Issei realized something, he didn't know where he was supposed to go. Right now he was going around the town seeing where he was supposed to go. As he did, he was talking with Yaldabaoth over other matters.
"So let me get this straight." Issei was processing the whole storyline that Yaldabaoth was telling him. "You did create the Garden of Eden." He got a nod from him. "Sophia, with a piece of you that was named Samael, ended up granting the Fruit of Knowledge to Adam and Eve, of which you were supposed to give them later when you gained your powers back." Yaldabaoth was hovering over him, relaxing back while having fun telling the whole story. "Pretty much, that way they wouldn't gain any sense of morality, creating the world I wanted to create."
"But with Sophia's intervention, emotions and such ended up being produced?" Issei was understanding what Yaldabaoth was saying, but it all completely different to what the many religious statements said, at this point he was unsure if it was the system's intervention on creating a different story by replacing what actually happened, or if this truly did occur. "Yup, she ended up regaining her authority as the true Goddess known as the God of Bible," He then had a shit eating grin. "She continued with that position until she died at the war with the three factions, I pretty much dodged a bullet by not being the one in charge."
"You sure are laid back compared to our first meeting." Issei didn't know how to feel about Yaldabaoth's personality, while he seemed elegant and mature with his looks, he acted like a teenager laughing at the misfortune of others. "Well I needed to make a good first impression, also because I wasn't sure if I would end up making you my harbinger of sorts. You'll simply be like a sign that God is back and he's not holding back."
"Even though you're known as the False God?" Yaldabaoth didn't seem bothered by such comments, living a long life made some people end up simply stop caring about certain things. "Well, I may be known as a False God, but I still have a certain pull with the factions, they'll just shit when they realize who I am... Or whose power you have."
"So what can you do while you're bound to me?" Issei wanted to know what were the possibilities of having a false god completely chained to him without being able to cut that bond. "I am able to still be a separate entity to you, I can basically make a body for myself outside yours and even go into my other form, however, it takes quite a bit of energy for me to enter a combat form, since I am still kinda recovering my powers."
"Honestly your mind is really damn comfy, your memories are also a joy for me to read through, I am pretty interested in this Writer's System you've obtained." So in the end Yaldabaoth was part of the system's creation? Then what had created this system?
Despite Yaldabaoth's crude language he wondered how powerful he truly was, he had yet to use any of the powers that Yaldabaoth's trait gave him, if his presence was enough to instill fear in any of his opponents then maybe he didn't need to use the abilities.
In case of it being the worst possible scenario, he'd have to rely on Justitia, as the Blade Forged From Souls was a weapon he had no idea of using, swinging it around won't cut it, and he'd need to practice with it first.
Just as they both finished talking, Issei started to feel a high concentration of power coming near the academy, he believed that he needed to go there. But before he could go, Yaldabaoth advised him over a certain matter. "Wait, before you go, you should hide your appearance." Issei was confused. "Why though?"
Yaldabaoth shrugged. "Well, mostly because there will be people coming to you, be it for battling or just starting relations, the factions will know who you are and they could even hold your family hostage... Also because it's really cool when a mysterious all powerful being comes out of nowhere."
"You sure like being flashy you know?" He remembered the times Yaldaboth appeared before him, both of which were incredibly dramatic and he saw that he was much more human despite saying people shouldn't have morals. Yaldabaoth knew what Issei was thinking and ended up responding to him. "I am a powerful being, but I can't do it myself you know?" Ah, that did explain it, False God was not all powerful compared to what an actual God could do.
"You really like mentioning that," Yaldabaoth was smiling at Issei, they both knew that in the end neither of them could do anything to one another, at least that's what Issei thought as he believed that Yaldabaoth knew about Writer's System. "So do you know anything about Writer's System?"
"Nope, while in the dreams you had, you were basically in my domain, so I basically could read what you had in mind, and I just picked the first thing that I found interesting." That simple question made Issei have an expressionless face while looking at Yaldabaoth, he was dead serious and Issei felt like Yaldabaoth was just bored of his life and decided to have him as entertainment.
"I will stop joking right now, I only knew a few bits of you, most of which I got from your stay in those dreams, but the information that I have now is the things I learned after I chained myself to you, you know about Sophia and you have been rejecting your emotions to continue on, you check all the marks to become one who can help me with protecting my own world." Yaldabaoth stopped floating around and stood in front of Issei. "I do not care about silly banter, I know well that it is your current form of trying to hide that sad expression you have inside, you've lost people you love twice, yet you are still here standing, you are strong enough to continue on, and you should be proud of it, for they will be happy that you are able to hold onto this world that you've come to hate."
"To live in a world that is cruel yet beautiful at the same time, you must experience one side to be able to experience the other. If you've lived your whole life experiencing the cruel side of my world, sooner or later the good side will come and you'll be able to experience it... Even if just a little." Yaldabaoth knew that Issei felt both sides, yet if he ever felt that none of those memories were happy any longer, he'd remind him to look forward and continue through the hardships.
