Chapter 401: 401: Right In The Bear Trap!
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Chapter 401: Right In The Bear Trap!
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Neji floated over the city of Kuoh for a bit. He had explored a lot of its beauty recently, but he noted some parts were still left to explore. Not that it was important right now – right now, he had to figure out a way to get to the Underworld.
Neji didn't have any teleportation ability that let him go somewhere he hadn't been to before. That was a terrible weakness for someone of his power level, he admitted, but there was no immediate solution to that it seemed.
"Or maybe there is?"
Neji questioned himself. If he spent a minute thinking, he could find solutions that would let him enter the underworld. For example, he could go to Rias or Sona and ask them for the teleportation spell that they often used to return to the underworld. The problem would be, they would be curious why he wanted to go there, and the Satans might thereby come to know about his presence in their home. But that was just one problem he could probably fix if he tried.
There were also other ways he could follow, but really – all these seemed like a one-time path to the Underworld and something that had risks of alerting unconventional people. Was there something that would allow him to go back and forth as much as he liked, while also maintaining a level of secrecy?
"Maybe there is…"
Neji repeated the words, stroking his chin. In the end, he stopped hesitating and decided to visit the Arcane Plane right away. One of the top inhibitors in that continent under Yue knew Space and Dimension Magic, and Neji was betting his coins on that person.
With a click of his fingers, a portal opened to his side, and he slipped into it. Such a portal would usually be noticed by the strongest entities of this world, as it was leading to another world entirely. However, nobody noticed it this time – because this led Neji not to some world in this Omniverse… but one located within his own being. Well, technically.
* * *
Neji didn't have a particular location in his mind, but a particular person instead. He was not here for Yue, but she was the one whom he targeted anyways. He wanted to meet her since he was coming here anyway, even though he wasn't planning to meet many others, such as the Ogre and the Wolf.
When Neji stepped out of the swirling portal, he found himself in a royal bedroom. It was much more royal than any King's bedroom back in DxD World for sure. Grand windows that were veiled with red curtains, and a bed made out of gold and decorated with jewels rested in the center of the room. A white sheet covered the mattress, and a red blanket was on top of it, with a blonde little head poking out of there.
"She is… sleeping?"
The Vampire God of this realm, or at least this continent, Yue was currently asleep. It was certainly odd since she was a Vampire God, not a fledgling.
Neji was a little worried, so he used [Observe] to see if she had any bad status effects. To his relief, there was none, but to his shock, there was something else that was off. Her… level.
[Yue – Vampire God – Level 2498]
'That's… weird. She wasn't this high levelled before. What's going on?' Neji wondered.
Unable to hold back his curiosity, he walked over to her. He would hate to wake her up, but maybe-
Just as Neji leaned over on the bed, the girl's red eyes snapped open. Before Neji could read, the blonde loli moved and her fangs were inches deep on his neck.
"Ah..."
Neji took a sharp breath. No, it's not as if he couldn't react, he just hadn't. He realized she wasn't exactly awake even as she had her eyes open, so he just let it happen – maybe his blood would help with whatever ritual she was performing.
Neji sat on the corner of the bed for a few minutes, with the vampire sitting on his lap with her fangs feeding on his blood. A while later, she withdrew her mouth and gave him a look. Her mouth moved again, but this time she leaned over to his lips to leave a kiss, and then she slumped down on the bed, asleep.
"Odd."
[Yue – Vampire God – Level 2730]
She was suddenly 232 levels higher. Neji checked his stats to see if he lost anything, but to his relief, he hadn't. He was whole, save for his HP which was very low from the blood drain, but it was regenerating fast.
Giving her forehead a kiss, Neji packed her between the bedsheet and blanket again and left the room. Just as he stepped out of the closed door using Kamui, however, something shattered. It wasn't anything physical and made no sound, but something was surely just destroyed. Something magical was around the room, he noticed.
Neji peeked back into the room to see if Yue was startled awake or not, but to his relief, she was still asleep. He pulled his head back from the wall and was about to shrug when he blinked at the person who had just appeared in front of him.
