To Roll The Die
Chapter 4, Aegis
I do not own anything pertaining to DxD or RWBY.
I'm uploading this one a day early due to a slew of appointments tomorrow that will keep me otherwise preoccupied.
It didn't take long for Kiba to realize that his opponent's hesitation to cross blades with him and then later his multiple warnings to pay attention were not born from cowardice or arrogance.
It was born from confidence, plain and simple.
Jaune Arc did not fight like an orthodox Knight who controlled the battlefield through lightning fast agility, but instead remained firmly planted as he went blow for blow with Kiba without missing a step while slowly establishing a rhythm for their spar that was akin to a war drum.
His heavy armor was not for show, as it allowed him to ignore attacks that Kiba could not afford to and even added weight to his already much heavier attacks.
Crossing blades with the Arc scion was no simple matter. The immense force that the elder blond attacked with produced shockwaves that disturbed the leaves of distant trees while in motion, and when making contact, made both Kiba and the Earth below groan in protest.
Despite wearing jeans to their bout, there was absolutely nothing casual about the heat Jaune Arc brought to the battlefield. Slow and heavy he may have been when compared to his more lithe, younger counterpart, but unskilled or incapable he was not.
No matter what angle Kiba attacked from or how fast he swung his two blades, his older opponent would react with perfect timing using his wooden arming sword and kite shield alike, sometimes at the last possible moment. Whatever advantage Kiba might have had in raw speed and flexibility, Jaune more than made up for it in strength and endurance, forcing the smaller male into a stalemate that he just couldn't shake.
The very few scathing blows that Kiba had landed so far did not faze the blond in the least. Due to that strange golden forcefield that he calls his Aura, attacking Jaune where there was no armor proved useless as far as inflicting any true damage goes. The elder blond didn't even act as if he felt the few strikes that could have possibly cut him open in the absence of his Aura and the presence of a live edge on Kiba's blade.
Despite being a newly reincarnated Devil, Jaune fought like he'd been born with horns and two pitchforks, punishing Kiba for every overextension with a heavy blow using the flat of his wooden blade coated in his golden Aura, leaving the younger blond questioning whether Jaune was actually a Rook in disguise rather than the Knight he and Rias professed him to be.
Of course, Kiba knew better than to seriously entertain the thought. The fact that Jaune was able to even keep up with Kiba's movements, despite not being able to immediately replicate the same display of agility beyond defending himself, was telling enough.
More than just raw speed, the Knight piece endowed its wielders with enhanced reflexes, reaction timing and overall tactility by focusing on enhancing the musculature responsible for fast-twitch reactions and the synaptic and neural pathways running through the entire brain and body of the Devil in question alike.
While Jaune may not have been able to replicate the same high velocities as Kiba due to his inexperience with his recently revived and heavily enhanced body, his experience with live combat more than filled the gulf that should have existed between Kiba and his freshly reincarnated brother-in-arms.
Unleashing another flurry of wide sweeps after failing to score any of the six thrusts he'd unleashed prior, Kiba tries his best to target anything vital not covered by his opponents armor plating, only to be blocked with sword and shield or dodged outright with minimalistic footwork that Kiba hoped he could eventually learn from his fellow Knight.
Like it was instinctual, Jaune always kept his shield between Kiba and himself, using it to not only block attacks that he couldn't dodge or parry, but as an improvised weapon as well. The younger of the two Knights was not expecting to be strongly concussed by a heavy blow enhanced by the rim of Jaune's shield following a rather skilled exhibition of swordplay more fitting a rapier wielder than a sword and board fighter.
Jaune's ability to flow between sword styles was well practiced, as was his ability to capitalize on his opponents off-balanced state. Unleashing another series of heavy blows from his shield and the flat of his sword to punish Kiba's blunder, the Huntsman demonstrated exactly why he had called Kiba a civilian when compared to himself.
Like a newborn pup compared to a bloodied dire wolf, Kiba understood the differences between them well after crossing blades so many times.
Jaune had developed a lethal instinct, one born from engaging in constant bloodshed and surviving more life and death situations than Kiba could imagine for a man only two or so years older than himself, whereas Kiba himself had enjoyed a much more sedentary lifestyle ever since being recruited by Rias as her first Knight.
No matter how many hours Kiba spent practicing his techniques against imaginary opponents, the experience born from years of live combat and the experience gained from a few hundred hours of tutoring and the occasional hunt for Strays were worlds apart.
