Late Morning

Outskirts of Kuoh, Trail to Gremory Vacation Manor

"Why are you so happy?" Akeno asked as she and Dante climbed the dirt path up to the Gremory manor. Behind them was Rias and Asia both without bags unlike Issei, Kiba, and Koneko. Then further down was Kiba handling the loud on his back like a champ, then Issei who was complaining, and then Koneko who had the largest bag.

"I'm with you, that always makes me happy." He said happily before kissing the top of her head. She smiled as he pulled her in close, then let out a pleased moan as she felt his hand trail down her back to her shapely rear. Not being one to be out done Akeno made sure to press her chest into his. She smirked with a feint blush growing on her cheeks, with how close they were she could feel a bulge growing in her lover's pants. "And I'm going to be spending ten days with you and Rias getting ready to kick that fried chicken's ass… sounds like a great time to me." Dante said appearing to not acknowledge how close either were to sneaking off to have a bit of fun.

"Me too, hopefully we can use this time productively as well as have some time to ourselves." Akeno said playing the game as well, moving her hand down to being rubbing Dante crotch further to life. Just being this close to him turned her on, the black lace panties she had on were already beginning to stain with her arousal. "And soon enough we will be getting one step closer to getting Rias to join us in a three-way." Akeno whispered as she leaned up to Dante's ear but she made sure it was just loud enough to travel and make its way to Rias. That combined with how Dante and Akeno were acting caused Rias to turn as red as her hair. She had been trying to ignore what they were doing but it was increasingly hard to do.

"It amazes me how your dirty your mind can be, don't ever change." Dante gave a small husky growl as he pulled her closer into him. They fit together perfectly in their opinion, if not for the clothes they had on they couldn't be any closer. Akeno bit her lip as she felt Dante hand reach down and slowly began to trace the edges of her covered mound. It was painful to be teased like this when she knew they couldn't do anything right now, but she loved every moment of it.

"Ahhh~ Wouldn't think of it, life's too fun this way." Akeno lewdly groaned before she pulled Dante down into a kiss, both of them stopping to make out and seriously started to think about ditching everyone and having some time to themselves.

"Enough of that you two." Rias said pushing the two apart. Her face atomic red as she had begun to feel a small bit of feedback from their link. It was a annoyingly sensitive feeling that constantly nagged her to get on with the Linking. "You can have plenty of that when we get to the manor but not now." In truth she just didn't want to see the two like this because it made her jealous. The only reason why she didn't ban it outright for the whole ten days of training was because it served as a great motivator for her to work harder for the day when she could have Dante to herself.

"Rias! How much longer until we get there?" Issei whined as he slogged up the mountainside. He tried to be his best but they had been walking up this mountain road for hours now and the pack he was carrying was heavy.

"Almost there Issei. We should be there at the top of this hill." Rias called back down to the pawn, happy for the small distraction from the other two people in Rias' shared relationship. They both were still giving each other bedroom eyes as they continued on towards the manor, apparently taking Rias' rule literally.

"Rias… should I help?" Asia asked concerned about Issei's carrying so much and her carrying nothing.

"No, he needs to be able to do this on his own. This is all part of his training." Rias said as she watched Kiba and Koneko pass by Issei. "But make sure that he doesn't pass out okay." Rias warned before walking off with Dante and Akeno until they all were standing at the edge of the land that the Gremory manor sat on.

"Something broke the wards around the manor." Akeno said as she pulled up the warding matrix. The magic circle was broken and missing pieces. "Something smashed its way in, looks like it did it around the same time Clio and Anthony showed up." Akeno said turning to Rias.

"The Ovinnik, so it's been using Gremory property as its nest? That is unacceptable." Rias was increasingly angry at this news. But she knew that now they had all the reason to kill the monster without anyone making a fuss about it. "Kiba! Koneko! Issei and Asia! There has been a change in plan!" Rias called down to her peerage who all took the orders quickly and ran up to their King. "It seems that the Ovinnik that has been hunting Clio has infested my family's vacation home. In order to begin our training period we will need to clear it out. This will be a good first test." Rias said before looking to Kiba. "Kiba, make sure to harass the monster and keep it distracted. Koneko, wait and make sure you have a clear opening to attack and should it set itself on fire stay far back. Issei, you stay with Asia and keep her safe until you have Boosted enough to land a good hit on the Ovinnik." Rias gave her orders before looking to Dante and Akeno. "Dante, you will watch and be in charge of keeping the monster from setting us all on fire. Akeno, you will be in charge of keeping it in the perimeter of the fight, I don't want it running off on us." Everyone nodded at their assigned task and the group begin their way to the manor.

They soon came upon the large mansion that the Gremory family used from time to time as a place of rest and relaxation. They had many homes such as this around the world, some larger or smaller than this. When the group of Devils came upon the manor they immediately saw the front door had been smashed open.

"Do you think it's inside?" Asia asked, she was trying to hide the fear that was building inside of her as she stayed close to Issei.

"No… I don't see a soul inside." Dante said as he turned on his soul sight. "But I can't tell where it is, when I look in the surrounding forest all I see is shapes, could be the Ovinnik… could be a bear." Dante said as they all approached the building.

