So what, if I want to be a Harem Protagonist?

by FrancoGamerxz

An Eroge-induced epiphany leads Hyoudou Issei down a path of hard work, excellence and extreme degrees of trauma suppression. Add to that a grumpy old dragon, an overpowered sacred gear, a frisky succubus and munchkin-worthy tactics that put the capital P in "Power Creep", and you've got yourself a nice mess. Oh, and there's also devils, and angels, and stuff. (Cover by Yutaku)

12. Fate? I spit on yours and make my own!

Hello and welcome back to another chapter of "This guy makes a mess of the DxD universe and it somehow works", wherein moi, titular 'guy', will be making a mess of things for your enjoyment and amusement.

But before that, I believe you guys know what time it is...

REVIEW RESPONSE CORNER!

Xerzo LotCN says: "welp that went to hell in a hand basket but he fully tamed crazy waifu with his kindness and nature caring for and saving her very sweet in both way

i do feel bad it was mostly subconscious mind as she must have had a bad life to not meet kindness

interesting part with the true roman and lupa descendant wolfpack also its pretty funny him recapping his story to fucking honest haha

but it does seem a bit almost asspully to save him but it could have been much worse at least they had a reason it was not random happenstance

but where the hell were they... that had yeti packs and magic super roman wolves

while it was stupid what he did he basically had no other options but go wait and die he got the info he saved himself and new waifu

so he is eating the seed is he stupid "it look like a normal apple" it was fucking purple he was told it was or once was an apple this can only go well lols

welp any chance he get the other half of the seed that be neat it probably completely change his race from human at least by half if half the seed doesnt already but boy will he be lusty good thing he is future harem king"

A: We'll learn more about her life later on in the story, so don't worry about that. About the asspull part, I was planning that since the start of the chapter. I purposefully made it seem as if it were the Yeti hunting for Issei, when it was actually the pack hunting for the Yeti. I wanted to expand on the True Roman comment from Aquila in past chapters.

About the other half of the seed... You won't be learning about it anytime soon, I can tell you that. I have plans for it, big plans.

PraetorXyn says: "All right, this kidnapping arc is getting real old real fast, as I never liked it to begin with, but the latter part of the chapter brought it back somewhat. Looking forward to resolving this finally.

I really hope the seed makes him powerful. All this about "strain" is getting really old too."

A: The strain may feel cumbersome in the story, but it is well-founded. Remember the fact that up until he awakened the Boosted Gear, Issei was a mostly unremarkable human. No heroic heritage, no magical blood, he didn't even do something as basic as practice martial arts. A totally normal human teen body shouldn't be able to properly handle the full amount of power that Issei can use. In the Anime/Manga/light novels his power growth without consequences makes sense because he has the body of a Devil, but here he doesn't have that advantage. Plus, he's still 14, barely a teenager. His body will gradually grow into his full power, both through age and training.

the Composcreator says: "Am I the only boy one concerned about the power gap between Vali and Issei? For now it seems to be shrinking with the main factor being Issei's physical endurance. However once his body is trained up to handle his powers he will skyrocket, potentially past Vali. I'm more interested in an even fight"

A: Don't worry about it. Remember the while Issei is growing stupidly fast, Vali is also a little monster of a battle maniac. The two of them are the type of people to shatter limits and subvert expectations. When they eventually do end up crossing fists, it'll be a thing of beauty.

wanderinghawk1 says: "What a refreshing story! Good original stories (AU) are hard to find.

Sadly many (non crossover) DxD stories have bad grammer or sentence structure, yours doesn't so major point there. But seriously I enjoy you writing style. Also stroy progression and character development are good (maybe a little more interaction between Issei Lilith?). Oh and it would be great if you could describe the looks of the important OC characters in a little more detail please, just a little.

Question how big is the harem gonna be? 5-10-20-...100 girls because I have seen such fics and that is simply to much, just saying keep the harem small enough that each character gets enough screen time please.

Also is Aquila going to be part of Issei's Harem (?) cause I REALLY like her character plus she really seems to connect with Issei on not perverted things (or maybe there too who knows XD ?).

I hope Issei isn't gonna end up in some kind of unbreakable contract/binding/whatever with a god...

Anyway this is definitly one of my favorite DXD stories, keep up the good work!"

A: It's great that you enjoy the story, my friend! About the grammar and sentence structure, I always try to do my best, however mistakes occasionally occur wherein typos slip past my eyes, or sentences get improper punctuation, but that is a normal occurence for anyone that doesn't have betas for their stories, especially when they tend to write well into the wee hours of the morning since that's when they find the most inspiration.

About the OC's, I thought that I was describing them properly, I had no idea that I was missing the mark. Guess I'll have to try a bit harder, no?

The harem... Mhm, I can't give you any numbers. It would ruin the surprise, and nailing down a number so early would extremely reduce the possibilities of what I can do later on in the story regarding this subject.

Aquila is definitely going to be in Issei's harem, I have no shame in spoiling this. It was a foregone conclusion. Rejoice, for Eagle Waifu is a go.

Other than that, there's not much that I can say without heavy spoilers, so I'll have to move on to the next review!

Templarsith says: "Well that is apple going to have one hell of a kick to it. On the note only making deals with equals I thought as the heavenly dragon emperor Issei was on par with gods? I mean when Gasper stop time in the meeting everyone else has to defend vs time stop effect however Issei ignores it, heck didn't Rias get saved due to the fact she was touching Issei when it happened? On the note of Aztecs how the hell is Quetzalcoatl going to fit in? I mean it was a Hernan Cortes who put the nail in the coffin for the Aztecs when he united all the other tribes against the Aztecs, but on the flip side ripping a person heart out as a peace offering is not going to convince a devout Christian to stop. However we now mixing history with DxD and story writing. Well I look forward to more great story thank you!"

A: Semantics. Issei has a weapon that can kill gods, so on from a certain perspective he is 'on pair with gods'. However, his power is not yet high enough to actually equal a god, so any deals with gods would be from a position of a disadvantage, as an inferior. It's conceptual-level shenanigans, they have a tendency to fudge things like power scaling and such. And there is no guarantee that Quetzalcoatl is going to get involved. After all, it's not as if he's the only Mesoamerican deity, and he probably has other things to do as well. You'll have to read on to see what happens.

Well, that concludes this chapter's Review Response Corner! If you wish to be featured in the next chaoter's, all you have to do is leave a question in the reviews, or a sentence that could be construed as a sentence that has not yet been answered, and I will do my best to give you information without blatantly spoiling the plot.

With that out of the way, let us head onwards to the story!

~oOo~

"!"

Issei's eyes widened tremendously, his shoulders shaking as he reeled back, slamming back-first into one of the steel walls of the chamber white reaching for his throat with both hands.

Tears started building up at the corners of Issei's eyes, his hands trembling and his face gaining a purplish hue due to his bite of the apple. The brunette thrashed and writhed in place before falling onto the ground, his right hand trying to reach upwards as dark spots started dancing in his vision.

Before he could go unconscious, Issei's gauntleted hand rose up into the air, a sheen of power building up to a noticeable degree as the green jewel on it's back lit up with a bright light. He tightened said hand into a fist...

Before slamming it into his chest, causing the apple chunks that he had been choking on to slide down his gullet into his stomach.

"HAH!"

His breathing came in fast, haggard gasps as he turned over to his hands and knees.

'...You absolute moron.'

'Hey, don't call me a moron! I just survived a near-death experience!'

'You survived a battle with a Jotunn, the Invading Snake, a Bloody Maiden and a pack of Yeti, and you almost got done in by a fucking apple!'

'Choking is absolutely normal!'

'You took a tiny baby bite of the damn thing! How could you have choked on that?'

'...mumble...'

'What was that?'

'I said... That I don't like apples.'

'You don't li- ARE YOU A DAMN CHILD?'

'WHAT'S WRONG WITH NOT LIKING APPLES!?'

'YOU ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF THAT! EVEN LITTLE CHILDREN KNOW TO SWALLOW FOOD BEFORE IT CAUSES THEM TO CHOKE! PLUS, YOU ALREADY KNEW THAT YOU WERE GOING TO BE EATING AN APPLE!'

'JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW SOMEONE IS GOING TO KICK YOU IN THE NUTS DOESN'T MEAN YOU'LL FEEL THE PAIN LESS!'

'...Point. Anyways... How does it feel like, having eaten the apple?'

Looking down at his own hands, Issei blinked owlishly before responding.

'I don't feel any different.'

'Maybe you need to eat the entire apple.'

The brunette looked at the purple half-eaten apple on top of the steel tray, his eyes narrowed.

'Perhaps.'

The dragon let out an exhasperated sigh, before speaking in a tired tone.

'Stop being a big baby and just eat the damned thing.'

Sneering at the apple, Issei slowly approached it and poked it with a gauntleted finger, before picking it up. He clamped his nose shut with his fingers before rapidly eating the rest of the apple, gagging all the way and having to fight down a few retches, until only a stem and an - ironically enough - seedless pit were left behind.

'Okay, I ate the damn thing... Where are my super-whoa!'

A pulse of energy went up Issei's body, surrounding him in a purple glow for an instant, his eyes lighting up in the same color.

The brunette looked down at his glowing hands, enjoying the soft and warm feel of the aura around him, before it suddenly and jarringly vanishing, it's sudden absence causing Issei to trip in place.

'...Do you feel any different?'

'I feel like I just had a full body massage before being dunked into a pair of soft Oppai.'

'And?'

'...That's it, really. I can't feel anything else to be different.'

'Bit of an underwhelming power up, is it?'

'I do feel like I can take more punishment than before, so it's not as bad as you say, really.'

'Yes, it is. After all the Hype I expected a massive light show, an eruption of power that shook the earth itself, maybe someone screaming about how your power level was over 9000 or something...'

'8000 in the original, but yes, I guess I see your poi-Hey, how the hell do you know about Drag So-Ball!?'

'My last host was a fan of the original comics, and it's about dragons, so of course I would care about it. Dragons are, after all, the best beings alive.'

'The humblest ones, too.'

'Of course! It seems you finally understand the greatness of- Oh, you were being sarcastic. I didn't know you were intelligent enough to understand sarcasm.'

The brunette facepalmed at that, before stomping over towards the door of his steel room and slamming his fist into it reppeatedly, before calling out loud.

"Anyone there?"

The brunette kept knocking on the door for over half an hour, calling out for someone to open the door, until his companion spoke in a bored tone.

'Ever thought of... I don't know... Blowing the fuck out of this door?'

'Yes, actually, and I decided that it wouldn't work because it was expected that I became some sex-crazed deviant and start trying to explode things, so this room was likely enchanted with this in mind.'

'And since people expected you to fight some long and protracted battle against your inner self, or lust, or whatever, there's no one around to let you out, and there probably won't be for a good while.'

'Yup, you're starting to get it.'

'How the hell are we getting out of here, then?'

'I may have an idea.'

'Oh? Do tell.'

'Remember the transportation circle I used to get here? It caused me to land in the great hall. If I used the circle again, I'd probably be sent there again. '

'How do you know that your landing area was intentional, and not just sheer dumb luck?'

'When the circle got beamed into my mind, I gained a certain level of understanding of it's components. I don't know everything about everything involved in the circle because it's based on knowledge that I don't currently have, but I have a general feel for each of the parts that compose it. I know that a part of it is some sort of anchor, a fixed point to which I connect and reel myself to in order to reach Luxuria. And since I'm at full power right now...'

'You can just transport yourself without external aid.'

'Bingo.'

Issei crouched, allowing a current of electricity to run down his Boosted Gear's claws, giving it a higher amount of cutting power, before rearing said hand back to start on the process of drawing the magical circle. He stopped himself before he could even start, however.

'Wait a minute! When I jumped with Hylda, I didn't need to draw a magical circle, I just imagined it and pushed power into it. Then, I should be capable of...'

