In The Service of The Dark and The Service of The Light
Contains language, violence, and sexual content
(its DxD, what'd'ya expect)
Prologue
War for Peace/Odd Arangment
With a disembodied bird's-eye view of her vision, she couldn't emerge from the bottomless pit that she had been thrown into. For the second time in centuries, since joining her new and supportive family, she had stood before a truly superior power.
Despite all the times she spent collapsing from magic-exhaustion and borderline magic-exposure poisoning in training; all the days hidden in the mountains of books in the Gremory Family Archives; the years wasted formulating reconciliation methods with her father; never has being in the presence of superiority been this overwhelming.
Violent could perfectly summarize yet fail to wholly describe the scene of the endless expanse of corpses strewn far over the horizon and beyond.
Untold legions of Humans and Angels engaged an endless horde of Humans, Fallen Angels, Demons, and Gods alike in an endless siege with the ancient magics and unknown technologies of a forgotten age.
The sound of impossibly large cannons and machinery shook the world at the command of men and women. Various airborne vehicles and winged creatures on both sides engaged in hellish dogfights centered around the equally massive red and white dragons.
Bi and Quadrupedal creations and vehicles rattled the ground with every inch advanced. Explosions rocked entire continents as their magic and radiation payloads annihilated regions of the atmosphere.
Arch Sages led squadrons of mages to unleash endless volleys of artillery spells upon their enemies. Each fireball, each icicle, each bolt of lightning, each burst of healing, would lead to further devastation measured in the blood spilled by hundreds and thousands.
All bodies and corpses - Humans, Beings, and Deities alike - were donned in strange armors and wielded equally mysterious weapons in varying states of damage. Millions joined the carrion sea for every moment of battle as billions more crumbled from unimaginable pestilence.
Her enhanced view overhead had given her a chance to see the boldly undefined lines of all-out warfare. Directly below her was a tsunami of purely human in greyish-gold armor, led by an unarmored broad-shouldered man wielding a simple short-sword.
His skin was a lattice of scars and fresh wounds covering his natural skin tone with crusted blood and grime. His face was nearly gaunt, imbedded with somber glowing silver irises sunken by the erosion of trauma and violence.
His cheekbones – the left exposed from a gunshot - pronounced his once noble jawline, now disfigured from close quarter combat. The right side of his face had been burnt by a point-blank overcharged plasma weapon. Several ribs had been jutting out before his body began stitching and setting back to normal.
The eldritch voice of the boy's possessor spoke to her psyche, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."
On the opposite end was a mishmash of Cross-Bearing Humans fighting beside Fallen Angels, and gods of various Mythos. The mixed army that outnumbered tenfold was led by a similar young man that could've been the opposing leader's relative.
At his side was an Angel twice his height, but with her perspective, she couldn't estimate the fighters' heights.
The Angel exhumed no Holy Aura, yet possessed 7 faces of incomprehensible detail and 14 wings; 6 Heavenly-whites on its left, 6 of a Fallen Leader's on its right, and 2 gunmetal grey wings on both sides of the nape.
Bombs burst midair, peppering the fields with alchemic substances of various effects. Field Artillery Guns roared from multiple barrels as men, women, children, and inhuman beings became the fray.
Lives and limbs were lost with every use of a weapon as every use of offensive magic disintegrated warriors, displaying corpses farther than the horizon reached.
The 2 Human leaders met in the center as their soldiers called for a ceasefire to move out of the way. In an instant, they engaged in bloody melee with twin short-swords coated in viscera and mud.
Sparks and energy flew into their faces as they tumbled across the battlefield. Their sudden start had left their armies in a scramble, leaving the dead and dying behind.
Every punch that landed had parted the clouds and fractured bones; every kick split the mountains of corpses into a shower of gore; every swing of the sword parted the ground like the Red Sea.
The Blank Leader created an unimaginable gap between them and readied his sword low, beginning to raggedly speak as he panted.
"With an ass' jaw, I have slewn countless."
The sword in his hand glowed with more power than the Archangels leading his divisions; transforming into a small dagger of bone with a handle of fine leather.
"With an ass' jaw, your rending will be final."
He leapt back towards the Enemy Leader, leaving craters with every step, endlessly gaining speed and vaporizing corpses as he moved.
"With an ass' jaw, I send you before your Lord Almighty."
He penetrated the magic and physical barriers that had been instantly erected to slow his travel as he persisted forward with his blade and ferocity.
"For I am The Keeper, The Watcher, and The Sword of Paradise Lost."
