A Hero's Final Peace...interrupted!
Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD or Fate/Stay Night.
Written with permission from Writer_with_Bad_Grammar
Prologue: The Desperation of Estranged Sisters, a Devil's Plea is Heard, a Sword is Unsheathed Once More
"NOOOOOO!"
The inhuman scream of anguish and despair shook the vast forest of the higher energy dimension as the occupant of it gave voice to the feelings that even now washed through her, giving voice to the pain that she felt at having her child metaphorically torn from her and drowned in hateful darkness.
At the edge of a still lake within the wild forest, a mature brown haired woman, wearing a chiton of light green silk, knelt, staring into the depths of the still water. Her green eyes, the colour of well grown grass, watered as tears of despair dripped down her pale and flawless cheeks, gliding down her swan like neck and disappearing into the ample cleavage of the low cut front of her dress.
The reason for her tears and anguish could easily be seen.
On the surface of the water was not her reflection, as could be expected, but rather it showed a scene of carnage and bloodshed and darkness.
It was a blighted landscape, barren of anything but skeletal dead trees, shattered rocks and dry and cracked earth. What might have once been a creek bed wound its way through the lifeless landscape, curling its way through the barren earth. In times past, it likely would have supplied the necessary water for the surroundings, letting crystal clear waters move over the small stones and pebbles on the bottom.
Now, however, within the confines of the banks, it was not water that passed through it. It was the blood of the battlefield.
Piled on each side, scattered haphazardly, and extending from horizon to horizon, were the corpses of once proud warriors and defenders that lay where they fell. Some of them burnt to an unrecognisable degree, charred husks that would fall apart at a touch, and others looked like they had been literally torn apart, torsos and limbs and heads separated from one another through sheer vicious force. Still others, the lucky ones perhaps, looked almost peaceful at first glance, their eyes either closed or open in surprise, killed in a single swift blow before they even knew that they were a target.
It was horrifying sight, especially when one knew of the true nature of the army. A nature shown by a fair few of them having large wings, bat-like, dark feathered or white, that were attached to them, many of them having numerous sets of said wings. Other corpses showed a more bestial aspect, traits of animals like tails or claws and fangs, as if they were part man and part beast, reflections of the myths told to children about to be put to bed, or were even fully bestial, like massive lizards or huge wolves. Still others, perhaps the saddest of them all, lacked these strange traits, showing their apparent humanity for all to see.
Not that there was anyone left to really care.
Each of these beings, members of the supernatural community, had had one purpose when they had walked out onto the battlefield, faces grim and full of righteous wrath and the desire for justice and vengeance. One purpose for which they had been gathered and trained.
To protect this world from the foes that sought to destroy it.
A task that, even with all their power, with all the effort that they put into it, for all the sacrifices that they had made, they had failed at.
Above that scorched and desolate battlefield, a twisted amalgam, an abomination to reality, leered over the field of blood and carnage, it's immense form casting darkness over the land, the only true light coming from the baleful and malicious glare of its fourteen eyes and seven heads. The wretched Beast, the Emperor of the Apocalypse, roared in triumph of its victory, it's front paws crushing the two sets of armour, one a crimson red and the other a bright white, symbols of the last beings to fall at the hands of itself and its army, beneath them.
Those horrid eyes, so filled with malice and hatred and hunger, then seemed to look up through the water, glaring at the watching woman at the water, and a hideous smirk crossed every reptilian face, ten horns glinting like blood stained swords as those eyes conveyed a message to her.
'You're next.'
The woman's beautiful face, marred with tears and growing dark cracks, like porcelain on the verge of shattering, twisted into a fierce hatred, transforming the grieving and sorrowful woman into a woman coursing with anger and rage.
With a vicious cry, her hand, slim but calloused, beautiful and refined, a queen that still knew a day's work, a mother's hand, lashed out, raking her claw-like nails through the reflected image, disturbing the water, and banishing those horrid eyes from her view as she turned away.
She couldn't stand to watch as the last remnants of hope for her many children was snuffed out.
And she, despite everything, despite the carnage that had been wrought upon the planet for years, in spite of the wasteland that it had become as it was used as a battleground, in spite of the casualties that were measured in the billions, or even trillions, knew that this was only the beginning for that Beast, the first step on a path of bloody victory paved with the bones of those that opposed him and held together with a bloody mortar of those that it killed.
"Damn you!" She seethed, in sorrow and grief and anger and rage and pain, cursing the one that she knew to be the reason that the planet, her planet, her world, was now bereft of the life that she had created and nurtured, like a mother would their children.
"Damn you, Rizevim!" Screamed the woman known as Gaia, her voice an unearthly shriek that made the realm she dwelled in, now starting to rot and waste away as the anchor point of its existence, the very earth itself, or rather the life on it, was ultimately destroyed by claws of a Beast that should not exist, an horrendous amalgam of the darkness, the corruption, of humanity.
