DxD: Born Again in Flame (Riser si)

[abel targayen]

POV: Yubelluna

For the twentieth time that hour, Yubelluna went flying. Dirt exploded around her as she crashed into the training field, rolling once, twice, before landing flat on her back.

She groaned.

Her limbs ached. Her hair was tangled. Sweat clung to her skin in an unglamorous sheen. Her beloved king, however, stood not ten meters away, shirtless, barely winded, and positively glowing like some divine punishment.

"Again," Riser Phenex said, calm as the moon, flame still flickering faintly in his palm.

Yubelluna thumped her head against the ground. "You've got to be kidding me."

Almost a year had passed since they moved to Emberhold. A full year since that unforgettable night—the night of his legendary dance, now known across the Underworld as The Phoenix Mandala. And yet, some things hadn't changed.

Like her king's obsession with training.

If anything, it had grown worse. Fiercer. Like something haunted him. Like there was a clock ticking only he could hear.

"Why do you train like this?" she'd asked once, between bruises and coughing up smoke.

"In pursuit of my ambition," he'd replied.

Cryptic as always. Her king had a habit of speaking in riddles and half-truths. It drove her crazy. And not the good kind of crazy.

Still, being Lady of Emberhold had its perks: twenty demonic leyens under Riser's command now. Twelve low-class, seven mid-class, and one high-class. All of them produce infernal crystals: raw magic solidified, the most valuable currency in devil society. Not just for trade, no, these weren't for trinkets. Crystals could be absorbed, slowly increasing a devil's demonic power, which is why a society based on power would accept it as a currency.

But only if matched by class.

A high-class devil trying to absorb low-class crystals would barely feel a tickle. The real gains came from parity, like for example mid-class crystals for mid-class devils. Even then, a hundred crystals gave only a two-percent increase. Power was a game of patience and pain. And most devils weren't willing to play it.

But her king? He played. And he played to win.

Yubelluna groaned again. "Ugh. Why am I thinking about devil economics right now...?"

Oh right—because if she looked at him again, she was going to pounce. Riser wasn't even sweating. Shirtless. Muscles taut and shimmering in the setting sun like some sort of infernal romance novel come to life. It was rude. Unfair.

"How am I supposed to concentrate when you're walking around looking like that?" she muttered, pouting.

"Stop having inappropriate thoughts," Riser said mildly. "And stand up."

She glared. "You read my mind again, didn't you?"

He didn't deny it.

"Why can't you be like a normal devil? You know—lazy, indulgent, fucking me into unconsciousness like any reasonable man would?"

"Control your hormones, woman," he said, clearly amused.

"Unfair," she huffed. "It is not a crime to want to be ravished by my incredibly sexy, shirtless king who's built like a war god and smells like sin."

That earned a laugh. A rich, beautiful sound that made her toes curl.

"If you can keep up for thirty more minutes," he said, "then you'll get your reward."

He said it like she was some pet earning a treat. And... well. She kind of was.

Thirty minutes. The longest thirty minutes of her life. She couldn't even stand by the end. Her knees buckled, her legs gave out and he caught her.

Riser lifted her into a princess carry, all grace and fire. She collapsed into him, boneless and breathless.

"So…" she murmured against his shoulder, "do I get my reward, master?"

He hummed. "Yes."

"Fabulous," she sighed, and promptly licked the sweat off his cheek like a dog in heat.

He snorted. "You're making me reconsider."

"Not fabulous," she whimpered.

He laughed again, deep and beautiful and hers.

And even if she was sore and exhausted, at that moment, she was exactly where she wanted to be.


POV: Valerie

Valerie Tepes had long since stopped expecting her world to change. She had been born in a coffin of marble and gold, raised within the cold stone walls of the Tepes castle, and taught early that kindness was an illusion—a story told to weak children to make them easier prey.

Dhampir. Half-blood. Mistake.

They had a hundred words for what she was, and none of them were meant to make her feel like she belonged.

Even the silence here bled contempt. Every corridor, every black-draped window, every flickering candelabra reminded her of what she wasn't: pure. Whole. Worthy. The purebloods passed her like she was dust in the air, or worse, a stain that would never wash out. And so Valerie learned to walk with her chin high, her heart low, and her hope buried so deep it had almost suffocated.

Almost.

The only thing that made life inside the castle bearable was Gasper. Poor, trembling, cursed Gasper.

He was five years her junior, though in this place, time bent strangely around suffering. He had been born twisted by a Sacred Gear no one understood, shrouded in fear before he could even speak. They said his mother died just from holding him. Valerie didn't believe it was his fault.

She remembered the first time she saw him. Huddled in a corner like a shadow given form, eyes wide and red-rimmed, too scared to cry. She had marched right up to him and declared, "You're mine now."

He didn't flinch. He just looked at her. And stayed.

Over time, he stopped stuttering around her. He started smiling, even. She made him laugh once, and it nearly broke her heart. Because he still believed in something. Maybe in her. Maybe in escape.

He would talk about the world beyond the castle. About dragons and angels and great cities filled with light that never went out. He dreamed of meeting beings who didn't look at him like he was broken. And Valerie—

She pretended to listen with a smile. But inside, she knew better.

There was no escape. There was no world that wanted them.

But then the dreams started.

Valerie had never seen a city before. Not really. But in her dreams, she stood beneath impossible towers of glass and light, buildings that touched the sky and bled color like rain. She saw metal beasts rushing down black rivers, people wrapped in strange clothes and noise, and music.

Always the music.

It was haunting, lilting, without words but full of meaning. It crept under her skin, filled her lungs like mist. And then, always, the figure appeared: tall, golden-haired, crimson-eyed. Beautiful beyond understanding.

He would smile, and speak without moving his lips:

Follow the melody, and you will find what you seek.

She didn't know what it meant. And she didn't want to believe it. Hope was dangerous. It made you soft.

But then, one day, Gasper came to her. He looked shaken, pale even by vampire standards.

"I want to leave," he said. His voice was firm. Clear. "I want to try. Please, Valerie. Come with me."

And she looked at him, really looked. At the only person who had ever seen her as something worth staying for.

She remembered her dream.

Follow the melody.

"Alright," she said.

They planned carefully. Valerie knew the guards' rotations, when the feeding halls were emptied, when the castle's wards shifted briefly at twilight. Gasper, nervous as he was, could control his Sacred Gear just enough to freeze the eyes of anyone who caught sight of them for a few crucial seconds. They gathered what little they had: cloaks, dried blood packs, a map stolen from a tutor's study.

When they slipped out into the night, hearts pounding and senses stretched taut, they didn't expect to make it far.

But they made it past the gates.

And then they heard it.

The melody.

Faint, distant, but unmistakable. Valerie froze. So did Gasper.

He looked at her.

"You hear it too?"

She nodded slowly.

The music was eerie, unearthly. It carried no words, but it pulled. It beckoned.

She remembered the dream. The golden figure. The promise.

Follow the melody.

They had no map for what came next. No plan. Only each other, and the music.

So they followed.

According to whispered talks Valerie had overheard among the vampire nobility, the vampire world was a pocket dimension connected to the darkness of a human country called Romania. A shadowed mirror of the real world. There were checkpoints—gates—where the vampire realm bled into the human one, patrolled and watched by guards. She had never seen them. Never hoped to. But the melody led them there.

As if fate willed it, they found an unguarded moment, a weakness in the patrol. Valerie found it strange, too easy. Her unease deepened, but they pressed on and passed through the gate.

Romania.

The air felt different. Cleaner. The trees looked alive, not twisted and blackened like those behind them. There were rivers. Grass. Birds.

They walked for hours, eyes wide with awe, still following the song.

And then they began to hear the words.

Hush, now. Hide, all you little ones.

Rush now, Into the middle of Nowhere;

Singing and laughter will die.

The melody remained soft. Almost cheerful. But the lyrics turned their blood to ice.

Dreamless sleep Follows the Nowhere King.

When his kingdom comes, Darkness is nigh.

Gasper whimpered. Valerie took his hand.

Quiet, Crawl through the in-between.

Silent, Secretive feeling of fearsome Hatred that reaches the skies.

You will bring joy to the Nowhere King, When he sees the light Leaving your eyes.

The contrast between tune and words was unbearable yet comforting in an odd way. The music comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comforted. And, they followed. What else could they do?

Moments later, Valerie's dread proved right. Figures emerged from the forest, men in strange clothes, bearing holy swords. Their eyes cold. Their expressions cruel.

Vampire hunters.

Valerie froze.

"Well, well," one sneered. "What do we have here? Two young blood-sucking parasites, fresh out of the womb."

"How delightful," another laughed, raising his blade.

They didn't attack at once. They played. Taunted. Mocked. Like cats with mice.

Valerie tried to fight. So did Gasper. But they'd never seen real battle. Their strikes were clumsy. The hunters laughed.

"This is what the lords of night spawn now?"

And then one of them stepped forward, bored. Drew his sword and without hesitation, stabbed Gasper through the heart.

Valerie screamed.

She dropped to her knees beside him, blood soaking through his cloak. His eyes were wide with shock, lips trembling with a name he could not finish.

She held him. Cried. Cursed herself, the hunters, the melody, the world.

He died in her arms.

And something inside her shattered.

The world burned white.

The Sephiroth Graal awoke.

Visions tore through her: life, death, soul. She saw the shape of existence, the principle of vitality. The language of creation screamed through her.

She rose.

The hunters turned but too late.

Her power tore them apart. Bones cracked. Screams filled the forest.

When the last body fell, she staggered back to Gasper.

He was still. Cold. Gone.

But the melody still played.

Desperate, broken, Valerie gathered his body into her arms and followed the song.

She ran for what felt like hours, through trees and shadow, as the final verse echoed in her bones.

You will bring Joy to the Nowhere King,

When he sees the light leaving your eyes.

And then, the forest broke.

A boulder loomed ahead. And beside it—

The figure from her dreams.

Tall. Golden. Crimson-eyed. Radiant beyond reason.

Is he a fairy? she wondered. No... something more.

She stumbled toward him, still holding Gasper's body.

"You're the man from my dreams," she whispered.

He smiled. "I am."

"You said... if I followed the melody... I'd find what I seek."

"And you did."

"Then save him," she begged, falling to her knees. "Please."

The figure tilted his head. "What will you give in return?"

"Everything," Valerie said, voice raw.

He smiled wider. And from his palm rose three small objects, smooth and gleaming like marble. She did not know what they were—only that they pulsed with strange power.

Two floated to Gasper's chest. One drifted into her own heart.

And then darkness took her.


3 months later

It's been about three months since I became a bishop in Lord Riser's peerage.

I remember waking in a bed softer than anything I'd ever felt, draped in silk and the scent of roses. He explained it all to me then, calmly, kindly. That he was a devil. That I had been reincarnated as one too. That I was now part of his household, his servant, his bishop. At first, I was terrified. A deal with a devil rarely ends well. It's almost laughable, isn't it? I tried to escape slavery and instead walked straight into it, willingly. But I don't regret it. Not when the person dearest to me was saved.

Since that day, I've thrown myself into learning. Everything I never had the chance to study while trapped in the Tepes palace, I devour it now. Etiquette, manners, speech, customs, the intricacies of devil society. Yubelluna, the queen of the peerage, has been teaching me. She's been... kind. Too kind. It makes me suspicious. But Gasper adores her. She's the third person in his life to treat him like he's not some cursed thing. He smiles more now. Laughs. I keep telling myself: even if her kindness is fake, his happiness is real. And that's enough.

Still, I'm not stupid. I know why we're treated so well. It's because we're useful. Sacred Gears are rare, precious. We're assets, not family. That's why I work harder than anyone else. I have to be indispensable. I study until my vision blurs. I train until my demonic energy burns. I force myself to improve, because I cannot be discarded. Not again.

Yubelluna praises me often. Says I'm talented. That I learn fast. She taught Gasper and me the foundations of devil magic. I picked it up quickly. I was proud, until I remembered what pride leads to. So I swallowed it and trained harder.

I researched on my own. Learned the limits and possibilities of devil magic. It's said to be limitless, in theory anything is possible. But in reality, there are walls everywhere. Demonic Energy, talent, knowledge, resources. Thus most devils specialize in a specific area of magic. Enchantment. Conjuration. Curses. Transmutation. Potions (very rare). Very few master more than one.

Except for Lord Riser.

He noticed me after I demonstrated aptitude for ritual theory. Since then, he's taken over my training. His knowledge of magic is... unnerving. He understands everything. Not just spells or potions, but the principles behind them. He teaches with such clarity that he answers questions before I even ask them. Sometimes, it feels like he's reading my mind.

I asked Yubelluna once: was every pureblooded devil like him?

She laughed. "No," she said, shaking her head. "He's a freak."

She meant it fondly. She told me that while talent is unevenly distributed, most devils have limits, things they can't do. But Riser Phenex... doesn't. Most devils are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience. He's a master of everything he touches. Magic. Music. Weapons. Dance. Yubelluna grew wistful as she listed them. Violin, harp, piano—he plays them all and weaves memory into melody. He enchants people not with spells, but with Mastery.

A perfect devil.

And he's mine to serve.

He's been focusing on rituals and alchemy with me. Potions, runes, summoning circles. It's difficult, delicate work, but he makes it make sense. He's patient, precise. Demanding, yes, but fair. And I give everything I have. Every thought, every hour. Because if I'm useful, I'm safe. If I'm useful, Gasper is safe.

And maybe….maybe—I can find freedom in this service. Even if I'm still a slave in name, at least I'm no longer in chains.

Not yet.


POV: Riser Phenex

The knowledge I gained from absorbing Kelzior Saeros' soul has proven… invaluable. Predictable, but still deeply satisfying.

Kelzior had been many things: a sadist, a despot, a brilliant polymath whose intellect burned so hot it incinerated morality. A Devil who once said, " All that is created must be known to me, or it exists without my sanction." A sentiment I now understand with unnerving clarity. The moment I took his soul into myself, his mind became part of the architecture of my own. Not as a voice—no, that would be crude, but as impulse, intuition, a sharper edge to my will.

He was an expert in enchantment, transmutation, conjuration, potions, alchemy, and ritual magic. A master of soulcraft. A scholar of domination in both magical and psychological forms. And now I am too.

But more than his knowledge, I inherited his hunger—a ravenous desire to master every discipline that caught his gaze. That part of him, his tyrannical intensity, I have not tamed. I've simply aimed it.

And it is accelerating everything.

My body, reshaped and refined through Kelzior's soul-fueled rituals, is something else entirely now. Even beyond its aesthetic perfection, though I do enjoy the way mirror reflections seem to pause in reverence, my capabilities have multiplied. My strength, even before enhancing it with demonic energy, is staggering. When I exhaust myself in training, my reserves recover at unnatural speeds. My demonic energy output is already above peak high-class. I'm still below ultimate class, but not by much. Not for long.

The leap from high-class to ultimate-class isn't simply about power. It's about transcendence.

