Winds of Change (DxD)

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

Five years ago, Satanael and the Wizards of Oz formed a treaty between each other that would benefit each other. This treaty slowly became the origin of the Khaos Brigade, which turned into the Khaos Order. Satanael wanted assistance with his research, as he lacked the funds and equipment after he left Grigori.

His ideals and ideas were different from Azazel's, and he was asked to stop most of his research as it was too imprudent. He tried to convince Azazel and even change it to comply with Azazel, but in the end, he didn't like it.

To Satanael, nothing could be gained without loss. He thought Azazel's way was too limiting and didn't unleash the potential of Sacred Gears like the research he was pursuing—he wanted to artificially awaken Sacred Gears into becoming new Longinus-type Sacred Gears. So after mulling it over for a while, he decided to leave the organization.

There were a few fallen angels who agreed with his ideas, and they followed him. He also took his team, the [Abyss Team] with him when he left, as they were quite dependent on him as he taught them back in the Nephilim in his 'Satanael Class'.

However, his plans, along with the Wizards of Oz's, were foiled by the budding Slash Dog Team at the time, led by an inexperienced Tobio Ikuse. With them in the way, they slowly took down their teams and groups that they sent to stop them.

Slowly but surely, they were all killed off one by one. Satanael himself was set to be captured and questioned, but he faked his death and bided his time. When the Khaos Order was slowly getting their recognition again under Ophis' rule, he waited, and then, once Lapis and the others started showing up, he finally decided to act.

His fate was unknown to most people after all, and it was a good time for him to do this as various groups and parties began to move on. He used this to his advantage to carry out more of his experiments, and he genuinely thought that this could have been his chance at achieving the unachievable. However, one of their researchers—Avezza—suddenly changed sides, hindering it.

Then, slowly, more and more of their groups started being wiped out, even after he and the others helped provide them powerful items and hybrids with Artificial Sacred Gears. This left Satanael frustrated with himself and others around him.

Everything he did was foiled by the Middleman and Team [DxD]. In his eyes, he couldn't catch a break after working so hard for so long. He hated it—the one being he managed to trick also vanished near the beginning of the year, further confusing him.

Satanael bore two grudges towards three people—the first was Azazel for his naïve and limited views in Sacred Gears. They shared the same enthusiasm about Sacred Gears, yet he was too much of a coward in his eyes to pursue it with reckless abandonment because of a small mistake he made that was lost to time.

Second was Tobio Ikuse—and, by extension, the Slash Dog Team. They were the second group that got in his way five years ago and nearly killed him and destroyed the Khaos Order. No matter how much he planned, he couldn't think of a way to kill them all in a satisfactory manner.

Third and finally, in recent memory—the Middleman and Outer God, Jin Skyward. He wasn't the only one frustrated by this man, as he had done everything in his power to block him at every turn. Even though their superiors were the ones getting in his way, he'd find a way to beat them, leaving them even more frustrated.

In even more recent memory, more of their members were turned against them; more were captured and were being tested on by the DxD Alliance; and finally, he suspected that there were multiple moles, rats, and double agents that worked for him.

The biggest one in his memory was their current leader, Daniel. It didn't make sense to him. In Satanael's mind, he didn't remember Daniel ever being part of the previous batch of leaders, even among Lapis and the children of Nyarlathotep.

He thought it was odd, but any time he brought it up, he was instantly dismissed, like what he was saying was impossible. No matter how much evidence he brought to them, no matter how much he tried to provide it, nothing worked.

So he gave up and planned to go off on his own. He had already copied many of the documents, papers, and projects that his colleagues had made. Once he was ready, he would start his own little terrorist group. He had also recruited the other frustrated members of the organization and planned on hiding at his original base and preparing.

Presently, at this current time, that's where Satanael was. Even though he hadn't 'officially' left the organization—even though they couldn't really do that—he still kept in contact with them and occasionally went back to help with some work.

However, in his mind, he had already left them and didn't plan on helping them after a certain period of time had passed. He wanted to collect the [Infinity]—the Dragon God of Infinity, the Ouroboros Dragon—Ophis.

He had succeeded once; he'll succeed again because of his mind. Ophis was still naïve; he had seen her play with the Princess of the Wester Youkai Faction many times, and that led him to believe that she still had a naïve mindset.

He also saw her in a much more mature form, but believed that it was just her playing along with the Middleman's harem antics and nothing more. Satanael was a smart man, but because of what Aaron did after his evolution and Satanael's own tendency to underestimate people he detests, it made him pick some poor decisions from time to time.

"First, the [Infinity], next, the leader, and finally, that damn Outer God," he mumbled to himself. He looked at a device that was in the final stages of production.

They were given a blueprint by the Evie, but they lacked the resources to create it, so Satanael decided to improvise and use the materials in their world to create it. He had no idea if the effects it produced were supposed to be right, but, in his eyes, it was enough to do what he wanted.

"To make the [Infinite], [Finite], and capture the [Dreamer] down the line, as well as disrupt the powers that [DxD] has, with this," Satanael mumbled. He MADE himself BELIEVE that these were the powers of this device.

He had no proof, but he had convinced himself that it was capable of those things. But reality was much more disappointing, and he would find out soon enough.

"Satanael-sama, when are we going to try to capture the Dragon God?" asked a member of his [Abyss Team].

Some of the original members were dead, so he had to replace them with new and improved versions that were hybrids with his best Artificial Sacred Gears to date. The one who asked that was the Deputy Commander of the team.

Satanael looked up and laughed. "Soon, once I finish the touch-ups to this device, we will capture her first. After that, we will hunt down the [Dreamer] and then finally the pesky Middleman. Once we're done, we'll take down our former comrades and open up universal travel again."

Curious about this, the Deputy Commander—a male named Reinold—asked, "Do you have a specific universe in mind that you want to visit?"

"For now? No, I would have liked to go to the Crepuscule Phantasma or Evie Etoulde, but we lack the manpower for that, so we will go explore other universes in search of powerful items, artifacts, or abilities and integrate them into you—the [Abyss Team]."

"Is that so? Then I'll inform the rest," he said before leaving the room they were in.

"I'll turn all of you into mini [Infinities], just you wait, fufu," he mumbled to himself. "I'll have your heads, Azazel, Tobio, and Jin. Once this baby is complete, nothing is stopping me!"

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Toole's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

"So... I can explain, I think?" said Áine.

We had arrived back in the Land of Heaven Falls; we were in a particular building that had been built after the war. It was, I guess, a chapel that did fake weddings, or at least let the people there try out wedding attire. You can see where this is going, right?

If not, Mom and Aoife had gone into this place after asking Áine and Cana—they were against it at first as they themselves hadn't visited it yet and didn't know how I would react, but in the end, they yielded and came here.

Cindy was with them, and we were just outside their room. There were other people in there helping them get dressed into the wedding dresses.

"Why did you two go with them?" I asked. "I think both of you would look good in them."

Áine looked sheepish and looked at the ground.

"Ah, right, my bad," I said, and I grabbed her arm before putting her head on my chest.

Áine shook her head and snuggled into me. "No…it's fine."

It's been a long time since she first got married to that asshole, but I guess some scars stay for life—and even when she's mostly healed from it, I kind of just gave her a bit of a jolt and a reminder of that time.

All I need to do is erase those memories by replacing them with memories of us.

In contrast, Cana's face had turned red, and she looked away, mumbling something incoherent about 'not being ready yet' or something along those lines. It was just trying on a dress; what part of that is 'not being ready yet?'. Maybe it's a woman thing; since I'm a guy, I won't understand...

With Áine still resting her head on my chest, I looked at the others. "Do you guys want to try?"

"Ara? Can I take this as a marriage proposal~?" Lisa asked.

"I want to! Can I?" Gabriel agreed to it and seemed excited to try. Suzaku and Danu didn't voice their thoughts, but both silently nodded along.

"I'll pass. As far as I'm concerned, I'm already married to you—that's how I personally see it," said Irene. Ophis also shook her head; she didn't see a point to it, so I'll assume she has the same opinion as Irene.

They all looked at her unamused as she unabashedly smirked back at them.

"Please don't start a war here," I chided them, and they all calmed down, but that comment will definitely stick in their heads.

The door suddenly burst open, and the very flamboyant man came out with Mom and Aoife in wedding dresses.

"I present to you Róisín and Aoife—wedding version~!" he shouted and shook his hands around them.

I've heard that some people change when they put on certain clothes, make-up, or even both. However, I have never been to a wedding before and only heard things from people or read them online, but...

Both Mom and Aoife were blushing, waiting for a reaction out of me, but I couldn't really react; I was just left speechless. Putting it into simple words, both of them were so stunning and beautiful that I was just too awestruck to say anything.

"Fufu, I think that answers that, don't you two think?" the flamboyant man asked, making both of them blush harder.

"I-I want to try too!" Gabriel semi-shouted and put her hand up.

