My writing schedule is on my profile, so check that out to see what I'm writing and when it will be released! Before you send me a PM or ask in a review!
Read, Review and Check out my other works!
Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DXD.
"Rias" – Speech
'Issei' – Thought
[BOOST!] - Sacred Gear Ability/ Ddraig and Albion Speech
Beta'd by BigCC
DXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDDXDDXD
"No…no…thi…this can't be happening…they're gone…! I'm…alone…again…!"
*Sobbing sounds*
"No…No, I will not stand for this." *Heavy Angry Breathing* "To hell with causality and fate! To hell with moving on! I don't care about anything else anymore! Not my life, and not the lives of others!"
*Smashing and banging sounds*
"Amadeus…! You alone…you alone, I will never forgive! I don't care how much blood I have to shed in order to do it, but I swear…I swear on my soul that I will get my sisters back! Even if it should mean my death!"
- A recording of Mei Schwarzwald, after the death of her Peerage.
DXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDDXDDXD
The Twenty-First Move: Desperado
Throne Room, Palace of the Maō
"RIAS!" Sirzechs roared, surging to his feet as the screen evaporated into static. For just an instant, the Crimson Lucifer's legendary control slipped, wisps of crimson energy escaping and floating off his body as his eyes started in terror at the screen.
Nearly every other being in the room instantly twitched, most trying to decide whether they should try and calm the redheaded Super Devil down or simply start running.
Before the Maō could completely lose control, and likely vaporize the entirety of the Palace and everyone in it in the process, a bright flash filled the room. This was quickly followed by a rapid series of yelps as Rias Gremory and most of her Peerage appeared, landing in a heap on the floor of the Throne Room.
Sirzechs' focus and control returned in an instant, the small wisps of [Power of Destruction] vanishing as he instantly moved to his sister's side, quickly checking her over with a dozen subtle spells that he had learned by heart over the years. He could only let out a small sigh of relief when it showed that aside from a jarred tail-bone, she was completely fine.
"Onii-sama?" Rias looked up at him from the ground in confusion. "What...we were in Mei's throne room, but then…"
"Then Amadeus dealt a fatal injury to her." Azazel said grimly. "She then cast a spell so powerful that it obliterated any of the observation devices and spells in the throne room. I think that you are all lucky that Mei installed high-level versions of the Rating Game's safety spells."
"Issei...where's my Issei?!" Rias had been looking around frantically to count her Peerage and fellows. Everyone was accounted for, except for Issei.
"Likely still at Mei's Palace." Sirzechs said, now suitably reassured that his baby sister was safe. "That collar Artificial Sacred Gear he wears probably changes the frequency of his Evil Piece to register as a part of her Peerage rather than yours so long as he's wearing it. Still, we have to start finding out what on earth is going on…particularly what Amadeus was planning to do with the Sacred Gears of his Peerage."
"We were never his Peerage." a cold voice answered softly. Amakusa Chiaki was leaning against one of the walls, a bitter look on her face. "The loyalty of every one of us was always to Mei-nee-sama, and her alone. Amadeus was an outcast in his own Peerage, not that the bastard ever cared."
"You…!" Akeno hissed, moving between the Stray Devil and her Peerage.
"Do you want to kill me, Priestess of Thunder?" Chiaki asked with a dead voice. "The last of my family is going to die soon, so sending me off first would only be a comfort now."
Yellow lightning crackled around the Nephilim's arms as she glared at the one who defeated her with such contemptuous ease before.
"None of that." Azazel said firmly, moving to stand slightly behind the young Queen. "Chiaki-chan, I think its well past time that we got the whole story about what's going on. Now is not the time for you to seek death, particularly with Amadeus likely still out and working towards his own goals. Do you want him to have even the slightest chance of succeeding? Of letting the horrors he committed against you and your family be validated?"
That jolted her out of her state of self-nihilism, and she looked at Azazel with a glare for a moment, before slumping down to the floor.
"What do you want to know?" she asked.
"What is Amadeus' objective?" Ajuka asked, blunt and to the point.
"The death of every single creature who has accepted an Evil Piece or has touched a King Monument." Chiaki replied blankly.
"Wh...what?!" the cry that followed was nearly unanimous. All the supernatural beings reacting in shock, terror, or sheer disbelief.
"You mean he wishes to kill every Reincarnated Devil in existence." Azazel said, trying to clarify and absorb the shocking revelation they'd just been handed.
