Third Person Point of View
…
"Hoho! So you four are back?!" shouted Baihu, the White Tiger as he pummeled several monsters to the ground.
"Yeah we are, old man!" replied Kouki.
"I'm not that old!" he shouted back and arrived beside Kouki who had just pierced a monster through its skull with Byakusa's electricity-coated spear.
"Does he try to irritate as many people as he can?" asked Mittelt. She, Kalawarna and Meruem were sent to the West in order to help the White Tiger and his disciples as well as his home.
"…He can be serious when the time comes, but he tends to be like that or act like a delinquent. According to Natsume-sama, he used to be quite rough until four years ago," replied Kalawarna.
"Hmm." Both fallen angels threw light spears at their attackers, but they weren't strong enough to kill them in one hit, so Meruem would follow it up by finishing them off.
Meruem was careful not to use an excessive amount of force so as not to destroy everything around him, or hurt his comrades. Meruem thought the word 'comrade' was strange, and when he said it to himself, he still couldn't wrap his head around it.
But he knew that a desire in his heart was slowly starting to form—most of it belong towards Mittelt, the strange, small and short-tempered female fallen angel. Meruem and her began 'dating' a while back. However, since he still wasn't sure of many things, he relied on his instincts and the books he read. He would occasionally ask others for advice. The first and last person he would go to was Aaron, his father.
Over the few months that the Khaos Order did nothing, he went to Aaron for advice about his relationship, and receive some advice from him. He also got many from Azazel, Penemue, Tobio and Sae.
Meruem dashed around the tips of the mountains, and obliterated certain stronger enemies that were going towards the two fallen angels. He had been thinking of asking his father to change her potential to match his, but he hasn't found the time, he was also hesitant. He wasn't sure if his relationship with Aaron was stable or strong enough to ask for such a favor, so he has been hesitating.
They were interrupted by a loud rumbling and two enormous giants appeared around the valley. Meruem's instincts flared up as he stared at them with open hostility.
"Oh! Here we go, the main dish has arrived!" Kouki shouted as he prepared to jump towards the two battle gods. However, Meruem jumped in front of him, grabbed him and pulled him towards the grounds of the castle, along with Mittelt, Kalawarna, and Baihu.
"What's the deal, Meruem?" Kouki asked confused.
"…Those things are at least on par with God-class beings. If you're weaker than that, I suggest you don't fight it," he told them and turned back to the two battle gods who were preparing to swing their weapons. "Mittelt, Kalawarna, I suggest you focus your attention on the other enemies and leave this to me."
"Then what about me?" Kouki asked and pointed at himself.
"There are more enemies that are stronger than these two, but they can handle them with a bit of help. Can you do that?" asked Meruem. Kouki seemed hesitant and even quickly agonized about it. But in the end…
"…Fine! Fine! I'll do it!" he shouted and put his hands up in defeat. Byakusa meowed and snickered at him which made Kouki grab his Sacred Gear and pinching its cheeks.
"Do not order me around, boy. I can take care of myself," said Baihu as he glared at Meruem.
"…Fine. You can fight it if you can stand my aura," he said to him and the two of them stood facing each other, inches away from each other.
"Hah! I like you, alright, do it! Show me what kind of power you have!" howled Baihu as he transformed into a humanoid tiger and stared straight into Meruem's eyes.
"Ugh…is this the time for dick measuring contests? We have two giant rock things about to swing their weapons at us, and frankly, I don't wanna die," complained Mittelt nervously.
"We can't stop him when he's like this. You know that all too well, Mittelt," replied Kalawarna. Kouki in the meantime was being zapped by Byakusa for stretching its cheeks.
Baihu unleashed his full power and the surrounding ground started to crack and was eventually destroyed. The pillars around the grounds of the home were also starting to shake. Meruem sighed and stared coldly at Baihu—at that moment in time, he reverted back to his cold and ruthless self from a few months back.
He then unleashed the full power of his aura, causing the realm of Nanzendu, the Country of China, the world and the multiverse to shake.
…
"Hmm? Meruem?" Aaron asked out loud and stopped temporarily. He looked towards the west and squinted his eyes, before he shook his head and kept moving.
"Is something the matter, Aaron? Should we be worried? This feels like Meruem's aura but…"
"No, everything's fine. He's just flexing a little, don't worry about it. I'll fix the damage he did later," Aaron reassured Griselda and they arrived shortly in Jiaochun.
…
<
<<…>> Azathoth ignored her and silently watched the figure of Róisín Toole prancing around and looking at a tablet in her hands.
Azathoth had provided her with that tablet after the events of Halloween, as Aaron's mother wanted to see what her son had been up to. She had only recently resurrected her and had her in her space along with Nyarlathotep.
Róisín Toole found out what Nyarlathotep's 'pranks' on his son and gave her a scolding, like a typical angry mother. But the outer god simply laughed her off and ignored all of it, proclaiming that her love for Aaron was beyond understanding.
Róisín Toole called her a 'yandere' though she greatly underestimated how deeply that sick and twisted love went. In the end, Róisín Toole simply ignored Nyarlathotep and enjoyed her time as she watched the short year adventure her child experienced through the Draconic Deus.
She laughed, she became angry and she cried for her son as she watched it all through the tablet. But in the end she was happy and relieved that he was having a fulfilling life in this new world.
'He became the Red Dragon Emperor. I wonder how Aoife would feel if she found out? Those two spoke about High School DxD from time to time even. But…what did Azathoth mean by me meeting him soon? Is something going to happen that will make us meet…?' Róisín thought as she stopped and stared back at Azathoth.
"You said that I'd meet my baby again. What did you mean by that?" asked Róisín.
<> replied Azathoth.
<
"Why?" Róisín asked.
Nyarlathotep shrugged. <
Azathoth didn't answer the other out god's speculation and kept talking. <
"But you just tortured him, at least Azathoth gave him a peaceful life. The things you did were purely out of malicious curiosity. From what I could understand before I died, Outer Gods don't have emotions—well at least positive ones. Do you even know what 'real' love is? What about familial bonds?" asked Róisín.
Nyarlathotep stopped laughing and stared blankly at the woman. <
<
A few seconds of silence, a malicious smile appeared on Nyarlathotep's face. <
"I did. Unless your brain isn't working properly, I visited him every day for the last two months of his life—I never aban—"
<
Róisín Toole didn't answer as she stared at the two gods with her and back at her tablet. She touched the still image of Aaron and sighed. 'I'm sorry I couldn't be a proper mother to you…when we meet again, I want to tell you a lot of things…and maybe after that we can be truly together if Azathoth lets me have a selfish wish…'
…
Meruem stood over a shocked Baihu, who was grinning at him. "Hah! You're just a monster like the Middleman. I like you!" said Baihu as he jumped back up.
"…Will you stay here?" asked Meruem.
"Fine, I'll stay. I do care about these disciples of mine after training them for so long. It'd be a waste to see them be killed." Baihu crossed his arms and undid his semi-transformation.
"They're swinging it dowwwwwwwwwwwwwwn!!!" Mittelt shrieked.
Meruem turned around and launched himself towards the two battle gods who had crossed their weapons and swung it forward. However, he didn't make it on time as they finished their attack. An enormous cross-shaped attack was hurled towards him and the home of Baihu.
Meruem's eyes darted around looking for a solution. He found none, so he covered his body in dark purple touki and charged up a giant ball of touki himself. He injected as much energy he could into as in the short time he had and launched it towards the cross-shaped attack.
The cross-shaped attack destroyed the surrounding area. Trees, hills, mountains, rivers, lakes, and everything in between were not spared. The other monsters, humans and youkai that resided below perished due to this attack.
Once Meruem's own attack was fired at it, the two attacks quickly collided. Both were very powerful as it further split the ground beneath them, the space and the sky. Black and red sparks started to discharge from where the two attacks collided. The two battle gods prepared to do the same attack again, but Meruem suddenly appeared in front of the battle god on the right.
Just like the other battle gods, these two were made of obsidian. They also carried weapons. The one of the left had a sword, the one on the right had a club with spikes on it. Meruem punched the battle god on the cheek and it was blown away. In addition, the weapon was dropped as it was blown away a short distance away.
Meruem kicked the air and did a spinning kick to the other battle god's eye, destroying it and also blowing it away in a different direction. Suddenly several ghosts and bats appeared out of nowhere and began to attack him, short red beams of light left the bats eyes, while green ectoplasm shot out from the ghosts' hands or mouth.
'Who are they…?' he asked himself and dodged the attacks. He didn't waste any time and fired several hundred balls of touki at the new enemies that arrived. He killed them quickly and refocused his attention on the two battle gods.
Meruem felt more of them behind him, but decided to trust in his new teammates and focused on the two that are more threatening to this realm than the weaker ones. He quickly scanned the area around them and further beyond. He found that there were no other life, so he decided to end it quickly.
The two battle gods had gotten up and regrouped much to his surprise. They crossed their weapons again and did the same attack. With more speed and power—he didn't let them finish as he kicked both their weapons and destroyed them.
