Chapter 29

The outskirts of Kuoh - ruins of the old church-building

The fight was over.

But this was by far not the end any of them would have imagined.

While they had all been determined to take Lamia down, they had not expected to see her Queen murder her own Master.

"You have killed her," Rias said quietly and a bit disbelieving.

Even a part of herself found her own reaction ludicrous. This was one of her worst enemies. The woman who had blackmailed, insulted and threatened her and had waged a war against them all. Who had continously threatened her family and pushed her to ruin her own life. (Not that she hadn´t already done a good job of that herself, another part of her thought bitter).

Still...

Of all the possible outcomes of this fight, this was probably the last thing she had expected.

Even Raiser was looking more than a bit unsettled. While on one side he was glad that his mother had been avenged and her killer gone, but a Queen just murdering her Master like that, just resonated deeply wrong to him.

Just like with most of the others. Of course that was partly due to having lived in the Devil Society for so long.

"She was your Master," Ravel stated. "How could you just murder her like this?" she asked.

Not that she or anyone else here felt truly sorry.

The three of them realized, perhaps for the first time fully, just how deeply rooted the believe that a Devil Servants should be loyal to his Master was in all of them. (No matter how undeserved that loyalty was.)

The red haired enemy Queen only sighed visibly.

"Lamia had gone insane. You all realized that," she answered. "Her last plan had made no sense and had no real chance of success. And in opposite to you we are not babarians, to leave an insane or inept leader in charge."

"You call that civilized?" Ravel commented incredulous, pointing down to Lamia´s lifeless body.

"It is still far better than letting one such person letting everyone else get killed. Wouldn´t you agree?"

She might have a point here, but that didn´t change that their group had no problem letting their Master commiting terrorism and mass-murder over the last years.

"It makes no difference right now," Issei stated to them. "Surrender."

He was starting to power up.

The others around him were doing the same thing.

Grayfia was just coming back up from the basement, with Asia and Milicas walking behind her. They had obviously sensed the coming confrontation.

But right in this moment, they realized that they had another problem.

They were not longer alone. There were a large number of presences very close to them, right outside the mostly broken walls. At least most of them were holy energies - Angels... and probably Exorcists.

"It seems our fight had drawn attention," Issei said in the direction of Grayfia, Rias and Lamia´s former Queen Taria.

A moment later they saw the first line of the people that were surrounding them approaching. Exorcists, dozens of them.

At the same time the Angels who had appeared with them rose up into the air. Only to land in different key locations around them.

Only one of the Angels staid in line with the Exorcists and approached them from the front. It was Griselda Quarta.

"Grayfia," Issei said to her, "just stand back and take care of Milicas. We will deal with this."

She nodded.

"Okay - you won´t need me if things go wrong." It wasn´t a question. The highest power under the group they were facing was Ultimate Class. It wouldn´t even be a contest if it came to a fight.

But then a war would break out, a war they couldn´t win as things were. That was what she meant with `things going wrong´.

At least with Griselda here, there was someone they could talk with rationally.

"Issei Hyoudou," she greeted him.

"Xenovia," she looked at the girl who had once been her ward, "Irina and also the rest of you, under different circumstances I would say it is nice to see you." She sighed. "But I have to ask you, why are you all here?"

Her eyes fell on the former Servants of Lamia, who were now standing in line with the other Devils facing them, allthough with a little distance between both Groups... and Lamia´s own body still lying on the ground.

"Even if I have a good idea," she added.

"She had kidnapped Grayfia´s son and was holding him here. We were just getting him back," Issei explained. "And now we are leaving."

"And what makes you think that we will simply let you go Devil?" one of the Exorcists standing next to Griselda asked them aggressively.

"You realize who exactly we are?" Issei replied sarcastically. "Do you really think you could stop us? Let me make one thing clear, the only reason you are still standing is that we don´t want to fight you."

"You can leave," Griselda said to them.

"But Lady Gr..." the Exorcist begann to speak.

"Hyoudou is right," she replied. "We would have no chance if it came to a fight. Look around, this group here has at least eight or nine fighters who are Ultimate Level or higher."

Akeno on her part gave the Exorcist next to Griselda a smirk and a small playful wink as she said this.

"Not to mention Hyoudou himself," she stated. Issei himself was at least God-Level, she knew - very high God-Level. For them to pick a fight with this group here would be, to say it plainly, just idiotic.

But so would it be for them to risk starting a war with Heaven and the Church.

