Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
Beginning Again
Seth's POV
I wanted to curse out loud. This girl couldn't just let me go, could she? No, she had to be stubborn. I just had to get away from her and my goal would be right there, I would be a step closer.
A water wall appearing in front of me broke me from my thoughts as I sighed tiredly. Stupid, naïve, stubborn girl. Freezing a section of the wall I with a little tweak of my own so that I could break through it I left the barrier behind me. The shouts of my pursuer never stopping, demanding, asking and sometimes begging me to come back. To not betray her, them. But I wouldn't listen.
I had a goal after all.
The wolves barked encouragement in my mind as I continued my advance. Skidding in Ice chutes through the forest as the girl ran behind me. I knew she wouldn't give up. She was like that. However, I couldn't help but wish she would. It would make things so much easier.
The trees started to become scarce and a valley appeared in front of me. And her, I supposed. A massive waterfall divided it right in the middle. I heard her shout as I finished crossing the river.
"STOP!"
I turned around to see her standing on the other side of the river. The girl that I had come to view as a rival. And also as a best friend of sorts. The one I thought could understand at least part of the loss I had suffered. But she was in my way now. And I wouldn't let her just do that.
"Stop, please!" She begged. I almost flinched at her voice. Never had I thought that the knucklehead could muster that much desperation in her voice.
"I have to do this. I will have my revenge." I said, my tone colder than my magic. "And not even you can stop me."
"So you will betray me." She said, as hurt as she was angry. "You will betray everyone back there…" She continued signaling behind her. "For your revenge?"
"I will do what I have to. I will kill him." I answered, not a shadow of doubt in my tone. "The Snake will give me the power to do so."
"Have you lost your mind?!" She shouted in disbelief.
"Maybe. Maybe I lost it that day." I conceded not in the least affected by either her accusation or my own words. "And it changes nothing. You won't change my mind."
"Then I'll have to drag you back." She said resolutely. Water bubbles raising behind her.
"You can certainly try." I said dispassionately as my own magic manifested in a cold mist at my feet.
A second later Water arrows met an Ice shield. They chipped into it but nowhere fast enough for it to break before I could make my move. I skidded to the side in another chute while forming my next attack.
"Spirit Blizzard!" The shout was followed by a storm of little Ice blades rushing at the girl. Leaves from the distant trees carried by the wind fell victims of the attack first, cut into tiny frozen pieces that where then carried by the river.
"Naiad's Shield!" Was her answer to my attack, a dome of water succeeded in stopping the icy blades. At least in part, the barrage continued testing the dome, trying to see which one would last longer. No one would find the result of that showdown as the girl voiced. "Divine Wave!"
The dome morphed into a massive wave that came my way, pushing back my spell like it was nothing. I clicked my tongue. Stubborn girl indeed.
"Deathly Avalanche!" The wave met with its Ice counterpart in another fight for dominance. If the girl thought she could defeat me with a spell that she had copied from me, then she had another thing coming.
"I thought we were friends!" She never did learn to give up. It was her way, she liked to tell whoever was willing to listen, and also those who weren't.
"Will you shut up already?!" I replied exasperated. She didn't understand. She didn't understand at all. I wouldn't back down either, not from this. Revenge had been my everything for the longest time. I couldn't live with him still alive. I just couldn't. "Guys, time for a hunt." I voiced as I summoned a pair of Icy black wolves. They quickly turned back and replied with a bark before running off. A smirk made its way to my face as I decided to answer her indirect insult with one of my own. "Ice Beam!" My Ice magic shot at directly through my avalanche and her wave. I could almost picture her eyes widening. She had named that attack. That would teach her.
Her wave stopped as she threw herself to the side avoiding the beam. A second later she shot in the air in a torrent of water dodging the avalanche. I sighed in annoyance. Of course it wouldn't be that easy.
"Merciful Rain!" I wanted to snort at that. Only this girl would call merciful a rain of Water bullets. As it was I was too preoccupied by the fact that said rain was targeting me. So I wasted no time in bringing another Ice shield in front of me. The rain hurt my defense. A lot. But it still couldn't get past it fast enough.
As her spell stopped I skidded towards her full speed, magic circles forming on my palms. While I continued my advance towards her I started shooting Ice spears towards her that she dodged time and time again boosting herself with her own Water magic. But the purpose of it all was achieved. I was close to her.
"Frost Knight." I said eerily while an Ice armor slowly formed over my body. Her eyes widened as she brought her hands up and a blue circle appeared between us. Too late. A punch went right through the incomplete circle and into her gut, sending her flying away, skidding against the water a couple of times.
Taking a deep breath in, I turned around to leave and thus, continuing my path towards my goal.
