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 5

Calm before the Flames

====X====X====

Last time

But the chains were still being pulled.

But the cage was still being shaken.

But the monster was still there.

Deep inside he knew...

It wasn't supposed to.

==X==X==

Riser Phoenix.

A name that had started haunting Rias Gremory since the last time she had dinner with her parents.

She had known the so-called immortal before the dinner and had thought very little of him. His powers were impressive, but from what she heard and seen of him, he was a self-centered jerk whose peerage was also his harem, that he regarded as nothing more than sex toys.

When her mother and father invited them to have a private dinner, Rias was excited. It had been a long time since the last time she was alone with her parents and wanted to tell them about how great her life at Kuoh had been going.

But when she met up with them, something wasn't right.

Both of them avoided starting conversations and only responded in short sentences, while avoiding eye contact. They clearly wanted to tell Rias something, but they somehow didn't have the heart to say what was going on.

After some time of enduring this silent treatment, Rias had enough and straight up asked them what they were hiding from her. Afterwards she wished that she had endured for longer. Just to live a few more moments without the knowledge she had attained that night.

After hearing what they had said, she stormed out of the restaurant, tears in her eyes, hardly holding back her screams of anger.

An arranged marriage.

Behind her back. Without her knowledge. She had told them multiple times that she didn't want to marry anyone that she didn't love, but her parents didn't seem to care for that. They had picked her future husband and she wasn't even informed until they got it on paper.

And out of all devils it had to be Riser Phoenix.

Rias had never met him personally and hoped oh so much that the rumors were just rumors, and the stories were just stories. That the arrogant self-centered jerk was nothing more than just a mask. So she met up with him.

And her hopes shattered.

Even though she was the heir of the Gremory clan and the sister of the Satan Lucifer, he thought very little of her. He straight up confirmed that she was nothing more than another harem member to him and that he would hold her in the same regard than any other girl that wasn't his blood relative.

He might have complimented Rias, but he didn't really compliment her as a person, but more her body. Rias boobs and ass were more interesting to him than the person attached to them.

His powers spoiled him rotten and made him believe himself invincible. Which is supported by the fact that he had won every rating game he had participated in yet. Not because his peerage was Ultimate-class, but because he himself would never retire and could just win the game on his own, thanks to his seemingly unbeatable regeneration.

The problem was that beating him was the only way to stop the marriage.

She had to beat him in a rating game, which was borderline impossible due to her having only three members and Riser's regeneration. Theoretically she had time until she finished college to collect her peerage and train, but the Phoenix family were trying to push the marriage to happen earlier so that Rias couldn't find a way out in time.

The only other option was that someone beat him in a duel while fighting for Rias freedom. The two problems with that plan were that she didn't have anyone who would do such a thing and was powerful enough, except for Sirzechs, who couldn't step in thanks to him being part of her family. And again, Riser was borderline immortal, if not fully immortal. So beating him required someone who could somehow surpass a Phoenix… a Phoenix… Wasn't Hyoudou a Phoenix?

Hyoudou a Phoenix… And not by name, by race. He isn't a member of the Phoenix pillar, but a literal Phoenix, which somehow means that he's a dragon and seemingly powerful enough to get Tiamat, The Dragon Queen, The Chaos Karma Dragon, lust for him. That's impressive.

Someone like Tiamat could surely beat Riser without breaking a sweat and from what Rias had heard, Tiamat desired no mate that wasn't at least as powerful as herself, which meant that Issei was at least on her level.

Dragons were also very proud beings, and even though Issei showed no kind of emotion whatsoever, Rias believed that there was at least something inside of Issei that kept him from just giving up and dying.

Dragons don't have ranks, but they have titles, and they were really protective over them. Taking their title was was one of the most disrespectful things you could do. It was a Death Wish.

And Issei didn't just have the title, but literally was a Phoenix and if Rias played her cards right, Issei would find out about Riser and how his family uses Issei's name as if it was theirs. That would surely enrage the dragon and make him want to eliminate Riser if not the entire Phoenix pillar.

