It had taken them close to four extra hours to search through the contracted humans Rias' peerage had made. And even then, none of Rias' peerage had a single contracted human that knew anything. Sona had invaded in on their conversation halfway through, noticing the strange activity and power that was held inside the clubroom of Rias Gremory. As her peerage entered the room and noticed her, her nine tails swaying behind her angrily, they had immediately fell into line and began to assist her as well.

"Issei has been kidnapped?" the white-haired girl in Sona's peerage said, looking shocked.

"We will assist you in finding the Red Dragon, Lady Yasaka." Sona said, turning and looking at the white-haired girl. "Momo, see if you can find any information on magicians from your contracts. The rest of you do the same."

Yasaka sat, agitated at how long it was taking to find Issei, The tension in the room that formed around everyone as she sat down, furious and seeping killing intent that only increased with each passing minute was enough to keep everyone silent. She sat like that for two hours, calming herself as she tried to force away any negative thoughts about what could be happening to Issei. And above all her mixed feelings of anger, she found herself to be afraid.

The fear of losing Issei. The fear of not being able to find him and the fear of what they would have done to him if they did find him. It was hard to hate, but it was easy to fear. She had learned how to hate, but her anger and hope began to grow sullied as fear seeped into her heart through the cracks his disappearance had made.

And then, Sona had burst into the room, yelling a single location. But it was by no means an easy location to reach.

"Sakihama River, the end of road numbered 368 in the Kochi Prefecture."

Yasaka stood suddenly. It was south of her shrine… they had been that close to her? She knew the general area, but she needed more information than that to use her magic to teleport there.

"Do you have any more information than that? A building of some kind? Nature or landmarks? Anything I can use?" Yasaka asked, moving towards the dark-haired girl. She only shook her head no.

She wasted no time, turning and beginning to form a magic circle inside the vacant room. But almost instantly, the circle was too big for the room she needed. The reason the circle was so large, was because of how far away the general location was. However, since she hadn't ever been there, she had to create a circle large enough to inscribe location, nature, buildings, surroundings, etc. This required her one magic circle, to be created from multiple, varying sizes of magic circle. And the larger the circle became, the more magic it used and the less efficient it became.

"I need more room. Is there a place I can go to with a bigger space?" Yasaka asked, turning and looking at Rias and Sona. Almost immediately, they both replied with a nod of their head. Rias stood from her office desk, and with Sona and everyone else following, they moved outside of the room and into a large hallway on the second floor of a building that didn't look run-down as much as it did neglected. They moved to the end of the stretch and began to descend down a set of steps to the floor below, where a large vacant space awaited them.

Yasaka didn't waste any more of her already-precious time, and instead began to form another golden magic circle. She remembered the details she was given to the best of her abilities, and as the circle formed it grew larger and larger before it grew stable and glowed with a radiant golden hue. Everyone watched in amazement as her magic began to pour around her. She stepped into the center of the circle and everyone watched her.

"Come on, I'm getting impatient." Yasaka gestured the now rather large group of devils and her party of three. They moved into the circle quickly, not questioning their own antics, as helping the Red Dragon was an opportunity none of them would pass by. Once all of them were in the circle created by Yasaka, her magic began to pour into the circle, and as her daughter grabbed onto her legs, their bodies began to fill light and slowly, as the circle moved up and engulfed them, their bodies began shift in temperature.

And once the circle had stopped, the feeling of vertigo faded, and it was instead replaced with a crippling feeling of fear. Magic pulsed around them, and it wasn't just that… it was the weather.

Rias and Sona threw up defensive barriers with their magic, deflecting droplets of rain that were moving fast enough to pierce through skin like needles. The rain moved in a torrent that came from her left, and as she looked down at her clothes and arms, she was thankful her daughter had been on her right side, successfully using her as a shield. Her clothes had fine cuts all over it, and on her exposed arms, blood trickled down from cuts on her arms. She looked up into the sky, and the sight would have been enough to terrify most people.

Above her, the clouds twisted and formed a perfectly symmetrical funnel of clouds that were varying shades of grey. In the center, the eyes of the storm, there was a red glow, almost like something was watching the ground below. The clouds themselves moved in the same direction as the rain on the ground did, and there was arcs of electricity that pulsed through the clouds aggressively. And the energy that had surrounded them was extreme. She knew the sheer amount of raw power would be enough to capture the attention of most all supernatural beings, and they would surely be on their way very shortly.

And she wanted to be lone gone when they did.

