On The Bench (AOT/DxD)

[Gwynx]

well it's over for oppai dragon

 

[ScriptGenius12]

Usually when Issei dies it's done to mock and replace him with the author's power fantasy insert character. Here after getting to know him for dozens of chapters and getting to see his good side, having him die like this, genuinely fighting with everything he has to stop not just a horrific genocide, but the agonizing torture of a friend, only to fail is genuinely poignant. I'm madder at Eren for this than for the entirety of the Rumbling.

 

[Grigori]

I'll admit I don't like Issei and often find his scenes grating but he was pretty sweet here, this moment specifically and generally with Ophis and Eren, and I didn't imagine he'd actually die...

Is this Eren's crossing the Rubicon moment? I was sure he'd throw him back to them alive at the last moment.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Great chapter! I think this is the first story that has ever made me care for Issei, I truly hoped that somehow, he would live and get to return home. Though his death wasn't happy or joyous it was noble, Issei died trying to help a friend. He really was a hero. See you Sunday on the bench.

 

[zharshoul]

I mean there probably is some greater plan on Eren's part, but even if theres not, hes a guy with so much PTSD and baggage from his last go around that he really can't seem to move on(especially if it turns out that what we see is what we are getting).

It's also kinda weird how the titan worm parasite also reincarnated with him(since thats what grants the power), especially since the whole being transmissible between people was part of the AOT story element so it shouldn't have been that tightly bound to his very being when he reincarnated as there was no explicit soul merging element. Unless he never died and was teleported to dxd verse. What makes him think that this time "for reals" killing the titan stuff is gonna take, is he just gonna do this crap every time.

 

[TeaMan]

Isn't Eren's goal with this to make the world better for his friends? How is killing his friend going to do that?

 

[D.KnightOfShadows]

Isn't Eren's goal with this to make the world better for his friends? How is killing his friend going to do that?

Click to shrink...

His original plan was to make the world of AoT better for his friends, and while he succeeded (for a given value of succeed) Sasha still died as a consequence, despite Eren very much not wanting to have that happen. Eren is not infallible or omniscient; he can see the future, but that does not mean he can make an omelet without cracking eggs, or succeed in his goals if he deviates from the Path his powers have shown him he nees to follow to overcome the many people arrayed against him.

This new plan requires sacrifices. Issei was one of them, and the Hero Faction is already established as being more. To create a better world, Eren will follow the Path he foresaw as granting victory.



.......I mean, it's not like we know there's a pre-text for Opphis resurrecting Issei after Samael's poison kills him or anything. Or that Eren might have seen that happen.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

Sona Sitri dressed herself in a hurry.

She desperately wanted to be there for her friend and wished she had the luxury of comforting Rias, but she didn't have the time.

This was the first time either of them had lost a member of their Peerage, and Sona knew how much Rias considered them her family and how she saw herself as their supporter and guardian.

To have Eren be responsible... It gave the night's events an extra layer of horror.

But Sona couldn't be there for her.

With Issei... dead and Ophis missing. There was every likelihood that Eren could begin his attack on the Underworld in the next few minutes.

There was so much to do, her family to alert, citizens to evacuate or warn.

The Sitri territory was where the vast majority of the hospitals of the Underworld were located, and they needed every second they could gain to try and get the patients out.

Sona didn't know what sort of form the attack would come in. It could be a recreation of the Rumbling, combined with Senjutsu and backed by Ophis' power, as her aunt expected. It could be a targeted attack on Agares to get the Malabranche, a full-on invasion of the Underworld by the Chaos Brigade, or it could come in a completely unexpected manner.

No matter what, every second counted, and Sona had a duty as a King, as the Sitri Heiress, and as a leader to save every possible life she could.

Even if Sona's heart was heavy as lead and bile filled her throat, throwing herself into her work, into her duty, let her keep going.

The knock came right after Sona finished calling to wake up her Peerage. They'd gather for a group teleportation to the Underworld.

"Come in," Sona called.

"Sona," Mikasa Ackerman greeted her niece as she stepped through the door.

"Aunty," Sona replied in turn as she sent a quick email to the school. Nobody would see it for a few hours, as it was way too early in the morning, but since she was waiting for her Peerage anyway, she might as well inform them of everyone's, possibly long, leave of absence. "How are they doing?"

"...As well as can be expected." Poorly, in other words. Sona closed her eyes with a quick grimace, then got back to work. Similarly, her Contracts and those of her Peerage would receive a notice about a halt on current services for an indefinet period. "How are you?"

Sona paused her typing, taking a deep breath.

"...It doesn't feel real," Sona admitted. "We... weren't close. He was a pain in my side for most of his time at school, he and his two idiot friends. But..."

"...He's gone." Mikasa pulled her niece into a tight hug. Sona let herself be held by the older woman, clinging to a source of stability for a moment. "Death... It steals futures. What could have been. Hope, fears, dreams. All gone. Even those we don't love hurt us when they leave us."

"He was the first person I ever actually lost," Sona admitted quietly.

Sona had fought and killed before. She had clients pass away. Yet she had never had anyone she knew socially, someone she saw every day, die.

Even if she hadn't been friends with Issei Hyoudou and disapproved of his perverted antics, Sona had still admired parts of the boy. His dedication to his friends. His hard work ethic. Even his continued humanity despite becoming a devil.

Issei Hyoudou might have been a perverted idiot, but when he had gained power great enough to have people fight over it, he did not let it go to his head. Instead, he dedicated himself to becoming a wall to protect others.

One could not look at his stupid smile as he laughed with the devil children on the set of Oppai Dragon and see anything less than a simple, pure boy.

And now he was dead.

Killed by Eren.

"It doesn't feel real," Sona repeated, arms tightening around her aunt's waist. "I know you told us about... about your world. I know this had been his plan all along. But... I just..."

"...You never thought he'd go through with it," Mikasa's voice was all too empathetic. "Because he's Eren. Your friend. Because you love him."

Sona just held her aunt tighter as hidden tears flowed from her eyes.

In the coming hours and days, she'd need to be strong to be the leader her Peerage could look up to and rely on.

For just this moment, Sona put away her pride and allowed the tears to fall for a love lost.

"... I think Eren is sending us a message," Mikasa finally said after Sona's shaking stopped.

"What do you mean," Sona asked, drawing a deep breath and wiping her eyes to master herself. She couldn't afford to fall apart now. Not when so many people were counting on her.

"That he will go through with his plan, no matter what," Mikasa's eyes were hard. "He's prepared to do anything to achieve his aims. And that we need to stop him. I need to stop him."

"It's not your fault," Sona denied instantly. "He needed the Boosted Gear way before meeting any of us. And you don't need to be the one to... stop him, this time. The entire Underworld will be fighting him."

"...I left out a part in the story I told you all," Mikasa confessed. "After Eren broke out of the military jail with the Yeagerists and before the Rumbling, he found me and Armin. He... said some things to me that caused Armin to attack him. Eren beat him up. I just... stood there. Unable... No. Unwilling to do anything but watch. Even when my best friend was being attacked, I just... did nothing. Because it was Eren."

"And you loved him."

"I did. I do," Mikasa gave her niece a pained look. "I... was a slave to love. Eren said he hated that about me. That he hated me."

"He was lying."

There was no doubt in Sona's voice as she rejected the very notion. She remembered the boy's tears earlier this year as he desperately confessed to wanting to live with the woman he loved.

"Maybe," Mikasa allowed, but she shook her head. "But he was acting on the knowledge his future self had given him. A part of his plan to reach the end he desired. The only reason he'd do that, take the time for it, is if having that meeting, antagonizing Armin and I... Hurting us... was necessary. Because if he hadn't done it and Eren hadn't said those things, I might not have been able to face him. Rumbling or not."

"You think he killed Issei not just for the Boosted Gear but to tell you he wanted you to stop him again?"

"... All I know," Mikasa said softly, running a hand through Sona's hair. "Is that I wouldn't have been able to stop him if the last words he spoke to my face weren't that he hated me."

"I..." Sona didn't really have anything she could say at the moment.

She wanted to believe Eren wouldn't kill a friend just to send a message, but... she also hadn't believed he'd kill Issei for power either.

She could see it now, looking at the older woman. The guilt.

Mikasa might have had decades to confront what had happened, but she never got over having to kill the man she loved. Nor the fact that she could have done something earlier before so many people died.

And now Mikasa was seeing it all play out again.

Ultimately, Sona turned away from her aunt, unable to meet her gaze.

"Like I said," Sona cleared her throat to try and dispel the thickness in it. "You won't be fighting him alone. My sister, or one of the other Satans, might be the ones to face him."

"Maybe."

There was a beat of awkward silence, neither woman knowing where to go from there.

Eventually, Mikasa broke it.

"I'll go see Serafall. Give her everything I know of the situation," she said. "You can just head to your parents'."

"Thank you," Sona said, careful not to let the relief she felt show on her face. "My Peerage will be here in ten minutes, and we'll teleport to the manor. After that, we'll... We'll see."

Mikasa nodded, gave Sona one last hug, a quiet whisper to 'be careful,' and left.

Barely had the older woman closed the door, and before Sona could even get back to work, then another voice spoke up.

"Finally, nyaa. I thought she'd never leave."

"Kuroka!" Sona most certainly didn't yelp at the sudden voice and appearance of the former Stray. Anyone who said differently was a malicious actor aiming to sow dissent. "What are you doing here? Where's Azazel?"

"With my clone," Kuroka waived off the question as she approached the desk from where she had appeared in the corner of the room. "I have another with Shirone. We need to talk. Privately. And you cannot tell him, any of the Satans, or the bi... or her."

Surprise gave way to wariness, and Sona suddenly realized the precariousness of the situation.

Here she was, alone in the room with Eren's 'turncoat' lover less than half an hour after he gained the last parts he needed for his plan. Was Kuroka planning on jumping ships again and taking a hostage while at it?

Sona needed to make an excuse and leave. Now.

"Any sort of talk we have can wait till-"

"Eren can use the Founder."

Air left Sona's lungs in a gasp.

"...What?" She asked the severe-looking Nekoshou. "How?"

"Don't know how," Kuroka admitted. "Didn't know anything about 'royal bloodline' until she talked about it. All I know is that Eren has been able to see the future since before I met him. More than that, he has full access to the Path. Past, present, and future are all the same to him."

Strength left Sona as she sagged back into her chair.

"...He's already won."

Sona felt horror like never before as the surprise gave way to realization.

If Eren could use the Founder like he had in his world, he'd just choose a future he wanted and walk towards it. Every action they took, or could take, would be accounted for and part of the plan itself.

Eren had already lived through both 3 and 1 while they were stuck at 2.

"That's the thing," Kuroka hissed, leaning forward, her eyes wild. "If the world will become as Eren wants it to be, why is this the future he wants?"

From horror came confusion.

"What?" Sona asked in befuddlement. The suddenness of the catgirl's arrival and the shocking nature of her words finally overcoming her ability to roll with the punches.

Sona took a deep breath and looked at Kuroka. Really looked at her.

The older woman was... off. Her kimono was dishevelled, her hair was out of place, and her tails waved frantically behind her as if in a frenzy.

"Kuroka!" Sona said in as measured a tone as she could manage. "I am going to need you to explain. Too many things don't add up here. Aunty was certain he couldn't use the Founder. She would know."

"He couldn't," Kuroka nodded in agreement. Then, she shook her head. "He could use it before he came to Kuoh, but he couldn't while he was here, and he can use it again now."

Despite her question being technically answered, Sona was even more confused than before.

"Ok," Sona said, holding up a hand before Kuroka's face to stop her from saying anything else. Her other hand adjusted her glasses, the habitual motion calming her down. "Let's start with the basics. Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you're my best hope for helping Eren."

"...What do you mean?"

Sona didn't ask why Kuroka wanted to help Eren. She didn't even ask why the former Stray thought Sona would even try to help the boy who had just killed her friend's Rook.

Gather information before jumping to conclusions.

"None of us have told anyone about the Founder because Eren told us that if any of the leaders of the Three Factions learned of his ability, his plan would fail. Whether it's because of something they'll do or because the b- your aunt will learn of it from them, we don't know," Kuroka explained.

Before Sona could ask her next question, Kuroka answered.

"We don't want a 'Rumbling' situation either, and no idea what he... had done. But just because Vali and his team will fight him doesn't mean they want to betray him. Eren made certain promises to each of us based on the future he saw, and they are still waiting for theirs to be fulfilled."

"He promised to reunite you with Koneko, didn't he," Sona guessed, her mind making connections faster than ever before. "You never fought him, did you? You 'betraying' him was the plan from the start, so you could make a deal to clear your name."

"Why else do you think I'd work with a nine-year-old if not for Shirone," Kuroka gave the most minute of shrugs. "I was desperate."

"And Eren gained Senjustu from the deal," Sona continued. "One of the only supernatural abilities he could use and the most optimal to fit with a Titan's powerset... He's connected to The Paths. As soon as he activated the Founder, he experienced everything. He knew the exact steps to reach the desired end."

It was hard not to feel disheartened at the revelation.

What did Sona's preparations, plans, or desperate scrambling to save the Underworld matter if Eren had already won?

Even if Sona decided to tell her aunt right this moment, it would still be accounted for in Eren's future.

Was her race doomed to die at the hands of the boy she loved?