In the devil hierarchy, each rank isn't just a number but a new state of being. Low-class devils are two to three times stronger than a human without enhancements; with demonic energy, they reach tenfold. Middle-class devils eclipse them five to seven times over. But from there, the scale curves steeply: high-class devils are ten to twelve times stronger than middle-class, and ultimate-class devils are fifteen to twenty times stronger still. The difference between an ultimate-class devil and a High-class entity is as vast as the ocean to a pond.

And then… There is Satan-class. The gods in all but name. Beings like Serafall Leviathan, Falbium, The Seraphs, Odin, Zeus, Azazel.

To breach these thresholds, raw power is not enough. One must undergo a qualitative transformation, an evolution. A unique ability, a sacred gear, a perfected technique, or in some cases, a conceptual shift in how their power manifests. Just as the caterpillar does not become a stronger caterpillar to fly—it becomes something else.

Before I attempt that leap, however, I must address my species' most persistent vulnerability: our racial weakness to holy and light-based forces. The very idea of being undone by such primitive elements offends me. So I've begun experimenting, rituals, potions, symbols long-buried in myth.

Progress has been slow. The work demands something beyond even my enhanced capability. A missing component.

Which is why I accelerated Valerie's escape from the Tepes estate.

In the original timeline, her Sacred Gear, the Sephiroth Graal, awakened only under extreme emotional trauma while helping Gasper escape. But in my version, I ensured their path was smooth, too smooth, in fact. Her emotional trigger never came. So I corrected the oversight.

I manipulated a group of vampire hunters into "finding" them. Let the scene unfold. Valerie's despair reached the necessary pitch. Gasper's death, temporary, of course, was the final push. She awakened. Just as I intended.

When she begged me to save him, I offered a deal. She accepted without hesitation. Just as I planned.

And now the Graal is mine.

Valerie is important. More than she knows. Her Sacred Gear connects her to the very principles of life. Through it, she perceives how life and soul are formed. Through it, I will reshape the biology of devils.

The Sephiroth Graal's ability that most interests me is its ability to reduce weakness. Vampires become more resistant to holy weapons. Evil Dragons resist their Slayers. Devils—I—may become impervious to the light.

That alone would be enough.

But with her help, I can craft potions and rituals impossible by conventional means. Imagine the possibility of overcoming the racial weakness of devils to anything holy or light, where I am free to act without constraint, without flaw. Imagine an existence where even God's weapons are dulled against me.

That is the future I am building.

And it is coming faster than I expected.


AN: Yep, it's that time again—another chapter has arrived. Believe it or not, I was planning to kick off the next arc here and make this chapter as long as a small novel, but then I remembered sleep exists. So the next arc will start in the following chapter instead.

If you're wondering about the song I used: it's from a children's show called Centaurworld, and yes, it's about the Nowhere King. I just thought the song was cool, creepy, and weirdly perfect, so I chucked it in there like seasoning.

As always, any kind of feedback would be interesting. Honestly, it's the only reason I even post. That and to inflict firebird drama on the world.

 

[abel targayen]

POV: Le Fay Pendragon

Le Fay sat by the window seat, arms crossed, headphones tucked around her neck but not playing anything. The drone of the plane's engine filled the silence. She glanced across the aisle at her brother Arthur, who sat relaxed but focused, listening to the man seated beside him: Cao Cao.

He was eloquent—too eloquent. Ever since her brother Arthur met him, Le Fay had been uneasy. It was supposed to be a simple mission. A rogue magister haunting an old estate in the French countryside. But when they arrived, there he was—sitting on a moss-covered boulder beneath the shade of a crumbling oak, as if he had always been waiting. He introduced himself with a smile and spoke with the kind of calm that made men listen before they knew they were listening. Within hours, Arthur had invited him to dinner.

And now they were on a flight to Japan, surrounded by his companions. Strangers, yet wearing the names of heroes.

George. Jeanne. Heracles. Leonardo. Marsillio. They had introduced themselves politely earlier. They'd even explained the names.


"We chose them," Jeanne had said with a soft smile, "because some of us are either descendants of these heroes, some spirit inheritors of these heroes from myth and some soul inheritors."

Arthur had nodded at that, finding the symbolism noble. Le Fay had remained silent.

Now, the conversation returned to why they were here.

Cao Cao spoke again, gaze calm but sharp. "A school bus in Japan had gone missing. Vanished without a trace outside Kyoto. Not a single body recovered. The local authorities are useless. The supernatural is involved—I'm sure of it."

Arthur had leaned forward, concerned. "What kind of supernatural?"

"Vampires, possibly," Cao Cao answered. "But it could be devils, or yokais or something else. That's why I'm gathering people with potential. People with the power and the will to fight monsters. People who see others suffer and instead of closing their eyes instead wish to do something about it. People like you. Heros"

Le Fay looked at him. "But why? What's your plan?"

Cao Cao straightened. His tone shifted—still elegant, but heavier now. Sharper.

"Because humanity has no one left. No guardian, no shield, no god who truly fights for us. We are ruled from the shadows by devils and monsters who see us not as people, but as tools, resources to be bent, broken, and discarded. Vampires keep humans like cattle, draining their blood night after night, robbing them of dignity, identity, and life. They treat suffering as their right. Devils are worse. They offer pacts laced in poison, bind men and women to eternal servitude, twist innocent into new devils without consent. They take those born with Sacred Gears—gifts meant to uplift—and chain them into servants for their petty feuds. And the yokai? They smile and whisper lies in alleyways, dragging innocents into the dark to devour them. We have become prey in our own world. And still, the world remains silent."

Arthur frowned. "But surely not all of them are like that?"

Cao Cao gave him a look. Not angry, just measured. "Enough are. Enough to justify action. We humans have no gods that fight for us. No armies of angels. No eldritch powers of our own. The supernatural feeds on us. Lies to us. Uses us."

He looked around at them all.

"That ends with us. With this generation. With people willing to take a stand."

Le Fay crossed her arms tighter. "You speak of darkness, but what of the light? Not all supernatural beings are monsters. What about angels? Gods? There are those who protect and heal humanity."

Cao Cao gave a quiet scoff. "The gods? You speak of them as if they are saviors. As if their divinity makes them just. Look at the Greek pantheon: so often praised, so often worshipped. What were they, truly? Petulant tyrants draped in immortality. They razed cities because they were insulted, condemned families for disobedience, turned mortals into beasts or stone for daring to speak freely. They took mortals as lovers, yes, but not out of love but out of possession. Out of hunger. They were predators who demanded praise, who demanded sacrifice, and gave nothing but ruin in return. And it is not just the Greeks. Across myth and history, the gods have done what they please without consequence. Is that who you would entrust with our protection? Creatures that destroy as easily as they breathe?"

He paused, letting silence stretch.

"And the angels? Those beings of light you speak of so fondly? They sit in their perfect heaven, cloaked in silence and prayer, unmoved while humanity screams below. Where are they when vampires drain children dry in cold cellars? Where are they when devils bind men's souls to eternal contracts? Where are they when demons walk the earth in noble garb and prey on the innocent with laughter on their tongues? They do nothing. Because their heaven is not our earth. Because our pain is not their concern."

Arthur looked down at that. Le Fay saw him nod slowly. She bit her lip.

"Then what's your solution?" she asked. "How do you plan to protect humanity?"

Cao Cao's eyes met hers. "Simple. Eliminate all those who threaten us. All who prey on mankind."

Le Fay stared. "That's vague. Who decides what counts as a threat? What about beings with power but no ill intent?"

"Intent is fleeting," Cao Cao said calmly. "Power is constant. If someone holds the power to enslave or kill millions, they are a threat, intentional or not."

"That's dangerous thinking," Le Fay said. "That's how massacres happen."

"And inaction leads to the same ruin," Cao Cao replied, his voice sharpening. "Every century, every decade, we say the same words—'Wait, hope, endure.' But how many humans have died because others stood by, too afraid to act? How many children have vanished in the dark, how many cities have become feeding grounds, how many sacred lives have been stolen, all while the world turned its face away?"



Her voice rose slightly. "But we're not talking about people, we're talking about entire races. You're talking about genocide."

He didn't flinch. "Genocide? No. I call it what it is—defense. The final, necessary stand of a race long betrayed. Humanity cannot be free while it remains bound in chains, chains not of iron, but of fear. Chains forged by devils who control our fates. By yokai who deceive and devour us. By gods who manipulate from above, and angels who let us die while whispering their hymns. The supernatural is Cain, reborn in a thousand forms. And we, the human race, are Abel, doomed to die over and over if we do not rise. But this time, Abel must lift the stone. This time, he must strike first or perish again, forgotten and broken. If we do not fight, we will remain slaves. If we do not resist, we will remain prey."

Le Fay looked away, tense. "Humans hurt each other all the time. We lie, kill, destroy. Are we not also monsters? Are we not a threat to ourselves then?"

"We are flawed," Cao Cao admitted, and for a moment his voice softened. "We lie. We steal. We kill. But we are human. And when we harm one another, it is a tragedy of our own making. It is a pain within our family. Suffering from within the species. We can understand it, judge it, and heal from it. But when the supernatural kills us, it is not family—it is domination. It is the powerful imposing their will upon the powerless. It is a lion devouring sheep. No remorse. No justice. Just cold control. That is not a tragedy. That is enslavement. We can change ourselves. But we cannot change those who see us only as tools and food and pawns. The difference lies not in the act, but in the intent, the perspective. The moment a being sees a human as less than equal, the tragedy becomes tyranny."

"That's not justice," she said. "That's fear, dressed in reason."

She sat up straighter, eyes on Cao Cao. "There are miracles too, even now. Moments of grace that defy cruelty. There are devils who have healed, yokai who've protected children, and even angels who walk among us quietly, doing what they can. Not all supernatural beings are monsters. Some of them love humans. Some are humans—twisted by fate, by magic, by blood, but still trying. That has to count for something."

Her gaze moved to her brother, briefly.

"You speak of monsters as if they are born and finished, that nothing can change. But people, creatures, change. They surprise you. They grow."

She drew a breath.

"Do you remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? A man beaten, left for dead on the road. A priest passed by. A Levite passed by. Men of the cloth, righteous men, who looked the other way. But it was a Samaritan, a foreigner, a man reviled by society, who stopped. Who cleaned his wounds. Who saved him."

She looked around the cabin. "We talk of blood and race and power as if they define morality. But kindness isn't bound to species. Mercy isn't exclusive to one race. The divine isn't found in wings or fire. It's found in choice. The choice to help. The choice to forgive. The choice to change."

Le Fay's voice began to rise, not in anger, but conviction.

"If we kill every creature with power simply because they might harm us, then what are we? Judges? Executioners? We become no better than the ones we fear. A world ruled by suspicion, by preemptive hatred—that's not salvation. That's just another kind of cage."

She looked straight at Cao Cao now.

"You speak of defense, of standing tall. I understand that. But strength is not only found in the sword. It's found in the hand that chooses not to strike. In the heart that listens. In the soul that believes redemption is possible. If we forget that, if we forget compassion, we've already lost."

She exhaled slowly.

"I don't deny that darkness exists. But neither will I deny the light. Not in others. Not in us."

Cao Cao gave a small smile. "You're kind, Le Fay. But kindness alone won't save humanity. The only way to end our suffering is to remove those who cause it."

She turned to Arthur. "Brother, I would advise you against partaking in this folly. It can only end in sorrow. A mission born of hate cannot bring good. Those with power should seek better ways, not slaughter."

Arthur didn't respond.

Cao Cao laughed softly and stood. His voice filled the cabin.

"So! Will this valiant company abandon the innocent to their chains? Let devils rule and yokai feed while angels sit and watch? I say no."

He looked at each of them, his eyes intense.

"If sorrow awaits us, we have known it already. This world is not fair. We bowed our heads, and still the innocent bled. So now—we raise them. Through grief, we'll find joy. Or freedom, at least."

He turned back to Le Fay.

"If I cannot tear down the architects of our pain, then I will at least hurt them so badly that even the heroes of old will hear of it and wonder. And perhaps, in the end… they'll follow me."

He sat down. The cabin went quiet.

Le Fay exhaled slowly. The hum of the engine was louder than before.

She turned to the window.

Somewhere far below, the sun was rising.


POV: Tobio Ikuse

It had been a month since the bus vanished. A month since his classmates disappeared without a trace. A month since anyone last heard Sae's voice. The world had moved on. He hadn't.

Most days, Tobio Ikuse sat on the park bench after school and stared at the ground. He didn't cry anymore. That had stopped two weeks ago. There was just numbness now. The kind of dull emptiness that made the hours feel like sludge. People passed him by, not seeing him. He preferred it that way.

But recently, something odd had started to happen.

He'd made a new friend.

It was two weeks ago. He was sitting at a bench near Shinjuku Gyoen, half-numb, when a stranger approached. Foreign. Tall. Golden hair, red eyes. Striking beyond reason—not just attractive, but impossible. Beautiful like he wasn't real.

"Is this seat taken?" he'd asked in perfect, unaccented Japanese.

Tobio shook his head. The man sat down.

"You look like someone carrying too much silence," the stranger said, tone soft, words thoughtful. "Sometimes it helps to share a little of it."

It wasn't the kind of thing someone just said. And yet it didn't feel forced.

Tobio didn't talk much at first. But this man, Riser, he would later learn, was different. Riser had a way with words. He seemed genuinely curious about everything. He asked Tobio questions that weren't just polite, but thoughtful. Real.There was something disarming in his calm, something magnetic in his presence. He didn't pry, didn't pity. He simply listened, then offered comments that were both insightful and oddly comforting. The man introduced himself as Riser. A foreigner, apparently, though his Japanese was flawless.

Over the next few days, they kept meeting. Sometimes by chance, sometimes planned. And slowly, Tobio began to talk. About his life. His pain. His confusion. The bus. The school. His friends. His own guilt for not being on the trip. How he kept wondering what would've happened if he had been.

Tobio didn't know what compelled him to talk to the man, but somehow, conversation came easier than it had in weeks. Riser never judged. Just sat with him, asked the right questions, and let him speak.

They talked about everything. Music. Football. Books. History. Riser had an opinion on everything, always well-informed and strangely elegant in how he phrased things. It wasn't arrogant. Just... precise.

One afternoon, after an hour of talking about literature of all things. Tobio said, "Your Japanese is incredible. I wouldn't have guessed you weren't native."

Riser tilted his head. "Thank you. But I do not consider myself fluent. You see, I can neither read nor write Japanese."

Tobio blinked. "Seriously? How can you speak it this well and not read or write? Where did you learn it from?"

" From a Japanese man," Riser said with a small smile. It wasn't evasive exactly, but something about it felt deliberately vague

"Still, that's insane," Tobio muttered. "Reading and writing are like... half the language."

"Then perhaps you could help me complete the other half," Riser said, eyes gleaming. "Would you be willing to teach me?"

Tobio hesitated, then nodded. "Sure. Why not."

"Excellent."

And so, he did. For the next two days, they spent their time with notebooks and textbooks. Riser absorbed everything. Not just quickly, but perfectly. By the end of the second day, he was writing full sentences in perfect kanji and correcting Tobio's stroke order.

