Chapter 16
DxD Universe-1
"So you are Issei Hyoudou," Shiva greeted him. "I have heard of you. You are the new Red Dragon Emperor... beside other things."
Of course he knew about the Guardians and about Issei´s team, that was basically the local branch of their organization now.
"Yes," Issei replied simple.
"You can sense it as well, do you?" Shiva stated, looking upwards in the sky.
He could sense it of course... the black hole at the outer parts of their star system.
Created by Thenis, probably just to unsettle and to intimidate them.
"Yes I do," Issei responded.
xxx
Behind them, Odin, Amaterasu and Azazel were still discussing about the meaning of this event. And what kind of being it was who had actually done this.
"Now - why don´t we just deal with it?" Shiva said.
As if for him a black hole at the edge of the star system was nothing to worry about.
He reached out - both symbolic with his hand reaching up into the sky - and with his powers far beyond that into space and to the black hole out there.
And under these supernatural and reality-manipulating powers, the heavily-packed particles of the singularity were ripped apart and disappeared from this reality, until the black hole dissolved and was gone.
All of them, including Issei, watched how the Hindu God of Destruction, seemingly effortlessly destroyed the black hole they had just been talking about with one move.
"I guess this was it," Shiva stated, "... for the moment at least."
"For the moment - yes," Sirzechs said. "The true threat was not the black hole. It is the being who had created it in the first place."
"Very right," Azazel agreed, "this was a warning. And also a wake-up call for all of us."
xxx
Shiva... had just simply done it, Issei thought to himself.
While he himself had just watched countless people die today. He had tried to save them all and failed, without being able to do anything about it.
He remembered how he had been hiding away under Darkseid´s Omega Beam onslaught and fled. How he had been standing around as the alternate Kuroka and Koneko had been killed. How he and the others had been saved by Ophis.
And it was not even simply the power Shiva had displayed. Actually the level of raw Supernatural Power he had used was not above the one Issei was able to use himself.
It was the way how he used it. The control and skill he showed, especially over such a distance, was far above Issei´s own. It was more than he could even think of himself doing.
Somehow that only made it even more depressing.
Maybe this was the difference between a real supernatural super-being with thousands of years of experience and an perverted ex-highschool boy who had just been lucked out by being given incredible powers by others.
While he should have been dead years ago, if it had not been for others saving him. Ironically the first time it was by the hand of the same woman who was now his first lover and one of the closest people to him.
"Would you die for me?"
His mind flashed back to this moment for a short second.
Yes - he would, Issei thought, but not like this.
But it was quickly overshadowed and replaced by the moment of him and the others desperately shielding themselves from the Omega Energy... while everyone around them was dieing.
And despite all the powers he had gained by now, he was helpless... helpless one again.
He felt his hands shaking uncontrollably. Issei was afraid. He was afraid like he had not been in a long time.
A small part of him, the one that was still the sixteen year old highschool boy with nothing but sex and breasts on his mind thought about all what had happened during the last years.
About the threats he had faced - Freed Selzen, Alyk Crocell, Kokabiel, Loki, the S.H.A, the Devil Hunters, the Demons, Raiser´s mad double... and now Thenis and Darkseid.
Issei admitted to himself, somewhere halfway during his training with Darien and Spectre he had begann to nearly feel like he would never be afraid of anything again.
He had been a fool.
Darien had offered him a choice to get out back at the beginning. Maybe he should have accepted his offer back then, the same part of him thought.
Darien would probably still let him out even now if he asked, the thought just came to his mind.
Him, Raynare, Irina, Asia, Rias, Murayama and the others.
("Partner,") Ddraig´s voice suddenly spoke in his mind. ("And that would that really achieve? Even if you quit the Guardians, you would still be the Red Dragon Emperor. You would still be one of the most powerful beings in this world. And with that a major target for many people,") he pointed out.
("You would just have fewer allies.")
"Yes - yes I know it was a stupid idea," Issei responded. He caught himself again mentally. "It was just... I just let my fears overcome me for a moment. But not anymore."
But that did not mean that his fears were gone. Quite the opposite.
xxxxxxx
Kuoh Academy - a hour later
A hour later the group of gods - which included Shiva, who had singlehandly solved their `black hole´ problem - had already left Kuoh and returned to their own Realms after some more discussions about the current situation.