But the power in question, she was all to familiar with. And her fears and horrors had come to life as she realized where this power was when she first felt it. It was the unmatched power of the Juggernaut Drive. And she almost fell to her knees as she remembered how weak he was then versus now. How could she stop him? She felt like she was on an emotional roller coaster that had derailed a mile in the air. She couldn't even determine where the power came from, she just knew it surrounded her completely for further than she could tell, and while she was basked in the power of the Red Dragon, she couldn't feel the presence of even the devils that were right beside her.

She looked down to her feet as she felt her body began to tingle from strange sensations that began to rack her body. And as she looked, she saw red electricity zip at her legs and thread through the ground like a needle. And as she looked at the people around her, she saw lips moving, but she couldn't hear a sound. And now that she thought about it, despite how fast the rain had moved and how close tree were to being knocked over onto the ground, she thought it was strange she couldn't hear even the faintest whistle of wind in her ear. And then it hit her, almost like she was being guided.

'Below you.'

As soon as she thought those words to herself, the wind she had not heard erupted suddenly around her, and then she could hear the yells of everyone around her. They were panicking, and rightfully so. Her daughter held tightly onto her, and she looked around, straining her eyes to search for some object that could lead down into the earth, but the only thing she could barely see was a medium sized building with a garage door as an opening. And even then, she could only barely see if it was locked or not. She pointed and yelled to the others her plan as they coward behind Sona and Rias' magic barriers.

"There! There's a building!" she yelled, and almost immediately, all eyes turned a saw the feint building that was in a vast clearing. Rias and Sona looked at each other for a brief second, not saying a word as they formed a plan. They turned their heads back to their barriers as they announced their plan.

"Follow us as we move!" Rias yelled, and as everyone acknowledged what she said, both her and Sona started with a left-foot lead and began to sideways march towards the building. Yasaka had seen similar tactics in wars, where soldiers used tanks or shield-bearers as cover while they moved. It was an affective plan, albeit slow.

Then she felt what exactly was happening below her. It was the feeling she got in war, that feeling where large amounts of people died at once. She felt a shiver run down her spine and she prayed the monstrous energy that surrounded her was still somewhat controllable. She looked towards the building she saw in the distance, and realized the distance they had walked, which felt like a long distance, actually only resulted in them being about halfway there.

She heard crackling to her left, almost as though wood beginning to splinter. She looked in the direction, and the wind had begun to break a medium sized tree and pull it… towards them. It was hanging by only a single piece if shredded bark that was only seconds away from breaking.

SNAP!

Almost instantly, the tree was heaved towards them, and Yasaka threw her fox-fire covered hands to incinerate it. She lunged a fire attack at it, and where her fire would have normally connected in ordinary weather, it struggled to stay alive as it slammed into the tree with just enough to break into two pieces and soar past them, barely missing. As she breathed a sigh of fresh air from avoiding injuries, she saw her breath, and then she realized that the temperature had continued to drop the longer they were hear. And while her skin was freezing and she was shaking, she knew it was well below freezing, but instead of turning to snow, which would have been a gift, she saw the droplets of rain turn into icicles with ends as sharp as pens. They needled into the ground around her and lingered in place, dripping a red energy that screamed danger to her.

They needed to get inside now. They were almost there, and the worry the spread over the faces of everyone else was begging to show fear. Trees around them began to fall, getting pierced by the ice needles from the wind that now had the force and speed to throw a straw through a tree.

This magic was both a defensive magic and an offensive magic. It was impressive, extremely so. But her thoughts wondered why such energy was being exhausted. It was clearly to keep them out. But she shook her head once again as she remembered who could have been using such magic and it occurred to her that he could easily keep something like this up permanently.

They finally reached the garage complex, and the first garage door that led inside the building was shut tightly. Yasaka held her hands up to the door, but almost immediately, a jolt of electricity shot through her and her flames were deflected. She reeled back, and she looked at the place where her hands were, and saw an assortment of sigils and symbols that were clearly the reason behind her failure to destroy the door. She knew then that this was the place magicians resided, and there was more than just a storage unit behind this garage door.

In her thoughts about how to open the door, the whistling stopped, the wind around her went still and for a brief second, there was a calmness that came over them. She looked around briefly as her surrounding came into vision. The garage was the centerpiece of a baron plane of land, and behind them tree stretched outwards in a wall. She realized that the distance they had went was far further than she remembered actually walking, and that bothered her at the revelation. She looked up above her, looking for any reason the storm might have stopped, but her eyes stopped as she traced the top of the building she could see.

The needles of ice had been enough to pierce into the metal that the building was made of. Not only that though, the ice was stuck inside the metal.