The brunette closed his eyes, pulling the image of the magical circle to the forefront of his mind. With the image having been permanently engraved within his brain, it was very easy for him to pull it up.

He imagined his various different powers, the green/red thread from the Boosted Gear, the yellow from what he dubbed his Rome Force, which was the power he was granted by Aquila, the purple of his Tantric Energy and the white that he associated to his humanity, which was also the smallest one in amount, though it had been steadily growing overtime, coalescing together into a single, unified mass of energy.

He grabbed this mass and, as if it were putty, started manipulating it, twisting, turning, changing and squeezing, causing it's shape to gradually change. Issei's brow furrowed in irritation as he felt this shaping to be much too slow, before he mentally overlapped the images of the finished magical circle and the morphing mass of power. He pictured this magical circle as a hollow mold before pouring the amalgamate of power in.

Ultimately, only a tiny amount of the power was truly needed to craft the circle, the rest returning to Issei and melding into him, with only a minor discomfort, before the brunette opened his eyes, the image of the complete circle in his mind's eye.

He raised his right hand before slamming it onto the ground underneath him and allowing this shaped power to rush out completely. Issei watched with great focus, his attention and the mental image never wavering, as the finished magical circle that he planned appeared underneath him in it's complete form, sputtering and tossing around bolts and arcs of lightning, before he felt himself being enveloped by a blanket of energy. He felt like an intense breeze rushed around him, like when he ran very fast, before his senses warned him that he was about to appear somewhere that felt very different from where he had been before.

~oOo~

SPLASH!

The brunette lifted himself up from the soapy water that he had fallen into, the smell of roses barely registering in his mind as he wiped the soapy water from his face to keep it away from his eyes.

'This felt really different from when I got transported from the Alps to Luxuria. Hell, it felt different from when I was transported from here to Hungary. It felt smoother, less jerky, and less sickness-inducing. Was it because I travelled using only my own power, or was it something else...?'

"Issei?"

The brunette looked up at the source of the voice before blinking owlishly. Having regained himself, he spoke in as nonchalant tone as he possibly could.

"Hey, Jackie. Nice, uh, breasts you have there."

The bathing girl's eyes were wide in surprise, before she reacted as any normal woman would were she to suddenly find a man in her bath.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Issei winced at the pitch and volume of the shriek, before the sound of a wooden door being knocked down filled the bathroom, before two sets of feet positioned themselves on opposite sides of the tub.

"What's the problem her- Is that Hyoudou-dono in there?"

The brunette looked at the source of the voice, seeing a familiar spear-brandishing guard that was looking at him with surprise, and more than just a bit of trepidation. Ignoring this, he raised his hand in greeting.

"Yup, it's me, Venka."

Venka, a succubus soldier with green shoulder-length hair in a hime cut, 5'4" in height and a pair of humongous F-cup breasts looked away from Issei and towards the other succubus that was standing guard over the bathing girl with her before speaking.

"Wasn't Issei-dono supposed to be in the isolation chamber? Laveria-sama said something about some temporary sex-based insanity that would cause him to attack anyone in sight!"

The other succubus was a 5'9" woman, her hair orange in color and reaching all the way down to her ankles, and her build slim, with small b-cup breasts. Her name was Renka, and she was Venka's twin sister. She also gave Issei a wary look, taking half a step backwards and gripping her sword tightly as she answered.

"You are correct. I do not believe that his presence in here is coincidental. We should prepare for a fight."

Jackie seemed confused, as if everything that had been said so far was just gibberish, or spoken in a foreign language, while Issei just sighed, a sweatdrop on his forehead as he responded.

"I am not in some sex-crazed insanity, and neither am I going to attack anyone. My presence here in this tub was actually 100% coincidence."

Venka and Renka traded astonished looks, before the two of them turned to face Issei again, with Venka speaking up.

"You... Can you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes..."

Renka was the one to speak up next, her tone conveying as much surprise as Venka's.

"How is that possible?"

The brunette sighed, raising himself from the soapy water and noticing the absentminded sway of Jackie's breasts in the water - 'Bigger than Hylda's' - before jumping out the side of the tub, ignoring the uncomfortable manner in which his clothes were sticking to his skin even as he answered.

"Well, you girls are speaking japanese, and I was sort of born in Japan, so... Yeah."

Renka's eyes widened further at that, before she spoke.

"I think we need to see Lady Laveria."

~oOo~

Issei gave the many succubi that had arrayed themselves on the other side of the massive conference table an annoyed look, his eyes noticing the tension in their shoulders, the way that most of them kept a tight grip on their weapons, and the fact that more than a few had their power brimming just under their skin, ready to be unleashed on a moments notice.

He raised his hand to scratch his cheek, resulting in him watching as the various people fully released their weapons and went into their fighting stances.

His eyebrow twitched in annoyance, forcing him to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths to regain his calm. He opened his eyes and ignored the way that most of the succubi flinched when his gaze moved over them before allowing his gaze to settle on one of the only calm succubi, Laveria - the other one was Xinthia, who had folded over the table laughing at Issei's irritation - before speaking up.

"So... I ate the thing."

Laveria leaned forward, her gaze firmly on Issei's as she spoke.

"It was a fast transition. How did it feel?"

"Underwhelming, really. I expected a massive flash and bang of some sort, a massive surge of previously unseen power, and an internal struggle of epic proportions. Maybe even facing a Nega-Issei or something within a physical representation of my soul, complete with crumbling buildings, a massive lake, maybe a few skyscrapers that people stand on vertically because reasons.

Instead I lit up purple like a glowstick, then I felt as if I got a simultaneous deep tissue massage, and an injection of sugar and caffeine into my bloodstream. Other than that, I can feel my power responding a bit easier to my commands, so I guess my magical control increased as well."

Laveria steepled her fingers and leaned forward before speaking.

"Odd. Very different from my own experience, and the experience of everyone that managed to survive the process that is stored within the royal records. But, with the difference in species, and your various... Particularities... It is not completely unfounded. Perhaps your lust is at it's maximum output at all times, and you simply gained a deeper understanding of it instead of connecting to the concept of lust itself.

It would explain your revitalization and control, from the principle of 'Togetherness with the self', and it could explain what Venka and Renka told me occured. But before that, could you please explain to me how you ended up within the tub while... Jackie was bathing?"

Sheepishly scratching his cheek, Issei responded.

"I was alone and locked in a room that I couldn't blast my way out of, with no one expecting me to be done anytime soon. I was bored, and I had a transportation circle that always led me to the Royal Castle in Luxuria, so... I used it. I expected to land in the great hall, but I guess trying to use a magical circle straight from the mind without a physical conduit can result in the occasional glitch. I'm actually glad I didn't end up fused to a wall or something like that.

Also, what was that about Venka and Renka?"

"They told me about the conversation in the bathroom. How you could understand them."

"Yeah, I'm still a bit confused about that. They were acting like I was some mindless animal that couldn't understand human languages."

"That, Issei, is because you weren't responding to a human language. Renka and Venka were speaking in the native language of the Succubi, Lilim. It is a language that we succubi have seldom taught a foreign entity, and those were never capable of teaching others."

Issei sat up straight at that, his face serious as he spoke.

"How is that possible? I never even knew that you had a language, I never heard even the maids use it while talking amongst themselves. I couldn't possibly have just learned it. Plus, it sounded like japanese, both when they spoke, and when I spoke."

"I believe, Issei, that this sudden ability with languages is a consequence of you eating that."

"What do you mean 'ability with languages?"

"What I mean is that I said half the previous sentence in japanese and the other half in italian, and you responded to me in italian only. This sentence I am saying in german, from start to finish. I believe that you can still understand me, no?"

Issei's eyes widened incredulously at this, before he answered, also in german.

"But how?"

Laveria switched back to japanese as she answered.

"One of the aspects of Tantric Energy is, as you know, 'Togetherness with Another'. Said aspect allows one the ability to manipulate the mind and feelings of another, but this ability is inextricably linked to the other primary ability of this aspect, which is a supernatural degree of empathy. Succubi naturally possess an extremely elevated degree of empathy, allowing them to gauge the emotional state of their 'prey', or how much they need to manipulate the mind of another in order to make an escape or to make someone forget about their presence. Another aspect of this ability, and something that all succubi are naturally born with, is the 'Gift of Babel'. Succubi are capable of understanding and speaking in any human language that is considered 'Current'.

By current, I mean any language that is spoken by more than a certain amount of people. As it stands, you should be capable of speaking languages such as English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and so on and so forth. Dialects spoken by a smaller amount of people aren't included in the package though, so while you can speak basic Mandarin, you can't suddenly understand the specific dialect of a certain village in the middle of a certain province with a population of under 100, for example.

Languages of the olden days such as Latin, Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Uto-Aztecan Nahuan and others such are outside of your reach, though languages such as Ancient Greek should be easier for you to understand, as it is simply the earlier form of Greek. The same should apply with Olde English, up until a certain degree, but in order to truly speak those languages, you'll have to learn.

Keep in mind that this gift applies only to the spoken language, not the written one, so you can't just suddenly read the Illiad in greek, or something like that."

"So I can speak any of the popularly-used contemporany languages? Cool, I can watch American Porn without subs now!"

Almost everyone in the room sweatdropped at that, including Ddraig from within the Boosted Gear, while Xinthia kept laughing her ass off.

Shaking off this exhasperation, Laveria spoke up again.

"You feel that your powers are more responsive... Maybe you should take the time to exercise them, get acquainted with this new level of control."

"Yeah, that's a great idea! Do you have any place with a plentiful amount of water, with nothing living within it?"

"Training room 6, the green door to the left of the stair in the fourth floor. It has a space-expansion field inside, and there's a shallow pool of water, knee-length, mostly used by those training in hydromancy. Might I ask why you need that?"

"I found out that overuse of the Rome Force causes my muscles to cramp up and spasm from prolongued exposure to the electricity, and that I get a few electrical burns as well. I want to both test my maximum output at any one moment, and increase my body's tolerance to that power. I'll step into the pool of water and just discharge for as long as I can."

Xinthia's laughing reached a higher volume at that, and she managed to gasp between guffaws.

"You'll... You'll train by short-circuiting yourself!"

She then resumed her laugher, her face gaining an unhealthy reddish tint. Laveria sweatdropped at that, before speaking.

"Are you sure that's the best method, Issei? Don't you have any other way?"

"Well, I could just dry discharge, but it would be slower and less effective as I'd have to build up all of my power again, and the Rome Force, while within my body causes less damage than real electricity on the outside.

I'll just step into the water naked and discharge, and the electricity will return to me, helping me increase my electricity resistance using fully-effective power. Plus, I saw Aquila summoning a lightning bolt from the sky to fall onto herself and use it as power, I should be able to absorb electricity and turn it into power as well. If I manage to do that, then I'll have more reserves to unleash into the water, and then more to absorb to then unleash again.

I'll minimize the waste of magic, and maximize the effective conditioning time that I have. Plus, I'm in the nation with some of the best medics in the whole world, so if I get hurt, I'm sure I'll get patched back together. No real downsides."

This caused Xinthia's laughter to stop, and caused all of the succubi in the room to give Issei surprised looks. Laveria rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly, before speaking up.

"You know, Issei, when you speak about uncensored porn and such, people tend to forget that you're actually smart."

Smirking, Issei met Laveria's gaze as he answered.

"It is good to occasionally remind people that I could figure out new ways to make myself stronger without anyone ever expecting it. Makes them less likely to disregard me."

The ruler of Luxuria smirked at Issei's cheek.

'Throwing my own words from that night at the roof back at me... Such a cheeky young man.'

Pushing this thought aside, she waved her hand carelessly as she spoke.

"You're free to go, Issei. I will inform my staff that you're not actually suffering from any sex-induced lunacy that would cause you to fuck any woman within your sensory range into a drooling mess. It will likely disappoint more than a few of the girls, but that is just how life is, you know."

"...I am not going to be a virgin two weeks from now, mark my damn words."

