Short explanation:
The Issei Hyoudou from the world labeled DxD Universe-01 by the organization of Interdimensional Warriors known as the Guardians had been resurrected by them after being killed by his world´s Raynare and later agreed to join them.
Raynare-01 at first didn´t think much about killing him, since she only saw him as a potential threat and liability to her own plans. But later came to deeply regret her actions as she met him again and also found out that she had only been used as a sacrificial pawn by Diodora Astaroth and Kokabiel.
His current team consists of the Raynare, Rias, Asia, Irina, Xenovia, Kiba and Murayama from his world, Gaeriel - a Fallen and former Angel, also from Universe-01, who had joined the Guardians over a century ago, the Kuroka of Universe-06 and recently Raiser and Yubelluna from Universe-05.
They had recently split up and one group let by Rias had met a new and possible dangerous version of Raiser Phenex.
xxx
Other notable versions of Issei:
Issei-05: Protagonist of the story Gods of Darkness. He and most other "surviving" characters travelled from the future of their world back to the present of DxD Universe-01.
His current harem consists of the Rias, Raynare, Akeno, Asia, Irina, Xenovia, Koneko, Kuroka, Ravel and Le Fay of his world.
Thousands of Devils and Fallen from DxD Universe-05 had fled their world and are currently living in the -01 world.
xxx
Issei-13: A psychotic and manical version of Issei. Filled with a fanatical hatred for the Devil Race and with complete disregard for everyone else. After his world´s Raynare refused to kill him, the evil version of Rias Gremory of his world lured him into a death trap to be mauled and killed and framed their Raynare for it.
He has currently joined the dimension travelling ancient race of Demons calling themselves the Erebos, along with the Raynare from Universe-17. Who was in opposite to most of her counterparts not just targeting Sacred Gear users, but was an actual follower of Kokabiel actually trying to provoke a war with the Devils, until Kokabiel´s plans were revealed and she joined the Devil Hunters to escape imprisonment..
xxx
Issei-15: Comes from a world where the Hyoudous are members of a Sorcerer Guilt and the Three Biblical Factions had lost most of their power after an devastating war with the Erebos Demons. Many Devils, including the Gremories, had been turned human and exiled themselves from the Underworld to escape their enemies.
He is a close friend and master of the human version of Rias - Rias MacGreymore.
xxx
Issei-019 (a.k.a Issei Ryojin): Not really Issei Hyoudou, but a Dragon Entity who incarnated in his form after the real Hyoudous died in an accident in his world.
xxx
Issei-06: Came from a universe where Rias and her entire peerage had been murdered, shortly after recruiting him. Died later in a fight with the Devil Hunters.
The Kuroka who is currently part of Issei-01´s team is originally from his world.
Chapter 7
DxD Universe-018
Rias group - that consisted of herself, Kiba, Universe-05´s versions of Raiser and Yubelluna and a somewhat reluctant Kuroka-06 - had now been scouting out the town for about a hour.
They were not aware yet that they had already been detected.
The ones who were following their movements for some time now, were the same Devils that were controlling this town.
In this case another version of Raiser and his Servants. Which also included another Rias and Akeno.
They had spend around an hour in this town before they, in an actually quite unspectacular way, made contact.
As Rias `exploration´ group was coming close to this world´s Kuoh Academy, they sensed the energy of a Devil close by. And as they entered the otherwise completely empty schoolyard, they saw a single figure, obviously waiting for them.
They recognized her as Raiser´s Servant Xuelan.
"Lord Raiser?" she said surprised as she recognized them. "I thought you were... inside the building?" she questioned.
But her eyes were then falling on Rias and Yubelluna, who she knew for sure were inside and she started to understand.
A moment later a magic transport-circle glowed up, one of the Phenex Clan.
And the ones who appeared inside of it were this Kuoh´s Raiser and at his sides another Yubelluna and Rias.
Rias-01 and her team slightly powered up and prepared themselves for trouble. Just in case this would turn into another case where they were accussed of impersonating the local Devils.
"I have been told that we have intruders in our territory," Native Raiser stated. "But I see what you are. You are travellers between the worlds, aren´t you?"
"You know about that?" Rias-01 asked.
And this guy was really not acting like the Raiser she was used to. On the other hand, maybe he was just hiding his ego better as the usual Raiser Phenex.
