Chapter 4

Underworld

The entire Devil Capital of Lilith and the surrounding area had by now turned into a battlefield.

It was, quite literally, a picture of hell. A combined force of Khaos Brigade Devils, Hades minions and human Magicians and Sacred Gear users was invading the town.

The attackers were brutal and made no real difference between warriors and civilians. Hundreds were already dead. Countless were about to follow them.

The members of the Occult Research Club and in first line Issei were horrified at what they were seeing... especially given who it was who was ultimately responsible for the massacre. While most of the attackers were actually members of Khaos Brigade or followers of Hades, the one who had allowed them entrance into the heart of the Underworld in the first place... was nobody else than Lamia Belial, one of their supposed allies.

Another shock had been, just a minute ago, the revelation who `Rias´ really was... At least to the ones under them who hadn´t already known it yet. Some of them, like Kiba, felt as if their world had suddenly turned upside-down. Rias had been his Master and friend for years now... and now he found out that she was dead... and had been replaced by an imposter weeks ago. He knew enough about the battle on the Spirit Plane to figure out what must have happened.

But right now, if they were honest, it made little difference. Since right now, they were all stuck in this situation together. It was either fight together or die on your own.

xxx

Sirzechs, Grayfia and the other Satans, Azazel and Michael were still involved in fights with Hades, Samael, Euclid Lucifuge and several other powerful members of Khaos Brigade, Lamia´s peerage or Hades minions.

xxx

And right here, with the battle raging on everywhere around them, a small special group of people were still standing there, facing each other.

This meant on one side Issei, with two remaining girls flanking him... and on the other Lamia - a powerful Devil back from the time of the Great War... and also the newest addition of his harem... and was trying to deal with the revelation of her nearly unbelievable betrayal. But in this case it was a betrayal that not only concerned him, but the entire Devil Faction as a whole. Maybe the entire world if what Issei suspected was correct.

"You-... You are working for them, aren´t you?" Issei asked. "You are working for Faust and his allies."

She actually smiled at him in return.

"You can be very smart, if you only actually try to Issei-kun," Lamia replied.

The two girls still standing next to him were Xenovia and Asia, who were still trying to protect him... and at the same time trying to get him to get back a hold on himself.

The rest of them had been forced into fights with others.

xxx

Kuroka was facing one of Lamia´s Bishops, Akeno and Irina one of her Knights... Kiba, Koneko and Rossweisse in some greater distance a group of Hades minions.

Raynare - still in Rias body - had been attacked by another of Lamia´s Servants and driven away as well.

During the last months, she had grown more powerful... far more. In first line by slowly absorbing parts of Ddraig´s energy over the time. Even if she might not be in her original body and her Fallen Angel essence had problems matching with a Devil´s body. But on the other side she was now able to use Rias Power of Destruction.

And right now, she was furious. She had wanted to protect Issei just as much as the other ones. Maybe even more. Because she knew it had been her who had caused Issei´s messed up state in the first place.

But by now she regretted it deeply and wanted to make up for it. But instead of actually helping Issei, she had to deal with this idiot here.

She couldn´t care less what will happen to the rest ot the Gremory peerage or most of the other Devils here. The only exception was Asia Argento. Raynare admitted she felt bad about what she had done to her and felt the need to make it up to the former Nun.

The rest of the however? They could all burn in hell if it came to her.

But she did care what happened to her fellow Fallen Angels.

So right now she let out her anger at the Devil who had been attacking her. As soon as she had beaten him, she would go to help Issei... and destroy everyone who got in her way of doing it.

xxx

"Issei-kun, I - I know this must be hard for you... but please, you need to concentrate on the battle or you will be killed," Asia shouted at him.

[She is right,] he heard Ddraig´s voice. [I am telling you this the whole time. The others have been covering for you and putting themselves in even greater danger.]

She was right, Issei knew perfectly well - she and Ddraig both. He felt miserable.

He had been endangering himself... himself and others. He acted like a fool.

He had thought he had gotten over his trauma after he had faced Raynare on the Spirit Plane. But obviously he had not.

[This is not alone your fault,] the Dragon stated. [One of the enemies has the power to influence emotions. I think it is Vali´s grandfather. Do you remember how Vali had completely lost control of himself when he was faced with him?]

Yes. Issei remembered how incredible angry he had suddenly for a short moment as he saw the damage the attackers had caused. Only to fall into a deep depression when Lamia had revealed her true colors.