Locking eyes with his opponent as he brings his two blades up to intercept an overhead blow, Kiba flinches at the intense golden orbs of fire burning in the center of Jaune's eyes where his pupils should be, something he had failed to notice until now, and what he saw there within.
As far as Jaune was concerned, the battle was already over. He was simply going through the motions.
A knee to his sternum was Kiba's reward for the temporary loss of focus, and spittle escapes his mouth as his bones, muscles and internal organs quiver from the force of the blow radiating outward from his stomach in waves.
Disengaging for a moment to gather his wits with wide, arcing forward sweeps of his blade to prevent Jaune from pressing his advantage as Kiba backtracks, the younger swordsman leaps back when his vision uncrosses and his stomach stops churning, putting some distance between the much tankier blond and himself.
Kiba was weary of taking another hit like the few he'd just received. His thighs and calves ached fiercely from the highly targeted attacks unleashed by his sparring partner, which inhibited his ability to truly outpace the older blond and control the flow of battle as he had during the outbreak of their spar.
Attacking head on was as pointless as trying to move a mountain, while attacking the elder of the two swordsmen from random angles or behind was no better thanks to the oddly powerful intuition Jaune had displayed so far by blocking attacks Kiba knew he couldn't or shouldn't have seen coming.
By agreeing to use dulled weapons, Kiba had inadvertently robbed himself of whatever advantage that full use of his Sacred Gear might have given him in this bout, though it was also obvious that his opponent was fighting with a handicap just as severe, if not even more so.
The smaller former Human hated to admit it, but he was fighting a losing battle from the start, blinded by his faith in his speed and the hard earned technique he'd developed over the years.
He knew better now, though. It was as clear as day who the superior fighter was between himself and Jaune. Even if he did have access to full use of his Sacred Gear, the so-called Prince of Kuoh highly doubted it would make much of a difference in the end.
Gritting his teeth, Kiba decided it was time to end this fight now rather than allow it to drag out any longer.
Racing towards Jaune with both of his blades poised for a helm breaker, Kiba tried to follow through with the attack, putting all of his force into the downward strike, only for Jaune to intercept both blades using his wooden shield without so much as flinching.
The ground splinters beneath Jaune's boot clad feet from the immense transfer of kinetic energy, but the armor-clad Knight pays it no mind as he lowers his center of gravity before lashing out with an attack of his own while Kiba remains wide open.
Using the flat of his temporary weapon once again, Jaune slams the wooden sword in his right hand true into Kiba's stomach in a spinning strike with enough force to launch the younger male backwards into an uncontrolled tumble of great velocity.
Head over heel, Kiba flipped multiple times before finally coming to a halt at the base of one of the many damaged trees littering Rias's personal garden, his breathing labored as he manually forced air into his aching lungs. Blearily glancing up, the first Knight of Rias Gremory takes a moment to pinpoint where he was and what he was looking at before smiling bitterly and hanging his head once more.
Resting against the tip of his throat was the wooden blade wielded by his opponent, who had traveled the same distance as Kiba to continue punishing his now defeated opponent if need be.
Need not be, as it turned out.
"You… are just as strong as you appear." Kiba admits while struggling to his feet in defeat, his temporary weapons long gone by this point somewhere in the debris field left in his wake. "Where did you say you learned to fight again?"
"Mostly from my partner, Pyrrha, but also loads of personal experience being right where you are now." Jaune admits while sheathing his temporary blade into the top of his shield before retracting the wooden shield held aloft against his left gauntlet into a proper sword sheath. "I'm going to be honest with you, Kiba, you're way better than I was at your age, which was uh… only a few years ago actually. Keep your chin up and don't let it get to you, every fight you can walk away from is a lesson you can learn, win or lose."
The entire process of Jaune putting his temporary weapon away takes only a second, but still mystifies Kiba more than Magic ever could.
"Do you think you can teach me?" Kiba hedges carefully after filing away the older blond's advice and considering whether or not it was even safe to ask his newly and gladly accepted senpai to fulfill such a personal request after how rude he had been an hour earlier. "I promise to make it worth your while!"
There was a stark difference in his attitude leaving the spar compared to the one he had walking into it, but that was to be expected after being so thoroughly outclassed by someone only a few years his senior. Kiba knew when it was time to put his ego away, and this was one of those exact moments.
What good was his pride in his abilities when he had been found lacking in such a fundamental way?
The only times Kiba could remember losing so badly were from his earlier childhood and when he was under the study of his favorite teacher, Okita-Sama.
