DXD SI : Chapter 99 : Soul Grind & PANIK! (Patreon)

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

Inner Sanctum, The Garden

–Magdaran–

He looked at the ordinary looking wooden box floating in front of him, as he was seated in one of the training chambers he had built anew for just this type of training. Resistance training for Light and Divine stuff. It was a shame that he hadn’t been able to get his hands on any powerful Holy Light sources. Holy Water, Blessed weaponry, and more, even stuff that was blessed by an Archangel himself, but none of them could damage him anymore. Not even when he let it hit him without any protection.

He had built up his physical body to handle that level of damage. Adapting to Fallen Angel Light was laughably easy, as he had easy and continuous access to a number of Fallen, all of varying power levels. Even Baraqiel was easy to convince after he pestered the stoic Fallen Angel a few dozen times, resulting in Holy Lightning resistance as well. He was not sure if he could withstand a direct hit from Uriel’s Holy Fire without any magical protection, but he always thought that he would win anyway in that confrontation.

Never had he stopped to think that he had to look into Divine Stuff that affected not just the body but his soul as well. Sure, his soul was plenty strong, both on account of being a super strong Devil, and also on account of having a little bit extra when he was brought to this reality. But he hadn’t come this far relying on his natural durability. No, he had worked a lot, practically tortured himself, to make sure that even in case he had no access to his Demonic Energy, he would be able to defend himself, that he would not be a sitting duck.

Shaking his head, he braced himself for the horrible pain ahead and opened the box with his hands, and immediately, there were burns on his hand, as whatever Odin had sent him was quite potent. Even before seeing the shape of it, he had to shut it all down and take a breather to heal himself before repeating the process.

He could have just opened the box and taken the full brunt of the Divine weight inside, but that was not how he did things when it came to building resistances. A single high intensity exposure was only good if he planned to knock himself out and then spend days in a coma, as the Mother Tree healed him. That was not the ideal way. 

The right way, in his opinion, was to make sure that he got small, repeated exposures, and then heal those injuries before moving on. Right now, he hadn’t even felt his soul being attacked in any way. Just physical injuries from being too close to such a high tier Divine artifact. 

He would be able to adapt to physical injuries much quicker, and after that, he could move on to the soul injuries. To be honest, he hadn't expected Odin to send him something so high tier without even asking. 

Knowing him, there must be a reason for it, beyond the obvious. Maybe Odin was indirectly telling him that he should quickly get his soul adapted, because Odin foresaw something? Something that might be able to hurt his soul itself, and as such, he needed to fortify it using whatever it was inside that wooden box.

He sighed, realising that he was going to have to take it to the next level. A simple magical ping from him had a massive Tree Root appearing out of a hole in the ground, before separating into two and positioning themselves at his back. 

Another magical ping had the two tree roots stabbing into his back, a grunt escaping his lips as the roots then began to expand inside his body, covering his torso from the inside, acting as backup healing, backup energy, backup durability, excess energy siphoning, and more. It was something he had made in case someone truly strong came to the Garden, and he had no other choice than to fight till the end. If he and the Mother Tree couldn't leave without being attacked and killed by someone far stronger than him, like the ones on the upper end of the Top Ten Strongest beings in the Universe, then they were going to merge into one and simply go down fighting.

The roots themselves blazed with a purple fire, his cloak manifesting behind him, not burning through the roots at all. His eyes blazed purple as he looked at the wooden box floating in front of him and, with a quick motion, opened it completely, letting the Mother Tree handle just the healing process instead of defending him in any manner.

“AAAAAAAAA!” A pained scream escaped his lips, even as he raised his hand to stop Aldric from barging in to save him, as he had kept his official disciple nearby to keep watch, just in case Aldric thought that he was the only one being torture traiend to grow strong rapidly. Plus, if Aldric was stupid enough to take one step into the training chamber, he might just burst into flames instantly.

He felt his flesh strip away, leaving behind just bones, as the Divine artifact attacked him mercilessly, which confirmed that Odin had crafted it as an offensive tool. That bastard. He could have explained that in his notes.

Before he could use his own energy, the Mother Tree pumped a ton of energy into his body, supercharging his power, as he watched his flesh being vaporised and grow in real time. It would have been quite fascinating, if not for the excruciating pain he was in. It was not like he could choose to grow deadened nerves there, as their destruction hurt the most. It would not create proper adaptations.

It was just a game of letting his hands adapt. He wasn’t even looking directly at the floating object, whatever it was. It was so bright and full of offensive prowess that his eyeballs burst the moment he tried to look directly at it, and he had since then closed his eyes even though they were fully healed. It was good that it was such a massive energy signature so he didn't have to search for it.

