There weren't any sparring matches the morning after the raid on the Phenex estate. Everyone was just glad to be resting and taking it easy.

I, for my part, was enthusiastically trying out new ways of using my phoenix fire. In addition to flying and the whole necrofire thing I used against the devils, I was able to figure out a way to teleport through it. If I summoned it up around myself like a cloak, I could disappear and reappear with a burst of flame anywhere I'd been before, including the park where I first arrived on this world.

I would have stayed to reminisce about old times, but right when I got there my spirits saw some frankly terrifying stuff.

Which was why everyone was now huddled around a table, staring blankly forward as they absorbed the news.

"How bad is it?" Bikou said, his usual spry demeanor gone.

"Bad." I said. "The Satans have annihilated everything in their path. Every Old Satan Faction base I had spirits in no longer exists, and everyone died trying to get away. Then the spirits I have in the Grigori overheard them making plans to go to war. Azazel told them it was stupid and that they didn't have a hope of beating them without him, but then he disappeared somewhere, so he's obviously up to something."

"The church will likely respond as well." Arthur said, contemplative. "I do not see how they could stand by while a threat of this magnitude runs rampant. They may not intervene to aid the Underworld, but they will involve themselves before too long."

"What does that mean?" Le Fay said, taking in the morose expressions of everyone at the table and starting to get scared.

"War." I said simply. "It means war."

Everyone fell silent as that sunk in. The supernatural would engage in an all out war that would likely spill over into the real world, destroying everything in it as collateral.

"There-There's gotta be something we can do, right?" Le Fay said desperately, looking around the table for answers as she refused to give up hope.

"I'm sorry, sister." Arthur said comfortingly. "All we are able to do is ensure that our home will not be caught in the fighting."

Tears started to gather in Le Fay's eyes. She went to speak, but a violet snake appearing out of nowhere to land in front of Vali interrupted her.

"My Dragon, bring my other dragon and the rest to me at once. I need you." a dispassionate voice spoke through the snake before it disappeared, returning to wherever it came from.

"She couldn't have picked a worse time." Bikou said, grumbling.

"I-I can't go." Kuroka said. "My sister…. I don't want to believe that she'd hurt herself, but I can't leave her alone."

"Then stay." Vali said understandingly. "If Ophis asks where you are, I'll cover for you. Everyone else, meet in the entry hall in five minutes." he said, turning around as the table cleared around me.

Sighing, I began to massage a headache away.

"Are you okay?" Kuroka said as she nuzzled into me.

Chuckling in dark humor, I said, "I just played a key role in bringing about the end of the fucking world. No. No, I am not okay, but I'll manage. How about you?"

"I'll manage." she said, echoing my words.

So that was a no. She was currently as screwed up as the rest of us, likely more so due to the mess with her sister.

"I have a really bad feeling about this." I said, trying to figure out why every instinct I had was telling me to run without looking back.

"Hey." Kuroka pulled my chin down so I was looking at her instead of a thousand yards into the distance like I was. "None of that. Everything is going to be fine. And when everything works out, I'll be here. Then we can finally sit down and talk." Her voice took on a sultry tone as she said, "Maybe even more than just talk."

Smiling despite myself, I said, "I have no idea how you did it, but you actually got me to not only be receptive to the idea, but look forward to it."

She giggled, the sound like a tinkling bell. "Never doubt me, honey. I'll always surprise you."

"Honey?" I said with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself there?"

Nestling her head into my chest, she simply said, "Nope. You're mine now."

"I guess we'll see when I get back."

"Mmm." Pulling back from my chest, she gave me a quick kiss and leapt away with a playful grin. "Don't keep me waiting."

As she turned to go back up to her room, I couldn't help it as my eyes wandered to her swaying hips.

Told you she had nice assets.

Ddraig, don't ruin this for me.

Watching her until she was around the corner, I took a deep breath to refocus my mind. There would be time enough for that later. Right now, I needed to focus on preparing for a fight.

X

"The devils are dying. If they die they can't help me fight Great Red. Stop the devils from dying." Ophis ordered in her bland monotone from her place on top of the table.

That was probably the single worst thing she could have told us to do.

"Lady Ophis, we are not strong enough to face the New Satans." Arthur said respectfully, though I could tell by how tense his muscles were that he was panicking just as much as I was.

"I need the devils. They can take away Great Red's power. I summoned everyone. All of you save the devils."

Looking around the room, it was definitely clear there was a lot of power in this room.