"Is there any way to try and draw it out?" Kiba asked knowing that they couldn't spend their days here while a monster prowled around.

"Well… there is one way." Dante said knowing that he was going to be yelled at. "Minos!" Dante called out and the Jinn Butler soon came out of his portal.

"Yes sir?"

"Get Clio and bring here into that manor, top floor, innermost room." Minos bowed and left to do just that. "There… the Ovinnik is hunting Clio… so…" Dante said weakly as he looked to the tree line waiting for the Ovinnik to come charging out at sensing its prey suddenly in its nest.

"You brought Clio here as bait?! What the hell man?" Issei yelled.

"Yup… don't worry, it won't even get in the-" Dante was interrupted by the sound of a tree crashing to the ground. They all looked to the source and saw at the edge of the forest was a fallen tree, pushed down by the hand of the furious monster that they hoped to kill. The creature stood at about nine feet tall with long lanky limbs. It was covered in dark blue fur from its head to its ankles, stopping at its large bare feet. Every now and then the fur that covered its face would sway giving small glimpses at its glowing yellow eyes and its small fang-filled mouth. It squealed in anger at the sight of the Devils before running on all fours toward them. At the ends of its long fingers was a sharp talon-like nail that dug into the ground as it ran forward, each lunge like stride was a pull forward with its long forearms propelling it forward.

"We need to kill that thing?!" Issei cried out as the monster charged forward.

"We do now!" Dante said as he pulled out his scythe and flew up into the air with Akeno. Kiba quickly created a sword using his Sacred Gear Sword Birth and readied himself for the coming fight. The opening move was made by Dante as he used his powers of Chill to form an ice wall blocking the Ovinnik exit. The monster didn't even seem to notice this and continued on moving forward.

It did stop at the torrent of lightning that Akeno sent down, it walked out of the attack seemingly unscathed. The monster roared up at the two Devils, its sound high and guttural. It screeched again at feeling the next attack of Kiba slashing at its ankle, he had hoped that it would disable the beast but its hide proved to be able to handle his blades. Kiba quickly backed off, the Ovinnik missing him as it smashed down a fist into the ground where Kiba had been standing. Once again it screamed in frustration and moved to follow its new target, but after taking a single step sideways toward Kiba it was face planted into the dirt by Koneko.

"Just die already, you're annoying." Koneko said as she slammed the monster's head into the earth but then felt herself get snatched, surprising her and everyone else that the monster could move that fast and still make such a move after getting hit as it did. Koneko struggled at the vice-like grip the Ovinnik taloned hand had on her. Thankfully the sharpened claw part of the monster's hand was farther out and not currently cutting into her body.

"Koneko!" Dante and Kiba both yelled as they charged down, Dante going for the beast's upper arm to try and free the girl while Kiba dashed toward the still lowered head to try and get an eye, knowing that while a beast's hide might be too tough for a blade… there was always weak spots that could be pierced. Both were sent skidding back as the Ovinnik's free hand swung up and swatted Dante away, sending him flying into his own ice wall. Kiba on the other had flinched at Dante's quick dispatching and thus gave the monster enough time for an attack on him. In the form of a the Ovinnik slamming Kiba into the ground.

"Issei, I'm going to get its attention, you grab Kiba and get him to Asia." Rias ordered as she flew up and began sending carefully aimed attacks to the beast. Doing her best to limit her power so it wouldn't hit Koneko. This made her attacks virtually ineffective but enough to where it pissed off the Ovinnik. The monster screamed once again and began walking off toward Rias and away from finishing off Kiba. Issei ran over tot eh Knight and picked him up.

"Issei… what… w-what happened?" Kiba mumbled weakly as Issei carried him back to Asia. Issei laid him out carefully and Asia started getting to work with her Twilight Healing.

"You got totally boned dude… that's not supposed to happen to you. You're the one that has real training and shit." Issei said before looking back to the fight. He smiled at the sight of Dante getting back into the fight with chopping off the hand that was holding onto Koneko. But then everyone covered their ears at the bloodcurdling screech that the monster gave out in response to this. Then it got even more horrifying as suddenly the whole body of the monster was on fire. Its hand quickly regened back to normal and was quickly used to grab Dante out from the air with Akeno in the other hand. It then threw the two into the manor's upper floors, using Dante to hit Rias mid-air taking her with them. "Dante! Akeno! Rias!" Issei was in disbelief, they were nowhere near ready for the fight with Riser if they couldn't even take down this monster. Issei knew he needed to do something, but felt petrified when the glowing yellow eyes of the Ovinnik locked onto him, Kiba, and Asia.

Koneko was still locked in the clutches of the severed hand that gripping tight and not letting go. Kiba was still lingering between awake and unconsciousness. It would take more than that to put Dante, Akeno and Rias out of the fight but they would be for at least a minute, and that was more than enough for the monster needed to close the distance between it and the three Devils. It was all up to Issei and he was shaking at the prospect of fighting this huge and terrifying monster all by himself. He watched in horror, barely able to hold up his Boosted Gear in defense as the flaming form of the Ovinnik raised its arm to take a swing at them.