Comparing Jaune to his former teacher was a bit of a stretch, considering how much more skilled the elder Knight loyal to Lord Lucifer was due to how long he's had to practice his craft, not to mention the differences in sword styles between the two, but it was the lethal intent they shared that mattered to Kiba the most.
"Sure, no problem!" Jaune doesn't hesitate a moment in agreeing, something that Kiba is a bit surprised at, given how notoriously most warriors of Jaune's caliber guarded their personal skills. "No payment needed, either, we're brothers-in-arms now from what Rias told me before our match, plus I was going to ask you about working on my speed since that's supposed to be our specialty, so that works great! Here, hold still a second, I'll have you as right as rain in no time."
Kiba was about to question what Jaune meant when the older blond reached out and placed a golden, glowing hand upon his shoulder.
Then, for the first time in a very, very long time, Kiba knew peace.
And it was good.
Rias could hardly believe her luck as she carefully seated herself at her desk once more after seeing Jaune, Penny and Akeno out, her mind reeling from the slew of information provided by her two newest members of her Peerage.
From the confirmed existence of at least two other worlds beyond those she called home to the readily supplied examples of hyper-advanced technology that almost defied logic entirely, Rias was having an extremely hard time containing her desire to squeal with joy while jumping around like a lunatic.
Hard-light barrier projectors powered by Magic crystals that anyone can operate, even without Magic themselves? A sensor suite smaller than a fingernail that can somehow track, measure and quantify the soul? Holographic hardlight interfaces that can be physically touched? Advanced computing systems that can be interfaced with using the soul itself? A hacking suite capable of rendering technology that her Uncle Ajuka had been so proud of obsolete in less than a second flat?
Video games from another world?!
There was so much to unpack in just Jaune's communication device known as a 'Scroll' that it would easily spur on the fourth and maybe even fifth industrial revolutions if word ever got out.
Which was why, of course, she was damn sure that if word ever did get out, it was to be through her and her family alone.
Rias even had a contract to ensure it, signed in blood!
With just the invention known as the Scroll, Rias was positive that she would not only secure her place in history as one of the most influential Devils to ever live, but that the Gremory family will be the most successful of all of the pillar families, forever.
Well, that's not entirely true, considering that it would be Penny who was at the forefront of the technological revolution just waiting to happen, but Penny's success was Rias's success and her cute little Bishop has already agreed to work for Rias exclusively when it came to technology, so did that really matter?
That wasn't even accounting for the supernatural wonders known as Aura and Semblances, two unique forms of power from a world called Remnant that Rias was almost positive have never occurred naturally on Earth before.
At least, not in Humans.
Rias had a theory about the true nature of Semblances but without solid evidence, she was loath to speak it aloud.
From the fact that Semblances are abilities drawn from the soul itself to the fact that they do not require demonic power to use, Rias couldn't help but draw similarities between Sacred Gears and the 'Reflections of the Soul', and beyond that…
When comparing the two, Rias felt that having a Semblance was far preferred over having a Sacred Gear, since there at least seemed to be a rhyme or reason behind the development of Semblances versus the random dispersion and varied usefulness of Sacred Gears. Beyond the utility provided, Semblances have the added benefit of bearing absolutely no relation whatsoever to the God of the Bible, which would automatically make it far more appealing to even the most hardline of the traditionalists among the New Satan Faction of Devils.
Did she mention that Semblances occur in any soul bearing entity that unlocks its Aura, including animals? Or that Semblances could permanently evolve over time? Or that someone could even perhaps have both a Semblance and Sacred Gear at the same time, given the correct circumstances?
Since Jaune and Penny both retained their Aura and Semblances upon being revived as Devils, it showed that it was indeed possible for Devils and other supernatural species to develop the same abilities, at least in theory.
Rias had questioned whether or not the strength of the soul itself played any part in the development of both Aura and Semblances alike and was both pleased and disappointed to learn that while the strength of the soul did not play an immediate factor in the strength of any Semblances that may be awoken, it did have an effect on the abundance of Aura that could be drawn upon.
The most compelling reason for Rias to feel confident in her assumption that Devils can unlock their Aura is the fact that Penny was able to achieve the same, despite being artificial in nature before eventually gaining an organic body through the use of an extremely powerful magical object Jaune called the Staff of Creation.
Finding out that Penny had once been an Android created jointly by the military of her home city certainly helped explain the girl's odd speech patterns and eating habits, but also explained her penchant for technology so advanced that Rias couldn't even place the differences between Earth and Remnant on a time scale properly.
