On The Bench (AOT/DxD)

[Nalekuuzensha]

People and their obsessions with heads... One day, I'll manage to find something to read that has the victor waving the loser's dick around.

 

[Iseeyou]

People and their obsessions with heads... One day, I'll manage to find something to read that has the victor waving the loser's dick around.

Click to shrink...

share it if you find one pls

 

[ReadingDangerously]

Numb.

That's what she was. Numb.

Tired too.

Satans, but Sona didn't think she'd ever been this tired.

Had it really been less than half a day ago that Issei had been taken?

It seemed like a lifetime ago. One in which a different Sona Sitri lived.

And the current Sona Sitri was not a better woman for the change.

Sona knew it.

Sona knew it in the way she had immediately sent her Peerage out to help organize and clean up without even giving them time to rest because there was a genuine chance she could be arrested at any moment, and she didn't want them implicated.

She knew it in the bend of her thoughts as they had already turned toward the future of political and socioeconomic changes that would come.

The Peace Treaty could fall apart without the ability to provide the angels with more Brave Saint decks.

Reincarnated devils would soon cease to be created. The exact time frame would depend on how many sets of Evil Pieces Adjuka had at hand and their stores of the crystals used to make them. Still, shortly, someone would be turned into a devil only when a previously reincarnated devil died, and their Piece could be used again.

And that was just from the destruction of Agreas.

The death of the Great King and a sizeable force of the ruling class would create a void in governmental positions that needed to be filled... a void Sona had created.

Lilith proper had remarkably little damage to the city despite the numerous versions of the Nine Titans getting past the defenders. But the Underworld now had a gaping hole, still writhing with the aftereffects of Eren's battle with Great Red.

The material of this... canyon was still unknown, but already a few of the people who had tried to reach the center of the battle were injured by the tears in space, the incomprehensible phenomena that manifested only to disappear moments later.

And then there was the battle itself.

Sona had absolutely zero clue what the fallout from this would be.

A single human had taken on the Three Factions' combined might and... essentially won.

Oh, certainly, the death toll was absolutely nothing compared to the Rumbling of his world. It wasn't even a fraction of a fraction of the damage to the infrastructure, let alone the lives of ordinary people.

But the world wouldn't be comparing this event to one that claimed a billion and a half lives.

No. Once they learned about Eren, the rest of the world would see a human fighting the strongest devils, their entire society, and decimating it. Even the aid of the angels and fallen only served to stalemate the battle.

Eren Yeager, a teenage human, had killed the Dream!

What did you even compare that to?

Gods had died in the past. So had dragons. So had other members of every other race at one time or another.

But the Divine Duo?

The Infinite and the Dream?

Many didn't believe they could die.

They predated the fucking planet.

Sure, they didn't usually affect day-to-day life, and thanks the hells for that, but they were always there!

A constant of reality like gravity or magic. It was like a human waking up one morning, and suddenly, the sun was just gone.

And a human did it!

One without a Sacred Gear at that!

Sona looked up at a sunless sky.

And sighed.

There was... no frame of reference to which Sona could compare this. Nothing she could think of that would even hint at what was to come.

Sona could judge possible political fallout for her actions. She could think about leveraging the undeniable impact she and her Peerage had in this battle against the rumours that would start to fly once people started asking questions about why their Lords/Ladies/Ancestors/descendants/family were on Agreas.

She could see possible avenues for her society's future prospects. The Satans still lived, so it wasn't likely devils would fall into another Civil War.

(A small part of Sona, the one steeped in morbid humour and grim fatalism, asked herself who the Satans would even fight in a Civil War.

After all, Sona had killed most of their political adversaries.)

But no matter how her mind worked, she just couldn't imagine what the world would look like tomorrow once news got out of Eren and what he had done.

...None of that was why Sona was numb, though.

Eren was dead.

She'd known it when the Titans had dissipated, collapsing and vanishing into steam right before her eyes.

She knew it by the fact that she didn't see her sister among the Satans organizing the cleanup and organization. She'd only seen her once when Serafall checked if she was whole and hale before disappearing again.

The only reason Serafall Leviathan wouldn't be with the other Satans at this critical moment was if something personal had come up.

...Like consoling a grieving Mikasa.

Eren was dead.

Knowing what she did about the Founder, Sona could now see the cause and effect.

Eren had chosen his moment of death.

He'd launched an attack that had largely avoided civilian casualties while still killing most of the sort of people he couldn't stand. He'd destroyed the Evil Piece system that he hated.

He'd killed Great Red.

As far as deaths went, nobody could say Eren's wouldn't be remembered.

No doubt anyone with any ambition would see it as possibly the most incredible death of all time.

Hells, for the rest of time, people would study every morsel of information about Eren, fighting over every little detail.

Whatever had finally... got Eren, a final trick from Great Red, her aunt, or something else, it would never eclipse the final few hours of his life in fame and infamy.

But that was only from an outside perspective. A perspective from those who'd learn about Eren Yeager but had never known him.

Who hadn't known the horrors of his past.

Who hadn't hated him for what the choice he gave her, just for a sliver of hope in protecting what she cared for.

Who hadn't admired, feared, respected, taught, and learned from him.

Who hadn't loved him.

Those people who'd look at Eren Yeager's life in this world, his death, and his achievements and not know the boy on the bench.

The one who dreamed of freedom, who couldn't stop himself from trying to fix a cruel world, and whose entire life had been one of a puppet dancing on his own strings.

They'd never know of the boy who'd once wanted to run away from it all just to spend the last few years of his life with the woman he loved.

Eren Yeager was dead, and Sona was too numb to process.

She wasn't even crying.

Just... numb.

So... she just wandered the killing field where she had fought against his Titans.

Sona wasn't idle as she wandered, of course.

She helped clean up the rubble, even freeing one of Seekvira's Pawns trapped. She used her magic to help clean off what she could. Directed people to temporary shelters.

She saw devils hugging each other in relief and joy at their survival.

She saw others weeping at the news of a death. Or holding a limp body. Or... a limb.

There were no injuries.

So long as one was alive, Asia had completely healed them when Issei transferred his second Wall Fall to her.

Even the injured Satans were in perfect condition thanks to the dragon's and former nun's unity.

Sona suspected that Asia would soon have just as much of a cult following as the 'Oppai Dragon.'

Not that either of them cared at the moment.

Sona saw them, too.

Asia was with Irina, Xenovia, and Ravel, surrounding Issei as he hugged a crying Gasper under the watchful gaze of Rossweiss.

Issei was also crying, though unlike everyone else, Sona doubted he was crying tears of joy for his own survival.

Was he grieving his Senpai? Or had Eren's actions soured that relationship fully?

Sona didn't want to ask.

Rias and the rest of her Peerage were absent.

Rossweiss caught Sona's look and gestured with her head in a direction.

"They went looking for Koneko."

Sona nodded in gratitude, unable to trust her voice at the moment, and went in the direction pointed.

She found them easily enough.

Akeno was slightly off to the side, hugging her father, but the remaining Gremory Peerage were...

"Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?"

Thirty or so clones of Kuroka were frantically shifting through rubble, dirt, and stone. Some were casting spells. Others were digging in the ground with their bare hands. A few were flying overhead, like vultures searching for prey.

The tears in their eyes didn't seem to impede the search for... something.

Amidst the frantic, manic movements of the Nekoshou and her clones, Sona saw the crimson hair of her once rival.

Rias also seemed to be searching, though she was doing it with slow, jerky motions and without letting go of Koneko's hand.

Yuuto was beside them, his movements more fluid but no less slow as he cut through a boulder to move its pieces to the side.

"...Sona," Koneko said, alerting the other two of her arrival.

Rias looked up, but her eyes were vacant and distant.

Was she just as numb as Sona?

"...Hey," Yuuto greeted, his voice hoarse.

"What-" Sona stopped when her voice came out in a dry croak that sounded like a sob. "What are you doing?"

"...Helping Onee-sama look for his cane."

"She said a Titan crushed the clone she had with it when Senpai-" Yuuto closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. "When Great Red bit the back of the Titan's neck. Once she summoned another clone to look for it, she couldn't find it."

Ah.

Sona... didn't know what to say to that.

So she changed the subject.

"I would have thought you'd want to be with Issei."

"They need some time together. Some privacy." Yuuto tried to form one of his charming smiles, but it came out as a grimace.

"The yakitori kissed the pervert as soon as she could." Koneko deadpanned, but there was no joy in the delivery.

"...Has he told you how he... came back?" Sona asked as delicately as she could. "Or what happened with... With Eren?"

She had cursed out his name so often in the last few hours, yet saying it now sounded so... alien. Foreign.

"...No. Not yet. Haven't really had time," Rias finally said, looking over in the direction Issei and the rest of her Peerage were. "I... suppose it doesn't matter now, does it? We survived. We're all here. We won."

Sona wanted to comment about the 'all here' part. Wanted to point out that it hadn't been a bloodless victory by any means. That the dead were still being counted.

But she understood her rival.

Rias Gremory was a kind devil.

But her kindness had become something... personal. Selfish.

And, to be honest, Sona was glad for it.

Rias wasn't feeling the weight of a society teetering on the brink. Her selfish kindness was saving her from all this loss.

"...It doesn't feel like we won," Koneko said, looking around at the clones of her sister still frantically searching for a cane that had probably been destroyed when the Titan crushed Kuroka's clone.

"It doesn't," Rias agreed, tightening her grip on her Rook. Her hand was shaking. Her eyes were on Sona. "I... After... After what he did... What you did... What I did..."

Rias took a deep, heaving breath.

The tears finally started to flow.

"Eren's dead. Aunty killed him. Again. We helped. And... I knew he was going to die anyway. Knew that stupid curse was going to get him even if he won. Knew that what he planned to do... HAD done was wrong. He killed a lot of people. He was killing a lot of people. But I... he..."

Sona watched Rias struggle to try and find the right words to convey the absolute mess of emotions she must be feeling.

Sona was still numb enough that the words slipped out of her own mouth.

"I hated him," Sona admitted. "I guess a small part of me still does. Because of the choices he gave me. Because he put Aunty in that position again. Because of... Issei, and the Rumbling, and hurting my sister and my Peerage and destroying so much of what I know and.-"

Sona stopped herself from continuing to ramble. Took a deep breath as Rias, Koneko, and Yuuto watched her and adjusted her glasses.

"I hate that I still don't see the point. I still don't understand everything. He-" We. "Killed a huge chunk of the Pillar families. Destroyed any hope of creating new Evil Pieces. And killed Great Red... And that's it? That was the end goal? All this for something that could be accomplished with Ophis' power, well-placed assassination attempts, and one or two Colossal Titan explosions? He didn't even need Issei's Gear! All this death and destruction. It just seems so pointless! And yet! And yet!"

"And yet you didn't want him to die." Rias gave her friend a watery smile as Sona's anger-fueled burst of energy ran out, leaving her numb and tired once more. "Even though he took something precious from you. From all of us. Even though a part of you will never completely forgive him for that. You never really wanted him dead."

"No," Sona admitted with a sigh of profound weariness and loss. "I didn't."

"Senpai... He couldn't stop himself," Yuuto nodded in understanding, leaning against the severed boulder. "I don't think Senpai can ever really stop. Even when he was with us, on the bench, he was still looking toward the future. Still thinking of what he'd do once he discovered the Red Dragon Emperor. And I think... I think if it weren't for Issei being his friend, he would have taken Boosted Gear and fought harder. Killed more people. I think he changed a bit once he talked to us and Ackerman-sensei. But he still couldn't stop. Because it wasn't about revenge. Not really. It was trying to build a better world, and he had to keep moving..." The Knight looked out over the crater of the battle. "...He might have wanted to be stopped."

"... Could'a won," Koneko nodded, rubbing her wet eyes. "Could'a killed us all. Didn't. Didn't want to. Eren was... kind. Strong. Violent. Scary. But... He didn't want to be. He wanted to be kind."

"Just one of those explosions would have killed everyone," Rias rubbed her hand against Koneko's head gently. "He didn't use it though. Didn't really kill Issei. Didn't even fight us at all, except when we attacked first. Eren... He was not a good man. But he would have been a good devil."

Sona considered telling them about the Founder and how Eren had deliberately chosen how this would end.

That he'd probably been smiling when Mikasa put him down again.

She would have. Even if it would hurt them to learn that Eren had been caught in the horrific trap of the Paths once more, it might give them some closure.

But then she noticed Akeno approaching with her father and changed what she was going to say.

"You have our thanks for coming to our aid," she said formally to the Vice Governor General as Akeno hugged Rias tightly. Both were shaking. "We might not have held out till the end without your aid."

"I couldn't let anything happen to Akeno. Not again."

There was a lightness to Baraqiel that was missing from everyone else.

Was it because he'd saved his daughter, didn't know Eren, or was he used to battles so much worse than this one?

Either way, he had a joviality that seemed so... jarring.

As if everyone should feel as numb and tired as Sona.

He even cracked a smile as he held up his regrown arm.

"I even got my limbs back out of it. Thank Asia for me, will you? I'll do it when I get the chance to talk to her, but that might not be possible for a while."

"I will," Rias nodded but didn't smile in return.

"You're leaving?" Akeno asked, pulling away from her King.

"There's... a lot to do," Baraqiel's smile turned into a grimace. "Devils weren't the only ones attacked. Thanks to the Satans giving us a heads-up about the possibility, we managed to hold off for a while, and once Michael came to help, we won. Still, a big part of our territory and facilities will need to be managed and, unlike Devils, we don't have that many leaders that can handle that sort of task."

"Er-Titans attacked you too?" Sona asked, surprised despite herself.

"No. Annihilation Maker's creations," Baraqiel's grimace turned into a full-blown frown. "The Chaos Brigade did something to the wielder, a young boy, that caused his Gear to go berserk and then gave his creations part of Ophis' power. We managed to capture him, and Azazel sealed his Gear. He'll need training before he's no longer a risk to himself and those around him, but Azazel is good at that sort of thing. The monsters it summoned were part of the attack on the other factions, so stopping him helped them."

"Other faction? Who else?" Sona asked with a trembling voice, almost afraid of the answer.

"Everyone." Baraqiel's lips thinned as he spoke. "This was the Chaos Brigade's big push. Every part of the organization used it as an excuse to finish their vendetas. Greek. Shinto. Egypt. Magicians. Secret Societies. Pretty much every faction was attacked in one way or the other. As far as we can tell, Heaven and the Hindu Pantheon were the only two that weren't."

"...Fuck," Koneko muttered under her breath in awe.

"We, that is, those who signed the Peace Treaty, got off slightly better than most since we had the warning from the Satans. Others weren't so lucky. A few would have been fully wiped out if we didn't stop Annihilation Maker and that Titan hadn't died with Great Red. The attackers lost Ophis' power and a good chunk of their reinforcements."

Sona felt dizzy.

She'd been ignorant. Myopic.

Eren's problems with the Underworld were well known, and she'd believe he'd simply used the Chaos Brigade to gather what he needed for his own attack, not trusting them to fight with him except as distractions for her sister and the other Satans.

She'd believed he might have even killed them before he attacked the Underworld as he'd made no secret he didn't like them.

...No. Those were excuses.

Sona had never even thought of other factions at all, too caught up in the doom approaching her people and her own misery.

At least, those were her thoughts before she discovered he could use the Founder, and she hadn't had time to reevaluate everything in the frantic hours since then.

Of course, he'd use the Brigade till the very end. Of course, he'd use his own death to snatch victory from them right at the last moment.

What else was she missing? What other assumptions were wrong now that she knew he'd experienced this all before ever meeting any of them?

Had... had Sona missed something important?

Something vital to understanding why Eren had chosen this ending?

"Don't worry about it," Baraqiel seemed to think her disquiet was from fear. "The Chaos Brigade, what remains of it, won't be able to do anything like this again. They failed too hard. Everyone will be on the defensive for a few years or decades as they try and recover. We'll be doing the same. The Hindus won't be a problem either. They keep each other in check. Just focus on rebuilding. The world has changed, but it's not over yet and won't end anytime soon."

Sona didn't hear him, too lost in going over her every memory with Eren, trying to piece together anything she had missed or overlooked in the panic since Issei's 'death.'

She barely heard Akeno wish her father farewell.

She was the only one who paid no attention to Ophis' arrival.

"Kuroka."

The tiny dragon had appeared next to one of the clones...probably the real one.

"Ophis," Kuroka said, her eyes wild as she continued to search for the missing cane. "I'm busy."

"Where is Eren?"

The search stopped instantly, and Kuroka looked down at Ophis.

The diminutive form of the Infinite Dragon looked back up at her with a blank face but eyes expressing so much.

Confusion. Fear. Loss.

"He killed Baka Red. I, have Silence. But... where is Eren?"

Kuroka's hand started to tremble.

"I, saved Issei. Eren doesn't need to hurt. I, have Silence. We, won. So... Where is Eren?"

"Eren... Eren's gone," Kuroka croaked, collapsing to her knees in front of Ophis and grasping her by her small shoulders. "Just for a little while. I'm gonna get him back."

"Where?" Ophis asked with a tilt of her head. "I, can't find him. I, could always find him. Why can't I find him now?"

Kuroka let out a choking sob, pulling the tiny girl into a hug as everyone just... watched.

"Is he hiding? Because I saved Issei? Eren should be happy. Because I was going to ask for a Banana Dimension? I'm sorry. I, won't ask."

"No," Kuroka said softly, hugging the girl to her. Her shoulders were shaking. "No. You didn't do anything wrong. Eren's just... just a blockhead. He's hiding from me. Because I want to be a bit selfish."

"Your Evil Piece wouldn't work," a hoarse voice told the crying woman and Sona was finally torn from her thoughts.

Everyone looked over at Mikasa approaching, Serafall right beside her.

