Dimensional Gap, Team DxD Base.
After a day of grueling training under Scathach and Chiron's direction, Team DxD, minus Slash/Dog Team, who was out investigating a potential hideout for Rizevim, were relaxing in the common room on the first floor of the dormitory building.
"What in the Underworld were we thinking asking for these seals?" Rias asked, rubbing her sore muscles. "I think I'm gonna fall apart before I reach minor god-rank."
"I know, right!" Moka said, not doing much better than Rias. "On top of that, my power has dropped to the initial-level of the ultimate-rank, too."
"Ugh... Can you too be quiet?" Sona asked, adjusting her glasses with a frown on her face. "I'm too tired to deal with your whining."
"Shut up, Sona." Rias whined. "Thisis my coping mechanism, deal with it."
With that, Rias and Sona began one of their usual arguments. From what everyone else could tell, they were just blowing off steam and the argument was helping them relax.
Meanwhile, the members of Team Vali and the angels were looking at the devils with confusion. Then, Dulio noticed Irina. Thinking she knew what was going on, he went over and asked her about it.
"Hey, Irina, do you know what they're talking about?" Dulio asked curiously. "And why do they seem a bit weaker than usual?"
"I'm not completely sure." Irina replied. "Honestly, all I know is that Master Scathach put a seal on them. But what the seal is for, I have no idea."
Meanwhile, Vali was asking Chiron about the same thing. But being more knowledgeable than most, Chiron had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"Chiron, do you know what those women are going on about?" Vali asked, annoyed to hear all the whining.
"If I'm seeing things correctly, they are wearing seals that suppress their magic and physical abilities." Chiron said, scanning the states of James, Rias, and Sona's peerages. "Most of them are wearing seals that require them to exert one hundred percent of both their demonic energy and their physical power to move at all. It's really quite ingenious for training. With that seal..."
As soon as Chiron started to drone on about the seal, Vali immediately started tuning him out. He understood what the seal the girls were talking about did, and that was enough for him. As for asking Scathach to put a seal like that on him, not in a million years.
'I definitely want to get stronger and teach James a lesson.' Vali thought to himself while tuning out Chiron. 'And I don't mind putting myself through hellish training to do it. But when I get the chance to rest, I want to actually be able to rest. And something tells me that they have no say on when those seals come off either.'
Like Vali, the rest of his team also shook their heads at the thought of wearing seals like that. And over hearing Chiron's explanation, the angels had similar thoughts. Unfortunately for the devil girls, none of them realized that Scathach was guiding their thoughts into asking for a seal. It was almost like a fly willingly flying into a spider's web. There was no way the spider would let the fly go until it got all it wanted from its prey.
"I pray to Satan that this will get easier over time." Rias said while pulling on her crimson locks.
"You rang?" James said, appearing behind the sofa Rias was sitting on. "Don't worry, as you get used to it, it won't feel so burdensome. But you didn't need to pray to me for that. I would have told you if you had ask normally."
As James spoke, his hands landed on Rias' shoulders and began to massage them gently. Naturally, Rias began to melt under his touch, even if the pressure on her body did not decrease, she felt as if her fatigue was disappearing.
"Mmm~~~~!" Rias moaned in pleasure. "That feels other worldly."
Seeing Rias reaction, all his girlfriends looked at James as if he grew a second head.
"Since when can you give massages like that?" Sona asked, voicing the thoughts of all the other girls.
"Well, the last time Master and I had some alone time, she taught me some... new techniques." James said with a smile and a wink. "Oh, and she gave me a couple of books about massage and techniques to relieve tension."
Hearing that Scathach taught James some new techniques, the thinner skinned members of James harem began to blush. Meanwhile, the other girls looked at him with anticipation. However, when they heard that the massage techniques he was using were not part of those "new techniques," all of them looked at him with a deadpan.
"Narcissism aside, why did you make it seem as if she taught you those techniques?" Flora asked curiously.
"No reason, I just wanted to say something about how great the last night we spent alone was." James replied with a cheeky smile.
Instead of dignifying that statement with a response, the other girls simply rolled their eyes and ignored James. Everyone except for Rias, that is. She was too busy melting under James' massage to care what he was talking about with the others.
A few minutes later, the light of a teleportation magic circle could be seen near the entrance to the dormitory, drawing everyone's attention toward it. When they looked, they could see it was Sirzechs' magic circle. Seeing that, they wondered what it was that he wanted, showing up at this time of the day.
A moment later, Sirzechs, Ajuka, Serafall, and Falbium appeared before the magic circle vanished.
"Mmm~~~~! James, right there, do it harder!" Rias moaned.
Hearing that pleasure filled moan upon arrival, Sirzechs' eyebrow began to twitch violently. Then, he snapped his head in the direction his sister's voice came from.
"What in the Underworld are you two doing?" Sirzechs shouted as he turned his head. "At least have some decency---"
When he saw what was going on, however, his words were caught in his throat. Then, with confusion written all over his face, his mouth hung open while his eyes opened wide.
"What are you talking about, Brother-in-law?" James asked, his cheeky smile reappearing on his face. "What did you think we were doing? You really shouldn't always have your mind in the gutter."
Hearing James and seeing his smile, Sirzechs' eyebrow began to twitch again Even more violently, this time.
"Oh my, Sirzechs, I know you'd rather not hear James call you that." Venelana said with a mischievous smile on her face. "Don't worry, though, I'm working on getting him to call you step son, you just have to be patient."