"But the reason he does not want to start such a fight is that he knows it would start a war that they can not win," she said loud.

"If you say so," Issei responded. "We will go now. As Lady Quarta pointed out, trying to stop us would be a bad idea," he commented in the direction of the Exorcists.

"You will not see us again," Taria - Lamia´s former Queen - said to them. She was now Standing inside a teleportation-circle, together with the rest of Lamia´s remaining Servants. "Now that our task is done, we will once again go into hiding."

"We would hunt you down, if we didn´t have greater problems," Grayfia stated blankly, with a meaninfull look to Griselda and the Ecorcists surrounding them.

Rias made a last small gesture. She raised her hand and send a silent look to Taria, who just nodded in return. And she disintigrated Lamia´s dead body with her powers. She had the feeling it would not be a good idea to let it fall into the hands of the Church.

With that the two enemy groups teleported away to different locations.

They would never meet again… and neither group would regret that fact in the slightest.

But at the same time, as the confrontation today proved, another threat had already grown. One conflict had been replaced by another.

xxxxxxx

Nearly another year had passed.

Like they had promised, Lamia´s remaining Servants and the rest of their allies had vanished from the face of this world. Maybe they had left this world entirely.

That however did not mean that things had changed for the better. They did not. The sinister development in Heaven and the Church had not relented or slowed down at all. No - in fact it had gotten even worse.

The Extremist wing of Heaven and the Church had actually succeeded in rewriting recent history and convince the majority of the human race that it was the Devil race that was mostly to blame for the terror of the last year… and not an so far unknown threat from outside their universe.

The Congregation of Faith - a.k.a the Holy Inquisition - had been given wide ranging mandates and authority for the purpose of hunting down and destroy Devils (and to a lesser degree Fallen Angels and a few Vampires) nearly all over the world.

A complete new generation of Exorcists and so called Holy Warriors was being recruited and trained.

Soon however it became even worse than that.

In secret new experiments were performed to exchange human abilities and power. The data and the `successes´ of things like the atrocious Holy Sword Project and others were picked up again. (Not that the Church had not already been taken advantage of the experiments Valper and his followers had already successfully performed.) Now however some powerful members of the Church actually pleaded to continue them.

Beside that, there were also regular some soldiers from different nations and even mercenary-groups being recruited and combined with the Church Warriors into so called Hunting Groups.

Modern technology and magic were being combined. To create new weapons, warriors and tools to fight the Supernatural.

All that in the name of `safety and protection´ from a suppossed enemy.

Some in the ranks of the Church protested this developments. But they were being overruled.

A few - Griselda Quarta and a number of others - had given up their positions out of protest. Not that this truly helped anything. Their loss might have weakened the Church somewhat, but not nearly enough to make a difference

There were even rumors going on about secret prisons and internation camps for Supernatural Beings being created.

Rumors that more and more turned out to be fact.

Yokai were so far being ignored. Their Faction had come with relatively little losses out of the last wars. To that came that the remaining Shinto and Hindu Gods had put them under their protection.

So they were off Limits and the Church avoided a conflict with them. The same protection went to some of the surviving Vampires, who had been seeking asylum within the Yokai Faction.

Devils and Fallen however were another matter.

xxx

Meanwhile the Devils were still hiding. Like they had been for a while. But at first it had more been a precaution. Now they were actively been hunted.

Besides them, Fallen Angels were also being targeted - allthough not to the same extend. Because of their still going alliance with the Devils (which they, in opposite to Heaven, had not betrayed)… and for

Many Devils and Fallen had returned to the devastated Underworld. To get out of the Church´s reach (or at least they tried to). Of course the Angels were actually able to enter the Underworld at will and could have even brought large groups of humans with them. So the only reason these refugees were relatively save, for the moment, was that their enemies were concentrating their efforts of the Human World - for now.

In the desolate wasteland that their home-dimension had become, they were just somehow trying to spend their existence. Only a few spots of the Underworld had been spared from the complete destruction and were still habitable.

Some of them tried to use their powers to repair part of the landscape. But it was in vain. Somehow the structure of the reality of the Underworld itself seemed to have been damaged. What made it impossible to use magic to repair the destruction. It might have even worse consequences and it was possible that the entire Dimension could become completely inhabitable sooner or later.

The pride that these Devils and Fallen Angels once possessed was long gone.