"What kind of power is this? I've never seen anything like it…" Rias began, earning a nod from Sona who was beside her. Their peerage were rightfully fearful, but they still remained vigilant at their masters side. And Yasaka's daughter clutched her side tightly, pressing her face further into her mother's side, clearly terrified. Her hand moved to cares her daughter's head to comfort her.

"That… was the power of Issei, Rias. And that's just a sample of it, believe me." Yasaka said, looking straight up at the clouds above her. She noticed something didn't settle well inside her. The clouds that had been spinning above shifted and began to spin the opposite direction.

"That's… that was Issei?" The white-haired girl Sona had called Momo began. Yasaka couldn't reply, her attention was up at the clouds, and her stomach began to churn at the sight. Not even a second later, she saw the same tornado of ice needles come thundering at her from the opposite direction. She shifter her position she her daughter was behind her, and she held her arms up, summoning a golden magic circle large enough to protect all of them. The assault of ice slammed into her with a renewed force, it pushed back an inch an, almost throwing her over until she met back with her own strength.

"Get that door open, now!" Yasaka demanded, a horrible feeling of dread clutching at her chest as she had a bad feeling about the Ice that stuck up from the ground at her feet. She knew magic was being used to form the attack, but it wasn't normal for the products to secrete their own magic for such a long amount of time.

"Koneko, see if you can get that door open!" Rias yelled to the white-haired girl in her peerage. Yasaka turned to look as the girl nodded. She moved to the door and gave it a swift punch, the door didn't stand a chance. Yasaka was relieved the door only had a magic barrier around it. The Rook piece increased legitimate raw strength, and she supposed it made sense the magicians defended against something they could actually use; magic, rather than raw physical strength.

Everyone poured into the building as fast as they could, and once they were all inside, Yasaka turned and looked back outside the building to watch as electricity began to arc between the ice that jutted out of the ground, creating a lightning field outside and the red energy that zipped made her feel thankful that the girl who was vastly smaller than her was able to bust the door down.

They all turned and look at the now electrified field in bewilderment.

"Issei's power is… incredible." The black-haired girl with violet colored eyes from Rias' peerage said. Her name was Akeno, and Yasaka knew she was the queen of Rias, named the Priestess of Thunder. "And you said that was just a sample… oh my. He uses lightning like me… but the color of it… red?"

Yasaka looked the girl. She had no idea just how powerful Issei really was. She hadn't explained to them that he was the literal incarnate of Merlin. And she didn't plan on revealing it either. Only her and the magicians would know, and soon, she assumed even those numbers would dwindle drastically. "You have no idea, Akeno."

"Yeah, Issei is like… super strong!" Irina exclaimed to them, causing the attention of everyone to shift to the human girl with confusion. Yasaka hadn't explained to them why they were with her, and they hadn't cared to notice until now. "His magic is unlike anything I can explain! He can transition almost flawlessly between types of magic; fire, ice, lightning, water and he even forced a bush of Camellias to grow from nothing before our very eyes!"

The all looked at the girl like they were awestruck. And Yasaka knew exactly why. Creating a plant—a living being—from nothing, was an extremely amazing feat, and difficult as well. In fact, it was basically unheard of. Yasaka moved past the group and moved towards the endless amount of garage doors that seemed to line the walls as far as she could see. She looked at the white-louvered garage doors that formed a singular vanishing point at the end of the corridor, as if the doors at one point connected to each other.

It was a tugging feeling that pushed her to move down the corridor, she felt for a second that there was something at the end of it, hidden away. It all seemed so strange to her, why would a storage building be located in such a baron place, so far away from humanity? The only reason she could imagine was that something was being hidden. Ice pierced into the ceiling above her, but it only dented the metal inside, almost as if it was reinforced from the inside. The group she had arrived with moved with her through the hall until they reached the end of the corridor, where only a blank white wall awaited them.

Yasaka felt an energy seep from behind the wall, and she moved her hand up to touch the wall. As soon as she did, that familiar feeling that she had when she touched Issei came rushing to her. The walls parted, and to say she was impressed was an understatement. The fitment was flush, perfectly. So perfect, in fact, that she couldn't even tell the difference when rubbing her hands over it. As she made her way through the door, she noticed quickly it was an elevator, and the keypad was labeled strangely. The panel above the keypad read 'Ground Floor.' But the buttons below it were odd, as only one was labeled.

"SB-1?" Rias asked, looking at it from behind her. Yasaka pressed the button, and the door slammed shut, and the descendent downward began without a single movement in any other direction. Not even five seconds into their journey down, the smell of fresh blood filled Yasaka's nose. And little did she or those around her know, the descent they had decided to make…

Was into a world of pain, terror, and fear.