"You're not normal," Tobio muttered once, only half-joking.

Riser just smiled. "Perhaps. But neither are you."

Their bond grew. Tobio found himself looking forward to their talks. He started sleeping better. Eating again. Laughing, even.

But part of him couldn't ignore how... off Riser seemed. Too perfect. No one should be that perfect. He seemed to know everything. Philosophy, science, music, literature, sports, even fashion. He could quote obscure authors, play classical piano, and had once broken into fluent French mid-conversation before apologizing and switching back. Once Tobio heard him speak in German and Italian on the same day. And he moved like someone who'd trained for centuries.

He wasn't just beautiful. He was unreal.



And yet, with all that, he never made Tobio feel small.

Riser had a way of making him feel seen. Not pitied, not managed. Just... seen.

Still, Tobio sometimes caught himself watching Riser like he might disappear. No one should be that beautiful, that smart, that patient. It didn't feel real. But then, neither did his grief. Maybe they matched.

Because for the first time since the bus vanished, he didn't feel alone

Maybe that's why Tobio kept meeting him. Because Riser made the world feel sharp again. Not brighter, necessarily. But clearer.

And that was enough.


Pov: Tobio ikuse

Two months had passed since Tobio Ikuse's classmates vanished. The pain hadn't dulled, no– it lingered, like a fog in his chest that refused to lift but it has become bearable since he has started talking about it with his new friend. That night, after parting ways with Riser, Tobio walked home under dim streetlights, lost in thought. The sky was a deep blue, the kind that felt heavy.

Then he saw him.

Kouta Sasaki. A former schoolmate.

Alive. Standing across the street like nothing had happened.

"Kouta?!" Tobio called out.

But Kouta didn't react. No smile. No confusion. Just turned and walked away.

Tobio sprinted after him, heart pounding, confused and hopeful and afraid. He followed Kouta through narrow alleys, and finally caught up to him in an abandoned park.

What he saw froze him in place.

Kouta stood beside a lizard-like creature hunched over a dead dog. It looked up, bloodied, jaws twitching. Tobio backed up. Kouta raised a hand, flat, mechanical, and the beast lunged.

Tobio ran.

He stumbled, clawed at the dirt, kicked wildly, but it was useless. The lizard-like creature was faster, stronger. He was going to die.

Then a flash of light cut through the night and something slammed into him from the side.

They rolled, and when Tobio looked up, someone was standing between him and the monster. Slim frame, short brown hair tied back, wearing a school jacket.

He blinked. "Natsume…?"

She didn't answer right away. She stepped forward, movements sharp and precise, hands glowing with light as she raised them toward the beast. The monster snarled, but didn't approach.

Tobio stared in disbelief. "You're alive?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Yeah. And you're lucky I am."

---

Later, in a quiet corner booth of a run-down family restaurant, Tobio sat across from her in stunned silence. The menu between them sat untouched. The fluorescent lighting buzzed overhead. She was nursing a soda like nothing had happened. Like this was normal.

"I thought you were gone," Tobio said finally. His voice was hoarse. "Everyone said you transferred. That you missed the trip."

"I did. On purpose."

He blinked. "What?"

"I knew something was off. That whole trip reeked of a setup. I tried to convince the others not to go, but no one listened. So I stayed behind."

"And you've been… what? Hiding?"

"Investigating," she corrected. "Trying to figure out what happened to our classmates. Took me a few weeks, but I got a name: the Utsusemi. They're the ones who took everyone."

Tobio's head was spinning. "But Sasaki—she was with that thing—"

"They all are," she said. "The Utsusemi bonded them with creatures. Parasites. Living weapons. I don't know if the others even know who they are anymore. Their memories, their minds… they're not whole."

She pulled something out of her bag and placed it on the table. It looked like an orb, dark blue and veined, faintly glowing. It pulsed like a heartbeat.

"This one's for you."

"What is it?"

"Think of it like an egg," she said. "There's something inside. Something that's meant to bond with you. Like the creatures they forced on the others. Only this one hasn't hatched yet. You need it if you want to survive what's coming."

Tobio stared at it, then back at her. "Wait. What the hell do you mean 'bond'? What's inside this thing? Why would I die without it?"

Natsume leaned forward, lowering her voice.

"Because they're going to come after you now. You've seen Sasaki. That means you're marked. And without a partner, you're just prey. That egg, whatever's inside, is the only thing that can level the playing field."

Tobio looked down at the orb. It didn't look dangerous. It didn't look like salvation either.

"This is insane," he muttered.

"I know. But it's real. You'll see soon enough."

There was a long silence.

Tobio finally asked, "Why are you helping me?"

She looked up at him. "Because I couldn't save the others. But maybe I can help you."

Tobio didn't have a reply. He just sat there, staring down at the thing that might be his last hope.

As they stood to leave, Natsume paused and leaned in close. "I'll come by your place later tonight. Make sure you stay alive until then."

---

Tobio barely remembered walking home. The world felt fragile now, like it could shatter at any second.

Once inside, he placed the orb—egg—whatever it was, in the bathroom sink. It didn't do anything. Just pulsed gently, rhythmically.

He stared at it a long time.

Then, drained, he collapsed onto his bed and slipped into a restless sleep.

At midnight, he awoke to a strange feeling.

Someone was watching him.

Tobio crept to the window. A boy was clinging to the wall of the building across from him. A massive spider loomed beside him, attached to the wall by thick strands of webbing.

His heart dropped. The boy moved. Fast.

A second attacker appeared from below, this one, a girl, accompanied by a frog the size of a car.

Tobio ran. He darted through the apartment, spider silk lashing behind him. The frog crashed through furniture.

Panicked, Tobio threw himself into the bathroom. The egg.

It was cracked.

He stared, trembling. The monsters were outside. He tried to hold the door shut. Then it burst open.

Cornered, back against the tub, he remembered something, his grandmother's hand on his forehead, the seal she placed years ago. She'd said it would protect him one day.

And then the blade appeared.

From his shadow, a long, black blade erupted, piercing the frog through the face.

The spider reared back.

Out of the shadows stepped a small black puppy, eyes glowing faintly, a blade jutting from its head. The frog lashed out with its tongue. The dog jumped, clean, fast and diced the frog apart in midair.

The spider tried to run. The dog grew blades along its spine and gave chase.

Tobio followed, stunned.

In the living room, another beast had appeared, with its human master. The dog charged again, but was intercepted and knocked outside. Tobio, desperate, hurled a pot at the man. He collapsed.

Outside, Tobio watched the monster drag the dog skyward.

Then it changed. The puppy twisted into a long, elegant blade and impaled the monster through the chest. Both fell, crashing onto a rooftop.

Tobio gasped.

He remembered. His grandmother had warned him about the dog. Told him it was dangerous but loyal. That it would come when he needed it most.

Natsume appeared beside him.

"You did great," she said. "That power of yours…… It's amazing."

Tobio didn't answer at first. He just stood there, staring out into the night, the adrenaline still fading from his system. He finally muttered, "I think… I'm safe now."

She looked at him with concern, but said nothing more. For now, the monsters were gone. The danger had passed, at least for tonight.

Unbeknownst to either of them, someone else had been watching the events unfold from a nearby rooftop.

A tall man stood with his hands in his coat pockets, golden hair catching the moonlight, crimson eyes glowing faintly with interest. He tilted his head, a slight smile curling at his lips.

"Well now," Riser Phenex murmured, amused. "This is getting interesting."

POV: Tobio Ikuse

The small black puppy, Jin, Natsume called it, curled up in her lap as they sat in the living room. She absentmindedly scratched behind its ears while Tobio stared at the deep gouges left in the hallway wall. The chaos from earlier still echoed in his mind: the monsters, the shadows, the blades that had erupted from nowhere.

"You okay?" she asked.

Tobio nodded slowly. "I… think so."

"Good," she said, still focused on Jin. "Because we need to move. The Utsusemi might come again, and next time they won't send amateurs."

He blinked. "Wait what?….now?"

Natsume looked up, serious. "Yeah. Pack what you need. Just the basics. We can't stay here."

Tobio stood, hesitating. "Did no one hear the fight? The neighbors, or someone? That noise had to draw attention."

"They cover their tracks," she said. "Whatever tech or magic they use, it's efficient. People forget, cameras stop working, signals jam. No one will remember anything."

He opened his mouth to protest, but her tone left no room for argument. So he packed.

They were halfway down the street when it happened.

The sound of something slithering scraped across the pavement. Tobio turned, eyes widening. A creature like a snake, only much larger, coiled and misshapen, blocked the road. Its scales shimmered with unnatural light. Behind it stood a boy. No older than Tobio, wearing a blank expression.

Natsume tensed. "Another one."

They looked at each other, ready to run or fight. But before either could act, the snake burst into flames. Its body twisted once, then crumbled into black ash.

"What the hell—?" Tobio muttered.

A voice spoke behind them.

"Too slow."

They turned. A girl with long blond hair stepped from the shadows, cloaked and wearing a pointed hat that made her look like a storybook witch. Her eyes sparkled, and she gave Natsume a brief smile.

"You're late," she said.

Tobio stared. "Who…?"

Natsume handed her one of Tobio's bags. "Lavinia. She's with us."

"Let's go," Lavinia said. "More could be coming."

---

The apartment they arrived at was tucked between trees, nearly invisible from the road. It looked abandoned from the outside, but inside was clean and lived-in. Lavinia dropped Tobio's bag by the door and stretched.

Natsume motioned toward the couch. "Sit."

Still in shock, Tobio sat.

Natsume inserted a disc into the DVD player. The screen flickered to life.

"Watch this. It explains what's happening."

The footage was grainy, clearly from hidden cameras. But Tobio saw faces he recognized instantly. Friends. Classmates. People who had vanished. Sae.

He leaned forward. "They're alive…"

Then the video shifted. Each of them appeared again, but now bonded with monsters. Their expressions are blank. Controlled.

His stomach turned.

"No…"

"They're called Utsusemi," Natsume said. "And they've been turning kids from our school into weapons. Bonding them with monsters. Sacred Gears."

Tobio turned to her, his voice barely above a whisper. "Why us?"

"Because we have potential," she said. "You and I, we're Sacred gear users too."

Tobio shook his head. "Sacred Gears? What even is this?"

"God's gift to humanity to protect themselves against the supernatural. And yes, the supernatural exists," Lavinia said from the corner. "Gods. Devils. Angels. Yokai. Dragons. All real. All hidden."

Tobio stared at her, mind spinning. "That's insane."

"I thought so too," Natsume said. "But once you've seen it, you can't go back."

He tried to process it, tried to find some rational part of it he could latch onto, but the world had clearly changed and he couldn't deny what he'd seen.

"How do you know all this?" he asked her.

"I got this info from someone," Natsume said. "A contact. He's someone important, Governor General of a certain group. I haven't met him directly yet, but he told me to give out the last egg. Yours. It can help awaken your sacred gear."

"So this thing," Tobio said, pointing to the egg now resting on the table, "it draws out Sacred Gears?"

"Yeah. It unlocks what's already inside you."

He looked back to the screen, where Sae stood with a twisted creature behind her.

"They're still alive?" he asked.

Natsume gave him a soft smile. "They are. And we can still save them."

He let out a breath, something solid forming beneath the fear. Determination.

"Then let's do it," he said. "I'll help."

Natsume grinned. "Good. We'll figure this out."

---

Later that night, after she and Lavinia had gone to sleep, Tobio stood outside the apartment. The moon was bright. The air still.

His mind wasn't on monsters or missions. It was on someone else. His new friend.

Riser.

Tobio had meant to tell him about the weirdness, to share what had happened. But now… He remembered that something about Riser felt off. Too perfect. Too beautiful. Too talented. Something not human. And now that he knows the supernatural is real, he wants to be sure.

Tobio left without telling the others.

---

He found Riser in the usual place, a small park bench in town, lit by street lamps. The man was seated, reading what looked like a haiku anthology.

Riser looked up and smiled. "Tobio."

Tobio sat down, tense. "I need to ask you something."

Riser tilted his head. "Of course."

Tobio looked him dead in the eye. "Who are you, really?"

Riser didn't react. He closed the book and folded his hands.

"I see," he said. "So… you've found out about the supernatural."

Tobio's breath caught. "You knew? Wha–who are you?"

Riser's smile widened, almost amused.

"I am a man of wealth and taste." he said smiling.

He paused, watching Tobio's reaction with interest.

"I hope you've guessed my name," he added.

Tobio said nothing. The words, the tone, it sent a chill down his spine.

Riser leaned back on the bench, calm as ever.

"Relax, I mean you no harm," he said. "I'm still your friend."

But Tobio wasn't so sure anymore.

AN: Another chapter has landed. Nothing too earth-shattering happens here. It's just the beginning of a new arc, which means setup, setup, and even more mysterious setup. But don't worry, I have plans. Stay tuned.

 

[tehstorm]

Nice chapter! I Hope he will be abel to reeincarnate Tobio and maybe get Lavinia as his contracted magician...

 

[Gareth River]

Thanks

 

[abel targayen]

POV: riser phenex

Convincing Tobio Ikuse hadn't been difficult.

He was desperate, after all. His classmates were missing. His school had become a hunting ground for something he didn't understand. All I had to do was promise that I could help him save his kidnapped classmates, and he didn't even hesitate. That's the thing about humans. You don't need to lie to manipulate them. You just have to offer them something they want more than the truth. So when I told him I was a devil and that I could help, he didn't flinch. He just asked what I wanted in return.

"Nothing," I told him. "I'm not your enemy."

He asked questions. The usual ones. Why would a devil care?. I told him what he wanted to hear: I don't like what the Utsusemi Agency is doing. I don't like chaos in the human world. And I don't like monsters kidnapping children and turning them into weapons. His friend was in danger, and in moments like that, humans stop thinking. They cling to whatever light they can find, even if it comes from a devil.


That was enough for him, for now.

I made sure to appear confident but cooperative. I didn't push. Just offered help and waited for him to follow. It worked.

He believed me. Desperation does that.

He brought me to meet the rest of his group. Lavinia Reni and Natsume Minagawa. Lavinia didn't trust me from the start. I could see it in her eyes, although she appeared carefree, she was quite perceptive. But she didn't argue. Natsume was more cautious than I expected, not unkind, just measured. I didn't push too hard. Let them come to their own conclusions. I could tell they were watching me. Judging me. That was fine. I preferred it that way.

Still, they agreed. They had no other leads. I had power, resources, and experience. I could get them inside one of the labs that the Utsusemi Agency was using to hold the missing students.

We moved together.

A raid on an Utsusemi Agency lab. It was buried under an office building. We neutralized the guards. Lavina froze one. Natsume put another to sleep. Tobio was focused. Efficient. I barely needed to do anything.

The place was worse than expected. Students strapped to machines. Magic experiments. Living weapons. Tobio nearly broke down when he saw one of his classmates. Natsume pulled him back. We called for medical extraction and moved to secure the rest of the wing.

Until the creature showed up. One of Utsusemi's mistakes. Patchwork flesh and too much mana. It charged. I put it down with one strike.

