Disclaimer: Spoilers for FGO main plot this chapter. You have been warned! ; )
The ORC were heading to an abandoned factory where the location of the stray supposedly was. As they approached they saw someone small standing in front of the factory entrance staring at it. She wore a black hood with white trim, her violet hair coming out the front of the hood as well as a ponytail coming out the back.
"Ana. What are you doing here?" Issei said to the small girl standing in front of the factory.
The now identified Ana turned to see her Master and his companions approaching. "Master, I sensed something ominous coming from this place. I came to investigate. Are you here to do the same?" She asked.
"Sorta. We got called about a stray devil in the area. If you sense something in there then I guess we came to the right place." Issei stated.
"If you are going to deal with it then allow me to assist you Master." Ana said.
Issei looked to Rias who nodded in agreement. "Sure the more the merrier." Said Issei cheerfully.
The group went in and investigated the factory. As they walked around the place they noticed signs of blood and scratch marks along the ground. As the group moved further in they all suddenly stopped in place. Something in the shadows was heading at them. The figure became visible and landed on the ground next to Issei's feet. Issei looked at it, and what he saw disgusted him. It was a half-eaten corpse of an unfortunate victim.
OK. That is seriously gross. Poor bastard. Issei thought as he looked at where the corpse came from. From the shadows emerged a topless female figure, which aside from the lack of clothes wouldn't be all too strange. No, the weird thing was how high up the torso was and the reason why became more apparent when the rest of her body became visible. The devil's bottom half was a gigantic beastial form similar to that of a lion.
"Well, well, well. Looks like more prey came to me. I can't wait to feast upon your flesh." Said the stray.
"Already gone mad have you? Well, it doesn't matter. Stray Devil Visor, I am Rias Gremory of the Gremory clan and have been charged with disposing of you!" She stated firmly.
"I would like to see you try you spoiled brat!" Visor said and her hands became monster claws.
"All right everyone, let's take her out!" Rias ordered and the ORC began to move. Rias, Issei, and Asia stood back as the others went forward to fight the devil. Mash and Koneko moved in close to get some hits in on Visor. Visor clawed at the two but was blocked by Mash's shield. From behind Mash, Koneko used her as a springboard to get close to Visor's face and punch her square in the jaw. Visor was pushed back from the force and started to become enraged.
"You little shit! I'll crush you!" She began to charge at Mash and Koneko with one of her arms raised when she was stopped in her tracks by a long chain. It seemingly appeared out of nowhere but soon more chains began to surround the large stray and bound her in place. As the stray struggled to get free she looked around to find out where the chains came from. Standing above her on a single chain was Ana with her scythe in hand. As Visor was about to launch a demonic energy blast at Lily her arm was cut off by Kiba who used his speed and skill to cut clean through it while she was distracted. "AHHHHHH! My arm!" Visor screamed.
"Ufufufufu. Your arm should be the least of your worries at the moment." Said Akeno, a sadistic look in her eyes, her hands sparking with electricity. She launched a bolt at Visor and started frying her. The electricity traveled along the chains causing Ana to have to jump off and separate the chain from her scythe so as to not get fried also. Akeno looked over to Ana with an embarrassed face. "Sorry Ana-chan. I didn't think it would travel across the chain." She apologized.
Ana just continued to give Akeno a stoic look with slightly narrowed eyes but then refocused on the stray. Visor was struggling to get up after being electrocuted but managed enough strength to try and burst forward at Akeno but was stopped by a pillar of swords that appeared from under her and impaled her stomach. Kiba had created swords to keep her in place, while in the meantime several blades were flying at the stray from Issei. The swords cut and impaled Visor leaving her a bloody mess. Visor slumped down, no longer able to keep herself upright.
Rias began to walk over to the defeated stray with Issei and Asia following close behind her. "It's over now Visor. Any last words?"
The stray struggled to lift her head but managed to spit out her words. "Y-you stupid spoiled brat..." She said. Suddenly the arm that was cut off of the stray sprung to life and tried to attack Rias. Everyone was taken by surprise not expecting the severed limb to still be dangerous.
Issei, who saw it move out of his peripheral vision first, moved quickly. "Watch out Buchou!" He yelled while summoning his Boosted Gear. He crushed the severed limb with a devastating punch. The limb was mangled and didn't look like it was gonna move again, but just to be sure Issei used fire runic magic to completely incinerate the arm.
