Aevum Interval: Clockdown of the Heavens (Multi-Fic SI Cycle)

[Multiverse Learner 101]

Woah, thanks for the long response. I feel like I may have misread a bit of it then. I'll probably give it another shot sometime. To be blunt, the god from his world would have to be an actual character for me to be interested in the story. Meaning they'd have to interface with the world and speak to the other gods and stuff.

Click to shrink...

1.) Well, first and foremost, before I really respond to that question to prevent misunderstandings, what do you actually mean by an actual character? Because people use that term "actual character" for radically different meanings. It's not a universal term. When people say that, depending on what background you have, it could be different from what you are trying to imply.

If you mean in this case the Judeo-Christian GOD interacting with the inhabitants, then yes, He would be a "character" in that sense, in the same way in Scriptures where He clearly interacts with His children. So, in that sense, yes, He is a Character, and He is also the Author. That's the strange paradox.

But the key is this: He does so the way He always has. He is not reduced to a peer among any of the pantheons. He is not a limited deity sharing the stage. He remains the Author who can step into the narrative, the same way He did at Sinai, at Damascus, in the lives of the prophets, in the life of Job, and ultimately in the Incarnation. That's what makes Him a 'character' in the highest, not lowest, sense.

So the paradox stands:
He is both the Author beyond the page and the Presence who steps onto the page — without ceasing to be who He is."

I feel like I made the classic mistake of a Fanfic reader and sorts lurked and liked, but haven't commented.

I deeply enjoy the premise behind this entire story. When I first read the full Lord of The Rings series and some of the Silmirillion I realized how Tolkien had implied that Eru, creator of Middle Earth and everything in the world he'd brought to life was GOD. A different world but still created by the Lord known by a different name.

Exploring other fictional settings for similar parallels has been an interesting hobby for me since then

Click to shrink...

1.) J.R.R. Tolkien is in fact one of my main inspirations for this work of mine, and similar. He pretty much gave me the countless hints, when you really stop and read all of his works, and I realized...

...There's so much I really don't know of what I really believed. So, with Tolkien's inspiration, I look at all of the old sources again. I try to look at the Scriptures, the Apostolic Tradition, the Magisterium which especially has alll of the Popes. I try to look at the Church Fathers, Doctors of the Church, Scholastics, and Saints. I try to look at every Christian author, whether ones like Tolkien, or C.S. Lewis, or John Milton, or Dante Aligheri, and such. I try to look at Ancient Jewish and Old Testament commentators on the Scriptures. I try to look at the Orthodox Churches and their point of view. I try to look at all of the history of Protestantism. I try to look at all of the natural and legitimate sciences, which is different from mere opinion.

I look at all of this and realize that the Catholic faith of the modern day is too misunderstood and too underrated and too falsly simplified. There's so much here, that one can actually make any story coherent if you actually knew dogma and doctrine, you'd know which is which, you'd explore themes it hadn't been explored before.

What does it actually mean to be human?

The Church has answered that already, and all I'm doing is bit by bit, showing it as an intrcate part of the narrative.

2.) When Tolkien designed the Valar and the Maiar which make up the entirety of the Ainur, he wasn't pulling it out of random. He was in fact, even if unintentionally, invoking Saint Thomas Aquinas who had dealt with such things. That there are angels, which are not part of the Nine Choirs and are not the first creatures, but nevertheless would logically be part of what Saint Thomas Aquinas would refer to as the countless pure spirits that are not the angels, but are spiritual beings with distinct natures under GOD with their own assigned dignities. I would also refer to the Condemnations of Paris around the 1200s (specifically 1277) which pretty much, under a Pope's authority through a bishop by the name of Etienne Tempier, hammer the point that what the modern understanding of simplifying things to just angels and humans are not in fact the proper way at all, and pretty much condemned the certainty outright. That GOD as Creator cannot be limited to a false simplistic binary. The Angels of the LORD in the Scriptures are only one category of rational spiritual beings, not the only one. GOD could create innumerable orders of spiritual intelligences that are not angels in the strict sense. Once again, medieval condemnations (Paris 1277) rejected any claim that God could not create such beings.

So when Tolkien creates the Ainur, he's not inventing a new metaphysics. He's dramatizing a classical one.

 

[Multiverse Learner 101]

Song:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jyEP2ls5g

---

Location: Heaven (High School DxD)

...In the quiet, wondrous shapes of clouds that mortals often called Heaven, there were countless angels of male and female, nine choirs in number, with dove-like wings more majestic than avian sensitive creatures who were either flying by more quickly than any modern aircraft, or they were singing like a variety of choirs that one could hear from the human world down below.

There were seven heavens, each within this realm called Heaven. Amongst the inhabitants within this Third Heaven, there was one of the Four Great Seraphs whose name was Gabriel. She was considered to be the most beautiful woman in all of the heavens. She was famous, both in heaven and on earth, for once announcing the birth of a Messiah to a woman down below, which would firmly establish the roots of the God of the Bible's religion. She had tried to be the kind leader that anyone, both the human souls who occupied the Third Heaven and the countless angels who occupied positions across the other five heavens, would want to aspire to. Though it was a burden to be kind, for she felt lacking in many ways.

Her curly blonde long hair flows through the winds that blow across her and her white and golden embroidered dress, which she personally handmade, as she had a hobby of making dresses in her spare time. Her emerald eyes watched solemnly yet sadly across the plains of the grasslands, where she would see countless families gathered together. Her twelfold dove wings were lowered.

Why was she sad?

Because it had been so very long, centuries even, since the loss of their Father in heaven during the Great War of the Three Factions, fought between three faces of angels, fallen angels, and devils. Their entire family, divided by the past whose scars ran deeper than any healing could ever quickly erase. Even now, despite the ancient and terrible conflict having thankfully ceased, the cold tensions between the Three Factions were still present, and one wrong move would cause the annihilation of several low-level races and pantheons, which includes humans.

Their world's believers also didn't even know either, not even the ones of an innumerable number who rested in their Third Heaven, that the God of the Bible that they had been praying and worshipping was long dead. A long, quiet cover-up, which only the highest of the Three Factions knew, which includes Gabriel herself, to prevent anyone from all sides from taking advantage of the tenousness which was left behind by the Great War. Unknowingly, the believers, both innocent and sinners, were praying to her eldest brother, Michael, who is burdened by too many prayers of the faithful while remaining steadfast in trying to fulfill their late Father's will to keep the peace between the Three Factions, for the sake of all supernatural realms and for the humans who are defenseless and unaware of the powers-that-be who are seen as prey for many opportunists.

...Gabriel missed her Father. If she could have the power, she could find a way to bring her Father back. Things weren't really the same since he was gone. Heaven is barely holding on by a thread. How long will this secret of their Father's death even last? No secret would last forever. People will eventually know. People would eventually become disillusioned. This, Gabriel knew intimately within her heart, had always been a false peace. Rebellion was always a real possibility even within Heaven. And even if her Father came back, would there truly be peace? For the devils may see it as a threat to their autonomy and their sovereignty, and they would not be wrong for feeling this.

"...Lady Gabriel?"

Gabriel quietly looked kindly at a young seven-year-old girl whom she had been taking care of. An orphan essentially. Died too soon. She has a thing for taking care of orphaned children who died too soon and souls that no one accepted. The orphan's name was Aiko Hinomiya. Black hair. Brown eyes. Died due to malnutrition and abandonment. Her innocent eyes were looking at hers, tilting her head while grabbing the hem of her dress.

"Hmm. What is it, Aiko-chan?" she spoke in Japanese, smiling sweetly like a mother hen, gently patting the child's hair.

"Are we still going to head to the marketplace together? I want to try your curry again," she spoke with an innocent request.

"Hmm," Gabriel quietly laughed a little. "Of course, Aiko-chan. We'll go to the market." She said with a motherly smile, referring to the series of marketplaces that were seen within the Empyrean Metropolis of the Third Heaven.

Before the child, however, could cheer with her hands already raised...

"Pag-ibig Mo'y sa ki'y wagas.
Lagi man akong may sala't walang tiwala.

(Your love for me is pure.
I am always guilty and distrustful.)"

Both Gabriel and Aiko felt their breath stop. Gabriel felt her wings twitch at the purity of a Woman's... a Gebirah's Voice. Her singing voice was ever-flowing with milk and honey, one that was nothing like Gabriel's own voice, which is well known for being a greater singer of notes amongst the heavens. Was she hearing things?

No, it wasn't just her. She looked at Aiko, who was trembling like a leaf. She looked at everyone around her, from the countless human souls, up to the countless angels of the nine choirs, who all stopped what they were doing and felt their breath hitched. The angels above who were singing stopped in their tracks and felt their mouths turn mute, their hearts beating immediately.

Everyone stopped.

"Ako pa ba'y lalapit pa.
Kayraming beses na ikaw ay nasaktan ko.
Pagpatawad mo ba'y dapat 'di na nagbago.
Ngunit, ika'y nariyan nagmamahal mga sala ko'y di limot Mo na.

(Will I still come closer?
How many times have I hurt you?
Your forgiveness should not have changed.
But, you are there, loving, you will not forget my sins.)"

