(A.N. I am genuinely amazed at the response from the last chapter, the amount of people trying to create issues that didn't even exist was truly staggering. First of all the whole 'it's impossible to enter Asora' thing, I don't recall saying anything of the sort. As far as the people in the world's they visit it's ALMOST impossible for someone to break into Asora, but anyone with enough power and know how regarding Spatial attribute magic can do it. The only one that could have even had a chance of pulling it off so far is Ehito though, but he couldn't even leave his own domain. Plus with the system there could be other reincarnators with the power to literally go anywhere they want or something who could easily enter it like its nothing.
Secondly the 'time travel' thing. HE CANNOT INFLUENCE THE PAST! Paul can view the past and go through open doors that are closed in the present, but he cannot actually change anything! Anyone he talks to is like talking to a ghost, not actually going back and talking to them in person to change things! And as I said above anyone with a proper ability could have entered Asora, which was why the MC didn't want to use it too much to keep them from finding out about it. It wasn't that he 'conveniently' had an ability that allowed him to enter.
There's plenty of other issues people made up, such as Edith being abused or them putting her into a space-time orb when they don't even have the capacity to make one(and they're fucking impossible to steal since they can't be moved), and so on. I'm not even going to bother getting into those ones, but seriously people?)
"Ahhhhhhhg...." Alice groaned as Hyato droned on yet again about how their newest adversary, Alex, MUST have mind control as one of his abilities due to the amount of women around him. As none of them could one hundred percent say that wasn't the case though, and Hyato was technically the one who knew the most about him, they couldn't tell him to shut the hell up.
Currently Darius, Alice, Calvin, and Hyato were all gathered for the second day in a row to study and discuss their newest foe. Sadly all they had to go off of was the recordings Hyato swiped from his time in the DXD world, which were all already several years old so there was no telling how strong he was now.
As Hyato continued to drone on though, Calvin decided he had enough as he turned to Darius and asked,
"So have you heard from what's-his-face yet?" A hint of a smile showed itself at the edge of Darius's mouth as he replied,
"Paul? Not since yesterday when he told me they should be arriving at Hargeon today. We should hear from him about the situation there soon though." The words were barely out of his mouth when a new voice said,
"You rang?" Everyone jumped as they turned suddenly and saw none other than Paul himself standing there, a cocky smirk on his face.
"You used the teleportation stone?" Darius asked in confusion, wondering what prompted Paul to use it instead of simply taking the ship back with his captive. Paul's cocky smirk widened though as he said,
"Yes well, I felt that time was of the essence after all." He then shifted to the side to reveal someone standing behind him, a little girl in a white dress and her blond hair styled up into pigtails. For a second everyone just gaped at her in shock, before Alice suddenly declared as she leapt to her feet,
"He's finally fucking did it! The creep kidnapped a child!" With everyone else jumping up and glaring at him, Paul tiredly said,
"Yes I kidnapped a child, but look closer at her you idiots..." Though she was about to berate him once more, Alice glanced at her for the smallest fraction of a second, and blinked when she saw the brown monkeys tail extending from the girls backside, a tail that was identical to her own.
Paul's smirk widened as he helped himself to a drink and took a seat while saying,
"I happened to make the most extraordinary find in Hargeon today. A new reincarnator that not only restored the entire town and its people, but has access to what I can assume to be a pocket dimension called 'Asora'." He then went on to explain everything he learned during the short time he had been there, especially the space-time orbs they had, before he happened upon the park where he found the girl before them.
"Amazing..." Calvin muttered awe, while Hyato said,
"So that's what happened to them all..." He recalled that not just Alex and the girls, but several other people from the DXD world such as Vali, Sairaorg, Gabriel, Serafall, and so had also disappeared as well, which he had been wondering about for a while now.
Of everyone there though, Darius had barely heard a word that Paul told them. Instead his gaze was on the little girl he had brought with him, who's appearance reminded him of his own daughter, Stacy.
