I don't own Highschool DXD! Only OC's and all the bullshit I come up with!
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When Flames Rise – Chapter 2
Descent Into Darkness
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Issei wandered the woods aimlessly.
It wasn't easy. Issei entered a random part of the forest and fought his way through the green. He was convinced that if he were to follow a preset path, it'd be much easier to find him, and he wanted to avoid that at all costs.
That came with the annoying disadvantage of needing to fight his way through the thick green of the forest, having to push himself through patches of pushes, getting stuck on random vines, climbing hills, and only rarely was he able to traverse a simple patch of grass with no annoyance in the way.
But he determined that it was worth it.
As of right now, his only goal was to get away from Kuoh. As far away as his legs could carry him. And even though he had been walking for quite a while now, he knew that if he were to stop to rest now, he'd be caught within the next few minutes.
At least that was what his paranoia told him.
His paranoia of being caught and brought back into such a place, but worse. Now that he knew how to escape such a place, they'd probably up the security to an insane degree. And then they'd be free to do anything they want with him.
In truth, he had already brought a far enough distance between Kuoh and himself. No searching party would go as far out as he has gone within the next 24 hours, and they'd call it off before they'd even reach Issei's location. Not only that, but his captors had minimal priority on getting him back as of right now. Their main base of operation had just been destroyed and so they had to re-establish a new one before they could do anything else. Dispatching a searching party would be a waste of men and went against their current interests.
Issei, of course, didn't know that.
In his eyes, he just made himself their biggest enemy and they'd now pour everything into getting him back or at least making him pay for what he had done. He could see armies of enemies swarming down on his location, all of them more capable than he was. He stood no chance, of that, he was sure. So he had to get away until he found a way to either get their focus off of him or somehow defeat them.
He didn't consider the fact that he had just crashed one of their most valuable locations which they had considered secure, and that they were now struggling to reestablish their presence inside of Kuoh as their entire started crumbling with the fatal blow he had delivered. After all, it wasn't just the building that was lost. Tons and tons of valuable information had been terminated with the destruction of the hardware it was kept on or the papers on which it was written, some of it had been saved, but not all could be rescued from the collapsing building.
But, of course, Issei didn't know that either.
The most ironic thing about his situation was that he was being followed, just not by who he expected to be following him.
As Issei pulled himself through yet another group of bushes, he realized that his body was reaching a point of exhaustion from which he could not push himself further and decided that resting for a bit would be in his interest.
While looking for a spot where he would be somewhat protected from curious eyes, he allowed himself to think a bit about what he had found out about himself today.
He wasn't human.
If he were a human, the battle with the man would have ended differently, he wouldn't have made it this far, and he wouldn't have survived the explosion or the collapse of the building. But if he wasn't human, then what was he? He didn't know. One thing he was sure of was that he had been human before, but that had changed. He just didn't know how or why.
But even so, there was a tiny piece of humanity still in the back of his mind clinging on, refusing to let go no matter what. It carried his signature determination, even if it had barely any impact on his actions. He didn't fight it, didn't try to push it away, but still, something inside of him was actively trying to snuff out that last little flame of connection he had to his past.
And while that small war was happening on the edges of his mindscape, he was ignoring it letting it wage on without the slightest care in the world.
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There was a man in the shadows.
Following his target silently and without letting them wander out of his sight.
While his face was hidden in the shadows of his hat, there was no doubt that a big smile had taken over his expression.
The aura he was giving off was one of darkness.
One of bad intent.
One of Sin.
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Rias Gremory was sitting at her desk.
Her gaze was flying over the documents that had been delivered to her from Akeno.
While she liked to claim that she and Sona were the definite rulers of Kuoh, she had to admit that it was a burden she would not be able to handle all by herself, while simultaneously living the life of a normal student.
Her brother had offered his cooperation, but she pushed him away at moment's notice, claiming she had everything under control.
She didn't.
Sooner or later someone took notice of her struggles and came to make a deal with her.
The man's demands had been very simple and easily accomplishable.
Her name on the city.
While he stayed in the background governing the entire city, without giving her anything to worry about, she claimed the city in, not only her but also Sona's name.
At first, she didn't see what benefits he would gain from such an action, but after some time she realized how barely any supernatural being dared come near the city.
Her and Sona's names had the weight of two Satan's behind them, with one of them being strong enough to compete with the most powerful of beings from the supernatural.
The name's had such weight that not even Yokai, who technically had a right to walk in and out of Kuoh with no trouble, considered even getting near the city. They knew that Yasaka wouldn't start a war with the Devils if one of them was murdered by the God-level Satan. It seemed cruel and uncaring, but it was clear that the Yokai had barely any fighting chance against the Devils, giving them a very good reason to avoid any kind of conflict with them.
Though this protection didn't seem to last.
A skyscraper blown to pieces, killing hundreds if not thousands, and wrecking a large chunk of the city was something nobody had seen coming.
But when it happened, she almost immediately received messages about it being through supernatural causes.
She had no clue how that had been figured out, seeing how seemingly only a few people survived the destruction, leaving barely anyone to report back to her in such a short window of time.
Her answer came in form of a list.
It was a list that informed her how a big number of people who had been claimed dead, had survived the strike due to their supernatural nature and used it as an opportunity to disappear into the supernatural without causing anyone to question their absence.
It was shocking for her how many people had taken the opportunity, leaving behind their old life like it had no meaning to them.
How could someone do that?
Another document that caught her attention warned her about a certain individual.
[!] – [This document has a (Level 5) Access Level] – [!]
[!] – [Read at own Risk] – [!]