Still, so far the contact was going far better than they had hoped. Instead of the expected distrust, the natives already seemed to know what they were dealing with.
"Yes - we have actually met another traveller some time before," he stated. "She had been lost in this world as she told us and had no more way to leave. She was not a double of anyone we knew however, but instead of a human like race with supernatural power we have never seen before," he explained.
"Still - after we have found her, my `dear´ Rias here was generous enough to take her into her peerage."
The other Rias now took one step forward.
"Like my... husband had said, despite being an unknown race, after gotten to know her, we accepted her and gave her a new place to live here," Rias-018 said. "She had also told us about the existence of other versions of ourselves, like you."
Of course, Rias-01 thought sarcastically, looking at her double. It was not as if making someone your Servant - especially a being from a new race with unique characteristics - would not give you more benefits when the individual in question. Yet her counterpart acted as if she had done this person a personal favor.
Still - despite all that, something about her counterpart´s demeanor put her off. Something about it was just... strange. The meak mentality she sensed behind her words. Her subversion to Raiser, that she was obviously trying to hide behind confident words.
She had met a Rias who had been willingly married to Raiser before. But that one had otherwise not been much different than most of her counterparts she had met. But here...?
She felt nearly as if she was looking at a stranger with her face, instead of another version of herself with somewhat different circumstances.
But maybe it was just that this particular counterpart had, even before her marriage, just shaped up quite differently than it came to her personality. Like they said, character was shaped by circumstances.
xxx
Kuroka-06 had similar thoughts going through her head.
At least no one had addressed her about her own status as a Stray yet. Maybe the events leading to her killing her Master had never happened in this world. Or maybe she and Shirone never became Devils in the first place. Who knew? That was the tricky thing about these parallel worlds.
Still, given her personal experience, she had no high opinion on the entire Devil Faction. And here she was, literally surrounded by them.
But even she admitted, being recruited into a Devil peerage might beat being stranded by yourself in an unknown world - maybe.
It depended on the circumstances.
Still, the being the native Raiser was talking about was obviously the cause of the dimensional rift they were here to investigate.
xxx
Rias-01 came to the same conclusion. But - a human like race with supernatural powers? - so it was obviously not Kalawarner. That meant the main purpose for their visit was already for naught.
Maybe Issei´s group would actually get lucky.
"Well - this is really an interesting meeting," Native Raiser said, looking at the Raiser and Yubelluna they had brought with them.
"It is not every day you get to meet yourself. Right my dear Yubelluna?" he said to his Queen.
"Yes My Lord," she replied.
"Yes sure," their Raiser said as well.
He could not help it, but he felt similar to Rias. Something about this double of him just set him off.
"Tell me - are you and your Rias not married?" his counterpart asked him. "Didn´t your parents form the same marriage agreement that ours did?"
"They did... but things came differently," `their´ Raiser-05 stated a bit reluctantly. "Someone challenged me to it. I accepted and was caught off guard."
"I see. This somebody was not Issei Hyoudou, was he?" Native Raiser asked.
"He was."
"Yes - Hyudou-san challenged me as well." He gave a short side-glance at Rias double at his side as he said this. "But I had been warned about his and Sirzechs little tricks beforehand and could prepare."
"Now then," he said. "Let me introduce you to the rest of my Servants."
He made a gesture and another transport-circle appeared, a larger one.
And a large group of people materialized. Most of them were from Raiser´s peerage in their world, who they recognized. Ravel was there.
And also another Akeno. But the person standing next to her. At first they did not really recognize it, but her energy felt strange. There was Devil, but also something else. Not Angel or Fallen or even Yokai, but a kind of energy that felt somehow familiar to both Rias and Kiba.
It was save to say that she was the stranger from another world they had been talking about.
"Maybe you already recognize some of them," Native Raiser said.
Kiba was the first of them who suddenly recognized the face of the young woman. It had taken him a bit of time. But it was not as if they had truly interacted with her back then.
But he remembered her face from a briefing about a mission over two years ago. From scenes they had been shown from Issei´s own memories... about notable enemies.
"Rias," he said. "This girl there. You remember the mission two years ago, when you, Akeno, Irina and Kalawarner had been lost?"
As he said this, it hit her as well. Human with supernatural abilities, indeed. The girl before them was no one else than a member of the SHA - the genetic engineered warrior race of the Dark Order.
