This chapter took quite a while because it was… busy. So busy.
Seated on top of a slightly tilted pillar, Kuroka bounced one leg, idly letting her sandal flap about.
In the distance high above, there were armies going at it, the forces of the Three Faction something-or-other making a dedicated effort to put the Old Satan Faction back in the history books where they belonged.
And good riddance too- Shirone was serving the sister of the 'false Lucifer', meaning that the Old Satan Faction hated her on principle.
Of course, it's not like Kuroka knew a thing about fighting in formation, much less flying formations fighting across islands floating in the sky (were Devils too good for regular islands?), so she had mostly ended up being delegated to picking off strays.
… Other strays… no wait, was she herself really a stray? She had a home and three square meals, and she even worked for her dinner by doing things like this.
"Nyaa, I'm practically a working class woman~" Kuroka purred with a faint sense of wonder. "Ain't that something, nyaa~?"
"How amusing, the beast speaks like it's a person." Kuroka's ear twitched as someone spoke from beneath her.
… She was pretty sure it was one of those 'scouting parties', who must have been feeling bored since there was no scouting to do when everyone knew where everyone else was.
Kuroka hopped off the pillar, deftly clearing the heads of the small group of black-armored Devils.
One of them got the attention of the Devil she assumed was the boss (she was judging by how well practiced the aura of snootiness seemed).
"Captain, I recognize that one. That's the Nekoshou, the one with the bounty."
"Ah yes, I've heard of that one… it had quite the reputation did it not?" The boss Devil enquired mildly.
"Biting the hand that feeds, slaying one of her betters and then fleeing into the night, leaving her own flesh and blood at the mercy of the false Satans." The other Devil sneered. "She was somewhat known among the Khaos Faction, as the Lucifer heir held her leash for a time."
"And yet here she is, serving his enemies… well, I supposed there is only so much loyalty one can expect from a lowly stray." The captain shook his head with a large, exaggerated shrug as his minions chuckled with him. "Though, perhaps it may be worthwhile to collect both? Beasts or not, they are rare enough to qualify as exotic pets."
"Too true, Captain, perhaps if you feed this one it will follow you home? Seemed to work just fine for the younger one."
The Devils laughed, and the Nekoshou laughed with them.
Their laughter died when the Nekoshou's laughter trailed off into a snarl, and the air around them snarled with her.
Like moonbeams dividing the darkness, thin streaks of snow-white traced their way down the deep black of her hair, and across her feline ears and tails.
Smiling golden eyes widened as thin pupils narrowed almost to vanishing.
Smoothly, she slid back and then bent forward sharply at the waist, a posture that would have been scandalous with the plunging neckline of her attire, had their gazes not been fixated on that beautiful, snarling visage. Long nails dug into stone as she pressed her hands to the ground, splaying her fingers out as she stretched out her body in a sensual imitation of a predator's crouch.
It was a mesmerizing display of malevolent, bestial grace- captivating helpless prey until it was far, far too late.
And then she was gone- a ruthless flash of white-streaked midnight swept through them and away, scraping off the ground once and spiralling its way up the pillar, where it once more became a young woman.
Daintily crossing her bare legs, Kuroka reclined with her beautiful figure displayed in profile, her golden gaze melancholy and distant.
"You Devils have a talent for pushing buttons, don't you? As if I'd let anyone treat my Shirone as a pet." It was little more than a shuddering, bitter whisper, blending in with the distant din of battle. "You know... you really, really should have kept your mouths shut."
The Captain went to reply, a sneer on his lips, when he saw it, when they all saw it, and their last words died away.
… It was such a beautiful color.
Dripping from her elegant fingernails.
Oozing down the supple white curves of her long legs.
Smeared across the plump, pale expanse of her bosom.
And liberally splattered across a face so lovely that not even wide-eyed, malicious insanity could mar its perfection.
"I mean, didn't anyone ever warn you?" She tonelessly questioned. "...Cats can be cruel."
… Vivid spurts of that beautiful color, of that beautiful red erupted from the seams and rivets of dark armor. It filled the air like the thick juices of a too-ripe fruit, crushed in an unseen fist.
And long, long after the last of the screams had gurgled away, the decadent laughter of a beautiful beast was echoing still.
… They caught it in brief flashes of motion and strangely distant noise, from the last place they'd seen Yuuji.
From within the mist came the clashing of steel… the rumble of engines… the thundering of hooves, and the roar of gunfire.
Furious shouts and agonized screams… blood spraying and bodies falling.
Lingering echoes as if from afar- the brutal cacophony of some terrible, unseen battle.
Underscored by a dull, garbled murmur of hundreds of overlapping voices.
Voices not just from the mist, but from everywhere around them.
"Buchou, maybe we should fall back." … Someone said.
And the moment that those words were uttered aloud, the choice was stolen from the speaker, and from everyone else, from friend and foe alike.
Like a terrible storm that smothers the blue sky, the mist consumed everything in a single breath. And it was in that awful moment that the murmuring voices started making sense.
… It was in no way an improvement, because suddenly, each and every one of them found themselves completely, utterly alone.
Moving through the wreckage where only dead things dwelt.
"A pitiful thing that always remembers." A soft, sad voice whispered to Rias as she found herself on a high hill swaddled in haze.
Something snarled in Musashi's ear as she tread over scarred earth. "A wretched thing that never forgets."
"Such is the fate of the strongest, and the most tragic of us all." Xenovia heard, the source of the noise slowly passing her by, echoing strangely through the ruins of shattered, rotting chariots.
When Gasper heard it, it sounded more like a sob, somewhere out there in the gloom and the grey. "Whispering our dying curses… screaming our unanswered prayers."
"The monster we made is stirring." The Angel in the trenches was thus informed.
Quiet voices eagerly proclaimed to Akeno. "The monster that made us is calling."
After a moment of silence, it asked each and every one of them just one question.
"Can you hear it… even now?"
When IT made itself heard, it was as if the whispers of before were a soothing melody.
-Within this cage of rust and bone-
It shrieked like nails on a chalkboard and rasped like the choking breath of a dying man.
-A thousand sons who will never go home-
Shattering the solemn tension with a brutish curse made lyrical.
-Whisper… scream… fall apart-
… She had remembered it keenly, each time the Soldier had emerged.
-Hope that's smothered, deep in the dark-
It was the merciless iron of a blood rusted executioner.
-Crawl and struggle… beg and plead-
It was the tired metal of their restless protector who discarded even a name.
-No glory left when honor bleeds-
Tattered dignity and tired devotion buried and bound in a battered metal cage.
-This mocking corpse will be your guide-
But not anymore.
-Death of victory, grave of pride-
Weathered and rusted, the prison fell apart.
-O' rotting iron our bloodsoaked tonic-
And released into the world nothing that could be called Soldier.
-Proclaim us Ghoul… [Ghoul Mnemonic]-
When it rose on two legs the mist surrounding it vanished once more, as if to flee its presence.
There was no sign of Shalba and his peerage- they had been left all alone with a thing that resembled a man in shape.
And only in shape.
The hunched over figure swayed suddenly, violently, bending over backwards to leer at them upside down.
The first thing to greet them was a manic grin, carved out of its iron visage like a cruel scar. Metal straps bound its skull at odd angles, interweaving with limp dark hair- jagged, mismatched rents in the iron to serve as eyes, leaking wisps of smoke that wriggled like dying serpents.
Its slim form was composed entirely of strapped together blades and ragged rusted rags, all bound together to form a shabby mockery of the human shape. Like a scarecrow of sorts, cobbled together from the detritus of a long forgotten battlefield.
Brought to life as a jagged-bodied carnivore, with blades for bones and barbed wire for a smile.
