Hello there any and all reading this. I would just like to state that this is the very first story I have ever made, so bear with any rookie mistakes I may make and feel free to give me criticism and any tips on how to improve.
I will try to replicate the canon characters' personalities to the best of my ability, but I can't promise that the characters will behave exactly like they do in the source material as I plan on tweaking some minor side characters a tad.
There are going to be numerous OC's in this story serving as both minor and major characters. So if you absolutely disdain OC stories, this is your warning. That aside, I hope I don't leave (too) much of a bad impression via this story.
To give a time frame for this story, it begins between Gasper's training and the Leaders' Summit.
I do not own High School DxD or its canonical characters. Those belong to Ichiei Ishibumi solely.
Hunting Season in Sleepy Kuoh.
After having concluded their drawn-out meeting and having encountered the first Stray Devil to be seen in a while, the Devils of Kuoh took it upon themselves to snuff out any stragglers fresh from hibernation and hoping to grab a bite of human flesh to sate their voracious appetites. Having sent familiars out to scout for the lawless beings, they travel on their wings, masking themselves from the world below with magic. Rias took the lead with her Peerage and Grayfia taking the middle of the flock. Behind her Peerage was Sona, who decided to stay in the back to keep a better, less noticeable eye on Ryuusuke. Behind Sona, her Peerage served as the hind-end of the formation. Ryuusuke, having no wings of his own, had to be carried by Grayfia while his burdensome T-Gewehr was to be held by Koneko. Two ammo boxes full of the monstrous rifle's equally enormous ammunition was to be carried by Issei.
Kuoh Skies, 9:45 AM
The Devils soared through the blue skies on leathery bat-like wings, passing through and by some low-laying clouds along their way. The sun shone down vibrantly upon the usually lively town below, but Kuoh stood still today as if abandoned during the night before.
"How's the view from up here, Ryuu?" Issei asked with a jovial timbre, speaking up just enough to overwhelm the dampening sound of air drag. With arms dangling as they tightly gripped onto the hefty ammo boxes, he stalled himself to fly parallel with the man. "Crazy, ain't it?"
The pale man held gently within Grayfia's embrace took a second to look up at and towards the brown-haired Kuoh student.
"Fighter pilots romanticized the experience far too much. That aside, it isn't something I'd consider unpleasant," Ryuusuke answered with his typical air of indifference. He looked back down at the tranquil world below. "The town is looking uncharacteristically calm. I assume you have an explanation for this?"
"The Lich put all of Kuoh under a sort of sleep spell," Rias answered the man, speaking loud enough to cut through the deafening wind.
"That would explain his mumbling nonsense," Ryuusuke remarked.
"Mumblin'? Couldn't that guy make clones of himself without sayin' a word?" Issei questioned with a tone that just barely pierced through the wind resistance, uncertain why one who could silently conjure spells would have to resort to fancy chants and ambiguous phrases.
"Anyone with magical potential can silently cast magic whenever, but it will be weaker than magics backed by verbal equations. The former is just more efficient for combat and other fast-paced situations," Sona explained with a stern tone, the wind crashing against everyone's ears almost blotting out her insightful words.
A look of utter confusion fell upon Issei's face. "Equations?" he asked.
"Don't put too much thought into it, dear. Devils both Pure and Reincarnated can inherently use and create magic, making equations purely optional; just think of it like checking your math," Grayfia added tenderly.
"So you're saying that if I shout out some math, my magic will get stronger?" Issei asked.
"You don't have the brains for it," Koneko scolded the earthy-eyed Devil.
"And if you get the calculations wrong, your magic will actually wind up weaker than what you started with. You can try your hand at it, but you'll have to do a lot of studying if you want to get anywhere with it," Akeno warned from above with a cheery tone.
Hearing the raven-haired woman's reinvigorated and playful voice once more set his heart at ease. "Yeah, screw that. I don't even fully understand the math they teach me here," Issei dismissed as a joyous smirk grew on his face. He looked up at his close friend.
Akeno pressed a hand up to her ample chest. In it, she dearly clutched those same black gloves Issei had seen her holding back at the Kasais' masterless abode. Like a single flicker of a freshly installed light bulb, that happy look fell cold and ponderous for a brief moment before flipping back the moment she noticed Issei looking in her direction.
A twinge of piercing woe pinched Issei's heart seeing this display. He was quickly reminded that no one was completely at ease, not yet.
"Hyoudou, I wish to speak with you for a moment," Sona beckoned from behind with a raised voice.
Issei complied, dragging himself behind to meet parallel with the Sitri heiress. "Yeah?"
"I know this may seem irrelevant considering the situation, but I wish to know how much you knew about our world before becoming a Devil," Sona spoke.
"Sure," Issei obliged, but not without a follow-up. "But why me though? I'm not really what you would call brainy," Issei questioned.
"Because you are the only one here who has had zero experience with the supernatural as a human," Sona justified, expecting this reasoning to be enough for the dopey Devil.
"Wasn't Saji an average guy too? I don't think he knew jack about this stuff before you reincarnated him," Issei refuted.
Sona's head turned away from Issei, favoring to instead look at the ground far down below than to look at him. "It's a complicated matter," she said with a heavy heart.
"Is it about you hitting him with a book?" Issei prodded with blunt obliviousness of Sona's wavering emotional state.
The stoic Sitri's amaranthine eyes shuttered woefully in the wake of Issei's words. "If you must know, yes," she answered with pained spite biting her heart and mind.
Though dull in the head, Issei knew he was treading on waters he shouldn't be. With a brief stammer, he too looked down at the ground. "Sorry about that. I probably shouldn't have brought that up."
Sona took in a long breath and released a refreshing sigh. Her eyes honed themselves once again, and she turned her head to look at Issei once more. "Let's get back on topic."
"Oh, yeah," Issei uttered, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. "Off the top of my head, I knew that Mermaids are hot chicks with fish tails, Succubuses have huge tits and like to…" he began.
