Chapter 2: Obscurum Epidemic
It has been two hours since Issei left by plain from Kuoh japan. There was three others in the plane riding with Issei, all of them girls. The one sitting closest to Issei was a blonde haired girl with beautiful blue eyes. She was wearing black and white striped knee-high sock and a black dress.
'I forgot to ask for more information about why I was brought here.' Issei thought.
The plane began to descend and lurch to a steady stop in merely minutes, considerably fast for a plane. Even though the plane was now stopped, nobody stood from their seats. They all remained seated. The same two men that came to get Issei at school walked into view from the cockpit and greeted them.
"Hello everyone! So as you know, you four were selected to help us-The Consortium- In a very important, top secret scientific discovery." The man named Connor said "Right outside of these plane walls in a camp, here in this camp is where you four will be living for the next month. You four will be sharing a tent with each other, the only rule we truly have for you four is to not hurt each other to the point of medical attention. Any questions?"
For a brief moment it was silent, until the blonde haired girl raised her hand.
"When you came to get us you said we would be going to Bechuanaland Africa. You meant Botswana africa right? I did some research before leaving with you people and discovered that Bechuanaland was changed due to Great Britain during the Boer wars." She said them, asserting her intelligence.
"That is correct Yumi." Connor responded
'Yumi? That's her name? It sounds Japanese but... She is certainly not Japanese." Issei thought
"So would I also be correct in assuming that it is extremly cold at night and moderately hot during the day?" She continued
"That is also correct." Connor told her "Anymore questions?"
Nobody moved. Issei had a question, it was eating at the back of his mind. Why was he here? Why was he really here?
"Okay then, today you will be free to do as you please and get acquained with each other. Tomorrow we will send you to do some exploring, nothing to serious. See you soon." Connor said, opening the door leading outside and walking out leaving them with Mark, the other man.
"I already introduced myself. I will be showing you all to your tent, the rest of the camp you will have to figure out yourselves." He said walking out also. Everyone stood from their spot and walked out as well, everyone except Issei.
'This place feels off... I can feel it in my bones. What about you Ddraig?' Issei thought
[I can feel it also partner, I don't know what it is but it is definitely magical.] Ddraig inquired
Issei then stood and walked off the plane, Directly in front of him was a decently sized camp. It was obviously a military camp of some sort. It wasn't too far from the plane that he just got out of. It was not very bright out and from where the sun was at in the sky he could tell he had maybe 4 hours before the sun set.
"Are you ready now ?" Mark asked, catching Issei's attention.
"Yea, lets go." Issei replied. Three girls looked at him, the blonde girl, a pink haired girl and a white haired girl.
"Wait. He is going to be sleeping with us?" The blonde haired girl, Yumi, said.
"Yes." Mark replied in a emotionless tone "If I was you I would get used to it, be happy it is him and not someone worse. Stop complaining."
The blonde haired girl smiled. "Oh, I wasn't complaining! I am actually kinda excited, he is so handsome!" She exclaimed
"Whatever, if you four could please just follow me." Mark said walking off to the camp. Mark led them through the many Industrial tents and canopys till eventually they arrived at a Heavy duty Tent. It had walls that extended down to the floor with was, surprisingly, white tile. There was a refrigerator, a small sink, a television set, a computer, a portable AC unit in the corner near the back of the tent to the right, a couch and a medium sized bed.
"Wow! Is this a tent or a small house?" Yumi asked in excitement
"It was a top priority to make sure you four felt comfortable here. This is the best tent in the camp." Mark explained
Issei walked over to the couch, which was beside the bed and in front of the TV, and laid down on it.
'I am not complaining about the tent and its accessories but... Why is there only one bed? Did they even think this out? Whatever, I am tired.' Issei thought drifting off into sleep.
"Is he already asleep?" The pink haired girl asked
"Aww, I did not get to introduce myself." Yumi said
"I feel this will effect our relationship for the next month." The white haired girl added
With Issei
Issei was floating in darkness, he was used to this in his dreams so nothing really surprised him. Ever since he gave his arm to Ddraig these dreams became memorable to him. He was in control.