"You will one day be able to break this law, once you cannot feel both you will simply live as you wish, there may not be reason, but I am sure that you can agree that for some and maybe many it is the only way to get rid of the suffering my world has created after Sophia's intervention, so, let us work together as one to get rid of all that makes everyone suffers at the exchange of small shards of happiness." Yaldabaoth held his hand out this time, he wanted to make sure Issei was on board with the plan, he was now bound to him after all, but if he decided not to go with what he envisioned, he'd at least help him find happiness even if it goes against his own ideas.
Issei looked at Yaldabaoth, this time he smiled and accepted the hand. "Very well, I will help you, I am sure that I haven't felt the worst pain compared to others, yet that doesn't mean that I can be greedy myself and express it." He decided to follow the advice he once gave Sayori, if he was going to do something to supposedly help others, he'd do it for his own selfish reasons.
Issei would throw away every emotion and every moral he had to be what Yaldabaoth wanted from a human being, even if it meant not holding his promise to Natsuki, he knew that she would understand why he was doing this.
"Excellent, now then, let's go to where the battle is supposed to happen." Yaldaboth had a determined smile, he was happy that he could find a mortal like Issei Hyoudou, he knew that he was special and he wanted to take advantage of that, but as equals for their own reasons.
"Oh before that, let's plan your entrance and your attire." Issei groaned as he saw Yaldabaoth completely sold on the plan of the mysterious person coming into battle. "Oh, also, I'll change the color of your hair." They ended up talking about what to do while Yaldabaoth created clothes out of nowhere.
"No, it's pronounced Xiao, not Shao." Yaldabaoth was trying to make Issei say his fake name correctly, which was a task by itself. "Why did we end up making up this cover with a Chinese name?! Also I don't know Chinese!" Issei was starting to get annoyed while Yaldabaoth tried everything he could to convince him. "You do know Chinese now thanks to my powers, and this is because the meaning of the name is pretty important, also because a guandao is a weapon from Chinese origin so of course we had to make you Chinese!"
"Well, at the very least let me wear something that I like!" Issei wanted to have a long red coat with white fur as well as a suit, yet Yaldabaoth wanted him to wear a chinese training set of clothes. He ended up accepting what Yaldabaoth wanted him to wear, he now had a white sleeveless tight shirt on with patterns on it, while his pants were dark blue, tugged into his black boots with emeralds cosmetics on them, there were also pieces of clothes running through the wind while they were attached to the back of his shirt and on his pants.
"Oh don't forget to get tattoos too." Issei looked at Yaldabaoth. "Are you trying to make me look like you in some way?" Yaldabaoth sheepishly looked away and said. "Maybe? It may also be because I want you to look like what I wanted my harbinger to look like."
"Sure, I'll just play along with your fantasy False God..." Issei gave up, he'll simply go along with whatever Yaldabaoth wanted... For now. But he wasted too much time arguing and preparing to get to where Kiba Yuuto was.
"I'll just ignore the fact that you can't pronounce it, since they'll probably be too surprised by your presence to really care." Yaldabaoth seemed to think highly of Issei in a way, at least with his powers helping him.
"We're getting closer, I'll just look around the place to see when I should enter the scene..." He took out Blade Forged From Souls and Justitia, he'd be using Justitia for the most part. He didn't know how Mystery Storage wasn't activating it's ability to instantly kill him, as Yaldabaoth was there with him, yet he could theorize that it was because he was now part of the system as a trait.
He finally got to where the battle was supposed to happen, yet all he saw was most of the Occult Research Club members in standby against a Fallen Angel, he saw Kiba Yuuto at Rias' side, he seemed a bit exhausted, he concluded that he had battled with the dead man in the ground. "Hey Yaldabaoth since you're a powerful being, are you omniscient or something? Could you tell me what happened?"
"You flatter me Issei, but no, I cannot know everything that happens at any time, however I can tell you who some of them are since I've been doing my own research while hiding." He pointed at the Fallen Angel. "That is Kokabiel, you may know him from Father Ichirouta's teachings."
So that was the enemy that Kiba was going after? I was late to the battle, I knew that the situation was in its last phase, and now was the time to enter. I was still unsure of battling as this would be his first time entering a fight, but Yaldabaoth assured me. "Don't worry too much, I will tell you what you need to do when the time comes."
I nodded as I changed into the appearance that Yaldabaoth had planned for me to use. Taking out both of my weapons I spread my wings and flew up in the air. I was a Black Swan, who had the wings of my sins attached to my back and the fake wings of a White Swan that I used with my false personality. It was time to make my existence known, even if it was with a different alias.
As I flew up, I hid my wings again, I let myself drop, having Blade Forged From Souls pointing into the ground, I fell until he hit the ground with his weapon, creating cracks around me as everyone had their attention towards my presence.
Looking around I could tell that there were two exorcists, one seemed to be working with the Occult Research Club while the other had fled the scene after battling Yuuto. I took my guandao and pointed it at Kokabiel.
"Oh? I was not expecting someone else to appear in this battle ground." Kokabiel was currently analyzing him, but also everyone else. Rias looked at the Issei who had entered the battle out of nowhere, he hoped that Kiba didn't discover who he was, but thankfully Yaldabaoth put incredible work with this appearance to conceal everything that could connect him to himself.