Nobody could dare question where the song was actually coming from. It came from the maternal voice of a Mediatrix of All Graces whose sound was like Grace Itself is gushing like cisterns of never-ending water. Gabriel felt Aiko embracing the former immediately, but the latter couldn't talk, as she was looking at what was happening around her. Gabriel, as she held Aiko in her arms, looked upward and her eyes widened as she instinctively stepped back, noticing that there were countless series of living twinkling stars that weren't there before, blinking like never-ending orders, as if they were alive. No, they were alive. They were sentient. They were just there. They aren't native to their Heaven or anywhere.

She looked at the horizon where she and everyone else noticed, even the light of the sun that permeated the heavens was turning dim like the afternoon orange tinge, as if acknowledging Someone who is coming.

"...Ah," Aiko muttered in a gasp, as she saw Someone walking with a quiet solemnity from that same direction. Gabriel looked at what Aiko was looking at, and she too gasped. First, wonder. Second, trembling. Third, confusion.

Slowly, the appearance of this Someone was revealed, as if the sun itself had participated in making way for His arrival. He held a walking stick that any simple shepherd of the fields would use, yet it had a simple Cross on top of it.

He was not alone, however. Accompanying Him were at least a series of twelve legions of pure spirits, of multiplication, who were manifesting as aqua-colored shaped clouds with a humanoid shape for comprehension, bearing the imperial standards of "YHWH", "Chi-Rho with Alpha (left) and Omega (right)", and "Most Sacred Heart" etched on to their shields and swords made of a strange material of gasly clouds. They were not the angels that anybody would recognize. But neither were they the First Creatures before the dawn of all spiritual orders and all material orders. They were one of countless pure spirit types within the spiritual order, not of the Nine Orders of the True Heavens, but nevertheless, they carry their own missions, their own inherent dignities, as beloved children. These aqua-colored, humanoid-shaped clouds were far too many to truthfully count.

As for the man... No, an Almighty Man-God. He is tall, slender, with a healthy, handsome face with golden-brown hair parted in the middle and falling to His shoulders. He wore a majestic white shepherd's robe. He had a pointed beard, and His blue eyes were beaming and full of spiritual light. But it was His Smile that made everyone freeze completely. That Smile, and the Five Wounds that shone, which beamed with more spiritual lights.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

Gabriel felt herself on the verge of bending her knees along with Aiko's, who was trembling and was already dropping her tears across her face. Gabriel's wings were instinctively lowering. This feeling... it wasn't even like all of those times when she was in the presence of her Father, who is the God of the Bible. No, this felt too... otherworldly. Too transcendent yet intimate.

Nobody even dared ask who... He Who Is...

They never saw anyone like this One in Three. All of the angels knew every kami, every buddha, every dragon... but not Him. And yet, their hearts were already whispering what they could not articulate. The Almighty Triune Father of the Scriptures. Their True Creator, Savior, and Sanctifier. He is walking amongst them. Even the surface of the heavens was instinctively bowing, and as if by a miracle, they were expanding beyond even what normally this Heaven contained. The Third Heaven was transforming into an expansive shape of geometric and aerial continents.

With every step from His Wounded Feet, there came sprouting new forms of life, a new angelic race that looked like the angels of this world but perfected, proper for the administration of this world, and divided into innumerable ranks unknown but to Him alone, which flowed with fourteenfold wings of purity and hovering haloes of gold on their heads. Every act of His created more, and more, and more without end until these heavens were filled with them to the brim, as these new mysterious angels with dovelike wings and whose eyes beheld in tears of gratitude to their Father-Forever who created them for this hour, as they were flocking near Him like newly born children.

Gabriel turns pale, shaken completely as she finally knelt down along with Aiko, her wings lowering with her, her hands holding tightly as she sees her own home being transformed into something unrecognizable yet expansive.

Countless human souls were trembling, as many of them were embracing their shaken families as they were all kneeling.

"...It can't be," says one human soul, a man in his elder years with grey hair, trembling.

...It is Him. Not a God of the Bible. But the Almighty Triune Father of the Scriptures.

"...Adonai," says one Jewish soul, with tears in his eyes as he grovelled over the grass. All of the Jewish souls grovelled immediately, and tears were flowing near their faces.

"...Yeshua," says one Christian soul, with tears in his eyes as he grovelled over the grass. All of the Christian souls grovelled immediately, and tears were flowing near their faces.

YHWH Sabaoth Who Saves. The LORD Jesus Christ. Not the Christ of their world. The Christ who was their Creator and their King. The Christ who is looking at each and every one of them like they were irreplaceable to Him. And yet, there were Two Persons that they instinctively knew were there. Also YHWH Sabaoth. Also the LORD.

The Father. The Son. The Spirit.

Their eyes couldn't even behold the entirety of such a Mystery, as if too much would be too much.

The angels who bore witness to this were trembling as well. They didn't know what to do, before this Infinite Majesty of Mercy who walked like a Man, yet His Gaze always remained on them all like the Sun embracing them always. They couldn't even sing as they used to compared with the times they had to with the God of the Bible. Their voices felt unworthy to sing before the One who looked at them like that. Their tears were already conveying what their voices failed them.

"...My little children," He spoke with a Smile greater than any Sol Invictus, which made everyone feel their breath taken away, trembling with their lips. "...I have come back for you." He said, while walking with his shepherd's cross staff.

And the Woman's voice was complementing in song in the echo of Love Itself.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

Gabriel held her hands together while Aiko was embracing her. Her emerald eyes were already welling up with tears. "...Pa...Papa..." she muttered. But this time, saying it towards the One she should have been saying it to. She, who had once announced a Christ... now beheld the One she should have been announcing.

And that One Christ who is her FATHER... He looked towards her and Aiko with a Smile. It made her heart burst, and she cried thoroughly. Prayer was no longer a burden anymore. The One who hears all prayers and never leaves... had come to reclaim them.

"...Arise, My little ones amongst the angels of this world, who perished from every war. Your FATHER now calls you out of Sheol," says the LORD with majestic authority, who continues to walk in solemnity.

And Gabriel couldn't believe what she was seeing, as she saw... countless comrades that she knew were long dead, from the Great War and more, from the entirety of the Angel Faction, now standing nearby, shaken as they were, as they slowly looked at the gently walking Man-God who called them forth from the grave.

"...Rezemiel, Nryn, Crevix, Lot," the rest of the angels muttered in tears, each angelic name of many. lost but now found, as they saw their bewildered and shaken comrades return.

Gabriel covered her mouth, crying thoroughly, undone before the Miracle of the Resurrection before her. She could see them. All of them. The ones who died in the Great War. Both Angel and Fallen Angel... and do her eyes deceive her? Even the Devils, who were the first Fallen Angels under their fallen brother Lucifer Morningstar.

...Why?

The Devils themselves who were the First Fallen, completely different from their descendants, still had their bat-like wings, they still had their darker powers, they still had their horns, and yet... they trembled before the Holy Face who is not the God of the Bible. They... They couldn't rebel. They were kneeling. This wasn't the God of the Bible. This... They don't know who He is. They were terrified. Their desires for conquest, crushed, and what remained was Someone too gentle that they don't know He Who Is. They couldn't even say anything. The Smile was too unbearable. It was like every evil they did never mattered. Not with Him.

...Who is this LORD who is the Merciful One?

---

"Bakit pa 'di nakita noon pa man ako ay minahal Mo na.
Ang pagluha ko'y karamay Ka.
Naluha sa mga pangakong 'di nagagawa.
Nais sa Iyo'y magtiwala ba't nangangamba.
At patuloy Kang nagmamahal sa ki'y magiging tulad mo rin.

(Why didn't you see that even before you loved me?
My tears are with you.
Tears from promises that were not kept.
I want to trust you and am afraid.
And you continue to love me, I will become like you.)"

The Archangel Michael. The successor of the God of the Bible. One of the Four Great Seraphs.

Currently, completely undone, as he was kneeling immediately to the ground like a trembling child, with his twelvefold golden dove wings shaking. His eyes beheld, like any other angel of his kind, no matter where they were, either in Heaven or somewhere else, for they were all seeing it. The wondrous mystery of the expansion of their own heavens into more than the mere seven. Spherical shapes and other intricate geometrical lines formed the terrain and the divided seas.

There were these strange creatures. Aqua-colored, cloudy spirits who held banners that swore allegiance to Someone who is not the God of the Bible. Even these sentient stars, strange and aware by nature, seen in the night shade of skies were there, blinked in unison in worship for this Someone who is not the God of the Bible.

That Someone stood at the Third Heaven. A Man-God. With a Shepherd Cross Staff. His Smile melted even the hardest and strictest amongst the angelic beings who are native to this Heaven. Who would dare even rebel against this Smile? It was too loving, too tender, too fatherly.

Then, the Archangel could feel it within his bones and soul, as the Sacred Gear System maintained in the Seventh Heaven was now fully operational again without his direct connective input. In fact, the sight made Michael widen his eyes in shock as he saw a simple wooden Cross that was implanted in the central system, and the entire system was consecrated into a Throne.

...Wait. Thrones. Michael would behold something that would make him shake, with a reverent dread and awe. There were Spheres Within Spheres, the First Morning Stars and Creatures of Creation. The Heavenly First Sons of the Most High. The True Holy Angels. Specifically, the Choir of Thrones, the Third of the Nine Orders. They were quietly making their dwelling in the Seventh Heaven as if to stand guard forever, for Love and for souls. They were innumerable without end, myriads who touched down and covered the Seventh Heaven, as if they drew the line just as it was Sinai again. They were Spheres Within Spheres who gently manifested as fiery yet gentle flames full of indescribable wheels, whose many eyes watched gently at all of the inhabitants of the newly renewed Seven Heavens of this World.

