I do not own Highschool DxD. Any parts that resemble the anime, manga or light novels are likely from them.

Don't worry about the O.C.'s, they won't last long. Hopefully the Great War and Civil War will live up to your expectations, and as for his sister... well, his parents were closer to one of the girls than the others.

- E.P - E.P -

It wasn't long before the Legion was ordered to assemble in preparation to move out. Slowly, the great mass of Devils attained some sort of order in the clear space around the camp, squad Two-Four-Five following Abraxan's lead. He was at the head of their little formation, followed by Kali and Vrykol in one row with Issei and Hiisi in the row behind, and Mara bringing up the rear.

They ended up in the middle of the rough formation of devils, a great magic circle, large enough to cover the entire Legion and with the symbol of the Lucifuge in the centre of it forming underneath them. A moment later, and an uncomfortable twisting motion in their guts, the Devils found themselves in overcast green countryside, several other Legions teleporting in around them.

"Where are we?" Kali asked hesitantly, eyeing the new arrivals.

"Papal territory," Abraxan spat, an angry snarl forming on his face, "I can smell it."

Behind him, his squad rolled their eyes at his declaration.

"Hey," Kali spoke up again, gesturing to one of the other Legions, "Take a look at the Gremory Legion."

"Is that armour?" Issei muttered, Hiisi squinting alongside him.

Indeed it was, each member of the Gremory Legion had grey spiked armour on, some with ornate designs and highlighted edges. They were led by a red-headed figure, the only thing noticeable from this kind of distance, aside from his pauldrons stacked atop of one another. Squad Two-Four-Five glanced between the professional formations of the Gremory, each of them marching in sync, and their own threadbare and ill-fitting clothing, shambling formation and nervous troops and came up with one thought.

"We're in the wrong Legion," Kali griped, her cousin nodding along to her words.

"We're not the only ones," Hiisi added, "Look at the Halfas and Zagan, they're in the same boat we are."

"Not all of us," Mara said, "The Lucifuge's personal squads are well armoured professionals, it's just us cannon fodder who aren't."

"Will you stop referring to us as cannon fodder," Issei moaned, "It's really not making me feel better."

"You're a legionary now," Mara retorted, "Maybe if we survive long enough I'll stop it."

"Shut it, the lot of you," Abraxan said angrily, not bothering to face them, "We're marching on Rome and I don't want you lot making me look ba-"

"AMBUSH!" Someone cried, cutting off Abraxan's words.

Above them the clouds parted as Angel after Angel winged their way through, Light spears off all colours and descriptions clutched in their hands. Flying at the head of the host was a great figure, wrapped in light and with twelve white wings protruding from his back, and at his gesture the Angels let loose a great barrage of Light spears onto the Devils assembled below.

"Seraph," Abraxan muttered, glaring at the light emitting figure before turning to his squad, "Mara, cover now!"

"Yes Sir!" Mara replied, the others diving to the ground close to her as the Light spears quickly approached. She grunted as pulled her hands together over her head, two half domes of earth following the motion and crashing together, sealing the squad in the darkened dome.

It didn't stay dark for long though, the light spears punching through without much difficulty, although the dome did stop them from coming to close.

Issei gulped as he stared down the length of one light spear that had been stopped only a few inches from his face while another had been on course for his groin. He wasn't sure which to be more worried about.

"Drop the walls, Mara!" Abraxan shouted from behind Issei, only to repeat himself a moment later, "Mara!"

"No use Sir," Hiisi said, the Devil extricating himself from the light spears that had punched through the walls near him, "She can't hear you."

"Your august medical opinion isn't worth shit to me," Abraxan replied, before turning his head and shouting at Mara again, "Mara, you dumb bitch drop the walls!"

"She's got a light spear through her collar, Sir," Hiisi added.

That brought Abraxan up short for a moment before he shrugged and said, "Looks like we've got to make our own way out then."

He kicked at the wall for a moment, the rest of the squad quickly following suit until they'd made a hole. It took a minute for the five of them to pull themselves through but when they had the sight that greeted them was horrible.

There were dead Devils all over the landscape, pinned to the floor with Light spears whilst the survivors of the initial barrage were being attacked by the Angels. The ground underfoot was being soaked by the blood of the dead Devils, and more than a few living ones, with the overcast skies giving the suddenly war-torn battlefield an ominous look.

Issei would have said that it appeared to be a scene from Hell, but as he lived there and found it quite nice, he lacked an appropriate metaphor.

"Is Mara..." Kali trailed off.

"Yeah," Hiisi replied, "Though I doubt she felt a thing, it happen so- ISSEI, MOVE!"