"Oh, it's just you. I almost thought someone attacked the castle." Said the gray-skinned dark witch, looking at him eye-to-eye as she hovered inches above the ground.
"Raven!"
Neji brought the shorty for a hug, even as she tried to escape, but she didn't resist once he caught her. She just stared into his eyes, at his small smile.
"I came to see you in particular, you know?"
"You look more depressed than the last time we met seven days ago, but back then it was understandable given the circumstances, as you were searching for the first of your five lovers. It should have been about 70 days for you since we met, have you found any yet?"
Raven made Neji blink again, as his smile dropped. He was smiling, so it was odd seeing her say he looked more depressed.
"I, uh…"
"I am not a good person to talk to about this, please. Just tell me what you wanted from me and I will go prepare. I will… call that Toga girl for you, I think it's better for you to talk to her than me."
Neji sighed, giving her a nod. Instead of the hallways, he used his Jogan to locate an open room and teleported there with her. It was a room with two massive windows, showing the medieval city below. Neji dropped Raven to a couch and sat down on another couch opposite hers.
"First of all, what's up with Yue?" Neji asked.
"Vampire Sleep. She doesn't need sleep as a necessity, but if she does decide to sleep for a prolonged time it helps her level up. Plus, she said someone was killing the other Bosses in the continents on the other side of the endless sea, and parts of the essence of everything that was killed rushed to her. As she is a Boss recognized by the system, yet someone the Gamer has chosen to make his subordinate, she can gain such stray essence."
That must be Kurai she's talking about. The mention of that suddenly made Neji realize that all these continents had a different time flow because for Kurai it had been two months and more, while here the time had flowed ten times slower than Neji's time. Weird, but useful.
"Sleeping also happens to enhance those gains, so she decided to sleep. She asked me to put a Time Dilation barrier around it, to make the seconds outside be days inside. I spent quite a time preparing the spell, and it also needed a lot of material sacrifices to cast. Once someone was to walk out of the room, the Dilation would have broken. Sadly, instead of Yue, you happened to be the one to walk out. Haah." Raven released a long sigh when she finished, bothered by the fact that she would have to set it again.
"My bad."
Neji snapped his finger.
"There, it's back up. Easy enough."
"…"
Raven gave him a dry stare, opening her mouth to protest until her senses told her the truth. He wasn't lying, the spell was suddenly repaired.
"Looks like I can do that now, huh? Pretty neat. Anyway, it should work as previously intended, since it's my domain I just reversed it before it broke. I am glad Yue is growing stronger, even if… you haven't seen much growth."
[Raven – Demon Spawn - Princess of the Dark – Level 951]
It was not one level more than they first met, and it had been more than 15 years since then, due to Neji's 153 years of sleep in the void. So it was a little… disappointing.
"Sadly, yes. I am much rather busy practicing and researching dimension magic, even if I am still unable to find a way out of this dimension. There is another reason, but- no, never mind."
Raven didn't want to leave this world, per se. She was hiding here, after all. Hiding from her father, Trigon the Devil. She had slipped into this world because the universe let her, and while this was safe she feared that Trigon might one day find her here, or invade this world using her body as a portal – as was the original intention of her birth. On that day, she wished she had the spell that'd let her escape this domain so that Trigon couldn't do anything.
"Speaking of Trigon," Neji decided to release a bit of his divinity. Not as a flex, but as a genuine question. "Do you think I can beat him now?"
[Blank] wouldn't usually let her sense his power, so he released his mana and divinity to let her sense it. To his surprise, she gave a hearty laugh, very uncharacteristic of her. She just shook her head at him at that.
"You are very strong, both in level and divinity but… No, father is too much. As an infant, Trigon slaughtered the very cult responsible for his birth including his own mother. In less than a year, he had conquered the entire planet. By the time he was six years old, he destroyed his home world and began traveling across the cosmos in search of new planets to conquer. By the time he was thirty, Trigon had conquered his entire dimension and several million worlds."
"Oh," Neji blinked. "Alright then."
