After the birth of his two daughters, it was like the long vacation that Alex and the girls were taking was over as the majority of them returned to Asora. They had all been relaxing somewhat as they waited for Gabriel and Koneko to give birth, and now that they had it was time for them to get back to the usual day to day things. Shizuku and Shia both rushed off to challenge the Orcus labyrinth along with Suzu and Ryutarou, before moving onto Raisen. Even though she had already cleared Raisen once, Shia was willing to go back in to help Shizuku and the others through it as some extra muscle, though as they left Alex was sure he heard Miledy chuckling to herself while muttering about some plans she'd prepare for them. Apart from them Anne was also entering Orcus, however she was headed there in order to grind out a few more levels to reach her next hundred level milestone. They weren't the only ones though, as several other people spread out in order to challenge the various other labyrinths such as the Grand Gruen Volcano, the Divine Mountain, and the Frost Caverns of Scnee.
While others were starting to challenge labyrinths, Gabriel was making the transition to going back to work as the head of the angels in Asora, while also taking care of Edith. As much as she liked being a new mother, she was also missing her daily work as after doing it everyday for hundreds of years, it felt as if there was a sense of "wrongness" from not working for so long. This didn't mean she traded work for her daughter however, as Gabriel would occasionally take Edith with her to her office to ensure she was always around her, while her subordinates were also sneakily lessening her workload to ensure she wasn't being overloaded. Even koneko was doing something similar, as she'd bring Mai with her while she tried to hurriedly catch up to those who'd continued training while she was pregnant, with her daughter seeming to watch her mother intently from the sidelines. When the two mothers weren't monopolizing their daughters however, Alex was the one who spent most of his days taking care of them when he wasn't traveling around Asora and addressing any ongoing issues or checking up on everyone, meaning that on most afternoons he could be found taking a short nap with both girls snuggled with him.
He had completely transformed into a doting father who even seemed to give Barakiel a run for his money, though the latter once made the comment about how one day he'd find one of his daughters in a similar situation as when they first met(A.N. Chapter 51). When he heard this Alex immediately declared a duel against the fallen angel, resulting in him turning deathly pale in an instant before he tried to back out. The women around them however wouldn't hear it and, with even Akeno pushing for her father to accept the grave he dug, Barakiel had no choice but to accept and face the music. Later he was quite thankful that Alex fairly merciful in his beating, and that he hadn't flat out tortured him or set out to mentally scar him, though the display was enough to discourage anyone from having thoughts of courting his daughters when they came of age. While he was taking care of his daughters and helping run things in Asora during the day, at night Alex was reentering the space-time orb to spend time with the girls and train. Each night gave him roughly a week within the orb and, after a few days adjusting to the time difference in his days, he was utilizing the extra time as much as possible. He would usually spend his extra days training while tending to his women at night, as well as setting a day or two out of the week to relax with the girls while doing various things like swimming, watching movies, exploring the various other environments within the orbs, or just laying around aimlessly.
Like this the days slipped by, until it was finally the night before the beginning of the peace conference. As he entered the space-time orb at the same time he always did after putting Edith and Mai to bed, Alex was immediately greeted by the group that usually stayed in the orb, with Kuroka at their head. He smiled abut bitterly, and said while also scratching Kuroka behind the ears,
"I'm sorry but this time around there's something I need to work on by myself. I'm not sure when I'll be done so it may take the entirety of the week this week, or I might finish early and get to spend some time with all of you." Though the girls looked slightly dejected at Alex's statement, they didn't voice their discontent since they knew that what Alex was working on must be important, however that didn't stop Kuroka and surprisingly Shia from pouting as they tried to nuzzle closer with their fluffy ears twitching.
"Is it more important than us~Nya?" Kuroka pouted before Shia added,
"I guess we'll just wait here, all alone..." Alex looked at the duo with dumbfoundment as he never expected the usually antagonistic duo to work together, especially to try and guilt trip him. Before he could say anything Yue turned into her mature 'True form', and punched the two on top of their heads to send them crouching with tears in their eyes, even though her punches didn't actually hurt them.
"...You're troubling Alex, just wait as he said...." Yue stated firmly, before turning towards Alex expectantly. Shia and Kuroka watched incredulously as Alex planted a kiss on Yue's lips as thanks for her help, before leaving while promising to spend time with them when he finished what he was going to work on. He did feel slightly bad about leaving them since it had literally been weeks since the girls that were staying in the orb constantly had seen him, but Rias and Grayfia had both already pointed out that he shouldn't worry about it since it was their choice to do so. Putting the matter in the back of his mind, Alex focused on his task as he flew straight towards his personal floating island, before using Spatial magic to transfer directly into one of the underground facilities he had built into it. He had built several of these spaces for a multitude of purposes, and each and every one was sealed so that no one could enter them without his assistance, though Alex suspected that someone as skilled in Spatial magic as Kuroka might be able to break in.