And so understandably, no one could possibly be prepared for something else to seize their attention.
Faraway from the whimsical menace of the Ghoul, this was something more primal, more visceral. Something that stirred deep instinct, something that latched onto their fight or flight instinct and forbid them from moving a muscle.
It was a low, resonant snarl that shook bones and rattled hearts as it proclaimed the fury of a beast.
"...R-Ruth?"
Crimson eyes like blood set ablaze. Bared fangs like moonlight sharpened to a killing edge.
Prowling through their huddled ranks like smoke and shadow.
{"I… warned… you…!"} Akeno wasn't the only one to feel a little ashamed at how relieved she felt not to have that ferocious rage aimed towards her. {"You wretched… patchwork... specters! I WARNED YOU!"}
It had mystified scholars of the supernatural and esoteric for thousands of years- from the Angels on high to the Devils that embraced the dark, each and every one of them, buried somewhere deep and primitive…
Each and every living thing instinctively understood the atavistic terror that came from being prey in the presence of a predator.
{"Akeno."} It was a cold voice, and the dissonance left her feeling ready to faint.
{"Don't get any closer, but... Be ready."} The anger leaked through once more- a growl that was felt as much as heard. {"I'll keep the dead from dragging him into the dark, but you need to be the light that finds him when he stumbles out."}
"... Eh? R-Ruth, what do you-"
But Ruth wasn't there to answer. Ruth had slipped into the thin shadows on the ground, left where gunmetal smoke coiled around pillars of stone. Clutching at her pounding heart, Akeno took a deep breath, and turned her gaze once more to the ruined field.
Lingering oh so naturally on the empty space Yuuji had occupied mere seconds ago.
This time, it was more of a sigh.
"Who knew Yuuji was so selfish?" She complained. "The man I love has finally stopped holding back, and he won't even let me watch."
As if her words were a prophecy, from deep within the temple of nothing sacred…
Someone screamed.
In a mocking imitation of the deceased Diodora's earlier trick, Shalba and his peerage had been scattered throughout the temple.
Scattered and then hunted.
… As it lifted the thing in its talons up to its face, it crushed it within its fist, sending droplets of liquid everywhere. Tilting its head this way and that, looking every bit as engaged as a young boy playing in a mud puddle.
… Where the difference began was that the thing in the Ghoul's hand was an angry, steaming red that it had found in the throat of the gurgling, kneeling Devil it was perched atop, like some demented metal bird.
There was a creak of metal as the Ghoul's scar of a smile widened, it's head twitching strangely as it shuddered.
It leapt suddenly, slipping free from a net of dark steel as the Knights of Shalba Beelzebub assaulted it from either side.
They crossed back again, and as it ducked one pair of blades, the other struck home, yellow sparks and red blood dancing in the air as the Knight swept on by.
The Knight that had landed a blow on the Ghoul went tumbling end over end into a ruinous heap of limbs.
A ruinous heap of three limbs, for the Ghoul had kept the other.
… The way it snickered was strangely mundane as it lobbed the important parts of a man's leg into the air, to land at his counterpart's feet.
She shrieked and recoiled, well-honed instinct sending a burning arc of darkness lashing forth from her blade as she stumbled back.
The Ghoul slipped beneath the reflexive attack with a hideous creak of metal limbs, and nearly gutted her with the crude weapon in its claws. It was a ruined, heavy weapon- a two-handed sword that still remained bulky and imposing with less than half a blade remaining.
The white-faced Devil recovered and met its lunge with her own, standing her ground all alone against that aberration with the slasher smile.
Her sword dance was beautiful as it was frantic, the wielding of a weapon elevated into an art form. As fleeting as the last flower of summer, petals scattered by the dry howl of autumn.
The Ghoul trampled down that beautiful last dance with a sword honed by a thousand unblessed talents, and hammered her face in with the iron pommel of resentment running wild.
It left the sword embedded hilt first into the ruins of a once beautiful thing, and traipsed off into the temple trailing gore and glee.
A man with dark empty eyes gazed up at the dingy old apartment with a muffled air of resignation, hauling himself up the stairs like they were mountains.
When he knocked at the door, he found himself looking down as it opened, meeting the gaze of a little boy with dark empty eyes.
The meek woman was next, the one who always looked like she was about to flinch.
He told her that it was a routine plumbing check, the one the landlord had mentioned earlier in the month.
She didn't seem to believe him, but he was dressed for the part and the last thing she was willing to do was argue.
With a polite smile, the man idly commented that it was a nice day to take a kid to the park.
He had nothing but good memories of that park.
It couldn't be helped that they thought of it. Even if what echoed through the halls sounded more like a horror show than a battle, it didn't change the fact that he was somewhere in there, once again fighting all alone.
But the moment thought began to shift towards action, there was a hideous din as something sprouted from the stone like a crude portcullis. Spears and skewers and polearms of every shape, all forged of a single, solid piece of lifeless metal.
Naturally, they had no way to know that elsewhere in the temple, a still living thing was being hung from a similar structure, piece by screaming piece.
It was flimsy, as far as barricades went, barring the hallways but little else. Breaking through it was easy but even that much was unnecessary- the open structure of the temple meant they could simply fly around, if they wished.
But no one thought to try, because Akeno must have realized the exact same thing, and she hadn't taken so much as a single step.
To an outsider, it would have probably looked like the gates of Hell had poured open- battlefields from every time and every place on the globe being overrun by howling, rampaging figures that couldn't seem to decide if they were mist or metal.
But in reality, it shouldn't have been that strange- Shouts were meek and friendly little guys most of the time -rage, rage now-, always so eager to please that it was easy to forget their true nature.
Shouts were what you got when only the 'loudest' emotions of an Arsenal Spirit remained, as opposed to Echoes like himself and Lamb who still 'echoed' what being a person was like.
But right now, the Shouts were running wild like kids on a sugar high, and the Echoes -scream, scream loud!- couldn't keep the little guys corralled when there was one of them for every hundred Shouts.
Juno agreed with Lamb- all that noise was gonna drive the poor kid nuts.
They needed to find the Box, maybe Issei could, he was a kid too… or not.
Not just Issei, but Viking, Geezer and Blondie too- he and Lamb were the only ones still sane… -rampage, be free!-... and it was a near thing.
Suddenly Lamb took it upon herself to provide a distraction by leaping into his arms with eyes wide and fluffy ears atremble.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….
Countless spirits of the restless and raging dead, rendered silent -save us, run away!- in an instant as the fangs in the dark gave their ire voice.
… It was said that the dead did not fear the living, but that was a statement borne from the ignorance of the living, too.
Every dead thing feared the Hound of the Threshold, and how could they not?
To the dead, the Grim was an absolute existence that could never be defied.
A dozen spiked tendrils plunged down again and again, perforating the Pawn's back as she screamed and tried to crawl away.
The Rook charging to the rescue got a corpse to the face for his trouble, and in the moment when his vision was blocked, the Ghoul slipped from sight, a grating howl echoing strangely off stone walls.
It gave him enough time to realize just how sharp the wires wrapped around all four of his limbs were… and then it planted a foot in the small of his back and began to pull.
Honestly, it was a bit worrying that the woman with frightened eyes had meekly allowed herself to be herded out of the house like that.
It was a little unfair that she had kept glancing over her shoulder- not with suspicion but with a look that said she was certain he was familiar from somewhere but was too timid to just say so.
Seating himself down at the cheap wooden table, Yuuji made himself comfortable and waited, glancing at the clock.
Shouldn't be long now- he was pretty sure it had been the middle of the day when everything all fell apart.
The Grim loomed from the darkness with fury blazing red in its burning eyes.