Technically the two looked nothing alike to each other besides their blond hair, and on top of that Stacy had been several years older than the girl in front of him when they had died. However Darius couldn't help but make the comparison in his head, until Alice suddenly asked,
"So what's her name then?" Paul shrugged in response to her question, making Alice's brow twitch in annoyance before she angrily demanded, "So you kidnap a child, but you don't even bother learning what they're named?!" Paul only deadpanned at her in response, before saying sarcastically,
"Next time I decided to kidnap someone right under their parents nose, I'll make sure to stop and ask them their kids name first." Alice snorted at his sarcasm, before going to the little girl and kneeling down so she could be closer to eye level, and ask,
"What's your name sweetie?" The girl however didn't answer, only glaring at her as if annoyed for some reason. Alice groaned as she wasn't used to dealing with kids, before turning towards the four guys as if for help.
"Trust you to be one of the only women out there to be unable to talk to a child." Calvin smirked while even Hyato grinned at his comment, annoying Alice quite a bit. She was about make a bring remark at them before Paul interrupted,
"Since she won't tell us her name, maybe we should come up with something to call her until we learn what it really is?" Though she was annoyed at being interrupted, Alice immediately suggested,
"How about Amanda?"
"Denied." One of the guys said, before they then supplied their own name idea.
This happened back and forth between the four of them until Darius finally said, "Stacy."
Everyone paused and looked at him confusedly since he had yet to actually say anything since Paul arrived with the little girl, before he continued, "We'll call her Stacy. And before anyone says anything else we need to bulk up our defenses, since Paul decided to kidnap this child it probably won't take too much for them to figure out who has her. We also need to remember that saiyans aren't exactly the smartest bulbs in the box, so he probably won't stop and listen to reason."
Everyone looked at each other before they nodded in agreement, and the three men took off to make sure their defenses were prepared. Alice however lingered and said,
"I'll keep an eye on little Stacy here since we're both girls-"
"No." Darius said, cutting her off.
"You're the last person I'd entrust a child to, so I'll look after her myself while you go and help prepare the defenses." Surprised at Darius claim that he'd watch after 'Stacy' himself, Alice could only gape at him for several seconds before his glares sent her hurrying to do as he ordered.
With everyone else gone Darius turned his attention back to the little girl before him, who was staring at him with unamused eyes as if she was silently judging him. After a moment Darius sighed before using his Arc of Embodiment to create a stack of children's books and toys to keep her occupied while he watched over her.
***
Later the four generals made their way to the dining room after spending the entire afternoon preparing for Alex's inevitable arrival like they had been ordered, to which Alice whined,
"Man this work is so tedious and boring, I wanna do something more 'fun'!" As she thought of the two newest toys she'd gotten the other day though Alice smiled in anticipation for the coming night, making the other three look at her in undisguised disgust.
"And she tried implying that I was the one unsuitable to be around children..." Paul muttered as he recalled the false accusations Alice tried to slander him with.
When they arrived in the dining hall though all disgust towards Alice evaporated on the spot when they saw what was taking place inside, as Darius personally cut up 'Stacy's' food into pieces as small as possible before putting them on her plate. The little girl herself then picked up the food in her fingers, and eagerly stuffed into her mouth until her cheeks were puffy like a little squirrel's.
"W-what happened to him...?" Hyato muttered quietly, as the current Darius was like the complete opposite of the man they had all been serving for a while now, appearing more like a doting father than a 'Dark Emperor'.
"What are you all waiting for? Sit." Darius suddenly said at them in a stern voice, leaving no room for arguments as everyone took their seats. His attitude then switched once more as he prepared some peas for 'Stacy' to eat, while also mentioning how she needed to make sure to eat them all. That didn't seem to be a problem though as she quickly cleaned her entire plate, before looking at Darius pointedly as if demanding more.