The one he was currently in was something like a workshop/storage vault, that housed various stockpiles of building materials in storage rings, several impressive souvenirs from monsters he had defeated while in Tortus, and the things that he immediately focused on, five green jewels that were suspended in midair. There was one group that had three jewels, and the other two were specifically separated from them due to what they contained, a certain apocalyptic level slime that they had acquired in the Sunken Ruins of Melisine, and the lord of the underworld, Hades. The other three jewels contained the divine powers of Hades himself, Loki, and Nyx, and it was for those reason that Alex separated them as he didn't want to risk Hades somehow reacquiring his divine powers, while also potentially adding Nyx's and Loki's while he was at it. Alex then contradicted his previous intentions, and retrieved both the jewels containing Hades and his diving power, before placing the one with Hades on the stone table in the middle of the workshop. After dispelling the sealing on the jewel, he then found himself face to face with the skeletal ruler of the underworld.
"What do you want devil?" Hades demanded the moment he saw Alex staring at him, the light in his eye sockets flashing angrily. Alex smirked at the skeletal god's irritation, and stated,
"I just released you because I decided on how I'm going to deal with you." Even from the moment where he first sealed Hades, Alex had never intended to leave him for eternity; there was too many factors and possibilities for that to be a good approach as it was always possible that regardless of the steps he'd take, Hades could get free and attack him for revenge. Though this never worried him too much in the past, the birth of his daughters prompted him to take action sooner rather than later. The main reason he had never killed Hades until now though, was because death was never an absolute when it came to gods; just like Gabriel's Ascension into godhood, the remaining faith from Hades followers could help the god's soul return from the grave, primed and ready for revenge. When he heard that Alex had decided to "deal" with him, Hades's attitude changed completely as he asked in a condescending tone,
"Are you finally going to "kill" me? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Hades wasn't worried about being killed in the slightest, as he was the ruler of the underworld even in death. Though he would be weakened for a time, eventually his powers would return as even a state such as "death" would only be temporary for him, which was also the primary reason for why he appeared as a skeleton. Though, even as Hades laughed in his face, Alex's expression never changed as he waited for Hades to eventually stop laughing, before calmly saying,
"No, I am going to destroy your soul completely." As he said that Hades's laughter ceased entirely as he stated,
"Impossible!" As Alex looked at him he could see that a variety of emotions were going through Hades's mind at the moment, from incredibility to anger, and even a small amount of fear. Hades was the most powerful God related to the afterlife in the DXD world, it wouldn't be a stretch to say no one knew as much about souls as he did, with his knowledge only lacking in the creation of souls, and their destruction. Of course he himself had done extensive research into both of these but, as far as the destruction of souls went, he had long since concluded that it was impossible for him, and was something only a god of destruction could achieve. Upon this realization he never again uttered the possibility of destroying souls, as the last thing anyone needed was a god like Shiva running around destroying the souls of any he didn't like as he pleased, even though Shiva didn't care for such things. When Alex claimed to be able to do what he himself couldn't, Hades was filled with raw fury, jealousy, and even a small amount of fear. Though death may have no effect on him, having his soul destroyed would be the ultimate and final end for him; even if the faith in him never wavered, it would take thousands of years at the minimum for a new Hades to be born, and they would be nothing like the current him. These thoughts and more swirled around in Hades's head, until Alex said,
"It's not impossible, I acquired the ability to destroy souls not too long ago when I destroyed the soul of the god of this world." As he finished speaking Hades caught onto somethings Alex said, and he repeated slowly,
"T-this world?" Alex nodded and replied,
"Yep, we are no longer on earth, or the underworld, or heaven. We are not in any of the places you know of or been to, we are on another world called Tortus. This means you have no allies, no one will even be the least bit concerned that I have destroyed you, and by the time I return to our world, no one there will be strong enough to do anything to me if they found out that I destroyed your soul." As he finished speaking Alex reached out his hand towards Hades's chest, causing the skeletal God to flinch before shouting,
"YOU CAN NOT DO THIS! YOU CAN'T KILL GODS AS YOU PLEASE YOU FILTHY DEVIL!" Alex ignored his continuous shouting as he used Spirit magic to 'pull' the soul from within Hades's body, causing the god to fall silent as he watched his soul leave him. He the lunged at Alex in one final act of desperation and resistance, though with is powers taken from him he was unable to even reach Alex before he crushed the golden sphere in his hand.