The Enemy leader grit his teeth and planted his feet, but was pushed back by the inhuman pressure that rapidly decomposed the corpses around.
"May God show His eternal mercy upon you, for I have none."
The Enemy Leader fell onto one knee as his opponent pressed onward with overwhelming energy.
"God Bless You. Now and Forever. Amen, and Goodbye."
The Blank Leader broke every layer of protection with increasing resistance, being further slowed by the combat fatigue and deceleration magic. Each layer shattered had dissipated back into the atmosphere to be reused in the furious war raging around them.
After what could only be described as an eternity, the last layer of magic broke as the Blank Leader sunk his dagger into the heart of his opponent before receiving a slash to the face that destroyed his right eye.
An unmatchable pulse of energy continued to radiate from the stabbed Leader, signifying for both armies to cease.
One from exhaustion and unfulfillment; the other from the inching true death and satisfaction.
Sitting on a rock with nothing but his bloodied and tattered loincloth, the Blank Leader shed a tear as the Cross-Bearing Leader crawled his way towards him whilst bleeding profusely.
A few more handfuls of dug dirt later, he put his left hand on the rock his opponent rested on as he supported his struggle to get back up.
A few more cycles of buckling his elbow later, he finally laid his head upon his opponent's lap and turned towards the brightest horizon.
"The Sun's just beginning to rise." The Blank Leader remarked.
"It sure is." The Cross-Bearer Leader replied.
The fighting had completely ceased as their armies walked off in opposite sides to leave an unobstructed view for their Leaders.
"Reminds me of my first day back home." The Older of the 2 continued.
"You too?" The Younger chuckled as the wound in his chest began to heal and the pain grew.
The gathered clouds had made a small parting above them and let down a warm glow. The pulse of energy intensified and begun to disrupt the corpses around them at a subatomic level. They began to dissipate into orbs of energy that ascended to the skies above.
The Blank Leader stared into the eyes of the meek boy in his lap, looking at the dying light within.
"So why'd you side with Dad?" He asked as he stroked the boy's flowing brown hair.
"God has a plan for us all, and he cherishes obedience above all else. But now I'm starting to see where I went wrong." The Younger Brother answered before shooting back up to cough a wad of blood that accumulated in his lungs.
The bodies around and beyond had finished reaching their collective destination, and had begun to set off a chain reaction unexplainable by even parascience.
"Plans always go to hell at the most inconvenient times, so why bother with them?" The Older humored.
"Damn right…. Hey, let me get that for you." The Younger said as he raised his hands to wipe the wet lines coming off of the face above him. "I think this is the first time that I've seen you cry."
"So we've had some ride, didn't we?" The Older of the 2 half asked and half choked with a small grin.
"Oh yeah. But I gotta ask, why'd you hold back just now? You're the one that has Mom's Strength." The Younger questioned as he squinted from the sunlight in his eyes.
"I didn't. Guess I got a little lucky." The Older answered.
"Luck is its own strength. And I guess I'm all out of it now that my part in His Plan is done." The Younger continued.
"But why aren't you healing yourself with Dad's power? You don't have to go." The Older asked.
The Younger wheezed as he collected his thoughts. "In my entire existence, I've only done what I was told, and left it at that. And here we are, off the brink of war. When Mom took that one bite, I realized that we could do a lot more than just blindly waddle for Eternity. I guess this is the first, and last, time that I make my own decision, instead of walking the pearly path laid out for unquestioning dogs."
The power radiated by the boy had begun to condense and manifest as an abyssal black 5-pointed star over The Older's heart.
"We've been at war for so long that I barely managed to keep track of the millennia and how many have died through this small universe." The Older listed off, "999 Sextillion, 999 Quintillion, 999 Quadrillion, 999 Trillion, 999 Billion, 999 Million, 999 Thousand, 999 people killed over 3 billion planets in these last few 7 million years."
The Younger nuzzled his head as a sudden cold enveloped his body, "I'm feeling weird all of a sudden. Just so tired now."
"Before you go, how do you read this Enochian?" The Older asked, "To me, it's Kin Slayer."
With a shiver, The Younger answered, "Nah. It really reads Independence or Independent. I feel so cold now. Could you hold my hand one last time, for ol' time's sake?"
The Older brushed his left hand off and grasped The Younger's left, feeling the encroaching cold and the fading of a soul, "You always were the smart one."
"You know that if you let this finish, you can't come back." The Older warned.