"It's Succubi," Sona interrupted with a disappointed rumble, mildly irritated by the reeking lechery seething from Issei's words. "Aside from information gathered from pornographic resources—which aren't even valid or accurate in most cases—what details would you have considered common sense?"
"Oh, those... yeah," Issei answered, a brief burn of embarrassment flaring up as a red glow on his face. "Well, I knew that Vampires hate garlic and sunlight, silver and wolfsbane kills Werewolves, Zombies only die when their brain is destroyed, the Hydra Hercules fought regrows its heads, holy things scared off Demons, and Dragons have weak underbellies," he listed, pausing with a ponderous hum between each entry.
"Maybe Low-Levels," Ddraig scoffed indignantly within Issei's mind.
"Is that all?" Sona asked quaintly.
"All I can think of at the moment. Ya can't just drop these questions on a guy and expect him to have everything together on the spot, especially with all that has been goin' on," Issei answered, regretful in the fact he couldn't pull more from his mind at that moment. "Why do ya need to know this anyway?"
Sona conjured up a cover story so quickly she may have well had it prepared all along. "It became apparent to me during the meeting that I don't know as much as I thought about the common Human's awareness of the supernatural. I thought that I could take this opportunity to learn," she said with a kindly tone hiding the blazing triumph and engulfing enthusiasm in her heart, believing she was getting closer and closer to uprooting Ryuusuke's act.
Suddenly, Rias stopped and placed a hand to her ear.
Following suit, everyone else stopped their soaring.
Rias nodded her head a few times, each with a confirming hum. After a minute or so of this, Rias dropped her hand to her side. "My familiar spotted a large burrow near the edge of the eastern woods! She informed me that she saw the dirt around it wiggling! Be wary!" Rias shouted with enough intensity in her voice to reach everyone's ears while pointing in the general direction of where the Stray was located. She began flying towards the burrow.
"We'll continue this later, Hyoudou. Maybe the adrenaline rush will aid with your recollection," Sona dismissed before following behind her crimson-haired friend, her fervent eagerness causing her to let Ryuusuke out of her sight as she passed him and Grayfia.
Everyone else followed suit and flew behind the two Kings, some occupying themselves with thoughts of combat and some planning strategies in the case brute force won't be enough.
Eastern Kuoh Woods Burrow, 10:05 AM
The Devils arrive at the burrow, taking to the trees instead of laying low on the ground. They huddle up in the canopy, inspecting the area around the burrow in hopes of picking up clues on what kind of Stray they were dealing with. The pit seemed more than capable of fitting a full-grown elephant and more. Even with the Devils' inherent night-vision, the deep hole stretched on and on into a tenebrous unknown. Hoping not to stir commotion or alert the Stray to their location while they investigated from a distance, they unanimously understood the necessity to speak in a whisper.
"Your familiar said that the ground around the burrow shifted, correct?" Sona asked Rias with a hushed tone, keeping a close eye on the inky blackness of the dank hole. The dirt around the massive hollow seemed settled and compacted as if the burrow had been there for a long time. A faint, rotting stench assaulted her nose in spite of her distance.
"Yes. I have a feeling that it may be another Corrupted Stray. Be careful nonetheless," Rias answered with an equally quiet voice.
"Uh… corrupted?" Issei asked, muffled to keep their profiles low but perturbed by the foreboding title of "Corrupted." He too gazed into the hole in the ground. He could swear he saw claw-like gash marks stretching along the still moist and muddy walls of the pit into the dark delves where even the sight of a Devil was of no aid. It was as if something recently was desperately trying to escape only to be dragged pitilessly into the maw of the unknown.
"I wouldn't worry too much about that, Ise. Corrupted Strays are significantly weaker than Pure Strays," Rias assured, a gentle smile on her face pairing well with her azure eyes.
A bat-like creature a little larger than a baseball flew out from the dense cover of the trees and towards Rias before perching itself on her shoulder, its crimson hue matching that of Rias's hair perfectly.
Shifting was heard from behind Rias.
"It's okay Ryuu; she's my Familiar," Rias spoke softly in reference to the bulbous bat, whom of which promptly disappeared into a crimson portal behind the Gremory.
The shifting settled just as quickly as it started up.
"That… sounds a little ass-backwards. You'd think a corrupted version of anything would be stronger than the original," Issei remarked hushedly.
"That is not always the case; in fact, it is rarely the case for Strays. Though Corrupt Strays are typically more ferocious than Pure Strays, their deformations are brought on by an inability to control their Demonic powers. Dactus was one of numerous abnormalities among the Corrupt being borderline A Class, but he is leagues below Pure Strays such as The Black Cat," Sona informed with stern erudition in her quieted voice, her harsh gaze still fixed on the cavernous pit.
"The Black Cat?" Issei repeated with soft words.
"Probably not the best comparison for Dactus, nor the fairest if I am to be honest. She is a SS Class Stray who is not to be taken lightly in any situation. I haven't personally looked into her bounty, but her title is well known throughout Devil Society," Sona answered. Her gaze turned towards Tsubaki and danced over to each individual member of her Peerage. "Council, group up," she ordered with a volume that, in relation to how quiet everyone else was speaking, could be considered yelling.
Koneko began squirming uncomfortably following the mentions of this "Black Cat."
"Are you doing okay, Koneko?" Asia asked with dear words.
"I'm fine," Koneko dismissed in a blank tone, hoping she was convincing enough to not come off as flat-out lying. She grasped her own arm tightly, a rage having suddenly welled in her that she desperately kept held within.
"Are you hurt?" Asia asked with genuine worry for the small girl who stood not too much shorter than herself. Her green eyes were drowned in distress as she looked down at the gold-eyed girl's gripped arm.
Koneko did not answer, only amplifying Asia's disquietude.
