I do not own Highschool DxD.


Michael watched the Jack and Ace of Hearts go with some apprehension. While it was obvious that there was little else the group could do, the King of Spades hated sending those under his authority into battle. Michael had never said it out loud, but he'd been absolutely relieved at the armistice, simply because it meant less occasions where he would have to tell those he loved to potentially go to their deaths.

Relief came over Heaven's leader when he saw Mirana and Issei easily blocking the magician's blasts and tearing across the campus, no doubt going towards wherever the dhampir boy was being held.

"Good luck, you two…" he murmured, quietly enough that not even Azazel, his old rival, could hear him.

The four leaders hadn't had time to catch their breath, though, before something else happened – a purple summoning circle, the kind used by Devils, appeared in the middle of the floor.

"It seems we have a visitor," Sirzechs said, his tone dark. "And I've got a good idea of who."

From the circle appeared a young-looking woman, dressed in a low-cut purple dress, her brown hair tied up in a bun atop her head. In her left hand, she held a magical staff.

"Cattleya Leviathan," Sirzechs snarled. "Descendant of the first Leviathan. I should've known."

"Well, if it isn't the unworthy Devil Kings Sirzechs and Serafall!" the woman said, her tone pleasant and making no effort to hide her utter disdain for everyone present.

"What are you doing here, Cattleya?"

Cattleya smirked. "I'm here to bring destruction and chaos."

With that, she raised her staff, and the building promptly detonated.


"What the hell was that?!" Issei exclaimed, looking out the window.

Issei felt horror worm its way into his brain as he realized where the smoke cloud was coming from. Before he could say anything, however, Mirana grabbed his arm.

"Issei, we have a mission. We must get moving, now!"

Issei looked back at her, his expression terrified. "Mirana, somebody just blew up the leader's summit! We need to go get reinforce-"

"From where, Issei?" Mirana snapped. "If you'll recall, our teleportation magics are locked down and our companions are frozen in time. Only the two of us can potentially undo the second problem. Besides that, I can almost guarantee that Lord Michael and the others are fine. They survived far, far worse in the Great War, and Lord Michael would never let the Brave Saints come to harm if he could possibly help it." She tugged once more. "Now let's go! We're wasting time standing here!"

After one last glance, Issei began to run once more through the building, side by side with Mirana.


Cattleya hung in mid-air, laughing at what she saw in the explosion's aftermath.

"Adorable!" she cooed mockingly at the sight before her. "The Three Great Powers put up a defensive barrier together! Adorable and pathetic!"

She was, at the very least, right on that point; before her stood a dome containing the participants of the Peace Conference (frozen and not), forged and held steady by the leaders present.

"What are you thinking, Cattleya?" Sirzechs called, keeping his voice calm.

"What I'm thinking," she cackled, "is the exact opposite of everyone at this disgusting meeting! If God and the Devil Kings aren't around anymore, then there should be a revolution in this world!"

"Cattleya, stop this right now!" Serafall cried. "What are you trying to do?!"

"Serafall…" Cattleya snarled. "You stole my Leviathan title and now question me. How dare you." Her next words were said in a sickeningly sweet, sadistic tone. "Oh, don't worry, darling! Once I kill you today, I'll simply take back the name of the Devil King Leviathan for myself!"

Before Serafall could respond, however, Azazel cut in.

"Of course… I suppose it's too much to hope we're just caught up in a Devil's coup d'état?"

"I think it's more than that," Michael said. "Her plan is most likely to take over the whole world."

"Oh, Michael nailed it!" Cattleya said, her tone an arrogant one. "No one wants a world where God and the Devil King's deaths are covered up. And so, since you've clearly failed, we will take this decaying realm and reform it for- Azazel, what do you find so amusing?"

As she had revealed her intent, Azazel had begun laughing, a sound without a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Ah… "decaying"? "Reform"? How cliché. Come on, you have to know the first villains to die always say crap like that."

"I'll teach you to mock me," Cattleya hissed, her aura gathering around her.

"Oh you will, will you?" Azazel asked, stepping forward and gathering his own aura. "Sounds like fun."

"Cattleya?" Sirzechs called. "You have no intention of backing down?"