Too easy.

Later that night, another raid.

We weren't alone this time.

Cao Cao's group.

I recognized them immediately. This wasn't supposed to happen. In the original timeline, the Hero Faction didn't interfere with Utsusemi or any of the slash Dog events. Something's changed.

Cao Cao. Arthur Pendragon. Jeanne. Heracles. George. Leonardo and he was older than the canon timeline. Le Fay. The early Hero Faction, though not fully formed. They were young. Still feeling out their ideology. Still willing to take risks.

When Jeanne and Heracles ran into Tobio and Natsume, they assumed the worst. Jeanne struck first. A sword appeared mid-air, aimed for Tobio. I caught it with two fingers.

Heracles came next. His glowing punch carried explosive force. I stopped it with my other hand.

Both stared at me, stunned. I didn't teleport. I just moved faster than they could see. Jeanne's blade stopped against my fingers. Heracles' punch met my palm. Neither attack even made me flinch.

I smiled politely.

"I suggest you ask questions before you try to kill my allies."

Le Fay arrived a few seconds later. She noticed immediately that something was wrong and tried to talk them down. She seemed the only one willing to look past species.

Cao Cao wasn't so quick to relax. He looked at me with contempt. Ah yes, the guy had a hate-boner for the supernatural. To him, I was just another devil. Another problem. I let him glare.

We stood in a triangle. My side. His. Utsusemi. The air was tight. One wrong word and the whole place would have gone up in flames.

Something rose from the lab's lower level. Massive. Misshapen. Covered in seals. Another Utsusemi creation. This one was unstable.

It roared and attacked all of us indiscriminately.

The standoff ended. We fought.

Tobio struck first. Lavina followed. Jeanne and Arthur flanked. Heracles brought brute force. I watched.

I only stepped in to stop the creature from collapsing the room. Held back, observed the others. Measured them.

Cao Cao's team had potential. Not just strong. Disciplined. Smart. They weren't fully formed yet, but I could see the shape.

Longinus users, most of them. Dangerous.

They weren't involved in this event in the original timeline. That confirmed it. This world is different.

And that was fine.

I don't cling to the canon timeline. Only opportunities.

This group would become the Hero Faction. In canon, they opposed all non-humans. Wanted humanity to stand alone.

Now, I had a front-row seat to their formation. Maybe even a hand in shaping it.

It could be useful. Or amusing.

I would observe.

And if needed, intervene.

--------------------------------------------

Names were exchanged quickly. Cau Cau, Jeanne, Heracles, Leonardo, George, Arthur, Le Fay. They didn't waste time posturing, their attention on me and watched me carefully. Reasonable. I was a devil, after all. Tobio introduced Natsume and Lavinia and I introduced myself politely.

We moved through the building as a group. Fourth floor, then to the fifth. More Utsusemi units waited for us, guarding something. Or someone. A man stood among them. He wore a coat like it belonged in a lab, but his stance said soldier.

When the last Utsusemi fell apart in a soft, wet thump, the man behind them stepped forward. He looked ordinary. Small, slim, hair cut too neat for a place like this. He had a file in one hand and an easy, practiced smile.

"Ah, well done, everyone," he said. "Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am Kazuhisa Doumon. You may call me Director Doumon, if you like. I represent the agency that governs this little facility."

He gestured around like he was giving us a tour of a garden, not a building crawling with monsters and corpses.

"And unfortunately for you," he added with a pleasant shrug, "I must ask you all to come with me. Quietly, if possible."

Cao Cao stepped forward first, twirling his spear like it was a walking stick.

"You plan to capture us?"

Doumon's smile didn't move. "For study. For the good of the Agency, naturally."

So this was their next obstacle. At least he is polite, thought Riser.

He snapped his fingers. More Utsusemi rushed in. My eyes tracked everyone.

Tobio's team handled themselves well. Lavinia froze enemies mid-step. Natsume moved quickly, striking with precision. But it was Cao Cao's people who stood out. Jeanne cut down constructs with speed and grace. Heracles tore them apart with brute strength. Le fay used her spells. George provided barriers and buffs, while Arthur's sword moved like an extension of his will. Excellent teamwork observed Riser.

But then Kazuhisa summoned something bigger.

A massive clay doll emerged, powered by something beyond simple magic. Tobio and Natsume attacked together, but they were overpowered. The doll caught them both and slammed them into the floor, pinning them with surprising precision.

"Don't struggle," Kazuhisa said. "You'll only make it worse."

Arthur took one step forward and raised Excalibur Ruler.

He didn't speak loudly. Just a command:

"Stop."

The clay doll froze mid-motion, its limbs jerking against invisible threads. Then, Cao Cao walked up calmly and tapped it with the tip of his spear.

Ash. And its master along with it.

Tobio was freed. He thanked them immediately.

We moved down to the final floor. The deeper we went, the colder the air felt.

And then we saw her.

Sae Toujou.

She stood alone, her expression calm. A smile on her face that wasn't quite right. Tobio tried to call out to her.

That's when the real enemy made his entrance.

"I am Hanezu," the man said. "Leader of the Utsusemi Agency."

He spoke in a calm, measured voice. His expression was composed, but there was something brittle beneath the surface. Riser had seen it before. Men who wrapped deep hatred in the language of righteousness.

Hanezu looked directly at Tobio, as if no one else in the room existed. "You are Himejima Tobio, aren't you? Or rather, Ikuse Tobio, child of an exiled branch of the Himejima. You were born under their name but cast aside from their blessings. Just like the rest of us."

Tobio frowned, confused. Hanezu didn't wait for questions.

"Utsusemi. That's what we call ourselves. Do you know the meaning?" He smiled faintly. "It's an old word. It means 'human', but more precisely, it means a cast-off shell. Like the hollow skin a cicada leaves behind. That's what we are. Born into lineages full of power and prestige, but not granted the spiritual gifts that gave us value. Our families called us useless. Hollow. Not people. Just... failures."

He looked around the room, but his gaze settled again on Tobio.

"We were supposed to disappear. We were expected to accept our roles as weak, broken. But we didn't. We remembered. And now we act. The Five Principal Clans cast us out. I intend to return the favor."

Riser observed quietly. The man wasn't ranting. His words were too still for that. This was practiced, almost rehearsed. A statement of belief, not a plea for sympathy.

Hanezu continued, "Ikuse Tobio, you have potential. More than they ever imagined. You possess a Longinus. A power strong enough to warp fate. Why waste it defending the very system that discarded you? Why fight for their world? You could destroy it. You could remake it."

He took a step forward. "Lend us your strength. Not for our sake, if that bothers you, but for your own. For everyone who was ever rejected. Help us tear down the monsters in the shadows of those clans. Replace them with something honest."

Tobio didn't answer. His eyes were downcast, uncertain. Riser could tell he wasn't convinced, but he was listening.

Hanezu smiled again, almost wistful now. "We were hollowed out by our own bloodlines. Do you understand what that does to a person, over time? You lose the part of yourself that believes you matter. And then the rest crumbles."

He looked tired.

"But you, Tobio... you were born with a blade. A black one. Tainted, they called it. Cursed. That's what makes you different. It wasn't supposed to exist. You weren't supposed to exist. And yet you do. That means something."

Riser tilted his head slightly. Hanezu's ideology was consistent. Broken, but consistent. His hatred had been curated over time, turned into doctrine. He didn't want justice, he wanted erasure. To delete everything that had made him feel like nothing.

"Let them suffer as we have" Hanezu said quietly.

Tobio looked shaken. Lavinia stepped closer to him, silent, uncertain. Natsume stood rigid, clearly disturbed by what she'd heard.

Riser said nothing. There was no need. This wasn't his moment. This was Hanezu's performance: raw, damaged, and meant to manipulate Tobio into sympathy or guilt. Riser understood it for what it was.

But what mattered wasn't what Hanezu believed. What mattered was whether Tobio would be pulled in by it.

And Riser was very interested in the answer.

Tobio was quiet for a long time after Hanezu stopped speaking.

The silence in the room wasn't empty. It felt dense, like a wire pulled taut. Riser watched Tobio's posture, the way his shoulders were tense, his eyes lowered, jaw clenched. He looked less like someone uncertain and more like someone holding back emotion with effort.

Then, finally, Tobio spoke. His voice was steady but quiet.

"No."

Hanezu blinked. "You would side with them?" His tone stayed calm, but there was a crack in it. "With the same clans who exiled your family? Who turned people like us into experiments?"

Tobio raised his head.

"I don't care about the clans," he said. "I care about my friends."

Riser noticed it then, the resolve in his eyes. This wasn't passive resistance. It was the kind of refusal that came from conviction.

"You hurt them," Tobio continued. "You hurt Sae. You used my classmates. You took people who had nothing to do with the clans and dragged them into your war. Just because you suffered doesn't give you the right to hurt other innocent people. Did you really expect me to work with you after all of that?"

He stepped forward.

"You say we were both born cursed. That we're the same. But we're not. I don't want to tear anything down. I just want to protect the people I care about."

Hanezu's face shifted slightly. Not anger but disappointment. As if he had truly believed Tobio would understand. He can't seem to grasp why someone whose friends he brain washed and turned into a weapon would not want to work with him.

"I never wanted to kill anyone," Tobio said. "I still don't. But I'll fight if I have to. And I'll stop you."

There was nothing dramatic in his tone. No grand declaration. Just a quiet, painful honesty. Riser could tell the refusal wasn't easy. Tobio was clearly shaken, and beneath that anger was sorrow, grief for what Hanezu had become, maybe even pity.

But his decision was firm.

"I won't become like you," Tobio said.

The words landed with more force than a blow.

For a moment, Hanezu didn't respond. He stared at Tobio like he was seeing something unfamiliar. Then he looked away, expression unreadable.

Riser folded his arms, mildly impressed. That level of control, that clarity, it wasn't common. Most people would have either lashed out or broken under the pressure.

But Tobio didn't. He chose restraint, even when it hurt. Riser could work with that.

Hanezu raised his hand.

"Sae."

A large lion appeared from thin air, summoned by her. She didn't hesitate.

Lavinia stepped forward to act, but George calmly interrupted.

"We're surrounded."

All around us, figures appeared. People. Hostages. The relatives of the original victims, used to anchor the Utsusemi experiments.

Hanezu gave an order. His subordinates moved to attack.

Tobio panicked. "Stop! Don't hurt them! I surrender!"

Cao Cao cut in. "Don't. That heart of yours is admirable. But they started this. We'll finish it."

Leonardo looked bored. "I'll take care of it."

His shadow stretched. From it, three monsters emerged. Each of them at the level of high-class devils.

They tore through Hanezu's troops in seconds.

Tobio stared.

Hanezu went pale. "You… You're the wielder of the Annihilation Maker..."

Leonardo didn't even respond.

Cornered and seeing that odds don't favour him, Hanezu did something stupid.

He grabbed Sae and put a knife to her throat. "One move, and she dies!"

Tobio froze, hands up. "Wait! We can talk!"

But I didn't wait.

I moved. No sound. No flash.

One moment, I was standing. Next, I was behind Hanezu.

A light tap to the back of his neck. And put a spell on his soul. A safety measure in case he escaped.

He crumpled.

"C-rated villain tactics," I said. "Always the hostages. Never any originality."

Everyone turned.

Tobio ran to Sae, who still didn't respond.

She raised her hand and tried to attack Tobio.

He didn't react in time.

I stepped in again. Tapped her forehead with two fingers.

She collapsed.

"She's fine," I told Tobio. "Just under control. I broke the link that was controlling her mind."

He nodded slowly, still trying to process it all.

The others looked at me.

Jeanne was frowning. Heracles narrowed his eyes. Even Cao Cao looked thoughtful.

I didn't care.

They were wary now. That was fine.

Better they understood who I really was.

--------------------------------------

Tobio held Sae tightly in his arms. She was unconscious but breathing. He muttered a quiet "Thank you" in Riser's direction, his voice low with emotion.

The moment didn't last. A teleportation circle snapped open, its purple glyphs twisting midair. A woman stepped through it: an elderly foreign woman in her latter sixties dressed in violet robes and a witch hat with a sharp glint in her eyes and an upright posture that appears almost youthful. She wore a pair of earrings and multiple rings on her fingers.

"Well, this is unexpected," she said smoothly, eyes scanning the ruined lab. "I came to see the dog. Instead, I find the Utsusemi scattered like trash. How pathetic"

Riser studied her quietly, arms crossed. Her aura reminded him of ancient fire sealed in velvet.

"Augusta of the purple Flames," Lavinia said flatly, stepping forward. Her posture changed. Tension coiled into her limbs.

A second figure followed through the circle, much younger. A girl with a bright smile and bouncing steps.

"Ooooh, what a weird room! Who's the boy holding the girl? Or wait! Who's the icy one with the pretty golden hair? And who is that beautiful man with crimson eyes?"

"Walburga," Augusta said without turning. "Focus."

But her own gaze had already locked onto Lavinia. Her lips curled.

"I see. So Grauzauberer sent someone. Mephisto finally decided to kill me. Fitting, he'd send you, Lavinia Reni. And you just following his orders like a good pet. Tell me, did you even ask him for his motive?"

"I'm not here to debate motives," Lavinia said coldly. "I'll know soon enough if you deserve to die."

Walburga leaned forward, examining Lavinia like she was art. "She's so pretty! I want to know her name!"

"You're embarrassing yourself," Augusta muttered. Then louder, "That's Lavinia Reni, the ice princess. Magician. Dangerous. And this" she gestured to the bubbly girl beside her "is Walburga, my disciple."

Riser remained silent, watching closely.

Lavinia stepped forward. Magic gathered around her feet, cold and slow. Ice spread in an even circle around her. Behind her, a towering woman of pure frost began to take shape: a three-meter tall ice doll taking the form as a woman in a dress without a face with six eyes on the left half of her face.

"Absolute Demise," Riser said under his breath. "She brought out the Longinus early."

Augusta raised an eyebrow. "Lovely. A true Longinus bearer. How delightful."

She raised her hands. Purple fire burst from her palms, swirling and condensing into the shape of a massive, humanoid figure, horned, armored, and aflame.

"Incinerate Anthem," Riser confirmed. "This should be interesting."

The tension in the room was heavy. Tobio held Sae protectively, while Natsume and Le Fay stood just behind him. Jeanne, Heracles, and the rest of the Hero Faction watched in silence, their expressions focused.

The battle began without words. Augusta struck first: blasts of purple fire shooting like artillery. Lavinia responded instantly. The frost giant blocked the fire, its limbs forming solid shields of crystal. Magic clashed and detonated midair, freezing and burning the ground.

"You're strong," Augusta said calmly, deflecting another wave of ice. "But let's raise the stakes. Beat me, and I'll tell you about Glenda, your precious master."

Lavinia didn't hesitate. She drove the frost princess forward, launching a volley of razor-sharp ice shards.

"You should stay out of this," Augusta warned as Tobio took a step forward. "This is between us."

"You're using people," Tobio said. "Sae, Glenda—what do you even want?"

