Chapter 6
Unknown universe - Underworld
The probe Issei´s teammates had send to the newest unknown universe was continuing to send pictures and data.
The Devil capital had already been mostly obliterated. Thousands of civilians and many warriors had been killed before they even realized what was happening.
Key targets had already been destroyed in the first strike. The result of years of spy and surveilance work by agents like the Devil Hunters.
These first targets were military and political mostly. Not that there was much difference with a race that was generally ruled by some of their most powerful members.
The Maou Serafall Leviathan actually died in her sleep, as her residence and the entire city district around it was wiped out by the first combined attack of several of the most powerful Demons.
Her three Satan `colleagues´ were more lucky... but not by much. At least they were able to see the battle.
Ajuka had, not long after he had joined the battle and in seconds personaly destroyed entire lines of attackers, been confronted by the Devil Hunter Vali in his Super-Mode and the Demon Lord Pazuzu.
As powerful as the Super Devil was, against this two opponents together, he had no chance at all.
He fell in less than a minute.
xxx
At other places powerful Devils like Grayfia Lucifuuge and the rest of Sirzechs peerage or the fourth Devil King Falbium Asmodeus were fighting against a overwhelming number of high ranking Demons.
Sirzechs Servants were at the same time shielding themselves from the long range fire of one of the Demon´s war-vehicles.
But even they could do nothing to affect the outcome of the battle as a whole.
At the same time another gate between the dimensions was being opened and more Demon troops entered this word, thousands more.
xxx
The battle was still going on... but by now the outcome was already more than clear.
In a sense it had been from the beginning. The local Devils had been too outmatched and taken too much by surprise.
The ones who had survived the initial assault were desperately fighting back. But their enemies, who were using a mixture of Supernatural Powers and technology, were simply too strong.
In the center of the giant battle was right now a direct duel between Sirzechs Lucifer and the Erebos Emperor himself.
Sirzechs body was being surrounded by an aura of the Power of Destruction and his opponent´s by his own powers - a special ability to manipulate matter on molecular level - mixed with the ones he had inherited from his ally Darkseid.
The small part of the devastated city beneath them that had not already been already destroyed were now being wiped out by the outfall of their clashing powers.
The troops of both sides surounding them had already retreated into a save distance and were also shielding themselves. A few fighters did not make it in time and were obliterated either by Sirzechs or Dagon´s powers.
The entire sector of the Underworld was being turned into a burned out wasteland.
Sirzechs felt sorry for the additional damage his powers were causing for his own people. But he knew there was no choice.
He did not knew who this attackers were, but it was clear that they knew no mercy at all. Tens of thousands of Devils had been killed without them even making any attempt to talk.
Who were they? Supernatural Beings he had never seen or heard of before. What did they want?
Sirzechs now transformed into what he called his `true form´, became pure destruction. But somehow his opponent was still able to fend off and withstand one of his attacks after another.
Even if everything in a dozen miles around them was being destroyed and turned to ash.
Others forces of the Demons were meanwhile already spreading out to target the other towns and settlements in the Underworld.
At the same time they were also sending out a message to the Fallen Angels to either join them in their campaign of destruction or to keep out of the matter or face the consequences.
xxx
The Devil Hunter Koneko was standing at the side of the battlefield, nearly thirty kilometers away from the point where Sirzech and Dagon were currently fighting.
Aside from Vali and her `sister´, the rest of their team was not necessary required to join the battle.
Though Kuroka had claimed she would have joined the fight anyway, even if she had not been ordered. Koneko was not sure if it was because she just wanted to kill a few more Devils or because she wanted to fight at Vali´s side.
Nero however had actually volunteered to fight in this battle. He on his part, she knew, had a very deep hatred for the Devils. Not that the rest of them had not.
She saw a few glympses of Kuroka fighting a High-Class Devil in some distance. She clearly had the upper hand and Koneko was sure she would kill her opponent quickly. But she did not seem to take the fight too seriously.
Maybe she was truly mostly there to assist Vali, as Koneko had suspected.
She knew that Kuroka had a deeper relationship to their shared lover as she did.