{"Yuuji needs all the help he can get,"} it rumbled, {"And I was willing to let you be a part of that help as long as your dead dreams didn't spill over to the waking world."}
Juno gulped and Lamb trembled as those crimson flames vanished briefly, a sigh like a midnight gale escaping from its massive jaws.
{"Perhaps I was mistaken, and dead things should stay dead."}
"Now hold on, I don't think you're the only one getting all worked over for the wrong thing." An entirely out of place and entirely too cheerful voice cut in as a figure sauntered out of the hungry darkness.
The great head swiveled, and those flickering orbs widened in surprise.
{"...You!?"}
"Me!" The woman pointed at herself with her thumb, a cheeky grin on her lips that the Grim found nostalgic for a reason it couldn't quite place.
It had always been his secret pleasure to use his great strength of his on those weaker and lesser.
To twist and pull them apart, to leave them in a state where they could only gibber and slobber out their desperate pleas that he would eventually deny, when the mood struck him.
No one beyond his kin and servants knew of that basement room where he indulged his decadent little whims.
Or so he thought.
But the Ghoul knew… the Ghoul always knew.
Which was why the last Rook of Shalba Beelzebub spent his final moments witnessing a merry abomination painting the walls with every color meant to hide beneath the skin.
His skin, to be more precise.
It took a special kind of drunk to fall up the stairs so loudly, Yuuji felt.
It also took a special kind of drunk to be in that state by noon, Yuuji felt.
The man who kicked open the door and nearly fell on his face for it was all that and not much else.
Unfortunately for Yuuji, the man was also someone he used to know.
Unfortunately for the man, Yuuji was also someone he used to know.
Only one of them was aware of that, though, but Yuuji wasn't in any hurry to ruin the surprise.
And so instead, Kazami Yuuji smiled like a cat with a canary, and poured his father a drink.
It was her pride as Queen to never allow their enemies to reach her King, a self-imposed duty she embraced with the honor and dignity befitting the Queen of the true Beelzebub.
And so she waited in silence, seated upon the cold stone floor of the final sanctum as the echoing screams faded one by one.
She would honor their sacrifice by denying that wretched pawn of traitorous blood even one step further.
Such was her duty and her pride, both as a woman and a Queen.
She would not allow that twisted metal nightmare to cast its hideous shadow at the feet of the man she revered above all else.
But the Ghoul dragging a bloody axe across the walls as it advanced had no interest in honor, nor in pride. Dignity was worthless and glory was something better left to rot.
But duty and sacrifice it knew all too well, and so it did its duty to savor her cries as the final sacrifice screamed her final scream.
Yuuji emerged from the door and walked slowly down the stairs with the bottle clenched tight in his fist.
… He didn't really understand it, but he hadn't been able to put the bottle down, and so he'd brought it with him, the empty bottle dripping onto the ground with every step.
As he stepped from the staircase, the woman was there and the boy was gone, just like he should have been, and though her legs were shaking, she still managed to look him square in the eye.
There was a first time for everything, he supposed.
"Uhm… are you alright, young man?" … A first time for everything, and always time for at least one more surprise.
He gave the bottle a meaningful little shake and looked at her with one eyebrow raised.
"Am I really the one you should be worrying about?"
The woman flushed slightly and fidgeted, one hand nervously twisting the pleats of her skirt.
"W-well m-maybe not, but…"
"... Yeah, I'm fine." It was difficult to say that while looking at her.
"You don't look fine though." She mumbled in half-hearted protest, suddenly much closer than she had been before.
Pursing her lips with a small frown, she lifted her hand to his face, and brushed something away from beneath his eye.
The thumb came away wet and smeared red, and Yuuji caught her hand, still not looking at her.
"You're going to make this harder than it needs to be." He murmured.
"Am I? I'm very sorry, young man, it's just… I could have sworn we've met somewhere before."
"No, you must be mistaking me for someone else. You and I have never met." It wasn't entirely a lie- she'd never met the Devil named Kazami Yuuji.
"O-oh, I see…" She whispered, retracting her hand but not stepping away.
Carefully, Yuuji went around her.
There was only one thing left to do-
"Actually, it's more like you remind me of someone." The woman said suddenly, without turning back. "Someone who needs to know that no matter what…"
His feet had stopped. Why had his feet stopped?
"Even if she was never very good at being his mother, she still felt blessed with the chance."
… Dammit. She never did make things easy.
"... If I meet the guy you're talking about, I'll be sure to tell him." He didn't turn back, either.
"Now get going, Kazami Satoko. You don't belong in a dreary place like this…"
There was a quiet little gasp, and then nothing.
The dream crumbled around him, never to return, and still, Kazami Yuuji did not turn back.
The Ghoul emerged from the temple and out into the courtyard with its scar of a smile stretched wide, blood and rust leaking from its eyes.
"See?" She smiled wistfully. "Yuuji needs this, even if he doesn't know it."
"What do you mean?" Lamb softly asked, glad that the Hound had calmed somewhat but still keeping Juno between her and him.
"It's not natural, y'know? Killing is supposed to mean something." Even for the animals, when killing meant nothing more and nothing less than survival.
{"... And what does it mean for Yuuji, then?"}
"Nothing, that's the problem." She told them. "I should know, because I'm the only one who ever convinced him otherwise. He feels nothing at all, but he knows he should."
The 'safety pin' that 'she' had put in his head was a subconscious suggestion that associated 'killing' with 'nausea'. When Yuuji took the life of another, Yuuji would end up feeling sick to his stomach.
Nothing more, and nothing less.
The 'guilt' involved was a lie he'd come up with, and that she'd let him convince himself of, all on his own.
Kazami Yuuji had never once felt any real emotion from taking the life of another.
Not a single time in his life, and so the Ghoul had arisen because Yuuji needed to feel this.
It was a pitiful thing that always remembers.
A wretched thing that never forgets.
It couldn't grant salvation to Yuuji, nor any of the rest of the forsaken dead.
Because the Ghoul had never once witnessed forgiveness, and it wouldn't recognize such a thing even if it did.
Ghoul Mnemonic was the grudge incarnate, the vicious laughter ringing in the wake of blood-splattered catharsis.
All it could do was grin and cackle as they carved Yuuji's scars into the skin of his enemies.
All it could do was hope that when he could see his pain in their eyes, he might recognize it for what it truly was.
"That's it Yuuji, go wild." 'Kusakabi Asako' urged softly in the dark. "Scream and shout and cry yourself hoarse. Be as pitiful and uncool as you'd like, because there's no one in all the world who can tell you how to hurt."
There was a jarring shriek of metal as the grinning metal monster used one claw to draw crude patterns on its face, treating the blood of his peerage like cheap face paint.
"I suppose this just proves which one of us is the villain in this game, does it not?" Shalba commented idly, seated gracefully on a stone bench.
Chasm eyes seemed to widen ever so slightly in a parody of innocence as the Ghoul pointed to itself with one gory metal finger.
Shalba had awaited his foe at the back of the temple, where, overlooking a cliff with nothing at all below, was a garden of sorts where the only green growing things on all the island could be found.
It was a shame to have lost his peerage so early, but to have them all fall to a single lowborn beast was a suitable punishment for attempting to deceive his discerning eye. Naturally, it was for the best that they die somewhere out of sight, so that their households would not be shamed by their incompetence.
After all, no true sons and daughters of Hell would fall to a mere effigy cobbled together from refuse, such as the thing that stood before him.
Shalba could only hope that it would regain its true form once slain, so that he could cast its severed head at that traitor's feet.
"But I suppose there's no need to be hasty." Shalba lifted his hand and pointed a finger in a careless gesture- a narrow flash of light saw the Ghoul's arm clattering to the ground, seared from its shoulder without fanfare.
