"Not even the Maou would dare!"
Leo instantly attacked but before his weapon could cut through her neck, Leo stopped.
He isn't crazy to kill Sona because he knows who is her backing, Serafall Leviathan. If Leo kills her here, Serafall will not stop until that siscon gets her revenge.
When Leo stopped his blade, Sona fell to the ground and touched her neck, feeling it still attached before she lifted her head and looked at Leo's furious face.
"How does it feel to be helpless in front of death? This is the same feeling those victims felt when they were helplessly captured and eaten alive by the Stray Devil's your race created because of your greed." Leo stared down into the depth of her soul through her eyes as he asked, seething with simmering anger.
Sona opened her mouth and wanted to answer but nothing came out of her mouth as she shivered in fear. She cannot muster her mouth to answer him. She wanted to deny the claim using her intelligence to twist the truth. But when she saw the phantom figure rippling behind Leo, she felt her brain was being fried with forbidden knowledge that should never exist in the world.
When the information stopped flowing into her brain, she was finally able to see the thing… the vague figure of the abomination behind Leo. She instantly fainted after a sudden nosebleed.
"Kaichou!" Sona's Queen, Tsubaki rushed towards Leo and slashed with her naginata but Leo only back stepped to evade the attack effortlessly before other peerage members fired spells on him.
"Sona!" Rias rushed to her friend and helped her while the Devils and Leo came to a standoff.
When Rias was about to order her peerage to launch a joint attack on Leo with Sona's peerage, a voice interrupted her.
"Rias Gremory."
"Ddraig?" Rias and others exclaimed when Issei's Sacred Gear suddenly appeared and talked.
"I give you advice for the sake of my wielder. That girl over there on the back is Dragon God Ouroboros. Think wisely before you fight against them."
"What!" Multiple exclamations after Ddraig revealed Ophis.
Rias becomes hesitant and she also remembers when Leo met her, he explicitly introduced himself as personal servant of Ophis.
Leo turns his head to Rias and Sona while showing contempt and disgust.
"Heed my words, Devil. I care not if you want to play as the governor of this town. However, the moment you dare play god with innocent human life, be it the Sisters of Satan or Heiress of Devil clan, wash your neck and wait for me. I will definitely kill you." Leo left them a piece of his advice before turning to Mittelt and Ophis and left.
They finally calmed down and few even collapsed from the tension when Leo left with the girls.
"Sona, are you alright?" Rias quickly checks on her friend when she opened her eyes. She looks fine physically but mentally, she isn't.
"I… am alright. Let's return for now. Let's quickly leave." Sona said while her body was shaking and shivering. She opened her mouth and wanted to say something but quickly shut it in fear after she looked at Leo's retreating figure.
"Alright, alright." Rias supported her friend with Tsubaki's help and they all teleported to her club building.
———
While walking on the quiet street of Kuoh, heading to the next destination. Leo turns to Ophis who has stayed silent since leaving the house.
"Say, Ophis. Would you help me if the Maou attacked me?" Leo asked curiously for her reaction. Mittelt is also curious if Ophis would support Leo.
Ophis lifts her head to look at Leo without stopping her steps. He can see she is thinking about the question but didn't give an answer immediately. They walked for another few steps before Ophis suddenly stopped.
"Will it help to defeat Great Red?" She answered with another question.
Leo honestly didn't know if his decision would really help defeat Great Red. He remembers that even in canon, Great Red were defeated by neither Vali or Issei. It was instead defeated by a god from another world that invaded DxD.
Speaking of which, Ophis goal to reclaim Dimension Gap is futile regardless because of the god from another world. In fact, Leo wouldn't want Ophis to reclaim Dimension Gap because she would then become the one that got killed instead of Great Red.
Leo was stumped to answer that question. Should he tell Ophis about the future? He looks at Ophis, hoping she would be dissuaded but he cannot foresee how she would react. But, he still wishes for Ophis to let go of the wish if possible.
"Hmn… I don't think so. But regardless if it would help or not, Great Red will be killed even if we do nothing." Leo decided to reveal the future to Ophis and Mittelt.
"What! How?" Mittelt reacted with surprise that Great Red would be killed. She cannot imagine how that would happen.
"Great Red will be killed?" Ophis was also surprised when her eyes widened.
"Yes. In the future. There will be a terrible enemy invading this world and Great Red was effortlessly killed by this enemy. That's why I would rather not have you reclaim the Dimension Gap if that means you will replace Great Red." Leo explains.
Ophis frowns and lowers her head in silence, thinking about what Leo just told her.
"The enemy is very strong and I would rather not lose you to it, Ophis." Leo told her with his genuine emotion. He really didn't want Ophis to die.
"But, my home. I want to reclaim the Silence." Ophis lifted up her head and answered Leo.
"Silence… The Dimension Gap. Why must it be there?" Leo wondered. He already had a clue but he wanted to hear it from Ophis herself.