And yet, they did not sing. It was inappropriate, for their Gebirah of the Most High, the Immaculate Co-Redemptrix, sang more beautifully than they.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

A strong yet gentle gush of winds blew across the heavens, as the Spirit of the Most High embraced all of the inhabitants. Michael could no longer feel any of the prayers he used to hear. Instead, he could sense them all being transferred directly to the Man-God who stood like a Shepherd with His staff, and smiled like the Ancient of Days.

Countless brethren. Countless brethren. Countless brethren. Michael would behold miracles he never thought he'd see, or would ever be able to see. Countless new Angels proper to this world were made without the proposed Brave Saint System that his brother Raphael would build. They were everywhere, fourteenfold wings in flight, as newborns, who were all flocking like little children towards the Most High, who smiled and never said a word, only content to look at them all, different yet unique.

Then, Michael quietly glanced at the heavens.

On the First Heaven, the angels were shaking, as they saw countless newborn brethren appear like they were miracle children, populating the First Heaven to the brim. There was a series of rainbow bridges crafted with perfection, made of clouds, that allowed travel to pluralities and infinites of worlds, and of course, included easier travel to the dimension of Earth, of the Underworld, and countless realms.

On the Second Heaven, Michael beheld the countless prisons cracking down, and prisoners of the fallen angels and the human souls in league with them were just as shaken as everyone else, seeing the gentle Most High smiling at them as well. Michael noticed that the Most High did not change the black crow wings of the fallen angels, which made Michael immediately realize that He Who Is is not like Michael's father. This was a GOD who never coerced. He simply showed, and let them see. The fallen and the humans weren't even alone either as those same sentient stars now populated the nightly skies that brighten the darkness of this Heaven. No wait... even the Darkness felt alive. The Darkness was like a sentient blanket, like a god-steward that replaced the lifeless darkness.

On the Fourth Heaven, there was the Garden of Eden, growing with fruitful trees of every sort, and terraformed into an infinitely expansive spherical-shaped paradise. Countless more of the new brethren of angels created were now occupying it to the plentiful with their fourteenfold wings in flight for praise and thanksgiving.

On the Fifth Heaven, where once it used to be where the Grigori under Azazel used for their operations... Now it was gently being terraformed, as cathedrals were quietly arising out of the materials of the clouds, to form these mighty cathedrals for everyone in the heavens to worship. And... the Eucharistic Miracle occurs, as countless Sacred Hosts were quietly lowered down, all of whom were the same Christ, who chose to dwell in these newly constructed cloudy tabernacles. And there was even an altar, for the day when the ordained bishops and priests of the Catholic Church of Azariah's Earth, can celebrate Mass here in these cloudly altars.

But what was most shocking? All of his brethren who had perished in every war that had ever taken them. The Great War, especially, but so much more. Bewildered, these resurrected were shaken as they beheld a Gaze unlike any other.

"...Michael, are you...are you seeing this?" spoke another of the Four Seraphs, Raphael, who was the quiet scientist of the heavens, eventual developer of the Brave Saints system for increasing of angelic populations. His twelvefold wings were also lowered, and also kneeling, quivering.

Michael couldn't answer. He knew that Raphael was one of those who didn't show much emotion. Not that he is emotionless, he's a genuinely good angel at heart, he just happens to be more easily professional and logical in many things. He doesn't blame Raphael's reaction now, because nobody knew what they were looking at...

...And yet their hearts were already telling them who this Man-God was, who smiled. He never spoke any further word, and yet, His eyes were already telling them everything.

"...Michael, the devils..the first devils..." spoke another of the Four Seraphs, Uriel, who was the strict general of the heavens, who was trembling, as he hushly pointed at their first of the fallen brethren. "...Our brothers. Even the first devils. They... They are here..."

Michael quivered over his lips, as he saw countless of their devilry brethren who had returned, who were just as shocked as they were. Not even their Father, the God of the Bible, was this merciful.

---

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

And the Gebirah's voice still echoed and sang on, as the LORD drew closer with His Shepherd Cross Staff while accompanied by the legions of aqua-cloudly spirits, as countless souls were bowing before Him, the Jewish souls most especially who instinctively recognized their Adonai. Countless newborn fourteenfold angelic humanoids were flocking near Him like trembling infants.

...Gabriel felt her breath no longer exist. No, she was still breathing, but her breath felt borrowed, lifted. As she held Aiko while kneeling, the Good Shepherd, whose Trinitarian Presence enveloped all, drew close to Her, stopping near her. His blue eyes were looking at her, and His Smile made her tremble. He never said anything, and yet, she felt her heart being spoken to.

"...You have cared for My little orphans around the world, My little daughter who is named after My archangelic taxiarch who announced My Hypostatic Union, who is your patron saint who prays for you," silently speaks the LORD. "...Continue still more, for I Am with you."

Gabriel was quietly shedding her tears in response, as she could not utter a word, nor could she even draw near to embrace Him. No, it was more like He was embracing her with no need for a physical expression. It was nothing like those times with her father, God of the Bible.

Aiko, the child holding Gabriel, was trembling as she muttered innocently, looking at His Gaze. "...Are you...Are you...Otou-sama...?"

Christ's smile made her breath hitch as she saw her own response held preciously by Him. He spoke gently and solemnly. "I Am, My Daughter."

Aiko was quiet, with tears running through her eyes once more.

And then, Christ quietly looked to the right and saw His other Great Seraphs. Michael, Raphael, and Uriel. They were trembling like children, even wincing as their wings felt unworthy to glide before the Ancient of Days. They kneeled immediately, and their faces couldn't help but bow low to the ground. They couldn't bear His Holy Face. It was an Awesome Mystery that cannot be stared at. It was too different from all of those times with the God of the Bible.

Christ looked a little more and saw all of the resurrected angels, fallen angels, and first devils of the Great War and other wars of this world, who were trembling before His Gaze. Distance didn't even matter, for even distance was a creature that would bow trembling. Then, His Gaze was with the countless angels of the Nine Choirs of this world, who were trembling as well, many of whom were hugging their resurrected comrades. They saw Him, and they trembled like children, because they saw countless newborns of their own kind but perfected, as well as the resurrection of their comrades, both loyal and fallen.

"...What...What is your will...?" Michael spoke too respectfully, stiffly.

Christ's gentler eyes pierce through them all, and He spoke simply. "Lo Tedhal."

And every angel and soul of this heavenly realm felt their breaths once again hitching and trembling before Mercy, and were reduced to tears as they all flocked like limping children before their Heavenly Father.

---

Location: Underworld (High School DxD) - Grigori Territory

...There was a fallen angel, by the name Areal, who flapped his black, graceful wings with trembling weight as he traversed the red-tinted skies of the underworld. He was one of those who had foreseen the Ancient of Days who had renewed their world's Heaven. And now, he was given a simple task by the Ancient of Days.

"My little son, speak to My son and ruler of your people, Azazel," says the LORD, as Areal recalls completely. "Thus says your FATHER, come home and see, for the former things have passed away."

He, with trembled flight, landed discreetly towards the palace of the Grigori, where its leaders noticed with recognition and surprise.

"...Areal?!" says Shemhazai, the Vice Governor General, with white hair and a young 20s face, and aristocratic dress. He would recognize the fallen angel as one of those prisoners kept in the Second Heaven. "How did-"

But before he said anything, he and countless of the fallen would quietly see the man weep and grovel before them.

"...Pl...Please, Lords Azazel and Shemhazai, you...you must know...Heaven...it...it..." he muttered softly. Then, he explained everything that had happened.

And Azazel, the man with a scientific labcoat and black hair with golden bangs, with a goatee, would widen his eyes in shock, as expressed by the rest of the fallen.

Afterwards...

They were all looking at each other, shocked. Azazel was shaken the most.

...Every Angel and Fallen and First Devil? Resurrected in Heaven? And... He Who Is...

Azazel, after a moment, he spoke grimly. "...Shemhazai."

Shemhazai looked at Azazel as the latter continued speaking.

"...Contact all of the fallen cadres, as much as you can. Postpone every operation. We need to confirm this with our own eyes." Azazel said, before looking at Areal, who didn't even look like he was lying. He was literally crying in tears that didn't belong to a liar.

"...Our True LORD...Our True FATHER is here...One in Three..." Areal muttered, crying in broken tears.

The fallen angels were all looking at each other, trembling.

...Who is this LORD that was not their late father, the God of the Bible? Was the question of every fallen present.

---

They all flew. At least the first wave of fallen directly under Azazel and Shemhazai were flying in due haste, following Areal, who was showing them the way. The rest would try to catch up later. Eventually, the legions under Azazel and Shemhazai noticed as all of them had stopped their flight. Their eyes widened as they heard the Voice of the Gebirah singing from afar.

"Pag-ibig Mo'y sa ki'y wagas.
Lagi man akong may sala't walang tiwala.
Ako pa ba'y lalapit pa.
Kayraming beses na ikaw ay nasaktan ko.
Pagpatawad mo ba'y dapat 'di na nagbago.
Ngunit, ika'y nariyan nagmamahal mga sala ko'y di limot Mo na.

