I do not own Highschool DxD. Highschool DxD is owned by Fujimi Shobo, Fujimi Fantasia Bunko, Funimation, and Ichie Ishibumi. Please support the official release.

[Ddraig talking]

[Ddraig thinking]

{Albion talking}

{Albion thinking}

|Tiamat talking|

|Tiamat thinking|

(Mastema talking)

(Mastema thinking)

Mental Communication

"Regular Dialogue"

Attacks/Spells

Japanese Blacklight Base, Kegon Falls, Japan, August 4, 2020, 3:15 AM, Current Time: 2 Minutes and 49 Seconds Til Midnight

"I didn't expect them to strike so hard and so fast," Cornelius said as he folded his hands. Taki closed his eyes as the other founders in holographic form nodded. The tragedy of Hong Kong was a piece of news that would no doubt circulate rapidly across the globe and possibly catch the eyes of the supernatural. The destruction of an entire city would no doubt be a cataclysm to the eyes of humans but what about to DxD?

"Then again, we didn't expect them to strike at all," Salem said. "The fear of having DxD retaliate against them was what we were all betting on but we should've known better. This Ha-Satan… they're ruthless."

"Did our satellites pick up anything else about this odd hurricane?" Rama asked.

"Ahem. Please refer to the screen," Anastasia said. The Heads all turned their heads to the massive holographic globe projected from the table. Anastasia pressed a few buttons and a simulation appeared.

"At approximately 1900 hours in Hong Kong local time, a massive hurricane, larger and more powerful than anything ever rated before on the Saffir-Simpson Scale was recorded by every major satellite across the globe. Its appearance and formation are still a mystery even for us," she said. She pressed play and a hurricane that engulfed the entirety of the South China Sea slowly appeared with its epicenter being Hong Kong.

"It wasn't just Hong Kong that was hit was it?" Sheba asked.

"No, every neighboring country was hit with massive record-breaking storm waves battering the coast of China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Cambodia. Said countries were also hit by the hurricane and suffered major damages and loss of life. We've estimated the damage to be in the billions if not trillions of U.S Dollars and the total death count is expected to be in the hundreds of millions, possibly even higher than what our current numbers suggest," Atef said, reading the report.

"And… here's the cincher. Our satellites detected a brief but large surge of demonic energy within Hong Kong," Anastasia said. "I've done the liberty of projecting its scale compared to other devils that we are aware of in this day and age and here's what we have. We've also managed to place the perp in accordance to the Global Power System."

Unknown Entity

Species: Devil

Ranking according to Devils: Satan Class Devil

GPS Ranking: BBB-Rank Deity Class Devil

"BBB Class, huh," Matias said, stroking his beard.

"A Prime," Taki said.

The others turned to look at him strangely.

"A Prime? The only Primes we know of that remained alive following the Great War were Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Mammon, and Belphegor, and last time I checked, your agent reported that Beelzebub had been killed in battle and the other three are retired," Cornelius said.

"Hmm, you may be right but… my instincts have never led me wrong before except for that one time," Taki said. "We're dealing with another Prime Demon."

"Hmmm, well, we can't rule that possibility out. We'll have to increase surveillance on the other three Prime Demons that still remain to see which one might have done it," Cornelius said.

"Hmph. I can have Hephaestus string something up to give to your subordinates, Taki. Give us a few hours and we'll be done," Atalanta said.

"Very well, we'll be counting on that," Taki said.

"I believe that would be a good place to dismiss the meeting," Salem said, sipping her tea.

"Alright. We'll reconvene at a later time. Remember to keep an eye out on your ends," Taki said.

They all nodded before severing the connection. Taki closed his eyes before opening them. He took out a small worn-out photo from his pocket and smiled a bit upon seeing it.

In the photo, a young man, who resembled Taki greatly except his hair possessed color, being black with slight red tints at the tips, stood next to a young woman that wore a black uniform as well as a hakama that was white with floral and butterfly designs. Her eyes were violet and her hair was raven black which faded into a violet at the tips.

"Rei-nee-sama," Taki said. "Give me strength…"

Hyoudou Manor, Kuoh, Japan, 10:00 AM

"Awww," Irina said as she bounced a baby on her lap. The baby had gray hair with azure blue eyes, similar to Sirzechs and Rias. She cried out in happiness as she babbled her baby speak, reaching out for Irina.