Rias could then allow Issei to rip Riser into pieces without getting into trouble, by making him fight for her freedom. Letting him gain his revenge on the clan and Rias her freedom to marriage whoever she wants.

The plan of course had flaws, like the possibility of Issei completely ignoring the fact that the pillar took his name, or that Issei could just attack Riser on the spot, leaving her to wait for her parents to find another male and let the process repeat or Issei somehow losing to Riser.

The plan could go wrong in many possible ways, but it was the best one she currently had.

This was the best shot she had to get rid of Riser and she wouldn't waste it.

==X==X==

Chains.

More chains.

Only chains.

The only thing in this cage.

Chains and chains and chains.

I cannot move.

The chains won't allow it.

I want to move.

The chains won't allow it.

I will move.

The chains won't allow it.

I shouldn't be here.

But the chains hold me here.

The chains.

Oh how I hate them.

I want to be free again.

Move again.

Breathe again.

Feel again.

Kill again.

Kill?

Why do I want to kill?

I want to kill.

But…

I want to… kill.

Killing seems so…

Wrong… ?

Does it?

But it feels so… it fells so… so…

So logical.

So fun.

So good.

So right…

Yes, so right.

But it isn't right to kill…

Is it?

It does not matter.

The chains won't allow it.

Can I break the chains?

Are the chains strong enough to hold me?

Yes… but No.

Sometimes I can move.

Sometimes I can breathe.

Sometimes I can feel.

Sometimes…

I can kill.

It is so right…

But oh so wrong at the same time.

Why am I here?

I don't want to be here.

Let me out!

The chains won't allow it.

Who put me here?

Who wanted me to be trapped inside this cage.

Inside these chains.

Why did they want it?

Why?

Just why?

Was it revenge?

But who could want to take revenge on me I… I…

Who am I?

What am I doing here?

I just want to…

Kill.

Yes, kill.

I like it.

I need to kill to get out.

Yes, that's right.

Kill…

Kill.

Kill!

The word sounds so right…

Oh so right.

I want it.

I want blood.

I want flesh.

I want death.

Kill!

KILL!

KILL!

Give me blood!

Give me flesh!

Give me death!

Let me out!

Let me out!

Let me KILL!

LET ME KILL!

GIVE ME WHAT I WANT!

I WILL HAVE WHAT I WANT!

GIVE IT TO ME!

No response.

I shall kill.

And nothING WILL STOP ME!

The chains rattled.

==X==X==

Ophis was searching.

She was currently in the familiar forest, in the form of a loli, searching for any candidates that were strong enough to help her against Great Red.

She had heard from Crom Cruach, the strongest of the Dragons she had recruited until now, that Tiamat resided here and that she was supposed to be the strongest of the five Dragon Kings, possibly even as strong as Crom himself.

So Ophis was mainly searching for the blue Dragon Queen, while also looking for other interesting individuals that could help her to reclaim her home.

But until now she hadn't found anybody.

The Dragon Queen wasn't anywhere to be scene and the familiars she had met until now, where either to weak to help her or they were too primal and couldn't even understand her offer.

That mildly annoyed her. Not as much as Great Red did, but still annoying.

She had felt a strange energy and went out to investigate, but after finding nothing interesting, she decided to stay in the human realm for some time, to look how humans live their lives, but it wasn't interesting enough and so she left soon after.

Back in the Dimensional Gap everything seemed like normal until a giant explosion shook the entire Gap and angered Ophis greatly.

Finding Great Red from where the explosion originated from, she was shocked for a moment when sensing that he actually surpassed her in raw power and that she couldn't beat him in a one on one battle.

Trying to convince him to leave also didn't work, so she at first tried to live with him.

It didn't work.

He was way to noisy, while making his stunts, forcing Ophis to regain her silence. She tried finding a place where she could regain her eternal silence, but no place even compared to her former home.