The ruler of Luxuria grinned widely at Issei at that.

"So you're promising to save Lilith in less than two weeks."

"You're goddamned right! Now if you'll excuse me, there is a cold shower with my name on it."

The brunette stood up with as much dignity as he could, with a pillow held to the front of his pants, before turning around and limping out of the great hall, headed for his bed chambers. The various succubi left in the room watched his perfectly-sculpted, rock-hard butt move as he walked, causing them to almost simultaneously lick their lips, Xinthia included.

'If you save Lilith fast enough, I assure you that your virginity will not last more than 3 to four days, Issei. If Lilith doesn't take care of that, I'll do it myself.'

With that thought Laveria excused herself from the great hall, going back to her room with the intent of checking on some of her clothes that she kept hidden in the back of her closet, willing to break them out in celebration for when Issei inevitably saved her baby girl.

After all, when Issei spoke with such confidence and certainty, it was hard to disagree with him. His charisma, when used properly, was an absolutely devastating weapon.

'Just remembering his face when he first told me that he'd fight me to the death to save Lilith, the day we first met... Gives me the tingles. I'll be needing a fresh pair of panties now.'

~oOo~

Once again, as was becoming the rule more than the exception in the Luxurian Royal Palace, another meal was extremely awkward for most of the people at the table. This time it was dinner, with majority of the succubi sitting at the table giving Jackie looks that ranged from 'deeply distrustful' to 'badly hidden loathing', while the girl her shrunk into herself from the animosity thrown her way.

The only two that seemed to not notice this tension, or not at all care about it, were, as usual, Issei and Laveria. The two were either unaware of or ignoring the tension hanging in the room, while they discussed a matter of deep intellectual and philosophical worth.

"Shape matters as much, if not more so than size, Issei."

"Of course it does, I didn't disagree with that, but whenever it comes to the sancity of Oppai, bigger is generally better! Though smaller breasts can have a certain charm of their own. None of this matters if the person attached to the breasts is extremely rotten on the inside, or a man, though."

Yeah, it was one of those discussions. It's dinner table chatter at the world's sex capital, what did you expect people to discuss, the stock market?

"Speaking of smaller breast charm..."

Issei's gaze moved towards Jackie, his face turning serious before he spoke.

"Jackie, how come your breasts are bigger than Hylda's?"

This question caused more than one person at the table to choke on their food, Laveria to chuckle amusedly, and Jackie herself to sputter uselessly, her face turning to an alarming shade of red. Not noticing this, Issei kept speaking.

"I mean, it's not like Hylda's breasts are small by any possible measure, but how is it that your breast size varies? How much does the difference in magic from a sacred gear, and I'll hazard a guess and say circulation from your specific sacred gear, from your regular one affect your breasts?"

Regaining herself and noticing that she wasn't the only one absolutely flabbergasted by the sudden question, Jackie marshalled herself and tried answering as assertively as possible.

"Well... It's not as much the circulation and magic flow that cause that difference in size, but the gear itself. When the Blood Reign sacred gear is active, some aspects of myself get sent into the metaphysical space within my soul..."

"While others are brought out of the gear itself. That's what creates the dichotomy between Jackie and Hylda. So I was even more correct than I believed when I said that you two were the same person. A base set of traits intrinsic to your [WHOLE], but they get separated between the two portions of yourself, with Jackie getting the more 'civillian' version of yourself, with the softer and lighter emotions and traits, and Hylda getting the 'darker and more violent' aspects.

However, the fact that even your 'Dark and violent' side is capable of feeling positive emotions and performing good deeds, regardless of the fact that she can't really recognize those emotions, is just more proof that I was right to trust you."

The girl blushed further at that, while her other version, watching from within their sacred gear, copied Jackie's facial hue, a deep feeling welling within her metaphorical chest.

'What is this that I feel? My heart is beating faster, but I don't feel sick. It feels heavy, but light. My stomach feels as if something was fluttering within... What are you doing to me, Hyoudou Issei?'

Hylda's thoughts were unknown to all but herself, though the fact that Jackie's thoughts at that moment paralleled them caused those feelings to further imprint themselves within their [WHOLE], changing their infatuation for Issei into something deeper.

Of course, none other than Laveria, an experienced succubus with centuries of Empathic skills built up, noticed this, allaying some of the misgivings that she had for the girl.

'If she feels this deeply for Issei, then I don't need to be worried about her betraying him later on.'

Her gaze turned to Issei who seemed to have moved from the conversation about the nature of Jackie/Hylda's own existance to his favorite subject, breasts, before her eyes softened imperceptibly.

'This man... He's very special. He will be good not just for Lilith, Xinthia and myself, but for anyone else that is lucky enough to fall into the cathegory of his precious people. A few more months, or maybe even years of development, and I'd hate to be in the shoes of anyone who managed to earn his anger.'

~oOo~

"JINKOURAI-KEN! (Blade of Artificial Lightning)"

A crescent-shaped blade of electricity blasted forth from Issei's right leg, streaking through the air towards Xinthia. The succubus frowned in concentration, flaring her wings and barely managing to push herself away from the course of of the attack. Before she could do much more, however, she heard Issei crying out.

"SHUURAI! (Lightning Strike)"

The arc of lightning exploded into a dome of electricity, consuming everything within a large radius of the original attack, with the sheer shockwave throwing Xinthia aside in a disarray. The succubus was forced to land in order not to be ragdolled, her gaze cautiously locked onto Issei.

'This boy truly is ridiculous... The manner in which his strength and fighting ability grows is absurd by all possible metrics! However...'

Xinthia's keen eyes managed to pick up the trembling of Issei's right leg, and the way in which he tried to shift his weight onto it only to grimace.

'He's not tired, but he's definitely not alright after that lightning blade. If I keep track of when he throws the big lightning attacks, I can know when to move in and strike at close quarters.'

Xinthia watched Issei cocking his right fist back, a ball of electricity coalescing around it before he shot it forward.

"RAIKOHO! (Lightning's Burning Howling)"

A large ball of electricity shot towards Xinthia twice as fast as the lightning blade, forcing her to, instead of dodge, reinforce her right hand and bat the ball away, her eye twitching lightly at the sheer amount of lightning that ran through her arm during the moment of contact. Despite this, she kept her focus on Issei, and saw what she was expecting. The brunette's arm seized up as if he had been shocked, an opportunity that Xinthia used to reinforce her legs and shoot towards Issei so fast that he could only barely follow her movement.

Issei's instincts screamed at him, causing him to sway his head back, just barely avoiding Xinthia's reinforced palm strike that was aimed at his chin, before he crossed both arms in front of his gut, absorbing the hard kick that was sent his way, resulting in him flying backwards at tremendous speeds, his eyes bulging from the impact of the blow.

He exhaled, allowing his own Tantric Energy to rush through his body, dulling the pain from the cramps and locked muscles even as he righted himself middair, only to blink in surprise and alarm at the fact that Xinthia was no longer within sight.

'What the hell!? Where did she-'

"Looking for me?"

Issei felt a shiver of fear at the tone of voice that he heard coming from right behind him, before his eyes widened in both pain and surprise at the hard kick that he got to the back, throwing him upwards.

This was followed up on with a second kick to the back, before Xinthia finished by appearing above Issei, her arm glowing a bright purple from the sheer amount of Tantric Energy she had built up, before the same arm disappeared.

It reappeared a second later, already embedded within Issei's gut, followed less than a second after by the crack of an object breaking the sound barrier. Issei's eyes all but popped out of his head before he was sent streaking towards the ground.

BOOM!

The ground exploded upwards in a large area around Issei's landing point, blasting away grass, rocks and trees, and leaving behind a massive crater, with a large cloud of dust hanging above and around it.

Xinthia landed at the edge of the newly-crafted crater, her eyes strictly focused within the cloud of dust in an attempt to keep track of Issei.

A soft humming sound made itself known to Xinthia, forcing her to jerk her head to the side to avoid the condensed ball of electricity that suddenly burst it's way out of the dust, before a visibly battered Issei suddenly appeared in front of her, purple-glowing tribal marks covering the entirety of his body at the same time as a light aura of electricity.

"HAH!"

Issei shot a rapid series of punches towards Xinthia, forcing the succubus to Reinforce herself in order to keep up and either block or parry each of the blows, before Issei made use of one of her blocks in order to push himself upwards, tucking his knees into his chest and spinning in place in order to build up speed before releasing an axe kick aimed at the succubus' head.

Xinthia blocked said kick with her arms in a cross guard above her head, only for the ground underneath her to explode from the clash, making a smaller crater than the previous one.

Issei changed his movement at that moment, going into a reverse roundhouse kick that successfuly managed to hit Xinthia in the chest, though the succubus managed to stay grounded instead of flying off, carving a pair of throughs on the ground with with her feet during her backwards motion.

The succubus winced as she rubbed at her chest, between her breasts, feeling the deep bruise that the kick left behind, while Issei took the time to get some of his breath back, wincing at the generally bruised feeling of his ribs and back from the impact with the ground.

Shaking off the pain with a level of habit stemming from the various thrashings conferred onto him by the same woman he was facing at the moment, Issei started moving around her in a slow circle, his feet easily finding purchase even amongst the ruined ground and scattered rocks, while his eyes frantically travelled along Xinthia's form, trying to keep track of any openings, or tells, from her part.

Xinthia, however, had so much experience and skill that Issei could see none that he could explore, so, knowing that both his pain tolerance and stamina were going to start flagging soon, he decided to end everything with a single attack.

Using Reinforcement on his legs, Issei jumped high above the battlefield. He clapped his hands together, squeezing them tightly into one-another before a yellow haze made itself visible around him.

This haze started becoming more and more visible as time went, coalescing into an actual aura before tendrils of lightning started leaping from his form. The muscles in his shoulders and arms bulged outwards at the flow of power travelling through them, alongside those in his chest.

He lifted his still-clasped hands above his head in full extension before untangling his fingers and slowly pulling his hands apart, a small ball of electricity revealing itself to be floating suspended inbetween them.

He started gradually pulling them apart further and further, the size of the ball of lightning increasing as well as the size of the bolts of electricity that surrounded Issei's body. Eventually the ball grew as big as issei was tall, before the brunette, his eyes still locked onto the grounded Xinthia, reared his hands above his head.

"SPIRAL ARROW!"

He swung his hands downwards, causing a beam of rapidly spinning, concentrated lightning to shoot towards Xinthia at a high speed. The beam slammed into the ground where Xinthia stood, resulting in a large explosion that obscured the ground beneath Issei in a cloud of smoke and dust.

The brunette , having lost the upward momentum from his jump and the blast he fired, rapidly fell onto to the ground, landing with a resounding 'THUMP', before cursing like a sailor as he tried to get his shaking limbs under control after having channeled so much electricity through them. Gritting his teeth and forcing himself to ignore the mixture of pain and numbness in his arms, Issei tried peering into the cloud of dust and smoke to determine Xinthia's location and state, his eyes narrowing as he tried to find even a hint of motion...

"Interesting move. When did you have to time to learn it?"

Issei reacted to the sound of Xinthia's voice coming from right behind him, directly into his ear, by rapidly turning into a roundhouse kick, yet his foot met nothing but air. He landed back down only to feel a hand clamping down onto his shoulder, before he felt the world rushing and spinning around him as he flew through the air.

He tried to regain his balance in middair after having been thrown, only to feel a fist slamming into him at high speeds at the level of his liver, forcing him to bite down a scream of pain even as he rapidly changed directions. This hit was followed by another hit to his back, then another to his chest, then another, and another, all aimed at a random part of his body. Soon enough Issei was streaking through the air at high speeds, unable to control his own movement and fighting hard just to keep his consciousness from the repeated, painful blows.

His flight ended when he felt a hand grabbing his ankle, before the world accelerated for a brief instant, the result being his back slamming back into the ground.