Both, she and Kiba nearly instinctively powered up. They were facing the enemy after all.
The Native Raiser only grinned.
"I see you have noticed my sweet Kara," he said.
"You know what she is?" Rias asked him.
"She has told us about her past. I guess you have encountered her kind before?" Native Raiser commented.
"Yes - and we have encountered her before," Kiba replied.
"Did she tell you that she was part of a group that wanted to engineer a war between humans and Devils and then tried to blow up half the planet when it didn´t work out?"
"Interesting. You did tell me about the war-plot. But not the last part," Native Raiser questioned.
"I had no actual part in my former leader´s last actions - My Lord," Kara stated.
Her gaze turned to Rias and Kiba.
"You were part of the Guardian group we were fighting back then?" she asked them. "At the end of the fight I had been mistransported due to Kheron´s doing and had been lost in this world."
"So did some of us," Kiba admitted matter of factly.
"Lord Raiser and Lady Rias had helped me and taken me in," Kara continued. "I did not even have contact with the Dark Order or the rest of my race for the last two years."
Rias could just not help herself. She did not believe her. She remembered from both the briefings and meeting them in fight just how fanatical the SHA were. There was no way that one of them would have willingly joined a Devil peerage. And even less actually be happy about it.
So she could not help to believe that this was some kind of trick. But for the moment, maybe it was better to play along with it.
"Whatever," Native Raiser stated. "What matters is that Kara has informed us about her past. But we guaranty you that she had not caused any trouble since she arrived here."
Rias eyes wandered to her counterpart. If she was actually Kara´s Master, why was she not the one telling them this? Had her other self truly lost all her will and let her husband run her own Peerage?
By the way...
"By the way Raiser, where is the rest of your wife´s Peerage?" Rias-01 asked. "I am not completely sure, but I also have Kiba here and Koneko Toujou as my Servants. Do you not?" she asked the other Rias.
"I-..." her counterpart answered hesitantly, "sadly my Kiba and Koneko went missing not long ago during a mission. We don´t know where they currently are. But my husband´s Servants are already looking for them.
"I see," Rias replied. Nothing suspicious here at all, she thought sarcastically to herself.
"Yes - that is true," Native Raiser said. "But for now - let us invite you inside."
Rias wanted to decline the offer. But if he feelings were right, a fight between them might break out right away if she did that directly.
"We will have to report back home first," she told him instead. "Afterwards we will gladly return and accept your invitation."
Or maybe rather not, she thought. Even if something about this group here had not set off every alarm-knock in her head, she was not sure if she had wanted to accept an invitation from this guy.
And with this SHA woman they had already found the source of the anomaly. So there was actually no real reason for them to return to this world. Except curiosity of course.
"That is too bad," Native Raiser replied. "Well - I hope that you will return soon."
Rias team activated a new portal and returned to their world quickly.
xxxxxxx
DxD Universe-01
Issei and his group had by now returned home and met with Gaeriel and Asia. They send a report about all what had happened to Guardian HQ and also a message to Rias group.
xxx
They also saw the three Strays they had taken in a few days earlier.
By now they had begann to undergo a special supernatural treatment to remove the effects of their Stray Devil mutations. Both the physical and the mental influences of it.
Ehron was now looking quite different from before. His skin, while still reddish, had a much lighter tone than before. His pointed ears were now looking far more healthy and ressembled more dog, worlf or fox ears.
For the two girls - Maya and Rey - the effects of the Stray Mutation were also visibly decreased. Not as much as Ehron´s, but they had also been less affected than him from the beginning.
In another few days from now on, they would be send to the Guardian Headquarter, together with a few other former Strays who requested asylum during the last month, to get their Evil Pieces removed permanently.
xxx
But currently they had far more urgent problems than that. The Erebos Demons had invaded and completely devastated and conquered one parallel Underworld and had already made moves on several other realities.
Not to mention the fight they nearly had that were only stopped by two versions of Ophis.
There had to be something done about them. But the final decision how to continue from here would be made by the Senior Guardians.
That way or another, this had been the start of a new Interdimensional War. The question was how much further would this escalate and who else would get involved?
"And what do we now?" Asia had asked them after they send it.
"We wait," had Gaeriel simply said.
"Just that?" Murayama asked.
"I fear there is not much else we can do," Issei stated.