Their friends the three former Stray Devil refugees Ehron, Maya and Rey, who had also witnessed some of the events regarding Thenis attack happening, had also returned to their home. They had left them right after giving them all a short resume of what had happened from their point of view. Not that their testimonies added much imput, they had after all just seen the attack from the sidelines and not even been directly involved.
But even if they had barely seen anything, at least not anyhing of real significance, Issei´s team and the others were determinded to get every bit of information they could.
xxx
This left the rest of them were now sitting together inside the ORC clubroom in Kuoh Academy.
This meant now Issei and his whole team, including their right now powerless teammates Kiba, Asia and Murayama... and their teammate Raiser, who had just returned from his visit to his family, Rias Queen and Rook Akeno and Koneko, the two Maou Sirzechs and Serafall, Grayfia, Azazel and the Angels Michael and Gabriel... and the three Universe-23 refugees who had returned with them.
The damage on the mansion that belonged to Issei and his team had not been fixed yet. With magic this would only take a few minutes, (unless of course if Thenis had used her power to intentionally make the damage irreversible. But none of them thought for a second that she had bothered to do that just for a few torched and broken walls.)
But none of them had any nerve or drive left right not, to - on top of everything else - use magic powers to repair Issei´s mansion. Or better said they had no patience left to deal with it on top of all the other things they had to do. They just wanted and needed to recover a bit physically and mentally first.
Before that however they needed to discuss what exactly had happened while they were separated and of course also how they should continue from this point.
So the ORC room was the most obvious place for them to sit together and talk.
xxx
Also with them was Raiser´s sister Ravel, had also accompanied her brother back when she heard what had happened. As one of Issei´s girlfriends and part of his harem she was worried and wanted to see him and the others.
The first thing she did as she saw Issei was to wrap her ams around him, draw him into a tight embrace... and give him a deep kiss on his lips.
Before she had turned to the others.
While her first thought was of course about Issei, she also considered his other girlfriends and the rest of his team as friends.
"It is good to see that you all are okay," Ravel said to them. "After what happened to Yubelluna and Gaeriel..."
She saw the pained looks in the faces of the others.
Her brother´s Queen and closest lover - or at least the one member of Raiser´s harem he actually had a kind of deep emotional relationship with.
While he did treat his other Peerage members, who had in opposite to many other Devils joined him mostly willingly, quite well and they were certainly loyal to him in return, they were in his mind in first line female Servants who acted both as warriors and for sex. (In fact however as far as Ravel knew, her brother had not slept with any of them since Yubelluna had died and instead actually spend some time talking with the others about personal things.)
Yubelluna and Gaeriel - their first teammate, the one who had actually started their team along with Issei. Both of them lost within just two days.
Yuuto had practically died as well and was only still here because of Asia´s powers and a lot of luck.
Of course Ravel must have considered the possibility that once again at least one of them would not return, they all thought.
xxx.
They were all sitting together and discussing the current developments. They had just gone over the events that happened both in Universe-23 and here in Kuoh... and were now discussing how to go on from this point.
"So you are powerless now?" Rias stated as she looked to Kiba, Asia, Murayama and Xenovia summerizing what they had told them.
"I am afraid so," Xenovia replied.
"Well - actually, to be more precise, our powers are still there - The Sacred Gears, the Holy Swords, my Evil Pieces," Kiba said. "Lady Serafall and Lord Azazel had confirmed that much before you returned. We are just not able to use them."
"You say it," Asia said. "It seems as if something is blocking our access to them."
"I see," Rias replied.
"Some kind of magic that is blocking your abilities?" Sona suggested.
"I am thinking the same," Serafall stated. "You are smart as always Sona-tan."
"But we have found no sign of such magic on them," Akeno-01 mentioned.
"Maybe not on the first look," Azazel said. "But someone like her is probably able to hide her magic very well. Besides - she this Thenis is a world-traveller, right? So it might be a form of power we don´t even know. If we look deeper, I am sure we will find the cause."
"I agree with Azazel," Michael stated. "Also, if I concentrade, I can sense a strange foreign presence on them. Something dark and sinister."
"So do I, but I can not make out the exact source," Sirzechs agreed.
"Well - that means it had to be possible to reverse what she had done with us, right?" Murayama pointed. "After all Shiva had just removed the black hole as well."
"Yes," Asia said. "Thenis powers have been overcome before. So Shiva-sama or Issei-kun should be able to do it again."
She looked at Issei with Hope in her face.
"Ah - Asia, that..." Raynare tried to say.
