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70.03% Winds of Change (DxD) / Chapter 183: Chapter 8 - Part 2 - The Vampire Who Transcends Gods and The Evil-Eyed King Who Dominates Space and Time

章節 183: Chapter 8 - Part 2 - The Vampire Who Transcends Gods and The Evil-Eyed King Who Dominates Space and Time

Kecate Tepes' Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

Lying, cheating, and taking advantage of others—that's the kind of life I've led so far. From the moment I came into this world, I was unwanted and unloved. If that was my fate, perhaps they should have killed me the minute I was born. Children shouldn't be subjected to that; they're meant to be unconditionally loved. That's what I read in books.

Before going down a path that I knew would eventually lead to my demise, I wandered the world. Pretending to be human and trying to form normal relationships, but...that went as well as tragedy-stricken films.

But I kept trying; I didn't want my first experience to dictate how the rest would be, but time and time again, they kept telling me otherwise. In conclusion, there were no good people in the world, at least no good from what I could see. They were all liars; there was no one genuine left. If a world like that exists, I don't want to be part of it; it makes me sick.

If I can't genuinely smile and live a happy life in this world, I'll just destroy it and start anew. I'll create a world where it's fair and no one will be sad, homeless, or left to fight for themselves.

I'll become a tyrant where no one can defy me. I'll ascend to the level of the gods if I have to.

This world will remember me for years to come as a person who brought happiness to it.

— ○ ● ○ —

Standing on a distant mountain, I watched the scenery in front of me as hell rained down upon the new vampire faction. Vampires, Super Vampires, magicians, a few Divine Beasts, cryptids, and the members of Exiled Harmony attacked it.

Ayumu was already gone, and he hopes to come across the Middleman or someone worthy to fight, although my gut feeling tells me that he'll find someone else today. As I watched from my perch, two individuals appeared in front of me.

"…I didn't think we'd meet like this, little Valerie," I said as I stared at Valerie Tepes and Gasper Vladi. "The son of Lord Vladi is here too; how cute. You've certainly become a lot manlier."

"…You're my half-sister?" Valerie Tepes asked, unsure.

"Indeed I am. Kecate Tepes, that's what I'm called. How do you do? Will you call me Onee-chan, Valerie?" I asked. I expected her to look at me with disgust, but instead she looked at me with sorrow-filled eyes.

"If I do, will you stop this?"

"Unfortunately, I will not. This world is too corrupted and disgusting, so I will correct it. If you two join me, I will spare anyone you love; I give you my word," I told them.

"The vampire factions were devastated a few months ago, and they're only getting back on their feet; why are you doing this? Don't you think they suffered enough? Most of the Tepes faction was wiped out because of the Khaos Order!" Gasper shouted.

I smiled and giggled to myself, confusing them. "I was the one who leaked information to the Tepes faction; I was the one responsible for their downfall. I detest them, I abhor them; the Tepes, especially the corrupted ones, need to be eliminated."

Pointing my finger at Gasper, who looked very angry at me, I said, "But you two are exceptions. There are still corrupt vampires in the new faction, so let us kill them all and start anew. After that, we'll continue with the rest of the supernatural world and then the human world."

"I refuse. I don't know what you went through, nor can I pretend that I'll understand how you feel, but all you need to do is find the right people to experience life with! …I may have felt a bit like you at some point; I was scared of the outside world and hid myself away, but…"

Darkness shrouded Gasper Vladi's body as it slowly increased in size. "I met my master, and she showed me a new family, and through that, I met a man who helped not just me but many people. You know about it; it's impossible for anyone not to. He's showing all of us that there's a brighter side to life and kind people still exist…so don't give me that crap!"

"Gasper…" muttered Valerie; she seemed quite emotional towards her friend.

I scoffed. "A world he pursues…I can't support it; there is no guarantee that it will always be like that. He has to put trust in others for it to work, and nine times out of ten, you can never fully trust them as they'll change their minds in a heartbeat."

It seemed our views were vastly different. For them, a hero—a prince—came and saved them. But to me, they never came. I was left by myself; I had to pull myself out of whatever mess I was put in. Whether or not I was the one responsible for that, is debatable.

"Your—no, his ideal world, or mine? Which one will be realized sooner? How about we see?" I asked and began to power up.

Gasper Vladi's body changed, and he turned into a five-meter-tall monster made of darkness that resembled a dragon. Beside him, Valerie Tepes also spread her bat-like wings, and her body was shrouded in a crimson-red-silver aura. Numerous spears made of blood appeared behind her too.

"You're not the only one who can manipulate blood, Valerie. We're sisters after all," I told her while also creating various weapons made of blood behind me. I still have one more trump card if I'm backed into a corner, but I'll save that for when the time comes.

— ○ ● ○ —

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

In an artificially created dimension of Kyoto, a few lower members of the Exiled Harmony made their way to various parts of each of the Five Principal Clans. This was a last-minute decision by some of its members, and the leaders agreed to it, as they thought the commotion in the new vampire faction would draw most of the Middleman's attention.

"We're here; let's go!" shouted one of their members.

They had arrived at the perimeter of the Himejima clan, and as they were about to run in and start attacking the surrounding areas, a large number of them were set ablaze as a flaming tornado appeared in the middle of their large group.

"W-w-what the hell!? We were spotted!?" a female member asked.

"No, they were expecting us!" another replied.

"Bingo!" a voice said. When all members of this group looked up, they saw a figure that was familiar to them.

"…Khh! Atsutarou Himejima!!" another exiled Himejima clan member screamed in fury. "You betrayed us!?"

Atsutarou put a curled finger under his chin. "More like given a new lease on life, and I'm enjoying it. You guys probably won't accept it if we tried to offer it, so…die!"

An enormous fireball left Atsutarou's hand and killed more of the group's members. They began to panic and run around and away from the man in the sky.

"Don't panic! Kill him!" a member shouted. Countless magic circles appeared around the area, and then hundreds of elemental attacks flew towards Atsutarou.

Atsutarou smirked before thousands of silvery-white, distorted blades came out of the grounds, destroying the magic and a few of the members of the faction.

"Wha—!? We thought that the Middleman was in Romania!" a male member shouted in surprise.

"Oh, he is," replied Atsutarou as he landed on the ground. From behind the trees jumped out…Shin, Aaron Toole's [Canis Lykaon]. "But Jin knew you would try to attack the clans during your operation, so he had Shin here to help us."

Shin, who was in his adult form, wagged his tail beside Atsutarou. Then, at various points in the artificial dimension, elemental attacks started to explode, alerting them even more.

"You…!"

Grinning even more, Atsutarou said, "We were ready from the beginning; we knew about it, you dumbasses!"

"Shit! We need to inform the others! Why can't I contact them!?" another asked in a panic.

"Because they've been cut," said another voice. From a different building, stepped out a man wearing Chinese attire and a spear.

"…Shit! Cao Cao!? Are the Hero faction here too!?" another asked. As they did, numerous holy swords appeared from the ground, impaling some of them.

"Fufu, we are~," said Jeanne. Seconds later, various large monsters started appearing around the realm too.

"…[Annihilation Maker]…fuck, we've been set up!" another shouted.

"Jin-san knows of all your movements; it really doesn't matter what you do in the future; he's already 'seen' it," said Georg as he teleported beside Cao Cao and Atsutarou.

"Is everything done on your end?" asked Cao Cao.

Georg nodded and fixed his glasses. "Yes, it is. Teleportation, communication, and certain other spells have been restricted. All we need to do is clean up here and wait for the news over in Romania."

After hearing that, most of the Exiled Harmony members fell into despair. Their plan—the one that they thought would work—was already flawed from the very start.

Anger boiled over in one particular faction member, and green flames erupted from his body. "I'll goddamn die trying to end this clan; I don't give a shit anymore!!" he roared before firing an enormous blast of flames towards Atsutarou's group.

Shin stood in front of the attack, and summoned a golden-blue blade in his mouth. He then swung it horizontally and cut the attack in half; his attack kept slicing through it until the blade aura reached the man and sliced his chest open.

"A…fucking…dog…killed…me…?" he muttered before falling on his back and bleeding to death.

Atsutarou stared at the dead man before going over to him and closing his eyes. "Let's finish up then; it won't take too long."

All three agreed with him, and they went their separate ways. He stood there for a few seconds before looking at the various battles happening around him.

"Do I deserve a second chance like this?" he shook his head and sighed. "No, Shuri and everyone else already told me I do; I need to stop."

— ○ ● ○ —

"Onii-san…" muttered Genbu Doumon.

"Yo, Genbu, you seem well," said Ayumu. He waved at his little sister and smiled at her. It had been years since the two of them met, and now they reunited like this.

"Everyone in the clan thought—"

"I was dead? Yeah, typical. Well, it won't matter now; if I can just kill some of the geezers over there, then I'll be satisfied," said Ayumu, interrupting Genbu.

Genbu shook her head furiously. "…That won't happen. Jin-san predicted that some of your members may attack the clans, so he's already…"

Ayumu clutched his stomach and laughed. He laughed so hard that he nearly lost his balance and fell from the roof of the building. He stopped and got his foothold back. A small tear appeared on his cheek, and he wiped it away.

"Ah, yeah, I expected that, but I guess those idiots didn't. Even after I tried to warn them, it's unfortunate," he said and shrugged his shoulders. "Hmm? Ah! If it isn't the famous Vali Lucifer…hmm-hmm, are you in a relationship with my sister?"

Vali Lucifer had arrived beside Genbu in his [Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive] armor; he had left Calantha earlier since she had her own battles to go through. He had taken his older brother's advice and stayed with Genbu, much to the girl's surprise. The young Lucifer didn't answer, as he simply put a reassuring hand on Genbu's head, making the girl blush.

A smile appeared on Ayumu's face. "Actions speak louder than words, Vali Lucifer, and I appreciate that. Very well! I approve of this relationship! You have my blessings; however, this is where we part ways, Genbu."

Ayumu brought out a small pocket watch and spun it around his finger. Genbu and Vali stared at it with confusion, and Ayumu said, "Do you like it? It's my Artificial Sacred Gear [Chronometer Blessing]. I like the name; how about you?"

"…You've gotten better at naming things, Onii-san," replied Genbu, making Ayumu smile.

"Since you're my adorable little sister, I'll tell you about its abilities, but—!" Ayumu winked, and numerous star-shaped attacks appeared around them. "I won't make it easy for you~"

Vali raised his hand and shouted, "Compress!"

{Compression Divider!!!}

The star-shaped attacks around them began to halve until they disappeared. Ayumu clapped at Vali's prowess.

"Marvelous! As expected of the strongest White Dragon Emperor in history. You're surely making your older brother proud, right~?" he asked, and Vali shrugged in response.

The pocket watch began to spin, and both hands stopped at two. "Oh, lucky me!" snorted Ayumu before a gigantic mechanical golden tortoise appeared behind him. He waved at the two, who were surprised by this, and stood on top of its head.

"Do you like it!?" Ayumu screamed. He then created a magic circle near himself and Genbu and spoke into it. "I've always been lucky, right? So I asked Satanael to make a Sacred Gear based on luck. Each number on this Sacred Gear gives various effects; most of them will benefit me, but if the hands land on the same number twice, I'll get a negative effect."

"I-if they land on different ones?" Genbu asked worriedly.

"I'll get two effects at once! Of course, if they land on the same number twice, I'll get double the negative effects!" he explained and dismissed the magic circle.

[Chronometer Blessing] was the type of Artificial Sacred Gear that would only ever benefit the luckiest of people, such as Ayumu Doumon. If any normal person used it, a lot of negative things would befall them.

"Genbu, let's destroy it quickly," he told her.

"Mmm!"

Around Genbu, large waves of water began to appear; she quickly changed the shape of all of them into large blades, almost like Tobio Ikuse's blades. Vali saw this and smirked.

"Did you model them after Tobio Ikuse?" he asked.

"…I-it was unintentional, but I saw it so often that I just gravitated towards it," replied Genbu.

"Launch them; I'll support you," he said, and Genbu did just that.

Seconds later, her water attacks were thrown towards Ayumu, and as they approached the giant mechanical tortoise, a bright white-yellow light surrounded them. Ayumu created a large defensive magic circle in front of the tortoise, but it was easily destroyed, yet he didn't panic.

As the attacks hit the tortoise, he grinned. "This little thing's defensive power is quite high, so normal attacks like that won't affect it."

"Are you sure about that?" Vali asked.

A large crack appeared on the tortoise's body, and then it eventually shattered, and the attacks pierced its metallic skin, further destroying it, which forced Ayumu to fly away from the mechanical beast. He stared at the destroyed tortoise in shock before it vanished.

"What…? How did you do that?" he asked.

Vali smiled. "I've been training with the use of a certain…clan trait."

'…[Demonic Brilliance of Evil Light], so he has it too, huh? Though many said that Rizevim never truly utilized it since he relied on his [Sacred Gear Canceler], to think that Vali is using it to this degree…' thought Ayumu.

"Interesting! So you have that, huh? This makes this even more fun!" shouted Ayumu as he spun the clock again. It then landed on nine. "Oya? Now that's interesting, fufu."

Genbu and Vali prepared themselves, but what appeared was beyond what they imagined. All around them were….naked women with large breasts and buttocks, leaving both of them stunned.

"Iyaaa~ Vali-kyuuuun~"

"Tooouuch meee~"

"I have a big butt, you knoooow~?"

Most of them…resembled an older version of Genbu and Calantha. Vali's face turned completely red, and so did Genbu's.

"Bahahaha! So you are attracted to my little sister! And that vampire woman, huh? And you're into butts? Quite the opposite of your older brother, although he's mostly just a pervert who likes everything about a woman."

"When they land on nine, they show very lewd things to those I aim the ability at, kukuku! You damn lewd dragon, you're just the same as the Oppai Dragon!" Ayumu shouted before firing attacks at Vali and Genbu.

"Awawawawa!" Genbu panicked, but she managed to create several water orbs and fire them at her brother's attacks, causing both to nullify each other. She also became embarrassed and destroyed the illusions using her water manipulation.

"V-Vali-kun…y-you—"

"…Stop. We can talk about that later, along with Calantha," Vali said, stopping her from interrogating him any further. He was too embarrassed to talk about it. "…Enough."

Vali had enough and didn't want to play along with Ayumu's games, so he dashed towards him and threw a punch at his stomach. To his surprise, Ayumu dodged his attack, albeit barely, as his shirt was destroyed.

"I'm weaker than you, but this Sacred Gear will be my trump card!" shouted Ayumu. He summoned a water ball, to the surprise of Genbu. "Our clan leaders were liars!"

The attack hit Vali and blew him away; however, he wasn't injured at all. Ayumu only wanted to create some distance with him.

"What do you mean, Onii-san!?" inquired Genbu.

"The Khaos Order was able to 'remove' the block I had in me. Atsutarou had his abilities unlocked by the Middleman. We saw it during the game between Aurelia and Baraqiel, so we began research into it, and what do you know? It was possible."

"Some of us are born with a little 'blockage', and if we remove that, then we can use our inherent elemental manipulation. All of us were blessed from the start; none of us were 'forsaken' by our gods! …That meant our elders and executives were far too stupid to even look into it!" explained Ayumu.

Ayumu began to create several things with his water manipulation, from weapons to animals and all sorts of other things. Thousands of weapons and creatures were created behind him, and they floated there idly.

"It seems I'm gifted at it too, heh, we're really siblings, huh? How is it? Do you like it, Genbu~?" he asked.

"I always knew Onii-san was amazing; even back then, when you couldn't use it, you won at many things. So you being able to do this…isn't a surprise to me," replied Genbu.

"Fufu, thank you. Now then, let's continue!!" he shouted and launched his attacks towards them. At the same time, he activated his Artificial Sacred Gear, and the hands began to spin. They stopped at…twelve! "Twelve, huh? That's rather troublesome for you guys," he muttered.

The attacks he sent to them suddenly multiplied by one hundred, shocking them. Vali put his hand forward and used his [Compression Divider] again, but he noticed that not all of them were compressed, so they were forced to avoid the attack. When they looked back at Ayumu, there were also one hundred clones of him.

Thankfully, this only lasts for a few seconds, but it's a bit annoying—still, when used along with my attacks, it's quite lethal... Well, to the normal folks," said the original Ayumu.

"Because we're the greatest!!"

"Greatest!! Banzaiii!!"

The numerous Ayumus began to cheer and laugh. The original shook his head, but a few seconds later they disappeared. He then activated it again, and the hands stopped at one.

"Oh, a simple one; I like it," he said, and a scythe appeared in his free hand. It resembled any normal scythe; however, its handle was aqua blue, and its special property is that it can 'cut' most things, much like Tobio Ikuse's blades.

Unlike Tobio's blades, it can't cut magic, concepts, or space-time. However, it can easily cut apart any physical object. Satanael had tried to replicate that ability of [Canis Lykaon] with the help of Promestein and the other researchers of the Khaos Order, but was unsuccessful.

"Hmph. I'm used to dealing with scythe wielders," said Vali. After all, he had to deal with Tobio and Aaron, and he was used to dealing with both Gin and Shin. In a way, you could call Vali a veteran at facing people like this.

Ayumu disappeared, appeared beside Vali, and swung his scythe towards the young man. Vali grabbed Genbu and pulled themselves back to avoid the scythe. At the same time, the young Lucifer fired a point-blank demonic attack at Ayumu, who dodged it, but a part of his side was blasted away, leaving a small gaping and bleeding hole there.

Genbu gasped but couldn't do anything, as they were enemies. This didn't deter Ayumu, as he continued to swing his scythe at the both of them. Vali dodged his attacks while holding Genbu, who didn't do anything to retaliate as she still cared for her older brother, but at the same time, she felt conflicted as she wanted to support the man she loved.

As they continued their battle in the air, Ayumu asked, "What's wrong, my dear little sister? Aren't you going to attack me too?"

