Pain In The Ass Of The 5th Dimension

[ Julian, since I began helping you. A part of my power has been progressively suppressed by the Supraverse. This wouldn't have done much normally, but I was attacked by a group of young fifth dimensional beings in a timeframe that is irrelevent from your point of view. At our scale of power, the Supraverse was destroyed for the relative duration of our fight. I eliminated all of my assaillants before existence could react in the end. However, because of our nature, we aren't supposed to fight between each other. So, when it restored itself, the Supraverse's wrath inevitably fell on all of those of my level of being.] Her voice as melodious as always, Kassmora told Julian of events he couldn't even begin to imagine.

[For some context, this sort of situation do not have cause to exist. Because it benefit no ones and serve no purpose. But like I am doing with you, 5D beings can be groomed when certain unique circumstances are met. It only take patience and prudence to do it successfully.] She explained coldly.

[I sense a scheme old but obvious afoot, but that concern you little. If only for the fact that it was me and not another they attacked.] Julian could somehow perfectly feel her shake her head.

[The reason I'm telling you this is because from now on, I will be forced to reduce my help to the bare minimum. I cannot hide your presence from higher dimensional beings anymore. I can only protect you and the world you currently are in and the ones you have visited to coming to harm and limit their influence on you. They can still approach you and interact with you. Same thing apply to your world hopping, I can only send you into a world roughly and influence very little your starting circumstance. That mean no re-zero like start again.] Now she seemed appollogetic.

[Anymore than that and the Supraverse would supress what little of its power it left me with. A situation that would be unsafe more so for you than for me.] She didn't speak again for a time.

[If a higher dimensional being come to you with a request in the future. Let me mediate. You'll understand what I am talking about when it'll happen. For now, you are still too weak.]

[I will recontact you when you wants to resume your journey.

Left stumped as Kass stopped talking, Julian took some time to diggest the news.

There was too much left unsaid and way too much he didn't understand.

Reorganizing his thoughts, he summarized how all of that affected him. In the end, he lost a lot of freepass. And from her words, he couldn't casually ask her to do things for him. As anything more than what she precised could do would be unsafe.

In what way? That too he didn't know. Maybe he wouldn't have protection against higher dimensional beings anymore.

Overall, it sucked. But he could live with it. He was just wary of his future world hops. As return by death was an awfully convenient ability he wouldn't have in other worlds. He would have to be careful.

Now it was his turn to not be in the mood anymore for reviewing his juvenile pictures. Though he felt better when Koneko came cuddling with him.

When he thought about it, didn't users of natural energy could feel the mood of those around them?

Ah yeah, Akeno was also awfully coquetish with him today. She was also being too touchy with someone having his girlfriend against him.

But more shocking was Koneko as besides from sending a frown at Akeno she did nothing else but double her efforts to get his attention.

Did something special happened between them?

DxD indeed.

Unfortunately, even if it went according to his previous resolution. He wouldn't be swayed so easily. Perhaps it was arrogance, but like he said so long ago to Issei. His love was simply not that easily given, in fact. He couldn't give love even if he wanted. If it was as Mikan had said, even the love he was giving his loved ones was 'false' or something superficial. If anything, the mostly innefective attempts of his three new subordinates was proof of that.

Discarding the currently irrelevent train of thoughts, Julian came back to the present moment and shrugged off with difficulty his dark mood with Koneko help, again.

Continuing without anything major happening, their club 'meeting' came to an end and everyone bid goodbuys to each other and left.

—————

The next day, Julian finally bought a property close to Kuoh High and not far from his parents. He also recruited a construction company from the Underworld. His house, that would be better qualified as a manor really. Would have multiple neccessary facilities like a lab, a vast training area, a very spacious master bedroom and an art room . With how much money he had spent on the crew, it wouldn't take more than a week to be done.

Magic and superhuman workers did wonder for anything industrial really.

This endeavor cost a pretty penny, close to 200 million yen. So around 1.5 million dollars. That made a considerable hole through his pocket but it was needed.

