To Roll The Die
Chapter 6, The Covenant
I do not own anything pertaining to RWBY or DxD
Rias felt like she was on cloud nine, and it wasn't just because of the well aged brandy that her father continued to pour.
That itself was a hell of a surprise, because she knew just how zealously he guarded his supply of the vintage alcohol dating back to the night of celebrations surrounding Marie Antoinette's execution. Zeoticus had only allowed her a small sip of the artisan booze once before, during the week of celebrations surrounding her nephew Milicas's birth. Only three glasses had been poured that period of time, one for Zeoticus, one for Grayfia, and one for Sirzechs.
Today, she counted no less than twelve glasses poured, and then, sixteen.
Being able to enjoy the brandy was a cause for celebration, let alone the reason behind being able to drink the fabled beverage that led to her own conception.
Today, Rias Gremory realized that she'd probably spent her entire life's savings of good fortune that had kept her family solvent and ahead of the curve no matter what sort of turbulent times befell her species over the centuries. She had used it sparingly over the years, which led to her encounters with Akeno and Kiba alike, but her latest expenditure may have broken her bank for the next few years at the very least.
Hell, she may have inadvertently spent her entire family's savings of good fortune, but she wouldn't regret it for an instant.
It was worth it.
They were worth every penny.
Rias snorts at her own witty pun, causing Zeoticus and Jaune to pause and turn to look at her in unison, their blue eyes, nearly the same shade of azure, locking her in place and causing her to freeze up like a deer in headlights.
"Eto… bleh~!" Rias tilts her head and taps her skull with her knuckles while sticking her tongue out, conveying that she was just being silly and to ignore her.
Zeoticus chuckles while Jaune grins at the goofy display in genuine amusement, the weary heaviness that his spiritual presence has gained slowly over the course of the last thirty minutes reverting course as the blond relaxed back into his chair and returned his attention to her father.
"So, do you have any idea how this happened to us, then?" Jaune questions slowly while gesturing at himself and Penny, alluding to his previously considered impossible existence without outright saying it aloud. "Where would I even get started on figuring this God stuff out?"
Jaune seemed to be having a hard time accepting what Zeoticus had revealed, but that was to be expected. Even Rias could hardly believe her father's claims, or comprehend what it fully means for the future of her species.
"If I had to guess, I'd start with the soul." Zeoticus crosses his arms and tilts his head in thought, his empty glass abandoned as the two men delve further into the mystical concepts already touched upon so far. "Like you pointed out earlier, it's the only major variable that we can immediately account for between yourself and Penny when compared to Rias and myself besides… wait, I see, yes! I think I know what's happening here! It's your Evil Pieces, or that is to say, it's the way your souls are interacting with your Evil Pieces that's so important! What did you say your 'Semblance' was again, and what does it do, specifically?"
"My Semblance is called Aura Amp, which lets me amplify my Aura or someone else's along with a bunch of other stuff tied to the soul-… so wait, are the chess pieces that Rias used to resurrect us linked directly to our souls?" Jaune seems aghast at the thought, as if it were only just then crossing his mind even after Rias had all but spelled it out for him prior. "Do you think my Semblance could have amplified my Evil Piece? Is something like that even possible?"
"I have no idea, my son." Zeoticus shrugs lightly with his left shoulder while raising his right hand to rub his forehead in thought. "Evil Pieces are not completely understood, even five hundred years after their creation. We do know that they can mutate when used to resurrect specific Sacred Gear users or entities with special abilities that synergize with their typing, or even mutate over time through similar means to include enhancements and abilities beyond what the standard Evil Pieces usually include in the beginning. It wouldn't surprise me if Penny's piece and your own have both mutated considering your circumstances, and as a matter of fact, it would be pretty bizarre if they haven't. I have no doubts that your Aura and Semblance have played a major role in both your development of conceptual affinities and domains alike, so it would only be logical to assume that the interactions between your soul and Evil Piece is what has led to your evolution or at least played a major part in it."
