"Get up!"
Issei blinked stupidly.
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
Where was he again?
He hurt. Every part of him hurt.
His head and heart especially.
The noise hit him.
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!'"
Oh. Right.
The Young Devil championship final match against Sairaorg's Peerage.
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
"Ise!" Asia cried out in worry from the podium from which the Gremory Team watched the battle.
Issei rose to his feet.
Sairaorg Bael laid him out with another punch to his temple.
The Underworld swam.
The enormous stadium, filled with tens of thousands of people who had flocked to the floating island in the Agares territory, became just another blur.
"Get up!"
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
"Issei," Buchou yelled, just as worried as Asia. "We can switch!"
The red claws dug into the dirt of the arena.
Issei got to his feet again.
A knee caught him in the chin, and he fell.
Blurry eyes stared out at the crowd.
"Get up!"
Oh, look. There were the kids. Right there in the front rows.
Issei didn't know how much he had made from the Oppai Dragon show, but it should be a lot since Ravel had been able to buy the entire first three rows of the enormous arena when he had asked her to.
Apparently, he had bought tickets for tens of thousands of children on a whim.
He hoped they had enjoyed the match.
Issei was just a bit sad that he was disappointing all his fans.
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
"Issei." Kiba was not yelling. He was not worried, though his fists were clenched. "You can win."
The damn handsome.
The golden lion in front of Issei looked down on him.
"Get up!" Sairaorg Bael commanded again.
Issei got up.
He blocked the first punch.
The second took him in his solar plexus, and he fell.
It was like the Boosted Gear's Scale Mail did nothing to stop the pain. Nor did his Rook physiology.
Issei wanted to complain that Touki was busted.
And Senjutsu was stronger than this? Eren would...
[Partner]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Issei, you can do it!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
Issei didn't answer Ddraig. He didn't respond to the spirits of the previous Boosted Gear wielders.
Issei got up.
A golden fist filled his vision.
The fist of an Ultimate Class devil, wrapped in the gold armour of the Longinus Regulus Nemea and glowing with the hazy Ki of Sairaorg's Touki, crashed into Issei's skull with enough power to shatter the arena.
Issei fell.
"Get up!" Sairaorg once again demanded. "Where's your heart? Where's your fighting spirit? Get up!"
Once again, he didn't deliver the final blow to his downed opponent.
Issei didn't know why.
Sairaorg and his Pawn, the manifested Longinus he now wore as armour, were all that remained of his Peerage.
All the others had lost in this round-robin style Rating game. Even the Longinus was no longer counted as a fighter, reduced to a tool for the purposes of the remainder of the match.
Sairaorg was all that was left of his Peerage. All their dreams for success, goals, and ambitions, and the effort they had put in to reach the finals, were on his shoulders.
The Gremory Peerage, in contrast, still had quite a few members left.
Koneko had only fought once before losing. Rossweiss, being worth two Pawns, had fought three times before being taken out. Xenovia had only fought twice, but her sacrifice in the second bout allowed Kiba to eke out his win.
Akeno and Gasper had achieved mutual destruction with Sairaorg's Queen and Bishop, taking out the most significant threat except for Sairaorg himself.
Asia had not fought yet, but her most significant use was healing the combatants between bouts. Neither had Rias, the points not lining up enough for the King to step on the field.
Looking from the outside, the Gremory should have no problem winning. Even if Issei lost, the others should be able to fight the enemy King, steadily wearing him down until they won.
Except Sairaorg was a monster.
Kiba was fast enough to keep up with him, but even his Balance Breaker couldn't pierce Touki and Regulus Nemea together. It would take one hit to knock the Knight from the fight.
Rias might be able to beat Sairaorg if she landed a clean hit, but he'd destroy her faster than she could use her power.
So all that stood between Sairaorg Bael and victory in the Young Devil Tournament was Issei Hyoudou.
And the Red Dragon Emperor was losing. Badly.
Yet the black sheep of the Bael family would not finish him off.
So much was riding on him.
Sairaorg's dreams to become a Satan. His Peerage's dreams as Exiled Devils.
This was their chance to prove to the entire Underworld that it had been wrong about them. To shun them to the corner of society just because of their birth.
Yet he would not finish Issei while he was down.
Why?
'Would you die for me?'
Why?
'Akeno. Do it.'
Why?
'You can call me Senpai if you want.'