Project Name: P.L.B.D. {REDACTED}
Project Subject Number: (27)
Project Purpose: {REDACTED}
Project Description: The subject was taken in at the age of {REDACTED} on the {REDACTED}. Taken to {REDACTED} and injected with {REDACTED}. Under the surveillance of {REDACTED} held in {REDACTED}. The subject is to be fed 3 times a day by {REDACTED} and under no condition is the subject allowed to {REDACTED}. After random periods of time the subject is to be brought to {REDACTED} to come in contact with {REDACTED} to {REDACTED}. This will result in {REDACTED}. If performed wrong this might result in the subject {REDACTED} or {REDACTED}. If successful in {REDACTED} the subject is to be exposed to {REDACTED} afterward the subject will be used to perform {REDACTED}. If the last step is performed successfully, it must be repeated until the subject {REDACTED}.
Subject (27) [Before Project: P.L.B.D.]: {REDACTED}udou. Brown hair. Hazel eyes. {REDACTED} No known supernatural connection.
Subject (27) [Expected Results after Project: P.L.B.D.]: {REDACTED} resembling a human with {REDACTED}.Absolute {REDACTED}.
Subject (27) [Before (Absolute Disaster) during Project: P.L.B.D.]: {REDACTED}
Subject (27) [(Currently during Absolute Disaster) after Project: P.L.B.D.] (Approximately): Humanoid. Brown hair. Hazel eyes. 185 cm in height. Knowledge of the existence of the supernatural, but no connection to it.
Rias looked multiple times at the Document, reading every line between the black boxes formed by all the text that had been redacted. She had no idea what this "Project: P.L.B.D." or "Subject (27)" were, trying to squeeze as much information as possible from what she had gotten.
But that wasn't the only thing that stood out to her. Something that immediately took her interest was the four letters emerging from an unfinished redaction.
"-udou"
She didn't know what they meant, nor if they were purposefully left uncensored for her to see. But even so, there was nothing she gained from them.
Finally, her gaze shifted to the underlined paragraph, which was also the only one with no censorship at all.
It was a very vague description of this "Subject (27)" and didn't give her any lead to finding out more about this individual other than a confirmation that it probably wasn't human, supported by the paragraph about the "Expected Results" for this "Project: P.L.B.D." where "Subject (27)" is described to "resemble a human" which implied that it wasn't human, to begin with.
But even so, she barely got enough information to gain a significant mental image of "Subject (27)".
Sighing, she decided that she needed to go through the rest of the documents first, she'd only waste time running in circles around one of many weird documents that had been sent to her.
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Issei felt the sweat pouring down his face.
Climbing a rock wall was no easy task, not even with his unnatural strength and stamina.
His stomach was empty, and it had been some time since he'd last taken a sip of water. The sun shining through the leaves was giving him a slight headache and the harsh rocks were making it hard for him to get a good grip on the wall.
Though he was fairly confident that after this wall he'd be far enough away from Kuoh to consider himself safe.
It was the last challenge on this road of his.
The last obstacle to halt his progress.
The last thing to try and stop him.
The top was near, only a meter or two away from him and his never-ending determination flared up inside of him, giving him a small boost of energy.
Pushing himself, his fingers finally took hold of the edge and he-
"May I help you?"
Issei's head shot up, he felt the adrenaline start pumping again.
There, right on the edge of the cliff was a man, dressed in a very fancy, yet simplistic suit whose face was hidden under the shadow of a fedora. His entire attire was colorless and even his skin was a pale greyish color. Both his hands were folded behind his back as he was standing relaxed yet in a rather stiff pose.
Then the man's aura hit him.
It was dark, not the same kind of darkness the man had brought upon him, it didn't suffocate him and try to drown him in itself, but still, he felt how thick and concentrated it was and he had no doubt that this grey man could easily do what the man had done to him if he so much as wished for it.
Issei didn't trust him.
The second he made that decision he let go of the edge seeing as that was the fastest way to make a significant distance between himself and the grey man.
But before he even started falling the man's position changed in an instant, suddenly holding his left wrist in one hand as he was leaning down to the point where his head almost touched the ground, while his legs stayed perfectly upright.
"Now now now. You haven't even heard what I have to say, yet you already try escaping me."
Issei barely took note of what the man said, he was shocked by the grey man's speed and trying to figure out how to get away from him.
As he was searching for a way out of the colorless man's grip a part of his mind suddenly acted up and took over his right arm in an all too familiar manner. Before he could even try to fight the sudden loss of control, white flames appeared on his fingertips, and not a second later his hand launched forward and into the grey man's arm.
To Issei's shock, it barely bothered him. As his burning fingers sunk into the grey flesh there was barely any reaction other than a slight tilt of the grey man's head.
"Either you overestimate yourself or misjudged my strength. Anyhow please do stop that, I-"
Not allowing the man to finish his sentence, Issei put more pressure into his grip, the flames slowly eating through him and making their way up to his shoulder.
"I see, words won't convince you that easily."
The grey man put his left hand on his right shoulder.
"Then let's try something else."
Using his free hand like a knife he cut off his right arm before the flames could reach his shoulder, leaving Issei confused as he started falling down the wall.
His mind started racing.
He knew that the fall was something he could easily survive, the bigger problem was the grey man's insane speed combined with his rather slow regeneration.
Seeing how the grey man had cut off his arm with not a care in the world implied that he either had some sort of regeneration that made the loss of a limb insignificant or that he was willing to give up a limb for whatever goal he was pursuing.
