Chapter 10 - Part 2 - Lilith, Rubicante and the Crimson Moon

Third Person Point of View

…

In the Abenaki realm, a team of young men were training in the [Hyperbolic Regenerative Chamber]. A lone lady overlooked their training as they worked on their magic and their leader trained his Sacred Gear in his Balance Breaker, [Frost Mail Freedom Guard].

"Come on, is that all you got?!" shouted Caeda at her teammates. She had created a creature for her team to fight, even though this was her weakest ability, however, the creature she summoned was still quite formidable for them.

Hirokazu had used [Enchantment Magic] to increase his physical abilities while in his Balance Breaker. He also used its ability to make him even more powerful than normal. He dashed towards the creature that was around 18 meters tall and was made out of obsidian and was shaped like a golem.

Hirokazu did a few feints as magic attacks flew above him and hit the golem. However, the attacks didn't faze the golem at all, so he cocked his arm back and punched the golem in the chest. It was a powerful blow as it created a small shockwave, but…

"Shit!" he shouted and jumped back.

The golem had fired black-purple lasers from its eyes at him, and he was forced to dodge them. But to all of their surprise, the lasers zigzagged through the air and were aimed at his teammates.

"Dodge!" he shouted at them. Some did, but the few who couldn't decided to use defensive magic circles to block the attack.

Nevertheless, when the attack struck the magic circles, the lasers shattered and penetrated their chests! The two members of his group fell down and coughed up blood. However, due to the effects of the chamber, the two of them were quickly healed and they got up again. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and they got up again.

"Again!" they shouted at Caeda who smiled. She then ordered her golem to attack them again.

This scenario has been on repeat since the chambers were built into the realm. There were a lot of people in this realm, but not all of them were fighters. Around 40% were fighters while the rest were just regular civilians.

The team fought the golem for the next few minutes, they struggled to defeat it, but they eventually knocked it down and achieved victory.

…

"Good work," said Caeda as she handed them all drinks. They all accepted it and started to unwind.

"Thanks," replied Hirokazu as Caeda sat beside him.

"By the way, who were you talking to a few days ago?" asked Caeda.

"Ah, that was my cousin from Japan. He and his friends contacted me a few weeks ago because they found out about the supernatural, and they started using magic. Anyway, they asked if I knew and I told them the truth," he explained.

"Heeee~ so what happened to them?" she asked.

"Well, they've been doing the same thing we did while in Japan, but on a smaller scale since they're inexperienced. But they also said they wanted to find Jin-san because… w-well, I kind of hyped him up," he said sheepishly and scratched his cheek.

"If they look him up themselves then whatever hype you gave them would be justified. Is there anything special about them?" she asked again.

"My cousin Daiki can use magic pretty well and uses it to mainly enchant himself, and they have another guy who can use water manipulation without needing to use magic which is pretty rare."

"Water manipulation, huh? Could they be a hybrid? I've noticed that hybrids typically have those perks, a union between other species… so he may be a human and something else. If they do meet Jin, then he'd probably tell them," said Caeda.

"No doubt about it, Jin-san is the few people in this world who's really honest about what he wants—hell, I'd almost say he's like a child at times because of how honest he is. But that's why I want to be his subordinate—we all will, right?" he asked Caeda back.

"Heh, perhaps. But I guess so, but I wasn't aware of him for a few months… but what he wants is very ambitious—"

"—Yet he's achieving it. It may have started out for selfish reasons, but you heard him, right? When we were walking around that part of the realm, he told us that he wanted to see our world flourish and be a better place. Most people can't be as selfless as that," interrupted Hirokazu.

"But he also added that he would put his immediate friends' and lovers' safety before others. In a way, he's not that selfless, Hiro. He has a balance… do you want to replicate that or something? To be a hero of justice?" asked Caeda.

"Jin-san isn't a hero of justice. The fact that he prioritizes those closest to him means that he isn't totally selfless, as you said yourself. He's done a lot of selfish things; he said it himself, but didn't go into detail. He may help people, but he's still gaining something from it… anyway, let's go back to training. I want to fight him soon…" said Hirokazu as he stood up.

"Let's get back to it, all of you!" he shouted to his team who groaned in displeasure, but were also eager in getting stronger.

Caeda looked at the ground and at the sky. 'I want to stay here, this world is beautiful unlike the one I was born in…' she then looked at Hirokazu and blushed, 'I also want to protect things too, I'll happily be his subordinate if it means I can live in a world like this…'

"Are you coming, Caeda?"

"Yeah, yeah~ I'm coming~!" she replied and ran towards them.

…

A certain individual had arrived in Japan. He was also known as the [Red Face Terror], one of the [Malebranche]. He was tasked of using Zaorama's new projects and see how far it would take him. He also had a guaranteed escape if things went south. However, they have discussed that if he were to lose, he would try to destroy everything around him—and not give their enemy anything.

In simpler terms—a kamikaze, or deliberate suicide. The [Malebranche] wished to fight the Longinus wielders, but did not want to die before them, so…

[Kuoh, Kuoh… where are you~? I want to fight him~ the Middleman~ hu-hu-hu~] Rubicante hummed to himself. He was standing on top of a large spire as he looked down at a certain town.

Rubicante was a humanoid-shaped demon. His entire body was mostly pale white/gray while certain parts were red and had blue leaf-like patterns. He also had a cape that was fused into his body which he uses to cover his body from time to time. He also had blank glowing yellow eyes and red horns on his head.

[Hmm, so it must be that way, but… kukuku, why do I feel a familiar aura coming from it? Kuku, Lilith-chan, why might you be doing over there~?] Rubicante mused and disappeared from his spot.

…

Jin Skyward's Soliloquy

…

"—And that's everything, anyway. I'll be confronting her in a few hours, assuming that she shows up in their rooms again," I told everyone in the meeting room.

"Are you sure of not informing the alliance yet?" asked Latia.

I nodded. "Yeah. She's trying to contact me discreetly; she doesn't want her allies or enemies to know. I don't know what she wants out of this. However, she wants to switch sides for whatever reason, and it'll work out for us in the long-run, so I'll approach her by myself for now."

A few hours had passed and we had finished having dinner not too long ago, so everyone was here and a few groups that are part of Team [DxD] were also attending. I just finished telling them about Lilith possibly trying to change sides.

I also got a text from Kouta during dinner and he basically told me more in detail about his dreams. He also said that his dad went out of town for a few days in the last month, and that he also had strange dreams about me being in my [Boosted Gear] Scale Mail dancing and singing to the Oppai Dragon song.

I'm really confused as to why Lilith wanted to show them that. I would expect her to show them images of herself or something, not that…

"In any case, we will be prepared if anything were to happen," added Sona. "It wouldn't hurt to be ready, right?" she asked me.

"Right," I agreed with her. "It wouldn't be strange for someone in the Khaos Order to find out about her plans and try to use her to attack Kuoh or any one of our allies, so we should be ready for that."

"We shou—" I was about to continue when I was alerted by my shadow soldiers that were in Tokyo. Apparently, they heard and saw someone that was standing on top of the Sky Tree over there, and they were exuding a powerful aura, even if they did their best to try to hide it.

"…I guess we don't need to wait too long, just have everyone on alert since someone is coming our way. I'll order my shadows to try to intercept them, but if not then we'll just get Kuoh to be another battle ground," I said and sighed."

"Someone?" asked Saji.

"No details, but apparently they're strong, so just keep that in mind," I replied and he nodded. "That's all for now, so you're all dismissed."

Once I said that, everyone got up and started leaving the meeting room. I scratched the back of my head and sighed. 'The Hindu Pantheon and now this, I can't catch a break…'

"That's a pretty long sigh, Aaron."

I looked up and saw Danu. She had come over to my home to watch over the Irish group down in the [Training Facility]. A few others also stayed, like the 'Secretary Group' who were discussing some things with each other.

"Oh, hey, Danu. It should be morning in Ireland right now. Is your internal clock okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine, we gods and goddesses can choose not to sleep or not, so going to other countries with time differences doesn't affect us too much," she replied, but then started to fidget.

"Is something wrong?" I asked and gestured for her to come to my side. She did so but said nothing, so I waited for her.

"…C-can I move in with you?" she asked timidly.

I expected this to happen down the line, but wasn't expecting it so soon. My silence made her nervous and she looked even more worried. "Sure thing, do you need help moving things?" I asked.

She shook her head and said, "No, I-I'm already packed up. Everything I need is in my ring, so…"

"You're quite eager, aren't you?" I asked and chuckled. I then called Risette told her to help Danu pick a room. "There, we got you set up. Anything else?"

"No, I'll be fine. Thank you…" she replied and leaned down to give me a peck on the cheek before leaving.