Gaia snarled to herself bitterly. Humanity. The one of weakest, if not the weakest, of sentient beings that had trod upon her vast body, but also the most destructive. It was a mistake for YHWH to take a hand in their development, to mould them into something more than the huddled and fearful cave dwelling half-monkeys that they had been, to show them the light that they could achieve. Only for them to twist it around and distort it, delving into the darkness...and inadvertently creating that Beast of Nightmare and Horror from their thoughts and twisted desires.
Humanity. YHWH. And those damnable Sacred Gears, especially the Longinus Class ones. They were mistakes, all of them, ones that she should have eradicated from the face of her body before they could have become a real threat.
But that damnable YHWH had stood in her way. The protective bastard hoarded his investment in humanity like Fafnir did his gold. And, due to his quickly spreading influence and worship, had quickly added to his already immense power, becoming a being that rivalled the Infinite and the Dream, making him a foe that she was forced to be wary of. And nor was he without his allies, ones that supported his goals.
One on one, she could have taken him, albeit with wounds, but if he had enough allies around him? She wouldn't have died in the resulting battle, that was impossible for her as long as there was life on the planet, but she, or her consciousness anyway, could have been sealed away. Possibly in one of this Sacred Gears that he had designed to give out to his favoured race.
And she refused to take the chance that she would be reduced to a servant, a slave, however reluctantly, to the Bible Lord's will.
As such, she was forced into a stalemate, unable to do anything more than watch as Humanity expanded its power, leeching off of her body for their minerals and resources without any respect for her or her state of health. Some of her most beautiful features, like wild forests and frost capped mountains, or coursing rivers and verdant plains, had been torn down or despoiled and polluted by Humanity, all in the name of progress and power.
When YHWH had been killed at the end of the Great War, she had seriously considered taking action, letting the beasts she had created in heart of hearts loose to remove the blight of Humanity from the earth, from the face of body, to wipe the slate clean and start again. But two things had stopped her.
She had a degree of honour and respect for YHWH, however much she despised and hated him for his continued protection of the Human race, and unfortunately, with the actions that he took to seal away the being known as Trihexa, actions that had eventually resulted in his death, she found herself in his debt. He had saved her from a foe she had no chance in defeating by sacrificing himself. As such, it would be the highest of insults, to herself and her power, if she took advantage of that. It would have both implied her own weakness and fear of him while also showing herself to be cowardly and ungrateful. It was not an image she wanted to project. She had her pride, to an extent.
The second reason was the tattered and scattered remnants of YHWH's little faction, not to mention the other mythos factions out there.
Angel, both Fallen and not, Devil and Demon. Gods and spirits and djinn. Youkai and monster. All of them had been devastated by the Great War, in some fashion or another. Not even the Dragons were exempt, despite not taking sides as a whole. Quite a number of the powerful reptiles, persuaded by silvery tongues and lavish offers, had joined the three way war on one side or another.
As such, they needed to recoup these losses, to bolster these numbers again. And to do that they needed the resources to do so. Resources that came from a single race. Humans.
Humans turning into Devils, something that was even known to happen long before Ajuka Beelzebub introduced the Evil Piece system. Humans ascending to Heaven and becoming Angels, some of those Falling to become part of the Grigori. Humans turned into Vampires and Werewolves. Humans, through various means, becoming Youkai and Monsters. Humans, by choice, seeking out arcane knowledge and joining the various institutes and groups that studied these phenomena. Humans giving birth to children of various deities, as they have since ancient times, or accepting a servitude role to said deity after their death, becoming more than a simple mortal as a result.
Humans. Humans. Humans.
Despite their disdain for the most numerous race, and their innate and sometimes unconscious superiority to them, the supernatural community knew the truth. Without humanity, they could not survive. Every supernatural community, in one form or another, depended on the existence of the race of humanity. Without them, without this weak race that they sneer at, they would be nothing but dust in the wind before a century had passed. Even less considering their collective weakened state after the War.
As such, these entities, so powerful compared to a human mortal that said mortal's mind is almost unable to comprehend it, were forced by circumstance to protect, in some manner, the weakest race from collective and absolute harm, lest they invite their own destruction thereafter. A protection that became stronger once all the factions realised the power and potential of the Sacred Gears that this weak race were able to obtain through circumstances of birth.
If Gaia had made her move to wipe out the human race, thus removing the foundation that many mythos factions relied on to survive, she would swiftly find herself facing the (reluctantly) united ire of the supernatural world. Friends and enemies standing side by side to remove a threat to their continued survival. It was not a fight she would have likely won, even if she would have inflicted grievous wounds and immense casualties before being pulled down.