Rias finally regained her equilibrium and spoke. "T-thank you Issei-kun. I should have been more careful." She had a sour look on her face but soon recomposed herself and faced the stray again who was now scowling even more at her. "I'll make sure this is painful." She said as she created a ball of destruction energy in her hand.
"Go to hell!" Yelled Visor.
Rias smirked. "I live there fool!" She mocked and erased Visor from where she laid. After that everyone walked out of the factory to head home. "Good work everyone. I'm glad we were able to deal with this before it became too big a problem." Rias looked over to Ana. "And thank you for your help too Ana-chan." She said with a slight bow.
Ana simply looked to the side and responded. "You are Master's companions, I only did what was required of me as his servant."
"Still, thank you for helping us." Rias said gratefully. Ana just nodded and walked off into the night. Rias then looked over to Issei, slightly embarrassed. "Thank you as well Issei-kun. I would have been seriously hurt if you hadn't protected me. I should have been more careful."
Issei just showed a friendly smile to Rias. "Don't worry about it Rias-buchou, we're comrades so it's only natural to look out for each other." Rias smiled back but looked down afterwards. Issei saw that her increasingly depressive state was now affecting her ability to fight right so he resolved himself to talk to her tomorrow.
As the devils left to go home Issei, Asia, and Mash walked home and Mash noticed that Issei seemed to be lost in thought.
"Senpai, is something wrong?"
Issei seemed to come out of his trance and looked at Mash kindly. "No Mashu. Nothing is wrong. I was just thinking that I was gonna talk to Rias-buchou tomorrow. Whatever has been bothering her is now affecting her focus in battle and we can't let something happen to her." Issei looked forward in contemplation. Now how do I go about this is the real question.
The next day after classes had ended Issei, Mash, and Asia were walking to the clubroom. As they walked into the club they noticed Rias staring at some sort of documents in her hand with a dark look. Issei began to look concerned and addressed her. "Is everything alright Rias-buchou?"
Rias looked up from the document in surprise as if she just noticed he was there and quickly tried to recompose herself. "I-It's nothing Issei-kun, just family matters."
Issei stared at her unconvinced. He decided now was the time to talk. "Hey Rias-buchou. Do you mind if we talk?" Issei said, giving a quick glance to the others in the room.
Rias had an inquisitive look on her face, wondering what he would need to talk about and understood he wanted to speak privately. She gave a look to her servants and they all walked out of the room followed by Mash and Asia. After a bit of time Rias began to speak. "So, what do you wish to speak to me about?"
"I've been keeping an eye on you for a while now, ever since I became a part of this club. I've been trying to figure out what it is that you were so desperate to get me as your piece for and well I haven't figured it out yet." Rias shifted somewhat nervously in her chair wondering where Issei was going with this. "As I was watching I began to notice that you were slowly becoming more depressed as the days went on. I couldn't really figure out what could be bothering you, until Asia suggested a possible reason. That reason being that you had some personal problem that you needed me to become your servant to solve. Once she said that your actions seemed to make more sense and then I began to wonder, what could possibly be bothering you so much that you would desperately need my help for?" Rias looked down somewhat ashamed to be read so easily. "After last night when you were caught off guard and just a bit earlier where you looked like you were about to give up on yourself, I figured it was time I stopped waiting for you to tell me what's wrong and just ask you directly." Issei had a serious look on his face. "If it's too personal to talk about then that's fine but I'm not going to be a part of something I know nothing about." Issei's look then turned caring to Rias. "So what's wrong? Someone with your looks shouldn't ruin them with brooding." He said somewhat playfully.
Rias sat in silence for a few minutes before she moved the documents in front of her to Issei for him to look at. Issei looked slightly confused but took the papers and began to read them. "These are papers relating to my arranged marriage set up by my family." Rias said sadly. As he went through them his own look began to darken as well. "My family has made a deal with the family of the Phenex house to have me and one of their sons, Riser, to be wed in order to keep a pure devil bloodline going." Issei could hear the disgust in her voice when she said his name.
