Allright! Finally done. This might not be the best I've written but it's something for the first arc and I want to do something different.

Also, you can expect updates every second week on Sundays or Mondays.

The end of this chapter was written before the beginning so expect it to be a little… rough because I don't think I can currently portrey what I want to, maybe when I get older.

Also no 'Entries' in this chapter.

"I am a pacifist." — Normal speech.

I am trying to be a pacifist.— Thoughts.

[King]— Title/P.O.V/Current Place/ Current time.

A desert filled with grains of thousands of shadows— Quick thoughts, Instinctual Foresight etc. It depends.

Yuuma-san dragged me along to a clothing store first, while holding my hand.

I was holding hands with a girl.

A-alright not a big deal, hand holding is not that bad. I don't need to get flustered at that.

Holding hands with a girl.

I had held my mother's hand before, this is nothing.

Holding hands with a girl.

Huh… now that I think about it, Shinohara-san has softer hands—

*Pyong!*

A chibi Shinohara-san chopped me on the head and shook me out of my thoughts; I was now standing outside of a clothing store.

Yuuma-san was standing at the entrance, inviting me in.

Now I, as a man, have a sense of self-preservation and going inside a clothing store with a young woman is a mistake that even the bravest of men do not ma—

"Come on Issei-kun~!"

Screw self-preservation! I want a cute girlfriend!

"Hai!" I barked and made my way to her and we went in.

I was entering hell.

Yuuma held onto my hand again.

I entered hell with a giant grin on my face.

[Twelve minutes later]

"How about this one!"

"Hm… thats too small."

"This one!"

"That is too short."

"Thi—"

"That's even shorter and tighter."

The next one made me question if we had entered a lingerie shop instead of a normal clothing store.

"Issei-kun?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head behind the small —too small— clothes.

Too cute.

"A-ah… It's…" I paused for a moment.

I had enough experience with choosing clothes for a dense person that I could choose out clothes for her without even looking.

The clothes she chose showed too much skin, that's that, I don't judge.

So why wasn't I choosing them for her?

Well, a wise man once told me—

Shinohara sneezed while headpatting someone smaller than him.

'To become a harem King, you must respect your woman.' (Actual words: "If you want to make friends, respect them. Especially women… brother said that men shared one brain cell… whatever that meant.") and I would be disrespecting Yuuma-san's… tasteful choice in clothing by saying that they looked like something a stripper would wear.

Also, I might pick even lewder clothes by mistake.

But…

"Yumma-san, can I tell you the truth?"

"Hm? Yeah, why no—"

I took a breath.

"Those clothes make you look like a cheap woman who works in the night, they are too small and barely cover your breasts, too thin that I could probably see your bra if you put them on right now without any other clothes underneath and those skirts and shorts almost don't cover your thighs and show too much skin. The shorts are again, too thin and stick to your… uh… backside and the one you are holding in your hand is totally lingerie— actually why is that even here? This is a clothing store, not an adult shop!"

Silence.

My slow breaths were the only sounds that I could hear as Yuuma-san stared at me with her mouth agape.

Ah, I said too much. I might have messed up.

"O-oh…" She stared down at the ground with a despaired look on her face. Shit, this is the end of my da—

"T-then, will you help me choose my clothes, Issei-kun?"

The infinite cosmos of the world enlightened my mind at that moment. Shinohara-san shaped stars and planets shone in the vast sea of space as her words reached my ears and rang through my eardrums. I was pulled into a higher plane of existence for a singular second.

A girl had just asked me to choose her clothes.

"A-and I can help y-you choose yours too…"

"Please don't." I have no intention to add people of the same gender as me to my harem.

…

[Thirty minutes later.]

"Yuuma-san, try this!" I pulled out a green— nevermind, black hoodie that was perfectly suited for her height and shoved it into her arms.

"Thanks Issei-kun!" She said with a beaming smile before rushing into a changing stall with the hoodie.

…this had been going on for more than thirty minutes.

"Ha…" I breathed out once again. I knew that I was entering hell as soon as I went inside this clothing store and I was right.

A single minute felt like 2-3 business days.

Every single time I would pick out a hoodie —Almost all being accidentally green—, Yuuma-san would change into it and ask how she looked in it.

