Author's Note: I do not own High School DxD or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.

Author's Note: …Yeah, I'm back. I'm f$#%ing back. You want to know why I was gone? My jobs sucks. Seriously. I work in call-center for a cable company, and everyday I'm reminded of the fact that both the center and the company itself f$#%ing suck. Honestly, if I knew another place that would pay me as well and would take me as easily as this one did, I would jump ship in a heartbeat. But I can't, so I've got to live with it.

And I lost my flash drives again, so I had to find them before finishing this chapter. (Really need to update my back-ups more frequently.) My own suffering notwithstanding, I have been able to pull myself in front of my computer and type out this chapter, which I hope you all enjoy, along with the replies to reviews!

Shincore and Archdragon190: Technically, yes, Ophis could have had a child without a partner. But to do so would essentially cause Ophis to recreate another version of herself, who would face the same exact issues in regards to beating Great Red. Trying the same thing, essentially, and expecting different results. So, Ophis had a child with someone else so that her child would not be a copy of her, and thus stand, if not a better chance, than at least a different chance than she did.

King0fP0wers: Glad that you liked the ending; I was trying to mix in some humor. And while I have never seen Fate/Extra, I'll have to take a look into it.

RedBurningDragon: Your votes have been tallied. And yes, this does make Rias his aunt.

War historian: Don't worry, Sirzechs is not dead. But he will not be forgetting that incident anytime soon.

Deathrod12: Thank you.

Greyjedi449t: You are right; I did notice that error, and have corrected it. And here is the next chapter.

Sinnerlust: Raynare, huh? That would certainly shake things up. I'll take your vote into account.

Titania Princess and gundam 09: Ask and ye shall receive.

Slasher3321: That would be an interesting dynamic, to be sure. If it gets enough vote, it may very well be.

Kirin and Legacy: Yeah, I realize that, for my first lemon, it was decidedly weird. But at least Ophis won't need to do it again.

Guest #1, Leo Saruca, BANKAIZEN and stigma13: Your votes have been tallied.

God of war: Well, you're about to find out.

FreindlyNeighborhoodReader: The name does give an indicator, but that would only be confirmed if Deiru used any of his mother abilities.

Psykotic101: To be honest, I do agree that Koneko's fall for Issei was a little sudden, and I have added your vote for her. Enjoy.

ARSLOTHES: I do plan for this chapter to be dedicated to the childhood, but aftes this canon storyline will begin.

And withdranwnmadness000: Glad that you like the originality of my story. Yes, Deiru will be somewhat like his mother in personality and be a 3rd year student. And your votes have been tallied.

And now that all of that is oout of the way, let the second chapter begin!

Chapter 2: Growing Up

Unknown Location, 13 years later (6 years before the start of canon)…

Ophis stood impassively in the middle of a barren field, arms crossed over her chest and in her adult form. She was also surrounded by a dome of translucent purple light, a barrier that she had generated that was designed to withstand every kind of blast short of hydrogen bomb. Across from her stood her child, a boy she had chosen to name Deiru.

At the age of twelve, her son Deiru had inherited the same black hair color as her, and it fell down to his shoulders in straight locks that framed his face with only the slightest bit of dishevelment from his father. His eyes, to her surprise, were heterochromic, with his right eye being the same gray as hers while his left was the same blue-green as Sirzechs. His facial features were also angular like Sirzechs, but he had her nose and pointed ears. For attire, Ophis had given her son a set of black slacks with a white button-up shirt, white socks and black geta sandals.

Deiru was panting with a light sheen of sweat on his brow, and fought to stand straight. His mother had warped the two of them to this wasteland so that she could train him in using his magical abilities. Being twelve now, Deiru was old enough to start practicing his magic in full. This was starting with the most basic uses of devil magic- gathering enough energy to launch it at the opponent and create an explosion.

Just about every use of devil magic under the sun made use of gathering and releasing energy, so this was a very practical technique to learn. The trick for Ophis's training came in this: Deiru was required to find some way to use his energy to break Ophis's barrier. The very idea of being able to break the Dragon Goddess's barrier was daunting enough, but to find a way to do it without any sort of complex spell or weapon made this challenge virtually impossible.