"...Why are you telling me this at all?" Sona asked again. "If my sister or the Satans can't learn of it, why not keep it a secret until he wins?"

"Because I need to do something. Because I need to protect Shirone, and Eren couldn't guarantee her safety, only mine," Kuroka's mouth curled in a grimace. "Eren... He sees only his own Path. There are no other Eldians in this world, not even your aunt. All he knows is what he, himself, experiences. Everything that is out of his sight, he is just as blind to. He has no idea why certain things happen, just that they do and the actions he has to take to reach the end he wants."

"And what end does he want?" Sona snapped. "What end is Eren chasing that is worth killing so many people? What future is worth the death of his friend?"

Even now, even after everything, Sona still couldn't bring herself to believe that their time with Eren had been a lie. That Eren hadn't cared about Issei, or Yuuto, or Koneko, or Akeno, or Rias, or... her.

"...I don't know," Kuroka admitted, tails drooping. "Eren... I know more about his Path than anyone, but he never told me the end. Just that I would survive and be reunited with Shirone."

"Then I can't help you," Sona said plainly. "Whether Eren wins or not, whatever future he's moving toward, I will do what I must. I will tell my aunt, my sister, and everyone else about the Founder. And then we will try and save as many lives as possible."

Sona Sitri was not a saint. She was not a hero or even someone with a particularly straight moral compass. She simply saw herself as a girl with a duty and a dream.

And to protect both, she'd fight for the Underworld.

Sona wanted there to be a way she could stop all this. She wanted there to be a future where they were all alive and happy and the imminent attack on her home by her friend.

But Issei Hyoudou's still cooling corpse proved there wasn't.

"I know three things." Kuroka's tails continued to thrash in agitation as she spoke. "One, that Eren didn't know why he'd do the things he'd do until he fled to Kuoh. He ran away from all of us, me included, to look for the gap in his ability to discover the answer he was missing, and he found it there. Two, he told me that the future he'd chase would be worse than The Rumbling, and he didn't want to do it. And three, he's smiling at the end."

...Worse than the Rumbling?

Worse than one and a half billion people dead?

And Eren was smiling?

"That's impossible," Sona denied simply. "Eren might not like devils or our society, but he wouldn't be happy even if he did kill all of us. He's not a monster." Then, another facet appeared in her mind. "There aren't even a billion devils alive. Even if he killed every member of the Three Factions, it still wouldn't be comparable to The Rumbling."

The devils had the largest population by far, thanks to reincarnated devils, but their numbers were still absolutely nowhere near that of humans.

Even if every high-class devil had a full Peerage, and each of their Peerages was also full, it still wouldn't dent the huge difference in population. High-class devils and above, whether in strength or rank, were the vast minority of the Underworld.

Adjuka Beelzebub's evil pieces had never been designed for mass population conversion or the growth of armies. It was simply designed to turn a limited number of other races into devils, which would have children and expand the gene pool so devils wouldn't breed themselves out of existence.

Every reincarnated devil had a higher birthrate than pure-blooded devils, but it was still abysmal compared to humans. Even now, there were fewer devils than the total population of North America.

"That's what I've been struggling with this entire time, too," Kuroka admitted, her hand dancing across the cane in thought as she tapped it on the ground. "What changed? Only a few months ago, Eren struggled to figure out why he was smiling after everything. But now, he can kill his friend for that future? I need help figuring out what changed. Only then can I know what I must do to ensure he gets that smile he wants."

Eren wouldn't be able to smile if he did something worse than the Rumbing... Sona doubted he'd even be able to smile now, having killed Issei... so what future was he chasing? She could see why that would bug Kuroka.

Still...

"I still can't help you," Sona drew in a deep breath. "He could have lied to you about the future to get you to do what he needs. I don't have the Founder. I don't know the truth. Whether Eren smiles in the end or not, I have to do what I can now. Whether that leads to the future Eren wants or not, I have to chase the future I want."

"But, Sona," Kuroka's smile was all teeth. "Wouldn't a future where Eren can smile be one where he has to kill the least amount of people?"

...Damn it.

Satans, damn it!

This would be so easy if Eren really was a genocidal maniac, like Xenovia claimed. If his goal really was simply death and destruction, then it would be easy to just do the opposite of what he wanted.

But he wasn't.

Eren was just a boy who gained power. All his battles were for the same three reasons as every other sane person. Revenge, survival or ideals.

This world hadn't hurt Eren.

Eren was powerful enough to survive.

So, he was fighting for his ideals.

It wasn't hard to guess which ones.

He had made no secret how much he disliked devil society or why.

... If Eren was going to win in the end, it was Sona's duty to ensure it was as bloodless as possible. Hadn't she just said that?

Even if it meant aiding the destruction of her society.

"I want you to know that I hate you," Sona sighed in defeat as despair well up. "What do you want me to do?"

"I just need help figuring out what, exactly, changed between when I met him during the summer and when he left," Kuroka waived off her declaration of hatred easily. "Then I'll know what to do."

Sona didn't even comment on another layer of lies being pulled away. Kuroka had claimed to have only met Eren right before he left. She just filled it away for later as she had an answer right away.

"My aunt," Sona said simply. If Eren truly couldn't see anything he experienced in Kuoh with the Founder, then he wouldn't have memories of Mikasa, even with the Founder. "That is the biggest difference between when he left and the Peace Conference, which is when I imagine you actually met him for the first time."

"She's part of it," Kuroka agreed, but she kept tapping the cane on the ground in thought. "But not everything. I talked to him after they reunited, and he still wasn't sure why he'd do what he'd do. If anything, he felt worse because he'd hurt her again. I doubt that finally having sex is enough to make up for everything. No, I think on top of meeting your aunt, what changed was him entrusting his will to you all. But I thought that was for after he... you know, died. Now, I think it's something he needs others to do before he can reach the end he wants."

Kuroka had been spying on them since the Peace Conference, hadn't she? She had seen everything.

"...I can't think of anything else," Sona admitted, eye twitching at the reminder that her aunt had slept with her crush. She had been doing an excellent job ignoring that little incident, even if she had suspected as much. "You'd have better luck with Rias and her Peerage. I was very busy and barely saw him after summer."

"They're... not my biggest fans at the moment," Kuroka winced. Sona felt another pang of loss at the reminder that Issei Hyoudou was no longer with them. "...I honestly didn't think he'd go through with it. The boy... I liked him. He was funny. And I saw how Eren talked to him. I thought... I thought he'd lied about his need for the Boosted Gear. Or he'd have some crazy plan to get it without killing him... I don't know how he'll be able to smile after this."

Sona couldn't let the sadness overcome her. She had a job to do.

Her Peerage would be here any minute, then it would be off to the Underworld to deal with... whatever Eren's plan was. No matter what Kuroka thought, Sona would not let him destroy her home.

The only reason she entertained this conversation was because it gave her more information and gave her a good chance of saving lives.

"Your comrades don't have the answers, you can't talk to the Satans or my aunt, and Rias' Peerage won't talk to you. I am the only one you can come to try and figure out what happened to give Eren the conviction to kill one of his friends and possibly destroy the Underworld yet still be smiling at the end. Did I get that right?"

"More or less."

Sona closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and cast her mind back.

It was easy enough.

She had been thinking about those last weeks a lot recently. Wondering if she could have done something differently. If she could have stopped Eren.

If she hadn't been so busy and drowning herself in work, could Sona have stopped Eren from leaving?

It was easy, looking back, to see that Eren had known his time was limited.

What they had taken to be his awareness of his impending mortality had taken on a different meaning now that Sona knew he had seen the future.

Even if Eren couldn't see Kuoh, he would have seen his return to the Brigade and known when it would be.

Sona thought back to that last lesson, the one where Eren had tried to entrust her and Mikasa with his 'will.'

She had thought she had accomplished her promise by learning about his world from her aunt. She had heard about the Rumbling, his role in it, and the causes that led to it. Sona had internalized them as best she could, going so far as to write everything down so she could teach future generations about it as impartially as she could.

That had been what he'd been trying to do, after all. Ensure his world's lessons were not forgotten so they wouldn't repeat.

Or at least, that is what she had thought at the time.

Now, knowing he was planning on doing everything again, that conversation gained new depth and meaning.

Looking back on it now, Kuroka's words stirred something in her memory.

Eren had said he wouldn't have entrusted his will to Sona if Mikasa wasn't there, hadn't he? Only with her aunt to help guide her could Sona understand.

Did that just mean he needed Mikasa to tell her of their world, or did it mean something else?

Was Eren passing her a message when he told her to accomplish her dream? He had insisted that his Path had too many corpses and they shouldn't do what he did. Was she supposed to find another Path?

What was Sona's role in his plan? What was Kuroka? Or Mikasa's? Or Rias'? Or anyone's?

"You still with me, nyaa?" Kuroka waved her hand in front of Sona's face to try and get her attention.

Sona swatted it away.

"If you want me to help, you need to give me time to think," Sona said waspishly.

"Sorry," Kuroka shrugged. "But we really don't have much time. If we can't figure anything out by the time he starts his attack, then there's nothing we can do."

"...His attack," Sona mulled over the thought in her head as a realization hit her. "If he can use the Founder, he knows about the ambush."

"Sure," Kuroka nodded. "He probably would have even without it, to be honest. His sensing ability is still iffy compared to the rest of his Senjutsu, but even he would notice the gathering of High-class and Ultimate-class beings in Agreas."

"And he's still going to attack it!" Sona demanded in exasperation.

Since it was the only place they knew for certain Eren would attack, a vital part of the plan the Satans had set up was a massive teleportation circle in Agreas to evacuate the civilians at a moment's notice and replace them with various combatants. If they did it quickly enough then Eren wouldn't have been able to sense anything.

"He has Ophis' power," Kuroka looked at Sona blankly, and the heiress winced at the reminder.

Right. Eren had the power of the Infinite Dragon and the Boosted Gear in his hands. He could plow through all opposition to get to the... Malabranche...and... unseal them?

"Wait," Sona suddenly said. "You said his sensing abilities are poor? Then how does he know where the lab with the Malabranche is? You claimed he sensed it while you were fleeing the Underworld."

"A lie to cover up the Founder," Kuroka waived the inquiry away. "Eren's abilities with Senjutsu come from his ability to practice without end in the Path. I actually have no idea how talented he is. He just cheats. But he can't practice sensing in there. He only learned sensing while in Kuoh because he had free time. Believe it or not, it's because of you."

Sona wanted to ask why it was because of her, but there was something else she wanted to clarify first.

"So he didn't sense where they were hidden before?"

"No, but it doesn't matter. Eren experiences past, present, and future all at once. Even if he hasn't sensed it in our past, only in our future, to him that has already happened."

"But have you seen the lab? The Malabranche?" Sona pressed.

"No," Kuroka denied. "Nobody has. Only Eren knows where it is. It's how he's kept Rizevim in line. He gets the other eleven only once Eren unseals Malacoda."

A shiver ran down Sona's spine, and the blood drained from her face.

"What is it," Kuroka asked, eyes narrowing. "You realized something, didn't you."

"...I don't think Eren's after the Malabranche at all," Sona eventually said. "Or at least, not them alone. Eren's after the ambushers. My sister, the Satans, their Peerages, and the other defenders."

"That... would make sense," Kuroka nodded thoughtfully. "Eren still needs a way to maintain his power in the long term. We weren't lying when we said Ophis' power-up is temporary, even if he stole most of the power, so he might still be after Malacoda. But if he could wipe out some of the strongest fighters in the Underworld at the same time, he would."

"But that can't be all." Sona's mind had now seized on a train of thought, and it wasn't letting go. "Eren might want to kill the powerful members of devil society, but those my sister works with, or recruits to defend the Underworld aren't going to be his main targets."

While not everyone the Satans worked with was necessarily good people, Sona knew her sister spent considerable effort in making certain her staff were people aligned with her ideals. Hells, Serafall only had two Peerage members, even after all these years, because she was incredibly picky.

The other Satans might not be as strict in their choices of combatants. Still, Sona knew Sirzech's Peerage, at least, were also good people, and Sona had no reason to believe he wouldn't maintain his same standards when recruiting for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Satans, their Peerages, and a handful of Ultimate-class devils would be those placed on Agreas to fight Eren.

And while Eren might not like them, they weren't the type of devils he hated either.

No, the type of devils he hated were those who were lazy, who lorded their positions and power over those weaker than them. Who used the Evil Pieces as slaves. Who were so deeply invested in the status quo that they fought against any change in the system that risked their power. Devils who opposed her sister's dreams for the Underworld...

...or who had been tricked into supporting Sona's dream.

Sona's heart seized in her chest as an idea came to her mind.

A terrible idea.

That terrible idea, almost against her will, formed into a calamitous plan.

One who's simple utterance could see Sona executed.

"You went quiet again," Kuroka interrupted her downward spiral.

"... I don't know why Eren was smiling," Sona licked her suddenly very dry lips. "I can only guess. But I... I think I know what we... What I can do to lessen the number of deaths he'll cause to achieve his aim. That will probably be a big factor."

"Really," Kuroka asked eagerly, leaning forward and her hand tightening on the cane. "What is it?"

Sona shook her head.

She couldn't say. She wouldn't say.

Even the thought of it was... absurd. Heretical.

Evil.

She had no way to guarantee this would work or, if it did, that it would save lives.