Both looked like they had been crying.

Kuroka didn't seem to care about their state, only about what she was looking for.

"Give him back!" Kuroka said firmly, separating herself from Ophis gently.

"For what," Mikasa said rhetorically, her eyes empty and hollow. "He's not coming back."

"You don't know that!" Kuroka snapped, standing in a hurry as she glared at the other woman. "Give me him!"

"Evil Pieces don't work on him," Rias agreed with Mikasa, a complex look on her face as she looked at Leviathan's Pawn.

She wasn't the only one.

Almost everyone was looking at Mikasa with... well, calling it a melange would not be doing justice to their conflicting feelings.

Not that the Ackerman was any better.

She looked... destroyed. Wrecked. An example of misery so complete that Sona had never seen the like before.

"I know!" Kuroka turned her ire on the redhead but froze when she caught sight of her younger sister looking up at her. Kuroka sagged, tears flowing as she looked back to Mikasa. "Please. I know it didn't work for you. But... I have to try."

"It still won't work," Serafall said softly before Mikasa could answer. "The Evil Pieces need an intact body. He... wasn't."

There was a low, keening wail.

Sona didn't know who it was coming from.

It could have been her.

It wasn't Kuroka.

"Please! I need to see it! See him!" Kuroka pressed frantically. Begging. "I need to know if it was worth it! Please, just let me see his smile!"

It clicked.

With a sudden clarity, it clicked for Sona.

It wasn't the smile comment.

Eren might have lied to Kuroka. He had certainly lied enough, and deceiving Kuroka wouldn't have been the worst thing he had done to get the ending he wanted. Kuroka was also fair game for predictions since she supposedly wasn't immune to the Paths like Sona was supposed to be.

Like Mikasa was supposed to be.

No, it wasn't Kuroka or Mikasa that stirred the insight.

It was Akeno, watching the conflict with sharp eyes.

Akeno, who was also immune to the Path.

Akeno, whose words now rang through Sona.

At the time, it had scared Sona stiff, but it had been half-forgotten in the revelations about Eren, his world, and his goals.

"He once told me he'd die on the bench. Alone."

A sentence that took on a whole new meaning now that she knew he could see the future.

"What smi-"

"Aunty!" Sona interrupted, the numbness fading and energy coursing into her as her heart picked up until it was beating so fast she was sure everyone else could hear it. "Did he see you? Did Eren see you?!"

Mikasa blinked numbly, looking at the younger girl.

"Ah. No. I was... I was too late."

"Too late?" Kuroka asked with a growl, stepping forward toward the woman. Serafall looked ready to defend her Pawn, but Sona stopped them with another question.

"You didn't kill Eren, did you?!"

Mikasa looked down at the girl, seeing something in her eyes that made her heart skip a beat.

"No. I didn't. I was too late," Mikasa repeated, more firmly this time as anger replaced grief. "Someone else got there first. Rizevim Lucifer. He..." Mikasa's teeth clenched, and her hands shook. "He killed Eren. I... almost killed him. Would have killed him. But... he had Eren's head. He managed to get away. I'm going to find him and kill him..." The anger at the thought withered and died, once more replaced with grief. "And while I was fighting him, that mist took Eren's body. And Great Red's."

Sona didn't pay any attention to the rage on her aunt's face or on the faces of the other people there.

She just asked one more question, a desperate burning... something in her chest.

"His eyes! Did you see Eren's eyes? Were they grey? Or were they green!?"

Because Eren didn't have to be in his Titan.

And Titans didn't need to be huge.

Mikasa stared at her niece, almost uncomprehending for a second.

Then it clicked for her, too.

"You think..." Mikasa asked, a note of desperate hope in her voice as she reached for Sona's shoulders, locking her place so they could stare eye to eye.

"Answer the question!"

"I- I can't say for sure. His regular eyes look green if the light hits them right. Or blue. And without the sun..." Mikasa shook her head. "I barely saw him for a second. He was covered in blood, so I didn't see his skin. After Rizevim was gone, I got a better look, but they were pale. I could be wrong."

Kuroka also seemed to get it as she asked her own question, her golden eyes alight with their own fire.

"Was he smiling?"

"Why would he be smiling?" Akeno asked waspishly, not yet understanding what was happening. "He's dead! Eren's dead! You don't smile when you die! Not when someone like Rizevim Lucifer kills you!"

Kuroka didn't look at the girl, just staring at Mikasa.

"No," Mikasa said slowly. "I can't say about his eyes without... without hoping too much. But I can say, with a hundred percent certainty, that Eren was not smiling."

Kuroka laughed.

Loud, long and filled with such relief and joy that everyone had to stare at her as she scooped Ophis up into her arms, pressing the dragon into her breasts and spinning the small girl.

"Sona," Serafall said her name with such calmness that it took the younger Sitri a moment to realize she was also grinning.

And crying.

The tears that had refused to fall were now flowing without stopping. Everyone was looking at her like she was crazy.

Serafall waved her hand, and a magical boundary appeared, separating them from the rest of the rubble of a ruined battlefield.

Once they had their privacy, the Leviathan looked at her sister.

"Tell me what is going on. Or else."

The fact that her sister was saying something like that... It made Sona look at her aunt.

Mikasa looked...

Sona couldn't not explain after seeing the normally strong, dependable woman looking at her like that.

So, Sona put it as bluntly as possible to avoid confusion.

"Eren can use the Founder."

In the moment before the shocked and horrified listeners could ask for... everything, Kuroka added her own bombshell.

"Eren's known the day he dies since he regained his powers," the nekoshou's smile was infectious as she continued to squish Ophis into her boobs. "He told me he dies with a smile, but he never knew why he was smiling. He's been chasing that smile for thirteen years."

"So... You're sure... He's..."

Mikasa stuttered out the words as if not daring to hope to have the final confirmation.

Yet there was also a note of horror in her at the idea that Eren might once more be trapped in the endless hell of the Paths.

Sona gave her aunt a watery smile.

This wouldn't answer everything, and it certainly wouldn't solve the answer of Eren's... status, or whatever you wanted to call this ball of emotion and conflict within them all. Eren had just attacked them, killing a lot of people, and manipulated them to help, even if indirectly.

All this would do was put off the end, the grief, for a little bit.

A little more time to come to terms. To digest. To do things right!

Sometimes, just a bit of time was enough to say goodbye.

"Eren's not dead. He's still alive!"

********

As the privacy spells went up around the Leviathan, her Pawn, her sister, and the Gremory group, Vali tried to ignore Bikou's look.

He failed.

"I thought I told her," the White Dragon Emperor said a bit sheepishly.

Bikou just continued to stare accusingly.

[No. You didn't.] Albion's voice was tinged with exasperation. [As soon as you told them you found Eren, you fought her not to go to him immediately, remember? You spent the entire day convincing her to wait to use the attack as cover.]

Vali did remember. But he also remembered telling everyone that Eren had told him the bench was where he'd die.

[You only told them that after she had already left to find him.]

…Right.

Ok, so it was Vali's fault.

Or at least partially his.

Eren could have told Kuroka he'd die on the bench at any point, so the young Lucifer was only willing to take fifty percent of the blame... Maybe thirty.

He and Bikou returned to Kuoh to see if Eren was there after the battle while Le Fay and her familiars went to find Arthur.

He wasn't there, which probably meant Eren hadn't died yet.

Vali had been surprised not to find Kuroka looking there as well, and by the time he returned to the battlefield, they'd caught the tail end of her realization that Eren still lived.

"How was I supposed to know he wouldn't tell her?" Vali was starting to get defensive at Bikou's flat look. "He told me right away! Didn't even try to keep it a secret. Didn't tell me I had to either."

Bikou sighed.

"If I had known she thought Eren would actually die in this battle, I would have told her. No wonder she didn't want to fight," Vali ran a hand through his hair, ensuring it was still appropriately styled. "It's not like it mattered. Eren still kicked our asses. Our last shot, all of us together, and we still lost."

"...It was a fun battle, though."

"…It was," Vali admitted quietly, looking out into the distance where the Dream had fallen. "Not knowing if we'd live or die. Not knowing if victory was even possible. And getting to go all out like that without worrying for collateral… It's the most fun I've had in my life… Eren even left us a gift. We can find the Boob Dragon to fight with later."

The pair lapsed into silence, looking out over the battlefield once more.

Then Bikou snorted a laugh.

"What?" What had been funny enough to interrupt their cool moment?

"Nothing. Just…" Bikou was chortling, grinning like a monkey. "Do you think he knew? About Kuroka not knowing he would survive? That she was fighting thinking she was killing him?"

"Maybe," Vali shrugged, not understanding the humour. "I have no idea what he sees. He sees everything the Titans do but has no way of knowing what other people are thinking. Why?"

"I just found it funny that both women he's gone for so far have tried to kill him. One even succeeded. I was wondering if that was his 'type.' Ya know?"

"Probably," Vali smirked. "If that's the case, the entire world would be his 'type' now."

The smirk died as a more sobering thought came to him.

Eren, from even before he met Kuroka, had to have known she'd fight him today. And if he had known she was fighting to kill him…

Was that why Eren could fall in love with Kuroka in the first place?

Because he knew she wouldn't choose him at the end of it all? That Kuroka, when push came to shove, would decide to pursue her own happiness even if it meant it was no longer with him?

…That sounded like Eren to Vali.

"What are we going to do now?" Bikou asked as the silence stretched on.

"Eren still has promises to fufill. I will make sure he comes through."

"Just your promise," Bikou shrugged when Vali looked at him in surprise. "The Hero Faction got theirs. Ophis got hers. Kuroka, Le Fay, Arthur and I got ours. So, you're the only one left."

"Will the Monkey King agree this counts for your bet? Everyone thinks Eren's dead."

"Even if Eren did die, there's no denying that the Old Man isn't the greatest sage to ever live anymore," Bikou said with a mischievous grin tinged with smug satisfaction. "Eren, a sage, killed Great Red. It is literally impossible to top that. He'll argue, but we both know I won."

Vali couldn't really disagree with that, though he did feel a bit of regret at not being the one to finally beat the Dream.

As a child, he'd often wanted to be the one to kill Great Red and place white dragons at the top of the hierarchy of this world.

"I don't know where Georg is or where he took Eren, so I can't ask him about my mother…" Vali trailed off before shrugging. "I guess all that's left is to hunt down Rizevim. Eren did promise that he'd die miserably."

"Something tells me that we won't be the only ones looking for him," Bikou chuckled, looking at where the group was still talking, protected by privacy wards. "If we do find him, how will we kill him? You can't use Albion for it?"

"I have some ideas," Vali smirked, looking toward his rival surrounded by his… 'Harem' was it? "Let's find Arthur and Le Fay and see if they want to help."

Despite what he wanted the world to think, Eren clearly wasn't ready to die just yet, and Vali honestly couldn't wait to find out what could possibly be a more worthy end than the death of the Dream.

********

A bit of a breather chapter after the relentless movement of the last few. I don't want to brush off this battle's effect, as this story is still character-focused.

One of the most delicate parts of writing this story is managing who knows what and when they learn it. I've done my best, but there may be some inconsistencies. Feel free to point them out for me if you find them.

I don't think Eren's survival comes as a great surprise here. Chapter 1 spoiled it, after all, and a few eagle-eyed readers caught onto the 'green eyes' and blood-soaked skin part of the last chapter. I will say that pretty much all the setup for the end is done now, and I've left a ton of hints for those curious to find them.

To prevent spoilers, I won't comment too much on them. Instead, I'll highlight my take on one of the discussions I've read about after the last chapter.

Mikasa Vs Rizevim.

Like her fighting Vali, it is a matter of situation. Rizevim, if he sees her coming, could just inundate her with massive spells she might not be able to dodge and can't tank through until she gets a better grasp on Touki. She'd simply lose. That being said, Mikasa doesn't fight fair. None of the scouts do. They ambush. They come from behind/below/above. If she can get the drop on someone with Purgatorio, there are very few non-god characters that can survive.

Rizevim totally could have beaten her if he had been calm and gone all out. But he didn't. He's not Cao Cao or Eren. Every depiction of him in cannon is him either using his inborn power and abilities to curb-stomp opponents or torment those weaker than him. The first second he feels threatened, he flees, and when he is defeated, he begs for his life, throwing away all his 'beliefs' in his supposed nobility and supremacy.

Rizevim is strong. But he's venial, self-serving, and a bully. When push comes to shove, he literally has no redeeming qualities. Some people are just like that.

Anyway, I will see you all on Friday on the bench.

 

[munchingapple]

That being said, Mikasa doesn't fight fair. None of the scouts do. They ambush. They come from behind/below/above. If she can get the drop on someone with Purgatorio, there are very few non-god characters that can survive.

Click to shrink...

Yeah still feels kinda contrived IMO, like yeah Rizevim is a coward and everything as you said but I just can't accept "Oh she didn't fight fair" as a reason enough to get close at all, like no offense intended her but feel like you're kinda relying on the "Oh but Mikasas super fast and sneaky" as an excuse to just be able to insert her in some scenes, but as said previously this might just be a fundamental difference of opinion here.

 

[D.KnightOfShadows]

"Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?"

Click to shrink...

"...Helping Onee-sama look for his cane."

"She said a Titan crushed the clone she had with it when Senpai-" Yuuto closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. "When Great Red bit the back of the Titan's neck. Once she summoned another clone to look for it, she couldn't find it."

Click to shrink...

Hmmmmmmm.......

"I hate that I still don't see the point. I still don't understand everything. He-" We. "Killed a huge chunk of the Pillar families. Destroyed any hope of creating new Evil Pieces. And killed Great Red... And that's it? That was the end goal? All this for something that could be accomplished with Ophis' power, well-placed assassination attempts, and one or two Colossal Titan explosions? He didn't even need Issei's Gear! All this death and destruction. It just seems so pointless! And yet! And yet!"

Click to shrink...

Almost like you're missing some key information..... (and also kinda biased to not see why humans might have opposed the Evil Piece system so much, but that's just good POV writing!)

"Senpai... He couldn't stop himself," Yuuto nodded in understanding, leaning against the severed boulder. "I don't think Senpai can ever really stop. Even when he was with us, on the bench, he was still looking toward the future. Still thinking of what he'd do once he discovered the Red Dragon Emperor. And I think... I think if it weren't for Issei being his friend, he would have taken Boosted Gear and fought harder. Killed more people. I think he changed a bit once he talked to us and Ackerman-sensei. But he still couldn't stop. Because it wasn't about revenge. Not really. It was trying to build a better world, and he had to keep moving..." The Knight looked out over the crater of the battle. "...He might have wanted to be stopped."

"... Could'a won," Koneko nodded, rubbing her wet eyes. "Could'a killed us all. Didn't. Didn't want to. Eren was... kind. Strong. Violent. Scary. But... He didn't want to be. He wanted to be kind."

Click to shrink...

Ah yes, they truly do understand him. Eren's greatest, most tragic aspect: people can relate and understand him, which makes his actions hurt more, even if they can tell it also hurts him.

Sona considered telling them about the Founder and how Eren had deliberately chosen how this would end.

That he'd probably been smiling when Mikasa put him down again.

Click to shrink...

Had... had Sona missed something important?

Click to shrink...

Oh, the wheels are turning, almost there....

With a sudden clarity, it clicked for Sona.

It wasn't the smile comment.

Eren might have lied to Kuroka. He had certainly lied enough, and deceiving Kuroka wouldn't have been the worst thing he had done to get the ending he wanted. Kuroka was also fair game for predictions since she supposedly wasn't immune to the Paths like Sona was supposed to be.

Like Mikasa was supposed to be.

Click to shrink...

Bingo.

"He once told me he'd die on the bench. Alone."

Click to shrink...

We the readers know this was going to be true, based on the first chapter and Rizevim's false assumptions about how Eren's precognition works, but this is probably the first in-story time everyone has shared what they all know to get a clear picture from their fragments.

Mikasa knows the most about Eren's power and how The Paths and Founder work, but didn't know he had all of his powers back.

Kuroka knows Eren has all of his powers back, but not what all of Eren's powers are, or that there's a record of his final moments already known to people.

And Sona and Akeno know how Eren will die, but not how this may apply to the situation at hand.

Rizevim, of course, knows none of this but assumes he knows more, so he's in the middle of patting himself on the back, because the simple thought that he was wrong about how a literal alien's powers worked when he used preexisting second-hand knowledge to fill in the gaps and plan around is of course impossible, for a giga-chad, uber-mastermind like himself.

His reaction face when Eren pops back up to shank him will be as satisfying as Mikasa sending him running home with his tail between his legs.

Rizevim totally could have beaten her if he had been calm and gone all out. But he didn't. He's not Cao Cao or Eren. Every depiction of him in cannon is him either using his inborn power and abilities to curb-stomp opponents or torment those weaker than him. The first second he feels threatened, he flees, and when he is defeated, he begs for his life, throwing away all his 'beliefs' in his supposed nobility and supremacy.


Rizevim is strong. But he's venial, self-serving, and a bully. When push comes to shove, he literally has no redeeming qualities. Some people are just like that.

Click to shrink...

Yup. Sums it to a Tee. Rizevim is a little bitch.

Great Chapter

 

[kz3838]

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

 

[Kalstorm22]

Beautiful chapter! Seeing how most of the cast reacted to Eren's death was quite engaging, full of very moving moments, I could feel the anguish that griped Kuroka's heart as well as the pure shock that Sona was feeling. I also think that Koneko thought's on Eren's nature, of him wanting to be kind were very nice and insightful. I'll also admit that I forgot that Eren didn't need to be connected to his Titans in this world, and I didn't catch that his 'body" being covered in blood was probably to mask his Titan skin or possible his lack of skin, though I did get the eye color right. Then Vali having a realization that he forgot to inform Kuroka of where Eren would die was actually quite funny and it was a nice lighter tone to end the chapter on also I agree with Vali that it will be very interesting to see what Eren will die for in the end. See you Friday on the bench.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

Thirteen years.