He noticed that there were some of the Student Council members on the ground, he realized that there may have been a barrier that he didn't notice, if it was to conceal the battle or to make sure no one else ended up arriving to help Kokabiel, he didn't know.
"Who are you?" Rias seemed on guard as another unknown variable had appeared. Issei simply responded without being nervous. "You may call me Xiao, I am here to take care of Kokabiel." Rias needed to be careful on what to say next, but she simply asked, even if it could be seen as a form of defying whatever Xiao wanted. "We'd like to take care of this ourselves first. If that is fine could you let us deal first?"
"Ah, even as a kind devil she still had some traits of being prideful." Yaldabaoth was shaking his head in disapproval, yet Issei couldn't really see any reason to do so, he simply accepted. "Very well, I will look at what you are able to do Rias Gremory, but know this, your attitude would have offended any other god."
This surprised everyone here, was he implying that he was a god? Yet none of them seemed to recognize him, they waved that question away as there was more important stuff right now. Kokabiel was getting a bit impatient. "Well, I do not care who you may be, but does the sister of Satan believe she can beat me? Don't make me laugh!" He was prepared to attack, so the club decided to take the initiative and attack.
Issei was curious about how they would attack, he had yet to see any attacks from any of the biblical factions, he saw Rias cast an attack that Issei couldn't really comprehend, as she did, Akeno had coordinated and also summoned thunder, Issei saw as both attacks didn't do much to Kokabiel who simply let them hit him, as both attacks finished, Kiba rushed up to him and swung his sword a few times, attempting to slash him, Kokabiel dodged the attacks, as he was about to counterattack he then stepped back as Koneko punched the ground where Kokabiel dodged from.
Kokabiel proceeded to use his wings to shoot his feathers, as Kiba deflected them with his sword, Koneko attempted to dodge them, she unfortunately was hit by some of them, Asia proceeded to go up to her to heal her while Kiba then went to cover for them.
He then saw a blue haired girl try to attack again, yet she couldn't catch up to him as he went up in the air. He stood there as he looked at each of them to then say. "That is quite the interesting group of misfits you've got yourself Gremory." As he said that he put a hand on his chin while seemingly saying certain things about each member. "You have a remnant from the Sword Experiment, an excommunicated nun and Baraqiel's daughter, a fallen angel who had become a devil."
While the last statement had surprised many of them, Issei stood there unbothered, he didn't know any of them on a really intimate level. As he continued to wait to see what Rias would do, the comments that Kokabiel kept taunting bothered Rias quite a lot, she didn't seem cold tempered, or maybe it was a weak point of hers.
Issei thought this was enough, this was going nowhere, as Kokabiel seemed to want to continue taunting her to make her do more attacks. "That's enough." He walked until he was in front of Kokabiel. "I have seen enough to really say that this is going nowhere."
"Wait, please let us continue handling this." Rias was desperately trying to control the situation, how many times did she have to have her authority defied? The first crack was the fact that she couldn't stop Raynare and her group from escaping, then she couldn't cancel her arranged marriage, and now there was a powerful fallen angel in her territory that she couldn't take down. Her willpower was slowly deteriorating as each failure made her lose confidence in herself.
"Rias Gremory, it is obvious that you still don't have the power to be able to oppose Kokabiel, you will simply need to fall back." Issei didn't want the people present to end up dying on him, he promised to protect this world, and that meant that he would protect those that were in front of him. His words were cut by Kokabiel.
"It is true that this isn't going anywhere, but tell me, what is your reason for coming to this place to stop this fight?" Kokabiel was a bit puzzled by the arrival of Issei. "I can feel certain powers from you, tell me... Are you an Angel? or are you something else?, it would surprise me that an angel like you would continue to follow a master that no longer exists."
Xenovia caught on to that comment. "What are you insinuating Kokabiel?" Kokabiel looked away. "Oh... I wasn't supposed to say, well let me tell you anyways since both of you seem to still follo-." But before he could finish Issei had cut him off.
"That God is dead is that right?" Issei was giving a smirk, Yaldabaoth was starting to rub off a bit on him, he wondered what he was doing right now as Yaldabaoth was quiet at the moment, but he didn't really care. This statement surprised everyone.
"Ah ah ah ah... AH AH AH AH" Kokabiel was starting to laugh loudly. " Oh that's quite interesting, I thought it was a hidden secret. You must be quite an important figure if you can continue keeping angelical powers while knowing about that... Tell me, are you actually one of the seraphs under cover? It has been a long time since I've seen any of them."
"Well, I am not a seraph in a way, you may call me Xiao, as I said before, but I have the power of the true god Samael with me." He let each of his wings out, this let each of the members become even more surprised than before.
"Impossible... You... Whatever you are... You have an affiliation to each of the biblical factions, yet it shouldn't be impossible, you shouldn't be able to exist." Kokabiel was stunned but he wasn't panicking, if anything he was even more interested. "But for you to say that Samael is the true god is quite the funny statement, that idiot who turned into a dragon is a fool who went against God's words, even back then I knew that it was foolish to do such a thing."