And if it didn't? Then everything Sona had ever strived for, everything she had worked for, would come undone. Her dream would be ashes in the wind.

But if it did work... That was worse.

So much worse.

Sona Sitri would become the worst example of a devil in her society's history. A monster devil parents would tell their children about.

If she succeeded, and it ever got out, Sona wouldn't just be executed. She might very well end up in Cocytus herself, her Peerage executed, her family could lose everything, and even her sister might have to step down as a Satan.

The smart thing to do, the right thing to do, was to forget the idea entirely. To pretend Sona never thought of it, pretend this conversation never happened, and continue what she had been doing to aid evacuations and defence.

But now that Sona has the idea... Could she really do ignore it?

Could she ignore this terrible plan that could save her home and hundreds of millions of lives?

Knowing what she did now, knowing that Eren had the Founder and would succeed in some way no matter what she did, could Sona honestly live with herself if she didn't do everything in her power to stop the approaching calamity? Or at least mitigate it?

And if she didn't do this, would Eren really go through with his terrible plan to wipe devil society from the map?

Sona's mind went to Issei Hyoudou. An honest, perverted, hard-working devil. One who had fought his very hardest to accomplish his dream.

While Sona might not have agreed with said dream, wasn't it just that sort of person her own dream was created to support?

Hadn't she decided to dedicate her everything to a school where anyone willing to be taught, to learn and grow could come?

Eren was willing to kill his friend, the junior who had looked up to him, for the future he was chasing. Sona didn't know how he could smile after that, but knew that if Eren could kill Issei, he could march across the Underworld, crushing it into a sea of muddy blood if it meant reaching his goal.

Her aunt had said it, hadn't she?

Eren had been trying to send a message with Issei's death. One that underscored how far he was willing to go for his goals if he wasn't stopped.

Only now, to Sona, did the message take on a new meaning.

It hadn't been for Mikasa.

It had been for Sona.

But... could she do this?

As it had done for the last weeks, Sona's mind returned to that park, to that bench.

She remembered the conversation that had started it all vividly, that had started her on the Path that led to her developing a fondness for the blind boy.

She remembered the confession of a boy as guilt overwhelmed him. At the time, she believed he had been using a simple light novel as a metaphor for his time as a mercenary and having to make hard choices.

After all, there was no way he had been in a time loop situation himself.

Now she knew the truth.

How many millions of timelines had he searched through to find the best ending? Why was this one the one he chose?

What was worth Issei Hyoudou's death?

Was it this decision, this plan?

If she was in his place, what would she have chosen?

Now, Sona had to make the hard call.

For that moment, Sona Sitri hated Eren Yeager. Hated him for being a stubborn, selfish man who relentlessly pursued his goals, no matter the cost. Hated him for sitting on that bench.

Hated him for putting Sona in this position.

Could she do this? Could she become a Devil if it meant saving those she cared about?

...Sona searched within herself and found the same answer as she had that day.

"Shinzou wo Sasegeyo."

"What did you say?" Kuroka asked, still looking eager as Sona came to a decision.

"Nothing," Sona said, her mind firmed even as something within her died. "I have a plan. One that might help Eren but has a good chance of saving the Underworld. But we need to start before he begins his attack, so we must move fast."

"What do I need to do," Kuroka asked seriously.

"How many clones can you make, and can they teleport?"

Sona relayed the plan as she began to write the first of dozens of letters.

Lord Zekram Bael,

In thanks for your continued support in my endeavours, and due to a fortuitous turn of fate, I wish to share with you and my other backers a once-in-a-millenia opportunity I have come across and that my sister and her colleagues desire to keep from your knowledge.

In exchange, all I ask is that you formalize your continued support for my school by signing the enclosed contract. I know this is most unusual and hasty, but time is tight before our window closes, and I urge you to act with all due haste...

Sona ended up having to send her Peerage ahead of her to the Underworld, promising to join them as soon as she was done.

She didn't want any of them to see her face as she wrote letter after letter.

If these letters ever became public knowledge, Sona Sitri would die, and her dream would die with her.

If they didn't... If Kuroka accomplished her side of the plan and destroyed them all before the day was done... If what Sona did ended up as just a rumour on the wind, she'd still be vilified by everyone.

As she wrote and wrote and wrote, every word consigning someone to their death and every letter another blow against her people, Sona could almost imagine Eren, on that first day they met, holding out a hand for her to shake.

Eren Yeager was truly the worst student Sona Sitri would ever have.

Yet, she made the deal.

A deal made to survive and make the world in their image.

And so, even though they were far apart and did not know what the other was doing, even though their feelings were never shared and no words were exchanged, a deal was signed.

The Devil shook hands with the Devil.

********

Sometimes, what the world needs is a Devil.

It's not right. It's not good. But that is a terrible truth we must acknowledge if we are to accept the world as it is. Evil, sometimes, works.

We just have to choose if success is worth becoming the thing we hate. We all have different answers, different lines in sand, and none of them are the right answer.

I will meet you all again on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I am very curious to see what Sona's plan is. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Vlad-no-vampire]

This is a translator
Will Sona just tell those doubting her about the location of these Malocades, they will come wanting to get weapons, and Eren will swat them?

 

[NowaifuNolaifu]

This is a translator
Will Sona just tell those doubting her about the location of these Malocades, they will come wanting to get weapons, and Eren will swat them?

Click to shrink...

Dissenters, traditionalists, etc. Will be offered a frontline position for a doomed ambush. Only about 20 people really know eren is a precog so they will assume surprise will work and get slaughtered.

It's gonna be huge treason charge on Sona's part if it ever comes out

 

[D.KnightOfShadows]

Sona: How do you spoof a pre-cog? You don't try to beat them, you give them a way to win that minimizes your losses......

huh, that's a novel approach.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Fantastic chapter! I haven't seen Sona used as a character much and the times I have its usually hard to liker her, but this story and in particular this chapter have made me want to cheer for Sona, hopefully her gambit will work and save the Underworld. Also, I have a theory (that I assume is incorrect, but I'm going with it anyway) that at least part of the reason that Eren considers the attack on the Underworld to be worse than the Rumbling is that it causes Sona to be like him, to have her follow his path in blood. Though I'm not sure how Eren will learn of her actions, if that makes sense. See you Friday on the bench.

 

[Sonata]

She is sending every single devil that is a traditionalist a letter asking to meet and see a once in a life event that the satans are keeping secret, they will go, not a single one of them will miss it, because unique and special is what they believe they are. They will walk into Eren mouth smiling. Sona will forever be remembered as a traitor, the most evil devil in know story. She will murder the 72 pillars, she will end the ars goetia, only 4 or 5 houses will remain.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

It had mutated.

For some reason, that was all Rias could think about as she lay in bed in her room in the Underworld.

She was finally alone, the bustle as everyone prepared for Eren's imminent attack, giving way to silence.

Eren had the Boosted Gear. Azazel had confirmed it after examining Issei's... corpse.

Ddraig had been extracted.

Similarly, Samael's poison had been in Issei's body and if he had used it on his... his junior, he would have also used it on the missing Dragon God.

Eren had Ophis's power.

Everything was in place, and Eren only had a few days before he couldn't hold on to Ophis's power anymore. He needed to attack soon.

Everyone was on edge, ready for the shoe to drop and the ground to shake.

And Rias?

She was alone in her room, holding a mutated Rook.

Less than a year ago, she had weighed Issei's life against Eren's potential salvation and chose the latter.

A little over a year ago, if she had a mutated Rook, she would have reserved it for the boy on the bench, even if it meant leaving Issei to bleed out.

Now... Now, all Rias Gremory could see were empty brown eyes, once so full of life and joy, staring up at her in accusation.

Issei Hyoudou just seemed to keep paying the price for Rias' kindness.

Koneko had shut herself down once more at the loss of her fellow Rook. Yuuto and Akeno were doing their best to persevere stoically, but Rias knew them well enough to see the cracks. As soon as this was over, they'd collapse like everyone else.

Rias doubted she could have stopped Xenovia from launching her own personal crusade against Eren if she knew where he was, stray or not.

And Asia...

Xenovia was with her and they were with... with Issei's body.

Gasper still didn't know. He had been with Valerie when Issei had been lured out.

Neither did Irina or Ravel, as Rossweiss was keeping them otherwise occupied. They'd be just as devastated, no doubt.

...There'd be no winning that bet with Akeno. A stupid regret but one of many.

Oh. Right. Rias had never asked him about that rare Goku model, had she?

And now she never would.

Little things like that. Small conversations that never happened. Big dreams never achieved.

It all drowned Rias in a numbness that didn't seem real.

Rias needed to tell Issei's parents. They deserved to know. Know that their son was dead. That he had died doing his best. Though he might have been a hopeless pervert, an entire generation of the Underworld looked up to him as a hero.

They deserved to know that Issei Hyoudou, their son, died trying to save tens of millions of lives.

The entire Underworld would mourn once the news got out of the death of Oppai Dragon...

If there was still an Underworld in a few days,

Satans, when had everything gone so wrong?

Issei dead.

Eren, the villain.

And nobody was sure they were going to live to see tomorrow.

What happened to those happy days spent talking on a bench in the middle of the park?

Was this Eren's freedom? Was this what he was chasing?

This was not the freedom Rias dreamed of.

Her freedom had been stolen from her with the death of her Rook. Her friend. Her family.

Eren had taken it.

He had ripped her freedom to live, to be happy, from her.

And for what?

Power?

If Eren had just explained himself, if he had talked and told them what he wanted, Issei could have given him all the power he wanted... If he only gave up on attacking innocent people.

And now that stupid, good-hearted, perverted, honest boy was dead, and all Rias had was regret.

And a mutated Rook.

A knock on the door couldn't tear Rias' eyes from her mutated Piece.

"Rias," Akeno said softly as she poked her head through the door. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but there were no tears. "Something's happening."

"...Eren?"

"I... don't know. The Satans all left in a hurry. Koneko said she felt something."

"...I'll be out in a second."

Akeno left, giving Rias the last moment of silence she'd have for a long while.

Biting her lips to control her trembling hands, Rias carefully set the mutated Rook on her bedside table.

She'd make a proper shrine to Issei later.

It didn't matter that most Kings would have traded half their Evil Pieces for a mutated Piece, allowing them to reincarnate practically anything under the divine level into their peerage.

Rias Gremory would only use that Piece on the one it was meant for.

And it wasn't Eren Yeager.

********

It was practically a taunt, a goading call.

Yet they had to answer.

Everyone of sufficient power or sensitivity in the Underworld felt the threat, the well-up of power, yet only a few even had the qualifications to meet it.

All four Satans felt it, and all four answered, descending on the untamed wilds that comprised the vast majority of the Underworld.

"It is rare for us to receive beings of your status in our little corner of the Underworld," Sirzechs Lucifer greeted their 'guests' with a charming smile as all four Satans landed on one of the innumerable mountains in the area where Agreas currently flew. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"

By his side, Adjuka Beelzebub kept his face impassive, but the very fact that nobody could sense anything from his magic told everyone present how ready he was for battle if it came to it. Which was rare. If the researcher wasn't actively fighting, he usually didn't care enough about propriety to stop his eternal research and experiments, even if in the face of influential members of other factions.

But the two beings' surprise 'visit' and clear display of hostility by releasing so much power did not allow for even the slightest levity.

Besides the two Super Devils, their comrades stood, their usual shenanigans absent as even Serafall Leviathan watched their guests with a frown.

Falbium Asmodeus's eyes were open, which said everything that needed to be told about his readiness.

"No corner of the Underworld is yours," Hades grunted. "You're all trespassing. Just because I haven't yet cleaned my attic of the bats and crows doesn't mean I won't."

"As always, your... generosity is appreciated, Lord Hades," Sirzechs nodded amiably without a moment of delay. "Is this in regards to the prisoner that has gone missing? I am afraid we do not have any information to help you find your misplaced charge."

Hades had no brows on his skeleton face, but anyone looking at the Lord of the Dead would have felt his displeasure at the devil's words.

The frozen waters of Cocytus were used to house the most dangerous prisoners of every faction, entrusted to Hades and his Grim Reapers to watch over and protect. In recorded history, not one being had ever emerged from those glacial torrents once dipped in the icy water.

Until recently.

It was an open secret that Hades had let Sameal be taken, though he claimed someone had 'broken in.'

Nobody actually believed Hades would allow any living being to wander freely through his domain, sneak into its most secure parts, and abscond with one of his prisoners, at least without him knowing about it and allowing it.

Still, the fact that Samael had been taken at all was a blow to Hades' record and meant that other factions were much less likely to entrust their problematic members to his care.

Was Sirzechs needling of the Lord of the Dead at the loss of reputation wise? In a way, it was.

It was a reminder that for all that Hades was on the Top Ten, so were the current Lucifer and Beelzebub, even if they were lower in ranking. Together, they had a good chance of achieving mutual destruction with the god of the Underworld.

With all four Satans working together, there was a decent possibility that they could kill Hades and only suffer injuries. They didn't want that, but the threat needed to be acknowledged.

For all his power, Hades had never been strong enough to chase the devils and fallen angels out of the Underworld completely, and he would do to remember why.

Unfortunately, Hades wasn't alone in this visit to the Underworld.

"Sameal is back where it belongs," Indra said amiably, not minding the barely concealed hostility he was receiving. "That's not why we're here. We are here to bear witness."

