DXD SI : Chapter 116 : Perils of Future Sight..... (Patreon)

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

End of the World

–Sirzechs Gremory–

He never thought it would come to this. All his life, his mind had been occupied with the Devil race and keeping it alive long enough for the next generation of leaders with similar thoughts to emerge and take the reins from him. He had worked tirelessly for that future, where he would be able to peacefully retire and spend the rest of his days with his family, and only occasionally come out to remind people that he still existed.

None of the shadow leader bullshit that Zekram subscribed to. He was dead now too. Yet another Old powerful Devil gone, who could have alteast stabilised the Devil race in his absence. Now, here they were, about to walk towards near certain Death itself, and the Devil race was just as disjointed as ever.

No, he realised. The Devil race was far more divided than it was when he was born, or when he had to participate in the Civil War and kill hordes of his own people to get some semblance of peace. Before all of this, at least the top tier power of the Devil race was on the side of peace, and as such, they could somewhat control the direction of the entire race.

Now? Now, they had multiple Super Devils, one with the potential to even surpass him, and the other with the potential to end multiple Pantheons on his own, all outside the current ruling structure of the Underworld. 

Ajuka had told him multiple times that his decision not to bring Vali Lucifer into the fold and, more importantly, under his command was a foolish one, but he told Ajuka that it was he who was being foolish by thinking that forcing Vali into doing something she did not want to do would result in anything good.

Forcing people to do something they would never do on their own was the whole reason they were in this mess so early in the first place. Shaking his head, he looked as the other parties began arriving one by one.

The Norse. The Greeks. Heaven. Grigori. Devils. Even the Hindu.

It had been decided in the last meeting that they were going to move to contain the Beast after three months. Nowhere enough time to actually get their affairs in order, especially since the chances of this being their grave had only skyrocketed after the timeline had been shortened drastically by the Zagan fellow. 

No, this could not be attributed solely to the Zagan. Magdaran must have had a hand in this as well, and to this day, he still winced when he thought of the cold reception towards Magdaran. In hindsight, his first meeting with Magdaran, when he’d clearly only come to visit his stepmother, was where everything went downhill. 

After that, Magdaran did not have any reason to trust the Government, and then things only spiralled from there.

“Sirzechs,” He heard a trembling voice, and put a smile on his face before turning to face Grayfia. She had fought tooth and nail to come with him, but one mention of Milicas had been enough to keep her back in the Underworld. She was necessary for both their son and the entire Underworld as a whole. 

“Grayfia. How’s Milicas holding up?”

She looked him in the eye for a moment longer before replying, “He is sleeping. Cried himself to sleep.”

He chuckled dryly at that. “Yeah. It's as if he knew what was about to happen. He just refused to let go.”

“Sirzechs.” Grayfia’s words sliced through all the small talk he’d prepared as she looked him in the eye. “Be honest with me. Are you coming back at all?”

“You know the odds, Grayfia. I will try my best, as I always have. But…”

“You know what will happen to us should you and Ajuka both…”

He shook his head instantly. “Don’t worry about that. Vali is still out there. She has agreed to act as the custodian of the Devil Race for five centuries, if we perish here. She will not go back on her word. She might hate us, but not the entire Devil race.”

“What about Magdaran and the Zagan?”

He sighed. Truthfully, they were the ones he was worried about the most. There had still been zero sightings of both of them. After that Auction House stunt, Aldric Zagan was nowhere to be seen, even with Vali running around like a madman in his search. Magdaran’s face hadn’t been seen since that day, so they clearly had ways of getting around any search net they might cast.

The probability of Magdaran waiting out their deaths before attacking the Underworld with his might did cross his mind, but if and when that happened, then the Underworld would have Vali as the last line of defense. 

If she bothered fighting Magdaran, that is.

A dark part of his mind scoffed at his naive hopes. Well, if he did that, then the situation was truly despairing. After all, both he and Ajuka had to be here. Serafall and Falbium had both stayed behind, as he was more than enough to compensate for their loss. Ajuka had to coordinate everything with Odin, and his elevated power level meant that he was just as important as the Hindu Gods here.

None of them could skip this fight, and without both of them, if Magdaran and his disciple decided to attack the Underworld, then Vali alone was not going to be enough. Even if she managed to stall them, the damage from their fight alone would be catastrophic for their race.

A ping from Ajuka told him that they were almost done with the preparations. “Don’t worry. Serafall will figure out something. I have to go now. Tell Milicas I love him.”

“Please….Come back safe.”

He smiled at her, “I will,” before cutting off the transmission. Teleporting to the main area, set up with mages from the Underworld, Asgard, and even a few from the Grigori, he looked as Ajuka and Odin were both locked into a trance, focusing on the new hybrid version of the Kankara Formula that Ajuka and Odin had created together, specifically for this fight.