Everything seemed to stop as loud bang rang out. One second Issei was staring at his own death and the next there was a massive hole in the Ovinnik's head. The monster fell forward with an enormous thud, the magic that fueled the fire was gone and the flames vanished. Issei looked down and he could hear the sounds of acidic pops and sizzling and noticed that something was eating away at the wound in the monster's head.

"I go away for a month to handle my contract payments and I come back to find you kids about to be killed by a tier five monster… what the fuck?" Otto groaned as Issei looked up to see the smoking barrel of Otto's favored shotgun aiming where the Ovinnik's head was.

"Y-you… you beat that thing… with one shot?!" Issei bellowed as he couldn't believe what just happened in the span of three seconds.

"A very powerful shot that would destroy the arm of any normal man." Otto said as he locked his shotgun back onto his hip. "That was a Ripper M35 round, made to kill things like this thing here." Otto kicked the Ovinnik. "Basically it fires a shot that could be considered comparable to a small tank's main canon but with the added bonus of it dispensing high-grade acid into the target. Made for things that regen like crazy." Otto explained before circling the dead monster. "Kinda wished I had aimed for the heart… then I could at least fix it up a bit so that I could have it stuffed. But now… ruined." Otto sighed, both Issei and Asia shocked and very irritated that Otto was taking this so casually.

Late Morning

Outskirts of Kuoh, Gremory Vacation Manor

"Thank you Mr. Waldseemüller for saving my servants, I'll be sure to remember this when it's time to discuss your end of the year bonus." Rias said as they were all gathered in the main dining room of the manor. "And thank you Minos for bringing him just in time."

"It was no problem Miss, but your thanks is appreciated." Minos said ignoring the nonexistent smirk on Otto's face, it had taken quite a bit of convincing on the super soldier's part to get the Jinn to open a portal into a live combat zone. Jinn by their nature avoided danger at all costs. It was only the danger of the death of Dante and his friends that was able to get Minos to open a portal for Otto to join and finish the fight.

"It was no problem." Otto said as he polished his shotgun. "But just one thing… what the fuck made you guys think you could take on a tier five monster. There's a reason why Ovinnik are considered some of the most dangerous game in all of hunting. Only morons and gods are willing to go out and try to kill one." Otto asked as he could not for the unholy life of him figure out why in the world would he find what he found. "And why is an Ovinnik in Japan in the first place, they belong in eastern eur…" Otto stopped as he looked to Clio who just continued to look away with a sullen look to her eyes.

"Clio here is my friend, she's the daughter of Radegast and normally lives with the circus of the Slavic pantheon. But she left for her own reasons and later pissed off the Ovinnik that you just killed. She came here hoping that we could deal with it for her." Dante explained, deciding to leave out a few details as they were personal to Clio and even to himself.

"You thought that this bunch of kids could kill an Ovinnik… they could have… at a huge ass cost." Otto reprimanded the girl who already felt sick to her stomach when she had been told what happened but now felt even worse from being verbally confronted with what she did.

"I know… but it kept chasing us and there was no way we could have killed it. And it's not like we have the money to hire someone who could kill it, or ask for someone to do it for free given most of the Supernatural World hates the Slavic gods' guts and would sooner turn us over to Heaven or Hell than help us. What were we supposed to do?!" Clio yelled before running off and out of the room. Everyone looked to Dante as they expected him to be the one to console her.

"Stop looking at me, Issei… you go and help Clio." Dante said shocking everyone including Issei. "I'm not the best choice here, I'm the one she put the burden of killing the thing on. Seeing me would only make her feel defensive and anything I say she could take as accusing. And you, Asia, and Kiba are the ones she feels the most guilt over seeing as you all nearly got killed. And I think Issei you especially should go because she sought you out when she arrived… meaning that for whatever reason you're the one that she feel even the tiny bit safer around… if for no other reason than she might feel that she has some influence over you." Dante explained and it looked like Issei was about to protest.

"Kid you better get moving or I'm going to get up and out of this chair and knee you in the nuts." Otto said as he looked down the barrel of his gun checking for any dirt or blood. Issei quickly dashed out of his seat and ran out to try and find Clio.

"I will also be remembering that threat when we speak about year-end bonuses." Rias said making Otto groan.

Issei had to admit that Rias' family was stupid wealthy. The size of the mansion made looking for Clio take about half an hour. And Issei had heard that this was just one of several estates that the Gremory family own around the world. And as he walked in the halls he had to be subjected to the sheer amount of examples of wealth in the form of the detail in the building of the mansion and the extremely expensive looking stuff that was in the halls. It made the Pawn worry that he would end up in debt for all his life if he broke one vase or lamp.

The damage done by the Ovinnik using this place as its nest was minor. It mostly stayed on the first floor in the living room. Which meant that the room was burned to a crisp by Rias' Power of Destruction and then closed off with a wall of ice made Dante. It was fine, given that there was two other rooms that could serve the same purpose. Again… very big mansion.

But eventually Issei found the demigod… or more accurately she found him. Issei was in one of the bedrooms looking for her when he was suddenly pushed back onto the bed, the next thing he knew he was flipped around and Clio was straddling his waist.