"…I can't. I can't attack Onii-san; I can't do it," replied Genbu, nearly in tears.

Vali made sure not to lethally attack Ayumu, as he knew that these siblings needed this. So while he fought him, he made sure to keep on dealing damage to him while using moderate power; he didn't want to accidentally knock him away or instantly kill him.

'Stay with Genbu if possible.' The words that Aaron, his brother, told him repeated in his mind. He wasn't sure if he was doing any justice to the words imparted to him, but he believed that he was doing his job.

"I am the villain, Genbu. You have to," he said, backing away from them. He used his Sacred Gear again, and it landed on six and twelve. "Oh dear, I'm very lucky today."

His scythe disappeared, and a small circular bubble covered Ayumu. Along with it, two submachine guns appeared on both his hands, and then behind him, what seemed to be a female shining figure manifested itself. The figure resembled a cat, and it had its tail wrapped around Ayumu's waist.

"Lock on," he muttered. "Vali-kun, Genbu, please prepare yourselves." He then shot bullets in front of him, but to their surprise, they didn't leave the bubble but were stopped by it. Ayumu kept firing at it until the entire bubble was covered with bullets.

Seconds later, it vanished. The only thing left there was Ayumu, and he was smiling at them. Each one of those bullets was enhanced by magic and also had light properties, hence why they weren't normal bullets.

Hundreds of bullets appeared all around them, and from them, the bullets that Ayumu fired materialized within them and then shot out. However, they had multiplied, and when both Vali and Genbu dodged them, they immediately turned around and flew back towards them.

'Homing bullets!?' Vali dodged them again before using his [Compression Divider], halving some of them before they disappeared. But—

"There's more where that came from!" shouted Ayumu. More bubbles filled with bullets appeared and kept firing at them, much to Vali's annoyance.

Ayumu stood floating there, smiling. "Six and twelve are nothing special. Well, that's what I think anyway. Six gives me these bubbles; I originally thought they were only used for defense, but they can be used a bit more creatively."

"Twelve is a combination of this cat-like thing behind me and the two submachine guns. The cat gives me unlimited bullets and enhances the bullets to be able to kill supernatural beings; the submachine guns also have a lock-on ability, making it easier for me to kill people. Man, Satanael, and those guys really outdid themselves, and I still haven't used my Counter Balance yet," explained Ayumu.

Vali stayed there for a few seconds before looking at Genbu. "If you want to say something to him, do it now."

Genbu looked at Vali with worry but understood what he meant. Earlier, they were told to bring in Kecate and Ayumu; the rest could be captured or killed; it was up to who faced them, but those two were the only ones that Ajuka, Azazel, and a few others in the DxD Alliance wanted to be captured.

He let go of Genbu and began to chant.

"The Pure White Dragon dwelling within me, rise up from your supremacy—"

The silver armor that exceeded supremacy gradually began to form jet-black patterns on it.

{The Silvery-white Morning Star I possess within me, claim the Throne of Dawn—}

In response to Albion's line, the light wings on his back became infused with black. Following that, multiple pairs of new wings extended out of his back.

[The Jet-black God of Infinity—]

"The Mysterious and Unfathomable Father of Devils—"

Twelve jet-black wings grew out of Vali's back. All of the edges of his armor sharpened and took on an organic form. Vali's and Albion's voices then overlapped with each other.

"{We shall transcend the limits to accept the oath—}"

The crest of Lucifer appeared on all of the gems in his armor, and they unleashed a dazzling brilliance of light! The final stanza was chanted by Vali, Albion, and Ophis.

"{[[Thou shalt kneel down before our bright and glorious existence!]]}"

{[[LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLucifer!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]}

{Dragon Lucifer Drive!!!!!!!!}

Ayumu became uneasy. He knew that as soon as Vali Lucifer used this form, he would only have a limited amount of time left on the battlefield. He aimed his guns at him again and fired; the same thing happened as earlier, and more bubbles appeared, and the bullets flew towards him.

As Vali increased his power and output of aura, the bullets that made contact with it disintegrated. He looked at Ayumu, waiting for him to do something. Vali only liked fighting powerful people, but recently he started thinking more about the future. While he was still a battle maniac at heart, the thought of keeping his lineage crossed his mind.

He knew that there were two women that were interested in him, so he knew that he could guarantee children down the line. Also, the thought of fighting his children after he made them powerful made him giddy.

"I'm a single child," Vali suddenly said, surprising both siblings. "But over the year, I gained an older brother and sister…although I had the older sister for longer. It looks like you harbor hate for the older generation of Doumon and executives, and not the new ones."

"I also know the inner workings of those clans to a degree, so I understand your frustrations. If you felt like that, why not join Aniki's side and take them down that way? Or do you want bloodshed instead?" asked Vali.

"T-things have been getting better too! Aoki-sama has stepped down as clan head and his son has taken the position. You remember him, right? Originally, I was going to be clan head because I was the inheritor of Xuanwu, but I couldn't do it…" Genbu also shouted to her older brother.

Ayumu chuckled. "If only those changes came sooner, things would have been different. Truthfully, I'm happy with what the Middleman has been doing, and I'm glad that the clans are changing, but…I can't stop here. So you two better stop me."

Ayumu Doumon had already made peace with this after Hanezu Himejima's second death. The others with him weren't as flexible and were still out for vengeance, while he didn't mind if they fell here. He had gone along with all the negative energy that the remaining members of 'Connected Harmony' had; he rebranded their name, and created this plan that would also bring down the vampire faction.

In a roundabout way, he had already switched sides after Hanezu Himejima's second death and was working for the DxD Alliance in secret.

Ayumu sighed and prepared his guns. "Come, show me what the inheritor of the Black Tortoise and the true heir of Lucifer can do," he said as he began firing more bullets at them.

Genbu, who clung onto Vali's shoulders, sped towards Ayumu with Vali while the attacks Ayumu sent towards them disintegrated before they reached either of them.

Vali glanced at Genbu, who had created shackles made of water. Vali increased his speed to the point that Ayumu couldn't follow, and they appeared behind him. Ayumu looked at his ankles, and the shackles had been attached to him. Moments later, Genbu increased the weight of those shackles, and he plummeted to the ground.

Ayumu tried to dispel the water shackles with his own water manipulation, but it didn't work. When he looked up, he saw that his end was imminent.

{[[LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!]]}

The armor on his chest and abdomen rattled as they separated and slid open. A muzzle of a cannon appeared and began to charge up as it emitted a great amount of power. After a vast amount of demonic energy had gathered, Vali said to Ayumu Doumon in a calm tone, "This is the end."

{[[Satan Lucifer Smasher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]}

The massive bombardment of silvery-white and jet-black auras was fired out of the muzzle and blasted the man beneath them. Some of the streets, lampposts, and other structures on the ground were destroyed, but thanks to Aaron's barriers, the buildings remained unscathed.

Once his attack ended, they landed on the ground, and Ayumu Doumon lay there alive but unable to move. Genbu had already arrived by her older brother as she started to try to heal him, but when Vali arrived, he made him eat a slime pill and also placed him in anti-magic cuffs.

"You'll live. So, tell us about the other remaining members, you know, the relevant ones. I want to keep fighting," said Vali.

Ayumu tiredly chuckled while Genbu held onto him. "Well, there are three of them; I can sense one of them is fighting Tobio Ikuse, while the other two are...female; it seems like one of them is fighting Suzaku Himejima and the other…heh, the current Ouryuu, how ironic."

"Who's the stronger one?" Vali asked.

"In my opinion, it's the one that Suzaku Himejima is fighting, but I can sense that Lavinia Reni is over there too."

Upon hearing this, Vali became reluctant to go over there. While he didn't mind calling Lavinia his older sister, he was still embarrassed by her over-doting affection towards him, although Aaron wasn't any better, albeit in a different way. (He cooks him ramen when he asks him and fights him; Vali prefers this over Lavinia's constant hugging).

"…I'll join Calantha. Genbu, I'll bring him with us," said Vali. He grabbed Ayumu and put him over his shoulder. "Let's go—" As he was about to fly away, Genbu floated up and pecked him on the cheek, shocking him.

She smiled brightly at Vali and said, "Thank you, Vali-kun."

Vali's eye twitched before he nodded, turned, and began flying away. Genbu giggled and followed after him.

— ○ ● ○ —

"Fufu, it seems Nakagami-kun failed to catch you, Ice Princess. No, should I refer to you as that dragon's Ice Queen? Kuku," said a female.

She had straight black hair with red streaks around her entire head and black eyes with gray pupils. She wore a black and white yukata with falcon patterns on it. On both her sides were two ghostly foxes, one black and the other white.

"…Who are you? You don't seem to be a person from one of the clans," inquired Suzaku.

"I am not. However, I became acquainted with Atsutarou-kun and Nakagami-kun sometime in my life. Ah, I fought someone during our attacks a few months ago, although I was injured," she said.

"Aaron said the one that attacked the Nakiri clan was a man shrouded in darkness; are you saying that was you?" Lavinia asked.

The woman smiled before using transformation magic to change herself into a man, and she smirked at them. "Does this ring any bells?" she asked in a manly voice. After that, she undid her transformation and winked at them.

"I see, so you were him or her…" muttered Suzaku while frowning at the woman. "Why?"

"Risu Maebara, you can call me that. I was just an ordinary woman with nothing better to do. I found out the supernatural was real and wanted to cause chaos. That's all there is to it," she said and giggled.

In other words, this woman was just a bona fide psychopath. She held no empathy or remorse; all she cared about was causing people pain, and she only wanted self-gratification. She wasn't born with anything special; she came from a normal family, a very loving one at that, but she still came out this way.

Risu Maebara's family tried to get help over the years, but every single one of them failed, and they just let her loose. If they didn't, their own family would be torn apart. Risu would occasionally go back to them, act all nice, and then try to ruin them again, and that's when they'd kick her out again.

To Risu, it was a game—a very fun one. She only escalated as she got older, and when she found out that the supernatural was real, she studied magic for a year and mastered it, and when the Khaos Order became prevalent, she joined them because, in her words, 'Why not? It should be fun!'

"You only did this because…it was fun?" Suzaku asked, holding back her anger.

A wide smile spread across Risu's face. "Ara? Did I hit a nerve, Vermillion birdy? You were blessed with one of the best controls of your clan's flames and even inherited the position of clan head and had the Sacred Beast choose you. Aren't you, spoiled in that way?"

Suzaku was usually calm and could think with a clear head, but when her clan and loved ones were involved, she could get a bit passionate about it. As her flames and emotions were about to burst forth, Lavinia hugged her from behind and put her head on her shoulder.

"Suzaku trained hard to be able to do that. It's one thing to have talent and be a genius, but you have to constantly train and grow as a person if you want that title to remain. There are so many people that were labeled as 'geniuses' that disappeared," said Lavinia.

"Cheap words coming from a person who became an orphan twice, haha! Both from her biological parents and Glenda, right? Pupupu, so sad waaa waaa~" Risu raised her hands and did the fake crying motion with them.

Lavinia's lips twitched as she frowned at the woman in front of them.

Risu Maebara loved dealing low blows to people; she would take it a bit further by accusing that person of doing things that weren't true or people they cared about of doing things that weren't true. An example of this was when she accused one of her 'friends' of being a molester, had him isolated, and then laughed it off. People still isolated him even after she openly admitted to lying about it. Doing such things gave Risu Maebara joy—a euphoric high, you could say.

"Are you sure your boyfriend isn't some kind of child molester or something? You know, one would say that having a harem is just openly being cucked or cheated on, especially for the women in it. Isn't he off trying to get pussy every other day? And you trust him? Are you insane? Or are you into NTR and cuckoldry?" she asked, further angering the two in front of her.

Risu just laughed at their reaction. At the same time, she had started to use the Artificial Sacred Gear she had been provided with. [Excels & Specters]. When Satanael first received the document pertaining to this Sacred Gear, he was stunned by how simple it was, and he questioned Risu about it.

Her response to him? 'Because I can fuck with humans more! The supernatural can come after, I guess?' She had wanted this Artificial Sacred Gear to torment humans more, not for combat, but because of how psychotically creative Risu Maebara was, she managed to turn a nearly non-combative Sacred Gear into a very versatile one.

But…

Risu Maebara suddenly fell to the ground. She crashed violently and began to panic; she couldn't feel any magic anymore; she couldn't even see; she couldn't hear or smell; all her senses just vanished. When she screamed, she couldn't hear her own voice.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh Why can't I hear and see!? What's happening to me?!" she screamed. She tried to run away, but ran into a building, knocking herself back to the ground.

"…Are you two okay?" Aaron Toole asked. Lavinia and Suzaku looked behind them, only to see him there.

"W-we're fine, Aaron. Did you do that?" Lavinia asked while pointing at Risu Maebara, who was still screaming below them.

"Yeah, I coincidentally came to this area," he replied.

"You're a terrible liar when it really counts, Aaron," said Suzaku.

Aaron looked away and then back at Risu Maebara. He landed on the ground and approached her while restraining her. His eyes glowed briefly before he squinted at her—he had just looked at her life so far; every grimy detail about it he knew now.

"…Some people in this world are just born different, and not in the good way. No matter how much you try to help them, they'll go down a path that will fuck them over one hundred times over. You're one of them, Risu Maebara," he told her.

What Aaron saw were the multiple attempts of her family and loved ones to try to get her help. In every single instance, she was combative and uncooperative; she tried to hurt them in every way possible; no amount of help would do her any good. The only way he could see a change was if he 'changed' her like Yanuyo and Avezza.

"Middleman?! It has to be you, right?! So you're here!? Fuckboy! Cuckboy! C'mon, you want pussy, right!?"

Even though she couldn't see, she ripped off her clothes and started to…masturbate. Aaron shook his head and sighed. He looked at her, took away her Sacred Gear, forced her to sleep, and finally put clothes on her.

Aaron looked at the Artificial Sacred Gear in his hand. [Excels & Specters], an Artificial Sacred Gear that could force the souls of the dead back to earth and forcefully have them do things for you.

Risu Maebara would force souls to scare humans anytime she wanted; the supernatural was used to this kind of thing, so it never worked on them, but humans were believers and nonbelievers. She liked messing with the nonbelievers the most, and it gave her great joy.

"I'm getting way too many of these things," he muttered before throwing it into his [Inventory]. He gestured with his head, and Risu Maebara was teleported to a cell in Grigori.

"Aaron, she was the person who attacked the Nakiri clan…" Lavinia explained, but Aaron smiled at them and patted their heads.

"Yeah, thanks for telling me. Vali won his fight, by the way; do you wanna join him? He got a kiss from Genbu-chan and is pretty embarrassed about it," Aaron said with a grin.

"What!? Vaa-kun is moving up in the world! I'm so happy~!" Lavinia said before flying away. "Vaa-kun, wait for meeeee!"

Vali Lucifer suddenly shivered as if some kind of bad omen was coming his way…

"Did you really need to say that?" Suzaku asked while pinching his cheek.

"…If I can make her forget what that woman said to her, then it's fine if I sacrifice Vali for a bit," replied Aaron. "How about you? Are you okay?"

Suzaku grabbed his hand and placed it on her cheek. "I'm fine; things like that don't bother me, but let me stay like this for a little bit…"

Aaron pulled her into a hug, and they stayed like that for a bit.

— ○ ● ○ —

"So this is the current Ouryuu? To be honest, you're a bit disappointing when comparing you to Nakagami-kun," said a female.

In front of Ouryuu (Ryuuta) Nakiri was a woman who was part of the Shinra clan.

She had long, curly white hair that reached her hips, piercing yellow eyes, and a single earring on her left ear that was in the shape of a star. She wore a long white coat and had bandages wrapped around her chest; on the core were drawings of tigers and lions. She wore white pants and black tai chi shoes.

"I am still growing, and my older cousin is much more talented than me," replied Ryuuta. He had alone entered his [Dragon Man] form and was fighting this woman.

Reira Shinra was a boisterous woman who could only think with her fists. While she wasn't inherently evil, she wanted the ones who exiled her to be beaten up, not suffer—just that she wanted to beat them up just once to release her anger. But before her stupid nature, she ended up joining the Khaos Order and just went along with it. Some said before she was exiled that she was the female version of Byakko Shinra, the future heir and inheritor of the White Tiger (Baihu).

"Heee? Well then, show me that growth of yours!" she shouted before charging at him while covering her body with touki. As soon as her fist landed on the ground, it created a powerful shockwave that blew Ryuuta away.

Ryuuta landed back on the ground and charged back at her. He manipulated the earth below him and encased both of her legs. Reira Shinra smirked at this and shattered them by slamming her fists onto the earth. She also charged at Ryuuta, and their foreheads slammed against each other.

"Why are you attacking this pantheon!?" he asked.

"I don't know! I'm stupid! But Ayumu said that we can get back at the stupid geezers and assholetives (executives) of our clans by doing this!" replied Reira.

Ryuuta was dumbfounded by this reason. Reira used this as a chance and slammed her touki-infused fist into his face, knocking him away. Ryuuta crashed to the ground but quickly got up and prepared himself again. Reira had already jumped after him, and they began a small fist fight.

Not many can fight Ryuuta when he's in his [Dragon Man] form, but he was surprised that Reira Shinra was able to do this.

A smirk appeared on her lips. "Surprised? Many speculated that I could have been chosen as the next inheritor—if only I was born with the use of our clan's element! …But I guess I can do that now!"

Reira's entire right arm turned into metal, and with her whole body infused with touki, her speed and power increased even more, surprising Ryuuta.

The element granted to the Shinra clan by the Shinto gods was metal. They could turn their entire bodies into it and manipulate the metal around them to some degree, but only the ones who mastered their innate ability could conjure metal. Reira, after her 'blockage' was removed, trained with it and mastered it at an astounding speed.