Issei didn't even think, the fear in Hiisi voices was evident, he simply dived forward, splattering himself in the blood that was pooling on the floor. Even so he wasn't quite quick enough, the Angel that landed behind him taking off the top layer off his skin with a swing from his light spear, leaving the long graze bloody and slicing a thick swathe of fabric off of his top.

Spitting out the mixture of mud and blood that had gotten into his mouth and clearing his eyes of the same foul concoction, Issei looked up at the Angel that had nearly killed him. He was male, he could tell that much, but he features were obscured by his armour, armour that hurt jut to look at, the religious imagery etched into it antithetical to Issei's own Demonic nature.

The Angel leapt back quickly as a stream of fire licked at the ground where he had been standing only a moment before, Abraxan quickly trying to take advantage of the Angels inattention. As Hiisi helped Issei to his feet and staunched the bleeding from his wound, Kali following Abraxan's lead and spitting out her own smaller stream of fire.

The Angel ignored their attacks, switching his attention to Hiisi and jumping forward, spear raised overhead. Issei pushed Hiisi back, jumping to the left as the Angels spear buried itself in the ground and Vrykol sprinting in from the right, lashing out at the angel with his knives. The was a screech of metal as the knives trailed sparks across the shining steel-like plates as they failed to penetrate and Vrykol quickly rolled to the side as the Angel swiped the light spear towards him.

As the Angel turned away from him, Issei launched his own attack, throwing a punch towards the knee joint of the Angels armour hoping to cripple him, only to howl in pain as the blessed armour burned the skin from his knuckles on contact. His momentary lack of concentration was capitalised on by the Angel, Issei managing to jump back in time to leave merely a slight gouge trailing its way across his stomach.

Several fireballs drew the Angels attention as they splattered on to his back and wings, the mild burns left on his feathers the only damage the Devils had managed to inflict so far. A quick lunge forced Kali to dive to the side to stop herself from being impaled, Abraxan's lightning bolt the only thing that stopped the Angel finishing her while she was down.

Issei tried to attack again, this time launching a kick straight in to the back of the Angel's knee, forcing the squad's opponent down to one leg. He jumped back, barely dodging another lightning bolt from Abraxan which struck the Angel square on the chest plate even as he was enveloped by a fireball from Kali.

"Did we get him?" Issei asked, glancing at Kali.

A moment later the fireball started to die down and with a swipe from the Angel's light spear killed it completely, revealing its now blackened armour.

"No Issei, I don't think we did," Kali replied, the squad tightening up as they collectively stared the angel down.

A sudden cry of pain caught everyone's' attention, a nearby duel coming to an end as another Angel, female this time, impaled the Devil she was fighting and turned her attention to them.

Issei thought she looked kind of hot.

"Vrykol, with me!" Abraxan shouted, moving towards their new opponent, "Don't let them link up!"

Issei turned his attention back towards his own opponent and leapt forward suddenly, desperately trying to stop the Angel taking flight. He lashed out with an awkward high kick that the forced the Angel to furl his wings and duck closer to the ground, a stream of fire from Kali giving Issei time to rebalance himself.

He risked a look over at Vrykol and Abraxan's fight, Hiisi hovering uncertainly between the two battles, and saw Vrykol almost dancing around the Angel's slashes and stabs. Vrykol didn't appear to be managing many return attacks with his knives but Abraxan was more than making up for that with his own attacks, some of which were almost hitting Vrykol.

Issei's own attempts at stalling the Angel were probably a little worse, or a lot worse if you counted the half a dozen small cuts and grazes the light spear had left across his body. If he hadn't had his toughness technique some of the Angel's attacks could have gone straight through one of his limbs. Kali was also a lot more cautious with her attacks compared to Abraxan, hesitating if it looked like she might hit her squadmate.

Dropping to the floor, Issei attempted to sweep the Angel's feet out from underneath him only to awkwardly roll out of the way when the Angel stabbed his light spear into the ground where Issei had been crouched. The Angel looked up as he tried to wrench his buried spear out of the ground only to catch a stream of fire in the face from Kali.

There was a sudden scream as the Angel clawed at his helmet, the fire apparently having entered through the eye-slits, ignoring the two Devils who capitalised on his pain. Issei took a flying leap, smashing the Angel in the chest with both feet and knocking him to the ground. Issei quickly jumped to his feet as Kali ran up with an impressive magic circle in her hand, Issei kicking the helmet from the Angels head, revealing his burned visage to the air and prompting another round of screams from the downed Angel. Kali held her hand right in front of the Angel's face before releasing the spell, Issei trying his best to hold the thrashing Angel down as he died.

