"I'm glad to see you're in good health, Rias." Issei said with a grin as he observed the wheelchair bound Devil. She smiled in return, staring up at the human in front of her.
"We Devils have the ability to do anything, you know?"
"Really? I'm not trying to be mean, but if you Devils had the ability to do anything, you'd be walking, wouldn't you?" A shadow fell over Rias' face at Issei's words, forcing the human boy to sigh as he held a hand to his face, muttering a short apology that fell on deaf ears.
"That's the only thing we can't do, actually…well, under any normal circumstances, it'd be possible to fix me, but…" Rias stopped short and sighed, throwing her back to stare up at the ceiling as Issei leaned on the desk behind him, his arms crossed.
"What exactly happened to you?" Rias grimaced, swinging her head back to its upright position.
"Well, someone that looked like you but wasn't you managed to break into the Rating Game between me and a guy called Raiser. He killed Raiser by decapitating him and he shoved a hand through my midsection and spine…" A look of understanding fell on Issei's face as Rias offered him a weak but reassuring smile.
"Then…why are you unable to walk?" Rias sighed and ran a hand down her face.
"For some reason the ability to apply magic to that section of my body has been blocked and restricted. That guy probably did it and we don't know how to remove it."
"Ah, it must be a seal, right?" Rias tilted her head to the side in confusion before she lit up like a Christmas tree.
"How did we not think of that!?" She shouted, her hope rising with no sign of stopping. However, Issei crushed her dreams and expectations with a single sentence.
"If it's restricting magic like that it's an extremely advanced seal."
"So…no hope for me, huh?" Issei slowly shook his head as he clicked his tongue, pushing himself off of the desk as he stood closer to Rias.
"That's no way the heir of the Gremory clan should act like that, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"Who do you think you're looking at, Rias?" Rias furrowed her brow in confusion as she frowned.
"I'm looking at you, Issei…?"
"Correct! I am only the bestest, most qualified person to solve this problem, you pitiful Cherry Trap." Ignoring what she had been called, Rias was beaming. She grabbed Issei by the sleeve and forcefully pulled him down to her level, a yelp of surprise coming from the human boy.
"Will you fix me, then?" Issei reclaimed his arm by yanking it out of Rias' grasp.
"You didn't ask nicely."
"Ah, in that case…Pleeaaasseee?" Rias drawled with the best puppy eyes she could muster, willing to beg Issei to solve her crippling problem if she had to.
"Fine, but only when we…" Issei turned his head and stared at Raynare's body, sensing something… impure coming from it. He hesitantly stepped away from it, unsure as to what was happening, Rias watching on in confusion, until a burst of energy erupted throughout the room.
As quickly as the energy had arrived, it had disappeared, Issei still staring at Raynare's body with a frown as he heard the sounds of a few heavy weights hitting the floor. Realizing what was happening, the human body turned his head to see the state of Rias and saw that she was happily slumped over in her wheelchair, fast asleep, just like the other Devils in the room.
"Now that all of the key players are gathered in the one room, I shall make my move." Faster than Issei could see, Rias was simply gone, only her chair remaining where it sat. He turned to the side, noticing the dark swirl in the centre of the room and frowned as he saw the retreating form of…himself.
"What the? Who are you?!" Issei shouted, stepping towards the figure of himself as they stopped short of the portal, Rias slung over their shoulder. They slowly spun their head around, their neck almost twisting a full one hundred and eighty degrees, and frowned, a short sigh escaping their lips.
"Me?" Issei, with as much speed as he could muster, lunged towards the figure with the intent to stop him. However, a strike to the solar plexus made Issei keel over with a gasp. The figure, although it seemed as if they hadn't moved, was shaking their fist with a wince, turning their whole body towards Issei while muttering something to themselves. "You're not very fast, but you're pretty durable. You should have exploded with that hit, but all you did was bend over a little. How disappointing. You could have vomited up blood or something, you know?"
Issei ignored the pain that was spreading throughout his body and straightened his back, standing eye to eye with the figure.
Their red eyes, ashen skin and the dark bags under their eyes…
"Who the hell are you?" The figure tried to force a polite smile onto their face, the weird combination of lip and teeth forming something more grotesque than a simple smile, and offered a short bow.
"My name is Issei Hyoudou and I've come to fuck your shit up."
My mind was a mess.
It was quiet, but it was full of various thoughts that wouldn't leave me alone. I could only ponder as to why they wouldn't leave me alone. Although they were about my violent past, something I had come to terms with long ago, they would not leave the space that I deemed to be sacred.
My eyes snapped open and my body moved on its own as it rolled to the side, a thin, slender spear stabbing the floor where I lay seconds ago as I dived into the depths of my somewhat twisted mind. I immediately jumped to my feet, realising there was a threat in the room, and assumed a stance, one leg sliding back while I raised my fists with a sharp exhale.
My exaggerated movements turned out to be a waste of my time, though, as the fight in front of me was something I was not able to see. Sure, there was the occasional splatter of blood and the flutter of sparks, but I couldn't see anything.
I twisted my head to the side as a thick, heavy looking sword soared through the air at a speed that was barely visible to me, the blade smashing through the hard, marble wall with ease. From there it continued its predicted trajectory, seemingly unstoppable as it continued to break through many walls before it reached the outside world, embedding itself in the cobblestone road up to the hilt.
I stared at it in shock for a few moments, contemplating as to whether I should escape or not. But, recognising my duty as a Satan, all I could do was stand my ground and watch as the two invisible forces clashed in the room.
