I do not own High School DxD.
The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and not necessarily represent the views of groups, places and services in this story. This book is fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or from other published works, is purely coincidental.
This book may contain topics not suitable for the weak of heart and will contain scenes intended for a mature, adult audience. Please be advised and read at your own risk.
All characters in this book belong to Ichiei Ishibumi.
The unique 'Conlang' used in this book is owned by me, if *somehow* you were to get the Lexicon of this artificial language from my Amazon Original Series, please feel free to use it for your own stories.
Aberrational Selection
…
Deep inside, we know it well. Yet, no one wants to talk about it. A terrifying vista of reality constantly looms over us. A future shrouded by a veil of darkness. The final destination of human range, a topic that gives perspective through fear and discomfort. A perspective of what to expect and how to survive.
Since the beginning of time, the beginning of religion, and all things human—there have been predictions. Prophecies. Theories about the end of the world as we know it. Some backed through science, most through religion. At first there was only one, documented through the Revelation of John. And then came millions of others, each more terrifying than the last. But none as scary as the unknown. The ones that come in times of 'believed' peace. The storm after the calm.
Its all enough to send you spinning, numbing your senses with fear abound. It is the privilege of authors to create such realities, no matter how good or bad. Whatever the cost.
Chapter 1: Foreboding
Issei sat at his desk with his head angled to look out the window. He'd been staring outside for the last twenty minutes, unable to concentrate at all on the work that had been passed to him. On the better of his days, the work at his school seemed completely pointless. On the worst, it seemed like a horrible nightmare that kept piling higher and higher like dreams that went deeper and deeper.
He was sure school wasn't supposed to be as confusing as the Inception movie, but sometimes he felt proven incorrect. He was a man on a mission, and that mission was something so grand it was hard to explain. He had to delve deep into his own mind, into his memories and extract delicate information from hidden ranges of himself to remember them all for the sake of wasting time.
That's right. He was racing time. Waiting so desperately for the clock to strike high noon for the sake of his lunch break that he was getting giddy at the thought.
Today, the paper that was in front of him was something like a list. For him to feel out without much regard or care. It was a paper for his future plans. What he wanted to do after his soon-to-be graduation that wasn't so soon-to-be. The problem? He didn't know what he wanted to do, and he was sure Porn Star wouldn't settle well with the teachers, even if he had told them it was a joke.
Hell, he doubted he could even be a porn star. He was built different. But not the good kind of different a hormonal teen would use in a Team Deathmatch lobby after scoring the elusive and rare triple. He wasn't by any means a Lionel Messi, he wasn't built like a Tiger Tank or a sports stud. He was tall, not very well built with little fat and muscle on his body.
He was so fucking average, it hurt to admit.
"Psst, Issei," whispered Matsuda, Issei's bald and perverted friend.
Issei had a strange group of friends to say the least, but at least they all had the same hobbies. Matsuda was total perv, proclaiming himself with pride to be a lolicon. Perhaps the craziest part of Matsuda, was despite being a complete degenerate, he was the athletic sports star of the group. Proof enough there was always at least one golden-star degenerate in every group.
"Huh?" replied Issei, waking up from his little daydream into the unknown.
"You've been staring out that window for like, forever, man," said Matsuda. "Big Matilda is going to make her rounds soon, you know."
"Screw Big Matilda," said Issei. Big Matilda was the name they had given to their teacher, a lady with a much bigger gut than a heart. The name was given to her on the basis of a certain British Tank, The Matilda, a slow and ugly looking thing with little to no actual use. Issei figured her to be some kind of sadist who'd happened into the line of work that allowed her to follow her true passion—torturing her students with meaningless reports and assignments.
"What's that, Mr. Hyoudou." Spoke the voice of Big Matilda, moving slowly into his view, effectively cock-blocking Issei's view of the volleyball team out the window.