"You aren't understanding what I am saying." He got even closer each time. "Samael... or Yaldabaoth created humanity, and the God all of you know of took all the credit, the one who died in the war was a phony." He ended up having a certain degree of hatred towards Sophia after it led the members of the church to leave this world.
"These wings are proof that I have been chosen by Yaldabaoth, as he sees fit that I am able to protect his world." He raised his weapon while continuing to proclaim Yaldabaoth as his god. "Right now I, Xiao, have the power of the God of Humanity, you devils, angels and fallen angels were never meant to exist as they betrayed the original creator by helping another god, it is only time until the world will heal where none of you are needed." This statement was met with some caution as it could be considered a threat to the factions.
"You fool! Are you delusional to believe that?" Kokabiel proceeded to attack him with a spear of light that was meant to stab and pierce him through the heart, yet it didn't, all of them simply stopped the moment they made contact with him and spread around him, leaving dents in the ground, Issei simply continued staring in front of him.
"Xiao... Who really are you?" Rias was stunned at the display of someone being unaffected by the attacks of one of the most notable fallen angels that she could really think of, but it was also because of the information that was given by both of them, a lot of information had been revealed during that exchange and it was something she needed to inform to her brother as soon as possible, even if his brother knew a lot about the other factions, the information that Xiao had given was something she was certain his brother didn't know about, or even the other leaders as well.
"I think this is enough talking." Issei pulled out Justitia as he quickly shot Kokabiel, the shot completely obliterating his wing as he tried to dodge it. "Argh! Just what did you do, do you possibly have more than one Sacred Gear of something?!" He was holding his head as he tried to stand up, the effects could be incredibly detrimental against someone who had both good and evil deeds, it seemed to be most effective against opponents that have lived longer. "Judgment for those who have forsaken my Lord, your existence is not needed in this world. You have tallied quite some evil deeds there, and some good deeds from your time as an angel I assume."
Before he could finish his business Yaldabaoth warned him. "Issei behind you." As he heard his voice, Issei used Blade Forged From Souls to parry the attack that was coming towards from behind. He moved the weapon to his back in a quick motion with one of his hands, he was surprised that he could hold such a weapon with only one. As he turned around he swung the weapon horizontally, as the attacker retreated, he continued with a follow up, slashing downwards to where the attacker had stepped back, only to be met by the white armored being step even further back, the exchange proceeded as Issei used his wings to boost himself towards the attacker, they both clashed, the blade was trying to cut through the white gauntlets of the unknown person.
"Impressive Issei, you might have the skill for battle to make a followup without my help." Yaldabaoth was praising him, he was unsure if he was mocking him or if he truly believed so, but right now he didn't care, whoever had attacked him could be powerful by themselves and he needed to put all of his attention on them.
They both ended up backing off as it didn't seem like there was going to be any advantage, Issei strategically put himself near where Kokabiel was, as he assumed that this mysterious person was here for him. "Oh, I was not expecting you to react to that attack." The white armored person was a few meters away as they were still in a combat position. "I am here to take Kokabiel myself under orders of Azazel, if you put yourself in the way I'll defeat you." Issei paused as he simply let him handle the situation, there was no need to battle.
"What is it that Azazel wants to do with Kokabiel?" As the fallen angel tried to slowly get away, Issei proceeded to stab one of his hands to make sure he didn't go anywhere. The scream of pain was one that made many of the present cringe but the unknown person kept calm. "Simple, Azazel has sent me to capture Kokabiel to imprison him."
Issei looked at the opposing person and couldn't see if he was lying or not, but he wanted to avoid fighting as an inexperienced person, so he simply accepted his demands and removed his weapon that had stabbed Kokabiel. "I'll be leaving now." Issei was now letting his wings out as he was about to take flight.
"Wait! Just who truly are you, who are you aligned with?" Rias had asked as she still needed answers from what had happened, Xenovia was still in a shocked state over what was said while others were trying to help the Student Council members.
"I already said it, I am Xiao. I am the one who currently hold the power of Yaldabaoth, I am simply doing the work of the God that all of you have forsaken." He decided that he didn't want to continue talking. Right now he wanted to get away from the scene as he finished his quest.
"Wait before you go, I want you to do something else Issei." Yaldabaoth seemed to want him to do another move before he could check his quest completion, he accepted as it could be a lot more important than the rewards of a quest.
Xiao was the talk within each of the factions, Kiba Yuuto was currently standing next to the other members, as well as the current Hakuryuko, who had clashed with Xiao and the other exorcists that had accompanied Xenovia, they were talking about the peace treaty, which was going smoothly.
But they also talked about who Xiao was, according to the wielder of the Divine Dividing and the members of the occult research club, he proclaimed himself as the chosen one of a god, who was supposed to be the true god, and yet was called Samael, or Yaldabaoth.
"This seems contradictory." Michael was quite interested in this development. "I know that Samael ended up giving the Fruit of Knowledge to both Adam and Eve, and then he proceeded to become a dragon, yet he says that he was in actuality the true god?"