"It's probably just a bug or two crawling on her. I just got done fishing one out of my shirt sleeve," Yuuto stepped in, giving Koneko a cordial glance and a knowing nod.
Koneko nodded back, aware of the motive behind his sudden intervention. Though that anger still burned in her heart, she kept a cold visage and anticipated letting it all loose on the burrow's Stray.
"Dear Kiba, my guns," Ryuusuke prodded with his same, unchanging, dead voice. It seemed even the upcoming encounter with the unknown wasn't enough to get the nutjob's spirit burning.
"Oh, yes. I completely forgot to hand them back. My apologies," Yuuto said with a light smile and a semblance of embarrassment on his face. He handed the vagabond his guns, the steel glittering in the morning light as they swapped from the princely Devil's hands to the pale derelict's.
"You're not gonna use your big-ass rifle to kill it?" Issei asked with a raised brow.
"Never said I wasn't. I want them just in case the target gets close. Not necessarily easy to load the thing with an abomination in arms length," Ryuusuke answered, the clicks and clinks of him reloading his weapons producing more noise than his own voice.
"Fair enough," Issei conceded.
"Do we have a plan of action to draw the abomination out?" Ryuusuke asked, his gaze turned mainly towards the huddled together Student Council.
Still planning things through, Sona and her Peerage failed to hear the man's question.
"Dear Sona?" Ryuusuke prodded, slightly louder this time in hopes of the black-haired intellectual actually hearing him.
"Akahoshi," Sona acknowledged, hiding her rampant distrust for the man behind her usual solemnity.
"Do we have a plan?" Ryuusuke asked once again.
"If you're worried about your part in this, all you really need to do is wait in the trees with your T-Gewehr and Lucifuge," Sona answered, giving the man no information as to what the others' parts were.
"I would imagine you would need Dear Grayfia by your side in case things fell apart, but I guess I'll go along," Ryuusuke conceded with an apathetic shrug.
"We've been through situations like this several times. It is just a simple matter of drawing the Stray out of its home, where it has a distinct advantage, and eliminating it once it leaves safety," Sona refuted with a somewhat indignant tone of voice. She motioned the other Devils, save for Grayfia, towards her. With everyone else gathered around, she continued her planning.
"Didn't ask for the extra details. Though I suppose I should find my perch in the meantime," Ryuusuke spoke bluntly, scouting the treeline for what he would consider an optimal sniping point. The search didn't take him much time at all. He strapped his cumbersome T-Gewehr to his back and made his way towards Issei, who still held the ammo boxes for his rifle. He lightly tapped the perverse Devil's shoulder.
"Huh," Issei sounded quietly as he turned to look back at Ryuusuke.
Ryuusuke partly outstretched his ghostly hands towards Issei.
"Oh, the ammo," Issei figured in what could be considered record time for him. He handed the boxes to the pale man, making sure Ryuusuke had a firm grip on the handles before letting go.
Ryuusuke gave a nod before turning back and walking towards Grayfia.
"There should be good," Ryuusuke spoke, holding an arm out and pointing at a slightly slanted branch with a clear shot directly into the mouth of the burrow. The tree's limb had enough width to hold a person in a prone position and seemed sturdy enough to withstand whatever recoil the massive rifle would output. On top of that, it hung behind a mask of leaves and vines, providing superb camouflage.
"Very well," Grayfia obliged before lifting Ryuusuke up by his arms and quietly carrying him over to his sniper post by means of gliding among the wood's canopy.
Once on the branch, Ryuusuke took to his prone position while silver-haired Grayfia took to standing behind him with her hands clasping each other down by her waist. Ryuusuke loaded one of the absurdly large bullet cartridges into the rifle and began aiming down the scope, making the ever-so-slightest movements required to adjust his aim.
Shortly after he did so, the young Devils descended from the trees, landing lightly upon the ground before walking with light feet towards the burrow's entrance.
Sona manifested several ropes made of water and wrapped them around Xenovia, Yuuto, and Tomoe: all of whom are Knights, thus being more than capable of escaping if things got serious.
Rias created several tiny, twinkling orbs of red light that embedded themselves within the Devils' ears: Knights and all. She then created crimson magic circles around the roped Devils, which then fell into scattered crimson dust before culminating into bright, red orbs three: one for each Knight. The orbs merged with their bodies and gave way to a glowing Gremory sigil.
"The warp wards again?" Ryuusuke noted, recalling that exact same spell being used on him and the Kasais.
"Don't you still have yours? I don't recall yours being broken or used," Grayfia asked.
"I do believe so," Ryuusuke answered blankly.
After a few more precautious spells, the Knights were sent on their delve into the abyss-like pit. The watery ropes held solid by Sona's magic twinkled a beautiful oceanic blue even in the umbral depths of the tunnel where light feared to tread.
Rias turned to look in Ryuusuke's direction, only being able to find him by the glint of his scope's lens. She gave a nod in his direction as if saying "Be ready."
Sona, too, turned to look towards Ryuusuke as if responding to Rias's action. Her eyes honed in on him as if inspecting his location before turning her gaze back towards the tunnel.
"Sona seems much more irate than usual, specifically towards you," Grayfia noted with a gentle smile.
"What of it?" Ryuusuke questioned.
"She may know something. Her division did come back from the graveyard yesterday. Aren't you worried?" Grayfia asked.
"No," Ryuusuke answered blankly.
"She placed a communication system hijack spell in you during our discussion. Not only that, but she seems to have turned the whole council against you. She most likely found something she shouldn't have," Grayfia noted.
"I don't think she'll piece it together quick enough for it to be a problem," Ryuusuke dissented.
Minutes of silence went by as everyone awaited the return of the Knights from their expedition. Just when concern for their safety was reaching a climax, Rias received a transmission from the three.