The Earth Mother couldn't help but find irony in the fact that the Beast had taken her place in that scenario. Only it had had enough power to stand victorious rather than fall in defeat.
Taken together, these two reasons had forced her to stay her hand and let the human race alone, mostly, and taking a more passive-aggressive approach, never making it truly easy for the human race to push onwards, making them work for every bit of land they tilled, for every mountain they pulled down and tree they felled.
But now her hatred for humanity, powerful as it was, paled in comparison to the sheer loathing she felt for the accursed son of the original Lucifer, Rizevim.
In his desire to see chaos wrought on this world, and in all worlds, he had awakened the dreaded Beast, Trihexa, which YHWH had sealed away. The worst evils of mankind taken form, backed by two powerful Evil Dragons and an army of corrupted copies of one of YHWH precious Sacred Gears, had been freed to lay waste to anything and everything.
And it had.
Valiantly, the beings of her world, laying aside their differences, had attempted to put a stop to it, to send it back to its slumber or, possibly, destroy it. For near a half a decade, they had clashed, army meeting army, valiant defenders of the world, her body, meeting the horde of chaos in endless clashes across the skies, over the land and even beneath the dark waves of the sea.
At first, the defenders had done well, relatively, and had pushed back the darkness, even managing to eliminate one of the 'Generals', the Evil Dragon Apophis, and had thought they had removed him from play permanently, a great accomplishment despite the cost in blood that had been paid for it.
Unfortunately, that great victory had its own consequences.
Trihexa had then shown itself to be more than a simple beast of destruction, had shown itself to be far more cunning. It decided to stop holding back and took the field itself.
When that happened, it was the death knell for the alliance of the mythologies of the world. There was not a single being that had the capability of facing down that Beast. Even the God of Destruction, Shiva, had found himself at a loss to even challenge it.
By the thousands, the defenders lost their numbers, collapsing the lines and letting strongholds become wastelands beneath the Beast's vicious onslaught. And it did not fight alone. The losses only grew when, using the power of the Sacred Gear, Sephiroth Graal, the Holy Grail and one of the three Great Relics of Christianity, the lost general, Apophis, had been revived and more of the corrupted armours had been made.
Within a week of the Beast taking the field, the alliance was now the one being pushed back.
Within a month, their lines were shattered, the horde not caring where and when they fought, even in the middle of a populated city of humans, forcing the alliance to split their attention between attacking the horde and defending the humans. It was an action that had lead to their doom as the horde cut through them mercilessly, razing the towns and cities to the ground with impunity while the defenders were forced to hold back so as not to endanger the humans further.
This lead to the collapse of human society as, seeming inexplicably, entire cities, or even whole countries, were put to the torch despite the defender's best efforts. It was chaos everywhere as humanity panicked, morales cast aside as they all frantically looked for a chance to survive these mysterious events of annihilation.
Despite herself and the circumstances, Gaia couldn't help but find a small bit of satisfaction at seeing the race that had harmed her the most be thrown into disarray.
After a year, a year of constant loss and death and carnage, the final stand had happened on the baked and cracked plain.
The Underworld was destroyed, ravaged by the cloud of corruption and blood thirsty madness that the Beast exuded just by being in the vicinity, turning friend against friend and brother against brother.
Heaven, glorious and full of light, was now darker than the abyss, only the merest flicker of light remain due to Michael's sacrifice, just enough to keep the Sacred Gears able to function as they should.
Valhalla, Olympus, Takamagahara. The homes of the many deities in the world. All of them were as ashes, their occupants either dead and despoiled or on the field of battle.
Even the lands of the Dead were not spared, the body of the skeletal Hades torn apart and scattered through his shattered kingdom.
In that final battle, every defender knew that their world was lost, that the very thing they tried so hard to protect was almost gone, that they were the last and that victory was not even a dream. But still, grimly determined, knowing that they were marching to their deaths, they had all decided to make their last moments mean something, to somehow prevent this curse and madness from spreading to other worlds, just as the horde intended.
They tried. They failed.
And the Beast, with its army, stood above their corpses, victorious and roaring.
Gaia wilted, slumping heavily as rage dimmed and bitterness to its place, followed by self-loathing. "And damn me." She whispered harshly, a choked burble in her throat.
She could have helped them. The defenders. She could have helped them fight the Beast. She could have even stopped it from awakening in the first place, halting the damned devil in his tracks if she had manifested in the mortal realm.
But she didn't.
She didn't because she thought that humanity needed to be taken down a few pegs. She didn't because she thought, even if it was unleashed, she would be able to put it back in its cage, having been weakened through the years of enforced slumber and captivity. She didn't because of her own hubris and desire to hurt humanity.