'Seek and ye shall find.' A voiced called out from all sides of Issei
"What? What do you mean? Show yourself!" Issei yelled out
As if listening to Issei's command, a man in a ash grey suit appeared in front of Issei. The man was pale, very pale and his eyes were black, they were void of any life and it looked as if anything that went into those eyes... Ceased to exist.
"Look at you... The Red Dragon Emperor. You will never be as powerful as you were Ddraig. Albion will always be stronger if you carry on like this. Always." The grey clad man spoke out "Your name is Issei Hyoudou, you are destined to lose everything that matters to you. Loki is the cause of that. Loki meddled in your life, and changed your life. Rias hates you for something he did. She blamed it on you as a person."
Issei was seething in anger, the simple mentioning of her name filled him with anger.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Issei questioned
"Loki disguised himself as you and did some things that were looked down on. She blamed it on the traits you had." The man continued, Rias appeared beside him.
"I am going to kick Issei out of my peerage if he keeps up his perverted antics." Rias mimicked herself from before
"Tell me Issei, was this not said? Do you not want revenge? What are you willing to lose for power? What are you willing to lose before you realize you are tired of losing? Well? WHAT IS IT?" The man yelled out
In the real world
Issei jolted awake, he sat up and looked around frantically. It was noticeably dark outside, Yumi and the other girls were sitting on the bed watching the Television that was in the tent. Yumi looked over at him.
"Good morning!"
"Morning? What time is it?" Issei asked her
"According to this TV it is 12:38am." The white haired girl replied
"Ohh, I think it is time to properly introduce ourselves!" Yumi exclaimed
'Yes... A introduction... Kill them, let them know what it feels like to burn...' The voice of the man in Issei's dream rung out in Issei's head
"Well, I guess I will start then." The white haired girl said "I'm Maria."
"Oh, oh, oh, me next!" The pink girl said "I'm Lala!"
"Well then that leaves me, I'm Yumi Amano." Yumi said with a smile
A dozen thought shot through Issei's mind, Amano?
'Surely it is just a coincidence.' Issei thought
'Will you die for me?' The voice of the man asked again 'What do you really believe? Go outside and look up for once.'
The words didn't seem to reach Issei though
[Partner, do you hear that?] Ddraig asked
'No, what is it?' Issei asked
[Nothing, never mind. Partner, all of these girls belong to the succubus species. Be careful around them, they may seem innocent but don't be too sure.] Ddraig informed
'Okay, I will be careful.' Issei thought
"My name is Issei Hyoudou, nice to meet all of you." Issei said
"Aww, cute and polite. I like him already!" Lala exclaimed
"So it is close to one O'clock in the morning right? I think I am going to go back to bed. Goodnight." Issei said, falling back onto the couch
"Aw, but you just woke up!" Yumi pouted
"I know but we should get ready for tomorrow." Issei pointed out
"Hmph! Fine, be that way!" Yumi joked "Wold you like to sleep on the bed this time?"
"Nope, I think I will pass, goodnight!" Issei said and drifted off
The three girls were left awake and alone. They all looked at each other, then nodded.
Issei's dreamscape (Important! ! !)
"Hello again, Enjoy talking with your 'new' friends?" The same man from before asked
"Who are you? What are you? How do you know me?" Issei questioned
"Hmm... My name? I never really thought of it before. You can call me Zimmer. I am a physical manifestation of the sentient thing you would call 'Nothing'. As for how I know you... You came to me, and I got inside your head." Zimmer said
"What do you mean?" Issei asked
"I am in your head, no wait... Is it the other way around? Yes... You are in my realm. Your soul is linked to my realm because I am directly linked to your magic now." Zimmer explained "You have a new persona inside of you now..."
"Your realm?" Issei asked again
"Yes, This place is the end of all things. And the beginning." Zimmer explained
"The beginning of all things? What are you god?" Issei exclaimed
It hit Issei pretty hard, the beginning and end of all...
"Is that what you call the creator? I don't like it." Zimmer responded "Oh look at the time, WAKE UP!"
In the real world
Issei opened his eyes and looked around frantically, he tried to sit up but found he was restrained. He tilted his head... The three girls which he, quite literally, just met were laying atop of him on the medium sized bed.
Wait, when did he get on the bed?
"Hey, wake up! It's time to start!" Connor called through the outside of the tent
One by one, each of the girls stirred from their slumber and sat up from their spots on Issei. They all looked at him with a slight blush.
