Chapter 11
Earth – M Universe-01 - Around 1.500 AD
Somewhere in the Middle East
They were both reaching out to it at the same time.
The object before them was nothing else than the Holy Grail. (The version of this universe however was somewhat different from the object with the same name in the DxD Universes.)
xxx
They both were Warriors – capable of carrying holy and unholy weapons – and Sorcerers at the same time.
They had both started out quite similar, as parts of the same knighthood and kingdom. Both once Knights of Camelot. One of them the son of the King, the other the one of his highest Knight.
Now however one of them was a agent of the Light, the other of the Darkness.
Both had reached mystical and supernatural power that far surpassed any normal human.
Their names were Mordred and Galahad – or as they later called themselves Faust and Darien. And many other names they called themselves in different times and worlds.
xxx
What they had before them was nothing else than a vessel for a part of the power of God himself.
Not any lower incarnation of God, but the one who was reigning over all universes himself.
But neither of them was truly interested in it´s power. At least not for the sake of the power alone.
The were inside of the temple of an mysterious religious Order that had been watching over the Grail for centuries.
Now it´s members were dead. The place outside and inside the temple was splattered with dead bodies, remains of the battle that had raged here.
Mordred was here because his Master – the dark mirror-image of God – wanted to change the power of the Grail into one of Darkness.
Galahad was here to prevent exactly that from happening.
As if fate had wanted it, they both touched the Grail at the same time.
Both had reached mystical and supernatural power that far surpassed any normal human.
But as they both found out now, that was only the beginning.
xxx
And the same thing would be found out thousands of years later by Issei and his teammates.
xxxxxxx
DxD-Universe 18 - today
Xenovia and Kiba were now dueling the Knights Kalamine and Siris.
It didn´t took too long for them to get the upper hand.
Raiser´s Knights were strong and they were experienced fighters. To that came the partly crazy stuff that Raiser-13 had done to power up his Peerage.
But they were still not on the same level as the weilder of the Excalibur Destruction and the Durandel or the Knight of Rias Gremory.
At least not after kind of training they both had received during the last years.
While Raiser-20 had been pushing his Peerage to get stronger, with partly extreme measures – cyborg Xuelan and the insane cat-twins were only two examples - they ultimately did not have the same kind of support from the Dark Order like Issei´s team had from the Guardians.
Or did they truly have the same potential as Issei´s team.
But at one point the two Pawns Mira and Burent had come in to assist their teammates.
xxxxxxx
Kuroka-06 was still fighting the two Nekomata Pawns at the same time.
They were strong. Whatever experiments Raiser and his allies had performed had made sure of that.
It still reminded her far too much of her old Master. She was actually glad now that Koneko was not here – neither of the alternate versions of her sister.
They were strong and pretty vicious. But their weaknesses were obvious. Their lack of logical thinking and common sense.
Kuroka waited for the right moment. Then she simply used Phasing.
They were once again jumping at her from both sides.
She just let their strikes pass right through her body.
And just like Kuroka had hoped for. Instead of her, one of them actually hit the other one with a strike in the face.
Kuroka used this chance to strike back. She kicked the twin who had kept standing in the back, what caused her to stumble into her downed sister.
Then she conjured a spell, a magic circle forming behind her in the air and she unleashed a powerful blast of pure energy at both of them.
xxxxxxx
Raiser-01 was still confronting the evil counterpart of his own Queen.
The twisted double of Yubelluna was now showing the terrible true nature of her power. He could sense the stolen life-energies flowing through her.
For a moment it nearly felt as if he could hear the howling of the souls trapped inside this creature with the face of his lover.
Yubelluna-20 conjured up and then unleashed another intense barrage of powerful supernatural explosive projectiles at him.
The sky around them was literally filled with hundreds of explosions. Each of them strong enough to level at least several town buildings.
Raiser reacted by raising a giant wall of magical augmented fire around him, that protected him and stopped the force of Yubelluna´s explosions in a save distance to him.
It was good that he had gotten as far away from the town as possible when the fight had started. Otherwise there would probably not have been much left of Kuoh by now.
Sure, they had errected a barrier. But he was not sure if even that could have resisted this onslaught.
And he sense a few even more intense clashes of powers in the distance.
Yubelluna-20 was looking at him with a smile and a overconfident look on her face. It was an expression he knew all too well from his own Yubelluna. Whenever she was facing an opponent in a Rating Game that she was sure to beat.
And she was looking like that at him, he thought angrily. It was obvious that she thought herself superior to him, with that monstrous ability and powers she had received.
While in truth she and her Master were only parasites who were leaching off from the power and even lives of others, he thought.
Raiser was ashamed that something like this had become of another version of himself. He was maybe far from prfect, but this...?
Whatever else – he would take this monster with the face of his beloved Queen down, he decided.
He concentrated and focussed all his energy. The flames around him and flowing through his body were growing even stronger, hotter and more intense.
He could only hope that the others would be able to deal with the rest of these psychopath doubles. Because he was not sure if he would still be able to do anything to help after this.
Then he made his move and flew towards her with fully speed.
With a move of his flaming hand he send out another wave of fire that pushed the next barrage of explosions out of his way and cleared the room between him and his opponent.
Then as he reached her, he grabbed the hand of Yubelluna´s double as he tackled her in full speed, wrapped his arms around her and was holding her tight like steel.
For a moment, Yubelluna-20 was starring at him in shocked surprise. She had clearly not expected him to do this.
But then the overconfident look returned to her face.