"No, I said what I meant and I meant what I said." the Stray Devil stated mercilessly. "Amadeus is a misogynistic, cowardly, classist, speciesist slimeball; he loathes powerful female Devils, but he utterly despises the mere concept of Reincarnated Devils. He honestly believes that the Devil Race should have gone extinct and 'died with dignity' rather than diluting their blood. The bastard honestly believes that any Devil who took part in the 'farce' that is the Evil Piece system, whether by accepting a piece themselves or by becoming a [King] doesn't deserve to live."
"It's one thing to say that kind of thing, but another to be willing to act on it. Besides, he accepted an Evil Piece set himself." Serafall pointed out coldly. Her seriousness was evident, as her own sister was threatened by this situation.
"And he despised every moment of it, I can assure you of that." Chiaki answered slowly, her eyes going distant. "As for why, that goes back to something Mei-nee-sama learned during her time as a Stray. Ever since the four new Maō won the Devil Civil War and established the Evil Piece and Rating Game Systems, there have been a number of members of the former 72 Pillar Families that have wanted to move against it. Most were simply talk, just angry nobles muttering amongst themselves about the glory days, but several actually worked toward abolishing both."
Chiaki stopped and breathed in deeply. "One sect of dissenters believed they discovered a way to achieve their goal of 'cleansing' the Devil Race and they have been searching for the keys to it...until Amadeus found them all before using the same system they despised to put them all under his control and constantly within his reach."
"Sacred Gears? The specific Sacred Gears that your sisters wielded?" Azazel asked, sharply.
"No...just any one of their type." the former Bael [Pawn] shook her head. "Any [Twice Critical], any [Fangs of the Blue Dragon], any [Second Hand of Time] and [Wedge of Time]...any of them would do. They act as keys to activate the weapon that was sealed away in Lilith."
"In the old capital?" Sirzechs asked, a horrible suspicion coming over him. "What weapon?"
"The Atonement Ritual System." Chiaki stated, which made all of the present Maō go rigid.
"How did they find out about that...abomination?" Ajuka demanded.
"How should I know?" the Stray Devil shrugged. "I only know what Nee-sama told me."
"What is this...Atonement Ritual System?" Rias asked. "Onii-sama? Serafall-sama?"
"It's an abomination that should never have been created." Sirzechs said, his voice tight.
"A bit of elaboration would be appreciated, Sirzechs." Azazel said dryly.
Sirzechs, Serafall and Ajuka exchanged glances before Ajuka started to speak.
"It started shortly after the Devil Civil War had ended." the inventor of the Evil Pieces offered hesitantly. "Back then, the Devil Race was divided. More than just the Old Maō Faction and our Anti-Satan Faction, there were dozens if not hundreds of smaller groups that had either stayed out of the fighting, or at least on the peripherals, and were pursuing their own goals. One of these factions called them the Redeemers and had mostly kept their heads down in Lilith itself. Before the magical cataclysm struck Lilith, they had managed to put the finishing touches on what we can only classify as a pseudo-Artificial Sacred Gear that they'd dubbed the [Head of Pandemonium] that was set to be the lynchpin for their final plan, the Atonement Ritual System."
"If there's one thing that both the Original Maō and we would have agreed on, it was that such a blighted idea should have never been created." Serafall put in, a look of disgust marring her usually cheerful features. "The Redeemers, they were…well, to call them heretics and lunatics would have been a gross understatement. They wanted to 'undo' our original sin, to transmigrate all Devils into Angels."
"That's…impossible." Azazel said blankly after a moment of shocked silence filled the room. "Angels are Light and Devils are Shadow. You simply can't convert from one to the other like that."
"Theoretically it is possible. Shadow and Light are simply opposites on the same spectrum of energy…or at least that was the theory those deranged idiots wanted to believe." Ajuka scoffed, showing just how much stock he put into that 'theory.' "Their creation was supposed to flip the spectrum as it was, converting all Shadow in the Underworld into Light and thereby transforming Devils into Angels. Instead…it was a massacre."
"Once they initiated the system, the vast majority of its creators were simply…disassembled." Sirzechs continued, shaking his head in distaste. "Their bodies were converted into pure Shadow before being dispersing. The entire Underworld was lucky they'd decided to use the device on themselves first, deciding that they'd 'earned' the right to be reborn first. One young fool had luckily been on the outer edge of the device's area of effect and had managed to avoid getting caught in it when she saw what it was doing to her fellows. Terrified at what had become of most of her colleagues and friends, the Devil slapped a seal of some kind onto the system, requiring specific keys to be unlocked, which were unlikely to be taken, as she chose Sacred Gears as the keys, choosing common, uncommon and rare ones to make it as hard as possible for them to be gathered in one place."
