Chapter 22: Rampant in Romania

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Ilulu grabbed Keiji as the two of them began to phase out of the room they were in. Now, they were out in the open, but the time and weather was different.

"You should probably learn a bit about this place, Master."

Keiji turned to Ilulu. "Do you have any information? And where exactly are we?" Keiji asked.

A bright smile came upon Ilulu's face, given a massive thumbs up. "Of course! Currently, the vampires are in a current state of civil war between the Tepes, who are a male-dominated clan, against the Carmilla, which are a female-dominated clan. Both of them are reaching the limit of their territories."

"While I'm all for history, what's the catch with this Sacred Gear?"

Ilulu pouted. "Don't distract me from my explanation, Master!" Ilulu childishly said, making Keiji deadpan but relent. "My friend told me that the third child of the current King Tepes is from a human lover, so she's a super duper rare dhampir, meaning that she can have a Sacred Gear," Ilulu said, making Keiji's eyes widen.

"So she's the one with the Sephiroth Graal, another Longinus like his Boosted Gear," Keiji finished, ignoring Ilulu's minor complaint at finishing her sentence again. "Then again, what do we do now? Just casually approach her. No, vampires sound too much of a pain to be that cordial or even friendly."

Ilulu tugged at Keiji's coat. "You should know that she's probably not in the best of conditions. Being both female and a half-blood is probably the worst combination for her."

Keiji threw his head back in annoyance. "This is why I hate things like that. Always complicated shit going on," Keiji grumbled. "Well, I guess the only thing to do is to head for the Tepes Castle and hope for a miracle."

"What are you doing here?!" a feminine voice shouted.

Keiji sighed at being caught so quickly, while Ilulu was ready to fight. "Master, look it's a doll and girls!" Ilulu said.

"D-doll! How rude can you be?! Identify yourself at once!" she ordered.

Keiji looked towards the supposed doll, nodding his head at Ilulu's assessment. They had long wavy light blonde hair, deep red eyes, and a beautiful face. They wore a red dress worn by princesses back in the Middle Ages, with an ornamented head-dress.

"I guess she she does look like a doll, Ilulu," Keiji replied back, making Ilulu smile at her Master agreeing with her.

The doll clenched her fists. "Are you spies of the Tepes faction?!" she shouted. "Be warned that I am Elmenhilde Karnstein, a noble pure-blooded vampire of the Carmilla faction!" 

Keiji got back on track, though he rolled his eyes at her bratty attitude. "We're envoys from the Three Factions. We've come to see if the vampire faction would be willing to join this newfound alliance," Keiji calmly lied. 'I feel like a spokesperson.'

"That's a silly notion," she said.

Right as she said that, a group of vampires rushed out from the shadows. The girl's female guards were easily taken down, as she was grabbed as well. "Help!"

Keiji summoned the Boosted Gear in one hand, while Ilulu went and smashed one vampire's face in. Focusing his Boost power into it, Keiji used the sheathed Ascalon and extended it far out into a long blade, cutting them all down in one swoop.

The girl was a blushing mess as she found herself in Keiji's arms. "You okay?" he asked, putting her down when she nodded in response. "Well, our work is done here, so you should probably go back with your guards to your castle and get some medical attention. I don't want to involve you in what we are doing." Keiji turned to his Familiar. "Let's go, Ilulu!"

Sprouting his devil and dragon wings, he took flight with his Familiar as Elmenhilde watched them leave, her doll complexion contrasting the redness of her cheeks. "The Red Dragon Emperor," she muttered.

***

"Those guards were really strange, Master. It didn't seem like they were really there," Ilulu mentioned.

Keiji noted this. "We might find our answers soon," Keiji remarked, touching down and retracting his wings as they arrived at Castle Tepes.

"Fascinating. Two non-vampires have managed to come this far into my region. I'm intrigued. Come in."

Ignoring the awkwardness that came with that, Keiji and Ilulu entered in the red, wide room. The room was dark, fitting given the creatures they were. The carpet was a blood burgundy, with gold and indigo lining and decorations. Many ornamental decorations, paintings and statues littered the place in a symmetrical order.

King Tepes was an albino, to put it bluntly. He wore velvet-red robes, hiding his strong frame from sight. He wore a golden crown, painted with red jewels. The throne he sat on was elongated, clearly too long for him but it mattered not to him.

"What might the Red Dragon Emperor want with me?" King Tepes asked.

"As you could tell, I'm from one of the Three Factions. Recently, we've reached an alliance. I'm here as an envoy. Also, I feel like something is unnatural here," Keiji said, looking from the king to his two sons, noticing that one of them looked like the stereotypical prick while the second one was eyeing his brother and father in a weird disdain, dismissing his presence; not that he thought highly of himself, but Keiji was suspicious of that.

King Tepes leaned back, thinking things through. "For now, I'll let you stay the night. After all, I'm amused at your strength. It was you who defeated my royal guards so easily."