"Aaron-sama."

This time it was Ravel who came over and gave me a clipboard and I read through it.

"Apparently, from a few connections I have in the Underworld, as well as my mother—they told me that unknown devils have been appearing in closed off sections of the Underworld," she explained.

"…" I wasn't expecting it to start so soon… no, I shouldn't have, everything is fucked after all. Unless Hades is just experiment with these Artificial Super Devils. I reached over and patted Ravel on the head. "Thank you, I'll keep an eye on this too."

"Y-y-yes, t-thank you very much…!" she stuttered out and awkwardly walked away.

Looking at the clipboard again, a few of these were accounts from Riser and his peerage, a few from Ruval and other devil families both noble and common. Ravel said a 'few' connections, but these are at least thirty families. I wonder what she considers 'a lot' then.

"Jin."

"Hmm?" I looked up to see Brynhildr. "Oh, Zelma, what's up?" I asked.

"I received some messages from my Valkyrie Corp, a few of them will officially join the Norse group, and I would like to know if they can move in to your home too," she said.

"Helmwige, Ortlinde, Grimgerde, and Schwertleite, right?" I asked and she nodded. "Hmm. Well, I don't mind, and it wouldn't be a bad idea for Rose to have some of her former teammates here, right?"

"Hmm. Thank you," she said and left. I glanced at Rose as she looked horrified at me. Once Zelma had left, she power-walked to me and grabbed my shoulders and started to shake me.

"Why?!"

"Uh—"

"Do you want more than one Valkyrie in your life?!" she whisper-shouted at me with teary-filled eyes.

[She's jealous…]

{Jealous Valkyrie…}

"Ufufu, Rossweisse-sensei~ Aaron has more than one devil woman you know~?" said Akeno as she came over to us and hugged my head.

"I-I-well…" Rose became flustered and stuttered.

"I see… fufu, it seems Rossweisse-sensei felt threatened by Brynhildr-san coming to your home, and now her former teammates are also coming… meaning she won't be the only Valkyrie here," explained Akeno.

She then let go of me and walked over to Rose. She then whispered something to Rose, which made her blush. However, once Rose looked back at me—her eyes were filled with strange determination.

"…No—I'm mean, I'm sorry, please forget my outburst just now… I have made peace with it," said Rose as she turned around and left.

I looked at Akeno and asked, "What in the world did you say to her?"

With a smile on her face, she winked and responded, "I didn't say anything drastic~? I only said… to claim what's her~" she then skipped away.

'Claim what's hers, huh? I think I know what she meant by that…' I thought and sighed again. Well, I've been meaning to take that step with Rose too. I wanted to do that before proposing to her.

"Are you leaving now?" asked Lavinia. I looked up to see her beside me, peering down at my face.

I checked the time and saw that I still had a few hours left before I went sneaking back to Najima's and Kouta's homes. "No, not yet. I have a few hours to spare, why? Do you want to be spoiled?" I asked.

Without answering me, she simply jumped onto my lap and snuggled into me. I'll take that as a yes then… I chuckled and went back to looking through some documents while still there. I feel like this is going to be my life in the future… sounds exhausting in its own right.

…

An hour before I left, I was walking around my home with Lavinia attached to me. I was trying to relax when I came across Valerie and Gasper talking in hushed whispers in the entertainment room. There were others here too, but it was mostly the Church trio with Raynare screaming at a TV screen while they played a game.

Both Dhampir's spotted me and gestured for me to join them, so I did so.

"What's up?" I asked and sat down beside them.

"…I wanted to get Tomoe-san and Coriana-san gifts. Even though we spent around 100 years together, I didn't have much opportunity to take them out on dates, or give them gifts. Now that we're out here, I want to spoil them as much as I can," explained Gasper.

So he approached me along with several others about what he should get for them. Valerie was the first person he asked, and after that, everyone else. He apparently held off asking me because he didn't want to rely too much on me, but…

"I see. Well, it depends on what they like, I think?"

"How about a body pillow of yourself for Tomoe-chan?" suggested Lavinia. A blush appeared on Gasper's face at the suggestion.

"W-why…?" he asked confused.

"Layla-chan apparently has one of Aaron," she said happily.

I am painfully aware of that. When I visited Heaven to do those changes to the systems, Layla invited me to her room and I saw it. When I asked what it was, she told me with no shame and begged me not to order her to destroy it…

I did agree, but under the condition of never letting anyone else see it. However, she had already shown it to Altaria, Griselda, Irina and Gabriel when she went back up there with me. So I had to find them and have them swear not to ever leak it. It was an exhausting day.

"Gasper…" I put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him seriously. "No, refuse. It will save your sanity," I told him.

"…I didn't plan on doing it, Aaron-senpai," he replied looking a bit scared.

"Good. Very good… anyway, just get them what they like, and if they say 'you', then spend the day with them. It depends on the woman, really. Some are more materialist than others, some just want to spend time with you, and others have different things they want, so just… I guess go with your gut?"

I'm thankful that the girls don't ask for much. However, that's probably because I'm filthy rich and they can buy most things they want since I give them an allowance. Well, Kuroka and Shigune are gluttons, so there's that—so food is a priority for them, though Shigune does buy a lot of instrumental items.

Gasper thought about it and nodded. "I think… I have an idea now, but I'm not sure if they'll like it but I'll go with it!" he announced excitedly. "Thank you, Valerie, Aaron-senpai, Lavinia-san!" he said and dashed out of the room.

"So can I get a body—"

"No…"

"But…"

"No…"

In protest, Lavinia squeezed my arm more tightly, and Valerie joined us as we wandered around my home again, until I had to leave.

…

"Nin-nin!" said Ophis quietly. For some reason the Dragon God wanted to come with me on my nightly excursion, so I let her, and now she's pretending to be a ninja. She even wore a costume for it…

We were outside of Najima Bakery, and like on cue, we both felt some kind of magic circle open up inside. I turned both of us invisible and we teleported into that specific room.

When we arrived, we saw a floating eye with bat wings on its side. It stared at us and I gestured with my head to go outside. The eye-bat thing blinked a few times before it nodded and I teleported us to the same park as before.

"So? Why do you want to make contact with me?" I asked the bat.

It didn't answer verbally, instead a bunch of devil letters started to appear in front of it.

[I want to be free; I have been stuck in hell.]

"Save your backstory for another time, just answer me this, how?" I asked again.

[Hachijō Island. I have sent my creatures there to create a magic circle that will serve as a way for me to teleport to you. However, it will need another party to provide power. I will only have one chance, otherwise I will be held prisoner or killed.]

Hachijō Island… a volcanic Japanese island in the Philippine Sea. It is about 287 kilometers south of the special wards of Tokyo. It is part of the Izu Archipelago and within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.

"When?"

[I will be finished in a few days, so until then…]

"I will leave a shadow soldier here. Contact me via that when you're ready, but until then, stop harassing my classmates," I told her.

The bat nodded and was about to disappear when I decided to ask her a question.

"My shadow soldiers felt something near Tokyo. They may be part of the Khaos Order. Do you have any idea about it?"

The eye looked at me for a few seconds before it shook its head. Finally, it disappeared and I sighed. I felt Ophis tug on my sleeve and she pointed to the sky, towards the… moon?

"The moon?" I asked her.

However, before she could answer me, her stomach growled. "I'm hungry. The moon looks like a cookie," she said and I laughed.

"Is that so? You're still hungry, huh? Well, there aren't any shops open right now, but let's go home and I'll make you something," I told her and we went back home.

But… it made me curious as to why Lilith chose Hachijō Island to create her magic circle. Well, whatever the reason is, hopefully this will go smoothly.

…

"Dude! It stopped, I'm a free man!" shouted Kouta.

"Same, same! Woooooooooooh!" Najima joined him.

It had been two days since the short meeting with Lilith, and I hadn't received word from her yet, so she probably wasn't ready yet. So I had been waiting like everyone else for her, other than that, my shadow soldiers hadn't seen the person that appeared in Tokyo since, so I had all of them on high-alert all around Japan, any glimpse of him, I ordered them to capture that person and wait for me to get there.

"Is that so? Good for you two," I replied and yawned.

I was sick of waiting and wanted to go there already, but instead I stationed a few shadow soldiers there instead. The most notable one was Ellén Trechend, the three-headed dragon I or Ddraig killed back in Ireland. So I'll get updates on them, and they found the place that Lilith was using, so all I needed to do was swap places with that shadow or teleport there myself.

"We still have those pills too," added Najima and pulled his one out… and was immediately tackled for it. Kouta didn't have his with him, but he was still tackled, and a small brawl happened.

"It's still before classes start you know…?" I asked and yawned again. "How do you guys have this much energy in the morning?" I didn't get any answers though, and looked up to see Penemue gesturing for me to go over to her, so I did.