Once again she was reminded that this Kuroka was not the same sister she had grown up with. In truth her own Kuroka had been killed as she had been hunted down by the Devils after she had killed her Master to protect her.
It was sometimes so easy to let herself fall for the illusion... as if their real sisters had never died and they were still a whole family.
She sometimes could not help to suspect that Kuroka had in truth only convinced Vali to take her as well, to use their relationship as a way to strengthen the bond between them. To form some twisted kind of little family.
And the threesomes they had so often were some perverse bonding ritual.
They were truly fucked up people, DH-Koneko admitted to herself.
Standing a few meters next to her however was the Fallen Angel Raynare-017, who had joined them. Like her, she had decided to stay out of the battle.
The one Koneko was watching right now however was their other `new member´. The alternate Issei Hyoudou was slicing and shooting himself through the fighting with a smile of his face, killing Devils - warriors and civilians - left and right.
"Lunatic," Koneko said quietly.
They might be fucked up people, but not nearly as much as this guy.
Raynare-017 seemed to have heard her, but said nothing.
Her `sister´, Vali and their teammate Nero might be fighting and killing their share of them. But neither was enjoying it nearly as openly or as much as he did.
She realized that Hyoudou´s eyes now fell on her.
Just great, she thought.
He was right now suddenly appearing in front of what looked like a small family of Devils who were flying away in a desperate attempt to escape the destruction.
Issei-013 appeared right in front of them. His Scale Armor was still formed around his body.
Without a single word he simply punched the male Devil so hard at the side of his head that it was ripped from his shoulders.
The female one and the child with them - a little girl - were both screaming in horror.
Issei dissolved the Dragon Armor and appeared before them as his normal self. It didn´t matter. Neither of them seemed to have any even mentionable fighting power.
"Well-" he looked at the completely terrified female Devil, "You know, you are actually quite good looking," he said.
She had long brown hair, a pretty face and like most female supernaturals, a good figure and large breasts. And like the little girl she was splattered by the blood of her husband.
"Your `assets´ are not bad either."
He looked over her body, then he grabbed her with one hand by the throat and used the other to kneed one of her breasts forcefully. The Devil woman whimpered.
"And as I see you have become a widow only recently," he commented sarcastically with a look at the headless body close by.
He exchanged a short look with Koneko, who was watching the entire display in open disgust... and he grinned.
"I am sure if things were different, we could come to some kind of... `agreement´," he said.
Then his face turned cold like stone.
"But sadly you are only a filthy Devil... and I would rather die than actually touching you." He released her for a split-second and then materialized his sword.
"No-... please..." she wanted to plead.
But he had already stabbed her right through her heart.
The child only screamed as she saw her mother slaughtered as well. Issei-013 however grabbed the little girl and dragged her along to where Koneko and Raynare were standing.
He first turned to Koneko. He lifted the little Devil girl up by her clothes and held her towards Koneko. She looked not more than four or five years old.
"I thought you might want a bit of the fun as well," he said.
Several feelings were fighting inside of Koneko. She was watching the little creature with a mixture of sadness and disgust. This was not one of their reincarnated victims, this was a pureblooded Devil. It was her kind that ruined her and her sister´s lives, who had murdered her sister, who had enslaved and manipulated them.
In a few years she would be just be just like them. But she would never grow up, another part of her thought.
That part of her actually felt the urge to rip the crying child out of his arms and protect her. But she knew she could not.
"No thanks." That was all what she said loud in her stoical way.
"Please - please let me go!" the little girl cried hysterically.
Koneko felt as if somehow had punched her in the gut as she listened.
"Raynare - my dear," he turned around to Raynare-017. "What about you?"
She moved slowly towards him.
He now held the struggling little girl towards her.
For a short moment, she actually hesitated as she looked at the helplessly struggling child.
"If you don´t want to, we could overthink our `agreement,´ he said quietly to her.
Their agreement - they both knew he was the only thing keeping her in this group. He was the only reason they had taken her with them and saved her from being arrested for treason back in her own world.
And it was just his word that was holding her in this team. (Aside from fucking her nearly every night.)
Of course in the reality that the Erebos had taken as their throne-world, they and the Fallen Angels were allies. She could leave the team and rejoin her brethen (at least that worlds version of them).