That didn't mean that Ophis was going to stop telling her son to keep trying.

"Try again," she stated simply. Deiru grunted and extended his right hand. A symbol appeared before him in the shape of two concentric golden circles with an Ouroboros snake between them and a golden lotus flower in the center. The circle flashed before vanishing and a blast of golden energy as large as a small table was launched through the air. It struck Ophis's barrier and detonated in blast that created a massive boom along with a cloud of dust.

The impact itself also created several small cracks on the ground, and Deiru watched to see if it had any effect. After several seconds the dust cloud faded, showing that his mother's barrier was unaffected in the least. "Again," Ophis said, not even fazed. Deiru frowned and summoned his magic circle before firing another shot. It flew towards the barrier, creating another blast… and still had no effect.

"Again."

Another shot. Bam.

"Again."

One more. Bam.

"Again."

Bam.

"Again!"

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Deiru placed his hands on his knees, panting even harder now. Over half a dozen blasts and he hadn't managed to break Ophis's barrier. Nay, he wasn't he able to make a crack in it. "How in creation… can this be done?" he muttered to himself.

Just then, however, they both heard a voice called "Come on, Deiru! You can do it, nya!" Both mother and son paused to give flat looks to the only witness to this event. The one that had spoken was a young woman with black hair and a voluptuous body even at her young age, along with hazel eyes, black cat ears and two black cat tails. This girl was, if it hadn't been guessed by now, the stray devil and Nekoshou named Kuroka.

Starting in just the past few years, Ophis had begun gathering beings besides Deiru who could be of assistance in her plan to defeat Great Red. These beings were allowed to join regardless of race, species, past actions or anything else so long as they agreed to be a part of the group. Once word had gotten around amongst the shadows that Ophis was gathering strong beings together, a surprising number of groups and individuals were willing to add their names in.

Groups such as the Old Satan Faction, magicians that had been expelled by the Magician's Council and beings who possessed Sacred Gears or were descendants of notable figures in history. These were just a few of the groups to join up when Ophis began gathering allies. Whether they were tired of the way that the three factions were running as of now or because they had nowhere else to go.

An amalgamation of various being, all held together by a single goal. Ophis had creatively decided to name this brigade of fighters the Khaos Brigade.

'Of course, many of them could just be joining because they want to use Mother's power for themselves,' Deiru thought bitterly. Maybe he was just being arrogant, but the thought of working with such people left a bad taste in his mouth. That wasn't to say that he didn't enjoy being around Kuroka. Far from it, actually. After she had joined the Khaos Brigade, she was instantly interested in Deiru, if for no other reason than that he had half of the genetics of the strongest dragon in existence, which in turn made him prime genetic material to help her begin repopulating the Nekoshou race when he was older.

To that end, Kuroka had been spending a great amount of her time watching over Deiru and actually helping in his training, at least when it came to hand-to-hand combat. Ophis raised no objections over this, seeing as how it was not only beneficial to Deiru, but her entire decision to give birth to Deiru in the first place was based on genetics. So, it made sense to her to let Kuroka be around her son if her own goal was similar.

Back in the present, Kuroka paused slightly at the twin blank stares she received. After a moment, however, Deiru smiled slightly. "Thank you, Kuroka. I appreciate the help," he said. The twin-tailed Youkai smiled brightly in response to that, and crossed her arms, which had the unintended effect of pushing her breasts up slightly.

However, before she could respond with some sort of sexually teasing comment—which was exactly what was about to happen—Ophis said "I… think you're missing the point of this exercise, Deiru." When Deiru refocused on her, she continued "While you are strong and, in time, will become even stronger, at this point in time… there exists no way for to be able to simply blast through my barrier. If you want to pass this exercise, then you need to find another way to break it."

Deiru frowned in confusion. "Another way? Mother, how am I going to do that?" he asked. If there was no way for him to gather and release enough energy to break the barrier, then why was he even…?