"NOOOOOO-" Hades shouted before suddenly falling forward, the bones making up his body scattering as the magic holding them together faded, and life left his corpse permanently. Alex looked down on the bones and summoned some of his 'Dragon's Demonic Flames' to dispose of them, but he hesitated before doing so as he recalled several instances where bones were used for crafting weapons or armor. With what he was about to do now that he had finished off Hades, Alex decided to hold off and set the bones to the side for later, before sending a message to Grayfia stating what happened, not yet aware of the effects of doing so. With the bones cleared away and the stone table empty, Alex then said,
"Alright then, now for what I really came here to do!" He then summoned his oldest and most familiar weapon, Ascalon. As he looked at the blade Alex smiled as he recalled acquiring it and all of the times he'd used it, before a feeling of melancholy set in. Despite being a powerful dragon slaying holy sword, Ascalon was far from being the strongest weapon, even within the holy blade category. That was why Alex decided to try and use his Evolution and Creation magic to try and improve the blade far beyond what it was capable of, and hopefully even add to its arsenal. He then set Ascalon down on the table before creating a magic circle that surrounded the table to channel his Creation and Evolution magic through. With everything else prepared, it was time for Alex to add the final ingredient.
"I hate doing this..." Alex muttered, before stimulating his divine spark and activating one of his new skills, 'Divine Dragon's Breath'. As the flames kindled to life within his stomach, Alex instantly felt the searing pain that the divine power still inflicted onto his mostly demonic body. He then felt the pain travel up his throat, before reaching his mouth as he slowly blew the golden tinged flames towards his open hand. With the flames safely contained and sustained, Alex then used Regeneration magic to heal the damage they did to his internals before moving on to the next step. Using his 'Domain' and the Creation magic, Alex made Ascalon float slightly above the table before feeding more energy into the golden flames, and making them swirl around the holy sword until it was bathing in the flames. As the seconds slowly ticked by the temperature in the workshop gradually started increasing until it finally reached the point where the flames would have melted both the table and the surroundings if Alex wasn't already protecting them. Alex himself was starting to feel the burn even with his high resistance to fire due to the divine nature of the flames, however his response was to simply summon his dragon scales and act as if he didn't feel the heat. As the seconds turned to minutes, and the minutes turned to hours, Alex never so much as moved a single muscle as he channeled as much divine power as he could muster into the flames and the blade. After several hours of saturating the blade in the divine flames Alex finally allowed them to die down before he grasped Ascalon's grip and slowly lifted the blade, listening as it seemed to hum with power and contentment.
"..."
"It's almost like I can feel another presence now..." Alex muttered silently as he sent his intent into the blade. He had also used minute amounts of Spirit magic in the modifications in order to ensure nothing went wrong as the power of the blade was manipulated, but now he could sense a more intense bond with it than he had before, to the point where Alex now believed the sword would never "accept" another wielder without his permission. Intrigued by the changes in Ascalon, Alex began testing it by swinging the sword a few times before summoning a few practice dummies and slicing through them as if they were warm butter. After ensuring that the integrity of Ascalon wasn't compromised by his actions, Alex finally decided to test what he actually needed to enhance Ascalon for, using it as a conduit to channel his divine powers. With his divine capability so limited and potentially hazardous to himself, Alex had decided to supplement them by using a conduit to channel them through. When considering the different options for this however, the best solution he had arrived at was using Ascalon, it was already a sword attuned to the 'Holy' element so it wouldn't take as much to mold it to use 'Divine' as well. When he thought about this Alex channeled his meager divine powers into the sword, resulting in golden flames erupting along its length.
"How beautiful..." Alex muttered to himself as he admired the divine flames. He then spent some time re-familiarizing himself with Ascalon's new abilities, before reluctantly storing it away to move into his next project. This time he placed a surplus of Azantium ores onto the table before placing the jewel containing Hades Divine powers, but as he did so Alex glanced at the pile of bones that used to be Hades himself, before ultimately adding them to the pile as well. After finishing his preparations, Alex took a deep breath before exhaling some blackish 'Dragon's Demonic Flames' and preserving them like he did the divine flames previously. His plan this time was to create a new weapon for himself, except this time it's purpose was to channel his demonic powers instead of his divine. Though he had Ascalon and the staff Wukong gave him, Alex had never had a "Demonic" weapon even though he was technically a devil; to remedy this he intended to forge one using the 'Dragon's Demonic Flames', and the jewel containing Hades's divine powers. As the god of the underworld where even Devils had resided, he was closest being to a "demonic God" Alex could think of, making his powers a prime ingredient to add to his new demonic weapon, the bones were just a last minute addition.