Issei noticed way too late that the arm had not let go of his wrist even though it wasn't attached anymore, and the fingers should have lost grip already. But they hadn't.
Still burning up from the inside due to Issei's flames the arm suddenly pulled itself forward and coiled around Issei's throat momentarily cutting off his oxygen supply and forcing his entire attention onto itself.
Instinctively Issei took hold of the arm and tried pulling it off. At the same time he felt his senses extent like before and feeling the flames inside the arm, he forced them to flare up and consume the grey flesh faster.
His efforts resulted in him pulling the arm far enough from his throat to continue breathing, but not enough to pry the arm off completely.
Before he could think of a way to turn the situation around in his favor, he impacted the ground. His back took most of the hit, causing his spine to shatter in multiple places but not break. His skull wasn't spared either, being broken open by a simple rock that was now drilled into the back of his head.
Issei felt his grip on life loosening, but the greedy hands of Death weren't even close to reaching him. Focusing, he felt his regeneration kick in and a by now familiar warmth spread across his entire backside.
But before he regained control of his body, he felt himself falling once again, as if the ground had just disappeared from under him. His blurry vision didn't allow him to catch on with what was truly happening around him and soon, he felt like chains were being dragged around him, as his body froze in place, remaining unmovable even after he regained control over it. Soon his eyes regenerated to a point where his vision returned, and he immediately put them to use.
Surprisingly it wasn't the forest in which he found himself again, it was a dark room whose only illumination came from a lamp far above Issei's head, making it hard for him to make out anything outside the light, in the darkness.
Looking around he realized that his eyes weren't frozen like the rest of his body and in his peripheral vision he saw that chains were coming from his left and right that were glowing a goldish yellow. Yet even so they weren't giving off any light, keeping anything in the darkness around them concealed. They seemingly disappeared into the ground not too far from his side.
He wasn't fully sure, but he believed the chains to be the reason for his almost total immobility. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a purpose for them, at least he believed so.
After a few more seconds of waiting the white flames that were still healing him vanished again, having restored his body to a healthy condition. But even so, he was unable to move at all.
The scene reminded him of what he had done to all those people in the hallway.
They had been restrained, unable to move properly, forced to await their demise through him, often suffering through immense pain while doing so. Some of them probably even still having a spark of hope in their dire situation, only for them to be the next on the line for him to execute. They had been in the same situation he found himself in now, and like him now, they hadn't known what would come next.
What came next was a bright flash of light, forcing Issei to close his eyes to the best of his avail. That was unfortunately limited to him rolling his eyes back into his skull as far as he could because his eyelids were as stiff as the rest of his body in contrast to his eyes.
Not a moment later there was a shattering sound, like chains breaking and a moment later he was free from the stiffness, causing him to almost fall over in his seat.
An overwhelming urge to vomit overcame him as suddenly he felt how his organs started moving from a standstill, he hadn't noticed they had been in. While attempting to suppress the urge to vomit, something else suddenly appeared within him. It wasn't something new to him, but he wasn't prepared for the energy within him to suddenly rush back to him, unleashing on his unprepared body. The assault of pain stopped him from holding in the puke and he started vomiting.
It felt like something inside of him just imploded, which in turn caused it to explode outwards with insane power. He felt parts of his skin start burning, with other parts physically expanding violently, tearing his skin, ripping his muscles, breaking his bone, and setting his mind ablaze.
But the assault on his body didn't last long, something inside of him seemingly clicking into place and pulling back everything that had escaped. At the same time, he felt himself pushing back the pain again to a point where it was nothing more than a slight annoyance.
Finally having the full control of his body back, his senses came back to him and the first thing he felt was the vomit under his fingers as he found himself on all fours with puke still dripping from his mouth.
But before he could do as much as stand up, he felt his blood freeze in his veins with his heart also stopping to beat. Before he could react to his new state of being powerless, he was pulled up on his feet and sat back down onto the chair he had been sitting on before.
This time even his eyes were out of his control, and they were forced to look in front of him, where six individuals stood, looking at him.
Each of them unique and with a different expression.
The one on the very left was a younger man looking to be in his early twenties with a constant color pallet of purple and yellow being present in his fancy clothes. The most notable features of his clothing were the monocle, cylinder, and cane which combined with his rather calm but slightly interested expression gave off the feeling that he knew something crucial that Issei didn't. Going with his look were his heterochromatic eyes, one yellow, the other purple, and his hair that was a chaos of both colors.
Next to him was a younger woman, and Issei couldn't help but notice that something about her felt off. Her hair was a dark blue that Issei could barely differentiate from black. She didn't seem to have anything that unique about herself that stood out as much as with the others, yet he felt a bit uneasy looking at her even though she looked way more frightened and irritated by him, looking away when their eyes met.
In the middle stood two people, one of them being the man he had seen atop the cliff and in front of him another tall pale man. Like Issei had suspected, the grey man seemed to have some sort of regeneration, his arm having grown fully back without a trace of it ever having been detached.
The pale man, whose red eyes gave off a soft yet threatening glow, was dressed in black armor with red detailing on it. His pose was relaxed but at the same time gave off the vibe that he was ready to strike at any given moment if needed.
Next to them was a suit of armor, it was simple with a red cape and shield gauntlets that seemed to never have been used, judging by how there wasn't a single scratch on them. It stood perfectly still seemingly waiting for something to happen.
Last was a humanoid robot that was pretty slim yet seemed to have been built decades ago judging by the gears that were visible through its main body frame. Its most unique feature was the goldish yellow glow coming from its eyes and fingertips, yet like the chains that had held him before it didn't seem to illuminate anything beyond where it originated from.