Another casual motion, and the Ghoul lost its other arm.
Trembling, the beast fell to its knees, head bowed.
"Wonders never cease, even a puppet can learn its rightful place in the world." Shalba drawled, just the hint of a sneer on his fine-featured face.
The third shot took another limb, and this time, blood sprayed high, a few red droplets even splattering across his face.
… Somehow, the Ghoul managed to grin past the smoking gun barrel in its open jaws.
The pain registered shortly after Shalba noticed how familiar in appearance the dark, insectoid gauntlet of that newest fallen limb was.
Shalba screamed, but the sound was cut short when the Ghoul took him off his feet with a backhand slap, toppling him over the bench.
Spitting blood, the Devil tried to awkwardly crawl away, but his tormentor used its newest set of arms to hoist him bodily off the ground, hurling him towards a pillar like a sack of potatoes.
There was no impact, though- Shalba's body broke apart into a buzzing swarm of spectral flies that flowed around the pillar and disappeared behind it.
Reappearing in the air above the pillar with wings extended, Shalba let loose a quick volley of searing light from the gleaming gemstone inlaid in his remaining gauntlet, the stump of his other arm sealed with magic.
The Ghoul whirled away from the blasts with a paper thin margin of error and smoothly spun back to face Shalba with a boorish looking cannon in its hands that sent clunky cylinders arcing into the air after the Devil.
Shalba dodged them with the same minimal movements, letting them pass by with almost no space to spare.
Arguably a greater feat of dexterity, given that he was airborne.
… And a feat he would have known was a horrible idea, if he had even a passing familiarity with modern human weaponry.
The grenades from the grenade launcher did what grenades tended to do, and a smoking body tumbled to the ground with the ashes of his wings marking his short plummet.
Bleeding and bewildered, Shalba Beelzebub scrambled back up to his hands and knees to find the bound and bloodstained visage of the Ghoul, inches from his own.
Shalba fell back with a scream, fumbling through the dirt to escape, and the crouching Ghoul followed the motion with only its chasm eyes.
His last nerve broke, and Shalba twisted on to his hand and knees, crawling madly for a few paces before dissolving once more into that eldritch swarm of buzzing insects.
As he took off into the air in a blind retreat, the Ghoul rose slowly to its feet with a low creak of metal, but made no move to follow.
Once more, that scar of a smile widened.
Two dark masses erupted from its back, extending and stretching out like great, misshapen wings, as if the Ghoul was readying itself to lift into the air in pursuit.
Perhaps Shalba had looked back, because the transformation faltered as his concentration wavered. Different from the wings of a Devil, a multitude of translucent black insect wings emerged from his armor, keeping his retreat on a steady course.
And still the Ghoul made no move to follow, for what emerged from it's back were not wings.
They were two great bundles of spindly metal limbs.
Limbs that twisted and swelled at the ends.
… Into guns all pointed in a single direction.
A hodgepodge assortment of firearms glinting with lethal promise- thin barrels of pistols alongside boorish cannons, stumpy launchers and long, sleek rifles.
Standing there tall and proud, unhindered by what surely must have been a great weight, the Ghoul gazed up at him with gruesome delight glinting off every jagged edge of its body, and let loose a grating, strangely lyrical hiss.
["Ba~list~o~pho~bi~aaaaaa~!"]
Shalba's eyes widened.
The Ghoul lifted one hand, and slowly drew its thumb across its neck.
Even when the mismatched roar of the patchwork artillery shook the burning sky itself, it still couldn't quite silence the maddened cackling of the Ghoul.
Sky… crushing… crushing… hurts…
Tired… hurts… Why… why?
"Oi… take… there."
Protect? … hurt?
"Isn't…?"
… Color hurts… important?
"Barrier? No… alive?"
… Important… someone? … protect… her?
"Impressive… loyalty. Truly-"
… save… -Sia…!
"Yeah… enough. Good-"
… cold… hurts…
"Leave it to us."
… Don't… worry… -Sia… keep… safe...
Shalba Beelzebub woke up flat on his back, the echoes of a strange dream ringing in his ears.
He dreamed of flame illuminating the darkness in countless bright flashes, and of a man screaming something that sounded like a name into that burning sky, over and over until his throat was raw.
Shaking off the last vestiges of slumber, Shalba pushed himself up into a sitting position, frowning ever so slightly as his strangely dull and heavy body resisted his will.
How vexing, perhaps it was due to having apparently taken his reverie on cold cobblestone, but, try as he might, he could only get a satisfactory response from his left arm.
Both his right arm and his legs were stiff and unresponsive.
Giving himself the once over, Shalba concluded that it was likely due to how three of his limbs had been riveted back onto his body.
Clarity burned away the fog, but his outcry was promptly silenced- a metal hand clamped over Shalba's mouth and muffled his cries, carelessly lacerating his cheeks with bladed fingers.
Crouched before him and grinning still, the Ghoul placed a finger to its lipless mouth.
Roughly it gripped his chin and yanked his chin in the desired direction.
A whimper escaped past the smothering metal hand as the sound of creaking, scraping metal and discordant mutters made themselves heard.
"There""is""no""future""if""we""don't""unite"
The Ghoul released him and rose, offering a deep, exaggerated bow and a welcoming sweep of its hand, like a performer playfully making way for the next act to take the stage.
"Too""few""of""us""as""it""is"
They were figures of slender metal, like blades hammered together in a rough silhouette of a person's shape, making even the skeletal figure of Ghoul Mnemonic seem solid and sturdy by comparison.
"Devils""shouldn't""fight""Devils"
They had nothing resembling faces nor mouths, but still they muttered, the words curious and disjointed, each speaking a single word to form a sentence.
"So""tired""of""war""so""tired""of""burying""children"
Creaking and stumbling strangely, they advanced.
"Haven't""we""lost""enough""Pillars?"
Until they had surrounded him entirely, and the Ghoul had cheerfully given way.
Shalba's fight or flight instinct reignited with a vengeance…
And achieved nothing, as the rivets in his body sprouted countless wires and bound him tight.
The spindly figures shuffled their way into a loose ring around him.
"G-Get away!" He cried out, voice hoarse. "Don't you know who I am!? I am the future of the Devil race, I am-!"
With a harsh scream of metal, they bent sharply, featureless visages crowding around him.
"̴H̵a̸v̷e̸n̶'̸t̷ ̴e̸n̸o̴u̶g̶h̸,̸ ̵B̴e̸e̵l̴z̵e̴b̸u̵b̶?̶"̵
"At least kill me yourself, you wretch!" No one, not even Shalba himself, knew if his last cry was a plea or demand.
But the Ghoul answered nonetheless… speaking briefly in a voice that was clear in tone, but dull with disinterest.
"It's important to know when to share."
As if that was the permission they'd been waiting upon, the razor thin horrors flopped themselves on top of Shalba one by one in a grinding, creaking pile, repeating the same few phrases in an endless babble.
Shalba vanished beneath the iron, but his screams lingered long after he disappeared from sight.
… In the middle of a ruined garden, a twisted metal figure could be seen, using a thin talon to carve into a crude metal plaque.
Satisfied with its work, it took a metal piton and hammered the plaque onto the strange monument before it.
In appearance, it resembled a cemetery obelisk, a tall and narrow structure with four sides, somewhat reminiscent of an elongated pyramid.
Usually, these monuments were carved of stone, but this one was made of countless thin layers of metals that looked like they'd been hammered into the desired shape.
It must have been a fairly new fixture, as the glue keeping the iron together still glistened wetly in the diffuse light of the false sun.
The newly placed plaque offered the only clue as to its purpose there, in that strange scarred garden.