She had seen what state of mind Issei had been in since they returned.
"Yes," Issei replied grimly with a dark undertone, "Shiva should be able to do that."
But me? Issei thought. He could not help but doubt that. All what he seemed to be able to in this days seemed to be watching people die.
"Issei?" Irina asked concerned as she saw his expression.
He looked down for a moment, before turning away from them.
"But I am just a perverted highschool boy who has turned into a perverted young man, aren´t I?" he said. "All I am really good for is watching people get killed and making out with my gilfriends, at least the ones of the who are still alive," he commented bitterly, remembering Gaeriel.
"I guess I am still the same perverted looser I was three years ago."
"That is not true," Irina called out.
"Don´t say that Issei-kun," Asia said as well. "You have saved so many people during the last years."
"Not in the last time it seemed," Issei replied. "I have watched a whole alternate Devil Race getting wiped out without doing anything, I have let Gaeriel die and now a whole town was destroyed right in front of me while I was hiding behind a shield and barely got away with my life."
"So did the rest of us," Rias stated.
"You don´t have the power of two Super Entities at your fingertips," he countered.
"Without you everyone in Kuoh would have probably been slaughtered by Kokabiel and his allies," Akeno, the one from their own world, pointed out.
As Rias Queen - a title that was mostly pro-forma now that Rias had all but given up her position - and former member of Issei´s team, Rias oldest friend had distanced herself from them a bit in the last time. But she knew as good as anyone else here how important Issei´s role had been.
"In fact without you, we all would probably be right in the middle of the next Great War after Kokabiel´s attack," Sirzechs stated.
Partly through their own fault, he and Serafall admitted to themselves. Looking back it had been awfully careless of them to just leave their teenage sisters in charge of one of their strongholds in the Human World with only inexperienced Peerages consisting of more teenagers to back them up... careless and arrogant. The classical weaknesses of their race.
"So don´t ever say that you have not done anything good," Serafall said.
"You have helped me when I had been framed by the Devil Hunters and accepted me into your team," Kuroka-06 argued as well.
"That parallel world where you, me, Xenovia and Yuuto had been a team of Exorcists would have been thrown into war or even destroyed by the SHA," Irina mentioned the next example she could remember.
"You saved us," Vali´s female double pointed out. "You shielded us and then got us to savety."
"Three people... out of thousands," Issei responded hollow.
"That is more than practically everyone else could have done," Fem Vali said. "Not against this... monster."
"And then you defended us when we were stuck powerless in that bizarre world," the Half Fallen Angel Akeno-23 added.
"Without you we would have been dead many times over," the Demon Serena agreed with them.
With that all three of their Universe-23 guests had given their gratitude to Issei.
("And Partner,") Ddraig said, ("you have just kept an entire parallel Earth from being mind controlled today. And maybe dozens more in the long run. There was no guaranty that this Darkseid would have stopped with Earth.
Isn´t that a lot?")
"I just send out this counter-message with the Life-Equation Darien gave me," Issei replied. "I just followed his instructions. What would I have done without him? Or without you for that matter Ddraig? All of my so called great powers came just from you and from him."
"Was it also Darien who had instructed you to help me?" Kuroka-06 countered. "Or to take in Ehron, Maya and Rei into your own home? Or a hundred other things? No - that was all you."
"And until recenly Darien and the others could not even set foot into this world without risking an interdimensional war," Raynare pointed out.
A war that had now actually started, they all knew.
"So were it not actually them rellying on you to get things done here the entire time? You have done a lot," Raynare said, "now and always."
"Besides - since Ddraig is sealed into the Sacred Gear, he would not be really able to do anything without a host, right?" Serafall pointed out smiling.
("Hey,") the Dragon spoke out loud.
"You have to admit what she says is technically not wrong," Azazel stated calmly. "No matter how powerful, any Longinus Sacred Gear still requires a human user. Without one, it can not do much more than lying around somewhere."
("Okay - I guess that is fair,") Ddraig admitted.
"And my mad double is dead thanks to you," Raiser threw in. "Something that I will always be thankful to you for, by the way," he commented.
xxxx
While his voice was outwardly calm, the rage he still had at his deranged counterpart was very clear to detect. He remembered, not only that the other Raiser´s Queen was responsible for his Yubelluna´s death, but also how this lunatic had his own Peerage members blown up in suicide attacks. This was truly one way to be confronted with the worst aspects of yourself.
xxxx
"Issei-kun just stop it," Irina said.