"So what's her name, Ane?" Issei asked.

"We decided to name her, Annalise," Grayfia said. She smiled as she reached out for her daughter, which Irina handed over. Grayfia cradled little Annalise in her arms and smiled.

Annalise Gremory the Second, or little Anna as some had taken to calling her. She was born a little over a month ago to Sirzechs and Grayfia. Her birth was celebrated across the Underworld as their Satan Lucifer had given birth to a daughter. A ray of light amidst coming darkness. This, of course, did not mean that there were no consequences. Annalise's birth had triggered several factions in both Hell and abroad to move with several pantheons and houses proposing a marriage contract between Annalise and their sons. Of course, Sirzechs turned them all down like the protective father he was with Millicas standing vigil over his sister's crib at nearly all times.

"She's a gift but… she didn't inherit the Power of Destruction," she said.

"She didn't? Is that a bad thing?" Issei asked.

"No, of course not. It's just…," Grayfia trailed off.

"The similarities between her and my older sister. Hey Anna! Rias-obaachan is here!" Rias said, walking into the room. She held her hands out as the baby cheerfully squealed and reached for her.

"Hmm, she's right. She's just like her namesake," Grayfia said.

The sound of the door opening caught their attention as the sound of small footsteps raced across the wood floor. A red blur hopped on Issei's lap, engulfing him in a hug with their tiny arms.

"Lili," Issei said, stroking her hair.

"Nii! Guess what! Today, we learned about shapes and…!" Lily began as she explained her entire day to Issei. It had been nearly a year since Issei had found and adopted Lily into their family with a little help of course. During the summer, Issei had helped her mellow out and become more outgoing. As a result, she began to smile and talk more and with his parents' permission, Issei enrolled Lily in Kuoh Elementary where Sirzechs and Grayfia were planning to transfer Millicas to later this year.

"Sorry about that!" Rossweisse said, stumbling in as she took her shoes off. She walked over to Issei and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"How was your day?" Irina asked.

"Oh… the usual. I'm kind of peeved that you guys left me to deal with the third years," Rossweisse said as she walked over to the fridge in the kitchen. She pulled out a can of iced coffee and opened it.

"You brought little Annalise in?" Rossweisse asked, poking the baby's cheek lightly. The baby squealed in happiness, grabbing Rossweisse's fingers.

"Yeah, I figured it would be good for her to get to know her other family. You know the ones that aren't in Hell so often," Grayfia said. "And besides, I'm still on maternity leave. Natalia-chan is down there taking over my duties for me and running Sirzechs's paperwork."

"Must be hard," Rias said, "Being the one in charge of Onii-sama's paperwork."

"She'll learn. Besides, it'll be an invaluable experience for her once she fully takes over as Head of House Naamah. She said she might go out and find other members of the House."

"I thought the House was extinct," Issei said.

"It was but… there might have been some deserters during the Great War that are hiding. We know that some did during the Civil War," Grayfia said.

A beeping sound went off in Issei's pocket. He reached in and pulled out his AS, shifting it into a phone and scrolled through it. It was a text and the contact was Rikka-senpai.

Come now. The Old Man is calling us to the base. Bring Bova too. I think now would be a good time.

"Did you get one too?" Mitsuki asked, looking at her phone.

"Yeah, senpai sent us a text asking us to meet her," Issei said.

"Meet her where?" Grayfia asked. Rikka was an oddity that she welcomed. The girl was mature and elegant and had a way of drawing you in with her social ineptitude.

"She wants to meet us in Kyoto and is asking us to bring one of our other teammates from the Azazel Cup," Irina said.

"Maybe she's planning a reunion," Rias said.

"Yeah, anyway, we got to go," Issei said.

"We'll see you later then, won't we?" Grayfia said, holding her daughter up. "Say goodbye to Oji-chan!"

Annalise gurgled as she reached out for Issei, a sight that warmed his heart.

"I'll go get Bova," Mitsuki said, "You two go ahead to Kyoto and meet with senpai."

Issei and Irina nodded as the three disappeared from the living room in a burst of red and yellow lights.

