I don't own Highschool DXD! Only OC's and all the bullshit I come up with!

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Sinful Desires – Chapter 4

Enter, The Red Dragon Emperor

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Issei woke up at 3 AM in the morning.

This would normally indicate that Issei was woken up by something or that he had some kind of really fucked up condition, that didn't allow him to sleep long enough.

Thankfully, it only was his fucked up sleep schedule.

Issei hadn't slept in years and due to the Deadzone not having a sun and moon, thus not having any kind of timetable, he had no reason to even try and make a schedule, so he settled on just not sleeping.

It had come natural to him when the sun went down, and the moon arose. His very, very, very rusty human instincts told him, that he should go sleep and Issei showed no kind of resistance.

It confused him a little bit when seeing that it still was dark outside, but he decided to shrug it off and make some breakfast.

The problem with that idea, was that the hotel staff were all still sleeping, so he either needed to get some food from his personal storage or hunt down some kind of stray devil in the streets of London.

Yes, he had no problem with eating monsters.

But there was a problem with that. In contrast to the Deadzone, London had almost no monsters and a holy energy in the air that scared off most devils, demons, monsters, etc. Issei would have a hard time finding anything. The one stray he had confronted on the borders of London, was a total case of luck and until now he hadn't sensed any other beings that were none-sentient or evil enough, for him to just straight up kill.

Civilians was a big No.

The Church's exorcists he didn't want to fight for obvious reasons.

And the Devil downstairs, the boss of this establishment, wasn't evil enough for him to just randomly kill.

It was honestly frustrating.

He was used to massacre a ridiculous number of monsters every few hours due to his live in the Deadzone. Traveling back to the Deadzone wasn't an option. Alone making the Teleportation circle would spike enough energy for him to get noticed by the devil downstairs and the exorcists patrolling the streets.

He could try erecting a barrier, that would hide his activities, but that would have the same result as making the teleportation circle without protection. A barrier might hide magical activity but erecting it wouldn't go unnoticed.

There was also the fact that he would probably lose the sense of time while down there and by the time a maid would arrive at his room to bring breakfast, he might not be back which would trigger a chain reaction that would conclude with at least the devil finding out that he was connected to the supernatural.

He didn't want that.

Seems like he was stuck with keeping his bloodlust bottled up for the time being.

So… breakfast.

He'll take something from his personal storage. Accessing his pocket dimension should go unnoticed.

Now what would he eat?

And how was he so good at finding hard to answer questions?

==X==X==

Irina was scared.

She didn't show it, nor did she allow her fear to influence her precision, but it wouldn't go away.

She was on a patrol with Vasco, searching for the Red Dragon Emperor, who had shown up in London a short while ago.

Most if not all of her team didn't find any reason for this hunt, other than recruiting the Longinus user. And while that was a pretty fair assumption, Irina knew that the Dragon Emperor did a little bit more than just appear, to get the Church's attention.

Xenovia had told her what had happened with Irina swearing to keep silent so they wouldn't get trouble from their superiors.

What Xenovia had told her, had shocked her to the bone. She was a firm believer of the church and also familiar with the supernatural. In the eyes of the church, God was the ultimate lifeform, having created almost everything and thus being the most powerful being that exists. He had created all the humans and loved them all equally, bestowing gifts upon them so they could defend themselves from the evils of this world.

Durandal was such a gift.

From what she had learnt from Xenovia, the blade was bound to its wielder with only the wielder being able to… well, wield it. Irina had also experienced what that meant. The sword would reject anyone that wasn't it's wielder. She couldn't even get close the handle without being pushed back by the holy sword. And that was always the case, even if Xenovia tried to literally hand the sword over, it wouldn't allow itself to be wielded by someone other than Irina's best friend.

The idea of someone just taking it without having any relation to it, sounded more than just insane.

But it happened. The Red Dragon Emperor just came into existence, took the holy sword as if it was second nature and disappeared again, shattering Xenovia's connection to the sword.

The worst part about all of this was that it meant that the Dragon Emperor stole from God.

Dragons were probably the greatest evil there was, even surpassing Devils when it came to the teachings of the church. They were described as cruel evil creatures that valued their own wellbeing and their treasures over every and any life. They opposed God and declared themselves superior to the strongest being of the universe.