"…I-I would like to do the same," muttered Suzaku.

"More customers? Gladly! Come here, darlings~!" he said and walked into the room. He gestured for Aoife and Mom to go with him, but before they did—

"You both look beautiful. I can't find the words to say it, honestly—I don't think there's a word to justify how I feel right now, Aoife, Róisín," I told them.

"Kyaaa~" Aoife shouted and grabbed her own cheeks before running into the room. Mom seemed more speechless than me before walking into the room too. Lisa and Cana also jumped into it before it closed.

"Hah…I guess we know how you'll react at our future weddings," Áine said, sniggering a little.

"Hah! 'Our', is it, Áine-kun?" asked Irene smugly, earning an embarrassed glare from Áine.

"Alright, alright, let's calm down," I told them. Let's just get this over with...

— ○ ● ○ —

"…Guys, I can't move…"

A few hours had passed since then, and we were on our way to the Inn we were staying at for the night. We just finished eating dinner and were going to share a mixed bath together (we went to the same Inn as before).

Currently, Suzaku, Gabriel, Mom, and Aoife—everyone was clinging onto me with no exceptions. Earlier in the day, after all of them came out again with the wedding dresses, I kind of went overboard with the compliments, and now they were like this for the rest of the day.

I'm not complaining; I love it, actually, but trying to move is quite difficult. However, we finally reached our destination—the owner laughed at me, and we went to our room.

"You guys, go ahead; I need to do something really quick," I told them. They didn't question it, and they grabbed their towels and clothes before leaving for the open in-door bath.

I had booked the entire Inn for ourselves—paying the owner 50x more than what the nightly rate should be—so he let us have the Inn all to ourselves, which was my plan. I watched them go before vanishing from the spot.

Arriving at a cliffside that looked over the town, a Shadow Soldier appeared behind me.

"How is it?" I asked.

Coming beside me and kneeling down, they replied, "Everything is ready; several other Shadow Soldiers have been stationed in the surrounding countries, and Elyscia is also offering her aid, along with Resneas. Satanael and numerous others are inside the base as of right now."

Beside me was Bellion. Since universal travel is no longer possible, the risk of other beings going into the Dimensional Gap has decreased significantly, so I've given him a wider and broader role than before.

"Greed will also participate in this. We will stop anyone who tries to escape, my Liege," he said before getting up.

It seems overkill, but better safe than sorry. "Good, keep on monitoring them and inform me of any changes, and if any of them leave, follow them. I don't want to alert any of them about this before we start tomorrow. Once I give the go-ahead tomorrow, capture them."

"Of course," he replied before vanishing.

I sighed and looked back up at the moon. Scathach and the rest should meet us at Thine Ifreann Réimse so we can finally start after that, but since Mom wants to join us, we can leave the tour of the place after the mini operation.

"It's rare to see you here, Jin," said a voice behind me. Peeking back, I saw Nuada there with his hand up.

"Nuada, huh? It's rare for me to see you not drinking in that room," I replied, making him laugh.

"It is, isn't it!?" he said joyfully and stood beside me. "Is something bothering you?"

"No, it's just that I have my own little operation for tomorrow, and I'm wondering what I should do after."

"You're confident in it succeeding?"

"Yes."

"Fufu, if it came from anybody else, I would have my doubts, but if it's you, I can believe it."

A pause in conversation happened, and we stood in comfortable silence for a minute.

"…Thank you for creating that grave; it's well maintained too. Did you put some kind of automatic cleaning magic on it?" he asked.

"Yes. I only put the best for Nessa, her family, and everyone else that lost their lives," I replied, scrunching up my face at remembering them.

I felt a hand on my shoulder—a tired and brittle one. If a single hand could tell a story, I'm confident that the one on my shoulder right now could tell several lifetimes.

"Thank you—we will be forever grateful to you. Are you sure you're not giving us prereferral treatment because you're Irish?" he asked with uncertainty.

"I'm not. I'd do the same thing to the pantheons we're allied with, but I will admit that I was fond of Nessa. While our interactions were limited, they gave me a glimpse of a future that I could have someday—she and her family were taken too soon."

"…I see." The hand on my shoulder left it, and Nuada started walking away. "I'll go to sleep then, night~!"

"Yeah, goodnight, Nuada."

— ○ ● ○ —

"Took you long enough!" Áine said with a flushed face.

I had entered the mixed bath as everyone else was there. Since we were all used to each other already, none of us were too embarrassed about seeing each other naked, so... In front of me were tits galore.

W-well, I tried my best not to stare at my own mother, so there's that, I guess?

Walking over to them, I sat down and joined them. But someone quickly pointed out something.

"You're not going to clean yourself first? That's quite filthy, Aaron," said Aoife, cheekily smiling at me.

Suzaku came over to me and practically mounted me. "I'll...help you," she whispered.

I looked at her, then at Aoife, and smiled. "Don't mind if I do then." We left the open bath and went over to the lone wooden stool, which I duplicated.

Suzaku grabbed an extra towel, sponge, and soap. I sat down and waited for her. Eventually, I felt her presence behind me. A few seconds later, I was going to assume the sponge was hitting my back, but instead, it was something much softer and squishier.

When looking back at the open bath, Mom, Cindy, and Aoife's mouths were agape, shocked by what they were seeing.

"That's so like in anime," Aoife muttered.

"It's quite common in our world, actually," said Gabriel while blushing.

"You'd need big boobs for that, right? Will medium-sized boobs work?" Aoife asked. Cana and Áine slumped down, covering their breasts in shame. "I-I didn't mean to insult you too. I have medium-sized boobs too."

They had grown, but not to the same extent as Suzaku or Akeno's sizes, so by Aoife's definition, they were medium—the higher end, but still medium.

"Suzaku…erm, I like this, but I have to ask... why?"

"I can't…?" she asked, almost pitifully, which made me feel guilty, so I just shut my mouth and enjoyed the service.

Mom and Cindy suddenly got up and walked over to us, surprising everyone. They stared at me for a few seconds, then at Suzaku, and finally they went back into the changing rooms to get two extra sponges.

Cindy brought out two extra wooden stools and put them on each of my sides. She sat on the left one, while Mom sat on the right one.

"While that makes my son happy, it's not exactly efficient, Suzaku. So while you continue that, we'll help with this," said Mom as she grabbed my right arm and began scrubbing it with the sponge.

"Yes, I have done this plenty of times in the past, haven't I, Master Aaron?" Cindy asked while also beginning to scrub my left arm.

"…I guess? But didn't that stop when I was 14? Since it was a bit too weird for me," I replied.

"It indeed did," she said, blushing. "Although it was for a different reason entirely."

Confused by her blushing, I followed her gaze and saw that a tent had formed on my towel that was wrapped around my waist. I also noticed mom was doing her best to avoid looking at it, but she too was blushing.

Well, I did my best at ignoring that earlier since I was used to the girl's lewd behaviors around me. But I didn't expect these two to suddenly do this.

As I went to speak, Irene came over, bent over, and flung the towel that was wrapped around my waist away. It was so sudden and unexpected that I was left a bit speechless. Obviously, this drew attention, and my erect member was exposed to everyone there.

"…Did that grow bigger? I swear it wasn't that big the last time I saw it," Aoife commented before Áine lightly smacked her on the head. "Ow! I'm sorry!"

"Probably because you last saw it when we were younger? It did grow a bit more after you passed," I told her.

"Hmm…penises sure are weird. They can grow big in the short and long term!"

Everyone stared at Aoife, who awkwardly squirmed in the open bath.

Did she just make a joke? Is that considered a pun? I like them, so should I laugh? Again, as I went to react, I felt a soft hand wrap itself around my erection, making me let out a weird sound.

"Hmm. With good length and girth, I'll be able to enjoy myself with this," Irene said as she jerked it a few times.

"Erm, I normally wouldn't mind this, but I would rather not orgasm in front of my own mother," I said, making Irene stop.

She looked at me, to Mom and Cindy, who refused to look at her, back to everyone else in the open bath, to me, and then to Suzaku. She sighed and let go of my member. I expected her to walk back to the bath, but instead she turned around and sat down between my legs, pushing my member between her ass cheeks.

She turned around and smirked at me, then stretched her left arm out and lifted mom's chin to force her to look at her and me. Irene then smirked at her before refusing to move.

"You're not going to listen to me, are you?" I asked.

"No. Your erection is also twitching, you know?"

Shaking my head, I clicked my fingers, teleported her back to the bath, and covered myself up. Like I said, I'm not going to cum in front of my mother—if she wasn't here, then it would be another story, but not like this...

Irene was stunned but didn't retaliate; however, I saw the look in her eyes, and it told me that she would get even sooner or later, but that she'd behave for the rest of the time there—and she did.

The three with me finished helping me wash up, and they joined me in the bath. Suzaku stayed with me the entire time as we spoke about their expectations about tomorrow's mini-operation and what they'd like to see in Thine Ifreann Réimse.

