Chapter 42: (Epilogue One) – Purge

June 20th, 2013

If there was ever a time to come to the Forneus Residence, it was during the peak hours of the night. All across the elaborate, sculpted gardens, the artificial moon shone down upon the dew-touched greenery, refracting the rays in kaleidoscopes of color.

An amber glow cast out upon the garden, the warm-lights within the manor spilling out from great glass windows upon the night-clad foliage. Like a lantern in the darkness, the large manor stood against the dark.

A pair of eyes squinted out from beneath an onyx mask. The figure remained clad in the dark of the deeper, distant forests that surrounded the manor's perimeter.

Scanning. Waiting. Plotting.

Three hours ago, Percival Forneus and his peerage had returned to the manor. Over that time, it was likely that the group had eaten a meal, prepared themselves to unwind for the evening.

But the bedchambers were centralized too deep into the manor. No windows. No skylights. No entrances aside from the front door.

Which meant that he was on a clock.

He tapped the side of his onyx mask, the red lenses switching to a dark-navy as they magically shifted to thermal-vision. Slowly, he panned his view across the manor, the heat signatures of various servants and workers scattered miscellaneously around the manor. Eventually, his eyes set themselves onto a set of signatures which stuck out. Nine signatures scattered around in close proximity within a chamber on the second floor of the building's west wing.

The figure scrunched their nose in thought for a moment. On one hand, his target was well within reach now. The only downside, so was the rest of his teammates.

Fighting an entire peerage, plus whatever security they had within the manor's walls didn't exactly sound all-too appealing.

…

The figure let out a low, withering sigh. He'd fought worse odds before.

The figure made his way over to his vehicle, swinging one foot over as he began to rev its engine.

It was time to get to work.

"I truly must apologize once more, Young Master. I should have anticipated Miss Gremory's peerage would employ more unorthodox strategies."

"There's no use stewing in defeat, Angelo." Percival placated his butler and knight with a wave of his hand. "You all fought valiantly to the last, and for that, I'm more than appreciative."

Forneus stood up from his seat and raised a glass of whisky. "A toast, my dears: to our great efforts, and to the bright future of our peerage!"

The others stood up from their seats, raising their own drinks above their heads.

"CHEER-!"

*TH-KOOOM!*

The room jolted to silence as the sounds of a loud, heavy slam echoed throughout the manor's corridors. The group looked to one another in confusion, their enhanced senses picking up the distant sounds of a scuffle and the voices of staff racing around, shouting orders to one another.

Their silence was finally broken when the doors to their manor's lounge were thrown open by one of the maid staff, a young woman who looked up at them with a wide, panicked gaze.

"Young Master! Thank goodness you're all right!" The maid scurried into the room.

"What's going on, Francesca?" Percival set down his glass immediately and helped the poor woman to a seat.

"Oh, Young Master, the garden staff had alerted us that someone was approaching the premises a-and…" The maid took a deep breath to steady herself. "They just broke through our front door!"

"How many?" Percival furrowed his brow.

"I-I-I think just the one." Francesca stammered. "The security staff is engaging with them in the lobby as we speak!"

"Stay here where it's safe, and make sure to send staff to ensure Mother's safety." Percival ordered, before turning to his peerage. "With Father out right now, I suppose it's our duty to engage with this threat. Are you all ready?"

"Ready as we'll ever be." Carmelita teased back.

The peerage ran out the lounge and down the left wing's corridor. Percival shoved passed fleeing custodial staff and servants, shouting at them to get to safety as they ran past.

The Forneus heir all but kicked down the door leading them to the large atrium foyer of the manor; all of them spilling out at once looking down from the top of the stairwell down at the conflict ensuing on the floor below.

The set of massive wood and steel doors had been knocked right off of their hinges, leaving them scattered across the floor. Blood splattered and streaked erratically across the cracked tiles as several servants laid in various states of injury: some simply cradling wounds while others remained motionless, face-down in pools of their own blood.

Percival practically snarled at the barbaric sight. A little ways away from the base of the stairwell stood their intruder. The man – or at least Percival thought they were a man – duked and weaved through the swings of three of their family's security staff; their glowing, enhanced batons strong enough to bring even a middle-class devil to their knees with a swift, sturdy strike.