"I won't let you…" he muttered and arrived in front of the battle god who had the sword. Focusing his touki into a single point in his fist, he punched the battle god on the chest and it immediately exploded into a dark purple explosion which also destroyed part of the other battle god's body.
Meruem summoned touki into his other hand and shaped it into a spear. This spear was similar to that of a fallen angel or a pure angel's light spear. He quickly spun it around and gave it more energy. After a few seconds of charging, it was covered in vast amounts of dark purple touki and then he threw it at the battle god's face.
This again created a large explosion and it completely annihilated the battle god's head. He followed it up by doing a spinning kick to its chest, which also destroyed the rest of it. He turned around and to his horror he saw both Kalawarna and Mittelt being overwhelmed.
Kouki was trying his best to reach them as quickly as he could, but the number of bats and ghosts that were swarming him made it difficult. Several red beams and green ectoplasm were about to hit Mittelt.
With as much power he could muster he kicked the air behind him and shot towards the small group. But he was too late, the distance he was at—he was late for just about a fraction of a second—
"Tch…! Don't go spacing out!" shouted Baihu. To everyone's surprise he had jumped in front of the two fallen angels and took the brunt of the attack. His fur in his semi-transformed state had melted, along with his flesh which exposed the bones in his arms.
Baihu grinned at the prospect and clenched his fists even harder. "Is that all you got?!" he shouted and he began attacking the bats and ghosts. Mittelt and Kalawarna began assisting him by targeting the other monsters and other enemies.
Meruem was shocked by that, but quickly recomposed himself and wiped out the remaining enemies with a single kick. He quickly grabbed Baihu's shoulder and healed him.
"Heh, I appreciate it, kid!" Baihu said cheerfully. Once he was done healing, he covered his body in touki. "Let's end this!"
"…Right," replied Meruem. With the rest of them working together, they quickly eliminated the rest of the attackers, with the help of Aaron's shadow soldiers, and the disciples of Baihu.
…
Once the assault on the place was done, everyone had gone into the home of Baihu. In a different room, Meruem approached Baihu who was being treated for different injuries. Meruem had offered to heal them, but Baihu refused saying he wanted those injuries to heal naturally so he would become stronger, much to Meruem's confusion. The rest of his small team were also there being treated for minor injuries.
"So? You certainly wouldn't approach me just because you were worried about me!" said Baihu and flexed his arms.
Meruem stared at the White Tiger in front of him and nodded. "Why did you protect her?" he asked him.
"You mean your little fallen angel friend?" asked Baihu and Meruem nodded.
"She is…my lover," he corrected him. Baihu blankly stared at Meruem, then at Mittelt who had turned red. He then burst into laughter.
"Haha! I see! So she's your lover, is it?! So that's why you're concerned, well, to answer your question…sometimes your just moves on your own before your brain catches up. I'd suggest you watch shows, movies, and even anime of that genre to understand what I'm saying!" he told Meruem.
"I didn't have some kind of super inner monologue about what to do. I just saw someone weaker than me and decided to do something about it. Anyway, just do what I said and you'll eventually understand. If not…I dunno, go ask someone about it, maybe the Middleman? He likes helping people after all," he added and lay back down on his bed.
Meruem stared at him for a few seconds longer before he made his way to Mittelt who was still red. The curtains around Kouki's bed had been drawn around him. Kalawarna had been there, and they were both quiet. Meruem assumed they were sleeping with each other.
"Mittelt," he called out to her.
"Y-yes?" she replied nervously. Meruem silently stared at Mittelt for a few seconds before kneeling down and grasping her hand. "M-Meruem-sama?" she asked again nervously.
"Are you okay?" he asked in a worried tone.
"Y-yes, I am. Baihu-sama protected me earlier, so I didn't suffer any serious injuries, only a few scratches and bruises from the other monsters we fought," replied Mittelt.
Meruem nodded then hugged her. Mittelt didn't expect this and immediately turned red again. She then started to stutter, but Meruem tightened his hug just a bit more. Since Meruem couldn't articulate the things he was feeling through words, the advice that Aaron gave him a few months was to use his actions instead.
Meruem had seen Aaron hugging, kissing or cuddling with his lovers, so Meruem decided to go with the easiest of the three, which was to hug or embrace Mittelt. Mittelt herself calmed down and embraced Meruem back.
After a few seconds of silence, he spoke up. "Let's go with what we discussed a month ago," Meruem said while still hugging her.
"…Mmm. I also want to get stronger like Kalawarna and Raynare, so I won't be completely useless to you, Meruem-sama."
"…Just call me Meruem," he told her.
"…O-okay, M-Meruem…san…"
"That's fine," he said and hugged her a bit tighter and the two stayed like that for a little while longer.
…
"Oraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" Kanami screamed as she pierced another monster that had arrived near the Black Tortoise's home.
"Sis, you don't need to scream that loudly—" Natsume tried to stop her sister, but she only screamed louder making Natsume sigh.
The old lady that had screamed at Gabriel from before was also trying to help the two sisters. However, because of her old body, she was more of a liability to them. But they didn't want to tell her and make her angry at them, making their time there even more difficult.
In the distance, Griffon was in his Balance Breaker (True) form state and was killing enemies independently of Natsume. Likewise, Kanami had already activated her [True Longinus] Balance Breaker, [Ashen Queen's 10 Holy Commandments] or also known as [The Colorless Goddesses' Brightest Scriptures of Waving Nights].
As soon as she activated the First Commandment, a large area surrounding the Black Tortoise's territory was covered in pure white fields and barriers. The First Commandment allows Kanami to bend the rules within it to her liking. Only those who are stronger than her aren't affected by it.
In the space that she had entered, she had given the old lady temporary immortality. The old lady had been overwhelmed earlier, but was still alive because of Kanami's Balance Breaker.
"Ho! Ha! He! Hu! Hya~!" shouted Kanami as she sent several cross-shaped flames towards her opponents and they were immediately incinerated. She threw her spear up into the sky and brought her hands together. A small white ball of flame began to take shape.
The flames began expanding and she brought her arms up. "I'm taking this from you, Suzaku~! Crueeel Suuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!" she screamed and threw the massive white ball of flames at a large group of enemies.
They howled in pain as they were quickly killed by the attack. A mini explosion occurred which also sucked in other enemies close to them, killing them too. Kanami caught her spear and let out a satisfied sigh. "Job well done!"
"We're not done yet!" shouted Natsume as she zipped around while covered in black wind—[Fallen Spirit's Dance]. Finally, two more of the battle gods showed up and had stepped into Kanami's space.
She had noticed them and decided to let them in, so she could easily get rid of them. Once in her space she grinned.
The two giants suddenly halted their movements and sat down with a loud rumble, causing everyone around them to be shocked. "Fufu! As long as you're in this space, I'm God!" she shouted and started laughing.
Natsume came over and smacked her on the head. "Take this seriously! We don't know how many lives were killed while they made their leisurely walk over here!"
"Ow! I was taking it seriously!" Kanami shouted back at her sister. After saying a few silly insults to each other, she turned her attention back to the sitting battle gods and pointed her spear at them. "I'll use the 10th and final commandment them! My strongest attack for my Balance Breaker!"
Kanami began to charge a powerful attack through her spear. She fed it her magical power. The tenth commandment had a certain restriction. It 'needed' 'something' from Kanami. That 'something' could be anything, from magical power, to her own thoughts and desires. She just needed to feed or transfer them to the [True Longinus] and in turn it would convert those thoughts or desires into pure power.
The stronger the thought or desire, the stronger the attack would be. Kanami gritted her teeth as she briefly glanced back at her little sister, Natsume Minagawa. In truth, she was jealous of her, from the day she found out she was friends with Aaron, to the day they began dating and how close they got.
Kanami felt like her own relationship with Aaron had slowed by half. But she knew why, and understood why, but that still left her a bit bitter and frustrated. "Kuuuuh!" she groaned out, and with red cheeks she shouted with all her might, "I want to get fucked by Aaron too! I love him just as much as you, Natsuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!"
This caused the surrounding area to fall silent. The females around them stopped attacking and just stared at Kanami. Natsume turned red and began to stutter a bunch of 'Wha—' or something along those lines.
The spear began to devour these desires from Kanami further empowering itself and thereby making the attack even more powerful.
"What the hell are you saying all of a sudden!?" Natsume shouted back, clearly still embarrassed.
"I'm gonna get pregnant first! Way before youuuu!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!" she shouted back, and the attack was finally finished. She steadied her aim and fired the attack!
A large stream of pure white brilliance shot out from the tip of her spear; it was as large as the realm's skies that it threatened to break the realm's barriers. Everything in front of the spear was devoured by that large stream of light.
"Bloooooooooooooow awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!" Kanami screamed as the attack went on.
Natsume floated there stunned by the absurdity of it all. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She tried to wrap her mind around it. She knew that her sister liked Aaron too, and even declared something to him not too long ago. However, she didn't know that she was this frustrated about it.
Natsume began to shake and then looked back up at her sister. "No! I'm going to get pregnant first!! I love him more than youuu!!" she shouted back and also fired a full-power [Spirit Storm] at the two battle gods.
