Chapter 10 - Part 4 - Leviathan of Moonlight Serenity

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

Lisa Minic and Nyx's powers were nearly even, but the human magician's newly heightened powers were slightly above Nyx's new form. Even still, the new form of Nyx was slowly killing her, and it was quite evident that she was getting weaker the longer their dance continued.

A slightly slower attack here, being hit by a simple magic attack there—all these things began to add up as Nyx slowly degraded. While she didn't verbalize it, she knew that her life was coming to an end. She didn't fight it, though, as she knew accepting such a power without proper guidance from the ones who gifted it to them would be suicide.

Her veins began to glow and pulse with the color of the mist. Her face strained, and each movement she made became harder and harder to do. Even still, for her prank and for her own little amusement and pride, she kept going.

Lisa fired numerous lightning balls towards Nyx, who created a black-white misty cloud in front of her, but the lightning balls quickly destroyed them, forcing her to avoid the attacks, but she was too late and her leg was zapped by the attacks, injuring her further.

Nyx fell to the ground, her body becoming even more stiff. She looked up at Lisa helplessly but didn't request any kind of aid. Instead, she had a look of, 'Are you going to finish me off now or will I have to wait for someone to show up?'.

Lisa landed on a rooftop away from her. She stared at the goddess and frowned.

"If you defeat her, I can remove it," said a voice. She turned to it and found Azathoth, surprising her.

"Fufu…[Dreamer]-sama, is here; who would have thought?" Nyx said weakly. It was clear to both of them that saying that sentence was already taxing for her.

"Dreamer? I didn't think they would know you were already here, Azathoth-chan. Maybe Aaron's little 'mole' leaked it to them~?" said Lisa as she winked at Nyx.

Azathoth didn't answer Lisa; she kept staring at Nyx and asked, "Do you want to live?"

With a strained smile, Nyx stated, "I…wish to bury my face in Jin's abs."

Azathoth didn't know how to respond as she tilted her head in confusion, but Lisa ended up laughing at the goddess. Even though Nyx was dying, as a god, she let her real thoughts and feelings out, ignoring her situation.

"Gods and Goddesses really are selfish, aren't they? Are you not concerned about your own health and life?" Lisa asked as she stopped laughing.

"It's… just how we are. We live and die how we want, and even then, we sometimes come back to life, but I doubt I will after today," she said, sounding a bit depressed.

That was true; Nyx wouldn't come back to life after she used that power. However, two people in the alliance could prevent that from happening. Although they weren't sure if she would accept such an offer unless it came from one person.

In a way, she could use it as a bargaining chip, but at the same time, she wasn't sure if they would even agree to it as she was already branded as a terrorist and would most likely be locked up after today's events if she did accept.

A prank that went too far—but not as far as Nyarlathotep, which was the only reason Aaron did not or would never entertain the idea of forgiving her. Even with the kind of personality he had, in a way, it made them see him more as human.

Nyx looked at Azathoth and said, "I won't accept any assistance unless it's from him, fufu."

"I don't think you have any choice in this matter, Nyx-sama," noted Lisa, but Nyx did not care and kept shaking her weak head.

"If it's not him, I will simply choose to die," she stated, falling to the ground. She looked up at the sky and focused on her breathing while waiting for their decision on the matter.

Azathoth approached her and constrained her. "Why?" the former ruler of the omniverse asked.

Nyx's eyes drifted towards her, and with a smirk on her face, she said, "Because he's cute. Even back then when he first visited our pantheon, I thought he was cute and wanted to make him mine. But it was clear that he would resist me even if I tried to seduce him, so I'll just resort to this."

The words echoed in Lisa's mind: Gods are just selfish. She was doing this for her own gain—the prank was meant to draw him out so she could... make him like her? Lisa didn't think such a way would do anything.

Her reasons for this 'attack' were different from 'canon'. Originally her target was Ingvild for her powers and Sacred Gear, but here she did it out of a strange sense of 'love'.

Azathoth stared at Nyx, unable to comprehend her reasoning. As she did, parts of her conversation with Cúntóir, a small part of herself who had gained sentience, and her own will and personality echoed in her mind.

'I personally think—after watching Aaron's journey so far—that love is a strange emotion. There are more intense emotions out there, but from watching him, I believe love is the most twisted curse of them all since it can branch out into different forms of emotions too—hatred, jealousy, and many others. Trying to understand such an emotion is quite tedious, especially for you, right?'

'Maybe in the future you'll slowly understand it. Even now, I find it a bit strange, but I can say with confidence that I love Aaron. Maybe if I merged back with you and your soul, you would be able to understand what I feel, but you don't want that, right? So just take your time to speak to and understand the people closest to Aaron. Maybe something will change within you?'

"Obsession," Azathoth mumbled, confusing both Nyx and Lisa.

She didn't elaborate and pointed her finger at Nyx, forcing her to sleep. Once the goddess was asleep, she removed the mist that had been merged with Nyx and held it in her hand. It began to squirm and let out strange noises, almost as if it were alive.

"That's… the mist from the Phantasma?" Lisa asked, peering at the thing in Azathoth's hand.

"Yes. I will give this to Aaron because he may want it." She flicked her hand, and it disappeared. She glanced at Lisa and added, "I will leave her to you." She then touched Lisa's shoulder, restoring her health and stamina before vanishing.

Lisa put a hand on her cheek and hummed. "Hmm~ Aza-chan is still strange; oh well, I'll just talk to the others about her; maybe we can set up a little lady's night~" she said and walked over to Nyx. "Now then, I better bring you with me, although…"

Lisa brought out some anti-magic cuffs and used them on Nyx before making her float using magic. "Fufu, I'll deal with that when the time comes, but for now, I'll keep your little obsession with Aaron a secret~"

— ○ ● ○ —

Rossweisse, Göndul, and the Stahlritter had defeated a significant number of enemies and had already sent them to the drop-off zone. However, during all of it, it was clear to all of them that Göndul was underperforming and that her mind was focused on something else, causing her to nearly be injured multiple times over, but she was assisted by the Stahlritter and Lianne as she had come to help them.

"Göndul, may I suggest you—"

"N-no, I'm fine, Lianne. I can keep going," said the old valkyrie, interrupting Lianne, who looked worriedly at her.

Göndul created more and more magic circles around her while blasting away several batches of enemies while also ensnaring some. From an outsider's and amateurs' perspective, she may be doing well, but to those closer to her, it was quite evident that she wasn't her usual self.

She overexerted herself—the usual formula that would increase her damage output and lessen the amount of magic used wasn't there, and because of what was happening to her, some of her attacks missed their target and damaged Kuoh town even more than they should.

Aaron already knew this and was going to attempt to stop her, but Lianne contacted him and told him that she would look after Rossweisse's grandmother. Reluctantly, he agreed to it but emphasized that she had to look after her like her life depended on it.

Rossweisse also wanted her to retreat, but she knew how stubborn her grandmother could be, so she didn't try to force her to leave. However, she did her utmost to keep an eye on her as well as help her grandmother with her magic when she needed it.

There were several situations during their time defending Kuoh where Göndul's magic nearly failed to activate because of her state of mind, but Rossweisse, like a good granddaughter, covered for her and saved her multiple times.

As the fighting around them began to die down, a seemingly stray shot was directed at Göndul, who didn't react on time, but Ennea, with her bow, shot down the magic attack, saving Göndul once more. Those who were there turned their attention to who fired it and found... another Homunculi who belonged to Nyx's group.

Because Nyx had been defeated, the remaining homunculus she brought with her went rogue and started to attack everything around them indiscriminately. Their reason for fighting and reason for living had been captured—add to the fact that these homunculi were still 'newborns', they didn't have common sense, and they were now throwing tantrums.

This homunculus was barely alive as it had a missing arm and leg, and its left eyeball was dangling from its socket while the other one was still in its eye. Half of its hair was missing, and it was exuding a copious amount of darkness from its body.

"Nyxxxxxxxxxx-saaaaaaamaaaaa!!" he screamed in anguish. It started screaming incomprehensible things and throwing balls of darkness, spears, swords, lances, and boomerangs everywhere.

"It's going berserk; should we just kill it?" Ines asked.

"Fufu, we may as well, right~?" answered Ennea. "What does our all-mighty captain say?" she asked, turning towards Duvalie, who was staring at the homunculus.

Lianne floated beside Duvalie and silently encouraged her to pick an option, but as she did, a large light spear the size of the Dublin spire slammed into the berserking homunculus' side, piercing it. They were momentarily shocked until they saw Gabriel, Raynare, and Rixia following after it.

"That's…Rixia Mao with Gabriel and Raynare? They must have finished with their targets then. We'll expand our diameter and help the others to speed this up…" ordered Duvalie.

"You just want to listen to Ingvild sing, don't you?" teased Ennea.

"That seems to be the case," agreed Ines.

Duvalie silently fumed as she didn't acknowledge the two. She glanced at her leader, Lianne, who nodded before going over to Rossweisse and Göndul.