"Ohhh," muttered Matsuda nervously. He immediately hunched back over his desk and started writing furiously on the meaningless project.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Ishihara," Issei said, trying to stay as calm as possible. To be entirely honest, he wasn't in the mood to give a shit about any of this. Maybe he should just take the L and go home to disappointed parents. He wanted to go and visit his grandparents in the mountains anyways, he had wanted to go up to the snowy peaks for quite some time now but was never able to find the time.
"I heard what you said," hissed Big Matilda, leaning down slightly towards Issei, bracing her hands on the side of his desk.
Issei was now at a loss for words. He didn't know what to say that would get him out of his impending doom. Thankfully, he didn't have to.
Like a sign from the heavens, suddenly, something happened.
The lights went out. The computer the teacher had used as a smart board went out. A horrible, short-lived screech rung out through the school's intercom system, like large metal-braided wires snapping under too much stress. The sound of booming pings, like skaters over ice lakes.
Something wasn't right. A tremendous silence hung in the air.
"What was that?" said Big Matilda, standing up straight and looking around.
Issei swiveled in his chair, turning around to face his friend, Matsuda. Sure enough, his friend held a phone in his hand. And the screen had gone black. Issei felt as if he was expecting something, like he had a feeling he knew about what had happened like he had seen or heard it somewhere before, but his mind couldn't put it directly into thoughts.
"Its completely dead. And its hot. Really hot." Matsuda explained, hitting the power button on the side of his phone multiple times, to no avail at turning it on.
"So, its not just the power," Issei spoke aloud. He sat still in his chair for a moment. Something was happening.
Had Japan been attacked? No, they would have heard about it. There would have been no way an attack would have happened without any indicators, right? He hadn't been familiar with military tactics, but surely their technology would have picked up something before getting fried.
Everyone in the room was starting to slowly panic as they pulled out their own cell phones and realized that they had the same similar symptoms as Matsuda's. Soon, everyone began to slowly realize that whatever they were experiencing wasn't some mere power outage. Soon, everyone in Kuoh would be panicking, all trying to drive home. The roads would probably be blocked off.
Issei had a thought, an idea, but he wasn't sure how much sense it made now. He could go home, grab his hiking bag and whatever it was he needed and head to his grandparents. They had lived a long life of hunting and gathering, even having greenhouses and gardens. The snow and ice in the mountains would be cold enough for food to keep with the need of electricity.
He paused, maybe he was overthinking. Maybe things would be fine with time. Maybe. Issei was surprised by how calm he felt, and how quickly his mind moved straight to a solution. He stood up from his stationary chair so quickly it slammed into the desk behind him, making a huge noise that caught the attention of most everyone in the room.
Since there was no machines or electronics running, the room had fallen deafeningly silent, as the white noise that everyone had grown so accustomed to had finally faded away. Except for the conversations and muttering of students.
"Where do you think you're going, Issei?" Mrs. Ishihara shouted at Issei.
"Home," said Issei, his tone serious and deadpan. "If we don't have electricity, my parents will need my help."
"Dude," whispered Matsuda from Issei's right, looking up at Issei from his chair. "Sit back down if you don't want to get in trouble. She's already in a bad mood."
Issei only frowned. He ignored his friend and darted towards the exit of the classroom. It was deadly silent, no one was even whispering as the scene unfolded before them. He broke into the hallway, the lights were off, the only light in the hall was a natural light to enter the windows and was dimming rapidly.
He took a single cautious step and paused. Outside, massive and low storm clouds began to roll in rapidly. So low he felt like he could reach up and touch them, but the worst thing that filled his vision as he craned his neck, was how monstrously large and black they were. Unlike normal grey storm clouds, these things were electric.
As they blew in, hundred of arcs of electricity zapped to the ground, zipping into trees and igniting some of them into flames before a heavy rain began to fall. Unlike normal storms, this one came with an endless thunder. Pulsating waves of noises similar to high-pitched laser weapons in sci-fi movies. The sound that had erupted over the PA system.