Why why why why why why why why!
Issei was nothing! A nobody! A regular teenage boy! A pervert!
Why did this keep happening?
Because he was the Red Dragon Emperor? Because he was too trusting? Because he was naive?
The Underworld. The kids. The Boosted Gear Senpais. Sairaorg. Rossweiss. Ravel. Buchou. Akeno. Koneko. Ddraig. Gasper. Kiba. Irina. Xenovia. Asia.
They were all watching him. All eyes were on Issei Hyoudou.
... Maybe, somewhere out there, in a secret lair of the Chaos Brigade, Senpai was watching him too.
They were watching him fall.
"Get up!" Sairaorg roared.
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
Why did they expect so much from him?
"Are you just going to lie there?"
He had no tragic backstory, no great heritage, or secret power.
"Are you just going to let me win?"
Issei Hyoudou had been a regular teenage boy until six months ago.
He had grown up with regular parents in a regular town with regular problems. He was average in intelligence, average in looks, average in strength, and average in every other way.
"I wanted to fight the Red Dragon Emperor!"
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
...Someone else should have been the Red Dragon Emperor.
"I wanted to win against the greatest young devils the Underworld has ever seen!"
'Would you die for me?'
...Someone less naive.
"Fight!"
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
'Akeno. Do it.'
...Someone who wouldn't be a burden.
"Fight!"
'You can call me Senpai if you want.'
...Someone who could understand what Senpai had been trying to entrust to Issei Hyoudou.
[Boost]
-
The Boosting stopped.
The arena quieted.
"...Hey," Issei rasped from the ground.
He couldn't see out of his helmet, so he retracted it.
The entire Underworld saw the tears as they splattered the arena floor.
Issei looked at the armoured man standing over him.
Maybe it was the concussion, but Issei could almost imagine the eyes were rimmed in Shifter marks.
"Am I an idiot?"
"You are."
"Am I weak?"
"You are."
"Am I... this pathetic?"
"You are."
"Then why?" Issei cried. His voice cracked. "Why do you believe in me?"
He hadn't earned any of this trust, these hopes.
He didn't deserve this pain, these betrayals.
It all weighed down on Issei's back like a boulder.
Whether Issei trusted them. Die for me. Or they trusted him. Call me Senpai. It didn't matter.
Issei couldn't carry all these dreams.
He wasn't strong enough. He hadn't gone through a tenth of what his comrades had gone through. He hadn't suffered even a hundredth of what his Senpai had.
"Ask them," Sairaorg gestured to the stands.
ZOOM ZOOM IYAAAN!
Ah, right.
Everyone was watching him cry.
Ravel had even gotten the children to start singing to cheer him on in the silence.
HE HAS SEEN LOTS OF OPPAI, BUT HE LIKES BIG ONES THE BEST!
It was such a silly song. Ddraig usually got depressed whenever he heard it.
But they looked so happy when they sang it that Issei couldn't stop himself from joining in when he did the meet and greet the other day.
Even when his heart hurt, Issei didn't want to disappoint those children's wide eyes, full of hope.
Not a single child in the crowd looked worried. They sang and cheered and clapped.
Issei had been losing. Badly.
Yet they still had complete confidence that Oppai Dragon would win.
...Eren wanted to destroy these smiles?
Issei refused to believe it.
OPPAI DRAGON ALSO PUSHES TODAY!
"It doesn't matter if you are an idiot. If you are weak and pathetic," Sairaorg said with a nod toward the singing crowd. "Not to them. Idiots like us, we can't disappoint those counting on us, even if we don't deserve it."
Somewhere, Sairaorg's Peerage and the part of the Gremory Group that had lost were probably watching this as well.
"If you don't have power, don't you have your body?"
ON THE EDGE OF A CERTAIN SEA, THE OPPAI DRAGON WAS FLYING!
"If you are lacking something, cover the thing you are lacking with something else! It can be brute strength, it can be intelligence, it can be speed, so make up for it! You will definitely win one day if you don't give up!"
IN THE SUMMER SEAS, THE OPPAI IS FULL OF DREAMS!
Right. Buchou had told Issei those were the words Sairaorg's mother told him before she fell ill.
The words that had turned a boy born with weak demonic power and without the Power of Destruction into the monster Issei was losing against.
DRAGON DRAGON OPPAI DRAGON!
Sairaorg hadn't been born with a Sacred Gear.