"And the system was still left intact because...why?" Azazel asked, seemingly mildly, but the disgust in his voice and expression for such a device was evident.
"Because the after-effects of its activation had rendered Lilith and a good chunk of the surrounding Underworld into a magical wasteland, saturated by the resulting surge of….tainted magical energies." Ajuka stated coldly. "The activation of the Atonement Ritual System, even on such a small scale, had damaged the very magical structure of the Underworld, causing a sudden surge of toxic, chaotic magical energy as magic itself was dissolved and twisted by it. We were lucky enough to be able to evacuate Lilith in time, but by the time we found out what had caused it and what they were planning, we couldn't get near the source of it all."
"Even today, Lilith is still caught in the after-effects. The entire city is caught up in a vast maelstrom of destructive and toxic magic." Serafall pointed out. "Anyone who tries to enter would be melted, ripped apart, mutated beyond recognition, vaporized or some disgusting combination of all the above before they could get anywhere near the source. Even among the four of us, only Sirzechs has a real chance of making it through and we're not even sure he could make it through unscathed."
Ajuka nodded. "So, with the [Head of Pandemonium] and the rest of the system not only contained within that hell-mouth, but also locked behind a powerful and well-locked seal, we decided the best course was to keep it quiet. The only survivor of the Redeemers killed herself shortly after she contacted us with this information out of shame and horror at what she and her colleagues had almost done, so all the data regarding the Redeemers, the Head, and the Atonement Ritual System classified as Maō-Eyes Only and put into severe lockdown. We've kept constant monitoring over Lilith, under the case of seeing if there's any change in the toxic conditions, in order to make sure no one tried to access it. We thought we'd taken enough precautions to end the matter there."
"And apparently we were wrong." Sirzechs put in tiredly, before turning his attention to the Stray Devil. "Chiaki, we need to know how Amadeus found out about this. We put the information regarding the Atonement Ritual System under the highest-levels of classification and a gag order for anyone who had an inkling about it."
"Like I said, I don't know the details. Just that someone leaked the information to the group that despises the Evil Piece System." Chiaki shrugged. "I don't know how they managed to get to Lilith, or how they made an area that is shielded from the magic there, not even Nee-sama knows that, but whoever it is shared it with Roan and Regalia Bael; their hidden fortress was out in the shallow parts of the magical wastes."
"Information worth knowing." Azazel mused. "But I fail to see...oh...they altered its targeting parameters didn't they? Likely changing them from 'Any Being with a Shadow Core' to 'Any Being touched by the Power of an Evil Piece.' The energies released by the Evil Piece System are certainly unique enough that such a kind of targeting system would be fairly easy to modify."
"Yeah." the Stray Devil confirmed. "The seal itself is actually only containing the activation key, the rest of the Atonement Ritual System was still accessible once they were able to reach it. After they did that, all they had to do was encourage various younger members and their own descendants to become a part of the Evil Piece System themselves so they could gather the Sacred Gears needed to undo the seal."
"But...if they activated it, wouldn't their family members...die?" Asia asked in disbelief.
"As Mei-nee-sama said, 'a necessary sacrifice for a better world...or so they believe.'" Chiaki said with a sigh, looking up at the ceiling. "Now that Amadeus has stolen the Sacred Gears of my deceased sisters, there's only one Sacred Gear left that he has to collect...[Fatal Attraction]."
"Mei's Sacred Gear. We need to track her down and ensure that she isn't captured by Amadeus." Sirzechs said, eyes narrowed, only to be surprised when Chiaki laughed at him.
"Do you...do you really think my sister is just sitting around, waiting to die?" the Stray Devil scoffed once she finished laughing. "Or that a louse like Amadeus is even capable of doing so without drugging her food like what happened to us three years ago? No, there is only one place that Mei-nee-sama will have gone...to Lilith itself, to end things between her and Amadeus, once and for all."
"And offering him a chance to claim the last key to the Atonement Ritual System! Why is she being so foolish!" Ajuka barked in irritation.
"Because...she's dying." Chiaki answered softly, eyes shining with unshed tears. "She sacrificed and bargained away her lifespan in order to gain the knowledge and wisdom to attain her goal, and now the one she despises with all her being has ripped what little time she had left away from her. She's going to kill Amadeus again or die trying. She has to, in order to make everything she's done, and everyone she's hurt up until now, worth it."