"Ora! Ora! Ora!!" Reira pummeled Ryuuta with a barrage of punches that pushed the young man back, but the attacks that were sent at him didn't hurt him much because of his current form and powerful touki covering his body.

'Am I getting stronger, or is she weaker? I'm unsure, but…I should be able to win,' thought Ryuuta. He decided to go all out, and when he did, the entire area shook, making Reira smile at him.

"Oh? Are you finally—" She was met with a touki-infused punch to the face, which resulted in her being flung away. Because the buildings were coated in powerful barriers, Reira bounced off them and eventually landed on the ground a few streets away.

Reira quickly got back up, but she noticed she had trouble moving her left arm. "Heh, so he was holding back on me, eh? Whatever…I can still fight!"

As she was about to move, the sky above her darkened. When Reira looked up, her eyes widened in surprise. What she saw was Ryuuta Nakiri above her with a giant draconic ball of energy. Before she could react, he threw it down at her.

An enormous golden explosion covered the area. Once it disappeared, to Ryuuta's surprise, Reira Shinra stood there shakily, full of injuries but still conscious and grinning at him.

"I'm not going down that easily, shrimp!" she roared at him.

Ryuuta was confused by the shrimp comment but didn't care too much. He landed away from Reira, who immediately ran towards him, but it was clear that she was much, much slower now. She still had the fighting spirit, but her spirit towards him was comparable to that of a normal girl her age who didn't do any sports.

She threw a punch in his face, which Ryuuta dodged effortlessly. It had no power or speed, but Ryuuta felt fighting spirit from it. Even though she knew she had no more power left, Reira Shinra kept fighting. In a way, Ryuuta Nakiri, the current 'Ouryuu', could respect it, even if they were enemies.

"You did well, Reira Shinra; please rest for now!" Ryuuta said before sidestepping another attack and punching her in the gut.

"…Nnnghh…!" Even then, Reira didn't fall; she only grunted and swung her fist towards Ryuuta's chest. It hit him but did zero damage. Once she planted her fist on his chest, she fell to the ground, gasping for air.

She finally laid on her back and stared at the sky. "Phew…I give up; I can't win. The only one left is Mikumo Himejima; the rest seem to have already been defeated…well, not including that psycho vampire chick…"

Ryuuta undid his transformation and sat beside Reira. "Not being able to use your clan's element, was that the only reason you were exiled?" Ryuuta asked while staring in front of them. Both of them could still hear explosions happening around them.

"Dunno, like I said…I'm dumb…but I couldn't use it, so they already had grounds to exile me. My folks could use it, and while they still loved me, they couldn't do anything against those shitty geezers," explained Reira.

"…Rakko-san was still the new head at the time and hadn't gotten everyone on her side yet, so they finally kicked me out at the time. I'll admit that I was…rowdy and destroyed a lot of stuff. Even Byakko was a bit tamer than me," she added and laughed.

She then sighed and asked, "So, am I being arrested or something?"

"That's up to Jin-san and the alliance," replied Ryuuta.

"The Middleman, huh? …Whatever." Reira closed her eyes and let the exhaustion take over.

— ○ ● ○ —

A certain group fought off numerous enemies; one of them was Eirisse. With her were Fusae Hirawa, Elmenhilde Karstein, Ursulette, Cindy, Grayfia, Aoife, Róisín, and the Gremory peerage.

"With this, I will become the husband of the Middleman!" stated Ursulette while firing a blast of magic towards a group of artificially created vampires.

"Fufufu, it'll take more than this to impress Jin~" replied Akeno, wiping out another group with her [Holy Lightning Dragon].

"Róisín kiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!" in the distance, Róisín Toole jumped forward and kicked a magician in between their legs.

Everyone around them understood, in that instance, where Aaron Toole got his horrible naming sense from. Cindy and Aoife, who were near Róisín, went along with her strangely named attacks.

Róisín summoned a frying pan that was around twenty times larger than regular ones. She then swung it towards a large group of super vampires, killing some and blowing more away.

"Homerun!" Róisín exclaimed happily.

"W-what the fuck is wrong with this woman?" a vampire asked.

"Having so much power but using it so…stupidly," added another.

Cindy silently flew behind the two; they hadn't noticed her as she had used a certain ability that masked her presence. She put both her hands on their backs, around their chest area, and once she did, their hearts exploded.

Grayfia, who had accompanied them, watched Cindy do her job. While Cindy wasn't new to fighting, she had rarely used her new powers to fight against other supernatural beings, so this was still quite new to her.

The devil maid nodded in approval; she was much weaker than Cindy but still held the advantage of experience in supernatural combat. Meanwhile—

To the two vampires, they didn't feel anything, as it was a sudden death. Maintaining a calm expression on her face, she silently flew after Róisín Toole, who was flying around slamming vampires with her frying pan.

"Akeno Himejima-san, was it? What do I need to do to impress him? Have a close relationship with his mother!? Have bigger breasts!? Join the tournament and win!?" asked Ursulette.

Beside her was Eirisse; she smacked Ursulette on the head and said, "Please focus on this; you can look for a husband once this is over."

Ursulette smirked. "Heh, sure thing, auntie," she said before being smacked again.

Fusae created small spirits like Sylph using different elements and gave them to everyone. While they weren't as powerful as the real spirits, they were enough for low- to high-class powered people to use and kill enemies whose powers were much higher than theirs.

She then turned to Elmenhilde and asked, "Are they always like this…?"

"If the topic is about Ursulette's obsession, then they will usually start insulting each other, but if it's anything else, then they're quite amicable with each other," explained Elmenhilde.

"Rias-nee-san, was it fine to let Gasper-kun and Valerie face that woman?" Yumi asked her [King]. She and Rias casually killed enemies around them while conversing.

Glancing at her [Knight], she said, "It is. Perhaps Aaron brought us here together with Valerie for this very reason—the two dhampirs who were shunned and that were from this faction are now saving them like when Rizevim and the Phantasma attacked a few months back, but this time we're prepared."

"…I see," replied Yumi. There were even more explosions in the distance where Valerie, Gasper, and Kecate were located; some of them turned their attention to them but decided to trust their friends in defeating the last and final leader of this attack.

— ○ ● ○ —

Gasper Balor created numerous shadow-like tendrils and attacked Kecate. The Super Vampire dodged them gracefully, unaware that the male dhampir in front of her was holding back quite a bit.

<<I can sense that you wish to use your new Balance Breaker, other me,>> said Balor.

'…I want to, but she's not a real threat yet, but if she does something to warrant it, then I won't hesitate to use it,' replied Gasper.

<<And our [Breakdown the Beast]?>> inquired Balor.

'…I want to save that for the tournament when we face a powerful opponent or when we fight the Phantasma and Evie,' replied Gasper.

Valerie raised her hand and controlled the blood within Kecate's body, forcing her to stop. The pure blood seemed surprised, but continued to struggle. Valerie crafted a spear made of blood and flew towards Kecate.

"Can't we stop this? We can still—"

"No. You're too naïve, Valerie-chan. Not everything can be resolved using your boytoys ways," sneered Kecate.

Valerie frowned after hearing her half-sister call Aaron her 'boytoy', but didn't say anything. Eventually, a large fist made of darkness flew by Valerie and slammed into Kecate, blowing her away.

"<<Sorry about that,>>" said Gasper. "<<She seemed annoying, so…>>"

Valerie giggled at her childhood friend. "Coriana-san and Tomoe-san are lucky that you show this level of care for them like you do for me. By the way, do you plan on having more~?"

"<<H-how is this relevant right n-now?>>" Gasper asked, flustered.

Before Valerie could reply, a black-pink vortex of energy erupted in front of them. In the middle of it was Kecate Tepes; her power was increasing more and more as seconds passed by, surprising both Gasper and Valerie.

"I've been nice to both of you, but since you won't accept my offer, I'll just have to get rid of you. Please forgive me, Valerie-chan. We can probably resurrect you—no, I'll definitely find a way," said Kecate.

The black-pink vortex turned into a ball and wrapped itself around Kecate Tepes' body. The vortex began to glow for a few seconds until it exploded. The force from the explosion knocked away the weaker members of Kecate's group.

Her previously blonde hair had turned hot pink, and her dull red eyes had begun to glow. Her black, flowing dress had turned into jet-black armor with a cape behind her. In her left hand was a crimson blade made of her own blood; it let out a quiet yet menacing glow.

And behind her was what seemed to be the upper half of a dragon. It had a jet-black body, glowing red eyes, and red streaks across its horns. It also had its wings spread as it glared at both Gasper and Valerie. Crimson flames and blood hovered around Kecate Tepes' body.

"…Gasper, this is…"

"<<Yeah, whatever she did, she definitely entered the realms of the gods. Power-wise, Kecate Tepes is at least a Middle-Tier God-class being. She's definitely on par with combat-oriented gods of this universe,>>" said Gasper. "<<We should—>>"

"Need help?" Aaron's voice asked beside Gasper.

"<<Aaron-nii!>>" Gasper exclaimed as he and Valerie looked at their new companions. Aaron had teleported over along with Suzaku Himejima and Velgrynd.

Velgrynd silently stared at the being in front of her. "A vampire reaching divinity, huh? That's…interesting. Maybe Lapis, or someone from the Evie or Phantasma, left something within her before they were shut out?"

She glanced back at the two dhampirs and said, "…It should be fine if you two fight her. Although you can't underestimate her, otherwise it'll take longer than necessary."

Before Aaron or Suzaku could voice their opinions, Velgrynd grabbed their arms and pulled them away, leaving the two dhampirs to face the pure blood.

"Rank 16 gave me this. It was experimental, but…it gave me a lot of power, but I had to cultivate it and refine it for a little while," said Kecate as she looked at her own hand. "It's the first time I'm using it, but I feel amazing. So this is how gods feel? I can see how they become so arrogant, fufu."

She swung her crimson blood sword to the side, and the force of the swing created such a powerful shockwave that it shook the realm. However, none of the buildings were damaged. She seemed amused by this.

"Fufu, as expected of the Middleman's barriers, even with this power I can't break them." She looked at her own sword and then at both Gasper and Valerie.

Seconds later, she disappeared, and Gasper used his time-stopping ability to freeze her—no, it only slowed her down as she was still moving. Valerie looked at Kecate in shock too, but they quickly moved out of the way and fired magic attacks at the woman. As their attack reached Kecate, the dragon's wing blocked it, shocking them even more.

"<<That doesn't make any sense…how can she still move?>>" asked Gasper.

"Maybe because it came from a different universe, it functions differently? Does that mean even your powerful time-stop can only serve to slow them down?" asked Valerie.

"<<Different universe and different mechanics? But don't they usually change to fit ours if they come here?>>"

"…What evidence do we have of that? If you're talking about video games and media, then maybe, although some of them have different rules. It seems like reality is very different from them," said Valerie.

Kecate Tepes pointed her sword at them and, from the tip, fired a giant beam of blood. Valerie pointed her open hand towards Kecate's attack and also matched it with her own blood beam. The two attacks collided and created a giant explosion, splattering blood everywhere.

Kecate blinked in front of Valerie and swung her sword down at the young dhampir. Valerie avoided the attack and created a small magic circle in front of her before firing a small ice dagger just above Kecate's…woman bits.

The dragon's wing quickly blocked it, and Kecate was shocked by this action from Valerie. To her, it was a strangely low blow, and she wouldn't ever attack anyone like that. She, in her strange way, had her own morals, so she was surprised that Valerie Tepes, her half-sister, would try to attack her that way.

She raised her hand, and from behind her materialized 100 dragons made of blood; each of them was at least high-class in power and had the powers of both a vampire and a dragon while also being resistant to both their weaknesses.

She ordered them to attack everyone within the vicinity, including Aaron, Suzaku, and Velgrynd. As the blood dragons flew away, some towards the two dhampirs, others to the ground behind them, and some towards the town. Gasper Balor spread his darkness, and it covered the entire town.

Even larger tendrils of darkness came out at certain locations to grab the blood dragons and then squeeze them to death. At the same time, distorted blades of darkness also shot out of the ground, piercing some of the dragons.

The enemies around the realm stopped when Gasper created eyes in the darkness, and using his time-stop ability, they were rendered frozen at those locations. The only ones unaffected were his allies and Kecate.

The blood dragons that went towards Aaron's group were also dealt with quickly. Velgrynd put a hand in front of her lips and then brought it down and blew some air towards them. Moments later, the blood dragons spontaneously combusted and vanished.

A moment of silence encompassed the area once the dragons had been dealt with. Suddenly, Gasper put his hand towards Valerie.

"<<Will you let me handle this?>>" he asked his friend. After a moment of deliberation and staring into Gasper's eyes in his form, Valerie agreed.

"…Good luck. I wanted to show off, but I think it's Gasper's turn, hehe," she said and moved back towards Aaron's group.

"Oh, so you're facing me alone, Vladi-chan? Kufufu, I hope you'll entertain me more; I certainly hope you do," she said and smiled while creating more dragons and other objects behind her with her blood manipulation.

Gasper exited his [Forbidden Invade Balor the Beast], even though it was classified as a [Balance Breaker], it wasn't one as it utilized Balor's powers to transform Gasper into the beast while also integrating his Sacred Gear's time-stopping ability.

"Ready?" he asked.

<<Of course,>> replied Balor.

Gasper's entire body was covered in darkness, and his eye began to glow with the use of his Sacred Gear.

"Balance…break…"

The darkness around his body burst outward, covering everything in their vicinity. At the same time, that darkness ate up the objects that Kecate had created, killing or destroying them. A small swirling vortex of blackness and shadows covered Gasper. It then began to stick to Gasper and form clothes on him.

A jet-black cape that covered most of his upper half, golden accessories, and darkness that covered his head—the only things that could be seen from it were his glowing eyes. Even his hair resembled spiky shadows and darkness rather than his normal hair.

His skin had also turned shadowy, and parts of it glowed purple and red. All around Gasper's surrounding shadows and darkness danced silently around him, giving off an ominous feeling. From behind and around him, tendrils and tentacles of darkness with eyes within them started to appear.

[Forbidden Invade Balor the King], Balor was the one who named this Balance Breaker, per his request, as he sees this as the pinnacle of his power along with Gasper Vladi's Sacred Gear. Of course, this was before they unlocked a new one in the form of their [Breakdown the Beast].

"<<Are you ready, Kecate-san? I'd like to test out my official Balance Breaker on someone,>>" asked Gasper.

"Hah! I like it; I'll make you into one of my subordinates, Vladi-chan!" shouted Kecate as she dashed towards Gasper.

As she arrived in front of him, she swung her crimson sword down, and it also created smaller blades beside itself, also attacking Gasper. Gasper looked at the woman, and the sword stopped mid-swing, but her body kept leaning forward. One of the shadow tentacles shot towards her and changed into a large fist, which struck her in the face.

It continued to relentlessly pummel her until another one shot forward and grabbed her waist before flinging her away. Gasper grabbed the crimson sword, but seconds later it turned into normal blood.

"I can only wield that; no one else can, Vladi-chan. Perhaps I need to be more creative; I can't let the adrenaline take over," said Kecate. She raised her hand, and millions of blood droplets appeared in the sky.

Pointing her finger towards Gasper, she shot at him in rapid succession. Some were aimed at Aaron's group and beyond, but just like the other enemies in the realm, Gasper's eyes in the darkness turned their attention to the attacks and stopped them midair.

"Tch, I would use my darkness abilities too, but that would be quite useless now, wouldn't it?" said Kecate.

Gasper shrugged in response before aiming his arms towards Kecate and unleashing a plethora of darkness-based attacks on the woman. Along with it, he imbued them with demonic energy, further increasing their powers.

Kecate tried to block them with her sword but found that she couldn't casually destroy them, so she had to put more power into her attacks. As she did that, Gasper analyzed her movements with the help of his enchanted eyesight and Balor.

'Will that work?' he asked.

<<It is worth a shot.>>

His eyes glowed again, and Kecate's arm stopped mid-swing as she looked at it in shock. She looked back at Gasper as his eyes glowed. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and was forced to move, but felt pain when she did.

'What did he do…? He didn't just stop my arm using his time-stopping ability?' As she looked closer at her arm and body, her eyes widened in shock. "Are you insane!? How's that possible!? You don't have blood manipulation!"

Gasper smirked from under his mask. "<<I was simply curious, so I decided to try it, but I'm glad it worked—freezing your blood cells, that is.>>" He pointed at her and added, "<<If you don't do anything about that, parts of your body may explode from buildup, you know?>>"

'I'll just kill him before that happens!' Kecate knew she couldn't undo it unless she killed Gasper, and even then, she wasn't sure if it would stop since there had been cases where the wielder died, but their Sacred Gear's effects kept functioning.

She rapidly swung her sword with her other hand and sent out blood-red aura blades towards Gasper. She also created magic circles behind her that sent out more elemental attacks, and finally, she shot out touki bullets from the tip of her sword.

A massive bombardment of attacks were sent Gasper's way. Normally a person would panic in this situation, but Gasper raised his hand up, and the darkness around them quickly shot forward and consumed everything in sight. A single crunch sound was heard by everyone before the darkness dissipated and Kecate's attacks were gone.

"<<…While it seems you can move when I use my time-stopping abilities, it seems my darkness is stronger than whatever divinity you have, Kecate Tepes-san. May I suggest surrendering? You are Valerie's half-sister after all, and I can be lenient that way.>>"

"Don't get cocky, Vladi. I haven't used everything I have yet!" Kecate shouted.

She looked behind her before the dragon's eyes glowed. It bit down on her neck before injecting her with even more power than before. However, her body began to glow and began changing into something else. Kecate Tepes' human form began to change into that of a giant beast.

Like her previous summons, it resembled a dragon, and it began to quickly grow in size. Everyone who was floating landed back on the ground. Gasper fired a ball of demonic energy at the monster above them, but his attack was just absorbed by the monster, and it seemingly made it stronger.

