Tale of Discovery

Chapter 59: Devils vs God

The sight of several insentient Angels in my room wasn't exactly a nice sight, so I had used Destruction to get rid of them.

Then, I hold Koneko's small hand and pull her along as I head to the living room, where everyone else is at.

They had all seen me holding the unconscious Koneko as I entered my room, but didn't say anything.

I need to explain what's going on or else it would be problematic.

Checking the sofa, I see that everyone is sitting and it seems like they've been like this for a while. I guess they've been discussing some stuff among themselves.

There isn't enough space for both Koneko and I to sit, so I create two chairs right in front of the sofa and take a seat on one of them, while urging her to sit on the other.

"I'll keep this short," I begin to explain, "Someone ordered her to follow me at school, as they found me 'suspicious'. So, I've decided to keep her and wait to see if they'll come to retrieve her."

I look at them and use my eyes to motion to Koneko. Understanding my intentions, they begin to introduce themselves to her.

Now that, that's out of the way,

"Raynare," I say.

In a few seconds, her voice resounds within my head,

[Yes, All-Father!]

"Inform Rias Gremory that Koneko Toujou is being kept hostage anonymously."

[Affirmative.]

I'm already half-expecting her to show up in front of my apartment with her peerage demanding that I return Koneko to them. She won't be that dumb, right?

What I'm hoping that she does is getting into contact with the higher level Devils and informing them before she tries to do anything.

Well, I'll deal with them however they come at me, so it doesn't really matter in the end.

Shifting my focus to Koneko who's trying to get along with everyone, I say to her,

"Koneko, don't pull any sneaky moves, okay?"

She lets out a quiet "um" as acknowledgment.

------

Hey Irene, am I able to convert Devils to Angels?

{It's indeed possible, but there is a certain condition that should be met.}

What is it?

{They must be purified before the process can be initiated. The easiest method is to directly inject Holy Energy into them. While the second easiest method is to directly use a Holy Effect specifically made for that regard.}

What does direct Holy Energy injection mean?

{Copulation with a god.}

Yeah, thought so. As for the second one, I assume I need to experiment on Devils to find it?

{Correct.}

Huh? No way. Are you kidding me?

I know I was expecting her to come over, but it's still surprising nonetheless.

I go to where the girls are at and say,

"They've arrived."

The small smile on Koneko's face stiffened when she heard me. It seems like they were getting along quite well if she smiled.

"Koneko," I say solemnly, "you are to keep my identity a secret for now, understood?"

Having gotten her agreement, I turn to face Yuno and ask her,

"Is there any limit to your 'Banishment' - the ability you used to send us to THAT world?"

"Other than beings that are able to resist my spatial powers, there are no restrictions to the ability," she replies.

That's good. I inform her to use it on everyone in Rias Gremory's peerage. Fighting them without attracting much attention is much better than doing the opposite.

Using Clairvoyance to look outside, I see Rias standing in front of her peerage, seemingly giving out orders. Repositioning my sight, I see my three Angels standing behind them of their own volition.

They have excited looks on their face which is most likely because they're trying to prove themselves to me during this event. How cute.

I stop using Clairvoyance and shift my focus back to the fidgeting Koneko.

"Send Koneko and the Angels with me as well," I inform Yuno.

"Got it," she replies.

Moving toward Koneko, I hold her hand and have her accompany me as I go out of the apartment to where Rias and her peerage are at.

The surrounding space visibly deforms before the color of the sky goes from pitch-black to red as everything around us seems to change from your ordinary Tokyo to an apocalyptic one.

They're all extremely alarmed by the sudden change in environment as they make up hypothesis about what's going on.

I'm glad that it doesn't go on for long as they notice me who's walking towards them while holding a chained up Koneko that has tape on her mouth.

-Illusion.

"Welcome to the realm of the dead," I bellow.

I'm being quite literal with what I'm saying, as there are dead bodies lying all around us.

They are mostly reacting in anger to the sight of the "chained up" Koneko beside me. Sheesh, it's almost like they can't even hear me talking.

"You bastard! Release her now!", Issei shouts as incomplete gauntlet materializes around his left arm.

Lightning swirls around Akeno, while flame-like energy appears on Rias's hands.

As for Kiba, he summons two swords out of nowhere.

I guess it's about time I went to kick their asses. But before that,

"Hey Koneko, what would you think of Issei dying?"

She thinks for a few seconds before looking at me and saying,

"I don't care, but it will be bad if his power went away"

Just as I thought. Then all I have to do is make sure his power doesn't go away right?

Feeling the energy rush to me as my eye and focus are cleared up, I move toward the group of Devils who are battle-ready.

Kiba makes the first move as he dashes at me and swings one of his swords at my neck. I could simply cancel out the velocity of the attack, but where is the fun in that?