"You knew all this...so you've been telling us all of this without hesitation or filter...specifically to delay us and give your sister more time to reach her destination." Serafall said seriously. The eyes of everyone instantly turned to the Stray Devil, who merely stared off into the distance, her eyes dead.
"I suspected that was half of the reason, the least important one, that Mei-nee-sama sent me here." the former Bael [Pawn] shrugged. "As for the other half...I'm all she has left. I'm the last living member of her family, and she doesn't want me to risk my life in what is to come. And, as always, she's calculated everything perfectly. I couldn't run away or escape from here if I tried, even if I used my [Balance Breaker], not with three of the Four Maō and the former Governor-General of the Fallen Angels nearby. I'd have a better chance of seducing an Angel."
"That isn't actually as hard as it sounds, take it from me." Azazel snarked, jerking his head at a certain twin-tailed girl, Irina blushing brightly at the insinuation.
"As much as it pains me to go along with the machinations of someone who has been tormenting my sister and her Peerage, I don't think we have a choice but to follow Mei's trail on this." Sirzechs sighed in exasperation. "Azazel, take her to the prison block...well away from where we're keeping Roan and Regalia, if you please."
As Chiaki got up she managed to smirk with confidence one last time.
"I will be nice enough to give you one final reason to fear my sister." she said as she walked forwards. "She infiltrated the realm of the Norse Gods two years ago. Specifically, she entered Jötunheimr, went to the Well of Mímir and drank deeply from it. I'll leave it to the former Valkyrie to tell you what that means."
When she and Azazel had left the room, all eyes turned to a wide-eyed Rossweisse, who flushed under the gazes.
"Mímisbrunnr, or Mímir's Well, is the place in Jötunheimr where Lord Odin sacrificed one of his eyes in exchange for great wisdom and intelligence." she informed them faintly. "If she speaks truly, then it would explain why Mei Schwarzwald's lifespan has been shortened so dramatically. Mímir's Well is extremely powerful; even a single drop of the water from the Well could kill a lesser being. Of all the gods, Lord Odin is the only one who has ever dared to drink from it, and he was forced to sacrifice an eye in a ritual to mitigate its effects. If Mei had the foolish temerity to drink from it, then it is highly likely that she lost the majority of her lifespan from doing so."
"But in exchange, her already impressive intelligence and wisdom was increased by a large margin...this explains how she was able to complete so many Artificial Sacred Gear that Amadeus had struggled with for decades." Ajuka shook his head, caught somewhere between frustration and admiration. "I must give her credit for her dedication…"
"But...how could someone who obtained that kind of wisdom and knowledge resonate with the Wrath Sin?" Rias frowned. Wrath was not a Sin most associated with heavy thought.
"It comes down to basic compatibility." Sirzechs answered his sister absently as he planned the operation to deal with Amadeus. "Wrath isn't simply anger or rage; at its core, Wrath is Justice twisted to a personal end, of retribution towards a specific person or organization. That puts a measure of judgement into play that can require intelligence and guile to prepare. Wrath is just as evident in a subtly planned poisoning or character assassination as it is in an angry rampage. A Sin resonates with a Devil who is truly suited for it, who can embody and control the Sin more than any other Devil in existence. What Mei has done, honing and preparing her plans for revenge, letting her Wrath brew and simmer until it was time to release it against the one most deserving of it, has proven just how strongly Wrath resonates with her. So long as she remains in the Underworld, she will continue resonating with it until she and the Sin are fully connected."
"But that takes a long time though, time that Mei doesn't have." Serafall said seriously. "'Zechs-chan, we have to move, now."
"Rias, you…!" Sirzechs started to speak before a glare from the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess made him snap his jaw shut, seeing the shadow of Grayfia looming over her.
"I am not going to allow my Issei to be used as a tool in that woman's revenge." Rias said firmly, every word filled with determination. "Issei is MY servant, he is MY lover, HE. IS. MINE. He is very, very loyal to me, so the only chance you have of possibly taking Issei down without a fight is for my Peerage and I to accompany you, Onii-sama."
"She has a point, Sirzechs." Ajuka said with a nod. "Mei was at full strength before, but she has to be weakened severely by having almost all of her Sacred Gears removed so forcibly. She can't have nearly as great an amount of control over him as she once had."
"Haaaah...very well." the Lord of Pride shook his head in resignation. "By now, the team Ajuka formed will have broken the encryption on Mei's trans-portal barrier. We should head there presently. Not you, Akeno. The injuries that Chiaki dealt to you are still not fully healed as of yet, and I doubt that Asia-chan here can heal you to combat readiness in time."
