While Serafall and Wukong were talking, a soft thud of knees hitting the ground could be heard and everyone looked at the source of it, only to see Ais on her knees, breathing rapidly while also clutching the shaking Lysa strongly to her stomach.
"Ais!? What's wrong!?" Lefiya immediately went to her side along with the other girls of the Loki Familia.
"Could it be a side effect of her transformation!?" Tenestra muttered loudly which made everyone nervous.
Line was already at her side and trying to diagnose the problem but she also had the same guess as Tenestra.
But while they were trying to calm Ais down, Wukong approached them and said, "You don't have to worry about her. But I would like to apologize on my companion's behalf."
Everyone turned to her, including Ais who doesn't know exactly what just happened.
"Both of you are young Dragons and seem to be unaware of how dangerous the world could be." Wukong continued, "You just felt the aura of a very dangerous kind of Dragon."
Ais thought back and it was indeed it when the strange man arrived that she and Lysa suddenly froze in fear, "D-Dragon? He's a Dragon?"
Wukong rubbed his beard and replied, "Yes. But after that initial encounter, you should be able to get used to his presence, so just endure it for now."
"I too, apologize for his sudden appearance." All of a sudden, while the Deities were retreating, a voice came from above them. And when they looked up, Sona, whose hair grew longer and with five pairs of Devil wings behind her, descended along with Irina and Akeno, who also possessed five pairs of Fallen Angel and Angel wings of their own.
But before Sona could reach the ground, a shadow tackled her, "Sona-chaaaan!!! I missed you!!!" She was pushed back and only Serafall's trailing voice could be heard.
Irina and Akeno landed on the ground as if none of that had just happened with the latter immediately greeting Hestia, "Hestia-sama, it's been a while. I hope you're doing great."
Irina, on the other hand, immediately grabbed her hand excitedly, "Hestia-sama! I really missed you!"
"Akeno... Irina..." A bit of tears came out of Hestia's eyes, "You've grown." She then grabbed both of them and hugged them tightly. Although they didn't receive their Falna from her, she still considered them as her own children.
Naturally, both Akeno and Irina know that this wasn't the right time to have a sentimental reunion, "Hestia-sama, please cooperate with Rossweisse to transfer your barrier to the floating island."
Hestia looked up at Akeno and asked, "Rossweisse?"
Akeno pointed up and when Hestia looked up, she saw more people coming down.
In the lead was a tall beauty with long and straight silver hair, wearing white and silver armor. Behind her was another beautiful woman with blonde hair and a very soothing aura surrounding her. As they landed, the silver-haired woman immediately introduced herself, "Nice to meet you. I'm Rossweisse." Followed by the blonde-haired one, "And I'm Asia Argento. It's very nice to meet everyone."
It wasn't just them but more people could be seen coming down and some of them just came straight to them when the enemy Deities started retreating. Soon a round of introductions started with the children of various Familias and even the Xenos being included in it.
However, there's one person who's clenching his fist so hard that his palm started bleeding and he wasn't feeling any negative emotion but hope, '...If it's them...'
He took a heavy step forward and took a deep breath. Those around him noticed his strange demeanor and called out to him, "Bete? What's wrong?"
But the white-haired werewolf just gritted his teeth and continued his steps toward Hestia, Akeno, and Irina.
His strange fluctuation of aura was soon caught by everyone and interrupted by whoever was introducing themselves now. And even with their eyes full of confusion and concern focused on him, he only stopped when he reached his target.
"Bete-kun?" Hestia wondered what he was up to.
But before saying anything, Bete suddenly dropped his knees to the ground and almost smashed his face on the ground, "Please! Please save my family! I beg you!"
His words of intense desperation were met with silence and those who knew him well were in shock. But after a second, they could understand where he was coming from and turned to Akeno and Irina to wait for their answer.
Akeno and Irina were taken aback but only for a brief moment, "Please stand up."
But Bete didn't listen to Akeno and just continued his begging, "Please! I beg you! Save my family! I will do everything to repay you!"
"No need for that." An answer suddenly came from behind them and they turned their heads, they saw Sona fixing her glasses and dragging Serafall who was rubbing her face with a disgraceful expression on her stomach, "It's our intention to help on all fronts."
Bete, with a messed up face, turned to her and asked again, "Y-you'll save them?"
