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Game of DxD: Redux
Chapter 8 – First Squadron & a Phoenix
"Keep holding it, Asia," I encouraged as the girl in question struggled to keep up a magical barrier the size of a door.
We were in my empty dungeon, where I was training Asia's defensive magic.
Though, maybe I shouldn't be calling this an empty dungeon anymore… This place had grown. It now had multiple buildings, green spaces and battle arenas scattered around the place. A bit further away was a factory that I had some plans for.
Anyway, it had been 5 days since the Raynare debacle. The Vali Team continued their training days, and in my spare time, I would take Asia here to train her.
The blonde girl was terrible with offensive magic; her ability to use magic had nothing to do with it, she simply didn't have it in her. She had a decent mana reserve, and a good-enough grasp on magic theory, but she simply couldn't form any sort of offensive magic, because she didn't like hurting others.
I was hoping to have her know at least some of the basic attack spells, but since that wouldn't work, I opted to make her our main support.
My attention focused back on Asia, who let out a small grunt as the magical barrier dissipated into nothing. Asia collapsed on her knees, breathing heavily.
I crouched down and handed her a water bottle from my Inventory, which she gratefully accepted.
Nearby, the echoes of battle reached my ears. Looking back, Vali in his Balance Breaker and Bikou on his Flying Nimbus were closing in on a clone of mine from his sides. The boy in silver armour's hand blurred as he went in for a punch while Bikou extended his staff to my clone's torso.
The clone held out one hand and from it, mana leaked out and collected itself to create sturdy walls, which halted the warriors' path. Bikou clicked his tongue and swiftly circled back behind Vali. The boy in question extended both arms and held his hands out, rapidly forming a sphere of draconic energy. Once it was completed and became the size of an adult's palm, Vali punched the orb forward at ridiculous speeds.
The clone started preparing a barrier to block the sphere, but just before the orb could impact the magical shield, it burst in a large cloud of thick smoke. There was the sound of movement and soon, my clone saw Bikou's staff zooming through the smoke in his direction.
The clone flexed his muscular legs and jumped about a hundred meters upwards, evading the staff which extended past where he was and creating a small crater on the ground, but when he saw the shadow of a person forming underneath him, he looked up to see another Bikou swinging his mighty weapon down.
My clone cast two magic circles at the soles of his feet, which shot out flames. Using the spell's effects, he twisted himself in the air and extended his right arm to intercept the staff. As it came in contact with his hand, the kinetic energy carried in the weapon was released as a shockwave, which blew away all the smoke underneath my clone, having ruffled his hair and clothes in the process.
"There's progress, but it's not much," I remarked to myself, watching the battle.
|Not everyone is like you, Partner. They had to train their entire lives to reach this level of power.| Ddraig commented from inside the gauntlet.
I nodded, understanding their and my circumstances.
"Signore Issei, I'm ready to go again," Asia called out from behind him, dusting herself off as she stood up.
I hummed for a moment and shook my head, having decided that she would take the rest of the day off.
"Let's return, Asia. You worked hard today, and your mana reserves are quite low at the moment."
Asia nodded, though she looked slightly troubled at her lack of progress.
After leaving the instant dungeon, I took Asia to the living room and switched on the TV to look for a source of entertainment. Meanwhile, mom was baking some cookies for us.
The next 2 hours were uneventful. Asia ate a couple of cookies and excused herself to the bathroom, while I entered my dungeon once more.
This time, I was training myself.
Recently, I saw on the internet a pretty terrifying punching technique from a professional boxer. It revolved around extending your arm with maximum speed, but just before your fist could impact your opponent, you would clench your fist and then add strength. The result was truly mesmerising, the sound of the fist impacting rubber was heard before you would be able to see the punch itself, though that may have to do with the shutter speed.
Either way, I wanted to replicate the technique and develop a magical variation of my own.
Just as the boxer instructed, I swung my arm at ridiculous speeds, and thanks to my crazy AGI stat, it was really fucking fast.
Just before my arm could extend fully, I charged mana throughout my arm, into my fist, and converted from maximum speed to strength. The result was impressive, the space in front of me distorted as my hand broke through the sound barrier.
But I knew that most Ultimate-Class creatures could withstand such a blow, and thus I further improved the attack.
Firstly, I used two speed buffs, Lightning Coat and Lightning Surge. Lightning Coat, well, coated you in the lightning element, buffing your overall speed, while Lightning Surge would instead focus on increasing your reaction speed instead of, say, running speed. That element was the prime factor that involved blinding speeds, so it was the best buff to use.
My speed increased as well as my strength, but the ratio wasn't equal. After all, this was a speed buff, not a strength buff.
Thus, I cast another spell, Titan's Fist, tripling my STR stat, but only for one punch. It was better for one strike than a combo, which would require me to continually reapply it, but with my INT stat and skill in magic, that was no issue.
To top it off, after applying Titan's Fist, I would infuse my fist with precise electrical shock waves. Its purpose was to disrupt the neurological function of my opponent if they somehow withstand the hit.
And that's a big if.
The final result was a killer move that would prove to be extremely dangerous even for powerful Ultimate-Class beings. The dummy in front of me, made out of magically-reinforced titanium, was instantly vaporised into nothingness. It didn't even stand a chance.
Ping!
•Due to certain actions, you've gained a new skill.
Destructive Fist – Active – Lvl. 1
•By casting Lightning Coat, Lightning Surge and Titan's Fist, the speed and strength of your punch would be quadrupled.
•Neuron-targeting shock waves flow out of the fist, carrying a high chance to stun and daze the opponent for a time. Chance is reduced according to the target's lightning resistance.
+4x STR for one punch
+4x AGI for one punch
•1,200 MP per use
+8,000 EXP
I was very much satisfied with the end result and thus exited the dungeon. For the next two hours, I sent my two clones to scan the area for any supernatural beings to provide me with the usual report.
Other than the Devils and I, no other supernatural beings were detected, and with nothing unusual happening, I decided to order food from a WcDonald's nearby.
Coincidentally, I spotted the short, white-haired Koneko eating… four large fries and three Big Wacs.
As my order was still being prepared, I approached her. She turned and spotted me, and waved.
"Hello, Issei-senpai."
I nodded in turn, "Hey, Toujō-san. Do you mind if I join you?"
Koneko shook her head and I sat down.
Soon enough, my order arrived… four Big Wacs and seven large fries.
Many gawked at the sight, and Koneko herself couldn't hide the surprise on her face.
"I burn calories fast. I'm human, I wasn't born as a supernatural being. I need to eat a lot to adjust to the increased metabolism."
The girl nodded after a moment and continued chomping down on her food. We sat in comfortable silence for a little while.
"How're you doing? Anything been going on lately?" I broke the silence first.
Koneko stopped chewing but continued to swallow the food with an audible gulp.
For a moment, she seemed hesitant. I got a bit worried, but I didn't let it show.
"…Buchou is…she needs your help."
As she further explained the situation to me, I couldn't stop the frown that crawled onto my face.
"Rias-san… how're you holding up?"
I followed Koneko to the ORC quickly after she briefed me on the circumstances. I deeply despised stunts like these, especially if they were used only for political gain.
Rias, still oblivious to the fact that I knew her plight, raised an eyebrow. "I'm doing just fine…thank you for asking, Issei-san."
The frown on my face deepened. "Rias, I heard about your engagement."
The red-headed Devil seemed a bit surprised at first, but after a moment of silence, her shoulders drooped in exhaustion.
Neither of us spoke a word, but she broke the silence soon enough.
"Issei-san, did you know that I wanted to add you to my Peerage because I thought you would be my ticket to freedom? A draconic Sacred Gear, no matter the class, would always be useful. Against an opponent like that scumbag, I would have wanted nothing more than more power to beat his annoying face to a pulp."
I sat down on one of the many luxurious chairs in the room and leaned forward, motioning for her to continue,
"My parents previously agreed to hold off the marriage until I graduated from college, but the Phenex Household just had more political power than us. They pressured us to push the marriage sooner."
"…When will it be?"
Rias leaned back in her chair sluggishly and sighed. "At most, three weeks from now."
A heavy silence descended upon the room like a veil. My mind worked extra fast to find possible solutions to her issue.
I did, actually, find several, but most of them resulted in me being wanted by the Devil Faction for various different crimes, or generally being a target of the nobles.
However, there were a couple of sound solutions.
"That means that Raiser would be coming here soon, is that not right?"
Rias nodded, not knowing what I was trying to say.
"Then allow me to join the meeting. It's Devil business, I know, but can they really afford to refuse my request? Even if Raiser will be annoyed by it, I'm sure that the opportunity to recruit a powerful Sacred Gear user will pop up in his head. Or, at least, in one of his servants' heads."
Rias once again nodded, but she still didn't see the entire picture.
"What do you hope to accomplish, Issei-san? Not to sound rude, but you aren't exactly rich enough to bribe the Phenex Family, let alone Raiser to begin with. If you're somehow hoping to negotiate, that might even be worse…"
I smirked as I snapped my fingers, and instantly, millions of dollar bills flooded the room as they flew out from my Inventory.
Koneko and Rias' eyes widened as they witnessed what was happening. By the time I'd emptied out half of my Inventory, the entire room was filled with not only cash, but jewellery, rare materials and even some magical artefacts too.
Everything in this room, if properly counted, would easily exceed a couple of billion American dollars.
"I have a whole lot more from where this came from. Don't worry about the money. Don't worry about what might or might not happen. Let me see what I can do, and I promise you that I'll help you to the best of my abilities."
After Rias reluctantly agreed to my request, I had to excuse myself from the building as Azazel rang my phone.
I'm back in my home now, where the man in question was drinking green tea in the living room.
"Azazel, good to see you. Everything's going well?"
The Fallen Angel nodded. "Yup, it's all good. I came here to give you the report on those exorcists."
I sat down on the couch and motioned for him to go on.
"Unfortunately, most of them were involved in illegal activities; they ranged from theft and harassment to black-market trades and murder."
I sighed, quite disappointed. Despite knowing that it was likely for most, if not all, of them to be criminals, I still had some hope.
"Most? Then, what about the others?" I still clung to a bit of hope.
"That's where the good news comes in. Out of the 57 exorcists, 8 of them haven't committed any crimes," he stated with a disappointed sigh.
"Anyway, that's all I can do for you. They're all under your care from now on. They'll be here shortly."
After 5 more minutes of idle discussion, a communication circle appeared next to Azazel's ear, confirming that the exorcists would be sent here shortly.
"Alright kid, I'll be going now. Take care."
"Hmm, see you later, Azazel."
True to his words, as soon as Azazel teleported away, another magic circle lit up in the room as 8 figures came to view.
They stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do, so I broke the ice.
"First off, everyone here, hold on to me."
They glanced at each other with questioning gazes but obeyed nonetheless.
"I.D. Create – Empty Dungeon."
They were all startled as they witnessed the scenery around them rapidly change from my living room to a wide and infinite space with buildings, parks and battle arenas.
"Form a line, quickly."
They did as told without protest, and formed said line.
"We'll begin by introducing ourselves. I'm Hyoudou Issei, this generation's Red Dragon Emperor. You will all be my first official squadron. This means that you will follow my orders to the point. If push comes to shove in battles or other operations, trust your own judgement, but consult with me if it is possible. With that done, who'll go first?"
After a moment of silence, two people raised their hands together – a woman with black hair tied in a bun and brown eyes and a man with similarly-coloured hair and eyes. Both were quite tall.
"I'm Yaseen Galal," the man started, "And this is my sister, Zainab. We're Egyptians. I'm 29 and she's 26. While she specializes in close combat, I out-perform her in magic and the bow."
I raised an eyebrow, "Egyptian? I know that there are churches in Egypt, but isn't it primarily a Muslim country?"
Both nodded and Zainab continued, "That is true, Master. However, the government knew the importance of the Church, and so they allowed us to continue doing our business."
'So this means that members of the human governments know about the supernatural. Good to know.'
"How were you two excommunicated?"
"The priest of our church disliked Muslims and generally anyone who believed in other religions. When he found out that we don't share his rather extreme views, the priest did his best to make our lives hell. When the opportunity came to light, due to a failed mission, he excommunicated us as quickly as he could."
'What a bastard. I wanna punch him in the face. What the fuck is Michael doing up there in Heaven?'
|Beats me. What I am sure of, though, is that God's death has to do with it.|
'Guess we'll have to ask Michael when we meet him.'
"That's enough for now. Anyone else?"
Once everyone was done with their turns, I had already memorized their names, ages, how they were excommunicated and other related information.
Other than Yaseen and Zainab, there were:
Sara Lue; 22 years old, half-American half-Irish. Excommunicated due to false accusations of theft of the Church's resources. Mid-Class Sacred Gear: Imitate Light, allows the user to control light in a fashion similar to Angels, with very few restrictions. In Balance Breaker, the user may equip a form of powerful light armour that increases overall battle prowess and could use any magic spell related to light with 25% of the mana costs.
Kenneth Juvandi; 31 years old, French. Excommunicated for 'treason'. The real reason was that he freed some innocent captives that a perverted priest imprisoned. No Sacred Gear.
Scott Freeman; 27 years old, American. Abandoned the Church after finding out some of their unpleasant secrets. No Sacred Gear, but a high affinity with Lightning Magic.