"Now – are you trying to get closer to me?" she asked him mockingly. "I am sorry but I already have my Master Raiser."
But suddenly something in her expression seemed to change. As if she had nother thought.
"But if you surrender and join us, I am sure he would agree to let you fuck me from time to time. And I would not mind either. You are a weaker version of him after all."
"I would not sleep with an abomination like you, even if you were the last woman in the Underworld," he replied. "I just had to… come closer to you, to do this."
Suddenly the fire inside and around him - that had waned down a little bit as he used his flames to push her explosions aside – was now literally exploding – far stronger and hotter than ever before in his life.
This was what he had been waiting for. He was pouring all his energy into this single outburst of fire.
The last thing Yubelluna-20 felt was how her body was starting to burn, before it was consumed away.
"What?... No…!" she was barely able to scream in pain and shock.
Not even with her power she was able to resist this.
It were not just regular flames, Raiser-01 was unleashing ever single bit of energy he had inside him, while directly touching her and pumping it directly into her body.
Raiser-01 himself felt a pain like never before in his life. His body was literally breaking apart on a molecular level under his own overcharge of energy. With his own Regeneration barely able to restore it.
The air directly around them was now hotter than the surface of the sun. Over one kilometer around them every single thing was burned to ashes.
Had they still been close to Kuoh, it would not exist anymore. The barrier they errected earlier was barely able to protect the surrounding areas from the heat like this.
One second later it was over.
The flames disappeared. Raiser-01 was now slowly sinking to the ground, barely being able to keep himself from falling and then falling to his knees.
The rest was left to the others.
xxxxxxx
Irina, Asia and Gaeriel were still surrounded by Raiser´s Bishop Mihae and the remaining Pawns Shuriya and the two chainsaw weilding twins Lle and Nel.
Murayama just blocked an attack from one of the chainsaw-twins with her sword. Luckily the blade was not only vers robust but also enhanced by her own ki energy. So her sword would most likely not really get damaged by this.
Standing in a distance to them was Xuelan. She had not directly joined the fight so far. But she was ready to step in any time.
They all had a good idea why she was holding back, given what they had seen from their surveilance systems back in their base.
This version of Xuelan had been turned into a cyborg and used her implants to store the data she had stolen from their computers earlier. So it was most likely that she did not have the chance to transfer it somewhere else yet and did not want to take the risk of the information getting damaged.
But they would not let her get away with that for much longer, Irina thought. They would just get them to the point where she had to join the fight.
Until now she had been very worried about Rias.
Not that she wasn´t sure that they could save her. They had already faced completely different threats than just a jumped up insane version of Raiser and his Peerage after all.
But there was no telling what that bastard could have already done to her by now. At this point he could already have raped and possibly tortured her.
But through their mental-connection she and the others had formed two years ago, she could at least sense that this had not happened. They had come in time.
She sighed for a moment.
And then she had been looking out to a date with Issei they had planned to for tomorow. And probably a night of passionate sex afterwards.
xxxx
Tomorow was her personal day of the week after all. Then would come Asia´s, then Murayama´s and then Raynare´s, followed by Rias, Gaeriel´s and then Ravel´s.
Well – she and Asia had actually still been making up their mind if they should share the day, have a double date and maybe another threesome in the evening.
That was now unlikely to happen of course. After they had rescued Rias – and she had no doubt they would, Irina told herself - he would probably spend the day with her instead. Not that Irina could hold it against her after what Rias was going through.
Well – this sharing of the days of the week between them was only provisorical at best anyway.
With their missions and all what is usually going on – the constant fights and disasters - they were lucky if Issei and the girls could even have one day in the week truly for themselves.
In turn the girls had also continued the habit to have two or three of them sleep in his bed together, to share their dates and to have three- and even foursomes.
You never knew what would happen tomorow after all.
Ravel normally came to visit often whenever her duties as part of the Phenex Family allowed it. She and Issei would then date and have sex on that day, even if it was technically the day of another girl. Or she would just join in with the girl whose turn it was.
They sometimes even had entire orgies with Issei fucking all of them at the same day. Issei´s augmented physical condition and his special powers made that possible (and quite pleasurable, she thought):
Yes – they certainly had all become nearly as perverted as Issei, Irina was the first to admit.
Quite unbecoming for someone who was technically still an Exorcist of the Church.
But she would never regret her relationship with Issei-kun and the other girls… or being part of this team - never. Perhaps for the first time she was truly happy. And if she had turned into a sex-crazy pervert along with the others because of it, then she was glad about it too.
Still, this couple of days now was meant to be without any global crisis for once.
But then this crazy Raiser had to come and kidnap Rias.
xxxx
Well – Irina knew perfectly well how silly her thoughts were, especially right in the middle of a battle.
She stopped an attack from the second chainsaw-twin and then disarmed her by changing the blade of her Excalibur into some kind of rope that wrapped itself around her weapon and then ripped the chainsaw out of her hands.
Then she dropped the green haired girl with a kick into her face.
xxxxxxx
Meanwhile however the fights between Issei-01 and Raiser-20 himself… and the one between Rias-01 and Issei-13 also continued.
Quite ironically, the SHA Warrior Kara and even Akeno-20 had now joined the fight too… on Rias side.
Akeno-20 simply because she didn´t want to let Issei-13 kill her Master´s bride/kidnapping victim.
Despite what Kara had just told her about Raiser´s supposed betrayal and her resurrected mother being a double, she had desperately decided not to believe her and continue serving him.