"Is she a hostage or a guest?" Calvin muttered this time, to which Darius replied without hesitation,
"There is a very fine line between the two, but if you think that I'll throw a child in the dungeon and feed her moldy bread and water then there is something seriously wrong with you." Calvin's brow twitched when he heard that, as he hadn't been implying anything of the sort, but it was still too weird to see the most powerful person there doting on their hostage like this.
Eventually Alice couldn't help but ask, "So where is she going to stay for tonight then?" Darius looked up at her as if he didn't understand why she was asking such a question, and replied as if it was obvious,
"She's staying with me of course. If her father comes in the night then I'm the most suited to protecting her as the strongest here, plus I'm not sure I could trust any of you with properly looking after her." Everyone's brows twitched when they heard his reasoning, the first half of which was hard to argue, however they felt the other part was unnecessary.
Once dinner was over they all went their separate ways for the night, with Darius calling a couple of the maids to take 'Stacy' into the bath for him. After she was clean and dressed in pajamas he made with his Arc of Embodiment, Darius laid her down in his bed for the night before he pulled a chair up to the side of the bed.
"Is it comfortable?" He asked her as the little girl kept staring at him, before he continued, "It should be, I had the most comfortable bed that I could find imported to the Hanging Gardens to help me sleep, but it didn't help at all. Then after I got the Arc of Embodiment I used it to make and even more comfortable bed, but it didn't help as well. So you're technically sleeping in the most comfortable bed in this world."
Even as he continued talking 'Stacy' only stared at him without showing any signs of going to sleep, making him sigh deeply before looking out the window at the moon and stars.
"You know," He started suddenly, "you remind me of my daughter, maybe too much..." Darius then used the Arc of Embodiment to create a projection of a girl that looked only a few years older than the one before him, but with similar blond hair. Darius smiled sadly at the image, and said,
"Everything I've done and will do is for her, to see her and my wife again someday. My greatest failure was not being able to keep her safe in my previous life, before I was sent to this world." Blinking the tears from his eyes from talking about his daughter out loud for the first time in this life, Darius stood and said,
"Let me go get you some warm milk or something." Though he could have conjured a glass with his Arc of Embodiment, Darius left to take a minute to ready himself and try to resume his role as the collected Emperor of darkness he was supposed to be.
When he returned to the room though Darius paused slightly when he saw someone standing over by the bed near 'Stacy', making him drop the glass of warm milk as several golden chains appeared around the stranger.
"Who the hell are you?!" He demanded angrily, to which the stranger casually turned to face him before putting a finger to his mouth to make a shushing motion, not seeming to care at all about the pointed ends of Enkidu that were less than an inch from his face.
"Shhh, she asleep." Darius's eyes widened when he saw that the intruder wasn't Alex like he suspected, but an old man with a long beard, though the clothes he was wearing made it look more like he was on vacation more than anything. He then glanced at 'Stacy' to see that she was in fact asleep like the old man said, however Darius didn't back off in the slightest as the chains began to coil around the old man's body.
"Last chance before I gut you here and now, who are you?" The old man shook his head at Darius as if he wasn't concerned about his threats, before he suddenly appeared behind him and said,
"I'm just an old man that was passing through, nothing more." Darius whirled around to face him, his mind racing at how he not only managed to escape Enkidu, but moved without him sensing anything.
Realizing he couldn't afford to mess around, Darius was about to use his connection with Fairy Heart to attack with everything he had, but before he could he suddenly found his connection severed. He didn't get any time to wonder what happened when Enkidu also suddenly disappeared around them, as if it never existed.
The old man shook his head at him and muttered to himself, "Young people rarely have any respect nowadays, and all I wanted was to give some advice." Darius glowered at him as he considered his options, but after effectively being disarmed instantly he could only growl,
"Say what you want then!" The old man shook his head again before saying,
"This rash and domineering attitude is exactly what's going to end up costing you everything if you continue down this path. You're so determined to see your wife and daughter again, you won't stop to properly consider things along the way." In an instant Darius's anger vanished as he asked,
"How do you know about my wife and daughter?!" The old man smiled at him knowingly, before saying,
"How indeed?" He then walked around Darius slowly before saying,
"Rather than asking how I know them, perhaps you should be asking what'll happen when you see them again? Will they recoil at what you've become? Will they call you a monster? Murderer?