The two attacks mixed together and caused an explosion so large that it not only shook the realm, but also all of Asia in the human realm which caused a lot of buildings to collapse and a few people to be injured.
Behind them was Griffon who looked tired. Not because of the fighting, but because of her master and her master's sister. Griffon could understand all human languages, and other supernatural languages. He had to listen to a lot of Natsume's angry and irritated ramblings after the two sisters had their petty fights.
But this…today…this farce was the most stupid that he had heard in a while. The last one was only a few days ago, and it was the two sisters fighting over who would wash Aaron's back when he went to have his nightly bath. But due to their bickering, the ones to do it instead were Lavinia Reni and Suzaku Himejima.
The two sisters kept screaming until their combined attack annihilated the two battle gods and everything around them. Luckily for them there were no animals, humans, or other supernatural being there, so the only things they destroyed were the land. After their screaming match, the two sisters started to breathe heavily.
"I…win…!" breathed out Kanami tiredly.
"Who…said…it…was…a…competition…?!" snapped Natsume.
The two were about to start arguing when a different individual suddenly appeared. Both looked up at the person with irritation.
"Hello—"
Natsume was surprised and took the cube from her sister so that she could examine it. Much to her surprise again, it was basically the same, but much larger and stronger. She was surprised that they were able to replicate it.
"Hold on, Sis. This looks more like a spaceship—like it would hold people in it…" she said and looked at the panicking vampire.
"…Are they preparing for an even more extensive operation or something?" Natsume asked.
"That's the only logical conclusion. First those small attacks, then the Halloween Operation, now this, we can only speculate on what's next," said Kanami as both sisters looked back at the vampire.
"I learned some a sleeping spell from Cúntóir and Lavinia, you carry rope, right?" Natsume asked.
"Y-yeah…"
"…Damn masochist…"
"H-hey!"
Natsume ignored her older sister's embarrassment as they flew towards the vampire. As they flew over to him, Kanami used her Seventh Commandment to summon her white-armored knights and ordered them to kill the rest of their enemies with Griffon.
Kanami, while still blushing brought out the ropes she received from Akeno. They were special ropes as they could seal magical properties, preventing someone from using magic. Akeno, over the years found out that Kanami was a bit of a masochist and gifted her these.
Kanami at the time was mortified and embarrassed. She wasn't in a relationship with Aaron, but decided to hold onto them until she was. She didn't think she would be using it in this kind of situation, but here she was…
"Let's see…" muttered Natsume as she checked on the young vampire. However, once she did, her eyes widened in further shock. "W-what the…they've gotten this far already…?!"
"What's wrong?" Kanami asked as she tied up the boy.
"We know that they're mass-producing Super Devils thanks to Lilith's old body, but…how are they mass-producing vampires too? This little kid is at least God-class in strength! They're basically 'Super Vampires', something Marius Tepes and the others were trying to achieve," explained Natsume.
Kanami stared the both and then knocked him out. "Well, we better bring him to Aaron and tell the rest of the alliance. We have more to worry about now. I think Gasper-kun and Valerie need to know about it. I mean, he and his dad met up a few months back, right? They're starting to get along now…and if they attack the new vampire faction now…"
"Let's not talk about the what if's, Sis. Let's just finish up here and join Aaron and the rest," said Natsume as she flew back to Griffon and the Black Tortoise.
"Is everything okay?" Xuanwu asked. The Black Tortoise, who mostly looked apathetic, had a slight look of concern.
"Yes. Please don't worry, we'll finish up here and go back to Jiaochun."
Xuanwu nodded and began conjuring water from nothing and killing the last remaining monsters around them. Kanami joined them and then Natsume put the boy to sleep.
…
"Hey~! Dual Dragon~"
Aaron turned to his left and saw that Huanglong the Yellow Dragon had left his home under the city. He was a bit surprised, but also greeted him.
"Hey, you can leave your home, huh?" asked Aaron.
"Yep, I mean, I do try to protect this place if I can, you know? But since the Dragon King and the Jade Emperor are here, I won't need to try to hard—ah and you're here too," said Huanglong.
Upon hearing about the Jade Emperor and the Dragon King being here, Aaron turned around and scanned the city. He quickly found one aura he hadn't felt before and he flew towards it. Behind him followed Huanglong and the three angels. Once they arrived, they saw a man fighting a woman.
The man was a tall, lazy looking young man, with a muscular build, brown hair, and light brown eyes.
He wore a robe that was a heavily stylized three-piece suit-type outfit consisting of a black waistcoat over an untucked collared white shirt, an orange cravat and magenta-colored trousers tucked into light brown boots.
When Aaron used [Observe] on him, he found out it was Yuhuang Shangdi, the Jade Emperor. The woman he was fighting was, to his surprise, a vampire. However, she held the [Super Vampire] title, along with being God-class in strength.
'Super Vampire? Like a Super Devil? Don't tell me those guys managed to start creating vampires of that caliber…? I need to warn the new vampire faction then,' he thought and observed the fight.
It was clear to all of them that the Jade Emperor had a clear advantage. The woman had short light brown hair, crimson red eyes and wore clothes that looked like they were molded out of darkness as it resembled a long black dress.
She was heavily bleeding and had multiple bruises over her body and face—she was also missing her left eye.
"He's powerful, isn't he?" asked a familiar voice. When they turned to it, it was Longwang, the Dragon King.
"He is…I'll leave that person to him, I'll go deal with the two battle gods," replied Aaron as he flew away.
"Hmm. I am powerful, but I had my doubts in being able to rid of those giants in a timely manner. I take it that there were more summoned around our realm? I felt various powerful attacks earlier, could they have been from your missing comrades?" asked Longwang.
"I believe so. We have sent the rest of the—" Griselda stopped her reply and created several magical barriers around them.
"Aw~ too bad! I thought you were busy talking. I guess you're a lot sharper than I thought, huh?" asked a pale-white person with glowing green eyes. "Yahoo~ I met some of your friends near the Azure Dragon's place. They were pretty paranoid, you know?" he said and waved at them.
"Oi, Klara! You're getting your ass beat?" he asked with a snicker.
"Shut up!" replied the woman as she was blown away by the Jade Emperor's punch. She quickly joined her comrades. "Eizxi, what the hell are you doing here?" she asked him.
"Why am I here? I'm here to inform the whole world, duh! That the vampire faction and the Alliance of the Evil Gods faction is finally taking center stage in the future!" he announced happily.
"Tch. There aren't enough vampires like devils yet. Who told you to do this?!" she asked in a tone of irritation. The Jade Emperor joined Longwang and the rest of Aaron's women.
"Zhong Kui, duh! Oh and…ah, I can't reveal that yet, fufu. But yeah, we'll take center stage soon enough—uwaaaa?!" He didn't get to finish his sentence when the Jade Emperor put his hand forward and pulled him towards him.
"H-hello, Jade Em—" he stopped a few meters away from the Jade Emperor who punched him in the face, followed up by various punches and kicks at various points of his body. At the end of the combo, he punched Eizxi in the chin sending him crashing into a mountain.
The Jade Emperor opened his eyes after delivering the combo attack and sighed. "It's…tough holding back, even more so to just limiting myself to martial arts, but it is enjoyable," he said with a smile.
"What was that?" asked Longwang.
"3rd Stance: White Tiger's Dance. I created a certain fighting style…anyway, where did the—"
As the Jade Emperor was about to ask the whereabouts of Aaron, they all felt a sudden powerful shockwave followed by a powerful breeze that threatened to uplift every tree in their general direction.
"The sky…" muttered Raynare. When they looked up, the skies of Nanzendu had been split apart and the two battle gods in the distance also crumbled apart.
"…It seems the Dual Dragon Emperor also knows martial arts," said The Jade Emperor. "Perhaps he can copy any technique he sees after seeing it once?" he mused.
"I do," replied Aaron as he touched the Jade Emperor's shoulder. The man immediately turned around, his eyes widening in shock.
'…I didn't even sense him coming back to us…? How did he…?' he thought, but then a smile donned his face. "You're very interesting, Dual Dragon Emperor. I'd like to know you more," said the Jade Emperor.
"Well, we can do that another time—let's get rid of the rest of the weirdos that are attacking your realm…one of them is coming back after all." Aaron turned in a certain direction and Eizxi came back with his face bleeding, even though he was a ghost.
"I'm a god damn ghost! How the hell did you even touch me?!" he shouted in rage.
"What is a ghost to a god?" asked The Jade Emperor as he smirked at him.
"Screw it!" shouted Eizxi.
A large portal opened behind him. What came out of it was some kind of Lovecraftian horror. It had hundreds of tentacles, an enormous mouth with hundreds of sharp teeth, multiple eyes and a large dark body with various markings around it. It also radiated a very hostile and chaotic aura.
"We were meant to use this anyway. I'm just a ghost, though I have a lot of energy stored in me, so I'm a sacrifice. You better leave, Klara!" shouted Eizxi as he flew into the monster's mouth. The monster's power suddenly rose significantly as a white-green-black aura surrounded its body.
