DXD SI : Chapter 112 : The *Not-So* Suite Life of Aldric Zagan (Patreon)

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

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–Aldric Zagan–

When he first woke and found himself in the grasp of a powerful Bael House Devil, his first thought was that he was going to die. That this was it. He was going to be forced to either slave away for the rest of his life to build more and more grotesque creations to fuel a war with his own kind, or kill himself. At least that way, he would have had a dignified end.

From his perspective, since those were the only two options, he was going to go out with a bang. After all, before that day, there had been plenty of propositions from both sides of the Civil War to get him to join the war effort, but never had he been knocked out and taken prisoner. So, he considered it appropriate to respond to that level of escalation with a little escalation of his own, especially since he had gotten quite skilled at using only what was present inside his body to be used offensively, shoring up one of the common weaknesses of House Zagan.

To his surprise, the Bael turned out to be far more skilled and powerful than any other Bael of his age he had ever heard of. He had expected to be disintegrated when he was enveloped in that ball of power, only to be left alone for quite a while, inside an environment that was actively sucking away his life, leaving him almost on death’s door when the Bael Devil returned with a proposition.

As it turned out, he was not quite as ready to embrace death just for a Diginified Death, as he’d believed, and he had taken the Devil up on his offer of a tour. A tour never hurt anybody. Expecting a massive war factory, with constant corpses of devils or different races being rolled in to be used as resources to create more bio weapons, he had instead stumbled upon what could only be called heaven in the Underworld.

To think that he had managed to live all those days under the shadow of a Genus Loci that magnificent. To this day, he still looked at those days with nostalgia, in private, of course. It wouldn't do to upset his teacher.

Shaking his head, he wondered if his own could ever reach that day. Despite the massive leaps and bounds his own Genus Loci had taken, it just never seemed to have enough Impetus to make that final leap.

And of course, he wasn’t going to ask his teacher. That would be crass and insensitive, and while he was raised to be like that, he was not going to be. He would much rather live, thank you very much.  

Getting up from the mountain overlooking a massive lake, he disappeared from the mountaintop with a flex of his magic, only to be thrown back onto the same mountain, and this time, he stumbled and barely held onto the rocks around him, lest he be thrown off the tallest peak in here. While he would not fall to his death, the restrictions around him meant that he would have to take the blow with his physical body, and that would not be…pretty.

Sure, his teacher could heal him up in a jiffy, and likely boost him so that this level of fall damage never occurs, but he was stingy with his healing. Telling him that he should build up his natural level of healing before running to him

And just like every other infuriating time, the man was right.

Still, that didn’t mean he couldn't record his anger, like he usually did. By shouting into the sky, knowing that his teacher would hear it. It was not like he had the courage to say that to his face anyway.

So, grumbling, he began walking down the massive mountain, knowing full well that the magic around it was going to fight him all the way down, as part of his training all-the-time routine that his teacher insisted would work.

“Well, it is not going to make me a Super Devil. I know that much.” He murmured to himself, dodging a particular heavy gravity strike, only to stumble into a Light spike that damn near took his eye out. Taking a deep breath, he resisted the urge to swear at his teacher, out in the open anyway, and continued the downhill trek.

…..After what felt like a lifetime of walking down, especially since he was not prepared for the sudden training session, he finally reached the bottom of the hill and sighed in immense relief when he felt his Demonic Energy come back to life. It was such a nasty feeling to have his Demonic Energy be so effortlessly blocked, to the point that no matter what he did, it just would not respond.

The first time it had happened, he had nearly passed out, only to be woken up by pain inflicted upon him by his teacher.

His teacher had been a slave driver even before that day, but after that, it had become some sort of mission for his teacher to turn him into the best possible version.

Erasing the grime off his body, he flew to his home, which was far away from the lab, which was far away from his teacher’s dwelling.

….This place had really grown far beyond his expectations. He could barely even make out the snowy hill that his teacher liked to live on.

As for his teacher, that day had really changed him. It was to be expected. After all, his teacher had lost the Genus Loci, which was basically more akin to a son to his teacher. That loss had scarred him, potentially forever. Even though Devils were really long lived, and he was technically a few decades older than his teacher, he had seen Devils centuries old who had lived through multiple wars and life altering events, but even then they never forgot a few key people in their lives.

Compared to those people, a mere five years was nowhere near enough time to get better. Especially since his teacher did not want to deal with it. He had just thrown himself into his work, into his experiments, into expanding and creating more and more space in this pocket universe of sorts, and into perfecting himself.