"Lord Indra," Sirzechs' smile was as friendly as ever as he slightly inclined his head to the Hindu god. "I'm afraid we don't have anything worthy of your attention on hand. Certainly nothing that could distract you from your preparations."

If Sirzechs and Adjuka could tie down Hades and all four Satans together could kill him, then what could they do to Indra?

Barely anything.

If all four fought with everything they had, holding nothing back and using their very lives as currency, the most they could hope to buy with their sacrifice was to injure the god slightly.

But, sometimes, that was enough.

Indra could not afford any sort of injury. Not when Shiva was waiting in the wings, ready to tear him down in a moment of weakness.

It was widely known that both sides were gearing up for a battle, possibly of apocalyptic proportions, and one wrong move would spell their doom at the other's hands.

The Satans didn't have to win.

They just had to prove that killing them wouldn't be worth the gains.

That was how you survived in a world filled with those more powerful than you.

You pitted the strong against the strong and ensured you were just enough of a thorn that stepping on you wasn't worth the pain for either side.

"I don't know about that," Indra chuckled. "I'd say the end of an era is worth my time."

"'End of an era?' That's a good subtitle for my next movie," Serafall's smile was wide, friendly and as cold as Cocytus' waters.

"I hope you don't mind that I am more of an Oppai Dragon fan." Indra's words finally drew a reaction from the two Satans who had spoken as their smiles dipped.

Both of these gods seemed to know of Issei Hyoudou's death, even though it had only been a few hours.

Even if one ignored the fact that Sirzechs and Serafall were fond of the boy on a personal level and only thought about the death with the cold calculus of supernatural geopolitics, it was undeniable that the devil faction had just lost a significant source of power in the form of the Red Dragon Emperor.

And now it was in the enemy's hands.

Despite the smiles from both sides, there was no mistaking the current situation.

These two gods, members of the Top Ten, were enemies of the New Satans, thanks to their affiliation with the Chaos Brigade.

"There is so much death in the air," Hades spoke with a hollow laugh. The God of the Dead conjured a throne of bone and reclined, watching the Satans with the arrogance of someone who had all the knowledge. "I am quite curious. Will all the Satan's bats and all the Satan's men manage to kill a human teenager? Or will you all be crushed under the Titan's foot?"

"You'd know about being crushed by Titans, wouldn't you?" Serafall snipped, given that pleasantries had fallen by the wayside. "Way I heard it, he's had you all dancing on strings, even when he was gone."

If Hades cared about the allusion to being eaten by his father, he didn't show it. Instead, it was Indra who spoke, his voice low and serious.

"This battle will be the most important the world has seen since the death of your predecessors." The God of War intoned as he looked up and out at the flying city of Agreas. Almost as if he was speaking a prophecy. Then, the effect was ruined when he grinned wildly. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Battle?" Sirzechs tilted his head curiously. An act that no one bought. "If Lord Indra says there will be one, then I can only agree. If I could just ask, who is going to be fighting?"

"Do not try and ply your tricks, Deceiver," Hades shot down. "Neither of us shall take with your kind today. We do not need to."

"I won't fight today," Indra agreed, also taking a seat, though he just sat on a rock. "Like I said, I'm here to watch."

It was bait.

They all knew it.

But some bait must be bit, no matter how obvious the hook.

"Watch what?"

Indra gave Serafall a smile, glad she had decided to play along.

Then, he cut the mountain range with a swing of his hand.

Plants. Animals. Stone.

It all disappeared where the God of War's hands passed. Eradicated so utterly that not even dust rained down.

In the blink of an eye, where once was an enormous mountain range, wild, untamed, and filled with demonic beasts, was now just a flat stage of stone.

Nobody flinched at the casual remoulding of the geography.

They were each strong and experienced enough to know when power was being used to target them and when it was just being used.

There was a beat of silence.

Then another.

Then another.

It started to get awkward.

Indra sighed.

"Being late for a battle signals lack of preparation."

"No one is more prepared for this battle than me," Cao Cao said, emerging on the flat platform Indra had created from a swirl of mist, his voice easily carrying to the gods and Satans.

As did his aura.

Cao Cao glowed with Light.

Not just from the True Longinus slung over his shoulder casually, the speartip still stained in Loki's blood.

No, his very flesh radiated the holy Light that was anathema to devilkind everywhere.

Just looking at Cao Cao would have been enough to kill newly reincarnated devils.

"Your sense of timing just sucks," Cao Cao told the God of War with a casual smile. "Don't try and match Eren."

Then, with the hand not holding the ultimate Sacred Gear, the leader of the Chaos Brigade tossed something in the air.

It was a casual throw, for all it crossed meters of distance to land in the middle of the gathering with a wet 'Splat.'

Though deformed from its landing, there was no mistaking the shape, smell, and bloody splatter of a recently severed head.

Though it was Hades, rather than the Satans, who identified it.

"Lillith?" The God of the Dead said in surprise. "I had thought her dead for a millennia."

That got the devil's attention as they looked at the severed head in renewed consideration.

It was female; they could tell that much, but so many of its features were distorted and warped that making out specific features was impossible.

Adjuka Beelzebub, of course, identified it within seconds of scanning it.

"It is Lilith," he confirmed. "She has the same genes as every Pure Blood devil, and there is only one communal origin."

Lillith, the first wife of Adam, was the origin of all 72 Pillar Houses. She had the ability to reproduce asexually, and every bloodline ability of the devils could be traced back to her.

But she had disappeared in the years after the death of the original Satans.

"Ancestor will be sad," Sirzechs sighed. That was all the reaction the current Lucifer had to the death of his predecessor's first wife. "She's looked for traces of her mother for years. Where was she?"

"Rizevim had her confined to a lab," Cao Cao said, his smile taking on a malicious glee. "He had no love for his mother and had been trying to get her to spit out Super Devils for centuries. I did her a mercy. Though it is not heroic, I will admit that it felt good. He's been pissing us off for years. Imagining the look on his face when he gets back to his lab..." Cao Cao let out a wistful sigh, then shook his head. "Still, devils like him are the reason I am here."

"If you are opposed to Rizevim, we do not need to be enemies," Sirzechs offered. "No one here is a fan of his either. My wife, in particular, has questions for him."

Even if he had killed the Mother of Devils, Cao Cao was still a young man with enormous potential.

Sirzechs Gremory hated nothing more than seeing youth throw their lives away in war. He had been there. He knew what it was like.

"Do not mistake me, Crimson Devil," Cao Cao levelled his spear at Sirzechs. The weapon thrummed with holy power. "I did it because it served our plan. Now, there will be no more devil bloodlines in the world."

"Do you truly hate our kind so much?"

"No. I am not doing this because I am against devils."

"Then why fight us?" Serafall asked. "You have a bright future ahead of you. Why throw it all away on war and violence?"

"None of you understand," Cao Cao shook his head, smile fading to a look of determination. "I know of you four. I know of the Embodiment of Destruction. I know of the One who Controls Techniques and Laws. I know of the devil who created the Underworld's Arctic and the man whose defence has never been pierced. I know it all."

"Then you know you will die," Falbium Asmodeus spoke for the first time. There was no anger, hatred, or even animosity in his voice. He was just stating facts. "Your current state is unsustainable. Humans can become angels. Humans cannot be angels. Only the Longinus is keeping you whole. If you get treatment, you'll survive. If you use your Gear, you won't. All we have to do is outlast you, and you will die on your own. "

"That's the point," Cao Cao laughed. It was a happy laugh, joyful and free. Like he had no burdens left to carry. "I have no future. I traded it for glory. I traded it for a name that will live on for millennia. That is what it means to be a hero."

"Heroes kill," Sirzechs agreed. "But killers are not heroes. There is no heroics in the slaughter of innocents. Men, women, and children."

"That worry does not belong on this battlefield," Cao Cao shrugged. "That battle is for someone else. Right now, my comrades are fighting their own battles."

Far away, all across the world, the flames of war lit, consuming lives as they burned.

Most were simply a more extreme version of the usual infighting within a pantheon.

'Evil' gods and dragons attacking their 'good' counterparts to upend the status quo and replace who was in charge.

Rogue and heretical magician factions turned upon those 'orthodox' practitioners who had rejected their ambitions.

It was chaos, pure and simple.

But it was organized chaos.

Usually, the forces of evil were not in any way weaker than those of order. Yet, time and again, they had been pushed back.

Defeated, sealed, and marginalized.

Because they could not work together. These beings, selfish, cruel, and ruthless, could not abide by any sort of order. It went against their very being. They usually fell to infighting, cooperation of their enemies or treachery from their 'allies.'

Eren Yeager had changed that.

Crom Cruach's death had cowed them. Ophis' power tempted them. But Loki's death served as a warning that even gods would die if they went against his plan, even without Ophis at hand.

So they listened.

When Eren called them to war, they answered.

Revived by the power of the Grail, Apophis bore down on the lands of Egypt, ready to battle with Aten once more. Behind him, the light of the sun faded.

And were rewarded for it.

Nidhoggr roared as the horde of beasts, conjured by Annihilation Maker, clawed their way from the roots of Yggdrasil to assault Asgard.

For the first time, the agents of chaos worldwide had the support they needed to match their counterparts.

But only to match.

Never to exceed.

A plan only possible for a man who had seen it all. A man who knew exactly what steps he needed to take to reach the end he wanted.

All so the war that engulfed the supernatural world would burn hotter.

But even in the inferno, flames still rose higher than others.

Seigfried pulled Gram free of the final exorcist's corpse. He wasted no time in destroying this lab. He had a dozen more church bases to get to before he moved on to his final battle.

None shone more brightly than those short-lived sparks of humanity.

Jeanne shone with holy light in the darkness of Nyx's magic. Her light was the beacon of her army of heroes, leading them forward toward Olympus.

Fueled by fragments of Infinity, they burst into pyroclastic destruction, determined to carve their mark on the world.

Heracles laughed wildly as he fought side by side with Angra Mainyu and a newly freed Azi Dahaka against the forces of Ahura Mazda.

"They will die, just like me. But each of us has our role to play."

"And your role?" Sirzechs asked sadly. "What is worth all this death and destruction?"

"My role is to be the spear of humanity," Cao Cao said proudly, no longer hiding the murderous intent in his eyes. "I am the first human to kill a god. My very existence is proof of the potential humans hold. But it is not enough. I am going to show the world that even the strongest can die. Today, a human will kill one of the Top Ten."

"You want to kill me," Adjuka said simply, feeling the focus of the intent. "You want to end the Evil Pieces system."

"For too long, humanity has been the toy of the powerful," Cao Cao declared. "Devils, in particular, have taken our best for their own. You are not the only ones, just the most egregious. But that ends today. Today, humanity is no longer the prey."

All over the world, Eren's war burned the ground to ash.

"We are the hunters."

And in the Underworld, the ground began to Rumble.

********

There's not much to say on this one.

As much as I want to deep dive into what the cast is going through after the loss of Issei, it risks bogging down the story, and part 4 is already the longest part, with chapters still left. So, I'll keep it confined to small parts, here and there and interspersed over the rest of the chapters.

As for everything else in the chapter... we'll see.

I'll meet you all on Sunday on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[GAMB42]

The second part of this chapter is how you make a hyped final confrontation worth it. Damn but for all that Cao Cao is a bastard through and through, him and this version of the hero faction have my respect for their mad plan.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Awesome chapter! This version of Cao Cao and the rest of the Hero faction all feel more fleshed out and Heroic then most of the other iterations that I've seen. Even if I don't agree with their actions, I still don't feel like they are the bad guys, and though they haven't gotten much screen time they are still very compelling characters. See you Sunday on the bench.

 

[zharshoul]

It's a better fleshed out and relatable Cao Cao than most, but through no fault of your own, he still falls flat because devils are just "rubber forehead" "aliens" (pretty much humans with wings and some innate magic) in this setting and he uses a bunch of non human hax(to show how good humans are?) to win anyway, its really dumb. Long term with all their reincarnations they will basically be human anyway.

It is what it is though.

Like dxd devils aren't warp daemons or the fey

 

[ReadingDangerously]

The inhabitants of Agreas did not notice the ground beginning to rumble. They, high in the sky of the Underworld, could not feel the vibration of the dirt.

But they saw the lightning.

Those near the edge of the flying city, with the enhanced eyes of devils, saw the yellow flash of lightning that fell from a clear sky. It was a curtain of electricity stretching from one side of the horizon to the other.

They heard the crash of thunder as the energy impacted the ground with a cacophonous boom.

It was the curious eyes of the civilians of Agreas that first saw the Titans.

They emerged from beyond the mountains, enormous beings of white flesh and bone.

Thousands of them.

Ten ranks deep and reaching across the horizon as far as a devil's eye could see, these giants stood sixty meters tall, bigger than most of the dragons Ratting Game fans saw occasionally.

As one, these colossal beings advanced toward the flying city.

They weren't moving quickly, but their sheer size meant they swallowed the distance at a rate that most couldn't outrun.

And where they passed, the Underworld burned.

The very air warped and hissed with the heat they radiated, setting the world aflame. Every step crushed stone, tree, and animal. Clouds of dust and ash rose as they marched, blackening the air above.

The ground was on fire, the sky darkened from the clouds of dust and ash, and a tide of white between the two.

And behind the wall of white Titans, the Attack Titan advanced.