He felt a weight settle onto his chest, moving his neck down with difficulty only to spot Xinthia sitting on top of him looking somewhat singed, yet nowhere near as battered as he was. Coughing out at the pressure on top of his chest, Issei spoke up.

"H-how... You were right there when I fired!"

Xinthia smirked at Issei before responding.

"You're getting ahead of yourself, aren't you? Just because you improved a little bit you think you can fight on par with someone that has literal centuries of experience over you so easily?"

Her smirk lessened, turning into a serious frown as she spoke in a warning tone.

"Always keep this in mind, Issei: Someone that has managed to survive through intense conflict for as long as I have always has some sort of ace up their sleeve. No matter how even the battle seems, this one ace could upset the balance and lead to your defeat. So remember, no matter how fast you progress, that you should never underestimate an opponent, and make that order double for someone with more combat experience than you have."

Nodding thoughtfully at that, Issei gave Xinthia an inquisitive look as he spoke.

"I can get that, sure, but... How did you manage to fully avoid my technique when I saw you there on the path until the last moment?"

Xinthia got up from Issei's chest, stretching her back before dusting herself off, watching from the corner of her eye as Issei slowly and painstakingly got back to his feet, before responding.

"High speed movement technique. Using Tantric Energy's property of Togetherness, I condense air particles into solid platforms underneath my feet. These are pointed towards the direction I want and I can change the shape, though I generally keep them rounded, and they don't offer you any friction outside of what you desire it to offer, meaning you can choose to make it smooth for a better take off, or rough and uneven in order to slow yourself to a stop.

After the platform is created, I focus almost the entirety of my Tantric Energy on my legs for a brief instant in a Reinforcement, before shooting off from these footholds. I traverse as much distance as I can with a single step, and, when I see that I'm slowing down, I create another platform and add another step. By continuously making these platforms I can change directions on a dime, control my acceleration, and make full use of my acrobatic skills even in middair.

I call this skill... Shunpo (Flash Step)."

"So... Shunpo is your ace in the hole?"

Xinthia scoffed at that, dusting herself off as she responded.

"Shunpo is simply one of the various skills I possess, and not even amongst the most dangerous ones. If I pulled out my Ace, you'd already be dead. That being said, your rate of improvement is extremely impressive. Are you sure you're 100% human?"

The young man shrugged at that before speaking.

"As far as I'm aware. Say, would you mind if-"

"I woulnd't have explained to you how Shunpo works if I had any sort of Issue with you using it, so yes, you can make use of it."

"Thanks, Xinthia!"

"Just make sure not to screw up and embarrass yourself using my technique, since it would reflect poorly on me. Other than that, knock yourself out."

"'Kay!"

Having said that, Issei ran (more like half-stumbled half-limped) back towards the castle, eager to get himself healed of the battle damage. Xinthia watched the young man go with a fondly exhasperated smile on her face.

"So, the big bad head of the Luxurian army is becoming attached to someone?"

Xinthia shrugged, not bothering to turn around to look at Laveria as she spoke.

"He has this charisma about him... You drop your guard for a second, and you'll find yourself liking him. Idiocy and all."

Smirking, Laveria spoke up.

"When you say Like, do you mean 'Like', or 'Like Like'?"

Xinthia pretended not to have heard Laveria's words, instead making her way back to the castle, while the succubus queen cackled in amusement.

~oOo~

'Huh. What's all this then?'

Issei, after a day of having his ass handed to him by Xinthia, a healing session with Bernice, a nice dinner with Jackie, Laveria and whomever else was at the table at that specific moment and a nice, soothing, warm bath, slid into his warm, fluffy bed with the intent to fully recover his strength.

Imagine his surprise at waking up in a dark, dank cavern.

'This feels like a dream... But not a dream at the same time. Kind of like when Aquila talked to me though the psychic link.'

A green arrow appeared on one of the cave's walls, large in size and shining brightly, causing Issei to shrug before following it. He walked through a stone corridor of imense length, watching some buildups of moistness and moss along the stone 'walls' of the pathway, before he reached a massive pair of roughly-hewn, stone doors.

Issei's eyes widened in surprise at what he saw.

"HYOUDOU ISSEI, WE HAVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU."

The voice that seemingly filled the entirety of his head and reverberated within came from three individuals, all of them female.

The first of them was a small girl, seemingly between 7 and 9 years in age, dressed in a plain, white, ankle-length sundress, the hems of which were extremely frayed, with threads shooting off in all directions, and bare feet. Her back-length, straight hair was purple in color, and her eyes were completely white, with no visible pupil or iris.

The second one was an adult-looking woman, somewhere in her mid-20's. She too wore a dress, though hers was mostly gray in color, and seemed to have patches of different materials sown into it at random spots, and her feet were adorned by the type of sandals one would expect to see in the times of Ancient Greece. Her brown hair was arrayed in an asymmetrical bob, longer on the sides and shorter in the back, with the longest strands reaching her shoulders, and, like the young girl, her eyes were blank, nothing more than the sclera.

The last one was a visibly old woman, the skin on her face covered in wrinkles, and the texture, even from a distance, resembling worn leather. Her hair was stark white in color, and arranged into a pixie cut. Her head was one of the only two visible parts of her body, the other being a pair of pasty-colored, almost skeletally thin hands, the rest of her body covered in a ragged-looking, raven black cloak, long enough to 'splash' around her, on the floor. Her eyes, like the first two women, were completely sclera, though, unlike the white color of the others, her eyes were completely black.

The faces of the three of them were in an apathetic expression, as if they were wholy unable to emote, and, creepiest of all, Issei could still feel their gazes intently locked onto him, despite the fact that they had no visual indicators as to it. The three of them opened their mouths at the same time, before the same voice as before, that Issei could describe now as a mixture of three voices layered onto one another, one from a little girl, one from an adult woman and one from an elderly crone, sounded out loud into the room around them, despite the fact that none of their mouths moved.

"WE ARE THE MOIRAI, WEAVERS OF FATE, REGULATORS OF THE WORLD, AND THE SOURCE OF ALL PROPHECIES. WE SPIN THE THREADS OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE, WE SEE ALL, WE KNOW ALL, AND WE DICTATE WHAT HAPPENS. HEED OUR WORDS, HYOUDOU ISSEI, FOR YOUR ENTIRE FATE HANGS BY A THREAD.

ABANDON THIS FOOLISH QUEST OF YOURS. FORGET ABOUT THE SUCCUBUS GIRL, HER COUNTRY, AND THE BLOODY MAIDEN, AND RETURN TO YOUR HOME IN KUOH. IF YOU DO AS WE ORDAIN, YOUR HAND SHALL BE RETURNED TO YOU, AND YOUR FATE SHALL BE SECURED.

HOWEVER, IF YOU TRY TO GO AHEAD WITH THIS FOOLISH, FUTILE ENDEVOUR OF YOURS... YOU WILL SURELY DIE."

Issei's face, which had at first shown his curiosity, became as if made of marble the second that abandoning Lilith was made a possibility, and hardened even further by the end of their words.

The Moirai, sure that their message had already been conveyed and would be obeyed, were about to send Issei's consciousness back to his body...

"I refuse."

Despite their expressionless nature, one could almost taste the cloud of surprise that sprung up around them at that, yet Issei wasn't done yet.

"Abandon Lilith? Do as you ordain?... Who the hell do you think you are to give me orders?"

"WE ARE THE MOIRAI, WEAVERS OF FA-"

"YOU'RE THE WEAVERS OF NOTHING! For you to think that you have the right to simply jerk people's lives around on a whim, to invalidate the sheer concept of choice, and free will, that you simply saying something will make it automatically happen... YOU'RE WRONG!"

Before any one of the Moirai could say a thing, Issei continued.

"If you truly were the weavers of fate, capable of making anything happen on a whim, then you would not need to even get in contact with me. You'd pluck a fewe strings, and I'd suddenly lose interest in whatever it was I was doing and go back home, or something. Yet, you felt the need to summon me, to talk to me face to face, to try to impose your will onto me. That sounds nowhere near as omnipotent as you seem intent on making me believe you are, now, does it?

And even if you indeed were the weavers of fate, who controlled the order of the universe or whatever... If you tried to make me give up on my friends, my precious people, or my dreams... Then I would become the man that finally broke the shackles of fate, and made their own destiny! Now..."

A deep green glow lit up behind Issei's eyes, his aura intensifying tremendously as his Boosted Gear came into existence, sparks and thunderbolts arcing out from him due to the Rome Force, and a purple aura manifesting as a second skin before, with all the power and authority that he had, he spoke.

"BEGONE!"

Though Issei spoke as nothing more than a human, the sound that left his throat was more akin to the roar of a dragon than anything else, creating a shockwave that caused Issei's hair and clothes to whip around loosely.

The Moirai were once more surprised as they felt themselves forcefully expelled from the psychic bridge they had created with the young Sacred Gear user through nothing other than sheer willpower, yet, before disappearing, they managed to say one last thing.

"HEED OUR WORDS, BOY, OR YOU WILL SURELY DIE."

After that, the entire psychic link collapsed.

Elsewhere, a golden-haired woman watched the entire debacle with a massive grin on her face, clapping giddily at the results of the interaction.

~oOo~

'Pull the air particles together... Create the platform... Reinforce the legs... Now! Shunpo!'

Issei kicked away from where he stood hard...

"Oof!"

Only to slam face-first into a tree. Allowing himself to relax, Issei's body sunk to the ground as if he were a puddle of liquid in the same manner that a cat might've done, even as he grumbled under his breath.

"Stupid... Tree... Stupid... Shunpo... Mumble Mumble..."

Hours had passed since Issei first started working on learning Shunpo, yet success still eluded him. Every single step of the technique held problems for him.

Just pulling the air particles together was problematic enough, as it took him an average of at least 30 seconds of uninterrupted focus to managed to grasp them, since he had literally zero knowledge or training of anything related to wind magic.

After this long period of simply 'grasping' the air particles, came the creation of the platforms, and they weren't at all easier. Issei's platforms were, to be quite blunt, puny. They were thin, feeling more like gelatin than solids, and any application of pressure had the tendency to disperse it, if the lack of focus didn't do it already. They were just too damn fragile.

And, last but not least, there was the actual stepping. Using Reinforcement on his legs wasn't particularly difficult, but a single hard step revealed an issue in this step of the process, which was the fact that he was moving much too fast for his eyes or brain to even manage to keep up. Whenever he attempted to kick off at that speed, the world around him dissolved into a nausea-inducing blur of colors, which generally ended with Issei slamming face first into something hard and painful, be it a wall, a tree, or some other solid structure that forced him to snap his nose back into place.

"It's not a simple technique. It'll take more than a few hours to get a proper grasp of it's fundamentals, even for an idiot savant such as yourself."

Issei, from his position on the ground, turned his head to look at Xinthia, that had commented about the Shunpo, before speaking.

"What's with the serious face, Xinthia?"

And indeed, Xinthia's face looked as if it were sculpted from marble, from how hard it was, however she had a proper reason.

"Lady Laveria's sources located princess Lilith's whereabouts. I was sent to warn you to take any preparations required and to heal yourself up properly before you could be sent there."

Issei's previously annoyed/relaxed face shifted into one as hard as Xinthia's, thoughts of choking the life out of Travis causing a bright fire to light up in the back of his eyes. Pushing these violent impulses to the side - for now - Issei jumped back to his feet in a single motion, before all but sprinting back into the castle.

~oOo~

"Sacagawea's sources scoured the entirety of the northern portion of South America, the entirety of Central America and the Southernmost parts of North America, including the entirety of Mexico, and they just barely managed to pick up the trail on Travis and his little group, due to the emission of tainted-feeling magic, which is Impure Tantric Energy of such high density that even beings not inherently sexual in nature were capable of feeling it.

They're holed up in a Mesoamerican Pyramid, an old temple lost to time and hidden by magic to most, dedicated entirely to the worship of Xochiquetzal via massively decadent orgies, lasting for days, or even weeks on end, all in the effort to gain the favor and blessing from the goddess. No one knows when the temple was occluded, and for a long while no one even knew where the temple was, but we do now.