Irina and Xenovia were meanwhile reporting in person to the Church and Raynare had gone to Grigori HQ for the same reason.
xxxxxxx
It were three different messages that Issei was receiving during the course of the evening.
The first one was Rias report when she and her team returned.
She and the others had been shocked when they heard about the destruction of the alternate Underworld by the Erebos and their confrontation with the others when they attempted to invade even one more world.
An that they were forced back by the surprising appearance of two Ophis.
If they were honest none of them knew what to make of this.
Afterwards Rias told them their own experiences. About her meeting with the other Raiser, and his peerage - including a SHA warrior they had met 2 years ago, who was obviously the cause of the dimensional rift in that world.
She also mentioned her suspicions that had caused her to return as fast as possible.
Rias suspicion very quickly turned out to be correct, when they found a small object on Yubelluna´s clothes.
"This is a tracer," Gaeriel said, holding the very small mechanical device in her hand. "It is a quite simply design and only fulfills a single actual purpose, to send a single short signal through hyperspace," she explained.
"And that means that the receiver now knows which universe we come from."
"That other version of Raiser?" Kuroka-06 stated.
"And this SHA for sure," Issei commented.
"Certainly - this technology is being used by the Guardians... and also by the Dark Order," Gaeriel pointed out.
"So if this Kara was using it for Raiser´s sake..." Kiba said.
"And with a SHA soldier at least pretending to be part of his peerage," Rias added.
"Then he might be working for them," Issei concluded. "Or at least being manipulated by them."
"I guess that means it was a very good thing that you returned right away Rias," Asia said. "Who knows what might have happened to you all."
"But that also means that they knew our universe, if I understand you right?" Murayama pointed out. "That means if they are really working for them, they could maybe show up here whenever they want."
"I have to apologize Lord Raiser," Yubelluna said to him. "I should have noticed them placing this thing on me. I have failed you."
Raiser gritted his teeth for a short moment.
"Don´t worry about it. I lost my guard down myself for a few moments," he said.
"By the way Rias, what tipped you of so quickly? You have been distrustful nearly from the start."
"Two things," Rias stated. "First, even if we were married, I would never be as submissive to you as my counterpart was to him. And second, this guy was just too polite for a version of you."
"Hey," Yubelluna called out.
"Okay - seriously," Rias said a bit defensively. "You could always be kind of an arrogant jerk. But you were always straightforward about it. While Yubelluna always made a good job at acting as your primery slut."
"Hey!" Yubelluna called out once again.
"This guy however seemed to be somewhat, well - slimy," Rias continued.
"What do you mean - primary slut?" Yubelluna asked angrily.
"Well - you certainly act the part," Kuroka-06 stated sardonically. "I mean your dress and your behavior practically screams: `Lord Raiser push me down and fuck me however you want.´"
"As if you are one to talk here," Raiser´s Queen replied. "With your kimono being cut especially to present your breasts to the entire world."
For a short moment, Kuroka nearly unconciously looked down at her own chest and then Yubelluna´s.
"I guess that makes both of us then, given your top," she retorted.
Murayama had to giggle loud at the two´s antics.
Even Asia had a smile and looked like he could barely keep herself from laughing.
Kalawarner did not even tried to keep her laughter in.
"It feels good to be back with you guys," she commented.
Only Gaeriel managed to keep a straight face.
"Ladies-" Issei interrupted them. "I personally think both of your breasts are under the best I have ever seen. No need to fight about it," he said with a grin.
"I see you have not changed much," Kalawarner said.
"In many ways I actually have," he replied.
He remembered how his powers got out of control. His training, mentally and physically.
xxx
The second message was the reply from the Headquarter. They told him that they would contact all worlds of the DxD Cluster, in particular their versions of the Three Factions and send a warning to them.
Meanwhile Irina and Xenovia were returning from the Church. They had been transported directly to the Vatican to report their team´s latest discoveries and back.
"Have you already heard anything?" Irina asked him.
Raynare was still in Grigori HQ. Issei had been told that she would give an official recount of the events to the Grigori Leaders as a whole first and then have a personal meeting with Lord Azazel afterwards.
Issei thought about the `special agreement´ he and Raynare had regarding Azazel. And he imagined the things they might be doing together during this `private´ meeting.
Still, as the guy with a harem, he was hardly in the position to critizise her here. She had been pretty straightforward about her feelings for Azazel from the beginning. (After stopping to pretend to be an innocent human schoolgirl to get close to him at least.)