-"Within this cage of rust and bone"-
-"Here rests a Fly, left to rot all alone"-
As the Ghoul abandoned its handiwork without a backwards glance, the obelisk creaked and groaned ever so slightly, even as the wind lay still.
There had been patches of quiet before.
Spaces between the screams and the shaking as the Ghoul sought out its next victim.
But somehow Akeno just knew that this silence meant the end.
This silence meant that the temple was all out Old Satan Faction Devils.
Quietly, she started edging forward, surreptitiously putting a little more of a buffer between herself and everyone else, just in case the Ghoul found them before Yuuji did.
She didn't think there was going to be any danger, per say, but Yuuji would feel less awful about it afterwards if she took steps to limit who he potentially put in harm's way.
"Akeno-senpai-"
"I know Koneko-chan, don't worry, your Onee-sama is on the case~"
Which was precisely why she had already put out a hand to halt some of her faster friends in their tracks.
Something smelling of death and metal smashed through the barricade it had put there in the first place, coming to a screeching halt on all fours that left behind scars on the stone.
"Akeno."
Akeno glanced over her shoulder, and shot her lovely King a cheery wink.
Rias blinked slowly, and then sighed with a wry smile.
"... Fine, fine. Just… be careful."
"Mhm~"
Akeno turned back to find that the Ghoul had just risen to its feet, bloody and bound visage twitching this way and that as it gazed about.
Ara ara, looking at it closer it was sort of cute, wasn't it?
Like a child who wanted to keep playing long after all his friends had gone home.
For some reason, someone… several someones, screamed when it finally reacted to her presence by pouncing on her, knocking her flat on her back as it straddled her with its iron weight.
Silly girls, there was a time and place for raising your voice, no~?
Speaking of silly…
A multitude of weapon-fused tendrils had erupted from the Ghoul's back, looming over her like a half dozen deaths.
And still, Akeno wasn't worried, because the razorblade fingers that had slammed her to the ground hadn't put so much of the tiniest scratch on her skin.
… Well, she supposed it might look worse from a distance, but that blood wasn't hers.
The Ghoul froze as she lifted a hand and caressed its cool metal cheek.
It flinched with its whole body when she lifted herself up off the ground enough to plant a kiss upon its bloody mask and where her lips touched, iron retreated.
Melting away like ice beneath the noonday sun, metal rapidly faded away to mist, swirling around them in a violent, gunmetal storm.
When it was gone, what gazed down at her were dark, tired eyes.
Her free hand joined the one cupping his cheek, and she pulled him down for a proper kiss.
"Are you back now, my love?" She murmured when she was satisfied.
"... Yeah. Sorry to keep you waiting."
"Don't be, as long as you never forget to return."
Yuuji pulled the two of them upright into a seating position, and Akeno took a moment to appreciate having Yuuji sitting in her lap instead of the other way around.
"... No good, huh?" It wasn't hard to guess who he was talking about.
"I don't want to give up hope, but… Rias can't feel Asia's Evil Piece anymore and we just have no way to get to her even if she did. We... we haven't even managed to figure out how to escape here, not for lack of trying. And the Dimensional Gap isn't some place you just go to, even if you could survive it."
"What about Suu?"
"She'd probably be a little better off, and I'm sure she'd protect Asia as long as she could, but…"
"I see."
Akeno leaned back a bit, giving the space needed for Yuuji to lean down and press his head to her chest.
"Sorry Akeno, give me a minute."
"Of course."
Akeno's vision blurred as she felt his shoulders quiver, and she heard a sniffle from somewhere behind them as Yuuji's fingers dug into her back.
Once again, a scream echoed throughout the temple.
Rossweisse had begun to worry that she might be a shallow woman.
She'd almost immediately developed a crush for Yuuji, and while she wasn't quite certain if she was in love, she had little doubt that the scales could tip that way with ease.
It had been… jarring when Yuuji had drawn on the power of… Ghoul Mnemonic, and she had her suspicions that a successful Valkyrie would not have been able to bear its presence.
The Ghoul was not something of the Norse like she herself was, but it was close. Very close.
It was like Helheim personified- a seething avatar of the unblessed, the forgotten warrior incarnate.
It should have been her enemy, something that hated every breath she took as a Chooser of the Slain who had not chosen it.
But perhaps because she had never chosen any slain, it had passed her over.
Rather, it hadn't even noticed her.
Instead, it had rampaged through blighted halls like Skoll unleashed, gleefully snuffing out the dark suns that a proud Devil represented, one by one.
Violence that echoed and screamed- Rossweisse had felt like she'd been afforded a tiny glimpse of Ragnarok.
And then it… no, he had come back, and she'd seen the Ghoul for what it was.
A tool, and outlet.
She had seen it back in the hotel- though c-certain details were far more vivid, it had lingered in her mind.
Yuuji did not know how to suffer.
Perhaps it was her Valkyrie's intuition speaking, but… she would have sworn by the fact that Yuuji wore his scars like they belonged to someone else.
The Ghoul had stolen that disconnect away, and left Yuuji behind with a grief he needed to face.
… And left Rossweisse to have her heart hopelessly stolen.
The moment she'd seen the grief in his eyes, she'd wanted nothing more than to shield him from it- to cradle… h-hold him close for as long as he might need.
She just wanted to be his strength.
It was a terribly presumptuous thought given the present company, and she was more than a little bit ashamed to find herself a little jealous of Akeno… while feeling immensely grateful to the woman for being so good to Yuuji.
A maiden's heart truly was a complex thing, she supposed...
G-gods, her heart felt like it would leap its way from her breast! She couldn't even look at him without blushing!
It was both her own earnest desire to help Yuuji and her own diligence oat work that left Rossweisse desperately distracting herself by attempting to extricate them from their current predicament.
And that was precisely why Rossweisse was the first to discover that there was nowhere for them to go.
It was a sword that seemed as if it could cleave through anything- as if nothing the blade was wielded against would dare remain intact.
Sheer majesty condensed into the form of a blade.
The things that could halt the edge of such a blade could be counted on one hand, but-
"Wait, don't!" Fortunately, she was among them.
"... What is it, Sister?"
"Big Brother, you absolutely can't cut that! It's like a balloon, if you pop it it's gonna… y'know, pop!"
"... That does sound like cause for concern. Very well, Sister, I shall heed your warning, though it does leave us with no method of entry."
"Hm? ... Well, if she's saying that much, then I guess there's no helping it. Kuroka is around here somewhere, so let's bring them to her instead."
"Should we warn her? Her sister is inside there, is she not?"
"... Even if we do, there's no way for her to get to her sister either… the Gremory's are on their own."
Don't die on me, you bastard. You still have to show me what's at the end of that road you're running down so desperately.
What left them cornered was pride.
The pride and cowardice of one Shalba Beelzebub, who had determined that on the off chance that the odds did turn against him, there could be left behind absolutely no evidence of his shame.
And that was why the final barrier of Dimension Lost was tied to himself, just as the larger had been tied to Diodora Astaroth.
And so when Shalbe Beelzebub 'broke'...
The final 'world' created by Dimension Lost broke with him.
The fourth teleportation circle (she had cycled through to Arthurian Magecraft) of Rossweisse had just finished fizzling out when the light began to shine.
Everywhere- from the pillars to the air to ground beneath them, a harsh, blinding white.
The brightness overwhelming, Gasper fumbled for the darkness on reflex- only to find there was none.
Forget the shadows cast by objects, not even the shadows cast on the natural contours of a person's body remained.
Someone winced.
The temple sanctum was just as open as ever, but still there was a sudden feeling of being cramped- like the air itself had run out of space for them.
Skin began to prickle as the temperature began to ever so slowly rise.
"We need to get out of here. Now."