It's more than likely that Travis chose to go there deliberately in order to strengthen whichever ritual he intends to perform."

Issei absorbed all of Laveria's words while absent-mindedly flexing his gauntleted hand, never noticing the deep grooves he had clawed into the wooden table underneath him, or just how fast his foot was tapping on the ground from impatience.

"So" Laveria said directly to Issei "How do you intend to do this?"

His eyes narrowing dangerously, Issei spoke up in a resolute tone.

"I tried stealth, misdirection and strategy last time, and it ended up landing me in the Swiss Alps. This time I'm walking up to the front door, knocking it down, and then knocking down anyone else that gets in the way."

"Don't you mean 'We'?"

Everyone on the table turned towards the entrance to the throne room in surprise, seeing the Red-eyed, Red-haired form of Hylda, completely recovered from any disease or damage, staring at Issei resolutely. Before anyone could speak in disagreement to her words, she continued.

"I helped Travis kidnap the princess in the first place, and then got in Issei's way when he tried rescuing her, so backing him up is the least of what I could do to try to square things up with him. Plus, the bastard tried to explode me, and I don't take that sort of thing too lightly. Bottomline is hat I'm going."

The expected refusals flew her way, with the majority of Laveria's higher-ranked staff being distrustful of the girl, and believing her willingness to help to be an elaborate ruse of some sort, yet two people were conspicuously silent, those people being Laveria and Issei.

"Thank you for your offer of help."

Laveria's words caused every single other speaker to fall into a stunned silence, but before they could speak up in protest, Issei spoke as well.

"I trust you to have my back, Hylda." He paused for a few seconds, the warning of the Moirai passing through his mind before he spoke up again. "And if anything happens to me, you grab Lilith and run."

"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving you behind, no matter what!"

Issei's eyes narrowed at that, his presence manifesting itself physically in the form of an emerald green aura that caused the room they were all in to feel several degrees hotter than it previously was, causing even the air around him to warp hazily, before he spoke up in a dangerous tone.

"Non-negotiable. If you want to come with me, then you obey. If you're not willing to follow my lead, then you stay."

Hylda met his gaze challengingly, yet she was forced to cringe at the sheer power and will in display in the two green-glowing orbs, forcing her to back down.

"Tch, fine, I'll grab the girl and run if you tell me to."

"...Good enough." Turning back towards the Queen of Luxuria, Issei asked "How are we getting to the place?"

"My casters and magicians are working on a magic array that isolates the corrupted Tantric Energy to get an almost exact awareness of the area you are to operate in, so that they can craft a circle that will drop you just outside of the wards that will likely be present. From then on, it's your show."

Issei met Laveria's gaze before nodding. It would soon be time to end all of this.

~oOo~

Issei crouched and stretched his legs, loosening them up for combat, while Hylda floated a small blob of blood, spending a few seconds causing it to shift between carious different bladed weapons before returning it to it's original blob-like state.

The two were within the room that was specially reserved for magical rituals withing the Royal Castle of Luxuria, waiting for the transportation array to be completely charged and to drop them off at their target area.

The faces of the two were completely serious, and the only sounds heard within the room were their breathing, and the low hum of magic that was steadily filling up the array. Soon enough the entirety of the magical circle was glowing brightly, before it flashed three times, signaling the imminent transportation to the two...

Before they suddenly found themselves falling from the sky, overlooking a thick jungle, with a purple-glowing Aztec Pyramid in the distance.

Issei reinforced his legs, landing unharmed with a small BOOM and creating a small crater underneath him, while Hylda slowed herself through the use of blood tendrils to swing from tree limb to tree limb, bleeding off speed and energy until she could land next to Issei in a roll, before easily jumping back to her feet.

The two traded looks, nodding at one another before they started running towards the Pyramid.

~oOo~

"Hey Chosuke, have a smoke to spare?"

"Nah man, I decided to go clean. Don't wanna die too soon, y'know? You should also qui-ARGH!"

'Chosuke' went down with a red throwing knife to the jugular, causing his blood to spray out and cover the first speaker, but before said speaker could even attempt to sound an alarm, the blood that he was covered in gained a semi-solid, gelatinous texture, separating into tendrils that wrapped around his joints, limbs, throat and back before squeezing all at once, causing him to die with a loud CRUNCH.

Issei and Hylda kept running without breaking stride, reaching another group of enemies less than five minutes after the last one. The enemies hefted a series of guns, ranging from semi-automatic pistols to even machine guns, before letting loose with a rain of lead their way, causing Hylda to create a barrier from the spilled blood of previous enemies to protect herself, while Issei simply wreathed himself in the lightning of the Rome Force before moving. While capable of moving fast enough to dodge bullets, he didn't have to at all, focusing instead on moving out of the way of the barrel even as he advanced.

Less than 5 seconds after the rain of lead had started Issei was already between the enemies, and, without even giving them the opportunity to shift their aim, he let his fists and feet fly loose, breaking limbs, pulverizing ribcages and shredding organs with each hit.

After the last enemy was down, Issei and Hylda kept moving on, before they were stopped by a physical ward that created an invisible barrier around the pyramid, to keep any would-be interlopers away.

"Hylda, step back."

The redhead deferred to Issei, giving the brunette space to do whatever it was he intended to.

She watched as Issei cocked back his gauntleted fist, a mixture of green and yellow energies encompassing said fist even as tribal markings imprinted themselves on the gauntlet itself, a purple glow emitting from said markings.

Stepping in hard with his right foot, Issei allowed the power to flow from his legs, twisted his hip, rolled his shoulder and fired from the elbow in a perfect rendition of a straight punch, his fist moving so fast that friction with the air created a red nimbus of flame around it before his fist connected with 'Empty air', which was actually the invisible ward.

A sound similar to the cracking of glass reached Hylda's ears, getting louder and louder as the cracks in the wards showed themselves as if they were cracks in bare air, before the wards shattered with the sound of breaking glass, revealing the form of Travis calmly sat at a stone throne atop the pyramid, with Lilith bound to a stone altar in front of him by rune-engraved ropes.

Issei and Hylda started steadily making their way up the stairs even as Travis spoke.

"Ah, Hyoudou, Hylda, what a pleasant surprise. I mean, I've been waiting for you to make yourselves present, but I never thought it would have been this soon. I believed it would have taken you at least a few more weeks. Seems that you are more resourceful than I thought."

Issei responded to Travis with a heartstopping glare, causing the Incubus to sweat internally, yet he managed to somehow stave off his panic and kept speaking in a calm tone.

"It seems you're not up to any banter this time... Such a pity."

He snapped his fingers, causing a massive magical circle to appear in the middle point between Issei and Hylda, and himself, before a figure equally as large emerged from it.

It was a humanoid-looked green skinned being, 7 feet in height and with a body builging with veiny, throbbing muscles. It's eyes were small and dull-looking, as was the top of it's head, while it's jaw was wide, with a pair of tusk-like teeth emerging from it and stopping somewhere above it's upper lip. It was clad in only a loincloth, leaving the rest of it's body visible and allowing Issei and Hylda to notice the various ugly-looking scars that marred it, with many of these same scars also being visible on it's face.

This being released an aura of violence and power that gave Issei and Hylda pause, forcing them to acknowledge it as a viable threat.

Travis spoke up again.

"Let me introduce the two of you to my newest aid, brought in after our untimely split, Hylda. This is Derk, and he's a Trogre. Now, I get what you're thinking right now, 'what the hell is a trogre?' , and it's a fair thought, since I didn't know until very recently, but it's apparently the result of a mix between a Troll and an Ogre. Gets all of their best combat-oriented traits, yet it's intelligence... Well, let's say that most dogs are smarter than it. However, it isn't really it's brains that I need, now, is it?"

Derk shuffled lightly, it's gaze locked strictly on Issei, which it had recognized as the being posing the most danger to him in the vicinity, while Travis kept speaking.

"No, I don't need it's brains, I need it's ability to bust heads. I believe Derk to be more than a challenge to even you, Hyoudou Issei, but just to be on the safe side..."

Travis retrieved a stone dagger from a pouch on his back and threw it at Derk. Said dagger, despite looking more like a chipped piece of old and dull stone in the size of an average human, actually succeeded in in cutting into Derk, with surprising results.

"UOGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The green beast roared into the sky, it's black eyes slowly shifting color until they were completely red, with the edges of it's skin also changing in tint to the color of blood. It's muscles bulged further, and the massive stone step under it cracked under the sheer pressure that it was emitting, forcing Issei and Hylda to enter their fighting stances.

"You may be asking yourselves what just happened" Travis spoke "So I will tell you. I have just imbued Derk with a... 'power-up', let us call it. It's savagery and bloodlust are currently unparalleled, and it's power is severely increased as well. Let us see you deal with it. Derk, attack!"

"GRAHHHHHHHHHH!"

As soon as Travis gave the order, the Berserker Trogre vanished from his spot, causing both Issei and Hylda's eyes to widen tremendously, before the two jumped out of the way, barely avoiding a blow which would have instantly knocked either one of them out of the fight.

'Shit, that thing is strong!'

Issei and Hylda landed at different sides of the Trogre, trying to force it to split it's focus between the two and hesitate, to give either of the the time to counter attack it, yet the Trogre had already locked into Issei as it's primary target, barreling towards the brunette shoulder-first.

'Crap!'

[BOOST]

Issei felt all of his combat-related attributes double, allowing him to narrowly dodge the tashcan lid-sized fist that had been aimed at his head. The Trogre pulled back it's fist before letting loose his opposite one, forcing Issei to once again throw himself to the side before he aimed one of his gauntleted fingers at the creature.

"Compression Shot!"

The magical projectile easily broke the sound barrier, slamming into the skin of the monstrosity that was attacking Issei, yet it resulted in nothing more than a light singe on it's skin, and a small amount of smoke trailing up. Issei's eyes widened at the sheer lack of result, before he had to throw himself out of the way of a stomp, watching as large amount of blood-based blades flew towards the Trogre's back, yet bounced off his skin as if they were nerf darts slamming into ceramic body armor.

All of this happened in less than 10 seconds.

Cold sweat ran down Issei's neck, the Moirai's words coming back to mind.

'IF YOU TRY TO GO AHEAD WITH THIS FOOLISH, FUTILE ENDEVOUR OF YOURS... YOU WILL SURELY DIE'

Shaking his head to clear it from these thoughts, Issei swallowed down his trepidation, allowing his focus to return to the battle at hand.

[BOOST]

Feeling his strength double once again, Issei decided to finally take the offensive and dashed towards the Trogre, capitalizing on his increased speed to land an uppercut to the enemy's chin, causing it to reel back in surprise at the amount of pain that it felt, a small amount of blood going down it's lips from a cut within it's mouth.

The creature roared once again, it's rage intensified by it's pain, before it released a barrage of fists against Issei, forcing the brunette to narrowly dodge most of them, being clipped by more than a few yet now allowing that to slow him down. Finding a gap in the fist barrage, Issei dashed in and released a kick against the Trogre's chest, grinning as he managed to score a clean hit...

"Ghhk!"

Only to have to swallow a scream of pain and surprise as a massive fist slammed into the front of his body, simultaneously hitting his face and torso and throwing him back down the pyramid.

"Issei!"

A semi-solid 'cushion' of blood appeared behind the brunette, allowing him to come to a stop without the crushing effect of slamming into stone at such high speeds. He was dazed, the world shaky to his vision while his ears registered little more than a high-pitched ringing.

His instincts, however, were still working, which allowed him to push Hylda away from the punch that would have turned her into paste, allowing it to slam into the stone of the pyramid instead, the shockwave from the blow throwing him across from where he was at the moment.

He managed to right himself middair, pushing his Tantric Energy into a rapid flow through the entirety of his body in order to help him rapidly recover from the damage.