For all intents and purposes, Semblances were extremely similar to the Powers granted to the original seventy two Devils by Lucifer himself, stolen as they may have been, but different enough that Rias was confident that they could coexist should a pureblood Devil ever awaken their Aura.
Jaune had even mentioned that some Semblances were hereditary, as shown by one of his friends named Weiss Schnee and the rest of the Schnee family going back to her grandfather. Whether that meant that pureblood Devils from the Seventy Two Pillars could possibly develop a second Power to be passed down from generation to generation or not remained to be seen, but the possibility was enough to make Rias positively vibrate with excitement.
What if unlocking his Aura helped Rias's dearly beloved cousin Sairaorg unlock his Power of Destruction as well?
What if an injection of Aura was enough to awaken the Devils who had contracted the Sleeping Sickness?!
Her mind span and span with possibilities, so many that she had to jot a few down to remind herself later, lest she forget to follow through with these points of interest.
The only real drawbacks to Aura and Semblances that Jaune and Penny could think of, if it could even truly be considered a drawback at all, is that Semblances aren't always awoken immediately after unleashing the soul, as Jaune and Penny describe it, and in some cases may never be discovered at all.
On top of that, Aura capacities and general supply varied from user to user and were very much capable of running out, either by taking too much damage or overusing one's Semblance, which of course weakens the user and leaves them vulnerable to damage they would have otherwise been able to block with Aura.
Thankfully, these rather reasonable downsides were further allayed by the fact that Aura naturally recharged when not in use, and in most cases, a few days of rest would be all Aura users needed to be back to full in the most extreme cases, and only a few hours rest for minor Aura expenditures and battles.
All in all, it wasn't to say that having their Aura unlocked would automatically make the user all powerful, but the sheer utility of having an over shield capable of blocking physical and magical attacks similar to Touki, a passive physical regeneration rate, highly enhanced strength, speed and mental acuity as well as unique powers that may as well double as personal Sacred Gears made investing in becoming proper Aura users one of Rias's many goals for her Peerage over the next few months.
Even if Jaune and Penny couldn't assure Rias that she and the others would be as proficient as the two professionally trained warriors with the illustrious energy and its many capabilities in the few months time left until she issued her challenge to Riser, it would be more than enough to give her that edge she needed to finally put the fiery birdbrain back where he belonged.
In the trash!
It was amazing how much Rias's thoughts about the future could change so much in the course of a single day, and how utterly confident she now felt in her ability to secure her freedom from that ignorant brat Riser.
It was amazing how much two people from a world beyond the stars could change the course of an entire species, technologically and spiritually alike.
It was amazing just how far Rias was in over her head and how quickly it had happened, something that was only just starting to sink in for the redhead teenager as she struggled to figure out where, when and how to even start utilizing her newfound knowledge.
Considering her options, Rias was torn three ways.
She could contact her older brother, Sirzechs, and ask for his opinion on the subject, but Rias had good reason to hold off on contacting the Satan of Internal Affairs, namely for the reason that he was called Satan in the first place.
Sirzechs was expected to be the Satan Lucifer first, and a Gremory third, with nothing in between to balance it out, which was to say that as one of the four Maou of Hell, Rias's older brother had to put the needs of the many over the needs of the few.
By contacting Sirzechs first for advice, she'd be shooting herself in the foot by robbing herself of any personal advantages she could gain otherwise, for herself and her family alike.
Her second option was to contact her mother, Venelana Gremory née Bael, but that too came with a slew of risks that Rias wasn't keen on taking without proper assurances. As a daughter of House Bael, Venelana would be inclined towards including the House of the Great King as much as she possibly could where Rias frankly didn't want them included.
Rias did not fault her mother for this, as it was something that all pureblood Devils originating from the Seventy Two Pillars teach their female children to do before marrying them off to other Pillars, but that did not mean the red headed heiress was willing to give up any more of the pie than absolutely necessary.
That left her third, and realistically, only option.
Rias was going to have to call her father.
And so, she did.
"Hello, daddy? Can you hear me? It's Rias, do you have a moment? I have something important to talk to you about. What? No, this isn't about that, sort of, just- Hey! Did you really just…?! Ugh! I can't believe you'd cancel on your own daughter like that! At least hear me out before you dismiss my voice spell again, please, this really is super important!"
Zeoticus Gremory wasn't even fully dressed when he teleported to his daughter's manor in Kuoh, his button down shirt halfway hanging from his arms as he made long strides towards where he knew Rias's study was located.