This would repeat again.

And again.

And again.

And again

And again…

And again…

And… again…

And…

"SHINOHARA-NIISAN WHY DO YOU ONLY HAVE HOODIES!?"

"Issei-kun?"

Yuuma-san's voice snapped me out of my daze of bad memories.

The reason why Shinohara-san's entire wardrobe was filled with only green hoodies of two sizes is a question that still bugs me to this day.

He would tell me if I asked, but I am too scared to do that.

I do not want him to unleash a seventy book long biography of how he had them because he liked the colour green, again.

"Ah… sorr—"

An oversized hoodie that was too big for her.

Sleeves long enough that her arms only occupied seventy percent of them and left them dangling.

A hood that almost obscured her face but left enough space for her cute, anxious face to be seen.

Shinohara-san would take her and throw her into his basement if he saw this—

I mean the hoodie of course, he wouldn't even see Yuuma-san as a girl, but as a thing that stood in his path to achieve 'Maximum Hoodieness!' as he called it.

Anyway—

*THUD!*

"Eh? Issei-kun? Issei-kun!?"

—I collapsed as soon as I saw her.

No man but Shinohara-san —He would disagree if it were two certain people— can resist an oversized hoodie with long sleeves.

"Please… change…" I croaked out, slowly standing up with my eyes closed. I wouldn't let a hoodie ruin my date! "... Please."

She changed into the clothes she came in and we left the store after she bought a sleeveless top and two hoodies that actually matched her size. Winter was near so that was essential for the cold.

Anyway, we strolled through the mall for a while. Yuuma-san would occasionally drag me to look at some jewelry and she even asked if a necklace would look good on her at one point.

Long story short, it did not and I began questioning her taste in clothing and jewellery.

After a while of walking through the mall, we sat down in a family restaurant to get something to eat.

"What do you want to eat, Yuuma-san?" I asked her while flipping through the menu. A burger sounded good right now.

"Hm…" She observed the menu for a minute before replying, "I'll get a croissant and… some soda."

They make croissants here? "I'll get chicken salad with dressing."

We made small talk while we waited for our food to arrive.

Yuuma-san told me that she lived in a church because of family reasons,

"Mou… and my roommates are absolute nightmares to live with."

"Roommates?"

"Yeah, I have to live with those guys until the end of this month."

"Huh… you can live with me if you wan—" Ah…

She beamed but her expression faltered after a moment and she grumbled something under her breath.

Shit!

"Yuuma-san I didn't mea—"

"I would love to but… I can't, my… uh… caretakers? Yeah, caretakers probably won't like that." She responded with a downtrodden look and a false smile.

…I can tell you're lying, Yuuma-san.

"Oh…" I was about to respond when our food reached our table and she took her croissant.

"Oh! This is Delish!"

I let her eat as I dug into my own salad, temporarily forgetting the conversation that happened moments prior because the taste of the chicken was… dry.

Too dry.

They didn't cook this properly, did they?

"Oh this croissant is good! I wonder if they have some butter here!"

… And who's going to pay for this?

…

Shinohara sneezed from his position between the cracks of a mountain, entire body shaking as his grabbed onto a ledge and pulled himself up.

"Ise should have noticed the thirteen thousand yen I put in his pocket before I left…" Then realisation set in. "...he's probably going to use 87% of it to buy new plants isn't he."

I don't know why but I had the sudden urge to thank Shinohara-san when I paid for our meal using some of the thirteen thousand yen in my pocket.

Maybe I can buy some more flower pots and seeds with this.

"Waa! I'm full~!" Yuuma cheered with a slight drool on her face, that croissant must have been really good huh.

Maybe I should buy some for lunch tomorrow.

We were currently walking through the park where we first met after I had gone to the washroom and ended up with a weird cosplayer giving me some sort of… weird paper with a symbol on it. She was hopping around enthusiastically, I could tell she was dismayed about something but I didn't say anything about it, I trusted her enough to tell me on her own.

The sun was setting behind her, making her shine like a marigold at sunrise as she turned and flashed a genuine smile at me.

I smiled back.

Nothing could go wrong.

…

"Issei-kun! Sit down!" Yuuma-san called as she sat down on one of the park benches and spread herself out. Non-sensually of course.