Sitting down on the bed, Keiji didn't even think about going to bed, still thinking about what to do, while Ilulu was more comfortable, lying on her back and swinging her legs back and forth. "Ilulu, we're sneaking out. Do you have something to help us be sneaky?"

Ilulu jumped up. "Yep! With my perception magic, I can make us invisible!"

After erasing the possible perception of them, Keiji stepped out. "Alright, Ilulu. We're going to find the younger of the brothers. He's suspicious as all hell."

Stooping around, they managed to catch him exiting out of his lab. Time passed as they waited it out a bit longer before entering.

The whole lab looked to be a mad scientists' dream. Bottles bubbling, various antiques, large shelves worth of intense medical knowledge. Magic circles as well as various experiment notes sprawled all over the place.

Keiji had to slash his own hand in order to calm himself down. 'Calm down, Keiji! Don't bust your cover! You'll crush that prick!' Keiji told himself, taking in deep breathes as he looked at the notes while biting his tongue, trying not to lose his temper.

Ilulu looked over Keiji's shoulder, but the height difference and Keiji's intense focus on it, made her need to grab onto Keiji's back and read. Her chest squashed and massaging his back as Keiji continued to read.

Marius Tepes was obsessed with wanting to rule and being fifth in line for the throne wasn't going to cut it. So when Valerie had unlocked her Longinus Sacred Gear, he began to make her overuse her Sacred Gear. "Sick fuck! Using your own half-sister like that! Not to state the obvious but this is far worse!"

"Whose that?" Ilulu said, pointing to a name: RIZEVIM LIVAN LUCIFER.

Keiji froze at the sight. "You're fucking kidding me. I have no clue who he is, but Lucifer is never a good sign."

"Coup d'etat," Ilulu repeated, looking at the notes while Keiji still gripped with the painful fact that there was more than one Lucifer alive.

"How the fuck does this shit keep on getting worse?!" Keiji grunted in frustration. Ilulu tugged on Keiji's ear. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It's basically saying that he's going to try and take over the place, which I'm guessing explains his dealings with Lucifer and why he's overusing Valerie's Sacred Gear."

"W-what are you doing here?!" Marius shouted, the doll-faced vampire showing more emotion than before.

Keiji just pointed towards the notes. "Is there something you want to say?" Keiji asked. "You can hire a lawyer as well. Oh wait, you're not a human."

Fear discredited his handsome features as he ran away screaming. 'This can't be happening! Damned devils!'

Keiji smiled. "Ilulu..."

Not needing anymore instructions, Ilulu twirled as she broke the floor with her intensity and practically appeared behind him. Smiling. she spun and smashed him into the floor, all in one punch.

***

"Overthrow me, will you?!" King Tepes muttered, his eyes shadowed and clutching the notes that certified how screw Marius was. "To think... that a traitor was right under my nose! And I've been ignorant, none the wiser, a fool!" King Tepes had blood coming from his lip, biting it in extreme anger, and red patches spawned from his palms, his vampiric nails digging into them, yet the king couldn't care less.

Marius was completely defeated at this point, his face becoming more bleak and his eyes twitching just from the air passing by.

Once he had calmed down, King Tepes looked back to Keiji and Ilulu, ignoring his bleeding, still very pissed about everything. "I thank you for exposing my foolish son. I had no idea that my daughter had such a dangerous power in her. Rest assured, no traitor will receive any lax punishment. Even if it is a son of mine."

Keiji shrugged. "It just happened to happen."

"I suppose a reward is in place."

"If you're willing, then I'd like to ask for Valerie," Keiji said.

That got King Tepes to thinking, his head falling to side to side as he weighed the options. A frown came upon his face. 'I don't want to depart from the Graal, but I'd finally be rid of Valerie, and the very same weapon almost brought my ruin.' King Tepes narrowed his eyes. 'And the Red Dragon Emperor is clearly a serious threat.'

"He's taking long," Ilulu said, impatient.

The frown finished into a long sigh. "Very well. Bring Valerie Tepes here!"

Valerie was confused as she found her half-father calling her out of her usual resting place and being told that she was to go with Keiji. 

The Sephiroth Graal user held the beauty of both humans and vampires. The young woman had red eyes with blonde hair, two streams of it falling beyond her neck, some thick strands to the right side and some curving inward but not hiding her eyes at the left. She wore a burgundy dress, with blue fur and black lining around the neck, arms and waist.

Ilulu smiled at Valerie. "It's going to be alright. It'll be fun," she said.

"Ilulu, I don't think that's very comforting. She doesn't know anything about us. Let's go. Later, vampires!"

***

Back in Kuoh, Keiji began to explain things to Valerie. "To put it bluntly, your half brother was going to use you for his sick experiments and take over and he got caught. This enraged his father, who punished him severely."

Valerie had a downcast look on her face. "Oh. I see."

"My words can't really negate what you've got through but just know you don't deserve what you went through. I've known my fair share of people who have gone through hard times. If you want, you can stay with us. We've even got another half-vampire who you can be friends with," Keiji explained.

Soon, they came into the building as Keiji thought it best to introduce her with someone she'd be mostly comfortable with.