I closed the door behind me and asked, "Did you need something from me?"

"How about an early morning school date?" she asked.

"…What?" I asked back, but instead I was dragged away by her. What did that even mean…?

…

I was brought to a room with several other teachers, Rossweisse, Griselda, Lisa and herself (Penemue). They were sitting around, and once we stepped inside the room, they looked up and smirked.

"I feel like I was brought into a den of lions," I told them.

"The sucking den," said Lisa and she winked.

"…What?" I replied and gave her a strange look.

However, Lisa did a sucking motion with her mouth and I sighed at her. Penemue shoved me towards the middle seat and I was pulled by Lisa towards it and forced to sit down.

"So, why am I here? Aren't classes starting soon?" I asked them.

"This is important, Aaron," said Lisa seriously.

I raised an eyebrow and silently waited for them to continue. Penemue stood behind Rose, and pulled her up, also surprising her. She looked utterly mortified, but before the rest of us could say anything else, she pulled Rose's top up and exposed her chest and bra.

"Wha—?! P-P-Penemue?" A scream erupted from Rose out of shock. Penemue then pushed Rose towards me and I caught her. We had been in more controversial and 'juicy' situations before—especially in the [Pocket Dimension], so this shouldn't cause a reaction from Rose.

But before I could react to the situation, the door to the room opened…

"Oi, where the hell are all of you… what the hell is happening here?"

It was Azazel. He had opened the door while yawning and then saw this. He just looked at us with a confused and questioning look.

"Do that in your ho—"

Boooooooooom!

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

He couldn't finish his sentence when all of them blasted him away with their magic attacks. I don't think that was a good idea, but since I saw a lot of clichés back in my previous life, I had covered this part of the school building with a barrier as soon as I noticed their emotions change.

I also created a portal for Azazel to be blasted through and teleported him back to Grigori, and his office, so no collateral damage was done to the school. No normal human students would know what happened today…

"…You guys used a bit too much power," I mumbled. However, they just stared coldly at me and I shook my head. "Never mind. So? What did you guys need from me that was so important?" I asked again.

"We have started the 'Slow Aaron's Association'. We have our grievances of you being slow with us!" declared Lisa.

I blinked a few times before looking at Rose who turned away and then at Griselda who gave me an apologetic smile. I see, so it's Penemue and Lisa's idea and they dragged these two with them.

"…Well for starters, put your top back on, Rose," I told her and she did. "Secondly, I haven't really done much with my relationships because of the on goings of the world. I mean I would take all of you out and move forward with my relationships if I could, but I can't exactly control when the Khaos Order shows up and attacks."

"Didn't some weird group show up in Australia and attack the country? Team [DxD] had to respond you know?" I pointed out to them.

"I hate your logic! But fine… can you at least tell us the order?" asked Penemue and Lisa nodded her head in agreement.

"There really isn't an order but… Penemue, Lisa and Griselda, you guys should be coming up next, after that Irina and Xenovia then Raynare… something like that, but as I said, things happen and they can change, so…"

"I'm fine with that~!" said Penemue as she skipped over to me and straddled me. "Let me spoil you, huhu~" she said and shoved my face into her chest.

"Finally… my fate is coming to an end~" Lisa said and giggled to herself.

Griselda didn't say anything, but even when my face was in Penemue's chest, I could tell she was nervous and excited. The only one left was Rose… it's been a while since we last went out, but…

"I'll fit you in Rose! You can count on that!" I pulled my head out of Penemue's chest and told the Valkyrie. She smiled at me and nodded her head.

"We should wrap this up, classes are going to start soon," said Griselda. The rest of them agreed and they slowly left the room.

[They really just did that, huh?] asked Elsha.

The two Heavenly Dragons were missing in action again since they were training Yoru and Haru for me. I plan on testing them soon too, maybe in around a month, the same with Medusa to see where they're all at. But for now, I'll let them train, and I'll instruct them when we go to the [Pocket Dimension] again for another 100 years.

…

Lunch arrived and I was in the clubroom with everyone else. For the most part it was normal. Even the other teachers were there and everyone was just chatting with each other when one of my shadow soldiers contacted me.

'My liege, she is here, and she said that everything will be ready by tonight, so you should make your way to Hachijō Island near midnight.'

'I see. Thank you for telling me. Tell her I'll do that,' I replied.

'At once!'

After that, there was nothing. Well, the soldier told me she was content with it and left. Once I came back to reality, a few of them were staring at me—but in front of me was Kiba—er, Yumi's face, and he—she was dangerously close.

"Aaron-senpai~? Who were you talking to~?" she asked.

"One of my shadows, I'll be going to that place tonight," I replied.

"Shadow? Place? Tonight? What did you get yourself into, Jin?" asked Azazel.

"I'll tell you once it's settled, but for now just leave it to me," I replied to him. He looked incredulous but, in the end, left it to me.

"Ah, we're coming with you—the ones with you this morning, I mean," added Penemue.

I looked at the fallen angel, and then at the other women with me earlier in the morning. I didn't mind, well, with the exception of Lisa I was worried, but… I'll just give her more protection. So I gestured for her to come over to me and she obliged.

"What can I help you with~?" she asked. I looked at her, and summoned a ring and gave it to her. She seemed stunned and showed a rare and genuinely blush. "T-t-this is a bit early, J-Jin…" she said in a fluster, even calling me by Jin even when she usually called me Aaron.

I didn't say anything and simply sent her the relevant information after tapping my head. After that, she became huffy.

"It's not special then, hmph!" she then turned around and walked back to Griselda who awkwardly comforted the upset woman.

"By the way, Jin-senpai," said Yumi.

"Hmm?" I responded and looked at her.

"Would it be possible to make mine into a ring as well? I'd rather have that than a necklace," she said and shoved her chest/neck towards me.

"…Take it off and I'll change it." Even if I refused, she'd pester me about it, so I might as well humor her for now. Yumi took her necklace off and I changed it into a ring. I handed it back to her and she looked at it like some kind of family heirloom.

"Thank you~!" she said and tried to kiss me but I stopped her. "Tch."

She just clicked her tongue at me... Yumi then walked back to her seat a bit annoyed from the rejection. I feel like Yumi was a bit more aggressive since becoming female. I still don't know how to respond to Kiba.

Zeno and Silva haven't found any clues to Tosca yet, unless the Khaos Order found her and did something to her… then God love them since I'll make them suffer. She's the only other potential surviving member of Kiba's group after all…

…

School ended and I was asked by Sona to help with a few things concerning the Student Council since Saji had to go home and look after little brother Gengo since he apparently was sick, so I was taking over his role today.

I arrived by the student council and knocked on the door then entered. I was immediately greeted by everyone there. "So I'm doing Saji's job today. What does that entail?" I asked.

"You'll be the manpower for today. As you know even if we're part of the supernatural, we still have to pretend to be 'weak' girls so we don't raise suspicion. It would be strange if we suddenly started to be able to lift heavy objects. We leave that to Saji usually," explained Sona.

She then walked over to a whiteboard and everyone else in the room became serious and a very serious meeting for them started.

…

My group left the room after around thirty minutes. I was with Ruruko and Yura.

"Aaron-senpai, please work hard and seriously today! Even if you're a bit more reliable than Gen-chan, please take this seriously since you're part of the Student Council for today," said Ruruko.

"I planned on doing that, Ruruko," I replied and she nodded approvingly.

"First stop is moving a few miscellaneous items and boxes from place to place. That would be your job, Aaron-senpai," said Yura.

I gave her a thumbs up and we headed to a certain storage room in the school and moved a few times from there to the teacher's lounge and other classrooms. The weight of those boxes were nothing and they could easily do it themselves, but as Sona said, they had to keep up appearances to the normal humans.

On our last excursion to the teacher's lounge, a few of the teachers that we were well acquainted with were there. However, surprisingly enough the normal human teachers were already gone, or at least not in the room.

"Student council member Jin, huh? It doesn't suit you, honestly," said Azazel as he took a sip from his cup of coffee.

I put the box down and replied, "Well, I'm just a temporary member, also, I'm not trying to appeal to you, weirdo…"

Azazel just scoffed at me and turned back to whatever he was doing. We finished our task and were about to leave when I felt someone embrace me from behind. I glanced back and saw Lisa.

"Lisa, how can I help you?" I asked.

"Are you the student council's helper today~?" she asked.

"Saji did leave early today, so I'm filling his shoes. Also, it's not like I do any club activities for my club since it's mostly devil business, you know?"

"Hmm~ then since I'm done for the day, I'll accompany you guys," she said and hugged my arm.