"Ah, man." Jaune reaches up to grab his head with both hands in frustration for a moment as he is forced to consider ideas and theories that are beyond the scope of his understanding without being given time to digest what has already been divulged. "Alright, so going back to the subject of concepts then, the fact that my soul is tied to something with 'Evil' in the name isn't going to turn me into the next Salem, right? I'm not trying to imply anything, but all of these references to demons, devils, evil and things like that aren't really setting my mind at ease here."
"No, you aren't going to go crazy or become evil just because of the naming conventions we Devils employ, I promise. Concepts are similar to ingredients in a cooking recipe, while a domain is like the finished product, a culmination of the ingredients so to speak. You can think of them like you would affinities and Magic if you need to. Within a divinity's domain, they are able to control and manipulate the aspects and laws of reality that fall inside the scope of their domains with much greater strength than those they are otherwise unaffiliated with." Zeoticus laughs at the absurdity of the thought before doing his best to assuage the recently reincarnated Daemon's concerns. "I do not feel absolutely anything related to what you would consider truly evil within you, either emotionally or spiritually, and believe me, I know what I'm looking for when it comes to spotting these sorts of things. The two of you are totally safe in that regard, have no worries there."
Jaune actually looks relieved by the man's words, causing the blond to slowly release the worried grip he had on his head and delace his fingers from his hair. Penny, too, seems to have become more relaxed after having her innocence confirmed once more.
As the blond warrior had said, it would worry anyone truly ignorant of Devil culture to hear these sorts of concepts and titles being casually tossed around without being also offered counter examples of why they were complete misnomers more often than not when it came to contemporary beliefs held by most of those loyal to the New Satan faction. Usually this would be the point where either Zeoticus or Rias could point at their enemies and claim that these matters all boiled down to propaganda that only truly applied to the Old Satan faction of Devils in modern times, but that explanation wouldn't exactly hold true in regards to either Jaune or Penny, considering their origins and lack of knowledge of anything related to Earth.
Rias felt bad that her Knight and Bishop had to be thrown into the deepest ends of these matters without being given time to adjust to the fact they were swimming in foreign waters to begin with, but now that her father had revealed exactly why he was so excited and what exactly was happening with Jaune and Penny, it has become clear that this matter is well out of her control.
Hell, it was pretty obvious that they themselves were also out of her control, so referring to them as anything other than her Lord and Lady was disrespectful of her, if she stopped and considered the ramifications of their acknowledgment as divine figures by her father.
As a High-class Devil, what right did she have to claim an actual God as her subordinate? How could she even hope to enforce such a thing when the differences in power and status between them was so great? She was not her brother, or her ancestor. Despite inheriting the Power of Destruction and the Power of Fortune both, Rias was still only seventeen years old and far from strong enough to be able to control either Jaune or Penny should they choose to go rogue, slim as the chances of that happening may be.
Typically, it is at this point of disparity in strength between a King and their Peers that the subordinates in question would be given the right to create their own Peerages as a way to both reward and control them further, but was that even possible in this case? Or wise?
Neither Jaune nor Penny were educated in the ways of being a Devil beyond the bare minimum needed to allay their concerns throughout the day. They did not know who was to be considered a friend or foe based on their new lineages, let alone just how many people their existence alone would enrage. They still carried themselves as Human in their hearts and minds, though Penny's case could be argued perhaps, but that was hardly the point.
It would not and should not be Jaune Arc and Penny Polendina who served Rias Gremory, but Rias Gremory who served them! Zeoticus may have made assurances that they were welcomed members of the House of Gremory, but was that even appropriate when their individual bloodlines were of clearly greater value?
It was a complete and total reversal of their previous relationship of Master and Servant, to be honest, one she didn't know how to rationalize in a way that didn't leave her feeling rueful.
Could her family even afford to bear the weight of their shared existence once the rest of her kind became aware of Jaune and Penny's potential? It was one thing to be the sole distributor of advanced technologies that had the potential to elevate their species even further, but to add Aura, Semblances, Concepts, Domains and the potential to step onto the forbidden path of the Divine to the mix as well?
It was too much, even for the Gremory's.
Just like that, her hope for the future began to wane once more, but not for long.
