Chapter 4: The Cruelty Of An Apostle

Valerie had been watching over Sora and Issei for several days. There's nothing much to say about the two of them though the meaning differs between the individual.

There's not much to say about Sora as he lives like a normal introverted boy who only came to class to study and then go home. He doesn't have many acquaintances and no real friends that he hangs around with on a daily basis. He's mostly quiet unless spoken to and he is not interested in anything. An average introverted highschool boy for all intents and purposes… other than occasionally killing any supernatural being who happen to come across him and tried to kill him.

Issei on the other hand, is the epitome of a pervert. He peeks on girls and barely did enough in his study. A normal social outcast whose friends are only Matsuda, Motohama, and Kiryuu Aika, all three of them are also perverts like him. Average grades, average physical capability, no redeeming feature… other than having a sacred gear that in Valerie's opinion is wasted on him. After watching him for two days, Valerie got bored as it's just the same thing day after day.

Although she did notice that Rias Gremory, the resident devil, had been looking at him for a while, likely wanting to recruit him for his sacred gear. What a waste. It's truly a waste to leave his sacred gear in his hands or let it fall into devil hands. On the other hand, there is someone who would need the extra power that Issei's sacred gear can give.

Rather than wasting that great power in some random humans who will amount to nothing but a slave to the devils, that power can better be used by a human who will become the master of his own fate. And so Valerie plots. Well, not really plots since her plan consists only of seducing Issei to follow her and then kill him so she can take his sacred gear. Maybe give the boy one last 'fun' before sending him to heaven, or hell.

Turns out that there's no need for that. A fallen angel approached him and asked him on a date. Valerie had to roll her eyes as she can see her intent clearly. It's quite similar with hers although their final intent differs. Thanks to her Longinus and her eyes, she can read someone's soul if she looked hard enough and what she saw… well, not disturb her since as a Dead Apostle Ancestor she's already not right in the head but she's not happy with it.

Valerie followed them. There's also a devil following the boy but that… nekomata is of no importance. Valerie simply opened a path to her Millennium Castle and locked the devil in. Once she's done with her, the nekomata will be a Dead Apostle and will never be able to return to the devils.

She watch as the fallen angel brought Issei to a park. Here is the moment of truth. Valerie decided that if Hyoudou could fight back, she will let him live. If not… well, he's dead either way. So she waited and then the question came.

"Will you die for me?"

At that moment, Valerie watched clearly what Hyoudou is going to do. And to her disappointment, nothing. Not that she expected anything else from the normal boy. She knew that but she entertained the thought of being proven wrong. Valerie sighs and just as the fallen angel's spear of light was about to pierce Hyoudou, the fallen angel was ripped apart to shreds, never realizing what killed her.

Issei just stood there wide eyed and on his knees, shocked with what had happened. His girlfriend became some woman with black wings and asked him to die and moments later she was ripped to shreds by what appears to be claws. For a boy who had just experienced his first date, the shock of the experience rooted him to the ground unable to move.

After a moment, he finally managed to find the strength to at least turn his head, especially when he heard footsteps coming approaching him and out from the darkness came Valerie Brunestud licking her fingers covered in blood with more blood sullying her school uniform. The way she lick the blood from her fingers is so seductive Issei would've been aroused in any other situation but his mind is in a state of disarray at the moment.

"Valerie Brunestud?"

Issei fell on his behind as he look in fear at his bloodstained classmate. He try to escape and finally find the strength to stand p and run but when he turn to escape the blonde is already standing right in front of his face with glowing red eyes. Issei found himself unable to move once again as Valerie's hand went to touch his cheek and the girl smiled sensually.

But despite being touched by a beautiful girl like Valerie who is looking at him seductively, all Issei could feel was fear, especially when he noticed the sharp fangs protruding from her lips. He wanted to scream but he even if he opens his mouth, no voice would come out from his throat. Then Valerie caressed his cheek gently.

"Poor boy. This was probably the worst date in your life. Don't worry, this nightmare will end soon and I will take you to heaven."

Valerie whispered seductively into his ears making him shiver. She once again look at him in the eyes and then slowly pressed her lips to his. Issei then felt pure bliss as he felt her tongue meeting his and she passionately gave him a deep kiss while pressing her whole body against his. At the same time, he also felt his consciousness disappearing.