(Your love for me is pure.
I am always guilty and distrustful.
Will I still come closer?
How many times have I hurt you?
Your forgiveness should not have changed.
But, you are there, loving, you will not forget my sins.)"

Their eyes behold a sight that lingered at the outer edges of the Underworld. A gentle series of rainbow bridges that connect to Heaven, with arching, beautiful clouds. Countless newborn angelic humanoids of their kin, but more perfect, with either white or black wings of fourteen, were flying and gliding in silence, as they could not sing when their voices were unworthy before the Gebirah's song. The clouds were of perfect shape, like they complemented the outer edges.

Their eyes immediately notice. Just standing on the edge of the rainbow bridge was a smiling Almighty Man-God who carried a One-in-Three presence, who held His Shepherd Cross Staff, which was made of mere wood. There, the familiar Michael and Gabriel, leaders of the Angel Faction, trembling, were right near Him, for even they could not believe what they were seeing. Reconciliation of their House is now a reality.

"...Who...is that...?" Shemhazai muttered with trembling lips, as his twelvefold dark wings were shaking before the gentle gaze of the Man-God who stood there and watched over their numbers like He knew each one.

Azazel couldn't even answer. Who... Who was he looking at? His eyes were widening. This wasn't the stubborn old man of grey hairs that he rebelled against. This was... Someone else. Neither young nor old, but the Ancient of Days who smiles. One in Three.

...Why is He smiling that way? To him, and to every fallen. It... They never even knew that kind of Smile. That shouldn't... That shouldn't exist.

"...Lo Tedhal, My little children," whispered the LORD with a Smile, without speaking with His lips, straightly cutting their hearts.

The fallen, along with Shemhazai and Azazel were shaking in their wings.

...Who is He?

"...That's...not the Father we knew..." says one fallen, as he removed his mask that revealed his tears.

"...That's not Father..." Azazel muttered, shaken, as he didn't see the God of the Bible. No, it was worse. He is seeing... Someone who was too gentle yet Infinite, one that not even Ophis or Great Red could ever emulate.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

All of the fallen present were looking at each other before hesitantly dropping down like limping children who were caught by their Parent. They touched down, but they dared not go that near. They never feared the God of the Bible... but they fear Him, because of the gentleness and clear authority that was there. And yet, that same Man-God drew near, with gentle footsteps, as countless flocks of newborn angels with white wings and black wings were following close behind, with Michael and Gabriel trembling as they followed close behind their FATHER.

With each step, the fallen were wincing. It was too big. How... How can anyone rebel against this? It's suicide. It's nonsensical. Nothing was happening, and yet that in and of itself made them tremble. They weren't being annihilated by holy powers, they were being embraced by an unseen Holy Spirit who loved them.

By the time Christ reached them, the fallen were already shaking, especially with that Smile. He looked with a Smile at a tearful Areal, who kneeled immediately, as he felt the gratefulness of Christ transmitted to his heart.

"...I...don't understand," Azazel muttered, like a whisper. Because he really does not know what he's looking at. Love Itself. And his heart, recontextualized.

The fallen fell because they were lustful for human women. So why...? Why was He looking at them like they were more precious to Him? That's not the God of the Bible. This isn't the holiness they recognize. This was something they didn't know, and they were afraid for the first time in millennia.

And they did not know how long they kneeled. For Christ never spoke a word. He almost seemed to look like He was content to look at them for a very long time.

No orders. No rebukes. Nothing.

Just a Smile. And the echoing softness of the Gebirah.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

Who is this LORD whom they never knew and who Smiles like evil never mattered to Him? Was the trembling thought of all of the fallen that gathered with Azazel and Shemhazai.

"...Why...aren't you saying anything?" Azazel asked, with trembling lips.

The LORD did not respond. His Smile was His response.

...No, it was too painfully gentle.

Azazel, for the first time, did not even know what to do.

---

Location: Underworld (High School DxD) - Devil Territory

...Quietly, there was a meeting in a specific corner of a building that looked like it belonged to the era of Victorian England. A very private meeting between the four rulers of devilkind. The Four Satans. The Demon Lords of the New Satan Faction, who had long ago won the Devil Civil War, and had since then tried to establish peaceful relations with the other two Factions, the Angels and the Fallen, and to make sure that rogue elements that follow the Old Ways of the Satans before them were quelled and purged. For no one wanted another ignition of the Great War.

...And yet, none of that was in relation to this meeting. None of it is based on politics. Their faces looked grim yet deep in pondering. Even one particular Satan amongst them, who had twin-tailed black hair, Serafall Leviathan, who was not her usual bubbly self. She was quiet as well.

Why?

Because of what her younger sister, Sona Sitri, and her best friend and the younger sister of the current ruler of devilkind, Rias Gremory, both reported to them with due haste what they had been informed of through a strange young man named Azariah. That same young man even left the notes behind, and it contained too terrifyingly almost accurate information about who they were, what kind of world their world really was, the situation of the Great War, and many other things.

But none of that carried the full weight of what this Azariah person had revealed. He claimed to be from another World, a World ruled by a GOD Who Is Love. Not the God of the Bible. It cannot be emphasized enough. When this Azariah invoked this GOD, nothing happened. Nobody amongst Rias and Sona's peerages felt either pain or irritation. Azariah explained about his Earth, and the World that he came from.

...What can they even do with that information?

Serafall would firmly deny that Sona would ever lie about something like this. Not even Rias would lie about this. No, the very account was far too strange and detached from even what preconceived the minds of every devil. Azariah's GOD, it is said, was their Creator. The Devils were not mistakes. They were loved.

Their leader amongst the Four Satans, Sirzechs Gremory, spoke with a grim tone towards his fellow Satan, Ajuka Beelzebub, who is the Underworld's top researcher and scientist. "What say you, my old friend?" He hesitantly asked, as he held one of the notes that were written from Azariah's own hand.

Ajuka winced a little as he quietly studied one of the notes, holding it with trembling hands. "...Sirzechs...I'm...I'm not even sure what I'm looking at." He glanced at the various lists of Eucharistic Miracles that were seen and thoroughly documented in Azariah's Earth.

Lanciano. Buenos Aires. Avignon. More places that make up almost every part of the world have it.

"...It's a summary of course, not a scholarly thesis, but even then..." Ajuka muttered, as his eyes of science looked and couldn't help but be disturbed in thought by what he was reading. "...These descriptions do not match the Eucharist that we are familiar with. This isn't some wellspring of mana, this is... this is something I cannot truthfully classify."

One of their fellow Satans, Falbius Asmodeus, felt uneasy. "...We really have no idea who this GOD is, do we?"

That was the disturbing and underworldly shaking truth that the four were wrestling with. If what Azariah spoke was true, then... this GOD does not answer to anyone. He is the Source of all authority, and every authority they have belonged to Him. And yet... this GOD never, even once, made Himself known in their world.

Throughout their own history, this GOD was silent. But that silence was what made the Four Satans tremble. No god, no kami, no deity was silent for too long. Any god, any kami, any deity would at least make itself known, and something that can at least be understood, even in ways that acted strange, like the local island gods of the Pacific who have their own local provincial pantheons with their own cultural patterns.

...But why was this One so silent?

"...Nobody was this silent for too long. Not one record. Nothing. Every detail of this GOD does not match the Christianity we knew." Sirzechs spoke grimly as he quietly looked at quotes from what this Azariah called Church Fathers. People Sirzechs had never even heard of before. Justin Martyr. Origen. Ireneaus. And countless more. All of them were consistent. They spoke of a GOD too strange yet too near. A GOD who desires all to be saved and does not coerce. A GOD who corrects as a Father, not as a tyrant. A GOD who became Man to unite all creation back to Him and in order to free it by defeating...

...The real Lucifer.

That was the one detail that made him, and the rest flinched.

Lucifer Helel ben Shachar. The Lucifer before any other. The most beloved of the Most High, who saw Love as an insult and wanted Order without Love. Anything will do, but Love must not be the rule. That was the strange and alien maxim of this First and Last Dark Lord.

...This is not a Lucifer they can reasonably fight and defeat. Every act of the will turned towards fighting already plays into this Monster's vendetta.

"...My Lord Sirzechs!"

Every one of the Four Satans looks and sees one of the devils who barged in, a man with black hair and emerald eyes, his expression looks grim and frightened.

"Something is happening in one of the streets of Lucifuge!" says the man.

---

"...RAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Somewhere, in the city of Lucifuge, countless devil soldiers were using magical chains, as they tried to bind... a poor devil child who was afflicted by something they could not explain.

"DAMN YOU, NAZARENE! THIS IS OUR WORLD! WE DON'T WANT YOUR MERCY!" exclaims the devil child, who had black hair and whose eyes, which used to be normal brown, were now changed unnaturally into a white scale pale color. His face had an unnatural, bloody cross rash mark. His hands' nails were unnaturally sharp. The voice of the child was not that of the child, but of something too ancient and terrible.

The Four Satans were already on the scene, walking out of their magic circles as they bore witness to the disturbing sight with seriousness and disturbance. The first thing they immediately notice, and what every devil was bearing witness to due to their senses being sharper than any mortal, was...

...Something evil was lurking within the boy. No, it wasn't just one. There were countless. A Legion.

"...Sirzechs," Serafall muttered grimly, narrowing her eyes.

"...Yes, I can see them too," Sirzechs spoke grimly.