"I'm pissed and I'm guessing you're horny. Let's have at least one fuck before I ditch this place." Clio said as she aggressively began to try to take his shirt off. Usually this would be one of the many fantasies that Issei had dreamed about, but reality and fantasy were two different things. And he knew that Clio wasn't doing this because it right, she said it herself, she was pissed. Issei could that right now she just wanted something to take the edge of the emotions that she was feeling off. And sex was her vice of choice.

"No, wait." Issei said grabbing onto Clio's hands stopping her from going any further than his stomach. Clio frowned even deeper at his unexpected refusal.

"The fuck you say, you're pervert número uno. And you're turning me down?" Clio growled, she wanted to stop feeling guilty for him nearly dying and giving him what he always wanted to feel like a good favor to him. She didn't care about Dante's little code saying that Asia should be Issei's first one, once she got this out of the way she out of here. Dante wasn't her friend or at least he wasn't the same friend she had before, the Ovinnik was dead, there was no reason to stick around anymore.

"Oh hell no I'm I saying that… it's just that I don't think you're doing this for the right reasons."

"Stupid reason to turn me down, you've wanted sex with a hot girl for years and now here I am… and you saying no because it doesn't feel right?" Issei tried to remember what it was that Dante said about Clio and himself… that she felt safe around because she thought that she had influence over him.

"It's not that I don't want to have sex with you. I do… I really want to… but not because you're guilty that I almost died." The look on Clio's face was barely controlled rage. "If we're going to do anything it should because…"

"If you say love I'm going to hit you."

"… I was going to say we both are horny and want fool around purely because we are both perverts and want to have some fun." Issei said adding a small perverted giggle that actually made Clio smile. In the back of his mind he knew that was not entirely the truth, some love was always wanted. "But we can't do that if you leave." Issei said having picked up on Clio's intentions, he wasn't exactly sure how he knew… he just did.

"Tempting… maybe tempting enough to keep me around." She said mauling it over. She liked Issei, he was fun and certainly he was an investment that would one day pay out handsomely. She liked that he didn't seem to hold what happened against her. And she knew that Anthony wasn't moving any time soon unless Dante told him he had to leave. The pros to staying seemed to outweigh the cons. "I'll stay if…" Clio said, a seductive smile on her face as she started to slowly grind against Issei waist. Causing him to react as expected, the little pervert he was. "… you promise me one thing."

"YES ANYTHING!" Issei yelled as felt that they had gotten past most of the emotional baggage and were moving towards better things.

"When the time comes, you'll protect me." Clio said leaning close to Issei.

"Uh… yeah… sure." That didn't seem too hard in his mind.

"From anything." Clio added, her smile turning serious as she knew that it was very likely that it might one day be Devils that come after her.

"Anything." Issei repeated not understanding the deeper promise he was making. That he would fight his own kind, even Rias, to protect Clio.

"Good." She said before teasingly kissing his nose and then pulling off him. Making him feel, on the surface at least, regret her earlier offer. "You can head back to your friends… I want to kick that big furry jerk a few times and then I'm heading back to Kuoh. I'll be spending all that time thinking of ways to give you an appropriate thank you for when you get back." Clio said before leaving the room. Letting Issei wallow in his choice to be the good guy instead of the horny pervert.

Mid-Evening

Gremory Vacation Manor, Kitchens

"Listen up you two rookies!" Dante yelled as he slammed his hand down on the table. It had been the first day of training, they had all rested for the rest of the day after the fight with the Ovinnik. And then began today as their first for purely training. Koneko and Dante spent most of the trying to bruise and cut Otto respectively. They didn't. But they certainly had a deep workout out trying. Kiba had spent the day training with Issei, at first he tried to show the Pawn how to use a sword but they quickly decided that Issei was better at a brawling style of combat. Akeno and Rias focused together on helping Asia learn more about her new demonic magic. But now the day was coming to its end and Rias had asked Dante to teach Issei and Asia a bit of cooking skills and to help with making dinner for the household. "What is the first thing you do before start cooking?"

"Wash your hands." Asia answered happily, not at all affected by Dante sudden drill sergeant demeanor. Issei on the other hand was a little shaken up by it.

"Correct rookie. You must always make sure that you have properly cleaned and readied yourself before touching any food." Dante said as he paced in front of the two. "Do either of you have any prior cooking experience?" He was enjoying this too much and he knew it. The last time he could bring out Full Metal Jacket Dante was when he helped out one of his contracts in getting a date. Dante learned quickly that the boy responded well to hardcore authority.

"I used to sometimes help in the kitchens at the churches I stayed at." Asia said, it was before the days where they had branded her a heretic.

"I've watched my mom cook… that's about it." Issei shrugged.

"Very well, today you two are going to learn some pretty basic things, sometimes the most delicious dishes are the ones that are the most simple. But at the same time… just because it's simple doesn't mean it doesn't take skill." Dante explained as the two younger Devils moved over to the nearby sink and washed their hands as told earlier. Dante then brought over a large crate of potatoes. "Issei, peel these all." Dante said as the sound of a loud thud hit the room from the crate hitting the metal table. Issei looked down at the many spuds he had to work on and knew Dante had just given him busy work. "And then peel these." Dante said as he dropped down a second crate full of onions. That made Issei begin crying as he started peeling the potatoes. However, his mind wandered… thinking about Rias and Akeno. He normally forbade himself from doing so, especially when in the same room as Dante. But the Rook was busy teaching Asia and Issei was desperate for something to take his mind off his current situation. So… he thought about things. Things he liked very much. But then he suddenly felt the spud in his hand snap and he looked down and saw an entirely peeled potato.