Chapter 16: Hell Bent

Minutes before…

Wasting no time at all, Ddraig moved in the body of Issei, each step he took giving him a deeper understanding of the freedom he had longed for so long to obtain. As the smell of blood from the recent execution he had done filled his nostrils, he realized just how great it felt to kill. It made him feel alive. Nothing gave him more satisfaction that asserting his power over weaklings, and as such, he wanted nothing more to slaughter every single human that resided in this complex. And he would start by making the man behind him watch as he lost everything he had worked hard to achieve.

Ddraig was never the one to torture the weak and stupid, but he was taking a particular enjoyment in this matter. He had killed in many ways, some slow, some fast, but none of them were torturous. But this was something else. He was forcing someone vastly weaker than him to stay awake using magic, forcing him to feel every inkling of pain he could throw his way, and forcing him to watch as he removed everything he had ever known. He wanted to watch the glimmer of hope in his eyes fester just enough to make his brain think he had a way up, and then he wanted to crush it.

Ddraig would never admit it… but for the first time since he became a Sacred Gear, he was having fun.

He didn't have the patience to go up the elevator he knew awaited at the end of the hall. So instead, he averted his attention upwards. He was as far down as possible in this complex, three floors down. And above him was the activity. And where that damn worm-riddled book was being held at. He held his right arm up, still getting used to the human appendage, and shot a blast of his red energy through the floor, creating a hole large enough for him and his pet to fit through. He cocked a smile to the right, letting his dragon wings embedded with jewels explode behind him, throwing blood out from Issei's back as it ripped out of his body horribly. Almost immediately though, the skin began to heal, leaving not a single trace of them ever forcing their way out of him.

With a large flap of his wings and powerful jump, he was soaring through the air with a loud crack of wind behind him, and he was on the second floor. Almost immediately, he found himself to be surrounded by a group of magicians. And Ddraig was extremely intelligence with magic, and completely in sync with Senjutsu. He could feel if someone was innocent, could feel their purity. And everyone around him were worthy of deaths. But Ddraig smiled wider as an idea came to him.

"Do any of you know about the lies fed to you? If you don't, I'll let you walk away with your lives." Ddraig said, his smile beginning to reach ear-to-ear. He was going to kill them regardless… but their responses would depend on how fast he killed them.

Each of them mumbled their own responses, but they stayed ready to attack. They had all denied their involvement.

"Now, now… why would you lie to me?" Ddraig said, letting the eyes of Issei glow even brighter as he looked at the figure who began to blurt out a bunch of orders. The leader arose behind Ddraig from the hole, and the same human he looked at let his guard down to stare in horror. He let Issei's right hand turn into a red-scaled gauntlet that was the form of him in the Sacred Gear. He breathed out… he had cheated his way out of his eternal prison. Even if only temporary.

He lunged forward towards the man, wind cracking around him as he thrust his right hand into the man, clutching onto the heart that had already stopped its beating. He lifted the man up with his one hand, letting the blood run down his arm. He spun the man around in a circle before throwing him against the wall with a sickening splat. Ddraig turned to look at the others who began to back away in fear. He held his hand up and held it open so everyone could see the single organ he had ripped out.

The heart of their friend rested in Ddraig's hand. And using the magic of Issei, he burned it into ashes.

"Now… who's next?" Ddraig asked, before coating both his hands in fire and laughing deeply. He lunged at the next person across from him, aiming for his head, and as he touched it, he squeezed hard enough for his head to crack. And while the victim scratched and crawled at him, his flames began to engulf him, turning his clothes to nothing but embers before he eventually had the same glow form under his skin. The man was being burned to ashes from the inside out.

He was going to run out of subjects. In honor of his host, he would spare the innocent. Once the body he held had transformed into ashes, he turned to the next one. There were only six more, and as much fun as he was having, he would need his next few kills to be faster. Considerably faster. The fire in his hands faded, and instead switched to electricity that pulsated wildly in black and purple arcs. He formed a bolt in his hands, and pushed his hands out, watching the electricity arc to the three people to his right. Not even a second had passed and the trio had fallen to the ground in spasming, steaming husks of their former selves.

And for his next trick he decided on something that was entirely experimental but was probably possible. Light magic. The bane of existence to Devils, and a formidable magic lethal to all races. He imagined it in his hand, feeling it and remembering the time he had fought against Angels and Fallen. The spear of light formed in his hand, and he had never felt more power in his existence. Why have just the power of Domination… when you could have all the power?