Kara had quite different motivations. Issei-13 had just interrupted her own fight with the others by shooting her in the back. And that was something she would not just accept lying down. So she was now trying to repay him for this.
The three were fighting together – more or less.
They were facing the same opponent, but they were barely able or even willing to coordinate with each other.
Out of them however only Rias was having any real chance. And that only because Issei-01 was transferring some of his power to her to help her fight his insane double.
She was right now clad in a more female looking version of Issei´s Dragon Scale Armor.
There was no other choice, because Issei-13 had just activated the sinister power-up he had received from the Erebos and their secret ally.
The problem was just that every bit of power he was giving her, he was missing in his own fight with Raiser-20.
xxx
And even worse, Raiser-20 had noticed this as well.
"It is sad, a fighter of your caliber sacrificing his power and with that his life for someone like Rias Gremory," he said.
"Are you not worried about your target getting killed before you could do anything with her?" Issei asked with bitter sarcasm.
"I will just find another one just like her," Raiser-20 replied. "I might not have come to enjoy her, but at least she will die, knowing that she had dragged you down to death with her."
Issei could not longer hold back his rage. Instinctively a scarlet scaled Dragon Scale Gaunlet formed around his hand and he aimed an angry punch right at Raiser´s face.
Raiser-20 blocked the punch with his flame covered arm. But with Issei´s rage, even with his missing power, the punch was strong enough to cause visible damage.
Raiser was pushed back by the blow by a few meters and his arm was hanging loosely by his side for a moment, clearly broken. But his Regeneration corrected this nearly instantly.
The technique to cover just a part of his body in scale armor instead all of it was something Issei-01 had discovered a long time ago. This time however he had not done it on purpose.
("Keep a hold on yourself Partner,") Ddraig told him. ("This is not an opponent you should be careless with. Especially not when we are not at full strength.")
"Yes," he replied.
Then suddenly something happened.
Raiser-20´s face turned into an look of shock.
They had sensed it as well.
"Yubelluna," he said. For a moment his expression was unreadable.
"Not bad my counterpart," he commented with barely repressed anger, but reluctant respect.
`it looks like we could count on our Raiser,´ Issei thought silently to Ddraig.
("Yes Partner,") he replied.
But at the same time Issei-01 used Raiser´s distraction as a chance to push himself even further and power up to his true limit.
His Scale Armor changed into an sleeker form and he moved forward and punched his opponent in the stomach.
In the split-second before he hit him, Raiser-20 realized that he had underestimated this Issei.
Flashbacks of the scenes he had seen about several of his counterparts being defeated by Hyoudou´s flew through his mind. Was it happen again?
No – he would not let it.
xxx
Rias-01 and Issei-13 were now directly fighting each other.
Both their powers now rivalled that of a Super Devil, just a bit below Ajuka´s.
And in both cases the power was not actually their own.
Akeno-20 and Kara were meanwhile using any opening they could find to make strikes on their own.
Rias did not trust either of them. But she was in no position to deny their help. In fact she even appreciated it at some level.
She and Issei´s psychotic double had been exchanging a few direct punches with each other. All however ultimately deflected by their Scale Armors.
"Not bad, even if most of this power is not truly yours," Issei-13 commented.
"Isn´t it the same with you?" Rias replied.
"You will die here," he said. "And you will take this version of me that you have fooled into trusting you with you. How does it feel to be responsible for his death? Not that you care. Well – what to expect from a Rias Gremory?
Have you told him that you care about him? That you are like family? That you love him?" He laughed. "It are all the same lies?"
Rias frowned.
"You don´t even bother to make a difference between me and that bitch that turned you into what you are, do you?" she said.
"And why would I? You are all the same bitch inside, no matter what you pretend."
"Like you and Issei are the same?" she replied. "He is a hero. While you are just a psycho-killer who uses his own suffering as an excuse to be a monster."
"I will slowly cut and burn you to death," he responded. "I will remove one piece of your scorched body after the other while you are still alive, before I allow you to die."
They both unleashed their own variants of Dragon Shot. Both blasts clashed with each other between them.
But Issei-13 draw more and more of the mysterious power he had received from the Erebos Demons and grew stronger and stronger.
His blast was quickly overpowering hers.
His body was already at his limits and beyond. But he was too obsessed to even notice or care.
But at the same time, a part of a certain dark entity inside him knew that it´s time had come.
Suddenly however Issei-13 was being attacked from both sides with pure electromagnetic energy from Kara and Holy Lightning from Akeno.
It was not enough to truly hurt him, but enough to distract him.
His blast got slightly off mark. It broke though Rias Scale Armor. But instead of completely vaporizing her, it only hit her side.
Still – the damage was bad enough. Her arm and shoulder were competely charred and burned, with her arm hanging uselessly down.
Under his Armor, Issei-13 grinned. This was not what he had aimed for, but it was probably even better. It was clear that she was finished.
Now he could draw out her death just like he wanted.
But then something happened that surprised everyone.
A green light was surrounding Rias body, with greenish flames spreading from her side, as her arm and shoulder healed and regenerated themselves.
"Twilight Healing - augmented with Pheonex Energy?" Kara said stunned, "you are somehow using the powers of the others."
"Yes," Rias replied.
There was no point in denying this fact, even to an enemy. It was quite obvious anyway.
xxxxxxx
"What in the world is Kara doing?" Shuri - who had just left Rias counterpart Rias-18 behind - asked. "We are supposed to leave. Not get into a fight with this lunatic."
