DXD SI : Chapter 119 : Why, you ask? This is why......[Edited] (Patreon)

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

Mag’s Garden World

–Aldric Zagan—

He let Odin go as God tumbled on the ground. Stripped of all his power and all the advantages that came with being an Asgardian God, the Old man struggled to stand up with the help of Gungnir. Looking all around his home, Odin asked him,  “Where is this?”

Undoubtedly realizing that something was wrong, he could feel Odin panic. 

He spread his arms wide and declared with a small smile on his face. It was fun, watching Odin flounder about, even before he declared his presence and failed Odin’s last ditch effort to hurt Aldric, “This is my World. I call it my Garden World.”

“What did you do to me? Why did your disciple make me destroy Asgard? Even though it was faint, I could sense it. You are the one powering the whole ritual. I had doubts about that hole in the Ritual circle, but I could see it working. It was not energy from Ragnarok that was powering everything, but yours!” Odin thundered at him, and then immediately had to halt his advance as he probably realised, even with his diminished senses, the difference between them.

Even with most of his emotions muted, a direct consequence of not addressing them for decades, he could still feel a smidgen of happiness and satisfaction at seeing what Aldric had done, and had forced Odin to do. He had thought that he was above revenge, and he would have been happy doing his work without ever thinking of going back.

But no. As it turns out, the tiny still human part of his mind agreed with Aldric’s plan, however dumb, delusional, and moronic it might be, which is why he let Aldric do whatever he wanted. He wanted the Ygdrassil itself as his own Mother Tree, which was fine, since he was his sole disciple, but the way he went about doing it was so stupid.

Aldric would have been dead the moment he tried to pull that stunt in front of Odin and Ajuka, had he not altered the Ritual schematics before he left and made sure that Ophis was aware of what that snake was going to do.

It did not take much to convince Ophis to give that snake an unceasing flow of her energy. After all, Trihexa’s existence was going to serve as the battery required to create a ring of destruction around her, creating a zone of absolute nothingness. With the process using some of her own power, Ophis could traverse that ring with ease.

Giving her a version of the Silence she so desperately wanted, and that was more than enough to get her on board.

After that, it was only a matter of waiting until Aldric got his plan in motion.

As for Odin’s deductions about the Ritual circle, he was kind of impressed that Odin could see through that. He supposed that old age brought experience that was useful even without the plethora of powers that Odin had gathered in recent times. Having a direct line to God’s Systems gave him a distinct advantage when it came to locating Sacred Gears.

Even now, he could see the Graal working overtime, keeping Odin’s soul attached to his physical body, which was obviously not working, as the body was no longer the same, and the world was different as well.

It was evident to Odin as well, judging by the paling face, short breath, and tremors all over his body. He waved his hand and just….solved it.

The Graal no longer had to work overtime to maintain the soul’s integrity, especially since Ragnarok had happened, and Odin’s soul was not anywhere near the World Tree. Theoretically, Odin could have just entered the World Tree, recuperated, and maybe reincarnated in a few thousand years.

Alas, his mind was clouded with the grief of killing his own people, doing the very thing he thought he had so smartly avoided. 

“Yup. It was me. I was the one who helped you guys imprison Trihexa. I also did not need to go through all that. I could have just waved my hand and sealed the big guy away. It wasn’t even that hard to do so.”

“Then why?! Why make us go through all this? Why–”

“Why make you kill your own people? Your family? Your Son?” he leaned forward until he was eye to eye with Odin. “Ask me again, Odin. Ask me why I did that.”

The world around them trembled before he reigned in his emotions, taking a deep breath and then sitting down on the stone behind him, gesturing to Odin to do the same. Odin’s body trembled, his eyes went glassy, but he sat down on the stone behind him.

“You see, Odin,” he began, “When you betrayed me, it stung. I couldn't even begin to describe the pain I felt at feeling the Mother Tree inside me, and yet knowing that it was gone. It was pure agony. I don’t know what I would have done had I seen you then. I wouldn't have won; that was for sure.”

Odin looked at him as he continued, “So, I left. I left using a dead project that I had long since stopped having hopes for. It was the creation of an artificial pocket dimension capable of sustaining life on its own. Ambitious, I know, but apparently, one only needed to be a Super Devil, and a whole lot of anger, spite, and some knowledge, to be successful in the endeavour."

“This world,” he gestured all around them, “Is a total world on its own. It is capable of independently sustaining life. And it is mine. I built it, day by day. It took me close to a century to perfect all of this, but this is my world, and I am glad I built it.”

Odin looked confused at the info dump, but he continued on, “You know, I had mostly forgotten about you, and your acts. I mean, would I have killed you the moment you dared come in front of me? Sure. But I simply had more important things to do. It was not like I couldn’t just choose to arrive at the same point I left the world, whenever I so wished.”

Odin’s eyes widened as he finally began to comprehend the level of power he’d achieved in the past few decades.

“But during all of this, I only had Aldric with me. It was pure chance that I found him, buried in the Underworld, asleep, just waiting for someone to rescue him. And since I had taken him in as my official student, I taught him everything. I made sure the time dilation could not affect him. I made sure to spend time with him, which was hard since I was so busy with everything else. I made sure he developed as much as he could on his own.”

