Chapter VII

Gasper was scared.

Gasper was afraid.

Gasper was terrified.

Beyond the young boy's usual brand of skittish avoidance, the half vampire found himself facing what could only be described as one of his worst nightmares come to life. The kind of scenario he'd envisioned as the one thing he should never allow himself to fall prey to.

Exposed.

Helpless.

Powerless.

From the moment that monster had burst through the wall, Gasper found himself living through a life threatening chase, running as far as his legs could carry him, eyes burning as the world flickered in and out of the familiar red color he'd come to hate and fear all these years.

Forbidden Balor View.

The Sacred Gear that had come to define his life, death, and rebirth… was useless.

'I want to go back!' As the desperate thought echoed in his mind, cheeks damp with sweat and tears as the monsters that so suddenly dragged him out of his safe haven pursued him with everything but good intentions, the prized power of his eyes doing little as they burst through it without so much as stumbling.

Scary.

Scary.

Scary.

He didn't want to be here anymore. He wanted to go back to his room. He wanted Rias to come pick him up and tell him it would be okay. But even that felt hollow as it soon became clear that this wasn't a bad dream he could wake up from, but the harsh reality of his next, inevitable death.

A somber reminder that hit him like a stone.

"Hey… you okay?"

A voice suddenly broke through his thoughts. Dispersing them like mist.

That's right, there was someone else here. An older boy that was also being chased by the terrifying monsters. A boy who was leaning against a nearby chunk of rubble, clutching at the side of his stomach with a grimace, Gasper hadn't actually given much thought about him, too distracted by the overwhelming fright that threatened to overwhelm him.

Only now did he realize how worse off the other boy was.

One of the spokes of the spear had pierced straight through his stomach, the other barely avoiding the side of his torso as a steady trickle of blood dripped down the wound.

Even now the weapon sagged, hooked prong catching on the soft flesh of the other boy's stomach and tattered remnants of his school uniform. It was an ugly weapon and an uglier wound. Gasper's fangs extended and hunger welled up in his stomach, screaming at him to lap up every drop of precious ichor… and then shame overcame that.

Biting his lip so hard it bled, the blonde dhampir took in the appearance of his… fellow victim?

Either way, the stab wound wasn't the only injury.

His body was scraped and bruised in places and there was another cut above his ribs, the skin around it looked pale and sickly, darkened veins clearly visible with the contrast.

That… couldn't be natural.

And it was his fault.

"I-I'm sorry." The words came out with a hiccup.

"No worries." Standing tall, hand wrapping around the spear with a strong grip, the other boy gave him a weak smile. "You might want to look away, though. I can't fight with this thing stabbing into me. And I think it might be poisoned."

He was apologizing?!

This brave, injured, foolish human was apologizing?!

Gasper was so shocked he couldn't react or respond.

Issei felt kinda bad for scaring a girl like he was, and for dragging her into it, but he really did need to get blondie's spear out of him.

"Gah!" He bit back a curse and simply made a wordless snarl when he wrenched the weapon loose - vision dimming momentarily and knees swaying at the sudden, vicious tearing.

"Ah. That… sucks."

He was losing a lot of blood.

Again.

"Are you… can I… how do I help?"

Sniffling, eyes watering, looking scared and helpless, the girl took her jacket off and, apologizing as she did so, pressed it against his wound.

Issei hissed and she apologized again.

"Don't worry, seriously, I can get us out of this. You just need to keep your head down, ok? Find a place back inside or in another building. Those two are more worried about me."

Clattering to the floor, the bident, stained with his blood, seemed to… call out to Issei. Like there was some strange connection between his wound and the weapon.

But that was something for later.

At the moment, he focused on Athena's advice and concentrated on his wound. The throbbing of the torn skin, the deep, deep ache of the skewered organs, and the cold, creeping sensation slowly trickling through his veins. That last sensation was what he was after and, concentrating on it, Issei pushed in a way.

Feeling that freezing sensation leave him, even if he was still unpleasantly cold and clammy, the young man rallied a little.

There was still someone to protect… and he still rather enjoyed living.

Heck, this was the first week of school! If he died now, there would be far, far too many visions of heaven that would be missed!

