Deep inside the void far away from the material universe, Leo in his Eldritch God form floats there and tirelessly works on something.
[That should be sufficient. As long as you release those spores in the region I narrowed down and couple it with your Innate Ability. Your chance of success is infinitely close to 100%.]
Leo stops crafting the spores as his System told as his Blood Echoes almost depleted. But even then, Leo is smiling with a satisfied smile even though it looks very sinister in his current form.
Leo gathers all the spores he painstakingly crafted and activates Usurper of Luck before he releases it on the region his System pinpointed. Looking at his Luck stat emptying to zero, Leo cut off his connection to his Eldritch God body and returned to his mortal body.
———
A week later.
[Leo, there is one spore making contact with a world.]
'Is it the DxD world?' Leo asks with a hopeful tone.
[Don't know. You have to manually check them yourself.]
'Alright.' Leo nods and looks at his child-like mother.
"Mom-"
"Is it time for you to leave?" Pandora asked with a saddened tone. "Mama knows, Leo. You haven't been paying much attention and are always in a daze lately."
Leo feels miserable and guilty when looking at Pandora's sad face. He is his first real and only mother figure. He wishes he could bring her along but her presence is important for this world.
Suddenly, he felt someone hug him and it's Pandora.
"I know you are also sad to leave without Mama. That's why, Mama decided she wants to come with you." She whispers to his ear while comforting him gently rubbing on his head and back.
"How about the Usurpation ritual? How will other Campione gain authority without you?" Leo asked frantically, thinking she was about to do something unreasonable.
"Hmn. That's why Mama will relinquish her authority. It can function autonomously even without me."
Leo is shocked and speechless. He didn't think she would go to such an extent for him. No, he already knows. It's because her affection had maxed out. The first to achieve the 'True Love' level which makes her motherly love toward him so intense that she is willing to literally tear part of her soul away from him.
"Mom…" Leo didn't know what to say. Instead, he hugged her even tighter.
It would be idiotic to reject her sacrifice. That's why Leo accepted it.
"Thank you, mom."
"Of course, anything for my beloved son." Pandora said delightfully.
[Cough… Did you forget about me?]
'Can you do something about it?'
Pandora noticed Leo went into a daze again. She was worried at first. But he said he was simply in deep thoughts mode. Usually after such a daze, he would reach an epiphany and come out with solutions for a problem. So, she at least believes him on that basis. But what could possibly fix this problem? Does he really have a way to replace her Usurpation authority?
[Bro, I literally copied her Usurpation authority for you when she reached Max Affection. What makes you think I can do it one more time?]
'Right. So, are you going to make another copy?'
[No, there are rules I have to follow. But using yours to replace her own is not out of the question. If you are willing, that is.]
Leo did not even hesitate as he said, 'It's a small price for her happiness. Use it.'
[Alright.]
Then a brand new, exact carbon copy of Pandora's Usurpation ritual appeared inside the white void. Pandora naturally felt it and left shell shocked.
"How?" Her mouth is gaping wide in disbelief that he really did it.
"It's a secret. But now, you don't have to sacrifice your authority anymore, Mom." Leo smiled but suddenly he felt his head become light and lose consciousness. He fell limp but Pandora quickly caught him and pushed him back on the couch to lay down.
"Idiotic son! What have you done!" Pandora panicked. It was too good to be true for Leo to magically solve the issue just like that.
Leo fainted because the ability is deeply rooted in his soul. So, when the System took it away. His soul would be definitely injured. But he is a Great One. His soul is more resilient than most beings out there. The System extracts the power with great care to not cause any complications. At most he would just need to rest for a bit before he will woke up as if nothing happened.
———
"Uhm… I am alright Mom. It's just a temporary unconscious." Leo sweats at his cute mother's antics.
"No! Rest on your bed." Pandora pushed him back and tucked him in the blanket before feeding porridge she made.
Leo has to spend an hour to convince her he is not sick or injured. After that, he brought up the topic of world traveling.
At this moment, the spores have already arrived at more than a hundred worlds. But Leo has to travel to each of them to know what world it is.