— ○ ● ○ —

"Everyone's ready, right?" I asked. Everyone around me gave me a resounding 'Yes!'.

After breakfast, which was its own chaotic mess, and last night's events before we fell asleep, I had teleported us to Thine Ifreann Réimse earlier, and we had informed Queen Halloween of our plans.

With us were the new members of Scathach, Aífe, Vita, and Minerva, who would be joining us today.

"You plan on finishing this little mission today, right? Just to be sure, how long will you stay here?" Queen Maeve asked. Beside her was Alice Kyteler, who would be her attendant for the day while Aífe was gone.

"It shouldn't take long—a few hours at best, so expect us to be back before the end of the day, maybe around five or six in the evening?" I replied, and she nodded her head.

"Very well, I will prepare an exquisite dinner just for all of you!" she proclaimed.

"You're not good at cooking, ma'am," said Aífe.

"I'm obviously not going to be the one cooking!" she quipped back at her right-hand woman, who in turn just smiled at her.

"Cana and I will be here, so we'll help with that too," said Áine. "Stay safe, okay, Danu?"

Danu nodded beside me—she was coming with us while the others weren't. I had asked them last night, but they declined, saying they didn't like fighting that much but still did it in my [Pocket Dimension].

I clapped my hands to get everyone's attention. "So, here's the plan—" I tapped my head and sent the information to everyone else. My plan was to tell them during breakfast, but it would have been inefficient since we'd be missing at least most of the other members.

"The Shadow Soldiers, Elyscia, and Resneas are going to be assisting us today—they'll make sure that no one escapes; although I'll create a barrier that will prevent that when we teleport in a few seconds, it's just for some reassurance. So, any questions?" I asked, looking around at everyone.

Scathach put her hand up, and I nodded at her. "Capture or kill?"

"Capture any of the original members of the [Abyss Team]. I'm going after Satanael with Ophis and we'll capture him. Anyone else—kill them—if you're unsure, inform me and I'll tell you if we need to capture or kill them."

Everyone agreed to this, and after doing one more round of checks, we left for the Mariana Trench and Satanael's base.

— ○ ● ○ —

Satanael's base was quite large. It had around ten floors that were quite spacious and had around thirty rooms in each of them. With our teams, I had put us on different floors to make this quick.

Most would be in groups of two, except one that had three people in it. Suzaku and Danu, Gabriel and Irene, Mom, Cindy and Aoife, Scathach and Aífe, Minerva and Vita, and finally, me and Ophis. Lisa would go off by herself, I was against it but she insisted, so I relented—but put some Shadow Soldiers in her shadow.

Touching my ear, I spoke to everyone telepathically. 'Ophis and I will be at the very bottom—the 10th floor, where Satanael is. Meet us there once you're all done, alright?'

'Roger!' they answered collectively.

"Let's go."

"Mmm."

Ophis and I had a slow and 'peaceful' walk towards the room that Satanael was in, all the while quietly and quickly defeating people that stood in our way.

— ○ ● ○ —

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

It was unexpected, but after Aaron's group infiltrated Satanael's base, numerous and powerful explosions occurred at once, shaking the entire base and alerting Satanael, the researchers, and the members of the [Abyss Team] at once.

"What the…!? Are we under attack!?" Satanael shouted in panic. The monitor in front of him suddenly changed, and it showed the face of one of his fellow researchers.

"Satanael! The Middleman showed up with a few members of [DxD]! He also brought the Ouroboros Dragon and Apocalypse Dragon!"

Satanael's eyes widened in surprise before he started cackling. "He brought them to me!? Perfect! We may not be completely ready, but it should be enough to bring those dragons down! Where are the dragons!?" he asked.

"I-it seems that the Dragon God of Infinity and Middleman are on your floor, while the Apocalypse Dragon is on the fourth floor with the Great Seraph Gabriel!"

"Seraph? Well, I certainly wouldn't mind experimenting on more angels. I've already done it to fallen angels, but not many pure angels—this should prove fruitful," he said and smirked. "And they're just making their way to me? Wonderful, I can kill two dragons with one stone, kuku."

Satanael turned his attention to the device that was floating in the middle of a machine. He turned back to his colleague and said, "Delay the rest; I will take care of the Ouroboros Dragon and Middleman!"

"Right away!"

He made his way to the device and changed the settings on the machine. It started buzzing with noise and began to power up the device even more.

"A little more power in it is fine, right?"

— ○ ● ○ —

"We don't team up this often, do we?" Gabriel asked Irene while clinging onto her.

"We often did, in Aaron's [Pocket Dimension]," replied the dragon. "Unless you mean outside of that, then yes, you're correct."

This duo had been assigned the fourth floor to subjugate, and they had only come across a few people so far—most of them were researchers testing out Artificial Sacred Gears that both destroyed after a few seconds. The rest were new hybrids that hadn't been given a name and had limited combat knowledge.

Gabriel was hesitant to kill her enemies, but Irene killed them right away, providing some kind of balance between the two of them. Gabriel is capable of killing, but if she could, she wouldn't—she had the mindset of Asia before the war. Although she will take lives if she deems it necessary.

She wanted to question Aaron about only capturing certain people and not everyone, but she didn't get a chance to ask him before the operation started.

As they continued to walk down the long hallway, a wave of light rushed past them and increased the entire hallway's illumination, briefly blinding them. Gabriel went to cover herself, but Irene summoned her staff and created a small barrier that dimmed the light being directed at them.

The light gradually faded and the previous luminescence of the room returned. What followed after that were small, needle-sized wind blade attacks that also slammed into Irene's barrier. Because of the difference in their power, Irene's barrier held strong and didn't waver in front of all the attacks.

It eventually stopped, and they heard clapping on the other side of the hallway. Both women saw a middle-aged man wearing very flamboyant clothing. His chest was exposed, and he had white feathers all over the attire he wore. He had glowing bracelets on each wrist, a very large necklace with a bird on it, and a pink and red hat with wings on its side.

A smirk donned his lips, and his green eyes glowed. "Welcome, welcome, [DxD] to Satanael-sama's secret base! I hope you enjoy your permanent stay here after—hmm? Oh? Aren't you... The Seraph Gabriel and the Apocalypse Dragon Great Red?"

The smirk on his face only grew broader, and he chuckled. "Lucky me, I can bring you two in since Satanael-sama wants both of you~!" He pointed his left arm towards them and shouted, "Buzzy, come out!"

A long, silky worm-like creature jumped out from behind him. It had two white, feathery wings on its body. Its eyes were shaped like octagons, and it had square teeth, which both Irene and Gabriel found unique.

"An Independent Avatar-type Sacred Gear? It's most likely artificial too. Is this the thing that attacked us earlier?" Irene asked while examining the creature.

The young man did a pose and pointed his finger at them like a gun and shouted, "Correct! Buzzy, go~!"

The worm-like Sacred Gear torpedoed towards Irene and Gabriel. Its wings flapped behind it, and it began to emit light that quickly formed into light blades. It shot it towards them, and halfway towards them, they multiplied and slammed into Irene's barrier.

"Booo~ be fair and fight me like a woman~"

"…But you're a man," said Irene.

"I am a lady!"

Irene raised a brow but didn't question it. She shrugged and tapped her staff once before the light blades disappeared. She dismissed the barrier, and subsequently, light spears shot from behind her towards the man.

The Sacred Gear called Buzzy jumped in front of the light attacks—an enormous mouth opened from part of its body and swallowed the attacks. It landed on the ground and let out a burp.

"Fufu, good work, cutie~!" praised the man in front of them. "I'm Calonia, by the way, the most flamboyant person you'll meet—well, I'm a hybrid between a divine beast and a fallen angel~"

After he said that, jet-black feathered wings appeared from behind him as he also summoned light spears around him.

"…Mmm. I think I'm useless here because that cute Sacred Gear can eat my light," mumbled Gabriel.

'Cute…? That thing is cute to her? I don't understand—never mind,' thought Irene. "You have access to different abilities now, don't' you? Aaron had already prepared you for a scenario like this," stated Irene.

"Ah!" As if remembering that detail, Gabriel nodded her head before joyfully raising her arm up and...

"You're choosing to do that!?" Irene asked in horror and shock.

"Yaaay~!"

"Weeeeeeee~!"

"Let's beat the mean worm-chan~!"

—An army of mini-Gabriel's appeared from the magic circle that Gabriel created from above them. They all started dropping to the ground and chatting amongst themselves.

"Ha…hahahaha!" laughed Calonia. "You expect me to believe that those things can defeat me!?" he asked in indignation.

Irene shook her head and only felt pity for the man because each and every single one of those mini-Gabriel's had the same powerful level as the original that stood proudly beside Irene.

Gabriel raised her arm and pointed at Buzzy and Calonia. "Go~!"

"Gooo~!"

"Attack~!"

"Make them fall in love with the fluff~!"

The army of mini-Gabriel's screamed and charged towards Buzzy and Calonia. Calonia chuckled again before he fired his light spears towards the army of mini-Gabriels. Buzzy also opened its mouth before launching a vortex of wind magic from its mouth.

"Formation B, everyone!" one of the mini-Gabriel's shouted—this one had a white hat that had 'Commander' on it.

"Aye, aye!" they shouted and quickly formed an arrow shape.

"Element: Fire!" commanded the mini-Gabriel. From the top of this army to the very bottom of this army, all of their bodies ignited into flames as they charged forward. This created a relatively large and hot arrow that was charging towards Calonia.

To his utter horror, the flaming mini-Gabriel's destroyed his light spears and the windy vortex that were aimed at them. Before either of them could react, the mini-Gabriel army's speed increased to a point where neither of them could follow it, and they slammed into Buzzy, creating a mini-explosion.

"Buzzy!!" Calonia screamed, horrified at the sight. After the explosion ended, Buzzy was still standing but severely injured.

The mini-Gabriel's were ordered by the original Gabriel to hold back on the attack as she didn't want to accidentally obliterate the base before Aaron and the rest could deal with the sections.

Frowning, Calonia asked his Sacred Gear if he was fine, and it made a weak noise, which indicated that it could keep fighting.

"It can't be helped them—let's go with that, cutie! Balance Adjust!" shouted Calonia. Buzzy's body exploded in light, and his body quickly increased in size and morphed into a more snake-like shape and texture.

Shiny white snake scales covered Buzzy's body; it had cloud-like eyebrows and sharp snake-like pupils. Around its body were light rings that glowed; the two wings on its body became even bigger; and at the tip of its tail was another head that emitted a strange glow.

"It's over for you two! Buzzy, go! Mow them down!" commanded Calonia.

The injuries that Buzzy had sustained were now healed, so with a healthy new body, all the rings shone and began to continuously fire light attacks towards Gabriel, the mini-Gabriels, and Irene. The head at its tail shone brighter, and the speed of all the attacks increased as wind was applied to them.

Finally, Buzzy also fired light breath attacks encased in wind properties. The light breath attack was brighter than the others—reminiscent of the earlier attack that threatened to blind both Irene and Gabriel.

"Irene…" Gabriel mumbled cutely while hiding behind her.

Irene's eyes twitched before she sighed. "…Fine, I'll play along, okay?"

"Yay~" cheered the Seraph.

Irene raised her staff and pointed it at the army of mini-Gabriel's. All of their bodies glowed, and crimson armor with silver-orange angelic wings sprouted from their backs.

"We have been buffed!"

"Buffed!"

"Charge!"

With the new armor provided by Irene, the army of mini-Gabriel's charged, but to everyone's surprise except for Irene's—a magic circle appeared above them and...

"So cute~!" Gabriel chirped as she hugged Irene's arm.

—From the magic circle came out... an army of mini-Irene's! Some were in their human form, while others were in their dragon form. A few of the mini-Gabriel's jumped onto the dragonized Irene's, along with the human-form mini-Irene's.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha~!" the mini-Irene army laughed, followed by the mini-Gabriel.

The armor that Irene provided would protect them against any elemental attacks. They would absorb them and invert them into energy for the mini-Gabriel's use. Irene's own miniature army had the same armor on them and functioned the same way.

The mini-Irene's pointed their staffs towards Buzzy and Calonia's attacks and countered them with a crimson ray blast. This was followed up by the mini-Gabriel's firing an array of light attacks, which consisted of spears, balls, and chains.

Buzzy's head at the end of his tail glowed even brighter and formed a wall of light and wind in front of them. Nevertheless, the mini-armies' attacks blasted through them, obliterating Buzzy and quickly targeting Calonia.

In a desperate attempt at surviving, Calonia forced his body to its limit, used up every single bit of his power, and created a defensive magic circle in front of him.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" a roar from his very being echoed in the halls, and to his own surprise, the attack from the mini army stopped, and he grinned. As he went to speak, something white and shining appeared in front of him.

Gabriel had jumped forward, and with her light powers coating her leg, she slammed it into Calonia's face. "Gabriel kick!" the Seraph shouted. Calonia was violently blasted away and crashed into the base's walls, knocking him out. The wall was also mostly destroyed, and it was kept up by Irene, as she was seen pointing her staff at it.

"Gabriel kick?" Irene asked as she came over and stood beside Gabriel.

"I saw Róisín use it when she was training with Lianne~" explained Gabriel.

"Hmm. Now we know where Aaron got his naming sense from," said Irene before laughing to herself. Gabriel titled her head, confused by the comment. "Although..." she stopped and looked at the unconscious Calonia. "Aaron said to only bring the original members, and after using my [Appraisal] on him, he was artificially created and not part of the original team, so we should kill him."

"No, he said that we could choose to kill or capture them," muttered Gabriel.

"No. He said to ask him if we're unsure if we should kill or capture our targets," corrected Irene. She quickly contacted Aaron and informed him of the situation.

[I'll let you two decide. His Artificial Sacred Gear can be confiscated whether or not he lives or dies—er, should I say she?] asked Aaron.

Irene nodded and turned back to Gabriel. "He said it's up to us." They stared at each other for a few seconds before Gabriel created a defensive magic circle to their left, blocking an attack.

"God damn, I was too late! Wait for me, Calonia-nee, I'll save your sorry ass!" shouted a young girl. "Flexy, go! Thunderbolt!"

A yellow mouse with a red thunderbolt on its tail ran towards Irene and Gabriel and sent a yellow thunderbolt towards them. It hit Gabriel's magic circle and didn't do anything, making the young lady click her tongue.

"Give Calonia-nee back!" she shouted angrily at them. "You're an angel, aren't you!? Aren't you supposed to help everyone!?"

"But... you're doing bad things; bad people should be punished," replied Gabriel, slightly frowning at the girl.

"We are justice!" she shouted, and she did the same pose as Calonia. "I, Setomi, will stop you with Flexy!"

Kitsune ears popped up on her head, and two tails appeared behind her. Her ears were the same color as her hair—red; her eyes were orange; and she was around 5'2" in height. She wore a shrine priestess uniform and getas.

She generated [Fox Fire] around her. Typically, they were blue flames unique to kitsune youkais, but Setomi's flames were the same as her eyes and hair—a mix of red and orange.

— ○ ● ○ —

"We agreed to come, but...aren't they a bit weak?" Minerva asked as she punched another researcher away.

Vita laughed as she put another enemy to sleep. "Their numbers are limited, and Jin told us that most of their members are still new and haven't been certified for actual combat yet. Hence why they seem so... inexperienced."

Before Aaron teleported them here, when he tapped his head, he shared various bits of information with them. Most of it was about how he wanted the operation to go—the other half was about the members of Satanael's group.

Overall, the [Abyss Team] was their lead fighting group; after that, there were a few other individuals that had been prepped for combat while the rest were still in training. The researchers and scientists weren't combat-oriented, but they had the raw power to do serious damage to certain species (like devils and vampires because of their light).

"Dash!!" a voice boomed in the distance. Both women created defensive magic circles in front of them, and a hulking giant slammed into them, cracking the combined magic circles a bit and surprising them.

"This one…ah, I see—it's Rhaz—the mixture of an orc, goblin champion, and divine beast that was a powerful wyvern," said Vita as she stared at the man who kept on charging at their magic circle.

"Rhaz…Rhaz…oh him." Minerva looked at the man and frowned.

He had short black hair, a diamond-like body, red-hot shorts, and bare feet. On his back were wyvern wings, and he had claws for hands.

Rhaz stopped his charge and backed away. He looked at both Vita and Minerva before sighing. "Weak women; why must I fight them? Where is Middleman?" he asked.

Rhaz was a brute with basic intelligence. He could follow orders and was considered just below the [Abyss Team], as he only had his body to use and was given powers from birth. Super strength, durability, endurance, regeneration, flight, and diamond body made him formidable.

All of that is also increased by his goblin champion, orc, and Divine Beast powers mixed within him, as well as the modifications given to him by Satanael and the other researchers and scientists of his group.

"Wha—!?" Minerva was about to go off on him when Vita put her hand in front of her.

"He has the intelligence of a child; don't be too hard on him, fufu," she said, summoning her familiar, a blue bird named Grianos.

"I no hungry, woman," he said while staring at the bird familiar.

"It's so low that he thinks you're tempting him with food? Why are we stuck with—" Minerva swiftly turned around and blocked another attack aimed at them. "Now what!?"

In front of Minerva were two individuals—a woman and a man.

The man had blonde hair and pure black eyes; he wore a white three-piece suit, a fedora hat, and carried a glass of wine in his right hand. On his shoulder was a white rabbit, smirking at Minerva.

The woman wore a white-pink one-piece dress with frilly ends and rose buds on her shoulders. She had black hair and pure white eyes; on her shoulder was a black rabbit with its eyes closed.

"We believe that the unworthy are not allowed to face the worthy (Abyss Team), hence why we have decided to face the unworthy. The true members of [DxD] are the ones that will be allowed to face the [Abyss Team]," said the man.

"Two fakes—especially the woman with the familiar—are below that. How have you contributed to [DxD]? No, because we don't know who you two are," added the woman.

"Kazbek, Elenae, me okay, me handle them," said Rhaz, brining his arms up and infusing them with touki.

"We don't want to fight the fake, so you can deal with the witch and her familiar—however, this woman, I want to use her for experiments. You have a strange power," said Kazbek, the male of the duo.

"I'd like it given to me, Kazbek," said the woman named Elenae.

Kazbek grabbed her hand and kissed it. "Anything for you, my dear."

"Fufufu~"

"Ugh…" Minerva cringed at seeing the opponents like that, so without another second's hesitation, she arrived beside Elenae, wrapped her arm in a pink aura, and sent it towards her face.

To her surprise, the black rabbit's tail had stopped her attack, but the shockwave it produced blasted them away. Both Kazbek and Elenae landed on the ground, unharmed, but before they could react, Minerva appeared in front of them again and threw a flurry of punches their way. However, this time both rabbits on their shoulders blocked them using their tails.

She quickly jumped away and sighed. She noticed that her hands were bleeding, so she used her pink aura to quickly heal them.

"It seems you have some kind of healing power—it makes me want it even more. If we have that, we'll be invincible," said Elenae.

Minerva pointed her finger at them and declared, "Over my still-budding body! I'm too young to die! I haven't even gotten a boyfriend!!"

"Fufu, is that why you planned on seducing Jin after this operation? Imaging getting a crush on him of all people—you're basically fighting against most women in his harem," Vita shouted as her own battle with Rhaz had started.

Minerva's face turned red as she held back her shout, but she failed miserably. "So whaaaaaaaaaat!? You're acting like you never had a crush on a celebrity at all! But this one is more realistic! He's Irish and comes to our pantheon relatively frequently!!!"

Tears had formed in Minerva's eyes; they threatened to spill, but she continued to keep her (short) composure.

"Still, you're not the only one in the Irish Pantheon to do this, fufu," teased Vita. She was doing this on purpose, as Minerva's innate ability relied on her emotions.

The more emotional she became about anything, the stronger her powers became. The pink aura was just a byproduct of it. Minerva's powers were quite simple—an overall power boost and healing. She also produces heart-shaped attacks as projectiles when she's at the height of her powers.

As previously said, as her emotions grow stronger—those emotions could be anything—she becomes stronger. Apart from that, she knew magic, had access to touki (because she trained for months to unlock it because she found out that Jin's women could use both touki and magic), and her body was naturally resilient.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!! Shut up!!" Minerva screamed, her face becoming crimson. At the same time, her powers quickly increased.

Even though Minerva knew what Vita was doing, she still fell for it, but at the same time, she didn't care as she needed a reason to get stronger right there and then. Minerva knew that the two rabbits on their shoulders were Artificial Sacred Gears given to them by Satanael.

She disappeared from their sight and didn't reappear anywhere they anticipated.

"I can't feel her energy; where did she go?" Elenae asked, surprised by this outcome.

Keeping his calm, Kazbek ordered both of their Sacred Gears to produce a shield around them. Both rabbits created a shield that merged together—on one half it was black while on the other it was white. Kazbek produced a floating screen in front of him using his powers and attempted to track Minerva, but he was too late.

She had appeared behind him and sent a powerful uppercut towards him. His black rabbit screeched towards Minerva, but her pink aura-covered fist destroyed the attack, surprising both the Sacred Gear and Kazbek himself. Her fist landed on the back of his head, sending him towards the ceiling.

He was thrown against it and bounced off before landing in the distance. Minerva turned her attention to the woman, Elenae. She had ordered her white rabbit to attack her; the white rabbit's tail multiplied twice, and all three shot towards her.

Minerva used her finger and created a heart shape with them; from those pink heart-shaped bullets fired towards the white rabbit's tail attack. Her heart-shaped attacks tore through the rabbit's tail, making it shriek in pain.

She then followed it up by charging towards Elenae, covering her right arm with the pink aura but now in the shape of a heart, and slammed it into Elenae's stomach—the woman in question coughed up some saliva and was knocked away further down this particular hallway.

"This is the power of love!" declared Minerva. Small, heart-shaped particles floated around her.

"—And frustration," added Vita, who laughed.

"Khhh…! Why do you always have to say that!?"

"I love you too, Min-Min."

Vita was known for teasing anyone she came across. Whether they were family, important figures, or the leader of their realm (Queen Halloween), if the occasion called for it, she would tease them; the only exception to this was when a serious event was happening, when she would usually hold her tongue.

"Don't ignore meeee!" Rhaz shouted before charging Vita again.

She avoided the attack by sidestepping it and twirling around. As Rhaz passed her, he quickly turned around, coated his body with touki, and slammed it down towards her. Again, Vita avoided it easily but had to jump away as the fist that Rhaz used was hurled to the ground, destroying it and leaving a medium-sized crater.

Rhaz pulled his fist up, stared at Vita, and smirked. "Me strong."

"Ugh, what a brute. I'll never understand the appeal—is it because you think you're cool?" Vita asked the hybrid, but he only tilted his head before running towards her again.

Vita thought it would be the same dance, so as she prepared to dodge, she was surprised by Rhaz's wings, which began to vibrate rapidly behind him, and then seconds later, he disappeared. The next thing Vita felt was pain in her lower abdomen.

Much like how Minerva dealt with her opponents, Vita was flung away and crashed on the other side of the floor. Her body was imbedded in the wall, and a trickle of blood went down her mouth as she looked back at Rhaz, who had continued to charge at her with his still-vibrating wings.

'He may be primitive, but maybe his battle IQ is much higher than I initially surmised,' she thought and quickly pulled herself out. With the help of her familiar Grianos, she dodged the ensuing attacks from the hulking giant.

"Grianos, we'll be doing that," ordered Vita. The bird beside her chirped loudly before a green and blue aura covered its body.

Rhaz became curious about it but didn't stop his charge. He had appeared in front of Vita again, and the woman hadn't reacted much to his delight; however, as his fist was about to slam into her abdomen again, his right arm that he used received hundreds of cuts and began to bleed.

It had happened so quickly that it even confused Rhaz, but he noticed that if he didn't pull away, his arm would be cut. So he ceased his attack and moved away.

Vita, upon seeing this, heaved a sigh of relief. She touched her stomach and began to slowly heal it. While healing magic was rare, Vita could utilize it. However, it's effectiveness wasn't near as potent as Minerva's innate ability or Asia Argento's [Twilight Healing].

"Keep that up, will you, sweetie?" asked Vita. Her familiar Grianos chirped and agreed. The blue and green auras appeared around Grianos again, then expanded and enveloped both of them.

Now more wary of what Grianos was doing, Rhaz looked at his injured arm and grunted. He focused on the spot and healed his injuries with his regeneration; the cuts quickly healed, making him smile. Unlike Vita, who was in front of him, he had superior healing and could shrug off injuries like this. But if his arm were to be cut off, he couldn't reattach it.

Focusing on his touki, he started sending touki punches towards Vita from a distance. Utilizing his superior physical strength, he started walking towards Vit and firing those attacks. Grianos did his best at maintaining the aura—the attacks that hit the aura were cut apart, but some were still getting through, and this forced Vita to avoid them.

Vita had begun chanting something under her breath. She didn't want Rhaz to hear it, so she used magic to dampen her own voice even further.

Rhaz's assault continued to escalate as he began to incorporate aura wing attacks. He imbued Touki into his wings and, while flapping them, created blades of wind and blades of touki from them and began firing them towards Vita along with his Touki punches.

Grianos chirped at Vita, indicating that he wouldn't be able to block everything that was being thrown his way for much longer, and she wordlessly nodded to her familiar.

Her familiar didn't need to worry about this for much longer, as Vita had finished her incantation and smiled at Rhaz, who noticed and became confused.

Vita summoned her own staff and spun it in her right hand. She thrust both her hands out, turning her staff horizontally, opening her left hand, and putting it near the head of the staff. Her purple eyes began to glow, and with a smirk, she declared, "Time for you to have a little nap, Rhazy~"

In a flash of dazzling green and blue light, everyone on the floor was momentarily blinded.

"Dammit Vita, at least warn me beforehand!!" Minerva screamed in dismay.

Flashing a smile, she said, "Fufu, you shouldn't mess with me—especially from the family I came from~"

Vita Millstein was adopted by the Millstein family at a young age. She was a few years older than her sister Emma; however, she herself was a prodigy at using magic, on par with the likes of Lavinia Reni, Lisa Minic, and Fusae Hirawa.

However, this was a trait from her original family; they were wiped out by the Evil God Balor's servants—because her family was part of the reason why Balor was killed in the past.