I followed her lead and sat down beside her as she scooted over and… patted her lap?

? I tilted my head in confusion.

She pouted at that but her lips morphed into a grin in a second.

"Come on Issei-kun~ You want a lap pillow don't ya!"

Eh? Did I hear that right?

No. I would not let my mind explode into the infinite cosmos aga—

"Come on! Come on! You want a lap pillow! Issei-kun wants a lap pillow!"

I am sorry.

I fell into her lap automatically.

There were no thoughts in my mind as I did so. No resistance.

I could not resist a beautiful girl offering me a lap pillow.

Could you?

"I'm sorry for dragging you everywhere today, Issei-kun." She apologized. I couldn't see her face because of her boobs blocking my view of her face but I imagined she was frowning, "We didn't get to do much today… where would you want to go if we went on another date?"

…

Huh.

Where would I want to go?

Shinohara-san's garden? An auditorium? A greenhouse? An exhibition?

…a greenhouse would be good.

"I would like to go to a garden, flowers would be good to look at."

Yuuma-san does not respond, I see her arm go behind her back.

Oh, speaking of flowers.

I reach into the bag that I had been carrying throughout our date and find the bouquet inside it.

"Yuuma-san—"

"Issei-kun, would you grant this wish if mine?"

Weird wording but I hold off on giving her the flowers and nod.

"Would you—"

I suddenly feel a warm sansation near my stomach as her entire body changes.

"—please die for me?"

Huh?

*Ssrk.*

Pain.

Sharp, burning pain spreads throughout my body before I can react to it, making me scream out and flail my entire body around before my mind could respond to what was happening.

I try to push myself off Yuuma-san but she stands up and grabs me from the behind, not letting me fall as she pulls her weapon out of my stomach.

Wa…wha…?

I can't feel my lower region.

I can't feel my legs.

I move my eyes to see the weapon she used to pierce my stomach but her boobs obscure my vision enough so I can only see the flowing red tip of a glowing spear.

"You know, this was a good date."

Her clothes explode off her body and reveal her naked body to my eyes for a slight moment before her entire body begins to grow.

It was slow at first, her burst grew slightly but the next moment they were completely covering my vision with a thin latex strap barely covering her nipples.

Her arms and torso also changed grew slightly and I could feel her now fully black hair touch my face.

What…?

I threw up blood on her, she barely reacted.

"H-hey… Yuuma-san…"

"Yes?" She responds after a moment, confused by… me still being alive.

"Did you… e-enjoy—" More blood pooled out from my mouth, "—this date?"

"Yes. Yes I did. I told you before." Her response is robotic, almost without emotions.

Yet there is one in there.

I should have taken Shinohara-san up on his offer to restart my training again, I would have been able to tell if I had.

Maybe I could have escaped, seen this coming even… but I can't do that anymore can I?

"Speak your last words as you please." She responds in a bland tone as I feel myself fall a little lower, she is still not letting me fall huh…

Last words? Am I going to die…?

…

Yeah… probably.

"Who…" I see dark spots cover parts of my vision.

Guess death comes fast.

"...are… you…" I rasp out as my eyes look into her own. Green eyes pierce through her soul as black as dove like wings spread out from her back, completely shredding the behind of her shirt and eclipsing the setting sun to cast down their shadows onto me.

That, was her response.

"Haha…" I laughed, slow breaths rising from my chest as my eyes became heavy and started to close. I could tell she was trying to talk but…

This was fun… animal…

…only her lips moved as my eyes finally shut and my breathing slowed to a stop.

Issei Hyoudou had died anew.

Raynare lets out a shuddering breath as she slowly places the now dead body of the boy she had murdered in cold blood on the spilled bouquet of flowers, now floating in a fool of his own blood that he had wanted to give her.

"Kill or be killed."

She mutters as she fully spreads her wings and walks away a short distance before launching herself off the ground, not noticing the faint glow of red sparks from Issei's pocket as blood leaked out from the hole in his stomach and reached his leg.

The paper he had gotten from the 'cosplayer' fidgets and glows inside his pocket as a red circular ring adorned with satanic symbols appears above him, then fades as the flowers that he was laying on slowly absorb it and collapse in on themselves, changing in concept.