"So... What's up?" Issei choked out, they shot him a wicked look and smiled... Oh boy!
30 Minutes later (Don't question it)
Ten minutes ago Issei and the girls were told to go and explore for research, the three girls were sent off on the own to explore, and mark and Issei went to explore a cave...
Issei, following behind Mark, just arrived at the cave he was told to explore.
"Okay Issei, I was tasked to escort you here. You are to go in that cave and extract some of the plant life that has formed in the cave. You are to also tell us the things you see in there, such as some of the life you see in there." Mark explained
"Sir, I thought we were asked here because you had research for us to work on." Issei said
"You were brought here for research, everything you do here today will help further our research here." Mark told Issei
"But I though we would be helping with the actual research." Issei pushed
"Oh don't worry, you will be helping with the actual research soon. Here take this and put anything that catches your attention, or anything I described, in this satchel." Mark said, handing Issei a brown, almost military green satchel. "It is a special bag, see for yourself."
Issei grabbed the satchel, slung it over his shoulder and opened it. The contents inside the satchel were impressing, there was test tubes, bags to place specimens in, a few tools and two ice axes.
"What are the axes for?" Issei questioned
"They are meant to remove any unnecessary stones that are in your way. Yes, they may be called Ice picks, but the blades on those are meant for rock climbing." Mark explained
Issei nodded and turned towards the cave entrance, he walked in toward it until he could not see much more in front of him. He reached into the satchel and searched around its many pockets until he found the flashlight he knew would be there. He pulled the heavy-duty flashlight out and turned it on, pointing it into the darkness of the cave
Issei walked further and further until he reached a barricade of boulders, Issei looked around the boulder and backed up. Issei stopped his backward movement when he stepped on a small, black book that kinda looked like a journal.
Issei picked the journal up and examined it, it looked completely normal in every way. Issei flipped to a random page saw and circle of writing in blood red ink.
"I observed the teachings that were hidden here, behind a veil of versus so obscure..." Issei started turning the journal to read the words that were written in a spiral. (Imagine writing on the outside of a circle then go in till you reach the center, following the same pattern.)
"What is that suppose to mean?" Issei questioned himself, closing the journal and placing it in the satchel. Issei grabbed a pick from the satchel, and sat the flashlight down.
Issei, using his hands and the pick, pried at the wall of boulders until one slipped free. It crashed to the floor, almost hitting his toes. He began to lower his face to the opening, to shine his light through the gap, but yanked his head back, slapped in the face by a fierce stench. The stench of flesh and fire. He took a full minute to steady himself, then he returned to the sealed entrance. He now detected a whiff of oil through the stench, the incendiary source for whatever horrors lied beyond this blockade.
Holding his breath, he shoved his head through the gap and swiveled the beam of light being produced by the flashlight directly in front of him. Issei was shocked by what was in front of him. He was staring into the mouth of a shaft. The shaft was covered in plant life and fungus that hung down from the ceiling. The fungus provided a bright, bio-luminescent blue glow.
"Amazing... It's as if the only way for them to get light was to produce it themselves..." Issei said, mesmerized. Issei walked up to a group of glowing mushrooms and cut a few of there places on the walls of the cave, he then placed them in one of the bags in the satchel.
Issei trudged on down the shaft and eventually, reached a drop off. He was staring into a black pit. It took his mind a few seconds to accept the horrifying thing he was seeing: a morass of skeletal remains and charred flesh. At the edges of the pit, he picked out scorched clothing and blankets, chunks of half charred wood, and blackened urns of oil. Despite trying to avoid it, he discerned bits of individual remains. -A torso jutting from the mire as though the man was trying to claw his way out of quicksand. -The disembodied limbs of small skeletons; the skeletons of children.
Issei, sick to his stomach, his head full of the acrid stench of immolated flesh, tore his eyes away from what was in front of him in disgust, bile rising in the back of his throat. He back pedaled away until he could no longer see the horrors of what was ahead, barely standing on his trembling legs.