"There are still teachers and students here you know," I told her. But she wasn't going to let go of me, so I just left it at that as we started working on our other jobs. Yura seemed a bit jealous but said nothing. Ruruko was teasing me and Lisa, but we just took it in stride, with Lisa teasing her back about Saji which made her flustered.

…

Our next jobs were checking on suspicious activities at certain clubs. I was there just in case something happened, you know, to act as a physical guard. This was to stop the guys 'hurting' the 'delicate' females of the student council. Though, if it's Ruruko and Yura, they'd probably break their arms and legs if given the chance…

We arrived at the Chess club and Yura slammed the door open and shouted, "Official inspection! We're the Student Council!"

What we saw in the room were half-naked members of the Chess club. "Are they playing strip chess…?" I asked.

"P-please wait a minute, th-there's a reason for this!" one of their members said in a panic.

"…If you're gay then there are other ways of expressing it, guys," I said to them.

"We're not gaaaay!!" they shouted back at me, and then looked confused. "Wait, Jin? Where's Saji?"

"The Student Council got an upgrade for today~!" Lisa said with a wink and they also looked at her in confusion.

"Ah who cares! Go! We've been waiting for this. Use Formation B!" the President (?) shouted to his club members.

They all gathered in front of the table they were playing at, still half-naked and aimed a bunch of chess pieces at us. We were a bit surprised by their actions.

"Fire!" he shouted and then they started throwing the chess pieces at us. Some of them who were near the back started pulling out more from drawings and handing them to the club members.

We were obviously not fazed by this, and I calmly caught all the chess pieces being thrown at us. 'This is idiotic…' I thought and kept catching them. The ones I caught, I handed them to Ruruko who inspected them, and then I caught more. This repeated for at least a full minute until they ran out of ammo.

"W-what the hell? You know, this isn't a manga or American movie! You can't just catch all of them!" shouted one of their members.

"Maybe it is. Try finding the cameras," I told them and they started looking around.

"Okay, that's enough playing around," said Lisa in a low tone. Everyone looked at her, and the club members of the chess club's faces paled. "Put your clothes back and behave," she said, and they quickly nodded their heads.

…

We finally left after both Yura and Ruruko gave them a thorough scolding and they took note of it. Yura, Lisa, Ruruko and I made surprise visits to each of the various cultural clubs. The bad rumors of each club were exposed by us one after the other—well, investigating further, it wasn't just the Chess Club at the start, the groups who secretly broke the school rules were really everywhere.

I was in no position to talk about others, but all of the other clubs were really audacious.

As for the Sports Clubs, after the surprise inspections, we tied them up on the ground (anyone that tried to run away was swiftly caught and brought back by us), and then they were disciplined by Ruruko's bamboo sword. After all, it was impossible for ordinary people to beat us, two devils, a magician and a dragon.

Most of the students understood that resisting the Student Council was useless, so there were a lot of people who instantly sank into despair and gave up as soon as they saw Yura and Ruruko.

Well, there were occasionally a few people who tried to resist or escape. Of course, there were a lot of people who could only exclaim 'It's not Saji!' when they saw me. It got a bit annoying by the fifth one, so I just glared at them, shutting them up. Lisa also provided the cutesy yet terrifying teacher too. Who 'Ufufufu'd' her way to victory.

This kind of inspection didn't seem like it could be done on a fixed date, it was most effective only when it was sudden. If the inspection was scheduled only to occur on the first day of the week or the first day of the month, those guys would only act differently on the day of the inspection, and would act as they liked on the other days.

Giving these people the impression that they were subjected to a sudden inspection by the Student Council was very important. Yura and Ruruko explained this to me afterward. But, I was able to understand more or less why Yura enjoyed this. I also enjoyed it. Being able to expose some of the clubs' suspicious activities and bring them 'justice' just felt good. Being part of the Student Council was just a bonus for me.

We eventually reached the Manga Research Club.

The rumors were that students were reading H-manga. It seems like they also secretly held an exhibition at last year's School Festival, because I heard that those H-manga were sold out in the blink of an eye. I had a sneaking suspicion on what kind of H-manga they might be selling, but a lot has changed, so I'm not entirely sure either. This was naturally targeted by the Student Council as they pondered, 'Would they also engage in that this year?'.

Yura was about to open the door when I stopped her. "Allow me," I said and kicked the door off its hinges. "Police! Put your filthy hands up! And they better not be sticky!"

"Shit! It's the student council!" shouted a male who quickly hid something.

"Not good! Hide it quickly!"

"It's Harem King Skyward, hide your girlfriends too!"

"We're all single here you idiot!"

After that last comment a few of the guys there fell to their knees and sobbed. However, Yura approached the bespectacled boy and shouted, "Where are they?! We're from the student council and we heard you were making suspicious manga and selling it to students, so we came here!"

"Fufu, we need to inspect your manga. Be a good cutie and hand it over, okay~?" said Lisa with a terrifying smile that made the members of the club freeze up.

"O-okay…" replied one of them and he gave his manga to Yura who read through it.

"…It's ordinary manga," she said and looked at him suspiciously. She then gave it to me and I read it.

While the quality wasn't amazing, it wasn't the work of a high school student. There were a few explicit scenes, but they were par for the course with this type of manga. I knew this wasn't it, and eyed one of the members near the computer and they became nervous.

"W-why's Harem King Skyward here?" one of them asked.

…When in the world did I get that nickname…? Also, there had been so many (both in the supernatural and in school) that I can't keep track of it all.

"Saji had personal business to attend to, so I'm here to fill in for him. The Occult Research Club and Student Council are on good terms after all, so we may do things like this from time to time," I told them and they sighed.

"I'd prefer Kiba—no, Kira-chan," mumbled one of the female members.

"S-see? There's nothing suspicious in here, s-so can we go back to our club activities?" asked another.

"Yura, Ruruko, Lisa… computer, suspicious, go," I said in almost a robotic way and they turned to look at it which made the club members freeze again.

"…Let's check it out, Aa—Jin, block them for us," said Yura and I did that. I got in between Yura, Ruruko, Lisa and the other club members. Though none of them tried to get past me as I towered over them, the difference in size was intimidating for them.

"N-noooooooo!! Stoooooooooooop!" the Manga Club President screamed.

Yura had moved the computer around to see some kind of booklet and examined it carefully. However, she blushed after a few seconds of examining it.

"I see… so this is what you were hiding!" she announced loudly and showed it to the club.

"..........."

I became speechless at what I saw too. The cover was something I didn't want to see, but I had and I already wanted to erase it from my memory.

The cover was me on top of Kiba with his shirt off, and both of us had those really handsome faces in shoujos, all sparkly and with roses. A-anyway, this was clearly some kind of Shonen Ai or Yaoi type H-manga between me and Kiba. The title was [The Beastly Harem King x Prince Kiba 14].

After Yura showed that to them, Ruruko pulled out another one. However, this was a lot different as the cover was of me on top of Yumi, this time Kiba had turned into a girl. [Harem King x Princess Yumi?! 15]

"…Volume 14 is clearly a homoerotic manga which is in violation of the school's rules. Also Volume 15 is also just a doujin, which is also against the school's rules," pointed out Lisa.

"I don't have any opinions about your work, but you cannot hand these out to the students," added Ruruko who looked a bit uncomfortable.

"B-but there are so many girls in this academy that want to see the continuation of this work! The love story of the prince and beast that turned into the love story between the beastly prince and princess!" shouted the President of the club. The other members nodded in agreement.

I don't want to hear that… also, it's in volume 15? Meaning, there were 14 other volumes before it! How long has this been going on?! The thought made me genuinely shiver at what might be contained within. I was aware that some girls shipped me and Kiba for some strange reason. However, I didn't think they go this far, but now they changed it in volume 15.

"In any case, these are going to be confiscated and you will need to report to your supervising teacher," said Yura as she started to put the booklets into a black bag.

"Dammit! We finally have been caught, but it was bound to be exposed and take away… at least we got to volume 15," said the President in defeat. The President then turned to me and asked, "Please! There is one thing I want to ask you, Jin! If you answer this, I won't have any regrets in life! So please answer my question!"

"…What is it?" I asked back.

"Please—in reality—in the real world, who's the top and who's the bottom between you and Kira-chan?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?!" I shouted back and walked out. I didn't want to know either!

…

The other three stayed in that clubroom and I went to the bathroom near the student council room. Once I was outside, I sighed. I didn't want to hear something like that. I'm still uncertain about Yumi. Though, I just noticed that I tend to call Kiba as 'Yumi' instead of just Kira when he's 'Yumi'. Is this me distancing myself from him? I also felt like I was avoiding her lately. I need to—

"Oh, Aaron."