When the Angel's death throes finally stopped, Issei snatched his badly burned hands trying to restrain his cries of pain. Moments later there was another cry of pain, this one more familiar to Kali, and the two of them span round to see Vrykol, his injured foot trapped between one of the Angel's and the ground.

The Angel swung her light spear round at Vrykol, who was now staggering and unable to dodge her attacks as her had been doing so far. He desperately tried to block with his knives but the light spear cut through them, barely slowing, and sliced across his neck.

"Vrykol!" Kali screamed, her, Issei and Hiisi sprinting up. Issei tried the same tactic he had done on the first Angel, a flying kick that was easily blocked by the female Angel, followed by fireballs from Kali and a bolt of lightning from Abraxan. Hiisi was busy with Vrykol, desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood from his neck.

The Angel backed off then paused for a moment, her head tilted to the side as if listening to a voice the Devils couldn't hear. The standoff continued for a moment until the Angel unfurled her wings and shot into the air, joining her fellows across the battlefield.

"The cowards are retreating!" Abraxan shouted, waving his fist at the Angels. "They know their beaten!"

Issei looked around the battlefield as the Angels disappeared. He could spot maybe a dozen or so Angelic corpses, including the one squad Two-Four-Five had killed, but more than a hundred corpses of Devils and those were just the ones in his line of sight. It certainly didn't look like the Angels had been beaten.

"You lot wait here," Abraxan continued, striding towards where a group of Devils were gathering, "I'll go and retrieve our new orders."

Issei meanwhile hurried over to where Kali and Hiisi had gathered next to Vrykol. Hiisi had sat back, his shirt covered in Vrykol's blood, while Kali was cradling her cousin.

"Is he?" Issei trailed off, leaving the question unasked. Kali's muffled sobs told him all he really needed to know. Hiisi shook his head slowly causing Issei to sink down beside him, both of them staring at Kali as she cried over Vrykol's body.

"Do... Do you want to bury him?" Issei asked weakly, "Mara as well."

Hiisi started, "I'd forgotten about Mara, and she's only been gone ten minutes."

It took them Issei and Hiisi a while to retrieve Mara's body from the pin cushioned domed, the remaining light spears complicating the job immensely. Hiisi couldn't touch them in the slightest before he got badly wounded and Issei wasn't able to hold them longer than a second or so.

Hiisi carried Mara's body back to where Vrykol had fallen, to where Kali had already started digging a pair of graves. They laid Mara's body down next to Vrykol's, the two of them moving to help Kali dig. It was slow work, Issei and Hiisi only able to use their hands leaving Kali's earth magic to do the heaviest work. They tried to keep their minds off recent events, but the mind numbing tedium made it too hard.

They talked a little, words spilling from Kali's lips as she talked of times spent with Vrykol, growing up and having fun together, of small private moments there had shared and times with all of their family. They talked of the morbid irony of Mara's earth techniques being used to dig her grave, of the faults of their superiors and their own inexperience. They gently lowered the bodies in to the shallow graves and filled them in, patting the reddened earth as flat as they could make it.

"You feel better now?" Issei asked, the three of them staring down at the two patches of overturned earth.

"N-not really," Kali replied, rubbing her eyes, "But, thanks all the same."

"Get ready to move you three," Abraxan ordered, striding over to them, "We're retreating before more reinforcements arrive. Apparently we can't take Rome this early."

"Then all this," Hiisi gestured at the ruined battlefield around them, light spears still sprouting from the ground like divine plants, "Was for nothing?"

"Indeed," Abraxan replied, magic circles expanding out from underneath the remaining members of the Lucifuge Legion, "We're returning to the camp."

- E.P - E.P -

The next few days were slow and sombre ones. Whilst the Lucifuge Legion had taken heavy casualties they hadn't taken the same level of casualties as the Zagan Legion had, nearing total, they'd still lost more than a third of their legionaries.

Issei, Kali and Hiisi spent the time training, and hard. Sometimes Abraxan deigned to join them, his condescending remarks sometimes useful but mostly just condescending. They had a fairly decent training method going on by the end of it, Kali would practice her attacks on Issei, allowing him to practice toughening himself and Hiisi to practice healing Issei up afterwards.

Still, there were some problems they had yet to overcome.

"I'm still not strong enough to cut through an Angel's armour," Kali commented after one training session.

"Angelic armour is the best around," Hiisi replied, "Backed by the power of the Great Enemy as it is. You won't be able to cut through it with conventional forces."

"It's a pity we couldn't loot a few suits and use it ourselves," Issei said, idly stretching off.

Abraxan snorted, "Maybe if you were Baronet Sothec you might be able to desecrate Angelic objects, but I can't, and you sure as Hell can't."