"I-I don't know how! None of the spatial magic I know is working!"
"Ruth!?"
{"There are no shadows here… not even one."}
It couldn't be helped that more than a few people looked to Yuuji for help.
But Yuuji couldn't answer either- he'd worn himself out and then passed out, his head cradled on Akeno's lap and his face wearing the only peaceful expression present.
Everything began to vibrate, just enough to make the outlines of everyone's body smudge at the edges.
"... The whole place is gonna blow… isn't it?" Raynare clamped her hands over her mouth the moment the words had left.
But the damage was done.
Biting her lip until it bled, Kalawarner opened one portal after another, single-mindedly like a machine.
Xenovia started gathering power to Durandal as if to break the space open with brute force, and Irina got on her knees and prayed out to the Seraphs.
Rossweisse fingered the silver bracelet on her wrist, gazing hard at the stylized sun before letting her hand fall limp at her side with a grimace.
… What good was absolute defence in a single direction when the air itself was on fire?
No, there had to be something else, something she was missing!
The fake world shook and the fake air rose in heat, and they did not give up.
And then, one by one, they realized that the space around them was shrinking- a sanctum as big as a soccer field was now the size of the classroom- supernatural vision allowing them to pick out the minute variations in depth to tell just barely tell objects apart, even in their white-washed prison.
"... W-what do we do?"
… No one knew who had spoken.
Because not for the first time, a strange stalemate was broken by the sound of laughter.
It was a nostalgic sound.
Quiet but melodious, like the gentle ringing of a small bell.
It was a soothing sound, unashamedly amused yet tender, indulgent.
With the world clenching around them like a fist, somehow that fond little sound was distraction enough, even as she slowly walked away from them, and put her hands on her hips.
Her back was slender, but to their eyes it seemed almost unbreakable.
"While normally it would be very cute to see you all working so hard, I think we're a bit too short on time," she calmly declared. "I'm certain you'd figure things out if you had just a little longer, but I also think it would be nice if you let your King show off a bit, every once in a while, so I'm going to step in here."
As she looked over her shoulder, the loving, playful smile on her lips revealed itself to be far brighter than any burning light.
In the span of one heartbeat, Rias Gremory winked and snapped her fingers.
In the span of the second heartbeat, a familiar color enveloped everything and everyone in its gentle crimson embrace.
Yuuji woke up on his back, and found that he was feeling pretty comfortable.
A different kind of comfortable than when he'd passed out, as his head wasn't being cushioned by Akeno's thighs, or anyone else's for that matter, but definitely comfortable.
He'd found himself all alone in some sort of… garden? Park? something like that anyways, and he was currently lying on grass instead of stone.
What was making him less than certain of the details were the colors involved.
A familiar crimson as far as the eye could see- whether the grass or the flowers or even the sky. None of the objects exactly had shadows- the patches of black here or there seemed almost painted on in order to add depth to the surroundings.
It was impossible not to notice- everything in sight bore the colors of Rias' Power of Destruction.
With the important and appreciated difference being that Yuuji wasn't feeling particularly Destroyed despite having napped on it… in it?
Rising slowly to his feet, Yuuji made his way down the crimson path to find the others.
It didn't take long for most of them to reunite- it seemed that every path in the garden joined up and headed in the same direction. Even so, not a word was shared- it was the gentle sort of silence that seemed a shame to break early.
And the sensation of being guided along was hard to miss.
It was a strange, beautiful place- a seemingly endless garden filled with all manner of fanciful plants and flowers, a garden that may have seemed fit more for Fairies than Devils, were it not for the fact that the mistress of the garden could only be one possible person.
This world of crimson and black was unmistakably a creation of Rias, but… the question was how?
They were all immensely curious, but in no hurry- surrounded by nothing but crimson beauty that seemed to quietly present itself before their eyes, it was hard not to get a little lost in the sights. Being surrounded by vaporizing magic should have been more than a little terrifying, but it wasn't the case.
Serenity and beauty were the only thing the garden offered, even as it quietly herded them along.
They found her just like they'd left her- standing tall and proud with hands on her hips, facing away from them, this time, standing on the edge of a high crimson cliff.
"I imagine you probably have a question or two," her voice carried easily as the path opened up. "But before that, I suppose I should welcome you."
"I've decided to call it my [Crimson Paradise- the Garden of Ruin]. It's a tiny little world, but it's all mine… all yours." Rias softly explained. "This is the form my Bloodline Mastery takes- a sanctuary born of Destruction."
They could hear her smile even though they couldn't actually see it.
"Ara ara, it makes sense I suppose," Akeno tapped a finger to her lips. "It sounds like a contradiction, but it's a Rias kind of cute so it must be fine."
"Mm, feels safe." Koneko chimed in quietly.
"... It's not an inversion of the principle… I think that would be too outlandish for a Bloodline Mastery," Rossweisse mused aloud, looking this way and that. "So 'Destruction' applied… in what must be a rather creative interpretation."
"... Can we keep her?" Rias bluntly inquired. "She's clever, she's very cute, the only piece I have left is a Rook, and her armor is very cute." She listed off each of those points as if they were ample reasons on their own.
Rossweisse went red, looking flustered but far from unhappy with the unsubtle interest, prompting a round of bright laughter from those watching.
He really hated to ruin the fluffy atmosphere, but…
"This place is very pretty and all, Rias-"
"Ah, even Yuuji thinks so?" Rias giggled delightedly.
"- But I'm a little curious why you haven't turned around yet."
That girlish laughter ended in a flinch, and a tired little sigh.
"... Rias?" Akeno's voice carried a hint of worry as she found herself taking a step forward.
"... Well, I didn't expect to keep it hidden for much longer, but I wasn't done bracing myself, you know?" Rias complained.
"... B-Buchou, what are you talking about?" Gasper, hand in hand with Koneko, shared a worried look with his sweetheart.
Rias turned just enough to give them a clear look at her face-
Just as a large chunk of her cheek cracked like glass and fell away.
Beneath was only the pulsing crimson of Destruction, there, and in the countless cracks spreading across her face and neck.
"Sorry, but I think I may have overdone it a little bit?" Rias apologized with a strained, rueful smile. "This is the first time I've brought people in here, and normally takes about a full day's worth of power... which I definitely don't have right now?"
Rias nearly stumbled and nearly fell as she turned to face them fully, a scraping crunching sound echoing out as her legs began to crack and splinter.
Even though it was rather painful, Rias couldn't help but smile as her beloved family caught her all at once, gently lowering her to the ground.
"I'm sorry, but… it's hard not to feel happy, surrounded by the people I love on all sides like this." Rias' smiled her crumbling smile.
"Hey now, there's no need to cry…" Strange, she couldn't hear them at all- "there there, it will be alright, okay? See, I'm right here-"
A thumb used to wipe away tears cracked and fell away.
Surrounded by family on all sides, Rias Gremory shattered, and was swept away by the gentle crimson breeze.
The world was a cruel place.
An awful place, it could be nothing else if the last vision she was greeted with was a nightmare.
… It wasn't the first time she'd been greeted by the sight of their backs, slowly growing further and further away as they left for whatever adventure they might be on.
Even though she held the more than a little selfish desire of never letting them out of her sight, she could at least take solace in the fact that they would always return to her, even if it took a while, sometimes.
So why was her heart pounding so strongly?
Why did she feel like this time, if she let them out of her sight, she would never see them again?
Panic set in, and she called out their names- the words scraping out of her throat like glass, and yet they did not turn.
Desperation set in, and she ran towards them, only to fall before a single step was taken- she collapsed to the ground, and yet they did not turn.
Hysteria set in, and she reached out towards them, only to watch as her hands crumbled away in the breeze, and yet they did not turn.