Nikko National Park

Rikka leaned against the railing as tourists passed her, all chattering and taking pictures. Her red eyes scanned the crowd for the rest of her team. Ingvild had sent her a text that she would be arriving separately due to some things she had to take care of back in America with Tohka and Mica. She sighed. The old man had suddenly called her back from a solo assignment in the Himalayas. But she was sort of grateful, being covered in several liters of yeti blood and the stark cold of one of the most inhospitable locations on the planet on top of a massive storm that had appeared out of nowhere was not an ideal way to spend her day.

"Senpai!"

She perked her head up and looked to her side to see Issei and Irina heading towards her.

"You're here. Where's Mitsuki?" she asked.

"Mitsuki went to go get Bova, which I may ask, this is a bit sudden but why choose now of all times?" Irina asked.

"Killing two birds with one stone. We already decided that we would induct him did we not?" Rikka asked.

"Er… we did but we assumed that he would be inducted when the time was right and not when we're dealing with all this," Issei said.

"Well, we'll need all the information we can get," Rikka said. "I assume you two know why you're here?"

They shook their heads, causing Rikka to sigh.

"I'm guessing you've seen what's been happening on the news," she asked.

"You mean the hurricane?" Issei asked. "That's why we're being called out here?"

"Yes. The Divine Ten believe that a Prime Demon is behind this and they want us to keep surveillance on the ones that we know are alive to see if we can find out if one of them is the Ha-Satan that Beelzebub mentioned right before he died. To do this, we need to go to Greece to their R and D department to pick up some equipment to monitor the Primes," Rikka said.

"I don't think it would be any of the remaining ones. They're too… mellow for that sort of thing," Issei said.

"It's just an air of precaution. They need to be sure beyond the shadow of a doubt that it wasn't them," she answered.

"Heyyy!"

The three turned to see Mitsuki with Bova in his human disguise walking towards them. He smiled when he saw Rikka, waving at her.

Rikka waved back with a slight red tint on her cheeks that thankfully went unnoticed by her teammates.

"Here too!"

Rikka jumped as she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She whirled around quickly to see Ingvild holding in her laughter.

"Senpai. I think you need to get your game up if a little shoulder tap was enough to scare you," Ingvild said.

Rikka pouted before composing herself.

"Shall we go?" she asked.

"Wait, don't we need to brief this big lug right here on what's about to happen?" Issei asked, punching Bova lightly on the shoulder. The young dragon smiled and slugged Issei back.

"Right. Bova, follow us," Rikka said as she began to walk. Confused, Bova nodded and followed after them.

"What's this about?" he asked.

"Well, Rikka-senpai here decided that you were worthy enough," Issei said.

"Worthy for what?" he asked.

The two stopped outside of a small shrine. Rikka walked towards it and pressed the nose of a kitsune effigy. The eyes of the effigy glowed red before a clicking sound resonated from behind the shrine.

"Come on," Rikka said, going to the back of the shrine. Behind the shrine was a metallic sliding door with a small spherical indent on a panel next to it. Rikka pulled out her AS and pressed it on the indent, causing the door to open. She walked inside, followed by Issei and the others.

The doors closed and Rikka pressed a small button and the room began to move.

"So where are we going exactly?" Bova asked.

"Bova Tannin, what you are about to see is something that you must absolutely not reveal to anyone. Not even your own father," Rikka said.

"Must be one big secret if I can't even tell Dad," Bova said.

"So what's the secret?"

"Right! You, Bova Tannin, have been scouted, evaluated, and selected by me, Rikka Kuroyuki, codename Black Snow to become a member of the Blacklight Organization," she said, adding a bit of dramatic flair. Behind her, her juniors all felt a bead of sweat roll down their faces.

"What's Blacklight?" Bova asked. "Like, what does it do?"

"They're like the Men in Black," Issei said.

"Men in Black?"

"You know, guys in suits and aliens?" Irina said.

"I don't know what that is," he said.

"Have you seen… Kingsman?" Mitsuki asked.

"Oh, I love that movie! It's like that?" Bova asked.

"Yeah," Mitsuki said.

"So wait, you've seen Kingsman but not Men in Black?" Issei asked.

"Enough, we're here," Rikka said as the doors opened. Bova's eyes widened at the sight of such a massive operation. The group walked out with Rikka commandeering a cart for them. The six hopped on with Ingvild getting shotgun. Irina and Mitsuki sat in the middle while Issei and Bova sat in the very back.

Rikka began to long drive down to Taki's office.