To be clear, since he had been paintings since he was 5. There was a huge numbers of sold paintings painted with a progressive amount of skills in the last auction.

This sort of sudden mass exposition by the same artist perfectly titilated the nobles' curiosity and with the couple of paintings he did in the past years reaching what these ignorant people called a 'Divine' level. The total money he received was magnitude higher than he expected. Around 3 millions dollars.

It was only supposed to be his early boost. But it went to give him enough money for the near future.

From his place of watching something on the tv with his parents while everyone else was at school. Julian wondered if he should visit school and accept to play a game of chest against Sona.

After all, he had promised he would play a game with her next time he was on school ground. But if he never went to Kuoh, he was technically still respecting his promise without fulfilling it.

Sensing something crossing one of his detection ward. Julian smirked slightly. The visitors he was waiting for had arrived.

Now, it would probably be better if he showed himself before they innevitably stepped into the trap he left bheind to protect his lab while investigating where they shouldn't.

—————

"Strange, there's signs of a past battle outside. But nothing in here." A figure obscured with a white robe and carrying a big mummified sword on her back said , surveying the interior of the church.

"There was supposedly a troup of fallen angels stationed here. But one day they simply vanished without a trace." The other figure present replied with a natural upbeat tone.

"Reassuring... He's still isn't here. Are you sure this place is appropriate for meeting up?"

"Of course, I used to live here with my parents after all." The one without a sword on her back showed a picture as a proof. The same one that Kiba had previously asked about.

"Great, as if that means anything." Shaking her head. The first person lowered her hood, revealing a face framed by blue hair and had dark yellow orbs as eyes. Immediatly after, she armed herself with her mummy sword.

"Do you feel that?"

"Mmh, it's very subtle. There's something weird coming from the basement. Should we check it out?" Lowering her hood too, the second person revealed itself to be a young woman with chestnut colored hair and violet eyes.

"If this church is to be our gathering place, then investigating any anomaly present in it is obligatory."

"Gathering place? Why don't you girls speak about it with the self-proclaimed owner of this place first? Spoiler, that would be me."

Both girls whipping around at their fastest speed, they came face to face with another hooded figure robed in grey.

Only problem was that it was adorning two pair of strange demonic wings on their back.

—————

Julian profited from the stunned silence to inspect both intruders. It was the first time he was seeing them in the flesh after all. Well, not Irina but her boyish child years look couldn't be farther from her now.

As expected, they were both supremely beautiful. Irina was almost as cute as Koneko while having this warm aura of the girl next door and Xenovia had this heroic and stoic beauty that was unique to her.

Ignoring their looks, there really was no reason why he came to them under this guise other than mess with them.

Maybe test their strength a bit too, and evaluate his own at the same time. How easily he would crush them would answer to both of these.

"This is sacred ground belonging to the church, state your purpose and leave before we make you." Xenovia stated, rapidly recovering from the surprise of having someone sneak up on them. At the same time, she began ro unravel the fabric covering her weapon. Progressively exposing more of the impressive golden edge of Durandal, Excalibur Destruction.

"Didn't you hear what I just said? This place is mine, I have uses for it. So about you leave, eh?"

"I will never pander to a devil demand under the gaze of the Lord. Whoever is behind you, we are not afraid."

"Amen! Same goes for me!"

"Then come show me your strength, holy sword wielders." Julian was pleased by his performance. Playing the villain came so naturally to him. Though the girls were really just using their religion to take the moral high ground in this case. Because they were still trying to requisitione his current lab.

Xenovia, showing decisiveness only someone well versed in battle could, immediatly appeared before Julian and directly aimed to bisect him in a straightforward manner.

As it was a 2v1, Irina came around his back to cut off his retreat from the attack and seeking a strike of her own.

Julian was dissapointed that they weren't taking him seriously. Well he would do the same in their place because in their eyes he probably appeared as a weird middle-grade devil since he only had two pair of wings.