That was the closest thing he could think of when it came to his training with his teacher. Magdaran Bael was a powerful Devil before, but now he was a Super Devil, and one with multiple obsessions. It was as if his teacher wouldn't rest until he was some kind of Super Devil, like the ones who ruled the Underworld.

He wouldn't know what was happening outside since he had never been out or communicated with anyone else, save for his teacher and his Genus Loci in the past five years, which was fine. It was more than finance, since he was seeing massive personal growth. His teacher, too, had not gone out in four years, having become self-sufficient in this space with just a single year of concentrated work.

What he did know was that his teacher was far more mature than he expected him to be. Generally, Devils who honed their bloodline trait to the maximum possible level somewhat mirrored those traits in real life as well. Growing up, he’d heard from the elders, the ones that were somewhat sane anyway, that Devils from house Bael loved to destroy shit for no reason, that devils from house Sitri were either chilly or warm, that devils from house Dantalion loved to be silent observers, taking in every single detail, instead of participating in a conversation.

Imagine his surprise when he finally heard what had happened, after over a year of living in this space, suffering under the daily torture training regime his teacher had put him under.  Let’s just say that he was shocked that this place even existed, let alone that his teacher was not actively going out to make the lives of the people who did this to him harder. He certainly had the power to do so.

His teacher once told him that there were people out there who decided that Magdaran being a weaker Super Devil was a worthwhile trade in exchange for having a much stronger and established Super Devil with a power that was bound to be immensely helpful for the final fight.

Yes, the final fight. The battle with the Beast at the End Times. A battle that was inevitable and was rapidly approaching them, as per his teacher. 

The same battle that the entire world was scrambling to prepare for, in the background anyway, or so his teacher told him. His teacher had eyes on the outside world that gave him all the information he needed, without ever stepping a foot outside this fortress.

During one of their spars, his teacher told him that the decision to become a Super Devil was taken by beings who he had helped reach that level, either knowingly or unknowingly. It was such a betrayal, and while his teacher definitely held some level of resentment, he hadn’t retaliated in any way, as far as he knew anyway.

Even the biggest beneficiary of teaching forcibly becoming a Super Devil, Sirzechs Gremory, the Strongest Devil alive, was not the target of Magdaran’s ire. Things were out of his reach, as his teacher explained to him.

All of this left him with a series of questions that he did not have the heart to ask his teacher. Even these little scraps of information he had only received from his teacher when he was feeling particularly down, or was feeling particularly down that day. It had become rarer and rarer as days went by, and he hadn’t had a single Magdaran spilling things session in the past six months or so.

Time really went by when you were fighting for your life every single day, right?

Freshening up, he settled into his bedroom because he had a big exam tomorrow, according to his teacher. And from past experiences of taking smaller exams, he knew that tomorrow was going to be the day he would dodge death multiple times. It had already happened once, and his teacher had brought him back somehow, so there was that silver lining on that incredibly dark cloud.

Dismissing those errant thoughts, his hand went out to the bedside alarm clock, as he slammed his hand on it, injecting a little bit of Demonic Energy into it, as a lullaby rang in the air, taking him back to the days he could simply sleep under the shade of the Mother Tree for hours and hours, all relaxed and comfortable.

___xx__

“You want me to what?!” he shouted in horror and confusion, looking at the big Tree root in his teacher’s hand, currently being held in a ball of his power, shimmering with multiple colors. 

“Eat it.” His teacher, as usual, looked at him with a blank face, yet he could see the mirth dancing around in his eyes. It was in the little things that he saw his teacher slowly and steadily come out of the walls he’d built around himself over the years.

He looked at the tree root, then at his teacher, then back at the root before backing up a step. “What is inside it?”

“Nothing you should concern yourself with.” His teacher took a step forward as well.

He swallowed. “What do you mean by that? I am going to eat it. I have every reason to know.”

Magdaran shrugged, “Perhaps, but do you have the strength to do so?”

At that, he was reminded of the frankly titanic strength his teacher wielded, especially in here, where he was more akin to a God instead of a Super Devil, and slumped briefly before pointing a finger at his teacher, his words accusatory, “Fine! But if I die this time, and you bring me back, I am coming back swinging, and you can’t dodge.”

“If that makes you feel better. Sure.”

The instant agreement further increased his suspicions, but what choice did he have at this point?

Gulping, he took the tree root from his teacher, still encased in his teacher’s power. Looking up at his teacher with a questioning look, his teacher had the gall to say, “It has to stay that way until you eat it. After that, I will let go of my power, so that you can take over the rest.”

He deadpanned at this teacher.

“So, I have to eat a ball of Destruction, voluntarily?”