As Mikasa listened to Sona recount what she had learned in the last few hours, she kept returning to that idea. It wasn't that she wasn't paying attention. Rather, Mikasa hung on to every word, imprinting them deeply to not forget a single fact of the tale.

But still...

Thirteen years.

For thirteen years, Eren had been trapped in the Paths, where every second was an infinite moment that was simultaneously his best and worst day, where he felt every pain he'd ever felt and saw futures that would never be.

For thirteen years, for every second of every day, Eren had experienced this attack, this second Rumbling. He was fighting his friends, her, and the whole world. His comrades were dying. Every wound was carved into him, and every heartbreak was presented to him anew.

And yet... Yet... Mikasa couldn't say he was worse off than he'd been in their world.

In their world, Eren had only been trapped in the Paths for a few days, but those Paths had been made of two thousand years worth of experiences from the perspective of countless Eldians.

Mikasa had always believed that those experiences in the Path, the pain of the Founder and Attack Titan's knowledge, had been a significant reason for the Rumbling. She'd always thought that experiencing all the pain and suffering the Titans had created significantly influenced his choice of end.

To have the slate wiped clean of all that came before.

Ending Eren's misery, once she learned of it after the fact, had been the one consolation for what Mikasa had done. Eren... he hadn't wanted to live like that. Death had probably been a relief. A release from his prison of torment.

Yet, in this world, he lived for a full thirteen years in that eternal prison.

If the Founder was so terrible, why prolong it? Why not choose a future that freed him sooner? Why not choose an end where he didn't need to suffer for as long?

...That was the question, wasn't it?

Why?

Sona finished her tale, her eyes still red from tears shed, but her smile faded as she spoke of what she had done. The price she had paid to ensure Eren got the ending he wanted while still saving as many people as she could.

Serafall was the first to speak.

"You should have told me."

"No."

She said the word immediately, without thought and consideration, but it was the correct answer.

Mikasa was sure of it.

"She did the right thing."

"Mi-chan..." Serafall said, her voice soft but chastising. "We could have helped. Come up with something better."

"Could we?" Mikasa asked, finally looking at her King. Mikasa didn't know what her face looked like, but Serafall flinched. "We couldn't. Not when he has the Founder. He won. He won thirteen years ago. All we can do is ensure his victory is as bloodless as possible."

Before anyone could say anything else, Mikasa shook her head slightly, refocusing.

"I'll still... fight Eren if he does something I disagree with. He'd do the same. Just... Sona made a hard call. One that saved a lot of lives. Because Eren would have killed more people if it got him the future he wanted. I know that. We all do."

"And if we had known, we could have organized something better," Serafall pointed out. "Something that wouldn't have put so many people in danger!"

"No," Kuroka shook her head. "You couldn't have. Eren needed to kill Great Red to get the memory of it to get Ophis' help." "I, still can't find him." "He needs to see '3' to being '2.' And if Eren had shown up with power and told you he could see the future, would you have let him destroy Agreas and kill so many of the Pillar families before fighting Great Red?"

"...How many?" Sona asked, looking at her sister. "How many did he- I, kill?"

"It wasn't you," Serafall denied instantly. "It was Eren."

"It was her," Rias denied just as vehemently, stepping up beside her rival. "You don't get to take that from her. From me. Any of us! We made our choices, and we need to live with them."

"Choices you made without knowing the future! Unlike Eren!"

"That doesn't matter," Akeno disagreed. "If we have to move forward, it won't be by ignoring our guilt. We might carry it with us, but it is ours. Eren did what he did. There is no changing that. But so did we."

"What guilt!?" Mikasa had never seen Serafall so frustrated. She looked ready to tear her hair out. "All you did was fight against a man trying to destroy your home and kill a bunch of innocent people! There's nothing for you to feel guilty about!"

"But he wasn't, was he?" Yuuto pointed out. "If he wanted to, he could have killed everyone. He killed Great Red. If he wanted us all dead, we would be. It wasn't about killing. It was about destroying something Eren thought was wrong, even if it meant making enemies out of everyone."

"You can't be trying to justify his actions?"

"Not justify," Koneko shook her head. "Understand."

"Just because we understand them doesn't mean we agree," Yuuto rubbed a hand gently through Koneko's hair. "Eren... he isn't evil. He just weighed things on a scale and found that the destruction of the Evil Pieces system and a large portion of the Pillars was worth the collateral damage."

"How many?" Sona asked again, more forcefully this time. "How many dead?"

Serafall looked at her younger sister, tears of frustration building in her eyes. It made her look younger than her centuries.

Then again, Sona had always been Serafall's weakness.

"How many!?"

"...We're still counting," Serafall eventually said, deflecting.

"You have a better idea than that!" Sona snapped. "'The first thing an army should do after a battle is to take stock of the remaining military assets.'"

"I never should have given you Falbium's books," Serafall muttered, almost petulantly. "But you were so cute when you asked..."

Ah!

"Onee-sama!"

As she watched the two sisters argue, a revelation struck Mikasa like a lightning bolt.

Seeing them, this handful of... kids, essentially, glare down one of the Satans, it was hard not to see it.

They were healed, but they were bloody. Tired. Stressed. They just had their first great battle, rivalling any others. One against someone they cared about.

Yet, they were still fighting.

"...Falbium's spells told him that of his eight thousand troops, two hundred and seven died battling the Colossal Titans. A hundred and eighty-seven Ultimate Class devils were part of the initial attack against the White Titan. Thirty-eight died. Among the reinforcements, fourteen died in the battle against the Colossals outside the Wall. As far as we can tell, the defenders inside only lost eighteen, as the Titans were focused either on Lillith or the Wall. Civilian casualties are less accurate, but at least a few dozen perished in the confusion, and a handful more didn't evacuate Lilith before the Titans got by you. We're still searching the rubble."

Mikasa's eyes swept the young devils in front of her, looking at their grim faces, then at Serafall and something just... clicked.

"...And how many were on Agreas?"

Even counting that she had spent less time with him than Kuroka or the others in this world, Mikasa still felt that she knew Eren the best. Understood his motivations the best.

And, now knowing he had the Founder and wasn't simply fighting but working with a plan he knew would succeed, Mikasa could finally try and put together the clues of all their talks.

"We don't know. They weren't part of the plan or Falbium's spells. The others and I were already away when the attack began."

Was this what Eren meant when he said he didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past? Was this why he had chosen this future?

"And you didn't receive a report from those who teleported to Agreas when you returned? Someone would have counted or recognized the extra Lords and Ladies. I sent out sixty-four letters. Even if only half answered, Grayfia would have taken note."

Mikasa remembered the relief she had felt for those few minutes when she had believed she didn't have to be the one to kill Eren again. That it was left to someone else.

"...She did, but I haven't received her report yet. I went to help you, then Mi-chan, then here we are. Onee-sama will tell So-tan later."

...Had Eren felt that same relief?

"Don't lie to me!" Sona snapped. "I know for a fact that you wouldn't cut yourself off! You are still receiving reports now, while we talk."

"Sera," Mikasa said gently, using their private nickname to grab the Leviathan's attention. "Tell her."

The pain on her friend's face only made Mikasa more determined that she was right.

"Protecting someone you love is kind. But only if they need the protection. If they don't, it's not love. It's a padded prison of ignorance and helplessness."

Mikasa hadn't realized what she had been doing to Eren for years. Her love and desire to keep him safe had been a chain around his neck. It was only when she let go, when she trusted him, that he had been able to grow. It had been too late then but in this world? It wasn't too late.

Seeing her older sister vacillate, Sona struck the final blow.

"Even if you don't tell me, I'll know," she said softly. "In order to get them onto Agreas, I had to make it look like I was acting against you in self-interest. Everyone there signed a magical contract to fund my school for decades, no matter what happened. I am going to inherit all the wealth and power they signed over. All I will have to do is count the empty seats in my next board meeting."

That finally pushed Serafall over the edge.

"Grayfia counted three hundred and forty-two devils who were not part of the initial plan." Sona's breath hitched as she stared wide-eyed at her sister. "Most were Peerage of the ninety-seven Lords and Ladies she recognized. If you only sent sixty-four letters, they shared the information with their family or retainers. Or Zekram sent out a call."

"That's..." Rias breathed out in shocked awe.

"Over half the members of the House of Lords," Serafall nodded grimly. "Plus various retired members and heirs. All together and based on names, Sirzechs thinks at least seven of the remaining Pillars are fully extinct. Four more are left with no one with their clan trait and will be demoted to Extra families if they survive at all. Six are leaderless, their heirs either too young to inherit or indisposed in some way."

"Satans..." Akeno's hands clenched and released as if trying to grasp something.

"We were lucky," Serafall continued grimly. "Our total casualties from this attack are expected to be less than a thousand. A fraction of a percent of the population. Other factions were not as lucky. Initial reports give casualty estimates between ten percent to full annihilation for smaller forces. That doesn't change the fact that most of our losses come from our strongest military forces. We are only slightly better off than the likes of the fallen."

Lucky was an understatement.

There were more casualties on a human battlefront, let alone one with the kinds of powers in play here.

But it wasn't really luck, was it? Not when this was a precision strike orchestrated by someone who could see the future.

The Titans, the flash and awe of it... It was all a big distraction to mask Eren's real targets and lure out Great Red.

"Bara- Father mentioned that heaven and the Hindu were not attacked," Akeno pointed out.

"The Trimurti have kept themselves stable for thousands of years, and the Hindus are not as prone to infighting as others," Serafall nodded. "Baring Indra and Shiva, the Hindus have no interest in changing the status quo. Eren killed Great Red, so he probably could have taken them on, but not while he was on a time limit like he was. No. He deliberately left them untouched and every other faction is wondering why. Were they in on it? Indra was. But others? Every eye is on the Hindus, waiting for them to show the slightest hint of movement while everyone else recovers. By leaving them alone, Eren's forced a stalemate. The Hindus can't move without provoking everyone, and nobody can attack them since they are so strong."

It was easy to forget behind the costume and magic wand, but Serafall was the Satan in charge of Foreign Affairs. Her entire job was to keep the peace between devils and the innumerable factions of the world.

"He's really created a cold war," Sona rejoined the conversation, recovering slightly from the shock.

"Why not heaven," Yuuto asked. "He's not really religious. Why didn't he attack them?"

"He probably didn't need to," Serafall shook her head. "Ever since the big guy died, it's been the weakest of the Three Factions by far to those that know about His death. Only Michael and the leftover System that makes us weak to Light have kept heaven as a viable threat. We benefited from the myth of his survival as well. Like the Heavenly Dragons, anyone who got in the way of His wars also became a target. Nobody wants to become a second Vritra."

"And if Eren knew about it, which he should, he'd know that destroying the Brave Saints would do more damage to heaven than an attack anyway," Sona ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"The ruse won't last much longer," Serafall continued grimly. "Most of the world still thinks He's alive, but He hasn't been seen in centuries. He didn't attack the devils during the Civil War and didn't attend the Peace Conference. It won't be long before it gets out He's dead, no matter what we do now. If this was before the Treaty, heaven would be wiped out. He made a lot of enemies that outlived Him."

"Will the Treaty hold?" Mikasa asked, mind still trying to piece together the fragments of her idea. She had its shape, the bare bones, but the details were lacking.

She wasn't a genius like Armin, but looking at these battered children- No. These young men and women. These warriors who had stood up and fought for their home.

Mikasa almost smiled bitterly when she remembered that their youngest, Koneko, was still older than Mikasa had been when she finished training and joined the scouts.

"Almost certainly," Serafall nodded. "It won't be as smooth since we can't provide the Brave Saint cards we promised, but Michael made the right call to help the fallen and us. It wasn't a purely benevolent move. He needs us to ward off the vultures once news of His death spreads. And we need heaven and the fallen to make up for our lost forces today."

"Eren... helped the treaty?" Koneko frowned in thought.

"Yes," the Leviathan nodded. "The threat of the Chaos Brigade is all but gone, but its presence never really helped as a unifying threat. It was too nebulous. Unknown. But other factions? Everyone is used to being wary of them, and survival is a great motivator for turning enemies into allies. It won't be perfect. Everyone will want to be the first to recover their strength, but it will be self-interested. With everyone weakened and distrusting, what few allies you can count on will be invaluable. I wouldn't be surprised if other factions didn't start trying to join the Treaty. Especially the harder hit ones like the Shinto or Greeks."

"What happened in Japan," Rias asked worriedly.

"The remaining Korean gods took the chance for revenge for what happened last century," Serafall said bluntly. Everyone winced at the reminder. "The Shinto Pantheon is still around, as is Amaterasu, but they are in no state to fight off the Jade Court if they decide they also want to take their own shot."

There was a note of grim silence as the reality of their new world settled on everyone.

It was Koneko who asked the question they were all thinking.

"What now?" Golden feline eyes swept them all, searching for an answer. "What do we do now? Eren is still alive. He's not done."

"With how tense things are," Sona let out a long, weary sigh. "If news he's still alive leaks, this temporary peace will end instantly. It's impossible to predict what will happen, but everyone will be scrambling to do something, either for or against the human that killed Great Red."

"But if he's left alone, whatever he has planned next might also set everyone off," Akeno pointed out, a grim fatalism in her voice.

"We can't stop him," Rias said, sitting down tiredly. "He'll succeed with the Founder, no matter what it is."

"You don't do anything," Serafall shook her head. "You've all done enough. You go back to school and let us take care of this." When all the young devils looked ready to protest, Serafall glared at them as the temperature dropped. That shut them up. "We'll rebuild, get things organized. I'd want to keep you here, with me, but So-tan, you need to be out of the Underworld. For as long as possible. I'll let you know when it's safe to return."

Sona didn't even look like she would argue; she just nodded. She could see the wisdom in remaining out of the public eye for a while.

It wouldn't stop the rumours or lessen the flow of wealth and power that would come her way, but it would hopefully mitigate the fallout.

It was, surprisingly, Mikasa who rejected Serafall's order.

"They'll help me," she declared. When her King looked at her Pawn, Mikasa explained. "I'm no use for rebuilding and not known enough to be missed. I'm going to hunt down Rizevim. They'll help when they can."

That got some wide eyes, but Serafall shook her head furiously.

"No way," she denied, crossing her arms in an X for dramatic effect. "I know you're angry, but he's a Super Devil! One of only three to ever live! You took him by surprise once, and he won't allow that to happen again. You can't beat him, and I am not going to allow them anywhere near him."

"Of the people here, Rias is the only one who could hurt Eren when he was going all out," Mikasa pointed out.

"That was with the power of a Heavenly Dragon!"

"A power that we can use whenever we want," Mikasa pointed in the direction Issei was huddled with the rest of the Gremory Peerage. "Eren chose a future where Rizevim 'killed' him. Visibly. Publicly. I got there first, but others saw him. I can't imagine Eren would choose that way if he didn't need to send a message. "

"Eren killed Great Red. Rizevim 'killed' him," Akeno said, even using finger quotes. "'Rizevim is a greater threat than Eren,' is that it? He's also the last remaining leader of the Brigade. Everyone else is either dead or fled. Eren did everything he could to ensure the world only has Rizevim left to blame for today."

"Trust me, Sera," Mikasa tried to reassure her friend. "I have no plans to put them in any danger I don't believe they can't handle."

"They shouldn't be in any danger at all."

Mikasa let out a small, sad smile.

"There's always danger. There will never be a world that doesn't have enemies looking to hurt you. All you can do is prepare those that come after you so they are strong enough to inherit the world as it is, not as you hope it to be."

"There is a big difference between training them and throwing against the third strongest devil ever born!? And why them? We can deal with Rizevim."

"No. You can't. You must be here, rebuilding and ensuring another Great War doesn't break out. And it has to be them. And me. Who knows what Eren told Rizevim. They are the only ones Eren can't see in the Paths, right?"

"Right," Kuroka, still hugging Ophis to her chest, nodded with her little smile. Around them, her clones still searched for the lost cane, but the urgency was gone. "Eren mentioned something about being able to see one of you, I think Issei, but everyone else he saw on the bench should be completely invisible to him. You won't be able to change the future he experienced, but he won't know what you did to get to that future."

"We'll still need your information networks to find him," Mikasa consoled her King. "And we'll only attack with a plan. I'll make sure they're trained. Ready."

"But not safe," Serafall muttered petulently.

Then she relented, giving her Pawn a begrudging nod.

Not even Serafall could deny these young devils' impact on this battlefield.

She was trusting Mikasa to do right by them.

"You know," Sona said in the silence that followed, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at the smiling nekoshou. "You were very vague on why he couldn't see us. You just said something about Kuoh and why he was there in the first place. Is it something we can replicate?"

Kuroka hesitated, biting her lip as her tails waved behind her.

Then she hugged Ophis tighter to her chest and told them.

About Eren running away, how he didn't know why he was smiling, and how he had gone looking for the part of the Path he was blind to. How he had found it in a park in Kuoh, a bench that nullified his Founder abilities.

She talked of finding him after the Peace Conference, meeting him again, and his continued struggle to understand the future. About how everyone he met for the first time on the bench was immune to his power, blank spots in the Path.

"He was always protective of that damn bench, no matter how uncomfortable it was," Sona sighed in fond frustration, adjusting her glasses. "He was probably worried that if it was damaged or moved, it would lose its power... whatever it is."

"I have no idea," Kuroka shrugged. "It's not magic. It's not Senjustu, Ki, Light, or Demonic Power. I sensed nothing from it at all, even when I was sitting right on it. And I am a much better sensor than Eren."