The core ability of this weapon though was going to be conceived from Conception magic, a magic that unless utilized correctly, was only a one time use. With Lauren guiding him on how to cast the magic so that the Conception magic wouldn't fade after constant use, Alex started focusing on the "Concept" he wanted his weapon to use. He recalled the day that started all of this, the day he heard a woman scream and didn't mind his own business, the day he first met Anne. He recalled the sight of the gun the man held, something that meant life or death before but was insignificant to him now, the feeling as the bullet tore through his body. As he relived that day he also focused on what happened after, as his senses shut down bit by bit, the coldness creeping up through his body. As he relived that experience Alex fully grasped the concept he wanted and channeled it into his magic, the concept of DEATH.
***
As the days within the space-time orb crawled by, so too did the hours of night in Tortus, until the light of the rising sun could be seen on the horizon. As it slowly rose it shined light on a gathering of around ten thousand people, all armed and prepared for war. They were a group the likes of which had never been seen before on Tortus, with humans, demon race, and Demihuman slaves making up their number, and they were united temporarily for a single purpose. At their center was an elderly man that would have looked like a kindly old grandpa normally, however the platform he stood on that was supported by a dozen Demihuman slaves coupled with his sadistic smile ruined this image. He was dressed lavishly in white ceremonial robes with a regal crown on his head while wielding a giant ornate scepter, and as the sun rose behind him every eye turned towards him, waiting for his proclamation. The "new pope" of the church took a deep breath, before declaring,
"My children, we have gathered here despite our differences for a single yet divine purpose, the elimination of the false goddess and the murderer that claims to be her champion!" As his declaration rang out there was a resounding cheer from the thousands gathered that seemed to even shake the sky and earth itself. As they cheered the new pope waited until they settled down before continuing,
"Humans, and demons, we have fought each other since time began and it is only natural that we continue doing so until it ends, just as it is only natural that the demihumans place is beneath us as our slaves, yet this false goddess and her champion intend to spit upon our prided history! They would proclaim that we should be peaceful, and that even the animals that are demihumans be treated equally, this is not natural!" As he finished speaking there was once again a thunderous cheer of agreement from the masses below him, except as they cheered they also glared at their "allies", as if expecting them to turn on them at any moment. It was an unspoken agreement that once the champion and goddess were no more, the surviving people of their army would most likely turn on each other and the humans would slay the demons, or vice versa as nature demanded. As the thunderous cheers silenced once more, the pope continued,
"Even now, this very day, they plan to go against god's intentions, and have gathered the leaders of these once proud people together to talk of peace, with even whispers that the evil dragon race, once thought to be extinct, will attend! Our brothers have boldly attended this gathering and have told us of its location, and tonight there will be a grand ball to welcome the leaders of each great nation! We will march there, and we will show them how truly weak this goddess and her champion are; those who would rather spread lies declaring that they had killed our God, and attack his glorious temples in secrecy than fight true and fair!" At this the loudest cheers yet thundered through the skies, as several figures were raised up above the cheering masses. They were effigies that were similar to scarecrows, yet each one had specific characteristics that separated it from a normal scarecrow.
One was smaller than most with what appeared to be platinum bland hair and painted red eyes, along with a couple points that were obviously supposed to be fangs, representing Yue. Another was dressed as a maid with silver hair for Grayfia, and another had a crimson wig to look like Rias. There were even a couple that were stained red from the accessories that were attached to them, with cat ears/tails as well as a rabbit tail/ears to indicate Shia and Kuroka, both having been cut from the poor slaves of a similar race. One by one more effigies were raised, each having defining characteristics to represent a specific person, even including Anne, Shizuku, Kaori, Hajime, one that just looked like a black dragon for Tio, and even the current rulers of each nation such as Liliana, Emperor Gahard, and even the current king of the demon race. Two of the last ones to be raise had the biggest impact on the crowd, the first being made to resemble a muscular person with spiky hair while wearing an orange jumpsuit, resembling Alex and the fighting attire from when he fought Noint, and another that was a petite figure as well to indicate Aiko. The final one was the largest, and raised the biggest react from the crowd. It had long blonde hair and twelve wings taken from harpy slaves and stitched onto its back but, unlike some of the others, it was distinctly lacking clothes; instead the effigy had a couple of stuffed cloth sacks that were stitched to its chest with distinct nipples drawn onto it along with other various graphic and offensive drawings, and even offensive words such as 'WHORE' were written on it. As the effigies were raised up the pope aimed with his scepter at Gabriel's and blasted it with a burst of fire, setting it ablaze while shouting,
"DOWN WITH THE WHORE GODDESS!"
""""""DOWN WITH THE WHORE!!!"""""" The crowd cheered, as they too set alight the rest of the effigies, while others shot at them with arrows as if for target practice. They then started their march towards the town that would host the peace meeting and the ball that night, the labyrinth city of Horlad.