"But…!" Akeno looked distressed at this order.
"I can do it, Sirzechs-sama." the ex-nun said firmly as her Sacred Gear appeared on her hands and she moved near Akeno, the green light of her healing energy emanating off of her. Under the astonished gazes of the rest of the Gremory group and the Maō, Akeno was restored to the pinnacle of health in just over a minute.
"Asia-chan…" the Reincarnated Nephilim breathed.
"Let's go get Issei-san back, together." the Italian blonde said with a smile as she dismissed her Sacred Gear.
Without further ado, the three Maō and the Gremory Group left the throne room and headed to one of the teleportation rooms, one built specifically to allow a group of magic users to forcefully hack the shields and other countermeasures that were frequently around the fortresses of those who made enemies of Devil-kind. It stood several meters tall, with a circular depression in the floor and several plinths around it, each with a Devil in robes frantically manipulating a magic circle.
"Report!" Ajuka barked.
"L-Lord Ajuka! Someone else has hacked the Stray Devil's barrier at the same time as us and we've been locked out again!" one cried.
"The last remnants of the Old Maō Faction." Sirzechs said in disgust. "Arbitrage Asmodeus most likely. Ajuka, deal with this."
Striding to the middle of the room, the Maō Beelzebub created his own magic circle, slaved the other magic circles to his own and started manipulating his own at a rapid pace what far outstripped that of his subordinates. One minute later, and the protections set by the Old Maō Faction crumbled like wet sugar cubes before the superior cracking skills of the most intelligent of the Four Maō.
"Unimaginative, hastily put in place, sloppy and uninspired...standard for the Old Maō Faction, I suppose." he said dismissively as the magic circle in front of him vanished.
As the transport circle blossomed into life in the centre of the room, Sirzechs turned to the rest. "Be careful, we don't know what is happening on the other side of this circle. Be ready for anything."
Grim nods were his reply before he led them onto the circle and powered it, vanishing from the Palace of the Maō and reappearing in Mei's hidden fortress. The sight they saw there was not comforting.
Where once the might tower had seemed unshakable, now the entire top of it was destroyed, looking as if someone had smashed it open from the inside...which was likely what had happened.
"The anti-flight defences are still functional." Ajuka said as he scanned the area. "In fact, aside from the obvious damage to the topmost section of the tower…everything in this area is still working perfectly. You have to admire the craftsmanship and spellcraft that girl put into her work."
Fortunately, the maze and obstacles hadn't been reset from when the Gremory Group had gone through it the first time, so navigating it was fairly simple. The large doors were easily defeated by a negligent flick of a hand and flex of [Power of Destruction] from Sirzechs, just as the remnant gargoyle golems were eradicated by Serafall's ice magic just as simply.
A pleasant surprise for them all once they entered was the appearance of Grayfia, who had been teleported to a safe location once Mei has used her ultimate Gravity Spell.
"Aside from myself, there are no living people in this tower." the Strongest Queen informed them. "Mei, Issei-san and Amadeus all left here a short while ago."
"Well, we had better hurry and move." Sirzechs said grimly. "Who knows what recklessness Mei might perform in order to kill Amadeus again."
Their travel through the tower halted at the tomb of Hildegard von Schwarzwald when Xenovia noticed something about the statue's face.
"Hey...does it look like something's up with Mei's mother?" the bluenette asked as she peered up at the face of the statue next to the sarcophagus.
Intrigued, Ajuka increased the illumination near the face to reveal a pair of cracks on each side of the face of Hildegard's statue, right under the eyes. The effect made her look as if…
"It looks as if...she's crying." Rias muttered. The cracks were right along the path of a person's tears, so it did look as if Mei's mother was crying.
"I would not blame her." Grayfia said softly. "Her daughter was mortally wounded. It may have moved Hildegard's spirit enough to cause this."
The party also stopped in the room where the bodies of Mei's Peerage had been, but the tubes where they had floated previously were now lay empty. A series of hatches in the roof suggested that the explosion had activated some form of defence protocol that withdrew them into safe storage until Mei released them.
"It's strange how we haven't seen any signs of the Old Maō Faction's troops here." Kiba said warily, a sword in his hand and ready to act. "They arrived here before us, yet there's no sign of them."