"Isn't he a better Sage than you," Akeno pointed out.

"Because he cheats," Kuroka pouted. "He has infinite time in the Paths to practice. If it weren't for the limitations of his body, he could theoretically be as strong as Ophis in Ki alone. But sensing requires outside practice, so he's only a bit talented."

"AH!" Koneko suddenly exclaimed and everyone looked at her in worry. She was blushing deeply. "...That's how you got your tails. That... bouchujutsu technique. When you... with Eren... you go into the Path. And you spend years."

"Right," Kuroka gave her sister a sly smile. "Onee-sama doesn't remember her time there, but it was long enough to get seven tails. Who knows what happened~"

Mikasa didn't need Language to understand that 'Bouchujutsu' translated to 'Bedroom Techniques' to understand the implications. She just had to hear it in the cat's tone and see the flush on the young devils' faces.

Despite everything, the intense jealousy still rose within her chest. That familiar rage, envy, and bundle of dark emotion she had felt when Eren seemed a bit too eager to spar with Annie or when she noticed his new comradery with Historia was just as present now as it had been then.

It was even worse, knowing that Eren had actually... been with the cat. She'd ignored it and would continue to do so because it wasn't like Kuroka was... with him now, but it didn't change what Mikasa felt.

It was illogical. She'd... not moved on, per se, but Mikasa had been happy with Jean. And, in a way, she was happy that Eren had something, someone comparable.

But feelings didn't care about logic. They were pathetic, messy, and all too flawed.

Like Eren, Mikasa could acknowledge the hypocrisy of her own feelings. That small but unignorable voice in her heart.

It should be me.

It didn't mean she wanted to dwell on those feelings. Especially since right now was not the time for it.

"Anything else?" Mikasa pressed. "Anything else you haven't told us about Eren, that bench, or his future?"

"...Only that meeting you made him even more reluctant to move forward," Kuroka said with a moment of thought. "He said he didn't want to inflict it on you again. That you would understand while we wouldn't."

"The Rumbling?" Akeno snorted in an unlady-like manner. "Everyone can understand the fear of not wanting to be squished like a bug."

"No," Sona shook her head. "Eren claimed it would be worse than the Rumbling. Or at least, that's what she told me."

Kuroka nodded with a grimace.

Everyone got very quiet then.

It was hard to fathom, here amongst the rubble and in a world with a destroyed sun, but this... attack was nothing compared to The Rumbling.

Less than a thousand dead... or a few thousand if one counted other factions, compared to one and a half billion?

Mikasa had lived through a post-Rumbling world.

The death of the Dream was shocking, but the impact would be nothing compared to the after-effect that event had on everyone and everything.

Even when Mikasa had died when the vast majority of the population was too young to remember the Battle of Heaven and Earth, its shadow still loomed over history.

There was a pre-Rumbling world and post-Rumbling world, and the two were almost wholly incomparable.

"Maybe he was talking about power rather than damage," Rias guessed.

They all hoped it would be the case, but nobody seemed convinced.

Still, Eren had the Founder. Whatever future he had already experienced, they couldn't change it. All they could do was try their best to shape it in their own small way.

Perhaps that was why Serafall sought to change the topic slightly from that grim fatality.

"I'm gonna have Adjuka look at this bench when he gets the chance," the Leviathan said. "If anyone can get anything out of it, it'd be him."

"I'll pull up what I can on the park's reconstruction," Sona said with a sigh. "Maybe there's a clue there."

"Suspicious."

"Do we have any other idea what might be behind it?" Yuuto asked, looking around after Koneko's summary. "It can't be a coincidence, right?"

"Someone clearly wanted Eren in Kuoh. Someone who knew how his power worked and his relationship with Mi-chan," Serafall said hesitantly. "We... have one more clue."

"Really?" Everyone looked at the Satan in surprise, even Mikasa, but it was Kuroka who asked the question.

"You remember the infirmary after your rating game?" Serafall asked, gesturing at Rias and Sona. They both nodded. Mikasa wouldn't forget that day, that talk with Saji, and the time after that for as long as she'd live. "I guessed Eren might be from Mi-chan's world, so I checked with Adjuka-chan. He confirmed it based on the blood you gave him."

"Okay," Sona said lowly, wondering where her sister was going with this.

"And we checked on an old experiment of his. One that hasn't changed in nineteen years," Serafall said, looking at her younger sister with a complicated expression. "Apart from being from another world, Mi-chan has another thing in common with Eren. This isn't the first time a wooden object seems to have power we can't sense."

Mikasa realized what her King was talking about before the Leviathan summoned the object from her own storage. Something she hadn't thought about, tried not to think about, for almost two decades.

It was a coffin.

It was a nice coffin, admittedly. The wood was polished and clean as if it had never been used, and there wasn't a scratch on it.

Under everyone's surprised eyes, Serafall popped open the lid.

Mikasa looked away, raising a hand to the scarf around her neck.

She knew what would be in that coffin.

It hadn't changed in the months she lived in Madagascar and wouldn't have changed in the years since.

If she looked, she knew she'd see it filled with her favourite flowers. White and fresh as if they had just been plucked.

Mikasa knew that in that pile of flowers would be an empty space that perfectly fit an old woman.

But there was no longer an old woman there.

Instead, it was just a short note.

She'd stared at it long enough to know its words by heart.

Mikasa never liked that coffin, even though her family had prepared it just as she asked in her will.

It was supposed to be her eternal resting place.

The final reunion with Eren, in a place where they were free of the world's cruelties.

Instead, it had become an ominous vessel that had brought her to this strange version of hell where there was no hope of that reunion.

...Only, that wasn't true, was it? She'd been reunited with Eren. In a way she couldn't have ever hoped for.

Mikasa looked at her coffin and saw the note lying where she once lay.

'A life for a life.'

Underneath that vague statement was a drawing of Pawn Piece.

"This appeared in front of me one day," Serafall said simply. "Teleported right through all my wards and defences. I thought it was an attack, but nothing else happened. I opened it and found Mi-chan inside with this note."

"What does that mean, 'A life for a life?'"

"I took the coffin to Adjuka to find out how it passed everything," Serafall continued, not answering Rias' question. "He examined it for three days and couldn't discover anything except that the wood isn't native to this world. But the flowers never wilted. The body, um, Mi-chan, didn't decay. It has power of some sort, one that stops anything within it from deteriorating, but we couldn't find out how it works. So, I reincarnated Mi-chan. We'd hoped she knew what had happened. She had no idea either."

More than that, Mikasa had been completely confused about what was happening.

And angry. And in denial. And despairing.

The point was that Mikasa hadn't been in any state to answer questions calmly. Especially since she didn't actually have answers.

"Don't the Evil Pieces not work if they aren't used right away?" Kuroka asked, surveying the inside with a critical eye. "Before the soul moves on?"

"We believe that whatever power keeps the contents fresh also prevented Mi-chan from moving on."

"So Eren has that bench, and Aunty has this coffin?" Sona asked with a furrowed brow. "Someone clearly planned this and created this item. Both of them. Someone who wanted to connect you, me, Eren, and Aunty."

Mikasa could see her King's conflict as she hesitated with the final clue. So, once again, Mikasa gave Serafall this last push. If she was right about Eren... about his intentions, then these young warriors needed to know everything.

"Tell her the rest."

Sona's eyes narrowed in suspicion at her sister.

"I only learned later," Serafall sighed, stepping forward to pull Sona into a hug. As if to reassure her. "But the moment I reincarnated Mi-chan was the same moment you were conceived."

Mikasa could see the wheels in her niece's brain grind to a halt.

There was the embarrassment, of course. Nobody wants to talk about or think about their own conception.

But there was also the implication.

With the note and the timing, it was too coincidental to be anything less than deliberate.

Lord and Lady Sitri had been trying for a second child for centuries, ever since Serafall had taken up the Leviathan title and never succeeded. Until the moment Mikasa was reincarnated?

Whoever was behind this had been able to influence a devil's ability to have children, which was infamously bad.

"That's impossible," Rias shook her head. "You're saying that Sona is-"

"I was the first to meet Eren on the bench," Sona said lowly, interrupting Rias. "Nobody would have talked to him if I hadn't started tutoring him. We just would have sent him out of the wards. And it was because of Saji's crush on me that Aunty heard about Eren... That's..."

Mikasa could understand the shock. The feeling like your life wasn't your own. Like you were just dancing on someone else's strings. Everyone who knew of Eren's ability faced that feeling at one point or another.

Serafall, though, wouldn't allow her sister to spiral.

"She's your Aunt because, without her, I might not have you," Serafall said with a small smile, still hugging her sister. "I can't imagine a world like that. You were my little miracle. Even if Eren does do... something worse than the Rumbling, even if he destroys the whole world and nothing we can do stops it, I won't regret a single moment. Because I got Mi-chan and So-tan. Because I had nineteen years of happiness out of the deal."

"No matter who's behind this," Mikasa said, stepping forward and laying a hand on Sona's head. "Never forget that you are 'Sona Sitri.' You made your choice. Hard choices. You've been hurt. But you should never regret being born in this world. And we'll never regret loving you."

Sona said nothing, just hugging her sister back and letting herself cry.

Mikasa didn't know what Eren still had planned. She could only think of two things he'd consider worse than the Rumbling, and neither seemed possible or likely.

But the end?

Why he was smiling?

Mikasa finally felt like she understood that part of him.

Eren had been smiling despite thirteen years of pain and imprisonment within the Paths.

What could make him smile despite all that?

Mikasa only had one answer she could think of.

Freedom.

********

Georg looked out over a field of graves.

There were hundreds, line after line of tombstones.

Georg had tried his best, using his magic to ensure everything was clean and that it would remain as preserved and sturdy as possible from any would-by defacers that would no doubt come in the centuries after he was no longer around.

Everyone had a grave.

Even those who had nothing left to bury.

Everyone's names were there, from the longest-running veteran to the newest recruit. He'd grouped them with who they fell with, their deeds carved upon monuments for future generations.

There was a kind of peace that came with knowing you were going to die, where it would be, and how.

It allowed one to decide how they wanted to be remembered.

Everyone left behind their own words for their descendants or visitors.

Still, for all his effort to make sure everyone would be recognized, Georg couldn't deny his own partiality.

While most of the graves had been dug and tombstones created by magic en-mass, he'd spent careful attention on the four markers at the forefront of this cemetery, sitting as the crown jewels to this monument to the Hero Faction.

The statue of Hercules was larger than life, smiling in the way he would whenever a new challenge appeared or when he saw an incredible explosion. The epitaph he had chosen was scrawled across the base, below his name, in blocky letters.

Live brightly. Laugh explosively. Let the world feel the impact of your death.

Jeanne, in contrast, had chosen a more classical monument, even if she added the request for a rapier to be stabbed into the traditional cross. Her own words were carved in a more flowing script as she spoke to her next reincarnation.

Surpass me as I surpassed the one who came before. Until our victory is absolute and bloodless.

Seigfried hadn't left any words behind for his grave, modelled as six demonic swords crossed over a man's head like a crown.

Instead, he'd just asked Georg to write down the results of his final battle, no matter what they were.

Georg obliged, and he liked to believe Sieg would have appreciated his choice.

I won.

Finally, Georg came to the last grave.

It was the simplest of the four, yet the most poignant.

A stone spear planted firmly in the ground, its tip poised toward the sky as if to pierce the very heavens.

Words scrolled along the haft.

Cao Cao. A hero.

Georg looked at his work, the field of graves in a pocket dimension here at the end of the world, and felt very lonely.

He wasn't the only survivor of the original Hero Faction, as he had gone to great lengths to make sure the world thought of the host of Annihilation Maker as a victim. Leonardo would be taken care of by the fallen. Vali would make sure of it. There had been some serious discussion of leaving him out entirely, as he was too young, but Annihilation Maker was needed, so they did what they could to ensure that he'd at least have a future.

Still, that didn't change the loneliness of looking over the graves.

They had chosen their end.

Georg had chosen to continue on.

Still, the melancholy didn't care about that choice.

A part of Georg wished he had died with them. That he wasn't the one having to bury his friends and go on, living life as if the world wasn't just a little bit dimmer from their deaths.

A more significant part wished to use the Grail that had collected all their blood and bring them back somehow.

It was theoretically possible. They had managed to bring back an Evil Dragon after all.

But humans were different than dragons, devils, angels, or monsters. To them alone was there a promise of an afterlife, of reincarnation.

His friends had all known of the Grail and, to a one, asked him not to bring them back.

They had wanted to be heroes, and death was the only rest a hero could get.

Better to die at their zenith than continue on, wasting away and becoming just a footnote in history.

Or worse, live long enough to become a cautionary tale.

None of them had been religious in the conventional sense, but Georg believed they all harboured a secret hope. One that beat in his own chest.

That their deaths would inspire their own legend.

That one day, their reincarnations could look at their past selves with the same pride the Hero Faction had felt once they discovered who they were.

Besides, Georg didn't have the Grail. Rizevim had taken Cao Cao's, and Eren's was still needed.

...Sometimes, Georg wondered if his reincarnation had been a trick of fate.

Like his namesake, Georg had made a deal.

'I want to see them become heroes.'

And Eren had delivered, just as he had to everyone else.

Even now, Georg wondered if the shades, the imprints of Jeanne and her followers, were still rampaging across Mt. Olympus.

Soon enough, the Reapers would rally from the loss of Hades, probably behind Thanatos, and they'd see them off to their proper afterlife.

Once they did, all the Grail would be able to conjure would be the imprints of their souls, not the souls themselves.

Georg would check in a couple days when he went out for supplies. He had to keep his returns to earth as few as possible.

He was a wanted man, after all.

One day, Georg would return to that original hideout, where friends founded an organization based on the childish dreams of heroes and monsters.

He'd place these graves there so they'd last even beyond his death and Dimension Lost's transference to a new host.

So, for now, it was just Georg and the graves.

And the mountain of crimson blood, flesh, and scale beyond.

In the moment's silence, as he bid farewell to the friends he loved, the comrades he fought beside, and the heroes he admired, Georg could hear it.

The only sound in this place with no wind, animals, or other life.

In this place beyond the Gap, where the world ended, and the vast infinity of the unknown stretched out endlessly beyond the mist of Georg's Sacred Gear, that sound might as well have been the clock's ticking for its regularity.

Without fail, every ten seconds, a voice would echo out from that gargantuan carcass that did not rot or decay.

Empty of all emotion or inclination, the voice reverberated as if overlapping with itself countless times as it slowly ticked down the minutes toward an inevitable end.

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

********

Death in DxD is... weird.

First, there are numerous means of resurrection, from Great Red, the Evil Pieces and the Grail. Yet nobody is desperately hunting the Sephiroth Grail, hoping to bring back loved ones and the like. Is it because its hosts are so rare or because Valarie's subspecies, Balance Breaker, is unique? And there are afterlives, but only for humans? And devils die but don't have one? Except if they're killed by holy swords or Light, they are completely obliterated? As I said, it's bizarre and inconsistent. As expected of a world of Shonen Boobs.

I've been trying to keep to the 'rules,' such as they are. 'Power' is a big limiter. You can't bring back someone who's stronger than you. Thus, nobody could really bring back Great Red when he died. Or God. The second is souls. Humans have them, and they reincarnate. So you can't bring back someone who is long dead. But monsters/dragons/gods don't have them, so they can be brought back even after centuries. It just takes more power.

Anyway, mechanics aside, this chapter has a lot. Like so much. I never want to feel like I pull things out of my ass, as I want there to be immersion, so kudos to everyone who catches all the hints I lay out. More threads I've left dangling are tying up, and the tapestry is coming together.

Most likely, you all have questions, but I want the story to answer them rather than an author's note. So, the next chapter will be the last Author Note before its full steam ahead to the end. Feel free to ask questions, and if the story doesn't answer or won't answer, I will. Probably only tangential things.

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

 

[Aravis]

Thanks for the chappy!!!

 

[kz3838]

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

 

[Kalstorm22]

Fantastic chapter! I really enjoyed seeing the threads and ideas starting to close and I'm looking forward to seeing how it will all be weaved together, as I still have many questions and thoughts racing through my head about what will happen next. Also, Georg giving the rest of the Hero faction a sweet sendoff was quite touching, and I really enjoyed the epitaphs that we got to see, as they each really showed an insight into their character even if they themselves didn't have much screen time in the story and it made them feel like real people rather than the cliche that they are usually written as. See you Sunday on the bench.

 

[Vanbers]

And devils die but don't have one? Except if they're killed by holy swords or Light, they are completely obliterated?

Click to shrink...

And then, of course, there's whatever the fuck is going on with Cleria Belial. Whose spirit just kind of... shows the fuck up, after Masaomi is resurrected, to calm his tits after he goes plus ultramad about the whole 'he and his lover executed by his closest friends' thing.

Like, she's just fucking *there*. How? Who the fuck knows. But she's a pureblooded devil, who was killed, and then her spirit just poofs in to say hi.

Hell, from what I vaguely recall, she straight-up went to Heaven with him when they were killed.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

136 days until the End.

Great Red did not need to eat. It had simply created a stomach within itself for the sole purpose of celebrating its victory over him.

Eren had less than a minute before the Dream simply vaporized everything within itself and returned to the void, content with its first cool fight thousands of years.

Plenty of time for someone who knew exactly what to do.

Eren emerged slowly from the enormous piece of flesh that was once the back of his Titans's neck. He remained attached simply because he needed to keep this final Titan alive for a little longer. He was too fragile to handle another transformation, but he needed to be out of it for this next part.

With flesh still connected to the regenerating Titan, Eren grew another, smaller form beside himself.

It was another 'Eren Yeager,' one in which he had spent centuries getting perfectly right in build, form, and expression.