"And we will travel into each of these worlds. So, are you ready mom?" Leo sitting on the couch in the living room after storing all his personal belongings into his Inventory.
"Hm. Yes. Let's go." Pandora nods.
Leo offers his hand which Pandora holds before the shadow expands below Leo's feet and envelopes them like a cocoon. Then a bright red light flashes and the shadow cocoon disappears from this world.
———
In the first world.
Leo and Pandora appeared in a dark cave that was used for a magic ritual. Candles all over the room as a source of light, red markings on the ground that already fades away and a robed man on the ground laid lifelessly. His body already turned into a dried corpse and mummified.
"We arrived." Leo said and Pandora curiously looked around.
Leo can feel it's night time. So he used Phoebe's authority to check this world and it turned out to not be the world he was looking for.
"Is this our destination?" Pandora asked which brought Leo out from his daze and answered, "No, it isn't. We will travel again." Then he offers his hand to Pandora again and they travel to the next world.
In the next world.
"Not DxD." Leo mutters before traveling again.
At world No. 48.
Leo noticed a constant trend after dozens of travels. The occultist ritual thing is always the same and they are always either in a cave or someone's basement.
"This isn't the world I was looking for either…" Leo sighed but his determination is still strong. Although Pandora looks a little bored.
"Do you want to take a break, Mom?" Leo asks and wonders if he should take a little break.
"No. It's alright. Better if we continue traveling." Pandora quickly denied the offer and Leo said no more as they resumed the trip.
At world No. 179.
"It was a success!"
"HeheHAHAHAHAHAHA"
"It's a goddamn success! Screw you Being X!"
Leo and Pandora exit the shadow cocoon to hear an excited cheering. This is the first time they encounter a summoner that survived. Usually they are just dead corpses.
Leo looks at the summoner. She was just a kid. At least she is shorter than Pandora by a small margin.
"You are the Devil right? Please grant my wish. Take my soul if you need. Just take me away from here. Far away so that Being X cannot touch me anymore. Please! I beg you!" The girl, whom Leo recognizes from a manga he read before, kneels down and begs on the floor.
But, this is not the Tanya he knew. The Tanya he read about will not lower her head to anything and will continue to resist the God of Reincarnation or Being X for short. To see her this miserable and desperate is quite strange.
Pandora lowered herself and supported Tanya from the floor. She was sympathetic towards Tanya who looked like a person at the verge of breaking down if she hadn't already. Her complexion was pale, clothes were dirty and ragged, hair was almost brown and covered in dirt.
Leo was very curious what happened to her but he suddenly felt a presence. A divine one.
"Hmn. I am afraid I am not the Devil you are looking for but I can grant your wish." Leo said as he quickly held Pandora and Tanya and initiated the travel as the divine presence was getting closer. He cannot risk a fight with Pandora by his side unprotected.
Next world, world No. 180.
"This place… Dimension Gap?" Leo hastily summons Yasaka no Magatama and puts it on Tanya. Pandora and himself have no issues staying in Dimension Gap but Tanya is just a human.
Suddenly a streak of black cannonballs toward Leo. But oddly, it didn't hurt and was soft too.
"Leo!"
"Ophis?" Leo recognizes the Dragon Loli. "Oh shit. This is DxD then." The realization finally clicked in his head.
"Mom, meet Ophis. She is the Dragon God Ouroboros." Leo casually introduced Ophis to Pandora who looked terrified by Ophis. Her power cannot be described by words and Pandora who saw it for the first time is left speechless.
"Anyway, where is Mittelt and Ravel?" Leo asked Ophis. He is eager for a reunion and introduces them to Pandora and shares his story.
"Ravel is captured by the Devils. Mittelt was also captured when saving Ravel." Ophis said with her usual lack of emotion.
"What? Captured?" Leo was shocked to hear from Ophis and then he remembers during the attack, her family members were slaughtered leaving her the sole Phenex.
One thing about the Devil is they will do whatever they can to keep the Noble Devil lineage survive. Especially Ravel who is a Phenex, the sole clan with traits that can produce Phoenix Tear. It wouldn't be a surprise if they captured Ravel and forced her to breed like cattle to create more Phenex clan Devil so they can get a stable source of Phoenix Tear.