"Need help, Gya-suke?" Aaron asked while walking over to him.

"<<Aaron-nii…>>" muttered Gasper. He then shook his head. "<<I will defeat her at her strongest; that will destroy some of her will and make her more compliant.>>"

He chuckled and said, "Gone are the days where you would hide in a cardboard box, huh? You've grown a lot. I'm proud of you." He patted Gasper on the head making the boy blush.

"<<I-I can still grow; I'm not done yet. Please step back; I'll defeat her in one blow once she's done,>>" said Gasper. Everyone walked back and let Gasper face Kecate by himself again.

Kecate Tepes' transformation was finally over. She had transformed into an 80-meter large dragon. She had crimson wings made of blood; her body and scales were mostly jet-black with some glowing red accents; and around her body were small orbs of blood and draconic energy. Her eyes glowed brightly as she stared down at everyone.

Without another word, she opened her mouth and shot out an enormous stream of crimson flames with blood mixed into it. Gasper held his hand up and created a large hand made of darkness that blocked the attack from hitting them. However, to his surprise, his darkness was pushed back, but he noticed that she had also added the 'divinity' she received from the Phantasma.

Gasper used more of his power and pushed the breath attack back by a significant amount, but Kecate did the same thing, but Gasper overpowered her, and he then quickly formed a giant ball of darkness above Kecate. As she tried to escape, hundreds of thousands of tendrils and tentacles shot out from the ground and held her down.

In each one of those tendrils and tentacles, eyes manifested and used their time-stopping abilities, further slowing her down. On the inside, Kecate was still very much conscious and aware of her actions, but she began to panic.

She knew she was going to lose; she couldn't move because of the tentacles and tendrils; her movements were further slowed down by the eyes that stared at her; and she felt her own energy being sucked away as there were small fangs in those tendrils and tentacles that sucked away at her blood, further feeding Gasper.

'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I can't die here…! I don't want to die…! I want to rule everything, correct everything, and make everything…nice! A world where everyone can live equally and happily! That's all I ever wanted…!' thought Kecate.

In her dragon form, a single tear fell from her eye, although only three people noticed it.

"<<Sleep, Kecate-san. Maybe when you wake up again, you'll rethink your decisions,>>" said Gasper.

As Kecate stared at the ball of darkness that began to descend on her—and even though she knew those people wouldn't care about her, her last thoughts were—

'Mama…papa…!' she cried out in her heart.

The massive ball of darkness hit Kecate on the back, creating an even larger explosion. The entire realm was turned pitch black, and powerful winds blew everywhere. The weak were blown away while everyone else stood their ground. Silent yet ominous screams were heard throughout the entire faction as Gasper's darkness devoured the rest of the enemies except one that a certain [Dog] fought.

Once the explosion ended, a small figure lay on the ground with her left arm, right leg, a large chunk of her stomach, and right eye missing. Kecate Tepes had reverted back to her human form after she was defeated and was slowly bleeding to death. Even in this weakened state, tears streamed down her face.

As everyone walked towards her and arrived in front of her, Aaron crouched down and touched her. As he did, he suddenly forced everyone else back, grabbed Kecate's body while healing it, and jumped away while also creating a large barrier in front of them.

"Wha—!? Aaron?!" they screamed. From the spot where Kecate lay, another monstrosity emerged.

He landed beside them and sealed Kecate's power while forcing her back to sleep. He looked back in front of them, and a large monster made of darkness had emerged from Kecate's body.

"They didn't give her divinity since all the other 'gods' of their world have been killed for the sake of Magnum Tenebrosum; that thing is one of the manifestations of the 'things' he made. You could say they're pets he made out of curiosity."

An enormous, shadowy blob with hollow eyes stared at them; it was the same size as Kecate's monster-dragon form.

"Their leader, Phumera, shoved one of those things into her, and it gave her power, but once she was defeated, it would eat her as a sacrifice and then rampage wherever it was sent to," explained Aaron.

'She was used from the moment she was born; what a sad life. Maybe you can be rehabilitated too,' he thought.

"Then—"

"Leave this to me; you guys can go back," ordered Aaron. He left no room for argument, and they obeyed. "Suzaku…"

She nodded and took Kecate, and everyone flew back.

Velgrynd stayed for a second and said, "You can kill that easily; why send us away?"

"I want to see some things and maybe potentially change it into a shadow soldier or even [Electa]. I can probably learn more about Magnum Tenebrosum from this thing," he told her.

"Can't you just 'look' or 'see' into it?" she asked.

"…Didn't I tell you about this during our graduation trip? There is value to hearing certain things from certain individuals—from their own mouths. There's more impact that way. Well, that's just my opinion," said Aaron.

Velgrynd stared at him for a few seconds as she remembered his words from a few months ago.

— ○ ● ○ —

'Why don't you just will these things into existence?'

'…There's a value to these things, Vel. It was made by humans, has aged a lot of years and has sentimental value. If I just made it…it would feel like a new edition or version and wouldn't feel as valuable, even if I made an exact replica.'

— ○ ● ○ —

She said nothing else before flying away, looking back at him one last time before speeding up.

[What's the plan, Partner?] asked Ddraig.

"Let's dive in," said Aaron.

'{[Huh?]}'

He grinned, restrained the beast, and sealed its powers. Aaron Toole then jumped straight into the beast's mind.

— ○ ● ○ —

"Uwaaa!!! What the heck was that!? T-that wasn't Tobio, right?" Kanami asked.

"Obviously not, Sis. He's still over there, and it looks like his fight is about to end too," replied Natsume. "So it was probably Gasper or Aaron."

"Right…right…oh and the darkness and eyes—Gasp-gasp liked doing that in the [Pocket Dimension], right?" asked Kanami.

"Ye—"

Another explosion interrupted the two sisters discussion. At the same time, everyone else gathered up since the enemies around the realm were defeated. The others (Gasper, Valerie, Velgrynd, Suzaku, and the unconscious Kecate) joined them too.

Tobio and Gin jumped towards them, and Tobio had some light bruises on him.

"Tobio! Did you beat him!?" Natsume asked.

He quickly joined them and said, <<Yes, that's what I thought, but he suddenly started laughing, and then…that explosion followed after, and I got out with some light scratches from our fight. It seems like he was at least God-class, so he hit me a few times.>>

Tobio turned to Gasper and bumped fists with him. <<Thanks for letting me finish it and for the help.>>

"I'm glad it worked, Tobio Ikuse-san," replied Gasper.

"It's the same thing happening with Aaron over there," said Velgrynd while pointing in Aaron's direction. She then told them what Aaron told them.

"S-so what the hell do we do? W-wait, Velgrynd, can't you defeat it? Or if we all team up on it?" asked Natsume.

Velgrynd looked at everyone as they turned to listen to her. "We don't know if they're the same thing, so we'll need to wait for it to come out," she said. "And once we see it…" she brought her hand up and showed them her ring.

"Oh! We use the [Appraisal] on our rings!" said Aoife, and Velgrynd nodded.

"The one on Aaron, just from my own instincts, told me that I couldn't fight it. But we don't know about this one yet, and I doubt that things called 'pets' are that close to each other or are that easy to find," she said.

And so, everyone there waited for the thing to come out. Vali walked over to Tobio, who was still in his Balance Breaker.

"How did you beat him?" asked the young Lucifer.

<<A lot of effort. He could keep pulling alternate versions of himself from different timelines, and it felt never-ending. Eventually, I had to use my Abyss-side Balance Breaker and severe that connection, but he surprised me again when he kept connecting it to different ones even after I severed it.>>

<<He never did tell me the full extent of his abilities, or how he could keep reconnecting them, so I was forced to take his life and cut everything off from him,>> said Tobio.

He didn't like taking lives, even from his enemies, but he couldn't follow that ideal forever. He had a wife and child to look after, and they take priority over everything else. So if he had to choose, he would choose them every time.

Another powerful explosion occurred, and they saw a shadowy monster that was 75 meters tall. It had millions of tentacles wriggling around its body, and hundreds of shadow-type creatures circling its body. Unlike the one Aaron was facing, this had the same eyes as Mikumo Himejima, they were red and glowed as it stared at them, then a wide smile appeared on its face.

[Kukuku~ do you like my new appearance?] it asked.

<<…! T-that voice, Mikumo Himejima!?>> shouted Tobio. <<It seems like it's not the same creature, but Mikumo Himejima himself, or they mixed and he retained his consciousness?>>

"You appear to be right, Tobio Ikuse. That thing, while not the same as the pet of the Outer God, is another creature similar to it, a 'thing' born from its own power—the power from that 'pet'," said Velgrynd. "Maybe the leader gave him something similar, or Kecate Tepes gave it to him, assuming it was the same thing."

"Well, the good thing is, it's only Multiversal-class; I'd assume the thing Aaron is facing is stronger, so…I should get Azathoth, or one of the [Electa]'s…" mumbled Velgrynd. "The one with us is with Sae Ikuse and Hana Ikuse, so we can't rely on her, but…"

Velgrynd's eyes naturally drifted to Cindy. She had been changed by Aaron to the new rank of [Outer God – EX] and she could in reality be the one to take care of this, but she still lacked a lot of experience fighting supernatural people.

"I'll fight! But it would be to call someone else, or we could rely on the shadow soldiers…" mumbled Cindy. She jumped on one of the roofs and stood on top of it.

"We haven't been to 'that' place again for a while, but wouldn't this be a good challenge?" said Rias, stepping forward.

"Ah, like all of Team [DxD] fighting together, fufu," said Akeno.

Velgrynd shook her head and sighed. However, she wasn't 'part' of them or [DxD]; at best, she could just call one of them and have it over with, but she was also curious about the outcome. She had seen these people grow from weaklings (in her eyes) to semi-competent fighters, and now she was also curious if they could overcome this foe if she let them fight it while also watching over them.

If things did go south, she would contact another [Electa] or order the shadow soldiers to swarm the thing and kill it. It was a strange dilemma she was in. Let them fight it and see them grow even more, or end it now so they can go back to their tour of this realm?

In the end, she chose—

"Fine. But I will have Azathoth here just in case, and also the shadow soldiers at the ready. Otherwise, Aaron will seriously be enraged," she said. 'Out of everyone…Lavinia, Suzaku, and I are the only ones that can fight it, and even then, we would have a bit of a hard time against it since those things will probably have some broken ability…'

"Let's goooo—eeh?!" Aoife shouted and was about to charge towards the thing before she was pulled back by Grayfia.

"Please don't recklessly charge in; let's formulate a plan before we go. It seems it's underestimating us, so it's not attacking us right away. If what Tobio Ikuse-sama said was true, then it will take its time in defeating as it may have felt humiliation from being defeated by him," explained Grayfia.

"Oh! So cool and collected! No wonder Aaron loves you~" she said, making the maid close her eyes and blush.

And so, the large group began to plan their attack. At the same time, Velgrynd contacted Azathoth, and she came over to the vampire faction along with Danu.

— ○ ● ○ —

[Are you ready~? I can't wait to kill you~] said monster Mikumo.

Everyone, including the vampires, was in their positions. The team would have various roles, and they would see what worked and what didn't before they proceeded with their plans.

First, they would attack it with everything they had; they wanted to see what attacks would damage it, what attacks would be repelled from it, and what attacks would be absorbed. Earlier, they were told that the monster version of Kecate Tepes could absorb attacks, but to what extent they had no idea since Gasper defeated her quite quickly.

During that time, they also contacted Aaron through Azathoth, and now everyone had a [Dragon Tattoo] on them, further empowering them.

[Fire!!!] Tobio shouted into their transceivers.

From different points of the town and from all angles, attacks of all kinds were fired towards Mikumo-M (Monster).

[Kekekekeke~! Futile, futile, futile, futile!!!] he roared.

All attacks from people that were below [Multiversal] were absorbed; the few that were multiversal had them absorbed or deflected, and the higher ones were avoided all together; those came from Suzaku, Velgrynd, and Lavinia; the rest were multiversal save for a few.

[It avoided Lavinia, Suzaku, and Velgrynd-san's attacks. It deflected or absorbed the rest; shall we form an offensive with those three in mind while the rest of us provide backup?] the former leader of the Slash Dog Team suggested.

[I don't mind!] Lavinia replied. The rest shared the same sentiment. In the distance, on top of the castle, Azathoth watched this all unfold; she also turned her attention to the 'pet' that Aaron was also inside of.

"…Why do you want to know what Magnum Tenebrosum feels…?" she mumbled to herself, confused by Aaron's thoughts and actions. "You…won't save him, but…"

The realm they were in was suddenly submerged in a cold and powerful blizzard. Azathoth looked back at Mikumo-M. Lavinia Reni had activated her former Balance Breaker, as she was also in her new Balance Breaker of [Tempest Extinction].

[It's slowing him down!! Keep at it!!] shouted Tobio.

Everyone else in the realm kept up a barrage of attacks against Mikumo-M, while the three most effective against him would concentrate on dealing a lethal attack on him. However, anyone else who was [Multiversal] would also have a chance of damaging him if given the right chances. They could see that Mikumo-M would sometimes dodge their attacks too.

Lavinia had her three summons out: Kyu, Cyuno, and Alo. Along with three ice dolls, all of them continuously attacked Mikumo-M. Suzaku also had Zhuque, in her bird form continuously attack him, along with Shigune and her contracted fire spirit, Temprence.

Velgrynd stood on top of a building, watching everything play out. She brought her right hand forward and pointed a finger towards Mikumo-M. An enormous ball of flames suddenly appeared out of thin air above him and rapidly fell on top of him. An even larger explosion shook the entire realm, and the shockwave created by it blew everyone back, minus two others.

[W-w-w-what the heeeeeeeck!?] Kanami screamed into the transceiver. However, even with such a powerful attack…it only left some burn marks on Mikumo-M, and it had already started to heal.

"Hmm…maybe I should use a bit more—" A white barrier suddenly surrounded their immediate vicinity.

<Stop healing!> Kanami voice suddenly boomed.

However, her command only slowed it down and didn't stop it. Kanami still saw this as a good thing, and continued attacking it along with everyone else.

Akeno began to relentlessly attack it with her [Holy Lightning Dragon] continuously, along with Rias repeatedly attacking with a barrage of [Extinguished Star]s. The rest of the Gremory peerage joined in, further slowing down Mikumo-M's healing rate.

[Ahhh! So annoying! Diee!] he screamed, and the creatures around him began to fly towards the group and attack them.

[The creatures are coming; do it!]

[——♪, ——♪ ——♪, ——♪]

All around the realm, the voice of Ingvild Leviathan was heard as it was broadcasted around with the help of Fusae, Le Fay, Elmenhilde, Queen Carmilla, Kiss Shot, and Dracula. More magic circles were created by Ursulette and Eirisse around the place so that everyone would be affected by them.

Ingvild's necklace was upgraded by Aaron a few weeks prior to the trip. He hadn't told her why, but said that it would become useful down the line. She smiled as she sang her song to everyone, as it had been enhanced by Aaron in a way that she could empower her allies even further without his help.

[What's with the shitty song!?] Mikumo-M bellowed out, enraged by the sudden noise.

Various [Dogs] suddenly appeared around him, as well as darkness that was made by both Tobio Ikuse and Gasper Vladi. All the [Dogs] began slashing at the monster, slicing parts off it, but it would instantly regenerate. At the same time, Gasper's tentacles and tendrils would attach themselves to him and slowly and continuously suck away his energy.

"You two, follow my lead," ordered Arthur.

Yumi and Xenovia agreed, and all three holy sword wielders charged up their holy swords and planned on unleashing a trinity of holy slashes towards the monster in front of them.

Vali, Calantha, Genbu, Valerie, and Ryuuta Nakiri took down the flying enemies that tried to interrupt their allies. With Vali in his Diablos Dragon Lucifer armor, Ryuuta in his [Dragon Man], and the rest endlessly firing their attacks at the enemies, they quickly dealt with them.

The enemies that Mikumo-M created were, at best, Dragon God-class, and with Ingvild empowering everyone else with her singing, and the [Dragon Tattoo] they were provided with by Aaron, everyone's power that was below God-class was empowered up to it or beyond. Hence, they had an easier time killing the flying enemies around them.

"Ready?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah!" Yumi and Xenovia shouted in unison.

They all took up their postures, and once Arthur saw that, he shouted, "Now!" All of them swung their swords down, and three powerful slashes imbued with holy energy flew towards Mikumo-M. Vali saw this, increased his power even more, and aimed his arms towards the monster too.

{[[LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!]]}

{[[Satan Compression Divider!!!!!!!!!!!!]]}

Brilliant silver and jet-black light instantly caused the area around Mikumo-M to compress continuously and threaten to erase everything. However, the powerful monster stayed alive and even resisted it. He sent out his wyverns towards it to have them repeatedly use [Half Dimension] on it.

"…Everyone's combined efforts, and it's still resisting; it's either that brat's tenacious side, or…" Velgrynd looked at her ring again and used the [Appraisal] ability again. "It's without a doubt [Multiversal], but…why is it so durable that it can take on several [Omniversal] powered women…?"

Azathoth landed beside Velgrynd, and they stared at each other. Finally, the True Dragon asked, "Why is it that durable?"

"…Even after being hit by attacks that are far more powerful than itself, it's using its own darkness to heal itself. The other attacks that you continuously feed him—he uses that to accelerate his own healing. So if you…"

[Stop attacking it!] Velgrynd screamed into the transceivers.

[Ow!! My ear!!] Natsume screamed back.

[Lavinia, Suzaku, and I will take over. According to Azathoth, anyone below it is only helping it heal, so since we're stronger than it, we'll take over,] explained Velgrynd.

Everyone below a certain power level, excluding the three mentioned, stopped their attack and backed away. Some of them weren't happy, but they knew they wouldn't be of any use going forward. Lavinia and Suzaku appeared beside Velgrynd.