Five times the size of the Colossal Titans, the... monster was a creature of white bone alone, only its head having any semblance of flesh.

A demented, deformed centipede-like creature only shaped like a man in the vaguest sense, its enormous bulk was supported by its ribs acting as legs.

Its head, attached to a sinuous spine, lulled over the advancing army. Long hair framed a horrific face, its eyes focused solely on the flying city.

Step by step, the Rumbling advanced, crushing the Underworld flat underfoot.

But the Underworld wasn't without its defenders.

Barely had the citizens of Agreas begun to feel fear at the approaching tide of destruction before a call from the city leaders rang out. The confused and frightened heard words of reassurance before they found themselves engulfed in an enormous teleportation spell.

Tens of thousands of devils found themselves confused and disoriented as they were displaced towards the outskirts of Lillith, the devil capital, where the non-combat staff of the Satans' various ministries tried to maintain some semblance of order.

Agreas was left almost entirely empty.

Almost.

From every corner of the flying city, devils of power emerged.

Lords and Ladies. Ultimate and high-class. Victors of the Rating Games and reincarnated devils of great power. Peerages of the Satans and Extra Devils.

Almost immediately, two camps formed.

It was a deviation from the plan, one caused by having way more defenders than the Satans had recruited, but one that very few bothered to complain about.

In case the Chaos Brigade tried to sneak members onto the nearly abandoned city, defenders needed to remain. To have the Great King faction take over that duty freed up more attackers.

There was also the fact that most could not say no to Zekram Beal.

Led by a Pawn of Leviathan, the attackers launched themselves at the oncoming tide of Titans.

Led by the Great King, the defenders remained on Agreas to protect the city from surprises.

The former went to battle.

The latter went to hunt, searching for the secret lab they had paid so much to locate.

One side chose to dive into danger, charging at a threat to their home and way of life.

One side chose the safety of the air, secure in the knowledge that the Rumbling was a problem only for those lesser beings who could not fly.

Mikasa Ackerman was the first devil to reach the white wall of bodies.

With instincts and training designed for this very purpose, no longer bound by the limits of ODM gear, the last scout faced down the nightmare of her youth.

It was different, yet the same.

These Titans were just as large and imposing and, in many ways, even more dangerous than the original Wall Titans had been.

The heat they radiated set the air ablaze, and their bodies exuded an aura that Mikasa could now identify as Touki.

Yet Mikasa wasn't the weak girl she had been either.

The first Titan died when two copies of Purgatorio were carved through the Touki like it wasn't even there.

It fell, crashing into the ground with a cacophonous impact and sending those behind it stumbling over its body.

Mikasa killed two more before the blades in her hands dissolved, their forms disappearing as the magic Yuuto had left in them ran its course.

She summoned two more.

These weapons, this Balance Breaker, were the closest she had found to the blades of her youth, and their unique holy/demonic abilities ensured that they could cut anything. Even Touki reinforced bone.

Every day, Mikasa worked with the Knight in combat and endurance.

In the pocket dimension Adjuka had created for her years ago, designed to work around her lack of magic to power her enchanted weapons, thousands of copies of Purgatorio waited to carve through Titan necks.

With her eyes locked onto the approaching Attack Titan, Mikasa had time to wonder why Eren had chosen to use the Warhammer to regain this form.

She had a guess.

If Mikasa had been alone, she probably would have charged right at it, trying to stop this as soon as possible.

But she wasn't alone.

Behind Mikasa, the devils bore down on the Titans.

So, Mikasa did not attack Eren directly.

Instead, she led.

An advanced scout, showing those behind her the path.

The next Colossal Titan fell under Mikasa's blades as she flew behind it, cleanly severing its spine with a movement she had practiced ten thousand times.

Then she was on to the next one. And the next. And the next.

Within seconds, thirteen more of the enormous humanoids had their spines severed and fell to the ground, creating a stumbling block for those behind them before they dissolved.

Mikasa grit her teen in frustration as the heat started getting to her.

Promoting to Rook would lessen the speed she gained from her Knight promotion. Perhaps a Queen might have been better, but she gained no benefit from the Bishop aspect, so she had decided to maximize her strengths rather than shore up her weaknesses.

Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, at least temporarily. Mikasa took to the air, climbing higher to escape the heat and cool off.

It let her get a good look at the battle.

Hundreds of devils were laying into the Titans, and the results were... mixed.

The simple fact was that most devils were simply not trained on how to fight Titans, let alone ones reinforced by Touki.

Most had been told to watch her for how it was supposed to be done.

They had noticed Mikasa's methods and tried to replicate them to the best of their abilities. They targeted heads with blasts of fire and force. Swordmen and women carved into legs, sending the giants falling to serve as a roadblock.

Yet the Titans just kept regenerating.

Severed legs regrew. Collapsed skulls expanded. Touki turned blows that would have been devastating into only shallow wounds that closed before they could be targeted again.

Titans simply did not die unless that small section of their spine was severed. It didn't matter if every other body part was destroyed if that one piece was still intact.

If the attack were off even a little bit, the Colossal Titan would regenerate far faster than would be possible without Eren's Senjutsu powering them.

It wasn't that they weren't having some success.

Grayfia Lucifuge had turned a kilometre's worth of Titans into ice statues. Even with the heat of the creatures radiating every second, the Strongest Queen kept a lock on hundreds of Colossals through her magic.

Diehauser Belial might be unable to use his clan trait, Worthlessness, on the Titans because they operated on a principle from another world, but he had faced Touki before. In front of the Emperor of the Rating Games, Titans lost their defences, leaving them as little more than big, hot humans. His Peerage tore through the squishy monsters.

Okita Souji had been Mikasa's sparing partner for years and was one of the few who managed to replicate her feet of targeting the napes of the neck, his body count already surpassing hers.

Beowulf had a smaller body count only because he was less precise, focusing more on carving through limbs than the precise work needed to put the Titans down for good.

Sutr II was revelling in the heat and fire the Titans gave off. Staying far away from Grayfia's part of the battlefield, he was a whirling inferno that burned the eyes to look at.

Tannin led a thunder of dragons to pass over the heads of the Titans in an air bombardment of fire and force, trying to target the spines.

All over the battlefield, the Underworld's greatest combatants pitted their full might against this new, more powerful Rumbling and held it back.

Then Eren started to fight back.

Mikasa saw it happen.

Saw the thousands of white Colossal Titans seem to flex, every muscle in their body shivering at once.

She knew what was coming, but her shout of warning was lost in the great bellow of steam that erupted from every single Titan.

It was not the explosion that accompanied the shifting of the Colossal Titan but rather the Colossal's ability to trade muscle mass for an outpouring of heat.

It was no less deadly.

An explosion of expanding superheated air erupted from the army of giants, frying those too close and fragile to defend themselves. Sutr II dove atop Okita and Mathers to wrap them in his enormous bulk to try and give them time for Mathers spell to defend them. Beowulf endured with a quickwitted promotion to Rook, giving him time to join his Peerage members.

Others weren't so lucky.

Devils were not immune to heat; they were just slightly more resistant to it than humans. The sudden onset of boiling steam took hundreds flatfooted, and dozens died, their skin blackening and blood boiling under the intense increase in temperature.

The attackers weren't idiots, though.

Like Mikasa, they took to the air on their wings, gaining a reprieve from the spike in heat and readying to lay into the Titans from the safety of on high.

It was here that Mikasa's instinctual hesitation to approach the Attack Titan was proved to be the right call.

Hundreds of smaller forms grew from every spike atop the enormous centipede-like Titan.

Shaped like long-limbed apes, they curled back their arms and let loose thousands of splinters of white bone, the smallest still bigger than a person's head.

Open and exposed in the air, the devils faced the bombardment as best they could.

Whether trying to dodge with speed, block with spells or simply tank the damage, they had more success than humans would have, but they still took casualties from those not quick enough or tough enough to endure.

Bodies fell from the sky like dying birds, but the majority of attackers remained to witness the next trick Eren had up his sleeve.

The wall of oncoming Titans reformed.

Those who were injured regenerated. The dead were resummoned. And those who expended muscle mass for the shockwave of steam regained their spent flesh.

Using Senjutsu and an enormous wellspring of power, Eren had turned the Rumbling from something modern-day humans could deal with into an unstoppable tide that even the strongest devils were struggling to survive.

The Rumbling continued to march forward. Relentlessly. Inexorably.

Crushing and burning the Underworld as it went, approaching Agreas with every second that passed.

But the Underworld was not out of tricks just yet.

There was a reason Agreas had been flying in this particular region, surrounded by mountains on all sides.

Falbium Asmodeus was not only a military strategist with few equals, but he excelled in defensive battles. When the most reclusive of the four Satans could be bothered to wake up, his mind was the equal of his friend, Adjuka, in his field of interest.

Though he might be locked down in a battle for his life against the strongest Longinus, Falbium still had days to set up the battlefield to his specifications, learning what he could from Mikasa's retelling of the Rumbling of her world.

The Titans descended the mountains, their footing already unstable from the uneven ground, and fell right into the trap of the devil army.

Tens of thousands of spells, each no stronger than what a human magician could use, set off at once.

For days, the legions of the military had been hard at work laying pits, rock slides, and other assorted traps to stop the march of the Titans from advancing close to the flying city.

The army was not made of high-class devils, baring a few captains here and there.

No, they were the rank-and-file, low and mid-class devils that comprised the vast majority of the population. These were not beings with unique bloodlines or great magic. Just men and women looking to do what they could to protect their homes.

Even a little pebble can set off an avalanche.

And there were a lot of pebbles Eren needed to crush if he wanted to stomp this world flat.

The first line of Titans fell on those pebbles, crashing into the ground with the deafening boom of bombs falling. The Colossal Titans in the second row tried to step onto or over their fallen brethren to continue their uncompromising march but found a second line of traps waiting.

It only took minutes for the entire advance to grind to a halt as the enormous bodies blocked their fellows.

More than the hundred or so Ultimate class beings, it was the countless soldiers who had toiled for days setting up fault lines, landslides, and mud pits large enough to trap a Titan that stopped the Rumbling.

These weak soldiers might not be able to kill Eren's army, protected with Touki, but they sure as hell could give their heavy hitters time to finish them off.

From the sky where they retreated, the spear of the Underworld descended upon their open targets, taking the opportunity to wreak devastation on the defenceless Titans.

They had learned from their first bout, attacking quickly and decisively before retreating to escape retaliation from the heat.

The Attack Titan was not inactive when facing this most recent setback.

The hundreds of Ape Titans lobbing fractured material were joined by equal numbers of Warhammer Titans equipped with projectile weapons. Spears, javelins, slings, and arrows were less numerous than the cluster shot projectiles, but each was targeted and much more powerful.

Most devils could not both attack and defend themselves simultaneously, so they took their distance from the Attack Titan to maximize their utility by aiding the army in slaying the Colossal Titans.

Even if Eren could continue to regenerate his ground-shaking army, every loss would divert his attention and sap just a bit more of his power, giving their own fighters a better chance at finishing him off for good.

And Mikasa had no intention of letting Eren take even one step closer to those she wanted to protect.

The ambush had ground the Rumbling to a halt, but it wouldn't be long before Eren simply decided to dismiss the fallen Titans and conjure more behind their lines.

Mikasa had minutes at best before this delay was overcome.

With a deep breath and a ghosting of her hand over the scarf at her neck for luck, Mikasa launched her own counter-attack, pulling a green cloak from her storage tool as she called out to her only Peer.

"Behemoth!"

High in the sky, way higher than Mikasa could have flown naturally and hidden behind the layers of smoke and dust, an enormous shadow blotted out the light of the Underworld's fake sun as Serafall Leviathan's only other Peerage member turned back into their original form.

The enormous beast, larger than even a Colossal Titan, fell onto Eren's back with all the might of a meteor.

Behemoth wasn't a being known for magic. Its demonic power was only high-class, yet it was still firmly considered an Ultimate-class devil for one reason alone.

Sheer, brutal, physical power.

The Attack Titan's spines could not hold it aloft under the impact of the sudden attack, and it smashed into the ground with yet more earthquake-level shocks.

Right away, all the summoned Titans on Eren's back turned their attention to the new arrival as the enormous beast, a demented cross between an elephant and hippo, bulldozed from the tail toward the front of this white centipede-like creature.

With a trumpeting bellow, Behemoth crashed through dozens of Titans, stones and weapons unable to so much as scratch their thick hide.

Like a stampeding elephant, the reincarnated devil bulldozed its way through a half-formed Colossal Titan, reaching the halfway point on Eren's back within moments and powering through with almost unstoppable momentum.

And met a wall of armour-clad Colossal Titans strung out between the two ridges of the Attack Titan's spine.

Behemouth's charge was halted after they failed to pierce more than two layers deep.

Halted and surrounded before they got close to the Titan's spine, Behemoth let out another trumpeting bellow and began to lay waste to the Titans around it, fighting to escape its imprisonment.

And to buy time and attention.

After days of planning and concocting scenarios, every single estimation the Satans, Azazel, and Mikasa had come to the same conclusion.

They couldn't win.

If Eren truly gained the power of the Infinite Dragon God, even if only a fraction, then not even all the Underworld's forces, including the Satans themselves, would be able to stand up to him if he decided to unleash it all at once.