"Not at all, Sirzechs," she shot back, entirely too confident in her mannerisms. "Don't get me wrong, you were a good Devil King, but you won't have that or any other title much longer, unfortunately!"

"Doubtful," Sirzechs said, eyes shutting as he did so.

A moment later, Azazel and Cattleya were a hundred feet above the school, facing each other as Fallen Angels and Devils once did.

"A descendant of the former Devil King Leviathan," Azazel said, looking his opponent over carefully. "A desperate monster nearing her end. Not a bad opponent." He smirked. "I think I'll treat myself to some Armageddon."

With that, the two began to clash.


The moment Azazel and Cattleya began their bout, things took a turn for the worse for the rest of the group on the ground.

Having realized that attempting to attack the frozen guards was essentially hopeless, every single magician in the vicinity began firing their blasts of magic at the tightly-packed group of negotiators.

Any one of their blasts would have been easy enough to cancel on its own. With more than a hundred opponents all blasting the impromptu barrier created by Michael, Serafall and Sirzechs, however, it became far more likely that one of them might find a weakness.

And even one death was unacceptable to anyone still moving.

"We are vastly outnumbered…" Michael lamented. "And even with our strength, a war of attrition must still be avoided."

"I'm currently analyzing the gate," Sirzechs said, "but it'll take time – and we don't have much of that."

At those words, Kiba looked at Michael, then to Sirzechs. After, he met eyes with the Brave Saints – first Irina, then Deethelm, then Nero.

Then, he made his decision – and drew his sword.

The Brave Saints followed suit, each now wielding a sword of their own – Nero with the beast of a sword called Arondight, Irina with a reforged Excalibur Mimic, and Deethelm with a simple sword of light that Kiba suspected he could have defeated all of them with.

"You can let us ward off our attackers," Kiba said, addressing Michael.

The leader of Heaven turned, and saw the Devil and trio of Saints ready for battle.

"Can you work with our Saints, Knight of Rias Gremory?" the leader of Heaven asked, genuine concern in his voice.

Kiba nodded. "I've battled alongside one of them before. If he's an example of the Brave Saint's skill, then there's nothing to worry about, Lord Michael."

Michael smiled. "Well then, who am I to stop this impromptu alliance?"

"Lord Michael, can we just get to it?" Nero asked impatiently, a cocky grin on his face.

Michael chuckled, and a moment later, the group was let loose on the swarm of unfortunate magicians.


"Issei!" Mirana called from somewhere else in the building. "I've found it!"

The two had made the risky call to split up; while neither liked doing it, time was of the essence and anything that might accelerate their finding of the dhampir named "Gasper" was immediately embraced.

"Coming!" Issei shouted back.

Within moments, the brunette faced the same door Mirana did.

Over it was an enormous, magical seal.

"Shoot…" Issei muttered, before looking at Mirana. "You think you can break this?"

Mirana's index finger slowly ran down the obstruction, her brow furrowed all the while.

"Hmm…"

After she finished running her finger down it, she continued to stare at it for several seconds.

Then, she smiled, drew her fist back, and smashed it into the northwest quadrant of the seal.

The seal shattered like a block of loosely-packed sugar.


The fight, for Azazel, had started simply enough. Cattleya was a powerful Devil, there was no question about that, but she was incredibly blunt and unrefined in her use of magic. Her blasts of demonic energy were easily blocked or avoided, and she didn't seem to have any other tricks in the bag.

The Governor-General's thought, however, was proven wrong when he noticed something rather off about the way her aura moved and danced about. Putting aside the fact that there was far too much aura for a Devil of Cattleya's supposed strength, there was something odd about its shape. Rather than a simple coating like most auras, this one was more like…

…a snake?

As he thought this, an enormous crest formed in front of Cattleya, and the blast that ensued was truly massive.

Having slid behind her, Azazel spoke. "We should clear something up before moving forward."

Cattleya moved her left arm to set out another attack, which Azazel easily interrupted with his own left hand, catching the strike and negating her attack with his own power.

"You've got a lot of aura," Azazel continued. "Seems to be more than a Devil King's descendant should possess. "Where'd you get this power?"

"I would love to answer that question," Cattleya said, before screaming, "but why waste so much breath when you're just going to die?!"


Upon darting into the room, Issei and Mirana were confronted by a simultaneously awful and bizarre sight.