[BOOST]

His senses recovered right in time for Issei to register the fact that the berserker Trogre's fist was in a collision path with his head, likely with the intent to decapitate him, allowing him to sway out of the way by a hair's breadth, a cut opening on his cheek from the air pressure of the punch alone.

Issei retaliated by releasing a punch against Derk's chest, which was followed up by a discharge of lightning that blasted the damned monster away, causing it to land on it's back, the knife that had been lodged there digging deeper into it's body and drawing an agonized roar from it.

'Okay, I guess there's no other choice...'

[BOOST]

"Sparking Dragon's Cowl!"

An aura of lightning surrounded Issei, his body being flooded with the Rome Force even as the Boosted Gear once again doubled his total power, causing him to wince as he felt the raw amount of power flowing through him slowly burning at his muscle fibers.

'I knew that calling on so much power at once was going to be murder on me, but it seems that eating the fruit managed to reduce the strain by quite a few degrees.'

Pushing that thought aside, Issei shot off from where he had been standing, cracking the ground underneath him with that single step, before reappearing above the Trogre, punching down at it's gut.

The green monstrosity exhaled at the surprising hit, yet it showed just how dangerous it was with the almost simultaneous counter that it launched, it's fist slamming into Issei's cross-armed guard and propelling him backwards.

Landing lightly on his feet and shaking the numbness out of his arms, Issei called out.

"Sparking Dragon's Talons!"

A blade of lightning emerged on his right hand, starting from his wrist and going upwards, it's total length being about the same as his forearm, while smaller and denser blades of lightning emerged from each of the Boosted Gear's already sharp claws, increasing it's range and cutting power tremendously.

In the time it took Issei to activate his talons, the Trogre managed to get back to it's feet, stopping to seemingly assess Issei, the brunette's danger managing to leak in past the berserker state and touching the survival instincts of the Trogre that told it not to take Issei lightly, lest it wished to die.

His eyes narrowing, Issei dashed towards Derk, with the Trogre reciprocating with a dash of his own, before fists met lightning blades, creating light gouges into Derk's balled fists even as Issei was pushed back.

[BOOST]

Gritting his teeth at the sensation of his body slowly burning from the inside out, Issei dashed back at the Trogre and unleashed a barrage of slashes to it's chest, his eyes widening as the results he got were only superficial wounds even when he slashed at full strength, before he spun middair with one of the punches sent his way, using the leverage to land back on his feet before dashing forward once again, aiming the tip of the lightning blade at the creature's heart, watching it bounce sideways again, leaving behind a trail of blood from the thin cut it had made.

[BOOST]

With the level of increased power he had at the moment, Issei was capable of keeping track of the Trogre's attacks and either dodge or redirect them almost fully, yet his retaliatory attacks never did any real damage, regardless of his aim. Torso, limbs, face, eyes, none of these dealt any real damage. If things kept up in this vein, he'd burn out before the monstrosity was downed!

~oOo~

Hylda bit her lip angrily, another salvo of bloo-made blades floating above her and pointed straight at the Trogre, yet she had no way to fire. The first few dozen simply bounced off of the thing's skin like marshmallows off of an Elephant's hide, yet she was still willing to keep throwing more, be it if they served only as a distraction, or if they just so happened to find a weak spot.

However, Issei's decision to engage the thing in close-quarters, high-speed combat meant that she had no way of knowing whether she'd be hitting friend or foe in her throws, despite the fact that she knew Issei was almost certain to go down if he were hit even once, whereas the Trogre seemed capable of withstanding thousands of her swords. The only weapong that she had seen that managed to hurt it was...

'The dagger! It managed to pierce it's skin easily, and then it empowered it! It's likely that the dagger is what made it this resiliant, to take almost zero damage from Issei's hits, so taking it away should make it vulnerable again. And even if it doesn't, the thing isn't healing from the scratches that Issei is dealing to it, which means it doesn't have a healing factor. Prying the dagger out of it would at least create an opening to allow me to harness it's blood, and hurt it from the inside-out! I need to retrieve the dagger, and I know just how to do it.'

~oOo~

Issei was breathing heavily by now, a few veins throbbing visibly along his cheeks and forehead due to the strain of the power on his body, yet despite that the enemy just wouldn't fall. He didn't really know what to do anymore!

Then, he heard the shout.

"BLOODY REIGN!"

His eyes widened at that, the effects of the ability on it's user still remaining on his mind, but before he could do anything, he saw Hylda already behind the Trogre, her hands wrapped around the hilt of the dagger, before she pulled.

The girl pulled hard enough that she flew a few feet backwards, her muscles shredded by her own finishing move, yet her actions were indeed effective. The sheer murderous Pressure that had been hanging around the Trogre vanished almost altogether, it's form slowing as it seemingly processed the entirety of the damage that it should have been taking before all at once, forcing it to freeze in place, giving Issei enough time to decapitate it with his talons.

"Hylda, you did it-urk!"

Issei's words were interrupted by a thick tendril of blood that had wrapped itself around his neck tightly, before even more wrapped around his shoulders, things, knees, hands and legs. Before he could ask any questions, Travis spoke.

"You know, when she told me that you were still alive, I got very mad. After all, how dare you, a mere human, defy the death that I rightfully ordained for you, and cling to your pathetic mortality so staunchly? I was incensed, spitting nails, as per the saying, yet she explained to me how that could be a good thing."

He waved his hand at Hylda, forcing Issei's gaze to shift onto her, before his eyes widened in surprise at her figure. He blood red hair had grown all the way to her ankles, with the same red, life-giving liquid constantly dripping from her tresses, as if she were a living faucet. Her garbs had been overtaken by a long-sleeved, ankle-length blood-red gown, the sleeves flaring at about wrist level. He face was covered in jagged-looking tribal marks, all of them glowing a neon red and giving her a 'savage' look, and her eyes had been completely were releasing a red glow that completely hid all of it's features.

Having given Issei enough time to look the girl over, Travis spoke.

"She told me about how Hylda was an important, difficult to replace piece in the plans, and how I couldn't afford to lose her at such a complicated junction. Apparently, the fact that you chose to take pity on her helped safeguard and push forward our plans.

However, the girl had turned coat already, or, at least Jackie had. She led you straight to me, and told me all of those nasty, hurtful things, and Hylda was much too wild, uncontrolable, difficult to get to follow the plan. So, she gave me another tool.

You see that stone dagger withing her grip? It's old. Very old. Aztec-civilization old. That dagger was a sacrificial blade, something used to rip open the chests of those chosen as sacrifices amongst the various tribes that the blade managed to make it's way through, before their hearts were taken out while still beating in rituals for the Aztec deities.

This sort of dagger is a very rare thing to find in today's world, yet it is also a very powerful and dangerous tool. It is seeped in centuries of blood, pain, suffering, death, curses, and a touch of... Well, I won't say Divine, but certainly 'Godly' magic. To be more specific, it is touched by the power of Huitzilopochtli, gd of War and Sacrifice. So, when this dagger, steeped in such types of magic and power, gets into contact with a user of a blood-based sacred gear, and indeed, one of the, if not the most, powerful of them... This is the most likely effect. Like attracts like, after all.

At the moment, Hylda could be said to be something akin to a Priestess of Sacrifice, and that's the important part in all of this debacle."

Travis snapped his fingers, causing the possessed Hylda to follow him, the blood tendrils carrying the immobilized Issei behind them until they stood overlooking the stone altar that Lilith was chained to.

She wasn't looking well at all.

Her cheeks were gaunt, her hair limp and lifeless, her eyes were sunken, and her lips were dry and cracked. The instant that her dull, nearly-lifeless eyes landed on Issei, they lit up with the intensity of an inferno, prompting her to speak in her strained, intermitently-failing voice.

"HuNgRy... FoOd... EaT! EAT! EAT! FOOD! FOOD!"

Travis sneered at the succubus princess, before speaking in a completely hateful tone.

"Bitch kept going on during the first weeks about how 'her Issei would show up to save her and kick my ass'. I got mad, so I decided that I would break her. She was forbidden from feeding from anyone other than me, and I would only allow her to feed if she were to crawl on her hands and knees before me and beg. Yet, instead of begging me for even a drop of Tantric Energy, she kept insisting that you'd be here to save her, that she knew you weren't the type of person to turn their back on a precious person, none of that.

Even when she went delirious with hunger, your name was all she could say. For a succubus princess of such lineage to fall so fully for a human... DISGRACEFUL!"

The Incubus breathed deeply after his maddened tirade, the glint of insanity in his eye receding lightly as he found his center, speaking up again.

"I was telling you about why Hylda was an important piece, wasn't I? Well, let's return to that. You are aware that Lilith is of the Luxurian royal line, the direct line of the original Lilith's sole blood-related daughter, not any of the lust-spawned ones, correct? Because of that, even if she does not know it, she has a deep and inextricable connection to the force of Lust itself. A connection that I desire to have myself. Imagine, an Incubus, those who inherited the gift of the body from the original power of the seed, gaining the gift of the spirit, the ability to tap into the lust of the world itself... I will be unbeatable! I will rule as a god! I will make every single one of my abusers regret it! Never will I be looked down upon because I'm less muscular, or have slimmer shoulders, or a 'girlish face'!

And Hylda here is my key to this."

With that Travis twirled a finger, causing an old and dusty tome to emerge from behind the throne, floating at about eye level with him.

"Mhm, so this is the incantation..."

Spreading his arms wide, he spoke up.

"Blood for Blood!

Flesh for Flesh!

Oh lord, the Skybound providence, may your favor fall upon me!

I offer you, the blood of many, and the hearts of many more!"

At this point, a magical circle deposited a large amount of catatonic girls, all of them covered in various physical secretions, before they disintegrated utterly, becoming little more than a puddle of blood, yet Travis continued.

"I beg of you, lend me your power!

Take which is hers, give unto me!

For I choose you, and I favor you!

Look upon yours moreso than you do upon the infidels!

And grant them your boon!

Blood for Blood!

Flesh for Flesh!

Huitzilopochtli, I beg of you, hear my words!

And heed my prayer!"

The sky above the pyramid had become clouded, yet insted of the usual white, or the grey or black of storm clouds, these clouds were colored a stark, blood red. Red-colored lightning crackled in the sky, striking randomly around the pyramid, before one of them struck Hylda directly.

By the time the flash of light cleared, Issei was struck with a presence so powerful and so bloodthirsty that he could barely hold back his desire to vomit.

Hylda opened her mouth, and, without moving her lips, spoke in a tone of voice that was not her own.

"I HAVE HEARD YOUR PRAYERS, TRAVIS OF BAUXIS, DESCENDANT OF THE LINE OF SPARDA, AND I DECIDED TO GRANT IT! REJOICE, FOR YOUR WISH COMES TRUE TODAY!"

Moving in the manner of a beast moreso than anything else, Hylda's body stood beside the mostly incoherent Lilith, raising the sacrificial dagger in order to tear out the heart...

"I beg of you, my lord, please do not hurt this one too badly. I intend to make use of her once I have ascended, and for that I need her alive and unhurt!"

The stone blade halted one millimeter from Lilith's chest, the deity possessing Hylda seemingly thinking things over, before reaching a conclusion.

"VERY WELL. FOR THE SACRIFICES THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME, I SHALL GIVE YOU THIS BOON."

Having said that, the monstrous deity took hold of Hylda's arm and cut a thin line on it, drawing a small cloud of blood from it, before pointing it's blade at Travis, causing the blood to slam into him with all the violence of a sledgehammer, causing him to recoil, and fall on his butt. Before long a string of pained screams emerged from Travis' throat, the incubus clawing at his eyes angrily from the sheer intensity of the pain it was suffering, before a wave of Huitzilopochtli's hand soothed him.

Taking the time to recompose himself, Travis got back up to his feet, his eyes glowing purple as he drew the Tantric Energy that had been collected by the temple of Xochiquetzal for a monumental amount of time, having seeped even into the stones of the building themselves, and he felt his muscles expand as his power level grew, his injuries rapidly healing, including the ones he incurred from his most recent pained thrashing.