Lavinia asked, "What do we do? Do you want to do one combined attack to end it?"

"Individually, the three of us are stronger than it, so one attack should end it…but I'm not against combining an attack," replied Velgrynd.

Lavinia giggled and hugged her from behind. "Combined attack it is! Let's—"

As she was about to suggest a specific combination, a bright, singular silvery-white slash appeared out of nowhere—and it cut Mikumo-M in half. It was as if time had to catch up to the action that was taken before his body was finally sliced in half and separated. Lots of black blood spurted from his body as it began to break down.

[Wha—t-this…what the fu—]

Another slash came, ending his life, and a large silvery-white vortex appeared, consuming Mikumo-M before he could finish his last words.

Everyone was stunned by his sudden death. The figure they saw standing in front of the few splatters of blood was—

"…Well, never mind then," Velgrynd said with a sigh. In front of where Mikumo-M previously was, stood Aaron Toole.

"I'm done; I thought I would do it for you guys," he said, waving at them.

"We were getting to the good part!! Dammit Aarooon!!" Kanami and Natsume screamed in unison.

"Let's fix everything back up and get back to exploring this place, shall we?" he asked while smiling at them.

"Booo!!" Bikou shouted before being smacked.

"…What happened over there?" Velgrynd asked.

Although Aaron couldn't hear her. Suzaku, who knew what she meant, was also curious. When they turned to the spot where the original 'pet' appeared, it was gone. And from their vantage point, they could see that Aaron seemed emotionally and mentally tired.

— ○ ● ○ —

Check the chapter comments to see images of certain characters.


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Chapter word count: 14k

Total Chapter word count: 43k

章節 184: Chapter 8 - Part 3 - Vampires, Vampires, and Vampires!

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

There once was a man who loved life. He lived in a certain universe before it became 'dark', before the only thing that they were forced to worship was 'darkness' itself. Before it, their world was bright and full of life, and the people on their planets were happy. While not all of them were at peace with each other, they weren't on the verge of war either.

His planet was full of his people, and others would sporadically visit his planet for different reasons. Most were tourists seeking adventure; some were here for business, but many of them went there for personal reasons, as that planet was known for one miraculous thing.

Healing. The type of healing that would be sought after by many people from the multiverse. Yet there was a strange and silent agreement among everyone—and that was to not abuse it. There was no official rule; there were no signs telling people not to, but every single visitor that visited the planet and the locals of that planet came to that silent agreement—a silent rule.

This man and his planet profited from this healing. Of course, this healing came from a certain location on their planet, in a giant spring. Anyone that went in was healing almost instantly, from physical deformities to incurable diseases; this well could heal everything.

One day, a certain individual visited this planet. It was a woman, and from the impression many got, she was a proud woman, and she held herself in high regard. That entire day, she asked many questions regarding the origins of the well, its healing powers, and what kind of restrictions were in place.

Everyone around her tried to give her the best answers they could, and in the end, it looked like the woman was satisfied with their answers. Before she left, she told them one thing.

"I am Phumera; I will be back someday; please look forward to it."

Those words to the denizens of this planet sounded like a promise to bring more people here so that they could prosper, but unknown to all of them, it would bring disaster to them and the rest of the universe.

However, their fate would not come until ten years later. It was like any other day; everyone went about their daily lives as if there was nothing wrong.

One particular man had become notorious over the ten years that Phumera was gone. He was a simple farmer on that planet, but after his fanatical ramblings, he convinced many that the woman who appeared ten years ago would bring them salvation. That when she returned, she would bring them riches beyond their imagination.

Many on this planet were not rich; most of them led mediocre and simple lives, but many of them were content with this—that was until this particular man started spreading this kind of belief to all of them. The impressionable youth clung onto it; some wanted to leave their planet to pursue brighter futures, and so they clung onto the man's words like they were a verse from the Bible itself.

One day she returned; however, everyone who saw her ten years ago knew something had changed. The smile she held was neither warm nor welcoming; to them, it felt cold and malicious.

"I have returned," she told them. "Please allow yourselves to be incorporated into our organization, and you will all lead prosperous lives."

This left the denizens of this planet stunned, even the man who had been telling everyone that she would return. They declined at first, but the more she pressured them, the more they became hostile, until they slowly drove her off the planet.

However, she left them with parting words that were quite ominous.

"You will come to regret this decision. You cannot deny him that well," she told them.

Initially, none of them took her seriously; in fact, they were quite confused by who she meant by 'him', but many of the denizens of the planet playfully mocked the man who said that she would bring them prosperity.

Some weren't so playful, but overall, they took it in stride and put the incident behind them. That was the kind of people that lived on this planet—they were kind and didn't hold grudges.

The man also began to make up for his foolishness by becoming a farmer again and making more produce than he did before, and many were quite happy with him.

But one day, judgment finally arrived.

It was abrupt and terrifying to them. An enormous jet-black cloud appeared above their planet; it was even larger than the planet itself, which scared many of them. From said cloud came down the same woman—Phumera.

"I will ask again; join our organization," she told them. But even in their fear-induced state, they refused. "So be it…"

The large black mass above them slowly morphed into a humanoid shape, and then it raised its hand before it brought it down. A few seconds later, the entire planet was covered in a jet-black haze, and with it came the horrified screams of its people.

The planet was dyed red. Blood, guts, and bones were splattered all around the planet, and even when the people there ran to the healing well, it couldn't heal their injuries much to their surprise; instead, it melted their skin off and harmed them in other ways.

When there were only a few left on the planet during the massacre, the jet-black humanoid approached the well, but two people stood in front of Phumera and the jet-black humanoid. One of them was the man who loved life; he loved his planet, people, and the well. So he didn't want them touching it, even after it stopped healing them.

The other was the farmer, who tried to convince the rest of the people that Phumera would bring them prosperity. He had failed them, and in his mind, he had doomed them. To him, this was his responsibility; he had to try and stop them from getting to the well, even if it was futile.

"Master Magnum Tenebrosum, these are the two that I mentioned to you," said Phumera. "Shall we continue with 'it'?" she asked.

The humanoid figure nodded its head and pointed one of its fingers at them. In a flash, their heads were pierced, and something was injected into them.

<<…Pets,>> it said before the two men morphed into things indescribable to nature.

Their bodies were no longer human; they were a large, jet-black blob that could shape itself into anything. Any time they tried to speak, they could only scream the horrendous screams of the damned.

The rest of the survivors were horrified; they didn't know where those creatures came from, and they ran away. But before their new instincts, the two men hunted them down and ate them, and after they ate them, they birthed new 'life'. Small blobs of darkness came out of them, and other creatures of darkness were born from them.

"Planets like this—with that well, they are few and far between. This is your order, across the multiverse, hunt them down and create more like those things you created," ordered Phumera.

An evil smile spread across her face. "This will be your role for the rest of time, or until you perish."

<<Go…>> said Magnum Tenebrosum.

The two large 'pets' screeched, and so did their 'offspring', before they spat one black liquid onto the planet and flew away and into space. The black liquid they left behind began to affect the planet and make it uninhabitable; nothing could grow there anymore, and life couldn't be supported.

Then, those two, with their 'children', began going to certain planets with the same 'well' or 'spring' of healing and began attacking them, corrupting the land and creating more offspring by consuming the denizens of that planet.

These two were left to do this for years and years until they split apart and went their separate ways. However, during all that time, they were aware of their actions, and still had their consciousness. The guilt of doing what they did never left them.

One day, they were brought in by Yve, Phumera's right-hand, and then they were forced to sleep. They finally thought that it was their end—that they had no more use—but... They 'woke up' again, but they were in a different place.

They were inside of someone. That was the conclusion they came to, they watched this person do many things, go through their world, and they pitied them.

'Poor thing. They lived a life of misery and are trying to change the world because of it,' thought the man.

However, the man also noticed something. One of its offspring was missing. Even though they felt guilty for killing so many, in some strange way they were relieved when one of them was gone. To him, he thought they may have been killed during the process of being put into this woman.

But one day, they felt them—they felt the familiar feeling, and they knew that one of their offspring was inside the man that their female host was speaking to.

'Ah, I see. So that's where you went. You were simply extracted from me. How unfortunate; I hope we can finally die something,' he thought.

And that day would come very soon. The host they were put into attacked a certain faction, and the man was worried but knew that they would lose and he would be forced out soon.

'I can't wait!' he thought. For when he came out, he would simply let them kill him if it was possible, but he also knew he had no control over his body.

When his host was finally defeated, he came out, but he was quickly restrained, and a certain person went inside of his very being.

<<-o-'t y-u -el- -e?>> it tried asking.

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Toole's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

<<-o-'t y-u -el- -e?>> the thing in front of me asked.

Presently, I am inside the creature that came out of Kecate Tepes. I also saw this thing—this man's history. It was sad and pitiful, and it annoyed me.

Why? For what reason did they force this on them? And why were those two looking for these healing wells? Was it crippling the rest of their universe's ways to heal and fight back at them?

[What did it say?]

''Won't you help me?' is what it asked,' I told Ddraig.

[Being forced to do something like that for hundreds or even thousands of years is pretty messed up. And its own summons are the people it killed; the first few were from their own planet too…]

Earlier, I had restrained this thing, it also included any movement in its soul since I had no idea if it was hostile while in here, but it seems like this person was very kind and gentle before being turned into this thing.

I touched the jet-black blob in front of me and reversed the transformation; at the same time, I removed the restraints on his soul.

What appeared in front of me was a man in his thirties, but his face made it look like he was sixty. He had jet-black hair and dull brown eyes. We only saw a portion of his memories and the things he was forced to do, so I can only imagine the rest of the inhumane things he was forced to do.

"…I will free you," I told the man.

He looked at me while tears gushed down his face. He repeatedly said, "I'm sorry" while covering his face with his hands.

I'm quite surprised that he stayed sane during all those years. Perhaps he shut down in order to save himself. Whatever he did, he was still somewhat sane, but the guilt never left him.

Placing my hand on his shoulder, I said, "I will do the same for those lives that were lost and for one of your victims who was placed in Mikumo Himejima." He looked up at me, still crying. "Do you wish for me to send you off into the afterlife first? Or do you wish to wait for everyone else?"

"…Please…let me stay…I want to apologize to all of them…" he told me.

I agreed and stood up. "I'll keep your soul, but I'll destroy the body you have inhabited for many years; are you fine with that?"

"Yes…"

Turning around, I left the place, and once I arrived back outside, I saw that his other victim was already rampaging in the town, but it seemed like everyone had begun fighting it together. They'll be fine for a bit.

Facing the unmoving monster, I touched one of its legs and destroyed it. As I did, I kept the man's soul beside me, and when I looked to my left side, I saw his ethereal figure beside me. He was already staring at one of his victims, the one that was merged with Mikumo Himejima.

[He…that young man was only a child when I killed him…] said the man. [He is…still confused about everything, he doesn't know what he's doing…we were all controlled by that body.]

"I'll liberate him; leave it to me," I told him, and I prepared to jump towards the giant beast. It seemed like everyone else around it had stopped attacking it, so I'll take this as my opportunity.

Shin had finished his job in Kyoto, so I summoned him, and he jumped on my shoulder. I also turned the man into a small wisp and finally jumped forward. As I did, I created a silvery-white scythe in my hand, and once I was above the beast, I created a platform behind me and used it to jump towards the beast.

In a single downward swing, I sliced the beast in two while also separating the soul trapped in it from the body.

A few of those in our group began talking, and Bikou began to boo me. I released the older man with me, the other soul that appeared was that of a twelve-year-old boy who looked confused. The man went over to him and crouched down.

[I'm sorry…] he then explained the best he could and in a way that the young boy understood. As the boy listened, his face distorted, and he eventually started to cry too.

As the boy wept, he came over to me and hugged my leg. [Thank you…I can see Mommy and Daddy now.]

"…I'll make sure you do," I told him.

The next step was freeing the rest of the people he killed and consumed. Raising my arm, I released everyone else who had been turned into those things. A few seconds later, millions of soft, glowing green orbs appeared all around the town. Many of them changed into humanoid figures—they must have been their previous appearances before being turned into those creatures.

The boy suddenly let go of my leg, and he flew over to an old man and woman. They shared a group hug and began crying too. After a few seconds, the little boy pointed to me, and they waved to me, then disappeared. This scene replayed throughout the realm as many souls were finally laid to rest.

[Thank you,] the older man said beside me. He put a hand on my shoulder before disappearing, and then seconds later, the glowing around the realm stopped.

'Aaron…'

'I know, Rudra. I'll beat the answer out of Magnum Tenebrosum and Phumera when I meet them,' I replied.

I want to hear it out of their own mouths—their reason for doing these things. They surely didn't just do this because they felt like it, right? If what Sekudia told me about a few of the Eradicators was anything to go by, then something must have happened in their universe for her to do this.

But at the same time, I remembered my conversation with Azathoth about the other outer gods. He is the origin of darkness itself, he must have a lot of negative emotions and thoughts by default, so in a way, he can't help it, right?

That's the kind of answer I don't want to hear, but I won't be surprised if it is. However, Rizevim did what he did because he believed devils should be evil, and he was also just insane.

Looking around me, many people were confused by this sudden event, and it left me kind of tired. I better explain it to them.

— ○ ● ○ —

After my explanation, I began the quick restoration of the faction. Because of the defensive measures we took, the damage done to the place was minimal at best, and everything should be back in a few more seconds. As I repaired the place, Aoife wouldn't stop hugging me. Lavinia and her tried earlier, but like usual, they had a game of rock-paper-scissors, and the winner was her, hence why she's clinging onto me.

Lavinia wasn't that happy, so she asked for Shin instead and was coddling the puppy while giving me occasional glances that basically said, 'This could be you; do you want to reconsider? Or make room for another?'

This kind of thing would be a bit overwhelming to people, and I'm not surprised that my sons in the future don't want to have harems. While I didn't look into every detail about my life in the future, I basically understood that whatever they saw about me and my wives, they didn't want any part of it.

After finishing another part of the town, I quickly arrived at a different part of the realm with Lavinia and Aoife. However, as I began to repair it, a vampire I hadn't met before approached me. Well, that's not true; I saw her when the attacks started but didn't really speak to her.

"Jin Skyward-sama!" she exclaimed. She wore a dress that resembled a wedding dress and had bat wings on her head.

"Yes?" I replied, confused.

"Please make me your bride!!" she yelled into the sky.

Lavinia and Aoife were stunned into silence. To those around us, they stopped and stared at her. Before we could respond, Shin wriggled himself out of Lavinia's hands and jumped onto my head, he then lightly smacked me with his pawn on my forehead with a little 'arf!' to boot.

[Arf indeed!]

<<The avatar that is me is correct, Aaron,>> said Lycaon.

"Er…may I ask why? Also, who are you?" I asked. However, Aoife made space for Lavinia, and she joined us. We both stared at this woman in suspicion.

She twirled around, and a small explosion of glitter and bats occurred. "I am Ursulette! A pure-blooded vampire! I am friends with Elmenhilde and Eirisse! I have been looking for a husband for a long time, and you are the lucky one hundred and sixteen!"

O-one hundred and sixteen? That's a lot; it's not like I can say much in that regard. I wonder how many chi—

"The last one wasn't too long ago since they left me! The longest has been a month, and the shortest was a few minutes! I am also a virgin, if that's one of your preferences!" she proudly proclaimed.

Speechless would be the best way to describe how I felt. Who was the most blatant person I knew? Kanami? No, she's modest when she needs to, and stupidly lewd when she wants to be. Who…who introduces themselves like that?

"Nice to meet you?" I instinctively replied.

"If you don't have an answer yet, then—!" she stood in front of me, grabbed my hand, and forced me to grope her boobs. I was already in the stance where I had both my hands forward and open, so this wasn't that hard to do.

I pulled my hand away and awkwardly laughed. "Let's start as friends, Ursulette," I told her and saw that someone was trying to contact me. "Excuse me." Glancing at Lavinia and Aoife, they understood and started chatting with her, although they were already eager to talk to her.

Shin also jumped down from my head and back into Lavinia's arms. Stepping away, I opened the communication line, and it was from Azazel.

"Yo. So, we just got them and we've started putting them in certain cells. Anyway, Yashina made an interesting proposal, and I've contacted the leaders about it," he said.

"Go on," I replied. I am interested in hearing this proposal.

"So, she offered to be our interrogator, and she went into excruciating detail about how she tortured some people when she was still part of the Khaos Order. She said she's doing this all for you, so…"

Scratching the back of my head, I sighed. It's not that surprising at this point, while I don't trust her fully, I can see she's doing this because of her weird obsession with me. But…this should be fine since most of the fallen angels there are busy with other work, my [Electa] have their own jobs, and then…

"I'll assign a shadow soldier to watch over her as she does her job. Let's give her a trial run first," I suggested.

"Yeah, we thought about doing the same thing; alright, I'll discuss it with the rest. Oh, by the way, Kecate Tepes is awake and, for some reason, has reverted back in age, not physically but mentally and emotionally. Did you do something?" he asked.

"No…Gasper was the one to fight her. I'll go and check her out soon," I replied.

"I see…well, gotta go!" he said, and the magic circle disappeared.

When I was about to go back to the girls, I felt someone staring at me. When I faced them, it was Azathoth, and she didn't stop. Looking back at the three women, they were still interrogating Ursulette, so I flew over to Azathoth.

"Did you need something?" I asked.

"You learned of those things' truth. There is one more original that remains and thirty more out there roaming the multiverse. What will you do?" she asked.

"Not all of them were victims, right? That's my assumption anyway. So, when the time comes and when I confront them, I'll just do what I did. I'll release the innocent and kill the psychos who became those things willingly," I replied.

Although there will be exceptions, like with many things in life, they can't just be black and white, which makes it a bit more complicated. I guess it's just up to my discretion.

Azathoth squinted her eyes and looked at the sky. "I don't understand that enthusiasm of yours, but if what she said is true, then I will put my trust in it."