"Or maybe they'll be perfectly fine? Little Stacy will see her daddy and readily jump into his arms, while your wife will welcome you with another little bundle in her arms. The four of you will be perfectly happy for all eternity without a single care in the world." The old man then trailed off slightly, letting Darius imagine such a future, before adding,
"Or maybe it'll be completely different? Maybe you'll kill them yourself in your rise to power? Maybe they'll completely forget about you and form entirely new lives? Maybe this or that will happen, who knows?"
The old man then turned to face him directly before saying,
"There are an infinite amount of variables and outcomes that can happen in the future, who's to say any one of them will come true? Why should the outcome you desire most happen?" When he heard that Darius was confused for several minutes, before he demanded,
"Then what should I do?" The old man then shrugged before saying once again as he started walking towards the door,
"Who knows? Who knows what actions will bring us to the outcome we want? Destroy everything? Save everyone? Watch on in indifference? I couldn't tell you anything other than to make sure your path leaves you with no regrets, regardless of the outcome." With his piece said the old man then walked through the bedroom door before closing it behind him, which Darius then threw open only to see empty space beyond it.
Confused about everything the old man said, Darius quickly put it out of his mind when he heard 'Stacy' tossing and turning in her sleep, before muttering softly,
"...mommy.....daddy...."
Darius's expression melted as he took his previous seat next to her, and said as he moved a strand of hair off of her face,
"I'm right here..."
Though he was trying to comfort her, 'Stacy' seemed to know even in her sleep that he wasn't the one she wanted. Furrowing her brows at him, the little girl then turned over and eventually fell back into her slumber.
Darius sighed as leaned back in the chair, now determined not to leave it for the entire night, and pondered on what the mysterious old man said to him.
***
The next day everyone was gathered together as they discussed what to do from here on regarding 'Stacy'. Obviously the plan was to use her to force Alex to submit and prevent him from acting against them, but that also hinged on how he would react once he discovered his daughter was missing. There was always the chance he would just go berserk and attack them without a single care for anything else, in which case Paul taking her would've just been him shooting them in the foot instead.
"Should one of us travel to Tenrou Island to meet with him?" Paul asked with boredom in his voice from having had to listen to everyone else talk all day. Darius however shook his head and said,
"That won't work because he could just end up saying 'screw it' and kill whoever we send anyways. So either we should send someone we don't care about, or somehow send him a message saying we have her and to cooperate if he doesn't want her to be hurt." Hyato, Paul, and Calvin all nodded in agreement with Darius's decision, before Alice's voice suddenly pipped up,
"Come on 'Stacy'! Play with me!" The older Saiyan was whining as she desperately tried to get the little girl's attention, who was still giving them the silent treatment from the day before. They knew this was the case because Paul did confirm she could speak before they arrived, so it was obvious she was just choosing not to say anything to them.
"Hmph!" Alice harrumphed, before saying,
"Well I'll get you to say something to me eventually, we're going to have a lot of time together tonight after all!" Her words made everyone else look up as Hyato demanded,
"And why the hell would she stay with you tonight? Who knows what you'll try and do to her!" Alice however smirked and stood before making her way towards Hyato slowly, swaying her hips seductively as she did so.
It was when she was right in front of him that Alice slowly turned so that her back was towards him, before she slammed her ass into his face and demanded,
"You see this bitch?!" Everyone looked as Alice pointed to her proof as a Saiyan, the monkey tail coming out of her backside, before she continued,
"The runts got one too and there's a full moon tonight! So unless you want an Oozaru running around tonight then she needs to stay in a room that doesn't have any outside windows for moonlight to get into! A room like mine! Unless of course we stick her in a broom closet or something." At that part she glanced towards Darius questioningly, to which he only glowered back as he silently said to himself that 'Stacy' would only stay in the same room as Alice over his dead body.