Her family had decided to help the God of the Sun, Lugh, eliminate the Evil God Balor, as he and his controlled servant at the time—Crom Cruach had wreaked havoc in the Irish supernatural world at the time.

Many of her clan's men at the time were killed, and only a few survived. But those who survived lived a quiet life for many years, until the devout followers of the Evil God Balor finally managed to find her and the rest of the family, killing them.

Fortunately, Vita was hidden when the attack started and was also drugged by her mother, so she didn't have to hear or witness their slaughter. Vita herself wandered a few days by herself in despair—that is, until she came across Anastasia Millstein, the mother of Emma Millstein.

She took her in, and the rest was history. Vita took the name, was trained in magic, and lived with them in Queen Halloween's realm. However, she still holds a bit of a grudge against the Evil God Balor and wishes to fight them one day.

—The only way for this to happen was to confront the current holder of the Sacred Gear that housed him—Gasper Vladi.

Vita had also hunted down the rest of the followers of Balor over the years. Many of them became elders, though she didn't care—some had managed to maintain their youth, but that made it more pleasurable for her when she killed them.

As Vita's spell activated—and for the second time in Rhaz's life—he felt terror.

— ○ ● ○ —

Suzaku Himejima and Danu were having no trouble on their floor, as most of the enemies they came across were researchers. They simply restrained them and used sleeping magic on them. Even though Aaron told them to kill them, they had contacted him earlier about a proposal.

—They had asked him if he could spare them and 'change' them like he did with Avezza. They also asked if it would be possible for Satanael. Having more talented researchers on their side would be beneficial.

The answer he gave them was that he would think about it, but from the tone of his voice that both of them heard, they believed that he would more than likely do that.

"W-what do you think of this?" Danu asked, showing her smartphone to Suzaku.

They had been talking about Danu taking the next step with Aaron in their relationship. She had been away from their home for most of the time because of a sudden boom in her flower business in Ireland.

The reason for this was because of Aaron. He hadn't informed her about it, but Danu was quite happy with it. On his website, he mentioned that he had ordered the flowers around his shop in Kuoh from a certain business in Ireland—hence the sudden boom in business for her.

Once Danu found out, she wanted to repay him but, at the same time, didn't know how or when. This also meant she was away from their home for a while and stayed in her previous abode in Ireland.

What Danu showed Suzaku was the lingerie she wanted to surprise him with. They were quite risqué, but she thought Aaron would like them. Once Suzaku saw it, her mouth twitched.

"D-Danu-sama, t-these are a bit too…how do I say this, lewd? Are you sure about it? I can imagine Akeno or even Lavinia wearing them to try to seduce him, but for you…"

"Y-you can't imagine it, huh? I admit that I couldn't either, but I wanted him to—"

With a blush on her face, she stopped the goddess. "I myself don't wear anything fancy when I want to spend intimate time with him. Aaron has said that it's a plus but not a deciding factor, so keep that in mind. How about sticking with your favorite pair?"

"My favorite pair..." Danu mumbled. "I-I do have two that I really like," she admitted.

But before they could continue, two powerful attacks were sent their way and were blocked by Danu, creating large roots in front of them.

"Hyahaha! They think they can just casually stroll through here? This ain't a park, ye damn idiots!" a man's voice roars from behind the explosion.

"They are powerful and very close to the dragon. One of them is a goddess, and another is the head of the Himejima clan—it makes sense that they are a bit arrogant," said another man's voice.

Danu receded her roots, and they saw the two men beyond them.

One had crimson hair and yellow eyes while wearing noble attire; the other had white hair, purple eyes, and noble attire. Upon seeing this, both of them became alarmed and confused.

"Hyhahaha! Look at 'em; they're surprised, eh?" asked the white-haired man.

"Indeed, we do look like certain devils, don't we?" said the crimson-haired man smugly.

Suzaku squinted her eyes at them with suspicion. "Crimson hair like the Gremory devils and white/silver hair like the Lucifers. Who are you two?" she asked.

"If you think we're bastard children of those devil clans, then you're mistaken—we were simply designed and created this way," replied the crimson-haired man. "I am Codix. The barbaric fellow beside me is Askal. It's a pleasure to meet the women of the Outer God."

"Enough with the bullshit! Let's go!" roared Askal. He then charged towards Suzaku and Danu.

A dense white aura covered his body, and as he was about to reach Danu, a large root came out of the wall beside her and slammed into his body. It then pierced the wall opposite them and rammed Askal through it. The floor shook violently as this happened, leaving both Suzaku and Codix stunned.

Once Danu's attack stopped, Askal was pinned at the end of it. Try as he might, he couldn't destroy the root that Danu had used on him, and he quickly began to bleed out.

"W-what the fuck!?" he screamed. "I can't…get…out…!" he shouted again, panic rising from within him. "To…kuzo…come out and break this thing…!"

A flash of light suddenly surrounded Askal, and moments later he was freed from Danu's attack. He looked up with rage in his eyes as Codix appeared beside him. Codix touched his shoulder, and the hole in his damage began to quickly repair itself.

With a confident smile on his face, Codix said, "My unique ability is to reverse any damage that is done. It can be on me, a person, or a thing. Apparently, it came from a different universe. I'm quite blessed to receive it, although there are some minor drawbacks."

"Yeah, ya got a small dick!"

"No." Codix slapped Aksal on the head before bringing up his right arm, and a blue-white aura coated it. "If possible, I'd like to face the Himejima clan head; I've heard many interesting things about you from some... exiled members in the past."

He appeared beside Suzaku, and as he was about to grab her, she deflected his hand, surprising him.

"If that's the case, then I'd like to interrogate you about them then," she replied, coldly glaring at Codix before she slapped him on the cheek and teleported both of them to a different part of the floor.

"Tokuzo!! We're going wild!! I want that bitch dead!!" bellowed Aksal. A boar with clouds circling all its legs appeared. It had the symbol of Π (pi) on its forehead and 'pi' for its pupils. There were also white streaks around its body.

Tokuzo, the Independent Type Sacred Gear, blew hot steam from its nostrils and lowered itself to the ground. Aksal's body also changed—the clouds appeared around his arms, wrists, legs, ankles, and head. His pupils turned into 'pi' shapes, and his clothes turned white.

"Call me the god damn Boar God—and I'm gonna kill yo bitch ass!" he declared.

"What a vulgar mouth," mumbled Danu, dissatisfied with how the young man was acting.

Fortunately for Danu, she had come across people who weren't as vulgar as Aksal. Usually, she tended to avoid those types of people—high on energy. However, after meeting Aaron and meeting many high-energy-type people, she came to get used to it as they weren't as brazen as him, with the exception of Kuroka at times and Kouki of the Slash Dog Team.

She could look the other way at them because they weren't, by definition, evil people. At one point, Kuroka did side with them along with the Vali Team, but time and circumstances changed things, and she's fine with them now.

But Aksal was the type that she tended to avoid—the leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann was sometimes vulgar, but he also showed restraint and maturity in his earlier days—presently, he's nowhere as bad as he was back then, and Danu respects that.

Askal, to her, was the type of person who didn't care about anything but themselves—she understood this from the short meeting and interaction they had. Even now, as they stared at each other, she couldn't see him change or grow, even if they were to capture him. So, she decided on one thing.

"—I will eliminate you," she professed.

"Eliminate me? Are you stupid? I'm the Boar—"

Invisible wind slammed into Askal's gut. This was followed by several smaller roots appearing from the ground and attacking him. Some of the roots were stopped by his Sacred Gear, Tokuzo. However, because they were much weaker than Danu, it only lasted a few seconds before Tokuzo was thrown away and the relentless assault continued on Aksal.

Aksal couldn't move or react to any of this. He could only helplessly be juggled around by Danu's attack. He glanced at Tokuzo but noticed that his Sacred Gear was being kept back by some kind of invisible force—neither of them could do anything—they felt helpless.

Since his creation, he has always been told that he has the potential to join the [Abyss Team]. The thing he lacked was combat experience. Every time he fought a member of the [Abyss Team], he would always lose—and every time he asked how, it was for a different reason.

He was too hasty, he was too aggressive, he let his anger and temper get the better of him, he didn't plan enough, he fell for tricks too easily, etc. Over and over, he couldn't pass over the wall that was the [Abyss Team]—especially their leader.

His Artificial Sacred Gear wasn't a powerful offensive type, but with his mastery over it and its utility, along with his own skills and power, it made him nearly unstoppable.

As these thoughts plagued his mind, his own rage and frustrations kept increasing as the seconds ticked by. Finally, it exploded as his body was filled with even more power; however, he soon felt his vision become strange—as if it were falling, which confused him.

His eyes looked up at an indifferent Irish goddess looking down at him. It finally occurred to him that his head was cut, and before he could conjure another thought, he died.

Danu stared at the man who was alive just seconds ago. Blood spurted out of his body as it also fell to the ground. The boar Artificial Sacred Gear stared at its wielder before it faded—a look of shock and disappointment was on its face.