Outside, he saw something horrible. The track team began to fall over, blood pouring from their noses and ears like some massive pressure had been pushed down onto them. They fell like sacks of rocks, hitting the ground as if all motor functions had been taken from them. His eyes widened in horror before a horrible, soul-piercing scream began to fill his ears. Not from some unfortunate person, but from the storm that now filled the sky with horribly active electricity.
Around him, lightning struck the grounds with enough force to mimic miniature earthquakes, blowing rocks and dirt into the air, several arcs of the electricity had struck the same exact place, multiple times, right in the center of the oval that created the kilometer track.
And suddenly, a thunderous explosion blew him off his feet. Literally. The sound was so violent, her thought he had just barely missed being blown to smithereens by a bomb. He was thrown to the ground in horrible convulses, his body becoming a spasming mess as his vision faded to black.
In the throes of his unconsciousness, he found himself to be acutely… aware. He heard the rhythm of the storm, how it hummed and how it screamed like voices echoing across the deep darkness of his mind.
Issei awoke in a quick daze. His body ached all over, and his head pounded as the strange sounds from the storm began to fade away finally. He struggled onto his shaky feet, wobbling as he tried to keep himself upright and using the window as support. As he looked outside the shatter-resistant glass of the school, the world had been stuck under a horrible grey sky of storm clouds, lighting occasionally from zaps of lightning that moved through the gloomy atmosphere.
Once he had finally caught his breath and thought he was recovering from his shaky vision, he looked at the bodies outside. Easily twenty students had hit the pavement, blood oozed from the noses and ears. The sight was stomach curdling, but soon, one of the students moved her arms. And just like Issei, she began to move carefully.
Her white hair was soaked in water from rain, and slowly she began to walk. Her small frame struggling to stand as she began to take her first steps. Her brown eyes were determined, set on a building that had been abandoned. The Old School Building. He looked at her steadily, gauging what exactly it was she was going to do.
Issei recognized the girl almost immediately. It was none other than the school's unofficial mascot, Koneko Toujou. The girl in question fell again, stumbling forward in an attempt to catch herself before eating the dirt. Thankfully, she landed on the soft dirt and not the pavement.
Issei began to move, picking his legs up in a steady but fast walk. He moved to the end of the hallway, reaching a stairway that led down to the ground floor that led outside. There, in the silent darkness of the stairwell, the reality suddenly struck him. His heart started pounding in his chest. The anxiety hit him like a tidal wave. His pulse skyrocketed and his skin felt cold and clammy.
He had considered the grandeur of his situation. He thought he had a plan. But suddenly, none of it felt like it would be enough. And for a moment, he felt alone. He saw first-hand what happened to those outside, who was to say Koneko wasn't already dead or on her way her out? Who was to say everyone else outside hadn't suffered the same fate as the people he saw?
Who was to say his parents hadn't already passed over the same way? He moved his trembling hands up to the sides of his face, feeling for something. Anything. But nothing was there. No blood like those he saw outside, so was it safe to assume the building had protected him from the fate?
He shook his head, looking at the dark staircase in deep thought, there was no windows to provide him light. He closed his eyes cautiously, and when he opened them again, he couldn't notice the difference. He moved with muscle memory, reaching until he felt the handrail he had used many times. As he felt the cold metal in his hands, he knew what he had to do.
He leaned on it and slid down, slowly, using his hands as a brake. He doubted he would be able to walk steadily down the stairs in his current state of discombobulation, and sliding was faster than carefully going step-by-step down the stairs. He repeated this movement down a second set of stairs, until he felt his feet land gently on the hard ground.
He moved carefully again, using his entire body to find the door and push the thing open with force, accidentally opening both of them and stumbling out into the dimly lit hallway. He picked himself up and stumbled forward as thunderous booms began to circle back around. He needed to get the girl and bring her inside before the storm—or whatever it was—came back around. She survived the first one when so many others didn't, in his books, she deserved to survive by that point.
He moved, working to the entrance of the school, where the school logo was painted neatly onto the floor. He moved towards the doors, tripping at the step down and fell into the door painfully. He caught himself, if the door shut behind him, he wouldn't be able to get back in. Thankfully, there was a doorstop that teachers used to leave them open in the morning.