He then started thinking of how to best block the moonlight in the room he was preparing for her, when something caught his eye.
Looking at his teacup, Darius stared at it as he noticed some small ripples forming in the tea. He frowned as for some reason seeing it gave him a bad feeling, before something on the shelves above them started clicking lightly.
"What's that?" Paul asked as he looked in the direction of the clicking, before Calvin frowned and said,
"The entire castles shaking, like it's an earthquake or something..." Everyone deadpanned at him before Alice said,
"Calvin, were on a flying castle in the middle of the ocean..." Calvin looked at her in annoyance as he stated,
"I didn't say it is an earthquake, just that it's like an earthquake. I have no idea what's-" before he could finish speaking then entire castle started shaking to the point that things began falling off of shelves and everyone struggled to keep their feet.
"W-what the hell is this?!" Alice demanded as she took the easy way out, and simply hovered in the middle of the room as everything continue to shake with an increasing intensity around them.
"Of everyone in the room though, only one person wasn't panicking or wondering what was going on, before a large smile spread on her face.
"Daddy!" Edith cried out happily as she ran towards the window, before Darius came up behind her and said,
"It's dangerous over here Stacy, stay back!" Edith however didn't listen to him, as she just kept saying over and over in her excitement,
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" It was then that Darius looked up through the window, and paled as he noticed what Edith was evidently focused on.
"Oh. My. God." He muttered in awe as everything continued shaking around them, drawing everyone else to the window as well, where they saw a large crack forming in the sky above them.
It was as if reality itself was fracturing as the crack widened and enlarged, the sound of the sky tearing reaching them as it grew. When it finally stopped growing Darius and the others held their breath as they waited for what came next, before the sky seemed to shatter like glass as a massive hole suddenly appeared, easily large enough to swallow the entire castle.
With everyone slamming their hands over their ears due to the deafening roar of the sky literally falling, Darius looked up to see three figures appearing through the hole that they had made. On the left was one of the women they had briefly seen during Hyato's fight on Tenrou Island, the one with dark skin that wore the very exposing dancers outfit. The one on the right however was someone that only two of the people there had seen before, Hyato and Paul, a very beautiful woman with long golden blond hair that matched 'Stacy's', twelve golden wings, a halo, and white divine robes covering her body.
Between the two of them was someone they were all familiar with by then, his expression one of pure murder as his rampant energy made his clothes and hair whip around his body wildly. After he appeared the energy that was making the entire castle shake suddenly increased, as the waves below them began to toss and churn wildly and the winds picked up to insane levels.
Naturally while everyone else was pissing themselves at the sudden appearance of Alex and two of his wives, Edith was happily bouncing up and down from finally seeing her daddy again after what seemed like so long.
"Mommy! Daddy!" She kept crying out over and over again, even as Gabriel raised one of her hands and shrieked,
"GIVE. ME. BACK. MY DAUGHTEEEEEEEEEEERR!!!"
As she spoke a massive spear of light formed in Gabriel's hands, growing in length until it dwarfed event the greatest of skyscrapers before she finally threw it.
For a moment silence filled the world as everyone watched the massive spear of light descend in awe, before it impacted a fleet of ships headed for the Floating Gardens and vaporized everything in sight.
A concussion of sound and force seeming rocked the entire world as the power from the spear of light vaporized everything it touched, the ships, the people on them, and mostly the sea water around them. Darius and his allies watched in dumbfoundment as Gabriel's attack vaporized all of the water from the point it impacted all the way to the ocean floor, creating a giant cloud of steam that engulfed everything before the energy Alex was releasing forced it away.
The man himself then fixed his gaze upon the exact location Darius and the others were with his daughter, before saying in a loud but deathly calm voice,
"Return my daughter to us, and I'll ALLOW you to die easily. Refuse to do so and I will prolong your suffering for as long as possible. Now, make your choice."