Chapter 232: A Maddened World, Fate of Gods and Devils
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The living room was bathed in the glow of the TV, its flickering light casting shadows across the otherwise dark room.
After the busy days in Pangeal, we were enjoying some family time by watching TV, and Ruby fell asleep during that.
I sat comfortably on the couch, Ruby's head sleeping on my lap, her breathing steady. Our mother dearest sat beside us, her hand resting lightly on my other thigh.
The soft sound from the TV filled the room like a quiet background to the warmth that surrounded us. I liked the atmosphere as my hand found its way to Ai's thigh, my fingers gently tracing small circles on her skin.
I felt her stiffen slightly at the touch. Her cheeks flushed with a soft pink hue as she shot me a look, whispering, "Ruby is right here, boy."
I shrugged it off with a playful grin, chuckling. Instead of pulling away like she wanted, I wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to me.
She let out a small, surprised gasp, her eyes widening as our faces drew nearer. "...Hey, brat." she hissed, her eyes narrow, but I ignored it.
I could see the hesitation in her gaze, the way her lips parted slightly, as she chose her next words, but I ignored it.
I leaned in, our breaths mingling, and for a brief second, everything else seemed to fade away. The world outside didn't matter, the battles for the last month, the endless struggles—all of it disappeared in the closeness of that moment.
Purple eyes stared at me, and they slowly closed. My mother gave in. But just as our lips were about to meet, a loud, consequent ringing of the doorbell echoed through the house, shattering the quiet intimacy like glass.
"Eek!" Both of us jolted, startled by the sudden intrusion.
Ruby, who had been peacefully sleeping on my lap, snapped her eyes open at the sound, her gaze immediately locking onto our faces, still too close for comfort.
At the same time, a hand slammed on the door. Whoever had come was in a hurry, but we had a worse thing to worry about.
My mother and I exchanged glances, while my sister stared at us.
She blinked, her drowsy mind trying to process the scene before her, but I quickly pulled away, offering her a sheepish smile. "Morning, Ruby," I blurted out, although it was nighttime. "Go back to sleep. I'll go check who's at the door,"
I ruffled her hair before gently sliding her head off my lap. Ruby opened her mouth as if to question what she had just seen, but I was already on my feet. I moved toward the door before she could say a word. My heart was still racing from the interrupted moment, but there was something about the energy behind that knock that set me on edge.
The knock hadn't been normal—it carried a sense of urgency that was not normal. And I recognized the energy behind the door.
"Coming," I called out, reaching for the handle. The door swung open, revealing an unexpected sight. A bloodied figure stumbled into me.
"Hey?!" My arms instinctively shot out to catch the collapsing body, and I quickly confirmed who it was. "Ranefer…?! What happened?!"
My voice exploded with confusion and concern. Just this morning, she had left the house in perfect condition, full of her usual fiery energy. But now, she was barely standing, her body battered and bloodied.
"Uh… argh…"
A deep frown etched itself onto my face as I steadied her, gripping her shoulders to keep her upright. "Hey, Ranefer, talk to me!"
Her usually sharp, confident eyes were glazed over with pain and exhaustion, and her breath came in ragged gasps. Blood trickled down from the corner of her lips as she struggled to speak, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I… Icons," she managed to say, her words slurred. "Everyone… has Icons…!"
Those words left her lips, and her knees buckled. She fell forward, her body went limp against my chest while I stared at the air. I held her tightly, my mind racing.
Icons? What did she mean, everyone has an Icon?
My frown deepened, and without wasting another second, I expanded my Jade Perception with a surge of energy.
Tokyo's pulse, its life force, flooded into my awareness, and I scanned the inhabitants with a focused intensity. But… nothing. Unlike what she said, every Joe in the street didn't walk with Icons leaking out of them.
There were no Icons among the people here, no sudden surge of power that would explain her condition.
What the hell was she talking about?
Then, it hit me.
"...Ah."
'Everyone' wasn't literal. She didn't mean every single person had gained an Icon. She meant there were too many, far more than what there was a month ago. Too many people had suddenly acquired Icons, more than should be possible, more than the world could safely handle.