And it seemed he was not the only one.

As he looked around he realized that many of his allies were fighting completely uncoordinated.

Issei´s eyes were still locked on Lamia in front of him. But instead of thinking of his own pain and fears, he was now concentrating on her movements. She was an enemy, he started to accept, a incredible dangerous one.

Lamia´s words were halling through Issei´s mind - words that once again were cutting into a still open wound.

Who could he trust? Who could he truly...? After all what happened.

Raynare had said she was sorry. More than once. The others had said the same thing.

But...

He himself was barely better, he remembered. All the stupid and looking back needless, risks he had taken. All the things he should have seen, but had willfully ignored.

But her...? No, he thought. He was looking around at the chaos her allies were causing.

His mind was trembling. He could barely accept what was going on before him.

"I know what you are thinking," Lamia told him softly. "But this needs to happen."

"Needs to?" he replied darkly. "How is this needed?" he shouted at her, gesturing to the ongoing battle, the carnage, the burning town, the dead bodies.

"It is for a better world," she said.

She was working for Faust, Issei remembered. He had heard this from her own mouth.

He remembered. It was him who had send the Wraith after Rias. The Wraith who had tormented her for days and then literally sucked out her soul.

He remembered seeing her empty emotionless body. He remembered how much the sight had hurt him, despite having found out about her betrayal.

But that was not everything. By far not.

He might not recall the scenes of the memories he had inherited from Raynare quite clearly. But it was enough to remember the scenes of Faust sitting on a makeshift throne over the endless wasteland of a destroyed world - of obliterated cities and fields filled with rubble and bleached bones. Of the skeletons of nameless alien creatures hanging from the broken walls of the ruins.

Issei knew that he fucked up many times, made horrible mistakes. But at least he was trying.

If Lamia was an ally of this being, he decided... then he would never be one of her.

"No," he said loud. "I will never accept this. I know who you are working for and I won´t help you."

"You know you say?" Lamia responded drily. "Oh my dear foolish stupid sweet boy... you know nothing - nothing at all. But if that is your choice... then I will accept it!" she suddenly called out.

Her move came nearly instantly.

Issei realized that he had underestimated the full extent of her power, as he felt how his, or rather Ddraig´s, energy was drained out of him.

He tried to compensate for that by boosting a few more times. But Lamia´s ability was still slowing him down a great deal.

He prepared himself for an attack coming from her - from the front. What then truly happened however, was something quite different.

xxx

In some distance away, Rivezim was still fighting with the Maou Ajuka Beelzebub and his own grandson Vali.

Normally Ajuka alone would rival him in strength... at least if it were not for Lamia´s special ability to draw energy from their opponents and absorb it into herself... and also the new powers they had gained through the deal they had made with her.

During this however, Rivezim gave a short nod to Hades... and then he send out a message to a small remaining group of three of his underlings. These three however were not here, involved in the battle, but waiting in some distance outside of the city. Just like he had intended.

The message only consisted of one single word: "Beginn."

And they reacted just a moment later and teleported right in the center of the battlefield. To the place where they could sense the power of the Red Dragon Emperor.

... And both of them attacked instantly.

They both appeared just a few meters away from Issei. Both of them were charging up magical attacks... and they both were holding swords poisoned by Samael´s blood in their hands.

Issei reacted instantly. He might have been emotionally distressed at the moment. And, as some might have said, a bit foolish to let himself get distracted by it in the first place.

But he wasn´t incompetent when it came to fighting.

He instantly changed into his Balance Breaker form and turned around to the attackers.

"Damn it," Issei hissed. They had nearly got him here.

Lamia however seemed similar surprised as well.

"What do you think you are you doing?" she called out as she saw the actions of her two supposed allies. This had not been part of the plan. At least not the parts of the plan she was aware of. What she didn´t knew was that some of her allies had slightly different ideas.

xxx

Issei however completely vaporized one of the two attacking Khaos Brigade Devils just with a large outburst of raw power.

But his was actually not different from what Rivezim had expected. In fact he had planned for all this beforehand.

Now Xenovia moved as well. She sprinted forward to meet the second attacker with her Exalibur ready to strike. Their swords met. The Devil however was no match for the power of Xenovia´s Excalibur Destruction and with a second swing, was cut down as well.

But this two was only something that Rivezim had expected. In reality this two had only been pawns - cannon fodder... and more.