"Let's go," ordered Duvalie, and they flew away. The two continued to tease her as they did.

"Gondul, we're moving to a different area. Using my authority, I will be putting you on support duty for now," said Lianne.

Her atmosphere and tone had changed significantly, and when both valkyries looked up at her, they knew that Göndul couldn't refuse. Reluctantly, Göndul accepted, and they were moved to the stage that Ingvild was singing at—the young woman was still singing her heart out, helping increase everyone's strength.

When she saw the three coming towards her, she waved at them and continued on. Rossweisse and Lianne gave her a wave, and they went backstage, where they found multiple people inside a small barrier and a room with various monitors that covered all the spots in Kuoh.

They had headsets and microphones attached to them, and they kept speaking into them at a rapid pace. They were giving out pieces of information to the numerous members of [DxD] and [EXE] to help them in this operation.

"I'll leave you here, Göndul. Go speak to the one in charge here; I'll go back out now," Lianne said, pointing to their right before walking away.

They walked over to the spot where Lianne pointed and found a certain person there. She had pink hair and fox ears and wore a blue yukata. This was—

"Tamamo-sama?" Rossweisse asked. The kitsune youkai turned to them and smiled.

"Good day to you, Rossweisse-sama, Göndul-sama. I have been informed of your arrival; please make yourselves at home. If you plan on going back out, Rossweisse-sama, please rest assured that we'll look after Göndul-sama. And…here," she said and handed Rossweisse a piece of paper.

Rossweisse accepted the piece of paper and read it. After reading it, she put it in her ring and faced her grandmother. "Granny, let's talk about this later with Aaron, okay? I know we tried to take your mind off it earlier, but that didn't work, so sitting down to talk about it would be better. But for now, I'm going back outside."

"O-okay, Rose…please take care," replied Göndul. She felt inadequate, as she had been a burden since the operation started and didn't like it.

Tamamo gently grabbed Göndul by her shoulders and guided her to a nearby table. "Please sit here, and I'll grab you some tea."

Göndul felt strange but decided to go along with what was happening for now. The longer she waited and the more she thought about her situation, her anxiety got worse, but at the same time, she knew that if she went back out there, she would only make the ones she cared about worry about her.

'An old and grown woman like me being affected by those papers like this... How weak am I? Everything was perfect until he was influenced by those ruffians,' she thought and stared at the table.

Tamamo eventually came back and started speaking to Göndul after giving her tea. Göndul noticed that Tamamo had several clones helping the other members of [DxD] and [EXE] in the room while they spoke, and she silently thanked her as they continued.

— ○ ● ○ —

Seilah Halphas continuously fired demonic aura attacks towards Kyôka, who deflected some but was forced to avoid the rest. She wasn't surprised by the sudden increase in her powers, as her breasts had started to glow and a tattoo had appeared on her arm.

To her, it was obvious that the Middleman had done something—especially with the glowing breasts. His perverted techniques, which were powerful (to most people's shock), were quite infamous in the supernatural world.

"It seems like my mind control won't work on you anymore—a shame, really. I enjoyed making you kill your own family when it happened. Do you hate me?" Kyôka asked, smirking the entire time.

Seilah didn't answer; she wanted to kill her right away, but using her clan's trait would be detrimental to her, as Kyôka knew how it worked and how to deal with her. She assumed Kyôka knew everything about it, but she wanted to prove her own theory wrong, so she kept her assault going.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to—?" As Kyôka was about to mock her, two figures slammed their foot into her back, blasting her towards the ground, surprising Seilah.

"Yo! Jin called us to help you!" said a woman; the other looked identical to her and silently nodded. "I'm Haru, and this is my sister Yoru—we're part of [DxD] and [Team Golden Rakshasa]!"

"…Thank you for the help, but I—"

"I know, you want to be the one to defeat her, right? We got the gist from Jin! We'll be support, so we'll help that way. Oh, and this!" Haru explained and handed Seilah a piece of paper.

It said, 'With enough training, you can target multiple people with your clan's trait and combine the effects to make yourself stronger. For now, I'll temporarily let you do it, so do with that as you will.'

Seilah suddenly received future information on how to do certain things for her clan's trait and also learned that she had temporarily mastered it. She was in shock, but it eventually faded, and she grinned at herself.

"Please distract her for a little bit," requested Seilah.

"Will do!" Haru replied, giving her a thumbs up. She and Yoru flew down and began attacking Kyôka, who had stood up again.

She avoided the strong attacks of both sisters but was occasionally hit. "Tch, so the two dragons of Aurelia's team are helping that wench? You gain nothing, so why?" Kyôka asked in indignation.

"Why? We're part of the team, duh! Also, trying to kidnap out friends like Inaie and Ingvild isn't nice!" Haru said before clobbering Kyôka on the face, sending her away again. Yoru followed it up by firing a barrage of touki bullets at her.

Kyôka generated several magic circles that blocked half of Yoru's attack, but the other bypassed it and hit her body, prompting another series of explosions.

"Hmm? Yoru, isn't that [Penetrate]? When did you…?" Haru asked, shocked at seeing her sister use it.

When she looked at her sister, she was acting quite sheepishly. She fidgeted on the spot and finally said, "I-I approached Rossweisse-san about it, and in the end she pointed me towards Jin, s-so I asked him about it…and…" Yoru pulled out a little necklace with a shining green gem on it.

She continued. "I thought it would help me in our future matches, especially in the main stage since it's normal matches without complicated rules. We'll need to work on our power and technique, so things like this may help…"

Haru was taken aback by what her sister told her. As she processed what she heard, long razor-shape claws extended from there, and Kyôka had been thrown too. Upon sensing this, Haru pushed Yoru out of the way, forcing them to avoid the attack.

"I didn't think I'd need to use this form, but... you've really annoyed me, you stupid lizards," said Kyôka. Once the dust settled around her, she stood up, and her appearance had drastically changed.

In her new form, she gained a mask similar to her own, with long structures on the sides resembling horns. Her hair is replaced by a large tuft of feathers with a long ponytail that reaches down her body and ends in another tuft. She wore pauldrons made of feathers and revealing black armor that covered her arms and wrapped around her torso, revealing most of her stomach and breasts. Her legs were covered by black boots that begin mid-thigh, where they are lined with feathers.

"So she's finally taking us seriously? Bring it—!" Before Haru could finish speaking, Yoru handed her something.

"…T-this…Jin said he wanted both of us to have one, so…" mumbled Yoru. In Haru's hand was the same necklace as her sister's, and she quickly put it on.

With a goofy smile on her face and sporting a blush, Haru shouted, "L-l-l-let's do this! For Seilah-sama!"

'Seilah-sama…?' Yoru became confused by that but went along with it before they both rushed

Kyôka, who sneered at them, extended her sharp claws towards them again using her left hand. On her right, she created numerous and large blades of wind before throwing them at the two dragons.

Haru clapped her hands together and created a mini-sun using her flames. It began to burn brightly before she threw it at Kyôka. However, to the monster's surprise, it immediately vanished.

A smirk appeared on her face as she laughed at Haru. "Did that fail, little dragon? You, along with your sister, the Nakiri heir, and the son of Tannin, are the weakest links in the Golden Rakshasa's team, and even now you—!"

Her sentence was cut short as the mini-sun reappeared and slammed into the side of Kyôka's head, startling her.

"Wha—!?"

She was launched away in a large ball of flames before exploding again, incinerating the area around her and creating a flaming pillar that shot into the sky. Haru and Yoru high-fived as their new combination technique worked on their opponent.

Haru was the sun while Yoru was the moon; Haru was the dawn and Yoru was the dusk—in their eyes. So they wanted to use those to their advantage. Haru would use the flashy techniques, and Haru would support her sister—she never minded this, but they've also made the reverse of those techniques, where Yoru would be the central figure in it. But they decided to leave the use of those for the main stage tournament.

In the distance, Seilah targeted Haru, Yoru, and Kyôka. After she did, she used the first part of her clan's powers, which immediately plummeted her powers to those of a low-class devil. Afterwards, seeing how they temporarily 'defeated' Kyôka, she used the second part of her ability.

Yoru, Haru, and Kyôka felt their powers drop significantly. The two dragon sisters felt strange but didn't panic, while Kyôka was desperately trying to leave the scorching pillar that she was in.

Finally, she activated the last part of her clan's trait, and as she combined all their powers together, her raw power shot up to that of a High-Tier God-class being. Seilah herself was surprised, and when she signaled for the two to retreat, they did since their powers were still stuck at low-class.

Seilah landed in front of Kyôka after the flaming pillar disappeared. Because she had changed her powers while she was in the attack, Kyôka had taken a significant amount of damage, which left her even more weakened.

"Now you know how I felt back then," Seilah muttered, coldly looking down at Kyôka.

Kyôka smirked back and said, "H-heh, well, I guess the tables have turned…haven't they?"