Danu, who is a goddess, had lived for many years. Even if she herself wasn't a fighter for most of it, she had gained an uncanny ability to read people. Whether it be their facial expression, their actions, or even their body language, she could discern around 80% of the time what their next move would be. One could call it a poor man's precognition.

She could tell that he was upset by the one-sided battle but also how his frustrations kept on rising during their short fight. She felt his powers quickly rising, and before he could utilize them, she killed him, ending the fight before he could reach a new power level or powered-up form.

Danu had read many things over the years and in recent memory—after she moved into Aaron's home, she was introduced to more media. Furthermore, with Aaron's 'Infinite Library', she had more access to different books worldwide. Not only in the human world but also in the supernatural world's books—many of which had 'forbidden' or 'cursed' books, although they were in a special room and place to avoid the average reader from being cursed or killed.

The one who kept an eye on that room was Lisa, as she herself was cursed by a certain book, and she didn't want it happening to the people she cared about.

[Suzaku, I'm finished here.] Danu had used their ring's transceivers and informed Suzaku of her victory. [I'll bring his corpse with me; maybe Aaron wants to use it?]

[Alright, I'll be finished with mine soon. I feel two more coming our way; they also seem stronger than the two we're fighting. If you can cut them off, then I would appreciate it. I'll join you as soon as I can,] replied Suzaku.

[Okay.] Danu disconnected their line and stored the corpse of Aksal in her ring. She turned her attention to the location of the Sacred Gear he once wielded and found...

"A boar shaped in a pendent surrounded by clouds…how curious," she mumbled to herself.

Independent Avatar Sacred Gears are Sacred Gears that take the form of a living-like creature that moves and acts on its own free will and instincts.

Among the embodiment-type Sacred Gears, these Sacred Gears themselves have their own individual consciousness and instinct, as the wielder can command the Sacred Gear from a distance. Because of its nature, it often mimics a living thing, and the embodied beast-type Sacred Gears can also eat like a living creature.

Independent Avatar Sacred Gears that manipulate energy can make a huge amount of energy take a humanoid form, using it as a puppet. The embodied Sacred Gear can be made to not be visible to ordinary humans, and it can disappear or assume a smaller form that makes it easier to lead daily life than the true appearance.

The advantage is that the user can issue instructions from a safe place away from the battlefield, but at the same time, the risk that the user is vulnerable is greater than other Sacred Gears, so the user is often physically weak. In the case of the beast type, if the Sacred Gear is attacked, damage may accumulate, and it will be impossible for it to continue to fight or for the beast to be sealed with a unique technique.

It is said that it is necessary to go into the depths of the Sacred Gear and the soul of the sealed creature in order to enhance the ability, but there is a danger that there is a chance that the user could be replaced by the consciousness within the Sacred Gear.

However, it seems the method that the Khaos Order—or perhaps Satanael himself—was unique to them. In order to make Artificial Independent Avatar Sacred Gears, they needed to create a physical object to tie it to; otherwise, it would simply stop existing as the soul they captured and the things they used for them would simply cease to exist without the tether.

Danu surmised that this item was what kept the new Sacred Gear here, as it wasn't tied to Heaven's system. So they needed to be physically tied to items in order to stay after the wielder passes or if they hadn't found one to give it to.

"…Maybe you can be used by someone else in the future?" she mumbled before putting it in her pocket. Danu turned around and walked away. "I'll stop these two from reaching Suzaku—they may be the aforementioned [Abyss Team]."

— ○ ● ○ —

"Heh, I expected this outcome, but to think you would simply 'burn' away my powers... the Outer God's women are truly something else," muttered Codix.

Codix was kneeling in front of Suzaku with flaming chains holding him down to the ground. She had used [Gleipnir] and Aaron's own [Mana Rope] as references while also having exclusive access to…[Food Chain] that Aaron shared with the Fated Ones.

Suzaku simply found a power in the multiverse that would 'burn' anything, whether that was magic, technique, concept, or time and space itself; it would burn it. So, she applied that to her innate flame manipulation and simply destroyed his powers anytime he attempted to utilize them.

This left Codix virtually defenseless. He had to rely on his magic and Touki, but even then, the woman in front of him burned away everything that came into contact with her. In his eyes, she was untouchable—in every sense of the word—and he couldn't help but think that she herself was a goddess in her own right.

"I don't need your pity or kind words, Suzaku Himejima. I have told you about the exiled members I interacted with while we fought. I have nothing more to say, nor will I switch sides—I cannot stand people like the Middleman," he told her.

"If that's your decision, then I will respect it." Suzaku aimed her hand at Codix before burning him alive.

He did not scream, cry, or insult her; he simply accepted his fate. Codix only respected people who were above him in both power and authority. Suzaku was above him in power and was the current head of the Himejima clan, and she was quite close with Aaron.

Even if he didn't like Aaron for how he did things, he couldn't deny his influence and power, so he respected him at that level.

Suzaku sighed, looking at the burnt ashes of Codix. She turned around but quickly felt a clash of powerful auras in that direction, and she quickly dashed towards it. When she arrived, she saw Danu's green aura colliding with two other people—both women.

The head of the Himejima clan summoned [Zhuque], and they immediately launched large fireballs towards the two, who noticed and avoided the attacks on time.

"I burned his body, so I couldn't retrieve him, but he told me as much as he could, although he explained he only did it to people he held respect to," said Suzaku.

"It's fine; I have the other, and even then, we can inform him of where you killed him if he wants to retrieve Codix himself," replied Danu. "These two are—"

"Ademi!" shouted the blue-haired woman.

"Saida!" shouted the pale-pink-haired woman.

"Together, we are AD-IDA!" they shouted together and did a pose by holding each other's hand and standing on one foot. Two Independent-type Sacred Gears appeared and sat on their heads.

The one on Ademi had the body of an owl—it had the wings, but the head was of a dog with the sharp fangs of a vampire and cat paws for the talons.

The one on Saida was the size of a toddler, with a chest made of tentacles with several eyes on it. The head was a mix of a dolphin and a shark, and it had two tails that had sharp protrusions coming out of them.

Upon hearing this, Suzaku and Zhuque became confused. They didn't know how to react as they both stared at the two odd women.

"They were like this when I met them too; they're quite unusual, to say the least," Danu said calmly.

"Unusual would be an understatement," said Zhuque in her bird form. "Maybe we can assume that the members of the [Abyss Team] all have mental illnesses?"

"How rude!" shouted Ademi.

"Rude to the max!" repeated Saida.

"Strekl!"

"Brekl!"

"Go!"

Both Sacred Gears jumped off their heads and charged towards Danu, Suzaku, and Zhuque.

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Tool and Ophis stepped through a certain door on the last floor. They had thoroughly investigated the other rooms of the floor, defeated the enemies that lay in them, and the only room left was the one they just went through.

When they did, they heard clapping, and in front of them at the other end was—Satanael. The Fallen Angel had been working together with the Khaos Order for an entire year.

"Well done in making it here. I kept an eye on you two the entire time," he said, smirking at them. "We also finally get to see each other face-to-face, Outer God—the same to you, Ophis-dono."

"Oh, we know," replied Aaron. He held up several surveillance cameras in his hand, confusing Satanael. "What I showed you on your monitor was just an illusion. Ophis became hungry partway through, so we stopped for a small snack break."

When Satanael heard this, it only served to annoy him, but maintaining his professionalism, he sighed, composed himself, and ignored the explanation entirely.

"Regardless, you have fallen into my trap, Outer God! I have known that you may have done something to our members, even if I don't have proof. I have memories of certain events that happened throughout the year, but none of my colleagues remember any of them. No, that's not right; some do, some don't—whatever you did, I can at least respect it as it does showcase your power, even if not many knew about it."

To that, Aaron shrugged, and Ophis popped another candy into her mouth, further angering Satanael.

What Aaron told Satanael was true; they did stop for a quick snack break. However, Aaron told Ophis how to act around Satanael so that he would act more irrationally than he already is. Because of what he did, Satanael had slowly become unstable through the new year, and it all accumulated with him leaving and cutting ties with the Khaos Order, essentially isolating himself with very few other like-minded individuals.

"Did you really need to tell me all that? Aren't you smarter than me? So why explain all of that?" asked Aaron. Although he knew the answer to that.

Satanael stared blankly at Aaron, unable to speak. 'He's right. Why did I just blurt all of that out? What is happening to me…!? No, no, no, he's messing with me! I was telling him that, hoping he would say something about it, but he didn't!'

"Your tricks won't work on me, Outer God!" Satanael this time didn't elaborate any further and pulled out... a small compass!

"A compass?" Ophis asked, tilting her head.

He pointed the device towards the two and shouted in elation, "I'll make the [Infinite], [Finite]!!!"