"So if we want to protect ourselves," Kali pondered, "We'll have to do so ourselves. Can we borrow your technique Issei?"

"Sure," Issei replied, "Just gather all your magic but rather than do anything with it, allow it to circulate through your body. That's the best I can explain it."

"That's it?" Kali asked surprised, "That seems really easy."

"Heh," Issei chuckled, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "It was something I came up with myself, so it's not exactly a difficult technique."

"So that's why you don't use any other magic," Hiisi said, "If you did so, then you would get weaker as you wouldn't be able to have as much magic inside your body."

"Eh!" Issei shouted, pointing at Hiisi, "It took me ages to realise those weaknesses, how'd you figure them out so quickly?"

"I just thought they were kind of obvious," Hiisi replied, sharing a glance with Kali.

"So do I," Kali added, experimenting with a ball of earth in her hands, "In fact it would probably be useless for us, as we couldn't hold it and use other techniques."

"Useless..." Issei mumbled, drawing in the dirt in his own little corner of woe.

- E.P - E.P -

Eventually gossip about the other battles that had been fought petered back to them from the other Legions and most of it wasn't good news. The Great Enemy had apparently been expecting such a push, even if they hadn't known exactly when, and the Legions had suffered because of it. The forces that had planned on attacking major populations, religious centres and other traditional targets had been ambushed before they could reach them and the Angels had even taken the chance to inflict their own attacks on Hell whilst the Legions had been absent.

Most of the Legions had taken something like a third casualties, although some, like the Gremory and Sitri had taken a fraction of that.

Apparently armouring your subordinates kept them alive, who knew?

They were whispers that the higher class commanders would be changing their plans, something that would normally have been unthinkable seeing as it was only the commoners who had died, so they were obviously unpleased with their lack of success.

Soon though Issei and his squad-mates received their new orders, even if they were only slightly more complicated than the 'March here, kill Angels, that they had received last time. The plan was to ambush the ambushing forces, the sort of genius idiocy that only a high-class Devil could come up with.

Hence, Squad Two-Four-Five's new orders were 'March here, be bait, kill Angels'. Truly their Commanders must have been strategic genius of the highest level.

Still, it didn't feel like anything had changed to Issei, as the Legion formed up once again in the fields around their home camp, those losses somewhat conspicuous. This time though there was a second group forming up close by, full of armoured figures before they teleported off together.

"Who were they?" Issei asked curiously.

"I don't know," Hiisi replied, Kali shaking her head next to him.

"That'll be Duke Lucifuge and the other commanders," Abraxan interrupted, "Their part of the counter-ambush force. Now keep quiet, we'll be moving in a moment."

The squad shifted nervously as the seal of the Lucifuge spread out beneath them and their surroundings blurred to reveal that they were now in the middle of a fairly dense forest.

"Damn, it's cold here," Issei muttered, rubbing his hands together in an attempt to warm them up, "Where do you reckon we are?"

"Somewhere in Northern Europe, I'd guess," Hiisi said shivering as Kali lit a fireball and held it close to herself to keep warm.

"Now what then?" She asked, as the legion tried to regroup from their ruined formation.

"We march," Abraxan ordered.

- E.P - E.P -

It didn't take long for the Legion to emerge from the shadows of the forest and on to an open plain split by a wide river. There was a human town bridging both sides of the river, although that wasn't how the Devils saw it. Due to the size of Hell settlements tended to be much smaller and spread out, so someplace so densely packed could only occur in the largest of Hell's cities.

The town itself was dominated by great church, not quite a cathedral in size, which was illuminated by a single shaft of light shining down from the clouding heavens. There were a few small figures flying around the bell tower and loud peels began ringing out from it. Moments later dozen more figures rose up to join those already flying around the church before the whole group started moving towards the invading Devils.

Squad Two-Four-Five immediately dug in, memories of the previous battle still fresh in their minds. Rather than the obvious dome that Mara had created out of Earth, Kali shifted the ground out from underneath them then covered the newly excavated pit they were now hiding in. Hopefully the end result didn't look any different from the rest of the ground from above, even if abandoning the rest of the Legion felt a little callous.

"It's still dark," Issei muttered from his corner of the pit, "Do you think the Angels have started their attack?"

"Hopefully it'll stay dark," Kali replied, "I can't conjure a fireball without using up too much air, and I don't want to end up with a light spear brightening everything up."

"I guess so..." Issei continued, trailing off as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly only to hold it in front of his face a moment later, "Something dripped on me!"

"Is it raining?" Kali asked curiously.

"No, it's too sticky," Issei replied.