Their agreement was quite simple actually. She had the right to made moves on Azazel and have sex with him whenever she wanted if he agreed. Issei had the same right with practically every other female he saw.
So it was actually pretty unfair in his own favor. Like he said, he hardly had a place to be jealous here.
He remembered that even his older counterpart from Universe-05 had a similar agreement with his Raynare regarding the Grigori leader. Even if their world´s Azazel died a long time ago.
Maybe he should have sex with Irina, Asia, Murayama or Rias to distract himself, he thought. Gaeriel would also be an option. But she had too much to do and had to stay in contact with the headquarter right now.
Whatever, he told himself - they would probably not be in the mood today, after what had happened. Who would be?
Hell - he himself was not really in the mood if he thought about it. And that said a lot when it came to him.
He remembered the few scenes of the completely scorched Underworld their probe had taken. Issei could only imagine the full scale of the destruction.
For a few moments he felt really low to have sex even cross his mind when millions had died like that.
For a second he only felt sick at the sheer thought of what had happened.
If he thought about it, he was pretty sure that Raynare and Azazel would not be doing anything either, at least not today.
So much for that topic.
He remembered that there had been so far two open conflicts between the Guardians and the Dark Order since both organizations became the interdimensional forces they were today.
A very large one around 700 years ago, going by their own world´s history and a smaller one around sixty years ago. But even the `smaller one´ still meant the destruction of entire worlds.
Both of them made the Great War between the Three Factions look like a little skirmish. And that didn´t even bring up all the other threats out there - like the creatures called the Old Ones.
The rest of the time had mostly been spend in the same Cold War state they had now.
But many of the Senior Guardians, he knew, believed that it was beginning again. That a new greater conflict would start soon. He had spoken about it with Darien and Spectre during his two year training on Hyrion a few times.
And there was of course the story that his own older self and the other Universe-05 `refugees´ had told about the conflict with the Dark Order in the `future´ of their universe. A conflict that had nearly destroyed their world.
It had been the first concrete evidence about an apocalyptic conflict in the close future. A `future´, that had been a future two years ago and should now be about to become present.
How often had massacres like this and worse ones happened before? Would they be happening again now?
Suddenly the thought of doing anything particular lustfull with the girls was the least important thing on his mind.
xxx
It was the third message he got at that day however was the one that really stunned him.
"They are telling us that we are invited to a conference that they want to hold," Issei told the others.
"What kind of conference?" Irina asked.
"A meeting with the leaders of the Three Factions. But..."
"That is all?" Rias exclaimed.
"Let me finish. A meeting of the leaders of the Three Factions of all the universes we are in contact with," Issei said.
"What?" Xenovia called out. "You mean...?"
"Yes - we are going to contact and invite a great load of Sirzechs, Azazels and Michaels from several worlds," he announced. "And Darien and the others want us to repeat our report about what had happened to all of them."
The others were looking at him dumbfounded. Was he serious?
xxxxxxx
Back in Universe-18
Raiser and his followers were back in what had once been the club-room of the Occult Research Club.
Aside of himself, there were also Yubelluna present, Kara, his `wife´ Rias, Ravel, Akeno and Xuelan... and also another person.
This other person was none other than... a second Rias Gremory.
"You see - this is what happened," he said to the apparation of a female figure in a black cloak. "Following my plan, Phantom had placed the tracer on them and we were able to locate the home-universe of this group of Guardian agents - Lady Thenis."
"I see," the apparation just replied.
"I could destroy them for you, attack their base when they are off guard and you and the Dark Order would have one problem less My Lady," Raiser claimed.
"If they don´t destroy you instead," Thenis - one of the Lords of the Dark Order - replied. "You admitted yourself that you have only seen a part of their team. You don´t know what they are capable of."
"I am willing to take that risk. I am confident in the power you have bestowed me with," he declared. "And as a reward I would only ask for the usual thing."
"Their Rias Gremory and all the females under her Servants that you can get your hands on - to do with as you please," Thenis responded instantly with a slight edge in her tone.
Of course, she thought. What else would it be?
It was not hard for everyone present to notice that the female Lord did her best to keep her annoyance out of her voice. Actually it was quite obvious.
"Then do this," she finally replied. "If this is your wish, you are free to try," she said.