"Hmm? Oh hey, Tsubaki." When I looked up I saw Tsubaki coming down the stairs near the bathroom. She had a stack of papers by her side.

"How is the work coming along?" she asked.

"Oh… uh… it's going well. We just came across very… interesting things just now, so I went for a small bathroom break," I told her and laughed.

"Is that so?" she replied and then looked at the ground in front of her. She then walked down the stairs and stood in front of me. She looked a bit shy if I'm being honest. "A-Aaron," she called out my name.

"Yes?"

"Presi—S-Sona said that I should ask you to help with a certain thing on the weekend… so I was wondering if you would accompany me?"

"Certain thing?" I asked.

"I will be going back to Kyoto and meeting with the current Head of the clan," she said seriously.

"Kyoto and Shinra clan head, huh? Sure thing I don't mind. I'll assume that this is a request then."

"Yes, please do."

We parted ways soon after and I joined up with everyone else since they were finished with the Manga Research Club, who had very broken spirited members after the inspection.

…

"Fufu, Tsubaki-senpai asked you out on a date on the pretext of it being a request for the Middleman. She has mellowed out after spending 100 years together, but she's still quite strict. However, like I said, she has a soft spot now—especially for you, Aaron-senpai~!" said Ruruko.

"Hmm. She, like President Sona was hesitant at first because of a few reasons—one of them being how attached some of the women are in your harem. Akeno-senpai and Lavinia-san are examples. But… we were given their permission to pursue you, so we'll do so," added Yura.

I see, I see… wait.

"What? Pursue me?" I repeated and looked at her confused.

"You're terrible at acting sometimes, Aaron-senpai. While you don't actively add women like you used to around a year ago, you still have that effect. We were informed by Cúntóir-san about certain things. Anyway, I plan on making moves on you soon," said Yura and laughed.

I wasn't that bad, was I…? I wasn't sure, but I'll take their word for it, I guess.

"Gen-chan is still looking for a harem, when he has me!" complained Ruruko. "Well, Gasper-kun did get two girls before him, so he's probably jealous because of that too," she added.

"From the stories I've been told it seems impossible for Gasper to achieve something like that just a year ago. He really changed a lot, didn't he?" asked Yura.

I had to agree, he has changed a lot, and comparing the Gasper of a few months ago to the Gasper now, it's almost like a different person.

"By the way, Aaron?" Lisa asked and tightened her hug on my arm.

"What?"

"All three of us were curious, who WOULD be the top and bottom between you and Kira?" asked Lisa with puppy dog eyes.

"…We don't do that kind of thing!"

These girls… they're already corrupted…! And thus, that's how the day was like for me. It was interesting, if I didn't add the weird yaoi/h-manga thing…

…

"We'll get going then, and thanks for the assistance, Kanami."

"N-o p-r-o-b-l-e-m~! Hehe, I like taking charge after all. Anyway, Team [DxD] and everyone else is left to defend the town while the Slash/Dog Team will be ready around Tokyo."

I nodded and bumped fists with Kanami. My group consisted of me, Lisa, Penemue, Rose, Griselda, and Lavinia. While the paperwork wasn't done yet, she basically left the team and Fusae has taken her place, though she both looked happy and a bit I guess hesitant in accepting it. Probably because she felt inferior or not up to par with Lavinia herself. I should talk to her about it soon.

"Anyway, let's get this started. I'll send you guys to Tokyo," I told them and we went to Tokyo first.

I teleported us to the top of the Sky Tree, and we had a magnificent view of the place. Since it was night, the sea of lights beneath us was Tokyo. I only had been here once before but… it was something.

"Alright team, let's split up with the prior plan, ah, Mittelt stay close with Meruem, alright? Fusae and Natsu-natsu with them. The rest are in pairs."

Kalawarna and Kouki, Mittelt and Meruem, Shigune and Ajamu, and then Kanami, Natsume and Fusae together.

"Good luck on your end. You're planning on meeting the goddess of the seas of the Philippines first, right? I heard Amaterasu-sama was able to inform her of your visit," said Natsume.

"Yeah. It's the Goddess Aman Sinaya, the Goddess of the Seas and Protector of the Fishermen of the Philippines Pantheon. It's better to have her permission than getting on the bad side of a pantheon I've yet to make contact with, and hey, if we get along, I might have a ticket to going to the Philippines Pantheon, you never know."

"If you say so, Aaron. Anyway, good luck!" shouted Natsume as they all left the spot we were at. Once we got to the water, I summoned a small but high-powered boat and we used that to go to the island.

According to Amaterasu, she will meet us somewhere in the sea, and right now I could feel her aura, and headed in that direction. So I increased the boat's speed with a bit of magic, we eventually arrived at the location where she waited for us rather quickly.

We saw a woman with black hair with blue ball-like ornaments tied to them and hazel-colored eyes. She wore a mostly white and black top with her back exposed. She had a gold type accessory on though her shoulders, golden earrings and strange arm/hand guards. She wore a short blue skirt, knee high white boots and exuded divinity.

She looked over at us, waved her hand and floated towards us.

"Aman Sinaya. I'm Jin, the Middleman, so…" I introduced myself and explained that the Khaos Order may be somewhere in the Hachijō Island and that we would take care of it, so she and any other gods in the Philippines wouldn't need to worry about it.

"I see. Very well, please try to get rid of them as soon as you can, and please be careful," she said and flew away.

"We got the Goddess' permission, let's get to it," I said and we immediately turned towards the island and got there quickly.

Once on shore, I put the boat in my [Inventory], and turned all of us invisible. The island was like any other, however, tonight it felt eerie, like something was going to happen, so I was on guard and told the rest to be as well.

Hachijō Island, the island and the surrounding oceans support a wide variety of sea life, birds, mammals, plants, and other life. The tallest peak within the Izu Islands, a Class-C active volcano, is found there. Transportation to the island is either by air or ferry.

There are many Japanese-style inns, hot spring resorts, and hotels to accommodate tourists and visitors. The island is a popular destination for surfers, divers, and hikers. It has several local variations on Japanese foods, including Shimazushi and Kusaya. In addition, it has many dishes that include the local plant Ashitaba.

According to my shadow soldiers, the magic circle that Lilith has been preparing is at the peak of the Izu Islands, where the active volcano is, so we need to make our way there.

"We need to go to the Class-C active volcano, that's where Lilith set up her magic circle, once near it be on guard, we don't know where that other member of the Khaos Order went and I doubt they would let Lilith switch sides so easily," I told them.

"This is an active volcano. I think that thing last erupted in 1605. Back in 2002 there was some activity that was recorded but it's been mostly silent since," explained Penemue.

"Grigori records these types of thing?" I asked.

"The fallen angels of Grigori keep records of many things that happened in human history—purely because Azazel may need to check over them and then theorize that a potential Sacred Gear may have caused it. You're aware of [Telos Karma], right?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's also known as [History Breaker] because it might have been involved in certain events in human history," I replied.

"Correct. So, if there are unnamed or undiscovered Sacred Gears that my tie into human history and events, he can just go over those documents in the future. And also, this generation—this time in our lives is the most active in terms of Sacred Gears."

"Not including the ones you created or evolved, more and more are evolving and appearing out of nowhere. Who knows which ones may be labelled as the [New Longinus] by you and him?" she said and chuckled.

A Sacred Gear that involves magma and volcanoes or something? That would certainly be interesting, something like Akainu's [Magma-Magma Fruit].

"Well, we can leave that discussion for another time, let's go," I told them and teleported us closer to the active volcano. As we arrived, I covered the area in a barrier and prevented any inhabitants of this island from approaching it until the barrier is broken.

As we walked up the incline, we started to feel the eeriness of the island come back but stronger. Whatever was here, or was about to happen, it might be disastrous for the entire island as a whole, so I contacted two of the G.o.B and had more shadow soldiers surround the island, Tokyo and other places.

As we arrived at the top, and in the middle was lava. However, it was still quite far below us as it hadn't risen in many years. However, near where the lava was the magic circle that was prepared by Lilith. I was confused by her decision to create it down there. However, she may have had limited use of her powers, so she needed even more cover to create it with her creatures.

"Nia, Rose can both of you stay up here? I'll go down with the rest," I asked them and they agreed.

I grabbed Lisa who let out a cute yelp but hugged me in the end. Penemue looked annoyed but didn't say anything. I along with Penemue and Griselda went down to the magic circle, with the two ladies flying and me plummeting towards it.

I landed with a loud thud and looked around us. The place we arrived at was quite spacious for being inside of an active volcano. The entire area was mostly red-orange because of the lava and it also illuminated the place. There were several volcanic rocks and other debris around us.