Seilah, using her new power, generated a small dark blue and light green ball in front of her palm that was aimed at Kyôka. An assortment of memories flooded Seliah as she fired the attack at Kyôka.

To her, it seemed like the world had slowed down. Her long-awaited revenge was finally happening. She had been under Kyôka's control for the longest time, and she was finally freed today and could even pursue her revenge in full.

Seilah lived a normal, yet calm and quiet, life in the human world. Her family had horns, so that would stand out, so they had to hide it using their powers while living in the human world. They also kept the use of their powers to a minimum to not attract attention. However, Mard Geer and his group still found them.

In total, there were around fifty-two of them, and they were all killed on the same day. Mard Geer and his group targeted the older generation and the ones who had no talent first. After that, they went after those who were moderately powerful, and then they took the most powerful by surprise, one by one.

One of the monsters in Mard Geers group could mimic the voices of the people they killed, so using them, they lured them out one by one to different places in the country they stayed in and killed them one by one.

The family of Seilah wasn't talentless, but they had a low demonic pool, so they couldn't utilize their powers to their maximum output, and training would lead more people towards them, so they didn't bother with it.

Seilah was the anomaly of her generation, as she was born with Ultimate-class power, and if she trained, she would become even more powerful. However, her parents limited it so it wouldn't draw any more attention. They had to use many powerful barriers that they knew of just to hide Seilah when she was much younger, as she had no idea how the world worked or of their circumstances.

Once she became older, she was told of their circumstances, and Seilah worked hard to get stronger, to get better at controlling her powers, and of course, to stay under the radar of the rest of the supernatural world—but at the time, it wasn't enough, and tragedy struck, leaving her as the sole survivor of her clan.

The attack finally hit Kyôka, ending her life. However, at the end of it, she never felt any remorse or regret. To her, everything was a means to an end. In the world of the supernatural, the strong rule over the weak—especially for monsters, as most are born by accident or sexual assault and not by love. The same thing could be said for Kyôka.

Because of the way she was brought up, she only ever knew one thing, and that was to use others for her own gain. Her 'parents' did it, her 'siblings' did it and now she was doing it. Her parents and siblings were already dead; some died because they fought stronger people, and the rest were killed by Kyôka as a form of revenge.

At the time, she didn't know it was because of that reason—she just felt compelled, and once she did it, she felt great and felt free. After that, she came across various people, including Mard Geer, with whom she started a partnership, and they were eventually recruited by Black Alice, but in reality, they were only using her as she was with them.

Once Seilah confirmed that she had killed Kyôka, she fell to her knees, deactivated her [Skill Maker] and began to sob. Haru and Yoru joined in and began rubbing and patting her back. They didn't know why she did this, but it was clear to them that she was distraught and needed someone to comfort her.

"This might sound insensitive of me, but do you have a place to go after today?" Haru asked the weeping Seilah.

"…No, I have nowhere to go and no one now. I got my revenge…but…now what?" she replied, looking at her, tears covering it.

Haru bent down and smiled brightly at her. "Why not come and join Team [DxD]? We're just one big family at this point; you may find someone there you can bond with and maybe move in with as roommates! If not, I can ask Jin if you can stay in his home for now—we live there and it's pretty fun!"

Yoru also joined them and said, "…Jin, Grayfia, Raiko, and Inaie make tasty food too; the others know how to cook as well…"

Haru laughed at her sister for just mentioning food, and the two bickered back and forth for a little bit. Seilah mulled over their offer. She also knew that it wasn't confirmed yet as they still had to ask the man himself for permission, but she could also tell that they were confident in his answer of 'yes'.

Seilah was vaguely aware of Aaron's achievements and fame. Before she was taken and her family killed, they heard news of the things he did when he showed up in the last year. They, like men, were skeptical of him at first, but over time that opinion changed, and they were even thinking of reentering the supernatural world if his dream was realized, as it would have been a better place and less hostile.

However, that dream was cut short, but in Seilah's current mind and in her heart, she wanted to rejoin it for her sake and for her family's sake.

"M-may I think about it…? Maybe after…"

"Sure, sure! No rush; we still have a concert to finish after all!" Haru yelled before standing back up. "We still need to beat the rest, so we'll get going. If you want to help, come with us!" she offered her hand to her, and Seilah took it.

The trio flew away to join another fight on a nearby road.

— ○ ● ○ —

Mard Geer felt strange; one moment he was flying in the skies of Kuoh and staring down Aaron Toole; the next, he was in an unfamiliar place and he couldn't move.

"Where am I?" he asked. However, he noticed that his lips and eyes were the only things he could move, and he tried to move every part of his body to no avail.

"Yo. You're finally awake," said a voice. Mard Geer looked around and eventually found a figure in the distance sitting on a chair.

It was Aaron Toole, the Middleman and Dual Dragon Emperor. But what shocked him was that the place they were in below them was a pool of red water. He had come across a lot of blood before because of his way of living, so he knew it wasn't that.

What slightly disturbed him was the eerie silence that the place they were in gave off. Typically, there is some kind of ambient noise around the world. Whether that be noise made by insects, the scurry of animals trying to be hidden from human sight, vehicles made by people using them, or even his own body's heartbeat—something could be heard, but right now... there was nothing—it was a pure and eerie silence, and it disturbed Mard Geer.

He felt uneasy, like everything around him was not real—like it was all artificially made. However, he had no evidence of that, and the longer and harder he tried to think about it, the more he couldn't come up with anything.

'Did he put some kind of magic on me, preventing me from thinking about anything…? If so, what kind of magic is it? I've never heard of such a thing, unless it came from a different world…?' he thought, staring at Aaron, still sitting motionless on the chair.

Eight figures inexplicably appeared around him. Mard Geer had no time to process what happened next as all he felt was pain all throughout his body. His eyes became bloodshot—when he looked at the figures, he couldn't see who they were, but it was clear to him that they were repeatedly stabbing him with sharp objects.

Normally he wouldn't scream from this level of pain, but everything about this place was odd, and when he felt those objects piece his body, he felt excruciating pain like he had never felt before, and he wanted to scream. However, try as he might, he never heard his voice—it was a silent scream of agony.

Mard Geer felt every bit of this torture, and he even felt his own stomach being sliced open. He was even forced to see it—while his head was looking forward, he could see it in his head, and he felt sick but couldn't puke.

One of the figures slowly rose up to his eye level, and once he saw its eyes, he became even more shocked.

'Moth—' The figure brought up the sharp object, which then turned into a blade and cut off Mard Geers' head.

Consequently, Mard Geer's eyes opened, he took a long gulp of air, and he looked around himself. He was still in the same place, but now he wasn't being constrained by invisible forces. He felt around his neck and stomach but found no injuries there.

He looked up to see Aaron still sitting on his chair, staring down at Mard Geer. In anger and frustration, Mard Geer got up and fired elemental balls at Aaron, but as soon as they got near enough to him, they vanished.

"I don't know what you did, but none of this will work. Whatever spell or magic technique you used on me, I will break through it," declared Mard Geer.

Aaron smiled back at him and gestured with his hand. Mard Geer took it as a challenge and summoned a book by his side. He began reading through it and came across a unique forbidden spell, which he began chanting.

Moments later, a giant beast appeared behind it. It was a mix of a wolf and an octopus, with strange symbols all over its body.

"Attack him! Make sure you tear off his limps slowly; I want to see him suffer," he ordered while pointing at Aaron.

The monster roared before its tentacles shot towards…Mard Geer and prevented him from moving.

"W-what are you doing!? Unhand me, I said him, not me!" he barked at the monster behind him. However, it didn't listen and began to slowly and agonizingly tear off his limbs one after another.

The monster did as it was told; it made it as slow and painful as possible, as it also applied some poison to Mard Geer's open wound, further making it intolerable for him. He screamed the entire time as Aaron blankly stared from his chair.

"Fraud! You're a fraud! In reality, you're an unfeeling monster who's only putting up an act in front of them all! Once I get out of here, once I get resurrected, I will inform them all!! Dual Dragon!!!" Mard Geer roared before his head was twisted off.

However, just like earlier, he 'woke up' and gasped for air. He looked around him again and felt a wave of fear hit his body. In the distance was the same chair and a man staring at him—this time smirking.

"…What is happening…!?"

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Toole floated in front of a slumped-over Mard Geer. He had put the man in an illusion and made it as realistic and painful as possible. Aaron remembered a scene in Naruto when Itachi and Kisame went back to the village for the first time and Kakashi was tortured using Itachi's Tsukuyomi—he wanted to recreate it, and he chose Mard Geer as his experimental dummy.

"And that's that; everything should be ending soon," he muttered, then put Mard Geer to sleep and stored him in his [Inventory].

He turned in a certain direction and found that Rias' team was also about to defeat two of the members of Mard Geer's group; in another direction, the Slash Dog Team, members of the 8 Divas, and other [EXE] members were about to capture more members of all the groups that came with O-Leviathan, Mard Geer, and Nyx.

"Aaron."