She had been acting a bit strangely since her talk with Cúntóir. By 'her', she's probably referring to Cúntóir. I haven't pried into what they said to one another, and I hope they'll approach me about it in the future, so I'll wait.

"It's better than being pessimistic about everything. But people are justified in the way they feel because of their experiences, so I try to listen to what they have to say before I start telling them how I feel about things."

As Azathoth was about to speak, we both heard Aoife calling my name and waving at us.

"They are calling you. You should go," she said, turning to leave. But I grabbed her hand and stopped her.

"Why not come with me? Didn't you come down here because you wanted to (and me forcing you a bit)? While I haven't done much 'ruling' yet, I want you to experience the things Cúntóir did; you two are one and the same, aren't you?"

She stared at me for a few seconds before her resistance faded, and she held my hand. With the consent of the outer god, I brought her with me.

"Hoho? I saw her earlier; yes, yes, she's quite the mature MILF, yes? Jin-sama doesn't mind all types of women I see," muttered Ursulette. In confusion, I stared at Lavinia and Aoife, both of whom shrugged.

"This is…" I sighed again. "Azathoth…uh excuse me, I won't be too long," I told them.

"Aaron?"

"It's fine, Nia. I won't be long. Make Azathoth less socially awkward around everyone for me, okay? Aoife, you're good at that too; I'll rely on your help," I said and left before they could respond.

— ○ ● ○ —

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

In Romania, in a certain mountain range near the new vampire faction, there were three vampires. They were part of the vampire faction of the Khaos Order, but they ran late, and so they didn't join the battle that occurred in the faction. By the time they had arrived, they had already sensed that the rest of their comrades had been defeated.

So, they had been deliberating on what to do after they saw it.

"Just go in there! They let their guard down and think it's over!" hissed a female vampire. "We're Goddamn Super Vampires, we're on par with Balberith, Verrine, Gressil, and Sonneillon! We can overpower them!"

A male vampire smacked her head and shouted, "Are you insane!? You were alive during the war; did you not see him just wipe out everything!? Do you seriously think we stand a chance?! If anything, we're lucky that we didn't get there in time!"

"You're being a pussy," said another male vampire. "So what if he did that? It's not like he'll do it to just kill us; all we need to do is have a hostage, and we'll be good. At the same time, we can kill the rest."

Nirea, the female vampire, stood up and declared, "Let's do this then! If you're that confident! I'm going; I ain't stopping, shit!"

Her short blue hair softly fluttered as she did, and her red eyes glowed. As she crossed her arms, her plain black shirt with sheep heads on it made her breasts stand out while she waited for the other two to respond. She wore short black shorts and black fishnets with black heels.

"Fuck it; as one of the few Super Vampires left, I'll do it," said Hiaisi.

He was small, very small. Hiaisi was around 5'1" in height, and he had some complex about it and would usually kill or beat up anyone who made fun of his height. He had long black hair, yellow eyes, and wore a clown costume just to entice those comments, so he had an excuse to kill people as much as possible.

The last super vampire, Siuxam, shook his head. "We're dying; we're definitely dying." He was the most level-headed and intelligent one out of the three of them. He liked looking at things logically, and he could in no way see them winning, even if they found a way to weaken him.

He had short, spiky platinum blonde hair, lime green eyes, and wore a plain black shirt with a lab coat over it, blue jeans, and white sneakers. He stood at 6'0" and had an athletic build, even though his personality didn't match it.

[Yeah, you're right, man, you're screwed,] said a voice behind them.

"Right? I'm glad someone agrees with me…huh? Who said that?" asked Siuxam. He looked at the two in front of him, and both their faces were pale. He turned around as they were clearly looking past him, and he saw…

"…Shit, it's the [Welsh Dragon]…" mumbled Siuxam.

Above them stood Ddraig in his human form, beside him was Albion, who was also in his human form; and behind them, floating in the sky, was Aaron Toole.

"Who cares! We came here to fight and kill him! If we defeat him, we can—" Hiaisi's head was grabbed by Ddraig, and he flew away with him.

"Take your pick," said Aaron.

{…I'd rather beat up men,} mumbled Albion before disappearing, headbutting Siuxam in the stomach, and launching him away.

'Why do they leave women to me?' he asked himself, while looking at the remaining vampire.

Cúntóir: Answer: Because—

'Can you fight her instead?' Aaron asked, surprising Cúntóir. Moments later, another female materialized beside Aaron, and Cúntóir looked eager to please him.

"I'll do it!" she said excitedly, her eyes glowing while she stared down Nirea, the female super vampire.

Nirea frowned and flew towards Cúntóir, who smiled confidently at her. The vampire created ice balls on her hands and then threw them towards Cúntóir, who stood still.

She glanced at Aaron, who became confused by this action. She smiled and said, "First…comes a punch!" she then threw her fist towards the ice attacks, shattering them.

'…Didn't I say that when I fought Rizevim?' thought Aaron.

"Ah~ I wanted to say that," she said, satisfied.

Cúntóir's face became serious as she pointed her right arm towards Nirea, who covered her body in powerful energy and created several layers of defensive magic circles. From Cúntóir's arm shot out an enormous spiral of wind magic, one different from the DxD world.

Aaron calmly created a barrier around them, preventing the human world from feeling this. He hadn't anticipated Cúntóir in using this level of power to take out an opponent who was much weaker than herself. The attack destroyed everything in its path; the vampire…was shredded into pieces, she had no chance against Cúntóir; and the 'fight' only lasted a few seconds at best.

Cúntóir turned around and, with a bright smile on her face, asked, "How was that?"

Aaron flew over beside her and patted her head. "A bit overboard, but it's fine. We didn't need any of them anyway; they held nothing of importance."

Cúntóir stared at him, expecting a reward. He leaned over and kissed her; she squealed in delight before going back inside of his soul, Aaron quickly left to watch over the two Heavenly Dragons fights.

— ○ ● ○ —

[You can do better than that! C'mon, shrimp!!] bellowed Ddraig as he avoided all the attacks that Hiaisi sent to him.

"Don't call me shrimp!!" screamed Hiaisi. He was furiously throwing punches imbued with magic, but he couldn't land anything on the Heavenly Dragon.

Ddraig suddenly stopped, and he gestured with his finger to his temple. [Go ahead, I'll let you have a free hit.]

This only proved to anger Hiaisi even more as he increased his output to his maximum limit. Veins were visible all over his body, and his face had also turned red out of anger. Although Ddraig couldn't take him seriously because of the clown costume and clown makeup on his face.

The Heavenly Dragon had to hold back his laughter the entire time he had been toying with the little vampire. Hiaisi had finished powering up and had gathered a large amount of energy around his right fist. Ddraig floated there confidently and did not plan on moving at all.

[Go ahead, I promise I won't move,] he said confidently.

"You better not regret this, you shitty lizard!!" roared Hiaisi. The more he charged his attack, the more power Ddraig felt from it, which made Hiaisi grin. "Before you die, let me explain my unique ability. I call it [Dynamic Big Bang]. Every time I'm called any abbreviation of 'short', this power multiplies by two! So if you don't want—"

[Shrimp, midget, small, little, runt, peewee, half-pint, toy, mini, miniature, petite, miniscule, teeny, microscopic, infinitesimal, minute, small, small, small, small, midget, midget, one-inch-wonder,] Ddraig kept listing off words, or he kept repeating them.

This only kept making Hiaisi's technique stronger, but also made him madder; steam was coming out of his ear, and it made Ddraig giddier. Finally having had enough of the dragon's insults, he finished charging up his technique and unleashed it. A powerful, dark yellow aura covered his arm.

Hiaisi ran towards Ddraig and threw a powerful punch at him. "Die, you shitty dragon!!"

Ddraig was hit by a point-blank explosion that shook the entire vicinity, an enormous crater was created beneath him, and all the trees around them were blown away. Hiaisi grinned as he counted the number of times he had been insulted.

In total, he was called 'short' 72 times in the last two days, this included what Ddraig called him. This is why he was so confident, but once the smoke cleared, the color in his face drained.

[What's wrong? I let you get a free hit in and even helped your technique get stronger,] asked Ddraig. [So…I get a free hit in, right?]

Hiaisi began to back away and then turned around to fly away. The most he had been insulted using those abbreviations was 108 in total, and he used them on a much weaker opponent. However, even at 72, he was confident he would at least injure the dragon in front of him, but it did no damage, and that terrified the vampire.

'Ddraig, Albion, you can kill them; we don't have any use for them…' Aaron told them.

Ddraig grinned and appeared directly above the terrified vampire. Ddraig reeled his clenched fist back before shrouding it in an indescribable amount of draconic energy. [Hehehehe…!] he laughed and charged towards Hiaisi, who had created some defensive barriers in front of him.

[Welsh Dragon: Dragon Fist!!] Ddraig screamed in euphoria.

As his fist shatters the magic barriers, it makes contact with Hiaisi's chest, and the second it does, an explosion occurs in the shape of himself—the Welsh Dragon. The last thing that Hiaisi saw before his life ended was the Heavenly Dragon psychotically grinning at him.

[Two points to the [Welsh Dragon]!!] he screamed as he landed on another giant crater he made after killing Hiaisi.

Aaron landed beside him and lightly slapped him on the head. "Was that really necessary?"

Ddraig shrugged. [I wanted to try the [Dragon Fist] out made by Goku, can you fault me?] he looked around and asked, [What about Albion?]

{Me? I'm done,} replied the [Vanishing Dragon] as he landed behind Ddraig.

[Hmm…so you spared him?] asked Ddraig. The vampire called Siuxam was on Albion's shoulders, seemingly unconscious. However, the other Heavenly Dragon shook his head.

{He's dead. I'm just carrying his body; I thought if we brought his corpse to Grigori, they may be able to replicate the creation of Artificial Super beings, like Super Devils and Super Vampires, with the help of the other factions, of course,} he explained.

Ddraig looked at Albion, then back at Aaron. [Are you sure about that, Partner? It may turn south quickly, you know?]

"Ajuka and Sirzechs are just outliers. So far, there haven't been any others that can equal them, not even the late Rizevim, as he was much weaker than them. The Super Devils in the Khaos Order's control right now are…well, they're far from their full potential, and they're still far below those two," said Aaron.

He then pointed behind them. "Anyway, let's go; we're done here. Good work, by the way, Albion. I'll send that corpse to Azazel now."

Albion nodded, handed over the corpse to Aaron, and both dragons vanished back into their respective Sacred Gears.

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Toole's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

After both dragons left, I contacted Azazel again.

"Azazel, I—" Explaining what my companions and I accomplished, I told him I would send him the body of one of the Super Vampires, and he could do whatever he wanted with it after.

"Are you sure? I'm known as the most sinister fallen angel of all ti—"

"I don't know that Azazel and I don't care. Make up for your sins now, and for the rest of time. You may want your species to die out with you, but I and a lot of people don't want that, so shut up and keep living," I told him.

It seemed like he was left speechless for a few seconds before he began laughing.

"Whatever you say, brat. Alright, send him over!" he said and laughed more.

"Right…"

I did just that, and we said our goodbyes. Whatever history he had, and no matter how shitty he was, he can't fix it now unless I directly intervene, and even if I do, we're just creating a new timeline where he didn't do those things. He has to live with that guilt and move on; if he wants to repent, then do it.

He's doing that with Avezza since he still feels guilty about how he denied her that chance to save the love of her life, although I've already erased it, so it's kind of…

"Why are you just staring at the ground?" Velgrynd's voice asked.

"…Vel? What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you—"

"You told those women, not me or anyone else. I also felt a surge of power here, one relating to dragons, so I became curious, the rest were not that interested," she explained.

Well, yeah, they'd probably go with, 'Oh, it's just Aaron.' And get on with it; I guess she's not that used to it yet.

I raised my left hand and offered it to her. She looked at it curiously, so I said, "Let's go; everyone else is waiting for us, and let's just spend the next two days here relaxing. We did just go through that with everyone else."

Like a typical tsundere, she looked away, sported a small blush, but still held my hand. She squeezed my hand quite tightly, actually, surprising me. In my head, I heard Rudra chuckling to himself.

Way too many things happened today that left me with many things to think about.

The Phantasma, Phumera, and Magnum Tenebrosum, the other pets I need to release, the strange vampires I met, and Azazel being weirdly nostalgic with me…

— ○ ● ○ —

A few hours had passed, and it was now dusk. The sun was going down on the horizon, and the faction became even livelier since the leaders announced that there would be a celebration and party because our group had prevented an attack on the faction again. The people there, who became a lot more accepting of outsiders, wholeheartedly agreed, and in two hours' time, the celebration would start.

Everyone was still busy getting everything ready, and even after we offered to help, they told us not to and just to enjoy ourselves since we helped save them again. So we all accepted this, and now…

However, something interesting did happen just a few minutes ago. The prideful and battle-maniac Vali Lucifer…started a little harem for himself. Genbu Doumon and Calantha Vordenburg were the two women with him, and she's apparently meeting with her parents right now with him present, so that should be interesting.

Lavinia went with him, and I was going to, but he was too embarrassed for me to be there, and only asked for Lavinia, who was more than happy to do it. It made me wonder: with him accepting his harem, did he open up more to Lavinia?

{Are you jealous?} asked Albion.

'No, I'm just happy for him; that's all. I did want to be part of it since I am the older brother,' I replied to Albion. "But seriously…who would have known, huh?" I muttered to myself.

"Make sure to catch a big one!" Kanami said behind me.

Currently, I am fishing. Why? I dunno, I just decided to on a whim, and maybe some fish for the celebration wouldn't be a bad thing. A few followed me even though they were free to do whatever they wanted, and those were Kanami, Natsume, Mom, Aoife, Cindy, Grayfia, and Fusae.

Three, or four if you count Mom, hyperactive people were a few feet away from me. While we were accompanied by two maids and a reliable but quiet magician. Fusae was beside me, eager to learn how to fish, so I taught her earlier, and she learned quickly.

"We'll be exploring this place a lot more tomorrow, right? I want to go with you tomorrow, Aaron," said my mom behind me.

"It'll be boring, you know? I'd suggest you go off on your own," I replied.

In reality, there were around eight buildings I would need to make; they were strangely specific about it, but I didn't mind. The Rating Game building with the same field mechanics would be built last, and the design is something I look forward to making.

She came up behind me and embraced my head, forcing a soft sensation on the back of it. "Anywhere with my son is fun!"

"You know, Róisín-san, that sounds kind of lewd," Kanami said while creepily chuckling to herself while putting a hand over her mouth.

Seconds later, I heard a loud smack from the direction of Kanami. "It's only lewd because of that rotten brain of yours!"

"Say that again, motha-fucka!" Kanami shouted in exaggerated English.

"Why English?! Also, why in that way?! We can say it normally, you dunce!" Natsume shouted.

"Hmm~ those two argue a lot but are very close. What a strange pair of sisters," mom said behind me, sounding curious.

"Well—" As I went to speak, I felt a bite on my line, so I began to reel and pull it in. After a few seconds, I pulled out a gigantic, supernatural fish. It resembled a cod but was forty times larger.

"Uwaaaaaa!! What the hell is that!? Why were the rest of the fish you caught smaller!?" Natsume screamed.

"Oh. My. God! Is that the legendary weirdly named fish in manga!? Let's call it [Ultra Spicy COD Meat]!" Kanami yelled excitedly.

This is supposed to be a quiet and therapeutic experience, but I have two screaming women with me constantly. Two. Using a bird's-eye view, I looked around the area and found Aoife sitting away by herself, watching the water with unchanging eyes.

She's been like that for a while now, and I'm a bit worried, but not too much since I know that it might have something to do with what happened with the souls earlier. She did her best in trying to hide it from me, but I know her, and she's definitely saddened by it and may say something about it to me soon.

After I pulled the enormous cod-like fish in, I killed it and cut it into appropriate sizes. Grayfia, who would normally do it, brought out a gadget she received from Grigori. Since they know I cook a lot, she gifted me (I then gave the item to Grayfia) a portal fridge. She stored the cut-up pieces of cod (after washing them with magic) in it.

"We will be able to make plenty of dishes with this, Grayfia," Cindy said beside her. "When we return home, would you like to experiment with Raiko and Inaie?"

A strange twinkle appeared in Grayfia's eyes. "I have a few recipes in mind…" she mumbled and glanced at me. Just then, Fusae's rod began to twitch, and then the line was pulled away at a fast speed.

"…I have one!" she said and began to reel it in, but she had a bit of trouble. So she started using more strength, and eventually she pulled it up.

"T-that's even bigger!" Natsume yelled.

"That's what she said!" replied Kanami, before another smacking sound echoed in the area.

What Fusae pulled out was an even larger fish than mine, roughly four times larger. To our surprise, as she pulled it up, it looked angry, and from its mouth shot four water bullets that were aimed at us.

As I was about to move, mom's chest lifted from behind my back, and she stood in front of me. Summoning a frying pan, she increased its size and threw it at the monstrous fish. The water bullets were destroyed in the process, and they made a loud 'ding' sound when they smacked the fish in the face.

She used a lot of power too, since a large circular patch was made below us on the water, showing the ground under it. After the fish was hit, the frying pan disappeared, and the fish fell to the ground, dead or unconscious. I wasn't sure yet since I was stunned by the sequence of events.

Fusae casually used magic to teleport the 'confirmed' dead fish beside Cindy and Grayfia, who began to cut it up. Even Aoife reacted to this by laughing at its absurdity.

"Two points for me~" mom said, and she went back to hugging me.

I'm confident that my life in the next thousands of years will never be dull because of the people around me.

— ○ ● ○ —

Later on that evening, the entire realm was in high spirits; music, food, and drinks were shared all around. Most of it took place in the 'center' of this realm.

"Give me more! Hyahahaha!" Bikou shouted, drunk.

