Author's Note: OK, my beta got this back to me on time. Everyone give thanks to BigCC for doing that in spite of their busy schedule, hmm?

Moving on to other issues, some people have been doing April Fool's releases, aka Joke Chapters. I don't do that, as I lack that sort of humour (at least online; in person is a different question altogether), so here's the release of Issei: The Gaming Gear with no embellishments, tricks or other inane jokes.

In other words...you were expecting a April Fool's Chapter and got this, the real deal, instead!

Check my profile for my writing schedule. Before you PM me or ask me in a review. Seriously, you have to go to my profile in order to send me a PM in the first place and the schedule's right there at the top. You literally can't miss it.

Beta'd by BigCC

Read, Review and check out my other stories.

Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DXD.

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

'Oppai!' - Thoughts

[BOOST!] - Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

Chapter 15: Attack of the Purifiers

Streets of Kuō Town

"You've got to be kidding me." Issei muttered, one eyebrow twitching madly. "This is the entrance to the first dungeon?"

His travels had taken him to a dilapidated building with a sign above the door proudly declaring 'Manekineko Gaming Systems, est. 1997' in dirty and discoloured letters. The small two-story building looked like it hadn't seen an ounce of care in at least a few years, if not a full decade, and was covered in either chipped paint or festooned with graffiti. The main entrance was boarded shut and the windows on the ground floor were broken and blocked by large planks of plywood. Issei couldn't see the second-story windows, but he guessed they were the same.

'Whatever spirit or intelligence is inside the [Gaming Gear] has a very weird sense of humour.' the Sekiryūtei thought with a scowl. 'This has to be the most idiotic place to have the entrance to a dungeon. There's just no way that there's one here...right?'

Sadly, if Issei's time playing video games and watching anime had taught him anything, it was that there were a lot of ways to hide something in plain sight; spacial pockets, alternate dimensions, bent space...the list went on. He wasn't sure if that applied to real magic (and he was still getting used to that idea) but he wasn't willing to rule it out just yet. Hell, for all he knew some of the anime, manga, and gaming companies out there were owned by real supernaturals and they used their magic as inspiration or a template or something.

Since there was no way for something like an actual physical dungeon to be hidden in the city proper, that meant that there was likely something along those lines coming into play here.

Taking a quick look around, the dual Sacred Gear wielder let out a slight sight of relief when he noticed no one around. In fact, it looked like the entire street had been abandoned for a while, all the businesses mirroring the small gaming company in various levels. If Issei were to judge, he'd bet that they'd all closed down at roughly the same time, within a couple of years of the Manekineko company at least.

That in and of itself was rather suspicious and, more than that, even if the street was located in the 'rougher' section of Kuō Town, it was incredibly suspicious that an entire street would be abandoned for the better part of a decade without anyone moving in. Property in a city the size of Kuō was fairly valuable after all and he was sure someone would have tried to 'reinvigorate the neighbourhood' or something by now.

There was definitely something supernatural going on here, and Issei was willing to bet his porn he was going to be falling face-first into the middle of it.

Getting inside the building itself wasn't an issue. The plywood blocking the windows was already half-rotted. A quick solid blow from a [Power Strike] enhanced fist shattered it into splinters and a swipe from the same cleared any broken glass remaining on the window itself. If anyone even noticed it, they'd likely attribute it to either teenage vandalism (which it kinda sorta was) or some homeless person breaking in to scavenge or sleep.

Now it was just a matter of finding the dungeon entrance.

Scattered all over the two-story building were the remnants of the small game-soft company, which had worked on PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games from what Issei could tell from the mouldering posters decorating the walls. He collected what few parts looked to be valuable and/or useful as he went, mostly because he was completely tapped out money-wise thanks to purchasing his Base Core and his magic signature concealing cloak.

The ground floor was a bust aside from the odd knick-knack here and there, so Issei cautiously headed up the stairs to the second floor. His caution had less to do than any fear of an ambush by monsters or some other threat and more with his worries that the stairs or floor might collapse beneath him or even the entire building falling down around his ears. Whoever had built this place had obviously gone for the cheapest options available and he really didn't want to see if his HP would survive having a building drop on top of him.

"Hello, what do we have here...?" Issei muttered as he stepped into the last room of the building, which was the company manager's office. Carved into the floor in front of the desk was a magic circle, with odd script written around the circumference. "Well, looks like some genius decided to mess with magic and ended up winning themselves a Darwin Award."

