Chapter 13
Broken DxD World (DxD Universe 22)
Issei and the others were right now standing in the same twisted world he, Rias and irina had shortly visited erlier during their last fight with the insane double of Raiser.
Like before they saw the second planet up in the sky - that was actually the Underworld, that should be in a neighboring sub-dimension, and was instead breaking through into the normal `Human´ World.
Distorted Supernatural energy was filling the air around them.
Just everything about this reality felt wrong.
And they were not alone. In the distance a few of the `natives´ that were roaming the area had noticed their presence. It were bizarre humanoids, somewhere in between humans and Devils (or between humans and Demons depending how you saw it).
In opposite to the elegant wings and `natural´ looking appearance of Devils, Angels and Fallen however, their wings looked underdeveloped and ripped-up, their appearance and skin color somehow degenerated and sickly, a few of them had visible physical deformities. All in all their seemed to be something fundamentally wrong about this creatures.
Issei and the others knew this should have actually been normal humans. But the ongoing clash between the space of the normal world and the dimension of the Underworld and the supernatural energies that were filling the sky and washing over the planet had caused their genome to warp and to mutate.
If this world showed them all one thing, then that you did not needed malevolent Cosmic Entities or monsters to cause cosmic disasters. Sometimes it were just circumstances and bad luck or flaws in the balance of these worlds themselves, like here.
But they were only there for a few moments. Not long enough for the mutated creatures to reach them or to have a closer look at this strange world.
Issei formed another portal and they left this broken reality behind. From here they would now move on to the the world that they knew was ruled by the beings known as the Erebos Demons.
xxxxxxx
Erebos Demon´s Capital (DxD Universe 23 )
With their next move, they arrived in the world they were originally targeting.
Like they had planned to, they appeared at an unpopulated area far away from any cities and only then teleported right to one of the larger settlements.
Then they just concentrated on the area with the highest level of supernatural energy and teleported.
As expected, they appeared close to a town.
"So this is it," Issei said.
"Yes," Raynare stated.
"Moment - isn´t this Kyoto?" Kuroka-06 mentioned. "I recognize this area."
"She is right," Sirzechs agreed. "We should here be at the heart of the Shinto Faction, at least in our world."
"But I sense mostly the presence of Demons," Rias said.
"That means the Devils were obviously not the only one conquered," Raynare replied. "My counterpart has probably forgot this detail in her descriptions. Or she had maybe not been here long enough to be informed about it in the first place."
"So the Yokai are a conquered race as well here," Kuroka stated... and one set of her´s and Shirone´s counterparts were still helping them, she thought in silent anger. Did they not know about it as well or did they just not care?
"Maybe," Issei said. "But we don´t know that for sure or the exact circumstances. That is what we are here for, right? to find out more. So let us go."
They walked towards the town and entered it together.
For everyone else they were a group of Demon Nobles with their Entourage.
Issei, Sirzechs and Rias were at this playing the roles of the Nobles. The three were currently wearing robes that were made to look exactly like civilian clothes the upper class of the Demons were using, according to their research.
Rias, looking pretty much like a younger female version of him, was obviously still Sirzechs younger sister and Grayfia was, like in real life, acting as his maid - and possibly more than that, since she was walking very closely to him and holding his arm, instead of in a respectful distance.
She left it to Kuroka to guard Sirzechs back. Who was walking behind them, wearing a brown robe with a hood that hid her face.
This disguise was actually useful in two ways. At the first look everyone would take her for just another servant of `Demon Nobles´. Right now she seemed practically invisible next to her teammates. And they could still reveal her identity if a situation came up where it was practical to do that.
Irina was playing the role of Issei´s guard. Like most of the others she had been genetically turned into a Demon. In opposite to the others, she was wearing the female version the warriors of the Demons were usually wearing.
While Raynare was walking at Issei´s side and literally hanging on his arm in a lascivious way. She was playing the role of his Fallen Angel mistress, a role that she clearly enjoyed and that she was ironically good in. Given the status of the Fallen as allies of the Demons, this scenario was not unusual.
For that purpose she was wearing a frivolous looking wide-cut dress in black color, that left her cleavage and most of her back visible and those skirt had a long cut that revealed her legs with every step she made.
Beneath that she was once again wearing her old outfit that consisted only of a few straps of leather and already revealed more of her body than it concealed. And those leather straps were showing from beneath the already lascivious dress above as she walked.
Normally she was now usually wearing a more moderate `normal´ black battle-gear in a similar style to Irina and Xenovia. (Not that their battle-gears - a.k.a skin-tight leather outfits - would not already be considered lewd by most people´s standards, they were tame compared to what Raynare used to wear.)
But here Raynare´s old clothes had been ideal.
All in all she was showing the perfect picture of some lascivious professional seductress, who had succeeded in catching herself a powerful Noble. In every case her role fulfilled it´s true purpose. Nobody would pay closer attention to Issei´s face when she was walking next to him.
Issei admitted, as he saw her the first time in his outfit, he felt the urge to just fuck her right there. Something he promised himself to do later. Possibly in a three- or even foursome with Irina and Rias, who were keeping sending side-glances at them.
Raynare´s `disguise´ also had the side-effect that it visibly irritated Irina, who was walking closely behind her and Issei in her role as his bodyguard. Not that this was necessarely a bad thing. Somehow the annoyed look on her face seemed quite fitting for a guard.
