Author's notes

SOOOOOOO this one's been in the works for a while. If you're reading this on Fanfiction, AO3, or the hellscape that is wattpad, then my co-writer has escaped the hell that is real life long enough to review this chapter so I can upload it.

Let's do reviews!

Dontus -not Donut- Powerus - You are correct in guessing that the Devourer of Gods will be the "final boss" of this fic, as I don't really plan to adapt anything in the DxD timeline involving past Trihexa, such as the lads from ExE.

As for your other predictions about who might show up, well, who knows? Apart from me.

Unless you've browsed my DeviantArt, or you've seen my account (username is Tehpootisman on both). Heh.

Isaacstormblood1 - As funny as the idea of Kuraima becoming an arms dealer would be, uuh, my co-writer (The_Factory on AO3) sent me a pretty harsh and detailed paragraph on why we can't do that so i'm just gonna give you a friendlier answer instead:"Co-writer said no; we already have enough subplots."

Oh hey, so it turns out that the lore overhaul finally dropped while I was writing this chapter.

For those who haven't seen the edit in the first chapter…

This story will continue to use the AU I've built using the old lore, from before The Rise from the Ashes update.

By the way: I released a Provibirb mod on steam. Go check it out and throw Rotten Eggs at her or something.

"So, the time has finally come."

In front of Kuraima were the members of the ORC and a maid that looked suspiciously like Sayuka Izayoi from Touhou.

He was here to see them one last time before their fight with…what was his name again?

Riser? Raiser? Rizer?

Bah, who cares?

"Yeah. I suppose it has." Rias responded to him. "Take care of Sona for me while we're gone." She added, giggling.

"Heh. Don't worry. She'll be in good hands!" The Astral Champion said, deciding to humor her. "I should say the same to you. Take good care of your peerage! Especially Asia. I've yet to show her Deltarune."

The ex-nun tilted her head. "Delta…rune? Like the symbol the bunny lady talked about in the Snowdin shop?"

"Sort of, I guess? It's not a sequel but it uses many of the same characters and mechanics, with slightly darker tones and stuff. But hey! I think you'd still like it!"

"O-Oh! Well, I'll try my best!"

"That's the spirit!"

"Lady Rias, it is time to go." The maid interjected.

"Alright," the redhead nodded, "Is everyone ready?"

She got a collective affirmation from her peerage.

"See ya'll on the other side! Give 'em a real good clobberin'!"

The Astral Champion waved as the magic circle beneath Rias' peerage began to glow, whisking them all away to whatever battleground they were headed to. However, the Sakuya Izayoi look alike still remained, turning around to address the Astral Champion.

"So you're the human friend of my sister-in-law."

"Huh…? Oh. Yeah. I suppose I am. Name's Sensou Kuraima. Everyone just calls me Kuraima— I don't think that's how the cultural naming thing works but I could care less, honestly."

"I see. My name is Grayfia Lucifuge. Young Rias speaks highly of you."

"Heh. Yeah, I guess we're good friends. Her peerage has helped me out quite a bit— or at least Koneko and Asia have. Issei? Well…he's something at least."

"Mhm. I see. Please forgive me for being blunt, but I'm afraid I must cut this conversation short. I have a Rating Game to attend to."

"Same," Kuriama replied, nodding his head, "well, not the Rating Game part, but…yeah. I have things to attend to as well."

"Safe travels, Sensou Kuraima."

She teleported away, leaving the Astral Student alone in the club room.

'Now,' He thought to himself, 'I have a cookout to prepare for.'

The 'foreign cosplayer' watched as a dozen or so Sacred Gear wielders gathered in an alleyway, discussing the results of their apparent "patrol routes."

'Multiple gear users…and so many in one place. Something about them seems odd, yet there is a hint of familiarity. Curious.' He thought to himself. 'They're not even reincarnated devils, either. How interesting…If they have united like this, then perhaps the one I seek is amongst their numbers. Only one way to find out.'