Sona thought that just giving him the verbal agreement won't be enough so she showed everyone her Communication Magic, "Kuroka, Koneko, how is the situation on your side?"
From her Magic Circle, a reply immediately came, [The enemy is already retreating and it seems there's a power that is forcefully teleporting them somewhere, nyaa~ I also found a few settlements within the scan radius. So we can start the rescue effort, nyaa.]
[I also found a few settlements on my side. We're waiting for your signal, principal.]
"Good. You can proceed with the rescue operation. Also, please bring one unit down here and let Bete Loga become the guide."
[Understood, nyaa~ I'll send Saji to take care of him.]
Sona closed the communicator and looked at Bete and said, "Do your best in being a guide."
Bete stared at her for a few seconds but before he could express his immense gratitude, a purple armor landed beside him, "Is this the guy?"
Sona nodded.
Without waiting for any reply from Bete, Saji, in his Balance Breaker, grabbed him by the waist and immediately jumped into the air, "Don't bite your tongue. Point at the direction we should go."
Bete still can't keep up with what's going on, but thankfully, he was able to point in a certain direction due to his instincts.
"Gotcha. Hold on tight!" Now with direction, Saji instantly accelerated and broke the speed of the sound barrier, creating a shockwave, and almost instantly disappeared from everyone's sight.
Those from Loki Familia thought that they heard Bete's shrill scream but thought it was just their imagination.
Clapping her hands, Sona gathered everyone's attention once again, "Everyone's tired so let's move proper lodgings and rest for the time being. Those who want to be guided, please tell me immediately and I'll prepare the proper arrangements."
Editors:
28th00: Yeah, that’s probably a valid reaction to have for Bete. It’s been 7 years for Serafall, she’s really missed her sister, badly. Island Siege Fortress is a GO~! But it being an Island… Did Sona just take her entire fucking academy as mobile fortress to another world? God damn girl.
Goyya: You know where Ophis will get her inspiration.
Everyone was teleported to the floating island and it was then that the Adventurers, Mercenaries, and Xenos finally saw what was on top of it. It was an island full of magnificent and grandiose buildings. From awe-inspiring mansions and humbling towers that were even taller than the Tower of Babel, to buildings from unknown architectural origins, everyone stopped at the entrance of this inconceivable piece of land. They would even believe it if this is part of the Upper World where the Gods and Goddesses all resided.
"Welcome to the Ouroboros Academy." Sona, who was walking in front, turned to everyone and welcomed them while adjusting her glasses, "Riveria, please show our guests the Academy's hospitality. Line, please go with Asia since both of you are going to be busy soon with injured people coming in. Hestia-sama, please come with us and we'll discuss how you'll transfer your barrier over the island."
.
.
.
Riveria led everyone in this world to an unused dormitory that could easily house at least a thousand students with the same quality as a very expensive hotel.
"It has been a while since our last meal so let's go to the cafeteria first," Riveria decided after briefly watching everyone, "We'll talk about your rooms after that."
"R-Riveria-sama..." Unable to contain her curiosity, Lefiya finally asked, "How come you are very familiar with this place?"
As if opening a dam, questions started to burst through, "Right! And they seem to trust you very much!" Tiona added. It was then followed by numerous more overlapping questions like 'What is this place?', 'What is the Ouroboros Academy?', 'How is the island floating?' But ultimately, what they wanted to know the most was asked by Finn, "Who and what are these people?"
Riveria smiled at them and said, "They are people from another world."
Only a few of them were shocked as most of them didn't even understand the concept of 'another world', for it's a very foreign idea. Riveria also understood their reaction since most of them haven't been able to leave the continent they are in.
"But before I explain that, let's welcome them first." Riveria continued while looking behind them.
From the distance, the silhouette of multiple people was seen flying towards them and the most striking one among them was the intricate and majestic red armor in the middle and it didn't take long before they reached Riveria's group.
"Freya-sama!" The first ones to approach them were Freya's children and it was soon a cascade of worried children who ran to their Deities to check their health.
Issei, on the other hand, released his Scale Mail and Vali also jumped from his back. While weaving through the crowd, Issei and Vali arrived in front of Riveria and the former said in Japanese, [Riveria-san, I was told to bring them here first.]
[Thank you for your hard work, Issei-san, but I didn't think that Team DxD would be coming over.]