After a few moments Rias reacted by just leaving Sirzechs side and clinging herself to Issei´s other arm. Which only increased Irina´s irritation even more. But she, being how she was, didn´t break her role and kept up perfect discipline and continued to watch their back.
Just like a real guard would - good.
They had simply teleported together right into the city and were now walking confidently along one of the main streets.
Nobody however seemed to notice something actually suspicious about them. Not in the sense of them being enemies at least.
Of course they were getting attention. But the `right´ kind of it.
The kind of attention you would give a couple of decadent Nobles and their `companions´ who are roaming the town with their lovers and guards to have a good time.
Yet nobody would have instead suspected them to actually be a group of spies. Just like intended.
xxx
The residents they who saw them on their way - it were mostly Demons, but also a few Fallen Angels - could literally see the picture in their minds that Issei and the others had wanted.
Two Demon Nobles (Issei and Sirzechs), an older and a younger man, were spending their freetime in the city, along with their lovers and personal guards.
The older Noble - Sirzechs, who had obviously some kind of relationship with one of his maids and was not ashamed to show it.
The younger one, was obviously being the lover or fiancé of the first one´s younger sister (Rias). But he had brought his mistress (Raynare), a very attractive Fallen Angel along as well.
The younger sister herself however seemed to be lewd-minded enough that she just pressed herself at the other side of the young man´s body and was strolling and frolicking around through the town with him and the mistress.
On top of that seemed the female guard (Irina) who was walking closely behind them to have feelings for him as well. Many people at least noticed her regulary sending jealous glances at him and the two other women. But she kept herself under control.
All in all they looked like the picture of a socially privileged playboy and his personal tross of women he had seduced.
Not that this was actually far from the truth.
xxx
But at the same time nobody looked too closely. It were after all nobles. Or so everyone thought.
No matter how frivolous or irresponsible they acted in public, it would not be a good idea to actually speak out against them.
For all the Demon´s resentment and hate against the Devils, their own society was not so different from theirs. Like them they had a hierarchic class-society. With the separation of the common Demons (a.k.a common-citizens) and a Nobility as ruling class, with an Emperor on the top.
Second in line after the Emperor were currently three So called High-Lords - who were from the Demon Families of Pazuzu, Meloch and Ninlil, while the Emperor himself hailed from the family of Dagon.
All of that names of ancient Demons and sinister Deities from pre-christian times, some of them even mentioned in the Bible. While the Devil Families were identical with the Demons from the Ars Groetica in Christian Mythology.
That was certainly not a coincidence.
Below the High-Lords were the `regular´ Nobles and under them were the commoner Demons and finally the slaves - who mostly consisted of Devils, but also other races.
And like with the `traditional´ Devil-Society, the Nobles status, hold by laws and long traditions, made them nearly untouchable for the lower castes.
So for all of the Demon´s mindset of hating, despising and looking down on the Devils, in Issei´s opinion their own state was not so different and in many ways embodied many of the worst sides of the Devil´s society... and it had probably even more bad traits on it´s own.
xxxxxxx
The town itself was by what they saw a mix of architecture like they had never seen somewhere else.
In some areas of the city, they saw large ultra-modern multi-storey buildings that nearly looked like the ones from a modern human town - nearly.
Still - something however told Issei and the ohers that probably no human had been involved in the construction of this buildings. While they looked similar to human buildings, they could sense that nearly all of these building had been formed by magic instead of build with normal means.
Beside these `modern´ buildings, there were however some leftovers of the human city, some older buildings, streets and even some monuments, that the new masters obviously not had bothered to remove.
So the `modern´ part of this Kyoto was clearly not the work of humans, even if it was obviously build on top of the old human town.
So it was more likely that the Demons had just copied modern human designs from other parallel universes they had visited and designed their modern buildings after them. Even the most recent of this `human leftovers´ were however at least several decades if not centuries old.
On the other side they also saw in other districts several monumental gothic mansions and even actual castles that seemed to belong to the actual Nobles of the Demon Society. The style of the buildings was subtly different from any other race they knew. From their appearance however some of them looked like they could have been taken out of an occult horror story.
All this, the fact that nearly no newer building in the counterpart of a prominent town like Kyoto was actually human build, showed that their conquest of this place did not just happen yesterday, but at least several decades ago, if not centuries, ago.
But they knew already that the Demons had been driven from their original universe eons ago, around the same time when the Devil Race first rose. So even that would actually be very recent in comparison.
Of course it was possible that they had staid thousands of years contained in the Underworld and only moved on to the Human World much later.
So they were not sure if this here was the universe where Ophis had originally send them later after the Demons had been exiled to the Dimensional Void or another one that had been conquered later.
But by what they saw here, given how completely different this Kyoto was from the one from their own world, it was likely that the Demons had been occupying this land for centuries - maybe even for thousands of years.
xxxxxxx
They had been walking through the town for a while and were now standing in front of a certain building. The differences between this place and both their own Human- and Underworld were becoming more and more obvious the longer they were here.
This could not have been better demonstrated than by the building they were now looking at. It was a similar design like the one they had seen in the recordings earlier.
Only that his one was much larger. It was a large monumental pyramid-shaped building made from green colored stone. Mounted over it´s large front gate was an Infinity Symbol.
A temple for Ophis? They were about to find out for sure.