"I'll—"
"Dual Dragon Emperor. We appreciate your help so far, but allow us to try to defeat this thing. It is our realm after all, and if the gods and others who live here cannot defend their own realm, it would be quite embarrassing, you know?" said the Jade Emperor.
"I agree, let us deal with this for now," added Longwang. The two left before Aaron could respond. As they did, several people also showed up and followed behind them.
"…We might as well evacuate more people then gather them around the tree. I'll cover it with a powerful barrier, and let's stay there since we got a good viewing point from it," said Aaron. And they flew away just to do that.
A large ice arrow suddenly slammed into the side of the monster, and a purple sword made of lightning struck it. It was followed up by multiple slashes, and several different types of weapon slammed into it too.
"Hi Jin!" shouted Zhang Mei as she appeared in front of them. "You're evacuating our residents here? Thanks! Some of the Divas and Lady Ningguang with gods are going to take it down~ we wanna get that alliance contract signed!" she explained before leaving.
Again, Aaron didn't get a word in as he watched her and several other people converging towards the monster. Aaron sighed and decided to intervene if things were looking dangerous, but he would trust the gods here along with their fighting force.
Zhang Mei jumped on the rooftops of the buildings until she arrived beside Keqing and the blue-haired youkai. "Yo, Lady Keqing, Lady Ganyu, do you need help?" she asked them.
"Here, this is what Lady Ningguang gave to us and the rest of the people here," said Keqing as she handed her a small piece of paper. Zhang Mei looked through it and laughed.
"Really? That's pretty elaborate, alright, we'll distract it until you're finished charging it then!" she shouted and jumped away.
"Even during a crisis like this, she's still like that." Keqing sighed and shook her head. "Well, let's go back to 'that' then," said Keqing as she vanished in a flash of lightning.
"They'll be fine, right?" Ganyu asked herself before teleporting away too.
"Boooooooooossss!" Zhang Mei shouted as she landed beside another figure.
"Everyone has come together, and we received the plan of action, and I've informed Lord Longwang, the Jade Emperor, Lady Nuwa, and Lady Guan Yi, and they have agreed to enact the plan." She looked around and said, "Go do your roles. That monster has started to produce other creatures. Kill them."
"Haaa…how annoying, but a job's a job," said another member of the 8 Divas.
"Are you going to participate, Xiang Yu?" asked Rixia.
"Well, Ning asked for our help, right? Also, the famous dragon is here. I wanna see him after this, so I might as well participate," replied Xiang Yu. 'Seiso, you're fine with this, right?'
'Yep, go for it. I'm no fighter after all, hehe~' replied another voice in her head.
Xiang Yu had red eyes and long brown hair that passed her waist. She uses a flower hair clip to tie the front of her hair like her counterpart Seiso. However, in her case there are some bangs in front of her forehead. Xiang Yu has the same kind of skin as Seiso so she also has white skin. She wore some kind of school uniform, her inner polo is also untucked unlike Seiso. The difference between them lies in the color of their eyes, which is used to differentiate who is in control of their body.
The original owner of the body was a girl called Seiso Hazakura. She was a Japanese girl who moved to China for various reasons with her family. One day, she found out that the sleeping spirit of a former general resided in her body—two souls in one.
After that day, they started conversing with each other and developed a way for each one to switch places at will. Seiso herself is no fighter, as she's a normal girl from a normal family, whereas the legendary Xiang Yu was a general during the Chu–Han Contention period (206–202 BC) in China. She was known as the 'Hedgemon King'.
When Xiang Yu takes over the body, her eyes turn red. Her previous physical abilities and fighting prowess also carries onto Seiso's body, making her at least Ultimate-class in power—however, since they have trained since then and joined the 8 Divas, she's reached Satan-class in power.
"Wu Song and Gongsun Sheng you two go together, Shi Jin and Zhang Mei, Lin Chong and Xiang Yu, and finally me and Yang Zhi as partners. Go," ordered Rixia and the rest of the 8 Divas disappeared.
"What about us, boss?" asked Yang Zhi. Yang Zhi appears as a young girl with short blueish white hair at the front in a fringe and a tail at the back. She also has blue eyes. Her body is average and she wears Chinese battle clothes that are suited for her, the same one as Shi Jin.
"Let's do our part," replied Rixia. Rixia is a young woman with long thick Indigo hair tied in a top ponytail with a loop, and matching eyes. She used a white ribbon in her hair. She wore a revealing blue and purple qipao variant with gold patterns that is open at the sides where it is laced up.
She wore no leggings, using only thigh high stocking boots covered in metal reinforcement. She also wore the long drape of her purple qipao, which culminated in a metal plate.
Rixia used mauve metal armor on her arms consisting of several separate plates laced together, and a clawed metal gauntlet is worn on one hand. Rixia uses lots of red cord to tie all of her outfit together.
Both women disappeared from the spot and commenced their mission
…
Zhang Mei swiftly dashed around the rooftops of the buildings while killing various monsters that the monsters had summoned into their realm. A laugh escaped her lips as she said, "They're pretty easy to kill."
"You should just concentrate and let our leaders do all the work on that thing," replied Shi Jin. She used her Bo Staff to kill her half of the monsters, as she skillfully maneuvered with it despite her body being smaller than the staff.
Zhang Mei shrugged and disappeared from her sight. Multiple enemies suddenly were cut up and she appeared on another building, her eyes briefly shining yellow before they went back to their normal state.
In another section of the city, Gongsun Sheng and Wu Song also repelled a bunch of monsters. Wu Song used her pyrokinesis, an ability she was born with. All her life she had used it as she was part of the supernatural, as was her family. She had been invited by both Ningguang and Rixia after they saw how capable she was after a certain tournament in their realm.
Wu Song jumped from rooftop to rooftop while she punched and kicked monsters while also igniting them with her pyrokinesis. On the other hand, Gongsun Sheng sent out small zaps of lightning towards her enemies.
Gongsun Sheng had two abilities she was born with. One was the ability to manipulate lightning or electricity, and the other was to be able to possess both humans and objects. She is mainly used during espionage missions, and usually didn't participate in confrontations like this. But since it involved her realm, she was forced to.
Wu Song landed beside Gongsun Sheng and asked, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I can at least handle these weaker ones," replied Gongsun Sheng. Wu Song nodded and left to kill more of their enemies.
Near the south of the city, away from most of the fighting, both Ling Chong and Xiang Yu were dealing with other monsters that had decided to hunt down people around the city who hadn't gotten to Aaron's barrier. However, those were only a small number of people.
They were also stopped by these two. Xiang Yu with her Halberd in hand, swung it around as she slashed apart monster after monster. "Come on! Come on! There has to be stronger ones around here!" she shouted with a massive grin stretched across her face.
Lin Chong followed after the eccentric girl with a spear in her hand, killing any enemies that Xiang Yu didn't fully defeat. Those were few and far between, but she still did have to do it. As a matter of fact, Lin Chong had partnered with the former general in most of her missions, however she didn't hate it, but she didn't like it either, she was just indifferent to it.
This was due to Xiang Yu soloing most of their missions together. When both are needed, Xiang Yu would rely on the genius of Seiso, her other self. Seiso was the brains while Xiang Yu was the brawns. However, Lin Chong had to admit that she was a very reliable teammate, but would still like to participate in the mission if she could.
"Oh?! A bigger one!" Xiang Yu shouted and jumped towards the monster as she hacked, slashed and thrust her weapon at it, quickly ending the confrontation. "Tch, I thought it would be stronger," she complained. "Hmm? Is something wrong, Lin?" she asked her partner.
"No, it's fine. Good work," replied Lin Chong.
"Hell yeah!" Xiang Yu gave her partner a thumbs up, oblivious of how troubled she made Lin Chong…but Seiso knew, but she wanted Xiang Yu to come to this conclusion herself, hence why she hadn't said anything.
To Seiso Hazakura, she wanted the former general to grow by herself without her help, if that was possible…
…
"Always with the interesting ideas, that Ningguang," said the Jade Emperor. "However, if we were to combine our powers with the weapon she plans on using, then it should kill this thing."
"Hmm. I believe so too. Ah, there it is," replied Longwang and he pointed at a large floating building quickly approaching them.
"Hmph. She's using the Jade Chamber to battle this thing? Usually 'they' would be the ones helping charge that weapon, but today we are the ones that are doing it," said The Jade Emperor.
"There are only three spots. How will we decide? You, me, Nuwa, your wife, Wangmu Niangniang, and Guan Yin. There is also the Middleman if we so choose to ask," Longwang said as they stared at the Jade Chamber.
The Jade Chamber was a floating fortress home of Ningguang. It is her true home that she had been slowly constructing with the help of several gods over a course of a few years. It has high-level spells, barriers, and weapons on it to protect against attacks, lavish rooms and other necessities for multiple people to live comfortable lives.
Both Longwang and Yuhuang Shangdi, The Jade Emperor flew towards the moving home, and they also felt a few others doing the same. When they landed on the large platform, they saw that a few individuals were already waiting for them.
"Ningguang, if this doesn't work, what will you do?" asked Yuhuang Shangdi.
"We will be powerful the weapon if three gods, if it doesn't work then…I will request aid from you, Yuhuang Shangdi," said Ningguang with a confident smile.
