TSSG - Chapter 13 : No combat skills, elevated stage & Greater Good? Ewww.... (Patreon)

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

Lucifaad, Underworld

–Shin–

“I still think this is a bad idea,” Natasha warned him from the inside of his mind, even as he made sure to make steady progress towards the square where the choir was supposed to sing for the day. He had overheard some of the janitors speak in the Estate that the Young Master, who was the heir to House Gremory, was going to stay at the Gremory Estate for rest after he was done with the choir group singing.

Many higher ups from House Gremory were also scheduled to attend, as well as their allied Houses were also scheduled to attend the event. Even if it was not well known to everyone what Sirzechs’ real strength was, he was pretty sure that every single Pillar Lord knew about it, and as such, must have come to curry some favour from the Devil who was already potentially the strongest Devil alive, and was definitely going to be the strongest in the future.

Even now, should Rizevim decide to move against Sirzechs, he would not be able to win, simply because Sirzechs had Ajuka on his side. Both of them might be individually weaker than Rizevim, who was far older and more experienced with his Super Devil power, but together, there probably was no devil alive who could defeat them.

Plus, Sirzechs had other allies as well, who were strong as well, both in terms of physical power as well as political power. Serfall and Falbium couldn’t be the only strong people the heir of House Gremory had on his side right now. Something told him that there was just something about Sirzechs that drew people towards him, and the right kind of people as well.

“Fanboy much?” Nat snarked at him, and even though he could feel the undercurrent of tension and anxiety in her voice, he ignored it and just smirked. There really was no other option in front of him that did not have all the same risks as just going to the damned recital.

Even if he was nowhere near the Gremory Estate or the town center where the choir was going to be performing, he just knew that the entire capital was going to be up in flames, irrespective of the result of the attack on the choir.

If they succeeded and killed the choir, and hit many other Gremory Estates for some utterly ridiculous reason, then the ensuing retaliation from House Gremory would create chaos. If Sirzechs won and slaughtered the attackers down to the last atom, then too the city would erupt in chaos, as the Satan Descendants would take that as a personal slight, and if there was one thing they were known for, then it was their dangerously thin ego. Their ego was so fragile that even a Devil defending against the goons sent by the Satan Descendants would offend them.

“Yeah, I understand that. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though. Do you even have a single combat skill in your repertoire?” Nat asked him with concern, and sadly, she was right. Shin of this world had no real combat skill; neither did the Shin from the world where violence was not the immediate de facto answer to everything. The best he could do was channel that heating spell and melt something and pour that molten metal stuff right in someone’s eyes to blind and severely injure them. 

Even that would take far too much Demonic Energy out of him. In real-world terms, he was fucked, and he knew it. And yet, he couldn't turn around and run back to safety, because there was no safety in any of the places he could go to right now.

He stopped walking, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath and exhaled. Performing the most elementary meditative technique he had knowledge of, he focused on his breathing and took in a few deep breaths before opening his eyes with renewed resolve and marching towards his destination.

Fortunately, Shin had been to that part of the town beforehand, and also knew the safe route to that place, whatever that might mean in the current era of Shadow Wars, so he was able to make his way there, only having to dodge a clearly suspicious individual once, so he considered that a win and the route a safe one.

___xx___

Having made his way to the venue, he realised that it was quite literally an open venue, with an elevated stage prepared beforehand that was just floating mid air. It was a staggered set up, and there were stands around the circle so that people could make their way up and look at the choir from up above.

The choir was not here yet, which made sense since he was a few hours early. He wanted to be here as early as possible so he could take stock of the situation and decide if he wanted to stay or just dip out ASAP, and once he tried to take stock of the situation, he found that he had no ability pertaining to that.

The one who did that, however, was thankfully within his soulscape and could access his senses as well. Unfortunately for them, she was unable to find anything truly suspicious across the entire venue. Not the people, not the people manning the stage, not the Gremory House guards in place, not the audience, and not even the people who just happened to walk past the square.

At least not in the short amount of time they had been here. It was clear that House Gremoryu was at least aware of the kind of danger the choir group was in, hence the guards, but he was not sure if they would be able to stand up to the assault of multiple High Class devils, let alone a single Ultimate Class devil.

Those were the kinds of Devils that could change the tide of a battle by stepping onto the battlefield. Not yet at the level where they could fight an entire army by themselves; they would have to be Satan Class for that, but for most Devils, an Ultimate Class Devil was a transcendent entity.