Their group was slowly approaching the building. With their individual positions the same like before, Issei and Sirzechs in the lead, with Rias, Raynare and Grayfia at their sides... or rather practically hanging at their arms and Irina and Kuroka behind them.
Close to the entrance they were greeted by a male Demon, who was wearing a green colored robe. A priest-robe?
The Demon had light brown hair and was wearing a short beard and mustache. Both the way he looked and how he was holding himself reminded Issei a bit of Azazel.
"Welcome," he greeted them, "I am High Priest Doras," he introduced himself. "Are you members of the Faith of the Great Infinity Dragon?"
So he was really some kind of priest.
If he took any offense on Raynare´s lascivious state of dress, or the fact that Issei had two girls hanging on his arms in the first place, or that Grayfia was wearing a maid outfit while clinging to her Master - all that while approaching his temple, he didn´t show it.
It was also likely that chastity was simply not a part of his religion.
xxx
"So this is actually a temple for Ophis of all beings," Irina whispered quietly in the background to Kuroka while the Priest was talking with the others.
"It seems so," she replied.
An actual temple to Ophis, as part of a large religion on top of that. They all remembered their meetings with the Dragon God, who had taken the form of a stoic young gothic lolita, who was actually an nearly all-powerful Dragon God that cared about nothing in the universe except it´s vendetta against Great Red.
The thought that someone would actually worship this being seemed somehow strange to them. Not because of lack of power, the opposite. But simply because Ophis made it no secret of the fact that she was completely indifferent.
xxx
"No - actually we are not," Sirzechs replied to the Demon´s question. "We are not members of this faith. Or of any other," he added.
"Oh - did you come to join and become a believer then?" The Demon Priest asked.
"Not really," Rias said.
And why would they? she thought. Ophis didn´t give a damn about anyone or anything beside getting Great Red out of the Dimensional Gap.
A moment later Rias realized that this was probably not the smartest thing to say. They were here for informations. And this guy was unlikely to give them any if they risked antagonizing him by simply refuse his attempt to `convert´ them right from the start.
"You see, we..." she tried to correct herself.
She and Raynare had now let go of Issei and were standing in a very short distance right next to him.
"Actually we want to find out more about the Faith before we make a decision," Raynare said in her stead.
This was obviously the right thing to say, because a small smile formed on the Priest´s lips now.
They passed the entrance, following the Demon and walked into a large hall filled with long lines seats in fron of some kind of shrine at the other end of the room, ressembling the exhibition hall in a christian church.
Currently the hall was empty. No ceremony was being held right now and so they were by themselves.
"Do you have some time to tell us more about your faith Priest?" Raynare asked the Priest in a sweet voice that was usually part of her Yuuma persona and made a nearly bizarre contrast with the highly erotic outfit she wore.
But once again, the Priest´s reaction was not negative. He actually had an somewhat flustered expression on his face.
Issei and Rias also caught on how his eyes then wandered for a short moment over Raynare´s body, from her clearly visible cleavage down to her legs that were visible through the slit in her dress.
Yes - whatever ideas the Ophis Religion preached, chastity truly not seemed to be one of them.
But the Priest caught himself quickly and returned to an completely serious expression.
"I will gladly do that," he said. "I admit I am surprised, it is not often that an Fallen Angel shows interest in our religion."
"Oh - it is just so interesting," Raynare said. "An entire race, lost between the worlds... and then a deity reaching out to them and giving them a new home. It is actually something many Fallen could relate to, given how we were cast out by the Biblical God."
A good answer - nearly perfect, Issei thought. `You were always quite smart Ray, when you tried to be.´
"I see," the Priest Doras stated. "Now that seemes a good idea. Since we will have a longer converzation, may I ask for your names? Since you are Nobles, I have probably heard them before anyway."
Well - now was the moment of decision. Issei and Sirzechs both said one of the names of minor Demon Noble families they had heard from their earlier research. In addition they both subtly used their mental powers to delue any suspicions of the Priest.
If it didn´t work, they would just have to erase his memories of their meeting.
But...
"Ah - yes, I have indeed heard your names before," Priest Doras said.
It seemed to have worked.
"Okay - now that we have all introduced yourselves, could you tell us more," Raynare asked.
"Of course my dear," Priest Doras replied. "A long time ago our ancestors had been lost, after the detestable Halfbreeds that now call themselves Devils rebelled against them and forced them out of their homeland."
`That was because you treated them like slaves in the first place,´ Issei thought silently.
"But the great God Ophis saw them, took pity on them and send them to a new world, where they had created the beginning of our great Empire," Priest Doras continued.
`Your ancestors had accidentally intruded into her home in the Dimensional Gap. She was just annoyed by their presence and send them away.´ Issei thought again. He recalled how they had heard this from Ophis herself.
The entire situation was quite ridiculous actually. With a Priest of the Erebos Demons, a race bend to destroy the Devils, actually trying to covert a group that included Sirzechs - one of the Four Satans, his Queen Grayfia and his sister Rias to his religion... that worshipped Ophis.
xxxx
Well - by what they heard the other religions of the Demons were even worse than the Ophis Faith.
At least some were worshipping the Old Ones instead (or the Nameless Ones another name for them the Guardians had mentioned and who knew how many other names some people called them), monstrous powerful entities dwelling in dark corners or somewhere between the universes - waiting to come for and to consume entire worlds.
He remembered wih dread the small glympse Darien and Spectre had shown them of them some time ago.