Of course there were exceptions, like the Gremory, Phenex and Sitri Families and some parts of the Grigori, who were still living in their so far undiscovered hide-outs on Earth. They were the lucky ones so far.

But they too knew that it was only a question of time.

xxx

At the same time however, there was slowly growing a plan. A plan that only one year earlier would have sounded absurd. And that had first originated from a certain group of people.

Not the people around Isei and the Gremories… or Raynare and Penemue this time. Even if they got involved very quickly.

At first it had just been a nearly crazy sounding thought.

The group in question were the remains of the Research Department of the Grigori under the leadership of Sahariel and a number of Devils who had joined up with them. Right now they were working together on the same special project.

This was the ongoing research on the device and the recordings they had received from this group of Dimension-travellers all this time ago.

This time however it was not with focus of nebulous prophecies and warnings about the future. But about the technology itself. About how to understand and eventually recreate it. Or at least a more primitive version of it. After all the recordings had included detailed descriptions about this technology and how to build it.

The thought had first been mentioned by a Grigori researcher. Even if he was of course by far not the first person whose mind it had crossed, including Issei and his friends.

The basic idea was obvious after all, as soon as they had heard about these parallel worlds. What if it were actually possible to reach these alternate realities? Travelling between Earth and Heaven or the Underworld - that were pocket-dimensions of their own world - was daily business.

So this actual parallel realities should not be much different. Just that they were `further away´ - harder to locate and harder to reach.

What if… what if they all could just leave? Starting over in another world? As bizarre as it sounded, maybe this was their only hope. Their plan was nothing else than the idea to evacuate the entire still surviving Devil and Fallen Angel population to one of the many parallel realities. Not just a few travellers, but their entire remaining races.

Even if it sounded completely outrageous at first. But desperation drove one to do outrageous things.

But now, out of sheer desperation, this vague idea was slowly turning into a plan.

The only alternative would be to go to open war with the Church and Heaven. With Issei and his peerage, being their main `weapons´ of war. He alone could cause mass-destruction on an untold scale.

It had actually been a plan that a few officers of both Devils and Fallen had suggested. To use Issei and his friends, along with the remaining Cadre Fallen Angels and backed p by a large number of warriors of both races, as a strike-force to destroy both the Vatican and Heaven itself.

It was a plan that he and the others vehemently resisted. Could it be done? Most likely. But at what cost? Both their races were already at the brink of extinction. Even if they succeeded, their losses would probably be so great that they would have no strength left at all.

Another reason - especially concerning the Vatican - was that it´s destruction would probably not be possible without destroying or at least heavily damaging the rest of Rome as well.

They also knew that many Angels still not agreed with their current leaders agenda, that heavily depended on the fear and insecurity under the humans. But if they truly went through with this plan, they might only radicalize the surviving population even more.

They might throw the worl into chaos even more and ultimately speed up their own end, instead of preventing it.

But on the other side, if this `crazy´ plan would not work out, what other possibility had they left? Should they just lay over and die?

In they end they settled to keep this `open assault´ plan in the background. As much as Issei and the others hated it. Otherwise they would risk the more radical thinking (or just more desperate) parts of the remaining Devils and Fallen to strike out on their own... with who knows what consequences.

No - they would not let it come this far, Issei thought to himself.

Beside all that, they all also had the silent hope that, when all would work out and they would have left this world, the corrupted Church and Angel Leaders would starting to loose their power they had amassed by using them as their scapegoat.

The only reason that these fanatics had managed to trick the people into laying so much power into their hands was that they lied and painted the Devils and Fallen as their enemies. (Never mind that they actually had been allies and saved their universe together just a few months ago.)

With them gone, with the suppossed threat from outside removed, they hoped that their dictatorship built on lies would slowly crumble into itself.

xxxxxxx

A small town in Eastern China

The place had been a hideout of the Grigori. At least it had been until right now.

But now they had been discovered.

The Fallen Angels Baraquiel - the current Grigori Leader - Raynare, Penemue, the Elite Warrior Slash-Dog and Barquiel´s daughter Akeno, flanked by several Grigori Wariors, were currently standing in front of the slain bodies of a group of 22 Exorcists and five Low- to High-Class Angels.

And between them were also the bodies of four Fallen, who had died fighting them off. Had the three Cadre and Akeno not appeared just in time to wipe the attackers out, it would have been far more. They had ended the ongoing battle in seconds.

The actual hideout had been a line of buildings at the border of the town, a few kilometers outside of the actual human settlement. So after forming a simple barrier, the human population had not even noticed the fight.