"GASPER!"

"V-Valerie!" Gasper muttered, only to be engulfed in a giant hug. "But why are you here?" he managed to stutter out, after Valerie stopped hugging him so tightly.

Keiji scratched his head. "I guess it's no surprise you know each other."

Gasper happily nodded. "She was my childhood friend! She even got me into cross-dressing! Thank you so much, Keiji!"

"I'll join!" she affirmed to Keiji, hugging Gasper once again.

Keiji tapped the joyous dhampir. "Valerie, I've heard of your Sacred Gear. I want to ask you to help bring back two people from the dead. It'd help these two people that I know. It's why I sought your help."

Valerie nodded. "Sure, you helped me in the first place. Plus, I'm glad your intentions are pure, it's amazing you'd go to such lengths!"

A little while later, Akeno and Koneko were confused as to why Keiji called them out of the middle of nowhere, as well as the dhampir there.

"Come closer, you two," Keiji told them. "Get ready."

They followed the order, still confused on what he had in mind. The Boosted Gear appeared on his hand. "BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"

Boosting to the maximum, the others watched in interest as Valerie summoned the Sephiroth Graal, but an even bigger show came when, instead of the usual one grail, three appeared in total.

A massive magical circle surrounded her and the devils. Keiji pointed his Boosted Gear into the circle. "TRANSFER!"

Like a flashbang, a sun-staring shine broke out and left everyone immobilized by its radiance. The only thing left in it's wake were two women; shock on their faces as they looked at those around them. 

The first woman had white long hair, pale and beautiful as the moon. Her figure was voluptuous, with her plump breasts being the main feature as well as exposed, given she was naked. Her golden eyes were slitted like a cat, with her pale skin featuring cat eyes as well.

The second woman bore a perfect resemblance to a certain Thunder Priestess of the Gremory Peerage, except a more mature look to her than the explosive youth. Though it didn't detract from her beauty.

"Akeno?"

"Shirone?"

The Rook and Queen couldn't hold back from the emotional embrace of their dead mothers coming back to life. Despite the joyous situation, Keiji couldn't help but briefly stare at their naked forms before smiling, nodding at the result. 

Even Valerie had tears at the joyous scene. "This is the first time... I've felt so happy using my powers!" she emotionally exposed, with Keiji getting closer to Valerie and patting her head at the job well done.

The close contact unknowingly brought two types of love into Valerie's heart. "Thank you so much for this, Valerie. But why does your Sacred Gear have three grails?" he questioned, finding it odd, given the Sacred Gear title never specified it.

Valerie shrugged in response. "I'm not quite sure," she said, a glow in her chest as the three in one grails began to sink back into her.

The final one never made it as Keiji grabbed it. "Wait just a moment." Keiji also gave another look at the two daughters being with their mothers again. 

Keiji looked to the Boosted Gear summoned on his arm. "Ddraig, from the notes I read, I saw that the Longinus has been pretty damaging on her. I'm guessing it's because of the multiple grails. Do you think keeping a piece outside of her body would offset the damage from getting too extensive?"

"Theoretically, it would be possible, but you would have to find a way to keep it out of her soul somehow, and holding onto it like a trophy you can put back at home won't work."

Keiji thought back to the weapon sealed within the Boosted Gear. "Hey, Ddraig. Do you think we could absorb it, similar to what we did with Ascalon?"

"That will be the first time doing it. A holy sword is different to a piece of a Sacred Gear. It's impossible to say it will work, but it's possible given Ascalon has safely been assimilated into the Boosted Gear."

Taking a leap of faith, the green jewel on the Boosted Gear began to shine brightly and everyone watched in the sudden raising of power as Keiji gritted his teeth. Finally, it died down. "Phew, I thought my hand was getting pulled by a vengeful ghost!"

Akeno and Koneko soon rushed to Keiji's side, peppering him with a multitude of kisses while singing thanks and praise upon him for what he did. Fujimai and Shuri both had a look of intrigue and smiled as they watched their daughters fawn over the attractive male. His aura was also pleasing, tickling them a tiny bit.

Back at their place, Rias was shocked at the new arrivals, only to be given an explanation of the turn of events that led to Keiji giving the middle finger to death and much more.

"You know, you always break my expectations of things. I'm honestly still trying to wrap my head around all of this," Rias mumbled, while Akeno and Koneko was busy giving their mothers the run down on what had been happening all this time they weren't around.

Meanwhile, Valerie was hugging the life out of a crying tears of joy Gasper, who hugged her back, while she spins him around like a doll.

Keiji smiled as he faced Rias. "It's no big deal. I just wanted to help see the girls happy again learning about their pain. Plus, it was possible, so why not do it."

Rias smiled. "To think you would go so far." Rias crawled closer as she embraced her Pawn, though he was more than that. She gave him a kiss against the lips, short and smooth. "We're all going to reward you later."

[Notes:

A/N:Been awhile since I did another one of these. All characters and plots used in this chapter are based on the DxD Light Novels. Though this event is original.]