"It seems she is angry about him shooting her earlier," the voice of Phantom replied.
The presence of the bodiless entity was surrounding her. They both, along with Kara, were supposed to leave their positions at Raiser-20´s side at this point. Now that the battle between him and his enemies was taking place.
But it seemed their comrade had changed her part of the plan.
"This is really a good time to hold a personal grudge," Shuri commented.
"I believe she saw his sneak attack as something like a challenge to her," Phantom replied.
"I truly don´t understand these fanatics sometimes," Shuri commented. "Fine – we are leaving now," she said. "Kara can follow us, if she doesn´t get killed first."
"Wait!" they heard someone calling out.
It was Raynare-17.
She must have seen them leaving and followed them.
"Please take me with you," she said.
"Now – can it be that you are getting nervous about how things are going here?" Shuri replied grinning.
"Or maybe you don´t longer trust your `lover´ not to just kill you on a whimm. Or maybe you are just tired of letting him fuck you in exchange for protection?"
Raynare-17 gritted her teeth. But she knew this was her best chance if she wanted to survive.
"Please – I can join the Dark Order. I can be useful to you," she said desperately.
"Really? Do you think the Dark Order takes in just anyone like a charity-house?" she replied sarcastically.
"To be honest you change sides a bit too often for my taste. The Dark Order does not need any more bootlicking opportunists. There never is a shortage on them.
I guess we could take you. But then we would have to report it to our superiors, explain the events and wait for their decision. But for someone like you, why would we bother?" she said sadistically.
"You bitch," Raynare-17 growled.
A lightspear formed in her hand.
But Shuri had already moved. Despite technically being `only human´, she had gone through a similar training like Issei and his team.
With supernaturally enhanced strength and speed, she grabbed Raynare´s arm, twisted and finally broke it.
She bend it a little bit more. What caused the Fallen Angel to cry out in immense pain and Shuri to smile happily.
"I will not kill you," she said. "I will just leave you behind here. Tell me – what do you think will happen to you if Raiser and your lover loose this battle? You will find out very soon." She grinned.
Shuri reached for the control device she was carrying on her arm, nearly identical to the ones the Guardians used and opened a portal.
She stepped through and she and Phantom left Raiser-20 and his Peerage to themselves.
xxxxxxx
While his armored fist was still burried in Raiser-20´s stomach, Issei-01 unleashed a powerful Dragonshot.
The blast pierced right through Raiser´s body, left a hole through it and continued it´s way upwards, before it disappeared into the sky.
Issei knew his opponent was not finished. The Guardian´s ki control techniques might be able to cancelt he Phenex Regeneration out in the moment one touched them, but they could not negate it.
And this Regeneration, combined with the incredible energy he possessed, would allow him to heal even this damage.
But he had to help Rias. He had no time to finish him off properly right now.
Raiser would have to wait for now. He could only hope he would not come to regret this choice later.
But saving Rias had priority before taking him out.
xxxxxxx
Kuroka unleashed another powerful blast at her two opponents.
It was clear at this point that she was winning.
One of the two already weakened cat-twins was killed and completely vaporized by the blast.
The other was visibly injured.
It was over.
But then… Something happened that took Kuroka completely by surprise.
The still living cat-twin was just standing right in front of her.
Then for a split-second, Kuroka felt a large amount of energy building up inside her.
She let out a loud inhuman shriek.
And from one moment to the other, her body simply exploded.
To her luck Kuroka had of course used some of her power to shield herself from surprise attacks. But she was still caught right in the middle of the explosion.
xxxxxxx
Rias-01 was now completely healed.
The same could however not be said about her clothes. The wedding dress Raiser-20 had put her in earlier was now hanging in rags on her body. A large burn hole was at it´s side and a good part of her upper chest and parts of her bra was visible.
But she didn´t care about this at all right now.
Issei-13 however had not moved one inch. He was only starring at them in silent rage.
It was as if something inside him had snapped.
In the next moment however Issei-01 appeared right next to him and punched him in the face.
His already distraught double was thrown off his feet and crashing down.
"Issei!" Rias-01 called out happily. "I knew you would make it."
"I guess I should thank you two for assisting me," Rias-01 said to Kara and Akeno´s double. "As surprising as it is."
"Don´t misunderstand – I just did´t want this bastard to get away with just shooting me in the back and tossing me aside as if I am insignificant. But we are enemies. If it were not for him, I would be fighting you right now."
"Who would have thought that something raised in a lab had pride?" Akeno-20 remarked sarcastically.
"And that is coming from a self-hating Fallen Angel hybrid, who is kissing the boots of a Devil and is a racist-bigot even against herself," Kara retorted.
"Enough you two," Issei-01 said.
They all saw the reason.
Issei-13 had come back up again.
He had a strange look on his face.
"No, No - it can not end like this," he whispered absendmindetly.
His energy was now even higher than before. In fact it was still rising. "She needs to die."
But something was different. He seemed not longer be controlling this power.
Actually it might have been the other way around.
The dark shimmering sinister energy now burst out of his body, while he was screaming in a mixture of pain and pure rage.
He was now looking directly at Rias.
"You have to die," he shouted.
But there was nothing he could do anymore. He had now lost control completely. His energy level was literally exploding and reached a level that his body could no longer deal with.
They all watched in surprise how `his own´ power was starting to consume his body and his flesh was slowly turning black as he was burned from the inside out.
Rias and Issei himself saw in silent horror (and some morbid fascination) how another version of him was being killed by the same power he had thought was his.