"Cool right?" Issei asked.

"Yeah… no kidding," Bova said as they passed by several agents making their way through the departments.

"So what do we do here?" he asked.

"Well, we get sent on missions to take care of stuff related to the supernatural and stuff related to humans. We're like the Secret Police and we keep the Supernatural Worlds and Human Worlds safe from each other and themselves," Issei said.

"Not just that, Issei," Rikka said. "We also record information and research information. I'll have you know that our archives are greater than anything you'll find in any pantheon, even that of the Rainbow Serpent's."

"Yeah, that too," Issei said.

"So wait… just how much information do you have?" Bova asked.

"Hmmm, let's see… what's something you nor the other leaders know?" Rikka contemplated.

"Ooh! I got one and I didn't know this before! It honestly shocked me so much! Did you know that the God of the Bible is Ophis's brother! They're counterparts too! Twins! Chaos and Genesis and Extinction and Infinity!" Mitsuki said.

"Wait… the Ouroboros Dragon is related to the leader of the Biblical Pantheon?" Bova asked.

"Yup!"

"That's weird considering how much weaker he is than her," he said.

"Yes, it's one of our greatest mysteries," Rikka said. She brought the cart to a halt. She got out of the cart, followed by her friends as they walked into a room.

Taki sat at his desk, waiting for them, and raised an eyebrow when he saw them walk in with Bova. A small smile graced his face as he leaned back.

"You're here and you've brought a guest," Taki said.

"Old Man, this is Bova. I plan on recruiting him," Rikka said.

"I've heard nothing of the sort," he said. "But it doesn't matter. We do need the manpower, however, you went over my head with this and for that, you need to be disciplined. You are on dish duty for the next week. I expect you to help the kitchen crew help keep our dishes and trays clean understood? Oh, and you're in charge of him. If he does anything... remember he'll have his memories wiped of this."

Rikka nodded.

"Now, young man. We will get you inducted later, right now, since my granddaughter, in her infinite wisdom, claimed you as a member of her squad are to go with them to Greece," Taki said.

Bova nodded.

"I assume that Rikka briefed you all on why you're needed there. You six are currently the only ones on base with any connections to DxD, thus, making you the prime candidates for this assignment. Issei and Mitsuki, your relationship with the leaders of the Biblical Faction will be invaluable for this. Irina, being Michael's ace, grants you insight into their movements. And I assume that Bova's relationship with Tannin who is the Queen of Mephistopheles' peerage will provide us with information as well. Now, as to why you are heading to Greece, you need to meet with the head of the Greek Branch's Research and Development," Taki said.

"Who?" Irina asked.

"The Greco-Roman God of Metallurgy, Fire, Volcanoes, and Technology, Hephaestus," he answered.

"Wait, I thought this had something to do with receiving something to keep an eye on the remaining Prime Demons?" Issei asked.

"And it does. If there's anyone outside of the Biblical Pantheon who has knowledge on the Primes, it's Hephaestus considering that he's married to one," Taki answered.

"He is?"

"Yes, if I remember correctly, he is married to the Prime Demon Lilith, eldest of the Seven and the eldest child of the late Archangel Lucifer," Taki said.

"So Lilith is there too?" Mitsuki asked.

"No. I'll let him tell you the story of why he joined. It has something to do with her. Anyway, Hephaestus will provide you with what you need for this mission. Surveillance technology and sensors with the energy signature of the anomaly from Hong Kong keyed in," Taki said.

"So when do we leave?" Bova asked.

"Ready to jump into the deep end of the pool. I like that," Taki said. "Well then, you leave now."

"Right. We'll head down to the hangar bay right away," Rikka said.

"Have fun. Heph is quite a mellow guy once you get to know him," Taki said.

Unknown Location, Blacklight Base, Greece

A woman stood idly in the hangar of the Grecian Blacklight base. She was a rather pretty woman with a modest figure. Her breasts weren't too small nor were they too big and her rear was full and round enough to drive any man crazy. Her hair was messy and unkempt with the initial green fading into blonde as a result of her heritage. Her features were even odder as she had a pair of cat ears sitting atop her head and a tail that one would attribute to a lioness.

She wore silky green clothing with a cleavage window that showed a healthy portion of skin and knee-high socks with black boots. In her hands was her AS which was currently deployed in its tablet form.