After propping the door open, Issei stumbled outward into the outside. Wind whistled around the brick-and-mortar building and into his ears. He was amazed at how quiet the hallway had been, compared to how loud the outside world was.
For a moment, he didn't want to move. His mind screamed for him to stop, but he knew better. When the time came for him to make an act of potentially saving the life—albeit the life of a very cute girl—there was no room for hesitation, uncertainty or doubt. When the time had come to for him to bathe in the infernal heat of action, he acted without such emotions.
He took stumbling steps forward, trying his best to not fall as he made his way to the still struggling girl. Eventually, he found his way to her on shaky legs, and when he finally made it to her, he fell to his knees beside her.
Koneko's weak eyes looked up at him for a moment, the pain that was evident behind her eyes was evident and it made his heart jump in his chest in a bad way. He felt for the girl. He couldn't imagine how painful it was for her as she looked up at him from bloodshot eyes and a bloodied nose.
He grabbed her arm and placed it around his neck to support her and lifted her to her feet. As much as he wanted to lift the petite girl into a delicate bridal carry, he knew doing so in his current state would more than likely result in only injuring her further, considering he could potentially drop her.
"I got you… you're going to be okay." Spoke Issei, his voice sounding far more confident in his words than he felt, but something inside him demanded such confidence. At the least, he thought it would ease the girl.
He moved with her in tow, carefully using her as support just as she did to him. She pointed toward the old school building once more, forcing him to look towards the crypt-like building quickly. Just as suddenly as his eyes trailed along the old building, he noticed the flowing storm clouds rushing back over the sky, bring yet another horrible wave of highly-active electricity.
He knew what the oncoming storm brought with it, and he didn't want to experience the horrible event for a second time. He averted his eyes back down towards the girl he held in his arms for support, and knew without a shred of doubt the girl would probably not survive yet another explosive storm.
He ushered their movements faster this time, working towards the door he propped open with her in tow was more difficult than he imagined despite her lack of weight, but eventually, both of them tumbled through the door together. With a swift kick, Issei launched the doorstop away from the door.
Almost immediately, the door caught the wind blowing violently from outside and slammed shut behind them, only slightly cushioned by the shock strut of the door just enough to stop the glass from shattering.
Knowing what was to happen next, Issei helped the girl to the ground, and covered her bleeding ears. He wasn't sure if she had any hearing left, but if she did, he hoped the gesture to protect her from further damage. But then he thought about himself and how he hadn't suffered any damage while he was indoors, albeit the small part when he passed out.
Regardless, he held his hands around Koneko's ears, keep her ears shut tightly. Her brown eyes locked with his, no emotions were hidden behind her irises. The fear was there, but she fought to keep it down. Her eyes had begun to water as she looked at him. Her hands moved up and cupped his own, the actions caught him off guard.
She moved her head slightly towards him, like she was seeking some form of comforting shelter that only he could give in the moment.
A flash of light lit the hallway they were in, the girl started to shake silently in fear. Before he knew it, once more the screaming of the storm slammed into his ears. This time, the pain felt much worse—like it had been louder than the previous, though he wasn't sure if that was because he was almost outside, or if it was because the storm itself actually grew more violent.
Soon enough, the screaming from the storm attacked him. But the sounds he heard were normal by any means. They sounded like the screams of people echoing inside his head. His vision faded to black once again, this time with Koneko held tightly in his hands, hoping the girl wouldn't suffer once more from the storm.
When he awoke only a few moments later, the girl stirred and looked at him. He couldn't understand what the storm was doing, but his head was pounding with each beat of his heart, like tribal drums beating a march. He looked at Koneko, who seemed—for the most part—okay.
With that bit of information, he assumed being outside during the storm was the most dangerous area. Indoors was safe, but only to a certain degree. He couldn't help but wonder what it was about the storm that hurt them, but he threw the thought aside.
"C-can… you hear me?" asked Issei through a shaky voice. Koneko only looked at him, before giving him a slight nod.