This incident was sadly not a unique case. Just six days earlier the hiding place of a Devil peerage had been discovered and destroyed. And another three days before somewhere in Japan, a small group of four Fallen Angels - similar to Raynare´s old team - had been attacked and killed by Church Warriors.

Even countries like Japan and China, where the Church had originally only little influence were more and more pressured into giving them free reign, by both the other countries and their own frightened citizens.

The entire world was heading down a dark path… and this time all on it´s own.

Akeno was looking down on the charred body of an Exorcist she had completely burned with her lightning.

"You know - normally something like this would nearly excite me," she said in a sad voice. "But, given the circumstances…"

"Not much to enjoy about pain, when the entire world had turned into hell, right?" Penemue commented.

"Yeah," she replied quietly.

Baraquiel walked up next to her.

"Are you okay daughter?" he asked her.

"I guess as okay as you can be given the circumstances," Akeno replied.

"It is getting to all of us," her Father said. "I can only hope that our plan will actually lead to something. Otherwise we will just have to continue like this."

"But we all know it can not continue like this," Raynare replied. "There are less of us with every fight. And sooner or later, there will be no one left."

"She is right cousin," Slash-Dog stated. "We are running out of time... and out of people. I only hope that this secret project you were talking about will finally lead to something."

"We all hope that," Akeno said quietly.

xxx

It was just a few minutes ago when they had received the call for help and teleported here. Akeno had just been on a visit to her father and decided to come along.

Raynare on her part was also her for another reason. That reason being the, now 13 year old, human girl Yuki, who had become something like a foster daughter to her and who was right now leaving the building behind them.

"It is over," Yuki said plainly, looking at the field of dead bodies. "I am happy to see you again Raynare-oneechan.

This was not the first time she had been present at such an attack. And it wasn´t coincidence. No - the attackers came here because of her. The found this out over some of the few reliable contacts they still had inside the Church.

The Church knew of the strange powers she had received from Faust and that were now developing and growing stronger with every month. Of course it did. Back then they had still been their allies after all.

Not that they would have ever told the normal human Population or even most of their own members about who Faust was and the force he had been serving. Because then they could not longer blame the Devils for everything and use them as an excuse to try taking over the world. Fucking hypocrites, Akeno thought.

There had been Forces especially hunting for her for a few months now. As it seemed the Church was interested in the prospect of a regular human being given supernatural powers of that caliber.

That was also the reason Raynare had send her here, instead of Japan, where the Church had been primaly looking for her.

Akeno felt sick of the idea of this girl, who she and the others had gotten to know during the last year, being turned into another guinea pig for them.

Then she saw something else what distracted her for a few moments from the field of corpses before her.

Yuki was walking closer to Raynare and laid her arms around her. It was a nearly adorable picture, actually and quite ironic, given who was involved.

"Now - who would have thought this? I guess it will be a bit hard playing the cold hearted bitch from now on with pictures like that."

"Oh - shut up you wannabe dominatrix," Raynare replied. "As if you are one to talk."

"Are you really in the position to call someone that, with the clothes you are usually running around in?" Akeno asked grinning.

Raynare only smiled back. With Yuki next to her doing the same thing.

Just great, Akeno thought. The girl might turn into a Mini-Raynare if things continued like this. On the other side, there were clearly worse things than that, thatt could happen to you, as the last years showed.

xxxxxxx

Secret residence of the Phenex Family, the same evening

They still lived here, undetected so far. They moved out regulary to help others. Yet they still could not help to feel bad about the fact that they were still living in relative safety and and enjoying luxury, while others had to pend their lives constantly on the run and could be happy to have a place to sleep.

A few other Devils had taken refuge in the Phenex residence as well, with the permission of Lord Phenex.

But they all knew it was only a question of time until they would be discovered here. With Issei and the others here it would be of course easy to fight the attackers off. But even then they would never be save here again.

As powerful as Issei was, he could not be everywhere at once… and he could not win a war by himself. At least not without risking to draw the rest of the world along into the abyss along with it.

That was one of the reasons why he and his friends had volunteered to be the first to be send to the new world. That and the fact that he was probably the best suited if there was some threat out there.

xxx

Grayfia was just now looking at her son, who had just gone to sleep and was lying in his bed. She thought about the threat looming over them all.