And now, because of her hatred toward humanity, because of damnable pride, she was dying. And there was nothing that she could do about it.
She huffed a bitter laugh. She always knew that Humanity would be the death of her. Though it certainly wasn't in the manner she was expecting.
"Why do you weep, Earth Mother?"
A melodic voice interrupted her thoughts, making her turn her head toward the source in surprise. There were few beings that could enter this dimension she called home, fewer still were able to enter without either her permission or her sensing them. Only two in fact, and one would not even bother to do so, finding their time better spent doing wild flying manoeuvres in the Dimensional Gap.
The other one, however, despite being capable of doing so, would not dare to show their non-existent face in her realm, not with the long standing enmity between them.
However, judging by what her green eyes saw, it seemed that the veritable End of Days made for strange happenings and unlikely bedfellows.
Her green eyes narrowed at the intruder. "What do you want...Alaya?"
The white void in the place of a face seemed to glare Gaia, almost ignoring the question that the Earth Mother asked and merely continued on with their rant, anger in every word spoken by that voice of multitudes, melodic and discordant at once.
"Why do you weep when your deepest desire has been fulfilled?" The one known as Alaya said scornfully, "why do you cry tears of sorrow instead of joy now that Humanity has been removed from the face of your body, the being you call a blemish and blight eliminated allowing your true beauty to be seen?" Every word was cutting and venomous as Alaya spoke, designed to hurt and tear at Gaia's very essence. And they were doing their job well.
"Is this not what you wanted, what you wished for, Earth Mother?" Alaya continued mockingly, "A world without humanity? Without my children?" Alaya, the personification of 'Humanity's will to survive', gave a harsh and bitter laugh, the laughter of the damned and dead, uncaring of the consequences because they knew that they had nothing left to lose. "Well here it is, Gaia!" Alaya spat, "Then here it is! Here is the world you idealised, your dreamed of haven." Alaya snarled in venom and hatred, "Eat your fill and choke on it, you bitch!"
"It wasn't meant to be like this!" Gaia screeched at her eternal adversary, the two of them having always locked horns in regards to Humans since time immemorial. Gaia slumped. "It wasn't to be like this." She repeated softly, mournfully.
There was a silence between the two of them, the Earth Mother wondering at the mistakes she had made that lead to this carnage, the Will of Humanity just glaring at the now dying deity, even as the dimension around them slowly withered. The green of life in the forest being replaced with brown and black of decay and death.
"All I wanted," the Earth Mother said, sadly and bitterly, "All I wanted was for the pain to stop." She lifted her head to stare and the humanish shaped white void that represented Alaya, her beautiful features starting to crack, like stone that was being hammered away. "Do you know what it feels like to have your flesh torn, your skinned burned and your very being violated every second of every day...and not be able to strike back at the ones that were doing it?" She snarled, "That is what I have felt ever since your precious YHWH uplifted those filthy monkeys, since Azazel and his wretched brothers and sisters showed them the way of the craftsman. Can you blame me for wanting these diseased monkeys to feel just a small portion of my pain, just for a little while?" She gave a laugh, hysterical and mad, insanity in every breath, enough to make even Alaya shiver in discomfort. "And now," the Earth Mother giggled madly, rocking on her knees, "And now they have felt it, all of my pain, all of my anguish. Pain and anguish that I can no longer feel." She seemed to freeze suddenly, becoming more subdued, controlled, even as insanity flickered in the back of those green eyes.
"And yet, now that they have felt it, now that I no longer feel this pain...I would give everything I to feel it again."
Alaya stared at the fallen goddess, where she sat at the edge of the now stagnant pond, amidst wilting grass and dead bushes. She couldn't find it in herself to berate the goddess who had already lost as much as she had. As much as Alaya herself had.
It was perhaps this moment of empathic sympathy, this shared grief and understanding, that made Alaya say her next words.
"And what if I say that you could?"
The rocking form of Gaia froze, her head shooting up, her green eyes meeting the vacant void of Alaya's blank face.
And, for the first time since either had shared an existence, the Earth Mother and the Spirit of Humanity's Will to Survive co-operated and worked together.
Sona Sitri, known to the majority of the human world as Souna Shitori, heiress to the Sitri clan of Devils, subtly worried at her lip as she felt and heard the roars of beasts, the yells of battle and the howling exultant laughter of a mad Fallen.
Outwardly, as she and her Peerage maintained the barrier around the school in an attempt to contain the damage and destruction that the Fallen Star of God and his malodorous associates and lackeys and flunkies were now wreaking as they clashed with her rival's own Peerage and allies by circumstance from the church, she projected a calm and cool, almost cold, facade. Making it seem like everything was in control and keeping her Peerage calm and focused. She knew that even the simple appearance of being in control, regardless of the reality of the matter, could go a long way in maintaining a high morale amongst her forces while also diminishing her opponent's, bringing a chance at victory ever closer to her grasp.