As he was looking through the documents he saw clearly that a pure bloodline wasn't the only thing being agreed upon. There were the names of other devil families tied in as well, some he recognized from his studies others that he didn't. "Seems a pure bloodline isn't the only thing that's involved with this." He said a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"Yes well, my mother is someone who has a knack for maximizing profits. Once the engagement was agreed upon by the families my mother got to work trying to make sure the family benefited as much as possible." She said slightly exasperated.
"Rias. If your goal is to convince me to become a devil, you're unfortunately doing a poor job of it right now." Issei said as he kept going through the papers. Rias' head drooped at his words, thinking she was losing her chance to gain his help. As Issei got to the last paper he noticed it was different from the rest. It was a letter from Riser addressed to Rias. As he read it his face started to become as dark as Rias' was earlier. The letter basically was telling Rias to give up on getting out of the engagement and to return to the Underworld where she belonged. "Ok. I was gonna ask what kind of person this Riser guy was but I got the jist from this letter." He said in a low but audible tone.
"Do you see now why I was so desperate to gain your help? If I had the Red Dragon Emperor in my peerage we would definitely be able to take Riser down." She said trying her best to keep her voice steady.
Issei stood in thought for a bit before addressing the devil. "I'm not so sure about that Rias. In all honesty, while I don't know how strong this guy is, I'm not exactly the strongest person around. I get by as a support with the help of my servants and while I'm working to change that, the amount of time until you are able to do something is too short and I doubt they will allow my servants to aid you since they are technically my servants and not yours." Rias looked down and began to lose hope. Issei saw such a Rias and decided to act. "But, if we give them a reason to allow me and my servants to help you then it would be a different story wouldn't it?" Issei said with a wry smile.
Rias' head popped up fast, wondering what Issei was getting at. "D-do you have some kind of plan?" She asked hopefully.
"Not a full plan, but it's nothing we can't figure out right now, right?" He gave a cheerful smile. Rias smiled back, grateful that Issei was willing to help her and began to go over the specifics of the agreement to try and find any loopholes in the agreement. While they were talking, Issei decided to ask Rias a question. "Hey Rias. Is there any specific reason you don't want to marry Riser?" He gave a slightly crooked smile. "Besides the fact that he's a pompous ass."
Rias chuckled at Issei's remark but then spoke somewhat sadly. "It's because he sees me as Rias Gremory." Issei looked confused so she elaborated. "...He sees me as Gremory first, Rias second, and he isn't the only one. My name carries weight in the Underworld." She looked down sadly. "Too much, sometimes. It's one of the reasons I enjoy staying in the human world. Here I'm just Rias with the family name Gremory. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be a Gremory. It just gets in the way sometimes." She gave Issei a pure smile. "I want someone who loves me as Rias first, Gremory a hopefully distant second. Understand?"
Issei nodded in confirmation but then went into thought. Seen as Rias first huh. She's right, she does deserve to have that chance. But, haven't I been doing the same thing for different reasons. Issei smiled mockingly at himself. She doesn't deserve to be treated like this. Not from the devils and not from me. Rias noticed that Issei had gone quiet and was starting to worry about him, but he suddenly looked at her with a serious face.
"Rias, I owe you an apology."
Rias was taken aback by this, not knowing where this was coming from. "An apology for what?"
"You're right. You do deserve to be seen as Rias before Gremory. I should've known better considering what I have been through with my own reputation as a Master." Issei sat on the couch in the clubroom and folded his hands in front of him. "I mentioned to you before about how I had a negative experience with the pillars before. Well, that was half true." Rias was now looking and listening to Issei intently. "You deserve to know the reason why I'm so skeptical of trusting you. This is going to take a bit to explain so just bear with me." He said with an apologetic smile.
"When I disappeared, I was sent to a place called Chaldea. They had summoned me by accident in an experiment meant to summon Heroic Spirits. The reason why I was summoned isn't truly known but it was hypothesized by the current Director that my Sacred Gear may have been the reason I was pulled in by accident. Regardless of the reason when I was summoned, the experiment caused me to lose my memories and I forgot everything about my life from before." Rias had a shocked expression on her face not expecting such an extreme thing to have happened to him since he seemed to be his usual self if a bit calmer when he came back.