"I just wanna rest for a little while now. But before I go, I'll give you some gifts."
He put his right hand on his chest, where a brilliant green light exuded from his skin as he pulled 2 silver rings adorned with a green gemstone each.
"Dad's Healing Power. Give it a cheeky name like Twilight Healing or something like that, and give it to someone who matters." He forced through a sputtering of blood and bile.
He dug his first 3 digits into his eye socket and pulled it out with a short squelching sound, not having the energy to feel the pain.
"A replacement for yours, and is a binding seal for our unofficial Sister." He placed it in his brother's empty socket, where it instantly fused. The iris changed from heavenly silver to inky black.
"Thanks, little brother." The Older choked with a sob.
"Call me by my name, one last time, please." The Younger demanded weakly.
"I don't deserve to." The Older went into a full cry, staining his loincloth with the patter of loss. He held his brother's hand a little tighter, unwilling to say goodbye for the rest of his pitiful existence.
"I think it's time for me to sleep for good." The Younger brother's hand went limp. The last of his warmth disappeared with the destruction of his soul, but his persistence pushed out his dying words.
"I love you too..."
…..
…..
…..
'Larlo, why not go to Japan for school?' They asked.
'Enjoy the culture.' They proclaimed.
'Leave America's failing school structure.' They claimed.
And he did; taking his phone, a watch, 2 Bibles, his Oshino-esque cross necklace, and a 5.11 (pronounced Five Eleven) brand RUSH12 backpack.
Although somewhat (very) illegal, he smuggled a matte black lighter with him.
It was inscripted with the scripture, "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." Psalm 23:4, one of his favorite verses.
He and his dad spoke and read Japanese in near-equal fluency (he usually had to be the translator) so they had no troubles in communication.
Mom still owned a mortgage-less house from when she lived in her hometown of Kuoh. She finished her Aerospace Engineering PhD, met his dad, got married, then had him.
She was an alumni at the all-girls Kuoh Academy while she lived in Japan, but she heard from her relatives that Kuoh opened up to boys recently. So, she was eager to send him and did the registration the Sunday before; getting him accepted on legacy.
House specifics:
2 floors
1 Master Room (upstairs), 2 guest rooms (per floor) each with King sized water beds, and 1 living room attached to the kitchen
4 restrooms (2 each floor), all of which had tubs/showers
1 kitchen with a large French-door fridge, cabinets full of dry food, utensils, towels, etc; 1 laundry room that doubled as storage.
The house had a 2-vehicle garage outside that could be accessed from the kitchen. Inside was enough tools to fix anything up to a 4-wheel truck, back up gas cans, and his dad's factory black 2017 Mazda 6 with a license plate that read Teufelshunde (Devil Dog in German, read up on the US Marine Corps)
The house caught fire in 2015, so they had to modernize the appliances and furniture.
She installed a Smart TV, PC, and consoles for when they left Larlo for an adult's day out. He could sustain himself if he had to, and he had the skills to do it; cooking, cleaning, laundry, sewing, etc. But they said that they'd give him a weekly allowance and pay the bills, so there was no hustle to get a job.
Come March 21st, Dad paid for a 1-way and a round-trip ticket to NIA, then paid for the train south. They finally arrived at the house; which was about a 20-minute walk west of Ku-Ac or a 5-minute drive on the motorcycle he spent the past 4 years teaching his now 17 year old son to ride.
They drove the Mazda the next day to get him introduced to Kuoh Academy, arriving for orientation at 9 am, locker, classes, teachers, schedules, locations, and clubs. He could tell that a majority, if not all, of the girls gave him an interested look. The guys on the other hand, gave him glares etched with the universally clear message of 'Burn in Hell, you hot bastard.'
He noticed that something was off about the school. The girl-boy ratio was about 6:1, strange if boys were so eager to enter a prestigious high school.
The air itself tasted and smelled off, like stale bread, despite the school pouring its budget into AC and air-filtration.
The strangest thing was the clubs, 2 in particular. The "meeting room" of the Occult Research Club, or the O-R-C, was a whole schoolhouse and dorm, an abandoned one at that.
Word in the halls is that the club got shut down about 8 years ago due to a lack of members.
But ever since Rias Gremory, the red-headed Queen of the School, entered 3 years ago, the club had become active. The only problems were that you couldn't join; you had to get invited. Apparently, it was filled with a bunch of the school hoties and cuties.