"Ah, visions of heaven?"

Still sniffling, but now more confused than scared, the cute girl looked at him as she held her jacket to his wound. Issei simply chuckled, winced at the pain in his side from chuckling, and smiled.

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here." He tried to give a thumbs up and strike a pose… but almost passed out from the sudden movement. "Ah… it's gonna be ok, ok."

"Why are you comforting me, you idiot!?" Angry, worried, and guiding him over to a chair, the blonde seemed far from fully reassured. "You almost died saving me and now… now you're bleeding to death!"

"Don't worry. Can't bleed to death, Athena said so. At least I think so. I'm not human anymore according to this very cute, very chuuni goddess I met. You'd like her, she's cute like you, and in middle school too."

"And now you're delirious."

"Only a little!"

He laughed, Issei's voice sounding strange and almost frenetic to his own ears. Still, finding himself a bit hilarious, he managed to get his feet under himself and the godslayer, Campione, whatever the name was … prepared to do his job.

That was when the old building shuddered, the thunderous noise of stone shattering and wood splintering echoing on his ear as a, by now, familiar snake slithered its way out of the ruined pile of bricks and board, scales dusty with white stone powder. The Goddess Snake thingy shook off the last of the debris holding her, slowly crawling through the hole with her sister sitting atop her, an ugly, frustrated sneer marring her face.

She really should lighten up on that.

'It's gonna give her wrinkles.'

He couldn't help but think, even as the duo made their way towards him. There was a… leisurely pace to it, as if they knew they didn't have to put in as much effort to catch him as they did before. And to be fair, they were right. Running away with a hole in his stomach was out of the question.

He didn't have anywhere to go either. Not with Athena's force field keeping them all trapped.

The only thing he could do was stand his ground.

"I-I can h-help!" The younger student offered. Well, it was clear to him that she wanted to help, and probably had some kinda power, because those two wouldn't have bothered otherwise.

"No way, you should get going right now."

The blonde looked halfway between relieved and disappointed. Conflict was clear on her face as she watched the duo of goddesses slither towards them. Issei might not have been the most observant guy in the world, but he knew what someone looked like when they'd rather be anywhere else.

"B-But I…" Shit, now she was crying.

Good going. He tried to save someone's life and made them cry instead. Think of something, dumbass brain.

"You helped plenty already." He reassured the blonde with the first thing that came to mind. "Really, don't you know that a real hero can only show their true powers when people aren't around? So you probably should get some distance if you want me to fight for real."

Unfortunately it turned out to be a cheesy ass monologue from a tokusatsu.

"Is t-that so?!"

Please, please don't look at him with such hopeful eyes. Please don't accept such a half assed derivative pep talk. Issei wanted to take it back; it seemed to get the job done, the blonde no longer looking on the brink of breaking down into tears.

So he had to double down.

"Yes! Whether it be pretty girls or cute kids, I can't stand to let anyone else get hurt. Got it?" This part he actually meant, and fortunately the younger student seemed to accept the reasoning, sparing him a glance and a thank you as she ran towards the gym building.

Issei sighed.

That was that handled. Now all that was left…

"Done running, brat?"

Were the snakes.

The blonde, Euryale, he recalled her name, looked down at him from her perch on the snake's head, eyes gleaming with wicked satisfaction at seeing the bloodied jacket pressed against his stomach.

Issei couldn't help it, he smiled back.

"You have shit aim. Are you actually trying to kill me?"

It was probably the wrong thing to say, the smugness in the hooded woman's face quickly becoming anger.

"Then I will be sure to get your head next time."

Picking the spear from the ground, Issei gave the bloodied tip a wary look as he pointed it at the blonde.

"Gonna be pretty hard without this, don't you think?"

Issei couldn't help but fire back, because despite the craziness of having to run away from them and getting almost crushed and eaten by the big snake only for the blonde to stab him…

Issei wasn't afraid.

He was kinda scared, sure, and he knew there was a real chance they would get him now. But even so… Issei couldn't help but feel a small part whisper to him.

'You've had worse.'

On that ship, in that room, when the only thing he had were his wits, his guts, and a half baked plan that didn't work. When all he had left was the desperate need to live, to survive… that had been the worst, scariest, and most exhilarating moment of his life.