There was no rule that a Titan had to look monstrous, and Eren was their creator. He simply found it easier to use Ymir's old frameworks, but he could, if he wished, create on his size and shape.

This Titan Eren was almost entirely flesh-coloured, not a creation of the Warhammer, but an almost tumour-like growth from the Titan Eren was still attached to.

Still, it was obviously not him to anyone who bothered to look closer. The way the clothes were attached to its skin or the change in eye colour Eren couldn't do anything about, but that was fine once there was enough blood to disguise it.

It only needed to fool Rizevim for a few moments.

Here, in the 'stomach' of the Dream, only seconds after being swallowed, Eren took the final step toward his plan.

With slow movements, ones due to the sheer power running through his body threatening to tear him apart, Eren raised an arm behind his head.

If the connection failed, his Senjutsu didn't heal him fast enough, or something went wrong in the transference, Eren would die.

He was not afraid.

After all, he'd already succeeded. He was just going through the motions.

He'd already doomed this world.

Eren was just going through the motions.

So, with hands that trembled from the strain of the Infinite's power flowing through them, but without any hesitation, Eren Yeager plunged a blade into the back of his spine.

Blood and spinal fluid sprayed Great Red's stomach.

********

136 days until the End.

Rizevim dragged his wounded body through the teleportation circle.

He forgo his usual subtlety when moving through this part of the Underworld. The Reapers were a mess; if they sensed him in his secret lab, they couldn't do anything about it.

Hades was a more significant concern, but he should still be with Indra, so Rizevim had enough time to grab his mother, destroy this place, and leave before the Lord of the Dead even suspected his presence.

Only... his lab was already destroyed when he arrived.

For a moment, Rizevim could only stare at the remains of what had once been a sizeable magical complex.

Then he snarled, kicking the corpse of one of his dead servants. What good were they if they couldn't even keep his stuff secure?

Rizevim stalked the halls toward where he kept his mother. He didn't expect her to still be there. Anyone who could find and destroy this place would have taken the Mother of Devils' body for their own, hoping to create their own army.

Still... if parts of his mother remained Rizevim could use them to replace his arm before going off in search of whoever had destroyed his stuff.

But that wasn't to be either.

Rizevim found the containment chamber even more thoroughly destroyed than everywhere else.

Every part of the pile of flesh that remained in the room was blackened and burned.

Not by fire but by something holy, rendering the lumpy mass entirely unusable for him.

Rage, like never before, kindled in Rizevim's breast as he looked at the sticky note taped to the place where Lilith's head should be.

'The Hero Faction would like to extend its thanks for your hospitality over the years.' -Georg.
'A hero needs to save a damsel in distress.' -Cao Cao.
'I wish I could see your face right now. I bet you look constipated, hahaha.' -Hercules.
'Nothing personal. We just don't like you.' -Seigfreid.
'Bleh >' -Jeanne.

Rizevim's one good arm destroyed the door.

His magic destroyed the rest.

********

112 days until the End.

"Eren Yeager didn't lose," Indra said, removing the shark from the hook, releasing it, and casting his line back into the sea.

"He's dead," Rizevim said, keeping his smile on his face even if his eye twitched at the name.

"Yes. But he won." Indra sipped his bear.

He hadn't offered the devil one.

"He's dead, and everything he's built is destroyed. I won."

"Won?" Indra laughed lightly. "Is that why you are here? No. What remains of the Brigade thinks you're to blame for their loss. Everyone else thinks you are the mastermind. No. You're here because nobody else will help you."

"I don't need their help," Rizevim answered airily. "I can do everything myself. I just wanted to give you an opportunity. All you'd need to do is get me the Nail, and once I'm done, I'll give it back with the Grail."

Indra's laughter was loud and boisterous, shaking the small boat in the waves.

Rizevim grit his teeth but didn't let it show on his face.

"You don't lack ambition, I'll give you that. And blasphemy. You have the Cup, and now the Nail?" Indra laughed, wiping his eyes under his sunglasses. "But you are out of date by centuries. I traded it back to the White God before your father died. It's probably in a Sacred Gear somewhere."

That was bad.

The Nails would be perfect for disrupting the seals, but the Iron Crown of Lombardy was a fake, replaced at some point in the past and this had been Rizevim's last lead on the other Nail.

The plan was still possible. It would just take months instead of a few weeks.

For an instant, Rizevim considered just... leaving.

Without Great Red, the way was cleared. A few hours and he'd be in a new world.

But the thought of leaving this world like a fleeing dog, of having this grey blemish continue to exist, sent shivers of revulsion through his chest.

No. He was Rizevim Levin Lucifer! The first Super Devil. The antithesis of all things good and holy.

He wouldn't slink away, beaten and chastised by the ghost of a human boy.

When Rizevim left this world, it would be as a conqueror. A demon king released to ravage all the worlds that yet existed.

"I see," Rizevim said, letting his smile fall. "Then I shall be on my way. I have work to do."

"Rizevim." Indra's voice, devoid of all joviality, stopped him in his tracks. "My war has been delayed by at least half a century. The Three Factions are unified but brittle. The Brigade and all its members are either dead, dying, or hunted. Every significant force has been weakened. The Infinite is limited. The Dream is dead."

"What are you saying?"

"Eren won," Indra said bluntly. "A human took on the entire world and won. He might be dead, but we are living in his world. One where gods fear humans. He bought time for a new True Longinus wielder to grow. Nobody has made a move in weeks. But the time Eren bought is also ours. A human's world is limited to a human's lifespan. Everyone is waiting for the first idiot to step out and test the waters of this new world. You'd be wise to do the same."

And don't be the idiot.

The rage and humiliation at the implication were barely contained. Rizevim knew the only reason Indra was even talking to him was because he was so restricted. The second the God of War tried anything strong enough to kill the Super Devil, everyone keeping their senses open, just waiting for an excuse, would jump into their business.

Still, he would not swallow this.

"You are wrong," Rizevim said, taking to the air on his wings. "This is my world. I took it from his corpse when he thought his foresight could predict the Devil."

"Tell that to them."

In the open waters of the Indian Ocean, it was easy to tell who the God of War was talking about.

There she was, the wind of her passage sending enormous waves flying from the speed of her approach.

Rizevim's shoulder throbbed. For a split second, he wanted to kill her. To fight her. Destroy her.

To break her.

But she wasn't alone.

The Gremory girl and Baraqiel's brat were with her, both glowing with the crimson power of the Red Dragon Emperor.

None of them used Sacred Gears. Against one of them, especially her, he'd slaughter them.

All three? With Indra nearby, and who knew what else watching?

Rizevim grit his teeth as he fled, his pride burning fiercely.

This was his world.

His to destroy.

They could enjoy their petty victories all they wanted.

He'd be the one laughing in the end.

********

110 days until the End.

Three seals.

That was how many Rizevim had managed to destroy before he was interrupted in his work.

The God of the Bible had spread these spells all over Earth, and only someone with Grail, or equivalent access to the White God's System, could even sense them.

This meant Rizevim needed to be the one to find them, destroy them, and do so without being caught.

It helped that Rizevim was in no way a blundering idiot. He kept his power suppressed, his presence low, and he only stayed as long as needed.

So, when after only finishing up with the fourth seal, out of the hundreds he needed to get through, Rizevim felt the teleportation magic appear around him, he felt more confused than anything.

He was in a small, rural chapel in Chile. The only people who had been around in the middle of the night had been a local drunk blearily watching the stars from the stoop that he'd killed easily.

How, by all that was unholy, had someone managed to find him?

Rizevim didn't have time to wonder, didn't even have time to formulate a plan, before the new arrivals, some sort of local magic sect, appeared and started shooting him.

Language translated something to the effect of 'For my brother... something or other.

Rizevim honestly didn't care and stopped listening, just reducing the dozen or so human magicians to ash. For good measure, he destroyed the town as well.

Then, he had to get going. Fast. The local deities were taking note.

They were weak, as far as gods went, but they were still gods, and Rizevim would not allow himself to be locked down into a battle he couldn't end quickly.

He hoped this interruption was the exception, not the rule.

********

96 days until the End.

"Rizevim killed the last parts of Nilrem in Iceland, but Vali's team chased him out of South Africa," Georg reported, leaning against the corpse of Great Red.

These reports, spoken to the corpse of a dead Dream, were pretty much all he had to do except send the letters.

Georg didn't know how Eren knew where Rizevim was at all times. His foresight used to be limited to the knowledge he could obtain himself, but he wouldn't question it.

Like always, Georg would follow the step-by-step commands Eren had laid out for him long ago, carrying him toward the future.

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

"The Greeks are waiting for him in Kavala, and I sent out the letter to Amaterasu."

Georg trailed off, no longer having anything left to report for the moment.

Looking out over the graves, Georg couldn't help the melancholy.

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

"Leo is doing alright, as far as I can tell. The fallen have been treating him right. They want him to join to help make up for their losses... Things have been mostly quiet."

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

"I've had a lot of time to think... About what comes after..."

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

"I want to train more heroes. I want to find their reincarnations and tell them of who they used to be."

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

"I don't want the world to forget them..."

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

"Or you."

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

"...Merry Christmas, Eren."

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

********

75 days until the End.

Serafall looked at the letter that had fallen to her desk from a clump of mist.

Like the last one, it spoke of where Rizevim was.

Like the last one, she hesitated.

They'd been extra careful last time, fearing a trap, and the Super Devil had gotten away before Mi-chan, Rias, and Akeno could fight him. The fact that Indra had been there at all made it seem like a trap, but the God of War hadn't done anything, and Rizevim had fled.

Knowing that Eren could see the future, Serafall knew the boy knew that she wouldn't catch the Super Devil at that time and was using it as proof of the letter's contents.

But did Eren know that Serafall knew that he knew the future and knew that he could set up the exact letter she wasn't prepared for as a trap?

Gah! This was making her head hurt and was so un-cute!

Serafall decided then and there to do her due diligence (with extra diligence because of So-tan!), and Eren simply had to set up his future around it.

She cast her spells, sent off agents, and had Mi-chan alert Issei to start Boosting.

Then, her unplanned work was done for the moment, and Serafall returned to what she had been doing.

More work.

The Underworld wasn't going to rebuild itself, and someone needed to streamline the mess So-tan had found herself in.

CURSE YOU EREN YEAGER!!! YOU STOLE MI-TAN'S HEART AND MY FREE TIME!!!

...Oh, yeah. And upended the world order and society, and rewrote the history books...

And destroyed her race's greatest method of population...

And killed a bunch of people...

But who hadn't?

More importantly, Eren Yeager toyed with a maiden's heart and prevented Miracle Girl Levi-tan from recharging her So-tanium!

If the Leviathan ever got her hands on the Titan, she'd Pew-Pew him so hard...

********

15 days until the End.

Rias, dressed in her traditional kimono, accepted the diploma with grace.

Her family was, of course, obnoxiously loud and celebratory with her brother's chants of 'Rias! Rias! Rias! Rias!'

Two years ago, it would have mortified her.

Now, she just gave them a warm smile, her cheeks only slightly flushed.

At least they hadn't brought a banner like Serafall, settling for just a few flags. Sona managed to get through the valedictorian speech, but Rias could imagine her friend had died a little inside.

It was nice to see them again. The fact that they could take this time off for their graduation meant things must have been calming down a bit in the Underworld.

Things on Earth had been... mixed.

It was increadibly hard to just return to school after everything, but it had just been so... peaceful.

It had almost been eerie how things just went back to normal.

Issei struggled to balance the attention of his growing harem. Sona was trying to manage her influx of wealth and power while dealing with angry letters/threats and trying to train up a replacement for Student Council President. And the Gremory Group had returned to making contracts, studying, and training.

Rias knew she wasn't the only one struggling to cope with the shock of returning to this peace.

The Battle of Broken Worlds, as Eren's attack had come to be known, hadn't even lasted a full day, yet Rias felt there should just be... more.

More impact.

More aftereffects.

It was as if everyone should feel like her like the world had changed.

Aunty Mikasa had been invaluable in the last few months.

Not only as someone to train with, her grasp of Touki growing by leaps and bounds that matched Rias' and the others' growth, but she was also as a bastion of calm and wisdom.

She was there to talk to Rias when the jarring dichotomy between idyllic peace and frenetic battle got too much. Or to help Sona juggle her responsibilities. Or to talk Akeno through her nightmares.

She was there to learn Senjutsu next to Koneko, teach Yuuto how to incorporate more aerial combat in his style and continue to push Gasper's growing physical conditioning.

Rias had even seen the Pawn talking with Kuroka late at night once.

Looking at the woman, her applause more subdued and her smile less jubilant than those around her, yet no less real, Rias couldn't help but appreciate the woman's presence.

Yet, it wasn't as if everything was perfect.

Their investigations into the bench and coffin had turned up nothing at all, and they had no other clues about the mysterious being who had orchestrated Eren and Aunty's presence in this world.

And Eren was still out there, doing who knew what.

As was Rizevim.

Rias hid the wince at the thought of the Super Devil.

They'd received tips of his location three times. The first, he'd fled before they could reach him.

The second time, they'd fought the son of Lucifer.

It had only been for a few seconds, but more than anything, it went to show the differences between Rias and those classified as Super Devils. If not for the power from the Crimson World Wall, she, Akeno, and maybe even Aunty would have all died.

Still, the devil fled in the end when team Vali showed up.

The third and most recent battle had been a lot longer.

Rizevim had set up a fortification of sorts, expecting more attacks. It was only thanks to their side also having more of a head's up, thus more time for Issei to transfer, that they had managed to chase him off again.

... Eren had probably planned things that way.

Rias couldn't help but notice a pattern as the days and weeks passed.

Despite being hunted by almost everyone in the world and attacked as soon as he appeared, Rizevim managed to stay just ahead of his pursuers. Not enough to escape unscathed, but enough to continue to live to continue his work another day.

Through warnings, notices, and letters, Eren ensured that Rizevim was constantly attacked yet never truly defeated.

Even if he couldn't see Rias and the others, he could still have Georg send off letters to other pantheons or enemies and use them as attack dogs.

Enough to keep Rizevim desperate, but still successful and at large.

Eren was buying time.

Even Rias, who wasn't a master tactician by any measure, could tell that much.

Granted, it was only apparent to those who knew Eren was still alive. Everyone else probably just thought Georg was hunting the man who had killed his leader and comrade and betrayed the Brigade.

Still, it was obvious that Eren wanted Rizevim to live a little longer and continue holding the world's attention while Eren did... something.

Whether he was just using the Super Devil as a distraction, really wanted him dead, or wanted him to succeed, Rias didn't know.

But the fact that Rizevim was up to something meant they couldn't ignore him either.

Rias felt that frustration again, that sense of helplessness at having her fate determined by someone else.

Even if they knew they were playing into Eren's hands, they couldn't stop.

Yet, Rias couldn't honestly say she was still angry at Eren. Not anymore.

Not knowing he was the greatest prisoner of this future he was chasing.

Did Eren want to die?

Rias had asked him that question long ago and hadn't received an answer.

Now, knowing as she did his history, the Rumbling, and the Paths, that question haunted Rias.

Was that why Eren was smiling in the end?

Was it because he was finally free of this life that had been nothing but a prison to a future he believed to be worse than the Rumbling?

Rias needed that answer. Needed to know if the boy on the bench's freedom was a freedom from life or something else.

Eren had the answer she needed herself.

Even Aunty's presence couldn't change the fact that Rias was feeling... empty. Listless. Like she had an anger or energy within herself and didn't know where or how to direct it.

If Eren was still here, if she could meet him one last time on the bench, Rias was certain she could have that answer.

So, as Rias stepped down from the stage, under the applause of a crowd who had no idea they were living in Eren's world, Rias reaffirmed her decision.

She'd follow Eren's Path to the end to hear his answer.

********

0 days until the End.

Rizevim let the triumphant smile stretch across his face as he flew through the void of the Dimensional Gap.

He wasn't the picture of aristocratic grace anymore, with one arm, missing half a foot, and his hair burned from his scalp by an angel's holy spear, but he didn't care.

He'd won!

It had taken longer than he'd liked, and he'd had... setbacks, but Rizevim Levin Lucifer had won.

Hundreds of pursuers died, and those that remained would die in the next few minutes once the Beast was unleashed to finish its work.

And Rizevim would be free!

Free of this wretched world. Free of these mongrels who thought themselves devils. Free of the loathsome shadow of the Titan.

Eren Yeager's memory would disappear under Trihexa, along with everyone and everything that had ever wronged Rizevim.

The son of Lucifer planned on spending the next few decades in whatever world he found, just enjoying this sensation of victory.

It had taken destroying hundreds of seals for him to sense the Beast's stirring, then hundreds more before he reached this point where it was ready to break free of the White Gods' shackles with just a little nudge.

Dozens of times, Rizevim had been attacked while he worked. Sometimes, he was interrupted even before he started breaking the seals, and he'd be forced to give up that particular one, but that was fine.

Rizevim didn't need to destroy all of them.

Just enough that the Beast could do the rest once freed.

All that was left was to carry the last seal he needed to break with him and follow the Grail's trail through the Gap toward the End of the World.

What a fitting name, Rizevim laughed.

If there was a chance, he could watch Trihexa destroy everything before he made his escape.

The catharsis that would bring... Um. Just perfect.

So, despite his wounds, Rizevim was smiling widely as he narrowed down on the section where the infinite Gap between dimensions was weak and thin.

It looked exactly like every other part of the Gap, a wash of psychedelic colours and vast nothingness, but the Grail told a different story. It sensed the boundary between the principle of life and the great unknown of other worlds, and Rizevim followed its trail.

The Holy Relic glowed, and Rizevim, with a broad smile, tore a hole in the void.

And emerged into a barren plane with walls of mist.