"Yes - stop it," Rias said as well. "Don´t forget that it was only because of you that we even made it back alive ourselves. If you hadn´t saved us we would have ended just like the rest of the Resistance Town from Universe-23," she reminded him.
"And you should remember" Rias commented once more, "as a Devil, I am of course a selfish and arrogant bitch."
She pronounced the name of her race in a comedically exaggerated way and said this this entire statement with more than just a bit over the top self-irony and an obvious smile on her face. It was more than clear to everyone that she was making fun of herself.
"So I am especially thankful to you for saving my sorry ass." Aside from the still obvious irony, Rias voice was now also having an somewhat erotic undertone... which was entirely hillarious...
... and actually caused Issei to smile as well, despite his depression.
Yes - he had done a lot, he admitted to himself. Things that should have been impossible for most others.
But he still needed to improve, if he wanted to achieve anything now... or even wanted to protect his team, lovers ans friends.
Meanwhile they all continued and changed their discussion to other more pressing matters.
xxx
Under them, the three Universe-23 natives were right in this moment perhaps the most important persons in the room.
While Issei, Rias and the others had only gotten a short time to witness their reality, they had been living there their entire lives.
The information they could privide about the Erebos Empire was a goldmine for the intelligence all three of the Biblical Factions and for Issei´s team as well. As tragic as the reasons for them being here in the first place were.
And they were also allies of the Universe-23´s Heaven and Church Faction. Who were the greatest opponents of the Erebos Empire in their world. With other words, they were their most logical allies.
Female Vali and Serena were first giving them another general resume of their world´s history, both from the human and the Demon´s perspective. With Akeno-23 adding a few details.
Issei and the others had already found out most of it during their scout-mission, but it didn´t hurt to hear more and close any holes in their knowledge.
- As they heard before, the Demons first came to their world at the end of the Great War. They directly attacked the Devil Faction, but allied themselves with the Fallen. They took over the Underworld, enslaved the surviving Devils - mostly as a compromise because many of the Fallen Angels refused to commit complete genocide on them.
But while in their Underworld things deviated drastically for many centuries, the history in the Human World continued mostly exactly like they knew them in their own reality. It only started to really change a few decades ago, when the Demons with their Fallen Angel allies invaded the Human World in earnest too and occupied most of East Asia.
"And your people just accepted an alliance with people like this?" Koneko asked Akeno-23.
"The Grigori were the most damaged by the end of the war and had the lowest numbers," Akeno-23 responded matter of factly. "If you are desperate you will not refuse any offer that can save you, even if their are open questions," she stated.
"We know all too well what it means to be desperate," Akeno-01 replied, exchanging a look with Koneko, Kiba and Rias.
"This was more or less why they became part of my Peerage," Rias stated a bit awkwardly. She didn´t want to imply that she had been taking advantage of them, but she couldn´t help herself to mention this detail.
"And later," Akeno-23 continued. "Well - it was just too late to back out. Besides - it was not like our Supreme Leader had any problems with the idea of completely wiping out the Devil Race, it were actually Lord Shemhazai, my Father and some of the other Leaders who protested."
"That Supreme Leader being me," Gabriel confirmed.
"Yes," Akeno-23 said a bit awkwardly.
"Wow - I truly am a bitch it seems." It was clear that Gabriel was speaking about her counterpart here. But even if the matter was serious, the Seraphs comment still seemed a bit funny.
The three Universe-23 refugees on their part seemed still somewhat awkward around the Seraph Gabriel. Which was not really surprising, given who Gabriel´s counterpart in their reality was.
xxx
In return however, the powerful Seraph seemed equally nervous and unsure about how to interact with them.
The person they had described somehow seemed like the exact opposite of herself. Arrogant, inscrupulous, powerhungry, opportunistic, hedonistic... and by what she heard even promiscuous. The embodiment of sin, they had mentioned she was called.
Gabriel herself had not thought that she had it in her to be like that under any circumstances. She had always been seen by the people around her as an eptinome of what an Angel should be - innocent, kind hearted, honest, saint-like - by both humans and other Angels.
Even members of the enemy factions, saw her for the most part in a similar way. That didn´t mean that they did not hate her. Most Devils and Fallen had hated her alone out of principle, simply because she was a prominent member of Heaven. But not really on a personal level.