Yet the intruder seemed to have no difficulty whatsoever dealing with them. Their agility seemingly unburdened by the patchwork gear they wore: belts, bandoliers and holsters littering their body. At the very least, the gigantic weapon holstered on their back should have slowed them down, but no: the man showed no signs of being over encumbered.

One security officer tried to crack the masked assailant over the head, but a swift kick upward left his arm reeling back. Not wasting a beat, the figure moved his weapon; a heavily augmented handgun, and in one smooth movement, dropped one bullet into the officer's deflected wrist and two more into his chest for good measure. That officer crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes with little more than a gurgling cough.

"FUCK-!" The middle officer's eyes darted between the assailant and his downed teammate. "You bastard!"

The officer charged the masked man, swinging his baton forward in a lunge. As the masked man side-stepped, the officer rounded back on him, his free hand drawing a combat knife from his belt in an ice-pick grip attempting to bury its blade into the intruder's ribs.

The masked man's free hand snapped out, catching the officer's wrist to avoid being stabbed by the knife. With the fluidity of a dancer, the attacker pivoted around to the officer's back to dodge another baton strike. A muffled crack, accompanied by a primal yelp of pain signaling that the man broke the officer's trapped wrist in the process, the knife slipping out of the grip.

One shot into the officer's back got him to the floor.

"RAAAAGGGHHHH-!" *Sh-Thunk-!*

The final officer's battle cry was cut short as the attacker flung the combat knife straight at their head, silencing their words as it buried itself up to the hilt in the poor officer's throat.

All the hairs on Percival's body stood on end as the attacker slowly raised his head to meet the peerage waiting at the top of the stairs. For a moment, no one moved as Percival's furious glare was met by the cold, impassionate gaze of whoever laid beyond that black mask.

The masked assailant casually raised his gun and pulled the trigger.

*BLAM!*

"Mast- UGH!" Hiyashi threw her master to the side, taking the bullet at the last moment. The high caliber round sent her off her feet and to the floor as she cradled her bleeding stomach.

"HIYASHI!" Percival crouched down to try and aid her. "The rest of you, go!"

"Of course!" As the remaining seven members of the peerage quickly descended the staircase, Anastasia summoned forth a barrage of orbital strikes to rain down upon the attacker. Racing past the first blast, the man grabbed hold of a motorbike which had been haphazardly tossed across the hall after his forceful entry.

Swinging himself onto it as it let out a mighty, mechanical roar, the bike took off not a second before another strike could blast him to pieces.

The man tore past Mio and Rio, who each were forced to leap away from an offensive thanks to the man attempting to plant two shots into them. The man revved the engine even harder, causing it to blitz along the marble floors and towards one of the walls. Right before he collided with it, however, the man pulled his bike to the side, stomping down to the ground with such force, it utterly shattered the tiles underfoot.

The result, however, caused him to propel himself, bike and all onto the wall, the sheer speed of the bike carrying its momentum along the surface for the briefest of moments. However, it was more than enough time for the attacker to kick off the wall once more, and send his bike hurtling towards an airborne Anastasia. Sending the queen crashing into the floor in a heap.

"YOU FIEND!" Angelo aimed his twin machine guns towards the falling man, letting the air fill with the sounds of his weapons spitting hot flak.

*RATATATATTATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!*

The figure quickly clasped hold of his hulking weapon, yanking it off his back as he let the machine-laden flat of the weapon effortlessly deflect the oncoming fire like a tower-shield. As he got closer, the figure stuck out his foot. With a loud clang, his armored boot met Angelo's armored head so hard that the damn thing fell right off, the piece of armor clanging to the floor with a hollow sound. The attacker landed into a crouch a little ways away from the decapitated butler.

"That brutish assault won't stop me, knave!"

Despite the lack of a head, as Angelo pivoted around, already raising his guns to strike at the attacker's exposed back.

*SSSSHHHIIINNNNNGGGG~!*

At almost impossible speed, the attacker spun around and darted right under Angelo's guns before the man ever got the chance to pull their triggers.

"Stay down, Dullahan." The attacker finally spoke, raspy and gruff.

"Y-Young…" The small purple flames that sprouted from the butler's neck began to flicker. "M… ast… er…"

Angelo's flames were finally snuffed out as his upper torso fell away from the rest of his body with a wet slap against the marble floor.