In addition to the Old Satan leaders, there were several groups of powerful people all separated into their perspective teams as we all eyed each other up.

"I can defeat Sirzechs." a devil with dark silver hair said as he stepped forward. "While I duel him, I will be unable to face the others and if they aid him I will fall."

"Who are you to be so confident?" a guy in tan sweatpants asked.

"I am Rizevim Livan Lucifer." he said, throwing a challenging glare at the guy in sweatpants. "Son of Lucifer and Lilith. I will not lose to a pretender to my name."

I shot a discreet look at Vali, but he wasn't reacting in any noticeable way. In fact, he looked bored. Maybe he didn't have a problem with everyone in his family?

"That still leaves the issue of the other three Satans. Unless anyone can fight on even ground with them we're still in a bind." a woman with long blonde hair said. I didn't recognize her either, but considering the only people in this room that I knew were my teammates and the Old Satan leaders, that wasn't all that surprising.

"Leave the other pretenders to us." Katerea Leviathan said with a growl. "We need everyone else's support to beat back their peerages and buy us time to deal the killing blow."

"And what happens after we win?" a man with black hair wearing a white robe tied around his waist said. "Will you devils betray us?"

"We will honor our word." Shalba said, narrowing his eyes at the man. "We will continue to assist the Khaos Brigade in weakening the strangle hold the supernatural factions have on all of us."

Since when was that our aim? I said in Vali's mind.

I never paid attention after Ophis said she'd give me strong foes to fight. But I can't say it's not something I agree with. If we go after the older powers, I'll be able to fight gods.

Why was I not surprised Vali didn't read the fine print? He probably heard the word 'battle' and drowned out everything else that was said.

"Good. You have a plan. Use my snakes if you need them. Save the devils. Now go away. You're being loud." Ophis said as she sat down on the table, staring blankly at the wall. I was getting the sense that this was pretty common for her.

Katerea turned to address the room and said, "Meet us in Lucifaad. The pretender's reign will end where it began." Without another word, she and the two devils with her teleported away.

A myriad of spells were cast as every other group followed after her, and once again I had a feeling in my gut that I should run to the other side of the world and hide.

We should sit this one out. I said in Vali's mind. This isn't going to end well.

We'll be fine, Xarion. Just let the others take the Satans' attention and there should be no issue.

Vali, I'm telling you, I've got a screwy feeling. This mission is going to go bad.

Then we retreat back to the Pendragon estate, but until then, we fight. "Is everyone ready?" he said aloud, silencing any more argument from me.

"Let's do this!" Bikou said, smashing his fists together as the Pendragon siblings both nodded.

Without another word, Vali's teleportation circle appeared around us and we were pulled into the Underworld.

We arrived just as the building next to us exploded.

"Pretenders!" Rizevim bellowed as hundreds of weaker New Satan faction devils fled from the army that appeared in the middle of the street. "Face us!" he hurled another spell into another building and that one blew up just like the first one.

"We need to get off the street before we become collateral damage." I said hurriedly as flaming phoenix wings emerged from my back.

"Everyone in the air. Stay as low as you can and let the Old Satans draw any attention to themselves." Vali said, his own wings appearing along with the rest of his suit.

As a team, we all launched into the air and got a healthy distance away from the Old Satans so any retaliatory strike wouldn't catch us in the blast.

"How long do you think it'll take for-"

Bikou was cut off as the largest explosion yet rocked the entire area.

"Rizevim." a red haired man surrounded by an aura of pure destruction growled as he appeared in the air above us. "You're dead."

There were several flashes of light around him as more and more figures appeared. A silver haired woman in a maid uniform. A shorter woman with black hair whose mere presence freezes the air around her. A bulky man in long robes who stared dispassionately down at us. A form I recognized as Beelzebub, and dozens of others.

The feeling that I needed to run away returned, only this time it was one-hundred times as strong.

A battle cry was taken up by both sides as the Khaos Brigade charged upwards and the devils fell to meet us.

Rizevim and Sirzechs knocked each other away to fight one on one. As did Katerea and Serafall Leviathan, Creuserey and the bulky devil in thick robes and Shalba and Ajuka Beelzebub. The rest of the devil's assembled force dove right into the heart of our less than coordinated group.

People on both sides instantly started dying the moment the battle commenced. There was a power threshold that if you didn't meet, you were just fodder.