"It's blood," Abraxan stated, spitting the little he'd tasted out of his mouth, "And it's our cue to start fighting."

A moment later and the roof of their pit exploded upwards at Kali's command, revealing the four Devil's to the sunlight and catching a pair of Angels in its grasp. Abraxan hit the first with a lightning bolt to the neck joint of its armour, taking its head clean off, whilst Issei pinned the other and Kali forced a fireball into its helmet.

Once again there were lightning spears stuck into the ground every few metres, some of them pinning the corpse of a Devil to the churned earth. There were still a great many Devils left, and they were putting up a decent fight against the attacking Angels. Abraxan quickly picked out a target, a female Angel some distance away from any of her fellows, and the Squad charged towards her.

She quickly noticed their approach, a light spear forming and being thrown towards them from her right hand as she turned to face them. Issei lashed out with a fist, punching the spear to the side and ignoring the holy sting as he tackled the Angel. As soon as they hit the ground he rolled forward and off the Angels body, allowing Kali and Abraxan to hit her with their own techniques.

"We've got more incoming!" Abraxan shouted, both he and Kali linking back up with Issei and Hiisi, the latter of whom was healing the formers burnt hand.

The enemies Abraxan had called were two male Angels and a single female, the three of them approaching the squad in formation. Each of them lunged forward, their spears held in both hands, forcing the group of Devils to retreat further back lest they be impaled.

Issei stepped forward at the same time as the next attempted strike, using his arm to deflect the spear, aiming to attack one of the Angels joints but he was forced back by one of the other Angels. Both Abraxan and Kali attempted their own attacks but the Angels easily blocked them, the Devils' three opponents covering each other's weaknesses and movements with much more skill than Squad Two-Four-Five could.

Issei managed to block most of the attacks coming towards Himself and Kali, accumulating cuts and burns as he did so, but Abraxan was only concerned with defending himself, and attacks on Issei that he could have blocked were allowed through and the time used to unsuccessfully attack the Angels. Thankfully the Angels couldn't attack Hiisi from his position behind the others, neither he nor Kali being able to do anything other than dodge the light spears.

Around them, more and more of the fellow legionaries were being finished off by the forces of Heaven. Most of the Angels had their wings hidden, similar to the Devils, but those that could be seen were only a single pair on each Angel. Above them however were several Angels with multiple pairs of wings, looking down on their host.

"Argh!" Issei roared in pain, one of the Angels light spears having gone straight through his foot, Kali jumping forward and desperately trying to fend the Angels off. Hiisi took the slight gap she had created to grab the light spear and pull it out of Issei's foot, trying to heal the hole through his foot. A moment later Kali was thrown back into Hiisi, knocking the three off them their feet and leaving Issei lying exposed on his back.

Two of the Angels leapt forward, forcing Abraxan off to the side, whilst the last off them loomed over Issei, her light spear clutched in her hand.

'Is this how I die?' Issei wondered, staring up at Angel, trying to back out her eyes through the slits in her helmet. He could barely make out the other Angels circling above him over the first shoulder, even as the clouds parted and more flying figures descended. They looked slightly different to the others that were already there but all of them shot towards the ground after several flashed of light.

The Angel above Issei looked up just as Issei noticed the difference between the two groups' wings. The new arrivals shared the same wings that Issei himself kept hidden.

"Finally!" Abraxan cried, lightning bolts leaping towards the distracted Angels, "The Counter-Ambush force has arrived!"

Issei thought they had arrived too late as the Angel turned her attention back towards him. She reared back, her spear held above her, just in time to be split nearly in half by an icicle. Dozens more were forming and falling from one of the flying Devils, two of them killing the pair of Angels about to overwhelm Abraxan.

Issei couldn't tear his eyes away as the figure descended, still throwing icicles against the few remaining Angels, their own tactics turned against them. She was wearing form fitting armour, emphasising her every curve, her long silver hair plaited and pinned behind her back. She landed gently nearby Squad Two-Four-Five, her eyes like shining steel as they swept over the squad.

"Lady Lucifuge." Abraxan stated, kneeling in servitude to their commander. Kali and Hiisi followed his lead, Issei joining them a moment later when he managed to get back to his feet. Issei had been vaguely aware that the Heiress of the Lucifuge had been a similar age to himself, but he'd never seen her in person.

Now though, Issei thought, running his eyes up and down her entrancing form, a perverted giggle escaping his lips, he definitely wanted to get closer to her. He'd need to get promoted if he wanted to... fortunately any further malicious plans were ruined by Issei thoughts veering off as he imaged Lady Lucifuge getting much, much closer to him, as in pressed up against him, close to him.

Those boobs...