Yuhuang Shangdi nodded and turned around to see that they had arrived at a considerable distance. Suddenly the 8 Divas also joined them and Ningguang approached Zhang Mei.
"Zhang, you seemed to be the closest to the Middleman and his associates. Will you kindly pass this on to him?" asked Ningguang as she placed a document in her hands.
Zhang Mei saluted her and dashed away. The rest were left there to wonder what one of their leaders had to give to Aaron.
…
As Aaron and his group waited by the pink leaf tree, the rest of his group finally arrived in Jiaochun.
"Yo, sorry we're late. We had to do a few things over at Baihu's place," explained Kouki. Kalawarna, Mittelt and Meruem arrived with him.
"Aaron we—"
"The ghost person, right?" Aaron stopped Shigune and told her that they had already met him and he had transformed into that giant monster in the distance. He also explained to them that there was a female vampire earlier, but they 'escaped', but showed them in a small magic circle that he had put her under an illusion and she was just rolling around on the ground just west of them.
"I guess you won't need to hear much from our end then," said Natsume and explained what she and Kanami found. She then brought out the cube-like object and gave it to Aaron.
Aaron wanted to contact Cúntóir, but she was still busy with analyzing the whereabouts of the crystals and the crystal itself, so he stored it in his [Inventory] for the time being. As he was about to say something, Zhang Mei arrived by them.
The people that he had brought here were on the other side of the tree. There were a lot of them, but he had expanded the space around the tree, so on the inside there was a lot of room for them to move around in while the outside stayed the same size.
"Jin!" shouted Zhang Mei. "I have something!" she said and waved the document above her head. Once she arrived in front of Aaron, she handed it over and looked at him expectantly.
Aaron wasn't sure on how to respond, so he just patted her head like she was some kind of puppy in training and it seemed Zhang Mei was fine with that 'reward'. Aaron read through the document as the others crowded around him.
"I see. I don't mind," said Aaron. He summoned a pen and wrote down his name and signature and handed it to Zhang Mei. "Ningguang may need this back." Zhang Mei looked at him confused, but left soon after.
"So they want your help in the end if their 'final stand' doesn't work, huh? What about the other gods? They can probably take it down, can't they?" asked Raynare.
"Most likely, but my guess is that some have reservations about me, for whatever reason. But it's fine, it just asked me to kill it and nothing else was written on it. I even checked with magic," replied Aaron. 'I just wanted to be safe, maybe she was trying to bind me to a contract or something,' he thought and looked back at the monster.
The document simply stated that Jin Skyward, the Middleman would help solve this crisis (kill the beast) and they would form the alliance soon after the act was done.
…
"Lady Ningguang! I have it!" Zhang Mei quickly arrived back at the stationary Jade Chamber and handed Ningguang the document. She accepted it, quickly read through it and smiled.
"Thank you, Zhang Mei." She thanked the girl and turned back to the gods. A singular cannon had appeared in a newly generated platform. It was a translucent blue platform and a singular cannon was in the middle.
There were three panels in which the human gods could place their hands on to feed them their divine power. The three chosen were Nuwa the mother goddess of Chinese mythology, Yuhuang Shangdi, The Jade Emperor and Wangmu Niangniang, the Queen Mother of the West, and the Jade Emperor's wife.
All three of them placed their hands on the panel and they began to feed their divine aura and energy into the machine. Any type of energy can be used on this machine, magic, touki, demonic energy, holy powers, draconic energy, and anything else. As long as it can give it energy it will accept it.
The cannon began to glow as it was fed by their energy. Ningguang who was in control of it with her own powers began to adjust it so it would hit the monster in front of it. She aimed for the middle of its…mouth. It was quite large so it would be impossible to miss it.
<
The creature then pointed several of its tentacles into the sky and began creating several balls of darkness and even more monsters. Many of its eyes then looked at the Jade Chamber and Aaron.
<
The creature finally fired its attack at the Jade Chamber. At the same time, it multiplied and began to crash into the surrounding buildings of Jiaochun. Large explosions occurred around them. However, to their surprise, the buildings began to repair themselves after the explosions ceased.
<
"Fire!" shouted Ningguang. The cannon that was powered by the gods shot out a powerful beam. It was white, green and red all mixed together. The balls of darkness the monster fired merged together and became larger.
Once the two attacks collided a rip in space and time appeared all around it. This caused the buildings around to be sucked into the space, but as quickly as it appeared, it also vanished. They saw a small figure pass by it and disappear.
"Add more to it!" shouted the Jade Emperor commanded, and they did just that. All three gods were surprised that the creatures' attack was able to defend against the three gods' power even after being combined.
"What a fascinating thing. He said that it belonged to another universe did he not? I wonder what the alliance is hiding from the rest of us…?" questioned Longwang.
"Khh…! It's starting to overheat! Anyone that has water or ice abilities can commence cooling it down!" ordered Ningguang. Ganyu, along with two others from the 8 Divas jumped down to the new platform and stood beside the cannons and began to use ice magic and ice manipulation to forcibly cool it down.
<
Another large ball of darkness was produced by the creature and thrown towards the Jade Chamber. It slammed into the other ball and merged with it. The attack from the creature began to overpower the beam created by the cannon much to their shock.
"C-can't we do something to help?!" Zhang Mei shouted in worry. That was when Longwang jumped towards the other three gods and placed his hand on top of Yuhuang Shangdi and began to channel his own energy into the cannon too.
"That's my husband you know!" Wangmu Niangniang complained.
"I'm just helping!" Longwang shot back with the same irritation which caused Yuhuang Shangdi, The Jade Emperor to laugh at the two of them.
"Fufu, why don't I help too?" said Huanglong's voice.
"Y-yellow Dragon Huanglong?!" Wu Song shouted in surprise.
"Hey~!" he replied and walked over to the gods and placed his hand on top of Longwang. "Dragon power, go!" He then started to feed his energy into it too.
The caused the cannon to go into overdrive and fire an even stronger and larger beam towards the creature. At the end of the struggle, the god's beam won as it destroyed the ball of darkness, much to the creature's shock.
<
Once the attack was over, nothing was left of the beast.
"It worked!" shouted Zhang Mei as she jumped for joy.
"Now that was something," said Xiang Yu as she fist bumped with Lin Chong. The other Divas also breathed a sigh of relief, the ones who helped Ganyu stop the over heating also fell to the ground exhausted.
"I didn't think it would be necessary for all of us to do that. I guess fighting it individually would be suicidal?" asked Huanglong.
"…Maybe, but I think I can still kill it," replied Yuhuang Shangdi.
<
<
At the same time, he created a giant mass of darkness above him again. This time the ball was even larger than before. He grinned at the gods and everyone on the Jade Chamber. <
He quickly finished charging the attack and began the motions of throwing it at them.
"Shit…! I can't…!" Longwang tried to step forward but exhaustion caught up to him. The other two goddesses were also on their knees, tired from using up their divine energy. The Jade Emperor, while tired could still move, the rest…could not.
Ningguang summoned a magic circle beside her. "May I request for your assistance?" she asked through it.
"…Okay," the voice replied.
<
A lone figure appeared at the very tip of the translucent platform much to the others' surprise.
"Eh? Jin?!" shouted Zhang Mei.
Jin brought his right foot back and focused a substantial amount of energy into it. He looked up at the monster version of Eizxi calmly and performed a kicking motion. Once performed…there was no sound—not from the people behind him, not from the animals around the city, not even from the giant attack that was going towards them.
Once Aaron was at a ninety-degree angle—the ball of darkness was immediately split in half and vanished, next…Eizxi himself was also split in half. He didn't know what hit him. All he saw was Aaron performing some kind of kicking motion.
In the aftermath, the sky, the ground, several mountains behind them, and even the realm itself were split in half. And then came the sound—it was ear piercing, like the sound of a whip being used, next came the powerful shockwave that blew everything apart, including the city below them, the only thing that remained was the pink tree with the residents in them.
The winds they felt were as though they came from a worldwide hurricane that slammed into everyone and they held on for dear life. They did not want to be blown away.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! I don't wanna fllyyy!!" screamed Zhang Mei as she held onto a pillar. The others behind him also let out confused and scared screams and groans.
"Renewal Recoilless Kick," Aaron muttered. He left his position and looked at the creature. He had used this same move earlier on the two battle gods, albeit less powerful.
<
His last words of agony were cut off as he finally died. Aaron put his hand out and began to quickly repair the city and realm around him. Without turning around, he apologized. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to use that much power. Maybe I got a bit too excited?" he asked, but no one answered him.
Yuhuang Shangdi, The Jade Emperor stared at him with even more curiosity and wariness. 'What in the world was that…and what are you…? Will we be finding out during the meeting…?!' the Jade Emperor couldn't help think.
…
Jin Skyward's Soliloquy
…
A few hours had passed since that event. I had also been contacted by Rose, Lavinia and Suzaku that several figures wanted to meet me in Takamagahara after all of that had transpired today. They also had things to show me. According to them, the Shinto realm was the first to be liberated, next was Kyoto and then finally the Chinese Pantheon.