Restrained on a similar barrier by shackles of pure light was a young-looking blonde child, obviously terrified and sobbing loudly. The surrounding magicians who had clearly imprisoned him there were the horrifying part of the sight.

The bizarre part, for a momentary distraction, was his clothing – he appeared to be wearing the girl's Kuoh Academy uniform.

After a fraction of a moment, Issei shook his head and refocused on the magicians who had spun to face them.

"Devils?!" one of them snarled. "How'd they get through?"

"Devils?" Mirana asked, smirking. "Oh no, dear, worse. Much worse."

"Angels!" Issei yelled, spreading his wings for a moment. "We're here to get you back, Gasper!"

This, however, produced the exact opposite reaction Issei had hoped for – rather than raise Gasper's spirits, he began to cry much more fiercely.

"Th-this whole thing's all my fault!" he wailed. "I guess I deserve Angels coming to kill me!"

As he said this, the magicians pointed daggers at Gasper's throat. "If either of you moves forward an inch, he dies. Why don't you just scamper on back to your little conference?"

"Never," Mirana shot back. "We are Angels, warriors in the service of Heaven. We will never give up a mission until it's finished or we're dead."

"And how do you plan to get him back?" the magician leader said, before she began belting out cruel laughter.

The magicians paid dearly for their inattention.

With all their backs turned to Gasper, they did not see the glowing white barrier creep up around the imprisoned boy until it had already come up.

"Killing all of you, of course," Mirana said politely, before nodding to her companion, who had intuited her plan. "They're all yours, Issei."

Issei nodded, before summoning a small fire in his palm.

Before the magicians could react, he slammed his hand flat against the floor.

Mirana had but a moment to put up a barrier to protect herself before the entire room was devoured in flames.

The magicians, for their part, began screaming as they desperately attempted to douse the flames that were scorching their flesh, but it was all for naught. Within a minute, the final magician had ceased their agonized wailing, their bodies torching to ashes.

Both having killed before, neither Issei nor Mirana felt any guilt for killing the group.

This only left one final problem – the dhampir himself.


Once the smoke had cleared, the two immediately darted over the bodies of the scorched magicians and approached the dhampir restrained against the barrier.

Gasper looked absolutely terrified at their approach.

"P-please…" he sniffled. "I-If you're gonna kill me, don't make it hurt too much…"

"Gasper," Issei said, trying to sound reassuring, "we're not here to hurt you, I promise. We were sent by the Great Devil King Lucifer himself to try and get you out of here."

As he said this, Mirana darted around behind the barrier and began looking over it, looking for any weakness in it that she could exploit to break it.

"No way!" Gasper suddenly screamed. "Rias told me that Angels wanna kill Devils and vampires!"

"Gasper, we're in the middle of a peace conference," Issei said, attempting to explain the situation. "We're trying to make it so Devils and Angels and Fallen Angels won't be enemies anymore. But Rias and the others are stuck because of what those magicians did – everyone's in danger, Gasper!"

Once more, the Jack's words had precisely the opposite effect of their intention – the dhampir simply began crying even more.

"This whole thing's all my fault!" he wailed. "They'd be better off with me dead!"

"Gasper Vladi, cease that sort of talk."

It was Mirana who had spoken, and a moment later, the barrier to which Gasper was restrained shattered.

The Ace of Hearts caught the poor Devil the instant he started to fall, and before he could even react, the young woman had spun him around and embraced him.

"Gasper, listen to me and listen well. Not one bit of this is your fault," Mirana whispered in the boy's ear as she stroked his back and ran her fingers through his hair.

The Jack of Hearts was genuinely surprised when he realized Gasper wasn't squirming, and had in fact begun crying into Mirana's chest. For a moment, Issei was rather jealous.

"This is the fault of those filthy magicians, forcing out your Sacred Gear in a way you couldn't possibly prevent. It is not your fault – but you can help us stop them and keep them from hurting Rias."

Gasper looked up at that. "H-how?"

Mirana looked down at him gently. "I need you," she said, nodding towards Issei, "to drink my fellow Saint's blood. If Azazel is to be believed, then it should grant you greater control over your abilities, at least temporarily."