Even if Jaune and Penny were unable to stay as official members of her Peerage for long, which was a very likely outcome if she were being realistic with herself, that did not mean that they couldn't remain close in other ways. She had already signed a contract with Penny, for example, so Rias knew that the three would continue to work closely together in that regard at least. Jaune himself had assured her that he intended to repay the debt he had incurred through his and Penny's resurrection, so it was a small thing to ask for him to stay in contact with her even when their paths inevitably diverged in the future.
As for the rest?
That's her daddy's problem to figure out now.
"While we are on the subject of concepts, I'm able to pick up quite a few from you, young man, though like I said earlier, they feel like they've yet to fully assert themselves as of yet. Do you mind if I start spitballing a few phrases to see if you can make heads or tails of what I'm picking up? It will help us greatly in determining just what kind of deity you are and what your capabilities might be once you start exploring your powers." Zeoticus seemed to be aware of how much stress this conversation was bringing the young man and did his best to navigate back towards shallower waters by returning to a lighter topic that needed further elucidation.
"No problem." Jaune accepts readily with determinism after rubbing his hands along his face and straightening his posture once more. "I'd really appreciate the help, because this is all way over my head, big time."
Thankfully, Penny's presence seems to do well to keep him grounded, something the ginger is clearly aware of as she reaches out every now and again to physically remind him that she's beside him when need be.
The unspoken displays told Rias more than words ever could, in a way. It showed that Jaune and Penny had developed a strong bond, one that the crimson haired girl desperately hoped she could eventually develop with the two as well no matter if their paths divulged in the future or not, for different reasons.
Rias was a bit of a romantic at heart, a trait she had developed as the date of her impending arranged marriage to Riser Phenex drew closer and closer as she aged. It wasn't something she kept a secret from the world, either, considering her heritage, but it also wasn't obvious due to the way she carries herself in public. While Rias did not give the impression of being unapproachable, her status as the heiress of the House of Gremory forced her to carefully maintain her public image as befitting her status.
She had never thought she would get to experience something as fleeting as love at first sight, until Jaune Arc crash landed in her personal backyard and made her melt and stutter like a fool over his cooling corpse.
Rias had even been willing to pass it off as something purely physical once she was able to regain control over herself once more, an attraction to his phenotype, stature, and the mystical, otherworldly energies still saturating his body after death, until he woke up and proved he was just as noble in character as he was in appearance and presence alike.
Now she feared that her feelings would never be given wings or the chance to leave the ground, given the implicated status he would have in Devil society soon enough and the potential for him to misconstrue her reasoning for seeking his companionship.
Rias nearly missed the defining characteristics of Jaune's domain as a God being revealed, so lost in her thoughts as she had become.
"Multiplication, or I guess Amplification given your Semblance, Spirit or Soul, which also seems to tie back to your Semblance, Fertility, Harvest, Agriculture, Autumn, Victory, Immortality, Virtue, Glory, Infinity, Liberation, Protection, Travel." Zeoticus pauses as he snaps his fingers and furrows his brows, as if to summon the words needed to describe the sensations and characteristics he could actually comprehend, unlike his daughter. "There's more, but they are completely foreign to me, and I'm sure I'm getting a few of these wrong, but it should be close. I have to say, all of these synergize extremely well with one another, I have no doubts you'll go damn far as a deity! I cannot fathom how you've managed to gather such an absurd slew of concepts at such a young age and without a single follower to boot, even more than a few chief divinities that I could list, but I'm sure I could figure it out once I know more about your life's story."
Rias couldn't begin to imagine the events Jaune could have endured in his life to have developed such a wide variety of concepts under his control either, especially without knowing much more about what concepts even were beyond what her father had just explained. When listed together, though, it painted Jaune Arc as a valiant hero straight from a fairytale, a knight in shining armor to the letter, or even a liberating star that had fallen from up high to deliver her and her people from their unknown miseries.
They fit him like a glove.
Rias was glad she had decided to call her father first, because she doubted even Sirzechs would have been able to be as precise as their father when it came to esoteric and occult research of this nature. It was only natural, considering that Zeoticus had lived five centuries longer than the current Lord Lucifer and a thousand years longer than herself.