Oh right, Trigon was also the father of all seven deadly sins across the entirety of the DC Multiverse. Neji didn't know for sure, and he could never be sure with comic-book characters brought to life, but it seemed there was 'one' Trigon who was interpreted differently across the entire DC Multiverse. So while he may be in multiple DC worlds at the same time, and while there were countless Ravens across the existence, there is only one true Trigon. That made the mad demon closer to God than most other characters.
"Anyhow, that's not important. You said you had a request, tell me about it. By the way, I mentally notified Toga, she will be here soon."
Neji hesitated now. He hadn't thought of this when he came here, but would she comply? He knew how ridiculous it must have sounded from her perspective as he spoke the next words.
"Uh… I am trying to find a dimensional spell that'd allow me to enter the Underworld. Would you happen to have one?"
The traumatized daughter of the Devil himself, she who feared and hated Hell the most, stared at him dryly as he asked her a way to that exact Hell.
….
It took Neji a while to convince her that it wasn't about Trigon, this wasn't the same hell, but she insisted on not believing him. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to ask her if he could beat Trigon, that gave her the idea that he wanted to challenge Trigon, and she wasn't letting him go get killed.
After a while, he finally managed to convince himself that this wasn't the same Hell. This was an 'Underworld' inhabited by devils who looked just like humans but with bat wings. That this was a much softer world than where she came from, that it was okay.
"Fine. You can absorb magic as a skill if it's in a book, no? I will go pick up a book that suits you, wait here." – was what the hellspawn had said as she walked away.
By then, another hell spawn slipped into the room and jumped at Neji.
"Boss! You're here again!"
"Hey, Toga."
Toga ran through the door and jumped on his lap just as Raven vanished. Neji caught her, catching a soft kiss on his lips, before she grinned.
"Blood?"
"Go ahead."
Then she dug her fangs on the opposite shoulder where Yue had bit earlier. Another rush of blood slipped out of his veins, but this was bearable as his HP healed faster than it was being depleted.
As Neji let Toga feast, her body pushing against his, her voice twisting out moans, her thighs rubbing on his crotch, Neji would have given in if not for a… familiar gaze. Neji's head turned to the door, where he noticed two purple-blue eyes staring at him.
Nemuri Kayama – Midnight's eyes locked on his as her lips shook. She quickly turned around and left the vicinity. Neji's fingers twitched, with an urge to run after her but… he knew things were too awkward for him to do so, even if she did cry that day and said she forgave him. He could approach her, but things would never be the same – and he feared anything new between them to not be as interesting as it once would have been… so he left her alone, just as she did. For now.
About half an hour later, Raven returned with a book. Upon touching the cover, a prompt appeared in front of Neji.
[The spell - "Dimensional Travel" is presented to you. Would you like to learn it as a Level 1 Skill?]
[Yes/No]
* * *
Neji used the spell with no exact location in mind, simply wishing it to take him to the Devil Underworld of this dimension, but in a secluded place away from people.
However, the spell betrayed him.
Instead of appearing in a secluded place, he appeared in front of one of the Satans.
He had felt the pull, a sort of trap to bring any uninvited guest who was strong enough to require attention to end up here, instead of their desired spot, but he couldn't work around the pull. Someone more experienced could perhaps do that, but Neji couldn't.
Even after all this, he had appeared right in front of a Satan. Plus a maid, who seemed just as strong. Meaning two Satan classes.
Sitting behind a table with stacks of paper on it, the Satan blinked at him while the maid sitting opposite her wore a confused frown. Neji sighed, shaking his head as he thought of how to get out of this situation.
[Serafall Leviathan – Devil – Tier 44]
[Grayfia Lucifuge – Devil – Tier 42]
"Whoa, damn. To think there is someone strong enough to require our attention yet somehow amateurish enough to fall for this trick. I shouldn't have been so mad at poor Ajuka-chan when he set this up. Are you seeing this, Grayfia-tan?"
The magical girl Serafall-tan said as Neji shot her an annoyed glare.
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Master4thWall Note: Aaand, right in front of a Satan we go-! At least it didn't fail so much that Neji ended up in front of Trigon, right? Right? But perhaps that didn't change much since- *dies*.
Q- Idol or Maid? Who do you like better?
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