During the entire battle, both he and Lamia had been using the new powers they had been given. While Lamia was constantly draining all enemies in her reach of their powers and him distracting them mentally by boosting their aggressions and sending their minds constantly on the edge.

But another power, perhaps the most disturbing and powerful of them all, had not even been used yet - the one given to Hades... as it was fitting for him, the power of Death.

The Greek God of the Underworld reacted to Rivezim´s signal a few moments earlier.

And then suddenly, to everyone´s complete shock, the corpses of the fallen Devils, Angels, Fallen and Khaos Brigade members were suddenly standing up again.

Sirzechs was nearly instantly surrounded by a half dozen undead opponents. Two of them used to be members of his own guards. Ajuka and Vali were barely in a better situation. Of course given their power, this barely made a difference. They would be able to wipe them out in seconds. But these few seconds were already enough to give Rivezim and Hades a small opening.

Rivezim landed a hard blow on Vali, that send his already weakened grandson crashing into a building. His Balance Breaker Armor disappeared and he seemed to have taken some injuries.

Everywhere the course of the battle was suddenly turning around as from one moment to the other the dead were rising and fighting at the side of Khaos Brigade. And at the same time the defenders of the city seemed overcome in shock and surprise.

xxx

Another dead body that awakened was the one lying right next to Xenovia. Like most of the others, she was completely shocked. She could barely believe what she was seeing. And so she froze for just a split-second.

And exactly this split-second turned out to be a deadly mistake... as the reanimated corpse stabbed his poisoned blade into her body.

"Xenovia!" Issei called out. This was it. His personal nightmare was continuing. First one of his harem turned on him... now one of them was dieing before his eyes... again.

He run forward. But before he had any chance to reach her, he himself was hit in his back by a giant globe of fire, send by nobody else than Hades. Still suffering from being drained by Lamia, Issei was hurt badly. His Scale Armor broke and disappeared nearly instantly.

A terrible scream halled over the place as his body was burned - coming from both Issei and Ddraig from the Boosted Gear. Flames filled the air and after a few seconds, all was left was Issei´s kneeling and badly wounded form. He was trying to move, trying to stand up. But it was in vain.

A split-second later he was hit by a second attack. This one coming from Rivezim himself. It hit him frontally and just as quickly consumed his already broken body.

Around them, they all watched in horror as their friend and ally (and in some cases lover) was burned to ash.

Asia was starring silent with an open mouth and tears in her eyes. She just wanted to scream out her pain and anger.

Her first friend and man she loved was gone... once again. For the third time. This time there was no body left to resurrect. And Great Red seemed to be nowhere close by to bring back his soul in a new one.

This time it looked like he was truly gone. They could not expect yet another miracle.

Somewhere in her mind Asia realized that she was now left alone standing in front of Lamia and that she could easily kill her. Another part of herself asked if she could even bring herself to care anymore.

But to her `luck´, it seemed that the female Devil had other things on her mind than dealing with her.

xxx

The other remaining girls were faring barely better. Irina, Akeno, Rossweisse and Koneko were throwing themselves at their opponents even harder in their grief.

Akeno was feeling as if her world broke apart. First Rias... and now Issei-kun and Xenovia as well. In this moment she wanted nothing more than to kill every single one of this bastards that came into her way.

Raynare was overcome with anger as well. Once again she had seen Issei die - and this time it was never her intention or her wish. Quite the opposite. She admitted to herself a long time ago that her fake feelings had become real and that she had truly fallen for him. In her anger she annihilated two more Khaos Brigade warriors, using a combination of Rias powers and her own.

Sirzechs was now as well also going to the offensive again and was attacking Hades in silent rage at what had happened.

Even Lamia was shocked. This was not what she had wanted. Or what she and Rizezim had agreed to. She didn´t want Issei dead, she wanted him on her side. Rivezim, he had tricked her, she realized. He had fucking used her.

xxx

"It seems the boy has made a unwise choice," Rivezim commented coldly, as he was looking down at the place Issei had been standing.

He unleashed his power and washed so another wave of destruction through the town. Lines of building were flattened, several Devils - most of the civilians - caught in the blast and burned to ash.

"Unwise?" Lamia shouted at him. "Rivezim - what have you done? This was not what we have agreed to."

"Now, the boy has refused, haven´t he?" he replied. "I know you have some sentimental attachment to him. But you know perfectly well how dangerous he was if we allowed him to live as our enemy. And this was the perfect opportunity to catch him off-guard. If he had agreed to join us, he would still be alive."