Issei scratched his head and replied, [We were also only informed a week prior.]
Riveria sighed, [I'm sorry for the suddenness, but we're truly glad that we have you on our side. By the way, did that fluctuation of Demonic Power come from Vali-san?]
[Yeah. This musclehead went all out as an opening act.]
[Is that so? That's a shame. I wanted to see it.]
The quiet Vali finally reacted to her words, [Wanted to see it?! No way! I only did that after making sure that you were not around!]
Riveria chuckled and said, [But it's not like I would be able to copy that.]
[That's what you said before proceeding to copy unique abilities from numerous Devil Lineages! Let me remind you that the policy prohibiting the usage of unique abilities in front of you was already passed in the highest Devil Council.]
Riveria went quiet and dumbfounded for a moment before saying, [...They seriously passed that? Aren't they too paranoid... And a bit too late?]
It was Issei's turn to laugh, [Right! They were too late since you have probably already seen most of the Devil's abilities.]
At that moment, green light suddenly emerged from the back of Issei's left hand, [For the long years that I've been alive, this is actually the first time I've seen a whole society passing a law surrounding a single individual. It also doesn't help that you're from Kisuke Urahara's peerage.]
It wasn't just Ddraig who stated his opinion as Albion also had something to say, [You should expect more factions to issue a similar policy in the future. That's how dangerous you are in their eyes.]
Even the two Heavenly Dragons thought that this Elf was beyond ridiculous.
Just in time, their conversation was interrupted by Zeus who feigned a cough, "Ehem... Excuse me. Riveria, do you mind introducing us to these young men?"
"Of course." Riveria also cleared her throat, "This is Issei Hyoudou, the Red Dragon Emperor and this is Vali Lucifer, the White Dragon Emperor. They are Kisuke's close friends."
"Issei-san, Vali-san, this is Zeus-sama, one of the Chief Gods. Behind him, from left to right, are Ouranos-sama, Loki-sama, Freya-sama, Hephaestus-sama, Hermes-sama, Takemikazuchi-sama, Astarte-sama, Demeter-sama, Ganesha-sama, Miach-sama, and Kali-sama."
"Nice to meet you, everyone. I apologize for my crude actions from earlier. I was in a rush." Issei smiled and offered his hand to Zeus.
Zeus received Issei's hand, "It's nice to meet you too and we understand what you had to do. In fact, thank you for saving us. We would have perished if not for the two of you."
Zeus also looked at Vali but the latter just kept silent while quietly sizing up the Deities.
Feeling his rude gaze, Issei immediately went in front of him to block his sights and laughed awkwardly, "...Ahahaha... I'm sorry about him. He's not very good at socializing and a bit of a battle maniac."
"It's fine. He saved our lives so we're still thankful."
Though before they could continue, the shadows under their feet suddenly started emitting Divine Aura that was also foreign to the Deities of this world. Soon enough, the shadow gathered in one place and a head of a black-haired lady peeked from it, [Riveria! Help me look for the stowaways!]
[Stowaways?] Riveria thought about it momentarily and said, [Was it Claire and the others?]
Without any hesitation, numerous Magic Circles appeared around Riveria and as soon as she clapped her hands, the echoing wave of Magic Power spread throughout the surrounding area.
Riveria didn't have to say anything when everyone suddenly heard a voice near them, [Crap, she found us! CHEESE IT!]
The space where the voice came from wiggled slightly before it revealed the figures of three girls. The one who spoke, a girl with grey hair and grey eyes, used Flash Step and instantly disappeared and the other two, a blonde fox girl and a blue-haired girl, also disappeared using Flash Step with the former panicky said, [C-Claire! Wait for us!]
Everyone was silent but Issei and Vali were the most nervous, [...Did you feel their presence?] asked Issei.
[I didn't even know that someone was that close...] Vali answered after contemplating for a bit.
Editors:
28th00: Those kids are absurd and have had almost a decade of dedicated training and (somewhat indirect) tutoring from Kisuke. Not to mention they were already absurdly skilled at stealth from the start, but it only got more ridiculous when they tried to hide from Kisuke and probably got taught quite a few assassination techniques for stealth that are effective on almost everything. Claire, Kunou and Tanis… They’re gonna raise hell, especially when their missing Duo shows up.