Yes, God was very much the core of the universe for those who followed the church. Even though he wasn't even the only God.

In their eyes, his absence would be like the end of the entirety of existence itself.

Back to the topic.

Dragons were disrespectful towards their creator and thus mostly looked down upon by angels, fallen and even most devils. Even though they were one, if not the strongest race to ever exist.

Even the weakest of the weakest Dragons could hold their own against the majority of the supernatural. And that was the reason why people who killed Dragons were worshiped of being holy warriors or something along those lines.

In the Bible (A/N: This is my own version of the Bible, please don't be offended if what I'm saying here isn't true.) it even was a Dragon that tricked the first humans. Samael. Lucifer also fell due to a Dragon's influence. Great Red.

For followers of the Church, Dragons were even worse than devils were, which meant a lot.

It was for that reason, that the two Dragon Emperors were not as popular as the other Longinus in the Churches eyes.

Dulio for example, would have been treated much harsher if he were to have the Divine Dividing instead of the Zenith Tempest.

Irina despised them even more than the average Church follower.

Not only did one of the Dragon Emperors rob from her friend, but he also disrespected her, by not even offering a fight and just leaving with the weapon.

She would definitely get revenge for her friend and nothing would stop her.

==X==X==

The owner of the hotel was waiting at the lobby for guest to enter.

He enjoyed the silence, but he preferred making money than sitting around doing nothing.

A smile made itself onto his face when he remembered that he didn't even have any more rooms open due to that boy taking the last one. Ah well, reservations were still highly encouraged.

Speaking about the boy, he was really curious about the kid. Even though he owned the hotel and could have easily denied him the Penthouse, the kid had managed to keep control during the entirety of the debate they had. No man should be so trained in the arts of taking money, not at that age.

The kid had gotten a deal out of him that was highly in favor of the former, which made the old man smile once more. Such talent was rare and watching somebody use it was highly satisfying even though he was the one it was used on.

The door opened, causing him to look up at the two new guests.

While remaining stoic on the outside, he was laughing his ass off on the inside. It always got him good when he saw exorcists in their 'stealth gear'.

A giant hood that covered them from top to bottom in shadow, due to a simple magic spell, that made them stick out like a sore thumb. It didn't end there, oh no. The best part was that under that hood they had nothing more than a tight latex body suit that was way too exposing to be called pure.

He loved it.

Another funny thing about the 'stealth gear' was that the spell that cased those unnatural shadows to conceal the churches warriors was so weak that he gazed through it, without even trying to do so.

The first warrior of the church had light brown hair that was almost orange, but not quite there yet, and violet eyes. Her facial features were rather cute if they hadn't been twisted into a straight up furious expression. The fact that she was basically radiating killing intent wasn't helpful at all.

The other exorcist was way calmer, being seemingly unaffected by the malice coming from her partner. Her hair was short and a weird mixture of white and black. The blood red eyes ticked him off, seeming too unnatural to be human.

"Excuse me, have you seen an individual clad in red armor?"

Both the owner of the establishment and the red eyed exorcist froze.

Lint looked at her partner in utter shock. Had Irina just asked that to a quite possibly normal person!? What was she thinking!?

The owner was just baffled at the fact that he had underestimated their stupidity. Sure, it was kind of arrogant to classify people as stupid just for following the church, but he had experience with them and couldn't really say anything good about them.

What also shocked him was the fact that they were searching for the Red Dragon Emperor.

Sure, they could be talking about some samurai or something else, but he doubted that. The Red Dragon Emperor was the most powerful individual that was known for wearing red armor.

And now he had concluded that the Dragon Emperor was in England. Which meant he was close by. Which meant he was a possible member.

He needed to inform Sin. But that would need to wait, first he needs to play dumb.

"Ugh… No there weren't any cosplayers in here for the last week or so."

The red eyed exorcist was clearly relieved that he seemed to stay calm and act rational. He would have been disappointed by the obvious display of emotion, if it wouldn't be for the fact that they were supposed to be hidden away under those useless hoods.

"Thank y-"

"Are you sure?"

He blinked in real confusion. Had that bloodthirsty exorcist just asked that question? If he wouldn't have had such a good grip on his emotions he would have been rolling around on the ground, laughing uncontrollably, probably dying from lose of air, because of the cheer stupidity the young exorcist was displaying.