Huitzilopochtli spoke up then.

"I HAVE RESPONDED TO THE SACRIFICE, NOW I SHALL RETURN TO MY SLUMBER, UNTIL I AM SUMMONED ONCE MORE! YET, BEFORE I GO, I GIVE YOU ANOTHER REASON FOR DEVOTION! ANOTHER BOON!"

THUNK!

Issei looked down incredulously, watching the massive blade made of coalesced blood that had run through his chest, more specifically his heart. His vision started trembling, his breathing becoming harder and harder, before he let out a bloody cough. The last thing he saw was the body of Hylda falling unconscious after her possession was nullified, the sacrificial dagger dissolving into dust, while Travis stood above her, cackling madly at his success.

The constantly active Boosted Gear that had taken the place of his left hand disappeared, the last thread of magic that kept it active fading completely.

The Moirai were right. Travis had won. Issei had lost.

On this day, Hyoudou Issei, 15 years of age, died.

~oOo~

A sensation of falling encompassed him, darkness surrounding him from all sides as it did. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Years. Perhaps decades? Centuries? Millennia? Issei had no idea about how long he was falling for, yet he kept falling.

Perhaps this was his punishment for failing to make good on his word, an eternal void of darkness, and him always falling, never knowing when he would stop, if ever.

A pang of pain struck his chest as he thought about everyone he had left behind. His parents, which would be heartbroken if their son never returned from his trip. His friends, Motohama and Matsuda, with whom he'd never finish another eroge. Lilith. Ddraig. Aquila. Laveria. Xinthia. Jackie. Hylda. Alba, Ahenobarbus and their pack. All of them, he would never get to talk to again. All of them he left behind, subject to this new threat that was the empowered Travis. All because he failed.

Yet...

"...I refuse."

Self pity and self loathing faded, giving place to righteous anger, and a burning sense of defiance that characterized humanity in general, and the admirable level of willpower that could be attributed to the singular existence known as Hyoudou Issei.

"I refuse to let it end like this! My family! My precious people! My goals! My dreams! I won't let go of them so easily! I will not embrace this fate that others try to force onto me! I REFUSE!"

At this moment, everything changed. The flow of events and timelines, meticulously planned and controlled by the various deities related to time, prophecy and foreknowledge, scrapped. Centuries-old plots involving prophecies, and the manipulation of whole races? Invalidated. The lives of hundreds, thousands, millions, perhaps even billions, all changed at this one moment, where the previously existing timeline, established by the fates, turned into an unreadable, unchangeable, warped mess.

And all of this because the man known as Hyoudou Issei simply refused to die.

~oOo~

A flash of golden hair and a girlish giggle flashed through Issei's awareness for an instant, before he found himself standing on a clearing. The grass under his feet was soft, softer than any normal grass he had ever felt before. The sky was a mixture of hues of pink and purple, the clouds being the same, except in a slightly darker shade.

A lake was across him, it's waters rushing and whirling violently.

"Hello and welcome, Hyoudou Issei."

The brunette looked at the source of the voice - a sweet, melodic thing, like chiming bells - seeing only what seemed to be a feminine-looking construct of pink energy. Shaped roughly like a woman, yet so featurless as for it to cross over into uncanny valley territory, like a walking, talking mannequin.

"Excuse me? I do not look like a talking mannequin!"

So it could read minds?

"First of all, i'm not an it, I'm a she. It is MA'AM! Second of all, no, I can't read your mind."

Could've fooled me.

"I'm not sure fooling you establishes a high level of criteria for anything. After all, flash you a nice pair of tits and you got yourself at least somewhere between 5 and 10 seconds of your innatention. Maybe even more, depending on the context."

...A fair assessment. Continue.

The being huffed petulantly, before taking in a deep breath and speaking.

"You've cause a massive mess, Hyoudou Issei. A massive, massive mess, and you have no idea about just how big it is."

What do you mean?

"Mhm... Let's go from the start. You're supposed to be dead right now, yet you're not. Instead, you're in *****. That simple fact throws off a whole array of normal rules of the universe. The dead die, and that's what happens. The only ammendment to this rule has to do with the Evil Piece system of the devil faction, and it postulates that a recently deceased person, whose soul has not yet completely crossed into the other side, can be revived as a devil. Keywords being Evil Piece, revived, and devil.

There are no Evil Pieces anywhere near your vicinity. You were not revived, which implies dying and then returning, as much as you simply refused your own death, meaning that, as far as the universe knows, you're not dead. You never died in the first place. Yet, the occasion in which you would have died has occured regardless. And third of all, any being ressurected with an Evil Piece is revived as a devil. I've no idea as to why, yet it seems to be the norm. However, since you are... refusing your death... on your own, then how will you return? Devil? Angel? Ghoul? Zombie? What?

You're a total middle finger to the system, and a massive wrench in the designs of Fate. All versions of it, actually, from the greek, to the roman, to whichever other belief system you can think of that involves fortune telling, destiny or premonition."

So my sheer existence is a middle finger to the Fates?... Good. Bitches tried to wreck my shit, now the shoe's on the other foot. Feels bad, doesn't it?

The energy being would have sweat dropped if it could. It settled for sighing instead, before speaking.

"Despite all of these particularities about you, Hyoudou Issei, you are still a person I admire. So, I have decided to give you an opportunity."

The brunette's attention turned completely towards the figure at that, prompting it to continue.

"When you consumed the seed... The effect you got was extremely muted. Almost nothing. You got shafted as far as powerups go. Yet, it was for good reason. Consuming the seed is attached to momentous events, events of great significance. It's as much about what you went through in order to consume it, as it is about consuming the seed. Lilith was forced to abandon her home, father and first husband. Laveria consumed the seed out of desperation in order to save hundreds of thousands of lives in the battle for the leadership of Luxuria, all with the expectation of not resisting the seed, and dying due to it.

You, on the other hand, had the seed handed over to you, just like that. No effort, no trials, no tests. You didn't have to go on a massive quest to save the world, you didn't have to face down the guardian and prove your worth, nothing. You just had to be the boyfriend of the Luxurian princess, and to have been coincidentally born with a shiny trinket in your soul. Because of this, you have not integrated the true power of the Seed of Lust."

The entity nodded towards the ragin lake, causing Issei to notice the fact that the water was mostly purple, with a few streaks of yellow, green and red in the mix, likely a representation of all of his powers.

"Yet, in not-death, you gain a second chance. After all, what challenge is greater than overcoming death itself, all for the sake of your loved ones? I say you definitely earned your 'Continue'. All you have to do now is to tame your power, and to make yourself whole. And not just as you were before. Now, you will be better. As you should have been after eating the Seed, had you acquired it properly."

Issei nodded at that, walking closer towards the lake, his toes almost touching the raging waters, before he stopped, speaking without even looking backwards.

Thank you... Lilith. The first. I guess.

Before the remnants of Lilith's consciousness that were still connected to Tantric Energy could react, Issei had already dived into the lake head-first.

The waters of the lake ran fast, so fast that they tore into flesh, it's pressure was enough to crush bones, electrical discharges plagued it, and the sheer amount of energy flowing within it promised to disintegrate most people.

Hyoudou Issei isn't most people. And, most important of all, this power is his own. His own power would not hurt him.

He would not allow it to. No longer.

So, instead of trying to hold his breath as any normal person would do when within a lake, Issei took a deep breath, allowing the 'water' to fill his lungs. He opened his mouth, swallowing as much as he could. He willed it tor pull itself as close to him as possible, to fill every single part of him, to fuse with him so completely as to forget the concept of burnout, or strain associated with reaching his current maximum output. If he could generate that amount of energy without instantly dying or exploding, then his body would no longer feel more strain from it than necessary. The fatigue, and maybe even exhaustion from the usage of power would be there, of course, yet he would be capable of harnessing his ever-growing lightning without frying his own nevers.

He would be able to employ his Boosted Gear without burning from the inside out. Because he fully accepted his power. And it too, in turn, accepted him.

And Hyoudou Issei was reborn, as more than he ever was before.

~oOo~

"Gyahahahaha! The world is mine! Completely. absolutely, indubitably MINE!"

Travis cackled madly, his insanity steadily increasing, before he turned his eyes towards Hylda. A wave of uncontrolable lust assailed him, causing his member to instantly harden before he dashed towards her, intent on simply taking her...

BAM!

Only for a fist to the face to send him carreening backwards. When he got back to his feet, the sight that met him managed to simultaneously freeze his blood, and to make it boil to it's utmost levels.

Hyoudou Issei stood there, his face calm and placid as if he were taking a stroll on a park, during a crisp spring sunset, rather than as if he had just been stabbed through the heart, and watched the ascension of someone into Ultimate-tier.

"W-what? You're supposed to be dead! No, scratch that, you're absolutely dead! I saw you get killed! PEOPLE DIE WHEN THEY ARE KILLED!"

Giving Travis a mocking grin, Issei responded.

"I ate a green mushroom yesterday, might've been it, really."

Travis' angry face turned into one of hatred, the incubus stewing in the impossibility of this event, while Issei took the time to catalog everything different that he felt about himself.

'Man, this feels... Weird. I feel stronger than ever. Faster. More athletic. My body feels as if it has a higher limit. And... Am I feeling Hylda's emotions? Am I an Empath now?'

Indeed. Having overcome the true trial of the Seed, Issei was finally given what he should have acquired in the first place from eating the thing: proper control of the binding force that kept him together, creating harmony between his human nature, and the other sources of power that he kept within himself, all without his 'fragile' human vessel exploding under the pressure, like a glass bottle trying to contain an explosion.

This, however, came with some additional details.

Details such as the fact that his previously crippled right hand had been restored to full functionality, despite the fact that it had permanent scarring along it (And even said scarring was extremely diminished from what it should truly be). His muscles had gained even more definition and and elasticity, while his bones gained more strength and density.

And his hair, while mostly the same as before, gained a small difference in the form of a single, wavy bang falling over his forehead, and over his left eye. Oh, and did I mention that this bang was colored purple?

Yes. There were some changes indeed.

Issei frowned as he felt the negative emotions within Travis multiplying at an absolutely abnormal rate, as did the amount of tantrict energy that he pulled from around them, all of it tainted.

Knowing that their battle would be very much explosive, Issei decided to remove Hylda and Lilith from the battlefield. Employing a single use of Shunpo - made unbearably easy by his mastery over the amount of Tantric Energy that he possessed - Issei appeared besides Lilith. Frowning at her state, the mostly-brunette broke her chains with small blasts of lightning, lifting her over his right shoulder while Hylda occupied the left one, before vanishing in another instance of Shunpo, avoiding the maddened attack from the Incubus and creating great distance between them.

Placing the two girls on the ground, Issei focused on the image of the transportation circle towards Luxuria, using his magic to imprint it onto the ground underneath Hylda and Lilith before activating it, sending the two back to the castle.

That done, Isse dusted his hands before turning back towards the Pyramid, watching as Travis absorbed more and more of the tainted Tantric Energy, losing control over himself with each passing second, and becoming more a feral being of hatred and violence than anything else, it's power easily going above High class and crossing over into Ultimate territory.

The brunette frowned, deciding to go full tilt in order to stop Travis as soon as possible, raising his left hand into the air and drawing on his sacred gear.

"Boosted Gear!"

The red gauntlet bearing green gems, and red spikes and yellow accents came into existence on Issei's arm, and less than one second after it did, Ddraig's voice was already filling Issei's mind.

'What in Big Red's nonexistant balls happened, partner? One second you were there, drawing on my power, the next second I was back in the dark, completely cut off from you, as if waiting for my next wielder. As if you had-'

"Died, yes. I did. Sort of. But then I got better. All due to the power of titties."

'Wha-Ho-Whe-Why-... You know what, I don't even wanna know. So, what's the next move?'