Plus, why would Sirzechs bother with this sort of thing when his best friend was the resident 'super nerd' as Ajuka Beelzebub proudly declares himself behind closed doors?
The Gremory's were collectively of the mind that professional tasks should be left to professional people and there were very few people who were more professional than her father when it came to exoteric and esoteric matters.
"Yeah… I think I see what's going on here, sort of." Jaune is morose when he eventually responds to Zeoticus, his eyes having gained that glazed, distant look that Rias had only seen glimpses of throughout the day so far. "Ha, I've… never shared this information with anyone before, not even my teammates Ren and Nora, not after Pyrrha asked me to keep it to myself in fear of what her so-called 'fans' would say if they found out the Nikos family didn't worship the Brothers…"
That wrath that appeared in his eyes then, fleeting as it may have been, was dangerous. She almost felt bad for whoever would end up on the receiving end of his glare in the future, but they likely deserve it if they were capable of upsetting the seemingly unflappable Huntsman to the point of anger.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, as they say.
"Sorry… I just don't like those people for the way they made my partner feel." Jaune trails off before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to regain his composure. "Anyway, I guess this goes back to when I joined Beacon Academy, which is pretty much a college for Huntsman. I… cheated my way in by forging my transcripts, which I'll explain why this is so important in just a second. So, after failing to introduce myself to this gorgeous girl who had sarcastically called me tall, blond and lanky the night before when asked if she wanted to talk about cute boys, Weiss Schnee, I had offered to let Pyrrha Nikos, who unknown to me at the time was the undefeated champion of the Mistralian regional tournaments four times running, join 'Team Jaune' in passing once Weiss had made her opinion of me… crystal clear."
Jaune pauses to offer an apologetic smile after realizing he'd been offering information that wasn't exactly pertinent to explaining why his domain had developed such as it had.
Rias didn't mind, of course, as it offered quite a bit of insight into Jaune's earlier life that she hadn't already known, like the fact that he'd forged his way into Beacon or that he had somehow failed to flirt with some hussy that Rias immediately didn't like all that much.
The girl had been mentioned in passing as a friend of both Jaune and Penny a few times throughout the day when the topic of hereditary Semblances was broached, but Rias could see the hurt in his eyes when her name was mentioned this time.
How dare this Weiss Schnee girl turn Jaune down!
Was she blind?!
Rias concluded that was obviously the case, or perhaps it was even worse than she thought and her unknown rival in love was actually a lesbian, because that was the only explanation that made sense to the crimson haired teenager.
Rias vowed then and there to protect Jaune from women like Weiss in the future, going as far as to make it one of her life's missions!
"So, getting back on track… to get into Beacon, you have to pass an initiation, and my class's initiation was to be catapulted into the Emerald Forest by launch pads, with the single handedly most vague instructions ever conceived for a test. Whoever you first make eye contact with is your partner for the next four years, retrieve a nondescript 'Relic', which was actually just a chess piece, from the ruins deep in the northern most portions of the Emerald Forest, and destroy everything in your path that isn't a Human or Faunus before it destroys you." Jaune laughs at the absurd look Rias and Zeoticus are giving him, since he felt the same exact way about the day that he now looks back at as one of the best experiences of his life.
"What?! Was your headmaster mad?!" Rias stands from her seat and slams her hands against the side of her desk in anger, nearly sending the object flying if Zeoticus didn't put his palm down to counter her absurd strength as if this were a common occurrence between the two. "You could have died!"
While some might think she was overreacting, Rias herself did not think so, especially knowing that Jaune was likely still an untrained civilian by this point in his life from what she knew about him so far.
"And I would have, too, if Pyrrha didn't save me by launching Miló, her primary weapon, through the hood of my jacket to pin me to a tree before I could hit the ground at terminal velocity." Jaune agreed readily with another sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, as if remembering the whiplash he had suffered from after nearly cracking his skull against the tree he had been theoretically halfway saved by. "So yeah, that's how I met my partner, who unlocked my Aura for me when she sussed out that I had no idea that Aura even existed in the first place. To make a long story much shorter, almost every word you listed is present in the chant she spoke when she used her soul to awaken my own, while others are words I'd use to describe Pyrrha herself almost exclusively, which is… really weird, but also comforting. I knew that a piece of her is still with me, but…"
Zeoticus nods thoughtfully while Rias lowers herself back into her seat with a sinking feeling brewing in her stomach.