He turned around to find Lisa there with a sleeping Nyx beside her. He went over and checked on Nyx's health.

"Azathoth removed it, huh? I didn't expect her to do that," he said, touching Nyx's forehead before healing her more. 'I guess she's slowly changing in her own way.'

"Cute—"

"Once we're done, let's have a mini date in Kuoh, Lisa. Let's do this since Ingvild still has to do the rest of her concert and I want to talk to her after it. And also come to Ireland with me; we'll have another one there since I'm taking Mom, Cindy, and Aoife back there for a little visit," he told her.

"Ara~? Am I being spoiled now?" she asked, softly nudging him on the side.

Aaron glanced at her, grabbed her cheeks, and brought their faces together. In response to this, Lisa's face turned red, and she closed her eyes, anticipating another kiss, but it never came. She opened them again, and he was smugly smiling at her.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," he told her, letting go of her. "Let's go and end this…" Aaron flew away, leaving a stunned Lisa there.

"A-ara? W-was I teased just now? W-wait, what about Nyx!?" Lisa shouted, chasing after Aaron.

— ○ ● ○ —

"I was expecting a bit more from you two since you were quite confident. Maybe I should start expecting less," Yumi Kira told her opponent, Qirlu, the lizardman and shark hybrid.

He had multiple cuts around his body; he was missing an arm and a chunk of his calf. For better or worse, he had already been defeated but didn't stop trying to get to Inaie, who was being held back by Rias, throwing a tantrum.

"Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!!!" she screeched, making the Gremory heiress wryly smile at her.

On the opposite side were Akeno and Gasper, with a very battered Genzzle. He, too, like his partner, was heavily injured. However, unlike Qirlu, half of his skin on his right side had been consumed by Gasper's darkness and charred by Akeno's lightning, so he can't feel anything on it, nor can he use it anymore.

Both monsters were on the brink of defeat; however, Rias had ordered her team to stop.

"Aaron already knows the answer, but before he explains it to us, why are you targeting hybrids?" Rias asked. With that question being asked, Inaie stopped struggling and stared at the two.

"Hmph. Do you think…we'll answer you just because we were defeated?" asked Qirlu.

"We may have failed, but once Mard Geer himself comes here with 'that', our victory is almost guaranteed," said Genzzle.

"By 'that', do you mean Seilah? I'll admit her clan's trait is pretty powerful once she gets better control over it," said Aaron, arriving beside Inaie. He patted her on the head and said, "Good job; this and a few more will be the last."

Both Genzzle and Qirlu's eyes widened in amazement.

"Where is—" As Genzzle was about to ask a question towards him, yellow and purple lightning suddenly struck both of them, finally knocking them out.

The ones responsible for that were Akeno and Lisa. Both said, "Ara, ara" after they had done the attacks. Aaron caught them before they plummeted to the ground, and at the same time, the loud sounds of fighting around Kuoh stopped.

He quickly checked and saw that it had finally ended. He raised his arm and said, [With that, the operation has concluded. Meet up at the drop zone, and we can finish this.]

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Toole's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

Our small meeting and reorganization had concluded, and I also finished repairing all of Kuoh. I called my two friends and their girlfriends, and they're on their way back to Kuoh. I also put everyone back in their previous positions after the operation started. The only thing left was to 'restart' everything, and the concert would continue—and so would the rest of everyone's normal day.

The ones we caught were sent to the various prisons for the DxD Alliance. The few cooperative ones were going to be given leniency, and the surviving member of the Halphas devil clan would be questioned by the Four Great Satans in the Underworld.

Haru and Yoru asked me about letting her join [DxD] and letting her stay in my home. I didn't mind, but the rest of the leaders would have to give her approval. She had already told them about her past and what happened, but it was up to them after that.

Just like with Frida Zigan and Lilith, she's most likely going to have to have multiple interviews and interrogations, and after that, her fate is left up to them, but I've already given them a small report on what happened and said I'd watch over her along with [DxD], so there may be a chance.

It helps that Serafall also lives with me, along with other gods.

But the other devils already suspect that some other progenitors for other devil clans may be alive, and the rumored 32 clans left might not be really just '32' but might be more. But in reality, out of the 72, 57 are still active, albeit in hiding. The only 'public' ones are the 32 that they know of.

It'll be interesting to see them in the future and meet the devils and their unique traits. But I'll tackle that with the Satans in the future and hopefully do something about the Boomer devils and Zekram.

[Ready?] I asked through the transceivers, and I got a resounding 'yes' as a response. So with a click of my fingers, everything and everyone started moving again. Ingvild began singing again, and the cheers of the normal humans who hadn't noticed a single change kept on going.

Looking behind me, I saw Lisa, who was going to be coming with me. "Let's get back to it then."

— ○ ● ○ —

An hour later, I had been walking around with Lisa and enjoying the festivities—Higuro and Kikijo arrived back with the girlfriends and were having fun listening to Ingvild's live performance, and yes, I got them front row tickets, much to their surprise. I swear they would have kissed me if they were bi—that's how much they were thanking me.

"How about we go in there~?" Lisa asked, pointing at a clothes store, and I agreed.

Lisa and I were the ones on a 'date', but…we weren't exactly by ourselves. To my surprise, Griselda was following us, and she was being quite discreet about it—hiding behind walls, electricity poles, and the like. Lisa hadn't noticed it since she's been quite happy about this. Especially about the two-part date.

I asked Mom, Cindy, and Aoife about it earlier, and they were fine with it. Hell, they plan on going to our previous home first to see how it is. It would be easy for me to manipulate the current owners to leave and give them a better house, but I doubt mom would want to have it back—it contained more bad memories than good memories.

When we entered the store, Lisa dragged me to the women's section and began showing me dresses she wanted to try. The typical 'You look good in anything' comment won't slide here, so I had to give her genuine feedback after she changed into it.

We went towards the changing room, and before she entered it, she asked, "What should we do about Griselda-sensei~?"

"…So you noticed? I'm quite surprised by that, but it's up to you; I don't mind," I replied. Griselda was still outside the store, looking at us through the glass window.

"I'll get her then; can you hold these for me?" she asked, and I agreed. Lisa handed me the numerous clothes she gave me and ran out of the store before grabbing Griselda, who became instantly flustered, and bringing her back to us.

"U-um…"

Griselda was fidgeting on the spot, like she was some kind of high school girl caught up in something she shouldn't have been doing.

Lisa went behind Griselda and grabbed her shoulders before winking. "We'll go and get some clothes for her—she may have been a former nun, but her body was made to sin~! Let's go~!"

"E-eh? W-wait, Lisa—!" Griselda tried to protest but was dragged away.

As I watched them go, I was left there by myself. Letting my thoughts wander, I thought back on the reason why the remaining Monkai Association—on why Mard Geer's group wanted to kidnap a bunch of hybrids—was to make some kind of new species, for lack of a better way of explaining it.

Hybrids, especially the ones that were a mix of humans and other species, had a greater chance of acquiring a Sacred Gear from the system in heaven—why? Because God of the Bible designed it that way. I found this out when messing with it, and the man himself confirmed it for me during a conversation we had on Christmas Eve.

Sacred Gears were his gift to humans so they could fight against the supernatural. Those who were unfortunate enough (his words, not mine) to be born between a human and supernatural species would still have a chance of getting a Sacred Gear so they could defend themselves.

He believed that whoever was born part of a supernatural species (devil, youkai, etc.) had natural and innate powers that could help them defeat those from the supernatural, and they also had better physical abilities overall—compare them to humans, and we're basically ants being compared to bears.

So he opted to give humans a way to fight back—the original 13 Longinus was the starting step; after that were the various unique ones like the Four Fiends, Forbidden Balor View, Vritra Sacred Gears, etc. Then the rare, uncommon, and common Sacred Gears. He wanted them to be rare and not too common, so there was a chance of a human getting one.

I didn't touch that part—I only made it easier to evolve your Sacred Gear, whether it be common, uncommon, rare, unique, or whatever. The rate at which humans or hybrids get them is still the same—they were random.

So... Mard Geer believed that with the help of the Khaos Order, especially the Evie and Phantasma, they would be able to create new life and mass produce their own Sacred Gear system using a power from one of their universes. They would also make it accessible for them too, so they wouldn't need to rely on just the Artificial Sacred Gears that were made by them.

However, it was all messed up because I closed up universal to multiversal travel in the omniverse. But they didn't give up and wanted to keep going with the project, and Promestein was more than happy to comply with it. Speaking of Promestein, she's staying at the base and doesn't plan on leaving it.

She's smart and a bit paranoid. She knew their downfall was imminent but wanted to keep working with what she had. However, some of the other scientists and Satanael had moved back to the Draconic Deus and were in their own hiding spots—all I needed to do now was go get them and stop their operation.

My first and next stop was Satanael. I would be taking him down with a few people—Ophis, Irene, and Lisa would be part of that. If he wanted to meet the [Infinity] again, then I'd let her slap him herself.