Inwardly, however, in her heart of hearts, a dark and unfamiliar sensation was beginning to take hold, making her slight body feel heavy and her thoughts slow and disorganised, even as that dark grasp seemed to wrap around her heart and squeeze. It was not a welcome sensation.
But then, anyone who did like feeling fear, true fear, the terror of impending death and torment, the horror of being absolutely helpless and useless, was not someone she would care to meet. Clearly, they would not be mentally stable...or likely even functional.
She gave a grunt, which was answered with simultaneous gasps of shock and strain, along with a yelp of shock from her Pawn, Saji, as she felt her hold over the barrier waver as something powerful, likely more powerful than herself alone, hammered into it with the force of ten tons of dynamite.
"Hold the barrier!" She said sharply to her Peerage as their hold over it, save for herself, her Queen, Tsubaki, and her Bishop, Reya, wavered. "Don't let these shocks distract you." She frowned grimly, "I can guarantee that this would hardly be the last...or the worst."
Wordlessly, her Peerage scrambled to obey, the power that they were sending into the barrier flowing smoothly once more, stabilising the vast spell, much to Sona's satisfaction. Keeping up the barrier was hard enough as it was, and they could only hold it for so long, they didn't need sloppy handling to make things even worse.
Then again, taking into account just exactly who their adversary was, the efforts she was making would be useless if Kokabiel decided to get serious.
The Sitri heiress felt the cold grip of fear grasp,her heart once more. While not a devil that gloried in conflict and battle, like some of peers, preferring a more intellectual and diplomatic approach to solving problems, she was no stranger to fighting and, unfortunately, killing. One could not be a devil and remain oblivious to such things, more so for an heiress to one of the remaining Pillars.
She had fought and put down her own fair share of Stray Devils, Devils that lost themselves to their bloodlust and hunger for power after leaving their King's sphere of influence, most through rather violent means. She had also faced a handful of beings belonging to other factions, all of said beings hostile and attempted to attack and kill her or those under her protection. In those encounters, she had not hesitated in killing them, just as they tried to kill her. Yet, despite having been in numerous death matches, she had not felt fear when she had faced them.
Perhaps it was of her own power. Perhaps it was because she knew the gap in power between herself and her foes, despite their bravado or foolishness, had been as wide as the Grand Canyon in the Americas. Perhaps it was because she knew that the conclusion to these battles was inevitable, decided before the first blow had been struck.
In any case, whenever she had went into battles she had never felt fear. Until now.
And that shook her to the very depths of her soul.
Whatever was happening within the barrier, she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that her death was swiftly approaching. Despite the power that she knew resided in Rias' Peerage, numerous powerful Sacred Gears (a Longinus included) and the Power of Destruction at her side, and the strength of their (reluctant) allies from the church, a powerful Holy Sword wielder that held an Excalibur fragment (though Sona had the feeling there was something that the church representatives were hiding there. Simply granting these Exorcists access to the fragments that hadn't been stolen as a means to reclaim the stolen ones was a poor strategy. As the Exorcists had said, only an Excalibur can face an Excalibur, but, in this case, with Freed having three to the Exorcist's two, the balance was in Freed's favour, especially considering that Freed had little in the way of inhibitions and scruples in battle, something that the Church would know only too well. No, Sona was convinced that the Exorcists had trump card their sleeves there. The question was; what was the trump card?), she knew that this was a losing battle.
Against pretty much anything else, she might have held out a hope at victory. But against a Cadre member of the Grigori? One that was known for his battle plus the and prowess in warfare?
They didn't have a prayer.
All they could do, all they could have hoped to do, from the very beginning, was buy enough time for reinforcements to arrive. But even that hope had long since vanished with that pillar of Light and the Earthbreaker spell on a countdown timer. And, with every tick of a second, she felt the dark hand of death coil around her neck, even as she was helpless to do anything to prevent it.
And that terrified her.
She could admit it, though never out loud, that she was afraid of death. She might have dealt it, even if her conscience assured her it was only against those that had earned it or deserved it, against murderers, criminals and traitors, but she had never been on the other side of the coin. She had never had to deal with the danger of impending death.
And now, faced with it, she felt like a small child, alone and in the dark.
She didn't want to die, not yet. She had so much that she wanted to achieve, things that she wanted to see and do. She had not yet even begun to live, not truly. She didn't want to see her dreams become as dust before she even had a chance to pursue them.
It was likely because of this terrifying feeling, because of this horrifying sensation that she had never experienced before, that she did something that was almost anathema to Devils. To them as a species and to the pride that they held in themselves.
She prayed.