Lifting my left arm, I flick the sword. The next moment, the sword shatters as cuts appear all over Kiba's arm.

Not giving him time to react, I directly smash his kneecap before using my finger to puncture his biceps.

For the finishing touch, I kick him in the guts, which sends him flying into distant ruins of a building.

"Kiba!", Issei shouts at the flying figure before looking at me much more enraged as he shouts,

"I will kill you!"

Immediately after that, I feel some sort of energy coming my way. Observing the direction it's coming from, I see that it's from Rias. The Power of Destruction.

I remain stationary as the energy washes over me.

---3rd POV---

"You got him!" Issei exclaims once he sees Victor drowning in the Power of Destruction.

She had indeed got him, but there was this uneasy feeling that Rias couldn't understand. The next moment, as the Aura fades away into nothingness, Victor appears unharmed.

"Is that all?", he mocks, "I was expecting something of a much higher caliber."

He then slowly floats into the air as his arms get covered in golden veins.

Mid-air, Victor forms a cross with his arms before abruptly slashing the air using both of his hands.

Sensing something, Rias screams,

"Dodge it!"

They all seem to have noticed and move out of the way.

The next moment, all the ruins around them crumble as the ground splits in straight lines.

"I was expecting at least something like this from that power of yours," Victor who's still floating mid-air continues to mock.

"Mittelt, attack!", he suddenly orders.

"Yes, All-Father!", she responds before dashing in Rias's direction.

Rias extends her wings and flies to the sky.

Mittelt follows suit as she extends her own wings and flies at her.

"Angels?!", Rias exclaims.

Before she can say anything else, a pink spear made of light is thrown at her with incredible force.

Barely dodging it, she's met with a punch channeling the light element in her guts.

"President!", Issei who's been on the ground watching all of this play out finally shouts.

"Raynare, your turn," Victor casually orders.

"Yes, All-Father.", she excitedly replies before approaching Issei.

As if just noticing her presence, Issei freezes up as he mutters,

"Yuuma-chan?"

In response to his stupefied look, Raynare laughs as she shouts at him,

"We meet again, Issei-kun. Oh right, I have to introduce myself properly. My name is Raynare Victorianul, nice to meet you."

He doesn't seem to be able to react to the blatant mocking as he continues to stare at her.

"Kalawarner, you know what to do," Victor orders once again.

"Understood, All-Father," she says before extending her wings and flying towards Akeno.

---1st POV---

My Angels are way stronger than I initially thought. It's like they were made to fight.

{That's because they have Father's blessing.}

My blessing? What's that supposed to mean?

{Father will find that out himself in the near-future.}

Forget it, how do I plunder the Boosted Gear? Having a dragon companion sounds fun.

{To plunder abilities higher tiered abilities, Father must make the user lose control over themselves.}

So I basically need to enrage the guy, huh?

What would make him mad though? He has just recently entered this team so even if I kill them off in front of him, I doubt it would make him go crazy.

Eh, whatever I will give it a try.

Using Godspeed, I appear beside him and cast Illusion all over our surroundings. Then, I form the Illusion of a battered up Rias on the verge of death.

"Hey, Issei, look over here!", I say to the guy who's being pummeled into the ground by Raynare.

Once he looks over, his eyes turn bloodshot as he screams, "President!".

{Now!}

Here goes nothing Plunder!

------

My vision clears up from the blur it had become before as I find myself in front of Ddraig once again.

"Hello again," I say to him casually.

His response is to just stare at me with his dragon eyes for a dozen seconds before asking,

"Why are you doing this to him?"

Understanding that he's most likely referring to Issei, I say,

"It simply has nothing to do with him. It's the Boosted Gear that I seek, or more specifically, you."

Ddraig closes his eyelids, for a few seconds before reopening them and saying,

"I have one condition."

---3rd POV---

Kiba finally gets back to the battlefield just in time to see the sight of Issei collapsing in front of Victor.

Enraged, he summons new swords and rushes at him.

Victor, casually swings his sword, which sends a strong gust of wind stopping Kiba in his tracks.

"It's about time," Victor says before once again floating into the sky.

Suddenly, his body begins to change form as the color of his hairs and eyes change and runes appear all over him.

"Hear me," he bellows, making everyone halt their fights and look his way as he continues,

"I am God. The one and only. You either heed me or perish."

Feeling the aura exuding from him and the Holy Essence surrounding him, they can tell that he's not fabricating it.

"We only wish to talk with you," Victor says before calling back all his Angels.

Then, he slowly floats to the ground and lands beside Koneko who's no longer "chained".

Making the deification go away, he raises his left arm and shouts,

"Boosted Gear!"

Immediately after that, a more complete version of the red gauntlet that Issei had appears on his arm.

"Let's have a bargain," Victor says with a wide grin on his face.