"I-it… hurts. My ears." Koneko explained to him, releasing his hands from around her ears.
He nodded. He needed to get the girl to the nurse's office. He just prayed the nurse was still awake and could do something to help the girl. Anything.
When it came to medical knowledge, Issei was incredibly lacking in that department. Though now, he thought, was the best possible time to learn such knowledge. He looked at the girl one more time.
"You're gonna be okay, I promise… we'll get you all patched up." Issei said to the girl with the best smile he could muster. "Let's get you to the nurse's office."
Of course, he wasn't sure if the nurse was even alive, but he hoped. He stood as best as his dazed mind would allow him, offering the girl a shaky hand that he tried his best to hide from her. He didn't want her to see his fear, he needed to be strong. But he was only human.
Minutes Earlier
Koneko looked up at the tumbling clouds above, rushing over with a strange energy she hadn't felt before. It was something… difficult to explain. It felt like the exact opposite of all the magic she had ever felt before. Looking at the storm was like gazing into the great abyss, with endless possibilities. How it flowed and how it moved were unquestionably foreign to Earth. Whatever the storm was, it felt like it was snatching something from the Earth itself.
Despite this, she wasn't able to move as the electricity swept across the world in her view. Vibrations as violent as earthquakes tingled up her spine as hundreds upon hundreds of strikes of lightning struck the ground all around, striking without favoritism, vaporizing trees and power lines, zapping the ground with ferocity.
And the most surreal part of it all, was the uncanny feeling she had begun to develop as she watched the world literally be torn apart by the fabrics that held it together. Electricity had first formed in the storm and struck downward, but soon enough, the same electricity that attacked the earth began to zap upwards into the clouds from thousands of powerlines and vehicles. And soon enough, the world had grown darker than she had ever imagined it.
The clouds had swept above her in all its howling, screaming demonic screeches, and her classmates just as soon fell to the ground. She wasn't sure if they were dead and she didn't want to know. If they were dead, she was certain the storm had killed faster than even Lucifer himself did with his special destruction magic.
But that wasn't the worst part. She had stayed up longer than her classmates for one simple reason: she wasn't human. She was a devil. Specifically, she was the rook of Rias Gremory. And only seconds after the storm had arrived, the sky opened for a fraction of a second as electricity zapped around her.
And then came the pain. The grueling, crushing pain that threw her to her knees. Like her body was being smashed under a physical weight that didn't exist. Her ears began to ring violently as the screaming and electric zapping moved, tortured screams and cries filled her ear that she could only explain as hell.
Yes, if there was such a thing as the 'doorway to hell,' the storm had been exactly that in her own eyes.
And as soon as the pain had become unbearable, she fell to her knees and landed beside her fellow classmates. She felt unbelievably drained. Like all the magic that had been coursing through her body had been forcefully taken away and left in its place was an emptiness that couldn't grasp at anything. There was no magic for her body to claim and use. Whatever the storm was, it had taken the magic from her body as well as the magic from the Earth itself, unbelievably.
And then came the explosion, not noticeable at all through the ringing in her ears, but instead she had felt it. As soon as the horrible event had happened, her vision blacked out. And the ringing continued even in the darkness of her mind, but the things she heard in that moment.
The sounds.
She couldn't force herself to imagine them, nor could she even begin to translate. It was something outside the realm of her knowledge and all knowledge that devils had known about. A language so unbelievably ancient, it wasn't even known by devils, angels or gods.
It shouldn't have been possible. But she had heard the sounds herself.
Ye'ne be puj. Ofar nar'tat be. U'af et'ni engwon on alzhech.
Like a mantra, the phrase kept repeating itself in her head. Even after she awoke, she stood on weakened legs and stumbled. Tripping at the gusts of wind that blew in. Her vision swirled, but she was sure she saw another wave of the storm coming. No, not another wave.
The other half of the storm. All around, she could see dark clouds, but at the moment she had stood up, she had been in the eye of the storm. She tried to move, but through her poor confused and conflicted brain, she fell again. She needed to reach Rias.