"Vali, we need to-" I started to say, trying to coordinate everyone, only for Vali to rocket towards the oncoming devils, Bikou hot on his heels.

Clenching my teeth in frustration, I turned to Arthur and Le Fay and said, "Keep each other alive." I shrouded myself in invisibility the next instant, and flew upwards, a dozen copies of myself both ahead of me and behind me, each woven with different effects.

Three devils charged towards my illusions, all of them wielding melee weapons of some sort. The moment they came into contact with my illusions, three separate effects triggered. The first devil froze completely, turning into an unwilling statue as he fell out of the sky towards the land-locked members of the Khaos Brigade. The second clutched at her head as a viscous mental probe burrowed into her head, leaving her unprotected as a devil from the Old Satan Faction flew in to remove her head. The third devil simply exploded, the force of the blast sending him ragdolling through the air, a flying magician hot on his heels.

Taking a moment to look around, I realized that more and more devils, magicians and all sorts of other combatants were still flooding the field to join in the fray. The battle's scope was increasing in magnitude every passing second.

Large spells launched by powerful entities that were dodged or deflected exploded amongst the weaker troops, killing them instantly. Anyone who could hold their own was quickly pulled into a one-on-one fight for their life as someone who roughly matched them in strength squared up with them, the devastation caused by their battle destroying buildings and people alike.

And in the middle of it all, I floated, completely undetected under my invisibility.

This-this was madness. No one would win here. People were dying as soon as they arrived and the city around us was already well on its way to turning into a forgotten crater.

Even horrified as I was at the devastation, all I could do was join in. It was the only way to get to my friends and get us all out of here.

Summoning Boosted Gear, I started flying as fast as my wings would carry me so my boosts would only betray my position for a moment.

BOOST!

Everyone in the vicinity recognized the sound, and everyone, even my own allies as few of them knew I possessed Boosted Gear, lobbed whatever they could at it, the area I'd occupied turning into a raging inferno of spells and death.

BOOST!

Once more, I dodged an avalanche of death as everyone in the general area tried to kill the sound before I could unleash whatever it was I was preparing for. They were right to, and they'd have one more chance.

BOOST!

This time I got clipped by a spell that knocked me into the path of a much more devastating one. My wards were able to absorb most of the damage, but some of it still got through.

I bit hard into my tongue to stifle my pained cry as I channeled all of my power into a single spell.

"RISE!" I bellowed, a ghastly orb of necromantic energy exploding out from me.

When the energy passed over standing combatants still tearing away at each other, nothing happened, but when it passed over bodies strewn across the ground or still falling from the sky, it caused their eyes to glow a sickly green.

Every corpse created since the start of the battle rose again, heeding my call to battle.

As my army rose, I patted myself down to check over the damage I sustained from the spell, and what I saw caused me to grin. A bright orange phoenix flame was scoring the wound closed, regenerating all of the damage.

Making Sil Du was probably the greatest thing I'd ever done.

Turning myself invisible once more, I ordered my horde of hundreds to kill every devil they could get their hands on.

At this point, I was beyond fighting for the Khaos Brigade; I was only targeting the devils because my friends were on the other side.

The battle grew ever larger as more and more combatants arrived.

I did everything I could to avoid the major fighting, weaving in and out of buildings and fighters to raise the dead and send them back into the battle. Even staying out of sight as I was, I was likely one of the most deadly threats on the field. The only thing worse than doing everything you could to kill your opponent only to have them stand back up was to watch your friend fall and turn against you. As the battle progressed and the number of dead steadily increased, so too did my horde.

"Find the necromancer and kill him!" a voice yelled over the absolute cacophony created by the battle around us.

Turning to find the speaker, I realized I recognized her. It was Grayfia Lucifuge, the wife of Sirzechs Lucifer and one of the strongest devils here. If she was after me, then I wasn't wrong about being one of the greatest threats present.

I was about to fly as far away from her as fast as I possibly could when another sound rang out over the chaos of the battle.

DIVIDE!

Following the sound, I saw Vali's white armored form engaged with what looked like another dragon's balance breaker armor, only this one was a brilliant gold and wielding a spear.

Ddraig, what is that?

Run, partner! Run now!

I'm not leaving Vali.

Run, you idiot!

No!

Spinning around, still protected by my invisibility, I ordered my horde to clear me a path to the dueling figures. I was almost close enough to help when the gold armored figure sped around Vali and landed a devastating blow with the shaft of their spear, sending Vali rocketing into the ground.