I had helped repair the entire realm from top to bottom and every corner it had. I wasn't sure if my attack had any lasting effects on the realm, so I decided to stay an extra few hours while letting my group go explore. Griselda and Gabriel stayed with me since they didn't want to explore any further.
The gods here, and also the leaders had begun reading the documents after I killed the creature. When I was about to kick it, I read through it's memories, but it was just the god who made it telling him what to do, and it was some god called Zhong Kui. He had joined the Khaos Order along with other gods.
The Alliance of Hell had been changed to the Alliance of the Evil Gods, so he was probably in that. I can guess that Hades was probably in charge of it along with Angra Mainyu and other gods of different mythologies like Ptah. I hadn't seen him in a while.
Right now, I was in a certain part of the city. A few townspeople were talking about a strange woman rolling around the ground, and I forgot to retrieve Klara, the 'Super Vampire' from earlier. I eventually reached the location of where that 'strange' woman was and found Klara.
She had stopped struggling, but seemed to be moaning for some reason. Maybe she was…having a good 'dream'. I shook my head and put my hand out. 'Let's try to see if she has anything useful…' I thought and read her memories.
What I found was quite interesting. She wasn't that high up in the Vampire Faction of the Khaos Order, but she was still 'relevant' to it. However, I found it strange that they let her keep her memories since what I've learned is that most would have wiped their memories out once they go on these missions/operations of theirs.
But from what I saw, they had gone to a different universe…it seems like they're already trying to conquer the multiverse and I didn't even know about it. In one of these universes, it was mostly populated by vampires, and the strongest they had was at least Middle-Tier God-class, and now they've captured them, injected Nyarlathotep's blood into them and are using them like Lilith's previous body to create more 'Super Vampires'.
I worry that they may find another universe with different species that they'll do the same thing to, even the Evil Dragons now are beyond just Middle-class in power, most are Ultimate-class to Satan-class. So anyone below that would just die. It was a good idea that I gave most of the alliance those [Hyperbolic Regenerative Chambers] to get stronger, otherwise we'd have more casualties.
[You also have your shadow soldiers everywhere. Speaking of that, are you intending to make more? The multiverse is expansive, and like you saw, they're already slowly conquering it with several factions in them,] asked Elsha.
'Point taken, I might do that. We don't know when they'll attack next, but I know something's happening when Christmas gets here,' I replied and froze Klara before putting her into my [Inventory].
"Yo, Jin-kun~!"
I turned around and saw Zhang Mei there. She was holding two crepes to my surprise and offered me one. Behind her was Griselda who smiled at us.
"Hello, Mei. How can I help you?" I asked and accepted the crepe while thanking her.
"Our leaders are done reading the documents! Hehe, those Android fairies were super useful, you know? Lady Ningguang was wondering if you would sell those to them," she told me.
"They're not for sale…for now, but maybe in the distant future. I have a couple of products that I may sell that'll be exclusive to the supernatural in the future," I told her and we started walking back with Griselda joining us.
Once she did, I held her hand and intertwined our fingers. She squeezed my hand and I did the same thing back to her. "Now that I think about it, we didn't get to sleep, huh? It's already morning again," I said and looked up.
When all this started, the day was ending in this realm. However, now the sun was in the sky, though it wasn't at its peak yet, but it was close. I was also surprised to see some of the 8 Divas earlier. They were some characters that I knew about in my previous life, though…I'm curious about what their backstories are now…
"How is it?" asked Zhang Mei as she looked at my crepe.
"It's good. How much did it cost? I'll pay you back," I said and offered some to Griselda. She had a bite and made a strange but cute sound while she ate.
"Don't worry about it~! They're relatively cheap you know? I also get paid pretty well as one of Lady Ningguang's 8 Divas. Ah, where are you headed after this?" she asked.
"The Shinto realm, apparently there are a few people that want to speak to me over there. However, I think the current heads of the Five Principal Clans and maybe the Shinto gods may finally meet with each other and discuss something—my guess? Maybe a treaty or new alliance? It's long overdue," I told them.
"These groups have been frequently been attacked after all, I think that only makes sense, and now that the Chinese Pantheon was also attacked, perhaps they may also join? Because the Five Principal Clans are also connected here through the Sacred Beasts," added Griselda.
"…Can you guys see into the future or something? That's scary!" exclaimed Zhang Mei. "Well, since you know about it, I may as well confirm it for you…so yeah, Lady Ningguang and the others are going to meet with those guys after this. So you'll probably just go there with them, ah, I'm coming to with Boss Rixia!"
"Hmm…well, that's good then. Who among the leaders are going?" I asked. I knew Ningguang was going, so maybe…the Jade Emperor? He seemed like a good person, though he had a lot of pride since he tried to stop Eizxi a few hours ago even after using a large quantity of his divine energy and aura.
"Lady Ningguang, obviously. I think…Lord Yuhuang Shangdi and maybe Lady Nuwa? Maybe even Lady Keqing too, but I'm not entirely sure," said Zhang Mei.
Ningguang, the Jade Emperor, Nuwa and Keqing, huh? I think that line-up is fine. According to them earlier, there were more gods but they were spread around the country of China and weren't here today…er, yesterday…? Well, whatever, the point is they weren't here, like much of the other gods in the other pantheons I've been to.
I do hope I meet them in the future though. As we chatted with each other, we finally made it to a different part of the city. I had given Griselda the rest of my crepe and she happily ate it. This part of town…had a magic circle on the ground. It was near the courtyards of the castle, so this may be an official teleportation circle used by them.
"The Jade Chamber is usually at a different location, around the middle of the Northern part of our realm, so in between here and the Black Tortoise's territory. Anyway, this will teleport us to the platform that Lady Ningguang was on earlier," explained Zhang Mei.
We were immediately teleported to the outer section of the Jade Chamber; it was a circular-ish platform with unique designs embedded into it. I hadn't noticed earlier, but there were two guards by the door, though I was a bit busy with killing something…
"Yo~!" Zhang Mei greeted them and they let us through. Once inside the building was as extravagant as the rest. The décor looked expensive, as did the wood and stone that were used for its construction.
There were what seemed to be four levels. We were on the third level, but at the bottom/first there looked to be a pond. It also had several different types of fish there, even Koi.
"It's on the last floor, follow me~" said Zhang Mei as she went up…
"Ugh…spiral staircases, I've had enough of them…" I complained as we walked up them.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "Ah! Don't look at my ass, do you hear me?!" she semi-shouted and covered her behind with her hands.
I chose not to comment and kept my mouth shut. In addition, I was busy looking around the place to be only and solely focused on your ass, Mei…
"The Pantheons that Jin has been to had many staircases in this pattern. I believe he's fed up with them," replied Griselda who started patting me on the back. Zhang Mei laughed at this and we finally made it up to the fourth floor.
Immediately in front of us was a large wooden door decorated in gold and adorned with several designs that resembled the Sacred Beasts, as well as the Jade Emperor and Longwang the Dragon King. Zhang Mei pushed the door open and we immediately saw several figures in there, some of whom I met earlier.
Ningguang, Keqing, blue-haired youkai Ganyu, Wangmu Niangniang, the Jade Emperor's wife, Yuhuang Shangdi, The Jade Emperor, Longwang the Dragon King, Guan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, the 8 Divas and someone called Cao Lee.
Cao Lee was a tall slender man with bright fuchsia hair and narrow matching eyes. He wore slim red-framed glasses. Cao wore an Eastern style indigo-blue suit with floral embellishments and cord that ties over a black high collared shirt and red pin. His trousers open up at the heel and he donned flat slipper-like shoes in violet.
Nuwa was a beautiful woman with long gray hair, blue eyes and wore a white dress that resembled a swan. She wore cross-shaped earrings on both ears and also had a cross-shaped necklace around her neck.
Wangmu Niangniang had tiger-like ears on her head, long black hair and heterochronic eyes. Her right eye was red while her left was brown. She wore an elegant black dress with several designs on them. There were fish, flowers, and even a dragon on it. She also had a black and white tiger's tail protruding from her back. She also carried a wan with her.
Lastly, Guan Yi had an exquisite and beautiful crown on her hair that was made of gold. She had soft long brown hair, brown eyes and wore a gold, white and green dress. Her body was also adored by various expensive jewelry and ornaments which included several necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.
The Android fairies that I left here flew over to me and I stored them back in my [Inventory]. Once done—
"We have read through all of it, Jin. It's quite extensive, and the benefits outweigh the cons that we had speculated in the past. Therefore, we would like to sign the document to join the alliance, there were no one that opposed this, correct?" Ningguang asked and looked around.
The majority of the gods there agreed, though Cao Lee seemed irritated but also agreed. I nodded, summoned the document and gave it to Ningguang who examined it, after a few seconds of reading she put it down and wrote her signature down, she passed it along the rectangular table and everyone signed it—when it was Cao Lee's turn, he looked at it longer than most, but eventually signed it too.
I retrieved it and signed it myself. "And, you're done…welcome to the alliance. I forgot to do this for the Hindu Gods, or more like I was interrupted, but still…"
I told them the truth of the multiverse and the enemies from beyond (ExE and CxP) and what that monster was from earlier, I also showed them of our past encounters of them, especially the Halloween operation that recently passed.