A few rooms away, Lord and Lady Gremory and Lord Phenex were sitting in the large parlor of the mansion, together with the Hyoudous who were currently here on a visit. Issei´s friends Matsuda and Motohama and their girlfriends had also come, together with his parents.

As he had been told, Mayuri and Kaja had actually been taking some theraphie sessions, like Murayama and his other female classmates had adviced them. As far as he could tell they were still two sex-crazed nymphomaniacs (good for M&M, he thought), but far less passive and caring about more than just fulfilling their boyfriends wishes and desires on every price.

More like completely perverted but free-thinking girls instead of perverted slaves. And they instantly proved him right, when they once again offered him to have sex with them, if a few of Issei´s girls agreed to fuck their boyfriends in return.

He and his girlfriends had however `politely´ refused their offer.

It was not even as if this was the most perverse or outrageous thing that had happened to them during that time, by far not.

It was just a few days ago, when Issei and Rias had wanted to talk to Rias parents about some important topic at late evening and went into their bedroom. They thought it would be okay, since they had been told by the Servants that the Hyoudous were with them.

As it turned out, they just walked in on their parents having a foursome with each other.

And s a result they had for once actually reacted like young people of their age would actually react if they just walked in on their parents having sex... and deeply emberassed, walked out of the room.

They weren´t quite sure if the pervertness of their children had simply rubbed off on their parents, if the events of the last couple of years had caused them to let go of their restraints like it did for so many other people or if they had simply been like that the entire time and just very good in hiding it.

xxx

The visit of his parents and fiends here however also had a very sad consequence.

While his parents had already decided that they would come with them should their plan work out, Motohama and Matsuda would stay here. They would not leave their families and all the other people they knew behind.

That meant after this visit, they would never see each other again. So the visit also turned into a long goodbye between the three friends.

Raiser had already gone to bed, with Yubeluna and another of his peerage/harem girls. The same went for Issei´s friends.

xxxxxxx

Secret research-facility of the Grigori - a few days later

They were now standing together at the same place where the experiments had been performed for the last months. It was here, where the `crazy´ plan to evacuate the entire remaining population of Devils and Fallen Angels to another dimension would finally come to play out.

Issei, Rias and their peerage, Raynare, Irina, Kuroka, Sona and Tsubaki... and also the Fallen Angel Leaders Baraquiel, Sahariel and Penemue were standing close together in the center of large hall.

Around them, standing in small groups or by themselves and working, were the members of this combined research-team. They had by now however also been joined by a number of human scientists, who didn´t believe in the lies the Church was spreading and knew about what truly happened.

What they had created here, over the course of the last six months, was a complex combination of technology and magic. Ironically not that different from what the Church was developing.

A few consoles with access to the building´s computer system were lined up at both sides of the large room. It all was connected to the large machinery located in the center of the hall.

A device ressembling an over ten meters wide satellite dish was mounted right into the floor, surrounded by a small metallic fence and with a similar looking counterpart build into the ceiling right above it.

This was, as they had been explained, and collector for particles controlled by supernatural energies.

There was however also another being present - Ophis. The Infinity Dragon had, to everyone´s surprise, offered her help to them for this project.

xxx

Some time ago, Issei had already contacted Great Red, who was back in the Dimensional Gap and tried to convince him to help with the situation with the Church.

He had however, in a nearly unusually polite but strict tone, refused.

Him getting involved in the matters of the Human or even the Supernatural World, as he told Issei, would only make things even worse as he believed. True - he could easily force The Church and Heaven to stand down if he showed up on Earth.

True - he was more powerful than currently everyone else combined. But exactly that was the problem.

How long until everyone who had a problem with how things were going would come to him and ask him to change them by force? How long until he became dictator of the world without even wanting to?

How long until the entire world could not longer work without him constantly showing up to interfere?

xxxx

He even showed him a vision of a possible future, where he followed Issei´s request. For a short time things were actually going better. Their enemies backed down and the Devils and Fallen could return to a halfway normal life. For a time at least.

But in the long run everything turned just as bad, if not worse than they were now.

Someone had actually funded something called the Church of the Red Dragon, which claimed to fulfill the so called will of Great Red and bring it over the world. (Nevermind that in truth Great Red just wanted to stay home and do his own thing.)

They quickly came into conflict with the Biblical Church and it led to a holy war over the planet, that could eventually end up in the nuclear war.

xxxx

With this Great Red had left Issei alone to fly another round through the emptiness of the Dimensional Gap.