"How long are they going to make me wait?" she sighed.

"Well, Atalanta. We'll have to wait a while," a feminine voice said from behind. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the familiar visage of her assistant/close friend. She was just as beautiful if not more so in Atalanta's opinion. Her chestnut brown hair and hazel eyes as well as her petite yet curvaceous figure made any man stare yet none did for fear of what her lover would do to them. She wore a white uniform that consisted of a red button-up shirt and a white coat. She also wore a red skirt and white knee-high socks and white boots.

"Selene," Atalanta greeted.

"I just got a message from Chapter Head Taki saying that Eden Squad should be here. Their estimated ETA is… now," Selene said as a green portal opened in front of them

To her credit, she didn't expect them to come tumbling out. Atalanta sighed when she saw Taki's granddaughter butting heads with what seemed to be a dragon in human form.

In front of them, the Red Dragon Emperor and the Wielder of Telos Karma simply marveled at their hangar while the Leviathan Descendant and the reincarnated Angel merely stood, waiting for their teammates to get a hint.

Eventually, Atalanta's amusement evaporated like the morning dew and she coughed into her hand.

"Ahem," she said.

The group stopped and got into formation with Rikka standing at the front. She bowed before her.

"Greetings, I am Rikka Kuroyuki, captain of Eden Squad. Code Name Black Snow. These are my teammates, Issei Hyoudou, Code Name Red Dragon, Irina Shidou, Code Name White Angel, Mitsuki Hyoudou, Code Name Weaver, Ingvild Leviathan, Code Name Lavender Serpent, and our brand new recruit Bova Tannin," Rikka said.

"Well operative, this is quite the team you've assembled. I trust that you'll find our accommodations more than enough for your meeting here. If you would please, I will escort you down to R and D myself," Atalanta said. She glanced at Selene.

"Selene. Cancel all my appointments for the day," she said.

"Yes Ma'am," Selene said. "Well, Nyatalanta. I'll be off to visit mom and dad. God knows I haven't been back in a while."

Atalanta nodded and gestured for them to follow.

"So was that your secretary or something?" Issei asked.

"Secretary? No, she's the Head of our Intelligence department and a member of my inner circle," Atalanta said.

"Chapter Head Atalanta, if I may, what exactly is the nature of our mission that we had to come all the way here," Rikka asked.

"Well, I'm sure Taki filled you in on the devastation that occurred all across Southeast Asia. We have reason to believe that a Prime Demon was behind this. The level of devastation is just too much for a regular devil or demon to do," she said. "Billions if not trillions of dollars of property damage as well as the loss of countless lives all with a brief spike of demonic energy."

"That sounds insane," Issei said. "And we barely killed Beelzebub too."

"Prime Demons are tricky, yes. From the lore we have on them, they're thought to be walking disasters in Devil Skin, akin to Black Dragons but devils," she said as she pressed an elevator button. They all piled in and descended deep into the base.

"So our duty?" Bova asked.

"There is no set due date for this as this is routine information reconnaissance so all you need to do is to make sure that none of the remaining Prime Demons match the signature that was briefly detected in Hong Kong seconds before the mayhem began," Atalanta answered.

The door let out a ring as the elevator came to a stop. Walking out of the elevator, the group passed by several scientists and engineers all developing various pieces of technology and studying magic. They walked for a few minutes before Atalanta stopped outside an office. She knocked on the window, getting the attention of its sole resident.

The man was possibly six feet, possibly six foot four at first glance. He had a lean and muscular build, possibly from all the forging he had been doing if the anvil and hammer were any clear indicators. His eyes were hazel, almost gold color. He wore a red lab coat with a black muscle shirt underneath emphasizing his build. He had reddish-orange hair with a small white streak across it and a small burn scar on the side of his neck. His gaze lingered on the group, particularly on Issei and Mitsuki, before sighing.

"Atalanta," he said in a gruff voice. He slammed his hammer back on what he had been working on, glancing occasionally at the hardlight screen that had appeared in front of him.

"Hephaestus. Have some courtesy. These are our guests from the Japanese Branch," she said.

"Ah, so these are the brats, Taki sent? Alright then," Hephaestus said. The hammer and anvil disappeared in a haze of gold dust as he straightened his coat. He gestured for them to come inside his office.