"Rias Gremory!" he screamed he screamed in helpless hatred as his skin started to peel from his body and his entire body begann to turn to ash.
Rias could not help but wince at his last outburst. She remembered the terror she had felt the first time she met this monstrous counterpart of her own Issei.
How he had told her every time they met that there was no difference between her and her despicable counterpart. How he had wanted her dead just because she was Rias Gremory. How he had willingly helped the Erebos to wipe out her entire race in one parallel world.
She was not like the other Rias, she told herself… and she would never be.
Issei-01 had another thought crossing his mind.
`Could something like this had also happened to me without Darien´s and Specter´s training?´ He remembered what happened to him two years ago as he lost control.
("Who knows Issei,") Ddraig told him. This time he called him by his name instead of using the monicker `Partner´. ("Let us be glad that things turned out the way they did.")
Issei wrapped his arms around Rias and pulled her to him.
"You are okay?" he asked her.
"Yes – I am," she said. "Thank you for coming for me."
"Of course we did," he replied. "Of course I did."
They watched as the last bit of his body was falling apart and turning into ash that was carried away by the wind.
But not all was gone. At the place where Issei-13 had been standing was a large dark shimmering cloud of particles and supernatural energy.
This energy was now reforming itself into the shape vaquely ressembling the silhuette of a person.
And this silhuette was now looking at them with intimidating deep crimson eyes.
"Who are you?" Issei called out.
He already had a suspicion. This entity had the same energy as his counterpart´s and Vali´s `power up´. If it even was a power up.
"Darkseid," Kara said quietly.
The bodiless being before them did not bother to answer.
Instead a small rift between the dimension opened around it and the energy, along with the presence itself, disappeared… back to the source that it came from.
"What happened?" Akeno-20 asked flabbergasted.
"I could ask the same," Rias commented.
"It seems his `power up´ had been a trap from the beginning," Kara said. "The true owner of this power had just taken it back, along with Issei´s own. Your counterpart blindly accepted a gift and now paid the price for it."
"It seems so. But given who he was, I can hardly feel sorry for him," Issei replied.
In this moment however…
"Raiser," he said. Issei-01 had known that he be back up very soon. And Raiser-20 was very close to the others.
"Rias."
"Go – I can take care of myself," she said, looking in the direction of Kara and Akeno-20.
She was not in the best condition, but neither were them.
Issei nodded at her and moved.
xxxxxxx
Xenovia was now facing both the Knight Kalamine and the sword weilding Pawn Mira.
While Yuuto was dealing with Siris and Burent. Like herself, Kiba dominated them separately and seemed to have the upper hand even against both of them.
Xenovia was now ready for the final strike.
She had just summoned Durandal.
And moved.
Kalamine´s own sword broke apart as it met with Durandal and her body was literally cut in half. The Holy blade cut through her swordarm, then through her chest.
Xenovia saw how it broke how her upper body broke off from the rest, split-seconds before all of it was disintigrated by the holy blade´s power.
The power of the sword that was unleashed through the air however was enough to even bring down her second opponent, who was literally blown off her feat.
In opposite of her comrade however, Mira was still alive.
And Xenovia saw no real need to kill her either. She might have been raised to fight and kill Devils, but things had changed a lost since then. Including herself being in a relationship with one.
So she instead send a kick into the blue haired girl´s stomach. This caused her to collapse.
But then something else happened.
Instead of going down like she had expected, her opponent´s energy actually suddenly had a large spike.
Instinctively Xenovia made a leap backwards.
But at the same time the expression on Mira´s face was something completely unexpected.
A look of pure horror.
"No," she shouted desperately, "Lord Raiser – please, I am not…"
Then suddenly her entire body was ripped apart by an explosion. A explosion that came from inside her body.
What was left was nothing but a horrifying mess of fire, pieces of flesh and blood.
Xenovia was lucky that she had jumped back a moment earlier. So all what she got were a few drops of warm blood that hit her.
What had just happened? She asked herself in shock. The exposion was clearly not caused by anything from outside.
xxxxxxx
Irina was now standing directly in front of Mihae and Xuelan.
She had been fighting her way through to them, while the others were taking care of the rest of their opponents.
"Do you really think you can beat both of us at the same time?" Mihae asked her.
"Yes," she replied simply. "I think you have something that belongs to us." She pointed at Xuelan.
"As you wish," Raiser´s Rook replied.
Normally Irina would in a case like this just use Phasing to avoid their attacks and then strike back. But aside from the fact that one of her opponents was specialized in magic – what was a weakness oft he Phasing technique - this Raiser´s Peerage was trained in it themselves.
Or at least some of their members were. If she fought two of them, relying on the idea that they could not touch her, then she was as good as dead.
She needed something else. Irina remembered something from her training during the last years.
xxx
Asia was now fighting the second chainsaw twin – the same girl Irina had kicked down earlier – with the fighting staff she had been using for a while now. While Murayama was still dealing with her twin sister and Gaeriel with Shuriya.
But then they all noticed what happened to Mira. And suddenly everything changed.
Asia´s opponent froze and lowered her chainsaw weapon in obvious shock.
"No," she stammered as well. "That can not be. We are fighting. We are all fighting with all we have. So why…?"
"What are you talking about?" Asia asked confused.
"The self-destruct spell," she said in a hollow voice.
What? Asia remembered what happened to Ravel´s double. Could he have truly done something similar to his entire Peerage? How? Why?
Her opponent however then only attacked her once again, even more vicious than before… and desperate.