Percival looked up from Hiyashi as his face went pale. "ANGELO!"

"YOU BASTARD!" Carmelita screamed, her usual cocksure attitude replaced with visceral fury as she, alongside Rio and Mio all charged their assailant.

*FWEEE!* *TH-TH-THUNK!*

Three of Carmelita's feathers sunk into the tile floor as the masked man leapt backwards. With practiced ease, the man trained his handgun at the feet of the approaching twins, forcing the two Pawns to awkwardly dance around the bullets that bit at their footpath.

Eventually the twins got in close enough. Rio lunged forward with her blade, the man simply pivoted out of the way, bringing up the barrel of his handgun to parry Mio's own sword. Rio drew her blade back into a spin aimed at his head.

The man dropped into a crouch, causing the Pawn's weapon to sail overhead. With no hesitation, the man threw his elbow back into her exposed stomach.

"PHAAAH-!" Rio wheezed as the air forcibly left her lungs.

Their attacker threw himself into a low spin-kick, much like a break-dancer, sweeping the area around himself to force Mio to disengage. Springing off his finger, the attacker flipped into the air and back to his feet.

Right in time too, because not a moment later, a blur of ginger hair dropped from the ceiling.

*KH-BOOOOOM!*

The earth itself practically rattled as the force from Oliver's enlarged Mantis-Shrimp fist connected with the floor, sending shards of marble and tile scattering around the room like shrapnel.

Even as small shards of the floor nicked against the intruder's body, he didn't so much as flinch away. Bringing back up his mechanical monstrosity of a greatsword, the intruder made a mad-dash for Oliver. The Rook rose up from his landing with a devastating uppercut, which the intruder had to throw himself to the side to avoid.

Losing balance, the man clattered to the floor. From his position on the floor he finally had proper sightlines to take care of a certain Bishop who was charging a large ball of fire to incinerate the overturned intruder.

The man's pistol cracked like a thundercloud.

*BLAM!* Serval's right bicep.

*BLAM!* Left wrist.

*BLAM!* Left kneecap.

Serval went down like a sack of potatoes.

The intruder quickly clambered to his feet, right as another feather narrowly missed his head, burying itself in the wall behind him.

*KA-BOOM!*

Dashing away from the magical explosion, the attacker ran towards Oliver. The Rook was forced to back away as the man swung at him with his huge sword. Oliver dropped into a boxing stance with his insectoid arms, dashing in once the intruder was left open from his swing. Oliver threw out a jab right at the attacker's head.

*BLAM!*

Oliver stumbled for a moment as a high-caliber bullet found itself lodged into his thigh, just above his right knee. Shifting awkwardly to try and maintain his balance, Oliver sacrificed enough momentum that the man was able to drive the large pommel of his blade into the Rook's wrist, sending the hook off course.

The intruder raised his pistol to the Rook's right shoulder.

*-CLICK-!*

Both fighters blinked for a second as the pistol clicked empty. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Oliver scrambled, shifting his arms into enlarged crab pincers and grasping the attacker by the midsection. Oliver managed to pin down his sword arm, leaving only the man's empty gun-arm free. Gritting his teeth, Oliver proceeded to squeeze as hard as he could.

"GRAAH-!" The intruder barked in pain as he felt his bones creaking under the claws crushing pressure.

"Hold him down, Oliver!" Carmelita yelled out from across the room.

"RIGHT!" Oliver squeezed even harder, a cracking sound soon brought another gravelly groan of pain from the attacker's lips.

The intruder's cracked, dry lips curled back into a snarl filled with off-color teeth. His foul breath hot against Oliver's face, causing the teen to scrunch his nose.

"I'll get back to you soon, kid..." The man finally spoke up. "Try to keep everything on the inside, 'kay?"

"Huh?" Oliver raised a brow.

The man slid his pinkie finger down the grip of his gun before it clicked in a button on the side of his empty magazine.

*SHING!*

Oliver balked as a three-inch blade slid out from the bottom of the extended magazine.

"RAAAAGH!" The intruder bellowed as he jammed his weapon's hidden knife directly into the left side of Oliver's throat.