"We're back, and thanks for the wait! We'll give you a bit of eye candy~!" Lisa said before taking the clothes from me and dragging Griselda with her into the changing room.

Griselda was silently begging me to stop her, but I waved to her, and she looked like she was about to cry.

I'm sorry; I want to see you in a bit more revealing clothing, Griselda. Being naked and wearing something cute or sexy has its own appeal, especially in her case since she wears pretty modest clothing and, most of the time, she's wearing her exorcist/nun attire even at home. It's quite rare to see her in super casual clothing. The times she did was when the other women there forced her or if I requested for her to wear something else.

There weren't too many people here, but to the few that were—which were some couples and women—they stared at me like I was some kind of scum, but... Eh, what can you do? Some of them stuck around close enough to see what Griselda and Lisa would come out with.

They eventually did, and what they chose were dresses. Lisa was mainly purple with some light brown parts that twinkled, which was interesting. It did fit her, though, and she looked quite pretty in it. Griselda did the same too, although hers was mostly black and showed off her back. Lisa made her twirl so I could see.

Glancing around, the couples and single women who were around were clearly stunned by them, and I couldn't help but smirk.

"Well?" Lisa asked, hands on her hips, waiting for my opinion. Griselda covered her chest with her hand, looking quite embarrassed.

"Would me saying amazing be too cliché?" I asked.

"Yes, it would; 4 out of 10 points for you," Lisa answered before dragging Griselda back.

How would you even compliment them at this point? I usually compliment them in strange and unique ways when at home, but saying something like, 'You're so beautiful' or something like that would be, as I said, cliché, even if it were true.

Again, I received a few nasty looks from the people around us but ultimately ignored them. It was pretty tempting to just turn around and smirk at them, but further antagonizing them wouldn't help me at all—especially since they probably already knew who I was.

Lisa and Griselda came out a few more times with some cute and frilly clothes and other times wearing completely risqué and outrageous ones. A few times I heard Griselda say, 'No!' quite vehemently, but in the end, she caved to Lisa's demands and came out looking like she was going to cry.

It was adorable, but I also felt bad, so I asked her to take it easy on her since Griselda was genuinely mortified at wearing them. I guess she was a lot more conservative about what she wore, although reading 'How to Be a Good Wife' was quite strange already since did you really need a book to know how to do that?

I'd like to think no, but I'm a guy, so I may not know all the things related to that, or she just wants to cover her bases. Although Griselda herself is already a catch, I'm more surprised she wasn't with anyone in the original books. But she was just a side character and a former nun turned reincarnated angel, so that may be the reason for it.

Lisa grabbed my hand and dragged me away with a still-flustered Griselda, and I paid for their clothes. She had offered to do it, but I just gave them my card before she could. Once we were outside, Griselda finally sighed and relaxed.

"I'm sorry for following both of you. I…I wanted to spend some time with Aaron but didn't get time to ask him," she explained.

"Fufu, you're quite adorable when you want to be, Griselda. Usually, you have that stoic and calm demeanor around you, especially in Kuoh Academy. But I guess being around this man makes you act a little differently, huh?"

Griselda didn't deny it and just looked at the both of us with a tired expression on her face. Lisa smiled and hugged Griselda's free arm and said, "Well, I don't mind adding another person to it~"

She then shifted Griselda to my right arm and forced her to hug it, and she went over to the other.

"Now with this, we can continue. Our next destination is—"

— ○ ● ○ —

Normally, I would be very happy with the situation I was currently in, but right now, it just felt strange. Presently, I am in a haunted house in Kuoh. Normally it would be dealt with by Sona or Rias' peerage, but because of the various things happening lately along with the tournament, it's been pushed back.

It's also considered low priority by my [Electa] and Shadow Soldiers, so it hasn't been dealt with by them either. Lisa wanted to spice things up for our date, and my first thoughts were something lewd since it's Lisa and it usually ends up like that. I didn't think her suggestion would be this...

Griselda, a former exorcist now turned reincarnated angel, has been on high alert since coming to this place. Lisa didn't inform her of what this place was, but Griselda probably caught on as soon as we arrived outside.

"…Lisa, I'm just making sure, but... is this building haunted? I can sense many restless spirits here," asked Griselda.

"Fufu, what were you thinking when I said I wanted to make this date a bit spicier~?" Lisa asked in a teasing manner and poked Griselda on the cheek. In response, she sighed and wearily smiled at her.

Those two were in front of me as we walked through the house. Now that I think about it, I never really saw these two interact that much, but they seemed to be in a good relationship. Maybe I just didn't see it that much at home since I was in my office most of the time or being hounded by one of the girls for some alone time (both sexual and non-sexual).

They are teachers over at the high school division, so they definitely get along professionally too. However, they have told me that they plan on leaving it once Kunou graduates the high school division.

Also, they probably do things together without me ever knowing since they are living their own lives. It makes me a tad bit curious about it, though. It goes to show I won't be in their lives constantly, but they can still enjoy it without me. I always wondered how that went in books—both published and fanfiction. Though it's generally assumed by us readers, right?

Although it seemed like there were a lot of readers that became insecure about the women of the main characters—the thoughts of Netorare and the like going into their minds, which is a bit insecure, if I'm being honest—

"Aaron~? Is something wrong?"

When I came back to reality after being called out by Lisa, I saw that she was just right in front of me, so I gave her a quick peck on the nose and asked, "Hmm? What's up? I was just thinking about stuff?"

"Should we go in there?" Lisa asked, pointing behind her towards a door that led to... an underground section—the basement, more than likely.

"That leads to the basement from what I can see, and that's where all of the spirits are currently," I told them, amused by the reason. Those two obviously didn't know why, but I did. "What say you, Minci-sama, Quarta-sama?" I asked in an overzealous way.

Lisa pointed her right hand's index and middle fingers at it while discharging a small amount of purple lightning. "To a more adventurous date!" she said, then grabbed Griselda's hand and pulled her towards it.

"I would prefer a calmer one, though," mumbled Griselda, a weary smile on her face, but she still felt happy about the situation.

They both reached it first and waited for me; once I got there, Lisa pushed it open and entered first, followed by Griselda and then me. We descended a flight of brown and worn-down stairs; it didn't take us long to get to another small area with a door, and Lisa pointed at it and held a finger up to her lips, indicating for us to be quiet.

I seriously doubt that mattered; we were making noise upstairs, and the stairs weren't exactly quiet when we were going down them. Nevertheless, Griselda and I agreed to keep our mouths shut, and Lisa quickly kicked the door open and jumped into the basement.

"Lightning!" she shouted, confusing all of us, including the spirits down there.

"What?" I asked, and she looked back at me, giggling.

"Well, normally you say 'freeze' when doing that, right? But since I excel in lightning and thunder magic, I thought why not say one of those?" she explained herself, cutely and lightly bonking her own head.

She's acting a lot more open and childlike right now. It was a breath of fresh air since she's usually the 'Ara-ara-onee-san' type. Much like Akeno's usual front for when she's with other people our age (college) or important executives or VIPs from various factions and pantheons.

But when she's with me and the others, she acts more like her age—although the 'ara-ara-onee-san' personality is still very much present with the other girls, I guess she acted a bit more special with me. I also understood why, but I wasn't going to address it this far in our lives; it would be a bit weird, and we already knew about it.

"…So, why are the apparitions staying down here?" Griselda asked, confused by this scenario.

I pointed my finger up at the ceiling and said, "Ordinarily, spirits stay up near the center of the home or even the higher levels since most people tend to live up there. They only ever stay down here if they're specifically tied to the place. However, today is not exactly a normal day, right?"

Both Griselda and Lisa nodded.

"A certain Leviathan is currently singing her heart out and is letting out powerful waves of aura from her voice—they affected us earlier when I used my [Paipod] and I helped amplify it—what do you think will happen to ordinary supernatural beings?"

"Ingvild specifically modified her singing voice to help non-threatening humans or supernatural beings, so they can enjoy her music as it helps soothe their body, spirit, and mind. However, these guys are…" I trailed off, letting the two come to their own conclusions.

To put it simply, if they stayed up there while Ingvild sang those songs, they'd die—I don't know if they would pass on per se, but... who knows? It's really up to them and how they lived their lives before they passed—in a way, Ingvild's voice can exorcist them, even if it was unintentional.

"They'll pass on or at least be exorcised if they stay up there, huh? Hmm? Then what happened to the ones that didn't get down in time? Did they just get exorcised?" asked Lisa, still looking at the terrified spirits.

"To the ones that weren't fast enough, they were unfortunately exorcised," I told her, and she nodded in understanding.

"Help us pleeeeeeeeeaaasee!!"

"I don't want to diiiiiieee!!"

"I love her voice, but she'll fucking kill me!! It's unfaiiiir!"

The spirits began voicing their displeasure and despair. Many of them wanted to keep on 'living' and didn't want to pass on; some were angry that they couldn't go up there and listen to Ingvild's songs since they liked them; and the last remaining few were just here because they didn't want to die yet and wanted to keep on scaring people because it was funny to them.