Thin bright red, spidery-looking blooms on spikes replace all but one black and spread along the boy's body, fully laying him on a bed of bright Red Spider Lilies, and a Black rose.

"Crimson. Death. Corpse. Equinox."

A large, booming voice echoes in the sky as bright lights condense into a straight, narrow red pole and a large steel blade grows from its upper tips as the sky clears of clouds and the sun finally sets and it sets on the boy's chest.

Crimson lights finally uncloak the serpent who hid the cosmos from the sights of humanity.

[Issei Hyoudou]

My eyes slowly opened to darkness.

I couldn't feel my body, my eyes or anything that could be physical, yet I could still think.

So this is death, huh? I thought absentmindedly as I fell in the darkness. The sensation of 'falling' was something I could not feel through my non-existent body in this dark void but I could Instinctively 'feel' that I was falling, in which direction? I did not know.

Hah, who would have thought that I'd be killed on my first date… The blackness of the ever falling void flickered for the slightest moment, light shining through the dark as a purple giant… scale(?) flashed in my sight. Huh?

!

Then it happened again, the darkness vanished and light shone on the scales of a serpentine body that that made me look like an ant would have been larger than most continents before the darkness returned like it had never lef—

"That shall do."

Red lines spread throughout the black canvas of 'death' which held me, cracks spread throughout the darkness as if a hammer had been dropped onto a plane of glass before finally exploding in a bright crimson… light…

My eyes opened to see.

I was no longer falling.

No, instead I was standing, with my clothes still on my body —Thank God— ontop of a giant, black, almost slited eyes that observed me like a grain of sand.

"Hey," The serpent repeated the last syllable of the word for a moment, "barin."

The sound of it's words reverberated throughout the entire, now white, plain of nothingness around me, ringing in my ears.

"Y…eah?" I barely got out the word, almost collapsing as something burned in my stomach.

"You… how do you feel," The last syllable repeated for a moment, "about death…"

I did not respond— I could not respond.

I writhed and screamed as the feeling of pain spread all throughout my torso, overtaking any sensation there and there alone.

The pain drained me of my speech, not letting me utter a single word as it completely covered my torso and kept. on. pulsing.

The feeling of small, shell-like burns climbing my back added to the pain like a hammer being slammed down into a nail.

I was in agony.

Then, as if someone had stopped watering Shinohara-san's plants… it all stopped.

I let out harsh breaths as I tried to speak. My words mixed in with my breathing, making them nothing but unknowable noises that I, myself could not understand.

A minute passed, I was beginning to think clearly again, the pain had already faded but the aftereffects were steadily fading.

Ten minutes later I was standing, my feet submerged in the liquid-like substance. The pain had already faded and I looked around to observe once again.

"...I shall repeat my question once more,"

"No…" I replied before… he could finish his sentence, "I heard you fine the first time."

"So?"

"I… whatever— whomever you are…" I looked down at the darkness of its pupil, "I… don't… want to… die." I answered his question, breath still recovering.

"I still have to go to college; get a job; collect every single living organism; get Shinohara-san to go on a date with the petite girl he has interacted with since I've known him that he meets every Sunday and I pretend not to see her there; become the harem King…" A giant smile spread on my face, "Yeah! I need to become the Harem king to show Shinohara-san that having a harem is awesome!"

The serpent chuckled, "You are taking being dead really well, I wonder why?"

"Oh no, I'm trying not to break down right now." It was the truth, I'm not really good at faking my emotions —Shinohara-san didn't teach me— , I didn't even tell him that I missed mom and dad; that the fact that I didn't properly say goodbye to them was steadily eating away at me from the inside and slowly fragmenting my sanity.

"...you know I can hear what you're thinking, right?"

Oh great… please send me to purgatory right now, I don't want to think anymore.

"Nope, I got a proposal for you though."

"...what?" I replied from my face buried inside my hands.

"Hah! Who do you think I am?"

"Death?"

"Pfft— Barin, your world's death is like a meager ant compared to the one I've seen… plus, you aren't dead yet."

"Barin?" That was a word that I didn't know the meaning of, yet I could tell it meant something along the lines of 'child'.