Augusta smiled faintly. "What any of us want. Power. Legacy. Truth. You wouldn't understand. But she might." She gestured to Lavinia. "That girl has more potential than you know."

"Leave them alone," Lavinia growled, her voice shaking.

Augusta's gaze flicked to Sae. "There's more inside her than you think. Glenda saw it."

Lavinia's eyes narrowed. "Don't speak her name."

"Why not? She is a good friend" Augusta said, amused. "She gave us everything we needed. Willingly."

"Liar, she would never work with the likes of you. You tortured her," Lavinia hissed. "You used her."

Augusta raised a hand. A magic circle formed. Inside it, Glenda's face appeared, calm, expressionless.

"master?" Lavinia said, voice cracking.

"We have nothing to say to each other," Glenda replied, tone cold. "This was always the path."

Lavinia staggered back. Her magic flickered. The ice giant shuddered.

"Poor girl," Augusta said softly. "Your mentor never cared. But I will. I'll use your body better than you ever did."

She rushed forward, hand glowing with purple light, aimed at Lavinia's forehead.

Then Augusta stopped mid-lunge.

Riser was standing in front of Lavinia, having moved between them in a blur. He didn't shout. He just moved. His fist slammed into Augusta's stomach.

The force was immediate. She flew backward, smashing into the wall hard enough to leave a dent. She coughed blood, barely catching herself on one knee.

"Still breathing?" Riser asked casually. "That's a surprise."

He began to walk toward her, but suddenly, his body froze.

He glanced down. "Ah. Excalibur Ruler."

Three shadows rose up around him, monsters from Leonardo's Annihilation Maker.

Then Cao Cao stepped forward. His spear gleamed. He pointed it at Riser's chest.

"Really?" Riser asked, raising a brow. "You want to protect her?"

"She's human," Cao Cao said flatly. "And she wields a Sacred Gear. That makes her our responsibility."

"So," Riser said dryly, "if she didn't have Sacred Gear, I could kill her? What's your scale? Is hypocrisy a prerequisite for joining your little club?"

"She's still human," Cao Cao said. "You're not."

Riser smiled. "Neither are those monsters you keep summoning. But I won't lecture you, boy. You'll learn."

Everyone remained frozen. The air was thick with tension. Lavinia slowly stood up behind Riser, her body still shaking.

Riser kept his eyes on Cao Cao, an amused expression curling on his lips. He flexed his fingers once, then pushed a thread of his will through his body. The paralyzing grip of Excalibur Ruler broke like paper.

Arthur blinked in disbelief. "He broke it?"

"His will," Arthur said slowly, eyes narrowing, "it's greater than mine."

Before things could escalate further, a smooth voice broke the silence.

"Well, well," it said, melodic and curious. "What do we have here? An ethical dilemma. Mmhmm."

The new arrival stepped into the room. He was tall, regal, with raven-dark hair that contrasted his unnaturally bright eyes. His face was flawless, his movements almost rehearsed. And yet Riser felt nothing: no aura, no pressure, no presence. But every part of his instinct screamed one thing: run.

"Who are you?" Heracles asked warily, already on edge.

The man smiled, slow and deliberate. "Satanael," he said. "First and mightiest of the Fallen. Who was here before humanity was."

Riser didn't let his expression change, but his thoughts raced. Satanael? He wasn't in the original arc. He appeared later. He shouldn't be here. Why now? What changed?

Satanael looked around calmly. "You defeated Augusta. And Hanezu. Interesting. New generation defeating the old one, how cliche. Well, let's see..."

He raised his hand.

It wasn't killing intent. It was clinical, detached curiosity. He released a fraction of his aura. Tobio and Natsume dropped to their knees, screaming. Raw terror hit them like a physical blow.

Everyone else reacted on instinct.

Cao Cao charged with his spear. Arthur raised Excalibur Ruler. Jeanne, Heracles, Lavinia, Le Fay, George, all struck together. Riser held back, watching.

It didn't matter. They never reached him. Something unseen threw them all against the wall like ragdolls.

" How rare, so many Longuin wielders gathered in one place. It almost reeks of his Grand plan. Too bad he is dead."

Leonardo, barely fazed, raised his hand and summoned six dozen shadow beasts. Behemoth-like monsters surged toward Satanael.

"Now this is interesting," Satanael said.

He summoned light spears with a casual motion and skewered the beasts. They fell, but then rose. Then more came. Stronger. Faster. Adapted.

Satanael raised an eyebrow. "Ah. So they evolve. Interesting way to use Annihilation maker. One needs to instantly kill them in one attack or they adapt and it is a matter of time before they defeat you. A flaw in your design, though."

He vanished. A breath later, he stood in front of Leonardo. He tapped his chest with a glowing finger. The boy fell unconscious.

"The weakness," Satanael said softly, "is the caster. Always the caster. So you must either hide yourself so that your enemies can't reach you or have strong allies to defend you."

He turned, addressing the others. "You all have talent. Potential. Years from now, you may even pose a challenge."

Then the others either out of anger or fear attacked him simultaneously.

Cao Cao activated the True Longinus. Arthur unleashed Excalibur Ruler again. George twisted the battlefield with Dimension Lost. Lavinia summoned the full force of Absolute Demise.

They coordinated. Tactical. Controlled.

Satanael sighed.

Twelve black wings erupted from his back.

Riser's heart skipped. Twelve? That's seraph-level. Satan-class. He's beyond anything here.

And Satanael proved him right. In seconds, he dismantled their offense. Cao Cao was the last to fall, defiant but clearly outclassed.

Satanael looked over the room of battered young warriors and smiled, almost kindly.

"You have courage," he said. "And skill. But not yet the power to face me. You need time."

Then his eyes landed on Riser.

Riser felt it instantly. As if a mountain had pressed onto his chest. His breath caught, and his instincts screamed at him to run. But he didn't. He looked back.

"You are a descendant of Amador Phenex."

Riser's gaze sharpened. "You knew my grandfather?"

A smile flickered across Satanael's face: thin, brittle, reverent.
"I did. He was a curious devil. A hopeless romantic, through and through. Arrogant, yes. Proud and powerful. But most of all, foolish in the holiest way. He fell in love with an angel. And she, by some miracle, loved him in return."

The hall held still. Something sacred clung to the silence.

"It was real. Their love. Not some illusion born of temptation. No seduction. No corruption. Just two souls, so utterly unlike, and yet drawn together like breath to flame. While our kind waged war across the skies and tore creation apart, they dreamed. They whispered of peace. Of building a place between heaven and hell where neither sword nor sin would rule."

He looked far away now, as if speaking to memory rather than audience.

"And Heaven… did not condemn them."

A pause.

"To the surprise of many, the archangels did not call her naïve. They rejoiced. For angels are creatures of perfect clarity, and what they saw between those two was beautiful. They believed in it. In them. To love purely, even across the veil of damnation, that, they said, was closer to God's will than all the choirs of war. They hoped that their union might be a sign. A wound healing. A path home."

Riser barely breathed.

"But Hell… Hell does not forgive dreams like that. For hell is the place for those who rejected God's grace"

Satanael's voice hardened, touched by the old bitterness.

"Lucifer scorned it. The Satans called it betrayal. Asmodeus, in particular, saw it as heresy. Still, she would not fall. She would not trade her wings for his flames. And so he tried to rise. Not by conquest, not by trickery, but by love and Faith. He sought Heaven not as a conqueror, but as a supplicant. To be judged. To be accepted. To be with her."

His voice lowered to a reverent hush.

"And he was struck down at the gate by Asmodeus himself. Before he could speak a word. Before Heaven could answer."

He looked at Riser then, eyes dark with the memory of it.

"And the angel…? She wept. Then vanished. Some say she turned into starlight, others say she wanders still, searching for the place they dreamed of. A heaven where devils might walk unburned."

He stepped back, as if the telling had left him tired.

"A devil who tried to fly upward. A love sanctified by angels and shattered by hell. Is there anything more beautiful? Or more damning?"



Riser took a slow breath. Then he stepped forward.

"Let's see how strong his descendant is," Satanael said softly.

Riser didn't respond. He launched forward, vanishing from sight. Satanael raised a brow, and the battle began.

Riser struck first with Dismantle , an invisible slash that tore across the floor toward Satanael. The air screamed as pressure was ripped open. But Satanael didn't move. He raised a hand and the slash dissipated on contact with a shimmer of light.

Riser appeared beside him and used Cleave. His palm touched Satanael's shoulder, activating the adaptive slashes. The force surged outward, adjusting for Satanael's energy level. But nothing happened.

Satanael stood unaffected.

"Interesting," Satanael muttered.

Riser stepped back and flung both arms outward. Wind coiled around him in a violent spiral, lifting debris into the air. He gathered fire into a massive swirling vortex, and the heat crushed the surrounding air.

Fire Field.

The flames exploded outward, surrounding Satanael in a violent typhoon of heat and force that stripped the walls and shattered the ground. Reality seemed warped. Sensors from orbit would have picked up the sudden disruption of the Earth's magnetic field.

Satanael stepped forward calmly. The typhoon parted around him.

"Remarkable. Fire that disturbs Earth's Magnetic fields. Very impressive for someone who dances at the edge of ultimate-class. And yet so young. You may just be another Sirzechs Lucifer ."

Riser didn't pause. He raised his hands, wings of fire bursting from his back.

Fire Phoenix.

A dark flame consumed his body, and he transformed into a massive phoenix-shaped avatar of fire. The heat blazed, burning crimson into the air. The phoenix roared and dove, striking Satanael with enough force to register on seismic sensors.

The impact sent a wave across the city, and the ground cratered.

As the smoke cleared, Satanael stood at the center, untouched.

But a single black feather fell.

Riser reformed, breathing hard, a single feather in hand.

Satanael looked down at it, then at Riser. "You took that from me. Impressive."

Riser coughed, smoke trailing from his mouth.

"You're not just fire and arrogance," Satanael said. "You have potential."

Then gravity around Riser intensified. His body was pinned to the ground, unable to rise.

"But you're still a child playing at war," Satanael said. He approached slowly. "You fight like one who has seen glimpses of transcendence, but not yet stepped into it."

He raised a finger. Riser felt the pressure building, crushing, blinding.

Then it vanished.

Satanael turned away.

"You did well, Riser Phenex. Your grandfather would have been proud."

The ancient fallen spread his twelve wings. Light shimmered off the feathers.

"Grow stronger. If you survive long enough, we will speak again."

And then he vanished and with him he took Augusta, Walpurga and Sae toujou.

Riser lay still for a moment.

He had lost.

But he had earned something.

Silence fell over the battlefield. Riser rose slowly, dusted himself off, and held the black feather tight.

 

[Hk473]

Well, not sure if grabbing mama cat is a good way to entice the kittens in to your service, she did leave raising shirone almost entirely to Kuroka as I understand.

To far into the madness place of mad science as girl genius sparks would term it.

But it is worthy of consideration I suppose.

 

[Erebos_03_]

Peace was easy.

But peace was meaningless.

And meaning… I'd have to build that from scratch.

Click to shrink...

Didn't read further but after that sentence I almost expected him to die again and wake up in Star Wars

 

[FateManic017]

Well, not sure if grabbing mama cat is a good way to entice the kittens in to your service, she did leave raising shirone almost entirely to Kuroka as I understand.

To far into the madness place of mad science as girl genius sparks would term it.

But it is worthy of consideration I suppose.

Click to shrink...

Uh what? Sae isn't Kuroka and Shirone/Koneko's mom. She's Tobio's childhood friend. Their mother's name was Fujimai.

 

[chinlamp]

Gotta love how in their own asses the Hero Faction are about humanity when they just slaughtered their way through a bunch of humans doing monstrous experiments. But no, this human is worth not killing and turning on the devil you're with.

 

[Hk473]

ah, got confused again then.
my bad

 

[tehstorm]

The hero faction hipocrisy is fun to see...If they had the slightest chance of recruiting Lavinia or Tobio, then it just went up in smokes...

 

[Gareth River]

Fascinating!
thanks for the chapter

 

[abel targayen]

POV - Tobio Ikuse

Tobio woke up screaming.

His chest heaved. His fingers gripped the sheets. Sweat clung to his skin like ice. For a moment, he didn't remember where he was. Then the image returned: black wings, cold eyes, a presence so overwhelming it shattered everything.

"Satanael..." he whispered. The name clawed through his brain like a curse.

The room was quiet. Sterile. A suite? He sat up slowly, realizing he was alone, but voices came from the next room. Familiar ones.

He swung his legs off the bed. They trembled, but they held. The floor beneath his bare feet was marble, too expensive for any hospital.

Tobio opened the door. The next room looked like a luxury lounge.

Cao Cao sat in a leather chair, arms crossed. Beside him were Le Fay, Arthur, Jeanne, Heracles, George, Leonardo, and Marsilio. All seated on expensive-looking sofas.

"You're awake," came Natsume's voice.

He turned to see her standing near the kitchen island, Lavinia beside her, who looked like she hadn't slept for days. Natsume crossed the room and hugged him tightly.

He returned it.

Then he noticed.

"Where's Sae?"

"Easy now," Heracles said, stretching with a groan. "You start sprinting, and you're gonna faceplant. I don't do CPR."

Tobio frowned, looking toward the tall glass window.

There, a white-robed figure stood, wine in hand, back to the room.

"So," Cao Cao said, voice tight, "now that we're all here, maybe Riser Phenex would like to explain?"

Riser turned slightly. The city lights behind him cast his profile in gold.

"Look at you, torn from the jaws of death itself. I trust you thanked me properly in your nightmares?"

Tobio didn't laugh.

"Where is Sae?"

Riser took a sip of wine. The woman beside him, a purple-haired beauty in an evening dress, stayed silent.

"Satanael defeated me," Riser said casually. "Took her with him."

Tobio's fists clenched. His voice cracked. "What, no—"

"I marked Hanezo Himejima," Riser interrupted. "Right before I knocked him unconscious."

George perked up. "You put a tracker on him?"

"Of course. I'm not an idiot."

Tobio's voice was raw. "Can you find her? Can you help me save her? Please—" He hated begging, but he didn't care.

Riser's face looked impassive and said. " It's likely that Sae is with them. If you come with me to this place, you will have the opportunity to save your friend"

Cao Cao stood up. "Where is she now?"

Riser waved a hand. A magical projection appeared, showing a red dot blinking deep within a mountain range.

"That seems to be her location, which I assume is one of Satanael's old fallback sites. He's probably hiding in a subdimensional layer tied to it."

Arthur stood, arms crossed. "Then we need a plan."

They gathered.

Riser, Arthur, and Cao Cao mapped the infiltration route:

• Leonardo would stay behind, using his Balance Breaker to deploy Bandersnatchs and Jabberwocky remotely as reinforcements.
• George would use Dimension Lost to hide the team and Leonard from detection and create an emergency retreat point.
• The main team: Riser, Yubellana, Tobio, Lavinia, Natsume, Arthur, Cao Cao, Jeanne, Heracles, and Le Fay.

They would strike from three points, collapse inwards, and reach the ritual site. No mercy. No delays.

