Vali’s voice came modulated and muffled from her Scale Mail, which meant she had already prepared her defences for the maximum possible punishment he could give her ,which was not a good sign. Sighing once more, he felt all his years, as he raised his hand, a light Spear appearing in his hands, aimed squarely at someone who was near to him, creating a situation he never would have thought possible for him and Vali.

“Then, so be it.”

Vali made the first move, just like she was taught, rushing at him with a “DIVIDE!” echoing in the distance, as he felt almost a quarter of his reserves simply vanish, despite his training to resist that particular effect, a sword manifesting in her hands as well, something that Magdaran had gifted her as part of his hobbies. It was not particularly good looking or all that sharp, or even well proportioned.

But he watched as his Light Spear clashed with that horribly looking full sword, and simply shattered in two, the sword heading for his torso seamlessly, as if his Light Spear was not there at all. The sword was good for one thing and one thing only. Enchantments. Dozens of seemingly simple and yet, absurdly capable enchantments were drawn onto the sword, allowing it to become a pretty good weapon in its own right. Truly, Magdaran was a fearsome individual. If Magdaran had continued pursuing this particular hobby with the same zeal, he might have become an accomplished weaponsmith.

Either way, it was not good that he was on the receiving end of one of Magdaran’s weapons, as the Devil himself had already baked in a remote deactivation enchantment into all of his weapons should they be used against him, even though he hadn’t even given him a weapon, which meant the pool of people using his weapons was very small. He supposed that Magdaran’s paranoia was a good thing in its own right.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked at the approaching tip of that sword, and with a mental switch, activated the real reason why he had enveloped the entire room with a light cube.

Let there be Light.

Snorting at his corny thoughts, he watched as the entire room was flash-banged with Light from a Fallen Angel; no need to use the Holy Light card yet, and Vali reacted instantly, retreating and shielding herself. If she had moved forward and tried to kill him, that might have been a viable strategy, if only for the fact that it would have angered and devastated him in equal measure to the point that he would have been seriously tempted to directly use Holy Light on Vali.

He blinked as he saw Vali still standing, her magical signature not affected by the Light onslaught, at all. Then, he saw the reason why. 

The sword!

It had a blackish hue around it, which was extended to cover Vali’s entire form, seemingly absorbing the Light attack. Even so, Vali’s form was visible to him, and she could likely see everything in the room as well.

Magdaran must have figured out the exact frequency band of Light Constructs made by Fallen and tuned the sword to absorb just that range and leave the rest untouched. It allowed Vali to fight without being blinded while protecting her from Light attacks at the same time. He sighed internally. Once again, Magdaran had outdone himself. He must have used the data he had on the Fallen he had fought many times to do this. 

Though, it did look like it took some concentration, as Vali had to take a moment to stabilise the effect before rushing forward once more. This time, he was taking her seriously, knowing that now the one hit option was not available to him. Cursing Magdaran for the weapon, he swung his weapon, a sword that was a bit short of reaching Artificial Sacred Gear tier, but was more than capable of handling blows from Vali.

They fought, almost on equal grounds, as Vali came at him with blows that felt like they were from Gabriel, instead of a half devil who was barely two decades old. Despite how she looks, Gabriel’s biggest strength was her innate physical strength capable of bruising with a single punch.

Honestly, just what was in the Lucifer bloodline, to churn out such monsters after monster. 

First, Rizevim and now, Vali. Well, atleast that particular problem was going to be taken care of sooner rather than later, and by a coalition of people truly suited for the monster in Devil skin.

Vali grunted as he pushed her back, using a split second burst of magic to create a hammer made up of his light and hit her in the back, using the large stockpiled Light to force Vali to choose between defending her back or fighting him seriously. Obviously, she chose to retreat and focus on defense, as she looked at him warily.

Good. He was not the sole Twelve Winged Fallen, survivor of the Great War, and leader of a faction, for nothing. 

Cracking his neck, he let his light loose, creating Light Armour on top of his own Armour, looking at Vali with his sword. “Now, let’s see what you can do, Vali Lucifer.”

Vali flinched at his words, as if speaking that word had been a physical blow, more so than all the other actual blows he had inflicted upon her.

____xx___

Bedroom,Inner Sanctum, Garden

–Magdaran Bael—

His eyes snapped open as he felt a delivery enter the Outer Sanctum, with the distinct feel of a certain Norse God who had just fucked off after a rather disastrous meeting with the Satans, and hadn’t returned his messages at all.

Grunting, he got out of bed and got out of the bedroom, as the Mother Tree had already scanned and retrieved the box before bringing it in front of him, with a giant root doing it. He waved the root away as he took the offered wooden box, and after inspecting it, he was about to open it, only for the engraving to appear on top of the box.

It read - 

For the Soul Grind 🙂

He raised his eyebrow at the lingo before opening the box and immediately snapping it shut, the sizzles on his arms healing in moments as he realised what it was.

It was a Divine soul weapon of some sort, capable of injuring him by just being in the vicinity. The Soul Damage from being in the proximity of something on the scale of that Divine lightning Bolt back in Asgard was the whole reason Vali had to step in and almost use Juggernaut Drive, just so he could have enough breathing room to attack the black tendril users attacking from the portals.

That time, he had resolved to get something to help develop resistance to that type of damage, but had been too busy to get out and find something for that, as he had nothing to specifically damage his soul.

This solved that problem for him.

Odin’s precognition powers had apparently expanded enough that the Norse God was now using it for trivial matters such as this.

Shaking his head, he sent the weapon to storage, and resolved to get back to the Masochistic Grind once more, this time to reinforce his soul instead of just his body.