*Cough!* *Cough!*
While James made Sirzechs' eyebrow twitch in irritation, Venelana's follow up caused him to cough up blood. Even James' cheeky smile disappeared as he adopted the role of having his eyebrow twitch. In fact, Venelana's words were so impactful that Rias was pulled out of her pleasure induced stupor.
With that, the room fell into silence. No one knew how to respond to it in this situation. However, there was one person in the room who had never been able to read the mood.
"Wow!" Serafall exclaimed, having heard that Venelana was pursuing James, but never saw it with her own eyes. "So, it's true. You're really gonna TTA, huh?"
With Serafall's words, the silence in the room became deafening. On top of Venelana's teasing, which left everyone speechless, Serafall's exclamation added a level of confusion on top of it.
"TTA?" James asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Yeah, 'Tap that ass'." Serafall explained, nodding her head in satisfaction. "Pretty good, right?"
*Thud!*
*Cough!* *Cough!*
Sirzechs fell to his knees and coughed up another mouthful of blood. Just the thought of his mother talking dirty with James almost killed him.
Seeing Sirzechs' state, most of the people in the room were concerned about his well-being. Leona, on the other hand, loved every second of his suffering. Although James had forgiven him for his transgressions, Leona had not. And she probably would hold a grudge for a long time. Unfortunately, there was not much that she could do after James became a Satan. If she did anything to Sirzechs, it would ruin James' image. And she would never do anything like that.
"Ahem!" Ajuka cleared his throat, trying to change the awkward atmosphere. "I know it's late, but we have something that we thought Team DxD needed to hear."
All at once, all eyes were focused on Ajuka, most of them with hints of gratitude in them for dispelling the awkward situation.
"Today we summoned Diehauser Belial to the Satans' meeting room." Ajuka continued when he had everyone's attention. "Originally, we had only called for him so he could be reunited with his recently revived cousin."
Hearing that, everyone nodded, thinking that it was good for the reigning [Rating Game] champion. However, their expressions changed instantly when they heard Ajuka's next words.
"At first everything went well. However, after a tearful reunion, Diehauser had something he wanted to report." Ajuka said, his voice growing solemn. "Apparently, after he found out about why Cleria was killed in the past, he began working with Rizevim to avenge her."
Hearing that, the lingering awkwardness from before was swept away in an instant, replaced by a much more solemn one.
"What information were you able to get from him?" James asked in a serious tone.
"Several hideouts and equipment caches." Ajuka replied.
"What about the names of those working with the son of Lucifer?" Dulio asked.
"He only knew of two." Ajuka said. "The first is someone James has already fought and defeated, Acnologia. And the second could be a real problem."
"Who?" James asked, narrowing his eyes.
"A reincarnation of the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh." Ajuka said in a solemn tone.
"Are you absolutely sure?" James asked with a frown. "From what I've heard, even the reincarnations of that guy are all stupid-strong, without exception."
"Yes." Ajuka replied with a nod. "Diehauser mentioned that he witnessed him using the [Gate of Babylon]."
"Well, shit..." James said, before ducking his head on reflex.
Surprisingly, Leona's usual slap to the back of his head was nowhere to be found.
"But Gilgamesh, even if it's just a reincarnation, would never work with someone like the Son of Lucifer." Griselda said skeptically.
"That leads us to the next piece of crucial information." Ajuka said without changing his expression. "His goal."
Waiting for Ajuka to continue, everyone leaned toward him subconsciously, as to not to miss anything.
"He wants to unseal Trihexa. And from what Diehauser said, it's pretty much a forgone conclusion at this point. Especially after getting his hands on Rossweisse's research." Ajuka said. "And he asked Gilgamesh to help in controlling it so that they could take over the realms and even what lies beyond the Dimensional Gap."
"Because of... my research?" Rossweisse asked in shock and confusion.
"We can discuss that later. Either way, that's not good." James said with a shake of his head. "That will just result in chaos in the end. Gilgamesh won't follow Rizevim's orders fully. And if he gains control of Trihexa it will be even worse."
"They are both fools." Aislynn said. "Trihexa cannot be controlled. It is a mindless beast of destruction. It's only purpose is to bring an end to everything."
"Well, it looks like we got some plans to make." James said. Then, he looked at Ajuka. "Any word on how long we have before shit hits the fan?"
"Around the time of your graduation." Sirzechs said, finally inserting himself into the conversation. "So, about a month and a half."
"*Sigh* I got it." James said, taking a deep breath. Then, he looked at Scathach. "Master, I need you to contact Tobio and his team, tell them to increase the intensity of their search. We need to find Rizevim, yesterday."
"Understood." Scathach replied and began contacting Tobio immediately.
Then, James turned his attention to Vali.
"Vali, I need you to join Tobio in searching for Rizevim." James said.
"Damn it, I hate taking orders from you." Vali complained.
"Now is not the time, Vali." Chiron scolded.
"I know." Vali replied. "Luckily, I wanna find Rizevim, too."
"Good." James said, nodding in satisfaction. "Oh, and take Kuroka with you for this mission. She's probably the best among us in infiltration."
"What will the rest of you do?" Falbium asked, sounding as if he would fall asleep any second.
"We'll train like our lives depended on it." James said. "If we start looking, Rizevim will be cautious. So, we won't be looking at all. But when he's found, we'll be stronger than we've ever been. Then, we'll kick his and his collaborators asses."