---

They infiltrated the facility in silence. Satanael's remaining subordinates were weak. Too weak.

"This is off," Lavinia whispered.

Then, in an instant, the world warped.

Everyone was teleported.

They arrived in an endless white void, like mist on glass. Floating platforms spread like shattered stone.

"This isn't the physical world," Riser muttered. " Somewhere in the spirit world."

And then he appeared.

Satanael.

His wings spread behind him, Twelve of them, vast and black as abyssal pits.

"Welcome," he said. "To my masterpiece."

Tobio stepped forward. "What the hell are you doing with Sae?"

Satanael's eyes glinted. "She is the conductor. A soul bridge. Her unique resonance makes her the ideal node."

"Node for what?" Cao cao demanded.

Satanael raised a hand. A projection appeared: at least 30,000 human souls. Suspended. Glowing threads connected them to a giant arcane circle.

"This is the Abyss Project. A ritual designed to refine the evolution of sacred gears. Humans are adaptable, resilient, and fragmented. Perfect for channeling dimensional shifts."

Tobio took a step forward. "You're using people. Innocent people. For what?"

"To create a god-killing weapon," Satanael said without hesitation. "You may call it horror. I call it heritage."

Riser narrowed his eyes. "This is madness."

"No," Satanael replied, amused. "This is progress."

Then he smiled.

"Now... amuse me a little longer."

They attacked.

Arthur raised Excalibur Ruler. Cao Cao summoned the True Longinus. Jeanne and Heracles moved in tandem. Lavinia activated Absolute Demise. Tobio's shadow rippled.

And Satanael stood there.

Waiting.


POV – Tobio Ikuse

The first strike was silent.

Cao Cao moved like a comet, spear blazing with a white-hot aura, the divine light of the True Longinus cutting toward Satanael's throat. At the same moment, the glassy floor beneath them cracked as Lavinia's Absolute Demise emerged in a storm of spiraling frost, tendrils of biting cold racing toward Augusta. Wind exploded from Riser's back as wings of flame surged open, his body vanishing in a burst of pressure. Tobio couldn't even process who moved first.

The battle had begun.

Satanael merely raised a hand. Gravity buckled.

Cao Cao's spear stopped inches from his face, suspended by sheer force. Lavinia's ice doll halted mid-lunge, frost freezing in place like a paused film. Riser flickered into existence behind Satanael, his hand already raised for a strike—

"Dismantle."

A ripple of invisible force cleaved through the air. The sound was delayed. Buildings in the false skyline above split apart, glass and steel unraveling. Satanael twisted his body at the last possible instant. The attack grazed his robe.

Riser's eyes sharpened.

"You're slower," he said. "Something's changed."

Satanael smiled, even as he dodged another high-speed slash.

"You're observant. Very good."

Behind them, the floor cracked. Twelve titans of shadow emerged, the Bandersnatch. Leonardo, hidden within George's dimensional pocket, had summoned them all at once. Towering monsters, each one over 100 meters tall, roared with inhuman fury and descended upon Satanael like a tidal wave of living darkness.

And then came the Jabberwocky.

Two hundred meters of nightmare. A humanoid monstrosity of fangs, armor, and writhing limbs.

It struck with a fist that crushed the surrounding buildings of the dimension like paper.

Satanael raised one hand. A spear of pure light formed in his palm.

He hurled it.

It pierced Jabberwocky's chest. The monster reeled. The other twelve Bandersnatch lunged as one, bringing down the sky with their collective weight. Light clashed with shadow. The dimension rippled.

Lavinia and Augusta, meanwhile, clashed like avatars of opposing elements. The ice doll screamed silently, conjuring blades of crystal that shattered through flames. Augusta laughed, wild and thrilled, her Incinerate Anthem manifesting a giant of violet fire that struck with waves of incandescent heat.

"You've improved!" Augusta shouted.

Lavinia didn't answer. Her eyes were red.

Tobio summoned his blade. Canis Lykaon growled in his mind.

"We need to end this now," Tobio muttered.

Cao Cao heard him.

"Agreed. He's not operating at full strength. That ritual's draining him."

Riser spoke without turning. "He can't access his full power while anchoring the ritual. That's our opening. Don't waste it."

George deployed Dimension Lost, shifting their terrain constantly to deny Satanael stable footing. Lavinia pushed harder, ice sealing Augusta's feet to the floor.

Then Cao Cao unleashed Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin. Seven orbs glowed and spun around him.

"Chakkaratana."

The air bent. All of Satanael's light spears vanished, disintegrated by the artifact destruction sphere. He narrowed his eyes for the first time.

Riser took the moment.

He raised his hand. A fire field ignited.

The sky burned.

An entire radius of several kilometers turned into a typhoon of dark flame. A crimson cyclone, shredding reality itself, tearing through light constructs, steel towers, even warping the very magnetic field of the dimension.

Satanael raised a barrier of light.

It cracked.

Cleave.

Riser appeared before him, wings ablaze. He slammed his fist into Satanael's side.

The barrier shattered. Satanael was flung into a burning tower.

A feather fell from his wing.

Everyone paused.

Lavinia's voice trembled. "He... he's bleeding."

Satanael lay sprawled amid the flames, smiling.

Tobio stepped forward, gripping his blade. "How do we stop the ritual?"

Satanael laughed.

It wasn't cruel. It was amused.

"Stop it? Oh, child... I am not some Saturday cartoon villain who waits for the hero to arrive before starting the plan."

His body twitched. The ground began to pulse.

"Do you think I would have brought you here if there was even a chance of failure?"

A pulse of energy swept outward.

"The ritual was completed an hour ago."

The entire pocket dimension screamed. Space groaned. A pressure unlike anything before flooded the battlefield.

"Now," Satanael said, eyes glowing with divinity, "I merely reap what I sowed."

Power surged. The dimension, a space the size of continental Europe, trembled.

Light cascaded from the sky, warping into grotesque shapes. Cries of distant, dying things echoed from nowhere. A massive magic circle appeared above them, one larger than a country, inscribed with names and numbers, glowing with the names of the sacrificed.

30,000 souls.

"No..." Le Fay whispered.

Satanael rose slowly, his limbs no longer broken, his wounds sealing with radiant black light. He floated above them, wings of nothingness spreading behind him: vast, formless appendages that devoured light.

His aura swallowed the battlefield.

A god had awakened.

Leonardo's creatures froze. Even they couldn't act.

"This…" Cao Cao gasped, taking a step back. "This isn't Satan-Class. This is beyond It... This is transcendence."

Satanael's eyes locked on Cao Cao.

"Your spear was bathed in the blood of a crucified god," he said. "How poetic. You should try bathing in mine."

The True Longinus trembled in Cao Cao's hands. His aura flickered. Even the spear seemed to struggle to remain steady under the pressure of Satanael's existence.

Cao Cao screamed, orbs rotating wildly, True Longinus pulsing with white-hot wrath. " Attack, now!"

Everyone attacked.

Riser unleashed a tornado of fire. Lavinia unleashed the full wrath of Absolute Demise. Tobio went into his unstable Balance Breaker, black and silver energy spiraling around him. Cao Cao charged, spear held like the wrath of Heaven itself.

It was glorious.

It was hopeless.

Satanael didn't block. He didn't flinch. He merely existed, and their attacks fell away like dust.

One by one, they were repelled. Not crushed. Not wounded. Just stopped. Each effort countered with perfect precision. As if he saw the shape of their souls and moved accordingly

From high above, Satanael laughed.

A sound like thunder, like scripture read in reverse, like ten million locusts singing at once.

---

And then—

An explosion.

Sudden. Violent. Blinding.

A core of black and white flame erupted from Satanael's chest. It bloomed outward faster than sound.

BOOM.

The wave of destruction engulfed the entire battlefield.

Bandersnatchs were obliterated in an instant, their towering forms dissolving into ash. The Jabberwocky howled, body torn apart, reforming—and then torn again. Mountains shattered. Rivers boiled away.

A dome of destruction expanded outward like a second sun, eclipsing the false sky.

And then silence.

Nothing moved.

Nothing breathed.

The air had been turned to fire.

POV: Riser Phenex

The explosion was massive.

Even for him, it was almost too much.

The sky of the pocket dimension had turned into a sea of flame and smoke. The ground trembled under the force, like the entire space wanted to collapse. Riser hovered in the air, flames curling around him in a tight shield. When the last wave passed, he lowered his hand and let the protective fire fade.

"It worked," he said softly.

Below, the others had barely survived.

George's Dimension Lost had formed a barrier just in time. They were crouched inside it. Scorched, shaken, but alive. He saw Tobio, Lavinia, Cao Cao, Arthur, Marisillio, Le Fay, Natsume and even Leonardo, half-faded behind a shimmering veil of the Dimension Lost.

Farther away, Augusta and Walpurga were still standing, barely. The two witches had managed to raise a layered barrier, but it had cracked like glass. Walpurga was on her knees. Augusta was breathing hard, her eyes locked on Riser, not with hate, but confusion.

Tobio pulled himself to his feet, still dazed. "What... worked?"

Riser didn't answer.

He gave a faint smile, then turned his gaze back toward the burning horizon. There was nothing left of Satanael. Not a single trace. No energy, no pieces. Just ash and a silence that rang louder than the explosion ever had.

That was enough.

Inside, Riser was quiet. Not calm but focused. He was already retracing the steps in his mind. Every moment, every decision that had led them to this outcome. There had been no guarantees. Only risk.

It had all started with the feather.

During their first clash with Satanael, he had managed to land a hit on Satanael and take a feather from his wings. A single black feather, just one. It only happened because Satanael was playing with him. He had kept it with him. He remembered the way it pulsed faintly, even after being severed.

To most, it meant nothing. But Riser had been trained to see connections. Both due to Kelzior's knowledge as well his own. To look at the world not as it was, but how it could be used.

That feather wasn't just part of Satanael's body. It was part of his essence. Still spiritually linked. Still resonating with him. And that made it more than a souvenir.

It made it a weakness.

Riser didn't tell anyone. Not Tobio. Not Lavinia. Not even Cao Cao. Because if any of them had known, they would've asked questions. They would've tried to help. And this wasn't a plan that could survive outside hands.

He only needed one person.

Valerie.

He summoned her two days before the mission.

She didn't ask questions. She never did with him. Riser showed her the feather, and she understood enough. The rest he explained in careful, simple steps.

Valerie's Sacred Gear, the Sephiroth Graal, was more than a healer's tool. It could reach into the soul, touch the edges of time and fate. It could rewrite what shouldn't be rewritten. Riser didn't want to use it recklessly. But this wasn't recklessness.

Together, they began.

The first step was resonance disruption. Using the Graal, he and Valerie infused the feather with specially crafted sigils, drawn from a mix of ancient rituals and modern soul-theory. Not curses. Not destruction. Just... instability. A slight misalignment in Satanael's internal structure. Subtle. Invisible.

Like a cracked mirror that still reflects, until you look too closely.

Then came the inversion layers. Valerie used energy from the Graal to inscribe counter-rhythms into the feather, things that Satanael's angelic nature couldn't detect, but couldn't ignore once reabsorbed. Tiny fractures. Off-key notes. Not enough to stop him. Just enough to make everything fall apart when it mattered most.

They couldn't test it. They had one shot.

The plan was simple in execution. Keep the feather hidden until Satanael started the final phase of his ritual. Then reintroduce it into his presence, masked by the chaos of battle. Let him absorb it again, unknowingly. Let the structure twist from within. Let the new power, the synthetic Longinus, try to harmonize with a broken core.

And then watch it collapse.

They didn't know exactly what would happen. Maybe nothing. Maybe he'd die quietly. Or maybe, like today, he would ignite from the inside out.

In the end, the plan worked. Perfectly.

But Riser was relieved.

He didn't tell the others. He didn't explain the feather, or Valerie's role, or how close they had all come to dying if even one thing had gone wrong.

Instead, he let the silence hang.

Let them assume he had something up his sleeve. Some Phenex family technique. A backup plan. That was fine.

Tobio needed something to believe in.

Cao Cao needed to think he'd lost a gamble, not been outplayed.

And Lavinia, well, she was already dealing with too much.

Valerie?

He had already thanked her. Quietly. Just once.

She didn't want the attention. And he didn't want the world to know that he has got the sephiroth graal. If word got out that the Sephiroth Graal could disrupt divine rituals, rewrite soul structures, sabotage transcendence itself, it would bring down every faction on them.

So Riser stayed quiet.

Not to take credit. But to protect her.

To protect the future.

Because deep down, Riser knew this wasn't the end. Satanael wasn't just a mad scientist with a god complex. He was a sign. Proof that he couldn't depend on canon knowledge.

The world was changing. The old powers, devils, angels, humans, dragons, they were all clinging to outdated roles, watching their relevance slip through their fingers. New forces were rising. Unknown threats. And worse, known ones learning to adapt.

Riser had seen it coming.

That was why he acted.

Why he prepared.

Because for him to achieve his dream, strength alone wouldn't be enough.

Cao Cao had strength.

Satanael had strength.

But only one of them was still breathing.

Riser looked up. The burning sky above was starting to fade into gray. The pocket dimension had been damaged beyond repair. Soon, they'd all be ejected back to their world.

He closed his eyes and took a slow breath.

Then opened them again.

"Checkmate," he said softly.

Nobody heard him.

That was fine.

The important moves were made in silence anyway.

And the next one?

He was already thinking three steps ahead.


POV: Riser Phenex

Riser stood at the edge of a collapsing dimension, arms folded as warped firelight danced in his amber eyes. Above him, the sky cracked and peeled like broken glass, dimension-space groaning as Satanael's death ripple spread outward.

Satanael was gone. Nothing left but smoldering ether.

And then he saw her.

There, at the heart of the ritual circle: Sae Toujou. Kneeling. Convulsing. Screaming.

A blizzard of light poured from her mouth, her eyes, even her skin—thousands of tiny white fragments. No. Souls. Countless human souls, torn from her body like feathers in a storm. Riser narrowed his eyes.

"Well. Can't have that," he muttered.

This hadn't been part of the plan. Originally, he just wanted to stop Satanael, then approach Tobio Ikuse and his group. Be the charming devil and recruit powerful Longuin users for himself. But this? This was better.

A gift. Waiting to be taken.

He had stood at the edge of power for so long. Borderline Ultimate-class. Not quite there. Not truly. There had always been a gap, some intangible wall between him and the next step. But this? This could be the catalyst.

Now, this might be the push.

He vanished in a blink, flame trailing behind him like a whip.

He reappeared before her—Sae, still kneeling, face contorted, as if the process was tearing her apart from the inside out.

Riser raised his hand and pressed it gently to her head. His demonic energy surged into her like a tide, stabilizing the violent tremor of her soul, but not with kindness. With intent

The escaping souls slowed. Paused.

Then reversed.

Sae screamed: high, raw, animal.

The souls flowed back into her like a reversed flood, pushing against her from all angles. Her veins glowed white-hot. She convulsed.

And from behind, voices.

"Riser!" Le Fay shouted, breathless. "What are you doing?!"