In comparison Ophis was not such a bad choice after all.
xxxx
"This world where Great Ophis send them to," Kuroka suddenly asked, "was it this world or another one?"
"How can you not know this? This is common knowledge after all," Doras asked earnestly.
This wasn´t good. This was why you didn´t ask too important questions too quickly without knowing background details first. You risk making yourself look suspicious.
"Ahm - I am sorry," Kuroka responded, now suddenly sounding genuilly emberassed, "but my Master did not really thought me much besides killing people for him."
`Very good Kuroka,´ Issei thought.
"To answer your question," the Demon Priest Doras said with a visible sigh, "no it wasn´t this world. The world where Ophis originally send them had no civilization or intelligent life - neither human or supernatural. That was also part of the reason why it had been such a gift. Our ancestors could peacefully settle it without competition and use it to recover their strength.
This world here is actually the first colony our Empire conquered afterwards. We at first first took this world´s Underworld, that the Halfbreed´s - the so called Devil Race - had been occupying." The obvious distaste in his tone was the same as with nearly all Demons they had met.
"And then we moved on to conquer the Human World in earnest as well several decades ago," he stated.
That matched with what they had seen, they thought.
"This world was however made the Capital World of our Empire, since the Emperor deemed it strategitally more valuable and because our allies are living here," Demon Priest Doras explained. "The original sanctuary world of our race however still serves the Empire as military resource and as backhold."
This actually explained a lot. This reality´s Underworld, their territories in the human one and an entire second world that they had entirely for themselves in the backhand, to draw additional people and resources from.
"Well - I guess that is enough about this topic," Issei said. It would be nice to hear more, but that was probably too suspicious. "Can you tell us more about your faith like you wanted?"
"I guess that is a good idea," the Priest replied. "The closer details about this are meant to be kept secret by the High Command anyway."
Of course it was.
Did this guy suspect them? Issei asked himself. Going by his last statement it was good possible. Especially with them asking such questions.
Issei once again subtly used his telepathy to smooth out any possible suspicions the Demon had.
He would have preferred to actually look into his mind to be sure and eventually let him forget that he ever met them. Similar like Raynare had once done it with Matsuda and Motohama.
But to do this Issei would have to access a higher level of his power. Especially since this guy was not exactly a weakling, he seemed to be at least Mid-Highclass.
They all were suppressing most of their powers and were keeping a very low profile and they intended to keep it this way for as long as they were investigating. The risk to be detected by releasing that much power and/or raising up a ward would simply not worth it just because one Demon being wary of them.
And while Issei was sure he could take nearly everyone the Erebos Empire could bring up, especially with Sirzechs and Grayfia backing them up - the Demon Hunter Vali and the Erebos Emperor - not to mention their hidden ally himself - were the notable exceptions.
Even if they easily defeated every Demon in this area, it would only lead to the Demon Hunters or other big guns being send after them and a greater battle breaking out that they didn´t want at this point.
So they just continued their conversation like normal, with Priest Doras giving a detailed explanation of the Ophis Religion, it´s role in society and it´s activities - of course they took everything they heart with a grain of salt - before they said their goodbyes and they looked for a place to stay for the night.
xxxxxxx
Later that evening
Issei had by now a more complete impression of the Demon´s society. And by what they found out, beside being a hierarchic feudalist state, it also seemed to possess characteristics of a modern dictatorship.
For example when it came to control of the population. That incuded spies and informants that seemed to be everywhere.
Despite still keeping their telepathic abilities at a low level, they had noticed several people, Demons and even other races, who were clearly spying on their fellow citizens.
One of them had ironically been the manager of the Demon´s equivalent of a hotel, where they had first tried to check in.
Another thing they had to thank Raynare-17 for was that they actually possessed money from this world. She had a bit of the currency from here with her when she had been captured and they just copied more of it.
The manager - a female Demon - had practically radiated her intention from the beginning and then insisted on them giving her their identifications and performing an background check on them.
Rias then reacted by complaining, in her best act of a spoiled heiress, that the rooms were not up to her standards and that they should be going somewhere else, what gave them an excuse to leave.
Some time later they finally found some kind of small in that was run by a Fallen Angel - not a Demon, where they staid the next nights.
xxxxxxx
Two days later
They had spend the following day mostly, grabbing random Demons who were weak enough to scan their minds without drawing attention. Of course these Demons were mostly civilians or simple guards and so they didn´t knew much anyway.
But when they put the information together, they got a pretty good picture of the world they were currently visiting and it´s overall political situation.
They had by now also been able to confirm much of the information they had gotten from Raynare´s double. The Erebos Demons and their Fallen Angel allies controlled most of the eastern half of the globe - Asia, Australia and parts of Europe.
Most of the western hemisphere was governed by a human society, closely connected (a.k.a controlled?) by the Church and Heaven. While this was not necessarely ideal, depending on the level of corruption in this reality´s Church, it was obviously much better than the Demons and meant possible allies here.
India was still neutral, at least officially and under protection of the Hindu Pantheon.
The Demon - Fallen Angel Alliance was also in control of all of the Underworld.
They also confirmed the existence of an resistance movement that was active here in Japan and in other areas, that seemed to consist to the greatest part of a of humans, mostly Sacred Gear users and Yokai.
This was how they had mostly spend the first day here.