Countless strange creatures who had devilish horns and faun-like characteristics were present right behind the boy, like a veil between dimensions. Their eyes were three, and they glared coldly. There were no angels, or fallen angels, or devils, of this world. Neither are they the Original Fallen Morning Stars who followed the real Lucifer in their rebellion. They were the ones, one of many unknown rebels, who followed the Original Fallen Morning Stars.

"...There will only be shadow. Let no Love come forth. There will only be shadow. Let no Love come forth. There will only be shadow. Let no love come forth." These strange horned creatures were speaking in an ancient language that the Four Satans don't recognize. This felt older, predating anthropoid languages. And yet, somehow, the Four Satans could understand what they were saying.

"...I never thought that boy's notes would be useful for this situation," Ajuka spoke grimly. "I suppose these are the so-called rebellious daimons that he listed down."

"...Though, which one are we dealing with here?" Serafall muttered in extreme caution, as her eye caught empathy that she directed to the poor parents of this boy, who were hugging in terror and tears, even wondering what was happening to their boy.

"...THE NAZARENE'S KINGDOM WILL NOT BE WELCOME HERE. WAR! THERE WILL BE WAR, NAZARENE!" screams the possessed devil boy.

Sirzech flinched. He felt the guttural evil spewing out of its mouth. It's not something he ever felt in any devil of their kind. But that was because what was speaking through that boy was no devil. No... it was something older. It made him feel like he was back on an ancient battlefield again, the Devil Civil War, the only rare times he ever got serious.

This one would prove to be a challenge.

Nazarene's Kingdom.

Something's happened. Sirzechs thought grimly. Thinking like a ruler, Sirzechs would have figured that if these creatures do in fact answer to Helel ben Shachar, then... Azariah's GOD is on the move, in ways that the entirety of the Underworld hasn't accounted for.

"...Whatever the case, we need to do something," Serafall muttered grimly, as she already had her magic circles ready, which carried the blizzard ice age. "I can sense an entire army within the boy from the other side. It's too many..."

"An actual invasion within our territory, and using one of our own children to spew their propaganda? Unforgivable," Falbium spoke with a grim, cold resolve, as he unleashed his own magic circles that flowed naturally like purplish pillars.

But then, just as the Four Satans would get ready...

"Pag-ibig Mo'y sa ki'y wagas.
Lagi man akong may sala't walang tiwala.

(Your love for me is pure.
I am always guilty and distrustful.)"

...Every single one of the devils felt their breath hitched.

"...NOOOOOOOOOO! NOT THAT WOMAN! NOT THE WOMAN WHO CRUSHED OUR LORD!" the possessed devil child was in absolute terror, as he was collapsing to the floor. The countless daimons gritted their teeth. Countless more daimons with faun shapes were raising their flaming swords.

"Ako pa ba'y lalapit pa.
Kayraming beses na ikaw ay nasaktan ko.
Pagpatawad mo ba'y dapat 'di na nagbago.
Ngunit, ika'y nariyan nagmamahal mga sala ko'y di limot Mo na.

(Will I still come closer?
How many times have I hurt you?
Your forgiveness should not have changed.
But, you are there, loving, you will not forget my sins.)"

The Four Satans would slowly look up above, as the skies broke down, revealing cloudly cathedrals, as countless fourteenfold winged, whether white or black, newborn angels created within this world were coming down with their light swords. Their armor and shields carried the symbols of YHWH, Chi-Rho with Alpha (left) and Omega (right), and the Most Sacred Heart.

"For Our FATHER Who Art In Heaven, YHWH Sabaoth, and for His Gebirah Miriam! QUIS UT DEUS!" the newborn angelic beings exclaimed in their tears, as they rain down like flocks of aerial eagles and touched down, engaging the other side of the veil and crossed blades, crushing through the daimonic fauns that were ferocious in the skill of their swords and power, but were getting slowly pushed back.

The Four Satans had their expressions turn into shock and trembling awe. So many... they immediately notice. These angels. They looked like the ones in the Angel Faction, but they were different. They felt like newborns who serve Someone else. Like they were made for this very decisive moment.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

The Four Satans were quietly trembling like children as they saw the miracle unfolding before them. A gentle Holy Spirit was embracing them all.

"...Lo Tedhal, My little children."

A gentle, majestic yet intimate voice echoed across the heavens. Addressed to all of the devils in the city, both individually and collectively, making them tremble like children.

"...Go now, My Ha-Satans," says the Voice of the Father, which made the Four Satans tremble. "Defend your people. Do not fear these false gods. I Am with you."

The Four Satans couldn't help but be shaken completely. Everyone heard it.

Sirzechs tried to keep himself together. Why was this Voice... so tender...?

He glances back, seeing the possessed child somehow free, as the devil mother was crying and embracing the young boy who was looking at the heavens open in awe and trembling lips, and the devil father was also crying in gratefulness, hugging his boy as well. There were three of these newborn angels who were silently standing guard for the family.

Serafall felt her face shaken, as she saw the countless without end angels that were raising their swords of light and were slowly cutting down the advance against the rebel faun daimons, all the while the Gebirah never stopped singing.

The Four Satans were feeling embraced, gently, and lifted up. Even Ajuka couldn't help but bite his lip, as he never once felt this much emotion in his lifetime. They all feel their memories come back. From their younger days, to the Devil Civil War where they were forced to fight their own kind so that their kind could remain free from extinction and for the sake of a more peaceful world, to the current present.

...But then. They felt it. They never saw. But Someone was there, watching them with a Smile, sharing their joys and griefs.

"...You..." Sirzechs muttered, shaken as he glanced upward, widening his eyes.

...He was there.

The Unknown FATHER of Devils.

He was there, in every moment of their history, in silence.

Sirzechs clenched his fists, which sparked with crimson flame. He narrowed sharply at the countless rebel faun daimons who were aggressively trying to push back. His lips trembled. Instinct took over. His steps carried the weight of several quakes, with sparks of pure devil magic... and yet, he felt it, Someone giving him the grace, like a FATHER who never lets go.

The rebel faun daimons gritted their teeth and coldly spoke in defiance, raising their swords. "...It matters not." They spoke in Ancient Dark Speech. "Your world already belongs to Our Lord Helel ben Shachar."

Sirzechs clenched his fists. He didn't bother to respond. His eyes were already in tears, as he saw his own childhood reflected back, and there He was, Smiling too tenderly, like he was His favored son, as if He knew of Sirzech's future destiny as a Lucifer for his people.

...Lucifer. His surname. It originally and still belonged to Christ.

"...You were there for me," Sirzechs muttered, like a broken-hearted child, as he unleashed his crimson waves with his own two arms, sending countless daimons to ashes, and in effect, sending them towards the Judgment of the Cross where the LORD alone will judge them.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

The countless devil troops, all crying in tears, were roaring with their fork spears ready and charged against the rebel daimons.

...Because they were orphans no more.

 

[Multiverse Learner 101]

Location: Azariah's Earth

...Quietly, there were strange manifestations of structured Gates which appeared in every corner, which were reminiscent of the Greco-Roman style of old temples. Yet, they carried the symbols of YHWH, the Chi-Rho with Alpha (left) and Omega (right), and the Most Sacred Heart on top of these Gates. These Gates were quietly opening their doors, as if commanded by Divine Providence.

The mass media were immediately zooming in with their equipment and microphones. Yet, they tremble even as they announce the news, especially in the midst of the strange creatures of varying shapes. The eyes of the newscasters and the crowds of people would watch as they saw the 5001st Systems Armed Forces of the Homo Tempus Clonizo marched with lighter movement. As soon as the Gates opened, they marched in massive numbers.

Their white, immaculate armor reflected the gentle afternoon sun. Their color markings of tekhelet blue, burnt orange, and black ashes were complemented by its rays. Their AK-47-shaped rifles were ready, as their pulse generators glowed from within.

"...There seems to be a major mobilization of the Homo Tempus Clonizo across these Gates that suddenly appeared all throughout the Vatican," says one brown-haired reporter woman from America, reporting for CNN, who trembled in tone. She placed her right hand to her comms on her ears, and muttered with professionalism mixed with surprise. "Hold on, I'm getting reports that the Gates are also seen in Medjugorje, Garabandal, and every Marian pilgrimage site."

Everyone around the world didn't know what was happening. Many YouTube and other social platform media commentators who had been following these strange, unprecedented events since the Angelus prayer period in the Vatican didn't know what was happening either.

Chat:

SedDesmond: "...Uhh...what's happening?"

NineLivesBladeWorks: "...I think...umm...Christ's Imperial Stormtroopers are mobilizing."

Nerd43U: "Way to state the obvious, Sherlock."

Al-Madi221: "Where are all of these Gates coming from? It feels straight out of an anime..."

TouForReal: "Have you been paying attention to what's happening? There are literally aliens, mythological beings, cryptids, and whatever non-human that's literally seen by everybody around the globe. Heck, there's a giant stone thing just right near my suburban area that's worshipping Jesus. My entire family is freaking out about this."

Nerd43U: "I'm still kinda wondering just how the... uhh, heck, is the Pope even aware of stuff like this being real? How long did he know about this? Did he just... wait it out until these beings would show up, and then he drops the bombshell on the world?"