"I'm not done yet." I took another deep breath in, this time out of annoyance. I turned around to see her kneeling on top of the water. Her magic supporting her as did mine, both solidifying the surface of the water through different means. A cough escapes her lips before she turned to look at me. Anger visible in her features. She never had been hard to read. "I said I would bring you back."
As those words left her lips she shot towards riding a pillar of water. Her hands balled into fists covered themselves in bubbles of liquid, no doubt it worked in a similar way to my armor.
Planting my feet on the small Ice platforms that I had formed in order to stand above the water I sent both fists towards her. And like that both our hands clashed against the other's. Neither stopped the attack, neither was pushed back. As we stood face to face I saw more hurt in her eyes than anger in her face. It almost hurt myself to look at them. Almost.
"Are you going to throw our friendship away just like that?" She asked, stubbornly trying to change my mind.
"You should be grateful." I answered. "He told me that I would have to kill my best friend to become stronger." Her eyes widened. "But I refuse to follow his path. I will kill him with my own strength. So, be grateful that you still get to live." I told her right into her face. "At least you will, if you stop getting in my way."
"I will bring you back!" She shouted. Her mouth opened to scream something more at me but a surprise attack interrupted her. She was tackled to the side by the wolves I had summoned earlier.
"Good job guys." They barked in response.
"Shark Darts!" The three of us turned to see Water-made sharks rushing at us. I skidded in an instantly made Ice chute. The wolves weren't so lucky. The Water constructs clashed against them, destroying both my wolves and themselves. Not that I saw it. I was more focused on the knucklehead in front of me.
"Spirit Blizzard!" I shouted once again, this time skidding right behind the spell.
"Naiad's Shield!" She answered the same way too. As I expected. She confidently started speaking again. "Didn't work the first time, what made yo-" Her words were interrupted abruptly. I had skidded along the side of the Water dome. I knew her and I knew the technique. The dome looked impenetrable. The problem was that it only looked like that. It was stronger where the user focused its strength. The sides were vulnerable even if they didn't look that way.
With that in mind, I froze the side of the dome while the blizzard clashed against the front. Breaking through the Water wall like I had done during the chase my feet connected against the side of her head while she was mid speech.
Her shield fell and my blizzard stopped. I looked impassively at her. She was making an effort to stand once again to face me. I was having none of that.
"It's over." I said with an even voice. "Ice-"
"Water-" She started at the same time, she was barely conscious already.
""Dragon!"" We said in unison. And said spells shot at one another. Water and Ice clashed once again, this time for good.
Moments later silence perpetuated the place, only interrupted by the sound of water flowing and falling down the waterfall in the background and the wind rushing past me.
I looked at her body lying unresponsive on the shore of the river. The only sign of life was barely noticeable way her chest rose and fell while bringing oxygen to her lungs. I chuckled hollowly.
"And this is it." I said to myself, as the only one that remained conscious. "The end of our friendship."
I turned around and left the valley. Never once did I turn around to acknowledge my former friend and rival, nor the place where I had grown up.
No. I had a goal, and I would achieve it.
"And…" I barely was able to hear that. "CUT!"
I let out a breath of air. That had been a difficult scene to get. Maou knows we had been trying to get it to work for days already. It always went wrong somewhere. Either Serafall beat the crap out of me, because come on, she was a Maou for crying out loud, or some of the spell clashes went wrong or just us doing some transition between movements not spectacular enough.
"Damn, tell me that scene was perfect." I all but demanded. "If I have to do that scene one more time I swear to Serafall I will do something we will all regret."
"Mou, relax, Se-tan." I turned to see Serafall standing beside me as if we hadn't just been having a battle where she looked half-dead in the end. As if I could do that to the Ultimate Female Devil. I was damn strong, but not that strong. "I'm sure it was perfect. Wasn't it?" The look she gave the director was more menacing than anything I could muster. And she was telling me to relax… Looked like she was tired of failed shots too.
"Y-yes. It was perfect this time." The guy looked both frightened and relieved at the same time. I guessed he was happy that it was perfect. I certainly wouldn't want to deal with a pissed off Serafall.
"That's a relief, isn't it, Serafall?" I asked with a smile on my face as I swung a towel over my shoulder around my neck and picked up a water bottle.
"Mou, how many times do I have to tell you. It's Levi-tan." She pouted childishly.
"I can go back to Leviathan-sama if you want." I teased her and her pout intensified. I had to chuckled at that. How I was on first name basis with two Maous and the Fallen Angel Governor was still beyond me. But I was beyond the point in which I wondered that kind of things. Gulping down the water, I idly remembered how I had gotten were I was.
It had been four months since the award ceremony of the Young Devil Gathering. Two months since I had started to work on Serafall's show.