"Wait a minute…" The gears in the mind of a pervert began turning.

"So how did this happen?" Rias asked as she was looking at the great amounts of food that was laid out in front of her household. When she had asked Dante to teach Issei and Asia a few his skills she didn't think the result would be this.

"Issei figured out how to use his demonic powers… apparently in the form of taking off the surface layer… of food." Dante said eyeing Issei with an inquisitive look. He had a reasonably good idea what this power really was, and he didn't really like the idea of what it could be.

"Yeah… that's what it is." Issei chuckled nervously, remembering back to what he was thinking about when he first caused the potato to burst open. "I'm so screwed if he figures it out."

"I'm sure that Issei might be able to figure out how to make this power more useful than peeling potatoes and onions." Rias said as everyone began to dig into their dinner. "Maybe he could work it into something that works on clothes." This caused both Dante and Issei to spit-take their soup. "It would make the perfect tag team move with your Blade of Finality." Rias said understanding that Issei likely meant for that all along.

"You can't be… wait…" Dante began but then what Rias said hit him and he turned to Issei with a predatory look in his eye that made Issei feel so small and powerless. "Minos… get Clio and tell her that we require her lack of decency and modesty in our training." Dante said and the nearby Jinn butler nodded and stepped through a portal. "I tell you this now kis perverz… if you even think about using this power you create for evil… I shall reap your soul." The glasses of water on the table froze at Dante threat.

"No never… never for evil per say." Issei mumbled that last part. Dante heard it but didn't do anything on it as he knew that the message was clear to Issei, don't do it on Akeno or Rias or any other girl that Dante cares about. Minos soon returned to the manor, dropping Clio off in her own room… which would likely be left empty during the nights. And once everyone was given new non-frozen glasses of water diner resumed as normal. Conversation was mostly centered around training and how it was going, as well as the complements to Issei and Asia on the cooking and as well to Dante for overseeing their work.

"That was simply lovely, but I think it would be best if Dante handles all future meals as we seem to have quite a few leftovers." Rias said as Minos gathered all the dirty dishes. "I think it would do us all good to have a nice relaxing bath."

"That sounds wonderful, Asia… you wouldn't mind if Dante joins us would you?" Akeno asked not wanting to ruin the running record of her and her man sharing their time together in the bath. Though Akeno genuinely hated being apart for him for any reason regardless of what they were doing.

"W-well… I… I would be fine if Issei… c-could…" Asia started out, the words hard for her to say but everyone knew where it was leading.

"No." Koneko said not wanting the pervert to ever see her naked body.

"It's fine… we boys will have our side and you girls can have yours." Dante said standing up and then walking over to Issei and began dragging the crying pervert off with Kiba following.

"What are you doing Issei?" Kiba asked as he enjoyed the warm water of the bath. He knew perfectly well what the Pawn was doing. Trying to peep of the girls on the other side of the wall. A very solid wall. Which was why Dante who was also in the bath with them was so calm.

"Because I will do what comes naturally to me! And I will train my eyes to one day see through all that stand between me and hot rocking bodies!" Issei shouted as he pressed his head into the wall. They could hear a bit from the other side, not any words but they could hear giggling. It presented a heavenly forbidden grotto type fantasy for the pervert and he had to see it!

"Are you seeing anything?" Dante asked as he floated around aimlessly around in the large bath. He didn't know why but he liked large bodies of water, just floating around doing nothing. Letting the stress of the day just not exist as did nothing but float.

"No…" Issei grumbled depressed at his lack of progress.

"Good... then I don't have to kill you." Dante said with a smile that said he wasn't joking.

"You don't ever kill Issei… even after he walks in on Rias changing." Dante opened his eyes and Kiba and Issei all looked to the source of the voice and saw Zeiveist sitting naked in the bath with them, his long neon blue hair spread out around him in the water. "Hello."

"I'm assuming your Zeiveist Charon… very noticeable hair color." Dante said before what the boy said came back to him. "YOU WALK IN ON RIAS!" Dante raged as the water around him froze solid, unintentionally locking him in place.

"He does… but he hasn't yet so don't beat him up until he does so." Zeiveist said before he opened a mirror above Dante and warm water poured out thawing Dante free.

"So it's true what they say about the users of Reality Mirror… but how much of it is true." Kiba said worried about it. While the Sacred Gear was considered by all to be one of the most powerful, that wasn't the most known aspect of it. It was what it did to the users.

"All of it, I'm am considered by all who meet me to an annoying little son of a bitch." Zeiveist sighed before lowering into the water and floating over to Dante. "I'm the one who got you this little opportunity. Did Rias tell you why?"