This just… didn't compare to that.

'Guess they can't really measure up to you, huh?' It was mean, but of the three scary snake ladies he had tangled with thus far… he'd rather have met Dusa-chan again than waste time on her bitchy older sister.

Beneath his feet, Issei felt the ground crack and shift, the weight of the duo's presence washing over him like a physical force. The reassuring smile he'd given the other student earlier became sharp and eager as something within him braced against the two monsters' attempt at intimidating him.

Despite the fear, the anger, and the tangled ball of feelings that he was experiencing.

Issei couldn't help but welcome the challenge.

"Your mother is the earth, your father is the sea, your skin is that of a maiden cursed as a serpent… "

The words came easily to him.

An urge to speak… an urge to say something about the goddess whose power he'd taken. Not to brag about his victory… but to acknowledge that her life… that those eyes he gazed at in the end… were indeed real.

"...your home is a temple and prison. The owl is your scourge and your patron. Your eyes both beauty and death, and through them you saw a world of marble!"

The school grounds shook, and Issei's leg buckled, vision growing hazy before snapping back into focus as he felt the power within him boil, overflow and burst forward.

"[Mineral Garden]"

From the ground, many great statues suddenly appeared. Statues of thorny vines, of spears, of chisels, and more. Countless of them surging like a wave of white stone. A feeling of deep exhaustion nearly knocked Issei flat as he turned the entire courtyard into a spiked death trap.

'Hopefully that slowed them down.'

As it turned out, not by much. Because the massive snake, Stheno, turned out to be the most nimble reptile in the world, weaving and twirling between the masses of marble without losing so much as a step.

'Guess it was plan B then.'

Issei used his own body as a weapon. Massive, curling spikes swarmed around him, stabbing at the blonde from a dozen directions, but the main attack was exactly as expected. The moment the duo recoiled, dodging his attacks, he launched himself forward - arm and bident extended. Euryale only grinned.

"Now!"

The giant serpent opened her maw, vomiting up a freaking motorcycle!?

And there, in a cloud of rot-stink, flecks of spittle and vomitus flying at him, spear poised to strike a monster… Issei had to end his attack and jump to the side, the spewing serpent's sudden projectile attack sending hundreds of pounds of twisting metal straight at him!

CRASH!

Above him there was the sound of crumpling plastic and tearing metal and flecks of stone rained down around him, but the teenager, abandoning the girl's jacket, surged forwards.

"I'm not that easy to kill!"

He came up under the duo, ready to strike at the underside of Stheno's jaw.

So, lunging forwards, blood spurting from his wound, the Campione put a final burst of energy into his strike - only to be met by Eurayle falling from above. Her dress surged upwards and fanned out, which she used to her advantage, tangling the lengths of black silk around the head of the bident and sharply jerking it away from Issei.

He resisted for just a moment, grunting in pain, tugging back, and then just as suddenly letting go.

His enemy stumbled backwards, surprised at the childish trick, and Issei rushed forwards. With the giant serpent circling around keeping his distance would get him killed - so he closed. Jumping on top of Euryale, he pinned her spear arm to the ground and began punching her as hard as he could.

Blow after blow after blow.

His arm ached with the force of his strikes and his fist was bloody! But this seemed to have little effect on his opponent who simply bucked her hips and caused him to lift with the action.

And in that elevated position, Stheno flicked him with the tip of her tail, sending him flying once more.

In the end, his flight was rather abrupt and ended up with him blasting through a wall. However his landing was, in all things, a girl's bed. The pink silken sheets somewhat gave that fact away. And while this was Issei's first time in such a rather, ahem, longed for situation, he was unfortunately unable to enjoy it.

After all, there was a blonde woman hunting after him and the teenager wasn't particularly interested in letting her pierce him… again.

That wasn't in his playlist!

Leaping upwards, and bringing the sheets with him, he waited until Euryale rushed forwards and repeated her own trick. This time, though, as the blankets obscured her vision, he sent a trio of his own spears forwards.