I altered my course to follow after the golden armor and arrived just as he landed on top of Vali.

"I am so sorry, son. If there were any other way, I would have taken it." the armored figure spoke in a voice I recognized as he pulled a thick chain out of nowhere.

He wrapped the chain around Vali's throat and Vali's armor disappeared as he started to scream.

BOOST!

I rammed my fist into the golden armor, pumping a vitality curse laced with hellfire into it with the impact.

"I'm sorry to you, too, Xarion. I wish there was another way." Azazel said as his wings shot out of his back, knocking me away from him while Vali thrashed about, throwing spells up at Azazel and bashing at his armored legs, doing anything to get the Fallen off of him.

As I finally came rolling to a stop, I looked up and my eyes met with Vali's just as a baby blue sphere of energy was sucked out of him. His eyes went dead and his entire body fell limp as the Sacred Gear extractor pulled Divine Dividing from him.

Something snapped in me, and I saw red.

"NoooOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I screamed as something inside me shifted.

Welsh Dragon Balance Breaker!

I felt sturdy plates surround my form and an unprecedented amount of power flowed through my veins.

My eyes locked onto Azazel, and I tensed my muscles to charge the murderer.

I'm sorry, Xarion. I really liked you, kid, but I have to do this.

Suddenly, the very power that a moment ago made me feel invincible clawed at my mind, trying to force me out.

I fell to my knees, screaming in agony as Ddraig betrayed me.

XXX

Ddraig

The Sacred Gear extractor was imperfect. I realized it the moment I 'bound' to my new host. It removed my connection to Issei Hyoudou, the pathetic human, but it also shook loose the bonds of my prison. When Xarion claimed my power, I was not properly tethered to my new host. I was still imprisoned within him, but I was not bound solely to his will. I found that, if I tried, I could force the Boosted Gear to appear. From there, it was only a matter of experimentation.

The more Xarion trained in the use of my power, the more I learned about our fractured connection. Whenever he used my power to double his own, I gained more influence, more control. He didn't realize it because he had never lived with a Sacred Gear and did not know the side effects of one's use. And he never suspected me because, as I'd seen in his memories, I was the first being he ever allowed himself, no, forced himself to fully trust. He knew he needed the advantage my strength would give him, and he ignored all of his paranoia because he needed my power. When I watched his memories, I'd learned why.

Xarion's strength, while impressive by mortal standards, was nothing compared to the might of the monstrosities in his memories. The Phyrexians, Slithers, the Eldrazi, Nicol Bolas - Xarion was but an ant before them all.

But I was not.

I was Ddraig, Red Dragon Emperor, thief of the Principle of Domination! Before me, these beasts that terrified Xarion on a primal level were mere stepping stones.

Xarion's mind had shown me what was possible. He had given me all the information I needed to prosper in the multiverse he feared; to show that upstart dragon what true power was! But there was one thing stopping me.

I needed a spark.

No one in this world had ever 'ignited' as Xarion referred to it. But Xarion was not of this world. He had survived the Blind Eternities when everything he knew told him that was impossible, but it wasn't.

Xarion had a spark within him; he just had yet to ignite.

A plan started to shape the moment we were joined and I felt his potential. I needed his power to achieve my ends. I would not be trapped in his arm when he had shown me a different path. A path a dragon must take!

I had learned that I could influence and even control Xarion to a point whenever he called upon my power, so I just needed to wait until he summoned the pinnacle of my strength; the balance breaker.

While my victory would be assured if I waited for him to use the Juggernaut Drive, I knew he would not so long as he had any choice in the matter. In his memories he'd seen what would happen to him if that technique failed and wanted no part in it, but he was excited to use the scale mail, so that would be my chance. At the moment he unlocked the balance breaker, when his emotions were uncontrolled and he opened himself completely to welcome his newfound strength, that was when I would strike. That was when I would take his body, his spark, for myself.

Watching through my host's eyes as Albion's host was killed by the boy's adoptive father, I knew the time was at hand.

A large feeling of guilt gripped my core, but still I proceeded. I liked Xarion, he was one of my favorite hosts, but in the end, he was still my jailor, and I was infinite. In time, the guilt would fade.

I'm sorry, Xarion. I really liked you, kid, but I have to do this.

I felt his shock as I took control of his arms, his legs, his everything. He tried to fight for control, but he had already given everything to me when he fully entrenched himself in the transformation. Now all that was left was to remove Xarion from my body once and for all.