"After that Chaldea took care of me as I had nowhere to go and the experiment was something that they technically and legally weren't supposed to do. During my time there I met many people who I would come to call friends including Mashu." Issei's face turned slightly dark. "That all changed one day when Chaldea was sabotaged from the inside. Someone rigged the place to blow and killed most of the staff there. I was trying to find people to help and when I entered the flaming operations room, I found Mashu with her lower half crushed under debris." Rias was holding her breath, desperately wanting to ask questions but also not wanting to interrupt. "I went up to her to try and help her but it was no use. While I was trying to save Mashu the way I came in collapsed and in the end we simply waited to die together, but the Rayshift for the operations room was still active and it sent both me and Mashu to another place. In the process it turned me into a Master and Mashu into my servant, saving both our lives."
Rias could no longer hold her questions. "What is Rayshifting?" She said curiously.
Issei had a look of realization when she asked. "Ah! Right. Well, it's basically a transportation method that can send people through time." Rias looked shocked so Issei elaborated. "Chaldea's purpose is to make sure that we prevent humanities "certain extinction" and we do that by correcting changes to history that would drastically affect the present. These changes are called Singularities."
Rias was stunned. This, Chaldea, had essentially created time travel and were working on technologies that members of the factions could only dream of. "So this Chaldea is like the time police?"
Issei chuckled at the devil's description of his organization. "Well you're not wrong but it's more complicated than that and well above my paygrade."
Issei cleared his throat and continued. "Anyways from the Rayshift we were sent to Fuyuki in the year 2004 where a Singularity had formed and had to resolve it in order to return to Chaldea. After a few battles we managed to defeat the source of the Singularity but when we thought it was over we were met with a shocking revelation. The person who had caused the Singularity and was the one who sabotaged Chaldea was a senior member of Chaldea, known as Lev Lainur, who turned out to be a Demon God Pillar."
It was now beginning to make sense to Rias. Not only was he essentially betrayed but the one who had done it was a member of a pillar family. But something didn't add up. "Wait, I don't know anyone named Lev Lainur in any pillar family. Are you sure they weren't just deceiving you?"
Issei gave a tired sigh. "Like I said this is complicated so bear with me here. I guess I should have mentioned that I got summoned not just through time but through space as well." He paused and looked Rias in the eyes. "I was sent to a parallel earth. One with a different history from ours."
Rias stared at him, shocked at what he just said. There were other earths? The multiverse theory is real? There were too many questions circulating in her mind right now. "You're not messing with me are you?" Rias asked, unsure what to think.
Issei gave a tired smile. "No, I'm not messing with you, although I can't fault you for thinking I am."
"Also, why do you keep calling them Demon God Pillars? Aren't they just Demon Pillars?"
"That is a complicated topic and I will tell you about it when we have time but for now let me continue." Rias nodded, getting comfortable in her seat. "Professor Lev turned out to be the Demon God Pillar Flauros and was working with the other Demon God Pillars to Incinerate Humanity. In truth when Chaldea was attacked they had technically succeeded, but Chaldea managed to remain unaffected despite the sabotage and as such we moved to undo the incineration." Issei leaned forward, threading his hand through his hair with a tired expression. "We had to travel through seven Singularities and undo the work of a Demon God Pillar in each one, not to mention going toe to toe with a Beast of Humanity, Tiamat."
Rias really didn't want to interrupt but she had to at this other bombshell that Issei casually dropped. "Tiamat! One of the Five Great Dragon Kings! You faced her and survived!?"
Issei showed a confused look at Rias' description. "Dragon King? I'm unaware of any title like that. We only know her as Beast II, a Primordial Goddess of Mesopotamian lore."
Rias was confused as she wasn't familiar with what Issei was calling Tiamat, but from his description the one he fought might have been even worse than the one she knew of. "A Primordial Goddess? I've never heard that description of her before."
Issei seemed to give a sigh of relief. "Well by the sound of it this world's Tiamat is much weaker than the one I fought. Good. I never want to experience that ever again. If it weren't for King Gilgamesh I would have died to her."
Rias wanted to tsukkomi him for basically calling Tiamat weak but decided to keep quiet about that. "Sorry for interrupting again. Please continue."