But then she would once again be a nobody. Just another two-winged Fallen, not even a team-leader like before - nameless, cannon fodder... instead of a member of an Elite Team like now.
She formed a light-spear in her hand... and stabbed it through the child´s heart. After one last short scream the girl became quiet very quickly and be body became limp...
Raynare-017 was looking at it´s dead eyes. She just now realized that she had just murdered a three years old. But... after all the lows she had already sank to, why not make yet another step deeper?
... before Issei-013 carelessly threw it away and smiled.
Koneko had been watching the scene in growing horror and repulsion.
For a short moment she was looking around at the wasteland that had not long ago been a town. The destruction, the countless corpses scattered across the ground, the ones who had not been already burned to ash.
She did not want to imagine how many children were under them.
Perhaps for the first moment she fully realized what they truly were - what they had turned into.
Then Issei´s psychotic double turned to her.
"And - how did you like it?" He lifted his hand and stepped closer to her. She saw that his hand was covered with blood.
And he slowly smeared it across her mouth.
"It is good, isn´t it?" he asked her.
"Hey!" they heard someone calling out. It was Kuroka. "What are you doing to my sister you maniac?"
"Your sister?" He looked around as if he couldn´t find someone. "Oh - you mean her." He turned back to Koneko.
"Step away from her you bastard and leave her alone."
"Why? I would never do anything to her. We are comrades after all. Now - if she were one of the `hers´ out there who are still serving that red haired bitch, it would be something different.
But so - I just wanted to show her how good Devil blood taste. Really - you two don´t know what you are missing."
"Can it - you nutjob," Kuroka said.
"By the way, is that not some kind of unhealthy relationship you two have?" he commented. "I mean both of you are practically replacing your sisters who died... and then with you two sharing the same man?
I am sure a psychatrist would have to say a few things about that."
"I truly don´t need to hear that from a psycho like you," DH-Kuroka growled.
"Now then," he replied. "Let us return to fighting. It is such a good day, isn´t it?"
Issei-013 reformed his armor and lifted off the ground to rejoin the fight.
"Are you okay?" DH-Kuroka asked Koneko.
"Yes Onee-chan," she said. She let her hand quickly glide over her blood-smeared face.
"I have to return to battle as well. We will talk about this later."
Koneko nodded. Unlike her, Kuroka was a top-fighter and didn´t have the luxus to just stay aside.
Genocide, she thought - and she and the others were part of it. And their Masters planned to do this many, many times more.
"He is a monster," Koneko said a few moments later.
"Yes," Raynare-017 replied flatly.
"And so are we," she stated stoically.
xxx
Sirzechs - the one of this world - knew it was over for him. He was loosing more and more energy.
What was worse, his opponent however seemed to still be in the same state like when their fight started. As if he did not get exhausted at all, even if they fought at full power the entire time.
Nearly - as if something was constantly refueling his energy. Or as if an outside force was powering him up.
There was something that seemed practically `unnatural´ about this enemy. And he realized the irony of him - a Supernatural Being - thinking something like this.
It didn´t matter anymore. As he looked around, Sirzechs saw that he was surrounded by enemies.
At one side the two men he had sensed killing Ajuka. He had, much to his surprise, recognized the silver haired one as Vali Lucifer and the White Dragon Emperor. But he didn´t know what the original Lucifer´s grandson had to do with this invaders.
At the other side was the woman who had killed Falbium.
They all were at least Satan Level. That way or the other, he had no chance.
Sirzechs had at this point long fallen out of his true form. The areas where his own residence and the one of his parents where had been destroyed. He had seen it.
He did not know if his wife, his son, his parents or Rias were still alive. Probably not, he knew. And even if they were not, they would for sure be soon. He could only hope that at least some of them had gotten away.
Is this what we deserve? he asked himself
There was only one last thing he could do. He focussed his power, all what he had left. And unleashed one las wave of Destruction Power at the opponen before him... the leader of the invasion and the most powerful of the attackers - the one they called The Emperor.
But then something happened what shocked even him. The energy that his opponent seemed to possess (or maybe it was the other way around), formed a black wall between them... and stopped and as it seemed partly absorbed, his Power of Destruction.