A few particular well known members of this Resistance were called the Red- and the White Shadow - by the descriptions probably the local counterparts of himself and Vali - and also the Nekomata sisters Kuroka and Shirone.
This also confirmed that the members of the Devil Hunters were in fact not originally from this reality, but like they themselves had claimed collected from several others.
Another a bit curious detail they had already heard before was that in this world Azazel was not the leader of the Fallen Angels. In fact here Azazel was still an Seraph in Heaven.
They could barely believe it as they had asked Raynare-17 who was the leader of the Fallen instead - Lady Gabriel. The same one who was in their world known to a the picture of pureness and heavenly innocence.
Even Raynare´s corrupt counterpart had seemed amused by this fact.
xxxxxxx
It was now the second day they were here and Issei and the others were standing on the market place of the district, in the middle of a large crowd of people, Demons and Fallen and a few other races in between.
They had seen the announcement of the event that was about to take place here this morning.
What the crowd was going to watch was nothing else than an execution.
A group of five armored Demon guards were standing on a small podium, surrounding a single figure - a young girl.
"This woman is here a member of the dreaded Resistance, who had taken part on numerous acts of sabotage and attacks against the Empire and it´s allies," the leader of the five guards - by his rank as it looked a captain - proclaimed loud. "And as such she had been sentenced to public execution."
The girl in question had shoulder long greyish hair, an quite unusual color, but she looked young.
What really unsettled Issei and the others however was as they finally saw her face closer. She had reddish eyes and her appearance... she looked nearly exactly like Freed Selzen.
Was this a family member? A sister maybe?
Still, they were about to watch someone get murdered, just for fighting back against a tyranny that had conquered this world´s Japan, no matter who this girl was maybe related to. Everything inside Issei just screamed out against this.
"What should we do?" Issei whispered to Sirzechs. "We wanted to stay undercover, but we can not just stand by and let this happen. Not to mention "
"You are the leader of our llttle group here," Sirzechs reminded him. "I am sure you will make the right decision," he assured him.
But as it turned out, the matter was being taken out of their hands.
"One moment," the heard someone call out.
"Akeno," Rias whispered as they saw the Fallen Angel girl who was just landing in front of the execution place.
This Akeno however, the one from this world, had never been turned into a reincarnated Devil and also showed her black wings openly... and as it looked proud.
There was nothing in her outside appearance that distinguished her from a regular Fallen Angel.
"This woman here - Lint Selzen, is an important member of the Resistance," The native Akeno declared. "So instead of just executing her right off like you wanted to just to make a quick example, it was decided to interrogate her more effectively instead."
"What? Who had decided that?" the Demo guard captain called out.
"Lord Pazuzu did," another voice was heard.
Two more figures stepped out of the crowd. It were doubles of Kuroka and Koneko. Both sisters were clad in dark colored armored combat-gear - the Devil Hunters.
"You will hand this prisoner over to us now," Kuroka´s counterpart said.
"Or do you want to cross Lord Pazuzu?" Koneko´s added.
xxx
But... "Wait," Issei said quietly.
"You have noticed it as well," Raynare stated.
They sensed their energies. And while this were definitely Kuroka and Koneko, their ki were different from what they had sensed from the Devil Hunters. They were not the same.
This were probably this world´s Kuroka and Koneko, who they knew were connected to the Resistance. And as it looked this universe´s Akeno was also cooperating with them.
"So they are pretending to be the Devil Hunters to get one of their own out," Irina whispered with a grin, "not bad."
"And it could be a chance for us to get into contact with them," Rias added.
xxx
On the small podium the Demon guard captain gritted his teeth. This was clearly an emberassment for him to be overruled in public like this.
But it was known under the troops that the so called Demon Hunters answered directly to Lord Pazuzu, one of the Three Highlords.
He was about to order the release of the prisoner, but then the entire procedure was being interrupted once again.
Dozens of armored Demon Warriors were suddenly descending from the sky landing everywhere around them, closely followed by the figure of Vali Lucifer, in his white Scale Armor.
He landed right in front of the execution podium, between the guards and the two Nekomata sisters.
"Stop this right now," he ordered.
A moment a transport circle appeared on the place before them and three more people arrived - one more pair of Kuroka and Koneko and the masked figure of Nero standing behind them.
The real Devil Hunters had arrived.
"A nice trick," Dh-Vali said. "But I think you should better surrender now. You are completely outmatched and I would not like to have to kill you. You are Kuroka and Koneko after all."
"Yes - please just stand down," Dh-Kuroka added. "We truly don´t want to kill you. You are us and we are you. We give you one last offer, join us. We can use more people like - well, like us," she stated.
"The Emperor would also appreciate it. With you two on our side the standing of the Yokai in the Empire could also improve. The situation of our people would get better."
"Don´t dare to talk about our people," the native Koneko-23, a.k.a Shirone, called out.
"Do you expect us to sell our souls like you did?" Kuroka-23 said.
"I see," DH-Kuroka responded.
"It was the answer we had expected onee-san," DH-Koneko remarked.
They would have truly preferred not to have to fight them. DH-Kuroka did not want to see her sister die again, any version of her sister. And she knew Koneko felt the same way.
But well, it would not be the first time. They would still try to take them alive if they could.
"And you Akeno Himejima," Dh-Vali said. "That you would side with the Resistance? I am curious what your father would say about this. Or mayby he is in on it too?" he suggested.