Rias Gremory, the club President; Akeno Himejima, Rias' friend and right-hand, the VP; Yuuto Kiba, the blonde beauty boy of the school; and Koneko Toujou, the unofficial school mascot and cold loli-faced (4'6/138 cm) kitten princess that packed a punch.
The other strange club was the Student Council, which was mostly full of surprisingly approachable people.
Souna Shitori, rumored to be Rias' best and childhood friend, the strict President; Tsubaki Shinra, almost as strict as her President, Souna's right-hand, VP; Momo Hanakai, soft-spoken and friendly, unknown position, possibly Co-Treasurer; Reya Kusaka, soft-spoken, Treasurer; Tomoe Meguri, tolerably hyperactive and cheery, Secretary; Tsubasa Yura, polite tomboy, unknown position, possibly Historian; Genshirou Saji, arrogant and egotistic, a bit of a smart-ass, surprisingly approachable, romantically interested in Souna, Co-VP.
There was something off about them, but he couldn't put his finger on it just yet; he'd have to dig a bit deeper later. As someone wise and smart far beyond his years, he made it a standard to dig into staff and students via surface and dark web resources.
Saji approached him in the main hall, happily proclaiming his joy to see a new male student in the girl dominated populous. Something was really off about the StuCo and ORC; like they were delicately choosing what to say and do. They were definitely hiding something big, bigger than the secrets within everyone.
He noticed that everyone in the Student Council and ORC were giving him strange looks, like they were keeping an eye on him. He knew that they had been following him all day, but the ORC in particular has been a little too nosy.
He saw Koneko and Kiba on the walk over, then Akeno in the halls; all of whom were giving him the attentive side-eye. When he and his dad came into view of the ORC building, he felt something trying to drill holes into his soul.
His neck hairs flared, prompting him into looked up to the second story windows; where Rias had been waiting to stare him down as he walked past the building.
He stared back harder, seeing her flinch slightly; probably not used to having people notice her presence instantly.
After they finished all the paperwork and his impromptu orientation, from 6-8, they went shopping for supplies, clothes, groceries, and toiletries to last the next month.
They walked out with 2 neatly-filled carts of clothes, toilet paper, paper towels, canned goods, vegetables, meat, eggs, and school supplies.
On the drive home, they passed a western candy store, then stopped for a few minutes. He got down and saw that the store carried 3 of his favorite sweets; candy cigarettes, Tootsie Rolls, and LifeSavers. Having some spending money left in his bag, he bought 3 packs of each and hopped back in to go home.
On the 22nd, his dad said his goodbyes and love yous, then took the round-flight back home; leaving his son to a somewhat foreign land and a foreign school.
A quarter way over the Pacific, his dad reassured himself, thinking, 'Boy's got nothing to worry about. He's stronger than he thinks, and he's got her to back him up. Stay calm, stay relaxed, stay focused. He has Corps Training, so they'll be fine. Pray that he doesn't have to call for her.'
After a few hours, he gave checkup and goodnight calls to his parents, then played Minecraft with his friend back home till 9 pm on the gaming PC he had hooked up to the Xbox Series X he got as a good-grades and moving-in gift.
The Battle of Laplace_667 and Hyper-G6m9r vs hordes of Red Dragons in RLCraft could put the Ultimate Battle of Ultimate Destiny to shame.
Since his classes were from 8:30am-5pm, he planned to wake up at 6, cook an omelet, then leave.
On the kitchen table, he packed his backpack with 5 notebooks, a pencil/pen pouch, his lunchbox, both Bibles, and a pack of candy cigarettes.
He laid his bag flat and grabbed his lighter, placing it next to his backpack.
He readied his uniform for his first day; a black long-sleeved dress shirt, a vertical black-striped white-blazer, and black pants with a casual white T he bought.
He set his phone alarms at 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30, and 8. He went to sleep in the master bedroom, fluffed his pillow, and fell asleep; awaiting for whatever dreams would visit him this night.
…..
…..
"Now that everything's dead and gone, I've been waiting all of Eternity to tell ya' this."
...
"Go fuck yourself... and leave me alone while you're at it."
In whatever plane-of-being it resided in, He let out a sigh somewhere between a scoff, disappointment, laughter, and amusment.
"All will Return to Nothing. The current Universe, Existence, will cease to be. In the next Universe, the entirety of Life and Creation will have True Free Will, but will not be exempt from infrequent examples of My Providence."
Planets cracked and imploded beyond the stars, killing those on ground and in orbit, exterminating all instances of organic matter. All, save for one.
"Commence Genesis."