I was saying that because I sensed a nobody with the energy of an Icon.
My Jade Perception stretched further, beyond the local area, probing deeper into the city's veins. A [Storm Icon], inactive but having certainly been used recently, which allowed me to sense it.
Its energy radiated from an apartment building, one that I recognized—because I had spied on it before, just in case.
Brigid Thorsdottir's place.
The useless daughter of Thor had an Icon now. And if someone like her had an Icon now, that meant…
The world was changing. The balance had tipped, and the consequences were already unfolding before my eyes.
I held Ranefer closer, my mind already spinning with possibilities, before I began to flare my Qi to save my phoenix.
****
I knew what was going on.
My birth brought Icons over to a universe, for the universe opened up to the greater Omniverse, which ran the Icon power system. An exception to that was my 9th life, where Icons existed from the get-go. But in the other lives, they appeared only after I was born.
For the world had to grow to handle the weight of the Eternal Soul of the Eternal Samsara.
In all my life excluding the 9th, I never left my universe. I did that on my 9th, but it was from a universe that already had Icons from beforehand, therefore no changes came to that place.
DxD was different.
I had an analogy for this. Imagine a planet where the gravity suddenly tripled. At first, people would struggle to live there, but their bodies would adapt quickly – via the Will of the World – becoming much stronger in a short period.
Their muscle mass would increase significantly, so they could easily lift, say, 1000 kgs.
Now, imagine that after a few years, the gravity suddenly returned to normal. Naturally, those people would now be able to lift far more than 1000 kgs because their newfound strength would not disappear.
That was the situation with me. When the weight of the Eternal Samsara was lifted from DxD in the month I was away, the quiet process of connecting to an Icon became easier for people.
They connected with Icons much more easily, becoming powerhouses.
The only difference was that when the increased gravity would return to normal on that planet, the people's lifting limit would return to 1000kgs. But with Icons, once someone connected with one, they didn't lose that connection.
It remained with them permanently.
So basically, this world now had a bunch of extra powerhouses running around. And the older powerhouses were much stronger now.
I, at Sage, as a Pseudo Herald, was quite powerful now. However, my enemies have just grown a lot more as well. How troublesome.
"Mhm… and yeah, I then teleported back here after seeing the state that the underworld was in," Ranefer spoke from the bed, narrating her experience after leaving the house earlier.
It annoyed me that I had sent her away without sensing the changes the world had gone through. Celebration had kept me busy, so I missed this development.
I stood before the bed with my arms crossed, a frown on my face, while my sister stood around the bed. Ai sat beside Ranefer, helping her sit straight.
"I'm glad you won, though," Ai said. "You're not as weak as the last time we fought."
"Hey, of course~" she scoffed. "How can I lose to that weakling Glacierion?"
Despite only having one Icon, the [Phoenix Icon], she earned victory against the Dragon with two Icons. I was proud of her, for she was getting stronger.
"From what you said, the Satans are busy fighting against the Ogdoad Pantheon," I said. "How is Serafall doing there?" I cared about that girl, for she fought beside me against Indra's people and helped me save my Goddess.
Ranefer winced slightly as she shifted on the bed, the pain evident in her movement. But despite that, there was a gleam of pride in her eyes as she began to recount the battles in the underworld. "Serafall… she's something else now," she said, chuckling in disbelief. "She's not the same girl we all knew. She's ascended, Aqua. She's become a Super Satan."
My mother blinked. "A Super Satan? What does that mean?"
Ranefer scoffed softly, shaking her head. "Super Satans are basically Chief God level. Sirzechs and Ajuka were the only ones before, they're the pillars that have been holding the Devil kind for the last five centuries. Now we have another. Serafall unlocked three Icons in the heat of battle. The [Winter Icon], the [Leviathan Icon], and the [Demon Icon]. All at once. She's unstoppable now, leading the devils against the Ogdoad Pantheon."
Ai's eyes widened slightly, the surprise evident in her voice. "Three Icons at once…? That's not just rare, that's unheard of."