Yet he had made himself so strong that a Longinus decided to work for him of its own free will.
Sairaorg had been exiled with no political power at all.
Yet a group of promising young devils had tied their dreams to his, and he had reclaimed his position as heir with his fists.
ZOOM ZOOM IYAAAN!
Issei Hyoudou was not Sairaorg Bael.
He could not tear his way to the peak of the Underworld on effort alone.
[Boost!]
Issei Hyoudou was not Eren Yeager. He could not keep advancing through all the pain without ever giving up.
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
Issei Hyoudou was a weak, pathetic idiot of a devil.
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
Issei Hyoudou was a boy betrayed by his first girlfriend, held hostage against his first crush, and left behind by the first person to ever support his dream.
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
[Boost!]
Issei Hyoudou did not understand why people trusted him or why he could still trust people after everything.
But Issei Hyoudou wanted to.
So he started chanting.
I, who is about to awaken,
[Are you sure about this?] Ddraig asked worriedly.
They had thought up a way to use the power of Juggernaut Drive without going on a rampage, but there was no way to tell the after-effects.
It could shorten Issei's lifespan again.
For a tournament match, for a win that mattered more to Sairaorg than to Issei, he shouldn't take the risk.
Issei continued the chant.
Am the Red Dragon Emperor who has discarded the principles of domination.
[Alright. I am with you, Partner.]
I shall defend the road of righteousness by having infinite hopes and dreams.
[We'll trust you, junior.] The senpais said.
I shall become the Wall of the Crimson Dragon.
Issei rose to his feet on unsteady legs as he chanted.
And I promise you all!
Sairaorg backed up, grinning like a lion, holding his fists ready.
I shall protect the future which shines in true crimson light!
Issei was not a Roaring Lion fighting to right injustices.
Issei was not an Attacking Titan forever chasing freedom.
[Crimson World Wall]
Issei Hyoudou was a Defending Dragon guarding his hoard of hopes and dreams.
The wings of the Red Dragon Emperor grew and grew and grew and grew.
In a flash of crimson light, Sairaorg Bael stood opposite a wall of red scales.
It stretched from one side of the arena to the other and all the way up to the ceiling of the wards, dividing it in half.
Sairaorg grinned as he stared at the red wall that separated him from the Gremory podium and half the audience.
He was absolutely certain that if Issei wished, he could make this wall even bigger.
A crimson wall that could stretch from one end of the horizon to the other.
A quick glance to one of the dozen screens along the side he could see told the Bael that those behind Issei could see through the wall to see him, while he couldn't see them.
The Crimson Wall glowed with red power, and Sairaorg knew it was Boosting, growing stronger and more durable with every passing second.
He just had one question as he stared at the uniform red scales.
"How are you going to fight me, Issei Hyoudou?"
Right in front of Sairaorg, in a part of the wall that looked and felt the same as every other part, one of the scales retracted like a helmet to show Issei's face.
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
"I am not as strong as you," Issei admitted, face still streaked with drying tears.
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
"I am not as fast as you."
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
"But I am the Rook of Rias Gremory. I am the Oppai Dragon!"
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
"Nobody will ever get by me!"
"Is this how you plan to win?"
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
"You either break my Crimson Great Wall, or it will grow stronger until it reaches the limit of the Red Dragon Emperor. Even I don't know how strong that is."
"Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon! Oppai Dragon!"
"Then all that power will go to those I am protecting!"
There it was.
Issei's answer.
The logical endpoint of the 'Transfer' ability all Boosted Gear holders had, yet had never fully developed. Even those who used it on their summons or familiars would never consider dedicating the entirety of the Gear to others.
It was simultaneously the least and greatest example of what it meant to be a 'Dragon' in this world.
He didn't know why people were entrusting their hopes and dreams to him, and he didn't know what he had done to deserve it.
But even if he didn't know why, even if Issei Hyoudou was an idiot, he would still defend those treasures he had been entrusted with.
Until those dreams were ready to advance on their own, Issei would be the wall to protect them.
To become the Harem King. To have friends and go to school. To have children. To open a bakery. To one day forgive themselves. To be free. To not let the children down.
They weren't ready yet, the world still wasn't peaceful enough for these dreams, so Issei would endure until it was.
It was the complete opposite of Juggernaut Drive, the draconic urge to rage and destroy a cruel world that hurt and killed.