"Do you think I am dumb?" she hissed. "You had been planning this from the beginning. You have played me."

"Oh - and you are the only one who is allowed to do that to others? Is it that my dear?" he asked her sarcastically.

In this moment she barely held herself back from attacking him. But she knew that was the most stupid thing she could do. They were in the middle of a battle after all.

"Look around," he told her. "You said it yourself, Issei Hyoudou was a key figure under our enemies. His death had somehow thrown them into even greater disarray."

She saw that he was right.

"We have now the chance to cause real damage to them, with our combined powers," Rivezim stated. "Unless of course you think the life of a boy who had just rejected you is more important?" he said smugly. "Do you truly want to fight me darling - at a moment like this?"

She was still starring at him angrily for a few more moments. Then she finally gave in. He was right. But that didn´t mean she would forget this.

The battle continued for another half hour. In the end the attackers retreated, when more and more forces from other parts of the Underworld arrived. But only at the cost of the town´s center and a great part of the neighboring districts, that had been nearly completely devastated... and thousands of lives.

It was a black days, not only for the Devils, but for the Faction Alliance as a whole.

xxxxxxx

Kuoh

Three days had passed since the completely unexpected battle and it´s disastrous outcome.

The conference and every political decision connected with it, had of course come to a complete hold. Instead all Three Factions - in first line the Devils, who had taken by far the worst damage - were still occupied with fully assessing their losses - and in the Devil´s case, the destruction in their capital.

A great part of the central area of the town Lilith had been devastated during the battle. Of course most of the damage was able to be repaired with magic. It cost a great deal of energy, but the town was being restored to how it had been before.

The losses of life however could not be replaced.

Far over a thousand Devils had been killed - Devils alone - most of them civilians. But also many warriors, pureblooded and reincarnated ones alike. Under them the Red Dragon Emperor, Raiser Phenex and over a dozen members of other noble families

But the Devils were not the only ones who had taken losses. While they had logically been hit the worst, since it was their capital where the battle took place, it didn´t mean the others didn´t have casualities as well.

Both the Angels and the Fallen Angels had each lost nearly a hundred warriors. To that came two members of the Yokai and one of the Vampire Faction, who had been part of their contingents at the conference.

If the events had proven one thing more than clearly, than the fact that this new Faction of Khaos Brigade was a threat. A greater one than any of them had ever imagined.

Especially and even more with the new group of allies they possessed. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, they called themselves - and under their membersbeing Hades - the Greek God of Death and the cursed Serpent Samael.

Azazel and Sirzechs however were convinced that they were also connected to the new enemy Raynare and Issei had warned them about.

Asia´s testimony had confirmed this, as she told them in a broken state about Lamia admitting of working for `Faust´ and his associates.

Sirzechs remembered this as the name of the being he and Ddraig had fought on the Spirit Plane when they were trying to save Rias. And from the report Raynare had given them from the time she had been a bodiless spirit.

That mean this new threat had now allied not only with Khaos Brigade, but also with Hades. That and Issei was dead - he and so many others.

And to all that, Sirzechs knew, came the fact that the Spirit Wraith was still out there, somewhere i their world, possibly targeting other victims. He was nearly boiling over from anger at the fact that his beloved sister´s murderer was still at large and he could do nothing about it, since he had his hands bound with all of this.

Sure, they had send out agents to locate the creature, but if he was honest, he wanted to do nothing more than to go out there and hunt down and destroy this monster by himself.

But he could not. Not with the threat they were facing. If their now allied enemies could hit the Devils like that, then they would most likely move again very soon, probably targeting the other Factions as well.

For that reason he had gladly accepted Akeno´s offer that she had given him and his parents a day ago.

xxx

While all of this was going on of the greater scale of things however, the now former members of Rias Gremory´s peerage and the people around them, had other things on their minds right now. Of course they understood the importance of the events. But what mattered most for them right now were their own losses.

Issei and Xenovia were dead. And this time it looked like neither Great Red or some other powerful being was going to bring any of them back.

Not only that, they had to find out that Rias was gone as well - had been gone for weeks now - and that and that an impostor had taken her place.

And that Issei, Sirzechs and Azazel, all of them, had known the entire time and said nothing to them.