If it weren't for his desire for the Malebranche to gain a more permanent power-up, Eren could have used the Warhammer to summon a Titan so large that the explosion would entirely destroy the Underworld.

No, one could not win against infinite power in a head-on-head collision.

Thankfully, though he had power, Eren only had a few ways to use it. So the Satans had concocted a plan that was, ideally, designed to circumvent the notion of a head-on collision entirely.

Eren needed a war to entice Malacoda so he wouldn't destroy everything in one blast. More than likely, his attack would come in a form he was familiar with, I.E., The Rumbling.

Its greatest ability wasn't in direct damage but in its grind. Its thorough and inevitable destruction of anything and everything under enormous feet.

Perfect for a battle-hungry sapient weapon.

The Underworld's struggle for survival would be Eren's sacrifice to the leader of the Malebranche.

And that was their salvation.

Eren needed a battle.

They'd give it to him.

And kill him while he was distracted.

There was just one problem.

Eren was a sage, and the Satans didn't know how poor his sensing abilities were. They thought he was the greatest sage ever to live. That fact had been pounded into their heads time and time again, so they had to find a way around his supposed abilities.

What do you know? They had a being with them who had no power to speak of. One that was intimately familiar with Eren, his methodologies, and killing Titans.

They had no idea what form Eren would take, but it stood to reason that it would be large. Either a Colossal Titan or something similar. So they had Behemouth waiting to distract it while everyone else halted the advance.

While Falbium had been preparing the battlefield, Sirzechs had been recruiting defenders, and Serafall was setting up the evacuation spell, Adjuka Beelzebub had only one job.

Create a device that could hide Ki from the greatest sage to ever live.

With her life force completely invisible, no other power to sense, and all the Attack Titan's eyes focusing on Behemoth, Mikasa landed on the long spinal column.

She didn't hesitate.

With no way of knowing where Eren was and a limited time before he conjured more titans who could see her, Mikasa drove two copies of Purgatorio deep into the neck of the Founding Titan.

It reacted instantly, white bone forming into a copy of the Jaw Titan, but Mikasa was already gone, trailing her blades along as she flew up closer to the head.

Closer to Eren's most likely location.

Devil wings carried her up along the bone road toward the head, slicing and cutting away at the thick, white material.

Mikasa prayed this would be enough.

That this would stop Eren.

That when he asked her if he could do it all again, he meant if she could stop him and not if she could live through the destruction of her world a second time.

Eren might not sense her, but he could feel the damage to his body and trace its route.

Warhammer Titans grew from the base of his skull, weapons poised to skewer her.

Only... their thrust went wide, missing her by meters.

Was Eren letting her get close? As she flowed under the spine, Mikasa wondered, blades still attached, and her wings carried her upside down.

Then, an enormous jaw burst from the underside of the neck and nearly swallowed her whole.

With the speed and decisiveness she had cultivated since she had first picked up that knife to fight, Mikasa abandoned her two blades and folded her wings. She fell, barely escaping the teeth of the Jaw Titan.

But its eyes didn't track her.

In fact, its head swivelled as if searching for something despite Mikasa being less than a meter from its face.

...The Colossal Titans hadn't reacted to her either, had they?

It wasn't that Eren was trying to let her kill him. Mikasa had almost been hit a few times by the garage from the Ape Titan.

It was that, for some reason, he really couldn't perceive her.

Whether it was because Eren was doing it deliberately or because Adjuka's device somehow made her invisible to him, Mikasa didn't waste the opportunity presented.

Mikasa plunged two more copies of Purgatorio into the spot right behind the Jaw Titan, leaving them there as it snapped at them instinctively.

And, with two more, she carved the last few meters toward the head of the Attack Titan.

Purgatorio's blades snapped as Eren increased the density of his Touki against this threat that he couldn't perceive.

Mikasa grit her teeth to choke a sob.

If Eren had been anywhere in the spine of the Warhammer-formed Titan, he would have died already.

That he wasn't meant he could only be in one place.

Two more blades of Purgatorio appeared in her hand.

Before Eren forced himself to trample another world.

So Eren didn't have to look into the eyes of another dead friend as he chased an impossible future.

So that the boy she loved could have the one measure of freedom she could give, Mikasa would do it all again.

Purgatorio, clad in the barest flicker of Touki that Mikasa's prodigious talent had garnered in weeks of training, carved through the back of the Attack Titan's skull.

Mikasa's fledgling Touki flickered out.

It had been enough.

Split horizontally, Mikasa's blades had carved through the base of the skull upwards and at an angle to line up with the jaw of the enormous creature.

Mikasa flew through the opening, ready to once more kill her heart.

To find it empty.

Her eyes widened, and Mikasa quickly flew through the hole she had created, fearing another surprise attack.

There was no attack.

With the base of its spine severed, the copy of the white, centipede-like Titan that had led this second Rumbling collapsed, its massive bulk surrendering under its own weight.

Mikasa watched it fall, eyes frantically searching the battlefield.

With Kuroka's confirmation that Eren could use the Warhammer at a distance, there had always been the risk that he would hide somewhere in the back just to let the Colossal Titans do their work from safety.

Mikasa had rejected that proposal entirely.

Eren would never do something like that.

It was too passive, too cowardly for him.

No, he'd be at the forefront, leading everything. Even if it were the riskier option, he could not help himself from being in the thick of things.

So where was he?

Mikasa had little time to search the battlefield for the slightest hint of the true Attack Titan.

As if the collapse of the fake Founding Titan was a signal, the dense cloud of smoke and dust started to thicken.

Removed from the battle for the moment, Mikasa was one of the few who noticed the mist closing in on the battlefront.

And, in the distance, the mist pooling at the bottom of Agreas.

The heat haze, the fog of war, and the struggle for survival had blinded everyone to oddity closing in around them.

Mikasa's heart fell.

She flew. Far from the front line. Far from the battle, which was one titanic distraction.

Because she couldn't trust anyone else to stop him.

Because Mikasa Ackerman was the only person in this world that Eren Yeager had once chosen over his dream, revenge, and life.

So Mikasa flew toward Eren, praying she'd make it in time.

She didn't make it.

With blood flowing from his nose and sweat slicking his body, Georg reminded the world why Dimension Lost was considered a high-end Longinus, even greater than Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing.

Mikasa Ackerman, the Underworld army, hundreds of High class and Ultimate class defenders, and thousands of Colossal Titans were all swallowed in a deep mist.

The Underworld lost its attackers to a pocket dimension that kept them trapped.

It lost its defenders to Eren Yeager.

********

One of my favourite aspects of fanfiction is the notion of a crossover. Two worlds/characters that were never meant to interact, colliding and creating something unique. And one of my favourite aspects of a good crossover is the handling of powers. When it's poorly written, it makes a story dull and boring. One side is stronger/better, and there is no contest, so the stakes grow dull. I hoped to do something better.

Titans, as a general rule in anime, are scrub-level. A team of well-trained humans can kill one with swords, and modern weaponry almost trivializes them. That was a recurring theme of season 4 of AOT. The power of Titans was on the way out, thus Eldia and Marley could no longer use them to dominate the world. The current human world could stop the Rumbling. It would undoubtedly have collateral damage, but most advanced nations would be able to drop a few high-powered bombs and stop Eren's apocalypse as soon as it started.

Sirzechs alone could solo the entire army of Wall Titans and Eren's white Founder form.

So, I found myself in the fun position of using the rules of both worlds, creating a conflict that was at once believable and engaging.

Enter Senjutsu and Touki.

Sairaorg has little talent but overcomes it with years of hard work and effort. Eren cheats. Mikasa? She was still better than Titan shifters who spent their entire lives training for war. She's older and more experienced than most devils or human sages. And she's an Ackerman.

The entire 'power' of the Ackerman bloodline is described as 'knowing what to do' and enhanced physical abilities. It's implied that this is due to gaining all the muscle memory of previous Ackermans from the Paths, leading to their enhanced combat power. I cannot think of someone who would be more talented at learning Touki than Mikasa Ackerman. Her only constraint is the limited time she has to learn it.

I hope this little explanation shows how my mind works as I try to craft a story that is cohesive not only to characters but also to the rules of both worlds.

For example, Eren's shitty sensing doesn't matter to him because he uses the Paths to link him to his summoned Titans. Once they are summoned, he can see through their eyes. I took this method from how Ymir fought the scouts during the Battle of Heaven and Earth. Like then, even though there are no humans in the spines of the Titans Eren conjures, they are still destroyed if the nape is sliced. Eren can resummon them and doesn't need to keep them connected to his body like in his original world, but the rule is still the same. Senjutsu speeds up regeneration that is already present, and Touki makes things tougher, but the tactics Eren uses are all based on things he's either done or seen before.

Nothing is really 'new' because Eren isn't any sort of genius, but he takes what he has and takes it to its logical extreme. Hell, this entire part of his plan is based on Erwin's sacrificial charge so Levi could have time to reach the Ape Titan. Eren would have seen/lived that fight while he had the Founder, and I can easily imagine him using the tactics of those he looked up to to achieve his goals.

I hope this little explanation shows how my mind works as I try to craft a story that is cohesive not only to characters but also to the rules of both worlds. The next few chapters are going to get... messy despite being some of my most anticipated, so I'd lay out a bit of my thought process for those interested.

I will meet you all on Friday on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Kalstorm22]

Great chapter! Mikasa's perspective is very interesting as her thoughts and memories were clearly heavily used in the planning to fight the Rumbling, which Eren used to great effect utilizing her preconceived ideas against them. It's a little funny that Eren knew that his distraction would be the Rumbling 2.0 complete with a recreation of the Founding titan but didn't know why that would work so well until he met Mikasa again, when he first saw the plan, he was probably a little confused why the defenders seemed to react like they had fought titans before, or why the Founding titan was attacked in such a familiar way by someone he couldn't see. See you Friday on the bench.

 

[GAMB42]

The one thing this chapter illustrates perfectly is how utterly broken proper preparation can be. It is why good precogs are so rightfully feared. The Devils had literally everything going for them and they still got played. For all that Eren is a monster he is methodical in his approach, like a hutcher deciding precisely where and how to cut. Chilling and terrifying.

 

[ScriptGenius12]

Rumbling Music:

Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 - Kyou no Hi wa Sayounara

Anime: Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0Song: Kyou no Hi wa SayounaraInterpret: Megumi HayashibaraLyrics:Original / RomajiItsumademo taeru koto naku Tomodachi de iyo...

www.youtube.com

 

[ReadingDangerously]

"This way," Yuuto called, leading a group of temporary refuges toward a Ministry of Internal Affairs member. "I know it was a surprise, but the Satans know what they are doing. It shouldn't be long. You'll be home before you know it."

The Gremory Knight tried to give the group a reassuring smile.

He failed.

Even the mask he had worn for years wouldn't appear.

There was some grumbling from the civilians, but nobody made much of a fuss as Yuuto left them to get sorted.

He had it easier than most. Everyone knew his face thanks to their victory in the Youth Devil Tournament. Yuuto had no problem using his fame to try and keep the peace among the confusion.

...Fame he only had because of Issei using the Crimson World Wall on him.

Yuuto Kiba didn't let his mind wander as he moved on to another group of refugees milling about and looking confused.

This was why he volunteered to help when news of Eren's attack arrived.

Sitting around just... he couldn't do it.

He couldn't keep thinking of brown eyes looking blankly up at him, demanding answers on why Yuuto hadn't been fast enough.

Demanding to know why Issei Hyoudou had died alone?

To know what weighed so heavy on Eren's scale that this was what he chose?

Was it revenge? Revolution? Freedom?

Yuuto didn't have answers to those questions, even as they tormented him.

He might never have them.

So, Yuuto joined this relief effort.

He wasn't the only one.

Yuuto passed Akeno threatening a belligerent couple, Rias explaining the situation from atop a podium to a crowd of hundreds of devils, and Sona in a whispered conversation with Seekvaira and her father, Lord Agares.

The Agares family was the source of most of the information Yuuto knew about the situation. Apparently, it was a coordinated ambush based in Agreas once Eren made his move.

Both the Gremory and Sitri Peerages came and went, receiving instructions and dispatch on where to head to help manage the confusion.

Part of it was actual altruism, and part of it was a sense of duty, but Yuuto knew most of his friends were like him, trying to keep themselves busy.

...It had been Asia's idea.

When she heard of the influx of refugees from the floating city, the Bishop tore herself from Issei's... body.

No matter what anyone said, Asia had been determined to help where she could.

Even now, guarded by a zealous Xenovia, the former nun was doing her best to aid those who had gotten hurt in the initial confusion.

Yuuto steered clear of that area.

He couldn't look at Issei's lovers, eyes still red from tears and faces drawn.

Not without seeing his friend's happy face when he talked about them.

Not without remembering that only a few months ago, he would have killed them just for being affiliated with the church.

Was this what Eren had meant?

Just kids born in a situation they couldn't control, raised in an environment that shaped them and loosed on the world with all the biases and beliefs instilled in them by their environment.

Yuuto could never forgive the church. The hypocrisy, the lies, the manipulation, the death it caused in the name of a 'greater good.'

But he could now understand its members. Whether it was the exorcists looking to protect what they thought was right and good... or simple members who just wanted to help people. Most were no different than him, some were 'better' than him, and yet the world would pit them against each other just because of race, religion, benefits, or location.

They'd fight and kill and die just because minute differences grew into unforgivable grudges over years.