"Where are they?" Leo asks Ophis while holding back his anger. He hopes his assumption is just an assumption and not reality.
"Underworld." Ophis said and opened a portal directly to the Underworld.
———
Unlike what Leo initially planned, to storm in and take Mittelt and Ravel away. Leo calms down and makes rational decisions instead.
First he wanted to know what had happened after he left and Ophis is here to answer all his questions. She gives Leo a brief recap of everything that has happened since he left and it is very bad apparently.
The Old Satan Factions' sudden attack on the New Satan turned out to not be a simple attack. Instead, it's a trap made by the Hunter. Ophis said the Old Satan Faction army that was killed turned into a hideous monster and abomination which left the New Satan Faction with a very big wound that is even worse than what the Great War did to them. Half of the remaining Pillar clans went extinct, especially those that aren't suitable for fighting.
The surviving New Satan Factions now in a very precarious position as they become the weakest of the three Biblical factions overnight. It was a pyrrhic victory for them that will take centuries to recover.
"So, Ravel rejected your help? Why?" Leo listened to the part about Ravel and Mittelt which was captured by the New Satan Faction or Satan Faction since the Old had already been exterminated when all of them turned into monsters.
Ophis' nods after she talks about her attempt to save Ravel were rejected by Ravel herself and Mittelt that went to save her ends up staying behind with Ravel. After that, Ophis hadn't been in touch with Ravel or Mittelt at all.
Leo then uses his Clairvoyance authority. He didn't believe Ravel would reject the help from Ophis. There must be a reason. Not to mention, Mittelt suddenly decided to stay by Ravel's side when she tried to save her too instead of bringing Ravel away to escape.
(I changed Divination to Clairvoyance. I always thought they had the same meaning but apparently not.)
In the vision, Leo saw Ravel being locked behind a cell and a Devil is standing outside and talking to her. Ravel had a defiant look on her face as she ignored the Devil which made him simply smirk and walked away.
Then the vision changed again. Still in the same cell. But Ravel looks exhausted both mentally and physically. Then the same Devil came again and brought food for her. But instead of giving it to her, the Devil threw them into the cell which fell all over the place as he smirked and said something before he left. Ravel holds her stomach, hungry and looking at the food. At first, she simply stares at it. But she holds her stomach stronger probably because the hunger is unbearable. She picked up the food and slowly ate as her eyes became dimmer.
Then shift to another location, the previous Devil is talking with another Devil while watching Ravel eating her food while they talk about something and laugh sadistically.
The vision changed again. This time Ravel isn't in the cell but in the Phenex clan mansion. She sat at the garden with dull eyes like all her soul was sucked away from her eyes and all that was left was an empty husk. Then Ophis appeared and talked to her. But she shook her head and said something back. There is some glow return to her eyes but suddenly a Devil appeared and it was the same Devil that talked to the Devil that appeared near her cell from previous visions. The glow in her eyes waver and then disappear again as she sends Ophis away.
The vision changed to a bedroom where Mittelt appeared and was talking with Ravel before it turned into an argument. Mittelt was angry and almost broke a table in anger. But Ravel answered something to Mittelt which instantly made all her anger evaporate away and left with shock and then helplessness. Mittelt gave Ravel a hug before Ravel burst into tears. It's the first time she showed emotion since leaving her cell.
Leo could piece together the information and guessed the Devil said something to Ravel that brainwashed her and made her lose her will. Mittelt realized it and was helpless to break Ravel free and probably decided to stay behind to protect her. He didn't bother to watch any further. He was shaking in anger that he never before felt in both lifetimes.
"Ophis, you open a portal to the Underworld and stay here to protect my mother." Leo calms himself down despite his body shivering and seething with anger.
"Okay." Ophis nods and opens a portal for him.
Ophis were shocked that she felt threatened by Leo. Her instinct is warning her of danger. Something she very rarely felt and only a handful could make her feel like that. She wondered what had happened after he went missing for almost a year.
She turns and looks at the cabin inside the woods where his new mother, Pandora is tending to a girl Leo brought back with him.
—————
(Extermination or just just kill those involved?)
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