"Everyone in positions. If Ryuu doesn't take it out in one shot, then we'll have to pick up where he left off," Rias ordered with hushed words. She gave a "thumb's up" gesture towards Ryuusuke's direction, warning him of the Stray's arrival.
"I don't think that sonuvabitch is gonna miss," Issei spoke, not necessarily in defiance of his King's order but more of faith in the hobo's almost superhuman aim.
"Be ready just in case. Murphy's Law applies to everyone short of the Gods," Sona barked, dubious of whether or not the man was going to pull through on his end.
Issei silently conceded and got into position in front of the opening, trusting in Sona's vast knowledge just a tiny bit more than Ryuusuke's aim. A yellowish light enveloped his left arm before transforming into the draconic Boosted Gear, its fiery red scales and spikes gold like the shining sun twinkling in the morning light. The green gem beset within the gauntlet glowed brightly.
"Boost!"
The earth below rumbled like a village of giants rushing up from the center of the earth. The dirt around the burrow cracked as the settled ground below began to squirm like a maggot beneath skin. The Devils got in position, ready to fight.
First came the three Knights rushing out of the burrow's eclipsing dark, covered in dust and dirt and mud. They smelled of intense rot and revolt as if they had just dove into a sewage tank.
"Back up! It's a big one!" Yuuto shouted as he turned to face the cavernous opening in the earth. He manifested a Destruction Sword from a brief flicker of light and brandished the large blade.
Heeding the princely Devil's words, the ground team backed up.
The earth below stopped it's larva-like wiggling. The violent rumbling ceased just as quick.
The air fell still as anticipation rose. The Devils kept their eyes trained unblinkingly on the burrow. Ryuusuke peered down his scope, calmer than a monk and stiller than stone. He held in his breath.
Suddenly, the earth below the young Devils erupted as if a bomb went off in the tunnel. Dust and debris kicked up towards the trees in a dense cloud, obscuring the sight line Ryuusuke established.
"Sight lost," Ryuusuke remarked before getting up from his post. "We need to reposition."
Grayfia nodded and hoisted Ryuusuke up by his arms.
Back in ground zero, the Devils look up to see a behemoth of a worm towering above them with a body still partially in the ground. It's skin seemed plated with dark stone and, between the plates, pale and leathery. Several large hooks of bone-like composition surrounding its body rattled like a bird shaking its feathers, creating a grating hiss as they scraped and smacked against its rocky hide.
"And I thought the other guy was hideous," Issei rebuked, covering his nose to protect it from a vile odor of feces and rot.
"Boost!"
The Stray shook away the loose dirt and several globules of caked-on mud covering its tubular body, allowing a series of small, beady eyes encircling a closed, quad-parted mouth to open themselves.
"Where's Ryuu?" Asia asked with quivering words as she looked on at the wall of dusty air obscuring the trees and even the sky itself, letting in only a faint light to illuminate a small pocket of visibility for the Devils to fight in.
"Guess Sona was right," Issei uttered, knowing that Ryuusuke couldn't do much of anything without clear sight of the Stray. He sprouted his wings and prepared to take off, assuming his friends would do the same.
"We shouldn't take to the sky," Genshirou said to Issei before he could even leave the ground.
"Why is that?" Issei asked.
"If we fly, it'll just slink into its hole and won't come back out until it knows we're gone," Ruruko answered. She turned to face the creature.
Heeding these words, Issei grounded himself and retracted his wings before assuming a battle-ready posture.
The Devils stared the beast down, both in awe of its size and revolted by its stench. Nonetheless, they steeled themselves both physically and mentally for its next move. Then, a hissing inhale sounded from the beast like that of a massive cockroach.
"Are you with them? Those monsters?" the Stray questioned in a masculine voice, not even opening its mouth as it spoke. It's voice echoed yet sounded muffled as if it came from a chamber within the beast.
"Does it really matter? You know who we are, so you know our intentions aren't too far off from theirs," Rias spoke with an air of confidence, fairly certain the Stray was referring to Archmage and his posse.
"Little Gremory, little Sitri… you two do not know the half of it. They slaughtered us like cattle, not giving us even the slightest chance of fighting back," the beast spoke, its voice pitiful and saddened as if pleading for some form of leniency.
"Well, your kind has a known tendency to prey on humans, who also tend to have no chance of fighting back. Kind of seems like retribution if you ask me," Tsubasa remarked with unwavering words as to not seem frightened before the massive creature. She perked her hands sassily on her hips to drive this display home.
"Sweeping generalizations can make a fool out of even the wisest, little Devil," the Stray spoke, sounding more gentle than it did aggressive.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Issei asked, keeping his guard up and attention sharp just in case the Stray tried anything underhanded.
"You lot go on about how we're all threats… how we're all rabid man-eating demons… how we're all just greedy and selfish. You refuse to compromise, to see our side of things," the Stray answered, exhaling great gales of air through vents just behind it's onyx-black eyes with each pause. The squallish breaths proceeded to kick up more dust and dirt, further densening the cloud around the battlefield.
"The way we see it, you take the lives of innocents for your own personal gain," Xenovia snapped, drawing forth Durandal from a portal and grabbing the massive blade's hilt. With a swift and unwavering motion, she drew the Holy Sword from the light-filled hole in space.
"In the end, life is rooted in the exploitation of other life one way or another, whether it is for survival, pleasure, or greed. But that is not the point I'm trying to make. You see us all as monsters, but ignore the possibility that maybe there are some of us 'Strays' who wish to live peacefully," the Stray spoke, its kindly words conflicting with the profound stench of filth flooding from its body.
"If that's the case, then why do you smell like you just ate a whole family?" Genshirou spouted with crossed arms, his left hand glowing a sapphire light while grasping his right arm. From the blue light manifested the black-scaled chameleon-like bracer: Absorption Line. Its dark scales shimmered in the sun while its glassy eyes refracted their violet hue.