He also took in the room's details.
The walls were made out of a rough dark maroon stone that seemed to be of natural origin. The floor was made out of dark material, giving off a slight reflection. The ceiling was made out of the same material with the only real difference being the lamps that hung from it illuminating the room.
Issei's focus came back to the group and he concluded that he didn't see a way to beat them.
The first two individuals seemed to be of rather normal human nature, but he didn't dare underestimate whatever they could be capable of.
The armor seemed to be some sort of defender and Issei didn't doubt that even if he were to go for the weakest members first, it would put itself between him and whoever said weakest was. Perhaps his flames were powerful enough to burn right through it, but he doubted that to be the case.
There was also the fact that at least two of them were able to constrict him without him being capable of fighting back at all.
Maybe he could dodge the pale one's blood control by evaporating his own blood with his flames, which would leave him with a weak dry body that he couldn't do much with. If he were able to somehow replace his blood with something the pale man couldn't affect, he'd perhaps have a fighting chance against him, that was if the man didn't have other tricks up his sleeve, which was likely to be the case.
And even if the man had no other capabilities but the blood control, and even if Issei was somehow able to get past it, there still was that robot that seemed to be the one who had frozen him in time not too long ago.
Not only had he been unable to do anything about it, but right after being released from it he had suffered greatly and was unable to even as much as taking in his surroundings, leaving him completely open to being attacked.
Topping all of that off was the grey man who had already successfully beat him and was able to somehow regrow entire limbs in less than a minute, with also no concern for sacrificing them to reach his goals and on top of that the ability to control them while they weren't connected to his main body.
"Now that we have you here restrained would you be so kind and listen to me?"
Issei felt his heart as it started pumping again and for a second, relaxed, thinking of how to answer, as he felt himself regain full control of his body.
In the end, there wasn't much to think about, as he saw his chances to win against them to be abysmally low, it left out no real other option but to comply and see where it would lead him.
Having decided he gave a small nod, his eyes fixated on the man, but occasionally scanning the rest of the group.
"Well, as you might have guessed by this small display, I am the leader of this small group of unique individuals and as of right now I am searching for people to join us. I was close to that city you came from when you blew up that building-"
As the man spoke Issei noticed that the girl next to him was the only member giving off a real reaction to the information that had just been given to her.
Her expression was one of confusion and a bit of shock, yet Issei didn't miss that she was intrigued.
"- and seeing how you were on the run I realized that you were truly like we all, running from something."
Now that got a reaction from the entire group.
The fancy purple and yellow dressed man couldn't stop his eyebrow from twitching. The girl bit her lower lip seemingly sinking into deep memories as she zoned out. The pale man frowned, slumping into himself a bit, and looked to the side as if he was trying to distract himself from the words. The suit of armor twitch slightly which would have been completely missed by Issei if it weren't for its cape wiggling slightly from the small but sudden movement. The machine he would have almost called emotionless wouldn't it have been for him being able to see how a lot of small gears started turning behind its main body frame.
"So."
Issei once more looked at the grey man, he tried establishing eye contact, but the man's eyes were like before hidden behind the seemingly unbreakable shadow of his fedora.
"While our first interaction wasn't the best, I'm sure you are at least interested in seeing if you'd fit in."
That got Issei thinking.
He hadn't considered joining the group.
Would it be a good idea to travel in such a group? It was obvious that they were stronger than him. But he didn't know if that meant joining them was a good idea. On one hand, he'd be surrounded by people that could protect him with ease but on the other, he might grow useless with his ability only rarely coming into play when needed.
What also made the decision a few times harder was the fact that he didn't know if they truly were as strong as they seemed at the moment.
Sure it was true that they held him down for now, but it could be that those abilities that limited him ran on a strict time limit, explaining why they chose to use blood control to restrain him the second time instead of using those chains once more.
But even if they were very strong in comparison to him, how did they fare against the rest of the world?
Was this group the only ones with unnatural abilities and was that why they were being collected, with only a few others that were like that working against them? Or was the supernatural grand and vast with every second person he saw having at least some basic knowledge of it?
Are these the top elite, the upper limit? Or was he losing to a bunch of bottom feeders that had millions upon millions of predators?
He didn't know.
And that frustrated him.
Were he at least somewhat knowledgeable about this world, it would have been way easier to make a choice.
But he wasn't.
"Of course, it isn't an easy decision, for a handful of reasons, but we won't leave you completely in the dark for you to make a decision without really knowing anything about us."
Hearing that Issei perked up to the man, he was eager to get at least some information, even if it might be false.
"The most valuable piece of information comes first, and that is the very core of how the supernatural works. You see, magic doesn't just happen without any reason, it originates from the soul of every being or at least the equivalent of the soul. The soul is where you truly come from, if your soul were to jump into another body then that body would inherit your consciousness, but not just that. Most abilities are directly bound to a being's soul or even part of it. So that the new body of yours would also be able to do exactly what you are capable of doing right now. There are of course some exceptions, like curses, for example, are mostly bound in a more physical manner, thus a body swap would rid you of one such curse."
The gray man paused in his speech letting Issei take in all the new information. A right call, as Issei was already struggling with it. The gray man had failed to consider that Issei didn't know what a soul was. Of course, the average person has at least heard of the concept, but Issei was everything but the average person. Kuoh wasn't the most religious town, with the Hinto traditions being far in the past and the only Christian church having been abandoned for a few decades now.