We suddenly saw one of the bats of Lilith go over to the magic circle and it quickly glowed before stopping. It spotted us and blinked a few times. I didn't know what they meant, but I looked around and noticed more creatures that I saw in the past. These were creatures she had used to try to communicate with me, but I killed them pretty quickly.

After a few more minutes of waiting, one of the bat-creatures approached us and letters started to appeared in front of it.

[It is done, all it needs now is for you to power it up and I can teleport here.]

"Alright, let's get this over this," I replied, and the bat nodded before flying back to the magic circle. The other creatures also joined it. They suddenly turned into balls of jet-black shadow wisps and merged with the bat I spoke to.

It then landed on the magic circle and closed its eyes. That was probably my cue to start, so I did. I touched the magic circle and channeled some power into it and it glowed brightly. A few seconds later, the entire area started to shake and the lava behind the magic circle began to violently bubble.

However, large and powerful explosions started to occur above us, alerting us.

[We're being attacked. It seems there were already Khaos Order members here, if you didn't detect them that they drank Nyar-nyar's blood,] said Lavinia over the rings communication system.

Nyar-nyar… I haven't heard her call Nyarlathotep that at all, but alright. [I see, keep them at bay for now and let us finish here,] I replied and she agreed.

I decided to increase the output and get this done faster, and the entire area began to shake even more violently. It felt like the entire volcano was going to erupt or collapse in itself. However, eventually a person emerged from the magic circle.

Lilith had long gray hair, glowing purple-orange eyes, black horns on her head, elf-like ears, she wore a long purple dress adorned with pink and golden accents. Beside her was a floating and glowing skull.

But before I could say a single word to her, we heard a loud and powerful explosion that was followed by hysterical laughter.

"We're done with your part, we're going up—tell us anything about it," I told her, and she agreed. I grabbed her along with Lisa and jumped back up to the surface.

But as we left the inside of the volcano—and as if responding to that strange and hysterical laughter—the lava began to rise slowly.

Once we arrived at the surface again, we saw a figure floating in the sky. He mostly had a red body, glowing eyes and horns. When I used [Observe] on him, I was surprised to find out that it was Rubicante, one of the [Malebranche].

"…Rubicante of the [Malebranche]. I didn't think I would see him so soon," I said out loud and everyone there looked at him in surprise.

"So the rumored [Malebranche] was real, to think one of their members would attack us like this…" muttered Rose as she defended against another one of his attacks.

[Myiiidddruuuuuuumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!] he shouted. [I'm so glad we could finally meet! The legendary Dual Dragon Emperor! But the time to fight isn't here yet!] he announced and pulled out a fan.

"That pattern…! It's the fan that they took from Shirayuki!" I shouted as I let go of Lilith and instantly appeared in front of him.

[Too slow~] he snickered and the sea around us, and multiple other islands erupted into a sea of flames.

But it was my turn to smirk at him and punch him in the gut. He coughed up blood and was blown away. 'I knew something shady was going to happen…!' I shouted in my mind and followed after him.

My shadow soldiers were ready to block any incoming attack, and had spells ready—the same with both the G.o.B. so any kind of large AOE attack would be neutralized. At several points around us appeared numerous magic circles as well as purple-shadows. Damage should be non-existent or very little thanks to that paranoia of mine.

[Hyahahaha! You're awesome. I didn't think you'd be able to counter it that fast… well, this is only a replica after all—cool right? Those humans in our organization are getting better at this sort of thing. Especially those notes Avezza left behind before you made her boring,] he explained.

[Well, whatever, let's fight! Let's see how well this new item that Zaorama made can perform!]

…

Third Person Point of View

…

"Lisa-san, please stay close to me," Rossweisse told her fellow teacher.

"Ara? Am I the weakest here~? Ufufufu~" said Lisa nonchalantly. Lisa knew that she was the weakest of them all. She also knew about Aaron's [Pocket Dimension] as she and Fusae have been informed by it.

"I'll provide support instead," she added and enchanted everyone else except for Rossweisse. After she did so, many enemies that followed Rubicante started attacking them again.

In the distance, Aaron and Rubicante started their own fight. They were surprised that Aaron didn't end it quickly, but they also concluded that he may be trying to get information from him.

"Then let's get started everyone. I will cover the north, Griselda can you go west? Penemue can cover the south and Rose and Lisa can handle here and east," ordered Lavinia.

Everyone agreed to her orders and they left for their respective locations. However, Rossweisse slightly frowned—to them, the 'Fated Ones' usually have more authority than others. However, it wasn't Aaron or Cúntóir that told them this—it just naturally happened once they found out about it. Although it only ever happened if it involved them as a whole group, otherwise the leaders of their own group would give out their own orders in joint operations or events.

Rossweisse didn't hate it or anything, she just felt slight jealously, but still did her part.

"Lisa-san, I think that move of yours would be useful here. I will increase its power, so please use it," said Rossweisse.

"Fufu, very well," replied Lisa as she summoned a purple lantern above them and it flew into the sky. A few seconds later a large purple ring appeared around them and any enemy that flew or walked past the circle was zapped by lightning and died instantly.

However, since Lisa was much weaker than the enemies it didn't do enough damage. However, once Rossweisse increased its power output with her own magic circle, it became stronger—strong enough to be able to kill at least up to Middle-Tier God-class beings. Rossweisse sensed and saw through her ring that they were at least Satan-class enemies.

Lisa herself was just at the peak of Ultimate-class, she was very close to reaching Satan-class, she only needed a small push.

"Well, they've stopped trying to come to us, and your magic circles are also absorbing the attacks, so we're at a stalemate. What now?" asked Lisa. The monsters outside the purple ring had stopped flying towards them as they saw the others being zapped to death.

"We kill them," Rossweisse said with a smile and summoned her [Mistilteinn Wand].

"Oh dear, you have a [Mistilteinn Wand]? When did you get such a gift from the Norse Gods?" asked Lisa in surprise.

"…The man I love gifted it to me. He created it himself. That's why I want to use it as much as I can. I even asked him to make a small change to my ring," she explained.

She then showed Lisa her ring. The design had changed slightly as it resembled her [Mistilteinn Wand] color scheme and had a small design of a wand engraved on it. Rossweisse waved her wand in front of her and millions of magic circles instantly appeared all around them.

The monsters panicked and tried to fly away or attack the magic circles too, but their magic did no damage. Rossweisse muttered something under her breath and the magic circles fired their attacks at the monsters. This caused small explosions all around them as she had changed the attacks to not cause unnecessary damage. Rossweisse also targeted the eastern side and killed the monsters on that side too.

Lisa watched in awe at the spectacle, but at the same time she smiled bitterly. She had been praised as a genius, however, upon seeing this she started to question herself. She knew that Rossweisse had probably trained very extensively to be able to achieve something like this.

'Genius, can I even call myself that? I never even thought of it until now, but seeing Rossweisse like this… she must have gotten to this level of strength when spending time in Aaron's [Pocket Dimension], but… now I'm even more interested in going there,' she thought and watched her finish all the monsters off.

"Now we wait, I doubt any of those creatures had anything useful for Aaron," said Rossweisse as she turned to look at Lisa. "Is something the matter?" she asked.

"Oh, no, I was just wondering how powerful you were, fufu. Maybe I can reach something like this when I train in cutie's little dimension~" she said playfully.

"…Anyone that goes in there will come out strong, but you still must work hard for it. There will come instances where you may be close to death, or close to an injury, but you need to keep pushing yourself," said Rossweisse.

Lisa stared at Rossweisse in a bit of shock, but she smiled in the end. "Is that so? I'll keep that in mind then, Rossweisse," replied Lisa.

Near them, Lilith silently watched what just happened around her. She herself had heard of the rumors, but was enthralled by what she had just witnessed. Lilith herself could see hundreds of thousands of meters in front of her, so she was also looking at the other women with Aaron, and she became excited to see them fight—especially Lavinia Reni. She didn't know why, but she felt something strange about her—just like with Aaron.

…

"Haa… I have to wait so long for my own date—well, I shouldn't have expected this little trip to turn romantic," Penemue mumbled to herself as she killed more monsters that came at her. She also had created monsters of her own, and they were made of light.

Two were like Aaron's [Boosted Gear] Scale Mail, and the other two were a T-Rex and Spinosaurus. The two Scale Mails flew around punching kicking and firing [Light Shots] (Dragon Shots but using holy/light powers instead), while the two dinosaurs bit, ripped and slammed their tails at their enemies while also occasionally firing powerful holy energy breaths.

"Hmm? Ara? Who might you be?" she asked.

To her left was a figure—it was a carbon copy of Rubicante but weaker. This was one of his abilities, to be able to make clones of himself albeit weaker than him. They all had his powers and could do anything. The clone of Rubicante flew towards Penemue laughing hysterically, but he missed as she dodged the charge.