Earlier, I had offered to use my alcohol that only made you tipsy when drunk, but they declined, saying they wanted to be drunk, so I let them be. Right now, with the exception of a few people I know who were drunk (like Rossweisse, they asked me to make it so that they couldn't get drunk; this took time, though).

"Ah! Someone went streaking!!" someone shouted, and when we all turned to look, we saw that it was one of the vampire youths. They ran around butt-naked in the wind while laughing manically.

"Small," Velgrynd said with a smirk on her face.

Apparently, she said it loud enough (or used her powers) that the young man heard it and looked broken. His shoulders slumped, and he ran away while screaming louder. Danu, who was beside her, scolded her.

"Be nice, Velgrynd. Not everyone is the same size down there," she told her like a mother. Velgrynd turned away while muttering a half-assed apology.

"Danu-san, how do you know that?" Shigune asked from my lap. In response to this, Danu's face turned bright red.

"I-I…G-Grayfia told me…" she said, embarrassed. The maid, who was a couple of feet away from her, looked at her, shocked.

"…Well, that makes sense," concluded Shigune, who went back to drinking juice. This shocked Grayfia even more, but she didn't deny it; she just sported a small blush and looked away.

It feels like she was used as a scapegoat…

Sorry, we're late," said Tobio. We turned to our side and saw him and Sae.

It was quite late already, but Hana Ikuse didn't want to go to sleep yet and wanted to join the festivity—well, as much as a child of her age could—which was mostly 'Gah! Gah!' and 'Goo! Goo!' noises and then crying.

"Hana kept on crying until she tired herself out. Thank you for the barrier and shadow soldiers, Jin," said Sae.

"Don't worry about it, now come on and let's part—"

"Husbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand~!" Ursulette screamed before jumping towards me. Tears, snot, and alcohol were present on her person.

I expected Shigune to panic, but instead she was quite calm. From her lap came Poh, Pooh, and Pon. She pointed at Ursulette and said, "Pon, tackle."

Pon made a strange sound before jumping up and tackling Ursulette on the stomach, flinging the woman away. Pon landed on the ground, triumphantly trotted back to us, and made himself at home on Shigune's lap again.

"S-Shigune, I-I think that was a bit much…" Aoife said, looking at the vampire in the distance, knocked out.

In the distance, I could see Gasper's father, who was drunk too. Their relationship has made steady progress, and he calls him 'father', in a respectful manner, and he refers to Gasper as his son. I vaguely know that they keep in contact and even talk to each other once a week through a magic circle.

Although, I do have a surprise for both of them, much like what I did with the Saji family. I'm saving it…until later on the night. I think the Vladi family would be better off without everyone crowding around them when it does happen.

But I have seen three people who wanted to speak to me. Like earlier today, Aoife. It definitely has something to do with the Phantasma, but the other two were Valerie and Fusae. Fusae had been quite close to me the entire day after the incident happened.

The fishing, helping me with stuff that concerned the festival right now, being weirdly attentive, and of course, she spoke with Lavinia a lot with Valerie. It seems like she's getting ready to confess to me or something, or at least tell me some news.

"Why don't you drink, Jin?" Dracula asked me. He had become a bit more talkative after getting tipsy, as he did when everyone visited my restaurant.

"I have, even though it's in small increments since I can't get drunk," I replied, and I showed him my glass of wine.

"You know when I was your age—" He started on a small rant about things that I half-heartedly listened to, and eventually Kiss Shot came over and kicked him away.

"You'll bore him to death with your stupid monologues," she told him, and they got into a fight. The people around us cheered; it seemed like it was a common occurrence, and they just accepted it now…

Gone were the noble facades of the vampires, and they had become a lot more modernized. I preferred this since forcing myself to act so formal is suffocating, but it is necessary for certain occasions.

"Forgive them. Even if they were the original progenitors of our race, they can act like children at times, although it's usually only when they're interacting with each other," Carmilla suddenly said.

She was wearing an elegant dress that complimented her and had her hair tied in a short ponytail. Wine in hand and looking a bit tipsy herself, she had placed her hand on my shoulder as she said this.

"Ah…yeah, I get it," I replied. However, Carmilla kept on rubbing my shoulder in an increasingly sensual way, leaving me baffled.

[You saved her faction twice, you're the famous harem-seeking dragon, need I say more?] said Ddraig.

Before I could move, something slammed against Carmilla's side, launching herself and the thing that hit her away. I and the rest were surprised by this and saw that the one who had attacked her was the drunk Ursulette.

"Uwaaaa!! Youuu caaaan't I'll be his fiiirst vampiiireeeeee!!" Ursulette cried out. She started to rub her face against the annoyed leader, who didn't say anything, but instead patted her on the head while continuing to drink her wine.

Eirisse came over to us with Elmenhilde while looking exhausted and guilty. But before they could reach me, Vali ran past us while being chased by his two lovers.

"Vali-kun, wait!"

"Valii~~!"

"I agreed to this, but I'm not ready for that!" he cried and kept running before summoning his [Divine Dividing] and flying away, the two still in hot pursuit.

[Did they try jumping him or something? Gyahahaha!]

After them were Kouki and Kalawarna, and it seemed like the fallen angel was drunkenly chasing him.

"I'm not ready for THAT kind of play!" yelled Kouki.

"Hiic…y-you'll like it, I-I swear…hiic…!" Kalawarna drunkenly yelled back as the two kept running away.

Meruem and Mittelt appeared to have fallen asleep and were lying against each other in a corner of the plaza. Seeing as how they were already asleep; I clicked my fingers and transported them to an Inn that we were all staying at.

"It's very chaotic tonight," said Eirisse, and Elmenhilde agreed with her.

"Yes, it is, although it's all for good reasons, but the clean-up will be a lot," added Elmenhilde.

"I can do that much since you guys will be doing this for two nights in a row," I said. "And I'm not taking no for an answer."

They tried to protest, but I convinced Carmilla and eventually the two other leaders of the faction, and they agreed. The rest of that night was just as chaotic, but still fun.

— ○ ● ○ —

Midnight, many vampires were still out since they were the most active at night, but they weren't making as much noise. This was because they had gotten used to living during the day and going to sleep at night because of the new barrier and faction.

Presently, I am in a dilemma of sorts. I slept with the usual seven (turned eight per my mother's request), however, I woke up and needed to do something, so I left my room. On my way back, I was stopped by three people.

Valerie, Fusae, and Aoife.

"How…can I help you guys?" I asked. It seemed like they didn't speak about this beforehand as they stared at one another, waiting for someone to do something.

Sighing, I said, "Let's go with this: I'll start with Valerie, then Fusae, and then Aoife. How does that sound?"

They looked at each other one more time and silently agreed, so Aoife and Fusae went away while Valerie took my hand and led me somewhere else, and we ended up at one of the verandas of the Inn. Even here, the moon was quite bright, so most of the town's lamps were turned off; we only had them on during the party just to illuminate the place more, but we were told that they weren't necessary.

"I'll make this brief, Aaron, since those two probably have more important things to talk to you about," she suddenly said and turned around. The light of the moon illuminated Valerie, making this moment seem like something out of a fairy tale.

"I don't have family anymore except for my new half-sister, who's most likely going to spend a lot of her years in prison. Of course, family can be more than blood, and I see everyone in your home as a new family to me." She held her left hand in front of her, letting the gem on her ring glow. "I'd like to get married to you."

"Val—" As I went to speak, she stood in front of me and put a finger on my lips.

"I know what you did for Gasper, and you plan on doing that tomorrow, right? You and the Occult Research Club already helped him come out of his shell, and be more confident. Not to mention him having his own harem, that was a surprise," she exclaimed and giggled.

She reached over and linked our pinkies together. "That's why…I'd like to start a family together with you in the future, so will you accept?" she asked, sounding nervous.

She's…what? The third (or fourth, if I count Irene) woman to propose to me, well, it's not like I mind. "Accept, Valerie. Although I did plan on proposing to you too since we were coming here and I invited you," I told her.

"Oh…d-did you mean to do it today?" she asked.

"Yeah, but as you know, those guys attacked us and we had to do other things during the day, so I didn't find a good opportunity to do it." I gestured to her and added, "But it seems like you had other plans."

Valerie smiled before reaching out with her hand and intertwining our fingers before stepping closer to me. "I guess I'm engaged now."

"Yeah." We leaned in and shared a quick kiss before she pulled away.

"I'll get going then; I can't hog up all your time," she said, winked, and left the area. A minute later, to my surprise, both Fusae and Aoife came in together.

Aoife went behind Fusae and slowly pushed her towards me while maintaining a small grin on her face. "Fusae-Fusae has something to say to you."

"And what—"

"She's a boy!" Aoife confidently yelled, stunning both of us.

"W-w-what? I-I'm a woman!" corrected Fusae, looking mortified at her Irish friend. Aoife just laughed at her before they waddled closer to me.

"Now go, my young padawan, gooo~" Aoife said in a strange voice while making even stranger hand gestures as she backed away from us.

Fusae stood in front of me, nervous and fidgeting, but she took a deep breath and said, "…I…I'd like a book exchange."

...What? B-book exchange? She probably saw the confusion on my face and continued.

"T-this…" she brought out a small 'book' of a couple of pages. The title was— "I-I'd like to exchange yours for mine…"

[A Magician's Love Pact].

This…was strangely like Fusae, so I played along. Summoning my own book, I held it towards her. [A Dragon's Love Pact]—even if I'm not technically one anymore, I still like calling myself it.

"What a coincidence; I have one too. I guess this works out too, right?" I asked, grinning at her.

Her face was already red with embarrassment, but Fusae agreed with me. Without another word, we exchanged books, and she held the one I gave her close to her chest while she looked like she wanted to say something else.

"U-um…" she said and looked up at me while hugging the book.

"Hmm?"

Glancing to our side, I saw Aoife acting like some kind of cheerleader, although she didn't make a single sound. It was obvious because of the noise she made by her movement alone. Her being like that made Fusae a bit more self-conscious.

"I…I like…you, pleashe let me be with yo-you…!" she stammered out.

She was shaking like a kitten, afraid and nervous about something. I didn't think confessing one's feelings would be this scary for some people, but I guess, I only ever did it to Aoife back in my previous life and did it so casually here that it never bothered me. But to some, it is a big deal.

Putting a hand on her head, I lightly ruffle it. "I like you too, Fusae. Let's get along from now on, alright?"

She seemed to relish the touch as I felt her go on her tiptoes to get more of it. I petted her for a few minutes, until we heard a slightly awkward cough to our side, and we turned to see Aoife there, pointing at a non-existent watch on her wrist.

Fusae seemed to come back to reality and panic slightly. "I-I have to go! T-thank you for accepting me. I-I'll be in your care from now on!" she said and bowed before scurrying out of the place.

She skipped over to me and poked the side of my stomach. "You sure took your time. Fusae looked like a dog getting pets and didn't want it to end," she said and giggled. She went over to the veranda and looked out at the town.

"There are still a lot of vampires out, huh? …This new pantheon—I saw the old ones from the memories that I saw from Azathoth. It's great that they united, right? I always had a dream of everyone in the human world uniting…as childish as that sounds," Aoife said, looking at the moon.

She turned back to me, showing a sad smile. "But…you helped unite everyone here. Was it because we knew it was inevitable or because you wanted it?" she asked.

I joined her and ruffled her head. "It's a bit of both, honestly. Sooner or later, they'll be forced to unite even if I didn't do it, the Khaos Brigade, Qlippoth, and the Evie faction from the ExE. But now…they have more problems since I came into existence, so I have to at least help them out on it."

Smirking at her, I added, "You also heard from them why I wanted peace, right?"

She laughed and poked my cheek. "Because you abandoned me and wanted a harem for yourself~?"

"…C'mon…I didn't have my memories back then…" I replied, and she giggled again.

"I know, I was just joking, Aaron." She turned back to the sky and looked at the moon while holding my hand and locking our fingers together. "…I want to save as many as we can when we come across them in the multiverse…I know it's unrealistic, but…can you help me grant this selfish request?"

Her grip tightened on my hand. "I heard about it from Azathoth, she told the 'Fated Ones' and me since I knew you beforehand, we even had a magic circle for Rossweisse to hear it too. It's too tragic. I don't want them to suffer—especially those in the Phantasma, they're fighting a war that they never stood a chance in the first place…Aaron…can we…please…?"

Liberate them, huh? …I was already going to do that since I know how much they're suffering and what kind of universe it used to be before 'Darkness' went there and ruined it. Although it wasn't a perfect universe—let's be honest, no universe is like that—he just rapidly made it worse, and now it's in the state it is.

"That was my plan already, Aoife. But…yeah, let's go and liberate them once we're done with the Khaos Order on this universe. Don't worry though, Laeronia and the others in the ExE and CxP are going to make this easier for us. I want to be there when we take them down—to see their faces fall into despair like how they made the people there feel," I told her.

She laughed and softly hit my shoulder with her free hand. "You sound like the evil one now, Aaron…but thank you. I hate violence, and if it was possible, I would have liked to do it more peacefully, but I know they can't be reasoned with, so let's do our best to minimize the damage."

"Alright! Let's go to sleep then, we still have tomorrow to deal with," I said, and I began to pull her away.

"…It's just sad I can't sleep with you today~" she added as she left the veranda. She then forced me down to her height and whispered, "…And not just sleeping normally together."

I stopped and stared at her. "Are you horny?"

"Don't just say that!" she retorted and headbutted my chest. I let go of her hand and began lightly jogging away while laughing, Aoife was a bit angry at me for blatantly telling her that.

— ○ ● ○ —

"How about making it pink?" Mom asked.

"…I can't, I mean, I have their plans and blueprint here, mom," I replied, and I showed it to her.

Morning, after a loud and energetic breakfast with everyone, I started on my work here. Everyone else was free to do what they wanted, but a few did go back to Grigori to report what happened here to the alliance. Tobio, Kanami (unhappy), and Natsume went back. Rias and Akeno also went back to the Underworld to report to them, while I contacted Michael myself and we spoke as I worked on the first construction site.

I was in the second one now, and the ones who came with me were mom, Cindy, and Grayfia. Like everyone else, I told them that I would be fine on my own, but they insisted on staying. Suzaku, Danu, and Lavinia were going to stay too until I convinced them otherwise, and now they were exploring the new faction in groups.

The other groups stayed too; Lavinia had to force Vali, but Ouryuu did since something happened in their clan, Suzaku also wanted to leave initially, but with Atsutarou's new freedom, he's acting as head today to let Suzaku have a bit of time off. While some were reluctant at first, there were more in favor of it since he was Suou's son.

Right now, I am constructing a few more houses in a new residential area; the next should be another commercial, then an industrial, then a few obscure buildings, and finally the last two, which were the museum and Rating Game building.

"I should be helping with the preparations…" Grayfia mumbled to the side.

Like last night, tonight we would have another party, and then we would go home. However, like yesterday, they refused our help, so the very dedicated devil maid who came with me felt a bit lost during her free time.

Mom handed back the blueprints to me and trotted over to Grayfia. "Now, now, Grayfia, it's important to rest every now and again, correct?"

Slightly flustered, she agreed with my mother. "Y-yes, b-but it's the duty of a maid too—"

"Aren't you Aaron's maid now?" she asked, and Grayfia nodded. "Aaron, order her."

"Grayfia Lucifuge, accompany my mother for the day; that's an official order—oh, and also relax a bit," I told her while doing the last touch-ups for the homes.

Grayfia was left speechless as I checked the houses to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with them. Once I was done, Grayfia looked like she had relented, and Mom was the one massaging her shoulders.

Cindy came over to me and showed me a clipboard. "Next will be the commercial zones; these are the buildings they wish to be created, Master Aaron."

Looking over it, I said, "They seemed like they had enough of them in here, but I guess…looking over it, they are quite far away from each other…eh, let's just go."

As we began our walk over there, we came across a lot of vampires who greeted us, some saying they couldn't wait for tonight and things like that. Of course, some of these guys opened up to us and started to trust us after we saved this place a second time. Even after saving them from total destruction the first time around, some were still skeptical, which was understandable.

I mean, they were tricked by the Khaos Order, then the Tepes faction suddenly imploded on itself, and then some mini war started… Some might think: 'Hey, maybe the Middleman is conspiring with them', and I wouldn't blame them for that.

The closer we got, a strange crowd started to form in a small part of this side of the town. When we finally arrived there, we saw some vampire children who were mostly female, a few males, and Gasper with them. It looked like they were playing some kind of game.

"Go!" a male vampire child shouted. A mini toy robot modeled after the [Boosted Gear] Scale Mail charged forward towards Gasper.

Gasper created a bat from his darkness, and it flew towards the toy robot. The two clashed in the middle, and the toy robot began to push the bat away, but it then flew around behind the robot, forcing it out of a small red ring on the ground.

"Aw, I lost!" the boy said, walking over to pick up his toy robot.

"You did good, great work!" Gasper said, trying to encourage the boy. It worked, and he smiled while they talked and the others got ready.

"I wasn't expecting this," I murmured. It seemed like they liked Gasper and didn't shun him—well, it's mostly children, but the adults around them were mostly smiling, so I don't think they minded.

I'd like to think they've become more accepting of hybrids, but they can't change hundreds of years of thinking in just a year. Perhaps they're just going along with it for the kids; if they are, then fine, but I do hope they're seriously working to change their way of thinking.

A bell suddenly rang.

"Good job, you two. It's time for the next opponent," Valerie said as she clapped her hands. She was the one who rang the bell; it seemed like it came from her phone in her hands.

They seemed to be having fun, and I'd rather not draw attention to myself while this was happening, so I erased our presence and gestured for everyone to keep going. As we left, we heard them shouting again.

We kept walking until we arrived at the next location, but when we did, we saw that Ursulette was there with Elmenhilde, Eirisse, and Fusae. When we approached them, Ursulette immediately jumped up from where they were sitting.