Zeoticus and Venelana Gremory had also been both devastated to find out about Rias and visible angry at Sirzechs over this. Their son tried to explain to them that he just didn´t knew how to tell them about what happened. The truth was he had barely been able to deal with it himself.

The others could still barely grasp it. It was just too much. None of them were sure what to do or how to deal with this.

xxxxxxx

The human world - Kuoh Academy

Meanwhile, the students of Kuoh - both regular humans and supernatural ones - were dealing with the situation on their own. The part of the situation they were aware of, of course.

As far as they knew two of their fellow students - Issei Hyoudou and Xenovia Quarta - had been killed by a traffic accident. I was a tragedy, sure. But still it was still nothing compared to what truly happened.

Akeno, Koneko and Kiba were in this moment sitting together in their club-room. But none of them knew quite well what to say.

While Rias peerage had by now been officially dissolved and Rias former Servants officialy given to her parents, the Occult Research Club had technically not been - yet. Even if it was in name only.

The so called `leader´ of their club of course didn´t care about this at all. Quite the opposite.

As the dissolvement of the peerage had been announced, Akeno had the impression that Raynare - still in Rias body - could barely hide her glee about it. Of course the Fallen Angel had more than enough reason to be happy to see their end, she knew.

Even if Raynare´s attitude towards Issei seemed to have somehow completely changed... and Issei himself seemed to return the feeling... it clearly didn´t change the fact that she still hated the rest of them.

She and Koneko had listened to the two interacting with each other. With Issei knowing exactly who Raynare was. Akeno didn´t knew what to make of it. What in the world had happened between these two on the Spirit Plane? And how could Issei go behind all their backs like this?

She knew however the question was pointless now. Issei was dead, Rias had been dead for weeks and Raynare would gladly send them all to hell herself if she could.

The Fallen Angel had locked herself into Rias rooms for the last days (as if she had any right to even live in this rooms) and the only people she had truly been talking to were Azazel and Sirzechs.

As Akeno and the others had asked about this two days ago, they were gobsmacked by the answer they got. Azazel had explained to them that Raynare was the only person who possessed inside-knowledge about a dangerous threat they all were facing - namely the same people Lamia was working for - and was here as a `special guest´. And Sirzechs order them all to leave her alone unless she asked them to talk to her.

Despite, or maybe even because all of this, Akeno had gone with a request to both Lord and Lady Gremory and also Sirzechs yesterday. She and most of the other remaining members of the peerage had asked them for permission to go on a mission to find and destroy the Spirit Wraith.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile in Rias old room, Raynare was lying motionless on the bed. Her eyes were closed. But if they were open, they would show her own violet color, instead of Rias blue.

She was like in trance. For everyone else, it would be looking as if she was just talking to herself.

"Oh - don´t be like this," she said, as it looked to no one. "You will see, it will be far better without them."

xxx

Flashback

"How?" he asked.

"Magic, telepathy... and a bit more," Raynare said. "You see, just before Rias Gremory was about to kill me, I have send a small piece of my soul, along with a copy of my memories and placed it right into your subconscious, bounding it to your own soul."

"The part of me that is bounded to you keeps the rest from moving on and is holding it on the Spirit Plane.

"Just by the way Issei, there is one other aspect said about the Soul Bonding that you might think interesting," Azazel said. "It is said that, for the technique to work... the two souls involved need to have a strong emotional connection to each other. Going both ways."

"This very creative way in which you managed to trick death demonstrates it," Raynare heard Faust saying. "Yes - you have potential,

xxx

Flashback end

"But I have to say Issei-kun, the pained look of that bitches faces was just glorious to see." A bitter and vicious smile for on her - on Rias - features.

"Yes - yes, as soon as I not longer shared the same pain, I know," she said a moment later. Her expression changed into something more ressembling regret.

"Tell me - have you really expected anything else? Do you think if our positions were reversed, they would have any compassion for me? Have you forgotten how Rias boasted about slaughtering my teammates? How she held their feathers into my face? Did you really expect me to just forgive and forget for no reason?"

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Raynare broke out of her self-inflicted mental trance.

"Ri- ahm Raynare-san-" Irina´s voice came from outside the door, "me and Asia are here. You said you wanted to talk to us."

"Yes - please come in," she said. "There is something I want to talk to you about."

I have finally finished the next chapter. It had taken quite a long time. Mostly because I concentrated more on my other stories for the last months. But also because I was not quite sure for some time how to realize this scenario.

The twist in this chapter will probably come very unexpected for most readers.