Wicked spears, with hooked blades and large, flat flanges swinging out to either side, pierced the blankets and it was only his foes's attentiveness that kept her from dying on the spot. Instead, she was impaled through the meat of her thigh, and the bident wielding goddess screeched in pain as, still touching the haft of the weapons, Issei forced the tips to swell up like the bulb of an onion.

It was a cruel sort of attack, but Eurayle sacrificed her leg to escape and, whimpering, fled behind the shelter of her sister's body once more.

"You will not hurt us anymore!"

A sister that seemed enraged - lunging forwards, jaws open wide, and seemingly happy to use issei's compromised position between his spears to swallow him whole.

And in that moment, massive, scything fangs coming closer, his hands still clasped around his creation… creations that he had forced to grow and spread and slip through every crack in their way, he reached out and connected all of his statutes, all of his constructs, all of his weapons and leftover attacks that he could.

At his touch, stone became clay, and the entirety of the school courtyard was overcome by a massive puddle of milky stone. Stone that rippled for a brief moment before shooting upwards as a nearly solid wave of spikes, wicked tips lashing out, piercing into… and then through the massive serpent's body.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

A hundred times in the end.

Issei grit his teeth, sweat making his eyes sting, falling to his knees and losing his grip on his weapons and struggled to even survey his creation; a row of spikes lifting the massive snake off the ground, her mouth snapped shut by the stone she'd swallowed merged with the makeshift spears of stone.

A twinge of guilt and disgust welled up in him, as her voice slipped out in piteous, miserable whines, whimpering in pain and misery.

"You fucking bastard! I'll kill you!"

Ignoring her mutilated leg, blood streaming from a broken nose, Eurayle rushed at him with every ounce of fury she could muster.

But gone was the vicious, clever, lethal woman unleashing attacks of lightning speed and certain lethality. Now she could barely move, not even quite hobbling forwards at a piteous rate. So slow was that Issei, injured as he was in turn, was fast enough to slap her final thrust aside and send a spear of his own at her.

She dodged, or tried too, but the shredded muscle of her leg gave way and the goddess took a spear to her stomach instead of her heart.

"Gah!"

Bled flew from her lips and after a few, final moments, trying and failing to free herself, Euryale the Gorgon… gave up.

"N-not b-b-bad. Bastard."

A bloody smile and Issei wanted to cry.

Righting himself, injury torn open, body numb and burning from the venom-tainted wounds he'd received and purged as best he could, Issei walked over.

He did it.

He'd survived. Somehow, despite everything… he beat the odds again.

"I'm sorry."

So why did he feel so… dissatisfied about it?

Grabbing her shoulder, the teenager braced himself for the groan of pain he knew his enemy would make, but the sound of marble scraping against bone was still enough to make him shiver.

"G-Going to gloat? Drag it out?"

Putting the lightly squirming Gorgon into a bridal carry, the brown haired Campione cradled the now very weak, limp, and suddenly seemingly much smaller goddess in his arms. Carrying her over to her sister, he had to lean against a stone spike and slowly, carefully, as gently as he could lower the impaled serpent to the ground.

A cough of golden ichor… and her wounds only slowed for a moment.

"S-sorry, sis."

Stomach torn open, scales splintered and smashed, one eye gone, the giant, terrifying, monstrously beautiful serpent was maimed to the point of death. hundreds of small wounds covered every inch of her body and dozens of large ones tore foot long rents in muscle and armor.

"You did good. 'Dusa would be proud." Speaking to both of them, Issei laid Euryale down next to her sister's maw.

"What did you know about her? About… us? You killed her… us." Euryale looked at him for a moment, rage and distaste forgotten in favor of confusion.

Issei sat beside the eldest sister, looking up at the sky as he tried to think of a good way to explain himself.

"At first… I didn't know much. Or well… I mistook her for someone else and caused a big mess. I think I said a few things that made her angry, well… angrier than she already was. But I didn't care back then. She killed my parents, chased me all over the place and made life really difficult for a few days. She was a really angry goddess."

Stheno let out a hissing laugh, pained as it was.

"That… sounds like her."

Euryale was less convinced.

"W-What changed then? Why… don't you hate her? Hate us?"

That was harder to explain.