"Dimension Gap is quiet. But Great Red was born and caused noise. I cannot sleep and fight him but lose and get kicked out." Ophis tells the reason she left Dimension Gap. "I try to find another place to sleep but every place is noisy. Only Dimension Gap is silent. That's why I want to defeat Great Red and reclaim the silence."
"So, you just want a quiet place to rest?" Leo asks and she nods. He didn't think her wish was that simple.
He tried to think of a solution but he himself cannot come up with one. Ophis herself said she tried numerous places but none is quiet like in Dimension Gap.
'Do you have any solution, System?' Leo can't think of one himself. So, he ask for help from his benevolent System.
[...]
[I think Host has a misunderstanding about my role. I am not a problem solver Host come to whenever there is a problem Host cannot fix. Please resolve this on your own.]
'Come on. Just this once. Just a tip. You didn't need to give me the thing. Just the method of solution. You helped me last time, right? Just this once. Please make an exception.' Leo shamelessly begged his System.
[...]
[Fine. Just this once.]
'Thank you. O merciful and gracious almighty System!'
[Enough of your shameless act.]
[The solution is already in Host possession.]
'I do?' Leo was surprised to hear that.
[It's the same solution your progenitor once used. The Hunter's Dream is a special space that exists within a realm of nothingness. Host can let Ophis use the space once Host inherited it.]
Leo immediately remembers the Hunter's Dream. The System is brilliant indeed. The Hunter's Dream is like an island floating in an endless land of fog and pillars. No trace of life other than on the small plot of land. Just endless fog and pillars that stretch to the horizon. It would be a perfect place for Ophis if he wanted a silent place.
But, he still needs to inherit this Hunter's Dream before he can use it. Leo didn't know how and what he should achieve to inherit the place. He figured it would be to resolve the mystery in Yharnam and defeat all enemies. But he just barely defeated Gascoigne and Henryk. He could only wonder how much more he needed to achieve to finally defeat all the enemies.
Leo snapped out of his mind and looked at Ophis.
"I have a place that is quiet for you to rest. But you have to wait until I can claim that place." Leo shares the answer he has for Ophis.
Ophis didn't really question if the solution Leo had for her is true or not. She simply nods and believes what he said.
Leo sighed at how gullible she is. What if Leo were a bad person and planned to trap her? She probably wouldn't even know if this is how she acts.
"A place? What place?" Mittelt were the opposite of Ophis. She is curious and asks Leo to reveal the details to her.
"Hmn… It's a beautiful place I guess. It's a small plot of land surrounding a Victorian style house. Surrounding the land is an endless sea of fogs with pillars…" Leo described the place to Mittelt as they continued walking in the cold and quiet street of Kuoh.
———
The next morning, Leo is sitting on the table enjoying breakfast and watching TV.
The little crusade against the Stray Devils caused a little uproar on the news. It's not hard to understand why when the forest is on fire, few buildings are also on fire and one demolished through an explosion.
A total of 179 victims are tallied from all these Stray Devils lair. Leo watched the news anchor announce the number of deaths from the corpses and skeletons. It's a national uproar with so much death from a small town that numerous investigations from both international and national institutes are dispatched.
He has no doubt the investigation can do little to expose the Devil because Mittelt said the supernatural races including the Devil had become deeply entrenched in human society. There is no end to greedy humans that want to do deals with the Devils.
Besides that, his apartment is also now heavily monitored by the Devil's familiarity that it's annoying. At least they didn't spy within the apartment. Leo can already guess it's probably Koneko who sniffed out his home.
But for now, the Devil hadn't bothered him. He expects Rias' brother or Sona's sister to be knocking at his door early in the morning to sort things out with him. But it didn't happen, maybe he was expecting too much from them.
He lifts up his mug and sips his coffee while continuing watching the TV.
After finishing his breakfast, Leo returns to his room. Then he lay on his bed before closing his eyes.
———
Opening his eyes, Leo found himself standing on a cobbled path leading up to a Victorian style house.
He then ordered the Messengers to hand him his weapons. He needs to perform maintenance after fighting against the Stray Devils. Their strength is nothing to be scoffed at because his Saw Cleaver had dulled and littered with chipped edges and even few damaged teeth on the serrated side.
He walks up to the house which isn't really a house. But a workshop for the Hunters. Inside is a workbench with all the tools and materials he needed to make a repair.
"Oh! You've returned, Good Hunter." Gehrman sitting on a chair inside the workshop smoking pipes as he greeted Leo. "Hmn… What an awful state your weapon had become. I assume you are going to do some repairs?"
"Yes." Leo replied and placed his Saw Cleaver and Hunter Pistol on the workbench.
"I'm afraid, normal repair wouldn't be capable of fixing your weapons." Gehrman said before he stood up from the chair and walked toward the workbench to inspect the Saw Cleaver.
"Hm… Quite a fearsome beast you hunted for it to become like this. However, there is nothing to worry about." Gehrman placed down the Saw Cleaver and then turned to Leo. "Channel out some Blood Echoes to your Saw Cleaver." Gehrman instructed.
Leo did as told and focused in his mind and pushed out some Blood Echoes into his palm and into the weapon. Leo can see the damage on the Saw Cleaver being mended as he injects more Blood Echoes until the weapon is fully repaired.
"Good as new." Gehrman nodded approvingly.
"As you can see, significant damage like those cannot be repaired with tools. But by using Blood Echoes, you can repair it back to its pristine condition. However, the maintenance work still needs to be done manually." Gehrman said before he returned to his chair and smoked a pipe.
Leo nodded and took the whetstone to begin grinding the edge out and then oiled the weapon. After that, he inspected the mechanism for transformation before performing more maintenance. Once he is done with his Saw Cleaver, he moves on to the Hunter Pistol. Mostly just to clean the barrel and tighten some loose screws from firing too much.
Leo cleans up the workbench and leaves the workshop to enter Yharnam again once he is done with maintenance.
He walked to a specific tombstone and placed his hand on it before multiple images of lanterns in different locations he visited appeared in his mind. He focuses on the one in the graveyard where he slayed Father Gascoigne before he teleported there.
"It's creepy as usual." Leo commented before he looked at the spot where Father Gascoigne drew his final breath.
It's a heart wrenching battle. Father Gascoigne lost his reasoning to his bloodlust and couldn't recognise his wife who he killed with his own hand. A grim reminder to Leo if he were to even succumb to his bloodlust.
He remembered himself arriving here after he visited a girl who was lucky and still alive within her barricaded home. In his hand is a music box which the girl gave him to bring her father and mother back. But it was too late by the time he arrived. Leo was forced to fight Father Gascoigne because his words can no longer reach his mind. The music box also failed and can only make it temporarily distracted.
After Leo killed Father Gascoigne, another Hunter arrived quite some time later claiming to be Henryk. Henryk saw the music box and pendant Leo recovered from the dead mother which he will return to the girl. But Henryk went insane immediately after seeing Viola and Father Gascoigne dead. He also succumbed and Leo was forced to fight another difficult battle despite already being exhausted. Thankfully another Hunter dressed like a crow and called herself Hunter of Hunter, arrived to assist Leo saying Henryk was her own prey.
It was a depressing day for Leo but what's done is done. His next goal is to move deeper into the city and reach a place called the Cathedral Ward and hopefully learn more about this place.
"For Ophis, I must persevere…" He muttered under his breath as he pushed open a gate leading into the sewer.
———
Meanwhile with Rias and the teo Satans.
"Our familiars are currently watching the apartment they lived in." Rias said to her brother and Serafall.
"I see." Sirzech fell into a silence.
"But why would Ophis of all people be in Kuoh and living with a human and Fallen Angel." Serafall asked with a serious tone. She is usually bubbly and playful but Serafall is doing none of that.
"I would like to know too." Sirzech looked deadpan at Serafall. "For now, we should be thankful they have no intention to harm either of you." He turned to Rias. "Their motivation is unknown and they are eliminating Stray Devils for their Evil Piece. So I assume it's money?" Sirzech felt doubtful with his conjecture.
"But is the Ouroboros Dragon really someone that lacks money?" Serafall also felt doubtful.
If Ophis really needed money, she could walk up to anyone and ask for money. No one would dare to refuse her. Besides, she has a large organization. Money shouldn't be an issue at all.
"What if the one needing money isn't Ophis but instead it's the man she follows around?" Rias made her guess.
"I actually met him before with Akeno." Rias suddenly revealed the information about the night when Issei went to save Asia.
"You did?! You never told me anything about this!" Sirzech immediately became furious but he calmed down when Rias shrink back in fear of the repercussions.
"Anyway, what did you know about him?" Sirzech interrogated.
"Uhm… He was weak previously. No different than a normal human. He introduced himself as the personal servant of his Mistress, Ophis."
"He was there to save the Fallen Angel, Mittelt. Then we saw him using Holy Power to heal the heavily injured Mittel which is at the verge of dying after I destroyed her wings. But he could heal back her wings and we overheard Mittelt calling him as Father…" Rias finishes explaining and looks at both Sirzech and Serafall, making an ugly face.
"It can't be right? Why would God leave Heaven to purposely save a Fallen Angel." Rias asked, still unaware of the truth that God died in the Great War.
"Actually, my peerage and I also inspected a Stray Devil he killed and we found the trace of Holy Lightning being used. We thought it's impossible for Baraqiel to be the one killing this Stray Devil. So, we suspect he can also use Holy Lightning." Rias added.
Sirzech and Serafall's faces become uglier the more they listen. They turn to each other and stare at each other's eyes to convey the same words.
'It can't be him, right?' They both fear that God really returned or maybe he was never dead and simply being in hiding all this time.
—————
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