Serafall Leviathan herself had come to get me. After the Rating Games and the battle of the Gremory vs Astaroth fiasco, I was a hero to the public, much the same as the Red Dragon Emperor was. And with the latter being a star in the making that rivaled her, she wanted a something to stay on top of the viewer ratings. And that's where I entered.
The thing that had sold the idea to me and Seek was that the magic used during the show wasn't made out of special effects. Oh no, it was very much real. When we heard about that, we signed in instantly. It was basically me getting practice sessions with a Maou. Who in their right mind would say no? Or maybe it was just us that were obsessed with training. Our only comfort was that we weren't as bad a Sairaorg. Or at least we weren't battle-maniacs like him. I shuddered at the thought.
I was a pretty good actor, it seemed, which certainly helped a lot. Turns out that, if you can synchro with souls, synchronizing with a fictional character wasn't so difficult. Who would have thought?
The troublesome thing was getting my souls to participate. The only ones that had accepted to take part on the show were Sirius and Regulus. The former, with his ever playful personality, had jumped at the idea. The latter, giving the fact that he always gave off the impression of a child trying to play adult, had been reluctant at first but quickly ended up enjoying it.
The three of us had been trying to get Narcissa on board for some time. She was a serious and proper lady, but no matter what she was a young lady and as such she also liked to have fun from time to time. Which is what me and the other two wolves were trying to use against her to get her to join. I was sure she would cave in eventually.
"Can we go early?" I asked the director. "This was the last scene we needed to get done, wasn't it?"
"Of course. Thank you very much for you hard work." He answered and I smiled. I wasted no time going for my things. "Good luck on your date!" He shouted from outside the changing room and I gave a wry smile at that.
It was Sunday, and for whoever wonders what the hell I'm doing working on a Sunday… well, we had the date for the release of the chapter on us already. That scene had been tricky indeed. I just hoped that we wouldn't encounter something similar for some time.
The poor director had almost been frozen to death by Seek's glare once he asked her if I could come for the shot. In the end, Serafall had to take his place and ask herself. Even then, she had almost had to order my girlfriend to let me go. I couldn't fault her really, Sundays were our day.
Once I was ready, I took my bag and headed outside to where the teleportation circle was located. Serafall was already waiting for me outside. At times like that I realized why she always had a magical girl outfit on. It was so much easier than having to change all the time. And considering that she loved the outfit, it was a win-win for her.
"Tell Seek-tan that I'm sorry I had to steal you." She said truthfully and smiled at her.
"Don't worry, she will forget about it soon enough." I reassured the Maou, and wasn't that a surreal thing all things considered? "Just don't do that again too often… or ever." I warned. Seekvaira could be temperamental when too many things happened out of her plans. And as much as she didn't want to have 'plans' in our relationship, it was an inevitable thing that she had some… or one, really. The only plan she had was 'Sundays are ours'. That was it really, everything else was on the fly.
Serafall seemed to get a bit nervous at my words. Just my luck that my girlfriend could intimidate even a Maou. I smirked inwardly, I wouldn't have her any other way.
"Bye, Serafall." I woke her up from her thoughts. "I'll see if I can get Sona to agree on an appearance on the show next time I see her." I said before she had time to tell me. She had said those words to me everytime she could. She really was obsessed with her little sister. I almost pitied Sona.
"Thanks, Se-tan!" She shouted waving her hand at me. "You are the best!"
I chuckled as the light of the teleportation circle engulfed me. A second later, I opened my eyes to see the living room of our house in the human world. Trina was playing her guitar and the kids where listening attentively.
"Hey everyone, how's it going?" I called out and Leo, Liam and Lucie instantly stood in their feet and made their way to me. Trina waved at me before going back to her instrument.
"Big bro, how was it in the set?" Lucie was the first one to get the question out of her mouth. They had been really excited to see me in the show. They really were kids. What the hell was with everyone telling me they weren't anymore. I wanted to roll my eyes every time someone came with that bullshit to me.
"Great, we finally got the scene. So, there won't be a delay on the release." The three of them let out a sigh of relief. I had to suppress a chuckle at that. "Where's everyone else?"
"Alan and Xander are having another… spar." Leo informed me and this time I did chuckle. Alan and Xander were really competitive in their swordsmanship. They had duels against each other every chance they got. "Brittney and Ayumi are meditating, I think. They could be lazing around in their rooms too." He said with a wry smile.
"What did you say, Leo?" Came Brittney's voice from the hall and Leo paled and started stammering denials. The lightning user just rolled her eyes at the boy and turned to me. "Hey, Seth. You are early. Did you get the scene?" She asked and I nodded with a relieved smile. "Great, we won't have to deal with a pissed off Seek." Everyone in the room shuddered.