"I don't like it when girls get sad." The looks of bewilderment they sent him were clear. "Rather, I guess seeing a girl get angry at me is easier than seeing one get sad. Back then, after we were done fighting I didn't want her to look so sad anymore."

He would never forget those eyes.

Beautiful.

She was beautiful in a way Issei wasn't sure he could ever appreciate. More so than anything or anyone else he'd ever seen. But even now, that moment when he saw her for the first time through the mirrors, the way she looked so miserable and angry to exist.

How could he not have felt something?

"That's how it was, huh? Guess she really is still the most popular. Talk about unfair." Euryale huffed, her skin, pale as it had been before, had become pure white, cracks showing on her cheek and down her neck, small bits of white stone flaking away.

As if she was turning into stone.

"You guys-"

The elder sister scoffed.

"Did you think us gods die like humans? To begin with, our bodies come from nothing so is it that surprising that we don't leave anything behind?" As if to prove her point the white cracks seemed to spread over her clothes and down her stomach, pieces falling away to reveal a hollow where before there had been flesh and blood.

Stheno was the same.

Scales whitening and cracking, the holes where she'd been stabbed through falling apart around the pikes. The two goddesses, resigned to their loss, seemed content just talking now. More so than they were earlier today when all they did was snap and curse at him as if possessed by an anger they couldn't shake off.

Issei couldn't help but wonder how sad it was.

"Sorry."

"You keep repeating that. If you didn't wanna kill us, you should have let us win, brat. You won, at least look happy about it." She snapped the last part in annoyance.

"I didn't want to fight you two to begin with! What was I supposed to do? Let you run around destroying the place, attacking people. Do you even know how many people you two probably hurt? Why did you even do this? Attack me all you want, but leave other people out of this." Because he couldn't understand how these two, who sounded so reasonable and even friendly now, could have ever chosen the plan they did.

"You make it sound so simple."

"Is it?"

"No." Stheno interjected, her voice frustrated. "We are heretics. It is all we are. And we only wanted our sister. Medusa might have had more leeway, but the only way humans have ever thought of us were as monsters."

Issei… patted her snout.

"Yeah. I know. She was one of a kind."

"Seems like sister got to him." Stheno tittered, a little sadness and exhaustion lingering under the sound.

Issei's cheeks colored. He really didn't want this to become about his crush on their dead sister.

"Tell you what, Brat." Blondie shifted, her dress falling away. "You need to keep on living." Her body underneath was less than a statue. Skin flaking, bones turned to powder, blood long since made into lye ash. "We're inside of you, part of you, now. So until we can kick your ass… you gotta keep kicking ass. When it's all three of us, you're ours."

Issei, just as he had with Stheno, reached out and touched Euryale's body. Her hand took his, wordlessly, and put it to her chest - over her heart. He felt… something. Perhaps a heartbeat, perhaps not. But something.

"Yeah."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the figurine of Medusa he'd been working on earlier.

"I promise."

Placing it in the hands of her sister, he picked Euryale up for a final time and brought her to Stheno's head, the two now weeping mingled tears of joy and regret.

"Hey Brat."

"Hmm?"

His voice was stuck in his throat and the teenager didn't trust himself to speak.

"What's your name?"

Stheno's tone, gentle and light, sounded like the girl she seemed to truly be.

"Issei."

"Keep your word, Issei."

Before he realized it, surrounded by a glowing cloud of dust, the bodies of two immortal and ancient goddesses crumbling to dust, Blondie - his enemy, the woman who had been trying so very hard to kill him - pressed a kiss to his lips.

And it was that sensation and the giggles of Stheno the Serpent of Life and Death, the Devouring Healer, that were the last he knew of either.

As the feeling of the bloody, chapped lips of his foe lingered, the impression of her tongue, the taste of her, ashy and sooty and an underlying hint of venom and iron, that remained only for a moment more.

So now his kills numbered three.

Three sisters, nestled together peacefully, at long last.

'Three for three, huh.' Issei laid back, looking at the ruins of the old building.

Somehow, he couldn't find it in himself to be satisfied with... anything. The ruined date. The chase. The fight.

Campione.

Godslayer.