She was right. But the situation was special, so it made sense. "Exactly," Ranefer continued, her tone serious. "She's like a different person on the battlefield. The devils had been barely holding their ground, but with a third Super Satan leading them, we've got a fighting chance. The situation in the underworld is tense, though. The Ogdoad Pantheon's been testing our defenses, pushing us to our limits. It's only a matter of time before things escalate even further."
I nodded slowly, processing her words. "I'm glad she's not dead. And the other Satans? How are they handling this?"
"They're doing what they can," Ranefer replied, her expression growing grim. "The current generation Lucifer and Beelzebub are reinforcing our territories, bolstering our armies. They have prepared for the worst, but honestly… the balance of power is fragile. One wrong move and everything could fall apart. Ogdoad isn't a weak enemy."
Ogdoad, the Egyptian Gods. Their afterlife Gods had an unfortunate clash with the Devils, according to what Ranefer told me, killing some major household devils, which prompted a war between the pantheon and all of the devil kind. Things were not looking good.
The room fell into a heavy silence as we all absorbed the information. In a supernatural world where cold wars have been going on for millennia, the sudden surge of Icons provided too good an opportunity to ignore a war.
I was just glad all my friends were alright. Most of them lived here in this house, or just nearby like Tsubasa. Ranefer didn't, but she was fine now. Shoko and Yuzuru weren't Goddesses, they wouldn't be pulled into this mess. There was only one exception…
My mind drifted to Quetzalcoatl.
She was one of the strongest beings I knew, but even someone of her caliber could find herself in danger in this rapidly changing world. Plus, being so strong meant her enemies were strong as well.
A nagging worry tugged at my heart, growing more persistent with every passing second.
Ranefer was strong—exceptionally so—and yet she had returned battered and bloodied. What if Quetzalcoatl was facing something even worse? The two of them were pretty similar in strength, although I'd say the Dargoness was stronger.
The thought made me uneasy. After a moment of pondering, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. The sleek device felt oddly heavy in my hand as I scrolled through my contacts, searching for Quetzalcoatl's number.
"Calling Quku?" Ruby asked, noticing me, and I nodded. My sister stepped closer, leaning to watch the screen. My thumb hovered over the call button for a moment before I pressed it.
The phone rang once… twice… and then the call failed. I frowned. A cold feeling crept up my spine. I tried again, but the result was the same. Out of service.
I frowned, my worry deepening. Quetzalcoatl was always quick to respond, no matter what. She'd pick up and make a weird comment, always. But now, there was nothing. The unease in my chest grew. Should I visit Ilhuicatl-Teoiztac, the 9th heaven?
I was about to close the phone and slip it back into my pocket when a notification popped up on the screen.
A [Stargram] notification. A news report. The kind that didn't pop up on my phone unless something monumental was happening, because the supernatural Instagram always had drama going on in it. But this time, it was much more serious than the drama of some celebrity Goddess.
The headline alone was enough to make my heart race.
I tapped on the notification, my breath catching in my throat as the screen shifted to a news post. The image that greeted me made my blood run cold.
It was a photo of Quetzalcoatl. The woman's usually vibrant, powerful form was reduced to a battered, bloody figure. She was being held up by her hair, her head drooping lifelessly, and the one holding her was a blonde deity —Tezcatlipoca, I recognized him from that painting on the wall of her home.
The Jaguar God.
His grin was wide and malevolent, his dark eyes glinting with victory as he stared into the camera. The caption beneath the photo was simple, but it felt like a punch to the gut.
"The Jaguar God has returned."
"Holy shit." My sister voiced the same words I'd just thought of, as my hand clutched tight around the phone, my jaws tight.
The entire supernatural world was in uproar. The comments beneath the post were a chaotic mix of shock, disbelief, panic, mockery, laughter, and many more. Quetzalcoatl, the Chief God of the Aztecs, had been defeated. A new Chief God had risen.
My grip on the phone tightened further, so much so that the screen cracked. The entire world outside seemed to sing, as Gods from all over the world danced with their Icons, the magical side of the world in an uproar, everything a ball of big mess, and my people will soon be at the center of it all.
The world had spiraled into madness, and I wasn't sure if even I could stop it.
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