To her surprise, the charge that the clone of Rubicante did had left a trail of fire behind him. "You use fire magic or have fire manipulation, interesting. I wonder how powerful you are compared to the clone?" she asked but didn't get an answer.

The clone of Rubicante started to dart around, the longer he did, the faster he became, slowly a circle of flames were surrounded Penemue as she watched all of this happen. However, she did not try to prevent it or attack him—she was merely amused by his efforts.

The clone of Rubicante screamed, and the flame circle immediately turned into a large pillar, and seemingly incinerating Penemue. As this happened, the clone of Rubicante started to laugh hysterically again.

[Hyahahahaha! Weak! Weak! So weak! The women of the Middleman are so we—] before he could finish his sentence, he was struck by a large and powerful light spear through his chest. [Wha—?!]

"You were probably too busy laughing to notice that I escaped, but that's besides the point. From my ring, it says you're at least God-class, honestly, it's a disappointment. I'm not really a fighter, and the only reason I trained and got stronger was to put Aaron at peace. However, it's worth it, honestly," said Penemue behind the clone of Rubicante.

[Wha—how?!]

Penemue sighed again. "You didn't see that small beam of light leaving the circle, didn't you? Well, you would need very good eye-sight to see it, but I just let it hover behind you and when your attack finished, I teleported to it. That's it," she explained and yawned.

"I'd imagine you're at least Dragon God-class? Aaron shouldn't have a problem then, though I think he'll just capture you and prod that brain of yours, fufu," said Penemue as she laughed. She then finished the clone off by killing it with her light powers. She then watched the rest of her light monsters kill the other monsters around them.

"…I'd like to go to France? Ah, maybe Spain for our date? A place where it's very sunny—how about the Mediterranean? Ah, so many choices~! I should ask the other women in his harem…" she pondered while occasionally firing a light spear.

…

Millions of spears of light pierced the monsters that Griselda herself was hunting down. She didn't want to waste too much time here as she wanted to go meet up with everyone else. She sensed that Lavinia also felt the same way, so she felt large surges of magic in the distance. She also saw that Penemue had made strange creatures with her own powers.

"Would the God of the Bible ever approve of that…?" she wondered. However, she tilted her head to the right side and a spear made of stone missed her. She turned around to see some kind of unique creature.

It was small, but had the same patterns as Rubicante, however, it had a brown skin tone and looked more feral.

"Who are you?" asked Griselda, but she did not get an answer.

The creature in front of her simply screeched an unholy screech and started throwing more spear-like objects at her. Griselda stopped them using a barrier made of light, she then used her ring to check what this thing in front of her was.

To her surprise it was a clone of Rubicante, but it looked a lot different from the original. "How did this happen?" she asked herself. "It's at least God-class, but very different from him… did he do this on purpose?"

Again, the small Rubicante created another spear, but this time he ignited it with flames and threw it at Griselda. The flaming spear gradually increased in size to her surprise, but again she used a light barrier to stop it.

[Die!] The small Rubicante shouted as he had appeared behind her and thrust another flaming spear towards Griselda's chest. However, Griselda's body moved on its own and dodged the attack. She turned around and covered her right leg with light and kicked the clone of Rubicante and it crashed to the ground.

She then unleashed several more light spears towards the place that he crashed into. However, to her surprise the clone of Rubicante also shot back with his own. However, they were much weaker and her attacks overwhelmed them then destroyed them. Griselda heard loud yells of pain and anguish beneath her, all the while she prayed for them.

[Kehahaha…! Not bad, woman! I may have underestimated his women—I thought the reports were exaggerated, but I now think that they weren't,] said the clone of Rubicante.

Aaron's lovers weren't always the center stage as they were usually told to the media through 'his companions' and did not have much written about them unless they were already quite well known. An example is Rias Gremory as she's the heir of the Gremory which made the famous Sirzechs Lucifer.

Most do not care as most did not want that kind of spotlight on them, Aaron also shares the same opinion. If he can help it, he'll try to not have them in constant spotlight as it may affect their families (the ones that have living relatives) since they may be targeted by his enemies.

Griselda did not answer Rubicante's clone as she simply created a bow made of light and pulled the light string back which also made an arrow made of light.

[Not much of a talker, are we?] asked Rubicante's clone. [Kehahaha, well it doesn't matter… all of this was a good—nah, I won't say it,] he said with a grin. He then created another spear with his remaining power and inflamed it.

As Rubicante's clone was about to send his attack towards Griselda, his vision suddenly became strange. His head began to slide to the side—in the time he had used to create his final attack—just like Penemue, Griselda sent an almost invisible beam of light behind him and she masked her own presence. She left a clone made of light in her place and then sneaked up behind Rubicante's clone and sliced his head off.

Rubicante's clone did not know what hit him and their confrontation ended abruptly. The light clone that Griselda created disappeared as she had finished enacting her plan, she then heaved a sigh of relief.

"Was that an underhanded tactic? I don't know, but it got the job done. I wonder how everyone else is doing?" she asked herself. But as soon as she finished—the entire area they were in—the volcanic area, it instantly froze and a very cold blizzard began to appear.

"Lavinia… I wonder why she started her previous Balance Breaker? Did she come across a powerful foe?" Griselda surveyed the area in where Lavinia Reni was at, she couldn't locate any aura, so she concluded whoever her friend was facing was someone who had taken Nyarlathotep's blood.

"I should go to her…" she whispered to herself and flew in that direction. The closer she got, the colder it became.

…

Lavinia Reni left most of the killing to her ice dragons that she created with her [Tempest Extinction]. During the time that she isn't with Aaron or her previous team, she was trying to perfect her new Balance Breaker. She had some problems trying to master it as it was a bit more complicated than she would have liked. However, all she needed now was to tweak it more for her own uses.

Another clone of Rubicante also appeared, but they were dealt with by the ice dragon and also her magic. Any attack that bypassed the ice dragons would be simply absorbed by her magic circles just like Rossweisse's.

[Don't ignore me you bitch!] The clone screeched as he desperately fought off the ice dragons that were targeting him. But since he was much weaker than them, so he couldn't break through them and this made him angrier.

However, Lavinia ignored him, and took out her phone and started to text Suzaku. These two were very competitive with each other, while they didn't actively show it like many of the others—it was more like a silent competition between them. They both also knew that Velgrynd would eventually join this competition, as well as the last 'Fated One', the unknown Goddess.

Yet, even with this, these two had grown even closer over time since they loved the same man and wanted to make him happy—but also acknowledge many of his problems. These two would regularly text each other or speak to one another. They also did the same thing with Velgrynd, but they were saddened when they learned when she decided to search the Multiverse for the Khaos Order's base.

"…You're a nuisance," Lavinia said icily as she looked up—her eyes were like Aaron's, they had turned into like a snake's pupils which made Rubicante's clone freeze.

That was the end of his clone as the ice dragons that had been playing with him obliterated him with simple ice breath attacks. However, what Lavinia didn't notice was that when she said those words, the entire area she was in and beyond had frozen over and started a very chilly blizzard.

As she finished texting on her phone, she looked up to see a very confused Griselda beside her. "Oh, hello Griselda! How can I help you?" she asked with a friendly smile. Her pupils had returned to normal after her ice dragons had killed their enemies.

"Were you aware of what you did?" she asked and pointed below them. Lavinia followed the direction of Griselda's finger and her eyes widened in surprise.

"A-ah… C-Cúntóir did say something about this. I need to be more careful. I'm sorry if I caused you trouble," she said apologetically and put her phone away.

"No, it's fine it didn't do anything on my side, or anyone else's for that matter. But please be careful, if you did this unintentionally in a place that's populated, it might…" she trailed off and looked at Lavinia worriedly.

"I-I won't do that, I promise… we should—"

Before she could finish her sentence, the sky above them drastically changed color. It had previously been a normal night, the sky being illuminated by the moon, however, the sky above them suddenly turned into a crimson color.

"Aaron did that. I wonder if he wanted to fight fire with fire?" asked Lavinia.

"It would be like him, but who knows?" replied Griselda as they flew towards the large flame attack.

…

[Use it!] demanded Rubicante.

"No," replied Aaron as he dodged another attack from Rubicante. "How about you give me some information and maybe I'll use it," he told him.

[Hah! No!]

"I guess we're at a stalemate then," he said and kicked Rubicante away who blocked the attack with his arms but also took massive damage as large chunks of his flesh were removed by the kick.

[Tch, I can't go down like this—even with 'that', I can't compete with him, huh? Well, I can at least report to Zaorama, as well as how my clones were killed, kehahaha~!]

"Why are you talking to yourself?" asked Aaron as he appeared in front of Rubicante. He then followed it up by punching him in the middle of his chest.