For a split-second it looked as if two crimson red eyes were starring at him from out the black wall...
... before two wide purple blasts were being fired back at him and into him.
That was the last thing that Sirzechs saw and felt, before his body was being disintigrated.
The Emperor Dagon smiled. He knew he could trust in his ally.
It was time for the next step in their campaign to beginn.
xxxxxxx
DxD Universe-19
Back in the world where Issei and the others currently were, not much had changed. Except that they had heard more about the report Gaeriel gave them.
Issei and the others knew they should have expected something like this at some point. But now it still came as a shock.
The City Lilith, by what they could tell, had fallen in less than 20 minutes. Their defenses overwhelmed after being taken off-guard, the Maou confronted by multiple foes and being slaughtered.
By the last data they received before the probe was destroyed, some of the Erebos forces had already spread out and were systematically destroying smaller Devil settlements in the surrounding regions of the Underworld.
Issei realized that they were watching nothing else than a genocide. He might have his problems with the Devils (even some of the ones who were pretty close to him now), but this...?
"There has to be something we can do," he said.
"As powerful as we are, we are completely outnumbered," Raynare stated.
"Besides, it is already too late. Don´t forget, as Gaeriel said, this recordings are by now over 10 minutes old. That means as fast as these Demons seem to operate, the Devil Faction of that world is already ashes. And by the time we will be ready to act..."
Issei sighed. He knew that as well.
"At least we might be able to save a few survivors," he said.
"We also have to inform the headquarter," Gaeriel said over the com. "They will then decide if they will get involved. But that might risk that the Dark Order could as well.
But you are right," she stated. "We should see if we can at least save some people. I will send you the data of the world they are attacking and then I will contact Rias team."
But before they had the chance to do any of that, they were faced with another surprise.
"One moment - we have another dimensional rift," Gaeriel told them over the com. "It is..." she hesitated for a moment.
"It is in the world where you are right now - another massive one," she finished. "And - and it´s source seemed to be the same world we have just observed."
They all froze in surprise for a second. They all realized what that meant. The Erebos were not finished with the world they had just attacked.
They were coming for this one here next.
"It seems your world is also under attack," Issei said to the version of Sona who called herself Seria.
"It seems so," she replied. "But it shouldn´t be too surprising, right? Since we found out that they are dimensional conquerors... and that they were involved with the alliance of Kokabiel and the Khaos Brigade in the first place."
"You mean they were intentionally supporting the war here for the last years, so that all sides weakened each other," Kalawarner concluded.
"And now they strike," Irina added. "At more than just one world at once."
"What should we do? Should we confront them by ourselves or ask for reinforcements first?" Raynare questioned. "We are powerful, but right now we are only five. And we might be facing their entire army," she reminded them.
"Well – we have them." Issei gestured to Seria and her allies.
"We barely know them," Murayama countered. "And even with them we aren´t exactly an army."
"Kalawarner trusts them at least," Raynare stated.
"And can we even be that sure that this is the same Kalawarner we knew?"
"I am pretty sure," she replied.
Raynare and Kalawarner had in fact been standing together for a few minutes earlier and exchanged personal information that only they would know about.
"Stop this. That discussion leads us nowhere," Issei spoke up. "We should take a closer look at things at first," he said.
"Do you agree?" he looked at his double, Seria... and Kalawarner.
"We do," the mysterious being named Issei Ryujin replied.
xxxxxxx
The force who had just entered this universe once again included the Devil Hunters.
Of course they were not the only ones. By far not.
The troops who had just entered this world also included the two Highlords Pazuzu and Ninlil and their direct entourage. Just as another battalion of Elite Warriors.
And that would only be the first wave.
The Emperor and Lord Meloch, with the rest of their forces, were still taking full control of the version of the Underworld they had just conquered.
Soon they would send more forces to assist them.
xxx
This was considered the easier part of the campaign. While in the last world the Three Factions had been weakened, here they could technically already considered as defeated.
Kokabiel had taken over the Fallen and allied with the Khaos Brigade and with Ophis and the Erebos help had broken the Devils and decimated Heaven. And strictly seen they were still in a alliance with them.