Having been balls deep in the most recent member of his ever growing harem only minutes prior, the elder Devil had been beyond surprised to suddenly hear his beloved daughter's voice call out for him in that overly sweet tone she always uses when she wants something, and it was with great reluctance that he had removed himself from Cassandra's embrace to heed Rias's call.
He was thanking his lucky stars that he did, because if Rias had given up and called Venelana or Lucifer forbid, Sirzechs, rather than calling him a second time and insisting she speak with him, Zeoticus would be doing his best to kick himself in the balls with the heaviest steel toed boots he could buy with money.
Wasting no time with the usual niceties he tried to maintain when in either of his children's personal homes, Zeoticus did not knock before entering Rias's study, nor did Rias fault him for the obvious breach in decorum.
Instead, his wonderful, beautiful and oh so brilliantly lucky daughter offered him a seat across from her before introducing him to what he quickly realized was a technological innovation that would paint the Gremory name among the stars themselves. Despite being just over a thousand years old, Zeoticus did his best to keep up with modernity, no matter how many centuries had passed since the horse drawn carriage was the preferred method of transport among the Humans.
It was because of this that he knew just how advanced the so-called 'Scroll' presented to him was when compared to the D-phone in his pocket that he'd been so damn proud of to receive from Tiamat.
After familiarizing himself with his new communication device and the many dazzling functions it held that would keep him entertained for days to come, the very first in the entire world to be given to someone who wasn't a member of Rias's Peerage, to be exact, Zeoticus listened raptly as his now favorite child, sorry Sirzechs, described her plans for the future involving the dissemination of technology hailing from a world previously completely unknown to Heaven, Hell and Earth alike.
They were thorough, to be sure, but shallow.
That was to be expected, of course, considering that Rias only has seventeen years of experience under her belt, which is why Zeoticus calmly and elaborately listed the many different ways she had missed that the amazing technology she spoke of could be leveraged to the Gremory's immediate advantage.
That is to say, he jumped up and down like a lunatic while squealing his ideas like a schoolgirl, something his daughter happily joined him in doing, but that was not the point.
The point was, that his daughter somehow found not one, but two recently deceased extraterrestrials who have extremely intimate knowledge of otherworldly technology and decided she wanted to be the first Devil in the world to have aliens in her Peerage, which was revolutionary enough on its own honestly, but the clincher?
The clincher was that it wasn't just knowledge of technology that they brought with them to Earth, but knowledge of an entirely novel form of supernatural energy known as Aura, and the powers derived henceforth known as Semblances.
Zeoticus could hardly believe his daughter's wild claims and almost dismissed them outright as hyperbole, until he was offered proof.
"Hello, sir." Greeted the recently reincarnated Knight upon arriving at Rias's study once more after finishing his shower. "My name is Jaune Arc, recently reincarnated Devil and Knight in the service of House Gremory, it is a pleasure to serve you."
Having apparently been quickly schooled in proper etiquette by Akeno when Rias's Queen had been dispatched to retrieve the two aliens in question, Zeoticus was pleased with the cordial greeting and stiff salute offered by the clearly military trained youth.
Standing at roughly six and a half feet tall and weighing some two hundred odd pounds by Zeoticus's guesstimates, Jaune was built by and for extended combat, without a shadow of a doubt. His well defined arms, hardly hidden by his pauldrons, arm guards or gauntlets, spoke of hundreds if not thousands of hours of training with his weapon of choice, as did his eyes.
His presence, though, now that's what got Zeoticus to really pay attention.
It was unlike anything the thousand year old Devil had ever felt during his long life, but so similar to something dangerous that Zeoticus almost fainted upon realizing just how vastly Rias had been downplaying her assertion.
Radiating outwards like light from a star, Jaune carried with him a potent spiritual eminence that commanded the attention of those who had eyes to bear witness to his majesty. Carrying hints of extremely powerful and even rarer still metaphysical concepts that were too entangled with one another to decipher fully at first glance, Zeoticus was able to slowly glean insight into the true nature of Jaune's Aura through consuming traces of the spiritual power that the blond was radiating without being aware of what it implicated, insight that soon left him dazed by what he discovered.
Somehow, Jaune Arc had achieved the impossible and established a domain field, despite being a Devil, an extremely potent one at that if Zeoticus was right about its many components and capabilities.
Or, was it safer to say that his wonderful daughter Rias had achieved the impossible by reviving someone who shouldn't have been capable of being revived as a Devil?
Zeoticus wasn't sure, but he was determined to find out.