He still had four hours until the choir group was supposed to arrive. With teleportation magic, a cakewalk available to all High Class devils of Pillar Houses, he was sure that the choir would arrive in that manner and right on time as well, so he took his time to roam around the square and inspect anything he could get his eyes on, without coming off as too suspicious.

He wouldn’t want to be detained by the Gremory House security for acting suspicious around the place where their heir was supposed to be performing, only for them to find that he was an employee of Gremory Estate. Losing his job that way would be very embarrassing.

Realising that he was just distracting himself with his own thoughts, he got out of his own mind and focused on the venue. The crowd was rather sparse right now, with most of the Devils stopping instead to see what the fuss was about at that floating stage instead of waiting for an event that was hours away.

The intimidating security might also be playing a role in warding off any low class devils from coming too close. After all, the guards openly flaunted the symbol of House Gremory on their uniforms, and to any low class devil, a devil who could openly display the symbol of a Pillar House might as well be a godlike existence to them.

Chances were that if one of the guards just outright killed one of the low class devils here with trumped up charges about approaching or endangering the stage that was going to host their heir, then they would probably get away with it. Such was the power of that one symbol.

Giving one last longing look at the symbol, he turned away and mingled in with the moving crowd, deciding to explore the areas around the square as well. Maybe those places had some clue as to what could happen in the near future here.

___xx__

Well, good news. He could not find any sign of tampering around the square. The bad news was what Natasha told him a moment later, which was that Devils here had magic and, as such, did not need to rig the area beforehand. They could just teleport freely here and bring as many devils as they could, as this was technically their home turf. After that, overwhelming any security at the venue would be child’s play for them.

So, with that thought in his mind, he eventually found himself back where he started. Right next to the square, looking up at the floating stage, before he sighed and went back to stand under the staggered seating created so that the devils could get a better look at the choir.

If he was not wrong, the choir group was supposed to arrive and start singing in the next 20 minutes or so.

Placing himself strategically, or so Nat told him to do, he just waited and watched with hawkish eyes, desperately hoping that he was wrong and nothing would happen tonight. That he would just get to witness a super powerful devil indulge in his hobby of music creation, and he would get to go home safely.

He was doing his usual routine of letting his gaze wander everywhere, so that Nat could take a good look at everyone and everything when he felt it. Judging by the reactions of most of the devils in the square, as well as the guards who suddenly knelt, he guessed that everyone in the square felt it.

A moment later, a flash of crimson appeared in front of them, with no sound accompanying it, before it dissipated, revealing the form of a 20 something looking adult, along with a gaggle of children.

The air around that devil made his hair stand on end, his entire body freezing up for a moment as it registered on some primordial level that the being standing in front of him could end him with a thought, that he was an apex predator and he was the helpless prey, that there was nothing he could do to defend himself.

Even if the devil himself was smiling and looked easygoing, and talked with a smile to the guards, the aura around the devil was no less frightening.

A moment later, the heavy feeling that had settled around the square was shattered by the giggle and squeal of a gaggle of children, all dressed in mismatched and colorful clothing, all clamouring for Sirzechs’ attention.

A smile unconsciously formed on his face as he watched Sirzechs’ face break out into a huge smile as he knelt down and hugged the kids one by one. All of them crowded him as some of them jumped on his back, hugging his neck, shouting and smiling freely, without any care in the world.

It was perhaps the best thing he had witnessed since he came to this world, and while he hadn’t seen much, owing to the really short time period he had been awake here, he knew, without a shadow of doubt, that he was not going to see any more sights more beautiful than this anytime soon, not with the current condition of the underworld anyway.

Also, with Sirzechs’ appearance here, he slumped and sighed in relief, as it cemented the fact that the choir was not going to be killed today.

Looking at the kids jumping around with joy, some with their instruments, some just hopping in place, all excited, his heart clenched as he imagined grown adult devils, toying, tormenting, and eventually, killing the entire group, just to get back at House Gremory.

“You know we can’t do much to save them,” Nat’s voice sounded complicated, and while he would have agreed with her any other time, now was not one of those times. Standing in front of these kids, he couldn't really justify the pain and suffering headed their way with the Greater Good.

The thought alone filled him with disgust.

“No, I can do something about it, so I am going to,” He vowed to himself, ignoring the sigh he heard from Natasha in his soulscape.

He had no idea how he would even live with himself if he went ahead and ignored the impending deaths of these kids.