What he understood from the conversation was that the soul was a part of him and like the most important one at that. It sounded like something equivalent to the heart, but after rethinking it he decided that it was more likely to be another word for the brain. After all the brain is the part of his body with which he thinks, at least that much he had figured out from his mother's mad ramblings.
Now that he thought about it, it also sounded logical, every time he had regenerated from major damage the head was the first part of his body he fully felt again.
Perhaps if his main body were to be detached from his head he'd regenerate his entire body from his head down, instead of his main body regrowing a new head. Maybe he could try that later, whenever he was in the right situation to experiment on himself like that.
"Perhaps you already knew that, but hey, you can never be sure enough. Now, moving on to a more detailed description of who we are."
That got Issei's mind back from his thoughts, information about these people was probably the most important thing he could obtain as of right now. Knowing nothing about his captor was something he had grown to greatly dislike.
"We'll start with me, Sin, the manifestation of a concept called "The seven deadly Sins". People think of me as someone who automatically inherits all of the seven Sins, due to being a manifestation of them, but it doesn't work quite like that. I won't go into too much detail, but basically, I know what Sins linger in your Soul."
The explanation frustrated Issei a bit, he had hoped for something more specific in terms of powers, or just general skill, instead, he got something along the lines of an origin story, which was almost useless to him.
"This handsome fella behind me, goes by Alucard, kinda ironic, seeing how he has the blood of the all too famous Dracula flowing through his veins. But he isn't a vampire… well, at least not what you'd really call a vampire, it's more like a hyper vampire."
The now named Alucard, seemed kind of annoyed by the "handsome" comment, but kept his reactions at a minimum for the rest of Sin's introduction.
Issei on the other hand was just confused.
He had not the slightest idea of what a vampire was. Issei had also never heard the names "Dracula" or "Alucard" being utterly confused by the mention of them, but Sin didn't seem to take note of his confusion and moved on to the next member.
"This knight in shining armor is no knight in shining armor, it's just the armor, Behemoth. He has no further body past this unbreakable shell. Also, don't punch him, your hands will hate you for that."
While Issei doubted that he wouldn't be able to regenerate from punching Behemoth, he still kept Sin's comment in mind. It gave off the impression that Behemoth was on the defensive side of things, being able to take a punch from someone rather powerful.
What he also noticed was the silent feeling of dread the armor was giving off, something in him told him that he should be frightened, but while he refused to let the traces of that inner fear show themselves, he still took into consideration that Behemoth might be way more dangerous than what he looked to be.
"Then there is Clockwork. She's the reason we can face opponents far above our power level."
While he wasn't explicitly told why he was pretty sure the chains that held him in place were the reason why Clockwork was so powerful. Being able to hold someone in place like that could make it possible to eliminate anyone. Combined with all the nausea and whatever that was that hit him right after, as long as there was no timer on creating new chains or how long one could remain, there would likely be nothing that could stop Clockwork from holding her opponent in place indefinitely.
"We can't forget about Karuma, the boy always knows what he's doing, and he can somewhat predict what you're going to do. It isn't the most consistent thing, but it can come in really handy"
Issei felt like he got the least information for Karuma. The guy didn't have any distinct body features that set him apart from a normal human. Of course, there were his eyes and hair, but that wasn't enough to give Issei an idea of what the young man was capable of. The smallest of hints he got came from the fact that he was supposed to somehow predict what Issei was about to do, but future sight sounded a bit too ridiculous for Issei. Everything else could be explained in some twisted way through this concept of soul, where all the energy of one seems to be stored, but how was that supposed to make you see the future? None the less, he wasn't ready to fully discard the idea yet, after all, he just got introduced to this weird new world, so he had to just go along with whatever was happening until getting a clearer picture.
"Last but not least there's Eli, our newest addition to the team, she's a wildcard and has always something up her sleeve."
He took what he said about Karuma, Eli was truly the one he had not the slightest of ideas about. She looked no different from a normal human and the only thing that confirmed her unnatural capabilities for him was an uneasy feeling in his stomach when looking at her.
Then he noticed something rather off-putting.
She wasn't looking at him, like he had thought at first, but at something that was seemingly beside him. It wasn't far away from him but still, he noticed that her eyes weren't truly focused on him. What made it even weirder was that her gaze was never fixated on a certain point, but dashing around him, going from his right to his left, even sometimes directly on him, yet he felt that he wasn't the thing she was putting her focus on. That combined with how there was an ever-growing frown present on her face just didn't sit right with him.
But then it happened.
Their eyes met and he felt like in the gaze of a predator. Yet there was no fear, there was not a moment where he was scared. She was a predator and he acknowledged that. He just wasn't her prey.
The moment was a very short one, as she immediately turned away, taking away the weird feeling the second their eye contact was gone.
Issei wasn't sure what to make of it.
"Now would you return the pleasure and introduce yourself to us."
Issei's attention shot back to Sin, and he noticed that the man was way closer, probably even standing in the puke from earlier, but when he gave the floor a quick scan there was no sign of him having thrown up.
His eyes shot up to establish eye contact between himself and Sin, but once more he failed, due to Sin having them concealed behind the blanket of darkness.
Issei didn't know what to do.
He didn't know how to speak.
It had been years since the last time he had spoken since his mother had always been annoyed by his voice, so he had stopped talking altogether. With the man, it had never been required for him to bring out even a single word. He didn't know how.
It had been years maybe even a decade since he had last formed a word with his vocal cords, not even screams.
So he remained silent, sitting in his chair, staring into the darkness that concealed Sin's face.
In his silence he didn't take notice of the small shaking that made the group shift into a more defensive formation, still completely focused on Sin's face, who was the only one who hadn't moved a muscle. It took him a bit longer, but once he picked up the shacking, he immediately prepared himself.