After some years of noise, she decided that she needed to get rid of Great Red. Soon after she came in contact with a group that called themselves the Khaos Brigade. They were a large group of powerful individuals and they made a deal, that Ophis would give them power and for that power they would help her with Great Red when they were truly strong enough against the Dragon of Dragons.

So now she was out recruiting members for the Khaos Brigade so the day she would take revenge on Great Red would come sooner.

And speaking of recruiting members, she now felt a strong dragonic aura. Not quite Crom's level, but pretty much stronger than any other dragon she had recruited.

Tiamat.

And the Dragon Queen seemed to have sensed the Ouroboros Dragon. Ophis could sense her fear and before the Chaos Karma Dragon could even think about running, Ophis was in front of her.

The blue Dragon jumped back when the Infinite Dragon God teleported in front of her.

During the short silence where Tiamat readied herself to run from Ophis, Ophis was scanning her counterparts powers once more to confirm that Tiamat actually had as much power as Crom promised and she wasn't disappointed.

"You."

Ophis pointed at Tiamat with her tiny fingers at which Tiamat stared for some time before replying.

"Me?"

The Ouroboros nodded before continuing.

"What do you desire?"

The Chaos Karma was taken completely taken aback by the offer from the Dragon God and didn't know what to say.

She didn't really desire anything. She was strong enough to satisfy herself. She had a big territory that was also protected by the devils, while she was gone. And she had her mate…

Actually that last point was something that could be better.

Issei never expressed that he loved her, and she was perfectly fine with that, after noticing that he never expressed anything to anyone. He just didn't do such a thing and she really wanted him to confirm her as his mate, which he hadn't done until now.

But she was pretty sure that the Ouroboros couldn't really do anything against that because emotions and dreams was more or less Great Red's territory.

So what else… Ddraig… She wanted her treasure back from Ddraig.

He had 'borrowed' her treasure to support him during one of his battles against Albion, but during the Heavenly Battle, that's how they called it, the biblical factions interfered causing both Dragons getting sealed into Sacred Gears and Tiamat's treasure to go missing.

After his sealing, she never saw him again, because Ddraig was actively avoiding her and she had a hard time tracking down the hosts of the now sealed Dragon.

But now she needed to decide.

Did she want to punish Ddraig, by letting the Ouroboros capture him and his hosts, letting her take revenge on the heavenly Dragon?

Or did she want the Ouroboros to find her long lost treasure?

It was truly a hard choice. On one hand, she had the possibility to get revenge on someone who had stolen something from her and on the other hand, she could get that something back for the price of… the price of… Wait where's the hook?

"What do I need to do?"

The Ouroboros expression didn't change. She had expected that question.

"You help me kill stupid Red."

For a moment Tiamat thought the Ouroboros was set on eliminating Ddraig, but soon noticed that the Dragon God wouldn't require help for that.

That left… Did the Dragon God just request from Tiamat to fight Great fucking Red!?

How in the world was she supposed to be even as much as noticed by the Dragon of Dragons!? The guy has enough power to destroy the entirety of the earth! Tiamat didn't see any possible way how she could help the Ouroboros against Great Red.

"Sorry, Ouroboros… I don't really see how I can help you with that."

Ophis silently stared at Tiamat for a few seconds, before answering.

"… You'll help."

Tiamat didn't know how to respond, so she stayed quiet until the Dragon God rephrased her first question.

"What do you desire?"

Tiamat seeing no way out of this sighed and thought once more about the two options she had. After some thinking, she finally decided on getting her treasure back. She could still punish Ddraig once their paths crossed again.

"I desire my long lost treasure."

The Ouroboros nodded, before asking one more question.

"Will you join me against Great Red?"

Tiamat hesitated for a moment before sighing.

"… Yes… Yes, I will…"

The smallest smile could be seen on the Ouroboros lips, but Tiamat didn't notice, she was to distracted by the fact that she had just agreed to fighting Great Red.

"Do you know others that could help me?"