The stranger slipped out from his hiding spot, bringing attention to himself.

Having strangely large, elf-ish ears tends to do that.

"Oi! What's with the get-up?!" Perfa immediately shouted, only to be halted when Eatah put a hand on her shoulder. "Easy there, Perfy. Maybe they just wanna talk."

"That I do. I am simply looking for someone. I know not what they look like, but I will know when I find them. And I believe that you all are the key to finding them."

The girl clad in purple refocused her gaze onto Perfa. "Okay, you can be a little hostile. This guy's sketchy as hell."

"Now, now, let's be civilized about this."

"And yet, something seems off." Smar put his hand on his chin in the classic 'thinking' gesture. "You claim you wish to talk with us, yet you've already informed us that you would know who you're looking for when you see them."

"Hey, smartie pants. No need to go all Ben Shapiro on 'em."

"Not now, couch boy. Compare me to him again and I'll make you regret it. Anyways, how could we even possibly be of help?"

The stranger held his tongue, but could already feel his patience wearing thin. He honestly couldn't tell whether or not their antics worked in his favor, or against.

'I really should've just attacked them from the get-go.'

He noticed that one of them had drawn a cellphone and had quickly dialed someone.

"Hey. Hey boss. We got some weird guy down here. Just showed up and started asking…some pretty strange questions. Said he's looking for someone…ah, you'll be right down here in a bit? Aight, gotcha."

'Okay, now we're getting somewhere—'

"But what if it is the boss they're after? This could be a setup…"

'I'm already starting to regret this plan.'

"I get where you're coming from but why would he try that? If he doesn't know who he's looking for then why waste our time asking for the boss?"

"Wouldn't the fact he's wasting our time mean that he really is looking for our boss?"

"Counterpoint: What if he has no idea what he's doing?"

"I say we punch him and get it over with."

"For once, I'm starting to agree with the meathead."

The stranger watched as the group began to…well, he wasn't sure if "discussed" was the right word, but they were certainly debating his intentions.

"All in favor of beating this guy's ass-"

"Swear jar!" Buon Cey interrupted.

"Later, okay? Anyways, all in favor, say aye!"

A collective, unanimous "aye" rang out amongst the gangsters, as they all turned to face the man.

"Prepare yourself, stranger! We know not why you have come here, but clearly, you're quite, as the boss says, 'sus'!" Ai Sore called out without a hint of irony at using the funny meme word, materializing her sword and shield. "We, the…"

She turned to the others. "Did we keep the name when we got our new leader?"

"Pretty sure it should still be 'Eden's sinners.'" Laye Z replied, "But yeah, we should totally change it— I mean, we did vote on it because at the time it sounded cool, but I don't really see any symbolism in it."

"Ah. I see." The girl in the suit turned back to the stranger. "Skip the name, them?"

The group's response was a collective affirmation.

"We…will strike you down!"

Ai Sore led the charge against the stranger as she brandished her sword and shield, opening up with an immediate high-speed dash that left afterimages in her wake.

The man barely dodged, jumping back to avoid a slash across the chest. The wielder of [Oculus Intitum] followed up with several more slashes, each giving similar results.

Seeing as how her blade wasn't going to work, she elicited a shield bash to ram into her opponent.

Faster than she could blink, she found herself tumbling across the ground as she was swept off her feet with a well-timed kick from the stranger.

At that moment, Tim Roman leaped in, a pair of bone arms floating behind them and forming bone spears using their powers. The floating arms thrashed about wildly, slashing at the man as Tim attempted to follow up with several thrusts.

At the same time, Ai had recovered and charged once more, aiming to stab him in the back.

The stranger suddenly unfurled a pair of bat-like wings and took flight, leaving the two Sacred Gear wielders desperately trying to avoid each other's attacks.

Barely succeeding in that, the man abruptly came back down upon them before the two could recover, drop-kicking Tim and then backhanding Ai, actions that caused both of them to crumple to the ground.