"Yes...it is somewhat suspicious." Ajuka mused curiously. "Arbitrage isn't known for his self-control; he would have leapt in as soon as Mei's defences were pierced, so his absence is more than slightly puzzling. Could Mei's passive defences have eliminated him and his forces so quickly?"
"If so, then how did we arrive unmolested, Ajuka?" Sirzechs asked mildly. "Mei is many things, but incautious is not one of them. She'd have had backups ready for this kind of invasion, we should have been beset by golems and the like as soon as we appeared here."
"True...in which case, the only explanation is that she deactivated them for us specifically." the Maō Beelzebub said with a frown. "I don't like walking into a situation like this. The divine wisdom that she gained from the Well of Mímir is making me leery that everything's some kind of elaborate trap."
"We only have Amakusa Chiaki's word that she did so; until it is proven, we should assume that someone helped her." the Maō Lucifer disagreed. "Overestimating someone is as bad as underestimating them on occasion."
Passing through the various passages of the tower, including the room made to resemble the abandoned church in Kuō, was nerve-wracking for poor Asia, with the memory of the golem Raynare. She was flanked on either side by a protective Xenovia and Irina the entire time, and the three Maō did her the service of pretending to ignore her discomfort. Being in a place where you had once been killed wasn't something that one could simply get over, no matter how effectively Rias had ripped apart the golem representing her murderer.
And the Crimson Haired Ruin Princess had ripped the Fallen golem apart so thoroughly that she'd made everyone watching feel pity for the golem.
At length, they reached the remains of the throne room, only to see the remains of what had to be a slaughter. Troops wearing the armour of the Old Maō Faction lay sprawled around the throne room in various states of dismemberment.
"This is…!" Serafall breathed out, eyes darting across the room. "They didn't even have a chance to fight back, this was over in an instant."
"M-Monster…" a voice said, as one solider crawled out from behind a pillar. His dark and demonic armour was shattered and useless, with one of the Devil's eyes being missing. "She's a monster…she ripped us apart…without even trying…!"
"Where's your leader? Where's Arbitrage?" Sirzechs demanded.
"The coward ran…left us to die!" the soldier spat. "That damned…Reincarnated…Devil…she's the…most…!"
His life ran out before he could finish his rant, his body collapsing to the ground.
"So...instead of being teleported outside where we arrived, they were teleported directly here, where Mei killed them all, save for Arbitrage, who fled like a coward." Sirzechs summed the situation up as he used his [Power of Destruction] to dispose of the bodies. "As to where she is now…"
"The [Throne of Power] is missing, Onii-sama." Rias pointed out, indicating where the massive stone throne had sat. Now, there was only an empty space and indentation in the wall where it had once been.
"That demi-Sacred Gear has healing abilities that are different than [Twilight Healing], so she probably took it with her to keep her body from breaking down." Ajuka offered cautiously. "Hello...I can sense the remains of two transport circles that were used here, one of them Mei's."
Leading them over to just in font of the former location of the [Throne of Power], he picked up a disk that looked similar to the one Chiaki had used to contact Mei back when she was still trying to kill her older sister. With a small influx of Demonic Energy, a small hologram of Mei appeared in the air above the disk.
"So...you all came…" Mei said, her voice rasping and hoarse. Her breathing was clearly laboured, and wet. She was very obviously swaying as she stood, as if the very act of standing and speaking at the same time was taking all of her concentration. "I do not blame you…but this is my fight. Amadeus was my mistake, my failing. I shall not permit him to cause further harm. Come if you must, but Amadeus has set a barrier around the outer and inner areas of the site, one which only a member of his Peerage can pierce. All you can do is watch, as even if the Four Maō united and blast the barrier with all the power they can muster without obliterating everyone around them, they can't break through it. Just stand and watch as I save the Underworld…with Hyōdō Issei at my back and call."
Rias and the rest of her group glared in a rage at the last smug rejoinder as the hologram faded from sight and a transport circle flared into existence where the [Throne of Power] had once stood.
"This is a permanent Transportation Circle." Ajuka frowned. "Mei has obviously been to the site of the Atonement Ritual System before now…this makes me uneasy."
"We lack alternatives, Ajuka." Serafall said seriously. "We can't let Amadeus steal the [Fatal Attraction] and activate the Atonement Ritual System, or let Mei have access to it either. With how desperate she is and how little time she has left, there's no telling what she could do."
Nodding grimly, the Gremory Group and the three Maō walked onto the teleportation circle, vanishing with a red flash.
DXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDDXDDXD
Next Chapter: The Twenty-Second Move: Endgame Part 1
DXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDDXDDXD