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The following is a Fan-based Fanfiction

Highschool DxD is owned by Ichiei Ishibumi and Fate is owned by Kinoko Nasu.

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Chapter 12: A New Conflict (2)

The battle started out with a bang, with much magic being thrown from many directions.

"[Fragor]"

I just kept deflecting the magic of the opponent in front of me and sometimes throwing my weapons around, letting them explode in the enemy's faces, destroying a good chunk of their forces.

"If magic doesn't work, get close and take him down!" I heard someone yelling.

"Sorry, but that ain't happening."

Ignoring the fuming heir of Manthar in front of me, I gathered mana at my feet and propelled myself towards the small army behind him. Entering their melee range, I didn't give anyone a chance as I used my weapon as a dagger and slashed through multiple opponents in quick succession.

"Gaahh! Don't come near me!" The vampire in front begged.

Paying no heed to his begging, I severed his head before turning back to the noble, who was angrily charging at me.

He conjured a blood sword in his hand and slashed in my direction. Using the one remaining Black Key in my hand, I deflected his sword by shifting it to the side, making him miss his attack. Continuing my momentum, I tried to pierce his head but ended up missing and instead cutting through his right arm.

"Haah…Haah '' Manthar panted in pain and exhaustion as he backed off with his arm missing.

"W-what, my arm isn't healing? What did you do?!" He questioned me with a clear look of panic on his face.

"Why would I tell him what I did?" I stayed silent at his cliched villain monologue. I wasn't going to give away my abilities like those anime protagonists. The less they know about me, the more it is advantageous for me.

"Goodbye now"

"H-huh?"

He only saw my afterimage as I appeared in front of him out of nowhere. I stabbed his heart where I spotted his point of death.

"a..A-Ahhhh! What's happening to me?!"

His power was completely cut off when I severed his arm, and now with the stab in his heart, his entire body started collapsing and dissipating into the air. Seeing this happen, the remaining vampires who were survivors of my previous assault started to back away in trepidation.

Looking back at them, I smiled in amusement.

"At least some of them have enough brain cells left to see they don't stand a chance.'

Ignoring the survivors, I turned my attention towards the large aura approaching me from one of the buildings. The amount of magical power emitted the most likely candidate was the King of Tepes faction.

I threw the last remaining Black Key in my hand in the direction of the coming aura and let it explode. Though that didn't do anything, because as the smoke from the small explosion cleared, I saw the figure of a vampire standing there unbothered by it.

The vampire looked very young, not akin to his actual age. He had long blonde hair and dark crimson pupils, pale skin, and a bit of his fang peeking out of his mouth. I had thought he would look old, but he clearly didn't obey those standards. He looked like a young man in his twenties, not some thousand-year-old blood sucker.

"My, my, aren't you kind of late to this party?" I tried provoking him.

He just stood there silently observing me without giving me an answer. His face was absolutely cold, and just by looking at his eyes, I could tell he was quaking in anger on the inside.

We just stared each other down, assessing each other's strength while waiting for one of us to make a move.

(Sieg POV)

Hiding in the forest, I waited for Sir Tristan's signal. I saw him head inside, but there hadn't been any signal at all except some loud sounds of people fighting. I was nervous and afraid that something had happened to him, and I was almost ready to go after him if he didn't give any signal yet. But thankfully I didn't do that, as I saw a huge explosion of fire that went straight up like a flare.

'There it is, the signal!'

I quickly got up from my hiding spot and barely jumped into the walled compound. My physique wasn't exactly muscular, and I didn't really have much stamina as a magician. Normally I would use magic to enhance myself, but I couldn't do that now or else I would end up attracting the attention of others.

"Haah..hah…hhaah"

Despite my ragged breaths, I snuck around the shadows of the building, trying to make as little noise as possible, and headed to the dreaded underground dungeon I had lived in before. Under the so-called presence concealment magic that Tristan cast on me, I slipped past the poorly guarded entrance to the dungeon and headed down the stairs quietly.

*Clack*

*Clomp*

'Gaahh… this is too nerve-wracking for me. I might just end up collapsing from my nervousness.'

These were the thoughts running through my mind as I carefully went down the stairs, trying to be aware of my surroundings for any traps. My heart was beating so hard from my anxiety that it almost felt like it would just burst out. My body was literally shivering and sweating like a waterfall from how scared I was.

*Gulp*

I swallowed my fear and looked forward. I have never done anything like this before, and all of a sudden I have this important role. Even though it was me who stubbornly insisted on doing this, it is only in this situation that my mind is asking me all the right questions, which it never did before.

*Clack*

*Clamp*

I had seen this place before, but I never realized how creepy and gloomy it was with almost no light going down. The steps were dirty and looked untouched, as if they had never been used before. Perhaps the vampires could simply teleport inside, eliminating the need for the staircase.

*Clack*

*Thomp*

I finally felt the staircase end and descend onto the underground floor. At last, I had arrived at the place that I was very familiar with. After all, it was where I had suffered for many years.

(Third Person POV)

Darkness echoed through the floor and revealed an underground dungeon filled with cages and cells. The light is barely enough to make out what is in front, and all one could do was wait till their eyes got used to the darkness.

Sieg, who unconsciously held his breath in anxiety, walked through the path, peering through the cells that were by the entrance of the dungeon. He squinted his eyes and discovered that he didn't find anyone living in most of the cells, and some only had skeletons in them, which were probably the remains of those who perished in there.

Looking at the skeletons, he gripped his fist and clenched his teeth in anger and also in overwhelming sadness. None of the people who were stuck got the chance to experience a normal life, and they died here after being used as food for the vampires. Just the thought of that made him melancholic.

Walking through the dungeon, he checked every cell and tried to look for the place he held in his memories. He only remembered bits and pieces of where his previous cell was located, but looking at hundreds of cells on the floor, it just made it harder to identify the exact one.

He walked deeper inside, examining everything and squinting his eyes to look for specific clues in this maze-like dungeon.

"A-ha…a" A light groaning noise entered his ears.

His nerves tensed up at the noise, and he slowly tried to identify where it came from.

"g..uh..h" He heard the sound once again.

Reaching into his pockets, he grabbed the small enchanted dagger that Tristan gave him before he left. He clutched the dagger in his hands and walked towards the source of the noise.

What he encountered was a prison cell that seemed no different from the rest except for the person lying inside. Sieg tried to make as little noise as possible as he looked around the perimeter for any guards and walked up to the cell, peeking inside.

Inside, there was a person lying on the ground, wrapped in a blanket, on a blood-splattered floor. If you looked closely, you could see that the person was bleeding, which seeped into the blanket and coated it with a crimson color. The person was barely surviving, with only slight groans coming out of their mouth in an attempt to breathe.

As he encountered that scene, he quickly used his dagger to cut the lock of the metal door made of metal rods. Without minding his safety or thinking about any possible traps, he ran inside to help the woman. Fortunately, there were no traps, and the only defense was the magic-enforced cell door.

"Hey, are you alright?"

With a slight panic leaking out of his voice, Sieg tried to check the person's condition. He tapped on their faces, trying to see if they were awake, but he realized that they had passed out. He slowly unwrapped their blanket to check their condition based on how much blood was leaking out.

Taking off the blanket, he realized that the person was a woman. She was only wearing rags, and she had countless scars covering her entire body.

'Nope she definitely isn't alright'. But I'm not familiar with any healing magic.'

"U-hh…who are…you?" Sieg heard the woman mutter quietly.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help. Do you know where the rest of the people are?"

He answered but got no response in return. The woman took a minute to gather her remaining strength and spoke up again.

"They…are dead… everyone died… "I'm the... last one," she mumbled quietly, tears welling up in her eyes.

"W-what?" Sieg just heard the shock of his life. Never had he considered the possibility that his friends could have already been killed. He held some kind of misguided and delusional belief that they would still be okay even after they helped him escape.

Hearing her words, he fell to his knees in sudden shock and the realization that the people he had encountered on his way here were most likely his friends. His mind went blank, and he started losing his breath from a sudden panic attack.

'W-what? How could this happen?'

'W...W-why did you leave me all alone?'

'Why was I saved?!'

'Why am I here?'

'What do I do now!?'

His mind fell into an endless barrel of questions, and he couldn't take it anymore. He collapsed completely on the floor and started throwing up in the corner.

"Haah...hah," Sieg breathed roughly as it took him a few moments to calm down.

"What the heck should I do now? Sir Tristan should still be fighting outside. I can't just keep fooling around."

Even with Sieg's emotions in disarray, he knew that someone was still out there fighting for him, and he couldn't lose sight of his goal. Using that as an excuse, he temporarily suppressed his nausea and picked up the woman by her shoulder.

'I need to at least get her out of here. She'll die if she isn't immediately treated.'

Picking her up and placing her on his shoulders, he walked out of the prison cell in a hurry. He swiftly walked around in the darkness, trying to find the exit with the woman on his shoulders. Unfortunately, in his abnormally agitated state of mind, he couldn't remember how he got here and got lost in the dungeon.

He kept walking around, trying to track his way back, until he found some room that was completely isolated from the rest of the dungeon and had some kind of barrier over it. He could see light flecks peeking out from inside the room and determined that someone might be there.

'Is it another prisoner? Or some kind of guard?'

He couldn't tell what it was exactly, but he determined that it was most likely a prisoner from looking at the magic barrier. From his limited knowledge of magic, this barrier was something that suppressed a person's power and prevented them from breaking out. It was mostly likely used to keep someone inside and keep them from going out.

Grabbing his dagger again, he tried to pierce through the barrier to the room, but he heard another voice behind him.

"Stop! You, how did you get in here?!"

'Damn it, I didn't notice him'

(Tristan POV)

"[Exardesco]"

Since no one wanted to start, I decided to make the first move. A red magic circle appeared as I threw my fire based calculation magic at him.

The ground exploded in flames, and I rushed at my opponent, who just waved his hand and unleashed his shadow magic, which devoured the flames.

'Oh you're finally making a move.'

"Aperto, Arca"

Putting my hand in my little dimension-space pocket, I grabbed my magic sword. It wasn't comparable to the holy sword Galatine that I have, but it was more than sturdy enough to deal with my opponent in front of me.

"[Shadow Spear]"

The Tepes King yelled as a swarm of spikes formed beneath my shadows, forcing me to jump up and avoid them. The second I jumped, another pair of blood spears struck me from behind almost instantly.

I barely managed to react to the second attack, and I reinforced my arm and made my skin tougher to lessen the impact. Even with me lessening the impact, I was launched back a couple meters and landed roughly on the ground, using my arms to stop the momentum.

Just when I managed to land an attack, another was thrown at me without giving me a single chance to recover. I managed to block it, but he kept sending out many barrages of magic attacks in succession all around, forcing me to keep defending.

*Swish*

*Swish*

I blocked the final attack with my sword and got a chance to attack. Packing my prana onto my sword, I slashed towards his direction, sending out a sharp blade of prana. Seeing the attack coming towards him, he was forced to abandon his attack as he focused his magic and made a wall that surrounded him.

"[Ardeat]"

I sent out a spell immediately as a distraction to get closer to him. The spell was an original that I made that literally combusted the air around my opponent, causing them to be surrounded by multiple point-blank explosions.

The Tepes King noticed the spell almost immediately and made a cocoon of blood and shadows around him, which tanked the attack.

"Good now, I just need you to keep defending," I muttered under my breath, charging at my opponent.

Using my Mystic eyes I spotted the "lines of death" around my opponent, which I slashed with my sword. With my single slash, the barrier around him dispersed into thin air, which stunned the Tepes King.

"Gahh… what the hell is that power?!"

The stoic Tepes King had finally started to get scared, which clearly reflected on his face. I used my momentum to close in on him even more and stabbed "the point of death" on the side of his neck.

"Uhhhaaa! What the heck did you do?"

He let out a shrieking scream, holding the spot where I stabbed his neck. His wound wouldn't heal, and his body started falling apart, which brought out his fear of death.

"Y-you monster! WHAT KIND OF MONSTROSITY AREE YOUU?!"

"All right, shut up already," I said, glaring at him.

"N-no, I'm not dying here. NOooo!" He screamed before he finally fell down as he was finally embraced by death.

"Haah… That was a bit anticlimactic. I didn't think he wouldn't fall so easily. Or perhaps I was much stronger than I thought?" I pondered as I looked at the now dead vampire King.

*Boom*

I heard a loud explosion in the distance.

'Hmm...wasn't that the direction Sieg went?'