"In any case it could be possible that Samael had been turned into a Sacred Gear by God instead, this was the most likely answer." Azazel was also interested, but for different reasons, discovering a new Sacred Gear was something that had caught his attention the moment Vali had informed him.
They had been theorizing and trying to find explanations over what powers Xiao had, he was strong enough to completely defeat Kokabiel with a single attack, they didn't know what damage would have been done if the shot hit him point blank.
"Then why don't you talk to me myself?" They all looked towards where the voice was, Xiao was in front of them all at the window as he stood up. No one expected him to show up again, yet here he was. Which surprised them a lot considering this place was completely supervised from the outside
None of them stood up to stay on guard, they were too curious over the fact about who he was, they could more than likely be able to defeat him if all the people inside the room worked together, yet that could increase the tension that was outside by each of the troops in standby. "Then, you said that you were the chosen one of Samael, is that correct?" Azazel started by asking. "That is true, however, his true name is Yaldabaoth, the Samael you know of is still locked away."
"What do you mean by the one we know of?" Sirzechs then asked, even if they were sure about what occurred during the war, they wanted to know more about God, even if Michael didn't he couldn't stop the others.
"There are two Gods that you speak of, the original one who created Humanity, and the God that you know off, the one who fought during the war." He omitted the fact that god was dead as he felt like the girl that was in that room looked incredibly familiar, and he didn't know if she knew about the truth.
He proceeded to continue to explain. "The God you know, or Goddess, is called Sophia, while the original one was called Yaldabaoth, Samael was a piece made out of him, but in his weakened state, his creator, Sophia had taken control of the creation of humanity and then created the biblical factions so to speak, hence why I said that the biblical factions were never intended to exist." Yaldabaoth had told him that the angels that he had created were not the ones that the Angel faction had, the ones he had created died after he defeated them.
He noticed that Michael was silent, he knew that he was avoiding any way of talking to make sure he didn't accidentally say something that could lead into trouble. Thankfully Sirzech was able to ask the question. "That would still mean that The God of the Bible was still the true god right, if they did end up creating us and continuing to develop humanity, it would be reasonable that they were in reality the true one, even if they had taken control of another god's work am I right?"
"In a way yes, she indeed is the God that the Angels believe in, it is simply the fact that your God had taken the rightful place of the one who was going to make this world differently to how it is now." This could be seen as an insult to Sophia, but he didn't care, as Yaldabaoth was the false god that he chose to follow.
He could see that everyone was skeptical and some much more hostile than others, he understood why, but he didn't care much, he was sure that this whole story was all being manipulated by the system, Yaldabaoth never existed in his original world, yet it still surprised him the fact that the biblical factions did. Continuing the questions Serafall then asked. "Who are you exactly Xiao? Especially due to the fact that you seem to not be from here, what made you come here?"
That was a question Issei couldn't answer, yet Yaldabaoth was there to answer. "I may be able to answer that Serafall Leviathan." This surprised everyone. "I am Yaldabaoth, I am currently residing inside my host." Azazel was smiling now. "Oh, so you can talk while in your user's body! Tell me, are you perhaps a Sacred Gear?"
"I would not say this is a Sacred Gear, but rather I decided to choose him as my harbinger." So in the end he wasn't really a Sacred Gear? This somewhat disappointed Azazel a bit. "I am the creator of this world after all, I want Xiao to be the guardian so that this world I've created wouldn't turn into dust."
"That is understandable, then allow us to help you in case such a disaster happens." Michael seemed wary of this self proclaimed god, yet he didn't let it show through his smile. "We'd like to keep peaceful and supportive ties with both of you if that was possible"
"That I can accept, even if I myself believe that the supernatural was never intended to exist, I can work together for the same goal." The people inside the room seemed to sigh in relief, yet Yaldabaoth added something. "But you must prove yourself with the next challenge."
"What do you mean b-" Before Serafall could finish her question she noticed that many of the current members that were in the room were frozen, Yaldabaoth continued to explain. "You seem to have some rebels inside your faction Sirzechs, Serafall, all of you must take care of them to prove that you are powerful enough to protect this world, we will show up again if we see that there is no way for you to complete the ordeals."
Xiao then spoke as he left through the window. "Now then, good luck with your ordeal, oh and Hakuryuko, you'll have to wait for the Sekiryuutei a bit longer than you expect." The Boosted Gear trait that he had meant that one didn't exist as of yet, and that he'd need to wait years until the owner of the Sacred Gear ended up being old enough to fight comfortably with it.
"Oh? Do you perhaps know where my rival is?" Vali seemed interested in what he was saying, but he made sure to get rid of any misunderstandings from his comment. "He has yet to be born." As he finished he set out and took flight as he defeated any opponent that got in his way, the various wings that he had took the attention of every side of the conflict as they saw someone with a pair of wings of each faction.
Some of them even got scared with his presence as it radiated with the power of Yaldabaoth, even in his weakened state, he saw as his power seemed to be strong enough to intimidate many of the supernatural beings present. As he kept flying through the battlefield, some of them ended up entering into their own Panic state, courtesy of his trait, anyone who dared risk this world's peace would be met with his punishment.