The Rook's eyes went wide as he let out a gurgling croak, his hold on the attacker quickly slipping as staggered backwards.

One boot to his chest sent Oliver toppling back against a wall, desperately clutching to his throat as blood slowly began to seep from the empty magazine lodged into his neck.

"OLIVER!" Carmelita yelled as tossed another volley at the intruder.

The intruder tossed his firearm to the side, instead opting to wield his sword with both hands. Swinging his weapon to the side, he battered away the oncoming projectiles like they were just flies.

*TING TING TING!*

The feathers scattered to the floor in a harmless pile, exploding pathetically a moment later.

*KH-CLANG!*

Spinning around, the man clashed with Mio's own blade at the last second. The two pushed against one another for a moment, that was, until the man took an arm off his sword to reach over and grab a fistful of Mio's hair.

"!"

*KH-TANG!*

The man yanked her head forward, causing it to slam into the massive flat of his blade with a resounding, deep thud. The Pawn staggered back, her world spinning in circles. The man simply drew back with his blade, slashing across her torso with one light strike.

Yet, despite how shallow the cut was, it sent Mio sprawling to the floor. She practically curled-in on herself as the shallow wound hissed and burned with a pain she'd never felt before.

Is this..? Holy..?

Mio's consciousness faded away before she could finish her train of thought.

The intruder began to run to his discarded gun, but rolled away as one of Carmelita's feathers sailed towards his path.

The intruder looked across the room as the last Knight of Percival Forneus stared him down with an expression so caustic it could sear through solid steel.

"I have no idea who you are…" Carmelita snarled. "But I'm going to fuck. you. up."

The next moment, the girl became a blur.

*FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE FWEE !*

The entire foyer glowed Red as a typhoon of magical feathers, all sailing towards the attacker at all manner of angles.

The intruder threw their head around, eyes narrowing behind his Onyx mask dangerously as the armada of projectiles flew towards him. Dry cracked lips spilling out an inaudible whisper.

"..., give me strength."

The man clenched his sword as the gears and motors covering the blade suddenly sparked to life with a shuddering groan.

*Ch-ch-ch-chhhhrrrrroooooooaaaaaaaaaaa!*

A small chamber on the side of the blade began to glow a brilliant mix of deep reds and striking azure, swirling around like a nebula within its small chassis. As the entire machine hummed to life, the golden edge of the blade began to shimmer and glow brighter and brighter.

The blade rattled in his grip like it was struggling to break free, a golden aura flaring more and more intense with each moment.

Then the man stepped forward and swung the sword. As though moving in slow motion, the blade choppily glided across the air, golden afterimages of its form trailing ahead and behind its arc at all times. The very air before the blade tore apart, like a knife tearing through an invisible page it tore a jagged line into the very space before it; leaving nothing behind but a swirling miasma of purples and blues.

Rounding his massive blade around, the assailant swung once more, tearing open another hole, then another on the other side, the one from above.

The great barrage Carmelita had sent flew ahead, only to be swallowed up into the numerous tears surrounding their target. A grand attack, completely invalidated in mere seconds.

The gaps in space quickly began to stitch themselves back together, as though the very world was rejecting their existence.

"Take this!" Carmelita reappeared a ways away from the intruder's right, causing the man to dodge out of the way at the last second.

She was too fast.

The man's eyes quickly darted around from beneath his mask as he failed to properly ascertain her position, before finally landing on the sight of her King still kneeling down at the top of the stairs.

Passing his sword off to his left hand, the man clenched his fingers; small sparks of golden light began to crackle around his digits, before finally coalescing into the form of a large light spear. Without a second thought, he flung the spear right towards Percival's back.

"No…" Carmelita quickly screeched to a halt as she followed the trajectory of the spear, face paling as she realized where it was heading. "PERCY, LOOK OUT-!"

Channeling her Knight speed to her fullest, Carmelita took off like a bullet train, racing up the stairs millisecond, and tossing herself in the way of the spear.

"Carmeli-" Percival's words stopped as he turned around.

"L-Learn to look… at… your surroundings…" Carmelita wheezed through a weak smile. There, the Knight stood before her master, hands gripping to a light spear that buried itself right through her torso. "T-Thanks for… everything… P-Percival…"

The strength in Carmelita's body finally gave away, as the Knight fell to the floor.