Unknown to Issei, Valerie had drained his life force from that kiss while also extracting his sacred gear from his soul using her mastery of her Longinus and soul magic she learned. She made the process painless. And so Hyoudou Issei died while feeling pure bliss from Valerie's kiss. The combination of her mystic eyes, sacred gear, and her own sensual kiss had sent him to heaven, never to return.

After Valerie confirmed that Issei had truly died, she stopped kissing him and release him from her hold, one hand now carrying his sacred gear in the form of a gauntlet. Valerie is satisfied. Then she look back at Issei's lifeless body and sink her fang into the corpse's neck. It would be a waste of good food if she just left. Once she had drained enough blood to satisfy herself which is admittedly much less than what an Apostle in the original world would feed, she threw Issei's corpse to the ground.

Now she need to decide what to do with the fallen angel and Issei's corpse. She could leave it to the devils or the authority to clean up or she could just burn them. It was at that moment that Valerie felt a presence entering her bounded field, one that she personally allowed to pass through should he came around.

Valerie turn to face the newcomer with an innocent smile and present the gauntlet in her hand to him and innocently spoke to him as if everything is normal.

"Good afternoon Sora-kun. I have a present for you."

Valerie Brunestud is not normal.

Hoshimiya Sora had known that for a fact since the first time their eyes met.

But this, he did not imagine something like this happening. Killing a classmate in cold blood and extracting… his sacred gear? Sora is sure that it is a sacred gear and since the other corpse is a fallen angel then that means the sacred gear belonged to Hyoudou Issei who is now dead.

Normally, Sora wouldn't have said anything and simply cut down this monster that had killed his classmate. But this is a monster he knew he cannot overcome. Still, he took off his glasses and once again looked at the blonde girl with his glowing blue eyes that once again confirmed what a monster she is with how small in both size and number her lines of death are.

He quickly move to take out his knife. Before his hand could even move close to his pocket though, it's already caught by Valerie who is still smiling at him. He began to sweat as he felt for the first time an emotion he had forgotten for quite some time.

Fear

This monster before him stood apart from anything he had ever faced and he knew she could easily kill him if she wanted to. Why he's not dead yet is still a mystery to him.

"Now now, none of that here Sora-kun. I promise that I will not harm you so please, don't try to fight with me."

"As if I could believe you, murderer."

Sora growled angrily at Valerie but she doesn't seem to mind his attitude. He tries to move his arm but he can't. Valerie is too strong for him. What's irritating him even more is that she still have that innocent smile she always shows him whenever he is around. Doesn't she know that she's not fooling him with that smile?

"Don't be like that. I would never hurt you if I can help it, Sora-kun. Everything I've done so far is all for you."

She whispered seductively into his ears while pressing her body against his. Unlike with Issei though, Noire pushed her away and maintain distance. He doesn't even try to draw his knife now. She would just stop him and even if he managed to, she could kill him before he could make a proper cut on her.

Fighting her is useless, he knew as much. At least fighting her as he is now is useless. Maybe in the future he would be able to but as he is now he would die before he could make any meaningful damage so the only thing he can do is talk to her. It disturbs him somewhat that Valerie seems to want to get close to him but indulging her for now is the only thing he can do.

"What do you want? And what do you mean by that?"

"What I want is simply for you to become strong, Sora-kun. And for that, I will do anything that would benefit you in any way necessary. You are precious, Sora-kun."

Valerie's words spoken in that sensual tone with her beautiful voice made Sora shivers. She is not sane, abnormal, and her words set off many alarms in Sora's mind. A monster obsessing over him is definitely not something Sora wanted to have in his life.

"Which is why I will give you this gift. It is wasted on someone like Hyoudou Issei. Please, accept it."

Before Sora could react, Valerie appear once again in front of him and he felt her hand hit his chest and then a funny sensation overcome him. Still smiling at him gently while looking at him with kind eyes, the last thing the boy heard is her voice whispering to him as he fell unconscious on her chest.

"I will not let you fell to his hands. Accept this power so you can fight the Crimson Moon… as the new Red Dragon Emperor."

The next day in Kuoh Academy is marred with grief and… well, complicated atmosphere. On that day, the principal announced the death of Hyoudou Issei in front of the whole school. Class was cancelled and everyone gathers in the auditorium to pay respect to their deceased classmate… which elicited a rather complicated feeling from the school population as Hyoudou Issei is not really the most popular person around.

Not many really came to the memorial service. As stated before, the boy is not a popular character in the school. Some came because they feel a little bad if they don't come but many seats are empty. Surprisingly, his class all came and genuinely mourn for the boy, especially Matsuda and Motohama, even Kiryuu and the kendo girls.