She did not like that expression on Jaune's face when he spoke about his partner, even if her newly discovered second rival in love was technically deceased. It was that same expression he had given Rias after she brought him back from the dead as a Devil before passing out, but somehow more.
It was love.
True love, deeper than any Rias had ever known in her life before the moment Jaune Arc showed her what she would forever miss out on if she allowed Riser Phenex to have his way.
How could she compete with that?
"Unlocking someone's Aura with your own is not a common practice back home, to the point of being frowned upon pretty heavily as heretical for reasons that go back an untold number of generations." Jaune elucidates slowly as he gazes past the physical world and backwards into a past that only he can remember. "Contrary to widely held beliefs by people who don't even have Aura in most cases, though, it's actually one of the most intimate experiences you can possibly imagine sharing with someone else. By using your soul to ignite someone else's inner fire, you permanently leave a part of yourself behind and forge a connection between yourselves that even death cannot sever."
"Why does that sound so familiar?" Zeoticus wonders aloud as he taps his chin in thought, though it's clear he's unable to place it right away when he shakes his head and focuses on the present once more. "Is that something you are capable of replicating, by any chance?"
Jaune slowly nods his head in confirmation after considering whether or not he could do for others as his partner had done for him. "I'm willing to unlock both of yours like she did for me, if that's something you're interested in. It's the least I can do after all, though I can't guarantee you'll end up becoming a God or whatever Penny and I are supposed to be now."
"That is more than fine, son, I doubt either of us are capable of becoming like you or Penny instantly. Regarding the awakening process, Is it dangerous?" Zeoticus sits straighter in his chair, as does Rias, at the mention of the possibility of acquiring Aura for themselves. "Does it hurt?"
"No and no, at least… it shouldn't." Jaune purses his lips in thought before eventually shaking his head in the negative. "Your soul is your first, most real self, then comes the mind and finally, the body, at least according to Oz. Aura is just the energy produced by your soul when it is ignited, like the heat produced by fire, that enhances, heals and protects the user both passively and actively when being channeled. It felt amazing when mine was awakened and everyone else I know said the same, so it should be the same for you two as well."
"Jaune is correct." Penny speaks up voluntarily for the first time since she began drinking, a heavy blush across her face but appearing and sounding otherwise unfazed by the liquor she seems to enjoy so much. "There has never been a single recorded case of a user's Aura causing harm to themselves in any of the reports that I've studied, though there is an inherent risk of the user either automatically awakening a destructive Semblance upon unlocking their Aura or at a later time, minuscule as they may be. While Aura is very well understood on a fundamental level and can be quantified and finely granulated to its most basic components through science and technology alike, Semblances themselves are almost impossible to determine in most cases prior to their first awakenings."
Rias digests the information carefully, thankful that Penny and Jaune seemed to be confident enough in their own understanding of Aura to be able to provide plausible explanations that not only set her mind at ease regarding the aetherial force produced by the soul, but her father's as well.
The only time she had ever seen her father this excited was maybe after the announcement of her nephew Milicas's conception, and it was a toss up which of the two events wins out in the end.
"Do you know where Aura came from, by any chance?" Zeoticus questions before realizing that he wasn't being specific enough. "What I meant to ask is if you know the origins behind the discovery of Aura, or how long your people have been using the energy?"
Rias blinks and is once again reminded why calling her father was a good idea, as those are questions that would have never crossed her mind to ask.
"Negative, sir." Penny sadly states while shaking her head in the negative. "That is not information that Atlas has recovered from our distant past through archeological or historical studies prior to…"
She trails off, and this time it's Jaune that offers her a silent gesture of comfort by reaching out and taking her hand with his own for a moment as she grieved the loss of her home.