"I've been consuming the wildlife that tread here, but I've been doing so sparingly for decades as I realize the balance of the ecosystem here would be demolished if I ate until I felt satisfied. The extremes of my kind that you brand us all as consume out of greed and gluttony, but there are many like me who just wish to exist free from the bondage of being in a Peerage. Some of us don't wish to be given another life just to be forced into servitude. For me and my allies, we were forced to serve a cruel master who held not even an iota of empathy in her soul," the Stray explained with calm words, seeming very convincing if this were to be an act.
"Is that the case?" Rias said, wary compassion in her voice piercing the otherwise stressful atmosphere. She slowly approached the Stray, both cautious of mischief and not wanting to seem hostile in her approach.
"Rias, don't get any closer," Sona warned with a harsh voice. An ocean-blue magic circle manifested within her grasp, ready to attack.
The Stray pulled itself away from Rias, it's worm-like head held high in the air. The top of its head almost seemed to reach the top of the dome of dense dust surrounding the burrow. "Your friend believes I am manipulating you, little Gremory. I would say it is unwise to judge someone by appearances, but I can hardly blame you for being raised to believe my kind are all evil."
The beast's quad-sectioned mouth slowly opened itself. Within the Stray's prolapsing maw lied a grizzly vortex of jagged fangs, viscous saliva dangling from them in translucent ropes. The very top of the mouth lied bare and devoid of teeth, instead holding something just as shocking.
Humanoid eyes of a gray hue opened from within its maw that locked onto Rias's own eyes, being followed by a barely humanoid mass of flesh, pink as an undercooked steak, pulling itself from the roof of the mouth. It outstretched sickeningly scrawny arms as it dangled upside down from within the torrent of sharpened enamel like a uvula.
"This is both my true body and my weak point. Surely this must portray to you that I mean no ill will," the pink body of the Stray spoke with a mouth devoid of any teeth or even distinguishable lips of its own, it's voice now clearer and less menacing than it was from within its echo chamber.
The revolting sight upset Issei's stomach. He had to refrain from ejecting his last meal through his mouth as the visuals and the stench collided.
The Stray lowered itself back down, it's seemingly endless outer-body slinking back down into the earth, until it was roughly level with the Devils. "I am Lumbric. I was once the Rook of Nagasri Valac."
Sona's magic circle faded away upon hearing the Devil's name. Her hostile gaze turned neutral. "Nagasri. I haven't heard that name in a while," she spoke, crossing her arms.
"Uh, who's Nagasri?" Issei questioned.
"Probably one of the cruelest Devils of the common era. A true psychopath whose harsh nature would make even someone like Kokabiel grovel. She was sealed away in Cocytus decades ago, but she went and disappeared a month or two ago. No one knows where she went, and no one has seen her since," Tsubasa explained.
"But I have, little Devil. The dirt speaks to me, and I listen. A man going by the title of Ypsilí Profítis spoke with her and five other infamous convict Devils just before my burrow. Her voice still makes my blood run cold, so I refused to leave my home until she was far away," Lumbric spoke, pointing just over to the mouth of his burrow with his nailless, frail fingers.
"High Prophet…" Rias said, followed by an inquisitive hum. She gently scratched at her cheek for a moment before looking back up at the Stray. "Who were the other convicts, and what did they say?"
"The others were as follows; the Deceiver of the Demonic Kings, Rune Dantalion; the Thief of a Thousand Souls, Toshiko Valefor; the Warmonger Over Hell, Jagajeet Eligos; the Contaminator of Heaven, Astor Leraje; and the Mountain Crushing Titaness, Magnhild Marchosias," Lumbric spoke.
An unsettling silence fell upon the young Devils. Many of them seemed greatly distraught at hearing Lumbric's observation. Rias and Sona in particular seemed incredibly distressed by this.
"This is worrying," Rias broke the quiet with uneased words, biting the knuckle of her index finger to cope with the news.
"I have no idea who any of those guys are, but those titles don't sound like they're anything to mess around with," Issei noted with an ignorance befitting a newly initiated Reincarnated Devil.
"You're not getting it, Hyoudou! This High Prophet figure has a method to go into Cocytus and retrieve whomever it likes! The millions of years worth of imprisoned war criminals, usurpers, madmen: all of them are potential allies for that creature! We're lucky we are dealing with just these six!" Sona explained, a loud tone fully displaying the panic in her heart.
"That is not all. They were planning on attacking the Satans during some kind of meeting a pair of eyes on the inside told them about. What meeting this was, I have no idea…" Lumbric spoke, bringing only more bad news to the table.
"The Summit…" Sona said airily, her fear reaching an apex as she began hearing her heart racing in her ears.
"They also spoke of attacking you, little Gremory; you and your friends. They thought of you as a threat to their goals and brought a horde of Ogres to aid in destroying you. Then, a bird with wings of jet black and eyes of lightning swooped down from the clouds and destroyed the horde—I forget the name, but it was a mighty creature nonetheless. The Devil convicts and the Ypsilí Profítis managed to escape, though," Lumbric spoke once more, being more of a harbinger of misfortune with the string of panic-invoking news he has been spewing than he was a simple Stray.
His words revealed a whole new truth to the Devils' scenario. The young Devils couldn't find it in themselves to breathe. It was not a result of the dust contaminating the air, but of the shock of how narrowly they had avoided a death they weren't even aware of.
"They were there the whole time?" Rias asked, her voice quaking. Had that Anzû not interfered, they likely would've been dead then and there.
"It would seem my fellow Peerage mate saw you fighting them then, judging by your reaction. He did mention a crimson-haired girl and a brown-haired bearer of Boosted Gear…" Lumbric began, turning his inner-head over to gaze at Issei. "Which I assume is you, given the gauntlet on your arm."
"What about the hooded individuals. Do you happen to know where they fit in all of this?" Tsubaki questioned, trying to swallow in her own dose of the overwhelming fear sweeping throughout their ranks.