Before, he didn't know how he felt about it. The way Athena described it, you'd expect him to feel like a hero in the story, slaying monsters and saving girls. Only it seemed that nothing he fought really felt like a monster.

'Next time, it won't come to that.' He promised himself.

Next time, he would be strong enough that nobody would have to die.

Laying down on a soft patch of grass, having limped over to a tree, he leaned back against the warm bark and closed his eyes.

In.

Out.

The pain in his side throbbing.

The feeling of Stheno's warm scales and Euryale's soft lips.

The sun slowly, slowly setting.

He couldn't help it.

Issei closed his eyes.

"What a bewildering turn of events.'

Vexing, yet most enervating.

Watching on from her perch atop the Spider's back, the silver haired goddess' eyes trailed the form of the young godslayer as he moved away from the scattered remains of the gorgons, only for exhaustion to overcome him soon after.

Alone.

Helpless.

Powerless.

But victorious nonetheless.

As she was now, she couldn't properly congratulate him as a goddess of war should. Nor was she possessed of the emotional maturity to ignore the feelings of annoyance that flashed within her chest. Because for what must have felt like the first time in eons, Athena the Wise had been wrong.

Or, rather, she'd miscalculated.

It wasn't often that one as wise as her august self could be proven wrong and yet the young man who'd hosted her for the afternoon somehow had defied the fate she'd foreseen for him once again. Even reduced as she was, the heretic goddess couldn't help the confusion… nay… the curiosity that blossomed with her.

'How did he accomplish this?'

Prodigious mind running through multiple simulations, she'd reviewed the information she'd collected over the course of the afternoon. As well as the knowledge she inherently possessed of the two gorgons.

There hadn't been any deviation from their side.

How could there be? They were her [Serpent], as much a part of her legend as the monster beneath her, the [Spider], was. Both fragments Athena had gone through great lengths to collect. Only this one would need to be retaken at a later time.

She would have to leave.

Reevaluate her understanding of the situation.

Bound as she was by the principles of hospitality, there wasn't much she could do now that wouldn't tarnish her own honor. The devil spawn she'd been entertaining might have earned some of her wrath, but that too would need to be rectified at a later date.

"The experiment has concluded."

She announced, shaking herself free of her reverie, power responding in kind as her authority receded from the barrier; the threads that reinforced it and connected it to her own magical energy snapping as the protections shuddered and then collapsed.

Athena considered the two devils.

She really wished she could finish this.

The two heiresses had put up a… respectable fight against her Avatar. However, few could boast of the power to match the might of a goddess, even one as possessed of mercy and self control as this Athena. The end result being that the three who'd attempted to barge into her test earlier were left restrained by the silver thread of her [Spider].

Athena felt like humiliating them further.

But this was the extent to which her conscience would allow her.

'Perhaps some time hanging from the trees will teach them good manners.' It wouldn't become fatal unless they weren't let down for several weeks, and going by the incoming power signatures she felt, it wouldn't be long until their servants arrived at the scene now that she was permitting their ingress.

Satisfied with the punishment, Athena reincorporated the [Spider] into her shadow, sparing the young man across the courtyard one final glance.

Her intent had been simply to recover the [Serpent] and then be on her way. But to think that the great goddess Athena would find something even more valuable than one of the misplaced portions of herself in these far away shores. Far from an enemy, or the shameless thief she expected.

She found a puzzle.

A challenge to take apart.

'Yes, I shall be watching you with utmost attention. Issei Hyoudou."

After all, with their… sojourn interrupted… he still owed her.

So, for this moment, she touched [Spider] once again and called a needle to her hand.

Red silken thread trailing from the shining, black chitin of her self's fang, she knelt next to the bleeding boy and tore away what little was left of his jacket. Licking the tip of the needle, she began to sew, watching flesh sizzle and pop and rejoin with each dip of her hand, each pinprick of blood, each tightening of the weave.

In the end, she'd sewed up both sides of Issei's stomach, her spit sufficing to heal the flesh within him.

Campione were quite impervious to the power of gods, but only from without.

Content, Athena let her sewing work rest, wondering how she ought to be thanked for all her hard work before flickering away in a momentary burst of silver light.

But she would be back.

Mortals did need guidance after all.