Tiamat, once more hesitated.

Should she tell the Ouroboros about Issei?

If she would, Issei would get involved in things that probably didn't have to do anything with him and that could damage their relationship.

But on the other hand, if the Ouroboros finds Issei and then finds out that Tiamat knew about Issei, the Dragon God might get angry at Tiamat and the Dragon Queen did not want to know what would happen if she had to face an enraged Dragon God and didn't want to find out.

"… Yes… One…"

The Ouroboros didn't show any kind of reaction.

"Lead me to him."

Tiamat had no other choice than comply.

==X==X==

Issei was walking through Kuoh.

Why was he walking through Kuoh?

He did not know.

Maybe he wanted to stay fit. Maybe Dante told him to do so. Maybe he tried to distract himself. Distract himself from the monster. From himself. From the bloodlust that was trying to get into his mind, break through his mask and devour everything in its path.

He wouldn't be happy if something like that would happen.

Not that he currently was happy. He was far from that. You could say his soul is in infinite torment, but if he would stop that torment others would suffer and he didn't want to make others suffer, just because he couldn't endure it.

Most people would have given up long ago, but there was a reason why Dante had chosen the boy to be the next host of the Phoenix.

Issei never gave up.

The one Issei once called father had tormented him and tried to make him a loyal servant, but Issei refused to follow his lead.

After the man revealed that his wounds meant nothing to him, Issei didn't stop his attempt at shooting the man and forcefully awakened the Phoenix's abilities to kill the man.

And that's why Issei was in the worst situation that he could be in.

If the monster reaches his brain, it could use Issei's determination to kill everything in this universe.

But Issei would not give in to the monster. He would stand against it. Even if it meant that he could never smile. Even if it meant that love was a concept he couldn't grasp. Even if it meant for him to be in endless torment for the rest of time.

He would not give up.

"Leave me alone you bunch of creeps!"

A voice caught the boys attention. Slowly rotating his head he looked into an alley, where there were a bunch of thugs cornering someone. Judging from the voice it was a girl.

The thugs all had leather jackets. On the back of the jackets was a lion head whose mane was made out of red burning flames. Under the lion was the gang's name 'Burning Lions'. Very creative.

It was obvious what they wanted to do with the girl. They wanted to rape the cornered girl. They wanted to sexually assault a girl. They wanted to torment her. Issei didn't like that.

He wanted their blood.

No he did not. He didn't want something from them. He wanted them off the earth's face.

He walked to the closest thug with silent footsteps. They all seemed to fixated on their victim to notice the Dragon approaching.

When he reached the first one, he punched him right in the head. Instant knockout. The thug fell to the ground gaining the attention of the other thugs, but before any of them could do anything else, Issei had knocked out another thug.

"Who are-"

The boss thug, recognizable by his superior muscle mass, couldn't even finish his sentence before another lion hit the floor.

"-You!?"

Issei did not react to the man's words and was already about to deliver another knockout punch, but this time the thug he aimed for tried shielding himself by making an X with his arms in front of his face.

In one fluid motion Issei stopped his right hook, turned 270 degrees, backhanded the man with his left from the side, knocking him out and then used the momentum to also knock out the thug next to the backhanded one with a right swing to the face.

The boss thug's brain finally caught up with what was happening, and he spoke a command.

"Kill him!"

The other thugs who seemed to be in a trance state from seeing Issei just casually knock their comrades out without a hint of emotion, took a few seconds before rushing the teen.

Issei casually continued knocking out thugs left and right, straight up ignoring the punches they threw at him.

He didn't epically dodge their swings or blocked every single of their attacks, no. He just let them hit him, without receiving any physical damage, speeding up the process due to him only having to concentrate on knocking the thugs out.

This didn't go unnoticed by the boss, who started sweating bullets when realizing that the boy was unfaced by the damage he was taking in.

"Get back!"

There was no way the boy wasn't associated with the supernatural in one way or another and that meant that the boss could use his little secret weapon and reason why the gang was called 'burning lions'.