Percival stood silent, staring with wide, horrified eyes as he looked over the carnage before him. Eyes slowly trailing from Carmelita's corpse down the stairwell and right into the impersonal stare of the intruder's own masked visage.

"Don't move." The intruder finally spoke up. "Don't give me a reason to kill you too."

Percival didn't know what made him stay there, on his knees at the top of the stairwell. Perhaps it was fear, or dread, because despite the overwhelming fury boiling just beneath the surface; the young scion couldn't bring himself to move.

After a moment more of their stare-down, the intruder gave something of a half-nod before walking away from the stairwell. Scooping up and holstering his discarded firearm as he moved, the masked assailant soon walked up to the doubled-over form of the peerage's only Rook.

"You still with us, kid?" The man sheathed his weapon across his back while he gently prodded Oliver with the toe of his boot.

A faint gurgling sound was his response.

"Good. You're of no use to me or that rat-bastard if you up and die." The man remarked.

Kneeling down beside Oliver, the man flexed and clenched his left hand, a device affixed to it beginning to light up with a cyan energy, sending little crackles of blue energy jolting across his fingers and forearm.

"Roll up your shirt and bite down on it." The man instructed, his free hand grabbing the base of Oliver's shirt and raising it up to his face. "You don't want to bite off your tongue and choke on it."

Oliver's hazy, distant expression turned quizzical.

"Sorry in advance, kid." The man's free hand grabbed a tight hold on Oliver's shoulder, before suddenly plunging his left hand forward and into the boy's chest.

"HGGGGMMHHHH!" Oliver's body perked up, thrashing around as fresh, ludicrous pain seared across his nervous system.

The man slowly began to pull his arm back out of the Rook's chest, arcs of cyan lightning arcing back from his emerging digits to the boy's chest. With a final tug, the intruder pulled something out of Oliver's chest, finally giving an end to his spasms.

Lifting his hand up to his face, the intruder gazed over the small orb that rested in his palm. No larger than a snowglobe, the orb swirled with a mix of green and brown mist, occasional crackles of a golden energy lighting up from deep within.

"Call yourselves an ambulance." The man shouted aloud as he rose to his feet, a magical teleportation circle sprung to life under the intruder's feet. "I'm sorry that it had to come to this."

A beat later, and the intruder was gone, just as suddenly as he had arrived; leaving the remaining members of the Forneus family to bask in the horrible silence of that ruined, bloodied front hall.

?

The intruder reappeared in a flash of golden light. The white marble floors and ornate, art-laden walls of the Forneus manor quickly became replaced by a foyer that in all regards felt bleak and oppressive. The seamless expanse of black granite flooring covered by blood-red carpeting littered with minute tears and stains from untold years of neglect. The dark oak walls, almost impossible in their towering scale, seemed to fold inward to loom ominously above all those who dared enter.

The man simply kept his jaw clenched and kept walking. Passing through the dilapidated foyer into a hallway barley lit by a few measly light fixtures. Running along the sides of the walls were an array of crooked oil paintings of silver-haired men, obscured by poor lighting and left to collect dust and decay.

Reaching the end of the hall, the man carelessly slammed open the set of masterfully-carved wood doors, barging into a large study; where shelves upon shelves of books stood like obelisks, and the only source of light was a crackling fire laid before a set of armchairs.

"I'm back from your little errand." The man growled. His distaste clung to his tongue, souring every word that passed his lips.

"Marvelous. I knew I could count on you, Purge-y-boyo~!" A sardonic, sing-song came from one of the armchairs. "Come here, come here, I want to see you when I talk to you."

Purge made a small grunting noise, before slowly marching towards the fire. The various components of gear and weaponry covered him from head-to-toe clinking against one another as he moved to face his companion in the armchair.

"Much better. There's my handsome little boy~!" The silver-haired man grinned. "Care to have a seat?"

"Shut the fuck up, Rizevim." Purge bristled, as he practically slammed the orb he was holding into the Lucifer's palm. "I got you your Sacred Gear, and I got you the Graal. That's it. I'm walking away from this. Now."

"A shame." Rizevim's face fell. "You're going to miss all the fun, you know."

"You're going to lose, Rizevim." Purge hissed. "I've seen it happen dozens of times, they're all going to stop you."