"Right, so anyways, after fighting through all seven Singularities we made it to the base of the Demon God Pillars, Solomon's Temple of Time. When we got there we were once again confronted by Professor Lev. When we met him Mashu asked if he was always a spy or had he been bribed to betray Chaldea, since he was a respected and well liked member since the beginning. The Professor told us that he had always been a spy and that his very creation was for the sole purpose of getting rid of Chaldea, although he failed at that." Rias now had the full picture of why Issei was so cautious of her. Someone who had done the work to basically befriend everyone, gain their trust, and then kill them without a second thought. It's a miracle that Issei even considered giving her a chance to begin with. "After that we fought all 72 Demon God Pillars at once with the help of the comrades we made along our journey through the Singularities and confronted the Mastermind behind the whole plan, Goetia."
"I thought the Ars Goetia was just a system created by Solomon."
"It was. The 72 Demon God Pillars pooled their power into a single being and thus manifested as Demon God Goetia, also known as Beast I." Issei looked grave remembering it. "He was so unbelievably powerful. Me and Mashu tried to fight him along with our comrades, but he was too powerful. He released an attack so devastating that I shouldn't even be alive right now." Sadness appeared in his eyes. "Mashu put her entire being on the line and when the attack hit she managed to protect me, but, her body was completely incinerated."
"But, she is still here! How could she have died!?" Rias asked with great concern and confusion.
Issei just shook his head. "Even I don't have an answer for that. But it did happen, I saw it with my own eyes. Not to mention that what happened next couldn't have happened if I just hallucinated it." Issei calmed himself down before continuing. "After her sacrifice I took Mashu's shield and was about to attack Goetia for what he did to her but was stopped by the previous Director of Chaldea. He turned out to be Solomon reincarnated and gave up his life so that Goetia would no longer be immortal and to give me a chance to end it. After one last push me and my comrades defeated Goetia and undid his plan. While I was making my way back to Chaldea to return home I almost didn't make it, but then Mashu appeared and she managed to bring me back to Chaldea." Issei seemed to calm down more getting close to the end. "Once I had recovered enough to stand we were told that the Incineration of Humanity was undone and that we were successful in our Grand Order. Shortly after that whatever spell brought me to Chaldea had worn off because then I was sent back home, and well I'm sure you know the rest from there."
Rias sat in contemplation trying to fully take in the story she was told. She had already asked a lot of questions throughout but what she heard was hard to believe in its entirety. "That's… A lot to take in Issei-kun."
"I'm sure it is. Keep in mind I gave you the heavily abridged version of events just to tell you the relevant parts to this. These events are the reason why I'm so cautious of devils, especially those related to the Pillars."
"I can't say I blame you. It's honestly a miracle that you were even willing to give us a chance."
"Yeah, well, I know logically that this world and that one are different. But not everything is different so I have to work to figure out what is the same and what isn't. Part of the reason I was willing to take a chance with you is because I knew of you from before I disappeared. You never did anything to make me think you were some malevolent being, but as I just said, that's not always a guarantee."
Rias looked somber. "I want to tell you that you have nothing to worry about, but I doubt my words would be enough to convince you."
Issei looked at Rias coolly. "No, it wouldn't. But we can't keep going on as we have been for the past month. It's not getting us anywhere. So we'll do things like this." Rias looked at him curiously. "I will put my trust in you Rias-senpai. And I will help you out of your arranged marriage as an apology." Rias looked elated at that. But she was stopped from celebrating by Issei's next words. "But, if you break my trust then we will have nothing to do with each other ever again." The thought of Issei abandoning her made Rias' stomach sink. "Understand?"
"Yes Issei-kun, I understand and will show you that your trust will not be misplaced." Rias said with determination.
Issei smiled at her response. "Alright, then let's figure out how to get you out of this predicament."
All right! It's time! I finally finished volume 2 so I will upload it now. Just a heads up, this volume is really back loaded. The first few chapters are gonna be kinda short then back few will be longer. Also, Issei is going to explain things about FGO to the DxD characters as I/he understands it. I'm aware this isn't the most accurate description but the details of thing Issei isn't directly involved with is known by Chaldea staff who actually do the work related to that. I will be looking in the comments to see what I may have gotten wrong with the details and will take that into consideration but Issei isn't going to be a Chaldea encyclopedia. Also keep in mind that we the players know how Mash was revived but the characters besides Fou do not. Anyways hope you all enjoy, I'm feeling pretty good today since I woke up and pulled double Castoria this morning! Happy 5th Anniversary FGO!