It was obvious that they Fallen Angel resistance faction must have a few high-ranked members. Otherwise it would not have lasted that long.
xxx
Issei and the others had watched the entire event playing out from the sidelines.
This could have hardly turned out any worse. At this point it was practically impossible for them not to be detected very soon. The only reason they had not been yet was that the two groups were completely concentrating on each other.
xxxxxxx
M (Marvel) Universe 04 - 27th Century
It was a world very similar to the one were the Guardians and the Dark Order originally came from.
This meant besides others, the existence and history of the mutants, also knows as Homo Superior, on Earth - including the legendary X-men and other organizations - and the conflict between this mutants and the normal human population, the rise of other super-powered beings and the rise of the team known as the Avengers.
And also of several several interstellar civilizations and races. Races that, while they also existed in other universes, only in the M-Cluster rose to actual prominence.
Perhaps the most important of these alien civilizations the vaste Shi´ar Empire that at it´s height spend across a few galaxies. The founders of this Empire being a species of humanoids with bird-ancestery.
Other of these important races were for example the humanoid god-race of the Aesir - or Asgardians as they were also called, the Kree Empire, the Skrulls and Xander Civilizations and others.
xxx
In the history of this universe however the Shi´ar and Kree Empires had survived far longer as they had in the one (M-1) the Guardians and Dark Order had risen from.
In fact it had been the first conflict between the Dark Order and the Guardians that had led to the decline and final disolution of both Empires in M-Universe-1.
Here however both endured till into the 27th Earth Century. Despite them not longer being nearly as powerful or important like in their prime.
During the last months however war had broken out between the Shi´ar and the Kree, who had started to invade the Shi´ar´s territory and raid and attack ships, outposts and colonies.
Now, after several weeks of smaller raids and skirmishes, the major fleets of both interstellar Empires were now finally about to face off with each other in a great and possible decisive battle.
It was taking place in an otherwise unpopulated star system in the Shi´ar territory that however held the Shi´ar Empire´s largest ship-yards, along with heavy defense installations, several warships and a miliary major base to defend the yeards.
The entire system, that had a Red Giant as it´s star, was in a sense a single massive fortress.
The Kree had found out the location of the ship-yards and were now attacking it with an significant part of their military forces.
The Shi´ar however had been informed about the planned attack in advance and had brought in an even larger part of their own fleet.
But it were not just Shi´ar and Kree on this battlefield. There were also mercenary troops from different other races on both sides.
xxx
Somewhere a bit off-side from all that however, there was also one more being in this star system.
One that nobody on either side of the conflict was aware of - the Lord of the Dark Order called Faust.
The man - or rather super entity - in question was standing casually in the vacuum of space on the surface of one random asteroid at the edge of the star system.
He was, instead of wearing the ceremonical black cloak of the Dark Order Lords, today dressed in simple street-clothes and a dark grey coat and leaning with his back against the wall of a rock-formation on the Asteroid.
Ironically, this seemingy harmless looking being in form of a young man possessed far more power than the forces of both Empires combined.
What nobody else was aware of was that the current conflict had actually been manipulated by the Dark Order from the beginning.
They had placed Agents into the Kree civilization, that caused them to attack in the first place and also under the Shi´ar, who made sure that the situation escalated.
xxx
Quite ironically, it was very similar to what the Dark Order had been doing during their first Great Interdimansional War with the Guardians in the first half of the 21st Century of their Home Universe.
Only then they had taken more time. Over a few years he and one of the other Lords, his old comrade Dracula, had manipulated the Shi´ar into a long war with the Kree and another race and also several smaller side-conflicts.
Before they finally came down on them and `cleansed´ both the Shi´ar and Kree homeworlds.
The Dark Order´s actions back then however also had another reason. While the Shi´ar Empire as a whole was stagnating, over-traditionalist and self-important and unable to evolve in any way, their race itself had potential.
A short time earlier any limitations on Dracula´s ability to create new Vampires had been removed. And so the Shi´ar race ultimately served as a great source of new Vampires.
At the time the Dark Order itself had openly attacked them and invaded their homeworlds, hundreds of them had already been transformed.
And these hundreds quickly became thousands and formed a new army in itself under the Dark Order.
In a twisted way they were now only repeating their actions from that time.
xxx
As his mind was looking over the star system, Faust noticed also a small group of Rogue Asgardians, who were serving as mercenaries on the Kree´s side under the clashing forces.
Another race that had drastically declined, both in civilization and in power. They were barely a shadow of the Asgardians he had fought in the past.
Now then.
Faust made a harmless seeming gesture with his hand. At the same moment however millions of kilometers away, a rift opened in the structure of space, right in the middle of the sun of the star system.
And within seconds the core of the star itself was being destabilized and exploded.
It took less than a minute more for the forces of both sides to realize what had just happened. Their advanced scanners could detect the massive radiation outbreat and disturbances nearly instantly, even if the light itself of the explosion had not reach their positions yet.
They would have noticed even earlier if they had not been so busy concentrating on each other.
But it was already too late. A gigantic wave of cosmic fire was quickly shooting towards them, consuming and destroying everything in it´s path.
Leathal radiation send out by the exploding star however was killing anything alive in it´s wake even before that.
The advanced shielding of the battle-ships were able to stop the radiation from killing their crews for some time, but everything outside of them instantly died. But that didn´t help them when they were reached and wiped out by the fire of the supernova explosion.
