Well sorry that I haven't update the month before, but I was busy with my vacation to Central America with my family and focused on Devil of the Apocalypse. Please read, review, comment, follow, and favorite please~ Enjoy.
Lugh. He's known as the Irish identity that represented in the Celtic Mythology. Known as a hero and high king, Lugh earned his reputation by slaying his dictator of grandfather, the Evil-God Balor through skills and techniques alone. This made Lugh into the most strongest Gods not only in Celtic Mythology, but the whole world. Issei should know. He has researched up not only Lugh, but the rest of the other top ten strongest beings in the whole world.
Ever since his encounter with Ophis and Fenrir, Issei began to research on the rest of the other deities who were part of the top ten strongest beings in the world. With the inclusion of Ophis, Fenrir, and Lugh, the others were Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, and Sakra of the Hindu mythology, Thor of Norse mythology, Typhon and Hades of Greek mythology, and Aten of Egyptian mythology.
"So would you mind telling me what in the world you were doing here in this ghost town?"
It was now nightfall. The heavy rain ended an hour after the death this reality's Viser and the dark sky became cloudless with multiple bright white stars and a full moon bringing out as a source of light. Issei stared down at his destroyed house with deprive and lifeless eyes, remembering the events that just unfold not so long ago. Lleu stood behind Issei, observing him passively for the last few hours. So far Issei hasn't say a single word after Lleu saved him, not even a "Thank You." After realizing that silence wasn't going to go nowhere, Lleu decided to break it by trying to get a conversation going.
"This place... Was my home." Issei answered without looking back. "But now it's gone. Everything I ever treasured is gone. And It's all my fault."
"Huh?" Lleu blinked in surprised. "What are you saying? You're actually a resident from this town? That can't be. Everyone from this town died when the war began."
'The war?' Issei remembered Viser saying something about war before she tried to devour him. So the destruction of Kuoh Town was the start of the war in this reality.
"Hey, Lleu was it? Can I ask you something?" Issei asked, still not taking his eyes off his destroyed home. "Can you explain to me about everything going on into his war?"
"Huh? You're kidding right? You don't know what has happening this world?" Lleu asked, walking up to Issei. Lleu then placed his hand on Issei's shoulder, turning him over to see look in his face. Lleu was taken back, shock to see devistated and lifeless eyes Issei had on. From staring into those eyes, Lleu knew that Issei wasn't lying about not being a resident of this town. And from those eyes Lleu could tell that Issei did have no idea what's going with the world they lived in. "Alright. Where do you want me to begin with."
"How long have we been in war?"
"It's around late spring, early summer at the latest. But to be frank, this world has been in state of war long before we were even born."
After accepting Issei's request regarding the state of this world, the boys decided to camp out. The stood out on a campfire within nearby Issei's old home. Issei was able to salvage the can foods from his destroyed house and cooked up a batch of bake beans. Issei offered some to Lleu, but he quickly refused. Issei took a taste from the beans and turned out to be terrible. Lleu summoned some of his rations via magic circle. and shared some with Issei around the campfire.
"So a cold war then?" Issei asked. He remembered how hostile the angels, the fallen angels, and devils were to one another before the alliance was formed. Each side were dying to provoke one another to start the second Great War. Not only the three biblical factions were hostile to another, all factions were like that till the alliance as formed.
"You can say that." Lleu shrugged. "Every faction was hostile to one another and did nothing but talk till they showed up."
"They?" Ise cocked his head. "Who's they?"
Lleu took in a deep breath before continuing in a deep solemn tone. "They're known as the Armilus. They're the one responsible for causing the war and the destruction of this town."
'Armilus?' Something didn't felt right to Issei. In heard anything about this "Armilus" group before in his world, so why were they the one responsible for the war and the destruction of his hometown rather than Kokabiel or even the Khaos Brigade. Could it be possible that the man in the black hood had something to do with this?
"They're a known as a terrorist organization consist of well-known entities of very mythology that is known to be the representation of evil." Lleu continued. "That includes evil god identities, the Grigori, and the current devil society."
"Wait what?" Issei couldn't believe it. The Grigori and the current devil society are part of this organization. He knew the head leaders of both society personally. He couldn't understand why pacifist like Azazel or the current Maous would agree to join such terrorist organization against the world. "Why would Azazel and people like Sirzechs Lucifer be want to join a terrorist group."
"Azazel?" Lleu became shock. "You really don't know do you? I'm not sure about this Sirzechs person, but Azazel has been overthrown by the Grigori. To be franked, many cardinals have been overthrown by their positions in coup d'etat lead by Kokiabel."
'Kokiabel?' The so called powerful fallen angel recorded in the Bible that was easily by Vali of all people overthrow an organization lead by strong warriors like Azazel and Baraqiel? How could Kokiabel pulled it off. Did he have help because he's part of the Armilus?
"If Kokiabel is currently running the Grigori, who's running the devil society?"
"That would be the descendants of the original Maous." Lleu explained, much to Issei's dismay.
'Descendants!?' The imagines of Shalba and Katerea appeared in Issei's mind. 'The Old Maou Faction is in charge of the underworld instead of Sirzechs and the others?'
Nothing was making sense to Issei. Not only the Kokiabel took over the Grigori, but also Old Maou Faction is in charge of the devil society too. How could Kokiabel and the Old Maou Faction took power just because Issei no long part of Rias's peerage?
"Wasn't there a civil war within the devil society?" Issei brought up.
"Yeah. There were records that showed that there was a resistance against the current devil society, but they lost due to the aid of the Armilus." Lleu confessed. "The same thing went for Kokiabel as well. It seemed that those arrogant bastards were able to suck up their pride and decided to cooperate to destroy every realm in very dimension in existence."