"…If it told you that, it would defeat the point of this exercise. Now, start over, and try again," Ophis said sternly. Deiru frowned further, before reluctantly nodding. He held out his hand, but paused to consider the barrier before him. His mother was right in that he wasn't strong enough to blast through it, but if that was the case, then how was he going to be able to pierce through-

Deiru froze. Of course, it was so simple it was obvious. Right now, he was just chucking blasts at the barrier like rocks against a wall or some other kind of blunt instrument. But if he were to focus and gather his energy into a single point, make it narrow and sharp enough to act like the tip of a knife... then instead of breaking it, he could cut right through the thing.

Smirking, Deiru conjured his magic circle again and allowed an orb of energy to build up. But rather than release it, he held the orb back and concentrated. Slowly, very slowly, the orb began to shift, one side of it elongating until half of the sphere was in the shape of a cone. However, before he could focus it any further, the circle faltered the orb shot off, exploding against Ophis's barrier and doing nothing.

Although her face remained impassive, Ophis matched her son's smile on the inside. So, he was starting to get it.

Deiru tried again, placing on his focus on holding back the blast long enough for him to shape it. This time, it managed to fully form into a cone before Deiru faltered. "Ah!" he grunted in dismay as it flew off. Although the explosion was lesser that time, there was still no incision to be found in the barrier.

'It needs to be narrower,' he thought, before trying once more. The cone narrowed to about half its previous width, then half of that on the next try. "Come on…" he muttered, his exhaustion and anger at his failure starting to grow. "Come on," he said. Closer, but no dice. "Come on!" he shouted. The cone was about as wide of a regular spear, but still couldn't pierce through. "Come on!"

Knowing one more push was needed to push her son to anger and give it all he had, Ophis said "Son… you appear to be tired. Are you so weak that we need to take a break already?"

That did it. Deiru's pride as a devil and especially as a dragon was stung at that. Placing both hands out, he yelled "Wrong guess, Mother! That barrier's coming down if I have cut through it with my own hands! Now… COME ON!" he roared, before firing a spear of energy so thin and sharp that it was almost undetectable. But Ophis saw it, and also witness as it tore a hole in her barrier equal to the width of a needle, flying through that gap and heading straight for her…

The spear shattered harmlessly against a second, more durable barrier that Ophis instantly conjured a centimeter around her person. Even so, the first barrier dropped away, showing that her son had succeeded. After a moment, the second barrier faded away as well.

For a moment, silence hung around the wasteland as both Deiru and Kuroka processed the fact that he had just succeeded. However, after a beat had passed, Kuroka squealed and leaped forward, picking up Deiru in a hug and unintentionally (?) pushing his face into her cleavage. "You did it, Deiru! That was completely awesome, nya!" she yelled.

Deiru said nothing, silently considering his exact location between Kuroka's breasts and what he should do about it. It was not as if Kuroka had asked him to have his face there, and both she and his mother had told him that touching a woman in places she did not permit would label him as a pervert. So, the smart thing would likely be to move away.

However, it was Kuroka herself who had initiated the hug, and, he mentally admitted, it was a rather comfortable spot despite it being a bit difficult to breathe…

Ophis allowed her right eyebrow to twitch once before she said "I… think that's enough, Kuroka." Instantly, the twin-tailed cat released Deiru and jumped away, doing her best to look embarrassed. It didn't work.

Disregarding that, Ophis continued "Let this be one of your foremost lessons as you grow, Deiru. Your opponent can be far above you in terms of strength, and your odds of winning nonexistent. But… everyone, no matter who they are, possesses at least one chink in their armor. Your job is to find that chink, expose it wide, and strike. Do you understand?"

Deiru nodded, bowing his head. "Yes, I understand, Mother," he replied reservedly. Ophis nodded and waved her arm, casually ripping open a hole in the space-time continuum that consumed all three of them and took them back to the home Ophis had built for herself and her son.

That home, as it turned out, was a traditional Japanese manor located just a few miles southwest of Tokyo in the more elevated of Japan, and hidden behind one of the strongest barriers Ophis could produce, completely blocking any sight, sound, or even magical energy from escaping the inside and being detected by anyone beyond the estate. The manor itself was a light beige color with red accents, and large enough that it could likely hold a small army if needed.

A good staging point if the Khaos Brigade ever decided to invade Japan.