Hephaestus's office was more akin to a smithy if anything. A large blast furnace, as well as a melting pot and oven, sat situated against the wall. A cooling tank sat a few feet away from it and several tools hung off the walls. Unfinished weapons as well as blueprints sat on a desk that had a Hardlight Screen Computer sat on the far side of the room where Hephaestus currently was. Two bookcases stood to its left filled with scrolls and books containing knowledge from far back then and with some newer books which looked odd amongst the ancient relics and scrolls.

"Hmmm, ah! Here," Hephaestus said as he levitated a set of small chips. He walked over to them.

"Right, this here contains data on the perp that was detected in Hong Kong. Due to the fact that the burst was so brief, we weren't able to get conclusive data on it so this is all you'll be able to work with. That's not to say that it isn't going to work. I'll outfit this into your Armillary Spheres so that whenever you're near a Prime Demon, it'll automatically compare the signatures for similarities. Please expect a percent match as the Seven Prime Demons are siblings so they will hold similar signatures. What the chip is looking for is that part of their miasma signature that makes them, them," he explained.

"Um, Hephaestus, sir, I don't have an Armillary… whatever they're called," Bova said.

"Don't fret kid. Taki's probably put in a commission for you and you'll activate it once you get back," Hephaestus said.

"So all we have to do is get near them?" Issei asked.

He nodded.

"Seems easy enough," he said as he handed over his AS to Hephaestus. Hephaestus took the small marble and pressed a small button on the top. The sphere grew in size and a small tray popped out. Hephaestus implanted the chip inside and handed it back to Issei before repeating this process with the others.

"So how close of a match do we want?" Ingvild asked. She activated her AS and found the program, performing a scan on herself.

Ingvild Leviathan

Miasma Percent Match: 78.5%

"Hmmm," Atalanta placed her hand on her chin. "I'd look over any similarities you'll get to the AS scanner if that's what you're worried about. We only want you to survey the Prime Demons and not their descendants. Though," she glanced at Hephaestus.

"Hmm, we should probably inspect them just in case. The girl seems to have a seventy percent match to the energy burst detected so that narrows it down. Try to do the others just in case but so far, your miasma signature seems to almost match it," he said.

"Right, new mission or more of a side quest really. I want you guys if you can, get data on the energy signatures of members of Houses Mammon and Belphegor. You don't have to do a deep sweep of the house which would be preferable… but just a few samples for the program to be able to compare data," Atalanta said.

"There," he said. "We're done for now. Come back once dragon boy here gets his AS."

They nodded.

"Thanks, Hephaestus-sama," Rikka said.

"Don't thank me, kid. Just make sure that it isn't any of the remaining Primes," he said.

She nodded at him and then to Atalanta. She sighed and began to escort them back. As Issei was about to leave the room, a single sentence from Hephaestus made him stop in his tracks.

"You're the boy, Lili, babysat," he said.

Issei turned around, looking at the Forge God.

"H- How did you? How do you know her name?" Issei asked.

"Know? There's a lot more to your babysitter that meets the eye kid," he said.

"Did you know her or something?" Issei asked.

"Know her? I'm married to her," he said.

"Wait… I thought you were married to a…," Issei said.

"As I said, there are lots of things you don't know about your babysitter, Issei Hyoudou. Drop by sometime. I'll be glad to tell you stories about her," Hephaestus said.

"Issei!"

"You better get going," he said. He picked up one of his hammers and began to work on something. A weapon or tool if Issei had to guess.

"Wait! At least tell me who she really is," Issei said.

Hephaestus stopped what he was about to do, his hammer paused mid-swing when the words left Issei's mouth. He sighed and turned around, his hazel eyes boring into Issei's.

"You're not ready for that yet but… if you really can't wait, head down to Hell and look up information on the Seven Prime Demons. Perhaps, you might find what you're looking for," Hephaestus said.

"Like where she is?" Issei said.

He didn't respond, causing Issei to sigh. He smiled at the Forge God and thanked him one more time before running out of the room. Hephaestus sighed as he gripped the necklace that hung around his neck.