'To whomever that is listening,' she mentally prayed, directing her words into the world, hoping that they would be heard, 'To whomever is out there. Please, heed my call. I and those that I call friends, comrades, family, face a great evil, one that would see the world drown in blood and carnage in order to sate his lust for battle.' She bowed her head slightly, hiding her face from her Peerage as hot tears, of fear and helpless anger fell down the cheeks of her normally stoic face, 'I am ashamed to say that we, one and all, are too weak to face him.' Tears fell freely as her cheeks and eyes burned, 'And I am afraid, terrified, of death. Selfishly, I ask for a reprieve. Selfishly, I ask for my life to continue.' She threw her head back and looked to the skies, before uncharacteristicly yelling, her Peerage looking at her in shock even as her demonic power exploded out of her, surrounding her in a corona of power that stretched out toward the sky, conveying her message, her offer.
"Whatever the price you demand!" She yelled to the unfeeling sky, her voice rising even above the tumult of battle, a surprised momentary silence descending over the battlefield as they searched for the source of the inhuman wailing howl, "Take it! Take it all! Take everything if it mean that I survive!"
Silence followed her yearning proclamation, a plea to any that dared to listen, the only sound being the harsh rushing sound of her power surrounding her in a corona of flowing blue light.
Then, suddenly, she felt something.
An indescribable pressure pressed onto the forefront of her mind, pushing against her wavering barriers caused by her emotional turmoil. It was like someone had wrapped their hand around her skull and was slowly applying force, attempting to break it like a rotten egg.
And yet, she felt no pain.
Instead, she felt something more ephemeral, perhaps spiritual. Whatever the force that was pressing against her mind was, it was conveying something, communicating.
Agreement.
She blinked slightly as the word came to mind. Whatever this force was, it was not used to communicating in words. Instead, it had pressed the concept to the front of her mind, of Offer/Understanding/Decision, and her mind had interpreted it as a single word.
Before she could even think about anything else, she felt a harsh pull on her power, seeming to drag it out through her left hand, making it feel like molten metal boiled from it, completely irrespective of her control, the arcane power slipping from her grasp.
And above her, all that mystical energy formed a complex magical circle, one that shined with power and strength, something that only grew with every passing second as her power was leeched from her, no matter how much she tried to stop it, her panicked mind trying to understand what was happening even as her Peerage called her name in worry and confusion.
Eventually, the circle stopped growing in brightness, seeming to have reached a pinnacle, and then started to spin in place, becoming a wheel of light from how fast it spun, the characters and sigils that made it up blurring and becoming circles of light and power before changing still further, the minute gaps vanishing and the entire circle becoming a large opaque pane of arcane power.
"And what is this?" Called Kokabiel, his voice ringing out amongst the silence, his throne having floated towards Sona and her Peerage, no doubt attracted by the sheer power that was being focused into this spell. Her Peerage glared at the Fallen in her place, hiding their fear of him behind their anger at his derision of their King, as she was too distracted by trying to control the spell that seemed to have activated of its own accord, only to fail miserably due to panick and pain that suffused her. "Has the sister of Leviathan now decided to take the stage?" A howling laugh came from the Fallen, his ten wings spread wide and arms outstretched, as if inviting them to attack.
Which was exactly what he was doing.
"Come then, sister of Leviathan," Kokabiel cried, insane glee in every syllable, "Show me your strength, show me your power! Show me if you can live up to the expectations that your sister has laid before you!"
Before she could breath a distracted retort, the pane of power pulsed, throbbed, it's power rising sharply, something that was felt by everyone on the battlefield, even those who were engaged in battle. All eyes turned towards the pane of light.
Even as a shadow formed within it, growing larger every moment and making the power emitting from the furiously spinning circle increase with every passing moment.
Something was coming, Sona knew. Something powerful.
She could only hope that it was on their side.
A Relative Few Minutes Ago
"...Please tell me your joking." The tall man said flatly as he looked at the forms of Alaya and Gaia, complete and utter disbelief in his voice.
"I am not one to jest as well you know, Sword," the discordant voice of Alaya said, something that made the man shudder as memories that were not entirely his own surfaced from the sound of the familiar voice of a being that he had never met before, not in person at least. Nothing good had ever happened when that voice was heard. And now was no different.
The man was silent for a moment as her looked at the two entities, closing his mismatched eyes in deep thought for a time.
What the two of them were asking, and the fact that they were actually asking in the first place rather than roping him into whatever they wanted done, as well as the fact that it was both entities, ones that had been at each other's throats since time immemorial, were asking him, and even in agreement, said a lot about how desperate the situation was.