Peering at Griselda, she seemed to be thinking about something. It was her job to exorcise these guys before, so she may be feeling conflicted. We are in a time of peace and unity, but these guys were kind of outliers since they weren't exactly part of the alliance. The 'good' spirits tend to pass on, and the rest that stay are more or less considered a 'threat' that needs to be dealt with.

"Ufufufufu~ how about I help you guys pass on~?" Lisa asked as purple lightning crackled around her body.

All of the spirits shrieked and backed away into a single corner of the underground basement, horrified at Lisa's threat and suggestion. I lightly karate-chopped her head and stopped her; she turned around, pouting at me.

"How about we ask our former exorcist?" I told them. This…only made things worse, as the spirits just started screaming even louder.

"I don't want to pass on! I haven't had sex yet!! I died a virgin, goddammit!"

"If I'm dying, I'll do it for her voice! Wait for me, angel-sama!!!" a spirited shouted, ran past us, and was obliterated by Ingvild's voice as soon as his foot hit the top of the stairs. "I have…no regrets…" he said as he faded away.

Lisa and Griselda turned their disapproving stares toward me. I mean, am I really to blame here? I just asked for Griselda's opinion; I didn't tell her to exorcize them all—he just overreacted and ended himself...

"So…what do we do, Griselda-sama?" I asked.

She turned to face the spirits again and asked, "Who wishes to be exorcised? I am a reincarnated angel, and as a former exorcise, I have the power too—"

"T-then let me feel your oppai!" a male spirit shouted, drooling while staring at her breasts. "I…I'll definitely pass on if you let me~!"

A few other male spirits suddenly had the same idea, so more and more started to raise their hands, asking to be exorcised while letting them feel both of Griselda and Lisa's breasts. They slowly got closer until I stopped them with an extended wall of [Infinity].

With a smile on my face and my eyes closed, I walked in front of them and said, "Well, that won't be possible."

"Why not!?" they shouted in indignation.

Opening my eyes slightly and letting out some power, I proclaimed, "Because those goddamn titties are mine!"

I then forced all of them into the light; they were finally allowed to pass on with smiles on their faces—

"Nooooooooooooo! I don't want to go yet!! Fuuuuuuuck!!"

"Oppai! Oppai! Let me touch them and squeeze them before I go!! Nooooooo!!"

"…And thus, I died an even bigger virgin, somehow."

Letting out a sigh of relief, I said, "They're passing on peacefully, content with life~"

Both Lisa and Griselda lightly smacked the side of my head. "No, they're not!"

"I'll see you in the great beyond~!" I added, waving to them as they cursed me out.

— ○ ● ○ —

Once that debacle was done, we went back upstairs, and Griselda scolded me for forcing them to pass on. I'm sorry, but I wasn't going to let them do that to them, even if I knew it wasn't going to be possible.

"There are no signs of other spirits up here; it seems like all of them did go down there. I will assume it's the same for the other haunted buildings in Kuoh, yes?" Griselda asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. If they didn't make it in time underground, they were probably forcibly exorcised," I replied as we left the building. Once we arrived outside, two people were waiting for us.

"Nia? Gabriel?" I asked. By the gate of the building, Lavinia and Gabriel were chatting away; once they heard me, they turned around and ran over to us. They hugged me first before facing the other two ladies with me.

"Griselda, I'm sorry we have to cut this short; Brother Michael and Altair want us in Heaven. Irina and the rest have gone back already," said Gabriel, grabbing Griselda's arm.

"Is it serious? If so, I can—"

"No!" Gabriel shouted and then covered her mouth with her hand. "I-I mean, it's nothing bad, Aaron…w-we just need angels right now…"

'That's quite suspicious. What will you do?' Rudra asked.

Normally it would be Ddraig, but he and Albion left my soul earlier, along with Cúntóir, since they all wanted to enjoy the rest of the day after we dealt with those guys. Unfortunately, Rias, Akeno, Sona, Tsubaki, and a few other members of [DxD] weren't here since they volunteered to go and inform the other leaders. I sent an avatar with them since I had to stay here to make sure nothing else happened. Although it won't take them long, just another hour and they'll be back.

"Is that so? I'll wait till you guys come home then," I told her, patting her head. Gabriel looked conflicted about this but agreed in the end before pulling Griselda away. "We can continue another time, Griselda!"

She smiled back at me and agreed before they turned a corner into an alley and teleported to Heaven.

"Did you need me for something, Lavinia?" Lisa asked. "I'm still in the middle of a date…"

"I know, I'm sorry for doing this, but Mephisto-san came here with a few promising magicians and is asking us to evaluate them. He said he may be a bit too biased, the same with the others, but he also had Hirokazu-kun evaluate them too," explained Lavinia. "So… I'll be taking her away for a little bit."

Lavinia turned to me and gave me a kiss before leaving with a slightly flustered Lisa, but she agreed to do it in the end.

'Well, you're alone.'

'Gee, thanks, Rudra. I would have never seen that if you hadn't pointed it out,' I replied, and he chuckled at me.

'There are still things to do and people to speak with; go!'

'Aye, aye, captain.'

— ○ ● ○ —

Walking around Kuoh town by myself felt strange. I receive a few glances from the people of Kuoh since they usually see me with someone. As I arrived at a small park, I saw Rose and Göndul in the distance. I had been wondering where they went after parting ways with them a few hours ago. I'm even more surprised that Göndul is still here after all that; I may as well go see them.

Going up to them, I saw that the old valkyrie was still in low spirits, and when I arrived, Rose looked up at me and smiled.

"Aaron…I thought you were on a date with Lisa?" she asked.

Göndul also looked up and smiled at me—she looked a bit better now, actually, when looking at her up close. I'm pretty sure she spoke to Tamamo earlier since she was brought to that room. It makes me wonder what they spoke about, but it had to be good for her since she's like this now.

"Mephisto is here and needed Lisa. Griselda joined us but was taken away by Gabriel since Heaven needed them for something," I explained and sat down beside them. "What have you two been up to?"

"We've been enjoying the little festival here in Kuoh, Aaron. It's not just the humans enjoying it since the supernatural was also invited by you, so we have a larger variety in where to go and what to do because of it," said Rose. "…We went to a nearby bookstore and Kuoh mall earlier. We ended up here after aimlessly wandering for a while."

'And Göndul?' I asked Rose telepathically.

'Granny has still been down, but after staying with Tamamo-sama, she seems a bit more cheerful now,' explained Rose.

I summoned some ice cream and offered it to the forlorn woman. She looked up at me, forcing a smile on herself, but accepted the gesture.

It was strange seeing her like this—usually, she would be quite outgoing and even boisterous in her own way. But I guess being served divorce papers by her husband after being married for so long was a huge shock. I would most likely react like this if any of the girls did this to me down the line, so I can't really fault her.

"How about we go and enjoy ourselves? I'd like to go on a little date with two valkyries," I offered while standing up. Rose joined me, and we both looked down at Göndul, who was midway through licking her ice cream.

She looked at Rose, then at me, and then at the outstretched hand I offered her. Before long, a smile cropped up on her face before she accepted my hand and held it.

"I was just served divorce papers by my soon-to-be ex-husband, young man, and you're already trying to court me? Have you no shame?" she asked facetiously.

"For you? Anything, Göndul~" I bantered back, and we all laughed. These actions were warmly approved by Rossweisse, as she moved over to my free arm, hugged it, and kissed me on the cheek.

"Fufu, it seems you have my granddaughter's approval; you're a sly one, aren't you?" she asked, replicating Rose's actions and making me let out a strange noise.

That wasn't my intention at all—I just wanted to cheer her up, but it's a win-win for me, and I'm not complaining.

— ○ ● ○ —

A couple of hours have passed since then, and midnight is slowly approaching. Everything had been cleaned up, and everyone was slowly going back to their homes. I stayed behind with a few people to double-check everything.

Latia, who was beside me, went over a checklist while also informing Raiko, who was in another part of the venue with Tamamo, who had come back earlier to bring some other people with her.

Ingvild, who had been singing during that entire time (she only took a few breaks during it, and even then, her fans who showed up even asked her to take breaks for her own sake, which I found pretty interesting), was now in one of the dressing rooms relaxing and unwinding.

"That should be everything," I said to myself. Latia agreed and put away her clipboard.

"Everyone is turning in for the day; Rias and Sona are doing a few last-minute contracts to meet a quota that they both made for their respective peerages, so they won't be home until around one in the morning. What will you do?" she asked.

"Well, there's only one thing left to do," I said, looking in the direction of Ingvild's room. When I gazed back at Latia, she seemed a bit jealous. "I'm not pulling your leg, Latia. I already invited Lisa to Ireland; would you like to go? It might change into something more than a date, you know?"

"Meaning?" she asked, intrigued by the topic.