A sound came with it, and both grew but also became more distinct. After a while, it was clear that both the sound and shaking originated from the wall left of Issei.
He didn't know what to expect, still, his body was instinctively preparing itself for a battle. But quickly he realized that fighting wasn't something he had to concern himself with. It was more probable that whoever was making their way here was after Sin and his group and not himself, so he could probably get out of the crossfire by either disassociating himself with the group or fleeing while they all were distracted.
Before he could decide on what exactly to do the wall was broken through and a roar made the air shake.
The shockwave wouldn't have toppled Issei, but the chair he was sitting on didn't have the same stability, immediately falling to the side taking Issei with it.
Issei unprepared for the sudden fall landed clumsily on his back, dust that had been blown into the air by the explosive shockwave landing in his eyes.
Still lying on the ground he rubbed his eyes trying to remove the dust from them. Thankfully it wasn't much, and he was quickly able to open them again, just to catch the image of a giant lizard head appearing from a dust cloud. Its jaws, wide open, with Sin in between, ready to crush the manifestation with its powerful maw.
And Sin just stood there, looking at Issei, as if he didn't even realize that he was about to be eaten by a massive monster.
But Fate wouldn't have it like that.
For a single moment, Issei saw something red dash to Sin, and the next moment the jaws were stopped in their path.
Behemoth.
He stood behind Sin. Not even holding the jaws, just standing there, not allowing the sharp teeth to as much as scratch him.
Only when the beast tried to pull back, did Behemoth move, grabbing it directly by the teeth, stopping it from getting away.
This time he didn't pull it off as easily, having to pull against the monster if he didn't want to be pulled away by it.
But Sin didn't make it long for him.
He held his hand high, which at first confused Issei, but when the colorless man pulled down his hand and a giant spear of utter darkness slammed into the beast behind him, Issei knew that it was his doing.
Another roar escaped from the massive lizard and like before dust was thrown into the air. Issei, still on the ground, this time covered his face with his arms.
While protecting his eyes there was the sound of heavy objects impacting the ground around him, and immediately Issei got on his feet to get away from whatever kind of barrage was coming down on him.
Opening his eyes he saw massive spikes of stone raining down on him.
He could not dodge.
So he did the next best thing.
Concentrating he held his hand in front of his face, the palm facing the giant rocks.
He reached within himself, trying to pull out the flames that had always been there in his moments of need.
It was like trying to find a key in a giant empty lightless room.
He was feeling around in the darkness, finding nothing to pull from.
But then.
A small flicker in the corner of his mental vision.
He turned to look and.
A massive spike impaled his hand and went straight through his head.
Issei's body was pulled down onto the ground and his head was completely obliterated by the sharp stone.
For a second his body just lay there, lifeless.
But like before the white flames formed on his neck and grew towards his head. On its way there it hit the rock, melting it instantly and making it fall over to the side so that the head had enough place to regenerate.
Issei stood up and shook his new head, this battle was one out of his league.
He couldn't even stop a single projectile from the losing side.
Maybe he'd have felt thankful for having survived, but by now that was to be expected for Issei, not something to be thankful of.
Before he could get on his feet a loud slicing sound rippled through the air.
Still, on the ground, he saw the rocks that had landed all around him crumble into dust and rubble. He quickly got to his feet, to avoid once more getting dust into his eyes.
Finally finding himself outside of any conflict he realized that the massive spikes that had landed all around and on him had been destroyed by something powerful while he had been on the ground.
With them being reduced to nothing more than piles of small rocks and dust he had a good view of the battlefield.
It was one-sided.
The massive lizard hadn't been the only beast that appeared in the doorless room. A golem made out of various stones was also facing off against Sin's group. It was not alone as piles of rocks fell from it before forming into their own humanoid shape, attacking whichever opponent was currently closest to them.
While that did sound like a big threat the group clearly had the upper hand, having forced the golem into a corner, Alucard was slowly turning the hard body into dust, his eyes glowing brightly as he was moving at incredible speeds. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Karuma were taking care of the small army of tiny golems.
Elizabeth was fighting with a sword that was electrically charged, sending off lightning in all directions every time she swung it. Her fighting style was very direct, going from target to target always hitting those first that were closest to harming her.
Karuma was a lot more chaotic. He had a gun in each hand and was spinning around in circles shooting bullets seemingly at random, yet every shot connected most of the time taking down more than just one golem. The rushing golems could not reach him, being shot down before they were within reach.
On the other side of the room Behemoth and Sin were still engaged in combat with the giant beast. And while they were still in full control of the fight it was also clear that the massive lizard had barely taken any damage either, the attacks both Behemoth and Sin were launching barely scratching the hard plated monster.
But between those battles, there was a hole in the wall from which the two titans had emerged.
A way out.
Issei didn't hesitate.
Once realizing that it might be his way out, he made a sprint for it.
To his annoyance, it wasn't as simple as just running to the exit and getting out, as one of the small golems noticed and came for him.
He saw the stone monster reel back with its arm, but with barely any fighting experience he couldn't think of a good counter and just held his arms in front of his head in an amateurish defensive position.
It didn't help him when the rock fist slammed into his stomach.
He was launched back a few meters, on the way blood splattering all over the floor as it flew out of his mouth.
Thankfully he landed on his feet instead of his back, but he didn't hold himself up, dropping down onto a kneeling position.
He saw from the corner of his vision how the golem was once again sprinting at him, ready to break some more bones of his.
But Issei wouldn't have it.