"I know where it came from." Jaune admits after allowing Penny a moment of silence before taking his hand back and placing it against the bridge of his nose as if to relieve a rapid onset headache. "I know how long we've been using it as well, though both are completely crazy sounding even compared to what I've learned about Earth and Hell so far, no offense intended. Time wise, Humanity and Faunus alike have wielded Aura for at least the last million years, give or take a few dozen eons, while its true origin… Oz, the immortal Wizard King who is cursed to reincarnate into a new vessel instantly after death with his memories and Magic still intact until judgment day, attempted to destroy his own soul using a few dozen lifetime's worth of stored Magic, which didn't work as intended and led to his soul compressing and then igniting under the power of his spell, hence, spiritual fire."
"So you personally know the very first Aura user? And he's over a million years old?" Zeoticus seems floored by the time scale in which the immortal being known as 'Oz' had been reincarnating so far, which Rias found amusing given how often he pulled the 'older thus wiser' card on her over the years, even if she fully agreed with his reaction to that absurd detail. "If the process behind becoming the first Aura user involved surviving such an ordeal, how did it eventually spread to the rest of your world? Did they have to replicate the same process somehow?"
"Know him? Not only was he my headmaster, but he eventually possessed a farm boy named Oscar after he died during the fall of Beacon and joined my team as our unofficial fourth member over the past few years. I used to hate his guts due to circumstances I don't feel like thinking about right now, but after spending so much time with his new host while he personally tutored me in swordplay, strategy, leadership and aura studies, I consider Oz a good friend who is doing the best he can, for what it's worth." Jaune pauses to laugh while shaking his head, as if to dismiss the sting of being reminded of yet another person he'd been forced to leave behind by remembering the good times they shared instead. "He's actually been my ancestor far more than once, believe it or not, to the point he can technically claim that he's more of an Arc than I'll ever be. As for how Aura spread, I think he said it was during his very next life, in another effort to bypass his curse since he definitely exploded the last time. He started using his soul as kindling to ignite the souls of others, hoping that if he spread his fire far enough…well, you get the idea. It didn't work out as intended, but it did give us all a fighting chance against the Grimm after we as a species had our Magic stripped away by the Brothers before they abandoned Remnant, and later allowed us to harness that Magic again in the form of Dust, which Penny can explain far better than I can, so… ask her about that and not me, please."
The weary blond pauses to take another sip of his slowly dwindling beverage and gather his thoughts again, uncomfortable with sharing information that had clearly been learned in confidence.
It was already enough to know the origins of the energy and the length of time that it had been safely used by both Humanity and the Faunus, whatever those were. Rias had been tempted to ask multiple times ever since the Faunus were first mentioned alongside Humans, but had yet to find the appropriate moment to do so.
"Do you think that the artificial nature of Devils would exclude them from being able to safely awaken their Aura?" The crimson haired man leans forward, his expression hopeful and his eyes bright with wonder.
"It… shouldn't be an issue, but Penny is more of an authority when it comes to that sort of thing than I am." The extraterrestrial warrior turns to Penny after ruminating on Zeoticus's most recent query, silently asking for the ginger's opinion on the subject when he fails to gain the confidence to say yes or no with surety.
"It does not matter where the soul originates from, so long as it is a soul." Penny thinks long and hard before answering, her brows furrowed cutely for a moment as she flips through her mental logs for a second time that day just to double check. "I have absolutely no reason to conclude that a Devil would have any issues regarding the awakening of their Aura, considering my own origins."
"Lastly, is there anything special that we need to do so that you can unlock our Aura for us?" Zeoticus asks the only real question left to be asked, and Rias waits with bated breath to hear the answer needed to truly sway the two Devils into accepting Jaune's kind offer. "Any rituals, or funny drinks? Can it be purple flavored by any chance?"
"No, it's pretty straight forward and doesn't take long at all." The blond Huntsman states with full confidence this time, leaving no room for doubt in either himself or those he had extended the offer to. "All you need to do is sit there and relax while I do the heavy lifting, so to speak."
"Then let us begin immediately." The head of the Gremory was positively thrumming with energy, having grown less concerned and more enthused after having his most pressing concerns put to rest. "Please."