Rubicante tried to block the attack with his arms, but to his horror, Aaron's fist penetrated through his bleeding arms and hit him directly on the chest. As he was launched away, he heard Aaron mutter, "Fuck you and your non-existent hairline."

Rubicante knew that the Middleman was just trying to rile him up—he was trying to get him to lash out at him, but…

[Screw you!] he finally snapped in anger. [We the [Malebranche] were designed to be the devil's equivalent of the Sacred Gears! And we'll prove that we're better than you! …I'll show you what the [Red Face Terror] really is…!]

Rubicante's entire body started to glow and his power increased several folds. The tattoos around his body began to glow as well as his eyes.

'Hmm… so he had something like that up his sleeves, huh? He could be very useful if I turned him into an independent type Sacred Gear, or remove that arrogancy as an [Evil Claw],' thought Aaron.

The flames of Rubicante started to turn into magma, but not just any magma. The color was a mix of red and blue—it was a strange sight to him as he had never seen magma in that color before. The cape behind Rubicante also changed into sharp wings that had moving eyes on them.

[I will incinerate you today, Dual Dragon Emperor,] declared Rubicante.

"I'd like to see your magma try," replied Aaron as he ignited his own hands with flames.

Rubicante launched his attack at Aaron. It was a large magma fist-shaped attack, the area around them began to melt, the lava that was rising from the volcano also started to merge with Rubicante's attack.

[My magma is stronger than flames, fool. Perish,] said Rubicante as he looked at Aaron with a smug and satisfied look.

"Same," he said and fired a small fire ball at the attack. Rubicante felt insulted but did not say anything. However, as soon as the attacks collided, his magma attack was instantly devoured by Aaron's flame and the area that was illuminated by Rubicante's attack had gone back to being dark.

Rubicante became confused. He looked in front of him in confusion. He didn't understand what had just happened. [What?] He asked out loud but got no answer.

'Cúntóir, do that. I'll leave it to you—how fast can you do it?' Aaron asked his companion.

Cúntóir: Answer: I am already done, I'm ready when you are—no, leave it to me, focus on killing him.

'As reliable as ever,' replied Aaron as he smiled. He looked back at Rubicante and at the speed of light appeared in front of him. Rubicante hadn't caught up to Aaron's speed—Aaron smiled and tapped his chest.

In the next second, the entire world became crimson—humans around the world became confused by this strange spectacle. It didn't matter where they were in the world—or even the astronauts in space, all of humanity had just experienced something strange.

One moment it was a normal day or night for them, the next—the sky—no, the world around them turned crimson. For years to come, they would be unable to explain the phenomenon. However, it would be like the other phenomenon that they had recently experienced and would be filed under the new mysteries of the world.

"Crimson Moon," muttered Aaron.

The body of Rubicante immediately exploded and nothing was left of him. However, at the same time—Cúntóir did what she did with Yanuyo previously. She transferred his soul and consciousness to a new body and modified his personality. And thus, their time there ended.

…

Jin Skyward Soliloquy

…

After I killed Rubicante I saw a singular fan fall from his body and I caught it. After examining it and using [Observe], it was definitely the fan that was stolen from Shirayuki. It was a bit reckless of the Khaos Order to give it to someone without proper backup or—

Cúntóir: Answer: It seems his old body had some sort of teleportation technique implemented into it. I will analyze it for now. They may have wanted to test it, but you killed him too fast for it to activate.

'Hmm. I see, well, it worked in our favor then,' I replied and looked around us. I saw that everyone had gathered back up.

Cúntóir: Answer: Do you want to bring out the new Rubicante?

'No not yet, let's leave that until later. It'll be better once I'm back home then we can ask him questions. The same with Lilith,' I explained. I put the fan in my [Inventory] and flew back down to where she was. Once there she just silently stared at me, and at the same time, I finally got a good look at her.

"I have a lot of questions for you, but we can save that until we get back to my home." I looked at Rose and she nodded. Everyone else joined her except Lavinia who came to my side and they teleported back to my home.

"The Slash/Dog Team should still be in Tokyo; did they get into communication with you?" I asked her.

"Fusae sent me a single text, but apart from that, they haven't." Lavinia then showed me her phone, and it simply said 'Killing enemies, I'm hungry.' Which made me laugh, but Fusae didn't eat much, so this was a bit surprising.

"Well, let's go to them then. Everything here has been cleared out… well…" I looked back at the volcano and restored it to its state before Rubicante showed up. I also repaired the island and surroundings around us, I then turned the dead monsters into my shadow soldiers, finally we left for Tokyo.

…

Once we arrived at a certain spot in Tokyo, I saw Meruem watching Mittelt fight off a few enemies with her light powers. She sweated heavily, but since Mittelt couldn't see it, Meruem used his superior speed to nearly kill the enemy and left the rest to Mittelt.

'…He's power leveling her…' I thought and looked on in amusement. From what I could see, Mittelt was going to reach the peak of High-class soon, so she's been training quite hard. She may have been using the chamber in Grigori too, there were at least three in there.

"Mittelt-chan is doing well~" Lavinia said beside me. "She's become more efficient at using her light powers."

"Yeah."

After I answered Lavinia, Meruem turned to us and nodded. I did the same before I put a small buff on Mittelt that would help her kill the rest. We then left for another spot—this time it was Kouki and Kalawarna. Though…

Once we arrived, they seemed to have already finished killing their enemies and Kalawarna was scolding Kouki who was looking away awkwardly. They noticed us and Kouki flew towards us.

"Bro, help!" he shouted at me. Meanwhile, Kalawarna calmly floated in front of me. "She's insane! It was an accident!"

"…What happened?" I asked since I was still confused. However, Lavinia tugged on my shirt and pointed at Kalawarna again. I observed her a bit more carefully and saw that her outfit had tears everywhere.

"Did you go overboard and accidentally destroy her clothes?" I asked Kouki and he flinched.

"I-it was an accident! I also helped with fixing it!" he pointed out, though it wasn't that well fixed. I sighed and restored her clothes for her.

"Thank you, Jin-sama," she said and bowed. She then turned to Kouki and glared at him. With her maximum speed she appeared behind him and grabbed his ear and flew away with him.

"Aaiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!" screamed Kouki. However, I simply saluted him and we left again.

We arrived at a different spot and it was Shigune and Ajamu. The two were basically working by themselves as Ajamu flew around using Galatine to slash and cut apart his enemies, while Shigune hugged Poh and let him devour everything around them. Poh himself seemed to be enjoying this, and let out happy growls every few seconds.

I shook my head and flew towards Shigune. But as we reached her, a magic circle appeared beside Shigune and we heard Kanami's voice through it.

[We're done! Meet up at the rendezvous! Over!]

[You don't need to say 'over', Sis…]

[Details, Natsu-Natsu!]

The two sisters started arguing before it disappeared and Shigune noticed us, the same with Poh as he tried to struggle out of her arms. Once we got closer, she let go and Poh jumped towards me, I caught him and he immediately sleeping in my arms.

"From fighting to sleeping in a few seconds flat, I gotta admire Poh in that regard. I wish I had the same skills," I said and rubbed his head.

"He's always been like that. How was it on your end?" asked Shigune. I looked at her and also rubbed her head making her blush.

"It was fine, we got very lucky tonight. We can talk more about it back home. First let's go to the rendezvous spot," I replied and she agreed. Ajamu eventually returned to us and we left.

…

"Oh? Aaron!" shouted Kanami as she embraced me, annoying Natsume even further. "You're done on your end?" she asked.

"Yeah. I take it you didn't have problems with yours?" I asked back and looked at Natsume and Fusae who shook their heads. "Great. Anyway, we have 'her' and someone else after tonight, so we should come out ahead of the game, let's go back home—ah, right, I'll teleport the rest of you back to Grigori," I told the rest.

I put my hand up and turned the enemies defeated into more of my shadow soldiers. I repaired any damage done, teleported the others back to Grigori and then we finally left for home.

…

When we arrived at my home we quickly cleaned up and headed up to the meeting room. That's where the rest apparently took Lilith, and everyone else in my home was already up there, save for Grayfia and Yuri Alpha who greeted us.

We quickly made our way to the meeting room and Lilith was sitting calmly on one of the sofas with mostly everyone looking at her with curiosity, but no one sat beside her. It seemed a bit strange, but I made my way to the top and sat down.

"If you didn't know already, that person that was brought here is Lilith, the mother of the devils," I told them and then explained what's been going on. They weren't too shocked but were still a bit surprised that she was resurrected.

"Now then, what can you tell us, Lilith?" I asked.

Lilith who had been sitting there with her eyes closed opened them up and looked at me.

…

Check the chapter comments to see images of certain characters.