Escape from Hell 1 (High School DxD SI)

Betrayal is such an terrifying thing, because you can never really be prepared for it.

It's terrifying because it can only come from a trusted source.

After all, if you genuinely are prepared against any and all betrayals, then you never really trusted anyone to begin with.

It happen as always with these things unexpectedly. Dad called me to the attic saying he wants my help with something.

When I opened the door I found Dad there with someone. Someone...odd. They looked European, like in style. Like someone from a past era, the Victorian era or something. But the disturbing part was how natural they looked in their clothes. Less someone dressing up, and more someone out of time.

I should have figured something was wrong then and ran away. At worse, I would have been considered rude, and shouted at for a bit, rather than what happened.

"Jake, come here."

However, I came to accept how it wouldn't have made a difference.

"Dad," I started dragging my feet, rather than walk confidently like I was a second ago. "You wanted my help? To get something for you." I kept looking between him and the Victorian guy, who look at the whole thing with bored amusement.

"Come here." The no nonsense tone made me freeze for a second before hurrying. I started to worry, with how serious Dad sounded, I thought maybe he would give me some bad news. I was only ten in this new life, I don't want a tragedy this early in it.

"Dad, did something happen? Is everything okay?" I asked as I neared him. The look in his eyes were resolute. They had the look of a man that came to a decision, and will follow through on it to the end.

He grabbed my arm. I only had time to look at him in confusion before I was thrown away to the ground.

I think I hit my head, as everything was fuzzy at that point. I remember looking at my Dad and the stranger, my eye tearing up.

"D-d-dad, I'm sorry." I sniffed, as I tried standing up, "W-what did I do?" but my feet weren't working right and I fell forward. Except, rather than land on the ground, something stopped me.

I smacked into a wall I couldn't see. I balanced myself on my knees, trying to see what hit me. There was nothing there, and yet there was something stopping me from going forward. I stood up and tried to move away, but the wall was still there after a point.

Finally I looked down at the glow under me to see a sort of...circle with diagrams, glyphs and runes. It gave off a bright glow that terrified me. There was nothing there to shine, but the circle itself was giving off that glow.

I started banging on the invisible wall.

"Dad? Dad, what's going on?"

There was a vibration in the air, as the circle continued glowing. Then I realized the vibration was in me. There were these tiny pings from under my skin.

"Dad! Dad, something weird is happening? Dad help!"

It didn't occur to me yet. It didn't even cross my mind.

It was only when my eyes went the stranger to see him smiling. A wide smile, larger than it has any right to be on a human face, that the thought started to form. It solidified when I look back to my father, to see his dead resigned eyes. The look someone gives to something they no longer care about.

"Dad! Dad, please no! Dad, help me." I cried while banging against the barrier, while the drawing on the floor kept growing brigher.

The vibrations rose. Now it felt like it was coming from my bones. Everything started to feel hot, like I was getting a fever.

"Da...help...Help me," I felt weak. Like all the energy was draining out of me. I kept crying for help, and then for one single moment, everything stopped.

The glow, the vibrations, the heat.

I should have realized it was the prelude to something.

The light gathered at the center of the circle behind me. I only have one moment to look before it exploded.

I cried out as I was burned. Somehow my body was fine, but I was in pain.

The vibrations came with a vengeance, coming from somewhere deep inside me, that could not describe. The heat was like being on fire, then it went further and I had no words for it.

And the light?

Where can you escape from light?

In the first second I felt the sheer force slam me into the barrier, and then engulf pull me to the center, simple from the pressure hitting me from all side in every angle. For a moment I thought I would be crushed into a bean.

Vibration, heat, pressure, all hurting me at once. Like a pressure cooker, something had to give.

And something did.

A wave, a force of my own, something came from within me. No.

Dragged from within me, and made to forcibly explode outward.

I could finally hear myself cry, as the event happening to me began to recede.

The wave was still there.

I couldn't move, my throat was hoarse, and every muscle I had felt ripped into.

The wave was still there, like an aura echoing from somewhere inside, and flowing out to engulf me.

I wanted the pain to stop, I wanted to be better, and the aura...responded?

No, it failed to response. Like someone told to do something, but couldn't understand the instructions because they were in another language.

I didn't heal or get better, but I was able to focus enough to see and hear what the man and my father were saying.

"And there you go, a Power Potential Amplification Spell. Even your child that had nothing but mere droplets of mana, like all you pitiful rabble humans now has the same magic capacity of Middle Class Devil." The man spoke in grandiose tone, as he smiled like a salesman in on a secret joke.

"Finally," my father looked like he was on the verge of tears. "Finally I finished it."

"Yes, great work, Mr. Gravestone. It really is fabulous work, given the price you paid. Honestly you didn't have anymore kids to throw into this." The Victorian man said mockingly, to which father looked away. What? What was he talking about? "Well, then it's time to collect my due, but before that."

"...Huh," father looked down confused as there was a hand in his chest. Blood started pooling from his mouth, as he looked up at the Victorian man in confusion. He tried to say something but only ended up coughing blood.

"Truly, it is such a sorry state to look a man of your brilliance." The Victorian man shook his head. Father fell to the floor, I already knew life had left him. I still tried to call out to him, but my throat didn't work at the moment. "But such ingenuity, well sadly, I can't let anyone else benefit from it. Imagine if an Angel or Fallen get their hands on it, they would return to being threats again. And if left for the humans, well," his eyes glance in my direction. "They might start getting ideas."

He began walking toward me.

I wanted to get away, I wanted to run. I called on my aura, I called on all my strength to move and run away. I managed to get up on my hands and knees, and that was it.

"As for you, your father already sold you for help to complete his research, so I could do with you whatever I want." He grabbed the scarf of my t-shirt and left me up like a toy weighing nothing. "And since you've been an excellent test subject thus far, I think we'll just do more of the same." He grinned, and before the jet black bat-wings sprouted from his back, I knew he was a Devil. I knew what world I was reborn into now. "Oh what fun, we will have, and we have to thank your father for it." He help up a notebook, as a magic circle formed under us, and started glowing brightly. I felt my body being pull sideways from where I was, like the world was changing axis without moving. The Devil was teleporting us away.

I gritted my teeth. Tears pouring down my face as I glared at the laughing face.

I hated him. I wanted him dead. I wanted this Devil to die for everything that happened. For destroying my life in less than an hour, for making my dad sell me away, for kill my father, for, for...FOR EVERYTHING!

The aura within me, my magic pulled at something. Or rather something reacted and manifested itself, upstarting through my magic, draining it all in one go.

Suddenly multiple things happened in one go.

"TWICE!"

A gauntlet appear on my arm.

"What the? A Sacred Gear!?"

The magic circle's brightness reached it's zeniths as the feeling of about to be pulled through space reached it's height.

"AAAAAARRRRRRRRHHH!"

And I shouted in rage as all the magic I had gathered into a single orb in my armor covered hand and blew up, burning the Devil, father's notebook, and me as the teleportation spell took effect.