Reaching down after steadying himself with a deep breath, Jaune grabs for the gold and white sheathe of his blade, having propped it against her desk after removing it from his waist when he sat down. Bringing it up until the cool white metal was pressed gently against his forehead, Jaune Arc begins to glow with a brilliant golden light as he actively calls upon his Aura for the first time since his awakening.
Like sparks, it at first dances across his skin in a bizarre webbing before slowly growing into an all-consuming fire that burns away Rias's worries and fears alike. The young Devil's study gains an unfathomable quality to it, suffused much more thoroughly in Jaune's domain than it already had been passively. The light of the afternoon sun was dull in comparison to the luster of the light produced by Jaune's soul, and colder by far.
Zeoticus is just as moved as Rias, the teenager notes through the haze that had enveloped her mind, body, Magic and soul alike, every fiber of her being growing stronger and more complete by the moment as she and her father basked in the radiant manifestation of the blond Daemon's innermost self.
The same warm glow that emanated from Jaune and transformed the area within the range of his domain field into an extension of himself soon engulfed Rias and Zeoticus in its splendor. Nothing was left to question as Jaune's soul reached out to embrace her own, enshrining it with a divine power unlike any Rias could ever dream of as he primed her and her father alike for the next step.
She came to know Jaune Arc on a fundamental level, and deemed herself unworthy of such a pure being, even if he has already fully accepted her in her entirety without casting judgment.
Rias Gremory was not worthy, but she will be after being reborn in his image.
And then, he spoke.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."
Rias felt something profound within her stir before becoming untethered, rushing to the surface from the deepest recesses of her core, suffusing her body in a strength that was both foreign yet so tantalizingly familiar that she couldn't mistake it for anything but her very own Aura.
As the waves of spiritual energy rolled through her veins and baptized every cell of her body with its fire, Rias allowed herself to become reborn within the light of the efulgent black-red star created from her soul.
Blearily opening her azure blue eyes, Rias is able to catch faint hints of the crimson glow tinged with black that surrounds her body before it fades back beneath the surface of her skin, and the bright orange-bronze light that her father was releasing in a much lengthier display.
That is not what captures her attention, however.
A heavy rumble beneath their feet causes the floors to begin to shake as the golden glow surrounding Jaune becomes blinding. The rattling of the chairs and furniture soon joins the cacophony as the glasses on her desk rattle and fall to the floor, shattering on impact.
Rias barely has time to comprehend that something may have gone wrong before Zeoticus snatches her and Penny up before dragging them from Rias's study faster than she can close her eyes to shield them from Jaune's spontaneous lightshow.
"What's happening, sir?" Penny questions worriedly as she allows herself to be dragged along, despite her desire to protect her friend from harm. "What is this feeling?"
"His domain is consolidating, and that feeling, my dear, is called dread!" Zeoticus shouts over the sound of splintering wood and shattering glass as the brilliant light emanating outward from Rias's likely ruined study begins to change hues from a lustrous bright gold to a strange, majestic orange gold with flickers of crimson burning even further within. "It's something we all feel when faced with the end of all things!"
"Daddy?" Rias worriedly glances around as Akeno, Koneko and Kiba soon join them in the foyer, multiple Magic circles flaring to life as defensive wards she had never seen before shimmer to life and anchor themselves to unseen pilons of reinforced order. "What does that mean? Is he going to be alright?!"
"He's fine, sweetie, it's the rest of us I'm worried about. What this means is…" Zeoticus trails off as he glances back at the imperial crimson ribbons of torn reality floating outwards from the splintered doorway leading into the ruins of Rias's study.
"Jaune Arc is the Antichrist, dear, which in turn makes Penny here the False Prophet. Congratulations, you truly live up to your name as the 'Ruin Princess', I'm impressed!"
Ha! Finally! Do you people know how many times I've rewritten this chapter?
At least twice!
I don't think I've ever seen anyone go this particular route so far, but I also haven't read every single DxD story yet so who knows? Anyway, give me some time to do a bit more world building before throwing your hands up just yet, it won't be infodump after infodump the entire time, I promise.