"Those monsters?" Lumbric inquired with his own quiver, seeming a fair bit panicked himself having to recall the mysterious "mercenary" group. "They never fought or interacted with the convicts nor the Ypsilí Profítis. In fact, they left the moment those monsters reared their heads. They believed that they would kill you for them after seeing how ruthless they were in the decimation of my kind here."
"Yet they actively left us alive…" Sona began with an inquisitive hum, her teeth grit behind closed lips. Her mind was all jumbled after hearing what Lumbric had to say, making complex thought a difficulty for even one as learned as her.
"I doubt it was an act of mercy that they let you live. There had to be a purpose for it," Lumbric remarked.
"They came here for some friends of ours and left once they had them," Rias responded, her head racked in thought much the same as her Sitri friend. Her paranoia rose the more she thought about it. She recalled everything she had experienced over the past week or so, but in none of those recollections had she seen hide or hair of anything that could've been this "High Prophet" or its subordinates.
A realization struck Issei's mind, his eyes jolting open with shocked cognizance. "Maybe the outside forces those hooded douches told us about were the Prophet guy and the escaped Devils!"
"That would imply they were aware of their presence, which I feel is impossible given the words of my accomplices," Lumbric dissented.
"They did speak of the Summit like how the High Prophet's group did, so Hyoudou does have a point. The two have to be intertwined in some way," Sona argued in defense of the brown-haired dolt who, ironically, was able to help Sona think more clearly by giving his thoughts.
"This is interesting…" Lumbric spoke, placing a pink hand against a fleshy protrusion on his face that was barely reminiscent of a chin. "Did those monsters speak of the outside forces in a negative manner?"
"The one we spoke to—Typhoon—was impartial to how she addressed them, so we can't quite get a read on their relationship with that alone," Momo spoke, her left hand twirling its fingers around in her snow-white hair as her mind delved into deep thought.
"Hmmm…" Lumbric sounded, lifting his hand away from his face. "What I would advise you all to do is seek my three former Peerage mates; they may have more information than I do. You can find Corvias in the mountains due south of the town. He mainly flies above the town at night to watch over the citizens wandering the perilous hours but will take to his hut in the day. Climb to the tallest peak you can find, shout his name, and he should respond. He is the one who informed me about the storm-eyed bird; he may have more to tell you if asked. Be sure he knows I sent you, or he will turn apprehensive."
"Duly noted," Tsubaki chimed, having hastily pulled out a pen and notepad while Lumbric spoke. She quickly jotted down key information.
"Naja likes to slither within the forest on the other side of the town, nearest to an abandoned school house in the western outskirts. She spoke to me about a massive beast born of muscle with breath of fire that rampaged through her woods some time ago. She can be drawn out by burning incenses before a leafy tree, which she has come to associate with a lost hiker. Much the same with Corvias, if you try to speak to her bluntly about those monsters, she will grow timid and will likely hide amongst the trees. Tell her I sent you," Lumbric continued his explanation.
Tsubaki nodded along, jotting down more notes on what to do. What completely passed her mind was the beast's description, which she realized just as someone else pointed it out.
"That beast Naja spoke of was a Humbaba. The ones you are afraid of summoned it on us," Xenovia spoke.
"A Humbaba? You can't be serious," Lumbric spoke, his voice quivering at the mention of the beast's name. "Didn't you say their intention wasn't to kill you? Why on earth would anyone send a Humbaba of all things if their intention wasn't so?"
"Our lives weren't their key interest. Whether we lived or died was likely viewed as collateral damage in their eyes," Xenovia spoke with a strong tone, lackadaisically holding her Durandal off to the side with a single hand. Its blade rested on the dirt.
"Yeah, and one of 'em-" Issei began, about to go on about Archmage and his clairvoyance, before Rias put a gentle finger over his lips and gave a soft hush as if knowing what he was about to say.
"Let's try not to frighten him even more with the finer details," Rias spoke quietly so that only Issei could hear her.
"Where is the beast now? Surely you couldn't have killed it by yourselves?" Lumbric questioned, the flaps of his outer-body's mouth creaking towards closing out of paranoia. Heavy breathing from both his inner-body and outer-body swept through the field, kicking up more dirt and reinforcing the cloud that had finally seemed to have died down just enough for glimpses of the outside world to be seen. The field returned to dusty darkness.
"We didn't kill it, but an Anzû carried it away. Where the two went afterwards, I have no clue," Sona answered, hoping this news would settle the Stray enough for him to stop his hyperventilating before the cloud of dirt became a suffocating force.
His breathing evened out before being followed by one final burst of wind—a sigh of relief. "Ah, that's what Corvias said it was," Lumbric chimed before clearing his throat. "I apologize for that. You must understand, Humbaba's aren't something to trifle with. I'd honestly rather face an Anzû than a Humbaba."
"But aren't those things roughly equal to eachother?" Issei asked, remembering Ddraig's words from some time ago.
"Yes, they are. However, an Anzû in a good mood may give you a chance to run away. A Humbaba in a good mood will only crush you into a slightly less mangled corpse," Lumbric answered.
"Who's the third person we need to search for?" Sona asked, her panic subsiding only slightly. She briefly glanced around the dome of dirt, knowing she can see nothing beyond the cloud's precipice but worried still of what else might have been watching.
"Ah yes," Lumbric began, taking a moment to mentally get back on track. "Lophii can be found north, in the deepest recesses of the town's lake. She told me of a lovely blue-eyed woman who shared her home for a time last night and of whom imparted some knowledge unto her. She spoke to me of it, but I fear I can't quite recall it accurately. She shows herself to those who are drowning or those asleep on the shore, making certain they don't tumble into a watery doom. Don't let her menacing appearance frighten you; she's a sweet woman. Same as the others, inform her that I sent you or she may flee back into the water."