"What?"

His question came out bothered and disturbed with a grain of confusion mixed into it. The red eyed one was adapting an I-gotta-get-outta-here look while her companion was on the verge of exploding.

To be honest, he was impressed that he hadn't lost it by now. The scene was just way too stupid for him to take seriously.

The angry one was about to talk again when her companion leapt forward and put a mouth in front of the angry ones mouth. It didn't stop the the angry one from going on a swearing rampage, that was sadly muffled.

"I apologize for our disturbance; we will leave now. Farewell and may God guide you."

He felt a sting by the mention of the big guy's name, but it felt distant and weak. It wasn't enough to get a reaction out of him.

"Uh huh."

It wasn't the most polite response, but the red eyed one didn't seem to care about that fact, bowing in apology before leaving the hotel, dragging the angry one behind her.

Five minutes nothing happened, but the second after that mark had been pasted, the man pressed a button hidden under his desk, before taking the phone on said desk that had started vibrating the moment the button had been pressed.

"Two, Exo, search, RDE."

The next second he had ended the call, not waiting for a response, knowing that there would be none.

==X==X==

Now that he thought about it, how was he going to find Irina?

It wasn't like he had planted a tracker into her when they were kids.

He also couldn't pick up her scent. He had still functioned like a normal human back then and a human nose can barely differentiate scents from each other, meaning that even with the use of his stupidly enhanced nose, he was unable to find her.

Yet another problem was that she should have gone through puberty by now and she might have a completely different personality by now, which wouldn't be favorable for Issei.

And yet another problem was that he had no idea what she looked like. Sure he might still remember how she looked like back when they were kids, but who knew what puberty had done to her body. She was a tomboy back then, maybe she still was, or maybe she grew out of it, both figurative and literally.

The point was, he had no idea what she looked like or where she was.

And that's a problem.

A big problem.

Now, he could always walk into the church and ask for an Irina Sho… Shi… Shiuo?

…

FUCK!

He had forgotten her family name!

To be fair, for him Irina was Irina back then and not Irina Sho… Whatever. He was a smol boy after all and smol boys don't give shits about details if they aren't interesting or important enough.

Well… Maybe she was the only Irina in the church… Holy shit that thought was really stupid.

Irina wasn't a common name, that much he was sure of, but the number of followers the church had accumulated throughout the years made it borderline impossible for Irina to be the only Irina and thus he gave that idea up like the others.

He also couldn't walk around and hope that she would magically recognize him. His change in hair and eye color coupled with his new body structure made him look nothing like back then.

But the worst part was that he didn't even know if she still was in England. And while Irina's family may have been highly religious, Irina had hated the church when he last saw her for forcing her to leave him behind.

Maybe that hate stayed with her and she was now a sole warrior traveling the lands for adventure or something cliché like that.

She might be even looking for him… even though he officially didn't exist anymore.

Wait a second, him officially not existing would probably make her suspicious of what happened to him and make her go on an epic quest to find out what truly happened to him.

Nah, she wouldn't do that… would she?

Man, oh man, this was going to be one hell of a search.

Recalling all his ideas, Issei decided that the best shot he had was asking for an Irina in the church and going from there.

So Issei got into some casual clothes, almost jumped down the balcony remembering at the last second that he wasn't alone anymore, and that people would see him, and made his way towards the nearest church.

Entering the lobby he saw the owner of the hotel who gave him a nod as a greeting, that Issei returned.

Before he got out of the lobby, he realized that he had no idea where the nearest church was.

"William."

"Hm?"

The now named William hummed in response lifting an eyebrow.

"Do you know where the closest church's at?"

William leaned back in his chair, one hand going through his hair. After a few moments he faced Issei once more.

"Go right, fifth on the right and then just forward until the street splits. Can't miss it."

Now Issei was the one lifting an eyebrow.

"What do you mean 'the street splits'?"

"It goes from an I shape to a Y shape."

"Ah. Gotcha."

With those words Issei left the hotel and made his way towards the church.

Both men noticed that the other had spoken way calmer than during their 'debate' from yesterday. William had gone from business mode to customer service mode and Issei just lost the seriousness in his voice.