Seeing their fellow gangsters' defeat, Eatah and Perfa all but roared as they attacked in tandem, throwing punches at the stranger.

The stranger simply held their arms up in an X-shape, taking the blunt force with stride as they whaled away at him. His lips rose up into a small smirk as he uncrossed his arms, throwing them out with enough force to send the two flying back.

Unlike the two before them, these two were much more durable. Landing on their feet, the two gathered their respective flames in the palms of their hands and lunged forward, shooting fireballs of both Cursed Flames and Blood Flames. No words were spoken between the two girls, yet they seemed to work in perfect harmony.

Yet it just wasn't enough, as a wall of deep blood-orange fire sprung up around the stranger, snuffing out the weaker flames with ease.

The two were not deterred. The ground shook as Eatah's giant worm burst forth from the ground, which managed to knock the devil into the air.

Their success was short-lived however when the man's arms flattened themselves into blades and wildly bisected the giant worm's segments as they came back down, neon green blood flying everywhere.

Only for them to be blindsided by Perfa as she brought out her own perforator trio, the largest of the three worms slamming the devil into a wall.

"I'M GONNA BEAT YOUR ASS!" She yelled, ignoring another callout to satiate the 'swear jar', her adrenaline pumping as she launched her worms forward, gathering a ball of ichor in her hands.

The man deftly dodged the worms, and ducked under the launched ichor, taking a mental note as the wall began to corrode where the yellow substance had struck.

Without warning, the devil's arm began to twist and contort as it transformed into a giant, metal-plated version of itself, grabbing the largest of the Perforators and crushing its head like a soda can.

This did not deter the meathead, who only doubled down on her assault and attempted to beat her way through his defenses, letting loose a guttural warcry as she unleashed a powerful strike against the giant metal hand.

Which, to her credit, actually did manage to draw blood, her fist being covered in a thin layer of ichor. The metal crumbled and blood spurted out, causing the devil to wince for a moment before regaining his composure.

"Honestly? Not bad for a human."

"Thanks." Perfa said, her trademark smug grin never leaving her face, despite the fact that the arm with which she had struck seemed a bit limper than before and visibly bleeding from the sheer amount of force she'd put into it. "Put in a little more effort and you can be my rival."

Admittedly, that stung the Devil's pride a little, being looked down upon by a human, and an apparent dumbass at that. But then again, any supernatural entity would feel a bit peeved if a human belittled them with no sense of self-awareness whatsoever.

For a moment, he thought of rounding up these gangsters for his own mistress' group. But alas, he had a goal, and he intended to stick to it.

With a flick of the wrist, his oversized arm shifted, buffing out the dent and wound in an instant before swatting Perfa away like a gnat, just as she had done moments prior.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" Cru Staion screamed as he formed a pair of fungus crab claws and—

—was immediately smacked aside with a flick of the stranger's now-present, insectoid tail.

Laye, Smar, and Buon were next to throw hands, the former two teleporting around the Devil as they summoned wave after wave of minions.

Creepers and their dank counterparts as well as Slimes rushed at the stranger. Now, they finally had the numbers advantage.

But they forgot a specific detail.

The man returned his oversized arm to its normal state, smugly grinning as he gathered a fireball in his hand, before slamming into the ground to summon a massive wave of the blood-red fire, incinerating the opposition in mere seconds.

Recognizing that these three could actually pose a threat, however, he finally went on the offensive.

Laye teleported in for a dropkick, only to get parried by the man's tail and knocked into a wall. The wielder of the Hive Mind teleported back into the fray, attempting to land a haymaker in perfect sync with Smar.

The man simply elongated his arms into blades once more and spun around, forcing the both of them to disengage.

"It doesn't have to end like this."

Smar shot him a disgusted look. "What kind of underlings would we be if we couldn't even make our leaders proud?"

"An admirable goal, but what good are you if you needlessly throw your life away? You're the ones who voted to start a fight."

Bonk!