Actually many saw her as something like the spoiled and sheltered princess of Heaven. Someone who was far away from the actual conflicts. Who was never really at the frontlines. And who, despite being naturally powerful, was protected by everyone around her. Potentially dangerous - yes, but naive, out of touch and a non-factor in the greater conflict.
Of course they still reluctantly respected her power somewhat. After all she was a Seraph and had the power of one.
One of the main reasons for that was obviously that she had not really taken part in any fighting since the End of the Great War... and even then she had been more than reluctant to do it.
The idea that she could actually be treated with such an open distrust and malice by anyone was completely unusual to her.
At the same time however, at some level she could not help to also be somehow curious about her evil counterpart.
What exactly had happened that they had become so completely different? Was it simply that her counterpart had become the leader of the Watchers instead of Azazel?
Gabriel remembered how she herself had once been interested to join this group of Angels who descended from Heaven to watch over the humans. It had seemed interesting to her, you could even say somewhat romantical.
But Michael had talked her out of it and convinced her that Azazel was more suited for the role of their leader.
Looking back it was kind of obvious that her brother had just not wanted her to leave Heaven... and him... for such a long time.
Nobody had at that time expected the entire organization to become corrupted and fall. And even less for it to become the second great Schism of Heaven after Lucifer.
Had Michael overprotectiveness unknowingly protected her from the same fate? Gabriel asked herself. If she had actually joined the Watchers in this world, would she had fallen as well? Or was it just that her counterpart had been different from her from the beginning? It was probably impossible to say that for sure now.
Gabriel however made a decision.
"I want to come with you," she said.
"What?" several of the other responded.
"No - that is..." Michael begann.
"Michael - I am a Seraph, just like you," Gabriel said. "And since they are contacting another version of our Faction, it only makes sense that a representative of us should be with them. Or are you saying that I am not qualified for this?" she questioned. "I have been on missions like this before."
"Never on one like this," Michael replied, "and that was a long time ago."
"One reason why I should get myself involved more again," she said.
"You have heard how powerful this enemy is?" he stated.
"It is not like I will have to face him by myself," Gabriel replied.
"You don´t know that for sure."
"It might actually be useful to have her with us," Serena pointed out. "If she could maybe impersonate our Gabriel."
"Are you serious?" Akeno-23 said. "I mean, look at her. She is still a holy Angel. How could anyone mistake her for a Fallen?"
"They have already shown us this method to transform themselves into another species, right?" Fem Vali stated. Of course, the procedure Issei, Irina, Rias, SIrzechs and Grayfia had gone through to make them look like Demons.
"Making a Angel look like a Fallen should not be hard in comparison," she said.
Michael was still all but happy about this idea. But technically they were right.
"If you insist on this, I should go as well," he said.
Gabriel just shook her head.
"As the Leader of Heaven you should not leave during a time of crisis," she replied.
"Gabriel is right in this point," Sirzechs stated. "There is no guaranty that Thenis will not return or another one of this Dark Order Lords. Or the Erebos Demons could invade yet another world while we are in Universe-23. Under these circumstances it is better if all Faction Leaders stay here."
"At least you should not go alone," Michael said a bit quieter.
"I will not be alone," Gabriel responded. "I will have some of the most powerful beings with me."
She looked around at the others.
xxx
They continued to mention more details that they had not known before.
One particular detail was that it seemed that in Universe-23 the two Dragon Gods had no contact with and had not been seen in either the human- or the Underworld in thousands of years.
Well - that also meant that there was no chance that they would have to deal with a Universe-23 version of Ophis, who was leading her Demon worshippers in a quest to defeat Great Red or some other crazy scheme like that. One good thing at least.
xxx
All in all the next two steps for them all at this point were actually quite obvious:
Point One: Make contact with Universe-23´s Heaven Faction and discuss the possibility of an alliance against the Demons and this creature called Darkseid. Which was of course both obvious and remarkable easy, simply alone because three Universe-23 natives who were already allied with them were sitting right here.
and...
Point Two: Find a way to reverse whatever Thenis had done to Kiba´s, Asia´s, Xenovia´s and Murayama´s powers and restore them.
"You will help us to get into contact with your world´s Heaven, right?" Sirzechs asked their guests.
"We will," Female Vali answered, while the other two just nodded. "While we are not truly members of their Faction, the Resistance and them have been allies for many years. They will listen to us."
Well - with that the first part was already done.