The Super Devil only had a moment to recognize the familiarities of one of Dimension Lost's creations before a blade nearly cleaved his head in half.

"GAHHHHH!" Rizevim screamed in pain, automatically detonating his prepared defences.

If nothing else, the last few months had given the Super Devil the combat experience he had lacked the last time she had nearly killed him.

The woman with the swords was blasted away, but the glow of Touki around her body protected her from most of the damage she would have sustained three months ago.

Rizevim didn't waste any time, unleashing a great burst of magic around him to destroy any other ambushers.

He was rewarded for his preparations by the grunt of pain of someone who had been behind him.

Rizevim barely had time to recognize it as the monkey that was always with his disappointment of a grandson before he sensed the disruption in space.

Rizevim threw himself out of the way as Collbrande carved through the space where he had just been.

The Pendragon and the Durandal wielder poured from the tear in space, chasing him.

Rizevim engaged a short-range teleportation, something he had become quite good at recently, and appeared behind them.

He aborted his attack as Black Rain filled the dimension.

Putting all his power in a barrier, Rizevim grit his teeth.

"You cannot kill me!" He taunted as his shield held out.

Holy Lightning joined the Destruction, and Rizevim endured that as well. They were weaker than they should be, he noted. They were still glowing with the crimson of the Red Dragon Emperor's power, but it was less than the last few times.

All the better for him.

"I've removed my weakness! I've multiplied my strength!"

The outer layer of his shields was destroyed and regenerated in succession. Power poured from the Grail over his shoulder.

Sensing a slight delay in the attacks,

Rizevim detonated the outer layer, using the blast as a distraction to teleport beyond the surrounding attackers once more.

He didn't turn to attack them, instead flying forward, the Grail leading him on.

A crimson wall rose in the distance, stretching from one end of the pocket Dimension to the other.

Rizevim smiled a bloody smile, power pouring from him and battering Eren's pet before the cat could get close.

That Wall and the walls of this pocket dimension were no barrier to Sacred Gear Canceller.

With one touch, he'd be beyond the Red Dragon Emperor.

A second, and Rizevim would be free of this world.

He'd like to see these insects chase him with the Beast of Destruction on their tail.

"You cannot kill me," he crowed, nullifying a rain of Holy Demonic swords. "I've won!"

Nobody answered him, and Rizevim lamented the loss of the youth's ability to trade barbs with their opponents.

She was chasing him, wings carrying her faster than the others.

Rizevim would delight in her death most of all.

Another tear in reality from the Pendragon, releasing the jaws of the God Devouring Wolf.

Rizveim hurried to dodge, knowing none of his barriers could protect against those fangs.

His dive placed him near the ground of the dimension, and he was about to nullify it when a rain of lasers and missiles from the golem forced him to ascend away.

She was gaining.

More Black Rain.

Rizevim finally realized why it lacked the power from the battle against the Titan. It was likely due to the desire to spread the transferred power around and not having the time for too many of his 'Wall Falls.'

Rizevim grinned. If the Red Dragon Emperor had simply focused on one person, the Lucifer would have been in much greater trouble.

But he hadn't. The reincarnated devil had, instead, ensured that nobody would be destroyed instantly by Rizevim, and it would cost him everything.

"I've surpassed the Titan!"

Teleport to avoid the spell trap.

"I've surpassed the original Satans!"

Dodge Durandal and send the exorcist crashing into the Valkyrie.

"I've surpassed the Creator!"

Dive and twist to avoid the Ryuu Jing Bang's sweep.

"You cannot kill me!"

He was within arms reach of the Crimson Wall.

"I've won!"

[Reset]

The Crimson Wall was destroyed with Rizevim's laugh.

And the Super Devil froze under the gaze of the Dhampir hidden behind the Wall.

No matter Gasper's determination to reclaim Valerie's Grail, it was only for a second. Rizevim was still the antithesis of all Sacred Gears and their powers, even frozen in time.

But that second was enough for Vali, also hidden behind his rival's Wall, to reach his childhood tormentor without any hindrance.

Rizevim's time resumed to see his disappointment of a grandson, the White Dragon Emperor, bathed in the crimson glow of Ddraig's transferred power, plunge his fist into Rizevim's chest.

The pain was... unimaginable.

But the fear was greater.

This couldn't be how he, Rizevim Levin Lucifer, the first Super Devil, died.

He refused. Not like this!

Not hounded by reincarnated devils, trash, and rejects.

Not at the hands of this... pathetic child!

Not when Rizevim was so close, mere meters from the freedom he had yearned for.

"You... can't... kill... me..."

"Just shut up," Vali said, using the hand not plunged into Rizevim's chest to punch the Super Devil in the face. "That was for my mother."

Rizevim's fear rose, swelling in his broken chest.

"Heal... me..." he ordered, though it sounded more like begging.

He knew they could do it. That nun girl should be around here somewhere.

Another punch.

"That was for me."

"I... die... final... seal... breaks..."

A knee to the groin.

"That was for everyone else you've ruined!"

It hurt. It hurt so much.

But the fear of death was so much greater than the pain.

"I... die... Everyone... dies..."

Vali didn't attack again.

He just looked into his grandfather's eyes, into the son of Lucifer, who had made his childhood a living hell.

And smiled.

"No," Vali said with a malicious glee. "Because Eren's still alive."

Rizevim had a moment to comprehend that fact.

To understand how everyone had been able to find him for the last few months and how these insects had known he'd be here.

Rizevim's last moment was one of horror, realizing he'd lost.

A puppet on the Titan's strings to the very end.

Then Mikasa's sword cut off his head.

********

136 days until the End.

Great Red looked around this cold, lonely world of towering sand dunes and bright blue stars.

And he looked at the boy, the tiny human dwarfed by the Titans of sand and the one pillar of white light in the center of this empty world.

The giant dragon looked at the tiny boy, and the boy looked back up at the towering beast, the only splash of red in this world of blues and whites.

"Welcome," Eren greeted the Dragon of Dragons, his voice an empty whisper as it echoed infinitely. "To my Dream."

********

This is it.

The last AN before the end of the story.

Like Rapturous Rhapsody, I will write a post-op on various things after everything is done, but that will be released after the epilogue in two weeks.

Next week, we finish On The Bench, and the epilogue will be on Friday afterward.

I struggled a lot with this chapter's framing, trying to convey events in an understandable yet still entertaining way. I decided to go with this snap-shot approach because, despite the significant time frame, not much actually happens/changes for the characters.

I spent dozens of chapters between Issei's 'death' and Great Red's, a span of a few hours, yet only one that covers months of time. There's a reason Eren needed this time to Boost, but I didn't want to needlessly delay the end. It would ruin the pacing of the ending if I depicted a bunch of battles that essentially went, 'Rizevim is here, is attacked, and escapes.' I don't think that would make for good reading.

Still, I am honestly surprised that nobody has yet to catch all the crumbs I've laid. At times, I couldn't help but go, 'Ah, they're totally going to guess it now!' I guess that is one benefit of serialization. All the clues are spread out over weeks and months, and only when taken as a whole is the complete image really clear.

Whether you've guessed the twists that remain, I hope everyone enjoys what is to come.

There is so much else I want to say, but I will leave most of it until after the story is done. All I will say here is that I am glad you've walked this path with me, and I will meet you all on the bench.

PS: I forgot to shout them out in the last chapter, but two more Omakes were made on Spacebattles. Orangemaster continues Erenel's story, and Netra released another Omake that can be considered semi-canon. I recommend everyone give them a read when you get the chance. After On The Bench is done, I will cross-post all omakes onto other sites with their permission, but if you don't want to wait, please give them a read.

 

[Jom Ghost]

My guess is that he's using the time to continually boost in order to kill TriHexa, the last "barrier" or "wall" between this world and the next, the last holdout before there's freedom.

 

[ScriptGenius12]

I'm confused, Eren fused with GR and dragged him to the Paths? Have they both been awkwardly fused together in the real world for the days that followed? Is GR dead or is Eren living in his barely living body like a Xenomorph chestburster?

 

[kz3838]

Well this is going to be interesting, I wonder what Great Red and Eren are doing in the Paths? Regardless, thank you for the great chapter. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[D.KnightOfShadows]

'The Hero Faction would like to extend its thanks for your hospitality over the years.' -Georg.
'A hero needs to save a damsel in distress.' -Cao Cao.
'I wish I could see your face right now. I bet you look constipated, hahaha.' -Hercules.
'Nothing personal. We just don't like you.' -Seigfreid.
'Bleh >' -Jeanne.

Click to shrink...

Okay this? Best Hero Faction moment in fanfiction. Bravo, chefs kiss.

Pettiness and spite and a final fuck you.

Bravo, guys. You stuck it to him, good.

"Eren Yeager didn't lose," Indra said, removing the shark from the hook, releasing it, and casting his line back into the sea.

"He's dead," Rizevim said, keeping his smile on his face even if his eye twitched at the name.

"Yes. But he won." Indra sipped his bear.

Click to shrink...

Should have taken the warning....

Through warnings, notices, and letters, Eren ensured that Rizevim was constantly attacked yet never truly defeated.

Even if he couldn't see Rias and the others, he could still have Georg send off letters to other pantheons or enemies and use them as attack dogs.

Click to shrink...

And all the while, there is a BOOST building up......

Eren played Rizevim like a fiddle and reduced him to a little bitch of a scapegoat. Heh.

And smiled.

"No," Vali said with a malicious glee. "Because Eren's still alive."

Rizevim had a moment to comprehend that fact.

To understand how everyone had been able to find him for the last few months and how these insects had known he'd be here.

Rizevim's last moment was one of horror, realizing he'd lost.

A puppet on the Titan's strings to the very end.

Then Mikasa's sword cut off his head.

Click to shrink...

Annnnnnd THERE IT IS!

Oh, that was exactly as satisfying as i thought it would be!

Nice.

And now, for the final act.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Amazing chapter! I'm glad that Rizevim got to realize that he lost in the end, that he died in horror, agony and fear because it is what he deserves. I'm also quite excited to see the culmination of Eren's plans, how he will handle Trihexa and what he needs Great Red to be in the Paths for, and to finally see why he is smiling in the end. I really liked both of the glimpses into Rias and Serafall that we got, as Serafall was funny and lighthearted which was a nice break from the seriousness of the rest of the chapter and I hope she can recharge her So-Tanium soon, Rias was a fascinating look into how most of the rest of the cast is dealing with the aftermath of their first real combat and the other consequences of some their actions. I also really liked Georg's thoughts on becoming a teacher for future heroes and finding the reincarnations of his friends, as that feels sweet to me and a nice add-on to the legend of the Hero Faction. See you Friday on the bench.

 

[Vanbers]

'The Hero Faction would like to extend its thanks for your hospitality over the years.' -Georg.
'A hero needs to save a damsel in distress.' -Cao Cao.
'I wish I could see your face right now. I bet you look constipated, hahaha.' -Hercules.
'Nothing personal. We just don't like you.' -Seigfreid.
'Bleh >' -Jeanne.

Click to shrink...

Fucking hell, I gotta say, this story has, hands down, my favorite iteration of the Hero Faction I've seen.

They're just plain fucking great.

"Yes. But he won." Indra sipped his bear.

Click to shrink...

Man, Hindu myth goes wild sometimes.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

Gasper dove for the fallen Grail as it fell to the ground, no longer supported by Rizevim's spell.

"Got it!" The cross-dressing dhampir cheered as he held onto one of the missing pieces of Valerie's Gear.

He was holding the holy relic with a toy grippy claw he'd brought, knowing he'd be unable to touch the thing without burning his flesh.

Unfortunately, nobody paid attention to the funny vamp's cute cheer.

Their entire focus was on Rizevim's body, suspended in the air, even though Vali had removed his bloody arm from his grandfather's chest.

The headless body floated there for a beat.

CRACK!

A sound, like broken glass, resounded through the pocket dimension.

A black crack, jagged and fractured, formed through the floating corpse.

Suddenly appearing in the pocket dimension, Georg yelled as he stood beside Issei.

"Everyone behind the wall!"

The Red Dragon Emperor, Boosted Gear already healed by Asia, started chanting.

Team Vali, well used to working with the holder of Dimension Lost, complied without even a moment's delay.

CRACK!

The Gremory Group took a moment longer, but they, too, moved behind Issei when the black crack extended from Rizevim's body and started to spread through the air.

CRACK!

Like reality was nothing but a piece of porcelain, the black crack spread further and wider, snaking through the air.

Above. Behind. Through itself. To the left and right. In directions that didn't make sense and the mortal mind couldn't comprehend, the cracking spread.

CRACK!

"What is that?" Mikasa demanded.

Issei continued to chant.

CRACK!

"A seal broke with Rizevim's death," Georg answered, staring intensely at the shattering space around them. "The last one needed to weaken for the Beast to start breaking free."

"Beast?" Kuroka asked. "What Beast? Where's Eren?"

The Crimson World Wall rose, separating the group from the shattering sky.

CRACK!

"The Beast of the Apocalypse," Georg answered, not taking his eyes off the cracks. "The one that invaded this world centuries and the God of the Bible fought and sealed. Rizevim's been destroying seal for months."

"Why?" Vali asked, readying himself for another fight. "What can it do? Could he control it? Can we?"

CRACK!

"It's as strong as, or stronger than, Great Red," Georg deadpanned without looking at the White Dragon Emperor. "The only reason it could be sealed is because it is a creature focused on pure annihilation. No higher thoughts, just an instinct to destroy. And it still led to His death."

"...And Eren let Rizevim unseal it?" Rias asked, horrified. "What is he planning?"

CRACK!

"More importantly, what can we do to stop it?" Arthur asked, glad Le Fay was still with Elane. Getting her to remain behind had been a chore, but at least she was safe from... whatever was happening.

CRACK!

... Tink.

A chip of darkness fell from the cracked sky.

"You don't stop it," Georg answered as the cracking stopped resounding. "You've done your part. I'll do mine. The rest will be left to Eren."

All at once, the cracks in the pocket dimension at the end of the world all shattered, a void tearing through reality and leaving an endless hole without depth.

And in that void, that was not darkness but the absence of everything that could be considered 'existence,' was a small light.

From the inside of the Crimson World Wall, they could look through and see that small light.

It was vaguely humanoid, in the shape of a small boy of indistinct form and size.

The only distinguishing feature of the being was the ten horns that adorned its head like a crown.

No sooner did they see the abnormality, did it howl.

A sound of primal rage.

The cry of a Beast bent only on annihilating anything and everything.

Without delay, the Beast threw itself against Issei's Wall with a ferocity that could not be conceived of by anything with a functioning mind.

As it did, it began to grow and change.

Heads, wings, paws, claws, jaws, fur, hide, tails and all manner of limbs erupted from the creature in a grotesque display.

It had completely transformed in that eye blink between emerging from the cracked void and impacting against Issei's Wall.

Vaguely primate-shaped and covered in writhing fur, densely packed scales and bulbous flesh, nobody would mistake this creature for anything remotely natural.

Each of its stout arms was from a different animal. All four of them. Its enormous legs, one pachydermal and the other feline were each thicker than two of those arms combined.

Seven enormous tails, long and thick, each of beasts that had no reason or relation to one another, grew from its twisted back in different shapes, yet all deadly in one way or another.

Erupting from shoulders of bulging flesh and scales, seven necks stretched toward the sky and upon each of them were the heads of seven beasts, ravening, roaring, crying and braying for slaughter and destruction.

The only commonality between the white core and the beast that impacted the Crimson Wall was the ten horns upon their head.

"Satans!" Issei cried in pained surprise as the Beast crashed against his armour, claws tearing, beaks pecking, and tails lashing him with a fury.

"Ise!" Asia immediately started to heal him, trying to lighten the load slightly.

All the while, the Beast continued to grow, its power being wrenched from the seals Rizevim had left untouched.

"He won't be able to hold out," Akeno noted with worry, comparing the growth rate between Issei and the Beast.

It was simply returning to its full strength faster than Issei could grow, and its ceiling was higher.

They had left Ophis behind, fearing Rizevim would have sensed her, and now they were coming to regret it.

Georg didn't answer, continuing to stare intently at the Beast through the Wall.

The misty walls of the dimension started to close around the Beast, a hazy blur starting to distort its form.

666 did not care, throwing itself against the Crimson World Wall with greater destructive power with every second.

Blood started to drip from Georg's nose.

The mist surrounded the Beast as it started to use magic.

Great tides of power, unfocused on any effect but complete annihilation, washed against Issei's scaled armour.

The blood came from Georg's ears now, with great red rivulets dripping in thick globules down his face.

"GAH!" Issei cried out in pain as the Beast, now hundreds of meters tall, plunged a bladed tail through the Wall.

He tried to hold on, but the time he had to grow and Boost was too short to stand up to this power level so quickly.

Those he protected could not cross the barrier and were forced to helplessly watch the onslaught.

A clawed arm tore large gashes from the Crimson World Wall, and Issei cried out again, the wounds reflecting on his actual body.

Then the Beast was gone, swallowed by the mist.

The Wall crumbled, but Xenovia was there to catch Issei before he crashed into the ground.

The hole in his chest quickly healed, and he gave Asia a smile of thanks.

Nobody had caught Georg as he collapsed, blood pouring from his eyes.

Asia still healed him once Issei was out of danger.

"Urhg."

The last Hero Faction member grunted as he stood, wiping blood from his face with a cloth. He looked at his blood-covered glasses, sighed, and threw them away before producing a new pair.

Slightly recovered but still a bit wobbly, Georg nodded toward Asia.

"You have my thanks. That could have been... very bad for me if you didn't help me."

"You're welcome," the former nun gave the descendent of Faust a warm smile.

Not everyone was as kind as her, though.

"Where did you send it?" Mikasa asked, grabbing the young man by his robe and dragging him to eye level. "Where is Eren? What is he planning?"