She dashed towards us and stood in front of me. "Husband, how are you this fine day!?"

"…I'm not your husband, but I'm doing good. I'll assume you are too," I said and patted her head before walking towards the site.

"Are you against having her in your harem?" Mom asked.

"Mom, you already know how I feel about this," I replied, smiling wryly.

"Going down the list, you're missing a few in certain species; a pure-blooded vampire is one of them," she said, and she put her hands on her hips.

…Is this harem bingo!? I don't need someone from every single species! I will admit I have a lot of different women in it, but holy hell…

She turned to the vampire and said, "Ursulette, and everyone else, I support your attempts at courting my son!"

"Thank you, mother-in-law! I'll do my best to seduce him!" Ursulette replied while pushing forward her breasts.

I began creating the new buildings as the rest of them chatted away. Grayfia and Cindy were by my side while they pointed out the specifics of each building for me to make.

"Wouldn't this count as sexual harassment in this day and age?" asked Eirisse.

"I am the embodiment of that, yes," replied Ursulette.

This got a reaction out of me as I glanced back with a questioning look, and she seemed giddy. I don't think you should be proud of that…

As I slowly made progress, their conversations became strange, although I felt an extra person behind me not doing or saying anything.

"Mother-in-law, what do you recommend to make seduction easier?"

"Hmm…well, he's known as the Oppai Dragon, so I guess something with your breasts? He doesn't try to pull away from mine when I hug him, hehe~" replied mom, making me blush.

It's not for that reason that I don't pull away. You're my mother, and we had 'that' conversation, so I won't pull away to hurt your feelings…but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and think that she's just saying that to encourage Ursulette.

"Breasts…what about other…areas?" she asked.

"Well, he's known as the Thigh and Butt Dragon too, so take your pick! …But I've heard from other women that he likes other things too…!" mom added, and I finally turned around and gave her a half-glare that she giggled at.

Ursulette, who was beside my mother, pulled down her dress' upper half, exposing her bare breasts to me. It didn't seem like she was wearing a bra, although that was quite obvious with what she was wearing. But I was hoping for her to be wearing, I don't know, bandages or something to cover up her nipples—you know, anime logic and all that.

"Ursulette!!" Elmenhilde and Eirisse screamed at their friend. At that point, I had already turned back around, with a bit of help from Fusae and Grayfia.

— ○ ● ○ —

Róisín Toole's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

What a scary glare, but I know he understands I'm just teasing him, and I also understand that some of the women of this world can perceive some things said in a very different and overdramatic way. I just didn't think she would pull her dress down to show my son her breasts. I will admit they are a good size, though I heard from many women that he doesn't have a preference for how big a female's chest is.

…I would have believed that if I didn't know him praising Akeno's and Suzaku's breasts in our previous lives. He likes them big, and I'm confident in that since he used to suck mine quite forcefully when he was still a baby!

"Can you give us examples?"

A person I didn't expect asks me! It was…Elmenhilde. With a bright smile on my face, I said, "Akeno and Kuroka have said they had him use their armpits."

"…Mom! Please!" he semi-shouted, his face turning red out of embarrassment. Grayfia gave him a look of, 'You like that?', which made me giggle a bit.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop, I don't want to get scolded~" I said and put my hands up. It was obvious that he didn't want their bedroom life to be known to the world, but all three pure-blooded vampires looked curiously at Aaron.

Fusae even looked at her own armpit, and it was quite easy to see what she was thinking, so I walked over to her and said, "Yes…go ahead and shave it."

She blushed in return, and I giggled. I shouldn't be doing this; I feel like I'm not acting my age, but being in this world feels so freeing and liberating, that I can't help but tease everyone and put my thoughts into words.

We have always been silenced or weren't allowed to express ourselves because of my previous husband. The only safe space he gave us were our rooms, so that's why Aaron had so many books, and slowly, I joined that trend, and we read things together when we were home.

Hugging my son from behind, I apologized to him. "I'm sorry; I'll try not to do that."

"…It's embarrassing, but it's not like it's unknown to everyone living with me, but please try not to tell people those things if you can," he said tiredly.

He didn't admonish me; he's undeniably indulging me in this regard, or he can't find it himself to truly be angry with me. I felt conflicted about this, but he does give preferential treatment to those he truly cares about.

"You spoil me too much; I love you~" I told him while squeezing him tighter.

"…I love you too," he mumbled, sounding embarrassed.

— ○ ● ○ —

A few minutes later, he was finished, and we were on our way to a different location. I've questioned him many times about why he does certain things, and it usually boils down to a single point: he wants to experience something.

He was quite vague about it, but I more or less understood what he meant. We were essentially trapped in our home and country because of that man. We couldn't go anywhere and be free since he had eyes and ears everywhere, and if we did anything that wasn't approved by him or if he didn't give us permission, we would go home to him yelling at us.

At first Aaron would remain silent, but eventually (as he got older) he would start yelling at him back too. Perhaps that was the sign when he started to slowly kill Aoife? Or at least it gave him the idea of hurting Aaron back, but I wasn't sure; maybe Aaron knows the answer after speaking with him?

Either way, the closer we got to the location, we heard a familiar person's singing voice, so with some prompting from the vampires who came along with us, we hurried over there and found Ingvild doing a small performance for the people here.

She was accompanied by the remaining Gremory peerage and the Slash Dog Team. It makes sense since Ingvild is quite famous in both the supernatural and human worlds now. The music she makes is known worldwide, and with her being compared to this world's greatest artists, it's quite the contrast compared to the books since…well, she wasn't even awake yet.

Seeing her live a full life like this makes me really happy. Whether or not it was pure coincidence that the Satans entrusted her to my son, I doubt either of them cares at this point since they're both happy. Wait…did he—?

I wasn't sure, so I walked to Aaron and pulled him down. I then whispered into his ear, "Did you propose to Ingvild yet?"

"No…she's mostly out due to her job, so we haven't had much time interacting with each other, but she managed to get some time off, so that's why I asked her to come with me during this job. But I do want to propose to her soon," he whispered back.

He wants to, so I'm assuming he has a plan. He has been proposing a bit better lately, although Valerie proposed to him last night, and it wasn't a grand spectacle, but both of them were fine with it.

Looking back at Ingvild, she sank and danced around the stage, with Asia, Shirone, and Xenovia supporting her on the side of the stage by copying her dance moves. The rest acted as security, but everyone was very amicable, so they didn't need to do much.

She saw us and waved as she continued to sing and dance. We waved back at her before continuing on our way.

We arrived at the site around a minute later, and Aaron continued his job. The vampires decided to stay at Ingvild's concert, but soon enough another group came by; it was the Vali Team with Lavinia. Vali Lucifer was being fawned over by his two lovers, Genbu Doumon and Calantha Vordenburg, while Lavinia gave them tips on the side.

Bikou and the two Pendragon siblings were with them, while Gogmagog wasn't, but Fenrir was with Le Fay as usual. Spotting us, they came over, with Lavinia running up and hugging Aaron from behind.

"Are you nearly done, Aniki?" he asked.

"Nearly, but at the pace I'm going, I'll be done by the time I want to be, and all we'll have to do is wait for the party again tonight. If you're interested, you can join me on my last one, which is the Rating Game stadium; it'll be used the next time the tournament takes place," he explained.

"Next one. Do you know when the next tournament will come up?" asked Vali while being hounded by both his lovers.

Aaron glanced back at his little brother and said, "Keep this a secret, alright? We have been talking and we've thought of having this tournament every five years. We believe it's enough time for individual players to train themselves, get stronger, form new teams, or stay in old ones."

"So, everyone has a suitable amount of time to train before the next one occurs. Having the same team win it every year would be pretty boring, right? Although I can understand that teams that have fans would like that very much," explained Aaron.

It seemed to have ignited an even bigger fire inside of Vali, as he had a look of excitement on his face. At the very least, it's not a one-time thing, as it will be considered a sport in the future. Perhaps once we reveal ourselves to the humans, they'll also invite some human-based teams? Not ones that were associated with the supernatural, so it'll be an interesting few years when that happens…

"Will the grand prize be the same thing?" Bikou asked.

"Yeah. The winning team will be informed of the restrictions, but we think they're fair. It's mostly common sense, so you guys probably know what that entails," he replied to the monkey youkai.

"No war, no wanting to become the strongest that ever was…something like that?" asked Bikou.

"…Yeah, something like that." Aaron kept on doing his construction work while talking to us.

"However, if one asks to have their potential change to that of, let's say, 'Great Red', or 'Ophis', will you grant it?" Arthur asked. This question gained a few people's attention.

"Reaching that potential is difficult, but yes, it can be done. However, I won't just change your level of power to that, because—"

"Yeah, I know, there are a lot of villains in shonen manga that were once heroes or neutral people going power hungry, right?" Bikou interrupted, and Aaron nodded.

"Heh, but I can still wish for that potential and keep working towards it," Vali said while crossing his arms.

I went over to him and poked his side. "That's good and all, but don't forget little Genbu and Calantha, okay? They're your family now."

"That's right, Vaa-kun! I want to see your children soon too!" Lavinia added.

He immediately became flustered and turned away. "Y-yeah, I-I know that, you don't need to tell me twice. Also, I won't have kids yet; that's way too early!"

Fufu, it's like they're brothers from another mother. Aaron basically said the same thing.

After that, they spoke a bit more about different topics; we also made our way to the other locations, and we eventually ended up at the location for the museum. What they asked Aaron to do was just make the building itself and a few rooms for different historical things they'd put in it.

To our surprise, there weren't many officials here, as we thought they would be, but there were some regular vampires that waited here to see what Aaron would do or make, and once he got started, they watched him intently while also asking some questions, to which he answered while also showing the blueprints he had.

They were definitely the more skeptical ones towards him, but after he was honest with them, they seemed to have a different opinion of him. From my own perspective, they have some respect for him now and a bit of admiration.

It also helped that he was associated with their leaders in a positive light, as were the dhampirs who came back here to help them, even though Gasper had more of a role than Valerie. Although it seemed like Gasper did ask Kecate Tepes to a one-on-one match.

"Can we go inside once it's done?" asked Lavinia, who was still hugging him.

"They wanted me to check everything about it, so yeah, we can," replied Aaron. After a few more minutes, he was done.

The museum was unique; it was in the shape of a large dome with gothic themes, and it also had bat wings and permanent fog around it. It also had the current leader's statues at the front entrance, all in gold.

When we went inside, it was illuminated by lights on the ground. Its own layout was also a bit unconventional, as many of its potential exhibits were elevated on platforms, and there were other platforms for where the visitors could go and stand or sit while observing it. In total, there were 42 rooms in it, including a second floor above the elevated platforms.

"It feels kind of futuristic if you look at it from a certain angle," Calantha said while pointing at the elevated platforms.

"Isn't that a good thing? I mean, we're heading to a future just like that," said Bikou.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing. But yeah, I want to see it."

As we walked the place, Aaron, with a few people with him, repaired or changed some things while also explaining what he thought might go there. This carried on until we left and went to the last site.

— ○ ● ○ —

The area we arrived at was east of the castle, where the leaders stayed. However, the closer we got to that area, the more homes and commercial buildings were near it, it seemed like they had built this place with this building in mind from the very start. It makes me wonder how long the leaders of each faction and pantheon knew about the upcoming tournament.

"It's quite barren here," muttered Fusae while looking around the area.

It was mostly flat, surrounded by water, almost like a moat that surrounds castles. There were a few trees that were on the other side of the moat, as well as buildings and structures that resembled guard towers.

"It's the space they want it to be; if you get a bird's-eye view, it's shaped like a bat." Aaron created a magic circle beside him, showing us that.

He then began its construction. The building that slowly appeared was a large circular dome, resembling a colosseum. Above it were spiral spires with bat wings on each of their sides, and all around them were small rectangular windows and pillars.

Around the dome were various trees of various sizes and shapes. Some were coconut, some were pine, and others were trees I hadn't seen before, but normally they wouldn't be able to flourish here, but Aaron probably used magic to keep them alive and healthy.

Next were the statues of the leaders, along with Gasper Vladi and Valerie Tepes. Fufu, if they saw this, they may become embarrassed; even Aaron isn't used to seeing statues of him around the world.

He also added a few other things that looked strange at first glance, but he just said that the leaders wanted them and didn't question them. There were various flamingos around the place—he summoned, or willed them into existence—a few flower patches, and finally a building full of puppies…

That last one confused me, but I didn't question it. We went into it and interacted with them. Shin, who had appeared when Lavinia joined us, became a bit jealous, and Lavinia gave him the attention instead.

They say that Shin is another version of Aaron, so doesn't that, in a way, say that my own son became jealous of Lavinia's attention being directed at someone else? Although Aaron himself was enjoying the experience too, quite a lot of the puppies flocked towards him after all.

After our time there, we went into the stadium, which, like many others, had the usual rooms and hallways, stands, and other necessities that it needed. Going directly into the middle, it was very heavily vampire-themed. The arena itself was shaped in a large circle, and the platform itself was in the shape of a bat, so it was circular, but it had mini wings on the sides as well as an eye drawn in the middle.

"It's…very vampire-esque," said Velgrynd. She randomly showed up along with Suzaku and Danu after we entered the stadium.

"So it's like the other stadiums, right? We'll get transported to the field depending on the game type?" Vali asked.

"Yeah, it's the same, but this is what the crowds that will come here will see," replied Aaron.

"Alright, fight me!" Vali shouted; he didn't wait for confirmation as he charged towards Aaron, surprising everyone.

He threw a punch at Aaron's face, and he moved it to the side, avoiding it. Aaron then slapped him on the cheek, slamming the younger Lucifer to the ground.

Lavinia trotted over to her younger brother, crouched down, and poked him. "Vaa-kun~ Vaa-kun~"

Aaron chuckled and said, "This feels like déjà vu."

"Hehe, it's how we first met," Lavinia said while still poking the unconscious Vali.

I heard the story, and I wish I could have seen it. We spent a few more minutes there, with Aaron contacting the leaders, and they teleported to the place to inspect it. They were happy with his work and would pay him handsomely.

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Toole's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

Night was fast approaching, and our time in the faction was coming to an end. The entire day was filled with very strange things, a lot of it was fun and chaotic, some were... I'll leave that story for another time.

Right now, I was with a woman; a certain junior of mine knew of this woman as they were very close. And that junior right now is with his father since I requested for them to be at a certain spot in the faction.

"Well, it's been some time since you came back; how has the world been? I know I had you working in secret and all…"

The older woman laughed and said, "It's fine; I got many letters from you about my son and the things he's done and how he's grown. I'm quite happy with it, but…I do look forward to seeing them, but I have a lot of things to say to my husband."

What a haughty woman, but I can see why she needed to be like that to keep Lord Vladi in check.

"Although I have no excuse since I died of shock after I saw my own son, I'm a failure of a mother," she muttered.

I didn't have anything to say to that; anything that I thought of might sound like I was making excuses for her, so I kept my mouth shut. Although I would say labor had a factor in her dying, magic existed, so…

We eventually arrived at the spot; I had masked this woman's presence so neither of them could detect her. I also made her invisible, so they couldn't see her either. The two Vladi's were by a small lake and I approached them with her by my side.

"Yo! Sorry for the delay; I wanted to show you guys something," I told them, both becoming curious by my words.

"Show us something, Aaron-nii?"

"…Yes, I'm curious about this, Jin-dono."

Both son and father were curious, which made me amused. The setting sun on the horizon was illuminating us as we stood there. I think it was good timing.

"Oh, it's nothing too serious; it's just this…" I clicked my fingers, undoing the invisibility. Both of them froze once they saw the woman beside me.

She had medium length gray hair that reached her shoulders, light pink eyes. She wore a short white frilly t-shirt, a long light blue skirt, and brown moccasin shoes. Furthermore, she had a little blue pendant around her neck as she smiled at the two of them.

"Hello—"

Both of them embraced her at the same time, so I took that as my cue to leave. As I left, both of them began crying, they probably held back since they didn't want me to hear them. Gasper started doing that more since he stopped crying so often around us.

Once I arrived back in the city, Valerie was waiting for me.

"It's done?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's done," I replied. She came over to me and hugged me too.

"Let's go then, they'll join us later." She pulled me away, and we joined everyone else who was waiting for us since this was going to start a bit earlier than yesterday.

— ○ ● ○ —

It was chaotic, like last night, but we were now going home. There were several people passed out all around us, and some were quite tipsy or drunk too. The rest had rejoined us as the party was in full swing, and Kanami, who was enthusiastic about it, had become black-out drunk and was now sleeping.

"Please come again, Jin. You and everyone here are welcome with open arms," said Carmilla.

"Yes, it seems our people have also warmed up even more towards you and outsiders, but it will definitely take time," added Kiss Shot.

Dracula was also passed out, as he had drunk a lot of alcohol earlier. So he couldn't join us.

"We'll try, but for now, this is goodbye," I replied. We waved goodbye one last time, and I teleported everyone else back to their respective places, and then the rest of us to my home.

The Vladi family was back together, and they profusely thanked me earlier. Gasper's mother, Lina, would stay here with Gasper's father, Flaviu Vladi, and they planned on marrying hopefully within the year, and we would be invited to it.

You could say the Vladi family got their happy ending.

— ○ ● ○ —

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

"Is everything ready?" asked a man with a unique mustache.

"In a week we will be. We're attacking two fronts after all. We'll provide assistance to you, but we'll focus on the place I want to attack," replied a female monster with a teddy bear.

"That's fine. As long as I get to try again, that's all that matters—well, it's the supernatural side that I want to attack this time though, perhaps a bit in the human world," replied the man.

The female monster turned around and giggled. "Whatever you say, Hitler~"

"I'm no longer a regular human, Black Alice. I can do so much more now…"

— ○ ● ○ —


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Update: Harem Chapter

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Total Chapter word count: 43k

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