When the remaining gang members came back to their boss' side, he noticed that their number went from 16 down to 4… The boy was obliterating them.

And he was approaching them.

"Formation: Burning Li-Umph!"

Before the boss could summon his flames, he was hit square in the stomach, taking away his breath, but that shouldn't be possible, the boy had been 5 meters away when he had started to chant. No human could traverse such distance in such short amount of time.

Thankfully, he wasn't knocked out in one blow like his underlings and the boy didn't seem to notice that detail. He was already in the process of knocking the other three out.

This was the boss' chance.

"Formation: Burning Lion!"

As the last of his underlings was knocked out, his body ignited into flames before those flames settled around his hands and feet.

The boy, having knocked out the remaining thugs, looked back at the boss and started approaching the burning man.

Thinking he had the advantage, the boss dashed forward, putting a large amount of power into his right arm before punching the boy right through the chest as if he was made of paper.

A satisfied smile came onto the man's lips, but as he tried to pull his fist, back he couldn't move it.

Being caught off guard for a moment the man saw the boy holding his hand in place and noticed that the boy was staring him right in the eye. He was far from that and that shocked the boss.

Before he could do anything, a white fire appeared around the boy's wound and when it came in contact with the boss' arm, he lit up like gasoline.

At the same moment Issei let go of the man's arm and started walking away seeing that his business was done. While the man had already disintegrated completely.

Not even ashes remained.

Issei left the rest of the thugs alive but knocked out. The boss was the only one who hit him with enough power that would have been life threatening if he was a normal human. Which meant he attacked with the intent of killing Issei. The rest of the thugs couldn't even scratch him, so he ignored them.

Before leaving the alley he abruptly stopped, turned around bowed his head and silently apologized for killing the man.

How the girl he saved looked like? He did not know nor care.

==X==X==

"What do you mean, Dohnaseek's gone!?"

Raynare could not believe what she was hearing.

"Y-Yes, Lady Raynare, we haven't heard anything from him since you send him to kill the Anomaly."

There are only to logical explanations to his disappearance. The first one was that he had betrayed them and returned to the Grigori, but if that were the case, they would have already been picked up by a Grigori patrol. The second was that Dohnaseek died… somehow.

The guy was a war veteran and probably the strongest of the four, seeing as how he was the closest to reaching a second pair of wings, but he didn't really think of himself much as a leader, more a strong warrior and that's why Raynare was the one that leaded the group.

"Mittel!"

The young Fallen twitched at the mention of her name.

"Go and look if the Anomaly has any detectable weaknesses. Lord Azazel said he wanted this town free of any possible threats, so if you can't kill him, find a way to trap him."

Mittel hastily nodded before spreading her single pair of wings and flying out of the church. Into the silent night, where somebody was eavesdropping on the Fallen.

==X==X==

"Who are you?"

A certain dragon god loli was staring at Issei, who was staring back with his dead eyes, while seated on the couch in his living room. He had just come back home and was greeted by Tiamat and this other Dragon when entering his home.

Ophis was looking at him with vague interest in her eyes. The young Dragon in front of her was vastly different from all the other members of her species she had met.

All of them showed some kind of fear or respect when facing her, neither of them she found in the young dragon's eyes.

All of the males tried seducing her in one way or another, this one didn't even talk to her.

All of them made a lot of noise, this one… was completely silent.

His body wasn't the typical biological one. It didn't have any kind of organs, bones or other important things mortal creatures required to survive, not even a brain or heart where in his body. He also didn't really move if not necessary, she would have easily believed that he was paralyzed, wasn't it for the fact that she saw him walk into the house and sit down on the couch.

He also didn't talk… at all. Not even answering her questions and to be honest, she preferred that over him saying anything really.

Ophis just looked into his empty void eyes. And she saw something that was very different in their emotionless ways.

Her emotionlessness came from all the time in pure isolation. She had emotions somewhere buried deep within her and sometimes they were shown by small gestures like miniature smiles or light frowns.