The streets were pretty open and allowed him to have a lot of personal space, to the contrast of his believes. He had expected masses of tourists flooding the streets, making it impossible to walk without bumping into someone every few seconds.

Then he remembered that it was 4 in the morning and proceeded to enjoy the fact that the streets weren't crowded.

He arrived at the split street in almost no time and like he was promised, didn't miss the church at all. It stuck out like a sore thumb with the old architecture, colorful windows, high size, and overall holy energy coming from it.

He made his way towards the entrance, but before he could enter a figure cloaked under one of those useless hoods, stopped him.

"Excuse me sir… We currently have a… session and I cannot allow anyone disturb it."

Issei looked down at the man. He was one head higher than the man and thus he classified him as a midget, completely ignoring the fact that he himself was really tall.

And then Issei proceeds to walk past the man, only to be halted once more by the very same midget.

"Woah! Uh… I'm really sorry sir, but I really can-"

Issei walked past him without an ounce of care, blinding the midgets soul to his presence, making the man unable to sense Issei moving into the church.

-NOT. Allow anyone to enter… Wait, what."

The man confused by Issei's sudden disappearance, glances into the crowds hoping to get a glimpse of the grey hair, allowing the teen to walk deeper into the holy grounds without interruption.

Soon enough he came across a door behind which he could hear muffled voices and feel a bunch of strong presences, for the average human strong that is.

Entering the room without a care in the world he got the attention of every person present and witnesses as the room went completely silent.

Those who carried weapons had their hands hovering over them, not knowing if Issei is an intruder or an alley and not wanting to stir up a fight against a friend. They would have most likely not reacted in such a way, if they had been able to sense Issei before he had entered the room.

The men of the church were all having similar thoughts. Some hoping for one of them to speak up and reveal who this teen was. Others trying to recognize him, but quickly coming to the conclusion that they haven't really seen anyone with such unique hair and eyes. And then there were those who carved for battle and silently prayed for a conflict to arise but were smart enough to realize how stupid it would be to ignite one themselves.

After some agonizingly long seconds Issei decided that as the center of attention and the one who summoned the silence upon them, he should be the one dispelling it.

And so he spoke.

"Does any of you know a girl going by Irina?"

New thoughts intruded into the minds of God's followers. Few angry or ticked off, by the fact that there had been no formal introduction. A big number of them were confused by the seemingly random statement or were already trying to find out who he meant with Irina. And only a handful of them already having a mental image of Irina, theorizing why the young man would ask for her.

Vasco, who was also present, was the first one to speak, the deciding factors for this decision being his position and the fact that he knew Irina on a personal level.

"Who are you and what do you want from Irina?"

Issei, knowing his own strength, didn't feel threatened in the slightest by the tall man. He decided to keep them at bay by feeding them some information, but not enough to reveal everything from him, making them trust him easier, which in turn let to them giving him information more willingly.

"Call me Issei. Irina is an old friend of mine and I would like to talk to her."

Vasco stiffened by those words for some reason, followed by a handful of others. But most of the holy men relaxed, hoping that Issei really just desired to talk.

The Apex of Humanity was very cautious about the boy. He entered the building without any kinds of alarms going off and was still, even in direct proximity to the veteran, perfectly hidden.

Vasco was a well-trained man, and he was advanced in many arts, including the one of sensing. It was borderline impossible for someone to hide their presence from him while standing right in front of him.

Either the boy had focused his entire life on hiding his presence or he had enough power to hide it, meaning that he was on a level of power none in the room could ever to come close to, not even Dulio, the strongest exorcist.

But that second idea was very absurd and unlikely. No human should be able to gain such power at such a young age… Now that he thought about it. Was this person even human? Vasco had no grasp on the young man's presence and thus couldn't categories him into any race, increasing the chance for him having bullshit powers for one reason or another.

Taking a deep breath the old exorcist finally notices that he once again had gone of into a inner monologue, causing a new awkward silence to settle in.

He was the one to break it.

"Why do you desire to talk to her?"

Issei's eyes slightly widened in surprise. He had not expected there to only be one Irina attending Church and that Irina to be the same Irina that he had played with back then when both of them were children.

Without much hesitation he answered the question, still unwilling to reveal too much about himself.