"The next move is destroying this Travis bastard. If I remember correctly, I made a promise back during our last confrontation that I never got to place into effect. I'll work on it right now."

Issei turned his gaze back towards the Pyramid, except that instead of seeing the form of Travis, as he expected to, what he saw was more akin to a person made of clay or mud, shaped into an approximation of the likeness of Travis Laucia.

Said clay person wriggled and shifted, it's every motion unnatural and inhuman in nature, causing Issei's instincts to scream at him about the wrongness of it all. Add to that his newly-discovered Empathic nature, and you could understand the level of revulsion that he felt for this monstrosity.

Said monstrosity seemingly got tired of waiting around, firing off towards Issei as nothing more than a streak of motion, it's fist aiming to slam into the brunette's gut, only for said brunette to dodge to the side, covering his right fist in electricity from the Rome Force in order to avoid directly touching that disgusting mud, before he punched 'Travis' straight to the face, sending him flying back towards the pyramid, before following after in a burst of Shunpo.

Issei was forced to alter the path of his last Shunpo in order to avoid the projectiles of mud shaped into spikes, before his eyes widened in surprise at the fact that each piece of mud, feeding on the energy that had sunk into the stones of the pyramid itself, gained the full size of the original.

"Okay, this is so not fair."

Having said that, all of the copies attacked Issei at once, forcing him to duck and dodge to entirely avoid touching the mud that felt more like corruption made solid than anything else, before he punched the ground underneath him, the released shockwave knocking all of the thigns back.

[BOOST]

"Sparking Dragon's Cowl! Sparking Dragon's Talons!"

The aura of electricity covered Issei completely, protecting him from the corrupting effects of the mud, yet not nullifying things such as physical strength, or damage, while the lightning claws gave him a weapong that allows him to slightly increase the range at which he could fight the things, which was always a plus.

[BOOST]

Issei vanished in a consecutive series of Shunpo, flashes of light and a slight humming noise being all the explanation that was given for the state of all the mud clones, said state being 'torn into shreds'.

[BOOST]

The chopped up wood jumped back towards the original, causing it's power to spide suddenly, a sickly brown aura emerging around it that caused Issei nausea from just being nearby.

The pile of mud's arms turned into blades before it rushed at Issei, swinging for the young man's throat, but Issei reacted by intercepting the swings with his own lightning blades, pushing the creature backwards before slamming a kick into it's gut, tossing it away.

[BOOST]

The creature slammed both blades into the ground, causing Issei's eyes to widen and forcing him to jump in order to avoid the veritable forest of mud spikes and blades that emerged from underneath him.

More than a few of said blades and spikes were shot towards Issei, forcing him to make use of Shunpo middair to duck, dodge and twist out of the way, before he accelerated towards the mud thing, slashing it's arms off, causing the entire construct of spikes to fade, while new arms sprouted on the thing in place of the old ones.

The thing, seemingly bored of fighting Issei, slammed both hands into the stone of the temple, drawing more and more tainted energy from it, causing Issei's eyes to widen.

'Still so much power! Of course, the energy may be inert in stones, but it's still centuries of Tantric Energy, tainted or otherwise, and this thing can absorb it all! If it keeps absorbing, then eventually it will outpace me even at my utmost maximum... I need to annihilate it before it can reach that point! And this damned place too, to avoid any future problems of the same sort.'

With a plan of action firmly in mind, Issei vanished in a series of Shunpo, placing himself a few kilometers away from the Pyramid before pointing his right hand upwards, toward the extremely darkened, cloudy sky, before releasing bolt electricity into it. Ddraig, knowing what Issei was planning, felt the need to interject.

'Are you damn crazy? You just managed to somehow recover your hand, and you're doing something this stupid to lose it again, so soon?'

Keeping his focus on his endeavor, Issei tried connecting with any natural lightning, sweat collecting on his brow as he felt the power of the mud monster jumping higher and higher, it's size also increasing noticeably even from that distance.

'Aha!'

Issei's electricity 'tickled' the natural lightning, stimulating it to flow down into the earth via the path of least resistance, which was the tendril of electricity that Issei was emitting, causing all of that power to slam into Issei.

'!'

Remembering how it felt the last time he had done so, Issei pulled the lightning into himself completely, allowing the power to fill him to the brim, almost bursting from his pores.

'You're going to kill yourself if you do this, Issei!'

'Nonsense! I can take it!'

[BOOST][EXPLOSION]

The Boosted Gear, having been instructed by Issei not to judge the power of the mud monster, as it was fluctuating in it's constant increase, but instead to judge the maximum magical potential of the pyramid itself, multiplied Issei's power however many times it felt was necessary to deal the finishing blow, causing his own Aura to jump to ludicrous levels.

'This is too much! Your body is going to explode!'

'It's not!'

The brunette reigned both powers in, twisting, twirling, braiding and mixing, using a small thread of Tantric Energy to facilitate the process.

'This will be just like last time, but worse! Think about this properly, partner!'

'I have, Ddraig! I know you're worried about me, but you need to learn to trust me! I have a plan!

The energies kept mixing, their synchronization rates shifting and altering. 70%-30% ; 60%-40%.

'And what would that plan be?'

Instead of focusing all of that energy in a single place, forcing it to deal with all of the recoil and absorb all the damage alone, Issei spread it throughout his entire body, reducind the maximum amount of recoil any individual part could take.

'That still doesn't guarantee your survival!'

Synchronization rate 50%-50%.

'But this does! REINFORCEMENT!'

With the exception of the single thread that he had sent to mix his Rome Force with the Boosted Gear's natural multiplication factor, Issei focused the entirety of his Tantric Energy into a full body Reinforcement.

"THUNDER DRAGON'S ROAR!"

~oOo~

If Issei's last usage of this ability could be described as bright, then this one could be called nothing less than blinding. The white beam of energy that had been fired off from the brunette's gauntleted fist all but erased everything that it touched from existence, disintegrating the dirt, trees and everything else in it's path towards the pyramid.

The mud monster, sensing this enormously powered attack likely to destroy it, drew as much energy from the pyramid as it could in the shortest amount of time possible, before squeezing itself into a smaller sphere, as dense as possible, and reinforcing its surface to the highest level that it could.

Said defense managed to hold for a few seconds, giving the thing a hope for survival...

CRACK.

Until a tiny fracture a small crack, appeared on the surface of the sphere. Said fracture caused the highly compressed Tantric Energy to try to force it's way out, like steam contained in a vessel with not enough space, while allowing the beam of concentrated destruction to slowly burn away every single trace of corruption, and of the mud.

Less than 10 seconds after Issei had fired off his attack, both the Pyramid and the Mud monster were nothing more tha History.

Issei, on the other hand, was still standing.

Sore, tired, nearing magical exhaustion and with his eyebrows lightly singed from being so close to his own blast, yet still alive, and not at all crippled.

Lowering his gauntleted arm, Issei let out a deep breath of relief at having taken care of the situation, ready to return to Luxuria...

"Hahhhh..."

Only for the sound of shallow breathing to reach his ears. At that moment, a different reaction than normal was triggered within his 'instinct-driven' center. Issei didn't limp, or walk towards Travis as much as he swaggered, a level of confidence bordering on cockiness filling him completely.

When he saw the bruised, weak, shaking and extremely burned form of his enemy, he felt the satisfaction of a job well done, yet there was something more to do.

Finishing his cocky walk by standing right in view of the downed enemy, Issei spoke up.

" 'I am going to beat you. You will ask me to stop. I will not. Then I will break you. You will ask me for mercy, I will have none to give you. Then, after I have everything I need from you, I will make you despair. You will beg for quarter, yet you will not have it. And when you finally beg me for death, I will deny you that pleasure as well' Do you remember me having said these words, Travis? What did you think back then? That I wasn't going to be able to do a thing? That you would simply destroy me, and move on with your life? Well, look at where we stand now. You, downed and at my mercy. Me, powerful, and filled with a thirst for revenge. What do you think is going to happen now?"

The incubus could only whimper, his throat so parched that he couldn't even utter a single call for mercy.

Issei kneeled down above Travis, his knee pressing down on the Incubus' chest and simultaneously aggravating his burns and cutting off his ability to breathe to it's utmost minimum. He released his sacred gear, allowing his left arm to return to normal before gripping Travis' throat with it. Having taken that good grip, Issei cocked his right hand back, before he let it fly loose.

SMACK.

SMACK.

SMACK.

SMACK.

SMACK.

Again and again, Issei punched at his enemy, a primal feeling blossoming on his chest.

Seeing that the incubus' face almost looked like hamburger already, and not wanting to risk accidentally killing him via concussion, Issei stood up from where he was kneeling on top of Travis, allowing him to greedily gulp in some fresh air.

OOF!

Before it was kicked out of him, Issei's foot still embedded within Travis' gut. He raised his foot back up, letting it rain all over Travis, tears of anger and frustration clashing with relief and sadness as he spoke.

"Kidnap my girlfriend? Torture her via starvation? Try to kill me and Hylda? Call Jackie a monster? Destroy the lives of hundreds of people due to your ambition alone? Sacrifice innocents to empower yourself? Send them to be raped for power, as if they were tools? You'll never do any of those again, you fucker!"

Almost every word was punctuated by a kick , until Travis was laying almost limp, the only evidence of his vitality being his rising and falling chest. Whimpers escaped his throat, and he managed to overcome his pain for a single request.

"Mer-cy... Mer-cy, pl-ea-se..."

Sneering down at the pitiful existence that was Travis Laucia, Issei spoke.

"I have no mercy to spare for trash such as yourself. Oh, and remember the thing I said about denying you death?"

Pointing a finger at Travis, Issei released a blast of electricity that completely disintegrated the bastard.

"I lied."

Having finished that, the burning sensation within his chest increased further, bones cracking and shifting throughout his body, causing him to randomly sway around the burnt ground, a mixture of pain and uncomfortable pressure building up behind him. Eventually the pressure built up too high, and eventually something had to give.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

Both the skin of his back and his shirt were torn apart, though, curiously enough, Issei felt no pain, and more so he felt instead a sense of satisfaction that one would feel after taking off a pair of too tight pants.

He felt a difference to his center of balance, as if he had a new way to control it, and he felt a sudden desire to shout, to cry out his victory to the world.

"GROAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Like that, with a massive pair of draconic wings sprouting out of his back, a thick, red, scaled tail emerging from his tailbone, extremely sharpened teeth and an elongated, prehensible tongue, Issei roared his victory to the heavens above the destroyed corpse of his enemy, and everything that he represented.

The wings and tail eventually rolled themselves back within Issei's body, his teeth and tongue receding a bit closer to normal, yet holding a bit of the draconic particularities, and the overwhelming need to obliterate Travis (beyond the usual), and to defiantly cry out his victory to the heavens receded, allowing Issei to think more clearly.

Coalescing his power, the brunette created a magical circle towards Luxuria, appearing within the Great Hall in a flash of light to a group of worried-looking succubi, and Jackie/Hylda. Grinning his usual grin, Issei spoke.

"We won!"

Having said that, he fell over completely, his body haphazardly slamming into the ground. Less than 5 seconds later, and Hyoudou Issei was already completely asleep, this stage of his life finished.

~Chapter, End!~

Hello there, the dude you know here, back again! Sorry for the content drought, college is really squeezing the twins, leaving me little time to actually focus on writing. Still, I'll try to put out as much as I can.

With that out of the way, let's talk shop. The Luxuria arc, over (almost). I'll give a small conclusion (and Issei's reward for his accomplishments) in the earlier part of the next chapter. The most part of the next chapter, however, with by the next arc, which will be Issei's first year as a studant in Kuoh.

Look forward to it, my friends, for more humor makes it into the fray this time, interspersed with a few action scenes!

As always, feel free to leave feedback about my story, and any chapter of it, both in the reviews, and, if you feel the need to, in my inbox.

FrancoGamerxz, out!