"Are they stronger than most gods here then?" asked Yuhuang Shangdi as he frowned.
"I can only speculate, but the strongest fighters and leaders should be beyond the powers of the two dragon gods of our universe," I told him and he frowned even more. "But you don't need to worry, I'll get rid of them eventually."
"You're that confident or arrogant?" asked Longwang.
"…Let's go with both," I replied and he closed his eyes.
"Jin—"
"It's about creating a new alliance, right? Zhang Mei told us," I stopped Ningguang.
She looked at Zhang Mei who furiously shook her head. "Liar! Liar! I just said some things and you two managed to decipher it!" she shouted back as her face turned red.
I chuckled and added, "I was joking, but we thought that it was inevitable after this attack. Would you like to go to the Shinto Pantheon now? I believe the heads of the Five Principal Clans, the inheritors of the Sacred Beasts and Shinto Gods should be waiting."
Ningguang nodded. "Very well, I don't need to go into detail then. Keqing, Yuhuang Shangdi, The Jade Emperor, Longwang the Dragon King and Nuwa will be joining me along with Rixia the leader of the Divas and Zhang Mei."
"Alright, let's head over now," I suggested but she put her hand up.
"I would like to prepare some things. Please give us five minutes. You may explore or wait on the platform outside," she said and turned around and went into a different room connected to this meeting room.
I shrugged and left the room with Griselda. We waited outside with the two guards watching us which made it a bit weird.
"Should we inform everyone?" she asked. I grabbed her shoulder and brought her closer to me which made her yelp a bit.
"I'll tell them that we're heading to the Shinto realm, but they can stay here and explore a little more. I think they'd want to do that after all that fighting. We didn't exactly get to do much 'relaxing', even though we were here for official business," I replied.
So I did just that and most of them were fine with staying here, but…
"I'm coming too!" A ball of white feathers flew towards the Jade Chamber and crashed into my chest. It was Gabriel. "…Natsume also wanted to come, but Kanami forced her to stay, the same with Raynare saying they needed to relax," she told us.
"I see. Well, that's fine. Between doing missions for Grigori, training and what happened recently, I'd say they need it."
"What about you…?" she asked worriedly.
"I'll be fine. This body can take the abuse," I said and chuckled. But the two with me looked at me with worry. I tried to reassure them that I would be fine, but they didn't buy it. Although I was telling the truth, I guess they didn't like it.
'Pace yourself, Aaron. Just because you can do anything, everyone needs downtime—a time for rest—a time to relax. Those months leading up to Halloween you were very stressed. No matter how much you denied it, we noticed it, and certainly the women around you did too,' said Rudra.
I had heard from him in a few days, so I was starting to worry but… 'I guess you're right, but I can't really rest, but I'll try to slow down a bit.'
'For now, that's fine,' he said and became silent.
The Seraph refused to stop hugging me and we stayed like that until five minutes passed. The ones coming with us arrived and we left for Takamagahara.
…
The moment we arrived in the realm, in between the novel shops of Yae Miko and Kogitsunemaru…the realm was abuzz. It looked like there weren't much damage done, so my shadow soldiers and everyone else did their job thankfully.
"Ji—"
"Maybe later, I'm here for business," I told Kogitsunemaru and he nodded. We left the area and found that they were all in the meeting room where Amaterasu was usually at. Sara met us and guided us there since our group was much larger. The few who were around stared at us.
"Ooooh! I've never been here before. It's so colorful and pretty! Well, it's not like I'm saying our realm isn't!" said Zhang Mei as she curiously looked around.
She was the only one who was excited about the whole thing. The rest were a bit stiff and tense. Especially Keqing, even though she had her usual stoic face, I could still feel her emotions and she was rather nervous.
Around three quarters of the way there, Rose, Suzaku and Lavinia were there waiting for us. As I was about to greet them, Lavinia ran up and hugged me. The other two joined us. We greeted each other and finally arrived in front of the door and Sara pushed it open and there were a lot of people in there.
Suzaku left our side and joined the other heads of the Five Principal Clans. The leaders of the Chinese Pantheon also walked over to their seat, the ones present for the Shinto Gods were the trio gods, Amaterasu, Raijin and Fūjin. Behind them were Hachiman and Susanoo.
For the clans were Suzaku Himejima who was both the head and inheritor of the Vermillion Bird. Behind her stood the human form of Zhuque (Vermillion Bird) and her parents. Aoki Doumon was the clan head of the Doumon clan, and Genbu Doumon was the inheritor of Xuanwu (Black Tortoise), Giyu Kushihashi was the clan head of the Kushihashi clan and Seiryuu Kushihashi was the inheritor of Qinglong (Azure Dragon).
Ouryuu (Ryuuta) Nakiri, the youngest clan head and the inheritor of Huanglong (Yellow Dragon), he came with a few body guards, and finally Rakko Shinra the clan head, and Byakko Shinra who was the inheritor of Baihu (White Tiger). To my surprise, Tsubaki Shinra was there, behind the two of them.
In the left corner was Iztia, one of my Electa and [Goddess of Battle]. She was in her usual clothes and waved at me with a silly grin.
Finally, the last seat was there, I assumed for me so I walked over to it and sat on it. Behind me were Griselda, Gabriel, Lavinia and Rossweisse.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice," said Amaterasu. "Let us get down to business. As you know, our pantheons and territories were just attacked by the Khaos Order more specifically…"
"The Connected Harmony, led by Hanezu Himejima, but I believe there are still remnants of the faction in their organization, they may disband or be absorbed by other factions within the organizations," I said to Amaterasu.
"Remnants, so this may not be over?" asked Giyu Kushihashi as he stroked his chin.
"For their faction, it may be, but overall, probably not. They may just break off from the organization completely and be independent. Otherwise, they may also join other organizations just to get further power and also attack any one of you," I replied to him.
"May we stop the speculation for now and go over the facts? We, have written a detailed report of what happened just a few hours ago," said Ningguang as she pushed a few pages that were put together into the middle. It then split apart and went to the leaders and heads of the table, including me.
"We have also prepared one for ourselves, so did the clan heads," said Amaterasu as she also gave everyone a copy of their reports.
I quickly read through them and it gave a detailed explanation of what happened. No whats, no ifs, and no buts. Just facts and no theories or anything like that. But on my own document it specifically detailed that Lavinia had Nakagami Nakiri in custody as he had turned into some kind of dragon during it.
It also had a note from Rossweisse saying she had a letter for me from one of the vampires. I inwardly sighed; I got my job cut out for me. I guess there won't be any rest for me in the coming days.
"It made me wonder, Jin, what were those stone warriors?" asked Fūjin.
"…Battle Gods. They were prototypes, so they weren't the final product. As the name suggests, they're made to be mass-produced God-class beings. They both have strength and durability, but not speed. I would speculate that they'll be used in a future operation since they're still prototypes."
I paused and looked at the paper. "I already planned on informing the rest of the alliance after this, but this is a good place to start. As you may or may not have heard, there have been mass sightings of devils around the supernatural worlds—they're not related to the devils of the Underworld but are—"
I told them about the Artificial Super Devils, and then the newly created 'Super Vampires'. Since they knew about the multiverse, I also told them how they attained them. They captured a powerful vampire from a different universe and did what they did to Lilith, to them.
I also told them a bit about Lilith's situation and how she changed to our side and joined the alliance.
"…Are they preparing for some kind of war?" asked Yuhuang Shangdi.
"If they are…what for?" asked Rakko Shinra.
"They have already started conquering the multiverse. The Evie faction of the Evie Etoulde universe and the Phantasma of the Crepuscule Phantasma. Since they've joined forces, they are just going along with what was already being done. More worlds and universes will fall under the Khaos Order." I glanced at the document in front of me.
'I'll put Cao Cao's team into the [Pocket Dimension] first and let them get stronger in there. Universal or multiversal should be fine for them and then I'll send them to the Phantasma's universe after that. I'll have…Aurelia and God Serena watch over them for however long they're in there for…'
"What do you suggest?" asked Suzaku as she smiled at me.
"…Leave it to Team [DxD] and my subordinates. I have my plans set in motion. However, if you're asking what you—and the residents of this universe can do, it's just to prepare for whatever may come our way due to them. They were silent for the last few months, but then attacked only a few weeks apart. We won't know when they'll strike again."
Everyone fell silent and began discussing among themselves. I leaned back on my chair and sighed. I felt Lavinia's hands on my shoulder as she began massaging them, though I also felt Suzaku's gaze on us—a bit of…jealousy? When I looked back at her, she had closed her eyes and was just sitting there.
After a few minutes of speaking to themselves, Amaterasu addressed everyone again. "As I discussed with Ningguang earlier, I propose we start our own alliance. Unfortunately, Yasaka the leader of the Western Youkais and Nurarihyon the leader of the East Youkais could not make it today as they are tending to their factions as the damage there was more than ours."