He had made the same request to Ophis and then Lilith. But they both gave him pretty much the same answer. Only with less impressive arguments.

xxx

But theen Ophis had suddenly turned around and agreed to help them with their project here.

Being who she/it was, Ophis was of course easily able to open rifts and portals to different universes by herself. And could even take large groups of people along with her. At least in principle.

Just like many of the others could as well - theoretically at least.

But despite having the power to do it, the simply truth was that Ophis (or any of them) didn´t know any of the worlds outside of their own - that consisted of their regular universe, the side-dimensions of Heaven and the Underworld.

Neither they or Ophis herself would have any way of knowing in what kind of universe they would end in. They would be travelling blindly...

No - power and ability was not the navigation was.

And no matter what some people thought, for every dimension where life as they knew it could exist, there were a thousand that were unhabitable for it. The far majority of universe in the multiverse was far different from their own.

They could end up in a world where the four dimensions of space and time were developed completely different than in their own. A world where time didn´t exist. Or one without any solid matter at all.

The small humanoid form of the nearly all-powerful being was in this moment standing right next to them.

Ophis had only made one condition: She would come with them.

As she had told them, since she would be leaving this world, her clone Lilith would still remain in this world, as it´s incarnation of Infinity. That was at least what she had told them.

What none of them was really aware of, was that Ophis motivations were all but selfless or altruistic.

The reason why she wanted to reach one of these parallel universes, one nearly identical with their own, was that she wanted to merge herself with one of her alternate counterparts... to regain her full strength.

xxx

They were now ready for the final test run. The machine was being activated and started to work. And at the same time Ophis activated part of her power and let it interact with the device.

Ophis Energy was flowing through the machinery. At least a small bit of her endless power. Being channeled by it.

While her energy opened a rift through the layers of reality, the machine was focusing and directing them. It was forming a stable portal through the void between the worlds.

And while Ophis powers were opening a gateway into hyperspace, the system was at the same time searching for a universe with a structure nearly identical to their own. A world just like theirs.

After about a minute, they seemed to have their first hit. And the machine started to form a connection between the dimensions.

Then the supernatural energy Ophis had unleashed finally formed a large bluish shining sphere inside the collector. This Energy-globe became more and more transparent, with the glowing slowly completely disappearing.

Until a small stable opening was formed, a gate through their universe into another. The Energy-sphere was now completely transparent, like it were made out of glass and throught it they could actually see directly into another reality.

Well - for that however, the actual sight behind it was quite banal. What they saw was simply a large green meadow, with some trees standing at it´s edges and a few cows grazing on it.

Far in the distance, they could make out a town that they recognized as that world´s counterpart of Kuoh.

"Well, this is not quite what was expected," Xenovia commented.

"What have you thought? That we would watch right into a supernatural battle?" Akeno asked.

The computer system had indeed helped Ophis power to find a close match by what they could make out of the town. But - they weren´t sure how close it was yet.

"Could you adjust the gate a bit" Penemue asked the scientists. "Give us a closer look at the town?"

But...

"No," Ophis just stated flatly and cut off the connection by stopping her energy flow.

"What?" Rias called out.

"Why did you do that?" Raynare asked.

"There were no signs of Supernatural Energies in this world," Ophis replied. "It was unsuited for us."

This was not entirely true. Yes - there had not been any Supernatural Beings present on that Earth. Maybe they had never left their version of the Underworld, maybe they didn´t exist.

But that wan´t what Ophis was really concerned about. The point was that, while she could sense her own presence in this world, it was clear that her counterpart´s power was similar reduced as her own. The incident with the Hero Faction and Samael´s blood or something similar must have happened there was well.

Chances to return to her full power by merging herself with that counterpart of her would not be any better than doing it with Lilith. And that meant it was worthless to her.

"So you just shut it down, without even discussing it with us?" Penemue asked, a bit irritated.

"Yes," she simply replied.

"I guess there is not much we can do," Baraquiel, who was standing next to her, stated. "We need Ophis cooperation to open the gate."

"Not neccessary," Penemue replied.

"We need a very powerful being," Rias said. "But technically there are several here who could do it."

"Not long enough," Issei pointed out, "and certainly not to transport thousands of Devils and Fallen."

"I am sure you could do it Issei-kun," Irina stated.

Yes - in rare power certainly, Issei thought. Know how and experience were another matter. Could he form a stable portal for long enough? He was not sure. And exactly that was the problem. One mistake and all could be lost.

xxx

After a few minutes, they finally begann to open the portal to another parallel world.