"I need to kill you," she said, "or I will die myself."
But in her panic her actions also became more sloppy. Asia saw an opening and with a move of her staff, slapped the chainsaw out of her hands.
Then she slammed the other end of her staff right into her opponent´s face.
Nearly automatically, but with grim determination, Asia send a few more well placed hits all over her head, chest and stomach.
Inside, she hated doing this. But she knew she knew there was no other choice. She wanted to be part of this team and if she didn´t fight for herself, she would only be a weak link for the others during a battle.
Even knowing about the self-destruction, this girl´s reaction had only been to attack her harder. If she didn´t take her out, one of her friends would had to fight her instead.
A moment later her opponent fell down. But like expected, her body showed the same reaction like Mira´s and after a short energy spike, exploded.
Part of the explosion hit Asia as well. But with her enhanced Twilight Healing, any injury healed nearly instantly. Only her clothes – a similar battle-gear like Irina, Xenovia and Gaeriel were wearing - were left damaged.
`I am sorry,´ Asia thought silently.
The second chainsaw-twin turned around as she saw what happened to her sister, completely ignoring her own opponent Murayama, who halted her own strike as well.
"Nel!" she shouted.
But a second later she shared the same fate as her sister, as a reaction inside her caused her body to blow up.
"No." Shuriya having seen what had happened to her comrades, seemed now completely overcome by fear.
"I don´t want to die. Not like this," she called out.
"Please – you are with the Guardians, right? And you are the weilder of the Twilight Healing." She turned to Asia and the others. "You can remove this. Please help me," she shouted.
But it was already too late. Moments after she said this words, she as well exploded into a gory mess.
"Weak." They all heard Raiser´s voice coming from above. "You disappoint me as a member of my Peerage."
They looked up and saw him floating in the air close to them. Was he not fighting with Issei? Had he somehow gotten away from him? It didn´t matter right now.
The same moment Raiser-20 send a large pillar of fire right at Xenovia. He had kept his power low right before, but now he rised it up again.
Who quickly used Durandal´s blade to shield herself. It was able to fend off most of the attack. But as they saw, she was still left with visible burn wounds and scorch marks.
"Lord Raiser – the self-destruction?" Mihae asked him terrified. "You told us that it would only activate if we had thoughts of treachery."
"Oh – I decided to modify it a bit for this battle," he replied. "It will now acticate if you think about betraying me or giving up in combat or similar worthless thoughts – or whenever you are loosing and not longer able to fight."
They all were looking at him horrified – Issei´s teammates and his own Servants alike.
"Do you understand? This is our great battle, what we have been waiting for the entire time." He had a strange gleam in his eyes as he said this.
"We will not loose to Issei Hyoudou and Rias Gremory – No. Not like all the other versions of us. We are stronger than them. Don´t forget you all have sworn yourself to me. We will either go out of this fight as winners or not at all."
They all understood that he was talking about the Rating Games between Rias Peerage and his own, that happened across several realities.
They just now truly understood how completely insane he was.
His remaining Servants looked at each other in resignation. They knew they had no choice. Their Master was a madman, they too now fully admitted to themselves, even madder than they had ever thought. But if they didn´t fight for him now, they were dead anyway.
"Long live Lord Raiser," Xuelan said loud.
Raiser-20 made another move. This time he was aiming at Asia.
He formed his fire into a large blade out of flames and charged at her.
But Gaeriel and Murayama interfered and moved at him from two sides. It was a desperate move. The two had no chance at all and they knew it.
They could only hope to buy a few moments before Issei appeared.
xxx
Irina and Kiba would have like to help too. But their opponents forced them to stay in place, if they didn´t want to instantly be stabbed in the back.
"Don´t even try," Siris said to Kiba.
xxx
Raiser-20 however just turned around to the two interloppers and concentrated on them instead.
Murayama´s charge was simply stopped by a wall of fire he formed right in front of her.
That only left Gaeriel. She threw two lightspears at him, but they disintigrated right before they even touched him.
And in the same moment Raiser-20 had already moved forward and rammed his flame-sword through her chest.
"Gaeriel!" Asia and Murayama called out at the same time.
The Fallen Angel and Guardian member Gaeriel gave Raiser-20 one last deviant look – behind him she saw Issei arriving. She had succeeded to protect the others – before she stopped moving and her body was completely detroyed by Raiser´s fire.
Issei-01 just came in time to see her dieing.
In his anger he threw himself at Raiser and send him crashing downwards with a punch.
xxx
The Knight Siris used the short distraction and made a move on the already worn down Kiba to ramm her sword into his stomch.
But Kiba, reacting in incredible speed, moved as well.
The two ended up stabbing their blades into each other.
And like before, Siris body exploded right next to him one moment later.
"No," Xenovia said as she saw what happened to Kiba. But she could barely move herself after Raiser´s attack.
xxx
"Gaeriel, Yuuto, Xenovia," Rias-01 whispered as she saw what had happened.
She, Kara and Akeno-20 had been following Issei right before.
Only to see what the price of her rescue was.
xxx
Raiser-20 had come up again.
"Now – was that one of your concubines?" he asked Issei.
"I will kill you now," Issei said enraged. "I will not longer hesitate with you."
"You can try," Raiser answered.
A Dimensional Portal was opening right behind him. Issei-01 noticed that, just like himself, he didn´t need a control device for that.
"Follow me – if you dare," he said as he stepped backwards through the portal.
His remaining Servants, Xuelan, Mihae, Burent and Akeno-20 followed him through it. Xuelan and Mihai having temporary escaped the still shocked Irina.