"But let me make one thing clear. The purpose of this attack will be to neutralize this group and not to aquire new playthings for you... or to torment another Rias Gremory. Don´t fail again."
"I did not fail..." Raiser started to reply.
"You heard the conditions. Do what you want to. But if you start this attack, then I expect success," Thenis interrupted him.
"Yes My Lady," Raiser answered darkly.
"Good." The apparation disappeared.
Raiser and his Servants and allies were left behind in the room.
`Insane megalomanic bitch,´ he thought silently to himself.
His face turned expressionless for a few seconds and he balled his fists.
Then, for a split-second he showed a face of pure anger. But then just a few moments later he got his composure back.
He turned around to the others in the room and was once again his usual smug self. At least on the outside.
Still, it angered him that this bitch he still had to call his Master could talk him down in front of his own Servants like this. And that he could do nothing about it.
His eyes then fell on the one - or rather two - persons in the room, who could help him to relieve his anger... in the most pleasant way. The question was just which one of thm to take?
He decided for the one standing closer to him. The one he knew would give him a better response.
"Rias my dear - can you come over here for a moment?" he asked. He asked the one he had introduced earlier as his wife.
She did what he told her.
"Good. Now unbutton your top and let this large breasts of yours out. Pull down your panties and bend down over the desk."
He said this in a completely casual tone.
Once again she followed his command without any hesitation. Even in front of everyone else.
Her breasts were were exposed to all people in the room and they all could see her loose panties hanging between her legs.
"Good," he said.
As she had bend herself over, he stepped behind her and opened his own trousers.
Without any more words or any restraint, he lifted up her skirt and pushed his already hard member into her roughly.
"You know, I have to say - your spoiled filthy little cunt feels just as good as always my dear," he said to her.
"T-thank you my Lord," she answered nearly automatically.
He started to thrust into her hard - violently. The desk was shaking wildly from his thrusts.
Rias-18 let out a small suppressed wince at one point. But otherwise she showed no outer signs of pain and made barey any noise while he continued fucking her brutally.
"Yes." he hissed.
"Aren´t you happy?" he asked her after a few more strokes.
"Aren´t you happy that you have someone who can put you to good use like this? After all this is all you are good for," he said with an particular hard thrust that nearly tripped over the desk.
"Y-yes Master - I am so glad that I have you - Ah," she answered. "I am just a useless spoiled brat who is only good for spreading her legs," she said, sounding as if she truly believed it.
"I would be nothing without you - Ahh!" she cried out.
The others in the room were just watching the perverted display silently, as if it were a daily occurance.
Actually it was.
After a minute more it was finally over as he came inside her with one last hard move.
"Very good," he said.
Rias-18 was standing up again. Moving slowly and somewhat robotically.
For a split-second she showed a short shameful look on her face. She avoided eye contact with anyone else in the room. But otherwise betrayed no reaction to the obscene and humiliating experience she had just gone through in front of them all.
Someone else she didn´t really want to look at was the other version of herself in the room. But somehow she could just not help herself and took a gaze right at her.
It was just as she expected, this empty broken expression.
For a moment her mind drifted back to the scene of herself screaming in horror, pain and humiliation, as Raiser was lying on top of her for the firt time and how she was desperately trying to push him away as he was having his way with her.
He was right about one thing, she knew. Without her brother or her parents standing behind her she was nothing. He had proofed that to her all too often.
Then she remembered seeing the dead bodies of people he had killed in front of her, people she had known.
She had once thought living with the Raiser Phenex she was originally supposed to marry would be terrible. Looking back Rias-18 could only laugh at how naive she had been.
Not after knowing the monster that had killed him and taken his place, had murdered her brother. He had even brought another version of herself from his own world who he had already turned into his broken minded slave.
"Do you want to use me as well Master?" the second Rias asked flatly.
"Later," he said. "I will toy with both of you a bit later."
He laid his fingers on her chin in a ironically soft gesture.
"You would like that, don´t you?" he asked.
"Like?" she asked, as if the word were truly a foreign concept to her.
"All what matters is what you like Master," she said.
"Very right." He grinned. "It is good that you understand that."
"Excuse me for the short interruption," he said to the others in the room. "I just wanted to... well, let off some steam. You understand, right?"
None of them said anything. He did not expect them to. He was doing things like this all too often for that.