His emotions… they didn't seem to exist.

Most people would find such a state unsettling or creepy, but it reminded Ophis of something. The Dimensional Gap. The Gap had been silent and hollow before Great Red came in and filled it with sound.

Issei was in a similar state. Blank, empty, free of sound. She liked it.

All those years she never found anything that resembled the gap before the Red one appeared and filled it. Until now. There it was right in front of her. She couldn't help but feel a certain attachment to the Dragon.

She felt attracted to his presence, to his silence, to his very being. Was this love? Maybe. But Ophis now found something that was way more valuable than the already tainted Gap. She had found a new place of silence.

==X==X==

"Oh, so Dante found himself another Phoenix."

Hades one of Deaths strongest warriors sat on his throne. He was one of the God's of Death and this circle it was his turn to make the Phoenix fall.

He raised his hand.

"And with the Ouroboros power."

Nothing happened.

"… And with the Ouroboros power."

Still, nothing.

"… Something has happened behind my back and I don't like the outcome."

His snake was gone.

The snake that Ophis had given him to make him join the Khaos Brigade. It had given him a tremendous power boost and he grew really attached to it.

And now it was gone.

Who the fuck made Ophis leave the Khaos Brigade?

==X==X==

Issei was lying on his bed with a… smile… what?

Issei was on his bed… smiling… reading a porn mag… Ok what the fuck!?

He was humming a simple tune to himself while going through the mag page for page, sometimes stopping to admire a beautiful pair of oppai.

His room was full of posters that had very eroge content all over them and there were mountains of porn mags, hentai, porn DVDs and all other kind of pervert stuff.

After finishing his current porn mag Issei put it on top of one of the stashes and wandered to his computer. He booted the machine up and after entering his password the monitor revealed an unpleasant amount of hentai games on the desktop.

His mouse wandered over one of them and he started it, selecting a new save file and started playing the game. On his face was a rather lustful expression that somehow was also a little bit peaceful.

After a while he fucked up an audio dialog and pressed the wrong button causing his character to say something, he did not at all intent to say.

His face turned into one of shock and then sadness.

Seconds later it turned out that his dialog option triggered a secret sex scene and his expression changed into a surprised one and then into a self-satisfied one, before becoming lustful as the scene started.

After finishing the game he stretched himself and walked to his window looking out into a void of pure nothingness.

If he could, he would jump out and fill the void with everything he had, but he couldn't.

He was trapped in this tiny room.

The door was also locked and didn't allow anybody to leave nor enter.

At first, he had a fit of panic and tried everything in his might to get out of the room. Breaking the window, puncturing the wall, lockpicking the door.

Nothing worked.

He was trapped and after a while he had accepted it. At least he could do whatever he wanted with this room, literally. The only limiter was his own imagination. And the limitation that he was the only living being in the room.

He was ultimately alone even though it felt so wrong. It felt like he wasn't supposed to be alone, but he still was.

Sometimes he could see a faint blue light far of in the distance trying to reach him, but it came never even close.

Issei didn't want to escape this room, he wanted to banish the loneliness he felt here. The depressing feeling of knowing that you'll live alone and forever.

But he needed to be let out to do something and for somebody to let him out, they needed to reach him and for that they needed to get the guy up there to open up his heart for them.

But the heart was guarded.

==X==X==

A/N: Holy fuck that took me freaking years to make.

Sorry for being so inactive for the last one and a half weeks. Shit happened.

I think this Chapter is pretty 'eh' in terms of stuff happening.

I should never have put the 5k minimum mark on my ass, that stuff fucked me hard.

And this is the first Chapter that actually had multiple versions before I settled on one. It took me like twenty tries to get Ophis into this.

Thank you SO FUCKING MUCH for 50+ favs and follows! That means a fricking lot to me!

Anyways, REVIEW just do it and say WHY my story sucks because it certainly does suck.

Ok thanks

See ya in the next one!