And when you did get that satisfaction, that revenge, you gave the other side reason to hate you, to seek vengeance on you in turn, and the cycle would repeat.

Despite knowing that now, after months of retrospection, Yuuto would still do it all again.

Yuuto's vengeance had been clean. There were terrible people, unambiguously evil monsters who shouldn't continue to live. Perpetrators of atrocities that he managed to kill and achieve his vengeance.

He hadn't paid anything for it.

If he had, would he have continued? Sought more targets? Or would someone have declared their own vendetta against him, leading to another and another?

If all Yuuto Kiba knew of Eren Yeager was that he killed his friend, would he have dedicated his life to revenge on him?

Yuuto saw that familiar anger and hatred in Xenovia's eyes. He heard it in her voice. Without her desire to stay with Asia, she might have already joined the army attacking Eren.

Yuuto couldn't even blame her.

He'd been there, in that mental place before.

Yuuto was once more Xenovia's Senpai now, in a way he never wanted to be.

Before the day was done, thousands would probably join her to take revenge on the man who attacked their home. And then Eren's friends and comrades would get revenge, too.

Over and over again.

Until only one person was left alive.

Yet, letting things happen and letting yourself be the victim only invites more tragedy. Yuuto had been a victim before. Someone without sin yet had still been used, exploited, and thrown away.

Pacifism only worked if everyone and everything was pacifist as well.

So what was the answer?

Was this all life was? Was this constant battle, this unending war for survival, supremacy, and revenge all that was out there?

Was this what drove a man to run away from it all? To ask the woman he loved if they could run away together?

Had Eren stared down a future full of hatred, death, and pain and looked for any way out, only to find nothing?

Yuuto simply didn't know.

That was a theme for today.

Not knowing.

Wondering why.

Demanding answers from a cold, cruel world that wouldn't give any just because you asked.

Right now, nobody here knew the current situation in Agreas.

Communication spells had been cut off within the first ten minutes.

For all they knew, Eren had already killed everyone and was on his way...

Yuuto shook his head again, focusing back on the task at hand.

His mind had been trailing a dark path, as it had since Issei's death.

So he did what he did before and threw himself back into the work at hand.

Ackerman-sensei would be fine.

Eren would never hurt her.

... A small part of his mind whispered that not too long ago, Yuuto would have sworn Eren wouldn't hurt Issei either.

The pang of recent loss hit him again, and Yuuto's steps faltered momentarily, but he carried on.

The status of an army filled with Ultimate class devils was beyond the Knight. He was a Low class devil with the power of a High class. It was above his pay grade without Issei's transferred Boosts, even without considering Eren's recent power-ups.

Right now, all Yuuto could do is help direct the refugees toward the staff that would take down names, addresses, and help them get settled.

...No matter how much his soul cried out to conjure Purgatorio and launch himself at Eren in a revenge-driven quest for answers.

"It's Darkness Knight Fang!"

Yuuto's footsteps stalled as 'he' was called out.

Two children, a boy and a girl, ran up to him, faces lit with excitement, their parents following behind them with looks of apology.

"Darkness Knight," the girl, probably six or seven, stared up at Yuuto with wide eyes. "We saw the tournament. You were so cooool. The best!"

"Oppai Dragon is the best," the boy argued, but his eyes still looked up at Yuuto with wonder. "Darkness Knight was a bad guy. He's only here 'cause of Oppai Dragon!"

"Well, he's good now," the girl argued back, digging into her pockets to try and find something. "So he's the coolest. Here! Can I have an autograph?"

"Not now, dear," the mother chastised, grabbing her daughter and pulling her away from the Knight with a strained smile. "Sorry about them. They're big fans of the show."

Yuuto had guessed as much by their use of his character's name and the Oppai Dragon action figure in the boy's hand.

"It's... It's not a problem." Yuuto managed the slightest smile, taking out a small pen and signing the... trading card?

(The Gremory merchandise must have grown after the season 1 finale. Yuuto hadn't seen it yet. They had been planning on all watching it together later today.)

He had no issue with the children's obliviousness to the situation, but... How would they feel when they learned there was no more Oppai Dragon in the world?

"Come on," the father said, picking up the son. "We'll get out of your way."

Yuuto maintained a smile as he pointed toward the nearest clerical station.

"Oppai Dragon will be here soon, right," the young devil called before they got far. "He'll beat up the bad guys and save the day, right?"

The parents paused.

Yuuto realized why. They wanted reassurance. Or maybe just information.

They had no idea that a man, Yuuto's Senpai, who had destroyed his original world and hated devil society, now wielded Boosted Gear and held the power of the Infinite Dragon God.

The most they knew was that an army of giants had appeared from nowhere and were approaching their home.

These devils had nothing to do with the Pillars, Rating Games, or terrorist organizations. To them, High class devils and their Peerages were nothing more than a mix of politicians, celebrities, and the army. Figures you saw on TV but never interacted with.

Like most of the thousands gathered here, they were just Low or Midclass devils who suddenly saw a tide of oncoming giants and found themselves teleported without preparation. While only a few had been hurt in the confusion, the fear and anxiety of the unknown still ran rampant.

That was what Yuuto was here to stop.

"Of course he will," the Knight lied. "Those bad guys won't know what hit them once Oppai Dragon arrives."

While his words seemed to reassure the children, whose faces lit up, the parents looked more concerned than before.

Yuuto feared they had seen through him, but he didn't know what else to say.

He didn't know what was going to happen.

He didn't know why what had already happened did.

He didn't even know if they could survive the next few days now that Eren had Ophis' power.

How could they beat the power of the Infinite Dragon God?

Every second that passed, Yuuto Kiba feared that the ground around the devil capital would begin to rumble.

But it was not from the ground that the first signal came.

Rather, it was a murmur of the crowd looking up that heralded the change in situation.

It took Yuuto a few seconds to realize what was happening, and a commotion swelled in the crowd. He wasn't the only one looking around for the cause, but thankfully the girl in her mother's arms was excited enough to direct his attention.

"Look," she pointed up at the sky with a wide smile.

Yuuto snapped his attention out toward the horizon.

It was kilometres away, and if it weren't for devils' senses nobody would have seen it, let alone make out the details even though it was a clear sky.

Still, as someone with an Evil Piece enhancing his senses, Yuuto could see more than most in the swirl of mist and the shadow that started to emerge from the vortex in the sky.

Cheers rose from the crowd.

"It's Agreas!"

Someone shouted the island's name and more of the crowd agreed, chanting and cheering.

They recognized their home even if they couldn't make out the details. Some had lived on it for centuries and knew its profile like the back of their hand.

Yuuto felt none of the crowd's joy as Eren's primary target emerged from the mists of Dimension Lost.

Only fear.

********

The Great King, the true leader of devilkind, Zekram Bael, watched the oncoming tide of white Titans from high atop Agreas' towers.

He was unimpressed.

Not in the devils that flew out to meet the giants burning his Underworld to the ground.

Not in the army's layout of traps and ambushes.

Not even in the attack itself, as it was appropriately large and destructive to warrant this level of response.

No, what sorely disappointed the old demon was the fear.

The panic.

The rush the New Satans had to stop what was, ultimately, just another assault on the Underworld by a human.

The Underworld had survived worse. Devils had survived worse.

Overestimating an opponent was just as dangerous as underestimating them.

They were so intoxicated by peace that they were quick to forget the chaos and death of the Civil War. Compared to that, what was one army of giants?

Then again, they were still young.

And Zekram Bael was old.

So very old.

He was one of the original 72 demons Lilith had birthed. He had been there for the Underworld's founding and the other Pillars' birth.

He had watched the sky light up in His Light, a tide of death that outshone the sun and claimed the lives of his siblings and servants.

He had been a leader in the greatest war this world had ever seen. His legions had pilled bodies as high as mountains.

Zekram had fought against the Heavenly Duo when their feud spilled over onto the battlefield of the Great War.

He had killed Seraphs and Cadres.

He had outlived the original Asmodeus, Leviathan, Beelzebub, and Lucifer.

Zekram Bael had watched God die.

He was very, very old.

He was old enough to show his age rather than being eternally young like most of his kind purported to be. Not even the devils' minor shapeshifting ability was enough to hide his advanced age.

He could have stopped the decay or delayed it, of course. Zekram could have sealed himself away like Gremory and the very few of his Peers who survived. It would have delayed his aging.

But Zekram Bael could not allow himself to do something so negligent.

Not when the Underworld needed the Great King.

That was why he was here, after all.

To make sure the Underworld survived. Not this battle, as it was just another of countless he had witnessed, but the aftermath.

The Malabranche.

Zekram Bael had been there when the Original Satans had concocted the idea of Sacred Gears of their own, a mockery of His tools. Only they lacked His ability to Create and tried to make up for it with power and violence.

The result, the twelve Evil Claws, had been nothing short of a failure.

A failure Zekram Bael had taken every precaution to keep buried in the centuries following the Satans' death and his ascent to the head of the Underworld.

There was simply no good that could come from weapons like that being out in the world. If they could have been used for the good of the Underworld, Zekram would have used them.

But they couldn't.

They were just tools of wanton destruction. Rabid beasts that couldn't be put down and thus needed to be put away.

For millennia, Zekram had succeeded, keeping them secreted away in the deepest space below Lucifaad.

Then, those fools had partially unsealed Barbariccia and Scarmiglione to help them attain a fraction of the original Satan's power.

In doing so, they had proved the New Satans right in their fight against the descendants of the original four.

Zekram Bael did believe that the current Satans were good for the Underworld. They were figureheads, certainly, but there was no denying their actual power and ability.

Both Adjuka and Zekram's descendant were not only powerful deterrents against the rest of the world, but Adjuka's Evil Pieces had no doubt saved their race.

The Great King was looking at the proof right now.

Of the devils fighting this tide of... Titans? (Were that they were called? How unoriginal.) Either way, over four-fifths of the attackers were reincarnated devils while his people did the necessary work here on Agreas.

It wasn't that Zekram Bael looked down on reincarnated devils. They were a necessity for the survival of his race and could even be stronger than most Pillars. He even liked quite a few.

Already, plans were percolating in his mind to push for a few to become Satans.

The Red Dragon Emperor, in particular, had potential. A few more years to ensure he matured a bit, and once he passed the test to become High class Zekram could start helping him make his way up in the world.

If Zekram had his way, Issei Hyoudou would join Sairaorg as a new generation of Satans.

Magdaran would become the heir again, as the Underworld would always need a Great King with the Power of Destruction, while Zekram let Sairaorg enact the policies to fold the Extra houses back into the fold.

Of the current devils Pillars, less than ten had children in this generation, and only half even had heirs. They needed new blood, and while the exile might have served a purpose at one point, it was about time to fold them back in.

And if the Crimson Wall became a Satan, not only would it provide the Underworld a great defender, but it would also go a long way to assuage the reincarnated devils that outnumbered the pureblood ones.

They'd have 'representation' with Issei Hyoudou, who Zekram's sources told him was as politically savvy as a walnut. Having someone they could get behind would help stabilize the Underworld further.

Zekram did not need an 'uprising,' no matter how doomed, while the world settled into a new status quo from the Peace Conference.

"So far, nobody has reported any signs, sir," Lord Bael told his ancestor respectfully as he received a report from Lady Paimon.

"Keep them searching," Zekram ordered simply, not taking his eyes off the battlefield.

The Great King didn't honestly think they'd find anything. He'd had agents looking for Zaoroma Nebiros' lab for centuries, ever since those foolish descendants had made off with the Malebranche in the Civil War.

Agreas had also been searched as the source of the crystals that made the weapons in the first place, but no traces had been found since their disappearance.

His great-great-great grandson nodded simply.

The current Lord was a disappointment, but not to the degree that he needed to be disposed of. He had enough power to be Ultimate class and the Power of Destruction, as was required to be Lord, but he lacked will and ambition.

The opposite problem to Zekram's current point of interest.

Sona Sitri might lack power, but that was only compared to the likes of Sairaorg and Rias, both of which were descendants of his, so she couldn't be blamed for not matching them. And she made up for weakness with cunning and ambition.

This little scheme of hers was a perfect example.

Oh yes, Zekram saw through it, just as he had seen through her when she declared her dream. She was much too young to try and pull one over on him.

But playing along cost him nothing.

So he had signed the contract in the letter, guaranteeing the funds and influence the Bael had promised to help her with her school.

In return, he had gained the 'secret' information Serafall was keeping hidden. The location of the Malebranche.

Zekram had honestly smiled when he had read the letter, already guessing that every Lord and Lady who the young heiress could reach had received the same letter.

If the young Sitri was right about the weapons being here, which was unlikely, then he'd regain the lost weapons.

If she was wrong, all he lost was a bit of time and money. Money he had already planned on giving her for her little experiment. And he gained a favour from a girl who now had a considerable fortune and influence.

No matter what, Zekram Bael won.

Because he played the long game.

He wanted Sona Sitri to succeed. Whether or not she used her school as a propaganda center in some sort of cold war didn't matter to him. What mattered was having that ambition, that institution present at all.

The greatest school in the world now at peace was created by devils?

The status alone would be worth it.

Much like having Issei Hyoudou as a Satan would help stabilize the reincarnated devil situation, having Sona Sitri's school would help stabilize the inter-pantheon situation.