I mean, I could destroy the human nation of Japan many times over with my power which means I'm extremely powerful. But seeing two things clash at a speed that was invisible to me meant they were extremely powerful, more so than I was, meaning I shouldn't get involved in their battle lest I die for no reason.
I grit my teeth as the only thing I could do was watch and protect those that were still unconscious. I glanced at the bodies of my fellow Devils with a grimace, but I felt as if there was someone missing…
"Rias!?" I shouted out as the realisation hit me faster than I could think, my eyes shooting to the empty wheelchair in an instant. My mind was racing, panic shooting through me, until one of the two blurs was in front of me, a blade sticking through their chest.
"The enemy has Rias in another location." They said as they yanked the blade out of their chest, tossing it to the side as blood began to gush out of his body.
"A-are you okay?" I hesitantly asked as, with the back of his hand, he wiped a few splotches of blood off of his face. He glanced back at me, offering me a quick thumbs up, and was gone, the sparks and splatters of blood resuming as random weapons were thrown around the room.
"If you're awake, make yourself useful, Leviathan!" Issei shouted as soon as he disappeared. I, however, was confused as to what I was supposed to do. I couldn't see what was happening, so how was I supposed to fight?
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Your water!" He shouted, his form briefly appearing as a flicker as he caught a giant broadsword with his bare hands. "Just flood the room!"
"What about the others? They're unconscious!" I could hear his grunt of pain from where I stood as blood exploded all over the west wall.
"Just do it!" I bit my lip as the two figures stopped in the centre of the room, one of them grappling the other while bleeding out of a giant gash in their side.
"Fine!" I stretched my arms out and focused all of my power into a huge magical circle that appeared above the two of them, the one being pinned grunting as he struggled to push Issei off of him. I closed my eyes, losing sight of the world around me, and released a sharp breath as water poured out of the circle at an unbelievable rate, the two figures being crushed under the flow of the water.
But where was Rias?
Panic filled my mind as I tried to stop my magic, desperately searching the room in an attempt to find her.
The water that poured forth from the circle slowly decreased in volume as I stopped caring about the magic. "Where are you, Rias?" I shouted out as I began to trudged through the knee-high water, my fellow Devils and that Fallen Angel safely floating on their backs as I ignored all logical thought and reason.
A head stuck itself out of the water as they gasped, their body instantly falling face first into the water as a sword stuck itself through their skull. "God dammit, Serafall, he's threw Rias into a portal! I told you that, so why did you stop the water!?"
I cursed as I was unsure of my own reasoning and watched as the second figure slowly rose out of the water as if he was undead, his torso being pulled up by an invisible string. They swung their body forward, a small laugh escaping their lips, and let their eyes meet mine.
An indescribable fear filled my heart at that moment, driving me to the brinks of despair as the seemingly glowing crimson peered out at me through the gaps of the wet, brown hair. They stepped toward me, their gait slow and heavy, as they chuckled to themselves, their laugh a raspy, demented echo that sounds as if it hasn't been played in a couple of decades.
"You…" His voice was as cold as the empty vacuum of space, his words soft but hard at the same time. "You fucking Devil…" I instinctively stepped back as he approached me as I attempted to create distance between us. "How dare you hurt me like that. It's really painful, you know?"
As fast I could think, his face was inches away from mine, his hand squeezing my throat. I naturally struggled in his grip, my hands clawing at the arm that was slowly lifting me into the air. My legs flailed about, sometimes kicking him in various places and sometimes not.
Despite my attempts to free myself, I knew that my death was inevitable.
I, Serafall Leviathan, the former heir of the Sitri clan, am going to die at the hands of Issei Hyoudou.
I was dropped to the floor as a long blade cut through this Issei's bone as if it was nothing. The Issei stared down at his stumps, sighing as he did so, and bent his body back to avoid a decapitating blow.
"Surprise attacks always work, huh?" He muttered to himself as he casually backed away from the Issei with the sword, seemingly tripping over as he fell back into a black swirl that appeared on the surface of the water.
As soon as he disappeared, the room was silent bar my coughs and gasps for air.
Issei tossed the sword he was holding to the side and slowly fell onto the bloody water, floating on his back as he stared up at the sky. He folded his arms over his chest as I rubbed my neck with a hand, his brow furrowing.
"God dammit!" With that scream, he punched the entire west wall out of existence, his breath heavy as his knuckles bled.
All of the water drained out of the room through the hole in the wall as I watched Issei, half afraid of what he would do in his fit of rage.
"That motherfucker wasn't even trying!"
There goes the east wall.
"…Fuck this shit. I'm leaving."
And, with a grumble, his rage having been extinguished by something much stronger than anger, he collected the Fallen Angel in his arms and stormed out of the room, a dark shadow hanging over his face as kicked at anything that got his way.
That included the poor, innocent door, by the way, and watching the majestic piece of wood explode into many shards brought tears to my eyes.
This chapter came out in a timely manner, did it not? That's a good thing, though! Anyway, in this chapter, you were introduced to the main villain. His name is Issei Hyoudou! Huh? Issei Hyoudou? Isn't he also the protagonist of this story? Well, remember how there are infinite universes? Yeah, that explains everything…
Thank you for reading World's End!
Also, I feel as if this chapter seems somewhat rushed and…weird in a way. Is it the wording? Pacing? Lately, I've been finding it hard to express my thoughts in a coherent worded form so I had to edit this somewhat when going over it, so that may be it.