To win today, they had pulled out all the stops. No technique was forbidden or private. No trump card was hidden. No secrets here.

His arrival coincided with the arrival of many others as well, as Odin and Ajuka came out of their trance, the spell link breaking. He braced himself for the worst, as life was prone to be. His hands clenched around the grey disks currently embedded in his flesh, as well as Ajuka’s.

They were gifts from Vali, imbued with her own power. As it turns out, the Lucifer bloodline trait had many uses, and one of them was to amplify the power of a Devil, provided both Devils were of similar power levels. While Vali was unarguably weaker than either of them in terms of pure power, she was more than capable of duking it out with either one of them; hence, her gift was going to come in handy.

They hadn’t tested it before, but Ajuka could say with some certainty that it would work even with his True Form, something they sorely needed right now, since he was capable of outputting his max only in his True Form.

Also, the very nature of this place meant they would not have to hold back at all.

Ajuka’s eyes opened up, his mouth opening to give them their orders, only for everyone’s neck to snap upwards. His hand shot out as he tried to get a hold of that hole in space, only for the hole to collapse in on itself, but not before leaving behind a crate.

The crate shot out towards them, as Ajuka whispered, “They are Magdaran’s items.”

___xx__

–Aldric Zagan—

With the lifeline to the main combat force delivered, he just sat back and relaxed, waiting for the right time. Three months had been more than enough time for him to recover, and even figure out a few new tricks. 

As it turns out, Life had quite the reach everywhere. Trees were full of life, and many places held Trees in a symbolic perspective. Many thought that the world was balanced on Tree branches, that the World Tree’s roots kept everything alive, that Trees were the reason for life and more.  Many were delusional as well, but what it did do was help him locate the actual magical trees and learn more from them.

After all, if his own Genus Loci was to ever grow as strong as him, or even beyond, then it would have to learn. Right now, he was handfeeding it information, but soon enough, it would be able to do that on its own. 

Interacting with the World Tree had given him a treasure trove of information, to the point that he would have loved nothing more than to stay there and study its secrets for years on end. He reckoned that only a few decades of study should be enough to induce a qualitative change in his own Genus Loci.

Alas, with the situation being what it is, it could not happen.

Leaning back on his couch, he looked at the visuals in front of him and had to actively stop himself from looking at the Hindu Gods. Even with all the precautions his teacher had put in place, and that he had reinforced with his own power, the Hindu Gods were certainly in a league of their own.

He could see them look straight towards him whenever his gaze passed over them, but whatever they saw, they did not feel the need to interfere with. Hopefully, they would not interfere with the final plan as well.

Smiling, his mind went to the genius plan he had come up with, all on his own, and he smirked, thinking of the future.

___xx___

–Sirzechs Gremory–

With that crate of stuff came the realisation that they were being watched. Ajuka and Odin confirmed that a moment later, but both could not pinpoint the type of magic being used or a way to disrupt it, so the best they could do was do their job and hope that they would not be sabotaged.

He had hope that Magdaran would not be so angry, so petty, that he would much rather have their entire world destroyed, just so he could have his revenge.

With that hope in mind, they started the next phase of their plan.

According to the files created by the Creator of Angels, the Trihexa was an immortal, nigh invincible, adaptive, and regenerative beast that was capable of warping minds just by being in its mere presence. It was also likely capable of more, but they did not have that information.

That mind warping aspect was why only the ones who could withstand any mental attack had been brought here. It would not matter if you could attack really well if your own mind began working against you; hence the small but rather powerful group of people gathered here.

Also, the beast was currently sleeping, which was enforced by the thousands of Forbidden Seals he could feel this far away. The seals were slipping one by one, and they had to be inside those seals before the final one burned away.

Then, while everyone else fought inside, Odin and Ajuka, alongside Azazel, would be tasked with coordinating the placing of new seals, as well as the repairing of old ones. Ajuka deduced that the beast would have adapted to the old ones by now, but the old seals should still be enough to give the combatants some leeway, hence the two pronged approach.

Ajuka was also blunt enough to tell everyone that if things did not pan out just the way they wanted, the people fighting Trihexa might just get sealed alongside him, for eternity.

It was a daunting prospect, and yet, none of them wavered. After all, the alternative was far worse.

With that done, Odin personally inspected the goods that Magdaran gave them, which came with useful descriptions before handing them over to the people supposed to go fight inside, with the explicit warning that it should only be used as a last resort. Odin explicitly told them that he had no idea to what level Magdaran had refined his craft, and his scans might have missed something.

A hesitation that would not have been there before was present in Odin’s actions these days. The appearance of another Super Devil, an especially powerful and volatile one at that, had put doubt in Odin’s mind, but such was the nature of future sight. 

It was not absolute, and never should be treated as such.