"That is something rather private."

Vasco would have growled in annoyance, wouldn't it have revealed his intentions, so he stayed stoic and still, thinking about his next move, only for his train of thought to be interrupted by another member of the church.

"Wait a sec! Did you just come here to ask us about this Irina and nothing else!?"

"Yes."

Vasco would have turned to the man who had shouted those words, but Issei's answer got his full attention. The boy seriously interrupted a meeting about the Red Dragon Emperor only to ask for the whereabouts of his old friend.

The air around the Church members darkened visibly as their annoyance and anger took form of a thin black aura that surrounded the entire group.

But the boy seemed oblivious to it and shamelessly continued.

"Would you now please tell me where she currently is?"

The aura thickened at the display of disrespect towards the crowd. Not only was he clearly outnumbered, but he was also weaponless and more than halve of the crowd doubted that he could beat them without something on the level of Mjolnir.

Vasco was one of the only people concerned about the fact that they had no idea how powerful Issei was and so he tried to defuse the situation, before they either kill somebody or get themselves killed.

"Please leave the building now or we are willing to remove you by force."

Issei's only reaction to the threat was raising his left eyebrow and while most saw this as an act of confusion for the sudden change in tone from Vasco, the man himself saw a question in those eyes, a question that made him fear the young man standing in front of them.

Do they really think this is nearly enough?

This wasn't some kind of display of arrogance or dominance.

No.

This was a sheer fact in the eyes of the boy. Common sense. Vasco could see traces of pity in those eyes. There was no fear, no hesitation, no nervousness, no weakness. The boy knew that he was powerful, and he knew that he could beat them.

In contrast to him a great amount of the people inside of the room hadn't even attempted to hide their power, exposing their full potential right into the boy's face and he, standing in front of the strongest of all exorcists, didn't as much as flinch when feeling their power.

He wasn't worried that they were to much nor was he determined to win a battle that seemed impossible. He just knew that he was strong enough to beat them. It was no fight against the odds. It was a battle that would have a clear outcome.

And Vasco seeing this, suddenly had an idea. A rather crazy and random one, but hey he was known for that.

And thus in the tense silence he was once again the one to speak up.

"Are you the Red Dragon Emperor?"

Every single person was startled by those words, including Issei.

But Vasco had seen that as the most logical solution.

The Red Dragon Emperor shows up out of nowhere and straight up steals one of the most powerful weapons the church possesses. And the very next day a young man shows up. Judging from his appearance he was born around the time when the last Red Dragon Emperor had died.

And not only would that explain why Issei could hide his presence with such ease. It would also explain why he was confident in his ability to beat them.

Sure Dulio was here and had a Sacred Gear of his own. But the heavenly Dragons themselves had powers far beyond those of even the True Longinus. Meaning that if somehow, this young man, was able to fully take in Ddraig's power or somehow get [Juggernaut Drive] under control, then he was way more powerful than most of them.

"Red Dragon Emperor… Oh! You mean [Blood Drake Form]."

Now Vasco was confused. [Blood Drake Form]? What the heavens was [Blood Drake Form]!?

"… Young man… What do you mean by… [Blood Drake Form]?"

The tension in the room dropped severely and Issei blinked in slight confusion before answering.

"This."

And then he entered [Scale Mail].

Almost every exorcist pulled their weapon the moment the Red Dragon Emperor revealed his form, but none attacked due to Vasco raising a hand to stop them.

The older exorcist knew Ddraig and maybe he could reason with the ancient Dragon, convincing him to give Durandal back without battling him.

"Could I speak with Ddraig, young wielder of the [Booster Gear]?"

Issei dismissed the [Scale Mail] and looked at the exorcist with clear confusion.

"Who's Ddraig?"

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A/N: Cliffhangers! Who doesn't love them? Now you need to come back when I release Chapter 5 to see what happened to Ddraig! MUHAHAHAAA!

You might have noticed already, but this is a very different timeline/AU from what we all know and love.

Do not worry, because there will be a real battle soon between Issei and someone else. (No Spoils)

I worked on this for far too fucking long and for a week or so I only wrote like 40 Words per day.

But now it is here for you to enjoy!

Have a great day and don't forget to inhale Oxygen.

C ya in da nex 1!