The air in front of the house distorted before blowing apart as space itself was torn open before depositing Ophis, Deiru and Kuroka on the front lawn and closing back up. The front door had a large golden lotus flower imprinted on, and swung open silently upon Deiru's silent command. The three went inside before spitting up, Ophis going to observe the rest of the world and look for more potential recruits, Deiru going to his room and Kuroka going to do… honestly, Deiru didn't want to know.

Deiru approached his room and slid the door open, and immediately saw the pale-lavender hair of the one who bowed in front of him, having heard his approach and bowed already. "Welcome back from training, Master Deiru. Would you like to have a bath drawn for you before you dine with your mother this evening?" the woman asked, still bowing.

Deiru considered this before nodding. "Yes, I would like that very much. And you may rise before me, Hannah," he said.

The woman nodded before straightening up, showing her face. She was a grown woman, one with a generous figure and light brown skin, complimented by her navy-blue eyes and purple lipstick. Her hair was long enough that it reached her knees, though the bottom half was braided and tied with an indigo ribbon. Her outfit was, as one would guess, that of a maid, with a long-sleeved indigo dress and white apron with white stockings, dark-brown Mary Janes and a plate-shaped cap.

She was Hannah Annafellows, personal maid and Knight in service to Deiru Ouroboros.

As Hannah walked to the adjacent bathroom to begin drawing that bath, Deiru considered how he had come to have the woman as a servant. Originally, Hannah had actually been dead, having left the realm of the living with another devil named Claude and two human boys several centuries ago. Apparently, they had all entered the Void together in the belief that they would remain together even in death.

But fate was cruel, and revealed an unknown fact about devils and the souls they consumed. Should a devil have ever swallowed a soul, as devils often did with contracts at that time, then all the souls they had devoured would be released from within upon the devil's death. The moment Hannah had died, the souls of both Jim and Luka Macken were released and the four were swept apart by the Void.

And so Hannah had drifted through the afterlife, despondent and shattered from the prospect of facing eternity all alone, before Ophis had sensed her misery through the Dimensional Rift and pulled her soul back into the realm of the living, where Deiru gave her the choice of being revived as one of his Evil Pieces (a twelfth birthday gift from his mother) and live as his servant, free of all past attachments and open to live a life beyond her old one.

Knowing that she would never be able to fulfill her original desire to spend eternity with Claude, Jim and Luka, Hannah agreed and was revived into a new life as Deiru's Knight. Since then, the rest was history.

Back in the present, Deiru discarded his clothing and stepped into the bath. Hannah was already there with a sponge on hand, having insisted since day one that she wash Deiru whenever he took bath. It was a fitting job for a servant such as herself, Hannah had said. Deiru found it was less of a headache to just let her.

As Hannah washed his back, she asked "So, how did your training progress today, Master?"

Deiru gave a noncommittal shrug. "About as well as expected. I was able to pierce mother's barrier by focusing my magic, but I'm only just starting to grasp the full level of what I can do. I still have a long way to go," he said, simply stating a fact rather than try to downplay his abilities.

Hannah hummed at that and continued to wash her King's back, and also begun to quietly sing a lullaby in Welsh that she knew. It had the intended effect of causing Deiru to relax further, and she kept herself from chuckling. Her master was really too formal at times, something he got from his mother.

Later, Ophis and Deiru sat across from each other at the mid-sized dining table, waiting as the table was set by Hannah. Dinner was a serving of Japanese sushi and steamed rice large enough to feed four people, and prepared with all the grace of a cook of the highest caliber.

Hannah was, to steal the phrase of another devil she once knew, one hell of a servant.

After the table was set, Hannah actually pulled out one of the chairs and sat down with her master and his mother. Normally it would be considered impudent for a maid such as her to eat at the same table as the master, but Deiru actually wanted her to eat with them instead of separately, like equals. While unusual, she was certainly not about to complain.

Once Hannah sat down, the three of them began eating dinner, and Kuroka joined in a while later. Dinner was a quiet affair except for whenever Kuroka struck a conversation with either Deiru or Hannah, the latter of whom also who got along surprisingly well with the youkai and conversed with her easily.

As he ate, Deiru looked around at his mother and the other members of the house. As unusual as their circumstances might have been, he couldn't help but find himself enjoying this moment. His family was a strange one, after all.

Meanwhile, in the Underworld…

Twelve-year old Rias Gremory sat in her room with the lights turned off and her blankets forming a cocoon around her whole body save for her face, eyes glued to her television screen. Beside her were her Queen and Rook, Akeno Himejima and Koneko Toujou. The three of them were together for Rias's weekly ritual of staying up until the crack of dawn, and during that only time they would be doing only one thing.

Watching anime.

"Oh, come on, Ichigo! Break free of that Kido!" Rias called, though she did her best to keep her voice to a minimum.

Akeno giggled at the scene of Ichigo bound and stuck with his arms behind his back without even needing to use ropes. She should try and learn how to do that. "My, they both certainly interact well. And those drawing of rabbits are cute," she said, gesturing to Rukia as she used bunny drawings to explain about Hollows and Soul Reapers.

"Cat drawings are better," Koneko said monotonously, for once letting her Nekoshou features show as she nibbled on piece of chocolate.

Both other girls couldn't help but laugh at that. They watched as Ichigo broke free, became a Soul Reaper and ended the episode by killing the Hollow. As the end credits began rolling, Rias looked over at Koneko. "So, how have you been adjusting to living here, Koneko-chan?" she asked.

Koneko thought about it for a moment before taking another bite of chocolate, saying "I like it here." It had only been a few months since Rias had saved Koneko from being executed by bringing her into her peerage as her Rook, and the young girl was still adjusting to going from living on the streets to a lavish manor where you could get almost anything you wanted with just a request.

Devil authorities had still been unable to locate where Koneko's sister, Kuroka, had gone off to, but had wasted no time in labeling Kuroka as SS-class criminal. As Kuroka's sister, it was only both Rias's action in recruiting her and her brother Sirzech's authority as a Satan that saved Koneko. To say that life had ben harsh to the young girl was an understatement, but at least things were starting to look up somewhat.

Koneko was pulled out her thoughts by the sound of Ichigo shouting, and looked up to see him staring at Rukia, who was right in the middle of his classroom, in shock. Well, that was interesting. They continued to watch the show episode by episode until just after midnight, when there was a knock on the door and Grayfia walked in.

Taking one look at the three of them together and the television screen, she said "It is time to turn in, Rias-sama. You and your peerage have an important day of training ahead of you."

Rias puffed her cheeks out. "What?! But why? This is my special anime night!" she complained with all the expected petulance of a child deprived of their favorite activity.

But Grayfia was not moved by the rather cute display, and replied "My apologies, Rias-sama. But you need your sleep if you are to perform well tomorrow, and that will not occur if you watch your anime until the sun rises again."

Akeno and Koneko were silent, wondering what Rias was going to do. The redhead herself looked like she was about to argue further… until she saw the flat look on Grayfia's face. One that quite clearly said 'Give up. You will not win'. At that, she slumped slightly and said, "Alright, Grayfia-chan…"

Grayfia nodded, and said "Very good. Your peerage may sleep with you tonight, if you wish. Good night, Rias-sama." With that, Grayfia bowed and walked out of the room, knowing that Rias was not about to disobey and risk the ire of either her or her mother Venelana. Kind and caring that woman may be, but when provoked, her temper was legendary.

After exiting the room, Grayfia turned around and saw Sirzechs standing on the other side of the hall, having heard the entire exchange inside. He chuckled at his cute little Ria-tan's love of anime, and said "Kids. They never get any less cute, do they?"

Rather than get a bland reply like he had been expecting, Grayfia's features scrunched slightly in anger before she nodded and walked briskly away. Sirzechs winced. Even after thirteen years, his wife was still pissed at him for unintentionally cheating on her and very likely getting some other woman pregnant with his child. Granted, she had already tried to literally freeze his balls off, but that had eventually healed, so no dice there.

Dashing to catch up to his Queen and wife, he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Gray-chan, I've said I was sorry over a thousand times since then. I've been counting! How in all the Underworld can I get you to forgive me?" he pleaded desperately.

For a long moment, there was silence, as Sirzechs waited for an answer and Grayfia stood still. Minutes passed until, just as Sirzechs thought he was going to have to try again another day, Grayfia turned and looked him dead in the eye. "You cheated on me with another woman, and likely had a child with her," she said, making him hang his head.

Only for him to shoot it back up with he was suddenly and forcefully pulled closer by his wife, who was holding onto the front of his shirt. Sirzechs looked at Grayfia, and was actually set off ease by the look in his wife's eyes. "Um, Grayfia?" he asked.

Pulling him another inch closer, Grayfia said "You gave that unknown woman a child. If you want to be forgiven, I expect the same gesture."

Sirzechs's eyes went as wide as saucers. Wait, was she really talking about…? His thoughts were interrupted when Grayfia starting walking towards their bedroom, pulling him along with a grip like iron. "W-Wait a minute, Gray-chan! Do you really mean that you want us to-?" he began.

"Yes, I do. And you're not being forgiven until we do," she stated frankly, still pulling him behind her by the front of his shirt. Then she stopped a moment to look back. "Oh, and one more thing, my dearest husband. If you ever, knowingly or not, cheat on me again, I will fully emasculate you, freeze you, and then kill you. Do I make myself clear?" she said, saying all that in her usual tone and consequently scaring the hell out of him.

Sirzechs could only gulp and nod rapidly, while also resisting the urge to cover the front of his pants at the thought of permanent damage to his precious jewels. By that point, they had already reached the bedroom, and Grayfia pushed the doors open before throwing Sirzechs onto the bed and beginning to undress herself. "Good. Now, let's get started," she declared.

London, England, the next day…

Having changed back to her child form, Ophis watched silently at the scene before her in the middle of a London ally. From the looks of things, an older man was being held up against a wall by three other men, who were all holding knives and holding them with very obvious intent. While the man was of average height, features and everything else, what stood out were the three men assaulting him.

From the looks of things, all three men looked almost exactly the same, suggesting that they were triplets. They all had short plum hair and red eyes, but their hair was arranged differently. The middle one had the fringes of his hair falling to the center, while the one of the left and right had their fringes swept to the left and right respectively.

They all wore the same rather unusual outfit, however. White button-up shirts and black slacks, with brown vests, black dress shoes and gray ribbons tied around their necks.

The man they were holding against the wall spluttered, trying to talk even as the middle one was slowly crushing his windpipe with one hand. "P-please! I'll pay you all back, I promise!" he said.

The one with his hair swept left snorted. "Yeah, right. That's what you said the last time you tried to steal those guns from the three of us."

"And they were expensive antique guns, too," the middle one added.

The third triplet nodded in agreement, saying "Straight from the Victorian era."

The man was about to come up with another plea for mercy when he went stiff in fear. Why? The eyes of all three triplets glowed pink as they pupils narrowed into slits, showing that the three of them were definitely not human. "You… you're monsters! All three of you!" he shouted.

The triplets nodded as one. "Yep, we're totally monsters," the third one said.

"Monsters with a grudge," the first one said.

"A grudge we plan on settling," the middle one finished, still holding the man against the wall with one hand while his raised the knife in his other hand.

Before the man could even scream, the middle triplet moved with inhuman speed, shoving the knife into side of his throat and using such equally inhuman strength that the tip of it actually exited out the other side of the man's neck. The other two moved in, stabbing the man in the heart and between the eyes as well, killing him brutally and instantly.

The entire murder was done with such speed that they were able to pull out the knives and move back before the man's blood even had a chance to get on the clothes, and the corpse fell to the ground like a puppet without strings.

Ophis didn't even bat an eye to the whole scene, not knowing why the man had drawn the ire of these three devil and truly not even caring. As it was, she said "So... you three are as capable as a team as I was told."

The triplets turned to her just as she revealed herself, causing them all to raise their eyebrows at the sight of a young girl. "And who the hell are you?" the third one demanded, raising his knife as if to scare her.

Unafraid, Ophis cast her gaze back to the corpse and, while she still didn't really care that much, she was a little curious. "You three killed this man. Why?" she asked.

The middle triplet scowled. "He stole some guns from us—guns that are very special to us," he answered.