"She said that you're my future Bishop." Dante said as he focused on the new arrival. As did Kiba while Issei was thinking about his future encounter with Rias. "I personally haven't heard much about your power… other than it's powerfully annoying and annoyingly powerful." Zeiveist smiled and waved his hand and a mirror formed above the Devils. In it was the typical sky, Zeiveist twisted his hand and the mirror shimmered and the dark black night sky turned dark green, and there were two moons in place of one. And then another twist of his hand there was a… hot dog carved into the side of the moon. Then with one last twist there was a vast armada of alien ships in the sky. Then Zeiveist snapped his fingers and the mirror shattered.

"I can open mirrors that can look into the infinite multiverse, see every possible outcome, every possible alternative, every possible mistake or success. Thing is… just because it happens one way in some other reality… doesn't mean it will happen here. True I can look at a place that is only slightly different… say Issei has blond hair and Kiba has brown and I can use that to use as a templet to know what happens in this reality because I can look into the same reality but one that is a few months or years ahead in the future."

"But it's not always a foolproof method of telling the future." Dante surmised from the information and the background guilt in Zeiveist's voice. He made a mistake using this method.

"No… no it's not. Even if I can see and navigate the multiverse doesn't mean that I'm a perfect master at doing so. Not even those that have Reality Mirror before me at the height of their power and ability could do that." Zeiveist said before snapping back his mood to carefree cheeriness. "I can also create Reflections in this reality of people and objects from others. The only things limiting me there is Mass, Energy, and Intent."

"I think I can understand Mass, you can't create too much." Kiba said, that was rather an easy and foreseeable limitation. "But what do you mean by energy and intent."

"Well… I can't create a Zerg rush or an army of soldiers so I tend to stick to OP dudes. Problem is I can't do people like Goku from Dragon Ball Z because most of what makes him so OP is the massive amounts of energy that he needs to do his thing. I'm limited to how much internal power I can give a Reflection. And so I like to bring people out that use skill or things to get things done."

"And intent? Would did you mean by that?" Dante asked but he had a few ideas on what he meant.

"Let's use the example Hannibal Lecter. I can't bring him out into this world unless my intent is something that would fit alongside his intent. Whether that be asking him to kill someone or ask him some high-class nonsense or something like that. This tends to be the case with who we would consider evil and jerks. I can generally bring good people out whenever I want, because it's within their intent to be good and helpful people. And then there is objects." Zeiveist said before holding his hand out above the water and then a small box with a blue button on the top. Zeiveist pressed the top and sudden a poof of smoke popped in next to him.

"Hi! I'm Mr. Meeseeks!" A tall odd blue man with a small amount of orange hair on the top of his oversized head appeared out of the smoke.

"That's all I needed."

"Whooho!" And with that the being popped back out of existence. Kiba and Issei didn't get the reference or what just happened but Dante was jittering with joy at what he just saw.

"Okay that's funny I like that." Dante said as he found the reference to be very good and understood just how this power could be used. Dante then looked to the other boys who just looked confused. "Seriously, I told you guys to look up Rick and Morty… is there a Rick for this reality?" Dante said finding Zeiveist's powers more fun than annoying.

"No… just as there is an infinite number of realities with Ricks there is an infinite number of them without." Zeiveist said before the box in his hand shattered. "The objects I can bring out are also limited to mass and energy but also they can only work as they normally do if they can work with our reality's internal logic. A spaceship from a reality that uses physics that we don't have won't work." Zeiveist said before standing up, Kiba and Issei both looking away from his nakedness, Dante didn't care having to have to bathe with the rest of the boys of the circus in his youth. "It's not as all-powerful as some make it out to be, but it can be if you can choose the right Reflection for the right job."

"Winter is coming!" Dante cheered as he pushed up a long gray banner with a wolf's head sigil emblazoned on it. "This thing was a good buy… I will defend that to the day I die." Dante said happily as he and Koneko prepared one of the many rooms in the Gremory vacation manor for the viewing of their shared favorite show Game of Thrones. It had been four days of training and now they were taking a small break from it to relax with their favorite show.

"I'm sorry, you could be spending time with Akeno and Rias…" Koneko began but stopped as she felt the pleasant feeling of Dante scratching her head, knowing that Issei, Kiba, and Asia were already asleep she decided to turn off the glamor spell and let her feline traits show. The bliss that she felt when Dante scratched behind her ears was enough to cause her audibly purr in happiness.

"Don't give me that, I enjoy spending time with you just as much with them." Dante said as he continued his petting. "Now let's see dragons burn things that isn't Issei's cooking." Dante said as he and Koneko sat down in their assembled snack and drink nest. As the opening of the show began, Koneko leaned and pressed herself into Dante's chest, happy with the relaxing coolness that his body gave off. The sensation made her sore and weary body feel even better.

"Isn't that the most adorable thing you ever saw?" Akeno asked as she quietly closed the door to the room. Next to her was Rias who has as big a smile on her face as Akeno.

"Yes, but you realize that since you're okay with her being around Dante in this way she's forming a connection to him like I have." Rias said as the two began their way back to their room. They both would be having a late night, neither were willing to sleep without their favorite pillow.