Fortunately, he had just the way to rectify that.

Taking Xenovia head on, he casually grabbed at the blade and stopped the attack in an explosion of wind that sent all of their robes fluttering.

Meanwhile, the destructive energy of Excalibur Destruction did nothing but destroy the skin of his palm and make his left arm sleeve explode.

"What!?" Seeing her attack do nothing but draw a line of blood from her opponent, Xenovia immediatly retreated when she realized how exposed she was left after her blow was blocked.

"The holy sword did nothing! How?" What shocked Irina the most was that their opponent was clearly a devil, yet he made it look Xenovia sword was an ordinary iron broadsword. Not the most lethal weapon existing against devilkind.

"So that's an holy sword power? Pretty lame, but I guess I should have seen that coming." Julian shook his hand, impressed by his own thoughness. After all, effective or not. Holy swords were supposed to be very sharp and be able to cut through most things. Yet it could barely penetrate the muscle fibers of his hand. Xenovia probably didn't give her all in that blow, but the point still stood.

"Are you gonna attack or..." Turning his back on Xenovia, Julian addressed Irina who had still not totally come back from her surprise.

"Irina, we underestimated him. He's way stronger than a Middle-Class devil. And even stronger than a High-Class. You know what that means?" Xenovia coldly stated the obvious and asked Irina while keeping an eye on Julian.

"Of course! This means that either we leave victorious of this fight or we join the Lord in a blaze of glory fighting his rebelious children!" One smiling dreamingly, the other calculating, both Irina and Xenovia disrobed themselves to reveal the combat attire under.

"Now we're talking. Do you think I could have some of these battle suits for-" Julian didn't have time to finish as the two priests lunged at him at their fastest speed.

"Maybe later." Shrugging, he too lunged at Xenovia, and ducking under a reactive strike. He grabbed her arm and threw her toward Irina.

In a move that pleasently surprised him, Irina re-shifted her Excalibur mimic she had in her sword form to a bracelet and caught Xenovia, rotating with the momentum, she threw her back at him but this time with purpose.

With her blade trailing under her, Xenovia swung an invisible wave of destructive energy at him before touching the ground with her feet and following behind her initial attack with a powerful overhead cut.

After simply tanking the wave of destruction at the price of his robe, Julian back stepped and lifted his leg in the same movement. Dodging back the strike and kicking Xenovia's blade into the ground as he followed her blade down with his leg.

This chain of actions were so fluid that Xenovia simply wasn't ready to react when against her will, she was blown away from her embeded sword kept still in the ground by a punch too strong for her to possibly keep her grip.

Irina having seen all of that, could do nothing but assault Julian to buy time for Xenovia in hope that she would have the time to regain her bearing.

In a flurry of blurry and tricky cuts and stabs, she elongated and shortened her sword to disturb and surprise her opponent.

Unfortunetaly, she was simply too slow to possibly get a strike on Julian, no matter how good her feints and her swordmanship were.

Growing bored of bullying the girls, Julian used the not instantaneous transformation of her sword to close in on her. After squeezing her blade arm behind her back, he simply disarmed her.

From all the time Irina attacked him, he had not stepped off once from Excalibur Destruction.

"Ah~ recently arrived to my old town and already fated to die before even meeting my childhood friends. So tragic! This is surely a test set by the Lord himself to challenge my faith. But no matter what! I will always believe!"

Silently looking at the girl shouting out loud her imagination, Julian decided that playtime was over.

"Well, this has gone for long enough I think. How about we talk about your temporary residence of this place peacefully? Believe it or not, but I'm not your enemy." Taking one sword in each hand. Julian uncaringly healed Xenovia of her fist induced stomach pain and said.

"I think we have much to talk about, so make yourself comfortable. Oh, and please no: I'd rather die! Or anything of which you said earlier. This kind of thing is called racism, and it isn't right." Saying that, Julian threw out both of their sword for them to catch. To their satisfying utter confusion.