I was surprised by this and quickly looked through one of my shadow soldiers' visions that were stationed in Urakyoto. What I saw wasn't too bad, but since it wasn't that big of a city, the damage was 'significant' since many of the buildings were quite close to each other, hence why it looked more dire than the ones here.
I'll ask Yasaka about it soon. I'm worried about the casualties, but if my shadow soldiers were there, they shouldn't be too high…
"What do you suggest the name of our alliance to be?" asked Ouryuu (Ryuuta) Nakiri.
Amaterasu smiled and looked at me, this was followed by everyone else.
"…What?" I asked, confused by their behavior.
"Then…! How about the [Boundless Dragon's United Front]?" proposed Zhang Mei. Everyone looked at her wanting an explanation. She blushed and said, "W-well, you know…Jin helped everyone in our pantheons, right? Including the Five Principal Clans too…a-and he's a dragon, and there are more than…uh…one of us…?"
"I certainly wouldn't mind," said Amaterasu. "Is anyone against this young lady's suggestion?" she asked everyone. However, no one raised a complaint. She smiled and said, "Then shall we sign to it?"
Amaterasu summoned another document and passed it to the leaders and they each read through it, including me. It was the same as the DxD Alliance. However, they would construct teleportation circles around their pantheons and clans for easier access to each, so they could respond to each other's emergencies when possible. There were other things like cheaper prices for import and export of goods and the like.
…
Around two hours later, all deliberations were done and the treaty between the Shinto Pantheon, Chinese Pantheon, the Five Principal Clans and the Two Youkai factions, were signed. The two youkai factions had a representative sent around an hour into it. The East youkai faction also told me that Nurarihyon wanted to meet me in the future, so I also have that to go to now too. Iztia also left after an hour because she became bored.
Everyone had mostly left. The first was the Chinese Pantheon, much to Zhang Mei's protest, though one glare from Rixia and she shut up immediately. The other two youkai representatives also left after them.
I was outside with the girls as we decided to get some air.
"You go through that every time you go to a new pantheon, huh?" asked Gabriel as she embraced me at the front.
"Yeah, though it's a lot less tense since there usually hadn't been a mass attack before it," I replied and sighed. Suzaku was still inside the castle as she spoke with the other clan heads and the Shinto gods in there, so we decided to give them some privacy.
"By the way, where's Raiko?" I asked Rose.
"She's currently in a meeting with the rest of the [Yamaūjin]. There were a few injuries on their end, but in the end none of them were fatal. Right now, she's planning on taking them to the [Training Facility] in your home if that's alright? They're going to be part of Team [DxD] after all," explained Rose.
"That's fine, I'll just need to increase the size of that place then, the number of members is going to be over a hundred soon, unless it's already that…" If I add the Hindu Group and now the Chinese Group, then take the Vali Team from the temporary members, then there's a lot of them now.
"Everyone…" A voice called out to us. When we turned around, we saw Suzaku along with the other clan heads, the inheritors, and the Shinto Gods with them.
"Jin-san!" another pair of voices called out to my name behind me and I turned back. I saw Kuki Shinobu, Arataki Itto and Yoimiya.
I wasn't sure which group to address first. However, Suzaku along with the gods nodded at me, so I chose to speak with Itto's group first.
"How can I help you?" I asked as I approached then, the girls who clung onto me let go of me.
The two ladies looked at each other before Itto pushed Kuki Shinobu towards me first. She looked back at him with a glare, which caused the Oni to flinch. Yoimiya began to chuckle awkwardly and pat him on the back.
"The offer you proposed to me a few months back…I'd like to accept it, if it's still possible," said Shinobu.
"Yes. It's still on offer. I did say to get back to me once you came to a decision. But it won't be built until I graduate from High School. This means you won't need to move or come over yet, so you can stay with the Arataki Gang for a while," I told her.
"Woooooooooooh! See?! I told you he'd accept, and also we get to have Shinobu for a few more months? Great, we can look for someone else as capable as her in the meantime!" cheered Itto. He grabbed Yoimiya's hands and started to swing her around. The girl looked like she was going to puke.
"I see. Thank you," she said and bowed. Shinobu then turned around and punched Itto in the gut, in turn he let go of Yoimiya which made her flew off towards the two novel shops.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaa!!" she screamed. I stretched my arm out and caught her with telekinesis and brought her back in front of me.
"Are you okay?" I asked and put her down. She nodded. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
"I-I'd like to make a shop in Kuoh if possible! Also, thank you for the help with the renovations for ou—my shop last month!" she said and looked at me with starry eyes.
A fireworks shop in Kuoh, huh? I don't know how long I'll stay in that little town but…
"I'm not the owner of the town, but I can speak to Rias, Sona and their fathers who have control there, but I think they'll accept the proposition, Yoimiya."
"That's fine! Totally fine!" she replied excitedly.
"Alright, I'll text you the update once it's all been finalized. I'll also help pick out some spots for you. I have a few places in mind," I added and she nodded excitedly, thanked me and then ran away.
Shinobu and Itto also left earlier with the Oni being scolded by the small female human. I sighed and turned back to everyone. "Alright…who else wants to speak to me?" I asked and put my hands on my hips.
The other clan members spoke to me and asked about the promise I made. I told them that it was still being worked on. However, I would definitely get back on that—especially to the Shinra since they wanted that person brought back to life. I just hope her soul was still around and hadn't been reincarnated yet.
Speaking of reincarnation, I felt like that Xiang Yu person was a reincarnated person—or at least housed two souls in her body…I didn't look too deeply into it, but when our eyes met during that short meeting in the Jade Chamber, she had a small look of panic flash across her eyes.
The other clans left after that, though the inheritors looked like they wanted to speak to me, especially Ryuuta Nakiri. However, he had to leave since he had to inform the other in their clan about the upcoming changes. The Shinto gods are going to go there soon, so if there were any that were against it…they would use a bit more force to shut them up about it.
Right now, they only cared about survivability and not about old customs, systems, or rules. As I was about to take a step forward towards the girls, Suzaku came forward and embraced me.
"Suzaku?" I asked yet she didn't answer me. She pulled away, turned our heads and then kissed me while she stared Lavinia down who looked a bit shocked by this.
"Oh!" shouted Gabriel as she giggled.
"Hoho? Is this…a rivalry in his harem?" asked Raijin. "Ah that's right, did you forget about me, Jin? I was meant to join it before you left after our duel you know?"
I was going to address that! But this situation just occurred you know…?!
"…I'm jealous of you Lavinia," Suzaku said after she stopped kissing me. "That's why…I'll fight for that spot that you've had for the longest time…you could call this a declaration of war. I can be a bit more selfish…can't I?" she asked and kissed me again.
When I looked back at Lavinia…she looked both shocked and furious. However...a smile covered her face as if she had accepted the challenge of the ever so kind Suzaku Himejima.
…
After that short debacle, I spoke with the three Shinto gods. Both Lavinia and Suzaku were staring at each other silently. Gabriel and Griselda felt a bit awkward but decided to start speaking to them about random topics.
"I wasn't sure if you were serious about that, you know?" I asked Raijin.
"I accepted Shuri's suggestion. I lost, so take me in."
"You sound like a lost animal…" said Fūjin.
"Be quiet Masochist Goddess," Raijin snapped back making Fūjin flinch back and blush.
"…Fine, but let's take it slo—"
"No, fuck me." She cut me off and stared at me with a dead serious look.
"…My god, you're just like Aurelia…no, seriously let's slow down. I don't mean at a snail's pace, but let's get to know each other…just come by my home and we can chat more there," I told her.
Not satisfied with that, she sighed and agreed. "Fine. I did hear from Suzaku and Rossweisse that you had a training facility in your home. Perhaps I can get stronger there too, fufu," she said creepily.
Fūjin then started to smack Raijin who also fought back. They seemed like teenagers there, but Amaterasu stepped forward and took my hands into hers. It felt just like Suzaku and her mother, Kasumi.
"Jin. I'd like to thank you again. You've helped us many times over the last few months. Our pantheon is in undeniable debt to you—not only that, but also the Sacred Beasts and the Five Principal Clans."
"It's no prob—"
I was cut off by Amaterasu kissing me. I heard gasps all around me as she did this. I also was quite surprised by this.
"Fufu. It looks like you have Akeno-chan, Suzaku and now Amaterasu to deal with huh, Lavinia?" Gabriel asked behind me. I felt Lavinia getting even more jealous, but she didn't lash out or anything.
"…It seems I may have more rivals in the future," murmured Suzaku.
Amaterasu finally stopped kissing me and looked at me with a blush. "Does this count as my own declaration of war?" she asked sweetly.
"Holy crap! Our chief god just kissed Jin!" Kogitsunemaru's voice boomed from behind us. We then heard a lightning strike and his screaming afterward.
"Well…"
"I want to be a part of this too! Take me too!" Fūjin shouted and lunged towards me. "Uhihihi~! Spank me more, Jin!"
After that, all hell broke loose as the rest of them jumped me. I was drowned in a sea of tits that day.
Tsubaki, who stayed in the background, together with Susanoo and Hachiman, watched the scene in amusement and shock. I was wondering if she was here during the attack...
…
Check the chapter comments to see images of certain characters.