The spear hummed in his hand in a different tone from lightning, it wasn't hot like fire either. It was something strange, and it was something he was beginning to enjoy. It seemed to feed on emotions, and then ideas began to form. It was significantly more difficult to keep a spear of light than it was any other type of magic… which meant there was something more to it that he wasn't understanding. He threw the spear of at the three, and in the air, it broke into three pieces before connecting with them faster than his eyes could keep up.

He was intrigued. For the first time in a very long time, he was interested in something that wasn't his own power. The spear of light he had thrown even behaved differently than with Angels and Fallen Angels. The spears they used took time to connect, almost as if they were groggy and slowed down… underpowered. But the one he threw, it behaved as if it was actually light. It moved faster than the speed of light. Faster than even his own eyes could keep up.

More magicians began to run towards him from the end of the hall. And he could tell almost immediately that they were innocent. He didn't want to kill them, but if they stood in his way, he wouldn't hesitate.

"You there. They are innocent, aren't they? Do you want to save the innocent lives of your organization and tell them the truth… or do you want them to die?" Ddraig said, looking at the man whose eyes seemed to lose their signs of life. But he was still very much alive. The man nodded his head, understanding where Ddraig was coming from. The magicians stopped and began to prepare their attack, but Ddraig stopped them.

"Hold your fire. Look around me, do you think you all will fair against me well? I don't want to kill you; you all know not of the lies fed to you." Ddraig said to them. And almost instantly, they let the magic spells fall silent, but they kept on their guard. "Very good. Now, let's reveal the truth, shall we?"

He turned and looked at the man who ran this operation with a wide smile. He hung limply in the air as if strung up by a series of ropes and pulleys instead of magic. The man began to speak, and Ddraig observed and listened to each detail. The man finished his explanation through rugged breaths, but it was enough to cause the magicians to react.

"W-what if your lying? How can we trust that you're innocent?" one of the magicians said, nervously. Ddraig couldn't help but laugh, they seriously didn't know the position they were in.

"Lying? What reason do I have for lying? If at any given moment, I felt the need to slaughter every one of you in this building, which of you could stop me? Which one of you thinks they could?" Ddraig began, letting his powerful aura release. He continued his conversing. "I'm giving you a chance to see the truth of things. I'm giving you a chance to live. My partner shows mercy, so in honor of this event, I will spare the innocent who know not of what they participate in. But if you stand in my way…"

They looked amongst themselves, before deciding ultimately to move out of Ddraig's way. Perhaps it was a mix of his power and the seven dead people around him that caused them to make a snappy decision, or maybe it was the fact their lying leader was hanging above them with a cauterized arm. Or maybe it was the ashes that shot chills down their backs in wonder about where they had come from.

Ddraig smirked and walked past them. He had won. He had dominated an entire group, and they would soon disband. Or a new one would form with entirely different goals. That was natural human reaction. Humans were a species who always looked up to something powerful, and when they found one—or formulated their own—they followed it. It was the natural fabrications for their wellbeing. Ddraig had said only one additional thing to say to them before continuing his journey to finish his deeds.

It was something he hadn't originally expected to say, but it was something accurate even so. And when he would say it, he knew it would change the future of the magicians in a way he couldn't possibly hope to understand. Issei was going to usher in a new era for humans. And Ddraig dared say it… he was going to bring them to the hidden world around them.

"My name is Issei Hyoudou. The Red Dragon and transcendent of Merlin, the founder of magicians and master of all things magic."

The look in their eyes confirmed for him what was soon about to transpire. He felt the group of Devils and Youkai as well as the humans that had associated with Issei reach the first floor of the complex. Luckily no one was near them yet, but his time was running out. It was time to hurry his pace up. There were very few members left that he was going to kill, and he would do it even if the group of devils had to see.

But he wanted to keep the face he was now free a secret for as long as possible. He would have to play off being Issei until he went back into that damnable sacred gear. He looked up, summoning his magic of destruction and blasted through the floor above him to the first floor. He turned one last time and looked at the magicians who were going to help him change everything.

"Come with me."

End of Chapter 16: Hell Bent

Next update will be fun. You'll read the reactions of Yasaka and the group as you know them. And I will explain a lot more about what had happened with Ddraig.

I got this out because I'm in a hurry, I leave on Tuesday, and I plan to get the next chapter out at least and let you all off with a thank you, and a goodbye until my next update. And if I finish this car today, then I'll try to get two chapter out!

Thank you all for your continued support, it means the word to me and reading your reviews and knowing that the community I'm in is a supporting one with people who actual care make me want to continue writing even more. It been an amazing journey with all of you, it truly has been and I'm honored that so many people would take time out of their days to read something that I wrote.

As an author, it's one of the highest honors I could get.