At the same time however this was not even the beginning for a solution to the real problem.
Because that problem was something they had not even addressed yet.
Point Three: How to even deal with opponents with that kind of powers they had encountered today? Issei and Sirzechs were the strongest out of their group here and they had still been helpless next to Darkseid.
And again, one possible answer to that question was kind of simply and obvious.
They needed help.
But there was another problem. The Dark Order had broken their Armistice and was once again at open war with the Guardians. By what they were told during the last days dozens of other worlds had been attacked. Darien and the other Senior Guardians were involved in this battles and had so already their hands full with other things.
And of the others they could ask who were powerful enough to actually make a difference? Ophis had just left them behind when they returned, despite knowing the situation. That alone pretty much made it clear that she did not care about it aside from her own interest in Issei.
Not that Ophis was known for caring for anything besides her own interests anyway. Giving her generally untrustworthiness and her actions in the past, they were not sure if they would have even wanted her around.
There was no real guaranty that she wouldn´t change sides if Darkseid made her an offer. Or if their version of Ophis suddenly decided that her worshippers under the Demons could actually be useful to her.
xxx
Shiva on his part had also already made it clear before he left that he would not accompany them to Universe-23 either. He would destroy any threat appearing here in their own world instead.
Given what just had happened today, they could hardly argue with him here.
What Sirzechs had pointed out earlier was true, Thenis or one of her compatriots could return anytime and form another black hole closer to Earth. Or the Erebos Demons could choose their world as their next targets.
So they needed some powerful beings still here, so that they would at least have a chance.
Shiva had however also suggested the idea to ask the Shiva of Universe-23 instead. Only that the Universe-23 Akeno and Vali had told them that the Hindu Gods were already allied with Heaven against the Erebos Empire. So it was kind of a mood point to ask him since he would already be on their side anyway.
They even considered asking Great Red. But the other Dragon God beside Ophis was not known to show much interest in the rest of the world either. Only for slightly different reasons.
Ophis did interfere with the outside world. But only for her own agenda. Her founding of Khaos Brigade being the best - or better said worst - example of it.
While Great Red only minded his own business and staid in the Dimensional Gap. The times when he even interacted with any of the Supernatural Factions were rare.
On the other side, they did not actually had anything to loose by just asking him. The worst he should by their experience realistically do was to simply say no.
So they decided to send someone to the Dimensional Gap to ask Great Red if he was willing to accompany them to their next mission to Universe-23.
No matter how small the chances were that he actually agreed.
xxxxxxx
The next morning
Back in Kuoh Academy, Sirechs, Serafall, Azazel and Michael were still sitting together and discussing details how to deal with more possible attacks on their world.
Gabriel was spending some time with their three Universe-23 guest, talking with them and finding out more about their universes Fallen Angel Faction... and her counterpart in particular.
xxx
Issei and his teammates were back in the mansion, that they had restored by now. Right now most of them were just outside the building... and training.
Irina was having a sword-fight with Kiba and Murayama at the same time. She was not using her Excalibur, but a simple trainings-weapon instead and was not using ki, at least not for offensive moves. Their match had only the purpose to try todraw out any parts of their powers that Kiba and Murayama might still have access to.
Issei meanwhile was with Rias and Raynare. They were doing a special kind of training that only consisted of was Rias in short intervals firing blasts of Destruction Power at him.
Raynare had put it on herself to stand by and watch over them, just as a precaution as she said. It could not hurt to be carefuly.
Even if the level of power Rias used for her blasts right now should normally not be able to actually damage Issei, as long as he even halfway kept his own defense up.
Or maybe it was more his state of mind she was worried about. Did she really belief that he was so down mentally that he would slip up completely or maybe even intentionally let Rias hurt him?
Issei at this point had just stopped another blast of Destruction Power.
"Again," Issei said.
He was convinced, Destruction Energy and Darkseid´s Omega Beams were related to each other. To the point that the later might actually be just a more potent form of the same power.
He stopped another one. But not in the way he had wanted.
So far Issei had four ways to defend himself from Destruction Power - and with that logically also from Omega Energy. (At least he hoped so.)
The first was simply shielding himself.
The second was counter it temporally with an attack on his own and then aim it at the caster, so that he could not longer keep up the attack (which was massively costly since the Destruction Power automatically erased whatever energy or magic he used against it and he needed exponentially more energy than his opponent to overpower or even stall a Destruction Attack.)