Adjusting his glasses, which had slipped from the violent motion, Georg answered leisurely as if he wasn't in a hurry.

"I just sent it to the Dimensional Gap. It would have ended up there anyway after it killed us and destroyed this dimension." Georg looked over the Pawn's shoulder to meet Issei's still woozy eyes. "I do apologize for our continued use of you. The Hero Faction and Eren owe you quite a bit of thanks."

"What did you do to Issei-senpai," a shaky Gasper asked, Grail still clasped in the plastic claw toy.

"Used him as bait," Georg said bluntly. Then he paused, tilted his head, and continued. "Again. My apologies for last time as well. It was necessary. If it makes you feel better, I do not believe there are any plans to do so again."

"It doesn't!" Issei retorted, feeling quite indignant.

"That's too bad," Georg replied blandly, looking back to the glaring Mikasa. "As I mentioned, the Beast of Apocalypse, 666, or Trihexa, however you wish to call it, operates by instinct to destroy. But it is fascinated with all things related to Great Red and Ophis, the only ones comparable to it in power. Hyoudou was brought back by Great Red, and his presence distracted it long enough to send it away before we died."

If what the magician was saying was true, it didn't take a genius to understand that the creature... thing... would head to the greatest source of that power.

"Where is Great Red's body?!"
"Where is Eren?!"

Vali's and Mikasa's questions came out simultaneously, understanding what the boy was doing.

"On earth," Georg replied genially. "And the Underworld... It's all over the place, really. Though I do believe the largest piece is in India."

"You..." Mikasa growled, shaking with fury.

Worse than the Rumbling.

That thought had turned over and over in Mikasa's head so many times over the last few months.

She'd tried, over and over again, to think of what it could be.

But no matter how she thought of the possibilities, of what Eren would consider worse than eliminating eighty percent of humanity, Mikasa still only came up with two answers. Neither of them would allow Eren to smile in the end.

The first and most straightforward answer was something that would lead to a number of deaths that exceeded one and a half billion.

Mikasa hadn't been able to come up with a way for the second answer to come about, and she knew she couldn't actually stop Eren with the Founder; she just did her best.

So she'd focused on the smile and what might have led to it.

She thought she'd found the answer in the young devils he'd considered his friend, but it seemed Eren had played her one last time.

"I do want to thank you for your help," Georg smiled fearlessly at the woman. "We could not have gotten here without you all. Don't worry, you'll be safe here."

"Don't hurt him," Kuroka advised at seeing Mikasa's fists tightening. "None of us can move through the Gap as quickly as him. He's our only hope of getting to Earth quickly."

"I'm trying to reach my brother," Rias said, worrying her lip as she cast her spell. "Everyone needs to be warned."

"You don't need to," Georg said genially. "They'll know soon enough. Everyone will."

"What are you trying to accomplish, Georg," Bikou asked, hands tight against his staff. "What is Eren up to? Killing Great Red wasn't enough, and now he wants a bigger battlefield on which to die? I didn't take him for the battle junkie type."

"He's not," Koneko said with complete conviction.

"You are forgetting who we are," Georg said with pride. "We are the Hero Faction! We fight for humanity! For the future! And Eren, he's one of us to the core."

"Senpai wanted to be a hero," Issei agreed hesitantly.

"But there is no such thing as heroes," Yuuto finished for him. "Senpai knows this. He won't unleash something like Trihexa just to be a 'hero.'"

"He's stalling," Akeno said, also trying to cast spells to warn those behind. "Distracting us while 666 moves."

"I am," Georg nodded. "But not till then. Until Eren is ready. We're safe here, and you can't stop me. Unless you kill me, which will leave you stranded here at the End of the World. Some of you are strong enough to survive the void, but not all of you. So, while I'm killing time, let me ask you this question. What is the greatest danger to peace?"

"Power," Rias answered instantly. Then, a bundle of destruction formed in front of the magician's nose. "Power you don't have at the moment."

"You're partially right," Georg carried on fearlessly. "A C- if I had to grade you. Uneven power is half the answer. The weak fear the strong. The strong ignore the wishes of the weak. The weak rise up and become the strong or are suppressed. The cycle continues."

"Enough of this," Mikasa snapped, throwing the magician away. "Issei!"

"YES, MA'AM?" Issei quickly stood to attention at the address.

"Start Boosting. Power up Collbrande. It should be able to cut open a way back with enough power."

"YES, MA'AM!"

"Maybe we should use soldier cosplay tonight," Xenovia whispered to Asia, who turned red at the idea.

Issei gained a derpy smile as he started to Boost.

Then his gaze went vacant.

Everyone stopped.

"Ah," Georg sighed, standing up and brushing the dirt from his cloak. "I had hoped to finish my speech first. I suppose you already have the second half of the answer."

It wasn't that the last member of the Hero Faction wasn't afflicted with the same thing as those with him in this pocket dimension.

He was.

Just like everyone else alive.

Georg had just expected the sudden dimorphism, where he existed simultaneously in two places.

Eren had told him that the trick was to do something, like cleaning himself, talking, driving a car, putting out a fire, or fighting for your life, that one could concentrate on in the real world.

The more relaxed, safe, unaware, or unengaged one was, the more one was overwhelmed by the second set of experiences. The peak was those who were asleep or unconscious. They'd have nothing to ground them from the Dream.

Georg was still there, with them, but it was a background awareness as he finished speaking.

"To make it clear, though, even differences in power can be addressed and responded to. Compromises can be reached. Agreements. Deals... Promises..."

Georg trailed off, mind wandering to promises given and kept.

Nobody answered or even paid him much attention, though he knew they were still aware of him. Could still hear him.

They could have said something, but they were too absorbed.

Neither the real world nor that cold Dream could be entirely ignored, but if one focused wholly on one, the other fell into the background.

They must be focused entirely on that world, not even trying to stop him.

So Georg regained his momentum and continued.

"But none of those can be achieved in the face of the greatest threat to peace."

For a moment, Georg allowed himself to sink into that shared Dream.

Around Georg, in a world without end that was still finite...

Where towering sand dunes stretched forever and time had no meaning...

Every sapient being looked toward the towering light in the center of this cold, blue world.

Every human, angel, fallen, devil, yokai, god, buddha, dragon, monster, and other races that could dream faced that light.

A singular, unifying experience that everyone alive shared.

And they couldn't turn away... Well, they could.

But no matter what they did or how they tried to cover their eyes and turn their head, they always faced that light.

And the figure in front of it.

Billions of eyes looked at the figures in the center of this world, yet they could all see him clearly as if he were right in front of them.

Distance wasn't a factor.

Time and space had no bearing in the Path.

At the center of this world, without beginning or end, was the sole splash of crimson in this world of blues and whites.

The enormous red dragon towered over everyone and everything. Its great eyes saw everyone, heard everything, and held all their gaze.

Yet it was still dwarfed by the pillar of light behind it.

A straight line from the center of the world stretching toward the sky that illuminated everyone.

And bathed in its blue-white glow, atop the head of the great red dragon was a young boy.

Georg tore himself from the vision by engaging his Gear and focusing on what he had to do.

He needed to return to earth, and he had no desire to see Eren, his leader and the man who had taken on the world, look like that.

There was something profoundly wrong in seeing a man in what should have been his moment of crowning triumph and glory as a six-year-old boy.

And Georg never wished to see his comrades cry.

********

The world was ending.

Trihexa, the Beast of the Apocalypse, had found Earth, the Underworld, and more.

Eren had Georg scatter pieces of Great Red's corpse throughout the realms before Rizevim had even started his journey to the End of the World.

666, having no greater thought than to destroy and finding a target-rich environment, did the same to itself.

From each of its seven heads, seven bodies split.

The horde of beasts, each only slightly weaker than the sum of their parts, spread to cover the skies of reality with their power.

And everyone, everywhere, felt it.

That power.

Magic, in all its forms, was the benchmark of strength for this world for a very good reason. While one's individual abilities gave the magic shape and inclination, enough power made distinguishment between types meaningless.

With enough power, reality becomes as you wish it to be.

Gods and dragons were the strongest races for a reason. Their very presence was a physical thing, a bundle of power so condensed that just being around it was enough to weigh one down.

For the first time since the planet had existed, the Earth and its inhabitants felt the complete focus and attention of a being equivalent to Great Red and Ophis.

Everyone could feel it.

And it was malicious.

Not evil, for evil only exists in opposition to the concept of good.

No, this was simple violence without reason. The raw, primal need to destroy.

To see something that was not the 'self' and hate it so much that it must render it all unto nothing.

Everyone felt that power and omnicidal urge that carried and knew.

Knew it was there for them. To destroy them. To kill them.

To render all unto nothing.

And that was just the presence of the Beast.

The fragments of Great Red's body had been scattered in largely uninhabited areas. Open seas, wilderness, and the like.

When Trihexa tore through the barriers of reality to get to them, its presence destroyed the world around it.

Earthquakes shook the planets and worlds. Volcanoes erupted.

The seas boiled and parted as the land was rent asunder.

Nowhere was this destruction more evident than in India, in the secret realms of the Hindu gods.

As soon as Trihexa had been pulled from attacking the Crimson World Wall, Georg had released his hold on the last pocket dimension holding Great Red's most significant piece.

A titanic dragon's head, neck, and wings fell into the laps of the Hindu deities.

Less than a minute later, as the Trimurti were still surprised and wary, Trihexa's main body tore through reality.

...

Nine seconds.

That was how long the apocalypse lasted.

Nine seconds between Trihexa's first attack and its last.

In those nine seconds, when everyone in the world felt its power and malice, the Gods and Buddhas of Mount Meru fought against the Beast of the Apocalypse.

And died to it.

They, who dominated the Top Ten, inflicted enormous damage in that short period. Each of the Trimurti was a being who could annihilate the bottom half of the list individually.

But in those nine seconds, they could not even fend Trihexa off. All wounds inflicted on it healed before any long-lasting effects could pile up.

Shiva, the god of destruction, instinctively understood their futility in trying to destroy something that embodied destruction.

It would be like trying to kill Great Red with a dream.

In the short span between departing the End of the World and arriving in reality, Trihexa had already destroyed the last of its seals containing its power, and not even the combined might of the Hindu Pantheon could ruin one of its forty-nine bodies.

Indra joined the Trimurti in fighting the Beast by the fourth second.

All considerations and preparations for their future war were put aside in the name of continued survival. Regardless of secrecy, they used everything they had to fend off the sudden invasion.

By the sixth second, the powers of the world, those still recovering from the attack of the Chaos Brigade, had launched their own counter-offensive against the rest of the bodies of Beast.

One could almost consider it a coincidence that those least injured, set back, or impeded by the coordinated attack by the Brigade were also those who were able and willing to throw themselves against the Beast of Apocalypse.

It wasn't.

To the boy whose past, present, and future were all the same, the decisions the greater powers of this world made in those nine seconds determined the fate they had already suffered.

By the eighth second, Trihexa's every body was engaged by at least one party, and the Hindus, not being idiots, had decided to use Great Red's severed head as bait to try and draw the Beast back to the Gap, where they could fight it at full force.

Reality was simply too fragile for them to go all out.

On the ninth second, as human governments and the unprepared barely recognized that something was happening, Eren took the last step on his Path.

One final sound resounded throughout the world on the ninth second.

[[[[[[[[[Boost!]]]]]]]]]

The power stored tipped over the edge and became self-reinforcing, even without a mind to consciously continue it.

On that tenth second...

In an empty world of blue stars, sand, and white light...

In the Unified Dream...

The boy spoke to a world that was not his own.

My name is Eren Yeager.

The boy, Eren, was crying as he spoke to the whole world. His words drowned out the voices crying out in confusion, fear, panic, or wonder.

Flesh bulged from every piece of Great Red scattered across the world and pocket realms. Growing, distending, and bursting.

I am using the power of Great Red to address all those who Dream.

Eren ignored those who bowed and genuflected, just as he ignored those who raged and fought for liberation from this strange mental prison. God or human. Angel or devil. Old or young. He ignored them all as he spoke into their very being.

From the flesh of the Dream, Titans were born.

Enormous humanoid figures, each hundreds of meters tall, these beings were even slightly larger than Trihexa.

I am from a world beyond yours.

For Eren could not see them. He was in his Path, that single line linking past, present and future. This moment was one he'd lived for thirteen years, no different from any other except the knowledge of what he was doing to the people he could not see but knew were watching.

These were not Titans as this world, or any world, had ever seen before. There were only two types, each fashioned after the Colossal Titan.

Each was larger than a regular Colossal, but they were still the giants of muscle and exposed bone. These two Titans duplicated hundreds of times, flowed forth from the flesh of the Dragon of Dreams.

And I have seen this world end.

Eren showed them a fraction of his experience. A few of the countless scenes of possible futures he experienced. They were but a tiny piece of various probabilities. The ones in which he survived long enough to witness their end.

In countless others, Eren Yeager died before the apocalypse, not strong enough to see it through to a 'finale.'

Everyone had seen images of Eren's Colossal Titan, the first form he took when destroying Agreas, and recognized one of these models as him by its long dark hair, green eyes, and pointed ears.

Only Mikasa Ackerman would recognize the second. Its bald head, lack of ears, more prominent ribcage, and stockier frame were as familiar to her as Eren's.

When shown pictures, her eyes would mist, and when her niece would ask what was wrong, she'd answer simply.

'Nothing. Just... glad to see Armin and Eren fighting side by side again.'

Countless times. In countless ways.

Eren did not show them the world the slow deaths. The ones that would stretch over years, decades, and centuries. He had not seen anything beyond his meagre nineteen years.

That still gave him plenty to show.

On the fists of those two Titans, red gauntlets cried out every ten seconds with an empty, emotionless voice:

[Boost!]

The army of Titans, created by Great Red's memory of Issei Hyoudou and the Boosted Gear, with the aid of the Holy Grail and Ophis' Infinite power, rose on Crimson Scale Mail wings to battle Trihexa on that tenth second.

Sometimes, it is from the inhabitants of this world. You inflict it upon yourself.

Eren first showed them the bombs falling. The searing heat and rumbling earth. Great mushroom clouds blocked out the sun and choked the sky with their poison. The earth shattered under their unsurpassed power, and nothing remained.

The supernatural side, hidden in their pocket worlds or Underworld, survived, but only for a bit longer. Without humans, they withered away, or their societies collapsed upon themselves.

The Beast of the Apocalypse did not care about the new arrivals.

It sought only destruction and saw these Titans as an extension of the Dream and the Infinite based on the power coursing through them.

Its entire focus was on destroying the Titans that rose against it, completely ignoring all the lesser beings around.

Wars of humans against the supernatural, those beings who have lived beside you for thousands of years.

Eren showed them the genocides. The persecution of beings that were different. That were inhuman. Angel. Devil. Yokai. Spirit. Dragon. It didn't matter.

In this future, humanity achieved power. They were gifted power, and they used to exterminate all other life. Or humanity lost and were exterminated in turn by those beings who were so much stronger than them.

666 did not care for collateral or long-term plans.

It simply attacked.

Always attacking.

Always advancing.

Wars of gods against gods. Angel against devils.

The Great War restarted, the skies were blanketed by Light, and blood fell as rain. Devils rose up behind twelve beings, each wielding a weapon of unsurpassed power and evil.

A coalition of Evil Gods, Hades at their lead, laid waste to all who would oppose them.

Indra and Shiva, at the peak of their power and preparations, battled across reality, and their war's aftereffects rippling through to all life that could flourish.

Some bodies attacked in tides of power, blasts of magic, and beams of destructive energy. Others physically launched themselves at the Titans, tearing into flesh with claw, fang, and bone. Tails lashed, and wings beat against the Colossal Titans.

You drown in the oceans of blood you make.

Time after time, Eren showed them possible futures. Ones of death, destruction, and war.

They cried out for mercy. For forgiveness.

Nobody could escape Eren's tyrannical grip, no matter how they tried to close their eyes, turn their sight or tune him out.

They could not ignore reality.

Eren... did not fight back.

Heroes have risen against the greatest threats to the peace of this world, buying you a little more time.

Visions swam of Jeanne, leading an army of spirits to swarm the dark monsters of the Underworld across Olympus's mountain.

Visions of Siegfried destroying inhuman facilitates of research, human and otherwise.

Of Heracles detonating himself in the middle of the battle between gods and dragons.

Of Cao Cao slaying Loki and Hades.

For a moment, spirits were buoyed by hope as they watched from the eyes of tiny white birds. The smallest Titans ever created.

Both forms of Eren's Titans continued to fly at the Beasts, unmindful of the damage they received.

I am not one of them.

Only to come crashing down.

Touki. Senjutsu. Amour. Flesh.

Trihexa tore through it all.

I destroyed my world.

The visions turned, and everyone felt it. The fear of the red tide. The pain of being crushed. The heat of steaming flesh.

Their insignificance as enormous feet trampled them and their world flat.

Yet... The Titans didn't fall.

I have watched others like me, from beyond your world, destroy this one. Those futures are the most likely. If you do not destroy your world, they will.

From beyond time and space, they came. Innumerable, uncountable creatures. Other in a way most brains simply couldn't comprehend. Some were humanoid, but most were too alien to understand. Masses of shapes and forms and sounds and concepts.

With bodies stronger than any before, crafted from the flesh of Great Red, buoyed by the Ki manipulation of the greatest sage to ever live and the most significant portion of Ophis' power, not even the Beast of the Apocalypse could destroy these Titans quickly.

The Beast you've witnessed is just the first.

Eren showed them a future where he did nothing, sitting back and hidden. Even without his presence to direct him, Rizevim's boredom, ego, and nihilism led him to unseal Trihexa.