A pink gel ball slammed into the back of the devil's head, bouncing off of it harmlessly.
Ignoring Buon's attempts to join the fray, the man cracked his knuckles, ready to give the others a thorough beatdown.

The two warpers took this as a challenge.

They blinked into range, teleporting around the devil as they traded blows but neither giving ground.

Even as Smar started to shake things up with his illusion powers, the stranger seemed to keep up as his sensitive hearing was able to pick up the subtle hints of the real one's location.

However, the stranger would win this war of attrition, as their power usage began to take their toll, their movements slowly becoming fatigued.

Of course, this was enough for the man to exploit, breaching the openings in their stances for quick, precision strikes.

Laye overextended his kick, allowing a quick chop to the backside of his knee. Meanwhile, Smar was caught off guard with a quick "love-tap" to the solar plexus, sending him sprawling to the ground.

The man in the bathrobe quickly teleported over to his fallen ally and warped to the sidelines with the red man in tow, despite his injured leg.

"Alright man, you've made your point. I yield."

As the two fell to their knees, the stranger stood tall, as if waiting for something for another challenger.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Right on time.

The man turned around to see a certain woman in red, flanked by two…

'...Maids?'

…made out of what seemed to be pure slime.

Champ had arrived on the scene, and she was not happy about seeing her fellow gangsters all beaten up like this.

"Explain yourself, right now." She demanded, pointing at him.

"In my defense, they struck first."

"I don't doubt that for a second. However, clearly, you gave them a reason to do so."

"Them? A clear reason? That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?"

Champ shook her head. "You don't think their boss wouldn't contact me, their former leader, about this? About a strange man seeking an audience with him, and then the first thing I see is all of my asso…friends having been beaten down by said man?"

The two circled each other, staring at one another dead in the eyes. Champ's maids followed close behind, like a pair of royal attendants.

"I know these people. I know they wouldn't all get involved without a fair reason. At this point, I don't care who started it."

"Statigel Shogun - Warrior!"

The stranger felt a wave of power wash over him as Champ and her slime servants were equipped with full suits of blue and pink samurai armor. However, unlike the cone cap she wore during her fight with Helenski, her Balance Breaker now sported a samurai helmet with a skull-like mask.

"All that matters is that I finish it."

Wielding Naginatas made out of the same material as their armor, Champ and her servants rushed the Devil, catching him off guard with their agility as he narrowly avoided being impaled from multiple directions at once.

"Not bad. Nice, even. You've only just started, yet I believe you could give middle-class Devils a bit of a challenge. You say that you're the former leader?"

"What's it to you?" Champ shot back, slashing with her blade. "You pick a fight with one of us, you pick a fight with all of us."

"Quite the resolve you have there. Just, do you have the strength to carry through with it?"

The stranger grew both of his arms back into oversized limbs, ignoring the two slime servants as their weapons drew blood, but not without getting stuck. Despite their empowered states, they struggled to pry them free.

"I don't know too much about Devil society, but I know that you've got a lot of guts to invade the territory of two high-class Devils like this."

"I'm simply following orders given to me by my mistress. Nothing much to it."

"And for what purpose, may I ask?"

"I was just told to look for someone. That's all."

Champ raised her spear and thrust it once more at the stranger, who jumped back to dodge it. "You may be looking for someone, but all you have found is trouble."

The Slime servants finally managed to break their own blades free as the Devil turned his arms back to normal, the maids-turned-samurai taking up position next to their master.

Despite being on even grounds with this person, Champ couldn't help but be a little worried.

Matilda had been right all along— none of them were truly prepared to fight the supernatural side of the world.

Especially not herself— even with her powers, she was only human.

She shook her head— she didn't have time to mope around. The blade of her weapon began to melt off, turning her naginata into a quarterstaff of sorts, before she once again went on the offensive.

Twirling the staff around with the tenacity of an anime character, the former mob boss unleashed a flurry of strikes aimed at the stranger's center of mass, most of which were just barely dodged.