If things went well, they might not even need to fight. Their orders, for now, were just to establish a power-base here... for now.
But they all knew that the Khaos Brigade or Kokabiel could easily take offense at them taking territority in this world without their approval.
DH-Vali was looking around. Like in the last world, their entrance point was very close to the town Kuoh. Which was by their information now a no-man´s land, controlled by neither of the surviving Supernatural Factions.
"Ah - it looks like I am returning `home´," Issei-013 commented sarcastically. "Well - not exactly home, but close enough."
"I feel truly sorry for any town you came from," DH-Kuroka remarked.
"Exactly," Koneko added.
Their earlier encounter was still on their minds. They had already reported the incident to the two Demon-Lords, who have promised them that they would keep an eye on Issei-013.
"Well - it looks like your two pussy-... cats have claws. I like that. You could not let me borrow them for a while?" Issei-13 stated. "You would get them back in good shape. Just a little sore at their lower bodies, if you know what I mean. But very satisfied.
Vali now looked him hard in the eyes.
"If you touch either of them, I will kill you."
"Hey - I didn´t say I would do it if they don´t want to," Issei replied. "Buti f you can have both of them, who says they can not have some fun with another man too?"
"Tell me then, when you see one," Kuroka responded sharply.
His lover´s comment caused actually a small smile on DH-Vali´s lips.
"Oh yes?" Issei-013 replied, looking at her and Koneko.
"About what we talked about earlier. Does sharing Vali´s dick make you somehow feel more connected to each other? More like family? Then, if you used mine too, I am sure it would make you feel even closer and..."
In this moment Vali punched him hard in the face, with activated Sacred Gear and a dark shimmering aura around him.
He managed to hold himself back and only use a minimum of Supernatural power. Still, a normal person would have been dead.
"Shut up," Vali said darkly.
But Issei-013 only laughed.
"You will not kill me. Do you know why? Because you love your place in this team far too much and will not risk it. Because it gives you perfect chances to kill Devils. Deep down you are just like me."
"That is enough -for both of you," Pazuzu said. "We are here on a mission. Not to fight between each other."
He turned to Issei.
"And you stop with your provokations."
"Besides that," Lord Ninlil added. "Kuroka and Koneko are both valuable members of this team. If they gave their agreement - and only then - you can do with each other whatever you want. If not... is that clear?"
"Of course it is," he replied.
Pazuzu and Ninlil exchanged a short look with each other. They had known that this guy was a loose gun and would very possibly disrupt the team. But the Emperor had wanted him because of his power.
xxxxxxx
The latest invasion had meanwhile also drawn the attention of another being.
Ophis had just manifested herself on Earth. She had already been monitoring the Human World and had sensed the opening between the world as well.
This invasion was not part of the agreement. If they and the Khaos Brigade came into conflict, it might hurt her chances to kill Great Red.
She would force them to leave.
Suddenly however something happened that shocked even her, what she would have never expected.
Another power manifested itself right beside her. One at least rivalling her own... no - one identical to her.
"Hello," a second Ophis said. "I know what you are thinking."
"You are me," the native Ophis replied. This was clearly an incarnation of her from one of the other alternate realities.
"Yes."
"What are you doing here? Why are you not in your own version of the Dimensional Gap or your universes Earth?"
"I think you should wait a bit longer before you interfere," the other Ophis said.
"If they stay here, they could disturb my plans to kill Great Red."
"They won´t. There are people here who are already trying to prevent this. I have been watching them for a while now," Alternate Ophis stated.
"The travellers from another universe? Your universe?" the native Ophis asked.
"You have noticed them as well. What you say is correct," Alternate Ophis replied. "If they fail to prevent a fight, we can still interfere," she said.
"But there is a more important thing than killing Great Red now."
"More important?" the native Ophis asked confused. This had been her goal for eons.
"Let me show you my memories," the second Ophis said.
A few moments later the native version of Ophis had an expression that should be completely unknown to her.
Shock. She had just seen what the other version of her remembered and knew.
xxxxxxx
Issei and his team, together with their temporary allies now appeared not far away from the just arrived Erebos forces.