But Issei, with his own power, kept the portal opened, even after their enemies had all passed through it.
"Issei," Rias said to him in a broken voice.
"Later," he replied. "We need to get him now."
Rias nodded.
"I come with you."
"I will too," Irina said.
"I will try to heal the others," Asia told them, "if they are still alive," she added.
"I will guard her," Murayama said.
Their eyes turned to the only remaining enemy - Kara.
"Well – I don´t longer have a reason to fight here – or even to fight," she declared. "Shuri and Phantom should have already abandoned this world by now. So I am taking my leave."
She looked down at the control device she was carrying on her arm. Only to see that it had been broken during the fight.
"Damn it," she said.
In opposite to Issei, she did not have the ability to open portals without a control-device. She realized that she was trapped here, surrounded by enemies.
Issei used her distraction to use another telepathic attack on her, like he used it on two of Raiser´s Servants earlier and knocked her out as well.
"Let us go," he said to Rias and Irina.
xxxxxxx
As soon as they had passed the portal however, they were met with a sight that they found quite surprising.
Somehow they had expected to arrive in yet another version of Kuoh or at least of Japan.
They had only passed the portal without checking the other side first, was that Raiser and his Servants went right before them. So they could be sure that it was at least a environment they could live in.
What they saw however was something completely different as they expected. The place was a seemingly endless rock and mountain landscape. The air was filled with storms and lightning.
And a strange reddish glow seemed to shine over a great part of the sky. Something about this glow was looking… unnatural – no, rather supernatural, they thought.
Their greatest surprise however was as they saw something up in the sky that actually seemed to be another planet, in a orbit right next to this one – very close.
It was close enough that in the sky the second planet was larger than the moon and around the size of the sun.
The planet seemed somewhat familiar to them, but they could really not remember where they had seen it before, especially not through this messed up atmosphere.
Still – given how large it was, it should be visible even at a bright day. Only that it was questionable if there would ever be a bright day at this place.
But it was not only that. There were magical energies present in the air and everywhere around them.
That even affected the flow of their own energies inside their bodies. They could only thank their special training of the last two years that they could adept them to this they would have lost the ability to use a great part of their power.
These supernatural energies were also probably the cause of at least some of the storms in the atmosphere.
Along with the other planet so close. By all rights the two world should already be colliding. Why weren´t they?
All of this world just felt wrong on a fundamental level.
What kind of place was this?
A short distance before them were their enemies, already awaiting them. They were standing assembled at the side of a cliff.
"Where are we?" Irina asked. "What kind of planet is this?"
"Now – don´t you recognize it? This is Earth," Raiser replied.
"What? How is that possible?" she asked.
Raiser smiled.
"Well – that reason why this world is completely different than the Earth you know is this. Several thousand years ago the dimensional barriers between the Human World and the Underworld started to crack," he explained.
"Over time the barriers between the worlds got weaker and weaker."
He pointed upwards.
"What you see in the sky above you is actually the Planet of the Underworld, that can be seen through the few remaining layers between the dimensions as if it is a planet in an orbit right next to this one.
Earthquakes and natural disasters on both worlds were the results. But not only that, Supernatural Energies coming through the crack – not only from the Underworld, but also from neighboring dimensions – have contaminated both planets.
Both the human civilization and the one of the Underworld have long disappeared.
The few survivors, just like the planets themselves, have mutated under the contamination and turned into some kind of cross-species – neither Devil or human.
And that is also the reason I led you here," he concluded.
"You see – if you are not used to this environment - like us - it also has the side-effect to disrupt the energy-flow inside your own bodies - as you have probably noticed by now – and makes it impossible for you to properly use your own powers.
In other words, here we have the absolute advantage. Kill them," he ordered his Servants.
Mihae, Burent and Xuelan attacked, in same part in hope that Raiser was right and in desperation.
"You think so?" Issei said quietly.
Mihae was conjuring a magical attack. But before she could finish it, Irina had intercepted her in incredible speed and cut off her head.
With another movement she striked at Xuelan, who barely tried to dodge, and left a deep cut at the side of her arm.
xxxx
Irina had remembered something from her training with the Guardians. Beside her affimity for the Holy Swords, they also discovered within her latent telepathic abilities. Not nearly as high as Issei´s, only a bit.
Still she had been told that telepathy, even weak one, combined with her other skills could bring her to a much higher level. It gave you a great advantage over your opponent if you could read their minds after all.
Of course her own abilites were still underdeveloped. So she had whispered to Issei to transfer some of his telepathic abilities to her for a moment through their connection.
And it worked. She knew Mihae´s and Xuelan´s movements before they made them.
To that came the surprise, since their opponent´s believed that their powers didn´t work.
xxxx
It was the same with Rias and Burent.
In the moment she moved to attack, Rias just lifted her arms and hit her with a blast of full powered Destruction Power, that completely disintigrated her.
Issei attacked Raiser-20 himself. This time he truly unleashed all his powers at once.
What was left was Akeno-20, who was glaring at Rias with a mad rage.
xxxxxxx
None of them had realized yet that they were not alone. Two figures were watching them from the top of a mountainside close by.
"They have really come," Lamia commented.
"That was predictable," Sairaorg replied. "In the moment he felt cornered to fall back to this place. Still this three are quite remarkable. Especially this Issei Hyoudou."
"Yes and Raiser´s Peerage seemed already quite decimated before they came here. So we should expect the rest of their team to be on a similar level. Maybe we should kill all of them now, while we have the chance," she suggested.