"Now then - let us continue," he said to them with a friendly smile.
xxxxxxx
M Universe-01 - Homeworld of the Guardians and the Dark Order
Far away in every sense of the word...
`Degenerated debauched prick,´ Thenis thought silently to herself, regarding her so called Agent she had just communicated with.
Thenis physical self was now standing in deep thought in her personal quarters on the capital-planet of the SHA Empire in the Triangulum Galaxy - In the same universe where both the Guardians and the Dark Order had originally originated from.
Sometimes Thenis asked herself why she had ever recruited this guy in the first place?
Of course the answer was quite obvious. Because at that time he had seemed like a convenient and useful tool to destabilize the Devil Faction in his home universe, seed unrest... and in the best case cause a civil-war.
It had been nothing too special actually. Just one of the many operations of the Dark Order across the Multiverse to destabilize societies and saw conflict.
With the power and new allies she had given him, he should have been able to assassinate the Maou of his world and make it look like an internal conflict. At least as long as they were being caught off guard and he actually followed the plan.
His obsession with Rias Gremory however, that had grown more and more out of hand, had gotten in the way. He had shown more interest in kidnapping her than actually getting though with their scheme. So he got sloppy and one of the Satans survived his assault.
Not only that, this fool could not help to brag about how he had been given `even greater´ power by someone. And so the Devils figured out that an outside force was behind Raiser´s attack. As a result that world´s Devil Faction ended up weaker, but actually more united than before.
Of course a short time later the Fallen Angels attacked, after hearing about the death of most of the Satans had died and weakened and destabilized both Factions anyway and levelled the road for their own plans in that world.
So she ultimately got what she had wanted. The problem was only that it was not achieved through her plans, but through - well, dumb luck. Had the Fallen Angel Leader Kokabiel not used exactly that time to start an attack, Raisers actions would have achieved the exact opposite from what she intended.
A few of the other Lords had even openly critizised her for recruiting `such an unworthy creature´ in the first place.
So while not really important in the grand scheme of things, this entire matter was a personal sore spot for her.
Beside that, she knew for some time now that Raiser intended to betray her.
To her luck she had already found a replacement for him. Someone who was far more competent and reliable. And he had every intention to take Raiser down.
xxx
Should he go after this Guardian team, she thought.
If they killed him it would be no loss to her anymore and if he actually won, the Dark Order would have one group of enemies less.
In any case, if Raiser survived, she would use the chance to send her new Champion after him.
"I see you are deep in your thoughts. Are you considering your options?" a mental voice said to her.
"Faust," she greeted him. "Did you just red my thoughts?"
He materialized himself right beside her. This time in flesh and blood. She knew that this was actually his true body.
"That was really not needed. The mental conversation you just had with your former agent could hardly be missed," he said. "So what you are thinking about was not hard to guess."
"I see."
"You should have chosen a better candidate in the first place," he mentioned pointedly. "Or at least not given him this kind of unearned power. You gave him a might that he should never had. And thanks to the `special ability´ you thought him, he could get even stronger. The unworthy should be weeded ou, not helped to get on top over more worthy candidates."
"So you have said before," she replied. "I have already found a better candidate. If Raiser will srvive his little game, he will challenge him. All according to the code of the Dark Order."
"If you had followed it better in the first place, you would not have the entire problem," he commented. "By the way - in your talk I have overheard that your creature is planning to attack a certain group of new Guardians. I am curious how things will turn out."
xxxxxxx
DxD Universe-01 - Underworld - 3 days later
It was clearly the strangest meeting that Issei and the others - or even Gaeriel, who had been an agent of the Guardians for centuries - had ever taken part in.
They were all gathered in the great hall in the Underworld, where the Heads of the Great Houses of the Devil Faction were usually meeting. Today however it was quite a different picture.
Sitting in the seats were, instead of the Heads of the Devil Clans, various different versions of Sirzechs and Serafall, Falbium or Ajuka, Azazel and Shemhazai and Michael and Gabriel.
All in all it were over a dozen of each of them.
Far at the right side of the room were the Sirzechs, Grayfia, Serafall, Michael, Gabriel, Azazel and Shemhazai of Universe-17 - that they had recently made contact with. Also present were the Rias and Sona of this world, with their Queens Akeno and Tsubaki, and their Asia, since they were the ones they had directly interacted with.