Both groups were more than a bit unsettled when they faced each other.
Purely logically, they had known there was a good chance of the Devil Hunters being under the invaders.
In return however, the Devil Hunters had never expected Issei-01´s team to be here.
Not to mention that there was Issei... and someone who looked nearly identical to him - probably the native version of this world - but had a completely different energy.
"So we meet again," DH-Vali stated.
Issei-01 had activated his Boosted Gear and was ready to rise into Balance Breaker and even Awakening-mode if he had to.
The others had powered up. Irina and Xenovia had their swords out. But no one made an aggressive move so far... on either side.
"You are a sub-group of the organization known as the Guardians, aren´t you?" Pazuzu said calmly. "We have been collecting data about your group for a while now. My guess is that your presence in this world is just a coincidence."
"Yes," Issei-01 replied. "And you are right. That we are here is coincidence."
He gave a side-look to Kalawarner.
"Then we don´t necessary need to be enemies. We have no grievances with your organization and are just here on our own business. So we can just both go our own ways."
"Your `business´ is invading other worlds and wiping out entire nations," Raynare replied.
"You stage assassinations, attack people and frame other Factions for it to cause chaos," Irina added.
"So maybe we have grievances with you," Xenovia stated.
"I could not have said it better," Issei-01 said.
"I see." Pazuzu sighed. "Well - I have tried."
Both sides were starting to power up and ready to fight.
But suddenly they were interrupted by two incredible - literally nearly endless - powers appearing right next to them.
"You should stop this," a cold and emotionless sounding voice declared.
It was Ophis. No - even worse - they all realized. It were two of them.
Nearly a quarter of the assembled small army of Demons nearly instantly sank down to their knees as they saw them. Including Lord Ninlil, who was a member of the Ophis Cult under her people.
"Oh Great Goddess-" she greeted her, "it is a honor to be in your presence. What can we do to please you?"
"You want to please me?" the Ophis who had spoken replied. "Then go and leave this world. I have my own plans for it."
"Ninlil our orders are to establish a stronghold here, not to please Ophis," Pazuzu whispered to her.
In opposite to Ninlil, he was still standing. In opposite to the delusions of the Ophis Cult, he was perfectly aware that the Infinity Dragon never intentionally wanted to be a God for them.
Still, faced with this overwhelming powers (and not only a group of Guardians, but also not one, but two incarnations of Ophis) - no matter their orders - it might be better to retreat and report this to the Emperor.
He would make the final decision.
"If you demand that we retreat Infinity Dragon," Pazuzu stated, "then we will do that. We have enough other potential worlds to target. We now leave this world."
"It was nice to see you again - me," Issei-013 called out to Issei-01. "I see the Rias Gremory you have been protecting last time is not with you. Did you finally come to your senses and killed her?"
"Rias is on another mission right now," Issei-01 replied grimly. "Nothing has happened to her. And it will not either."
"Really?" Issei-013 replied. "If you see her, you can tell her from me that we will meet again some day," he said smilling.
`Not if I kill you before that,´ Issei-01 thought silently.
With this the Demons opened another portal and line by line, they and their allies passed throught it. The two High Lords and the Devil Hunters being the last.
But they all knew that their fight had not been ended, just delayed.
"We are returning to our world... for now," Issei-01 said to the others. "We need to inform everybody of what has happened here. And then we need a plan what to do."
"I will report to the Grigori," Raynare stated. "Are you coming with me Kalawarner?" she asked.
"I will," she replied after exchanging a short look with Ryujin and Seria.
"And me and Xenovia to the Church and Heaven," Irina said.
"I will then tell Rias and Sirzechs," Issei added.
"We will contact you again when we know more," he said to the two natives of this world.
The second Ophis - the one who had so far staid silent - suddenly addressed him.
"It was nice to see you again as well Issei Hyoudou," she said.
"You - you are the Ophis from our world," he stated.
"Yes - I have been keeping an eye on you for some time now."
And obviously been following us, Issei added in his mind.
"That explains why there are two of you here," he said aloud. "I guess that means we will meet again?"
"Yes - we will," she said emotionlessly.