"So how was that?" Issei was asking Yaldabaoth as he seemed satisfied over the encounter. "It was perfect, with your presence being made, certain evil factions that I've spied on will be more hesitant to make a move, as with you thrown into the mix they'll have to make their plans again to take into account your presence."
"But what about when I can't be there at that moment?" Issei was a bit worried, he could only protect a small place, it would be impossible to protect the whole world. "That is why I told you to use that appearance, I've been creating copies of the same appearance around the world, while they aren't as powerful as you, they are strong enough to defeat other gods."
"But weren't you weakened?" Issei asked the obvious question, this seemed a bit contradictory. "Why do you think I am still weakened after many millennia?" Yaldabaoth knew that if he had obtained all of his power, being such as Ophis or The Great Red would notice, he wanted to make sure that nothing could get in his way, hence why he had scattered his power across the world, so that once he had a powerful enough presence, he'd return all that power to himself and restart the whole world.
"Heck they won't expect you to be immune to their attacks, while the copies don't have the same abilities, they don't have anything that you don't have." Yaldabaoth strategized that even after the fight against Kokabiel, they would think that he was simply strong enough to avoid his attack, but in reality he was completely immune thanks to Unknown Sefirot.
"So now I am free to do whatever I want until the threats arise right?" Issei asked him as he didn't know what to do now. Actually he had yet to check the system to see if there was anything else that he had to do for the story with Kiba, upon looking at it, he was met with a unique notification.
The Story cannot proceed to the next phase.
Due to the fact the story cannot be finished, it will be removed from the system.
Uh, it seemed like he had strayed far from the original story yet again. In the end he didn't do much with Kiba, he didn't get punished for it fortunately, but he would have liked to at least get the reward from completing that quest.
Now that he was free from a story for now, he wanted to simply practice different forms of art, starting with painting, yet Yaldabaoth wanted him to practice with the guandao despite the fact that he had nowhere to practice.
But first he wanted to know more about some stuff. "Uhm, Yaldabaoth?" He was met with said person looking at him curiously. "Yes Issei?" He had many questions that he wanted to ask, but he simply said. "What are the Sekiryuutei and the Hakuryuko?"
Yaldabaoth smiled. "Well that is quite the easy question, they are the names given to the Red Dragon Emperor and the White Dragon Emperor respectively, both are dragons that have been kept in Sacred Gears known as Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing, as you may know you lost it with the intervention of whatever the system is." Issei nodded in understanding.
"They both basically got locked away by Sophia when the battle between the three factions happened, and I am pretty sure that is the reason why she is dead." Yaldabaoth finished, but he then added. "Actually, I am a bit surprised that Albion didn't comment anything during my time explaining, wonder if he's just disappointed that Ddraig has yet to make an appearance."
"Thanks for explaining, but I do wonder, do they both have any relation to these books?" Issei then took out the books that he obtained in those mysterious churches, the colors of the White Dragon Emperor immediately reminded him of the book, so he now had a possible lead to what the books were about.
Yaldabaoth analyzed both of them for a few minutes and put a hand on his chin. "Mmm, interesting, to think that such books existed." He proceeded to stop levitating and stood in front of Issei. "Well, in a way they are related, but I am not sure how, let me take a look at the contents."
Issei couldn't read them, they had a language that he couldn't understand, even with Yaldabaoth's power he was still unable to, as he kept trying to read them he ended up giving up and shutting the book. "Yeah, I'll have to decipher them first, I'm not sure how long it will take, but I can try. They reek of both Ddraig and Albion and I am surprised the Hakuryuko did not notice."
"All right, I'll let you look through them when I go to sleep so you don't have to wait for me to wake up." Issei didn't know if Yaldabaoth needed sleep or if he didn't have a sense of time or something like that. "Well I am grateful, maybe you should have the TV on so I don't get bored once I do end up finding out what the books contain."
"Will do, just tell me what interests you." Issei was warming up to Yaldabaoth, even if he could be annoying at times, he had a sense of knowing when he was not supposed to fool around. As he finally got home he looked at the clothes that Yaldabaoth had given him, he had to admit, they were comfortable and looked good, but he was unsure if it would give him a lot of protection, in the end it wouldn't matter for now.
While painting he wondered if he should change his look again, it was mostly because Yaldabaoth kept commenting on it after he finally got the chance to truly analyze his looks, the reason why he wanted to change looks was also because he wanted to explore himself more.
"Man you look like... what do you call it? A twink? No, it was... Was it femboy?" Yaldabaoth kept trying to find a word that would annoy Issei even more. "The fuck did you try calling me? That's rich coming from someone who looked like a damn fridge when we first met."
While Yaldabaoth kept teasing him of it being too feminine Issei felt that he'd want to discover more about which look he was most comfortable with and what else he could practice, he knew that he didn't have many skills or talent for certain things, but he knew that sooner or later he'd find it. He wasn't really looking forward to the next day he had to go to the academy.