That creeping crimson light bound what was left of her body and dragged her away into the darkness and still, they did not turn.
Rias screamed.
She awoke with a start, bolting upright as her heart raced a mile a minute.
Scared near out of her wits, she nearly tumbled out of her seat, but caught herself at the last moment.
Then she froze in place, bright green eyes slowly widening at what she was seeing.
Or rather, who wasn't seeing her.
She didn't notice her at all, just sitting upright in bed with her hands stretched forward, those usually vibrant blue eyes dim and dilated, chest heaving and jiggling with every breath.
She didn't even respond to her voice, didn't notice when she took her hands, and so she was beginning to get more than a little panicked… there must be something she could do!
Perhaps it was only natural, but when she faltered, her thoughts naturally turned his way, and she found herself wondering what Yuuji would do in a situation like this.
It said more about Yuuji than it did about her that the first thing to come to mind made her blush, deeply.
"W-well, that might be a little much, b-b-but maybe the cheek would be fine…?"
With no other ideas presenting themselves, and unwilling to simply do nothing for even a second longer, Asia leaned over the bed and briefly planted her lips against her cheeks.
Those blue eyes blinked several times in slow succession, and slowly, one of those outstretched hands cupped a smooth cheek as if to cage in lingering warmth, while the other fell onto a blanketed lap with a thud.
Slowly those cheeks reddened, and Asia squirmed in her seat, well aware that the heat in her cheeks meant she was blushing too.
She sighed in relief as eyes focussed and met her own, and then a hand gently caressed her cheek.
"... I guess if you're here too then you didn't make it either? While I'm very glad to see you, Asia, I wish it was under better circumstances." Rias offered a soft, wistful smile that widened a bit when Asia cupped her hand in her own and nuzzled against it.
"A-Asia? I-I know it's sad, but please don't cry. I'm right here, see? I w-won't let you be left all alone."
"W-we were so scared you would never wake up," Asia sobbed.
"Wake up? Whatever do you mean-"
Rias was interrupted by the violent sound of a door nearly being torn from its hinges.
Her eyes widened in disbelief as they fell over one another in an ungainly pile of bodies and froze that way, every eye locking onto her.
A shuddering breath caught in her throat and her vision, centered around that wonderful sight, began to blur at the edges.
"... I thought I'd been left behind," the words scraped their way from her dry throat.
And then the bed, and her, were surrounded on every side, Koneko and Gasper having been scooped up onto the bed, where they promptly glued themselves to her side and buried their crying faces against either side of her neck.
"Y-you're really all here… I really did manage to protect you, didn't I?" It was all too much at once.
Hemmed in on all sides by the family she had assembled with her own two hands, Rias burst into tears, filling the room with sobs as loud as her smile was bright.
Her face was wet but her eyes felt dry- thus leading Rias to believe that she had physically run out of tears for the moment.
In the recent past she'd also feared that she'd run out of Asia, which was likely why her hands had taken it upon themselves to physically confirm the continued existence of said Asia.
The way those cute little cheeks heated up beneath her palms was very reassuring.
"What happened to you, Asia? We… I thought we'd lost you." Commonly accepted knowledge dictated that the Dimensional Gap was only ever a final destination.
"Um… I wasn't really awake for most of it," the blushing blonde explained, "but I remember lots of too-bright colors and feeling like Suu was all around me, and the next thing I knew I was back in the Rating Game field being watched over by Kuroka-san."
"Kuroka?" Rias asked in surprise.
Asia's cheeks squished against her hands as she nodded, and Rias let her hands fall.
"White Dragon," Koneko chimed in. "Nee-sama says the Dragon and his companions happened across Asia-senpai and Suu-senpai while looking for a 'bigger Dragon'. Couldn't get to us so they went to Nee-sama instead."
The particulars seemed important, but they would have to wait since they weren't her peerage.
"... I never imagined I'd owe Vali Lucifer a debt." Rias said after a moment to process her words. "I'll have to thank Kuroka as well, naturally." She gave Asia a hesitant look, and then carefully asked "but what of Suu? I haven't seen her, is she alright?"
"She's sleeping in another room… she's okay, just… worn out." Asia murmured, flashing a weak smile. "Suu protected me by surrounding me with her body, and she used most of her magic up doing that."
Rias gave a little frown as Asia's eyes watered, and held her arms open- it was frustrating that her arms felt too weak to just scoop up Asia, but the Bishop leaned into her embrace of her own accord so it all worked out.
Akeno gave a small cough to get her attention and then filled in the rest of the details.
"Suu-chan used up most of her mana, and so the healers are using a mana-transfer circle to help her recover. They're taking it slow to avoid complications, but they're confident a Slime has more than enough vitality to bounce back without any issues."
Akeno's smile widened as she tapped a finger to the corner of her mouth, tilting her head to one side.
"In unrelated news, a tiny Suu is a special kind of cute."
Rias gave a small sigh of relief, allowing herself a smile and shifting a bit to cuddle Asia more comfortably.
"... I'm so glad you're okay, Asia."
"Mm."
"Now…" Rias let her gaze briefly meet with those deep dark eyes, pursing her lips softly as she gave him a once over.
Yuuji seemed physically alright, but not ready to talk.
Deciding to put certain things aside for the moment, Rias instead made a single, calm inquiry, and Yuuji straightened reflexively as the King addressed her Soldier.
"Did you kill them?"
"All of them."
"Good."
Rias let her stern expression fade as quickly as it had appeared, letting a hint of concern color her patient smile.
Yuuji gave the barest of nods and relaxed.
"You know… Asia wasn't the only one we thought we'd lost." Rias flinched as the words drifted through the room like a cold breeze.
Wincing, she peeked her way to find that Kiba was staring towards the bed, eyes distant.
Musashi, who had been nestled up against his side, lifted her head from his shoulder to shoot him a worried look.
Quite suddenly, Rias found herself wishing she could hide from the gazes of her peerage, for perhaps the first time in her life.
"I-I…"
It was Kiba again who broke the silence, slumping his shoulders and giving her a rueful smile.
"You really gave us a scare, Nee-san." He said quietly. "It's hard to say anything when you definitely saved our lives, so I guess I'll just ask- what happened to you?"
Rias closed her eyes, taking a long, shaky breath. She was aware that they were angry with her on some level, but… more than that, she'd scared them.
They couldn't hide it, even if they tried.
That they were still around to be frightened wasn't as much comfort as she would have liked.
"... I meant what I said, back there- I can't say I've mastered the Garden… even just the level I can pull off now takes everything I've got. I guess… I guess to explain what happened, I need to explain in a bit more detail…"
The first time, it wasn't as if she had been trying to be vague… maybe just a little dramatic, but she'd been forced to abbreviate things before she had run out of words entirely.
"To master a Bloodline Power, one needs to to determine how best to personally express and wield that power. In my case, I needed to decide what my very own expression of Destruction was." Her eyes were still closed, but the hint of a smile graced her lips. "I struggled with it, to be honest- all I really wanted was the power to protect what I cherish… the people I cherish. But… I simply couldn't envision a path that would give me what I sought."
Rias gave a bitter little chuckle.
"You see, the world isn't nearly as simple as I'd like it to be; always I was confronted with the irritating truth that whether due to practical concerns or simple lack of ability, I simply can't just destroy anything that would trouble you."
When she at least opened her eyes, they burned like azure flame, and a haughty smirk blossomed across the face of Rias Gremory.
"So I just made a world where I could."
Despite her talk of how the world wasn't a simple place, Rias made her solution sound like the most obvious thing in the world.
"A paradise for the things you wish to protect… and ruin for the things you don't." Kalawarner said softly.