The dhampir teared up again. "No… I can't… I hate blood so much…"

"Gasper, you must overcome that," Mirana said, attempting to soothe him. "For the sake of your dear King, Rias Gremory. For her other servants. For the sake of everyone here."

"It's not like you'll need much, either," Issei interjected. "Azazel said a quick lick would be enough. Just… take a sip and then you can go back to hating it as much as you like."

With that, Issei formed a small blade from light and ran the sharp side across his palm, not even wincing as his skin split open and his blood flowed out.

Gasper looked up at Mirana, then to Issei, uncertainty in his small face.

"Your friends are depending on you, Gasper Vladi," Mirana said. "They need your help. I beg of you, taste of the blood of the Jack of Hearts and Red Dragon Emperor and allow peace to reign."

Mirana tightened the embrace for a fraction of a moment, then released the boy.

Gasper shook, eyes jumping back and forth.

After several moments, however, the dhampir took a deep breath and a shaky step towards Issei.

Then, he grasped the brunette's bloodied palm, shut his eyes, and licked.


With every minute that passed, Michael grew more worried.

It wasn't that he doubted the skill of the Ace of Hearts or the sheer will of the Jack. The situation, however, was deteriorating.

The four swordsmen who had volunteered their services to defend the frozen were certainly talented at their craft, but there were simply too many magicians for them to do anything but slow the assault.

Even as they fought, more magicians continued to appear from the gate, while Azazel seemed to be taking his sweet time fighting Cattleya.

Michael figured it was no surprise, given how laid-back he was; even when he was an Angel, the bastard had never taken his work a tenth as seriously as he should have.

Just as Michael was about to step outside the barrier and join the Saints and Kiba in battle, however, the entire school felt a second, much stronger blast of power wash over it.


The two Angels standing with the Bishop of Rias Gremory were both in utter shock.

When Azazel had claimed it would boost Gasper's power if he consumed Issei's blood, they had assumed that he might be able to break the conditions that had been forced onto him by the magicians.

What they had not expected was for the boy to suddenly explode in a titanic surge of power, swamping them in an immense aura – one that did not feel entirely demonic.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped, and Gasper collapsed on the floor, knocked unconscious.

"What the heck was that?" Issei spluttered.

After Mirana picked Gasper up, she shrugged her shoulders, equally clueless.

"We'll see if it worked in a moment, I suppose…" She shook her head. "We need to go, Issei. Now."

The two took off, running back towards the group.


As soon as the wave of power flooded over the group, every person in it felt something shift and change.

Then, the gate above through which the magicians had been simply dissolved, broken apart by the blast of magical energy.

"What the…"

Michael, Sirzechs and Serafall's eyes were drawn to the group of frozen people inside the barrier, who suddenly weren't frozen any longer. Instead, they were pulled back to reality in the middle of a warzone.

Serafall's reaction was immediate, incredibly obvious and inappropriate.

While Sona struggled to pull her sister off of her, Rias demanded to know what the hell was going on.

"We can explain later," Sirzechs said in reply. "Right now, I need you two and your peerages to help clean up this mess!"

Rias nodded, understanding her brother's response immediately, and turned to her peerage.

"Akeno, you're with me. Ryuji, Koneko – the two of you are together. Let's wipe these magicians out!"

After extracting herself from her sister, Sona gave her peerage similar orders.


Not long after they took off, Issei and Mirana, with Gasper in tow, converged once more with the leaders of Heaven and Hell.

Having run across the entire campus, one might expect that they would be winded, but their own impressive physical conditions combined with the boosting effects of the Brave Saint system rendered this a non-issue.

"Ah," Michael said upon seeing the Ace and Jack, "it's good to see that the two of you are safe. And it seems you've succeeded in your mission tenfold, as well. You have our thanks."

Mirana shook her head. "Thank us later, if at all, Lord Michael." She extended Gasper towards Sirzechs, who took the dhampir and gently laid him down. "We aren't the ones who broke the barrier – this Devil named Gasper Vladi did that. Azazel wasn't kidding about it boosting his power."

"We may discuss this at another time," Michael said. "For now, let us focus on defeating the enemy forces, shall we?"

Issei and Mirana nodded, and without another word, joined the fray.


And cut.

If he was trained by Michael, I wonder how Issei would be...