That's a surprise if Sora had ever seen one.

Normally, such death wouldn't affect him much. Sora had lived in a world where everything dies easily. Life is short and fragile. He cherishes them but death won't affect him much. But this particular death bothers him as he clutch his chest and grit his teeth in anger and frustration. He throw a glare at the blonde girl sitting five seats away from him in a row of empty seats looking at Issei's photo with mild apathy. That, more than anything, annoys him to no end.

It became even worse when Valerie saw him and her expression brightens as she smile and wave at him. He turned away, not wanting to see the face of his classmate's murdered any longer than he had to and instead see who are present in the pervert's memorial service.

There's their classmate who are surprisingly saddened by the pervert's passing. Random students from different classes mostly there due to obligation, the student council, and the Occult Research Club… who is missing a member with their club president looking very troubled. He paid special attention to the student council and ORC because he knew they are devils.

There is one of them missing. If he remembers it correctly, the one missing is the youngest member who has white hair and is considered as the school mascot, Toujou Koneko. Why is she missing? Could she be sick? No, devils don't get sick. And with Rias Gremory looking so troubles, something is definitely up. He would bet a thousand yen that Valerie is somehow involved.

Sora clenched his left hand and he could feel it throbbing. Valerie had given him Issei's sacred gear for one reason or another. He will make sure that she regrets it. She gave him a Longinus, and he will use it to destroy her.

While Sora made his decision, Valerie watched him in happiness. He will grow stronger with the new power she gave him. Yes, that's good. She didn't really planned it to go this way but this works just fine. In the end, it is fine as long as Sora grows stronger and able to protect himself from the Crimson Moon.

Next Valerie turn her attention to the devils. By now she had extracted the rook piece from the nekomata and begin the process of turning her into a Dead Apostle. This is just an act based on her whim but sooner or later she will have to deal with the devils so she can build a stronghold here in preparation for her war against the Crimson Moon while also protecting Sora. A plan came to her mind and her lips curled up into a cruel smile.

By the end of the next month, she will have the Lucifer kill his own sister or the devils will face extinction. No price is too cheap to claim a victory over the Crimson Moon, especially if the life she paid is that of supernatural life, and devils most of all. She wouldn't kill humans if she could help it but devils are free game. After all, this is a war between Brunestuds and in a war between them for the title of Ultimate One of the Moon, blood will definitely be spilled.

Well, even I have to say that this is something. This is Valerie acting as an Apostle. You have seen her cheerful schoolgirl persona but this is the ruthless Apostle side of Valerie. Let it be known that she won't cry over lost life and well, for Rias fans, I guess you guys will drop this story by the end of the tenth chapter or so.

Valerie as an Apostle is focused on defeating Brunestud and for her, life other than that of her Apostles and Sora are cheap price to pay if it helps her defeat Brunestud, even if it means orchestrating the genocide of an entire race. She is by no means pure evil as she won't kill needlessly, especially humans, for several reasons and one of them because vampires survive from human blood.

This is the distorted view of an Apostle. Valerie saw the world only in two races, humans and vampires. This will be elaborated as the story goes and this also affects her power and Reality Marble.

Kinunatzs The Eternal: Well the other factions will soon enter the stage. Valerie is going crazy and saw nothing wrong with it. Though to be fair, we all know that Apostles have a different perception of the world from normal so chalk it up to that.

NasuVerseFan93: Well firstly, the glasses Sora has came from Nasuverse and doesn't exist originally in DxDverse. It's the glasses Aoko stole from Touko. Second, Kuoh is not vampire territory… well, not yet. What I'm about to do will probably make me be hated by all the Rias fans all over the world. Not the first time I killed a main character though. I tend to do that when I write something closer to reality. As for that question of why devils are in Japan, I'll probably raise that question in another story. My Eastern Exorcist focuses on Japanese myth so you can expect that question there.

Manda Jr: I doubt she is dancing on thin ice. Nobody knows it's her and her powers are basically alien powers in DxDverse and it's enhanced by a Longinus. She's a veritable monster with her match coming mostly from Nasuverse.

Judgement of the Arbiter: That pun is cringe-worthy. You're almost as bad as Yang Xiao Long there. Ohh and your 'Cute Monster' is interesting. Though seeing Manaka Sajou as a main heroine is… well, she's a disturbing character.