DXD SI : Chapter 114 : Gremory Princess & Crimson Satan..... (Patreon)

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

Kuoh Town

–Rias Gremory–

“Really?” She deadpanned at her brother, who had just materialised in her room, looking at her with puppy-dog eyes, as if she was the one who had kicked him in the shins, instead of the other way around. Well, her brother did not kick her in the shins. He just told her that she was going to have to fight her cousin Sairaorg to win the right to live out her life in the way she wanted.

So, in return, she made sure that she didn’t even look at her brother for the past week or so, hence this visit.

Her brother then dropped the dopey act and sat on a chair in front of her before sighing, “You know as well as I do, Rias, that the world is a dangerous place. Even the fact that you were allowed to become the rulers of Kuoh Town, along with Sona, was a huge concession that I had to fight for. Mother and Father were against you even stepping foot here.”

“I know that! But why can’t I even have the choice of staying here? It’s not like I have already made my decision for you guys to be so opposed to me staying here long term. I mean, once I graduate, I can become a principal or maybe even start a business here?”

At her annoyed tone, her brother sighed before looking at her seriously, “You have to understand, Rias, that there are forces at play that not even I can predict or control. You can complete your education here. You still have a year left for that. You can do whatever you want in that time. Enjoy the human world, and all its wonders for a year. Beyond that, you will have to return to the Underworld, peerage included.”

She remarked, dripping with sarcasm, “Oh, now I have to come home. What happened to I could stay if I defeated Sai? Also, what about Sona and Cleria? Both of them have not been told to come home next year.”

Her elder brother only raised an eyebrow at that. “Do you honestly think you can do that? Defeat Sai?”

She flushed at the blunt reply. Then, her brother retorted, “Also, Sona will be told the same soon enough. And Cleria is an adult with lots of experience running a territory. You should know that. After all, you guys inherited her work when she had to move to Kyoto to act as our official liaison.”

Her brother was being uncharacteristically strict about her going back to Underworld and was being cagey about why, just telling her that there were dangers out there, and she just had this burning curiosity about it that she couldn't help but blurt out.

“But what could stop you? You are like the strongest now, aren’t you? Especially after Red Sky, no one really questions your strength now.” 

“You thought I was weak before?”

“What?! NO!”

“Hahaha! Relax, Rias. I was just joking. Anyway, as I said before, this is just for your safety.”

“But what could threaten me when I have the strongest being in the world as my brother?”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Rias.”

“Fiiine. But I want reasons; otherwise I will just run away.”

“Please. You love your peerage far too much to subject them to that.” Her brother had the audacity to wave off her threat casually, and especially by saying the truth like that. 

Puffing out her cheeks, she replied, “Hmph. I hate this version of you, Big Brother. It is like you have come here with the decision made, and no matter what I say, you won’t budge on it.”

“....Because that is true, Rias.”

She blinked at the sadness in her brother’s voice, looking at her brother with a new light, but before she could address that abrupt change in mood, her brother blinked away and turned to her, beaming with a smile. Even she could tell that something was off about that smile. She wanted to question him about it, but they were both interrupted by a flash of silver, followed by the crisp, cold voice of her sister in law.

Grayfia Lucifuge. The strongest Queen of the Underworld, and her brother's wife. 

“My Satan, you have an urgent summons.”

Her brother turned to his wife, who was in a maid costume, as she had been for most of Rias’ life. “I do.”

“Yes, you do. You would have known that had you not turned it off before meeting Rias here.”

Her brother winced, “Ah.”

“Shall we?” A raised eyebrow from Grayfia had her brother wincing once more as he sheepishly walked over to his wife, making her doubt if this was really the same being who was touted as the Strongest Devil in existence.

___xx___

New Lilith, Underworld

–Sirzechs Gremroy–

His vision cleared to reveal that he was standing back in Ajuka’s lab, surrounded by his fellow Satans. Honestly, this place held such a bad place in his heart that, had it not been Ajuka’s lab that contained many dangerous things, he would have destroyed this the moment he woke up from that.

The worst experience of his life. It hurt more than anything he had ever experienced in his long life, save for maybe losing his choir and finding out the reason why they had been targeted.

Thankfully, he was far more in control of his power and emotions since that day. It had been quite the blunder, in hindsight, to just openly flaunt the massive increase in power he had undergone as a result of all that pain. Only time will tell if all that pain was even worth it or not.

Speaking of painful experiences, “Why have you called for us, Ajuka?”

Ajuka had been the one to tell him that his suffering had been necessary. That while Ajuka did not know of it before putting him in that ritualised torture box, he had realised later on that his suffering was necessary for the good of the world, and while he was mostly understanding of Ajuka’s mentality as it was quite different from normal, at the time, he had just come out of one of the worst experiences of his life, and being told that did not evoke positive emotions.