In that future, the son of the devil caught everyone unprepared, and 666 laid waste to the world before organized opposition could form. It rendered all to rubble, then destroyed the rubble as well. Until there was nothing left, and it departed this reality in search of more to destroy.

Three of this universe's top four strongest beings were contained in these bodies...

...That had been Boosting, doubling their power, without end for four months!

It will not be the last.

In the next future, Trihexa was resealed by a coalition of gods, Buddhas, and other beings of power. They sacrificed themselves to hold off the end.

It left the world defenceless when the armies from other worlds came.

No sooner had a Titan been injured than it healed. Endlessly, Trihexa tore, rent, obliterated, and destroyed these giants. Endlessly, they continued to advance, drawing closer.

Others will find you. They will tear your idyllic peace and ignorant violence apart.

From Eren's eyes, they watched the invasions. The systematic destruction of the world as they knew it. Not annihilation, like the Beast wished, but assimilation.

This world would just become one of countless others. Another factory world, where inhabitants, materials, and workers were all indistinguishable from one another.

As the forty-nine bodies of the Beast destroyed and destroyed and destroyed and destroyed to its heart's content, Eren surrounded them in Titans.

They will take from you what they wish and destroy the rest.

Sometimes, the invaders, who were never of the same race or people, wanted one thing in particular.

They'd destroy everything else to gain what they wished, leaving the rest of the world to struggle in the aftermath, helplessly waiting for the next time someone wished to take something from them.

Layers and layers deep, Trihexa was tightly pressed by the endlessly regenerating flesh of Titans.

And, once the Beast's bodies were contained, packed so tightly with so many bodies that the blood it was drunk on could not fall through, the Titans took flight once more on their crimson-scaled wings.

Your defenders will be slain by the attackers waiting outside your universe.

In this future, Great Red was slain by great machine gods, rendered into parts, and rebuilt as the newest weapon of their ever-expanding multiversal wars.

The Titans pierced the veil between reality and the Dimensional Gap quickly.

The worlds collectively let out a breath of relief, feeling that power and malice leave them unmolested. It was an almost unconscious thing, as they were still trapped in the Dream.

Or by those they protected.

Loki, alive and enhanced by complicated magical machinery, turned upon his home world in exchange for power. Or survival. He wasn't the only one. In every future, there were those who would choose to turn against this world for their own interests. Maybe for love. Or survival. Or simple greed. Or vengence.

The Titans continued to multiply as they carried their forty-nine bundles through the psychedelic nothing of the Gap. They did not try to battle the Beast, for its regeneration matched their own.

Instead, they simply fed it a never-ending buffet of flesh and bodies upon which its endless appetite for destruction could feast as they carried it toward the End of the World.

Perhaps the Beast would have won at the end of this limitless battle of endurance had every ten seconds not brought another multiplication in power, always keeping the Titans' regeneration just a bit ahead of Trihexa's destruction.

Not once, in any future I witnessed, have I ever seen you unify to fight off this threat.

Even as the invasions, apocalypses, and wars played out in front of their eyes.

Even as they heard the screams of the dying and smelled the stench of the dead.

In no future was there ever unity of purpose. Any attempt to gain it, even from those with the best intentions and methods, was always met with opposition.

The Titans skirted around the pocked dimension, which still contained those few souls who had made this all possible, and placed themselves and their apocalyptic contents right where this World met the chaotic void that separated it from other Worlds.

There, where the rules of reality ceased, the Titans linked.

Arms grasped arms.

Scaled wings spread and overlapped with scaled wings.

Titans spread all along that great boundary, that sole ingress and egress to this World.

So I took the choice from you.

Finally, blessedly, the visions of the possible futures ended. In their place was a simple sight.

Had the misty walls of Dimension Lost parted, Mikasa, Team Vali, and the Gremory Group would have witnessed what they saw in the Dream with their bare eyes.

I do this knowing I am cursing you to a slow demise.

A wall.

A wall.

I do this knowing the chaos that will follow this day.

The Wall.

Issei would have cried out in surprise at its resemblance to his technique, wondering how Eren had done it. He might have even lamented that his Senpai had upstaged him.

I do this knowing most of you will fight each other rather than face your predators.

An enormous creation, forged from the bodies of countless Titans and trapping the Beast of the Apocalypse within itself.

Mikasa would have instantly recognized the differences between Issei's Crimson World Wall and this creation.

She had spent her entire youth living in the shadows of this wall.

I do this knowing I am leaving behind a legacy of hatred and fear.

It was half real, half Dream. It stretched endlessly around their World.

It had no beginning or end, a constant of their reality, fuelled by their Dreams and the constant doubling of power to maintain itself.

The Red Dragon Emperor's technique was created to empower those it protected.

This wall went both ways.

I do this knowing the intoxication of vengeance and war.

It was there, an obstacle at the End of the World. A barrier against the predations from other worlds.

Made from the endlessly regrowing flesh of Titans, with the shades of fallen heroes patrolling its battlements and containing the Beast of the Apocalypse within, it was a monument to the World's helplessness.

To their fear and shame.

This was a prison.

I do this because I can.

A cage to keep them confined.

Unless they were stronger than Trihexa, they had no hope of destroying this barrier and going beyond it to the worlds outside.

I do this knowing that all Walls fall.

No matter what they'd try, where they'd go, or when it would be, the Wall will always be there to stop them from leaving this world.

They were trapped.

The second of two fates Eren would consider worse than the Rumbling.

An impassible, unbreakable, and endless wall.

Whether something stronger than these Walls finds your pen while you squabble like braying livestock.

Eren could not show them a future where beings from beyond their world destroyed the Wall, for he had not seen such a future before his death.

Instead, he showed them his perspective of That Day.

Seeing the Colossal Titan looming over what was once considered an impenetrable bastion of safety and knowing it was all a lie. Eren let them feel his fear and shame of living as an animal in a cage.

Yet... As her gaze shifted from the Wall, Mikasa would see the look in Rias Gremory's eyes.

Whether someone who yearns for the worlds beyond these Walls grows strong enough to tear them down.

Eren showed them that moment, let them feel his joy, resignation, and determination as he tore down the walls that once entrapped him, beginning the Rumbling.

That hungry yearning.

That rampant desire.

That heat that swelled from a beating heart.

'We will be free.'

Success or failure. Predator or prey. Death or survival.

Eren's words, the futures he showed the world, the terror of forcing the world to confront itself and the horrors that lurked beyond.

It all served one single purpose.

And Mikasa Ackerman would finally understand everything.

All Walls must fall.

A warning and a plea.

The world could not, would not, continue as it had been. In ignorance and where old power prevented new growth that yearned for freedom from the yoke of the past.

Why he could smile at the end, even as he recreated the one thing he hated most in the world.

My name is Eren Yeager.

Either the world shaped up, grew up, came to understand itself and found a path forward, or it would be destroyed- by others or by itself.

Eren destroyed the world and saved it, bringing both terror and hope.

The chaos that would follow this day was unimaginable, but Eren had bought them time by sacrificing the last of his values he could afford to throw away.

Eren had given up on his greatest desire, the one that had shaped him since he was a boy, all for a world that was not his own. A people that were not his own.

I have stolen your freedom.

Yet, one tragedy was inflicted solely on the boy who cried as he imprisoned a world.

He, Eren Yeager, who had experienced this moment his entire life...

Yet, that desire, that wish, was not destroyed when Eren threw it away.

It had been picked up.

Scattered and fragmented between many people, that wish, that heart he had shared on the bench would remain. The lessons he taught would be carried.

Mikasa could see it now, the future Eren wished for, in the young devils that surrounded her.

She could imagine the look on Sona's face back in Kuoh.

The realization of hope.

Please.

... Could not hear the voices or see the faces of those desperately running, flying, or chasing toward him through those infinite dunes. Even as they tried to reach him, to convey their feelings, promises, and understanding to him...

In dedicating his heart to a world Eren would never see, a freedom he'd never experience, and a hope he could never truly bring himself to fully believe in...

In giving up his life, his ideals, his freedom...

Take it back.

Eren, as he had been for thirteen years, was blind to those he loved and the ones he was truly entrusting this world's future to.

Eren Yeager could smile because he was finally free of the chains he had placed on himself.

********

"Here," Eren gasped out through laboured breath.

Without Great Red sustaining him anymore, with Ophis' power run its course, not even the reinforcement from the Grail and his Senjutsu could hold his body entirely together.

Wounds were opening along his flesh, gashes and tears from parts of his body that were missing were steaming as they tried to heal.

It was too slow. Too weak.

Eren had given everything he had accumulated, thirteen years of work, planning, and power growth.

And given it to that Wall.

Eren's stubbornness was keeping him alive just a little longer, but this was it.

His time was up.

They both knew it.

"Are you sure?" Georg asked, looking around the park and hefting his leader over his shoulder. "This is Kuoh. They'll find you and-"

"It has to be here," Eren interrupted, nodding toward the bench that rested in that little clearing. "I am meeting someone."

"... All right," Georg swallowed his worry as he half carried Eren toward the wooden bench.

It was evident by the wards that this area was protected by the Gremory and Sitri heiresses.

Judging by the min-fridge, hammocks, and other quality-of-life items, the devils frequently used this area. Georg was worried that if... once Eren died, they'd deface his body, parading it around or something equally horrid.

They didn't seem like bad people, but after everything Eren had done, Georg feared the worst.

As always, though, Georg followed his leader's orders.

With little effort, Georg set down the weak man on the wooden bench.

Eren collapsed, leaning against the backrest as his body failed to support himself.

Georg looked down at the man who had changed the world, who had accomplished so much and irreversibly left his mark.

He looked weak. Tired. Gaunt. Even as Georg watched, pieces of Eren's cheek flaked off, falling in a bloody lump. The wound started to steam, healing, but it was one of many.

The last few months, trapped within the corpse of the Dream without food, water, and focusing solely on growing strong enough had taken their toll on a body already at its limit.

Georg could not save him.

All he could do was give his comrade one last gift, an action he took wholly without instruction.

"Here." A cane appeared in Georg's hand, and he pressed it into Eren's hands. They tightened around the familiar handle on instinct. "I picked it up during the battle in the Underworld."

Eren used the cane to push himself upright slightly. Enough that he could look Georg in the eyes.

"Thank you," he said softly, fingers running fondly over the white and blue wings carved into the pommel. "It means a lot to me."

With a shaky hand, Eren reached into the clothes that hung on his thin frame and withdrew the last Grail.

"I've taken too much already... It can't help me anymore," Eren said, holding out the cup. "Give it to them."

Georg took the holy artifact, and his hands trembled just as much as Eren's, if for different reasons.

Both young men looked at each other.

Georg knew it was time.

Knew Eren wanted to be alone, here at the end.

There was so much said and unsaid between them. Words of trust, camaraderie, thanks, and so many more that would forever go unspoken.

But there was one thing Georg needed to say, no matter what.

"Boss... Eren," Georg drew in a breath, swallowing his tears as he stood up straight.

He spoke with full force and pride, not letting a hint of sadness or loss enter his tone.

Here, at the end, he needed to say these words.

For dead heroes and those not yet born who would follow in their footsteps.

For those comrades who had dedicated themselves to a future they would never see.

And for the boy who had helped them accomplish their dreams.

"No matter what you or the world think."

Georg saluted the boy on the bench, his back straight and chest held proudly.

"It was an honour to fight beside you. You were a true hero!"

Eren's face twitched, but Georg couldn't read it.

It didn't matter.

The fact that Eren felt something at all at Georg's words, even if he disagreed, meant his feelings had been conveyed.

Yet Eren did not recriminate the final survivor of the Hero Faction.

He just gave one last command.

"Georg...Live a long and happy life."

"Yes sir!"

Georg turned sharply, setting out to fulfill his final orders.

The tears started to flow once the last member of the Hero Faction was embraced in that familiar mist.

Eren watched the mist dissipate.

Here he was, alone on the bench at the end of the Path.

Eren took a few moments just to breathe.

To recover what little strength he could for this final meeting.

The others would be here soon, and he had a meeting to finish first.

Thirteen years... Or nineteen, depending on how one looked at it.

His birthday had been yesterday.

Koneko would be a junior now. Issei and Yuuto would be seniors. Rias, Akeno, and Sona would all be in college now.

Had they celebrated the milestone?

Had they done it here?

Had Kuroka been with them?

And Mikasa?

...Eren wished he could see them again, one last time.

But he couldn't.

That was not how his Path ended.

In many ways, it had ended that night on the beach.

Now, he was just going through the final motions.

And confronting the truth of his time in this world.

Eren had done it.

He'd forced the horrors of the Titans on this world. He'd trapped everyone in a cage, walls greater than ever created before. This world had become cattle waiting for the slaughter.

Until something broke those damn walls.

From the outside, seeking the prey within...

Or from the inside, seeking the freedom without.

Eren had kept moving forward, one step at a time, to this end.

He finally had the answers he had searched for.

Or at least most of them.

One last meeting...

Then he could smile.

"Are you going to remain silent until the end?"

For a long moment, nobody answered.

Then a voice answered Eren, seeming to originate from nowhere at all.

"How'd you know I was here?"

"I need to know if you plan to do anything else with Mikasa and the others. If you intend to hurt them..."

"... Did you know it was me?"

"It was clear someone was behind everything. Someone with knowledge of other worlds and power enough to move between them."

"I can think of a few other suspects. Ones who aren't dead."

"...The futures where Rizevim touches my spine all end instantly."

"You could have just died. All your futures end with your death."

"It was just the confirmation. I had my suspicions about who you were for a while. Stop trying to distract me."

"...Apologies. I've waited for... a long time to talk to you. This is my first and last conversation. I'll answer your questions. I just need to know if I missed something. An old man's curiosity, if nothing else."

"You should know even more than me."

"I do, and I don't. This bench... I created it to block my power. I am as blind to your time on it as you are. This conversation included. Like you, I am not a mind reader... Never was."

"...I can survive after my spine is severed for long enough to heal. But Rizevim still kills me? I had a theory, one I tested after I left this bench."

"But not before?"

"After meeting Mikasa again and learning that our presence was deliberate, I wondered who could be behind it. Then I remembered Michael."

"Ah."

"Months with the Satan's siblings, but they never sat with me on the bench. Neither did Azazel, even though he was only a hundred meters away for weeks. They had plenty of opportunities. But they never did."

"They are busy people and thought you were only human. It's not really suspicious."

"Michael was in Kuoh for one day and sat with me. He, the strongest fighter of Heaven, was as protected from the Paths as Mikasa. I couldn't attack Heaven and predict the results accurately enough to guarantee a favourable result."

"...You'll have to forgive a father's desire to protect his children."

"I can. I answered your question. Now answer mine."

Eren asked the most important question to the dead God beside him on the bench.

"Why?"

********

...For one final time, I will meet you all on Sunday on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I am very curious to see why the Biblical God went through with this. And Eren making what is possibly the greatest wall to force people to come together or be destroyed is just heartbreaking. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[ScriptGenius12]

Even if he dies with a smile, Eren can't predict if the panicked people will fight amongst themselves or be attacked by outside invaders. The Wall might only delay the ExE aliens and that one evil god whose name I can't pronounce.

 

[zharshoul]

Kinda weird that he can accurately path outer god/alien invasions down to specific individuals actions with them but not other stuff that seems local. Is there a reason for that or just needed it for plot. Is the titan worm thing one of those alien creatures, is that how he knows?

I did expect the meeting with God on the bench due to that having happened in other fics/movies, carpentry and he was the only thing missing in the fic at this point for a full set.

 

[Vanbers]

>The coffin and bench are made of wood
>Jesus was a carpenter

Son of a bitch, it was in front of us the whole time.

 

[TheTinyGrayDog]

>The coffin and bench are made of wood
>Jesus was a carpenter

Son of a bitch, it was in front of us the whole time.

Click to shrink...

Dang that's so clever!

 

[Sonata]

Soooo G-man woke one day and decided, fuck this stupid harem anime bullshit, I will bring a true warrior that will make this world better or leave it ready for slaughter. And we all know how stupid Dxd turns near it's end, or that atrocity that is ExE.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Beautiful chapter! Seeing that Eren had to give up on his ideals and freedom all for the hope that this world (with his friends in particular) will be able to rise to the occasion and reclaim their freedom made we tear up a little, I honestly can't imagine a worse thing for Eren to do from his perceptive. That line of "Please. Take it back" was honestly a little haunting but very moving and quite powerful. I did not expect the Biblical God to be the twist and I'm looking forward to seeing what he was up to and what his plans were. See you Sunday on the bench.

 

[D.KnightOfShadows]

My name is Eren Yeager.

Click to shrink...

I have stolen your freedom.

Click to shrink...

Please

Click to shrink...

Take it back.

Click to shrink...

Ah.

Villain and Hero. Man and Monster. Titan and Human. Libeator and Jailer.

This really is the worst thing he ever could have done to anybody.

And it really is, truly, a very good reason to go out with a smile.

Two sides, and finally a whole picture.

bravo

"I can. I answered your question. Now answer mine."

Eren asked the most important question to the dead God beside him on the bench.

"Why?"

Click to shrink...

[Record Scratch Noises]

Whooooooaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!

.....wait, this means Rizevim was sorta right...... BUT WAS EVEN MORE OF A TOOL! HAAAAAAAA

oh but seiously looking forward to the next chapter.

A conversation between two who can see the future, in the one place they cannot; God and Man, huh?

Excellent

 

[ScriptGenius12]

Tomorrow

 

[GAMB42]

Big G took a look in the future (he is canonically one of the few capable of doing that in DxD) and decided he needed to outsource some good old-fashioned "salvation". Enter the dude who can deliver.

Honestly, every god and wannabe "Rizevim-styled" asshole must be burning in the fires of his/her/it inadequacy. Whatever else happens they just got slapped down hard...