He didn't turn. "Reaping what Satanael sowed."

Cao Cao and the others caught up. Tobio surged forward, eyes wide in horror.

"Stop!" Tobio shouted. "What the hell are you doing to her?! She's in pain!"

Natsume's face twisted. "Let her go!"

Only George stayed back, eyes sharp, calculating. "He's… stabilizing the ritual."

Everyone turned to look at him.

George adjusted his glasses. "Satanael used Sae as a soul bridge, a vessel to connect thirty thousand humans to the synthetic Sacred Gear. But with his death, the ritual destabilized. Riser is now acting as a substitute catalyst."

"A what?" Natsume snapped.

"He's continuing the ritual," George said grimly. "But using his demonic energy as a stabilizer and catalyst. And with that level of precision? You'd need immense magical control. Absolutely monstrous."

George glanced at Tobio, face grim. "It will likely kill her."

Tobio looked back at Sae, her body convulsing harder under Riser's touch. "No. No, he wouldn't…"

He ran forward. "Riser! STOP!"

Riser didn't flinch. Didn't look.

"Why are you doing this?!" Tobio screamed. "You said you'd save her!"

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes. "Tch. We should've never trusted a devil."

He raised True Longinus. "Everyone. Move in."

A pulse of heat burst out in front of them. A sharp, concussive boom. They stumbled back as violet flame tore into the space between them and Riser.

Yubelluna hovered above them, hair wild, eyes blazing.

"You will not pass," she said.

She threw down her staff. The ground exploded in light and smoke and when it cleared, a barrier stood between them and Sae.

Lavinia slammed her hand against it. "Damn it—!"

Behind the barrier, Riser remained focused, but his thoughts flicked briefly to the structure surrounding him.

This isn't just a standard ward, he mused. It's running on multiple leyline circuits: two high-class demonic leyens from Emberhold, directly linked. I prepared them for emergencies like this. Layered with mid-tier leyens and dozens of low-class leyens spread like sigil anchors across the substrate, all feeding into a tertiary generator node.

He watched the light flicker in symmetrical pulses.

And the barrier spell itself… expertly woven. Interlaced matrices with reinforced magical harmonics. A puzzle box wrapped in infernal logic. Not invincible, but durable enough to stall even a Longinus-tier assault for a few minutes.

He allowed himself the briefest smirk.

Elegant execution. As expected of Yubelluna.

Riser listened to the chaos behind him but didn't turn. His hand stayed on Sae's head. Her screams echoed through the barrier like broken glass scraping metal.

Perfect. This was no longer Satanael's design.

This was his.

The souls spiraled, slowed, turned one by one, then in floods. Thirty thousand lives. Human souls, refined, vulnerable, bursting with raw meaning. They collapsed into her form. Her frame arched, twisted, until her body couldn't take anymore. Riser's other hand traced a sigil midair. He whispered something ancient. Forgotten syllables. Language from before devils had kingdoms.

The ritual circle flared white. Sae shrieked and dropped.

Her body hit the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Nothing moved. No breath. No cry.

Then—

A core. Floating. A small red sphere, like blood crystallized into glass.

Riser caught it. Lifted it to his lips.

Tobio slammed his fist against the barrier. "No! Don't—!"

But Riser already tilted his head back. And swallowed.

The change hit instantly. His aura didn't surge, it detonated. Energy poured from him in sharp waves, snapping the air like a thunderclap. The ground cracked. Space warped.

From borderline Ultimate-class… past it. Rising. Climbing.

And still climbing.

Every second, his strength doubled. Tripled.

Riser exhaled, slow. Calm.

Finally, he thought.

Ultimate-class. Solidified.

And more. Not Satan-class. Not yet. But no longer just dancing on the threshold.

He turned.

Tobio was on his knees now. Shaking.

"You promised," he sobbed. "You promised you would save her."

Riser looked down at him, voice smooth.

"I said you'd have the opportunity to save her."

Tobio froze.

Riser's smile didn't reach his eyes. "And you had the opportunity. It's not my problem that you are too weak to do so."

Silence.

Lavinia took a half-step back. Even Cao Cao said nothing. The horror on their faces was enough. Then, Riser raised his hand again.

He spoke, not in the devil tongue, nor human, nor draconic. Older. Cruder. Reality buckled under the sound.

Sae's body twitched once. Screamed one last time.

Then she shrank. Her limbs collapsed inward. From the flesh came out light. Light to shape. Until it was nothing but a glowing red orb. He plucked it from the air. Popped it into his mouth. And swallowed. The dimension trembled. His power flared again, even higher. Pushing past even the limits of most Ultimate-class beings. Borderline Satan-class. Still not there but close. So close.

He turned. Calm. Serene.

"Yubelluna."

She appeared beside him instantly, still maintaining the barrier.

"Let's go."

And they vanished, just like that. Leaving the others behind in the ruins of a dimension, trapped behind a violet wall, surrounded by screams that had finally gone quiet.

⸻

They'll never understand.

The crying. The begging. The screaming.

All of it, useless.

They're still trapped in the human frame. Still measuring life by warmth, by bonds, by the illusion of permanence. Still acting like death matters. That sacrifice has weight. That pain makes something real. But I've seen the truth.

I saw it the moment I opened my eyes in this world and realized I had been reborn. Different world. Different laws. Same mind.

Reincarnation is real. Not poetic. Not hypothetical. Literal.

And if it's real, then death is irrelevant. Just a reset button. A revolving door of identity, loss, and repetition. You don't end. You loop.

It's not beautiful. It's not hopeful. It's meaningless.

Because if you just come back again and again—what value does anything have? Love, loss, glory, despair. All of it erased by the next cycle. Your victories become someone else's backstory. Your tragedies fade into static. The wheel turns. The roles change. You start over.

It was enough to drive a man insane. Or enlightened.

I chose the second. I stopped caring about the narrative. About playing the role of hero, villain, victim, mentor. None of it lasts. None of it means anything.

So I asked a better question:

What can I make that doesn't get erased?

That's what matters now.

Not saving Sae. Not earning Tobio's trust. Not impressing Lavinia or outplaying Cao Cao. They're interesting. Useful. Even entertaining. But they're fragile. They break. They die. They get replaced.

Just like the last world. What I need… is permanence. Not the kind you write in a book. Not legends or memory.

Real Immortality.

I'm not talking about long life. Not immortality in the way most dream of it. That's just prolonged irrelevance. I want to become a constant. An unerasable pattern.

Truly omnipotent.

And if I have to use the soul core of thirty thousand humans to take another step toward that goal? Then so be it.

I could've helped Sae. Could've given Tobio his happy ending. Could've had Lavinia at my side, grateful, loyal, broken in the way I prefer my tools.

But all of that would've slowed me down. Saving one girl won't reshape the universe.

This?

This ritual, power, transcendence, does.

Let them hate me. Let them scream and call me a monster. Devil. Liar.

They're not wrong.

I took the path they couldn't. I made the choice they feared.

That's why I'll become something more than them.

Something they can't follow. And if I fail?

If this world falls apart and I die like everyone else?

Then I'll try again. Next world. Next version. Same goal. Until I reach the end of everything and rewrite it. No gods. No fate. No cycle.

Only me. The first true constant.

Riser Phenex. Not a devil. Not a man. But the one thing even eternity can't erase.

Pov: Le Fay Pendragon

The world was quiet.

Ash fell like snow from the shattered sky, drifting through the remains of the broken dimension. Where once Satanael's ritual had twisted reality into something monstrous, now there was only silence and the stench of betrayal.

Le Fay stood among the others. Tobio knelt beside Sae's remaining body parts. He didn't cry at first. He just stared at one of her eye balls, mouthing words that no sound could carry. Then his breath hitched and he broke. Screams tore from his throat, raw and brutal, as if the grief itself was clawing its way out of his chest.

Natsume had her hands over her mouth, trembling. Lavinia didn't speak. She just stared at the space where Riser had vanished, her eyes wide and hollow. Her knuckles were white around her wand. Arthur stood beside her, motionless. Jeanne crossed herself, muttering prayers that sounded more like curses. George was silent, staring down at the scorched remnants of the magic circle.

Cao Cao stood alone. He wasn't trembling. He wasn't weeping. He was… still. But Le Fay had never seen him like this. He looked like a man possessed.

His jaw clenched. His eyes were alight with something terrible: pure, incandescent rage. Not loud. Not screaming. Cold. Righteous fury.

And then he stepped forward.

"Look at what they've done," Cao Cao said, voice like thunder wrapped in iron. "First Satanael. Now Riser Phenex. And before them? Every god, every devil, every myth that deemed humanity lesser. Always the same. Always above. Always watching."

His hand curled into a fist. "They toy with us. Sacrifice us. Speak of fate, of balance, of divine will. And yet when we die, it is alone. Forgotten. We are the fodder in their wars, the bricks in their towers, the nameless prayers they never answer."

He raised his spear to the dim light above.

"Why should we kneel before such powers? Why should we serve beings who treat our lives like currency? What justice lies in a world where thirty human souls were fed to a devil—and another devil called it progress?"

The others slowly looked up. Eyes wide. Listening.

"I say no more."

His voice rose, echoing through the dead air.

"I say farewell to obedience. Farewell to servitude. Farewell to peace if peace means silence before monsters."

He pointed his spear to the distance, toward the place where Riser had disappeared.

"We have been used. Again. And again. But let this be the last time. We are not their pawns. Not their cattle. We are human and there is nothing purer, nothing worthier, than that."

He turned to them now, sweeping his gaze over every face.

"We will not be quiet. We will not be afraid. We will fight not for prophecy, not for gods, not for glory but for each other. For the weak, the lost, the innocent. For those who scream and are never heard. For those who died believing someone would save them."

He stepped onto the cracked ground and raised his spear to the sky.

"Let all hear us! Be they god or devil, angel or dragon, yokai or forgotten spirit—be they yet unborn or already decayed! If any shall raise their hand against mankind, if any shall twist our souls or spill our blood for their designs, then we swear this:

"Be they gods or devils, angels or beasts,

born of heaven or forged in hell,

bright of light or cloaked in shadow,

I name them all foe:

whoever brings harm to humankind.

By this vow I am bound, and bound shall be all who swear it beside me:

Neither law, nor love, nor mercy, nor fear,

neither the swords of kings nor the prayers of saints,

shall shield them from our wrath.

We will hunt them, we will hound them,

to the edge of the stars and beyond the end of time.

Not fate, not heaven, not death itself

shall grant them refuge.

We will raise our blades before the breaking of day

and strike until the last evil is unmade.

This oath we swear:

Death to those who defile mankind.

Vengeance unending upon those who enslave or sacrifice us.

And may the world break and the stars fall

should we betray this vow."

He drove the spear down into the cracked earth with a sound like thunder.

"Witness our oath, O Lord of Hosts, Yahweh,

and you gods of distant lands

Shiva, Vishnu, all who watch from high places:

Remember this oath!

Let no star forget it!

Let no god forgive it!"

Then Arthur stepped beside him, sword drawn. "I swear it."

Jeanne followed, her blade gleaming. "So do I."

Leonardo, trembling but firm: "I swear."

Marsilio's voice was low, furious. "They'll pay. All of them. I swear it."

Heracles cried. "This i swear also."

George bowed his head and placed a hand over his chest. "By the souls they sacrefieced, I swear."

Tobio stood last. His face was streaked with tears, his voice hoarse. But it rang with steel.

"For Sae. I swear it."

And one by one, they raised their weapons: every blade, every staff or fists, every will hardened by fire and betrayal.

Le Fay didn't raise hers. Neither did Lavina nor Natsume.

She watched them, her heart heavy with dread.

Something had changed. Something irreversible. The weight in the air wasn't just resolved. It was fury. It was vengeance. It was Fate. And it was absolute.

She felt as though they had crossed a threshold and there would be no coming back.

Even victory, she feared, might one day look like loss.


AN: Another chapter down, and this one absolutely drained me. I had to keep rewriting it just to make sure things made sense, though let's be honest, it probably still doesn't. I swear it was all way cooler in my head.

The final bit, where Cao Cao makes his dramatic oath, was inspired by Fëanor's oath from Tolkien. I wanted it to feel heavy and serious, since this moment kicks off the formation of the Hero Faction and shows that Riser's chaotic actions actually have consequences.

Anyway, feedback is always welcome, whether it's thoughtful critique, unfiltered insults, or just a confused "what did I just read." Let me know!

 

[Asmodyne]

Yeah, not a fan of this

 

[elfensky]

Fuck canon! What an unexpected twist. I wonder how much of that is Riser/SI himself and how much is the madness/memories twisting him.

 

[tehstorm]

Didnt like this decision. I mean, is the increase in power to a mere Ultimate class worthy gaining the hate of severall people who will reach SATAN class in just a few years?

Lets be honest, if his power was raised to the same level as Satanael then yeah, 100% worth it. But Ultimate class are the bare folder in DxD...Tobio himself will reach Satan class in just a few years and so will Lavinia and Cao Cao.

I feel it was a bad call, he could have done the same with the Graal later on without making several future satan classes mark him for death.

Now he just made enemies with people who have VERY problematic powers - True Longinus and Dimension Lost, especially - who will be looking for revenge on his family as well...

He should have killed them when they are still weak, at least. VERY bad call in my opinion.

 

[chinlamp]

Isn't CaoCao working for a god?

 

[abel targayen]

Didnt like this decision. I mean, is the increase in power to a mere Ultimate class worthy gaining the hate of severall people who will reach SATAN class in just a few years?

Lets be honest, if his power was raised to the same level as Satanael then yeah, 100% worth it. But Ultimate class are the bare folder in DxD...Tobio himself will reach Satan class in just a few years and so will Lavinia and Cao Cao.

I feel it was a bad call, he could have done the same with the Graal later on without making several future satan classes mark him for death.

Now he just made enemies with people who have VERY problematic powers - True Longinus and Dimension Lost, especially - who will be looking for revenge on his family as well...

He should have killed them when they are still weak, at least. VERY bad call in my opinion.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, you're absolutely right: any rational, empathetic person would've done exactly what you said: build alliances instead of making enemies out of future Satan-class monsters, all for what seems like a relatively small power boost (though I'd argue reaching Ultimate class isn't exactly pocket change, at least outside of canon's power creep).

But the catch is… Riser isn't rational anymore. Ever since he merged with Kelzior, he's been teetering on the edge of sanity. Thanks to that delightful little fusion, his priorities are warped. He's become a kind of hyper-focused psychopath who values personal power over strategy, diplomacy, or not getting hunted by the future embodiment of holy genocide.

In his mind, allies are temporary. Power is permanent. And as he said in Chapter One, even if he dies, he'll just reincarnate somewhere else, so he doesn't really care about the consequences here. That's not who he was before, though. He was willing to risk his life to save Seorin back then. But the Kelzior incident broke something in him. So yeah, it was a bad call, but a character-driven bad call. And that's part of the cost: his humanity and sanity, paid to win the fight against Kelzior, a battle he shouldn't have been able to survive under normal circumstances. It would feel cheap if there was no consequence from that.