Now getting it, Ophis smiled. "…Oh? You wouldn't be talking about the guns that were once used by Hannah Annafellows, would you?" she asked innocently.

The triplets' eyes widened, before narrowing as they lunged forward at Ophis. Quickly surrounding her in a triangle formation, the first two tossed away their knives and respectively pulled out a ladder and a weed-wacker from… somewhere. The one with the ladder swung it down and held it to where Ophis was caught between two of the rungs, and the third revved up the weed-wacker's engine.

"How do you know about Miss Hannah?!" the one with knife shouted, glaring at her and barely keeping himself from attacking her, much like his brothers.

Ophis retained her smile even with the tension now thick in the air. "It… is simple, really. I know about your connection to Hannah Annafellows because Hannah herself told me about you three. Canterbury…" she said, looking at the triplet with left-swept hair. "Thompson…" she continued, flicking her gaze at the one with the center-falling hair. "And Timber," she finished, looking at the one with right-swept hair.

The now identified Canterbury snarled at her even as he held the ladder still. "Lies. Miss Hannah died centuries ago, along with that asshole Claude and that brat Alois!" he growled at her.

Thompson raised the weed-wacker higher. "That's why we care so much about those guns that guy stole!" he said.

"They're all we've got that's left of her!" Timber declared.

Ophis looked at all of them. "And… what if I were to tell you that I actually brought Hannah Annafellows back to life, and that she now serves underneath my son?" she suggested.

The three of them froze at that, before Timber asked the question they were all thinking. "Why should we believe something like that?"

Ophis lost her smile at that. Without even moving a muscle, she released a small sliver of her power. That small sliver was enough to create a blast of wind that extended outwards in all directions, turn the weapons in the triplets' hands to dust, and sent them all falling onto their backs.

The triplets looked at Ophis in shock as this being, who they knew was not human but still looked like a little girl, effortlessly trumped like they were ants before an omnipotent god. Although they didn't know it, they weren't that far off.

Ophis looked at each of them were eye that were glowing gray, and for the briefest of moments, an image of a truly massive dragon was superimposed over her. Then it faded, and Ophis asked in a voice that seemed to boom and yet was a whisper at the same time. "…Do you three truly believe that I would need to resort to trickery on three lower beings such as yourselves?" she asked.

The triplets actually trembled at the power that Ophis was exuding, even as they tried to force their own bodies to stop shaking. She held their gaze for a moment longer before dismissing her power. The glow in her eyes, the swirling wind and the aura of supreme might all vanished, and she asked "Now… are you going to follow me and see for yourselves that Hannah lives? Or will you stay here and continue to wallow in misery?"

Without even waiting for an answer, she swung her arm and ripped open another void in space that would lead back to the manor. As she walked through, the triplets looked at each other. "That chick is scary," Canterbury stated.

"Almost as scary as if we actually made Miss Hannah mad at us," Thompson said.

"I say we follow her," Timber told them.

Without another word, they scrambled to their feet and rushed through the portal before it could close on them.

And that ends this second chapter of Infinite Legacy. Hopefully, with this out of my head and my flash drives recovered, I can finally update the rest of my stories at a more regular pace than what has been. Considering that I start college in a few weeks, however, I am not 100% sure on that one. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and know that the beginning of the canon and Kuoh Academy will be in the next chapter!

Also, the votes have been tallied, and the first girl for each harem has been decided! The first girl for Deiru's harem has been determined to be…

The Sexy Two-Tails, Kuroka!

And the first girl for Issei's harem will be…

…Actually, this one was a tie. A four-way tie, actually. An equal number of votes were made for Issei to be with Rias, Akeno, Asia or Irina. Which means that this tie will be broken next chapter, with both it and the second girl being announced!

Know that I will announce one more girl with each chapter that comes, and while I will start the harems with five girls, there is the chance that they will expand depending on how the plot develops and if I feel ready enough to make the attempt to accurately portray more than five different relationships. So keep voting, stay tuned, and look out for more! (And yes, you can vote for the same person again. I will count it.)

Please review! If you flame me then Bruce Lee will smash you with his nunchaku. (I'm just kidding… or am I?)