So I told her about my future excursion to Ireland, and during or after—I haven't decided since Mom or Aoife may want to extend our stay—we'll go and get Satanael. Whether he lives or dies, it won't matter; I already know the information. This is more for Ophis, since she's looked eager to get back at him for tricking her all those years ago.

Latia put a finger under her chin and seemed to think about it. As she did, Raiko, along with Grayfia, came by and handed me her own clipboard, and I went over it.

"Everything seems to be accounted for, and there are no strays here—that was confirmed by your Shadow Soldiers," explained Raiko. Noticing Latia was thinking about something, both of them looked at me, and I told them about my trip and what we're doing. "…May I come?" asked Raiko.

"I too wish to accompany you and Róisín-sama," said Grayfia with a slight bow.

Sighing, I chuckled a little. "You know what I say, the more the merrier, but I'll run it by them too so they'll know there are more of us now. We may need to book a different room in a hotel…"

"I will go too, Aaron. However, I wish to ask you something," said Latia. We all looked at her, and she asked, "Why did you ask to put your face into Suzaku's buttocks? I understand you're attracted to most women's…assets, but I found this a bit peculiar."

...

[Bahahaha!]

'…You only have yourself to blame, Aaron,' stated Rudra.

Raiko blushed upon hearing that, while Grayfia didn't look surprised at all. I guess she's become numbed to my antics.

"I was planning on giving you a kiss before I left, but I'll just go now—I'll tell you guys about the trip in more detail when it happens!" I said, turning around and running off.

I felt that Latia was feeling cheated by that, but in a way, it's her fault for asking it! I'll share the blame for saying that to Suzaku earlier, but anything else is on her. Well…I'll do it later; I'm not that mean.

Quickly making my way to her room, I turned a few corners and arrived at a room with a sign that said 'Star' above it in bright neon purple light. Mom was the one who suggested this, and Ingvild didn't have the heart to say no to her, so she agreed to it in the end.

"I don't have bad fashion sense, right?"

[More like you don't have one.]

'Thanks, Crimson-suit-san.'

[Ugh…]

Entering the door after my swift victory over my partner, I noticed that Ingvild was stuffing her face with food. She was acting like some kind of savage barbarian and had some pieces of food on her cheeks, mouth, and even dress.

We stared at each other. I was unable to process what the hell I was seeing, and her face slowly turned red. When I finally came back to my senses, I walked over to her, brought out a handkerchief, and wiped her clean, not including the food strains on her dress—which I used my powers for instead.

"…I'll ask then, why?"

With bright red cheeks, she uttered, "B-because I was hungry, I only ate a few chocolate bars and bags of crisps while I was performing…"

"Even though your fans told you to eat more?" I asked while closing the door behind me. I brought a chair over and sat beside her. "I never saw you eating like this—it's like me at the start of last year."

A small gem appeared on my right hand and said, [Yeah, Partner said he ate like a goddamn pig if he could. I guess that's the bachelor life if he never pursues love or a harem, eh?]

It then disappeared as Ddraig cackled inside me. Deciding to ignore that jab at me, Ingvild and I laughed about it. She continued to eat like a sloppy child since I didn't really judge her for it, and we spoke about the concert.

"My sales increased even more, apparently. I'm really excited to write more songs because of today. I know that its original intent wasn't supposed to help me, but it really did in the end, so thank you, Aaron," she said and tried to hug me, but I stopped her and cleaned her again before she tried again and I reciprocated.

After our hug, Ingvild continued eating but stopped again and stared at me like she was looking at a serial killer.

"What?" I asked, confused by her reaction.

"Y-you're not going to propose to me like this, are you…?" she asked pensively.

To that, I burst into laughter, and she seemed a bit annoyed by it, so she reached over and pinched my nose while puffing her cheeks.

"N-no, but I do have a place in mind," I told her while still chuckling to myself. Ingvild had released my nose as she relaxed. "But would you—"

"No! Anywhere but here, especially after you found me like this…ugh…" she said, feeling embarrassed of herself.

Blinking a few times, I continued. "I was going to say, would you like this?" I asked, taking out a laptop.

"…A new laptop? I…I um, I bought a new one just a while ago…" Ingvild said while blushing.

She, like many others (Kuroka), tends to spend quite a bit of the allowance I give them. Although Kuroka and some others do splurge on things like this, the others tend to buy more practical items. But in Ingvild's defense, she needs it since she tends to be online most of the time, and for Kuroka, she's buying those vinyls to stay closer to her mother, so I can't blame her either. She's also working for me, so she's earning her keep.

"Yeah. It's a laptop, but I made it. I don't plan on releasing this to the world, but it's exclusively yours. I know you tend to spend a lot of time on the net, both the human and supernatural ones. You started that DeviTube tutorial thing, right?" I asked, and she nodded.

Apart from her official channel for uploading her songs, she has another where she shows some bloopers, a few vlog-like videos, and other random things, like playing some games and things like that. She also collaborates with other [DxD] or household members—Valerie appears a lot in there, and so does Gasper.

"Y-yes…thank you," she said, accepting my gift.

"I'd say it's as powerful as another world's supercomputers. Like with the first one I made for you, you won't need to worry about battery, charging it, or Wi-Fi connectivity since you have unlimited battery and it has unlimited range. Ah, it can also tank raw attacks at an omniversal scale, so…"

Ingvild blinked a few times before she asked, "Do you want me to use this as a weapon of mass destruction!?"

"…Well, it would be amusing to hear that the 'Purple Diva' defeated the Khaos Order with a laptop," I mused and chuckled again to myself. Ingvild didn't find it funny, but she turned it on while she kept eating.

The rest of our time there was spent talking about the laptop and other mundane things.

— ○ ● ○ —

"…Where are we going?" she asked. I had her in her original noble dress on the first day we met.

"Oh, somewhere special," I replied, teleporting us away.

— ○ ● ○ —

We arrived in a certain seaside city in Europe. This was the place I wanted to ask Ingvild—I also took her friends and her mother's body here. The souls in it weren't their original souls, so I couldn't have them be there for her tonight, but I did the next best thing—like what I did for Lavinia and her parents.

I let the other souls pass on and spoke with her recently deceased friends and her mother's soul from a different timeline to inhabit those bodies for just tonight. I even offered them to inhabit it, but they declined, to my surprise.

Their reasoning was that she's not the 'Ingvild' they knew, but they were also interested in how she was and would be happy to meet her again—this was after I told them of her circumstances. In a way, they're doing it out of obligation and pity, but I just hope Ingvild doesn't notice. Well, those were her friend's thoughts.

For her mother, it was different. To her, any Ingvild from any timeline is her baby, and she wants to meet her even if she declines to stay here. From my short time speaking to her, she's a kind woman, so it's a shame she declined—I even thought of forcefully bringing her back like Shuri, but I decided against it. I didn't want either of them to hate me.

Ingvild had been staring around our surroundings wordlessly for the last few seconds. After I took her hand into mine and squeezed it, she looked back at me, unsure of what to say to me.

"Hey, my surprise doesn't end here yet; let's go," I said, pulling her along with me. She again wordlessly nodded her head and followed me.

The further we went into the town, the more she began recollecting memories of her childhood. The times she spent with her human friends here, the sightings of her father over the years—which surprised me.

According to her, once she looked back at her memories of this place, she always saw a man hiding among the crowd or a structure like a lamppost or wall. At times, it was definitely her dad; whether he was here to check up on her or not, only he knew the answer to that.

Maybe he was just curious about the hybrid he made, or he genuinely cared for Ingvild but couldn't show it—he didn't make it clear after his defeat or the things he said to Ingvild. Maybe his mental health degraded over the years and he started to change his mind on many things; it's certainly possible, but to go down that low, it seems incomprehensible. But maybe that's why Runeas decided to sleep instead of stay awake.

"That's where we played hide and seek; over there we were scolded by an adult at the time since it was prohibited to go in there. Mom really scolded me that day…" she said, looking at the location with nostalgia.

This continued for the next fifteen minutes, until I told her I wanted to take her to a specific spot. Ingvild didn't mind, and after walking through a few streets, alleyways, and a little hidden area that she didn't even know about, we arrived at a cove.

A white sandy beach, a calm, dark ocean that reflected the moonlight, and a small yet gentle breeze swept through the area.

"Oh wow! I've never been here before!" she exclaimed, letting go of my hand before walking towards the ocean. Ingvild began to hum a little melody, and I joined her. After a minute, she stopped and looked at me.

She was expecting me to propose here, but it wasn't the time. Instead, I grabbed her arm and gently pointed to her right. Confused, she followed her own arm, and when she did, she saw her mother and friends.

"Eh? B-but I thought y-you said you let them pass after we…"

"I lied. I wanted to keep this a secret from you. Go ahead, you guys only have a few hours left, but they want to spend it with you. They'll explain it to you once you get to them," I told her.

She seemed to tear up and wanted to tell me something, but she quickly kissed me before running towards them. I watched her go, and they had a little reunion. I could even hear the crying from where I was.

'You're not going to join them?' Rudra asked.