"Anyhow…" Liam said, probably trying to break everyone from the dreadful mental image. "Dovray is in the kitchen working on supper already…" And seeing my expression he added. "And no, he isn't cooking for you too. He was sure neither would like for him to do so." I smiled at my brother's good thinking. Dovray was always reliable. "And you know where Iorek is."
"Great, I'll catch up with the oversized puppy really quick and then Seek and I will go out…" I trailed off as I noticed something. Lucie was wearing strange clothes. Strange for her at least.
We had never been able to break her from the habit of wearing baggy clothes that hide her from the world. Which was why I was shocked to see her with a skirt and a sleeveless blouse. I blinked. And blinked again. Said girl's face quickly turned the same color as Gremory's hair. I turned to Liam, he seemed to have dressed up too, although it was less noticeable. A grin spread in my face and both paled.
"Oho…" I kept turning between them and the rest of the group watched amused. "When did this happened?"
"This afternoon." Leo answered instantly. Both of his friends turned to him with a betrayed expression.
"Tell me everything." I said grinning like a madman.
"Big bro!" The apparently new couple whined.
"Well, I almost had to push Liam to do so, he was a nervous wreck. Once he asked Lucie wasn't much better. I think she had literal steam coming out of her ears." They boy said with an amused expression that was mirrored by Trina and Brittney. Apparently, I was the only one to miss it. Oh, I was going to have some words with the director about unexpected shots.
"And you didn't want to tell me?" I turned to the couple with a mock hurt expression. "You don't love your big bro anymore." I put my hand over my heard dramatically.
"Big bro!" They whined again. Ah, it was so much fun to tease the young ones. I smirked at them.
"And if you think this is bad, just wait until after the date." I said and started walking towards the door that lead outside. I turned at the door just to see the horror in their faces. It was good to be the big brother. "Hey, Iorek! I'm back!" I shouted extending both arms to stop the tackle that I knew would come. It wasn't as fun as the first time we met now that he was twice as tall as at that time.
While I held both his horns in my hands, he gave me an affectionate bark as a greeting and I started petting his head.
"Everything quiet today as well?" I asked conversationally. He barked a confirmation as he went to lie besides the house again. "That's great. All went well with me too. We finally got the scene." He sent me a series of barks that resembled a laugh far too much to my linking. "Yeah, laugh it up. Someday I'll convince Seek to send you for the show too." I said and he whimpered. He really didn't like the idea, although for some reason the children loved him. Serafall was in fact in some serious discussions with Seek to get the behemoth cub on the show. "Well, I was just checking in. I have to get to Seek before she decides to send another Wind barrage my way." He laughed again as I gave him a mean look. "See you later." I said going back inside.
"Dovray!" I shouted while making my way to Seek's study.
"Just go, I won't be responsible for your death!" He shouted from the kitchen and I chuckled while shaking my head. He wasn't wrong though, I thought as I opened the door to see my blond-haired pink-eyed girlfriend.
"Welcome back." She said curtly. I just made my way around the desk, standing behind her chair and putting both hands on her shoulders. Leaning down I kissed the top of her head.
"Hey beautiful." I said warmly. "Where do you want to go tonight?" I didn't have to see her face to know she was having trouble maintaining her impassive face.
"Let's just go someplace quite." She said after a moment with a tired sigh. "I had a long day and you being away on the show didn't help." I nodded in understanding.
"Then let's go." I said taking her hand in mine and dragging her out of the room.
"But I'm not ready." She said almost panicking. "I was just waiting to see when you would-"
"Doesn't matter." I interrupted. "You look beautiful as always." Instantly her cheeks turned pink and I smiled at her. "Do I look bad?"
"… No." She said turning away as I continued to drag her through the house.
"Great." And with that we were already on the circle. "Bye everyone, see you later!" After I had received a reply from everyone, I added. "Liam! Lucie! Be careful, I don't want to be an uncle just yet!" And with that we were engulfed by the light again.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How's it going?
Wow, it's here guys. Feels like a lifetime ago since I finished Another Side, even more so since I started it. Nothing really happens in the chapter but I think it's ok to re-introduce the series. I think of this as a 'hello again' type of chapter.
Yes, I changed the title I gave this when I published Another Side's epilogue. Honestly, I don't even know why I used that name back then. I was already thinking of naming the sequel like this. At the moment the name had just struck me and it sounded cool. Yeah, stupid idea, I know.
I was also going to wait until I had several chapters before publishing. But considering the speed at which I'm writing right now, that would be just cruel.
Anyway, are you excited? I certainly am. I have a soft spot for this series and its characters. This was my first series after all.
So, make my day people. Tell me what do you think? Are you as excited as I am? Do you expect something from the series? Leave a review, I would appreciate it.
See you.