It was the draconic urge to protect and nurture a more beautiful world.
If Sairaorg wanted to win, he would need to tear down this wall before it grew so strong that all its power could be transferred.
It was against the match rules for the observers to help the combatants, but there was no rule against the combatants helping the observers while they were still fighting.
Passing along equipment before you lose, relaying information, and even healing were all tacitly approved in the rules for this type of match for one simple reason.
It led to a better show.
So, either Sairaorg tore down the wall, or he'd lose to Issei's replacement.
The Ultimate Devil grinned and punched.
The punch contained everything he had, all his Touki, everything Regulus could put in, and more.
Right now was when the wall was at its weakest. It was his best shot.
So Sairaorg gave the punch every ounce of effort he could.
The gold fist crashed into a red gauntlet, and the arena shook.
Sairaorg's grin grew, and in a flash, he was at the side of the arena and kicking the World Wall where it met the barrier.
An armoured boot crashed right back.
Sairaorg flew over the wall, punching and kicking with enough force to destroy mountains as he tried to tear down the barricade.
Every punch, every kick, every blow, physical or magical, was met with one of the exact same force.
Red scales cracked.
Golden armour chipped.
Sairaorg could not see Issei directly, but looking at the screen from the other side showed that Issei was just as bruised and battered as the Bael was becoming. He was part of the armour and appeared wherever a new blow landed to counterattack with the same force.
Sairaorg laughed.
He had been slightly worried that the match wouldn't be interesting to watch if it was just him beating on a wall, but he was wrong. The crowd was absolutely frantic as they watched this slugging match between two Ultimate devils who were not even in their thirties.
Looking at his bloody knuckles, the King laughed harder.
Issei was an absolute madman.
He had given up all attacking ability, all mobility, everything to build this wall. All the blows Sairaorg received matched his own perfectly. Issei was only using precisely the right force to make sure every blow he received, he dealt right back.
All that extra power that wasn't used to fight back was going into making the Crimson Wall even stronger.
It was such a passive way to fight. It went against everything Sairaorg had ever heard of.
If he never attacked Issei, the Bael wouldn't get hurt at all.
Issei had given up on intelligence, strength, and speed. He had turned this into a battle of endurance, forcing his opponent to play the game he, as a Rook, as a Dragon, was best at.
Right away, Sairaorg knew the weaknesses of this technique.
It locked Issei down, meaning his opponent could just leave, and Issei could do nothing.
It wore on Issei. Every part of the wall was part of him, so he felt every punch. Since he wasn't trying to defeat the enemy attacking him, just matching them, if they could deal more damage than Issei could handle all at once, Issei would crumble.
Finally, it was utterly useless if nobody he could trust was inside the wall. There was no reason to use the technique if no one was there to pass on the power or no one with suitable abilities.
In fact, using Crimson World Wall at the wrong time could be fatal.
Issei wasn't just visible from the inside; he was vulnerable. All his defence was focused outward, and an attack from within would destroy him.
More than that, Issei's only chance at winning was either hoping his opponent couldn't take as much damage as they dealt or that someone he was protecting would be able to finish them off with his stored power.
Crimson World Wall was a technique that gave up everything to protect those inside.
And in return, it became something nobody in this world could ever ignore.
Every second, the wall grew stronger exponentially.
Every second, the Red Dragon Emperor's power returned closer and closer to the peak of what the Divine Dragon had ever achieved when it was alive.
And that power could be given to anyone.
The second Crimson World Wall was born, Issei Hyoudou was strong enough to form a faction rivalling any other.
The Heavenly Duo had been terrible, yes, but they had been alone. They hoarded all that power for themselves.
And they had died for it.
Sairaorg could imagine the possibilities.
With the power of the Y Ddraig Goch, Rias would be stronger than her brother by orders of magnitude.
Who knew the limits to Asia's healing when she had the power of the Red Dragon Emperor?
Would the Valkyrie be as strong as Odin?
...If Sairaorg was the one protected by that wall, would he be the greatest Bael to ever exist? Would he eclipse even the Great King, Zekram Bael?
Sairaorg wanted to know what that kind of power felt like, what it meant to be on par with one of the world's Top Ten existences. What it meant to be a Dragon so strong that all three factions had to pause the Great War and work together to take you down.
If even Issei's opponent felt this way, Sairaorg could only imagine what the audience felt.