The third was to use a telepathic attack on the caster (which was practically impossible against an opponent this powerful.)
And the fourth was to open small rifts in this universe and remove the attack to one or multiple empty parallel dimensions.
But that was not what he wanted. Issei wanted to completely negate it. To completely remove the Destruction Energy from existence.
Issei believed, so his theory, that this could help him to deal with Darkseid´s Omega Beams as well. And maye give them a better chance.
The matter was, how to erase something that existed solely to erase things from existence?
Issei already knew the answer - reality manipulation.
He knew this was also the basic concept of Devil Magic - at least on a low level. You used the magic to alter the world around you to your will. The problem here was that the Destruction Power erased any kind of magic or other power before it could even affect it.
What he needed was high-level reality manipulation - that used Cosmic Power instead of simple magic and mana and was able to manipulate time and space at fundamental level.
But Issei was already using this kind of reality manipulation and he had never much success using it against Destruction Power in the past.
And Darkseid´s Omega Power by what he had seen was worse than the Destruction Power the Baels and Gremories were using.
But Issei knew it was possible. Darien and Spectre had both mentioned it during his training, that all kinds of supernatural powers could be negated, even high-level Destruction Power... and he had heard from their stories that some beings had survived and even Darkseid´s Omega Beams.
So what was he missing? Was there an even higher level of reality-control that he had not even grasped yet? Or was he simply using the powers he had in a wrong way? Was there some key he had simply not found yet?
"Do you really think this will bring something?" Raynare asked him as he blocked another blast of Rias Destruction Power.
"It has to," he said.
xxxxxxx
DxD Universe-23 - the same time
At the same time back in Universe 23, a wounded god was holding his badly damaged side.
He was barely able to keep standing on his own feet.
It was a clash of titans... at least technically. Only that even between Titans, there could be a large difference.
And indeed had the clash between them been intense and terrifying... and not very long.
Like Vali, Akeno and Serena from Universe 23 had said, in their world Shiva and the rest of the Hindu Pantheon were allies of the Heaven Faction against the Erebos Empire. And sadly exactly that made him a major target for the Erebos new `Emperor´.
"You put up a good fight," Darkseid/Devil Hunter Vali said. "The part of me that is Vali Lucifer is actually pleased by this. You are quite impressive, indeed. Even if you had no chance."
Shiva-23 was looking at him defiantly.
"Under different circumstances I would consider giving you an offer to join me," Darkseid/Vali stated. "You are a very powerfull god of Destruction after all. Someone lie you would have fit well into my old Pantheon. But Vali´s knowledge tells me that it would be pointless and you would not accept such an offer anyway."
"You got that right," Shiva responded. "I guess that is now the point where you use that power you call Omega Energy to erase me from existence. Ironic, isn´t it? The God of Destruction, being destroyed himself."
"You know - it is in fact impossible to actually destroy a soul," Darkseid/Vali commented. "That is just a misconception since the beings who fall to Omega or Destruction Energy don´t reach a known Afterlife. In truth the souls are send to a place far outside of this or any other known universe.
So you will not be gone completely... but at least at a place where you can never bother us... - me - again," he declared.
`Us...me.´ It was a short slip-up, but Shiva noticed.
Could it be that this nearly impossibly powerful and obviously malevolent being was actually mentally unstable? If that was the case then even he, the God of Destruction, was afraid of the future.
This were the last thoughts that went through the mind of the already defeated god, before he was hit by multiple Omega Beams that broke his last defenses and erased him from existence.
Darkseid/Vali/(Emperor Dagon?) was standing there, looking at the spot where Shiva had been a moment before.
It was like a storm was raging inside his mind. A few seconds later he calmed himself again.
A few moments later the Devil Hunters Kuroka and Koneko and the Universe-23 Fallen Angel version of Gabriel appeared behind him out of a transport-circle.
They were looking at their lover/master, they as well were not entirely sure how much of the men they knew was still left... and then at the spot where the most powerful god of their world had just died.
And they were overcome by a mixture of awe and fear.
The part mentioned about the idea of the souls that are said to disappear in DxD canon actually just moving on to a different place is my reinterpretation rearding this matter for my stories. Since they plays in a vaste Multiverse, it would make sense.
The connection between DxD´s Destruction Power and DC´s Omega Beams - well they are obviously the same basic concept. Just like Dragon Ball´s Destruction Power. All the same basic concept. Of course that is my personal interpretation.