NineLivesBladeWorks: "I've been looking up on the Church Fathers online just to make sense of what the heck is the Pope even talking about. Turns out... the Pope wasn't kidding. There's literally stuff here that doesn't just say demons like we usually understood it, but something else entirely. You really need to carefully read them just to actually see their point of view. When they say demons, they don't mean the usual dogma. They meant something that they got from Second Temple Judaism and course-corrected them all."

TouForReal: "Wow... just wow. Modern apologetics is gonna have a field day with this oversight."

---

In the quiet march of the 5001st troopers within the Vatican, there was one trooper amongst the crowd. His name was Master Chief John Paul-888. His armor was like the rest, immaculate white, with the same color markings as his vod, as well as carrying the symbols of His Triune Mand'alor, which is YHWH, the Chi-Rho with the Alpha (left) and Omega (right), and the Most Sacred Heart. Yet, there is a different characteristic found within his armor. It had the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on its shoulders, with brown lines that were added to its custom armor that had a brown Carmelite robe.

Italian civilians and other foreign peoples who were watching the imperial stormtroopers mobilize would notice him standing out without meaning to, because of the clear image on his shoulders. It made them hold their breaths.

"...The Madonna?" says with a trembling tone, one Italian woman in her 30s, carrying her infant, who held his right hand instinctively for some reason.

"...Who the heck is that guy with the monk robe?" says another young Italian fifteen-year-old millennial boy, who looked bewildered.

"Is he some kind of leader among these troopers?" says another young Argentinan man in his twenties, who can't help but notice the distinctive individual look.

Master Chief Paul-888 could hear all of the comments from his super-hearing senses. Yet, he paid no mind to them. Quietly, he rejoiced, for curiosity, as he knew, sparked the first step for the people, of their own free will, to investigate matters of the sacred. Who was he truly that he was wearing the colors and clothing of the Queen-Mother of the Universe?

Someone who had lived for far too long. He was one of the first sons who had seen the beginnings of his own people, aevums before Saint Adam's existence came to be. They, who were raised from the dust of every strata of Creation, commanded by their YHWH Mand'alor to wait and to prepare. He was one of the eldest sons who waited. He was one of the eldest sons who had seen with his own weary eyes the Divine Works of their Mand'alor. He was there, amongst countless, when their Mand'alor came for them in the desert after the Temptation against the Tyrannical Oppressor.

"...Watch."

That was the order of Christos Mand'alor. Thus he did. Thus, all of them did. Then, when the Harrowing came at the third hour, he and countless infinitude of his vod mobilized. He was a Private back then. If people claimed to know the brutality of war, then he claims something different. War was never the final word. War is a coward, cornered like a pathetic creature that it truly was. It can boast loudly. It can kill souls. It can engulf perception. But it was never the final word. Only their Buir, Christos Mand'alor.

His feet walked through the Gate, finally entering this other world that never knew the Gospel of Mercy. Just as their Christos Mand'alor had first laid the paths, so shall it be again.

For there are no deaths. For there are no hells. For there are no gods. Quis ut Deus?

---

As the news broadcasters were still rolling, the brown-haired CNN reporter woman on the street would hear from her comms. "Uhh, just a moment. It seems the clonizo are requesting a heads-up. We're about to get exclusive footage on the situation on the other side of the Gates and what we're gonna see over there."

And not a moment too soon, the cameras and other equipment handling social media would be given something that made the entire world stop dead on their mental tracks.

The countless screens were depicting a war happening within a city called Lucifuge. Countless beautiful newborn angelic beings with fourteenfold wings, carrying the same symbols as the clonizo, were mobilizing from the beautiful sky cathedrals that broke open with their gentle lights. There, they would see them, and the clonizo, assisting the humanoids with bat wings, the devils of this world who were raising their pitchforks that glowed with crimson energy.

But the anime forums and such were at a shock when they were looking at what they were seeing.

"...No way," one of them, somewhere in Japan, spoke in shock.

High School DxD. They'd recognize the art style. They'd even see the familiar Sirzechs, with tears on his eyes, crushing through the ranks of these strange daimonic creatures who look like fauns with three cold eyes that glared with ominous hues, among other sights to behold. But that was not the most shocking part.

"Bakit pa 'di nakita noon pa man ako ay minahal Mo na.
Ang pagluha ko'y karamay Ka.
Naluha sa mga pangakong 'di nagagawa.
Nais sa Iyo'y magtiwala ba't nangangamba.
At patuloy Kang nagmamahal sa ki'y magiging tulad mo rin.

(Why didn't you see that even before you loved me?
My tears are with you.
Tears from promises that were not kept.
I want to trust you and am afraid.
And you continue to love me, I will become like you.)"

They heard it, as much as the devils within that world knew and heard, which sent them to tears. Everyone around the entire world is hitched. Every infant around the world became quiet and even innocently chuckled in laughter as they raised their hands in the air, like they were seeing something nobody else was seeing.

They were all hearing it. It was a voice too beautiful, too motherly, like a lullaby, spread out through the battlefield, as countless imperial stormtroopers were opening fire, with their tekhelet automatic rounds piercing through the daimonic fauned creatures, burning through them to ashes and sending them to the Judgment of Christos Mand'alor.

No one could dare speak.

...Who...was that?

The brown-haired American reporter, who was quietly receiving transmissions from her superiors, could only turn pale and report with trembling lips. "...Uhh...the one singing is...the Blessed...Mother..." she muttered, in shock.

Everyone was shocked, their breath taken away.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

There, in the fray, there was Master Chief Paul-888, who struck back as he silently marched forward, readying his AK-47-shaped rifle and shooting down the daimonic fauns that tried to draw near, picking them off with their tekhelet bolts. Many of his 5001st vod were right behind him as they opened fire, maximum efficiency, as they shot down more of the flying daimon fauns that were getting turned to ashes.

Serafall Leviathan, seen on screen, who was trying to keep herself together, her tears flowing on her face, would raise her right hand, sending a crushing wave of ice blizzard on the rebel daimon fauns who drew near and who had been firing flames of pure malice on their persons, extinguished with ice and crushing them. Countless 5001st were silently covering for her, shooting down any stragglers.

All of the Protestants around the world felt their hearts clench as they had never heard a voice so very beautiful. This... This was the Woman they decry as blasphemy? As heresy? As an accusation against the Catholics that they worship an idol?

...What idol would ever sing this way, at the heart of a battlefield which has no place for songs?

Their eyes beheld their Scriptures come alive. The same battles of the Old Testament, now seen on their screens. The same false gods who were massive in numbers, with faun-shaped features, were too many. And yet, the devils and the allies from the Heavens stood their ground, as the clonizo opened fire across the ground, while the devils in the skies, ignited within their bloodlines, finally fought for a true Great War that they were born to fight.

The Song of the Gebirah drowned out all blasphemies of these daimon fauns that their own voices could not even articulate their own creed, of decrying against Mercy Itself.

For this is something that the modern world forgot.

The Age of the Martyrs wasn't simply people dying for Christ, for other religions have their own martyrs. It was not simply dying for resurrection, for other religions have their own proposals of immortality. It was a cosmic statement against the entirety of the exousiai (powers), kosmokratores (world-lords), and the stoicheia tou kosmou (elemental rulers of the world order) under Ha-Satanas.

Your reign is over and your days are numbered. The Cross of Our LORD has conquered you all.

The persecutions were never exaggerated. They were the rippling effect of the terror of Ha-Satanas. The Romans under Ha-Satanas tolerated every religion, oversaw every religion, monotheism, or polytheism, or any theistic religion. Everything was tolerated. But never the Christians. They were the outlier, the terror of every age, because they proposed something else.

There is only One GOD. All gods, lords, and kings are creatures. Mercy is the King of kings, the LORD of lords, and the GOD of gods. Mercy is the Name of their LORD.

---

Within the Vatican's chambers, there were the cardinals, all of them completely shaken and trembling as they, like everyone else, bore witness to the screens that were depicting a sight that they could never imagine.

"Pag-ibig Mo'y sa ki'y wagas.
Lagi man akong may sala't walang tiwala.
Ako pa ba'y lalapit pa.
Kayraming beses na ikaw ay nasaktan ko.
Pagpatawad mo ba'y dapat 'di na nagbago.
Ngunit, ika'y nariyan nagmamahal mga sala ko'y di limot Mo na.

(Your love for me is pure.
I am always guilty and distrustful.
Will I still come closer?
How many times have I hurt you?
Your forgiveness should not have changed.
But, you are there, loving, you will not forget my sins.)"

It wasn't the revelation of another world being, in fact, what anime had imperfectly depicted that shocked the cardinals. It wasn't even the battle itself. It was something else.

On the CNN headlines, there was: "THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IS SINGING?! GOD'S CLONIZO TROOPERS MARCH AMIDST HER SONG."

"...Mama Mary," spoke Cardinal Bonaventura Trinidad, a Filipino Cardinal, appointed as the Pro-Prefect for the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization, reduced to tears as he immediately drew out his rosary and, clutching it, kneeling immediately.

The other cardinals froze. They couldn't even do anything. They knew the Blessed Mother. They were taught about her. Many, not all but many, however, considered her not as much, unfortunately, lacking in some ways in devotion of the heart. Focus on Christ alone is the mentality of these so-called many. But their worldview broke down completely when they saw the Mother's Voice echoing across the terrifying battlefield.

Pope Apollos was the only one who remained calm. But even he held tears, which he shed with no shame, like a child who heard his Mother again, as he quietly kneeled down, bringing out his rosary. He raised his hand that carried the cross. "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen."