Some of the ships further outside of the system managed to go into over-lightspeed in time and managed to escape. But they were the minority.
The stationary ship-yards and bases everywhere in the system or the super-powered warriors fighting each other outside in space, never had a chance.
All of them were wiped out within a couple minutes.
xxx
In this moment Faust noticed another presence that was right now appearing next to him, a presence he knew all too well - the woman currently calling herself Spectre.
"If you want to stop me, you are too late," he said to the woman who was both his enemy and (ex-)lover.
"I know," she replied matter of factly.
"And even if you are tempted to just reverse time and prevent it from happening, it will not work," Faust stated.
Indeed, she could sense Faust´s supernatural powers forcing the timeflow around them to move forward.
Besides that, she knew he was toying with her. Manipulating time and events on such a great stale would nearly unavoidable damage the balance of this universes space-time and potentially cause much more damage as this nova here.
And that might play right into the hands of the Dark Order.
"So this is it? The cold war agreement is over," Spectre stated. "We are at open war again."
"You knew it was always just temporary," he replied.
"Yes - but I hoped it would last for at least a few more centuries," she said.
The explosion had by now reached them, but the fire of the supernova were literally bending around them, leaving a room of normal space at the place they were standing, where they continued their converzation.
xxxxxxx
DxD Universe 1 (Issei´s team´s homeworld)
The rest of Issei´s team that had staid behind was right now facing a situation that seemed entirely hopeless...
... and that they had not expected. Not like this.
From one moment to the other, their hometown had been turned into a battlefield.
A few moments later however (much to their emberassment) the battle was already over... and they had lost.
The mansion that was their base and home had been devastated, the walls ripped apart and torn down.
The prisoners they had locked up underground close by had been freed and were standing right before them right now.
And Kiba, Xenovia, Murayama and Asia were standing helpless in front of their enemy.
Or rather they were floating helplessly in the air in front of her.
On the first look the seemingly young looking woman wearing a black cloak who had suddenly appeared before them with a group of warriors around her did not look like such a great threat.
She looked not older than in her early twenties and was very beautiful, black hair - with the oddity of two red strains in it at both sides of her face, dark eyes and pale skin.
But they all knew looks could be deceiving. They had seen her face before - Thenis, one of the Lords of the Dark Order.
But that should not be possible.
"You should not be here!" Xenovia shouted to her.
"You are right of course, if you are referring to our armistance-agreement with the Guardians," Thenis replied. "But I fear things have changed. We are at open war once again."
They knew what that meant. So far the Lords themselves had staid away from their world, but now...?
This was the enemy the elder Guardians had warned them about for the last two years.
She and her entourage had just appeared in the town and split up.
While her warriors went straight to Rias underground prison and freed Kara, Raynare-17 and Marion,
Thenis through sheer force tore down the barriers and wards protecting their mansion and then teleported right into their living room.
Xenovia, Kiba and Murayama moved to confront her with their swords drawn.
What followed was the single most humiliating defeat in their lives.
Their strikes never connected, but hit a barrier that they with all their power could not break through.
Their three former Stray Devil guests tried to move to help. But they never even had a chance.
Thenis just send a short look at them and Ehron and the two girls were instantly frozen in a time-bubble, unable to even move a limb. The three had actually intended to leave later today and move into a home of their own that they had found, when Thenis showed up. One hour later and they would have already been gone.
It was really bad luck on their part.
Xenovia, Kiba, Murayama and Asia at least had enough control over their energies to avoid this fate and resist Thenis time-control. But ultimately they were not faring that much better. Xenovia felt the force of Thenis telekinetic power grabbing herself Yuuto and Asia and was holding them in an iron grip.
Murayama was in a similar situation, only that in her case Thenis telekinesis simply ripped her sword out of her hands.
Kiba and a bit surprisingly Asia however managed to overcome Thenis telekinesis after a few moments. Their bodies were glowing in a greenish light from the energy of the Twilight Healing mixed the Phoenix Fire they had absorbed and suddenly they were able to move again.
Thenis admitted she was actually impressed. She had not expected these Junior Guardians to have come this far in only two years.
The next moment however a black substance, similar like the one Alucard could manifest, materialized itself on the ground around them and formed itself into tentacles that wrapped themselves around Kiba, Asia and Murayama´s bodies and immobilized them once again.
At the same moment they felt their own energies being drawn away from them by their opponent, weakening them and simultaneously sensed Thenis reality manipulating powers reach directly into them and cutting their minds off from their connections to their own powers, Xenovia´s from her Holy Sword and her own ki energy, Kiba´s also from his Sacred Gear.
Their powers were still there, but their minds could just not longer access them. It was just as if they were back to normal powerless humans. While Thenis powers were still holding them floating in the air before her.
This was the enemy the elder Guardians had been preparing them for for the last two years...
... and they had lost in seconds.
A few seconds later the warriors that Thenis had send out earlier returned, along with the freed prisoners.
The identity of Thenis helpers however was nearly as shocking as her own appearance in this world.
The man walking up right next to her was clearly a counterpart of Sairaorg Bael, with a blonde woman at his side who was obviously his Queen Kuisha Abaddon. Only that this Kuisha was wearing a black combat-gear, similar to Xenovia´s own and had a different hairstyle to the one before. There were also a few other members of Sairaorg´s Servants they recognized... and a few they had never seen before.
It was however another member of the enemy group who shocked them the most.