He could, if he so chose, refuse their request, and he was honestly tempted to do so. He had a long life, filled with hardship and struggle and pain and loss, and when he had finally met his end, he had been a tired man that had welcomed it, hoping to once more dwell in the arms of his departed loved ones. He had earned his peace and his rest, satisfied in the fact that the legacies he had left behind would endure, at least for a significant amount of time, and that his home would still have its protectors, those that would stand bravely against the mighty beings who would seek to devour the weak for their own strength.
However, there was a part of him that knew that, if he did so, he would be throwing away the ideals he had lived by, the code that he had helped to forge, spitting on the legacies that he had left. It would be insulting to his pride if he succumbed to such hypocrisy our of selfish desire. Just as much as if he bowed to the whims of these two entities, no matter how powerful they were.
"...Are you sure of the danger that this represents?" He questioned them, a faint frown on his tanned features. "Are you sure that it's reach is that vast?"
The face of Gaia, a mature woman, scowled at him in distaste, large cracks, like baked mud left in the sun, spread further from the derisive scowl, making her face look like shattering porcelain. "I would not be asking anything of a human," her distaste was clear in the word, filled with loathing and anger, "if it was not necessary. The danger of that beast and his horde is quite real...and we cannot do anything to stop it, not directly," she glanced at her hand, withering and cracking, like they were turning into dust. "Not as we are."
"It will take the remaining portions of our collective power to pull this off," interjected Alaya, the white void of a face looking directly at him, piercing despite the absence of eyes with which to do so. The void seemed to slump and sigh. "We are dying, Sword," the entity explained, "All because of a long held grudge." The void glanced at him again. "And we will not be the last to pass. Sooner of later, whether it be a year, a month, a decade, or even a Millennia from now, they will come to your home and knock down your door...and there is little hope that your home could win that battle, not against a force such as this."
He grunted wordlessly in understanding. The forces that they had spoken off, of the sum of the darkness of humanity, of the world, taken physical form, backed up by a seemingly endless, and easily replaceable, army, were not something to underestimate. He had faced a being of such darkness before, when he was still in the land of the living, and it had been one hell of a fight, even with his comrades beside him. Frankly, despite eventually being victorious, it had been close, almost too close, and the cost...
He shook his head, banishing those maudlin thoughts, memories of glassy brown eyes staring sightlessly into the sky and a broken gun beside them.
In the end, despite his misgivings about the request these two entities had made, he made his decision. The fact that his home would be eventually threatened by these forces was the clincher.
He looked at the two entities, his face set and fierce, his steely muscles tensing beneath his smooth skin as he prepared to be dropped into a war zone.
"Very well," he said to them, "if my home is to be threatened by this Horde you so fear...then I will fight it. I accept your offer." He spread his arms outward, giving the two entities a wordless invitation to do as they may.
They accepted without hesitation.
In unison, the two entities, of the Earth and of Humanity respectively, rose a hand into the air, an orb of power, a coruscating rainbow of energy that reminded the man of Dimensional Gap that he had visited a number of times before. The sheer amount of arcane might that the two beings were wielding would have put anyone else on their knees, making them kneel before the power that crashed down around them, trying to crush them from existence, a sign of submission against a force that they couldn't possibly face and relied on their mercy for their continued existence.
Not so for this man. He stood tall and strong and proud, unaffected. He had faced beings of greater power, endured spells of greater strength, on the battlefield.
And had come out victorious.
The spheres of rainbow light became pillars of raw power as they were shot into the blue sky that held a green sun that made up the man's demesne within the Throne of Heroes.
And they tore it open.
A part of the sky seemed to part, revealing endless darkness beyond, and then the man, the ruler of this realm, felt his spiritual body begin to lighten, to float towards rapidly toward the hole in the sky, something tugging at him, dragging him toward it, as he heard words enter his mind, a plea for assistance and aide, a prayer to the higher powers for deliverance.
His eyes widened as he recognised the voice that spoke them. The voice of a good friend, despite the difference in species between them. She was one of the few of her kind that he could trust absolutely. One that had stood beside him and defended him even when much of the Devil faction had tried to undermine him and his group's efforts, even if it had cost her.
"Whatever the price you demand!" The voice of his old friend yelled, carried through the very ether to reach his ears by the sheer force of her will and not inconsiderable power."Take it! Take it all! Take everything if it means that I survive!"
"Sona," he whispered faintly, his eyes hardening and his body suddenly becoming wreathed in his own power, shooting him forward toward the tear with greater speed. "Hang on, I'm coming."
He faintly heard a small voice at the back of his mind, the voice of an exhausted and fading Gaia, as he ascended speak.
"Good luck, human," the dying voice of the Earth Mother said to him, exhaustion in every syllable, "and remember, you will not be the only one that will be called from beyond...and not all of them will be allies to the cause or you. Everything must be in balance. For every light, there is shadow and darkness." A mental rattling breath was heard by his mind, and the next words came even more faintly.