This was not the time to freeze, the Pope thought with conviction. This was a time of prayer, for the Rosary was her Song, and that same Rosary echoed its meaning across the battlefield. Just as before, he knew, the One whom he had once declared in dogma a month prior as the Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces, and Advocate, is asking for Her people to intercede with Her.

Just as Moses lifted his arms in the form of a Cross, so too must the children of the Mater Populi Fidelis stand with Her in front of Her Son.

---

...Across the world. Every Filipino felt it within their bones. Whether the ones away from their home country, or at the heart of the pearl itself, there was the same tears shed by all of them, no matter who they were.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

"...Ma...ma...Mary..." says one old senior woman, who kneeled on the road, in tears before the screen showing the battle.

...Their Mahal na Ina was using their language and was singing it on the battlefield, which should have no place in it. Every Filipino was reduced to tears as they kneeled, no matter where they were. Their faith burst open like little children. The grandparent folk, especially, were kneeling, as their memories flashed back into the darker days of World War II, which lasted from 1930 up to 1960. In 1938, the Imperial Japanese Army had conquered the Philippines and further beaten it to the dirt. But still, the senior Filipinos recalled, it wasn't just the IJA that they remembered. It was the old monsters of ancient days that their Panginoong Diyos had opposed long ago, since the Old Testament.

...The Aswang had returned in full, terrifying glory, the monsters that their forefathers had opposed during the periods before and during the early days of the Spanish colonial era. The seniors remembered those darker days well, when, behind the IJA, the Aswang and countless monstrosities of the night had taken advantage of the conquest, as the true rulers who answered under Ha-Satanas.

Now, seeing the screens again, they are seeing the same nightmares once more, these rebel daimones who look like fauns. The same monsters under Ha-Satanas, the Haring Aswang.

The senior men and women were already calling forth all of their families.

"Mga anak, mga apo, we must pray, quickly." They all commonly said in tears, contacting and bringing their families towards their altars at home.

They knew this same darkness. They knew it far too well by personal experience. Physical and superpowered weapons aren't enough. They must pray and fast, just like before. That is the only real answer against these false gods.

As if by instinct, the entire nation and its citizens around the world mobilized. The time had come once again. Just as they, with their prayers, opposed an Anti-Christ, Adolf Hitler, during the darker days of World War II, so would it be, right now, that they will oppose the same monsters who dare blaspheme their Panginoon.

---

...Somewhere, in the simple rooftops of Tondo, Manila.

There was a young man somewhere in his early 20s, with a black bag wrapped around his shoulder, who quietly drew out an iron Cross that held gold colors that had blue circular shapes on each side of it. It transformed quietly into a sword, and with it, he struck the sword down on the ground as he kneeled, just as every one of his fellow countrymen around the world was kneeling in prayers of simple rosary beads and Consecrations of Baptismal Vows against the Ha-Satanas, the Haring Aswang.

Who was this young man who kneeled?

Once upon a time, in the same way that the LORD had sent His Judges for the people of Israel, so too did He gently send Judges for His beloved Philippines.

They were called the Tagabantay.

And this young man's name was Juan dela Cruz, who was named after the national personification of the everyday man in the Philippines, as well as named after the great Doctor of the Church, Saint John of the Cross.

"...Juan," spoke the LORD quietly and gently in his heart, making the young man clench his handle. "Aking Mahal na Anak ng Liwanag. ("My Beloved Child of Light.")"

The young man raised his eyes to the heavens, like a trembling child. This was not the first time the LORD spoke to him. It had been so ever since he was an orphan boy raised in a parish.

"...Go forth through the Gate," gently says the LORD. "Defend My other children." He means the devils of this world, the ones formerly thought mere fiction but were as real as the breath of air. "Just as you and your ancestors had defended My people here in the Philippines. They do not know Me, as your people do, for they never knew the Love Story of their Father's Scriptures nor their Father's Living Church. They never saw a true Judge just as My people Israel saw, thus I send thee, My Tagabantay, so that through your actions, I Am proclaims to them all. You are not abandoned. You are not born unholy. You are mine, forever."

Juan gripped his hilt, and his eyes burned with a quiet resolve as he raised it to the gentler heavens. "...Opo, Panginoon."

---

And in the quiet Poland...

The streets were seen filled with its Polish Armed Forces, their vehicles were now roaring their engines as they accompanied the 5001st. Men who had seen war were now shedding tears as they gripped their weapons upon the sound of their Matka Boza, who had defended them during the darker days of World War II. Upon direct orders from Polish President Krzysztof Novak...

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

...They are to fully assist their Najświętsza Maryja Panna in this other world. They could not help but immediately say yes. They could still remember one Polish mystic by the name of Saint Faustina Kowalska. Their LORD had chosen this nun, unknown to the world, to spread devotion to His Divine Mercy, in a time when everything felt bleak and creatures of the night stalked the forests and snowy plains of Poland. The modern world may have forgotten, as its secular leaders amongst the Allied Forces had confiscated every evidence of non-human activity, but the armies of Poland never forgot their bloody history.

The cover-up is no more. The truth is finally coming out.

With their rifles in their hand, and with Divine Mercy images tucked in their pockets or stuck into their weapons, the people of Poland will once again answer the call of their Mother who protected their nation from the wrath of the Nazis and the Devil who had inspired them.

---

Location: Underworld (High School DxD) - Devil Territory

...Sirzechs sheds continually quiet tears, as his sparks of crimson destruction caused shockwaves across the battlefield. He never had to go this all out for so long. Neither did his comrades, Serafall, Ajuka, and Falbium. Fumes exploded, as their combined power shook through the swath of countless faun daimons that were everywhere, yet slowly pushed back by reinforcements coming from both above and from below.

But none compared to that gentle lullaby of the Woman. None compared to the Voice of God the Father who tenderly wanted them.

He glances at his comrades, who also shed similar tears. There was no banter. They couldn't even have the luxury of doing that. Their tongues were silent, as they felt their entire purpose come alive. They, the descendants, and countless like them who came from the First Devils, who only created them to be weapons for their Great War...

...Now they discover that wasn't their purpose. They weren't mistakes. They weren't rebels. They were orphans who never knew their FATHER for far too long. All the while, they lived in that silence for centuries.

And then...

Countless shapes of luminous white crosses were seen on the battlefield, crushing countless rebel daimons with precision, like they were weeds to be whacked for the harvest, making Sirzechs and the others notice immediately. That kind of power... it didn't come from anything they felt before. It was the same power as that Voice.

One of the clonizo imperial stormtroopers had his hand to the comms of his helmet, as he and the rest of his vod were contacted by operations command.

"All units, General Cruz, Our Mand'alor's Tagabantay, has entered the battlefield. All operations on the ground are now under his command," says the clonizo within the comms.

"Quis ut Deus," responds many of the clones with grim conviction, as they raised their AK-47 shaped rifles and blasted with a barrage of tekhelet firepower, exploding the battlefield with more purifying sprays.

And there he was. Running across the streets of Lucifuge, as his iron Cross transformed into a whip that glowed with luminous white. Juan dela Cruz. His black boots were echoing with every step, as he would jump with impressive footwork, as he twisted his body, with the whip slashing through every one of the rebel daimons.

Then he dropped near where Sirzechs and the others saw him as he raised his weapon to change it into a sword. "Para sa Panginoong Diyos!" he exclaimed with authority that made all of the countless faun daimons in every corner glare coldly with subtle, violent expressions. They clearly recognized the meddling Judge.

"Pochwalony Jezus Chrystus!" says the many tearful yet fierce Polish soldiers, the true descendants of Saint Adam and Saint Eve, and sons of the Church, as they aimed their weapons, taking positions near Juan as they opened fire. They were not as advanced as the clonizo's weapons, but they trusted not in their primitive weapons but in the LORD who trains their hands for war.

And their Mother sang to complement their arrival.

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

Sirzechs, Serafall, Ajuka, and Falbium froze. Their senses were allowed to peer beyond the veil, and they witnessed something. They weren't humans, or rather humans as they understood them in their world. No, they were... something else entirely.

Someone was there. That same Presence as that Voice.

That was the major glaring difference between the humans of their world... who were never humans, but antipodes, and these who were the true humans descended by a Covenant of Love to intercede for all creation.

Countless numbers of the newborn angels were already flocking to them and crushing any who dared try to harm these humans, with their light swords and spears launched across the battlefield, complementing their Queen-Mother's song.

"...Why?" Serafall muttered in her tears. Why was something like this even possible on a battlefield?

A Queen-Mother's song. A Heavenly Father's Smile. This should not even be present here.

Sirzechs couldn't help but look at the gentle cathedral clouds that poured out countless more of the newborn angels to assist devilkind. A gentle whisper for all of their hearts, where every devil felt it.

"You are mine, My little ones."

There was no Voice this time. But the Holy Spirit was gently there, smiling, embracing them all.

The Four Satans glared now at the rebel daimons that kept pouring out of the veil with their countless barrage of crimson flares. Serafall blocked them all with her ice shield, as she sends it with twice the row, bulldozing through their ranks.

For the Devils' Panginoong Diyos!

Is the thought of all of the devils who bore witness to the miracle of true humanity.

---

Location: Azariah's Earth

"Ang pag-ibig Mo, di mapawi sa puso ko na ang magtiis sa tulad ko.
Pag-ibig Mong walang hanggan sa akin ay lagi ko lang inaasam.