"Lilith, it looks like I'm not the only one looking for you but… it seems that he doesn't know that you're out there," he said. He looked at his desk where a family photo sat. In the photo was Hephaestus with his arm wrapped around the waist of a woman with white hair and golden eyes. She had a warm smile on her face and wore a white blouse with underneath a red overcoat and a black skirt. Between them was a girl in her mid to late teens with auburn hair much like Hephaestus, however, her eyes and the shape of her face greatly resembled that of the woman in the photo. She wore a yellow hoodie and a white skirt with black knee-high socks. The girl held up two peace signs to the camera.

"Where are you?" he asked himself.

"So just like that, I'm in?" Bova asked. "No initiation process?"

"We never said you were in like that. You don't have an AS which is like our ID card," Rikka said. "What we're trying to say is that new recruits, if they're selected and not from one of our schools, have to be on probation and watched over by their handler which is me."

"We have handlers?" Mitsuki asked.

"Before you were transferred, Lisa was your handler along with Eric and you technically went to one of our schools. The one in America is called Eve High School," Rikka said.

"Hey! Sorry! Hephaestus wanted to talk to me about my Sacred Gear," Issei said, panting a little.

"Ready?" Issei asked.

They nodded.

"Wait," Atalanta said.

They paused for a moment as a vortex opened up in front of them. Atalanta stood there with a stern look on her face.

"Be careful. We don't know how many of them are out there or where they could be. For all we know, they could've planted moles within Devil Society," Atalanta said. "Be careful about who you trust."

They nodded at her ominous warning before walking through the portal.

"You going home for the night?" a scientist said as she walked by Hephaestus's office. The Forge God was basically their boss ever since he joined twelve years ago. The man's skills allowed him to rapidly rise through the ranks and replace their previous department head, who took a job running Russia's R&D department.

"Yeah. You guys can keep on working," Hephaestus said as he walked down the department room with a duffle bag.

"Hey, if you're free anytime, we're always out for drinks," she said.

"Yeah, I'll hold you to that," he said.

"See ya later boss," she said, returning back to her work.

Hephaestus nodded as he exited the room, getting on one of the elevators. Teleportation in and out of the base was nigh-impossible due to heavy amounts of warding. Only beings stronger than the combined might of the top three strongest existences underneath the Dragon Gods were capable of breaking through the barrier so as much as he wanted to, he couldn't just teleport back to his home on Olympus.

After arriving on the ground floor and walking towards the Hangar, Hephaestus ordered for a vortex to appear in a random location in Europe. The vortex operator nodded and clicked a few buttons, opening a rift. Hephaestus walked through the rift, ending up in a meadow on the other side where he disappeared in a burst of crimson flames.

He arrived inside his temple. Hephaestus's temple was a simple place for a simple god. It bore none of the extravagance that his parents or siblings had and was considered to be too plain to be noticed. In fact, most of the demigods didn't know where he even lived so offerings weren't really high. His set-up was the exactly the same as his office. He walked past his forge and opened his fridge, pulling out a cold can of beer and sat on the couch. He noticed a small note with over a plate of food that was covered in saran wrap.

Going to be late. The council meeting went awry. Hermes accidentally impregnated another woman. Hera's currently chewing him out! Anyway, don't wait up!

Love, Aphrodite

He scoffed. Her acts of affection were meaningless to him after all those centuries of torment. Hephaestus placed the note back and turned on his TV.

"Hmm, getting notes from her now?"

His eyes widened when he heard that voice. That familiar, loving voice that made his heart flutter with joy. He quickly turned around and saw those yellow eyes that he fell in love with.

He got off the sofa and walked over to her, reaching out with a shaky hand and cupping her cheek.

"Lilith," he said.

"I'm home, Heph," Lilith greeted with a smile.

Reviews:

leader. dbz: Ophis is still the embodiment of Infinity and Chaos. Infinity is a different person altogether. She is the embodiment of all Space and Reality. You won't see them again until the final arc.

Rhongomyniad: Yeah. I felt that Aphrodite being Zeus's daughter rather than being born from Ouranos's nutsacks. Besides, this Aphrodite is different from the other Aphrodites. Maybe her cheating ways have caught up with her or does she realize that no one loves her for her and just her body? Who knows but I will expand on her character a bit more as well as her relationship with Hephaestus and how it affects his relationship with Lilith.

Please review! I need it to keep going! Plez. Also, don't worry if it seems short. The chapters will get progressively longer like it did in the first arc so hooray for that. Anyway, I'll leave you with that. Remember to have a great day/night or not, the choice is yours!