Issei was not sure if this was a good thing or a bad. But that was a issue for another day.
They opened an portal and stepped through, returning to their own world.
xxxxxxx
DxD Universe-18 - The world Rias team is visiting - a few hours earlier
They had just arrived in this world a few minutes ago and were now visiting yet another new version of their hometown. Another one that they had never seen before and that was yet very familiar to them.
Everything seemed normal... at least at first look.
It was more or less exactly like their own Kuoh. But they had learned a long time ago that this first look could be deceiving.
In the end, it didn´t really matter. Their job was to find whatever was responsible for the dimensional breach in this world.
Kuroka-06 on her part admitted she felt somewhat unsettled about all this.
It might have partly to do with the fact that she was currently part of a team that consisted only of Devils.
At the world Hyrion, she always somehow kept her distance to most of the other team-members, not just the Devils, but the others as well.
Only with a few, like Issei, she felt truly close to.
She knew that this was probably one of the reason why the others had assigned her to Rias team. Sooner or later she had to learn to cooperate with them. (That or leave the team.)
"So - how should we do this?" she asked Rias. "Do we just knock on your counterpart´s door and hope that they don´t arrest us as impostors?"
"Kuroka-" Kiba hissed. "You know that this had actually hapened to Rias-sama at one point? And what happened as a result?"
"It is okay Yuuto," Rias said. "She has a point."
"Don´t ask me," Raiser commented. "This is my first real mission as well."
"To answer your question," Rias said. "Well - at first we are normally walking around and - uhm scouting the area. And looking for whatever intruder is in this world by ourselves. If we don´t find it, we carefully make contact with the locals...
... Unless they detect us first of course," she stated.
"What often happens, going by the reports I have red," Raiser commented.
"Yess," Rias responded.
"What if I am labelled as a Stray here as well?" Kuroka-06 asked.
"Then we will stand by your side and explain the situation to them," Rias stated.
"And if they are not willing to listen and attack instead?"
"You are a member of our team and if someone attacks you, we will use force first and then try to reason with them later," Rias explained.
"You mean we first beat them into a pulp and then try to talk with them later?" Kuroka commented.
"Crudely spoken, but essentially... - yes," Rias replied.
"One thing is for sure," Yubelluna said. "This town is controlled by Devils like our Kuoh. But I am not sure who. I am just sensing feint energies."
"That is right," Kiba agreed.
xxxxxxx
A few kilometers away - Kuoh Academy, Rias peerage´s (former) club-room
The room was looking completely different from how it used to, when it still belonged to Rias.
Raiser was sitting in a large arm-chair at the head of a long table. Right beside him, in a smaller chair, was his own Yubelluna, sitting in a suggestive pose, with her legs bend over and nearly touching his.
Sitting at the side of the table was Ravel. And at it´s over end this world´s Rias Gremory, with an Akeno at her side.
In this moment the door was pushed open and a dark haired young woman was entering the room.
"Lord Raiser," she addressed him.
"Yes - what can I do for you my dear Kara?" he asked her.
"There is something you should know," she stated. "Someone had just arrived. They are not from here, if you know what I mean."
After a minute she had explained the situation to him.
"Interesting," he said. "So it are people like us. And you say there is another me, his own Yubelluna... and yet another Rias Gremory. What do you say to this my dear?"
"I-... Should I be there with you when you meet them my Lord... husband?" Rias-018 asked somewhat hesitantly.
"We will see about that my dear wife."
"I know what you are thinking about Raiser," Kara said. "Don´t you think it is enough of your games? You have done it twice already after all."
"Now - are you questioning me Kara?" he asked playfully.
"Questioning? Don´t forget, in opposite to the others here, I am neither your Servant or subordinate to you. No matter what we pretend in public. We are both answering to the same Masters."
"Of course we do," he replied. "But you should not forget, that by their own words, I am in charge here. You are only an advisor."
"Of course," she repeated his own words.
"But we shouldn´t fight under each other, right?" he stated smugly. "Our partnership had worked so well so far after all. Now - why don´t we take a look at our visitors first?"
The next chapter. This is clearly one of my darker ones.
The invasion here will have greater consequences for the coming Arcs.