"When the whole world was crimson... it felt like the first time since we'd lost Asia that I could breathe again," the girl mentioned flashed Raynare a worried look, but the Fallen just smiled gently back. "It wasn't like the pain was gone, just… bearable."
A quick glance around the room would confirm she was far from the only one who thought that way.
"It's like a form of rejection so strong it turns into Destruction," Akeno noted.
"No party crashers allowed?" Koneko added in, prompting a few chuckles.
"Pain, sorrow, danger- a place where I can shield you from all of that, at least for a while," Rias went on to further explain. "We seem to have a lot of enemies, but I'd love to see them cause trouble when even the air they breathe is Destruction itself."
"Rias."
That one word was enough to stop her in her tracks.
Yuuji was looking at her with those dark eyes that always saw right through her.
"You made it for us and forgot to include yourself, didn't you? That's why you vanished."
Rias cringed a bit, and then nodded.
"Hang on, didn't that turn out for the best?"
She didn't understand what Xenovia meant at all, but Yuuji's smirk told Rias that at least he did.
Oh.
That's what…
Rias began to squirm in the blankets a bit as she watched realization dawn across every face in the room. Yes, yes they had figured it out, and the painful truth she was avoiding was somehow turning into an embarrassing truth that she wasn't going to get to avoid.
"Huh yeah, that was a lucky break," Gasper nodded, before beaming at her with a guileless, adoring smile. "Good thinking, Onee-sama!"
Unable to pull the blankets up enough to hide behind, Rias resorted to burying her burning face in Asia's long blonde hair, causing the blonde to give a little squeak as a muffled groan tickled her.
It took her a bit to recover and their theory to be confirmed.
The Garden was meant to protect her precious people from their pain- so before her own overused power could finish consuming her, Rias had been forcibly expelled from the Garden, her connection severed.
The Garden had decided that the pain of thinking they'd lost Rias would be a lesser pain than knowing they'd lost Rias.
"As much as I'd prefer to watch Buchou squirm," Akeno chimed in with visible regret, "I'll answer a question that I'm surprised hasn't come up yet- you've been asleep for three days, Rias."
"T-three!?"
"You dug too deep, Rias… the doctors said you may have a reduced life expectancy." Akeno reported with a very different kind of regret. "Thankfully, losing centuries isn't much of an immediate concern when you have millennia, and more importantly, we've got a solution handy."
"Akeno," Rias began carefully, "while I am grateful for the method of delivery, I do find myself more than a little curious as to why whatever 'solution' you mentioned seems to be making you both jealous and aroused?"
"Ufufu~"
Rias blinked as she found Yuuji had left the bedside and was opening the door to let in…
"Oh, hello Nee-sama." Koneko wiggled to the edge of the bed and hopped off, going around to hug her big sister.
"Kuroka? I wasn't aware you were nearby."
"Shirone was sad." Kuroka pointed out as if that explained everything, which to Rias it naturally did.
Koneko flushed, and hid her face against her sister's side.
"Nyanyhow, lost lifeforce like what you're dealing with is easy stuff to deal with for a Senjutsu expert." Kuroka told her, her arms still wrapped around her sister. "Lucky you, you get the two most important details for a practitioner all wrapped up in one package, nyaa~!"
"And those details are…?"
"Talent and sexiness." Kuroka replied without a trace of hesitation.
"?"
"Well, you know how Devils somehow figured out how to make naked cuddles a medical procedure?"
"W-well, I suppose you're not wrong per say," come to think of it, healing Yuuji had been the first chance she'd had to cuddle naked with him, and it remained a cherished and… detailed memory for Rias.
"I can do that, but way better!" Kuroka confirmed. "Senjutsu actually specializes in life energy, y'know?"
"So in other words you're offering to… 'naked cuddle' in order to restore my lost lifespan?" a pink-cheeked Rias asked in clarification.
"Yep! Ah, but fair warning, there's gonna be wandering hands, so I'll say 'thank you' and 'you're welcome' in advance." The 'thank you' was because Kuroka being bisexual and possessing working eyes meant she could appreciate the opportunity in its entirety.
The 'you're welcome' was because Kuroka was great with her hands and she knew it.
Come to think of it, they could take it a level higher (both in fun and effectiveness) if they got a little... 'tantric' with it.
Speaking of tantric, though, sneaking into Playboy-kun's room (bed) was both overdue and set to turn into a much shorter trip…
"I-I'll be in your care, then," Rias managed in a small voice.
Thus, Kuroka happily confirmed her theory that Rias was an M, all while trying and failing to make her smile not seem too predatory.
Suddenly, Yuuji dropped his hand into his fist.
"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot there was a 'package' for you, Buchou." He blandly commented. "Lemme go fetch that real quick."
"... A package?" Her bemused look followed her Pawn out the door, and then turned into a suspicious gaze when the only people who seemed to know what Yuuji was talking about pointedly refused eye contact with her.
Xenovia and Irina got the doors as Yuuji wheeled the package in on a battered iron trolley, and Rias had to blink several times at what she was seeing.
"... abandoned like an unwanted pet…" the package murmured.
"... Lord Odin didn't even fire me in person…" the package weeped.
The 'package' was in fact a person.
A familiar person huddled up in a ball on the center of the trolley, hugging her knees that were wet with tears.
"I picked her up like this," Yuuji 'helpfully' confirmed. "She has good core strength to keep this posture in midair."
"R-Rossweisse? Are... are you alright?" Rias tentatively called out.
"Ah, don't mind me Gremory-san, just coming to terms with unemployment," Rossweisse replied, looking at her with an empty smile. "... Gremory-san?"
Belatedly, the miserable Valkyrie realized that she'd been… well, abducted.
"Fweh!?"
Yuuji, having moved around to her side, leaned down and put a hand on her slender shoulder.
"Sorry Rose, give me a moment."
"R-R-R-Rose!?"
Akeno took one look at the blushing, stammering Valkyrie and quickly popped a few buttons of her blouse to allow her to retrieve the List from it's usual location.
Yuuji turned his gaze to Rias, who met his eyes with an amused, knowing smirk.
"Hey, Buchou… can we keep her?"
As you can see, after many trials and tribulations, Rossweisse is being added to the main party.
Oh and other things happened too.
This chapter took a lot of work to convey everything I wanted to convey, but fuck was it fun.
For those of you who don't know, I originally got into DxD after watching a clip of the Juggernaut Drive in action.
I was very confused when I started watching and there were boobs everywhere.
But anyways, in a way, this is me paying homage to what brought me into the series- my very own Juggernaut Drive equivalent, the Ghoul Mnemonic.
You might have noticed that the Ghoul doesn't cause nearly as much widespread destruction as the Juggernaut… though it's [Ballistophobia] was an unsubtle hint that it could.
The big difference there is that with the Ghoul, it's always personal. Far away from the unleashed fury of the dragon is the gleeful malice of a barbed wire smile.
In a way, the Ghoul is far, far more human than the Juggernaut could ever be… and that is far from a good thing.
As for Rias, that was another thing I've been waiting a long time to show off.
[Crimson Paradise- the Garden of Ruin]
Her very own pocket dimension formed of pure Destruction, the ultimate expression of both her greed and her love.
I was pretty proud of how it turned out.
But of course, it wasn't without its price (if you'll recall, Rias needed Phoenix Tears during her private training over the summer), and, of course, neither was wielding the power of the Ghoul.
But we'll get to that in due time.
PS: Ballistophobia is a fear of bullets, missiles and other projectiles. It felt fitting for something as cheerfully macabre as Ghoul Mnemonic.
Also, thanks to G1Splicer for selling me on the idea of giving the Ghoul an activation chant, had fun coming up with that.