His entire body was developing burns, but that was easily dismissed, in favour of focusing on his hands that were slowly inching forward to the weapon. It was slow progress, excruciatingly so, but it was progress all the same. Plus, it was not like he was going to run out of energy anytime soon. The Mother Tree had a looooot of reserves in case of an emergency.

Mental fatigue could set in sooner than he expected, but for now, he was focused on getting his damned hands on the weapon that Odin had sent for him. He was not really a weapons guy, as his power itself was more than enough to be used as whatever weapon he needed, plus he had enough control over his power to shape it however he wanted. He basically had the power as well as the control necessary to not require any physical weapon at all. 

But Odin knew that. So, he wondered what this could be?

Dismissing those thoughts, he was happy for a momentary reprieve they gave him from the pain, but he had to focus on the here and now. He was sure that the moment he dared to touch the weapon, he was going to get the shock of his lifetime, but strangely enough, he was actually looking forward to that.

….He really was a masochist.

___xxx__

New Lilith

–Serafall–

She looked up with a smile plastered on her face as someone knocked on her door and then entered, looking presentable and oddly tense as the current Lord Agares walked into her office, having the good sense not to start shouting the moment they saw her. It was one of the reasons why the current Devil in front of her was chosen as the liaison between all the panicking houses and herself.

As Ajuka was not just absent but completely unresponsive to any modes of communication, she had to be the one to handle all the panic that had been induced into the Underworld due to the public reports of Ajuka attacking and singlehandedly wiping out the last known descendants of the Old Satan bloodline. It was such a high handed move on their part that it was no wonder many of the Pillar Houses were in disarray.

Atleast with Zekram dead, the response being mounted was not as cohesive and directed as it should be, but they were clearly reorganising, and had likely sent Lord Agares here as their representative. As he had good relations with them, with Zekram before he did, and even with some of the Old Satan Faction members, he was a good choice. Known more for his political and diplomatic chops than his skill with their House’s bloodline trait, the man took a moment to compose himself before speaking.

After all, she had personally sent behind Two Pillar Lords with fewer limbs than they came, or rather, barged into her office with. That must have reminded them that she was still a Satan, and as such, could do many things.

“Satan Leviathan.”

“Lord Agares. What can I do for you?”

He eyed her for a moment before sighing and shaking his head, slumping into the seat, a stark contrast to his earlier demeanour. “You don’t even know, do you?”

She showed no outward reaction, but her mind ran internally. Before she could say anything, though, the Lord Agares continued.

“You have no idea what Ajuka is doing, do you? Has he gone rogue?”

She fixed the man with a frosty glare. “No. I don’t think you understand what you are insinuating here, Lord Agares.”

The man had the audacity to shrug tiredly, looking exhausted as he all but lounged into the chairs that were designed to be uncomfortable to incentivise people to say their piece and then fuck off, instead of spending more time than they should in her office. 

After all, she was a busy devil!

“What else am I supposed to assume? Sirzechs hasn’t shown his face in days. Even before that, he was gone for years, and when he did show his face, he had…..changed. I could see it in his eyes. Even now, when the entire Underworld is clamoring for his appearance, he is nowhere to be seen. Instead, we look at Falbium desperately keeping the military in a high alert mode, and see you trying to do something that is not your job. Tell me, Serafall, what does it look like from your side?”

She just sat there, stumped, having no real answer to satisfy the Agares. He was not some up and coming Lord who had reached that position due to his bloodline, or was inexperienced. He was the same Lord Agares who, now that Zekram was dead, was probably the most politically well regarded Devil in the Underworld. 

Seeing no answer from her side, Lord Agares sighed, “Look, I don’t know what is happening. Something has clearly rattled you Four. Ajuka is not one to do this out of the blue. I don’t think I have ever seen Fabium this awake and active outside of an actual war. I don’t think I have seen Sirzechs be this distant, this absent from the Underworld for this long. I don’t think you have ever directly interacted with and then blasted Devils for barging into your office. You don’t have that much of a temper. So, clearly, something is wrong, and everyone can feel it.

I just want to know what is happening, so that we can prepare accordingly. I am not here as an enemy. If there is a threat to the Underworld that is big enough to have all four of you rattled so much, I can help you. Even if I don’t think it will amount to much, we would like to help.”

She just sat there, stunned and helpless in the face of the passionate speech. After all, what could she tell him? The person who was, for all intents and purposes, the face of the panicking Pillar Houses.