She hadn't been wrong that the world was changing, and using that change for her ambition was well played.

The Sitri heiress' problem was that she was reckless.

This little scheme of hers, for example. Not only would it secure her funding and force hesitant or demanding supports to lock themselves into her plan, but it would also provide defenders for Agreas that the Satans wouldn't have recruited, giving their actual recruits more support.

Whether the young Sitri's goal was a selfish power grab or a selfless aid for her sister was irrelevant. She had succeeded in her aims.

Her short-term ones, at least.

Long term, Sona Sitri would be paying for this little trick for centuries to come.

If the Malebranche were found, every devil who received a letter would feel entitled to one. And since Zekram wouldn't allow anyone to get one, they would turn their ire on Sona, who had alerted others instead of just themselves.

Even worse if the Malebranche weren't found.

All their efforts and money for a red herring? The Lords and Ladies wouldn't just be mad. They'd be suspicious.

Everything Sona Sitri did from here on out would be scrutinized and monitored. And she had given them the perfect excuse. They were now part owners in her school. It made perfect sense for them to keep track of their investment.

A well-laid but short-sighted plan.

Thankfully for her, Zekram Bael had no intention of seeing such potential squandered.

No matter the outcome, she'd need to be punished to appease the other letter recipients. And who better than the Great King?

He'd take her under his wing as a 'punishment,' which would protect her from more nefarious individuals. All the funds and influence she gained from this stunt would still go toward her school, but he'd make sure they were used correctly.

It was a shame Sona Sitri was the only heir of the Sitri family. Otherwise, he might have pushed for an engagement with Madragan, but having her as an apprentice might be better in the long run.

She couldn't become the next Great King, but Zekram still had a few millennia in him. Enough for a few more generations of decedents. He hadn't rushed for a true successor and wouldn't start now.

Besides, having an apprentice would make training any potential successor easier and more stable.

Because that was what it was all about.

Stability.

To the Shadow of the Devils, who had seen his creators and God die, who had watched empires rise and fall, who had instated new Satans and would do so again, nothing was more important than ensuring the Underworld continued as it did.

From devils' birth to the end of time, the Pillars needed to stand tall.

Only then could the Underworld survive.

Zekram Bael watched the army of the Underworld and the wall of white giants disappear into a haze of mist with only a raised brow.

Dimension Lost? How nostalgic.

But what now?

When no next stage of the attack appeared, Zekram was about to turn his attention to the Satans' ongoing battle when, once more, his descendant interrupted his thoughts.

"Ancestor," Lord Bael said hurriedly. He should control himself better. "We found something."

Despite himself, Zekram felt a touch of surprise at the news.

"Something?"

"Lord Sallos," his descendant answered quickly but succinctly, knowing his gaff. Generalities such as 'something' had no business in any report. "He discovered a fresh passageway through the crystal. A tunnel made of the same white material as the giants. Despite your orders, he investigated. His son alerted me. Lord Sallos is dead."

No great loss. High class only due to his rank, and his heir had the clan trait, so it wasn't lost.

Hopefully, watching his father die would give the young man some semblance of self-control. And teach him to follow orders.

"Show me," Zekram ordered simply, not even bothering to tell the man not to spread the information around to the dozens of other searchers.

If he didn't know that much, he shouldn't be Lord.

Had Sona Sitri been telling the truth after all?

The outcome would be the same. Zekram would simply frame the apprenticeship as a reward instead. It would increase her value, though. She had gone behind her sister's back to give this information to him.

It didn't take long for both Ultimate class devils to reach the mines of crystal used to create the Evil Pieces and Brave Saint cards and had been the building block of the Malebranche so long ago.

It required a bit more navigating the twisted depths of the floating city before the pair were in front of a tunnel markedly different from all others due to the smooth white material that made it up.

It was easy to guess which was the right one by the body of Lord Sallos impaled on spikes, blood and viscera coating the walls from his sudden and violent death.

Zekram Bael barely paid any attention to the shaken young man, only a few centuries old, who stared vacantly at his father's corpse.

Losing a Lord was only noteworthy if their house was without heirs or their bloodline dissipated, so the old devil simply destroyed the body and the spikes with the Power of Destruction.

The tunnel reacted.

More white spikes were jutting from it to try to kill the new intruders, but they were similarly destroyed.

Just because Zekram Bael was not a Super Devil like his Satan descendant did not mean he was one iota less able to use the Power of Destruction.

He was the originator of the power, after all.

The pair proceeded unhindered through a corridor scoured by black and red power.

The only point at which Zekram paused was when he felt the atmosphere shift.

He wasn't as talented as Adjuka but had been around the block before. He knew the sensation when passing into a smaller dimension.

A two-dimensional seal organically grown into the crystal, from the same crystal? Was that how Zaomara hid the lab? Quite ingenious.

Still, that would explain how a sage had found it when others failed. Their attunement to the physical world was much greater than most sensory types.

More and more, it looked like Sona Sitri's information was right on the money.

If Zekram regained all twelve Malebranche, he wouldn't forget who it was due to.

Punish failure and reward success.

A fundamental principle that too many failed to implement correctly.

The final barrier before the lab, a thick enchanted door, had been torn from its hinges and lay discarded to the side, and the two devils entered without issue.

As soon as they passed it, they felt the power.

It was a pressure, a familiar one to Zekram, that pressed down on them. It was something hard to quantify or qualify.

Not Demonic power, but just an aura of malevolence and death that seemed to permeate the room like a miasma.

The origin of the sensations wasn't difficult to identify either.

Twelve stone statues lined the room, each depicting a different amalgamation creation that was both a weapon and a living being yet resembled neither.

At the foot of each statue was a plaque with a name in curved, stylized lettering. All twelve were here, from Calcabrina to Draghignazzo and Farfarello.

Yet even amongst the pressure they all exuded, one stood out even from the rest.

At the center of the room was a stone statue whose aura was even deadlier than the others and whose plaque was placed over its head rather than at its feet.

'Malacoda must never be awakened.'

A simple but poignant warning.

One that the thin human sitting with his back to the center statue had clearly ignored.

"Eren Yeager."

Zekram recognized the human by the odd markings around his eyes and was unsurprised to find him here.

The young man looked at the old devil with a blank, almost unseeing gaze.

The Great King felt a smile tug at his lips and let it form.

He had nothing personal against the boy, but to see him like this was just too fitting for an enemy who attacked the Underworld.

Zekram would have to tell this story later.

It would be a nice consolation prize.

"Ancestor?" Lord Bael asked, cautiously eyeing the human who had conjured an army not too long ago.

"You do not need to concern yourself with him," Zekram told his descendant. "He's no longer a threat."

"Sir?"

A blast of black and red destroyed the central stone statue, sending debris raining onto the human.

Eren didn't flinch or move.

"They're fake," Zekram said simply. "Imitations of the aura but with no depth or power."

A bit disappointing.

Zekram had never once worried that a human would be able to unseal and wield one of the Evil Claws. No matter the power, they simply wouldn't work for a human, but the Great King had hoped to reclaim them.

Instead, all he found was one of Zaomara's decoys.

"Was there a trap?" His descendant asked, still keeping an eye on the human.

"No," the Great King denied, approaching the sitting boy and peering down at those empty eyes.

Familiar eyes.

Eyes he had seen on most of his enemies.

"He simply realized his folly. All his efforts, sacrifices, and plans were for nothing. He traded his future and his subordinates' lives for this opportunity. For power that was never meant to be his. And got nothing out of it. An all too common experience for humans due to their lifespan. This is what being short-sighted leads to. Despair."

The boy finally moved when Zekram stood over him.

Eren tilted his head to meet the eyes of the Great King looking down on him.

"I know the answer," the empty voice spoke. "But I need to hear it."

Zekram raised a brow, amused.

"If I kill you, what happens to the Underworld?"

"Do you think you can?" Zekram asked, genuinely curious.

It wasn't the first time some enemy or foe had tried to get rid of him in their final moments. It was actually quite common for one such as him. More people hated his guts than almost anyone in history and would trade all they had, lives included, to end his life.

Most of those people were dead.

Eren Yeager would be no different.

The second he made a move of any sort, Zekram would atomize his body.

Eren didn't answer, looking up at the old devil with blank, empty grey eyes.

"The answer is simple," the old devil sighed, already moving past this amusing distraction.

He somewhat regretted destroying the status of Malacoda. It would still have made a novel addition to his collection, even if it was fake. Now, he had an incomplete set.

"Without the Pillars, there is no Underworld. Without the Great King, there are no Pillars. Thus, there will always be a Great King. Without one, there is no Underworld."

Zekram was not so foolish to think himself irreplaceable. He just hadn't found a successor to truely rule the Underworld yet.

Certainly, the current Lord Bael held the official rank of Great King but so had a handful before him.

None of the Lords of the family had been worthy of the true power of the Underworld.

"I... see..." the young man said slowly.

Then, with shaking limbs as if every movement hurt him, Eren Yeager raised his hand.

Showing his sliced palm to the Great King.

Zekram Bael raised a brow at the bloody hand.

Then he felt the pocket dimension the lab was located in collapse instantly. As these things tended to do, the pocket dimension's contents struggled to fit into real space.

Without the tunnel the boy had dug, the two Ultimate class devils might have been seriously injured as what was essentially a two-dimensional space tried to occupy a filled 3D one.

Thanks to the tunnel of white material, though, everything was crammed into the empty air of the tunnel as if someone had crumbled it all like a piece of paper into a ball.

And that paper was destroyed by the Power of Destruction.

The human hadn't moved in the slightest, still holding up his bleeding hand as everything around him was reduced to atoms.

Zekram had intended for his power to kill the boy as well as the remains of the lab.

He was shocked when his magic crashed into the boy and dissipated against his flesh like water breaking on a dam.

A body prepared by the Holy Grail's blessing, reinforced by Senjutsu, and stuffed so full of the Infinite's power that even moving was difficult could hold up to almost anything.

Even the most devastating power a devil could wield by the origin of the Power of Destruction.

The sixth sense of a devil that had survived millennia and the Great War tingled, and Zekram immediately made a judgment call.

He fled.

Or tried to.

Even though he used all his power, leaving his descendant and Agreas behind, Zekram Bael could not activate his magic...

No. He could activate it.

Zekram was experienced enough to recognize what went wrong.

Teleportation couldn't happen while already being displaced.

Agreas was being teleported.

The floating island reentered real space in the Underworld, and the Lords and Ladies who searched it wondered about the sudden shift.

A few were spooked and tried to leave.

They failed to escape.

Zekram Bael met the dead grey eyes of a human boy.

Deep in the bowels of Agreas, high in the sky outside the Underworld's capital, right beside the Great King of the Underworld, lighting crackled across a bloody palm.

********

Asia is only a supporting character in this story, but I wanted to highlight some aspects I like about her. Unlike Rias, who collapses after Issei's death, she maintains her dedication to helping others. In DxD, Asia Argento is unambiguously 'good.' I think it makes her less interesting to write, but it gives us a breath of fresh air. To say people like her don't exist is the same as irredeemable monsters don't exist. They both do, and they both need to be acknowledged.

Zekram Bael is... really underused in DxD. A staunch supporter of the Pillars and a traditionalist to his core, he still sided with the New Satans, helped Sairaorg become a Satan and aided Issei. He's wonderfully complex. It's not 'evil' but more like a version of Floch, who was actually in charge for millennia and had the wisdom to match.

Unfortunately, he was missing critical information.

I hope it comes across how quickly things are happening in relative time. Though it's been a few weeks for us, the audience, Issei died only a few hours ago. Eren just started his attack. At most, the army disappeared ten minutes before this chapter's end.

Even with his spies, Zekram has no idea Issei is dead, and Eren has Ophis's power. Not just one of her snakes, Zekram could deal with that, but the vast majority of her actual power. Because nobody knows about Ophis except Vali's team, those at the Hyoudou residence, and the Satans.

Even if you are the most careful and cautious person in the world, bad information kills.

I'll meet you all on Sunday on the bench.

 

[GAMB42]

For all that Eren is a monster through and through the fact all these powerful and very old Devils are quite literally dancing on the palm of his hand is awe-inspiring. Nicely continues to advance the plot and we see a glimpse of what Eren actually cares about since this is the one action he takes personally.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Vanbers]

Satans and Devilkind: "Oh no, Eren is going to kill everyone and destroy the Underworld through force!"

Eren, killing Zekram to ensure the slow destruction of the Underworld over time as Devilkind loses their stabilising factor: "lmao, gottem."

Also liked that Zekram didn't think for a second that Sona shared the information on purpose, to lure the most extreme and politically ambitious, greedy, and powerhungry Devils into one location. At least, that's my assumption.

Can't owe favours to a corpse, after all.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Awesome chapter! This look into Zekram's perspective is wonderfully interesting, as you can see why he has come to his conclusions and how they are logical, but he doesn't have the correct knowledge and has let his biases and pride influence his thoughts leading to his wrongful conclusions. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Eren will deal with Zekram, who is a living representation of all that Eren hates about devils and seeing just what Eren has planned for the devil population of the capital. See you Sunday on the bench.

 

[soulreaper22]

So the Brave Saint Cards was already created that fast after the Peace Conference happened
Also, the size of Zekram's arrogrance must be bigger than the Statue of Liberty. My question is why doesn't Zekram want to live forever and pass down his position in the future