He had finally escaped his prison only to be captured again and now he couldn't even get past a simple enemy his captors were mowing down with ease.
No, Issei was gonna get out of here.
A shadow traveled the forest.
He wouldn't allow himself to get caught again.
It was on the hunt for its prey.
Standing back up he reached back into himself.
And everything that would stand in its way.
The instant he felt the slightest of connections he reached for it.
Was its prey.
And pulled.
The golem was already reeling back its arm for another punch, but this time Issei felt something akin to instincts move him.
He used his kneeling position to catapult himself forward with a powerful jump. In the same movement, his arm launched forward, and his fist collided with the golem's.
He felt his knuckles crack and a ripple went through his entire arm. But Issei discarded the pain, for a smile to come upon his features. The golem's arm had cracks all over it, the fist even being destroyed and turned into rubble.
It had taken at least as much damage as he had.
But he had the advantage.
He didn't fear injury.
With that thought in mind, Issei easily ducked under a left swing from the golem, using his left arm to swing at the stone monster's stomach.
This time his hand barely suffered any damage, but the golem split in half. Its top half plummeted down onto its bottom half and lay still as the golem's movement seized.
Having secured his victory, Issei's focus once more jumped to the hole in the wall.
But before he ran for the door, he noticed something.
He still felt the pain in his stomach and hands.
Looking down at them he also realized that both his arms had turned black like his right arm had before when the man had fought him.
But this time his regeneration hadn't kicked in to heal him.
Issei couldn't allow that.
Regeneration had become something vital to him. It was what had let him survive until now. If he wouldn't be able to heal himself, he'd already been dead multiple times.
He felt a spark.
Feeling inside himself he reached for it.
And pulled.
The darkness disappeared from his arms seemingly sinking into his flesh and making them look more human again. Instead, white flames appeared on both his hands and stomach, healing him like they had already done many times before.
With the confirmation that his regeneration was still intact, he resumed sprinting towards the exit, the battle between the intruders and the group slowly being decided as the golem only stood on a single leg with his arms crumbling by the second and the giant lizard showing cracks on its scales.
But Issei did not bother to check up on the exact states of battle, more focused on getting away from it.
Finally reaching the hole in the wall Issei climbed through it into a long slightly upwards angled tunnel. Without thinking much he started running up the rocky pathway. There were rocks all over the place and every once in a while, he had to pull himself up and scale the wall like a climber would. Thankfully the creatures that had created the tunnel were titans in comparison to him, so he never had to fear it getting too claustrophobic for his liking. Still, even with the ample space, it was a hard climb.
But what made it all seem more than worth it, was the literal light at the end of the tunnel. It signified a way out and from there he could escape the situation in a way less linear fashion, making it significantly harder for anyone to follow him.
Something that ticked Issei off was a reddish hue the light seemingly had, it came off as mysterious, and Issei really disliked mysteries. The concept of not knowing something and having to go through convoluted trials to find out about that something was one he'd rather avoid. It would be so much easier if the information would just be laid out for him, and he'd just have to make a simple choice from there.
But by now he had realized that nothing that wasn't set up in some kind of way, worked like that. There were always mysteries that could hold keys to insanely important information, yet that information remained hidden until found out.
There was no simple perfect answer for everything, and Issei truly hated that, of course, his wish was childish and with no chance to become reality, but none the less he despised the complexity of the world he lived in.
Taking a deep breath he embraced his newfound freedom as he finally crawled out the hole, but what expected him there ruined his plans immediately.
It looked to be an endless wasteland that stretched on and on into the horizon and further beyond.
The sky was filled with grey clouds that like everything around him had a red hue to them. In front of him, there was nothing, just a very pale reddish empty flat area that consisted of nothing more than stone and went far beyond his vision. Turning around he was faced with something more promising, a forest. Of course, it couldn't be a normal forest, that'd be too easy. It was a forest made out of charcoal black trees that had nothing but blood-red leaves on them.
It seemed like what a kid would depict as the evil version of a normal forest, but Issei wasn't really bothered by that as it was what gave him the highest likeliness to escape from his captors, the massive, deserted area in his back not being comparable.
Within seconds of entering, he noted how dense the forest was, forcing him to move in slaloms to dodge some of the trees that just stood around. He was thankful that the forest didn't have vegetation growing on the ground, it would have made traversing it one hell of a nightmare.
After a bit of wandering, he noticed how the trees generally changed formations, giving him a clearer path to walk on through. At first, that seemed like a blessing, but within the first few steps, he realized that if he were to stay on the path it'd be way easier for anyone to track him down. So he went off the path.
As he started randomly walking back into the forest, off the path, he noticed a single tree that stood out to him due to an "X" being carved into its bark.
He decided that not caring for it was way easier for now and kept moving through the forest.
Once more the forest became densely packed, making it impossible to look where exactly you were because the trees were blocking any view you may have had. Issei didn't care for the most part, but that changed once another path slowly appeared in front of him, just like before.
Confused that he found another such path in such a short time, he started doubting that the forest was as simple as he had believed at first. Going back to where he had left the path the first time he looked and, to his dismay, found the tree with the "X" on it.
This was a clear indication that the forest had some kind of space wrapping abilities. Which meant he had to follow the path or find some way out of the spatial loop.
Breaking a spatial loop sounded like hard work and required that he had somewhat of an idea of how those things worked. And even though he walked through a spatial distortion for a big part of his life, he never even tried figuring out how it worked, just accepting that it did work.
With no real other options, he walked down the path the forest had made for him.