She needed to get indoors.
Her instincts screamed at her to run, to rush to the building closest to her and try to gain entry. But she knew the door to the main building had been locked. The storm blew in closer and closer; she was sure she would die from a second directly exposed hit. Not having the ability to force herself to move as she had fallen for the last time, she felt tears swell.
She didn't want to die.
And just as soon as she thought the end was coming for her, a pair of arms grabbed her and picked her up. When her brown eyes moved to face her potential savior, she was amazed at what she had seen.
The school pervert and odd-ball, Issei Hyoudou had come to her rescue. One of the many boys she genuinely hated. But the look in his eyes and the fear that filled her own body had led her to accept the help from him.
"I got you… you're going to be okay."
Eight words. That was all it took for her to notice something peculiar about the boy that came to her rescue. There was a complete shift in his normal behavior, he wasn't acting like anything she had previously observed. He wore a mask of calm and collected confidence, just in the sake of saving her. But his eyes shook, and the fear was there.
But he didn't let the fear of the situation get to him. He moved to save her—someone he had never met before—from death. She doubted he had heinous intentions for saving her, not that that was even remotely close to being her most concerning thought, but she doubted the pervert would risk his own life to save a girl just to cop a feel.
And when they both burst through the doors of the school, he had propped open, he cupped her ears and did his best to shield her from the noise again. This time, he took the brunt of the damage in her place, probably knowing full well she was on her own way out. When the second wave had crashed into the building, screaming to new demonic heights, he held harder.
His body lurched, and he blacked out right before her. Like a seizure, his eyes rolled back, but he kept his hand protecting her, with her holding onto them like a lifeline. His body spasmed like an animal that had just been shot through the brain before eventually falling limp beside her.
She wanted to freak out. To curl up in a ball and cry herself into a pitiful slumber. She hoped that by doing so, she would awake as if the world around her now had all just been some horrible alchemical creation of her imagination.
But she knew better. And when Issei finally opened his eyes beside him, he seemed… dazed. Confused, liked his brain had been fried for a moment from riding the lightning. Like he had been placed in an electric chair and zapped to the stratosphere. But as soon as his eyes locked with hers, the life returned, and the confusion vanished.
After a short conversation that proved she could—in fact—still hear him, somehow. She explained that her ears and head hurt. She was sure she had ruptured her eardrums, but no. That alone proved the cause of her bleeding ears was something more. Something as simple as ruptured eardrums was far to kind.
"You're gonna be okay, I promise… we'll get you all patched up." He said with a wobbly smile, showing how terrified he actually. "Let's get you to the nurse's office."
As she nodded, she took to his shoulder for support once again, wrapping her arm around his neck to support each other's movements. However, as soon as she stood and looked around, she saw something horrifying.
Something that crawled under her skin in a way she wasn't sure how to explain.
The students she had only previously been with outside began to stand, slowly and on shaky legs with blood still dripping down their ears. Some stayed still, but many began to move and stumble around the same as she had. She was sure they had died, absolutely positive.
But they rose and moved. Began talking, freaking out and screaming. Shaking others on the ground.
She wasn't sure what was what anymore. But she knew two things for certain.
She held not a single drop of magic in her body was the most noticeable.
And the second… was that half of the people on the track team had meet the end today.
But why are only a few of them left alive? Koneko thought to herself, letting Issei guide her to the nurse's office as her thoughts ran wild with the events of the day.
Surely… she was going mad.
End of Chapter 1: Foreboding
Are you guys thinking zombies? I think I've got something better than zombies planned, to be honest. But let me know your thoughts!
The language I used in this book to create the 'voices of the storm' is from a language personally owned by me, unique in the sense there is now possessiveness, which means the creatures who use the language are hive-minded beings. The translations for the mantra are as such:
(Ye'ne be puj. Ofar nar'tat be. U'af et'ni engwon on alzhech)
(Here we toil. Far from life. The world shall end when all remember.)
Let me know your thoughts, hope you like it!
-Shamastus