No, it resulted in him lashing out at Ajuka, and with his elevated power level, he had been able to do quite the damage before he had been able to leash his power tightly. Only then had he realised the horror of what he’d done. Ajuka had even taken the punishment silently, resulting in extensive damage being done to Ajuka, something that required tubs of Phenex Tears, emptying the entire official Satan reserve of them.

Ever since that day, their relationship had been kind of rocky, and despite their stellar cooperation with anything work related, he had always had that guilt in his heart.

Ajuka was silent for a moment before snapping his fingers, summoning a screen that showed a straight line that was thick, before it changed into another image, showing a crooked line emerging out of nowhere and merging with the thick line.

His eyes widened in horror as he realised what he was looking at, whispering, “No…”

“How did that happen?” Serafall exclaimed, having realised what had happened as well. The thick line was the future that Ajuka and Odin had somehow wrangled into submission, even going so far as to forcibly turn Magdaran Bael into a Super Devil so that he would get a boost in power in return.

As it turns out, his power had been struggling with Magdaran’s power, looking at Magdaran's potential as a threat to its own, resulting in an internal struggle. When that internal struggle ceased, his power came roaring back, elevating him even further. With that power came an even greater loss of control over his True Form, but Ajuka was of the mind that the loss of control was worth it for the added power. He tended to agree, but only when the timeline told him that the final battle was still a good 5-7 years later.

Not in a year. That was right now.

Ajuak replied, his voice grave, “I don’t know. Neither does Odin. What we can both tell is that someone, somehow, has harnessed the power of the World Tree, Ygdrassil, and accelerated the burn of some of the seals.”

“Someone did that on purpose? Why?” Falbium spoke, looking wide awake at the prospect of the Apocalypse arriving early.

“We cannot say with certainty, but Odin told me something.” Ajuka then looked straight at Serafall. “Call your people. The ones that infiltrated Ruby Auction House. They should have something for you.”

Serafall’s eyes widened the moment Ajuka said those words, as she swore, “Fuck! Magdaran is back? You think he did it?!”

Ajuka shook his head. “We are not certain, but the timing is too suspicious not to think of that possibility.”

“So, he’s back for revenge?” Falbium said, nodding to himself, as if that made sense. In a certain way, it did. What Odin and Ajuka had done to Magdaran, someone who had not hurt any of them, save for himself, but he had long since forgiven Magdaran for that. The boy had suffered too much for something he hadn’t even done intentionally. Magdaran was one of the few people he had to apologise to for his erratic behavior earlier.

Serafall had already taken a few steps back and was speaking furiously to her underlings. One of her jobs had been to locate Magdaran, or get any clue of his existence. Many beings in the supernatural world were doing the same, and as such, there were many fakes. Some of them even resulted in deaths, as their people were ambushed under the pretext of finding Magdaran.

Whatever was revealed to her drained the color from Serafall’s face, as she turned to them and spoke in a haunted tone, “Another one.”

“What?” He asked her, concerned by that tone. It was one of extreme defeat. “What happened?”

Serafall looked at them with wide eyes. “Another Super Devil.”

Ajuka’s Kankara Formula flashed behind him immediately as he tried to get more details out of Serafall, only for the voice of Vali Lucifer to be heard from behind him.

“What do you want?!”

He whirled around to find Vali glaring at Ajuka, which was understandable, as despite having a somewhat cordial and working relationship with the last known Lucifer, Vali had never shied away from making it clear that she did not like them.

Ajuka spoke up, as if he was talking about something casual, “You mean the Zagan is now a Super Devil.”

The words made Serafall whimper, as Vali nodded. “Yes, Aldric Zagan, to be precise. The last living Zagan with a fully realised bloodline trait, and that was before he became a Super Devil. Let’s just pray that he is more like Rizevim than me, because if a Zagan reached that level, then….” Vali’s voice trailed off as all of them imagined the consequences of a fully realised Super Devil Zagan unleashing his might on the world.

They might somehow succeed in sealing off the Beast at the End Times once more, but they might not even have a world to return to if this Zagan decided to exact revenge for his teacher.

“No, Aldric is not that type of Devil. The whole reason he was put into Sleeping Sickness was because he refused to use his powers for the war.”

“You don’t know what has happened in the past five years, though. Being under the mercy of a Super Devil will change any weaker Devil. We have no idea of what–” Falbium was pointing out the flaw in her logic, only for Vali to snap at him.

“No! Magdaran is not like that. He would NEVER torture or warp Aldric’s mind. I refuse to believe that!”

He took over there, “Okay, fine, we believe you. But we still don’t know anything about him. He is still a Super Devil who is incredibly dangerous, perhaps just as dangerous as you or me. We need to find him before someone else does. From the looks of it, he has Maggdaran’s items, so he must know about Magdaran as well.”

“I know that. I was doing just that before YOU called for me!” Saying so, Vali hung up, presumably to continue looking for the first real clue that had surfaced in years.