"Young boy, or just boy in Scottish, Nordic is… different here so I had to make due with the language of the Scott's."

"But… Why Scottish? You can just say boy—"

"I don't want to learn my own language again…" He hissed, "Well, why the hell are you so calm!"

"...I'm dying, being positive is good while you're dying!" I said, not showing my face from inside my palm as he grunted.

"...just like that one, huh… yeah, I see the resemblance." He grumbled before asking, "Hey, kid, show me your face."

"No—!?"

In a split moment, less infinitesimal than a second, I was displaced from my standing position in the middle of the pure white void with my hands away from my face, not blocking my tear filled eyes to standing on nothingness as a gigantic thing sped past me. My hair flew back with the wind as the absolutely large, long cylindrical, purple, scaly body that was moving— no slithering in the vast expanse of the whiteness as if it were in water swam past me.

Its body curled and coiled many times as it moved, never coming near me yet being so large that even at a distance one of its scales was larger than an entire building, the circumference of its body being even larger than that— almost the size of a country if my estimates were right. The serpent moved around me, it's scales growing more distant as it began to move away and… whoa…

It's head dropped from above, purple scales encircling two round, almost slited eyes that peered deep into me as it stared straight at me, it's fangs and pronged tongue escaping its mouth as it hissed at me from afar jokingly.

It was far away from me, yet I couldn't see its tail when I looked behind me, only an ever elongating cylindrical body that had stopped moving forward and was now standing still.

Its eyes, while being far away, were larger than my entire body and accounting for that, its head would have dwarfed more than a building in size…

And it was very, very far away from me, the sheer size of its scale right beside —Miles away from— me proved it.

And yet its eyes were that large.

"What do you think I am, barin?"

"A… Snake?" I replied absentmindedly, my voice almost slipping as my eyes fully scanned across the void and found his serpentine body stretched all throughout it, parts of his body appearing in some places and disappearing into others like lines drawn on a piece of three dimensional paper… or a simple way to say that my vision could not fully see the entire serpent.

"Correct." He responded with a slight hiss, my head turning to face his own gigantic one which was unmoving, even as it spoke, "I, am the first serpent; the prototype for all serpent and serpent-like beings in your world. The leviathan who encircles gaia and devours his own tail. The Miogarosormr; Midgardsormr; an extension of ouroboros, or as you would commonly know me…"

"Jormungandr. From Nordic nyth" I finished for him; he raised an eye.

"Oh? I didn't expect a child from Japan to know about Nordic gods."

"Shinohara-san used to tell me stories when we went for flower viewings," I replied, wiping tears off my face, "But… Why are you here? You're not—"

"I'm sort of a failsafe." He replied, cutting me off as I spun around on instinct to face… it.

The mechanical armour suit that looked like a dragon stood rimrod straight, its tail laid out behind it and it's gleaming viridescent visors boring holes into my eyes. The robe that it was covered by the last time I saw it was gone, revealing it's truly sci-fi armour like medium sized red body that had green orbs protruding from the middle of its chest, both of its hands and on it's shoulders.

Darkness spread from behind it, consuming the white realm in a matter of seconds as it began to move towards me in slow yet large steps.

"For him." I heard Jormungandr speaking behind me, his voice smaller and… compact (?) than it had been before as the dragon mech suit stopped it's movement, "Ddraig, you're scaring the kid."

The armour — Ddraig… when have I heard that before…— raised its head andthe part of his armour that would have been his mouth began to move,

"[I wouldn't be if you let me use my actual body.]" He grumbled, the headpiece of his armour retreating back to reveal… absolutely nothing before he spoke again, this time with a voice far deeper and real than his mechanised one.

"[I don't even have a body to show right now.]"

"That would scare him even more."

"[And? It's a dragon. Dragon's are majestic creatures of devine bu—]"

"It's a dragon with every type of weapon impaling it to the ground."

What?

"Something my old contractor did to stop him and the white one from accidentally killing his… uh, rival."

I spun around once again, my mouth still handing to ask a question before I saw Jourmangandr.

Then I asked a question I had since he had knocked me out when I saw the eldritch horror in my dream.

"Why are you a robot?" I got the picture of why Dfraig was piloting a robot armour but I had seen Jourmangandr's body.