Sairaorg would lose this match, and all he could do was laugh.
Issei Hyoudou had just changed the world and he didn't even realize it.
Attack the Crimson World Wall, and if you can't get rid of it fast enough, Issei will just give his power to your perfect counter.
By simply existing, Issei had become one of the greatest threats this world had ever seen.
Usually, the Heavenly Duo were targets of fear. It wasn't rare for a wielder of Boosted Gear or Divine Divinding to be hunted and killed because the world powers didn't want crazy idiots with that kind of power.
But there was one surefire way to beat Crimson World Wall. Since it only focused on defence, so long as you never tried attacking Issei or those he protected, he'd never bring it out.
It was a power designed solely for peace.
It was a technique that no other Dragon Emperor, full of arrogance and pride, intoxicated by their own power and relying only on themselves, would never have come up with.
One ideally suited to a world simultaneously on the brink of either peace or war.
A simple message to the world.
Do not touch the treasures of the red dragon, for they are jealously guarded.
Sairaorg's fighting spirit rose through the roof.
This was why he hadn't finished Issei off.
Victory was great.
A good battle was even better.
But the future of the Underworld, the one Sairaorg wanted to build, was not something he needed to win in a tournament.
Sairaorg Bael would become a Satan when the Underworld decided he had to be one.
Winning a championship by beating up those weaker than him would not help that dream.
Issei always failed to realize that he helped others with their dreams just by chasing his own.
But Sairoarg would not give up just because he had achieved his goal.
No, he was going fight and fight and fight.
The Golden Lion roared.
The Red Dragon endured.
The battle, lasting far longer than anyone had expected, was a pulse-pounding, as exciting as any Rating Game anyone had ever seen.
Sairaorg threw everything he had at the wall, and Issei endured it all.
Clever tricks and esoteric powers had their place, but it wasn't here.
It was a battle of wills.
If Issei faltered, it was Sairaorg's victory.
But he didn't.
Issei endured.
Through every blow, every punch and kick thrown by an Ultimate class devil and backed by a Longinus, Issei endured.
Until the end.
The match ended when a bloody, battered, and grinning Sairaorg watched crimson scales dissolve and retract into the collapsed Rook's body.
[Wall Fall]
Issei lay unconscious on the ground, yet every child in the arena continued to chant for their hero with broad smiles.
"I hope you don't mind if we start right away," Sairaorg's final opponent said with a proud smile at the unconscious boy teleported away. "That was the deal when you equipped that armour. If you want to win, you must beat us all, one at a time, without rest. I hope you don't think we are taking advantage."
Before he had failed under his own wounds and injuries, Issei had not transferred his power to Rias Gremory.
It was not the holder of the Power of Destruction of the Bael, King of a Peerage, and cousin to Sairaorg that stepped onto the arena.
"It's fine," Sairaorg readied himself, grinning a bloody smile. "I still have some fight left in me."
Some might see a political statement in Issei's choice. Either a revolt against his King, a symbol that Sairaorg shouldn't fall to the power he had never wielded or something of the sort.
Issei Hyoudou was too much of an idiot to think of anything like that.
He'd simply given his power to the friend who had been with him since day one on his journey as a new devil. To the one who would be fast enough to defeat Sairaorg without fear of being knocked out first.
"I am proud that I can fight you with my comrades."
Yuuto Kiba was all alone, yet there was no mistaking what he meant as he levelled Purgatorio toward Sairaorg Bael, glowing with the power of the Red Dragon Emperor.
The tens of thousands of copies of the thin black and white blade also levelled themselves against the Golden Lion.
When Issei awoke, he'd bitterly lament that the finale of the Rating Game ended up being a match between two Damn Handsomes.
Still... he was just as happy as everyone else with their victory.
He might still not know how to feel about Eren, but Issei had come to a decision.
Issei would not let his Senpai crush the dreams of those devil children.
Issei would be a wall to protect all those smiles, even if it was from Eren Yeager.
Issei might not understand what Eren had been trying to tell them, but he'd hold on until he could.
... It was for the best Issei came to that conviction when he did.
A day after their victory in the Young Devil Tournament, the massive Hyoudou residence received some uninvited guests.
Vali's team had defected from Eren and the Chaos Brigade and had come with dire warnings.
They brought Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon, and a half-catatonic dhampir as proof of their intentions and words.