An orange gassy substance came out of the compass and covered both Aaron and Ophis—all the while Satanael kept maniacally laughing. The longer this device was activated, the more confused Satanael became.

He expected them to at least scream or attempt to avoid the device's attack, but to his surprise, they didn't. Once he thought they were in it for long enough, he deactivated it and waited for the gas to clear up.

"Wha—!? How?!" Satanael was left speechless. Both Aaron and Ophis stood there, with no changes to them.

Ophis tilted her head again and asked, "Fanta? Why did you spray us with Fanta?"

"F-fanta…?" muttered the scientist in dismay. He didn't want to believe what the dragon had said. For him to simply spray them with Fanta of all things. "What do you mean, Fanta!? That human-made beverage!? How could I possibly spray you with that!?" he asked, his anger finally exploding.

"…Even if you ask me that, I won't know how to answer you. You were the one with that device," replied Ophis.

As his anger kept rising, he turned his attention to Aaron, who had—to add insult to injury—he had summoned a bottle of Fanta and was drinking from it. The realization hit him like a truck.

"Y-youuuuuuu!!!!" thundered Satanael.

"Yes, I'm Jin. How can I help you?" replied Aaron.

"You did this!"

"I did."

"You're not even denying it!!"

"Why would I at this point? I'm quite literally drinking the beverage you sprayed us with."

Satanael grinded his teeth as he seethed at Aaron. The man himself smiled at the angry scientist and pointed his finger to the ground, creating a barrier around them.

"Ophis—this man tricked you five years ago, yes?" Aaron asked.

"Mmm." Ophis nodded and kept staring at Satanael.

"I'll give you five minutes. In those five minutes, you can do whatever you want with him, and he can't die as he'll instantly heal from any attack that doesn't have an instant death effect with it."

Ophis glanced at Aaron before nodding again. She began walking towards Satanael, who was incredulous at it all.

"You expect me to stand here and do nothing? I'm still a former Cadre and a powerful fallen angel with years of experience! I've also upgraded myself!" he declared, and his left arm turned into a cannon.

Satanael smirked and fired a beam of light from it at Ophis. The Dragon God of Infinity slapped the attack away, making it hit the barrier, and the barrier absorbed it. He didn't stop there, as he thrust his other hand forward and changed it into several smaller cannon-like weapons.

Behind him, countless light spears also materialized. He then threw them all at Ophis, as well as firing a barrage of attacks from his hand cannons.

Ophis put her hand forward, created a shield, and blocked it all. Some slammed into it and exploded; others were absorbed into it; and some were destroyed before touching it. What Satanael couldn't see were invisible snakes that were wriggling in front of the shield that Ophis had.

They did two things: they absorbed and reinforced the barrier, and they would fire invisible shots at the attacks, destroying them. The ones that bypassed them simply exploded on the shield, but they were weak enough that they didn't do any damage to the snakes.

Aaron, who was behind Ophis, had conjured a chair and sat on it while watching this entire interaction. He wanted her to get a bit of revenge for how they treated them all these years. Satanael and the Wizards of Oz were the reason that the Khaos Brigade started.

They were the ones that tricked her into joining, with the promise of helping her kick Great Red out of her home. However, they only wanted to use her for their own benefit.

Today, the Dragon God of Infinity would be able to get a small bit of revenge on them, especially towards Satanael.

Satanael knew it was futile, but he had hoped that the device he had been working on would weaken both the Ouroboros Drago and the Outer God. But he was deceived—while the device initially had its own powerful effects, once Aaron found out about it, he changed it when he came back.

However, with the original powers of the device, it wouldn't have been enough to do anything to him or Ophis. It was made by one of the Umbras—Sagriff. He, like the other Umbra, liked tinkering with devices and creating unthinkable nightmares in the form of items.

Most are created on a whim but have many devastating effects. This device in particular would find the weakness of whoever they targeted it with and would temporarily provide the wielder of the device with that power.

They would then use that power to defeat, kill, or capture their opponent. Once the device identifies that they have done one or all of those things, it will deactivate and release the effects on both parties.

Ophis finally arrived in front of Satanael, who tried to retaliate with a punch by changing his hand back to its normal appearance, but she caught it and then crushed his fist.

"Dammit!" he shouted. He aimed his other hand and tried to shoot her with the cannon, but she swiftly moved her arm, cutting the cannon arm off his body. Ophis punched his gut, forcing him to keel over and be on his knees.

"Why did you lie?" Ophis asked, looking down at the fallen angel.

Smirking, Satanael scoffed. "The human world and our world are built upon lies. Do you really believe that we and them became like this today by purely being honest with each other? You were alive for so many years, yet you were so shortsighted and naïve, I didn't need to make up a grandiose lie to even fool you."

Ophis stared at the man before agreeing with him. "I have been alive for a very long time. However, I never once wanted anything else than silence. That place was my home but was suddenly invaded, so I wanted to get rid of them—I was desperate, so I allowed myself to be deceived by all your lies."

Ophis, who was in her adult form, transformed back into her loli form and put her foot on top of Satanael's head.

"From my creation, I knew I stood above most since a voice told me in my head. I tried talking to it, but it never responded after it told me I was strong—stronger than all of the beings in my world. So I believed it and continued with my life. If you were the strongest, would you bother learning anything in a space—in a world filled with mostly nothing and silence?" she asked Satanael, who didn't reply.

"Once you become so strong—and when you live life alone and no one can contest that position—you become apathetic to mostly everything. I never had anyone to learn from; at most, I used my power to increase my physical strength and magic. Nothing more, nothing less."

Trying to force his head up, Satanael asked, "Hurry up! What the hell are you trying to get at!? I'll die of boredom at this rate."

Ophis slammed his head back into the floor, making a small crunch sound. Satanael was still alive, but he suffered a decent amount of damage because of that.

"—What I'm trying to say is that anyone, whether they're a god or something else, can still keep growing even after thousands of years of being alive. You just need to find the right people for it. You've been stuck in your own bubble for so long—do you really consider other people's opinions that aren't nearly identical to yours? Or do you simply dismiss them?"

"—Maybe this is why you've lost. Maybe that's why Aaron changed your reality," she said and kicked him away. Satanael crashed into his giant supercomputer and destroyed it.

"C-change…my…reality?" he asked, confused.

Ophis looked back at Aaron and nodded. "I'm fine with that. I don't need revenge as long as I have you and everyone else—my life is perfect." Ophis showed a genuinely bright smile to Aaron as he got up from his seat and walked over to her.

"You've changed a lot," he said, petting her head. "While you're fine with that, I'm not. You're part of my family, so I'll take on the liberty of revenge for you."

Aaron materialized above Satanael and plunged his arm into his chest, grabbing his still-beating heart. He brought their faces close together and stared at the man with his sharp eyes.

"I have a lot of things to say to you, but I'll make it simple, alright?" said Aaron. Satanael couldn't move, and he couldn't form a coherent thought. He had no idea what was happening, as the only thing he could feel at the moment was terror while staring into Aaron's eyes.

"I'll make you suffer for a bit—for Ophis, for the Slash Dog Team, for Lavinia, because you sided with the Wizards of Oz, and for the shit you and your colleagues put me through last year. This amount...should suffice for a bit of revenge," he said with an evil smirk.

Once Aaron pulled away from Satanael and pulled his arm out of his chest, Satanael didn't feel any pain. There was no blood that poured out either, confusing him. Yet he couldn't speak; he couldn't even hear his machines or anything else—apart from his own heartbeat, which kept getting louder.

<<I hope you enjoy your 10,000-year journey, Satanael,>> said Aaron's voice. <<...I was also responsible for that strange memory of yours...>>

As terror was about to overtake his consciousness, everything for Satanael became pitch-black.

Aaron turned around and walked back to Ophis. Seconds later, Satanael began to wordlessly scream and writhe on the ground, holding his own neck and grasping at the gaping hole in his heart.

"What did you do?" Ophis asked, curiously looking at Satanael.

Putting a hand on Ophis' head, Aaron stroked it. "Oh, I'm letting him experience the horrors of the multiverse—every type of pain, painful memory, disease, poison, trauma, and anything else you can think of—he's experiencing it all repeatedly. I also made sure that his sensitivity for it all is multiplied by 100 times. I also made sure he wouldn't pass out from it inside his own head."

"Ev~il," said Ophis while pointing at him.

"Well, I guess you can describe me that for now. But he's not the only one that's going to experience that. Killing him repeatedly is one thing, but that's not satisfying enough. That should be another world of pain for him and should leave him traumatized enough."

He glanced back at Satanael and added, "Once it's all done, we'll just convert him like Avezza, so we'll have a new scientist and researcher on our side. He's more useful alive than dead."

Aaron began walking away towards the door.

"Aren't we bringing him?" she asked.

"We'll keep him here for now. I'll go join the others and capture some of the [Abyss Team] myself since I want to take their Sacred Gears from them," he told her. Ophis silently agreed and joined him.

— ○ ● ○ —