The path wasn't simply a straight line, it was a twisting and turning path that he could barely see more than ten meters of before another corner hid the rest of the path from his view.
What he was thankful for was that the altitude of the path never seemed to change, never forcing him to climb a hill or something along those lines. But soon he noticed that the path didn't remain completely the same. The trees became taller and a bit thicker with the red leaves growing darker and after a while stopping any semblance of light, that came from the sky from reaching the ground.
Surprisingly, even with the light cut off, it didn't turn completely dark, well it actually did, Issei at this point just didn't realize that he had night vision.
A bit deeper in the forest the trees had already reached extreme heights in contrast to what they were when he entered the forest. From being barely triple his height to dwarfing him even if he were ten times his current size.
Slowly Issei was growing tired of the forest, hoping that it would finally conclude itself in some kind of manner. As if the forest had read his mind the path ended after one last corner and Issei found himself in a massive clearing, that was surprisingly still lightless through a massive ceiling of leaves.
But none of that caught Issei's attention as much as what was in the middle of the clearing.
An obelisk.
A two-meter tall floating black obelisk with blood-red runes all over it floating in the middle of the clearing motionless yet radiating some kind of energy above a smaller dark rock in the ground made out of the same material also filled with blood-red runes.
But that wasn't all.
Something about the decorated monument pulled Issei towards it, but what Issei didn't realize immediately was that his interest in the structure wasn't just uncommonly high, but that he was physically pulled towards it. Once he took note, he stopped his own body. He had enough experience with it moving outside of his command and he didn't desire to re-experience such things.
Still, the Obelisk made him curious, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that he had to do something with it. He wasn't sure what and he was kind of cautious about that decision, yet even though it wasn't his own, the decision to act had already cemented in him and so he did.
His palm slowly moved towards the Obelisk pausing right before it, hovering above the blood-red runes that had started glowing under his palm, in a moment of hesitation and doubt, but in a zap of determination to fulfill what he had decided upon he dropped his hand on the stone.
Pain.
There was a massive spike of utter pain.
He felt it in his bones.
In his flesh.
In his blood.
Ripping and tearing at him as it chipped away his sanity.
As his body was in utter pain
His consciousness drifted into darkness.
=-X-=-X-=
=-X-=-X-=
Death.
When one thinks of it.
An event comes to mind.
Maybe a prediction of one's own end.
Or perhaps a memory of someone else's passing.
Rarely does one think of a representative.
Of course, the Grim Reaper is heavily featured in modern media and there are also many other characters in fiction or mythology made to represent the event of death.
And while most of them truly are connected to Death.
None of them truly represent it.
Death, you see.
Is not just an event.
It is an entity.
And even though Death seems to be a neutral force.
It has desires.
Very few, but still it desires.
What does Death desire?
To reach those it cannot touch.
To take the souls of the immortals.
To reap the bodies of those that cannot die.
But because it knows that those goals are as of now unobtainable, whenever it sees an opportunity.
It strikes.
And so Death did.
The body of a woman.
Her soul tainted in darkness.
Death gave her a new purpose.
And send her.
To bring Death.
An Immortal.
=-X-=-X-=
=-X-=-X-=
Damien spit out blood.
It had accumulated in his mouth after being thrown against the brick and right now he needed all the air his lungs could fetch him.
"Is that all?"
He barely mustered the power to look up at the man, no kid, that had thrown the punch.
A boy, no older than 9 years stood at the entrance of the alleyway, his fists burning in blue flames, lighting up his childish face with the big blue eyes and the ginger hair.
"C'mon I've been waiting so long for this moment, and now after finally, all the stars have aligned, you are just going to die? I can't let that happen."
Damien pulled himself up, the kid was right, this was no time to die. Beaten up by a child, fuck was that a stupid way to go. And Damien wanted his death to be grand if ever. Of course, immortality was no option, but at least let him die at the age of 75 with a wife and a long life behind him.
"Oh, you're still standing. That's a positive."
Damien looked at the kid. his brown eyes were barely visible through the long brown hair.
"Look, kid."
That got the child's attention.
"I don't know what you want, or why you are attacking me, but if you think I'll just fucking take it-"
Damien stood before the small crater in the wall rage and determination fueling him.
"You're dead wrong!"
He dashed toward the kid with every intention to kick him in the face.
But to his dismay, he instead received another fist to the stomach launching him back into the wall.
"Well you do have the determination, but if you have nothing to fuel it with that's pretty useless."
Something to fuel it with, huh? What were those fire fists of the kid anyway? Magic? If magic is real, that meant... that meant he must have some too.
Damien focused. He didn't know how, he didn't know what, but he knew that he had to summon some kind of magic out of somewhere and use it against the kid.
So he pulled
"Oh we're getting somewhere"
"Oh, are we now?"
[BOOST]
=-X-=-X-=
=-X-=-X-=
A/N:
After like… uh… two months?... I release the second Chapter and I am kind of really happy with this, it's more of a set-up chapter for the entirety of Arc 1 a bit of Arc 2 also covering some of the very basics.
I can't promise that Chapter 3 will take less time, but as I was still working on the entirety of the plot with this Chapter I believe that with a more laid out structure, I am capable of writing it faster, still writing 10.000 words isn't something easy and don't take this as a promise for it only taking 1 month. I want this to be as good as I can push it to be, so I'll take my sweet time until I deem it acceptable to be released.
Please REVIEW if you find anything wrong in the story (from grammatical to storytelling wise) or if you just feel like it.
"Thank you for reading"
Task Failer spoke as he headed to bed at 3 AM, be more healthy than Task Failer