Lleu's right. Both Kokiabel and the Old Satan Faction sucked up their prides and got helped from other factions. But how? None of them seemed eager to aid one another, though the Old Satan Faction did plead for help from Ophis and the Khaos Brigade. Then a thought to Issei.
"Lleu, quick question. Is Loki part of this organization."
"Loki? Yeah, he's one of the main cardinals of the organizations."
"And Valper Galilei?"
"Yeah. He's the head scientist in one of their divisions."
"How about Diodora Astaroth? Or someone named Raynare per chance?"
"Never heard of them." The two entered into deep silence after that. Lleu observed Issei as he takes in the information he just heard and sighed.
'So? What do you think of him?' Lleu thought, looking down at his left arm.
"He's uncanny. That's for sure." The voice said telepathically in Lleu's mind. 'His aura isn't those of this world, yet at the same time he has signature similar to mine."
Lleu looked up to Issei, who now staring off into the campfire. 'You're kidding. There's only one Sekiryuutei and one Boosted Gear in the world. Unless you have a relative that God of the Bible sealed them into a Sacred Gear, there shouldn't anyone with your dragon signature.'
"Well I did have a brother, but he was slayed by that knight who slept with king's Arthur's wife. But that's not the case. His signature is identical to mine and no one else."
'Could it be possible that he's the descendants to one of predecessors?' Lleu asked.
"No. I never had a Japanese partner before. Lleu, it's not that I trust this human, but I feel like you need to use your eyes and the Fragarach to make sure this person said who he really is."
Lleu bit his lower lip. He wasn't sure he wanted to used his powers to interrogate a civilian. But at the same time, Issei didn't felt like he wasn't any civilian, especially since Lleu could tell that Issei wasn't lying about being a resident of Kuoh Town. And there was that incident that happened that caused Lleu to come into this ghost town, but before he could even think back to that, Issei speak up.
"If the Armilus are ones responsible for this war, who exactly are they fighting?"
"Oh? Who's that?" Issei asked.
"They're known as the Nephilim."
"Nephilim?" Issei tilted his head.
"Nephilim, the "Son of Gods." Lleu said, translating the name of the organization. "It's an organization created by Azazel."
"Azazel? But didn't you say that-"
"I said he was overthrown, not killed." Lleu clarified, interrupting Issei. "After being overthrown by the Kokiabel, Azazel and his group decided to form an organization with the devils that have been exiled themselves from their society. And when the war broke out, guess who else joined the Nephilim?"
"The church?"
"Yup." Lleu nodded. "Everyone. They knew they had no chance against the Armilus and decided to join the Nephilim after being convinced that Azazel and the devil defectors are weren't as corrupted and arrogant as they use to be. Eventually other factions decided to join the organization to band in numbers against the Armilus. So technical the war is basically between the Armilus of Evil against the Nephilim of Good."
Issei was left speechless. Even without him, the alliance was stilled formed. He felt relieved, a great burden in his heart has be lifted. Not all hope is lost in this world. Not only the three alliances together again, but more factions that weren't from alliance of his world. This world can be saved, but before can expressed how happy he was felt something disturbing nearby.
Lleu also felt it too. Both men got up form their seats as the fire quickly died out from a cold strong breeze. Both men held their breathe as a light blue magic circle that Issei seen before appeared.
"Ufufufufu... Greeting Sekiryuutei-chin. What do you think of your new home?" The voice was definitely familiar to Issei, but in a brighter and cheerful mood. And he knew that voice was referring to him and not Lleu. The magic circle bright up and the man in the cloak appeared.
"Wait you're...!?" Lleu widen his eyes, seemingly to recognize who the man in the hood is. But before he can identity him, the man in the hood fired a beam of demonic energy directly at him by the cloak figure. Lleu quickly summoned his Scale Mail and a magic circle to shield against the attack, but the demonic energy easily penetrated through both magic circle and Lleu's armor.
"Lleu!" Issei rushed to Lleu, who's knocked down battered and injured on the ground.
"Poor faker. He never stood a chance against me." The cloak figure laughed. He put his hand on his hoodie and put down. Issei widen as he sees the face of the man under the hoodie. He was around his mid-forties long messy silver hair and light blues. By seeing that man's face, he had uncanny appearance of an older Vali. "Hello Sekiryuutei-chin. Sorry that I haven't introduced myself before, but since you fell into my deliberate plan, I think its time for me to introduced myself. My name is Rizevim Livan Lucifer. I'm the biological son of Lucifer and the grandfather of Vali Lucifer, the Hakuryuukou of your generation. Oh have I told you that I'm the leader of the Armilus too?"
Sorry this chapter isn't as long as I hope, but I'm leaving the country this week and I wanted to finish this arc before I go. So what do you think? I decided to introduced Rizevim into this story as the main antagonist of the first half of the series and leader of the Armilus, the new version of the Khaos Brigade. Speaking of it, I can't wait for the next volume of DxD, coming the 18th of the month. That volume is going to be a turn over to the canonical dxd series. Also what did you think? Did you really think I was going to allow this war is going between the three biblical factions and not include the other mythologies. I known I did say that this story is going to incorporate parts of DC's Flashpoint comic, but I was referring to how fate of the original heroes were altered, which happened in the chapter before, but there are more altered futures and personalities of the original canonical characters to be introduced.
Now time for the preview of the next chapter:
Issei now confronts Rizevim regarding his purpose into sending him into a new reality, but when Issei learns Rizevim's true intentions and how he was able to alternate reality, Issei learns that his chances going back to his world are slimmer as Rizevim reveals his master plan for Issei, the Armilus, and the new reality.
Next time in the final chapter of the first arc of A Fragile Heart: The Grim Truth Pt 02
Rizevim: You maybe unique and special in this universe, but compare to the multiverse, you're nothing more than speck of dust.