"So you've told me…" Rizevim replied flatly, rolling a glass of whisky around in his hand. "Which is why I've thought about taking some… precautionary measures…"

*Ch-Chick!*

The cool steel barrel of Purge's pistol pressed up against Rizevim's chin.

"I swear, if you lay even a finger on any of them-"

"Relax, Purge-y Boy! Why so tense?" Rizevim laughed, nudging the barrel away from his face with his index finger. "This is all a game, so why would I ever try to get rid of the star pieces prematurely?"

"..." Purge scowled as he holstered his firearm.

"No, I thought I'd have a little bit of fun." Rizevim took a sip of his whisky.

"You used the Graal…"

Rizevim cracked a grin and gave the masked man a wink.

There we have it guys! The first of the two epilogues for this story arc! I'll tell you, it feels crazy good to finally be out of this arc now! (We've been in the Underworld Training Arc for a WHILE now…)

This chapter is the return of a certain character we've seen a few times now, and I can finally give him a bit more of an introduction! Purge has been a character that I've had as a concept since the first few arcs of this story; hell, the most general concepts of the character have been a thing since the pre-alpha concepting for the story! So yeah, Purge has been a thing for quite a bit of time.

There's also two fun facts that I can share about Purge!

First off, Purge has already made an appearance outside of this story. My good friend NecroGodYami has another DxD story that he's been slowly working on called "Take Me Back to Eden" and he and I have been coordinating for Purge to make a little cameo appearance! I want to make it apparent too, that this cameo isn't just a non-canon little nod; but rather, it's actually a canonical appearance of the exact same character that has shown up over time in this story!

On that note, the second fact about Purge which I want to share is that he is a major player in this story, and represents the biggest paradigm-shift from the canon DxD storyline that'll be in this story. I can't share much more, but just now that his presence is going to have major ripples the further-on we go in the story!

Now without further ado, let's begin the…

REVIEW ROUNDUP

Royalrain20xx says:

Man, what an absolute madness induced battle this turned out to be. I sort of knew there'd be chaos, but man, who knew Vin would go full Predator (or Rambo depending on what you see) on those girls after they straight annihilated him through a metal shipping container. One could say adrenaline is one hell of a drug, but I always struggle to understand how one can have the willpower to push themselves beyond their physical capabilities even after losing what seems to be like 60-70% of their body structure/blood, lol. And furthermore, having Irina and Ezekiel see this side more feral side of Vin makes me wonder if they'll be more weary of him if he gets into more stress induced moments in the future. Also, one thing I gotta give credit for is the battle direction, I'm glad that we're able to follow exactly what goes on in each fight in great and clear detail, I never once got lost on what was going on.

But another thing I must add, is I love how absolutely dumbfounded Vin was after he listened to Issei's plan. Since he doesn't really know him all that well, having Issei ask Rias for the famous "nipple poke" with Vin in the background made for a great moment. Of course, the cherry on top was the Fallen Angel and Red Dragon Emperor suddenly reading each other's moves as the fight went once they switched opponents. Overall, this was a chapter filled with great moments and great action, to which I can't to see what the end result will mean for our group. Can't wait for the next one!

Hey Rain, it's great to hear from you again! I always appreciate how much you write with each review, since it really gives me a good idea of what you thought!

I'm super glad that you enjoyed seeing the more 'feral' side of Vin. For a long time, I've wanted to have Vin operate as something of a foil to Issei; and a big part of that is finally getting to show how exactly the two carry themselves during conflicts. Issei can be slippery, but by-and-large, he's the model shounen protag, often choosing to overwhelm an opponent head-to-head when in combat. Meanwhile, Vin has no qualms about getting as brutal and cunning as possible when in battle. Instead of fighting with honor, he's fighting to survive and he has been since the very beginning of the series. While Issei's Boosted Gear makes him formidable, it's Vin's cunning and creativity mid-fight that makes him dangerous. There's really no line that he won't cross if it means he and his loved ones get to live.

But you are right, Vin's endurance is pretty insane, almost to the point of being comedic. In truth, that's the other big thing that I've wanted to show; that Vin's got a down-right absurd amount of willpower. His greatest strength is simply him being able to stand back up. It's a type of strength I find appealing; especially when they are still shown to have sustained some grievous wounds. Think of people like John Wick, who still keep trucking, even though everyone he fights still gets a good hit in on him.