"Shuri?" Kiba said surprised.
"Yes - but not one you have ever seen before," she replied.
Kara and Raiser-20´s former Pawn Marion kneeled down before Thenis.
"Thank you for freeing us My Lady," Kara said.
Raynare-17 was just standing nervously as their side, not quite knowing what to say or do. It was once again a situation where she was surrounded by beings far far more powerful than herself.
"Stand up," Thenis said to them, "your thanks and such gesture are both not needed. Just continue to serve us like before." She turned to Sairaorg. "I guess the guards were not a problem."
"Not at all," Sairaorg replied.
The guards. It were members of Sona´s Peerage guarding the prisoners today, Xenovia and the others remembered worried about them.
"Did you kill them?" Thenis asked.
"No."
"Of course you did not," she commented casually.
"I thank you for allowing me to spare the lives of my brethen for now Lady Thenis," Sairaorg´s double simply said.
"I just tell you the same as your fellow warriors - just keep up your good work," she responded.
Despite the entire situation, Issei´s teammates were glad that Sona´s Servants were okay.
"You." Thenis looked at Raynare-17.
"I see."
Raynare´s double sensed that she was reading her mind like a book. But there was nothing she could do about it.
A few moments later Thenis knew everything that she did.
"Interesting information about this Erebos Demons. A few things I had not even known before," she commented. "And Issei Hyoudou is there. Good, that allows me to do two tasks at once," she said.
"Then there is only one last thing to do here," Thenis stated.
Her powers reached out, far away at a point out in space, they were forming more and more gravity and the space-time finally broke, leaving nothing but an singularity anomaly - a Black Hole.
xxx
It was a small one that had formed somewhere out in the sun system, around the orbit of Saturn, but it´s effects would be enough.
If nothing would be done about it, it´s gravity would slowly - causing earthquakes and natural disasters in the process - draw Earth and the other planets out of their orbits within the next months. And over time it would slowly devour the entire star system.
xxx
Thenis knew she could have simply destroyed this planet right here and now. For example by simply forming the same black hole right here on the surface. Or with a dozen other methods. Everyone actually being powerful enough to have a chance to stop her was simply too far away to interfere. And in some cases too indifferent anyway.
But the inhabitants of this Earth might still be useful in the future.
She knew the strongest beings of this world would obviously be able to stop the black hole by themselves. But this would also keep them busy for the next time and distract them from interferring in the Dark Order´s activities. And it would spread fear and panic under the normal population, that they might be able to take advantage of later.
She had learned from their past mistakes.
"Now let us go. I have a meeting with a young man named Hyoudou," Thenis announced.
She formed a portal and she and her followers disappeared.
They saw them leave. She was going after Issei, they realized worried for him.
One moment later the time-bubble disappeared and Ehron, Maya and Rey were free again.
But Xenovia, Kiba, Asia and Murayama could still not feel their connection to their own powers.
xxx
Out in space however, the new formed black hole had not disappeared and the time of the disaster was slowly coming closer.
xxxxxxx
Erebos Demon´s Capital (DxD Universe 23)
Issei and the others were still watching the ongoing confrontation between the Devil Hunters and the native versions of Kuroka, Koneko and Akeno, who as it seemed were members of the Resistance.
But they also knew that continuing to try to hide was pointless.
It was only a question of time until their presence was discovered, if it not already had been.
The three Resistance members had started to power up.
But Dh-Vali already had his Balance Breaker activated since he had arrived and they were surrounded by Demon Warriors.
Issei and his team knew this was the point they had to make an decision. As long as they were hiding themselves they were also vulnerable if someone attacked them.
Who were they kidding? Issei thought. There was no way there presence had not been discovered yet.
As expected DH-Koneko turned around to them.
"Onee-chan," she said.
"I know – there is someone else here, someone incredible powerful," DH-Kuroka stated.
xxx
"Sirechs, Grayfia - you are with me," Issei said. "Raynare, Rias, Irina, Kuroka - stand back for the moment. We will try to cover your presence with our own. Move in when they are distracted."
"Understood," Raynare and Rias both answered.
Issei powered up and his own Scare Armor formed around him.
This was it with the undercover work, he thought.
"You," DH-Vali said, recognizing him.
"Issei-kun?" the native Kuroka said surprised.
"Sirzechs Lucifer?" Dh-Kuroka called out in similar surprise as she recognized the strongest of the 4 Maou standing beside Issei.
In this world Sirzechs was long dead. So the Devil Hunters, who operated mostly in other universes, where the only ones who recognized him on sight alone. They realized that even they might have a tough fight on their hands here.
"Maybe we should take this somewhere else," Issei suggested. "Out of this town."
"And let the Resistance members escape in the process, you mean?" DH-Vali responded.
"Do you really think they are still your priority now?" Issei replied. "Besides, there is something about the `power-up´ your `allies´ gave you that you should know about. Do you want to know what happened to your teammate - my mad counterpart?"
And here is the newest chapter.
Short reminder: The origin universe of the Guardian Organization is as described a few times before a mixture of a Marvel Universe that also contains the events of the Hellsing Manga.
One of the earliest alternate world this universe made contact with was however an DC universe.
ccxx
This one was actually meant to end a bit earlier, with the last scene already part of the next. But in the end I decided to add it to this chapter instead.
All in all this chapter contains a lot of heavy developments for the current story-arc.