"Yes, but out of all the women in the world… Koneko and you, I'm happy to share him with." Akeno said knowing that when Dante had returned to her life… she wasn't ready to share him with anyone ever. But she had gotten used to and accepted the fact she would have to share him. And what she said was true… if it had to be Rias and Koneko she was perfectly happy to do so.

"But it won't always be us. We've talked about this… Dante is who he is and we love him but…" Rias began.

"… his biggest weakness is women." They both sighed.

"But the Eternal Link can't be faked or fooled." Rias started. "He has to love them and they have to love him. Falling in love with Dante is easy given how caring, strong, and accepting he is. But him loving them… he won't ever do that if he feels that we don't approve." Rias said and Akeno nodded in agreement. They both knew how important they were to Dante, he would never ever take any step both in practice and in an emotional sense toward a woman that was hostile with Akeno, Rias, and now Koneko.

"Let's first get past this hurdle with Riser… then let's deal with the fact Dante is a magnet for women and has an unfriendly relationship with the word no." Akeno sighed as they reached their room.

Dante looked down to his hand, a small build up of chilled fog gathered around it as he focused his power of Chill. The rest of the Gremory Household were off training, all working hard to get stronger for the incoming Ratings Game. He had been doing mostly strength training with Koneko and Otto but now he needed to focus on the other aspect of his skills. The Tenet of Chill. He needed to get better at controlling it without backlash, without his own power hurting him.

And he was going to do it alone. He never told Rias or Akeno about the backlash, he didn't want them to worry. But biggest of all he didn't want Rias to fear planning around his powers of Chill when it was one of his strongest assets. Grim Ice could not be melted and was stronger by many times than regular magical Ice. It was a great weapon against Riser and his peerage, who many followed in their master's skill set of fire based magic. He was needed to counter that and if Rias knew that his powers of Chill hurt him as bad as they did then she would never put him in a position to use them.

Not only that, but he had questions that he needed some answers for. Questions and answers that he needed to make absolutely sure that he would be alone for. So he told Rias that he would be doing special training further inside the forest. She agreed but made him promise that he wouldn't do anything too dangerous. He was thankfully for that too because he was pretty sure that what he was doing was dangerous.

He made his way deeper into the forest, letting his connection to death and decay led him. More and more of the trees he passed by looked increasingly rotted and dead, the grass was sparse and in patches, and only a small skeletal of a squirrel was the only sign of animal life he saw. Soon enough he came upon a burnt-out clearing, a small unmarked stone that clearly marked a grave stood in the middle. Dante walked over to the stone and could feel a preservation spell on it, he had no idea who this grave belonged to, but he assumed one of the Gremory family.

"Death has touched this land, as good a place as any." Dante sighed as he took a few steps back from the grave. He laid back on the nearly solid dirt ground and began… trying to speak to his inner plot McGuffin as he had seen so many times in TV and anime. He personally hated the concept but was now being forced to do it. He needed to know why the fuck was Lord Death in his head. The Lotus Eater high dream he might have passed off as just that… a high dream. But the elder god thing from the Devil Party dropping the same name Hades used as Lord Death's name in the context of Dante being connected to said Lord Death.

It all just stunk of MC bullshit. He didn't want that! He wanted to stay far away from that toxic pit of near-death heroics and noisy adventures. Rias, Akeno, possible other women in his life, two cookbooks and a TV show, and his current plans for his Devil career, one day seeing a live-action hard R-rated Lobo movie, those were his goals in life. Not saving the world or humanity or whatever. But here he was… being a super uber guy who's going to be the super strongest thingy in the world because of some all-powerful insert generic god synonym here. It sucked.

"Agggh… the amount of salt… even I, the asshole of the Avatars can't take it anymore." Dante's eyes snapped open at hearing a voice in his head. He did it! He got the stupid plot McGuffin out to play. "Yippy… you managed to troll me into talking to you."

"Well exactly how was I supposed to talk to you? Head back to Vegas and get all fucked up on Lotus shit again?" Dante shouted back as he sat up in the clearing. Then he remembered who he was talking to and where that someone was. "And also… HOLY FUCKING SHIT BALLS! LORD DEATH! WHHYYYYYY! ARE YOU! IN ME!"

"SAY THAT A LITTLE LOUDER BRAT I DON'T THINK THE MOLE PEOPLE HEARD YOU!"

"I can be as loud as I want given that I have the embodiment of Death in my head." Dante sassed back not giving two shits for formality. Yes this being was the very first God of Death and was in all technicality his boss, as well as every other Grim Reaper and Death God's boss. But fuck that. This guy was living in him so he owed rent motherfucker, Dante could talk to him however he wanted to. "Now… why are you in my head!?"

"That is a story that your sass just kept you from hearing." Dante heard the words but could feel he wouldn't have gotten the answer anyway. If he had been respectful then he most likely would have gotten the old all in good time bullshit. "The only reasons why I'm talking to you is because, the salt was impressive. Two, we're all alone and that means it's safe to talk, and lastly because this is as good as time as any to begin your training in becoming the next me."

"All For One want to run that by me again?" Dante said automatically without much thought to it.