It seemed like a normal day in the academy, he was now looking much forward to when he graduated, he noticed that people were much friendlier to him than before, some even complimented him on his new look again despite only being a week or so, how long has it been since he first got the system again? 2 weeks? technically 4 but 2 of them ended up looping back. He noticed that Kiba Yuuto stopped trying to meet up with him, he had asked Yaldabaoth to hide his powers to not alert the devils in the school, but it still was weird for him that he abruptly stopped checking.
Not only that, he saw that everyone was surrounding two people on a table, they seemed to be really interested on a new card game that they took a liking, he could see even Motohama and Matsuda cheering on as Aika Kiryuu slammed a card down, the other student grabbed his head in frustration as it seemed he had lost.
He got a bit interested about it and went to look at what was the commotion, what he saw was a card game with weird looking cards that had numbers, stars and long texts on them, he didn't ask anything about them and decided to immediately go to the Literature Club room, yet as went through the halls he saw all of the other students with a deck of cards, he wondered if this was just a trend that had started with the release of a new card game, or if it was part of the story that the system was preparing for him.
At the Literature Club Room he continued with his routine of practicing various forms of art, aside from painting, poetry, dancing and also the use of the blade, he wanted to know martial arts, they technically were a form of art if you thought about it. Dancing was something that he'd take a break right now he was comfortable with his current skill level. He now wondered what would be his next story, he felt like he always entered a new story immediately one or two days later, but it was taking far longer than before.
"So did you find anything out about the books?" He kept drawing, the painting was nothing special, but it was decent practice. "Mmm, not quite, I was able to find what language it was using, truthfully I have never seen this language before, in fact, I need to first learn it to be able to find out what they say."
"So pretty much nothing?" Issei was nearly done with the painting, Yaldabaoth responded while looking through both books. "Yeah nothing in the sense of contents, don't expect me to find out what both say in just mere days, this could take weeks, months, heck I wouldn't be surprised it took years."
"Wait really? Is it that hard to learn the language?" Yaldabaoth made a gesture with his hand. "Eeeh... Somewhat, it's more about the volume of both books, despite looking like normal books with some pages, they all don't have any spaces and the amount of the pages is much higher than you'd think due to how thin they actually are." Issei understood and didn't seem to reply.
He then heard a knock on the door, he was expecting Kiba Yuuto to show up, but what he did not expect was the exorcist he saw at the meeting between the three factions to show up, he tensed up, thinking that maybe she found out who he was.
Instead, he was asked a question. "Hello! Is Issei Hyoudou part of this club?" She seemed pretty carefree and cheery, it reminded him of Sayori in a way, he responded by standing up and saying. "Why yes, that would be me." Having a big smile on his face, he looked at her, she seemed quite surprised.
"Wait, that's you?! You've changed so much since the last time we've seen each other." She got even closer to him, he was pretty uncomfortable with how close she was getting. "Uhm, who are you exactly? I don't think I've really seen you around here." Her clothes were of the academy, yet he didn't see her around before, it was possible that she had entered the academy as part of the peace treaty.
"Oh I don't blame you, but maybe this could refresh your memory, remember that kid you used to hang out with during your childhood." Issei didn't know how she knew about that, yet she felt familiar, he simply couldn't remember why. "Well, that was me, Irina Shidou, that boyish girl you used to hang out with." Her smile was bigger than ever, she had finally met her childhood crush many years later.
"Wait, you're a girl?!" Issei thought that she was a boy, but finding out that the childhood friend he had was in actuality a girl was a surprise for him. "I thought you were a boy!" Irina scratched her head. "Eh eh, uhm I was pretty tomboyish when I was young, but enough about me, you've become quite girlish yourself Issei."
"Don't mention it, I simply wanted to try a new hairstyle that's all." He looked away, how many people were going to mention it? Yaldabaoth and now his childhood friend had mentioned it but it didn't really bother him much. "So how have you been?" Issei was curious how she had become an exorcist for the church.
"Well ever since I've gone to England I was able to go to church more times than before, but now that I am back I wanted to visit you, since I wanted to know how you've been doing." She sat on one of the chairs as she talked. "Actually I am surprised to see that you created a Literature Club, I never thought of you as the creative type."
"Well, I did create poems for a bit now." He was unsure what to say, a single mention of the supernatural and she'd instantly question him about it, so he went for more general answers. "I saw that there was a free room so I decided on using it for myself, I'm also the only member here since I want peace and quiet."
"I see, I see, and have you been doing anything else?" Irina has a dreamy look on her, Issei ended up mentioning some of the things that he started doing, such as dancing, painting and writing. In the end he spent more time that he wanted in the club while catching up with his childhood friend.
"Say Issei, do you have a girlfriend?" Irina was curious about her childhood friend's romantic life, but she was met with a response she was not expecting. "Well, no, and I'm not thinking of trying to enter a relationship any time soon."
"Uh? Why is that?" For some reason that response hurt Irina a bit, but she was far more curious about the reason. "It's a bit personal, but let's just say I still can't move on." He sounded melancholic, he still missed her, that small interactions he had with her were the warmest moments he had felt, and having those moments abruptly disappear surprised him a lot.
"O-oh, I see, sorry for asking." Irina was looking down, the conversation had gotten a bit more awkward. "Anyways, uhm, I'll see you around here later since I've entered the Academy." They both waved as their interaction had finally come to an end. After a moment of silence he started talking.