This time however what they saw was less mundane. Quite the opposite. What they saw this time unsettled even them, after all they had already experienced.

With the first look at the town, they already saw that something was wrong. The town - on the first look it was simply demolished and empty.

The buildings looked like they had been abandoned a long time ago. Nearly every window they could make out was broken. Doors had been broken out of their angles.

They could see several empty cars. A few parking at the sidewalks, others just standing at the middle of the streets, a few with theirs doors wide opened.

Litter was lying everywhere.

This version of Kuoh was a ghost town. What had happened here? But that wasn´t even everything. One moment later they saw the first of them. A figure moving slowly over the street. Then another appeared and a third.

They had seen something similar before. With the powers Loki had received as a member of the Four Horsemen.

A walking `living´ corpse - a zombie. But on the other side it was somewhat different. While Loki´s undead minions had been very well preserved by his magic, this creature here showed visible signs of rotting.

"I don´t believe it," Kuroka said.

"Are we really looking right into a... a zombie-apocalypse?" Xenovia asked.

"It seems so. Not that this would be too outlandish after all the other things we have already seen," Akeno commented.

"They can not see us, right?" Koneko asked worried.

"No," Ophis said.

"The portal should only be visible from our side," Sahariel told them. "We and Ophis created it in that way."

"It can not be the entire planet being like this, right? I mean," Irina stated.

"We will see," one of the scientists - a human - answered.

They configurated the gate once again to show them different places in this world. But the picture was everywhere the same. All cities they saw were in the same state. All beings they saw were undead.

After a few minutes, they saw that there were also at least a few Supernatural Beings under the hordes of Zombies.

"There is nothing. No truly living beings on the entire planet," Ophis said calmly.

"What?" Kiba and Koneko called out nearly at the same time. "You mean it is truly the entire world?"

"What has happened there?" Rias asked horrified.

"Had these Four Horsemen actually overrun the world here and turned everyoe into undead puppets?" the Fallen Angel Sahariel questioned.

"Like Loki did when he was when he was their leader, you mean?" Baraquiel added.

Issei shook his head.

"That is unlikely," he replied. "The powers Loki had received were somehow different. They... feel different," he said with a stern look to the undead creatures he saw through the rift in reality.

"Beside that - remember, this is about two years in the past from our point of view," Raynare reminded them. "So unless things had happened really different, the Horsemen shouldn´t appear until much later."

"Maybe it was something Hades had done," Sona suggested. "Or some other God."

"Maybe," Issei replied. "Or maybe some other force from who knows where was responsible."

Ophis silently raised her arm. And from her finger she fired a small but incedible powerful energy beam through the portal.

They all needed a moment to even fully realized what she had done. And then they were starring at her slack-jawed.

In a split-second they saw Ophis blast piercing into the ground, right in the middle of the last town they had been watching, vaporizing everything around it, leaving a gians crater.

And shooting deeper downwards, right into the heart of the planet.

Ophis broke-off the contact right before it, but they all knew what had happened. The ones standing the closest to the gate could feel the first shockwaves before the connection cut off... as the entire parallel Earth had exploded.

"What - what have you just done?" Issei called out.

"This world was worthless to our plan and had so no real interest for me," Ophis replied. "But then I remembered all my conversations with Issei-kun and that we are friends. And I decided to do something nice."

They all were starring at her wordlessly. She had just blown up the entire planet Earth (an Alternate one, but still...), with her finger... and called it ` doing something nice´?

"Ophis - that…" Rias stammered.

"You…" Irina started, similar shocked.

"Is there a problem?" the Dragon God asked. "Sooner or later there would be a chance that whatever happened on that Earth would have spread to other planets, maybe even other dimensions. So it would be better to remove it."

None of them could really bring something up against the Dragon´s logic. Her `solurion´ was just too outrageous to even comprehend it.

Even Ddraig seemed to be at a loss for words.

(Remind her never to do something `nice´ for me,) his voice whispered into Issei´s mind.

"It is okay," Issei finally said. "Maybe it truly is for the best. Let us continue"

xxx

After nearly an half hour, they finally attempted yet another try. They could only hope this world would be better than the last they had seen.

Much to their relief the Kuoh they saw a moment later was pretty much alive. The streets were filled with normal - living - people, who were doing their daily Business.

"So Ophis - do you sense any Supernatural Beings in this world?" Penemue asked her.

