"..."

There was a daunting silence in the room as Nathan sat still on his bed, processing the information that Kronos had given him.

'4 years… 4 f*cking years…'

Nathan dully chuckled as he thought about the people that were close to him prior to his death and resurrection at the cavern.

'Ajuka… Sekezer… Alisa…Wait, that's pretty much everyone? Oh, and there's Sairaorg as well… Haha… I really was a loner.'

Other than realizing that a lot of time has passed since he was in his coma(?), Nathan also realized that he was socially inept. Well, not really. It's more like he never really had time to socialize, or rather, he spent too much time on training.

Putting these thoughts to the side for the moment, Nathan began wondering exactly how much had changed during his 'death'? He doubted that there would be any significant changes to the original plot of DxD because he hadn't done much yet.

Just as Nathan was about to stand up, he felt a massive amount of magic coming his way.

Nathan widened his eyes as he held up his hand, creating a barrier with the godly-demonic energy, before unfurling his wings and launching himself to the side.

A second later, a blast of demonic energy hit his barrier and shattered it into pieces, and before he could take time to process the attack on him, he was forced to make another move as he felt magic circles forming.

As he was moving, he immediately guessed the culprit's identity.

'Ajuka? It's probably him. I doubt any others would have access to his lab. And besides…' Nathan created another barrier, 'His demonic energy is too familiar.'

"Wait! Ajuka, it's me!"

The barrage of demonic energy coming at him immediately stopped as a second later, a handsome man with green hair and blue eyes walked into the room.

It was Ajuka Beelzebub, one of the Four Satans.

Ajuka's eyes narrowed as he looked at Nathan, who was behind his barrier, before his eyes widened in shock.

"Sekirai?"

Nathan nodded, though he still kept his barrier up, just to be safe. After all, the Ajuka that he knew wouldn't let something like this go without definite proof.

"Why does your energy feel… different?" Ajuka probed Nathan with narrowed eyes.

"It's a long story."

As if that explained anything.

"Give me proof. Give me proof that you're Sekirai Agares."

"I was infected with a parasite and you tried to treat me." That was the first attempt.

"Anyone could know that from examining his body."

"You helped me make Vindex."

"That's even easier to know. You could easily loot it off his dead body." An unsuccessful second attempt.

Nathan searched through his head for both useless and important memories that involved both him and Ajuka, and eventually, he picked the most memorable one from his head. The first time that he met Ajuka, "When you gave me my Evil Pieces, you were surprised to realize that I had two of them. Before that, you visited my mom and dad at the Agares manor."

…That was oddly specific, but that was the first thing Nathan thought of—how he met Ajuka in the first place. Though that seemed to be enough for Ajuka, as in the next moment, his body relaxed as he dispelled the hidden magic that he had casted throughout the room. Nathan also let his barrier down at that point.

He walked up to Nathan and hugged him awkwardly, "You should be dead."

"...That's not what you're supposed to say?"

"Sorry. I meant, "how are you alive?""

"...It's "I'm glad that you're alive.""

"...I can't say that with full confidence."

"F*ck you."

The two exchanged banter as they moved outside of Nathan's room, with Nathan flying the whole way. He didn't want to fall onto the ground and crawl pathetically in front of Ajuka of all people. That was practically a death sentence for Nathan, as Ajuka would make fun of him for the rest of his life, before fixing his legs for him.

"Why are you flying? You don't know how to walk?"

"My body is too weak to walk. Side effect from the resurrection

"...That's pathetic."

Exactly what Nathan wanted to avoid.

Ajuka waved his hand as his demonic energy surrounded Nathan, and after a second, Nathan's body was healed.

"I know. Try taking an explosion or two to the face, and you'll…probably won't end up in the same state as me. Damn."

Ajuka scoffed, "I wouldn't even be in that situation in the first place. Now, let's talk about your… surprising resurrection. How did you do that?"

"...First, tell me what has changed over the years."

"Regarding the Underworld's political situation? It's very much different. There's a political strife with the Greek Pantheon, specifically Hades. The seeds were planted when you and Balher faced an unwarranted attack from the grim reapers, and just a few months later, you completely disappeared."

Nathan clicked his tongue, "And you guys assumed that it was the grim reapers who did it? Yeah, you're right. It was the grim reapers who did it. Are there any chances of a war?"

"No. Not at the moment. The situation is intense, very much so, but no one wants to go to war over the death of a Devil who's not even an heir to his family. Honestly, the conflict is mostly just a show put up by Ars Goetia to suppress protests from the Pillar families."

Nathan nodded. That much was logical. Even he thought that it wasn't worth going to war over his death. It'd only cause more unneeded deaths.

"But my 'death' shouldn't cause that much strife…you said it yourself—I'm a devil that's not even the heir to his family…at most, only the Agares family should protest, no?"

"I protested."

"That explains it. Of course you'd be sad at my death."

"...I was sad to lose an assistant. Now, onto the topic of your resurrection."

Nathan clicked his tongue as Ajuka's attempt to change the subject, but he let it drop in the end.

"Can we sit down first? It's a rather long story."

The two found and walked to a table in Ajuka's lab, before sitting down.

Then Nathan spilled the beans.

…

"...Interesting."

"Is that all you have to say after I come back to life?"

"You coming back to life is merely a bonus. I'm more interested in the sea that you were drowning in."

Nathan furrowed his brow, "You're not interested in Kronos?"

"I was. But we talked."

"?"

[If I can talk to you, why can't I talk to others?]

'I thought it was a parasite thing to not talk to other people?'

[Where in the world did you get that from?]

At that, Nathan stopped, before half-jokingly saying, 'I'm from another world.'

[Yeah, I can tell from your bullshit.]

As Nathan was about to retort, "From what Kronos told me, you have a problem with your body, no?"

Nathan nodded. "The different energies in my body conflict with each other."

"And you need to stabilize that, hence the reason for you collecting scattered pieces of Kronos' corpse. Well, that's going to be difficult." Ajuka let out a breath as he finished his sentence.

"Why?"

"Most of it is in Hades' temple."

"F*ck."

"Indeed."

"So what's the other solution?"

'Other than Sephiroth Graal. I'm not planning on making the vampires my enemies.'

"The Sephiroth Graal, I believe, could fix your body."

"And where is its wielder?"

"No clue."

"Exactly."

"...I'll try to make a concoction that balances the two energies in your body, but be very careful to use them simultaneously—the moment you use one more than the other, it will create an imbalance that'll then blow up your body from the inside. That'd be a huge mess to clean up."

"Sounds good. Then, I'll go settle some businesses that I have."

"What will—no, what can you do now? Remember, to the entire world, you are dead."

In truth, Nathan didn't know what to do. To him, Sekirai's parents were mere acquaintances, and he definitely wasn't close enough to them to talk about his resurrection.

But—Nathan took on the identity of Sekirai Agares at the moment, so he might as well fulfill his duty and give Sekirai's parents a sense of peace—a sense of peace from knowing that 'their 'child' was alive, right?

"I'm going to visit my parents."

And besides, the help of an Ultimate-Class devil was invaluable.