Jeom Shin; 29 years old, South Korean. Excommunicated after being caught 'stealing' Church property, which was really just his own weapons that the Church forcefully took from him. Low-Class Sacred Gear: Twice Critical, doubles the user's power once. In Balance Breaker, Jeom Shin could manipulate draconic energy to a certain extent and double his powers another two times.
Moreno Anselmo; 19 years-old, Italian. Although he wasn't excommunicated and willingly left the Church, some of the priests in Italy looked down upon him. No Sacred Gear.
Leonard Anselmo; 18 years old, Moreno's younger brother, Italian. Followed his brother's footsteps and received the same treatment from Italian priests. No Sacred Gear.
This was all the relative information I obtained from them. It was enough for now, so I didn't push for any more.
"Here, each one of you will wear this all the time, only with my permission will you take it off."
I handed each one a black ring, which gave them quite a scare, and soon enough I knew why.
They probably thought this was some item that had enslavement magic, but… that was not the case, at all.
Common Empowering Ring
+80 to all stats
+Skill: Magic Resistance Lvl. 20
+Skill: Poison Resistance Lvl. 20
+Skill: Illusion Resistance Lvl. 20
Ever since I had discovered the powers of the 'Empty' Dungeon, I branched my skill trees as much as possible. Blacksmithing, and all its magical variations, were included in those skill trees I learned.
Since then, I levelled up the skills related to Magic Blacksmithing as much as I could; I was sure that it would be handy in the foreseeable future.
I really wanted to add more skills to the ring, but I'd need more surface area. Each skill or enhancement requires a certain amount of space to engrave the necessary runes. With larger items, it's easier to add more features, but with a ring… the fact that I added 3 skills and an 80-stat boost alone was pretty impressive.
"It's a ring with some special abilities that will surely benefit you in the long run. Please wear it, for now, I may or may not decide to come up with a better magical item," I explained to ease their worries. Some of them relaxed a bit, but there was still some hesitance.
I sighed, "Well, I'm not gonna force you. If you don't feel comfortable wearing the rings, then that is fine."
In the end, they decided to wear the rings. They probably felt my sincerity from my previous statement.
Immediately, their auras changed a little bit. They too seemed to realise that, as they moved around and experimented with the new power.
After a while, they seemed satisfied with the effects of the rings. At first, I was going to have them start training, but then I decided against it.
They felt somewhat exhausted, I could tell.
"For today, rest. Tomorrow at 7 AM, I want everyone to be awake and prepared for the first training session. Understood?"
"Yes, Master," they all voiced.
Finally done with this chapter. IGCSEs are finally over, and with a whole lot more free time now, you should be seeing me back on track with my uploads.
Let's get into the reviews.
AssiriosDM said: At first the MC had one pace of progression, what is OK, he was growing quicker than everyone but it was expected, it's a Gamer fic. Now though? Suddenly the MC became strong enough to easily beat Vali and we didn't even see his progression
Response: I've already showcased his progress in the first couple of chapters. The purpose of those chapters was to show you just how fast Issei would be growing. If a normal human were to train just for 1 day, the training would make little to no difference, but we've seen Issei immediately grow to have strength comparable to someone who's been training for a few weeks or a couple of months, just from 1 day of training. We also have to factor in his Boosted Gear.
Gacha Zack said: Hi, this is the first story I've ever commented on.
Response: Good to see you, Zack. I hope you enjoy the story and the upcoming chapters.
Cobalt Conrad said: It was uncanny how Isse quickly adapted to the situation thanks to to Gamer's Mind skil. It's not bad per se, just super wierd how fast it happend.
Response: That's the point, my friend. It should be uncanny.
T-B-R said: Howd he get so OP so fast, I think we skipped several chasms of leveling, and really not a lot of character interaction.
Response: I've already explained how he got so OP so fast.
XenoLucifer said: eh, another Issei centered story... why do people like the guy again? the DxD universe is incredible, its weakest point by far is the main character so why do writers use him as main character when there is so much to go by, so many things to use in order to make your own character. Don't tell me you're afraid of originality.
Response: Good point. I also often enjoy OOCs in DxD fics, but I wanted to go with Issei as the main character here. Also, this story has multiple OCs. Issei's squadron is just the first of the few. When this story starts to shine, more and more OCs will flood.
Carrotnt said: Vali? older teen?
Dude, you need to get your facts straight.
Issei IS the older one.
Response: I tried searching up Vali's age, but I couldn't find it. I only found Issei's age on a Wiki page, which says that he was 17 back in volume 1.
Smoothed out and beta'd by NorthSouthGorem. You can find his account on FFN and AO3. He started a DxD fic that you might want to check out :D