They and Raynare and Irina had exchanged a short greeting after arriving here.
Then there were the Sirzechs, Falbium, Azazel and Michael from the reality where Issei had been an Exorcist, each of them accompanied by a small number of guards. The same world that had come in direct contact with the SHA two years ago.
The Exorcist version of Issei and his team were the ones flanking their world´s Michael. They were a few of the others Issei and his friends were exchanging a short greeting with, at seeing them again after two years.
Then there were Michael, Griselda Quarta, Sirzechs, Falbium, Azazel and Baraquiel from the world were Rias and Raiser had been more or less happily married.
And others.
The Sirzechs from Universe-06 - the same one where their team´s Kuroka came from and where Rias and nearly her entire peerage had been killed in an assassination by an Dark Order agent - was looking with a sad expression at the multiple Rias here. He himself was flanked by his own Grayfia and Serafall.
With other words, the entire hall was a single chaos waiting to break out.
xxx
Standing out under them all were the representants of DxD Universe-15, who were also old `friends´ of Issei´s team.
They were not the usual Faction Leaders, but instead the Hyoudou´s - who were members of one of the powerful wizard-guilds in their world and the Himejimas - that meant Shuri, Akeno and Baraquiel.
With them were also the more or less plain looking human version of Rias and her brother, a human Sirzechs.
And of course the Dragon being named Issei Ryujin from DxD Universe-19 they had recently met.
xxx
"So this is what we have seen so far," Raynare-01 ended her recount of the latest events. She and Issei had just together given a short description of their last mission...
... and had then shown the entire room the footage of their probe-drone that showed the invasion of the Erebos Demons on one parallel Underworld and the complete destruction of the Devil Capital Lilith and the entire surrounding area.
Followed directly by footage from a second probe they had send a short time later, that confirmed that not only the town, but the greatest part of that Underworld had been turned into a liveless wasteland.
It didn´t need to be said that the pictures caused shock and horror in the entire hall.
They continued them with a short description of the Erebos intrusion in Universe-19 and how it was stopped by Ophis. With Issei Ryujin confirming this part of their story.
"While the Devil Faction is their main target," Issei explained, "and they show a perfect willingness to commit genocide against them, they had also shown again and again that they are also perfectly willing to attack other Factions or even completely unrelated people to spread chaos or if it serves their purposes otherwise."
They continued to show them more footage. This time from a very modern looking, obviously human, city. They could however see that several buildings had been damaged or destroyed and that police and ambulances were crowding the streets on the ground.
"The pictures you see here come from a world where Devils, Angels or Fallen had never even gotten involved with the human race mentionable. But forces of the Erebos still attacked them for some reason," Issei-01 explained.
"This world however also possess a number of humans with supernatural and superhuman powers called Espers, who together with the regular military had been able to stop them and force them back."
This caused a small murmur to go trough the room. It seemed a few of their guests were unused to the idea of humans defeating a supernatural race. Good - let them briden their horizon.
Rias-01 stood up and walked to the center of the room.
"They also have a group of special agents called the Devil Hunters," she continued their explanation. "This group consists of versions of Vali Lucifer, Kuroka and Koneko - alias Shirone - Toujou, Issei Hyoudou and the Fallen Angel Raynare, a unknown man calling himself Nero and temporally Freed Selzen and the Fallen Mittelt from different worlds.
Like the name of their group suggests, their purpose consists of attacking and killing Devil peerages, but also sabotage, assassinations and destabilization.
They for example had their Kuroka assassinate your Pope and let it look like your world´s Kuroka was responsible, to cause further conflict between you and the Devils to weaken them."
She was looking at Universe-06´s Michael and Sirzechs.
"This is true Lord Michael," Xenovia-01 stated.
"We can confirm it," Irina-01 added.
"I see," Michael-06 said.
This was followed by a description from the Sorcerer versions of Issei´s parents, of how a war with the Erebos who had invaded their world centuries ago had nearly caused the fall of the Three Biblical Factions and turned their power into a shadow of what it had been before.
With some Devil Families going so far to turn themselves human and go into exile in the Human World to escape persecution. Something that the human versions of Rias and Sirzechs beside them, who confirmed their story, were the living proof of.
Issei and his team followed with the likely suspicion that the Erebos had some kind of alliance with an encient cosmic super being.
"The question is," Issei then adressed them all, "what will you all do about this threat?"