Yet he was facing me with a body only that bit taller than mine, face covered in the same mask that I had seen the last time he had appeared to me in this form and a body similar to Ddraig's except a deep violet in colour, including the orbs that protruded from his chest, hands and shoulders.

"Oh, I'm not a robot." Jormungandr clarified, the mask almost slipping off his face before he caught it with his armoured hand. "Ddraig might use the balance breaker as a way of communicating but I can still use my old contractor's face and body." He explained as the gauntlets on his hands fell off with a flick of his wrists and faded into small orbs of light, revealing creamy white hands that looked slender, yet muscled.

"Oh, and Ddraig?" He said while smoothly slipping the mask on, "Can he use the twice critical?"

The dragon occupying his armour huffed and shook his head in the negative.

"[He has to discover it himself.]"

"Alright then, you can leave."

"[No—]"

"Bye!" With a wave of his hand Jormungandr changed the entire world around us.

The darkness that accompanied Draig faded away along with the white realm, leaving us in a new deep blue realm that almost…

"Whoa…" My jaw dropped in amazement as the blue that fully covered the realm slid right past me like water.

…looked like the ocean.

"About that proposal…" Jourmangandr's voice returned to its original pitch and deepness and the visors of his mask glowed violet as he spoke, "What is your goal?"

Silence took hold of the realm.

Issei Hyoudou's cheerful expression slowly returned to a neutral face, every trace of joy he held before vanishing as he took a small breath.

Jormungandr's eyes closed under his mask.

Draig watched from another part of the boy's soul with interest.

Then, without resolution, without willpower, without joy, without happiness that made him who he was, he replied without a clear tone:

"I want to do what Shinohara-san couldn't do, collect every living organism that exists while I am still alive… and become the har—"

"That won't do." Jormungandr interrupted, his mask leaking purple gas as the space around him began to splinter.

"I ask thee, Issei Hyoudou."

Small cracks spread vertically through the mask, red mixed with the purple miasma that was now surrounding Jormungandr and images of two flickering futures never to be fulfilled overtook the white realm.

"Tell me, what is the goal that you chase?"

"What do you want to become, Issei."

Flashes of white hair— a man who wandered without a heart— two infinities— a boy selfishly fighting the entire world for a single girl— a fairy born from a flower—

Jormungandr let a grin spread as he remembered his old contractor's memories from the absolutely blank look on Issei's face.

Taking a second to think once again, he spoke:

"I want to collect every single living organism, once."

Jourmangandr's mask cracked once more.

"I see—"

"And—"

The mask broke.

"And become the Harem king!"

"—eh?"

Red and violet lights exploded outward from Jourmangandr's body and shrouded the whole realm in clashing red and violet.

"Wait hold on— you aren't—"

The colours were shaped into two weapons— a sword and a scythe. Jourmangandr's voice echoed for a moment even if he was not there.

The two weapons clashed.

Like a whirlwind, the weapons moved through the metaphysical reality beyond his comprehension; clashing and deflecting themselves from their attacks and counters.

The sword moved elegantly, refined to the point where smallest of movements were made to counter the strikes of the scythe within a moment's notice.

It danced with uptmost grace and order, no movements were wasted

—!

Yet even the most perfected attacks could not match the sheer chaos each slice from the red scythe held.

One moment the scythe went down, the other it was approaching from the next and breaking through the golden sword's defence with a singular, vertical slash.

The scythe did not dance— no it moved like a wild beasts' frenzy.

There were many— too many openings whenever it struck the golden sword yet it could not act on them.

For the scythe, which was not practical for combat, was too fast that it would destroy the sword if it acted.

Then, as the scythe would go in to slice through the sword; a pillar of coiling flames exploded.

The entire realm was enveloped in gold flames.

The sword would prevail as the victor.

…

"W-wake up! Bak—"

Issei Hyoudou would awake in his bed with a purple toad on his chest.

Ladies and gentlemen! I introduce to you the world serpent!

Don't worry, his personality isn't all goofs and laughs.

And as for why he's in the boosted gear with Ddraig… well he explained why, albeit briefly and without properly explaining it.

And DXD Jourmangandr's… well you have to find out if he's still here after… about 17 chapters.