But you know, I could never remove a few foals from his mind. He wanted to make you suffer. You specifically. And he wanted a Tree spirit of his own. Now, Aldric hadn’t asked for much over the years, so I let him do as he wished. Even gave him a little blessing to even the odds, so to speak.”

Odin eventually spoke up, “W-Why tell me this?”

He smirked at the question. “Good question. You see, Odin, I wanted you to see this.” he snapped his fingers, and the current form of Trihexa was made visible to them, which was just a pitiful state of being used as a battery, “--and this.” Then, the view switched to the scene of Asgard before Odin flashed up in the sky and destroyed all of Asgard in a single blow.

Odin screamed, his face red, “Noooo!”

“That was real, by the way. You must have sensed something when you first destroyed Asgard. See, I wanted you to know that I could have done the same. Sure, maybe not to the same degree, and probably not just as fast, but I could have helped, a lot. But nope, you were so sure in your magic that you just had to force me.”

“I am sorry. I apologise for that. You have to understand that it was the only–”

“Nope.” He booped the air and silenced Odin entirely, permanently. “I don’t have to understand anything, Odin. That is the whole point. You could have understood, or made me understand. There were other options, and you did not take them. Why? Because they were inconvenient, because they were hard, because they could actually fail. So, Aldric did the same. He could have chosen any number of other energy sources to power the whole thing. But he didn't."

Odin tried to speak a bit more before falling silent, probably realising that he was not going to get out of this alive, and he was not here to speak. Odin was here to listen, and accept the consequences of his own actions, for however short the rest of his life was going to be.

….Wait. Nope.

Odin was not going to have a short life. The decision was made, he looked at Odin before pointing at the defeated old man and sent out a streak of purple energy, altering his body from inside.

Odin looked at his own body in confusion, as he grinned and replied, “You will not die, not for a long time. Don’t worry, you won’t need anything for sustenance either. You will walk Earth as an old man for a really long time. Powerless. Mute. Unable to talk. Unable to form connections. Unable to form friendships. Unable to betray others. Unable to tell people who you really are. Unable to do anything but watch.

That is my curse to you. Goodbye, Odin.”

His words reverberated all around them as the curse words flew into Odin and transported him to Earth, where he would spend the rest of his life.

Shaking his head, he felt a lot lighter than he had felt in decades, and turned his attention to his dear disciple.

Aldric was so going to get a spanking after this, but for now, he would let the kid enjoy the shiny new thing he’d created. Well, not a spanking, but he would let Aldric mine the mountain of Mithril with a spoon. That should teach him how to plan ahead, and how not to let emotions best him.

Time will do that to Aldric, he supposed.

Now, let’s resolve the other half of this revenge tour. With both Odin and Thor done, he still had the Devils left.

___xx___

Underworld

Flashing above the Underworld, he looked at the purple sky before his gaze went to New Lilith, and then at the couple that ran the Human food restaurant. The one he’d eaten a lot of food at, back when he was still weak, and he had come to meet Ajuka to get his Evil Pieces.

Ironic that the thing he came to get that day was going to be removed from the Underworld today.

Flashing a smile at the pregnant couple that was still running that food stall, he blessed their kid before letting his awareness span the entire world. He felt Great Red snort at his blatant use of power, before he sensed all the Evil Pieces in the world, as well as the material used to make them.

Tagging all of them, he pulled and then destroyed all the Evil Pieces.

Now, he was not an inconsiderate asshole who destroyed the effects of the Evil Pieces. No, all the Devils will stay Devils, with a caveat, however. Just like all Devils had minor shapeshifting powers, the Reincarnated Devils, all of them, who would consciously or subconsciously want to return to their original forms, would soon get that option.

There would be no stray Devils whatsoever, and the King Piece was outright deleted from existence, along with the power boost it gave to its users. 

He considered this level of damage done to the Underworld as enough of a revenge.

Sure, some might consider it lenient, especially compared to what he had done to Odin.

But the identity of the perpetrator hurt him almost as much as the act itself. He never expected the current Satans to be his allies.

He never expected them to be his friends, or to work in his favour. He considered Odin to be a friend. Even if all of their interests aligned, he had expected Odin to help him when the time came.

The betrayal was the reason Odin was punished in that manner.

As for the Underworld, the fallout from his actions was going to be minimal in terms of external interference, what with Sirzechs’ new strength and Vali’s existence, but the internal fallout was going to be tremendous.

Either way, he would consider this the end of his karmic connection with the….world. His thoughts halted as he felt it. A small thread still tying him somewhere.

Quirking his head in confusion, he found the answer a moment later. His face broke into a genuine smile before he chuckled at who it was.

He supposed that he could spare some time for his Half-Brother.

A/N - And that’s it, you guys.

There is so much still to write, but I don’t think I would be able to do it any justice. Either way, a few things will be addressed in the Epilogue. I will do that over the weekend.

This is my first DxD story, and I have learnt a lot from it. So, I just wanted to finish it, at all costs. I knew that the moment I stopped writing or took even a week long break, I would never come back to it.

So, I just continued. I don’t really have the greatest track record of actually finishing stories. I did not want this to be the same.

I am still not happy with some of the stuff, but it is finally done, and for that, I am glad.

Feel free to ask any questions that bug you or about some plot holes. I probably have answers to that somewhere in my noggin, but I am just too exhausted to write about it anymore.

Well, there’s the Epilogue, but I have a plan for that as well. So, yeah, as usual, Thank you for reading!