 

[abel targayen]

Isn't CaoCao working for a god?

Click to shrink...

In canon, yeah. Cao Cao was working for Indra. And yet, he still went ahead and formed the Hero Faction, so the man was already pretty deep in the hypocrisy pool.

In this fic though, I'm taking him in a slightly different direction. He's not just some smug mastermind, he's someone burning with rage at how the supernatural constantly uses and abuses humanity (even if not all of them do). Think of him more like a revolutionary, someone who wants to break the system rather than play along with it. He's not fighting for power, he's fighting to make sure no one else ends up under someone else's boot.

 

[chinlamp]

In canon, yeah. Cao Cao was working for Indra. And yet, he still went ahead and formed the Hero Faction, so the man was already pretty deep in the hypocrisy pool.

In this fic though, I'm taking him in a slightly different direction. He's not just some smug mastermind, he's someone burning with rage at how the supernatural constantly uses and abuses humanity (even if not all of them do). Think of him more like a revolutionary, someone who wants to break the system rather than play along with it. He's not fighting for power, he's fighting to make sure no one else ends up under someone else's boot.

Click to shrink...

Or at least that's what he tells himself while he does the exact things he rails against non-humans for doing while wielding a weapon made by a God.

 

[Spearow]

Even if they hate Riser, nothing will come from this, they will still be terrorists, they will still declare war against the world, the devils will probably still enter some kind of alliance, and this elite team will still fail.
Every fanfic mc tries to either be everyone's enemy or everyone's ally, there is no nuance, now that we have an mc that does not bend backwards for everything, some people get bother by it, breaking expectations and doing what you believe is best is not a bad thing, its good, just be consistent about it.

Saving Sae was not worth giving up that massive power up, and the situation make me believe that saving her was not an option.
Even if he makes some enemies, Cao Cao and the hero retards would be enemies anyway, the pendragon siblings as well, following cannon and having Tobio joining the Grigory and making the slash dog team is actual treason against his entire race by making one of their sworn enemies stronger, Tobio is not worth the effort to recruit into his peerage and team human supremacy would never let that happen with them right there, having him joining the retards will isolate him, it was not a bad result, stealing the ritual was worth it.

They were going to hate Riser anyway, the supremacists because they are racists and Tobio because he "failed" to save Sae, better give them a good reason to hate him, its satisfying, nice chapter.

 

[Zavvier]

Yeah, not a fan of this

Click to shrink...

Yeah… it's so cliche. Why did he leave behind enemies, it's so stupid. Best of luck author

 

[IndraP]

Should have kill them all, never let your potential enemy live. Well, gotta have a cliché I guess

 

[abel targayen]

POV: Riser Phenex
Riser Phenex sat alone in his private study as dusk settled outside the tall windows. A grand piano dominated the center of the room, its polished surface catching the last light of day. His fingers moved over the keys with disquieting grace, weaving the delicate phrases of Chopin's Nocturne No. 20. It was not a performance meant to soothe. The melody did not merely stir emotion, it interrogated it.

The final phrase lingered, delicate as cobweb, before my fingers lifted. Silence returned, expectant. I did not turn to her.

"You've been watching for some time now," I said, lightly. "Were I less practiced, I'd have mistaken that gaze for admiration. But I suspect you're here to confess a thought. Or a fear. Perhaps both?"

I glanced back, just enough to catch the flicker in her expression. Guilt. Embarrassment.

"My Lord, I didn't mean to intrude—"

"Don't be absurd," I interrupted gently, rising from the bench. "This manor is yours as much as mine. Besides, the walls miss your footsteps when you keep to the corners. Come." I gestured toward the chair opposite mine, still warm from candlelight. "Sit. Speak. And kindly do not insult both of us by pretending your silence is noble restraint."

She hesitated, then obeyed. Back straight. Eyes downcast.

"It's nothing, really. Foolish thoughts from a servant."

"A servant?" I echoed with a touch of amusement. "Yubellana, I've watched you maintain this estate with precision no spell could replicate. You anticipate needs before they're spoken. You handle every detail I ignore without complaint or error. And yet, in your mind, your greatest contribution is keeping the bookshelves tidy?"

That drew a faint smile.

"You are no mere servant. You are my Queen. Speak as such."

She nodded, slowly.

"It's about the events… that happened recently. During the whole Satanael fiasco."

Ah. So we've reached that chapter, have we?

I folded my hands, watching her carefully.

"I see. And what of them weighs on you?"

"It's…" she faltered, then forced herself to continue. "It's not that I disapprove. I would never. I trust you with everything I have, My Lord. But I… didn't understand. You abandoned your efforts with Tobio Ikuse. After everything. After building that relationship. After pretending you cared for that boy's future. You killed his friend. You absorbed thirty thousand souls. You turned him into an enemy and several other longuin users."

"And?" I asked, not unkindly.

"You always said he was a target for recruitment," she continued, voice soft. "He is the wielder of the Canis lykaon. Someone with the capacity to challenge gods, if properly cultivated. I thought… I thought that was your aim."

"It was," I replied, with a smile that didn't reach my eyes. "Then I changed it."

She blinked. "Just like that?"

"Just like that," I said, standing and moving toward the window. "The circumstances shifted, so I adapted. I made a choice that brought results. The plan changed, and with it, so did the role I play."

She stood as well, cautiously. "But was it worth it? You say you've gained power, but Tobio is still a Longinus wielder. His potential is… limitless. You could've had him."

"I could've," I agreed. "But let me ask you, Yubellana—what is a man who gains allies, if he cannot first conquer himself? What is the worth of another's strength, if he has not first proven his own is sufficient?"

She looked away, troubled. "That sounds like pride."

"Perhaps," I admitted. "But pride, you see, is often mistaken for clarity by those still ruled by fear. I do not court strength for the sake of alliances. I consume. I dominate. I master. Because if power is the currency of this world, then dependence is poverty."

She shivered.

"I've read the scriptures," I went on. "Not of heaven, but of nature. There is no justice in the world. No divine balance. No truth that isn't shaped by those strong enough to impose it. All men are born to struggle. Every species, every race. Struggle is the constant. And from that struggle emerges the only true law: power. The strong do not inherit the earth. They reshape it. When a being of true will walks the earth, the very laws of cause and effect shift to accommodate him. That is my pursuit. Not friendship. Not peace."

"You speak of strength as though it absolves all things."

"No," I said. "It doesn't absolve. It defines."

She stepped forward, voice taut.

"Then why did you let them live?" she asked. "Tobio. Cao Cao. The Hero Faction. You had the strength. Why not end the threat?"

I smiled.

"Because they have a role to play."

She tilted her head.

"They are not threats," I continued. " I already know how they move. I know what they fear. What they value. They're predictable and useful."

" So you have a plan for them. You're playing a long game."

"I am playing the only game that matters," I replied. "One that has no board. One where I am not content to be a king or a god, but something beyond."

"And the cost?" she asked, quietly. "All those souls. Sae."

"There is no cost," I said gently. "There is only price. And I paid it."

She looked away again. I saw it, the way her faith in me wavered not from disgust, but the pressure of understanding. That to walk beside me meant accepting things that tore at the edges of her morality.

"You fear what I've become," I said softly.

"I fear that I do not," she whispered.

We stood in silence.

Then I walked back to the piano, sat down, and began again.

A different nocturne this time. Slower. Sadder.

"Your fear defines you," I said, without looking. "It means you have not yet ceased to be human."

"And you?" she asked.

"I ceased long ago," I said. "And found peace in that extinction."

She walked forward, slowly. The light of the chandelier made her look like a ghost.

"But why me?" she asked. "Why keep me close? If all others are tools?"

I didn't answer right away.

When I did, my voice was nearly a whisper.

"Because you see me clearly… and still remain."

POV: Riser Phenex

I felt the magic before it was completed. Summoning magic, Egyptian in flavor, heavy with intent, precise in geometry, and saturated with one overwhelming desire: to see me.

The summons tugged at my spine like a leash. The arrogance amused me.

I did not enjoy being summoned.

So I reversed it.

A flick of the wrist, a shift in the weave. Her spell buckled, then folded in on itself. The floor beneath my study bloomed into a precise geometric lattice of light, drawn in phoenix-gold. Runes flared, flickered, then stabilized with a shudder—and with a burst of violet light, the summoner arrived.

Augusta.

She took one step forward before stilling. Robes of violet. The scent of burnt copper, old parchment, and something older still. Her wide-brimmed witch hat tilted as she adjusted to the sudden change of scenery. She did not stumble, I noted. But I saw the subtle tension in her fingers, the narrowing of her gaze. Her mind, sharp as ever, was already adapting.

I was already seated by the hearth.

"Witches," I said. "Always so fond of circles. You'd think a species so committed to power would tire of walking in them."

Her mouth twitched. "And devils never tire of breaking what others build."

I gestured to the high-backed chair opposite mine. "Please. You've already intruded. Might as well sit."

"Lord Riser," she said with a slight bow, voice even. " To be inverted mid-summon… remarkable. Your magical finesse is impressive. Not many can intercept a spell mid-ritual and turn it back upon the caster."

"Hardly difficult," I replied, examining my nails. "You offered a line. I merely pulled."

I gestured toward one of the grand seats by the fire. "Please, sit. We practice civility here."

She obliged. Her robes rustled softly against the velvet. Her posture remained upright, composed. Not hostile. I rather liked that.

"Yubelluna," I called, without raising my voice. "Bring us two glasses from my special bottle– the one on the right."

My Queen bowed and vanished.

Augusta studied me. "I did not come here to quarrel. I came to offer something useful."

"Of course you did." I laced my fingers. "Witches always arrive bearing offers. Curses. Promises. Grand designs wrapped in Riddles. Speak, then. What prophecy are we spinning tonight?"

Her expression tightened. "It's no prophecy. It's a plan. One I believe may be to your advantage."

"They always say that," I mused. "Is there a school where magicians are taught to speak in melodrama?"

She smiled faintly. "Perhaps we are simply more honest about the stakes."

"Mm. Proceed, then.You've survived the fallout of Satanael's failed apotheosis. That alone is noteworthy.. I imagine you're short on friends."

Yubelluna returned. The wine arrived. I poured for both of us, slow and deliberate. Augusta did not yet drink.

She looked into the fire. "The Hero Faction is mobilizing. With a divine oath dooming them if they do not purge all who pose a threat to humanity."

I nodded once. "Let them be."

"They have gathered more Longinus users than any known faction in recorded history, besides maybe heaven. They've taken an oath and not lightly. And they are testing their edge, cutting down stray devils, rogue magicians and yokais. A warm-up before the real war."

"Children swinging blades," I replied. "This is not the first time zeal has stitched itself into armor."

She leaned forward, voice calm. "No, but it may be the first time it grows fast enough to matter. That oath, they swore it on the Holy names, invoked Yahweh, Shiva, and Vishnu both. The kind of madness only righteous fury breeds."

"And you fear it."

"Well," she said. "I doubt their oath forgives my part in Satanael's ritual. And I plan to survive it."

I gave her a look. "Then what do you propose? Hiding? Apologizing? Or is this where you offer me a grand plan to subdue the mighty heros?"

She smiled slightly. "We build something. Together. An organization. A counterforce to theirs."

I tapped my glass. "Here comes the pitch."

She nodded. "Satanael had a vision. The Khaos Brigade. It was never realized. But the framework remains. It wasn't just madness. It was practical. Build a loose alliance of anyone tired of the peace.We could gather them. Devils, fallen, strays, gods in decline. Dragons without purpose. Rebels. Outcasts. Fanatics."

"Sounds like a circus."

It will be

"It will be," she said. "But it's a circus that can punch back. Especially with the right name attached to it."

" And whose name would that be? Yours?" asked Riser, already knowing the answer.

"Not mine," she said. "Something greater. The jet-black god of infinity. The Ouroboros Dragon."

I stared at her. "You're serious."

"Deadly. The Infinite Dragon God is simple. She wants her home. The Dimensional Gap. Remove Great Red, and she'll grant us her presence, her power. Enough weight to make the Brigade more than a joke."

"And you think she'll just trust us?"

"She's naïve. Detached. Power without ambition. That makes her usable."

"And you want me," I said slowly, "to lead this?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

She hesitated. Just for a breath.

"Because you are not ruled by illusions. You understand that power does not ask permission. That alliances are not sacred. That friends, when necessary, are fuel."

I studied her carefully. "And what is it you want in return? Power? Protection? longevity?"

She looked at me, steady. "All of it. But most of all... I want to serve you."

I blinked, once.

She continued, "I want to become your servant. Reincarnated into your peerage."

A low laugh escaped me. "Why? To grovel for protection?"

"To surpass Merlin," she said. "To dissect the roots of magic until nothing remains hidden. I wish to master it all. But I am human. Old. Time narrows. My ambition does not. I want to join your peerage. Become your devil. And I want to learn from you."

I swirled the wine. "And you believe becoming a devil will fix that?"

"I believe becoming your devil will give me what I need."

"You. Serving under me."

"I don't care about pride," she said. "I care about relevance. I want to see how far you go. And I want to be part of it."

"Such trust. You know what I am, Augusta. I won't pretend to be noble. I'll use you if you're useful. Discard you if you're not.."

She inclined her head. "That's fine. I'd rather be used than rot. Just give me something to do."

I rose from my seat and walked to the window, gazing out over the forest that ringed my castle.

"This Khaos Brigade of yours... It isn't a bad idea. But it needs more than fire and fury. It needs structure. Strategy. It needs intent."

"I can help with that," she said. "And there are others—strays, researchers, broken things. People who want a cause."

"People who want war," I said softly.

"Exactly."

I turned back to face her.

"Fine," I said. "I accept. You'll have your second life."

Six pawn pieces floated into the air before her—golden, burning softly with internal fire.

"Kneel."

She dropped to one knee without hesitation.

The pieces drifted forward. They sank into her chest. She gasped, once, then exhaled.

"Thank you," she said.

"Get used to it," I replied. "We have work to do."

"I will not disappoint you, Master."

And Augusta of the Purple Flames became mine.

AN: So, another chapter, sorry it's a bit late. Hemorrhoids is such a bitch. Anyway, I've also been thinking about how to keep this fic going, and honestly… Riser has completely derailed several of my carefully laid plans. this was not what i wanted it to be when i began writing this fic. He just refuses to do what I want. I write the outline, he burns it. I give him a nice, sensible path, and he decides to take a detour through chaos and emotional damage. But oh well

 

[Asmodyne]

This dude is falling off the idiot tree and hitting every branch on the way down, then trying to cover it up with trite aphorisms. It's annoying.

 

[Spearow]

That is how you build up a villain mc, do kokabiel next, start during wwii he was supposed to fight vasco there i think, maybe its a fanfic thing, dont care, a kokabiel with your riser character would be golden
thx for the chapter.

 

[eien]

I like how theres still room for Lavinia Reni to join up later on. unlikely, i know, but still.

 

[Mystero]

MC is literal Deus ex. He decides to do a thing, and no problem, always works.