That, and a lot of Vin's strength is coming from the huge mass of Ki energy that Crystal Weaver absorbed in the previous chapters. I couldn't exactly outright state that in the chapter – with Vin not knowing the energy came out of Koneko, etc. – but I tried to elude that fact by having Vin sort of acknowledge that he definitely shouldn't be able to keep going in this state.

It's great that you love how the entire ending came out! The nipple-poke was something that I was debating about for a while (you can see that when I moved the Balance breaker unlock out of the first encounter with Kuroka), but in the end, I figured "Hey, why the hell not? This is still Issei here, let's have fun."

I hope that the wait was worth it! Can't wait to hear what you think! Thanks for reaching out!

Antex – The Legendary Zoroark says:

Wow! Time sure does fly doesn't it! It's incredible to see just how far this story has come ever since I first started to read and review it! Speaking of, I enjoyed the Rating Game! It was very well-written and I liked how realistic the fights and end result were! It's obvious that Rias wouldn't have gotten a "perfect" score and all, but she and her Peerage (plus Vin) put up an amazing showcase/fight! They struggled but they endured and made it to the finish line. That is something to be immensely proud of.

Had to laugh at some parts even though one of the parts may not end up as funny in hindsight. The two main parts were Vin igniting the propane gas containers and causing the whole tower to blow up. Then when he mentions how this may not exactly help with getting Akeno's favor/neutrality with him easier to get, I could only wince and laugh nervously. Finally was the part with Xenovia being her usual self and "assisting" Issei in re-fastening his dislocated shoulder in a rough patch job manner (and yet you can't exactly blame the patch work part since they were in combat and she was probably taught such techniques back in the Church Exorcist's employ). Poor guy! It actually reminded me of a scene in Disney's animated movie, Atlantis The Lost Empire! So well done on that! Even if the reference was/wasn't done on purpose.

Keep this up! Can't wait for more DxD Alternate adventures!

Hey Antex, it's also wonderful to hear from you once more!

I cannot explain how relieved I am that you and the others seem to really enjoy how the Rating Game was written! It was a huge undertaking to write, so seeing the effort reaping rewards is beyond cathartic.

Way back in the earliest chapters of DxD: Alt., I had characterized Vin with way more of a sarcastic, witty inner monologue. As of late, I've really wanted to try and recapture that aspect of the character to keep him an interesting little dude to follow. Little moments like that line about Akeno after the explosion were some of my favorite lines in this chapter as well!

Speaking of recapturing aspects of characters, I really have to give Xenovia some more focus. She's one of the more important characters of the story, and while I feel I haven't been doing a terrible job writing her, I could definitely benefit from having her around a bit more. I've rarely touched on that disparity between the old frigid Exorcist version of Xenovia and the current version of her. Little misunderstandings and awkward misunderstandings are part of what make Xenovia so adorable, so it felt really great to include that patchwork relocation in the story. Especially because I actually struggled quite a bit with trying to just find the right way to end that last chapter, but I digress.

I'm overjoyed to hear how much you liked that chapter Antex! Hopefully this one managed to entertain you and get you ready for the crazy story arc I have coming up next!

That about does it for the Review Roundup guys! Thanks once again for everyone who took the time last chapter to follow, favorite, or write a review! I always love hearing from you all, and to this day, I have still read every single review I've received.

If you ended up enjoying this chapter, please consider doing the same! Follows, favorites and reviews go a longer way than you may think; they really help me feel that little bit more confident and motivated to put pencil to paper and write even more!

We only have one more epilogue chapter left, and then we're going to be off to the next story arc! Feels crazy, considering how long we've been trapped in the Underworld Training arc, haha…

I'm glad to be done with that arc, I'm not going to lie.

Anyway, yeah, I hope you're all ready, because the next story arc is going to feature the return of something I know a few of you have really been waiting for: the all-original story arcs!

I hope you're all as excited for that as I am; it's going to be a blast.

Anyhow, I've taken up enough time now. Time to get back down to some final assignments for my summer University courses and then I'm going to write the next chapter!

Until next time, friends!

ROCK ON!