'My best bet would be to switch to Mage and bomb him to pieces— he doesn't come off as strong as Providence did, but at the same time…nevermind that, but my gangsters have made enough noise as it is.'

Her slime companions returned to her flanks, thrusting their blades at the man, scoring glancing blows on either side of his neck.

"Most impressive." He praised, shoving the blades away. "And I mean it. Truly. But you're holding back too, aren't you?"

Champ's eyes widened as she leaped back, distancing herself from the Devil, who only smirked in response.

Champ grit her teeth and gripped the quarterstaff even harder.

'No. He's just trying to get under my skin. I must hold out as long as I can.'

Bonk!

The man snarled as he was hit on the back of the head by yet another of Buon's pink slime gel balls, snapping around to face the kid.

"Can you not—"

Champ didn't hesitate to capitalize on this distraction as she broke the quarterstaff in twain and used the sharpened edges to stab into the Devil's side.

"Gghk!" The stranger coughed up a bit of blood at the unexpected attack, pausing for a moment.

"How's this for holding back?" Champ snarled, her voice dripping with venom.

To this, the man smiled, causing the woman's face to blanch as she moved to back away, but it was too late. The Devil threw a single punch, shattering her armor and dispelling her Balance Breaker.

As she tumbled through the air, Champ only had one thought on her mind.

'Deja vu.'

As the blade of solidified slimes dissipated, the man's body shifted, sealing the wound with ease.

"I'm afraid this has gone on far enough. Now, if you excuse me—"

"I've got fifty thousand volts here with your name on them!"

"Wh-?!" The stranger turned around to see Kuraima standing there, with a modified taser in his hand.

But it was too late, for, in the heat of the moment, the Devil briefly forgot exactly what a taser does and held up his arm to block the shot when Kuraima held down the trigger.

Tltktktktktktk!

"Grrrghkk!"

The stranger found his arm seizing up as the metal barbs dug into his flesh and the beefed-up taser unleashed its payload, finding his shapeshifting powers in that particular limb to be unresponsive.

"You know, I don't actually know if these things can actually deliver 50k volts." Kuraima offhandedly remarked as he shrugged, still holding down the trigger. "I was just quoting Payday 2." He admitted. "There's probably more than that. It could actually be 600,000 volts coursing through your body like a dog touching an electric fence."

The stranger only grumbled, trying to fight his jittery arm's rampant spasm.

"Anyway, who's this cosplayer? Is he bothering you guys? Threatening to make parchment out of your skin?"

That pissed the Devil off a bit, but only for a moment before they regained their composure as they finally managed to pry the barbs out of their arm.

But then, the stranger smirked, noting how [Stella Dominus] was in full view on Kuraima's chest. He'd found his target- the energies were the strongest where the Astral Champion stood.

"Tell me, human, what is your name?"

Kuraima raised an eyebrow. "You're not tricking me that easily. You're probably gonna lay a hex on me or something—" He sneered, crossing his arms, "I don't know much about Overlord but I'm not taking it up to chance whether or not that's in your skillset, you Demiurge wannabe."

The man, eye twitching, formed a ball of flame in his hand, pointing it towards several of the downed combatants.

"O-Okay fine! The name's Sensou Kuraima! Leave them out of this!"

"Good, good." The Devil dismissed the flames as a magic circle appeared beneath his feet. "I've found what I've come for. My mistress shall be pleased. Until we meet again, Kuraima-san."

He disappeared, leaving the gangsters behind.

'Wait. Until…?'

Shaking the thought out of his head, Kuraima looked over to Champ.

"Need a hand?"

Champ didn't hesitate to grab onto the Astral Champion's outstretched arm.

"Yeah. Thanks." She said, dusting herself off. "I wouldn't mind having a hand more often, actually."

"What, six not good enough for you?" He joked, nodding over at the slime maids.

She huffed, a blush on her face, "...That's not what I meant, and you know it." She averted her gaze, unused to the warm fuzzy feelings swelling within her chest.

'This is just camaraderie, and nothing more…!' She thought to herself.