DXD SI : Epilogue 2 : Life was Good.... (Patreon)

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

–Magdaran Bael–

He had never really figured out who, or what, sent him to this world, and for what reason. Whatever the case might have been, he knew that this was his world now, and he'd been strangely accepting of that fact, as the thought of struggling against the inevitable was rather futile in his mind.

After that, it had just been one thing after the other. Somewhere in between processing the dangers of the world he had found himself in, and trying to come up with a way to make sure he survived this world, without going mad in the face of what was coming. He was pretty sure that despite being a Devil, the trauma of spending day after day in terror of being discovered and wiped off the face of the earth had warped most of his perspective of this place.

It wasn’t so bad right now, especially with what he had done, and he had the power to wipe the entire place off with a thought if he wanted to.

The story of how he came into so much power was neither a funny one nor an interesting one. It literally just happened to him. It was the next logical step after what had been done to him. He couldn't say exactly what Odin saw and what his mind thought of when he made that horrible decision to forcibly turn him into a Super Devil. He couldn't say what he would do when faced with the same choice, but he would certainly not go about doing stuff while not telling anyone anything.

Hell, if Azazel had known about the whole picture, he might just have stopped Odin or, well, tried anyway. Odin at that point was far more powerful than he should have been, and that partially led to his arrogant choice.

When he’d first realised that he could use his newfound prowess to supercharge the enchantment matrix he’d created for that prototype self sustaining pocket dimension, which was just another world for an entirely new world. As it turns out, he was on the right track. He just needed enough power, as well as the will to see it all through.

When he’d first disappeared from the world, it had been quite the gamble, and he had tried to dissuade Aldric from following him on more than one occasion, but the Zagan was determined to follow him, so he let him do so.

The first year was quite literally hell. It hurt to understand exactly why Odin had done what he had done, and what Vali had done that led to Azazel fighting with her. How Rizevim’s death had led to Vali somehow inheriting all that Demonic Energy, which lit the spark of the Lucifer bloodline trait within her.

It had taken quite a bit of restraint for him not to curse and rage at everyone involved with the plan. Most of all, it hurt to see that his disappearance had seemingly solved many of their problems.

Sirzechs was not just back and out of the bad power interaction situation, but stronger than ever. Vali was also a Super Devil and only poised to grow just as strong, if not stronger, than any other Super Devil of the Underworld. Odin and Thor were both orders of magnitude stronger than their past selves.

He had hand delivered the Graal to Odin, who had used the backdoor entries into Heaven’s systems to quite literally replicate what the God of the Bible had done, and steal all that knowledge to elevate himself to unseen levels.

Azazel was angry, grumpy, and not at all satisfied with what had happened, but what choice did he have? He either had to sever his ties with what was the most powerful coalition of people he had ever known, or make sure that the Grigori survived as a faction, and swallow his anger at what had happened. Even then, he was of the opinion that Azazel was more mad about the fact that he was not told about the specifics rather than what had actually happened.

….He would not lie. The fact that his absence, or rather, the fact that he was driven out of this world, had somehow led to people’s lives improving had taken a rather drastic toll on his mental health. He knew it was wrong, and he knew it would lead to repercussions for billions of lives, and that what he was doing could be termed as objectively evil.

….And yet, explaining that to a crazed, mentally despaired individual was not easy. These things just never popped up in his head. He just wanted them to hurt, and he just wanted to prove them wrong. Seeing that, at least from his own perspective, Odin was somewhat right, and his actions had led to the creation of an entirely new Super Devil, as well as strengthening an experienced one, meant that Odin had won.

His plan had succeeded, and now, instead of a single super Devil, like he would have been in a few years, they had actually two Super Devils to work with. No matter how anyone looked at it, it was a fair trade, barring the total destruction of his relationship with the Norse and everyone else.

At the time, they had no idea what he could do if he wanted to permanently empower people. They had no idea he could help people advance in their field of work after centuries of stagnation, if he just had time and inclination to do so. He just always thought that it would be too dangerous to just go around and empower people permanently, even if they were his allies. It would lead to backlash that he felt he was not yet ready for.

His actions would later turn out to be true, because Odin and others did not deserve any improvements he would have given them. Either way, their actions had angered him.

He knew that Trihexa was a major threat, and that one day, he was going to have to deal with that thing at the end of the world, sealed by God, before his death. He figured that he had time before that. That he could just deal with the spark that lit that particular fire, which was Rizevim, which would give him more than enough time to figure out what to do with those seals, and how to get the world's cooperation for that.

So, with the goal of killing Rizevim in mind, he had set about creating multiple ways he could go about doing that, to give the breathing room it so desperately needed against something like the Trihexa. But that was all before he was betrayed so thoroughly, his mental state disturbed.

So, he had used all his powers to figure out where Trihexa was located, which was not an easy task by any means. In fact, with just his powers, it would have been impossible. Then, his mind went to the one person he had been tracking down and keeping track of later on, even when he was out of the Underworld and supposedly safe.

The wielder of a Sacred Gear that had immense control over the concept of space. With the thought that it would be beneficial for both his universe project, as well as tracking down Trihexa’s exact location, he had hunted down Georg, the wielder of Dimension Lost.

He had not been proud of ambushing someone who was essentially a teenager and then taking the Sacred Gear from him, but he was at a very low point in his life, and as such, he had not been thinking straight or about the repercussions of his actions. Ofcourse, he had been undetectable as he successfully stole an artifact from God and inducted it within him. The process should have been painful, but with his mental state, he had borne it with ease, and then moved on to the thing he really should not have done.