"We were at the lake last night. That blue-eyed woman she met may have well been Typhoon," Reya spoke, her voice frail in tone as always against others in discussion.
"Lophii was very specific about her eyes, saying they were as beautiful as the ocean itself," Lumbric refuted, likely not wanting to consider the possibility that one of his close friends were within arms reach of one of the creatures who pitilessly fell so many of his kind.
"We know," Tsubaki followed up. "We thought the exact same."
Lumbric's speech became perturbed, devolving into a line of unintelligible, rapid stammering. His body trembled, pink mass and worm exterior both, which shook up the earth around the Devils like the stirring of an earthquake. His panic, in short time, died down to a threshold where he could speak clearly. "They know where she is. Damn it all, they know where she is. I beg you, keep her safe."
"We will do our best," Issei stepped forth with valiance. Though he knew well enough that they couldn't even ensure their own safety after learning of the High Prophet, he wished to at least settle the Stray's worried heart.
"You are a good man, bearer of Boosted Gear. You, and your allies," Lumbric said with a dear tone to the Devil. He seemed at peace in a way, knowing that his terrorizers were gone and that his friend would be watched over.
Suddenly, something caught his eye from beyond the cloud of dirt and dust—a pair of eyes, cold and empty. The irises were drained to a blackish hue, a shade he had not been familiarized with. For a second, he desired to call the eyes' bearer over; but then he saw something in them that brought back memories, and those memories plastered the deepest of horror on his pink, near featureless face. His beating heart made visible pulses throughout his revolting inner-body. He wanted to scream but couldn't as his breath had nearly halted. He could, however, let out a terrified utterance. "No…"
He looked down, towards the young Devils, his eyes peeled wide open with pupils constricted by terror. "Run…" he said with strained, barely audible words of desperation only a select few could hear before folding his inner-body back and closing his outer-body's mouth with such speed and force to snap a tree in its jaws.
A loud, thunderous bang rang from outside the dome. Before anyone could even react to the noise, a large bullet struck against the stoney hide of Lumbric's outer-body. The bullet ricocheted off Lumbric's armored outer-body and landed deep in the dirt before Gasper, scaring him into bat form with a pitiful shriek.
Lumbric quickly dove back into his burrow, his worm-like body trailing for a solid thirty seconds before the end flew by the Devils' sights and vanished back into the dirt.
The Devils turned towards where the bullet had boomed from, fully expecting to see Ryuusuke gazing down his scope with the cold eyes of a trained killer.
Their expectations were not misled. Perched up on a sturdy branch of an even sturdier tree, Ryuusuke emptied a used shell from his rifle's barrel. The large casing fell from the branch, clinking against the trunk of the tree as it fell. The vagrant looked up from his scope to see the young Devils completely unharmed.
The sight seemed to shock Grayfia, who stood behind the gun-toting hobo.
"I apologize for the delay. When the dust kicked up, I couldn't quite get a sight-line of the abomination," Ryuusuke spoke loudly from the treeline, strapping his T-Gewehr to his back and proceeding to climb down the tree's trunk.
Grayfia gently descended down from the tree with bat-like wings sprouting from her back, pulling ahead of Ryuusuke and landing before Rias. "It's good to see you got out of that unscathed; you were in there for quite a while. I was beginning to wonder if I should intervene," she spoke with joyous sincerity enchanting her voice.
Coming up behind the silver-haired Lucifuge maid was Ryuusuke. "I suppose I failed my task, seeing as the abomination is still breathing down there. If you desire, I can…" he began.
"Nah, it's fine. Dude's cool," Issei interrupted.
"Pardon?" Ryuusuke questioned with a tilt of his head.
"That worm guy's name is Lumbric. He's just a guy trying to live a peaceful life in his cave," Issei elaborated.
"So he's not a hostile?" Ryuusuke questioned once more.
"Nope, not hostile at all," Issei reinforced.
"Very well then. I was going to suggest dumping a crate of old grenades down the burrow and blowing it and its home to Hell, but I suppose I can save them for another time," Ryuusuke conceded, turning around to look back up at the tree. His eyes trained on the two boxes of anti-tank rifle ammo. "I'll go retrieve my ammunition. In the meantime, try to scout us another target," he directed, removing the anti-tank rifle from his shoulder and placing it on the ground before heading back to the tree he had just climbed down.
Following this order not of reverence but of necessity, Rias summoned forth her familiar and instructed it to seek out any remaining Strays.
As the pale man left to retrieve his ammo, Sona stared him down like a hawk. Her violet eyes were sharpened with vitriolic distrust stronger than ever.
"No…run…" Lumbric's voice repeated in her head, the look of absolute terror in his eyes burning into the Sitri's mind. His terror didn't seem like a typical fear either, but one of a man who had escaped death once only to face off with the reaper once again. It was as if Lumbric knew of Ryuusuke, or at least of what he truly was.
The terror the Stray experienced struck up even more questions in her mind. Whether it was a fear of Ryuusuke or a fear of staring down the barrel of a loaded anti-tank rifle was not a concern to her. She turned to look at the mouth of the burrow, pitiful of the denizen hiding away within. "I'll be back," she uttered with an almost sorrowful timbre in her voice, feeling as if Lumbric would hear her through the dirt he so listens to.
"So, your Pawn mentioned that this Stray was a peaceable one. Is that correct?" Grayfia questioned, her red eyes locked to Rias with a slight worry twinkling in them.
"Yes, that is correct. He's Lumbric; a survivor of not only Nagasri Valac's mistreatment, but also of the hooded group's attack," Rias answered, her gentle blue eyes hiding a sorrowful sympathy for the worm-like Stray.
"The hooded group attacked him?" Grayfia asked.
"Not exactly. They slaughtered every Stray they found, which confirms our assumptions of them being behind the drought of Stray reports," Sona answered, arms crossed with a feigned sternness in her eyes. Every now and then, her eyes would drift back over to Lumbric's burrow. Each time she did so, a wave of woe washed over her.