'Nah, they need it, just like Lavinia and her parents needed to talk. She won't see them again for a long time, so it's better that way,' I replied.

I jumped to the top of the small beach wall that overlooked the small cove that I took Ingvild to, and once I saw it, I found a small tree and sat down in front of it and closed my eyes. I may as well take a little nap before I rejoin them in a few minutes.

— ○ ● ○ —

When I fell asleep, I dreamed of the fight I had with Mard Geer. I didn't let him ramble on about his plan or why he was doing it, but after reading his memories and seeing his life play out, it sort of made sense. Although, like many things in life, you get to choose how you end up in the end.

You could say it was quite cliché. Mard Geer himself was born from a beetle monster and a bat monster. Much like the rest of his world, survival of the fittest was what he had to live by from a very young age. He himself wasn't strong in the typical sense, so he relied on his intellect; however, as he grew, he became self-centered and arrogant.

Mard Geer was smarter than most people, but he wasn't as smart as Azazel, Ajuka, or even Promestein. I guess a better way to put it is that he was cunning and knew how to get around stronger people than himself.

Of course, he became temporarily stronger when Nyarlathotep was still alive because of her blood, but after that? He went back down to his original power level, which was just slightly above Ultimate-class. However, as I said, he was cunning and charming in a way, so he managed to convince various monsters, including a powerful person like Kyôka, to join his little group.

Eventually they joined up with Black Alice and the Khaos Order, and that's when he started seeing a lot of change. With new access to various technologies and people, he inquired of Avezza (who was still part of them at the time), Promestein, Satanael, and various others about his personal project—his ambition.

They were amused by it and agreed to try it since they had the support of Lapis, the Evie and Phantasma. For a time, it went well. They kidnapped human hybrids that didn't know any kind of truth about the world or ones that had recently awakened their powers, and they experimented on them.

The ends justified the means in his eyes, and he wouldn't let anyone stop him. Even if he had to go against the entire world, he'd find a way to manipulate certain figures to let him win in the end. The number of backup plans he had was a bit insane.

However, they were all rendered nugatory. It didn't matter how many he had—I simply erased them from his mind and made him go slightly crazy after I came back from my evolution. Letting him remember the 'original timeline' and this one made him question a lot of things—that's why he was a bit erratic before this operation started for both sides. That's why he was reckless about it; he didn't let Kyôka, his right-hand woman, stop him since he had manipulated her to the degree that she wouldn't question the things he did, which was their downfall.

Of course, I changed her slightly so she would go along with his plans without question. Before I did, she definitely would have made her own plans to fight against us, but she didn't anticipate that I would just steel back Seilah and have her fight her and win.

Once Kyôka knew she had an advantage over others, she tended not to take them seriously anymore. Her first and only victory over you was the deciding factor, and she wouldn't change her mind on that.

Their own faults were their downfall, along with me messing with reality and their memories. Although even if I didn't mess with reality, we still would have won in the end since I would have defeated Mard Geer. Seilah, Haru, and Yoru would have teamed up to defeat Kyôka; Azathoth and Lisa would defeat Nyx; and so on and so forth.

Watching the operation play out in my dream, I felt someone join me—when I looked at them, I found Irene there.

"That reminds me, where were you?" I asked.

"Swimming in the Dimensional Gap, I entertained a few thousand guests in your home over there since a game was going on," she said with a smirk.

"Are you an attention wh—"

"I was simply minding my own business, and a game was just on today. Normally, when I go there, I don't need to do that, but since there were so many there today, I decided to show them my glorious form," she boldly proclaimed.

"Sounds like you're proud of showing your naked body to thousands." I snickered, and she shot me a glare.

"Are you not jealous?"

"Oh, I am. Insanely so."

Irene seemed taken aback by this, but I clarified, "But I don't really consider myself 'naked' in my dragon form, even if I did only enter it once when I obliterated Lapis."

She tilted her head, confused. "…Then why are you jealous?"

I put a finger under my chin and thought about it. There was only one—even though it was rare of me—and it was sort of irrational, but it was the only explanation.

"I'm just jealous, that's all—no deeper reason or reason at all; I guess I'm just being possessive right now?" I said, tilting my own head, unsure of my own answer.

"You're a strange one, Aaron. However, I like that straightforward nature of yours now."

"Well, being roundabout on certain things only serves to create problems down the line, so I may as well be honest about it now—that's what I learned over time living here."

For the next few minutes, we spoke about a variety of topics, but it eventually ended when my dreams stopped.

"Looks like I'm being woken up by Cúntóir. Time to go," I said, getting up. We had sat down as we started the conversion earlier. When I looked back at her, she was still sitting on the ground.

"…Aaron."

"Hmm?"

"I know you promised many other women before me, but I wish to mate with you soon. You will most likely do it with Lisa on our trip to Ireland, so I won't ask for it then, but maybe afterward?" she asked quite bluntly.

As I went to say something, she stopped me to clarify something.

"Ah, I don't want an offspring yet, but simple mating would do."

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "You're almost like Kuroka; while you're still blunt, it's not phrased like hers, making it a bit…"

"Less perverted? I won't deny that, but the fact I'm asking you it so directly still paints me as one. So will you accept?" she asked again.

"I can't exactly say no, so yes. I'll try to find the right time, Irene." She finally agreed and got up before pecking me on the lips and disappearing first. Straight afterward, I was next.

— ○ ● ○ —

"That was fast…"

Cúntóir: Answer: It's been an hour and a half.

"Yeah…fast, I was expecting them to spend a little more time. They have around two hours left," I mumbled and got up.

Jumping down from the area I was in, I began walking towards Ingvild's group. Yawning one more time, I glanced at the water's surface and began to change it slightly—the area began to emit a faint luminescence, and silhouettes of small aquatic life began to dance around the cove.

Everyone there was mesmerized by the sight. However, one person never took their eyes off me. Ingvild stood there, her arms in front of her, blushing.

Large and glimmering shapes of jellyfish began to swim around us as I arrived in front of Ingvild and took her hands into mine. Her mother and friends were holding back their excitement and squeals as they watched this happen, and I strangely felt nervous about the entire thing.

"Mmm…do you want me to be romantic about it or blunt?" I asked. The faces of her friends and mother dropped, but to their surprise, Ingvild began to laugh uncontrollably and embraced me instead.

I took a deep breath and said, "In all reality, because of my existence, I brought a lot of trouble to our universe—perhaps this omniverse. People suffered because of me, but I'm trying my best to fix that."

Ingvild stared at me, not saying a thing, so I continued.

"You said to me after the Rating Game between Rias and Riser that you wanted to live this age with me. Has that changed now, Ingvild? In the future, my life—our life—will be filled with challenges that no normal couple has to go through, you know? You can always tap out if you want."

After I found out that most of the reasons why this universe of the Draconic Deus was suffering because of me and the various universes and worlds out there were because of my reincarnation and existence—Nyarlathotep and Lapis' existence killed many of those places.

The Khaos Order was born because they wanted to unite against me—in reality, if this universe stayed the same as all the other timelines, they would have an easier time overall with Issei and Team [DxD] dealing with the normal 'canon' threats.

I have had these thoughts for the longest time—that I should exist—but saying those words out loud would probably upset a lot of people.

Ingvild touched my cheek, warmth radiating from her touch. "That hasn't changed at all, Aaron. The longer we spent with each other, the more friends and comrades we made, the more I wanted to say it to you again and again. Even now—"

"—I want to live this age and many more with you, Aaron. That won't ever change."

"I see…then will you marry me?"

"Of course you'd be lost without me and everyone else, right?" she asked and giggled.

I probably would. Leaning down, I captured Ingvild's lips, sealing the deal, and everyone around us cheered.

"Give me grandchildren and come visit me in a different timeline, In-In!!" her mother shouted, clearly crying.

What in God's name did you guys talk about? After we heard that, our kiss was broken as she started laughing, confusing her mother.

"I'll make sure to make that happen, ma'am; leave it to me, and I'll take care of Ingvild," I told her.

Ingvild's mother and her friends seemed relieved after hearing this, and their bodies began to shine. Her friends began crying and waving to her.

"Ingvild, I want to see you again!!"

"Visit us if it's possible!"

"Let's go play on the beach again!"

One by one, they said those lines and slowly faded away—happy smiles and tears were shed for their friend. Ingvild's mother walked over to us, and she embraced her daughter.

"Take care of yourself…okay? I may not be your original mother, but I can say with confidence that we definitely think the same things. You've grown up big and strong, and that's all a mother would want from their child," she told Ingvild before kissing her on the forehead. "Bye bye."

She looked at me and mouthed, 'Take care of her', before finally fading away. Ingvild, who had been holding back her tears, started crying as she finally closed this chapter of her life. In the end, she managed to say goodbye to her mother and friends from 100 years ago.

Taking a step towards her, I embraced her from behind and said, "Let's go home…"

With tears still streaming down her face, she smiled and agreed. "Mmm…our home…"

— ○ ● ○ —