He located Trihexa, and after spending a few months moving about the world, he had just enough to burn away at the Forbidden Seals that the God of Bible had installed there. Some of the concepts he had interacted with in those seals had been wildly alien to him. He had almost lost his life multiple times there, and yet, the time he spent studying those seals is what finally gave him the impetus necessary to fix his own project and create an isolated, self-sustaining pocket universe.

It was very educational, and yet, he had also accelerated the apocalypse. In doing so, he had become the Rizevim he had despised before. When he’d woken up from the stupor of finally learning so many new things that catapulted him to levels that Odin could only dream of, he had realised with mute horror what he’d done.

And right then, he realised what had happened. The game that had been played with him.

The game of fate.

Self fulfilling prophecies.

Odin tried to peer into the future and saw that Trihexa was going to be released ahead of schedule, far before he was ever going to become a Super Devil on his own, with his own concept he could embody, and this had chosen to sacrifice that future version of him for immediate firepower. 

In doing so, Odin had pushed him over the edge, resulting in him going around and doing stuff he never would have done before. He killed a human kid whose only crime at the time had been using his power for monetary gain and having inklings of an idea about human supremacy. He’d accelerated the apocalypse and increased the chances of billions dying. He’d weakened God’s seals, and learned so much that he had created his very own world in less than a century of accelerated time.

Only five years had passed in this world as he had ascended past the power ceiling of this world. Sometimes, he wondered if the God of the Bible had done the same as well, using the war as a pretext to get rid of his current body, identity, and responsibilities, and left this world to either create his own world or to become stronger, and became a nomad.

He wouldn't really know, and for some reason, the thought of peering back into time to witness the event of his death filled him with a bad feeling, so he let that mystery remain a mystery.

Burning the seals meant that he had just inadvertently proven Odin right in front of his allies, which made them begrudgingly accept that whatever they did to him was right, if unjust.

Shaking his head, he looked up from the table as the door was opened up, revealing Ajuka’s form, who did not miss a beat before sitting in front of him, hands folded, face calm and blank, as if waiting for him to speak. He did not look surprised at his presence.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

Ajuka shook his head. “I am not. I made a decision based on what I saw. No one coerced me to do anything I did not want to. I wanted to save my friend, and I took the only offered option at the time. I have felt the changes you have done to the Underworld. I am ready to accept my share of the punishment.”

He raised an eyebrow. Even though he knew that Ajuak was going to be far calmer whenever they met, especially since he was not really going to destroy the entirety of the Underworld out of revenge, it was still surprising to see someone so steadfast in their thoughts even to their deaths.

“Any last wishes?” He asked, raising his hand and aiming it at the Super Devil.

Ajuka slightly shook his head. “There are never enough questions to be answered. I will take what is due now. I only ask that you spare the rest. They had no say in what I did. It was entirely my decision.”

He nodded, “I am aware.”

Ajuka nodded and did not say anything else, which made him sigh as he waved his hands, shattering Ajuka’s strength.

Ajuka’s eyes widened, as he had simultaneously destroyed Ajuka’s Super Devil strength, and healed him at the same time, making sure no damage was left behind. He realised what had happened as well.

Standing up,  “I believe that is enough punishment. Now, you have to start over.”

Ajuka looked up from his hands, and after confirming that he still had the Kankara Formula, even if it was a vastly diminished form of the legendary magic, “Thank you.”

“Don’t do stuff like that again. Also, make sure Aldric is taken care of. I will be leaving for a while. See ya!” He exclaimed and left, teleporting out of the world itself, and back into his pocket universe.

Looking at the magnificent scenery in front of him, he took a deep breath, and after enjoying the lungful of air that literally had life-giving properties, he was about to head to his office, only to pause as he felt and then heard her voice.

“Back so soon?” He turned around to see Mila standing in front of the house both of them had built together.

Smiling at seeing her, he knelt on the ground as she ran towards him. “Yup. The work wasn’t anything important, darling. Also, I see that you are running around barefoot again. Have I told you not to do that?”

Sophie smiled at him, showing him her cute teeth. “Hehehe. I just love the feeling of stones beneath my feet, Daddy.”

Sophie. His daughter. It had taken him years, but eventually, he had been able to elevate this pocket universe to the point that it had begun to naturally form a low level of sentience. Influencing that process was quite easy, as he was the creator of this place. Infusing his own essence into the process gave birth to the spirit that governed this place.

She was quite powerful, and yet, she was quite young.

He had named her Sophie, a random name he remembered from his past life, and she was the whole reason he had been able to stay calm and not disintegrate half of the earth when he saw Odin, or erase Ajuka at first sighting.

He had far more important things to focus on.

Lifting her and hoisting her on his shoulder, he marched to their home, “Now, come on. I have some of Aunty Ophis’ infinity Soup still left. Maybe we can check if you can eat it properly, without wasting most of it.”

“Okay!” He smiled, shaking his head, as he knew she was not going to do as he asked, and yet, he could not care one bit. She could do whatever she wanted to do. She had turned a broken man into something resembling a sane individual. He couldn't be more grateful to her for that.

Plus, Ophis was a regular here, and she would never deny any request from Sophie, even if it was for a very important part of herself, knowing full well that the essence could be used to power some pretty potent magic.

Life was good. 

The path here was hard, riddled with ups and downs, mostly downs, and he still had no idea what he was supposed to do with his life and the new path he had embarked on, one that promised literally endless growth, but for now, life was good.

And he would do anything to protect this life.A/N - Alright. This is the end. I hope you guys liked the way I ended stuff.