"There are," she replied.

"Good," Baraquiel said. "Then we can..."

"But many of these energies in this world seem unusual active," Ophis stated, cutting him off. "Actually, it looks as if they are fighting each other."

"All over the planet?" Issei asked.

"Yes."

"Is it possible that the Great War had broken out again? Or had never ended in the first place?" one of the Fallen Angel Researchers theorized.

"It are not only the Devils, Angels and Fallen," Ophis stated.

Like before, they watched a few scenes of different groups of Supernatural creatures fighting each other.

"I guess that means we can forget about this world too," Kiba stated. "We don´t want to land in the middle of a war-zone."

"Yes," Issei said.

"Wait - stop!" he suddenly called out.

The portal now showed them a scene that reminded Issei and the others all too much of the past.

What they saw was themselves, locked in a fight with Loki.

xxxx

It was not the same scene they remembered from their own past. They realized that nearly instantly.

All of it was happening in a different place. The people were not the same. Akeno was nowhere to see - (was she maybe not part of their group in the first place?) - and instead Kuroka was with them for some reason.

A few of their counterparts seemed to have taken damage that they didn´t in their own past.

But there was also a lot the same. For example that Issei saw his other self desperately fighting to protect the others. And so he saw his counterpart being overwhelmed and thrown around by Loki. Who in turn looked like he was merely toying with him.

xxxx

"Can you let us hear what they are saying?" Issei asked Ophis.

"Yes," she said.

In the next moment they could suddenly understand the words spoken by the fighting opponents.

"Did you really think someone like you could be a match for me Hyoudou - for a God?" He heard the alternate Loki say."Now you will pay for your foolishness. And not only you, your pathetic little harlots as well. I will rip them apart before your eyes before you die.."

Here Issei of course remembered as well his deadly encounters with this Evil God, the times he had threatened everything dear to him, the curse he had put on him.

Going by his words, it was obvious that this Loki here was not any different than the one they knew.

And this time it was Issei who raised his arm. For a second he powered up into his DxD Form and this time it was he who fired a blast through the opened portal.

It struck the Evil God right in the back. And Loki fell to his knees. It was not enough to kill him, but enough to cause lasting Damage and give their counterparts the advantage in the fight.

They all were looking at him, either smiling or in morbid curiousity.

"I thought this time I could be the one doing something nice," Issei said sardonically.

For a moment, they saw the alternate Issei looking around confused, to see where the blast that had struck down his opponent came from, before he and his allies used the chance to strike and take the still disabled god down.

Just before Ophis once again cut the connection.

xxxxxxx

After they had made another few attempts, they finally seemed to have found a suitable world. Llke the last times, they had been watching for a while. But they found no signs for war or any Supernatural disasters, like armies of Undead.

There were no greater battles taking place on Earth and practically no fightings between the members of the Three Factions - at least against each other. The few fights that were taking place, were most likely agaist Rogue groups and Strays. Or against Khaos Brigade if it existed in this world.

Ophis however could feel the presence of her own counterpart, a counterpart that was still at full strength. So she would not disagree with the choice of this universe.

They would still observe and analyse for a few hours - maybe a day - longer, before they would make the first actual visit in this world. But time was of the essene. Every hour that passed, one of the geater Devil or Fallen hideouts in the Human World could be discovered.

Issei and his friends had already volunteered to make this first trip. That meant in this case he and his peerage, including Rias, Irina and Kuroka, Sona - together with Tsubaki and Saji… and Raynare as representive of the Fallen Angels, along with two guards.

To everyone´s surprise, Raynare also made another a bit unusual request. She wanted to take Yuki along with them. It seemed not that the Church seemed to be specially targeting her, she wanted to get her out of their reach as quickly as possible and as it looked didn´t trust anyone else wih her safety.

Issei and the others had finally agreed with her request.

If everyone worked as planned, this other world could very soon become their new home… if it would go like that.

Everywhere, in different hideouts spread over Earth and the remains of the Underworld, groups of Devils and Fallen and their remaining allies were waiting for any news.

In this moment Issei was looking through the once again opened dimensional portal right into the other world.

He and his friends had volunteered to be the first scouting group in this new universe… and they would do everything to keep the same things that happened in their world from happening again.

End

This is finally the last chapter of the story. The last events are leading more or less directly to the characters appearance in Issei Hyoudou: the Guardian.

There are a few remaining plot-ideas that will maybe be used in the other stories.