"You are the Prophet of Death brat, you hold the last remains of my power in you. I'm not telling you how or why but I will say that since my… dethronement… I have sought out beings of Death and sought out a suitable replacement for the Avatar of True Death. The lesser Death Gods did a decent job at keeping the natural order of life and Death stable. But the world still needs the Avatar of True Death, my successor. Which currently is you." Dante groaned in irritation. That was precisely what he didn't want to hear. He didn't want that, he wanted the life of his choosing. Not this cosmic predestined bullshit. He also hated how this was turning him back into emo Dante.

"Just teach me how to control my Chill powers. That's all I need right now. This stuff about me being your successor can be talked about some other time, when I don't have a deadline hanging over my head." Dante said completely ignoring the importance of what Lord Death was trying to impart to him. He heard the sounds of faint grumbling, curses about how Dante was a brat and should listen to his betters. "What do you want, I'm sure that there must be something that you want done in the real world since you left it." That stopped the grumbling. There was a pause between them. A few sounds of the wind rustling came and went before Lord Death spoke again.

"I want you to send a letter."

"Ah… what?"

"You heard me."

"A letter."

"Yes."

"To who?"

"You let me worry about that."

"But I address to send it to."

"Just let me dictate the letter, then you drop it in the exact place I tell you. Your Jinn will be able to take you there."

"Is it going to trace back to me?"

"Eventually but the person I'm sending it to likely already knows about you. I just want the last word in an argument that had been unexpectedly interrupted a millennia ago." Dante wasn't sure if this was going to end well. He knew that this was going to bite him in the ass at some point. And at the same time he knew whatever was going to be in that letter was going to be the height of rudeness. He already felt sick to his stomach and he didn't even write the damn thing yet.

"Something that petty, the last word?"

"I told you among the Avatars of the True Entities I'm considered the asshole."

"Fine… I'll do it. But you first. Teach me how-" Dante was interrupted by the sound of a nearby mountain being blasted in half. He looked toward the now destroyed landmark of the area and knew instantly that Issei had a new toy to play with. With a sigh he returned back to Lord Death. "Teach me how to use the Power of Chill without it backlashing at me." Dante said as he stood up and heard a small chuckle that sent shivers down his spine. He felt like he just agreed to set motion a chain of events that no one in the Supernatural World wanted to be set off. "Do I need to get you some lotion for all that evil villain hand rubbing?"

"Shut it brat and begin drawing on your power." Dante frowned at the tone Lord Death used but held out his hand and began forming ice crystals in the air above. "Now make one of those Ice Clones you stole from Naruto." Dante continued to grumble about cranky old gods but held out his hand and condensed the water in the air and fused it with his power of Chill to form a body of ice, with a little extra effort Dante was able to shape it to an exact copy of himself. Only made of pure Grim Ice. He then gave a little bit of his demonic power to animate it, that was he had been so proud of when it came to this move.

Any Grim Reaper that used the Tenet of Chill could make static ice sculptures, but none could make them move. Dante used his demonic magic to do just that, he birthed life into them. Or at least he could give them a particular set of orders like a basic computer. That was the key, the Ice sculptures were basically given magical code, orders to act in a certain way. But unlike real computer code his orders could be vague and still work. Tell his copy to act like him worked perfectly, telling a sculpture of a dog to act like a dog and it would do it. However this was limited in certain regards, living creatures were easy because of their inherent simplistic nature. Creating something like a car wouldn't work given that it didn't function on just acting like a car, there were moving parts involved and Dante would have to form each and every one of them in the car's creation before the magic could work properly. The same didn't have to be done for living things because they were just one solid piece, there was no need to form internal organs. Dante had theorized that if he had a perfect understanding of a complex object, a firearm for example, he could create it out of Grim Ice and then add his demonic power to fill in the blanks so to say. But right now he would be happy at just being able to form Grim Ice without fear of his body parts falling off from frostbite.

"Okay there… I made it." Dante said before looking down to his fingertips. Seeing the expected frost begin to creep over his fingers he wondered if there was any point in this.

"Good, shatter it and do it again."

"That's serious you're plan?! Keep at it and endure the pain until I can handle it?!" Dante demanded, feeling that he could have come up with that all on his own.

"Yes, the problem is that your Grim Powers are rejecting your Devil Body. By using this technique you've made which combines both Grim Power and Demonic Magic, it helps accustom your Grim power to this new situation you're in. And the more Grim Power exposed to the Mutated Evil Piece in you the more it can adjust your body to your innate powers." Both Dantes, the real one and the ice copy, stood there staring at each other. Then both facepalmed, with the ice copy's destroying it in the process. It made so much sense to the Rook, but at the same time he wished he had been told it by anyone else. As he was coming to loathe the smug superior tone that Lord Death seemed to have toward him. "Create another and repeat the process. Have your Jinn servant bring you warm water to stave off the encroaching frost. But do not have him remain." At that he felt Lord Death retreat back into his soul. Dante was more than slightly happy to have the presence gone from his mind.

"Minos!" Dante called out and as normal, a portal opened up with the Jinn Butler stepping through. "Get me several buckets of warm water, some hot as they'll be the right temp by the time I get to them." Minos looked at Dante, asking an unsaid are you sure you want to do this. The look of determination was all the answer Minos needed.