"You felt it too didn't you?" Issei was waiting for Yaldabaoth to respond. "Yes, she's an angel, it seems like that meeting between the factions was successful now that an angel has joined this academy. "Should we worry?" Issei wondered if she had feelings for him, her behavior felt different to when they used to hang out, in the case she ever did confess to him, he was sure that he'd refuse, he's Yaldabaoth's harbinger and he must act as one.
"No, we don't need to, it will make using your Xiao persona harder, but aside from that it simply means that this place is more secure than before." This calmed Issei a bit. He decided to go back home after finishing a painting, it was of a Great Grade one but with no effect, he left it there, making sure it was not going to be heated up by the sun when the rays of light finally came out again, he looked outside as the wind was calm yet soothing.
Making his way towards his house he saw as a card dropped in front of him, he didn't know where it came from, there was no one around and it seemed to have been dropped yet there was nothing over him, he analyzed the back of it, the card had a design of a vortex of sort, it was brown that was sucked into an oval that was dark.
Picking it up he decided to flip the card.
As he did a light started to shine as it blinded Issei, when he finally opened his eyes, he found himself in a luscious forest.
The winds continued to blow, his long hair flew, he didn't know where he was, but he knew that this was the next story that he was supposed to be part of. The system finally popped up and showed him his new story.
A new story has been created
Information: The world is in danger, as the rising conflicts continue, this beautiful world is near its extinction, yet heroes from around the world will do anything to save it, join them as each of their stories will unfold until the climax of the fight, their destruction leads to the creation of new life.
Genre: Fantasy
Role: Secondary Character
So he had transmigrated to another world? Judging by what it said, he was about to get some practice with his weapons, he pulled out Blade Made From Souls. "Yaldabaoth, are you ready for a new adventure?" Yaldabaoth appeared as he looked around, confused about the fact that he didn't expect this. "Issei I don't know what you got yourself into, but it does interest me a lot."
Issei made his way through the forest as he delved deeper into it to see if he could find any form of civilization, the breeze of the air was incredibly soothing as his hair kept moving around, unbeknownst to him, the books that he had carried around started to glow very faintly.
End of Arc 2
(A/N)
AAAAH I don't like how I did this arc! So the arc was much shorter than anticipated, I apologize if the quality seems much worse than the first arc. This is due to the fact that this was one of the first arcs I had ever planned and I had no idea where this story was going to go, so I basically had to improvise a bit to make it a bit more understandable for the next arcs. I promise that the next arc will be much more interesting, the arc will go through an incredibly obscure lore about a certain game that you'll find out soon enough after I publish its first chapter.
I would also like to say that instead of daily chapters when I post a whole arc until I finish it, I'll be posting one chapter and then wait a week, this way it will spread nicely and won't be sporadic as I will be able to work on the next arc while waiting to post the next chapter. This doesn't mean I'll be posting every week, I'll be posting one chapter a week when I finish the whole arc and if I still haven't finished the next arc once I publish all chapters it'll go into hiatus, but it should be much shorter.
This arc ended differently compared to what I had planned, I will simply say one thing. Kiba Yuuto was supposed to die, in fact, it was supposed to be a reference to Judas and Jesus, Judas being Issei and Kiba being Jesus but I couldn't really find a way to do it without making them both... too intimate. I will proceed to explain everything in the reference section. Also I really need to revisit the original Highschool DxD story, I am sure I fucking butchered that scene with Kokabiel, but at the end of the day I think it was the only canon part that I was really gonna add since after that it's gonna derail completely from the original plot, hence why this fic exists.
I honestly couldn't find a way to make the ending chapter a bit longer, not only that, but I really don't want to write fighting scenes, I feel like I'll be bad at them, but time will tell, maybe I'm just good at writing tragedy.
Now references.
Xiao... You know Genshin Impact? Indeed I made him have a persona that looked like Xiao, and there is actually a reason for that in the future... various actually. But that is not the only Xiao that it references... Remember Library of Ruina? Well the clothes Issei mentions are the ones Xiao from that game has. The next arc connects a lot of the plot points that have been left as a mystery.
Scrapped content from last chapter, well first of all, like I said before, the 6 children had a different ending to them, they were supposed to be killed by Issei Hyoudou, I'd also add the song that it was meant to be unlocked from the gallery. When I take out the first arc of the next chapter I'll go even more into depth since It's going to be incredibly long as I quite literally got rid of 3 arcs/plot points and ended up with these + 2 songs that I was going to add as representing my inspiration.
Yaldabaoth was supposed to show up much later in the story, but saw that the Sophia thing ended up making this arc about Yaldabaoth much more appealing. This was meant to be a cult after all, but it ended up making for a much more understandable arc compared to what I had in store.
I really despise religion when it comes to me trying to make a story based on certain parts of it, but I ended up bullshitting some stuff to make it seem like it was close enough to what I wanted, having it incredibly different to the actual myths and legends like how various media do it.
And that is probably it for the arc information. I'll simply be leaving images of Xiao in case you don't know who they are.