Issei couldn't bare standing anymore and fell to his knees, hitting the floor hard and shooting vibrations through the cave. A small pebble fell to the right of Issei, he turned to look and there, two feet above his head was the haft of a dagger. It was jutting out from the rock face, so soot covered he hadn't noticed it when he first walked by. Issei, getting over his sickness, reached up, grabbed the haft and gave it a wiggle. Dried soot flaked and swirled in the beam of his flashlight. There was something beneath the soot , pinned by the blade into the rock.
Using his fingertips, he brushed away the soot to reveal a thick square of oilcloth. Carefully, he pried the packet from the wall and opened it, inside was a note. He pulled the note out, pointed the light at it and read
"'To whoever finds this, however unlikely this eventuality, if this message is ever found, I feel compelled by my conscience to recount the awful events that took place here. Whether our actions will be recognized or understood by our loved ones is for god to decide'"Issei stopped suddenly from the pain of saying 'God', but he continued "', but I leave this life in a fiery inferno confident that He, in his infinite wisdom, will forgive us...'"
Issei placed the knife and the note into the bag and turned to leave...
"What? But, that's not possible!" Issei yelled out
The cave he just walked through was different now. The glowing fungus was still there but now, the cave was filled with people. A boy on a cot was scratching away at his chest, as if trying to tear something out of himself. Doctors came in and restrained the boy. The boy was scratching at a yellow-greenish wart on his chest. The wart sized nodule, along with several hundred others that just formed in seconds, exploded one after another with loud hollow pops that sent a yellow-red tinged mist into the air that floated down over the boys body.
Issei stared, wide-eyed like a deer in the headlights, watching horrified.
Everyone. Everyone in the room began to die around him, the wart sized nodules being the culprit. The last one to die, died the worst, they formed on his eyes... Oh god, the horror when it exploded. It shot red and yeallow mist in the air and left yellow jelly in the place of his eye sockets.
[Partner... I don't know what's happening right now... It's even getting to me... It's so wrong, get out... Get out now!] Ddraig yelled out to Issei
"Get out..." Issei said
"Get out..." Issei repeated like a madman
"Yes, get out..." Issei said, standing and walking off in a random direction. He walked off and found himself at the entrance, there was no blockade, and waiting for him at the entrance to the cave was a bunch of troops with old rifles. Issei stood still and watched them with curiosity.
The troop in red raised his sword, a loud explosion blowing up behind Issei, sealing the cave.
"FIRE!" The man in red yelled, the men opened fire and sprayed Issei with a hailstorm of bullets, each and every one piercing his body and depriving his body of any life... Not, even a demon-dragon mix could survive such brutality. Issei hit the ground his body filled hundreds of holes, his breath ragged and weezy.
"Let the hounds have whats left of him!" The man screamed out, dogs darted forward and began to maw and eat away at Issei... The pain was so bad, they tore his flesh from his bones, tore at his eye sockets. Issei's life flashed before his eyes and tears formed in the one eye he had left, a dog soon got that eye too. He had nothing left to do but try to scream, even with the holes in him he found a way to do that.
He screamed... No, roared. The Roar of a dragon, a Dragon losing it's sanity.
'Observed the teachings that were hidden here... Beneath versus hidden so obscure... Follow deep into the caves past and find the trecherous waters of the void that reflect no stars... Behind the consortium of your fears you will find true power, true power, then.. Then you will show the world what it feels like... To burn." Zimmers voice rung out in Issei head
Issei couldn't recall hearing those words but they called out to him, they were immolated into his head.
Issei lost himself after hearing those words...
End of Chapter 2
Hello everyone! I am absolutely STUNNED by the amount of views this got on the first day, it is more than my others by a LONG shot, of course it lacks in reviews but, oh well! As always Leave your comments and Ideas for me to read, and be sure to tell me how I did!
Ryuujin96-Yes Koneko is in the harem, and I can add all the people you mentioned also! I am going to have Kunou enter his harem in the near future (Next chapter)
Yuuto2-I am glad you like it! It makes me feel like I am doing something good!
Xerozzuro-I am always happy to get a good review from you! I am so happy you liked it!
Ken-TheReader-Glad you like it!
Blackmist31-I am glad you like it! I am excited to see how this goes too!
xXtails888Xx-I WILL!
Karlos1234ify-Umm, Sweet! I am glad it is catching!
Well, I might change the summary of this story by the time you read this to fit it a little more...
As always leave a REVIEW! AND SEE YOU IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!