"Fare thee well, human," the faintest whisper in his mind, "My life now rests in your hands. Treat it well."
With these final words, the man could no longer feel the presence of Gaia and the presence of the one he knew as Alaya was also quickly vanishing as the entity kept the portal open for just a little longer.
And, just as felt the last dregs of Alaya's power fade, he flew through the yawning portal into darkness, guided by a distant light and the call of an old friend.
His face hardened. He was now a Hero on a Quest.
And Issei Hyoudou, the Sword of Mankind, King of Steel and Gold, would not fail.
Kokabiel raised an eyebrow as he watched the shadow emerge from the revolving spell circle, a summoning class one if he were to guess, and quite a powerful one if the power that the Sitri heiress had poured into its creation was any indication. Considering the limitations of a summoning circle however, he couldn't imagine what the Sitri heiress was thinking when she had cast it. Unless his information was inaccurate, and the girl was not cut from the same cloth of the rest of her kin, she should have known that she is unable to summon something stronger than herself which meant, in this case, as they were facing him, a being who's power outstripped the girl's by miles, that anything she could possibly summon would be a waste of time and power or a mere distraction at best.
However, he knew the Sitri family of old. Methodical and logical and cold. Never wasting their power in grandiose displays, preferring the best results for the least amount of effort, their actions always having purpose. And all indications said that the sister of Leviathan was the same way.
Perhaps she had found a way around that limitation, like an adaption of the summoning fliers that the Devils were so fond of using? Perhaps she had a trump card, something that should only be used when in dire need. A contract with a more powerful being, perhaps? One that would exact a heavy price for their assistance? A price heavy enough that she only used it when all seemed lost?
He smirked confidently as his eyes burned with power and the sound of war drums beat in his ears in time with his heart.
Let it come. He had to truly fight so far and he was getting tired of just sitting on his throne. A nice work out before he obliterated the lot of them would be just what the doctor ordered.
He waited eagerly for this new player, his newest adversary, to be revealed.
Sona stared as a black boot, capped with steel, emerged from the spell circle she had been forced to create by some unknown force. It was swiftly following a long black trousered leg that was banded with steel. Judging from the proportions, whatever it was that was emerging from the spinning sigil, it was a humanoid of some variety.
Red cloth was the next to appear, swirling around the leg, and immediately made Sona tense, even as she gripped her aching hand through which her power was still being drained. Even in as much pain as she was, she couldn't miss subtle but profound aura that the cloth gave off, making her want to flinch instinctively. Whatever it was, it was blessed, heavily, and it would not be healthy for her to touch it.
The rest of the body attached to the leg came swiftly as the person stepped through completely, as if emerging from his home to greet visitors, the black cuirass of his snugly fitted armour creaking and the red cloth, that wound around his arms and chest beneath the armour, fluttering in a small breeze, the long length of it behind him, almost like a skirt, rustling.
The man that emerged looked around briefly before locking his mismatched eyes, one of gold and the other of burnished steel, with hers, his short white hair spiked in contrast to his tanned skin. There was a sense of weight in his gaze, as if he were judging her, something that made her inwardly bristle but other wise hold her tongue, just meeting his gaze as coolly as she could.
It would not do well for her to antagonise this stranger, not with the power that he was giving off. Power that easily rivalled, if not exceeded, that of Kokabiel. And she had the feeling that this was only the tip of the iceberg for him, that the depths of his power was more than it seemed on the surface. But even then, she felt like she was in the presence of a warrior, one that was the steel of a bared sword.
Also there was something about this man, something familiar. His features, as regal and rough and real as they were, reminded her of someone. But she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out who it was.
No one said a word, shocked at the emergence of this stranger, before it was broken by the soft but clear tones of the man, a voice that rang with power and authority and determination that could have been heard by all in the middle of a rock concert.
"In response to the summoning, I have come forth," the man intoned, his eyes glinting with a sliver of approval at her, as if she had passed a test of some sort, "I, Rider, now stand before you. I ask of you; are you my Master?"
Sona could only stare at the man in shock.
And so the Hero descended from his righteous reward and once more stepped onto the plane of mortality, a Sword drawn in the protection of those beings that he considered most precious to him.
Only time would tell if it was enough to tip the balance.
Author's Notes
Well folks, how did you like this?
This something that has been knocking around in my head for a while. With permission from Writer with bad grammar, I decided to make a story where Issei from 'Representation of Humanity' (an excellent story that is a must read for all who like Fate Stay Night and Highschool DxD) is summoned into canon DxD verse. The differences between ROH!Issei and Canon!Issei are rather large and I can't help but imagine how ROH!Issei will react to the differences.
Let me know what you think.
With regards,
Kujikiri21