"Hmm…" Grayfia sounded inquisitively. "You don't think there's anymore survivors out there, do you?"
"That's what we'll be checking for. Lumbric spoke of his allies, who also have good hearts. It is likely that there may be other Strays with peaceful intentions, so we'll have to sort them out and eliminate the ill-natured ones," Rias answered, taking a peek over Grayfia's shoulder to catch a glance of Ryuusuke climbing up a sturdy tree to retrieve his ammunition.
"I've never seen a Stray be that afraid of a human in all of my life. I feel it was probably the gun that made him panic, but with armor strong enough to deflect bullets from that thing… Ryuu… do you have a history with Lumbric?" Rias thought, her curiosity skyrocketing. She turned to look back at Lumbric's burrow, having full intention to come back and visit the kindly worm sometime later for answers.
"Well, it's nice to see some friendly faces in a Stray from time to time. The number of evil Strays and the gravity of their actions tend to paint a one-sided portrait for them," Grayfia remarked with a jovial smile, crimson eyes set tenderly on the burrow's entrance.
"It was quite a shock for me too. I was always told they were all evil. That, and every one I encountered happened to be out for their own malicious desires," Rias agreed. A memory of one of her more recent Stray encounters, a half-woman half-beast Corrupted Stray by the name of Viser, popped up in her mind as she spoke.
"Well, sweeping generalizations can make a fool out of even the wisest," Akeno remarked in respect to Lumbric's wisdom, a jestful grin growing on her face.
"Is there anything else this Lumbric told you about?" Grayfia questioned.
After a brief recollection, Rias's gentle blue eyes turned stern. "I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you," she muttered, a slight rumble ruining her otherwise soothing voice.
"Tell me what?" Grayfia goaded, worry rattling in her voice with an almost motherly tenderness in her eyes.
"Lumbric informed us of a figure titled 'High Prophet' leading a group of convicts plucked straight from Cocytus: Rune Dantalion, Toshiko Valefor, Jagajeet Eligos, Astor Leraje, and Magnhild Marchosias. These individuals were watching us the whole time, planning to kill us until the hooded group came in. They left, believing Archmage and his allies would finish us off," Rias explained with authority in her voice.
Grayfia's red eyes shifted in tone drastically. Any form of gentility was replaced with a narrowed gaze reeking with an intense, almost murderous displeasure. Her hands, typically clasped together before her waist, fell flatly to her sides with tightly clenched fists. "I'll be sure to inform the Satans of this development as soon as I deem you safe to be on your own. Until then, stay by me," she ordered, trying hard not to sound ireful but failing.
Rias, imposed by this display of aggression, promptly gave the furious maiden an accepting nod.
"That counts for all of you as well," she ordered to the rest of the young Devils.
The others promptly gave their own nods, hoping not to incite more anger in the Annihilation Queen.
"What's with all the fear and order barking?" Ryuusuke asked, having just returned with his boxes of almost comically large ammunition. He placed them on the ground, the cartridges rattling within as their containers made contact with the ground.
Grayfia gave off a deep sigh, only slightly alleviating her fury towards the situation. "I'll explain it to you after we finish with our Stray hunts."
"So, are there anymore 'good Strays' I need to know about? If you give me a target, I will shoot first and ask questions later," Ryuusuke questioned, unsurprisingly unfazed by Grayfia's anger.
"We'll deal with the sorting. If we ascertain that a Stray poses a danger to the town, we'll give you the cue to shoot," Rias answered.
"Because that worked well last time…" Ryuusuke remarked in reference to the dust cloud Lumbric kicked up, obscuring his sight lines.
"Apparently, he hears through the dirt. He probably overheard that we had a sniper on duty and decided that was the best plan of action," Xenovia refuted. A portal of beaming light opened up before her through which she shoved Durandal, encapsulating it in the luminous pocket-dimension before closing the portal.
"Smart move, friendly abomination," Ryuusuke congratulated with a flat, yet raised voice as if he wished for Lumbric to hear his praise.
Rias raised a hand to her ear as if receiving a communication.
As it is courtesy, everyone quieted down so she could properly listen.
A minute or two flew by before Rias pulled her hand away from her ear. With authority shining through her azure-eyes, she spoke with heightened volume. "Alright, my familiar found a hollowed out tree with an abnormal noise echoing in it. She thinks it may be yet another Stray. Our new protocol will consist of a brief observation, contact, confirmation of alignment, then elimination if the Stray proves to be either evil or dangerous to Kuoh and its populace."
Everyone gave an understanding nod.
Koneko walked over to Ryuusuke's T-Gewehr and took the job of holding onto it once again.
Issei returned to his task of carrying the vagrant's ammo boxes.
Grayfia, again assuming her role as the flightless human's escort, wrapped her arms around the hobo.
The Devils' wings all erupted from their backs with a collective whoosh as they pushed away the air around them. Like a flock of geese, they took to the sky with Rias and Sona leading the charge.
They went on with their hunting, separating the virtuous Strays from the wicked ones and eliminating those who were deemed the latter. This process consumed all the daylight hours they had left, yet not even a soul was seen walking the streets of Kuoh. Tired from their full day of hunting and having successfully slain at least the majority of the evil Strays in Kuoh and around it, the Devils decided they would rest up before doing anything else.
That's a wrap for this chapter.
How do you all feel about worm boi? I was originally planning on having him killed by murder hobo's bullet, but felt he could be used for later.
A wee bit of an update concerning my schedule. Seeing as how keeping with a monthly update of one chapter would mean this story would take forever to complete (implying it hasn't already), I'm making a slight adjustment. I will publish at least one chapter every month. What this means is, if life gives me enough time and if I can get myself in gear, I may post more than one chapter on the 10th of each month.
As always, thank you all for reading this far. Stay safe out there.