"That would be foolish," Sairaorg said. "Not only would it be dishonorable and for sure not impress our Masters, I am not sure if we could even defeat this three right now, even if they are weakened from the fight.
It is not just Hyoudou – this Rias is incredible stronger than the cousin I remember and the Holy Sword weilder is remarkable as well.
We would likely only get ourselves killed if we attacked them now."
"Maybe you are right," Lamia admitted.
They could have brought their Peerage´s along, she thought. But they had wanted to come close to Raiser undetected.
xxxxxxx
Issei attacked his opponent at several levels at once. He blasted his body with pure energy, strong enough that even his Regeneration could not longer keep up and was overwhelmed.
He held him in place with a equally powerful barrier. So that he could not fall back or evade and had to take the full brunt of the attack.
And he used telepathy to reach into his mind and spirit – and here he knew he would get him.
In a few flashed he saw a few of this Raiser´s memories.
The voice of a woman who offered him greater power. And being shown many scenes of himself being defeated by Issei Hyoudou and Rias Gremory in different realities again and again.
Issei also found what he had been looking for.
The spiritual energy and the souls of the people this Raiser had absorbed.
Issei could actually identify Sirzechs and Zeoticus and Venelana… and several others. And he broke them free.
`Go – you are released,´ he thought silently to these souls.
If only he had done this earlier. Then maybe Gaeriel would still be alive.
But maybe Rias would be dead instead, another part of him thought.
One by one the stolen souls were ripped away from Raiser, until they were all gone.
Then Issei ceased his attack. He looked down to see at what was left of Raiser.
A skeleton-like broken figure, with it´s bones cracked, his muscles and dried out charred skin barely hanging on it´s body.
If it were anyone else, Issei would find it pitiful. But here…
"Your mistake was that you didn´t know that the Guardian´s trained us to survive and to use our powers in all kind of different environments," he told him soberly.
Raiser still seemed to be able to hear him, because he looked upwards.
It was not until now that Issei and the others noticed the two Devils who had been watching them, who just showed themselves now.
They flew up and landed right next to Issei.
"Sairaorg?" he said surprised. "Sairaorg Bael?"
"Hyoudou," he replied casually.
Issei had not met the Devil woman beside him before. But he remembered her face from pictures he had seen during his training.
Lamia, from the Belial Family – she was something like a aunt or great aunt of the current Belial heirs – and a prominent Member of the Dark Order.
Sairaorg looked down at the half-dead destroyed body before them.
"Raiser," he said, "you don´t know what it means for me to be here… at your end."
Raiser-20 was trying to turn around to him, but before that Sairaorg had already materialized a sword and stabbed it through his destroyed body.
Then he added a globe of… Power of Destruction? That he formed in his other hand and used it to completely wipe out what was left of Raiser´s body.
"You," Issei said. This guy had just killed Raiser. Not that he had a problem with that, but…
"Sairaorg does not possess the Power of Destruction." Issei remembered that all too well.
"Normally not, but my allies helped me to release the dormant potential for this power inside me," Sairaorg replied.
xxxxxxx
Akeno-20 unleashed an onslaught of Holy Lightning at Rias.
Which she blocked with an shield formed of Power of Destruction.
"This is all your fault!" Akeno shouted. "If you had just given in to him. You and all the others. If you had just accepted him like I did, then we could have all lived together. We could have been like a family and…"
In this moment Irina appeared behind her and stabbed her Excalibur through her chest.
Akeno-20 sank down, dieing nearly instantly.
"Irina," Rias said.
Xuelan sank to her knees in the moment Raiser-20 had died and did not look at all as if she had any intention to continue fighting.
"I did not want you to be the one to have to kill her," Irina told her.
Rias knew that this was truly a lot like watching her old friend die.
And from her insane rant, Rias had also realized that there was probably no hope left for this version of Akeno.
Without saying another word however, they both turned around to Issei and the two newcomers who had just showed themselves.
xxxxxxx
"You are a member of the Dark Order," Issei said to this new version of Sairaorg.
It was quite obvious with Lamia standing next to him.
Rias and Irina just appeared beside them.
"Yes," Sairaorg replied. "As you possibly know, Raiser here had killed my relatives the Gremories and also the Satans and many other people in my world. And he had kidnapped, raped and finally murdered by cousin."
So he came from the same world as Raiser.
"And so you join the same people who had helped to turn him into what he was in the first place?" Issei asked.
Sairaorg-20 gave him a sober look.
"I will not discuss my motived with you," he said. "And I am not here to fight either," Sairaorg told them. "I can not imagine that you want that either after the battle you had just gone through."
They all exchanged looks with each other.
"We will leave now," Sairaorg stated.
"Issei?" Irina said.
"He is right," Issei replied. "We have to return and help the others, take care of their injuries…" And take care of our dead, he added silently.
Both groups – Issei´s along with the captured Xuelan - opened a portal on their own and returned to the world they came from.
Here is the now chapter. And the final of the current Arc.
As you all probably noticed, this one had quite a mass killing of characters – in first line villains – Raiser-20 and most of his Peerage, Issei-13 etc.
But also Gaeriel – one of my first OC´s in this story – and possible Kiba and Kuroka (whose fates are left open for now).
So far, when members of Issei´s team died, it were always characters with no real connection to Issei, like Dohnaseek or one of the good versions of Yubelluna.
Ultimately I think it was time for a character to die who is actually close to Issei.