(Your love, which cannot be erased from my heart, is what I have to endure.
Your eternal love for me is what I always long for.)"

The cameras kept rolling. Yet the people around the world were frozen, and tears were welling out of their faces.

The social media platforms were mostly silent. Only things one can find for the most part are silent crying emojis.

Chat:

Al-Madi221: "...Okay, sorry, I'm kinda crying right now."

SedDesmond: "...Man, you aren't alone in that front."

Nerd43U: "...Forget anime being real for a second. Heck, forget the fact that some Filipino superhero that nobody even knew existed just showed up along with the Polish Armed Forces helping out Sirzechs and co. Since when did GOD authorize motherly lullaby singing on the battlefield while the rest of us just watch this unfold on realtime?"

NascentBibleScholar478: "...Well, sorry, forgive me as I try to type this because I'm definitely not as okay as the rest of you. If one actually looks at the Hebrew Scriptures, you're gonna get a lot of singing, from Exodus 15 where Moses and the Hebrews were singing after Pharoah and his men got sunk by the tidal waves of the Red Sea, to Deborah literally singing in Judges 5, to Jehosaphat in 2 Chronicles just straight up sending singers first into the battlefield and confused the foreign army. I could go on, but never let it be said that this isn't actually unprecedented."

Nerd43U: "...You've got to be kidding me. Is there anything in the actual Bible that had always been there, and yet for some reason nobody somehow picked it up?"

TouFoReal: "At this point, every internet user's gonna have to search literally every commentary of Scripture that ever existed just to make sense of what's happening."

NascentBibleScholar478: "As a certified Bible scholar myself, I can definitely attest that there's been an increasing number of people who now want to learn about the Scriptures, especially in their original languages, half of which to make sense of what is happening, and the other half being countless Christian denominations who genuinely wanted to reflect more on what they actually miss about their faith."

StarOrb1977: "And uhh... guess what. Apparently, people are now thinking up a name for whatever is happening now."

Nerd43U: "...What kind of name?"

StarOrb1977: "...GOD's True Clone Wars."

NineLivesBladeWorks: "(Crying Emoji). (Facepalm Emoji). I'm not gonna lie, why does that sound like a badass title? Forgive me for the language, but what else am I supposed to call it other than it's a badass title?"

SedDesmond: "I have a feeling the internet language is rearranging itself to the point where a curse word feels so... so inappropriate it's not funny."

StarOrb1977: "That really is in fact what's been happening. Plenty of users are now kinda trying their best not to even drop a single curse word. It's not that they can't, it's just... like, really, would you really even do that in front of literally everybody, which is every non-humans in our world who showed up randomly, who does acknowledge Our Lord and Savior?"

SedDesmond: "That's not even a meme at this point, that's reality now."

And then...

...The screens around the world would suddenly show something terrible manifesting. A gigantic goat-like faun. Yet even its physical manifestation was an accommodation for something terrible underneath its appearance. It had six lamia-like eyes that glared coldly as it manifested. A subtle terror emanated from this beast of four horns and sixfold wings that were as beautiful as a raven.

Chat:

SedDesmond: "(Scared Emoji). ...Okay. What. The. Hell."

Nobody, even in the chat forums, even knew what they were looking at. Its entire appearance was so real that even the anime art style on screen was turning into pale static.

The brown-haired American CNN reporter woman on the ground of the Vatican was putting her hand to her comm, and her pale face turned paler as she spoke with trembling lips. "...Uhh...This just in. According to information provided by the Clonizo...this thing on screen is a...Ba'al."

Everyone in the world widened their eyes in shock.

...Ba'al?

NascentBibleScholar478: "...No way. The same Ba'al from the Old Testament? That Ba'al?"

And then, suddenly, the Mother of GOD's voice changed Her lullaby tone to that of a fierce Mother for Her children that made everyone completely intimidated.

"Umasa nang anong tagal dahil akala ko.
Ako na ang lahat-lahat para sa tulad mo.
Malilimutan ko pa ba ang pighating ito.
Ngayong tuluyan na ika'y wala sa piling ko.

(I've been waiting for so long because I thought.
I'm everything to someone like you.
Will I ever forget this sorrow?
Now that you're gone from me forever.)"

The Ba'al faun god looked upward at the cathedral clouds coldly. "...Send forth your armies, Most High." He boasted, solemnly yet with no shouting voice, just as Goliath once boasted in blasphemy. It made everyone on Earth twitch as they heard the sound of its voice. It felt booming yet poisonous. "This world will not be surrendered to you."

As he said that, countless more daimon fauns with their wings were seen gliding across the skies and engaging the newborn angels in brutal combat, where each of them took falls, and the newborn angels who were martyred were immediately lifted upwards into the heavens to be with Him.

Nerd43U: "(Scared Emoji). ...Dude, this is unreal, we are literally seeing the Old Testament Battles, Live Action."

NineLivesBladeWorks: "...Okay. All of us should probably look up every Scripture passage that ever mentions Ba'al, because...I never thought it was this bad. I thought it was just some spooky demon someone would wear as a costume on a bad Halloween night."

FanCNX333: "According to live reports, the clonizo provided a kind of dossier for the news media to take a look at and, uhh... Ba'al is kinda complicated."

Nerd43U: "...Complicated how?"

FanCNX333: "Complicated as in... it really depends which thing you're referring to when you say Ba'al."

NineLivesBladeWorks: "Let me guess. It's back to how every word in the Bible happens to be multi-definitional layers and doesn't just mean one word."

FanCNX333: "Pretty much, and the Ba'al we're seeing right now? Not a fallen angel. It's just one of countless of these... whatever these things are, these rebel daimones who have been a gigantic pain in Israel's colt rear since forever."

SedDesmond: "...I'm starting to think the Old Testament battles were never about something local."

---

Location: Underworld (High School DxD) - Devil Territory

...Somewhere on the streets of Lucifuge, there was one Issei Hyoudou... who felt like he was in way over his head. His left Sacred Gear crimson gauntlet clenched as he saw... that giant whatever thing is, the Ba'al, that showed up.

Glancing to his side was the frozen Koneko Toujou, who felt like a kitten trembling before a predator, her fists shaking as the temperature felt like it dropped several degrees. The only reason she hadn't collapsed was that the Song of the Gebirah echoed across the city.

"Umasa nang anong tagal dahil akala ko.
Ako na ang lahat-lahat para sa tulad mo.
Malilimutan ko pa ba ang pighating ito.
Ngayong tuluyan na ika'y wala sa piling ko.

(I've been waiting for so long because I thought.
I'm everything to someone like you.
Will I ever forget this sorrow?
Now that you're gone from me forever.)"

On the side, there was Akeno Himejima, who unleashed wrathful thunder on the countless rebel faun daimons who flew in aerial patterns, too calculated to be random. She incinerates them all with her thunder, but even she can't help but focus on that Ba'al.

On the other side, there was Yuuto Kiba, using his sword to cut down any enemy daimon that was just right near him, with a slash here on the chest, and another slash on the head. "There's too many of them," says Kiba, who spoke grimly with gritted teeth, as he slashed another. Two clonizo imperial stormtroopers provided reassuring cover fire as they shot, with tekhelet, countless more of the rebel daimons, and turned them into ashes.

On the front, there was Rias Gremory, who, with each step, she unleashed her power, as countless crimson explosions occurred with every magic circle upon her fingertips. Even she couldn't help but focus on that thing that was just standing still, and watching coldly the entire battlefield.

Rias had never seen anything like it. This Ba'al. It felt so wrong. Her very instincts were screaming to not ever go near that thing. She glanced at the nearest imperial clonizo trooper who cover-fired for Akeno, shooting down several rebel faun daimons with ease.

"Trooper!" she exclaimed, making the clonizo glance at her respectfully. "How exactly does GAIAM deal with the Ba'als from your experience?"

"Depends, ma'am," he said, before shooting down another rebel daimon faun. "Not all Ba'als are the same. Most are too difficult to pin down and find any weak spot. It normally takes a week to even manage to shoot down just one."

"A week!" Issei exclaimed in shock and horror. But it wasn't the exaggerated reactions that he usually has. This time, it was pure terror, like feeling the difference between a predator meeting an even bigger predator. "You've got to be kidding me!" He exclaimed, before looking at his gear, asking. "Ddraig, come on buddy, you've been silent ever since that Ba'al thing showed up. What, are you scared of that thing or something?"

After a moment, Ddraig finally responded, and it was grim and solemn, yet it held a fear that was genuine. "...Boy. The thing is...I've got no idea what I'm looking at here. You aren't seeing what I'm seeing."

"...See what?" Issei frowned, as this was the first time he had heard the dragon's voice like this when it's normally more confident.

"...This thing. It...Whatever it is...a Ba'al as these clonizo called it...it's a local manifestation. The thing's...too massive to fit. It kinda feels like I'm looking at an infinite." Ddraig spoke grimly.

"That's normal for the Ba'als, sir," says the clonizo imperial, as he shot more of the rebel daimons to ashes. "Ba'als aren't physical creatures. They work on higher dimensions. Their titles, Ba'als, aren't exaggerations; they are simply facts."

Issei... didn't like what he just heard. He glanced back at the gigantic monster who was just... standing there, glaring in cold defiance towards the heavens.

...What the hell are they dealing with here?