Why say that? Because the dried-up corpse of a man wearing a ragged business suit sat against the front of the desk. Clutched in his right hand was a dagger of some sort, while a thick book was on the floor under where the shrivelled remnants of his left arm hung.

Issei quickly used [Observe] on both of them to make sure they weren't cursed or something.

[Cheap Steel Imitation Athame]

A mass produced and rather poorly made version of an athame, a ritual dagger used in pagan rituals. Despite being made from an alloy, which actually diffuses gathered magical energy past a certain point, this item can still act as a fully functional casting implement, albeit a rather poor one.

Durability: 40/100

Slashing Damage: 25

Piercing Damage: S

Bludgeoning Damage: 10

Abilities: [Casting Implement], [MP Diffusion]

[Cheap and Badly Made Grimoire]

A grimoire is a book of magic, usually made from thick parchment and covered with stout leather. This one...isn't. Fashioned from A4 paper and covered in plastic, any mystical qualities that this book could possess are severely dampened as a result, and anything written within is suspect as a result of the dubious nature of its maker's knowledge.

Durability: 5/50

…

"This guy was a wannabe magician, wasn't he?" Issei mumbled to himself as he not-so-gently removed both the dagger and the 'grimoire' from the corpse's hands and stowed them in his inventory. He wasn't sure if he could use the dagger, but he was definitely getting rid of the grimoire as soon as he could. Even if it wasn't evil, the description alone made him sure it was more of a hindrance (if not an outright threat) to any attempts to learn magic.

Issei hummed slightly as he ran through his own limited knowledge of magic to try and figure out what happened here. "Hmm...it looks like he was trying to use some kind of ritual, but I'm willing to bet that he didn't have enough MP to do it alone. When his MP was fully drained, the ritual must have tried to use his life force as a powers source." Issei couldn't help but shake his head at the poor, mummified idiot. "Poor bastard, what a way to go."

Running low on MP wasn't a fun experience (he could tell you that from personal experience); being drained completely and then having your HP drained as well must have been agonizing. The guy might have been a complete idiot for attempting to use a magical ritual on his own like this, but that didn't mean he deserved to die in agony like that.

Looking around the rest of the office, and ignoring the very obvious magic circle for the moment, Issei managed to find ¥30000 in one of the drawers, which was useful, as well as a whole drawer full of dubiously mystical bric-a-brac that he decided to go through in more detail later to see what could possibly be useful and what would be joining the grimoire in being sold to the store.

Seriously, there was an actual dribbly candle in amongst all of it!

Finally looking at the magic circle properly, Issei spotted a very obvious 'come pick me up and get teleported who knows where' sheet of paper in the centre of the circle. Seriously, this was practically a cliché!

"OK, why not just walk into it?" Issei mused. "A trap that you know is a trap isn't really a trap anymore, right?"

Besides, it wasn't as if he had any other way of entering the dungeon.

With a few swipes on his window, Issei changed into his armour and cloak, as well as equipping his Sword Breaker. As this was against mages (presumably), he wouldn't try to train his fist fighting skills against them; magic beats fists in terms of range. Instead, he was going to focus on levelling up his new [Sapphire Blade] ability. Given that Issei was about to enter a Level 15 dungeon and the sword-gauntlet was only LV0, scoring the killing blow against a single enemy should level it up to LV5 or more right away.

This was also a smart plan due to the fact that the Durability of [Sapphire Blade] was low...as in 'I can't believe that a blade made out of magical crystal is so brittle' low. Issei honestly hoped that the damned blade would be worth it, otherwise the points he'd invested into it would be wasted on a weapon that was only useful as a last resort.

"[Sapphire Blade]!" he called out, bringing the [Gamer's Gear] to life on his arm.

[Azure Edge!]

From the back of the blue gauntlet, a long spike of crystalline material seemed to sprout, growing into a narrow, blade before his very eyes and gleaming even in the dim light. Issei had to admit, even if its stats kinda sucked at the moment, it still looked fairly neat.

Now fully armed, Issei stepped onto the magic circle, which promptly started glowing to blinding levels, forcing him to cover his eyes. When he uncovered them, he was in a circular room built from tan stones, with a moderately large double-door in front of him. Carved into both doors...

"...is that a bell?" the Sekiryūtei blinked. It certainly looked like a bell. Not only that, it was mounted on a snowflake that looked really familiar for some reason...

Issei was jolted out of his reverie by the appearance of another window in front of him.

[Welcome!]

You have entered your first true dungeon!

Well, sort of. This is a pseudo-natural dungeon, created by the half-assed, incomplete and stupidly executed ritual of Kinoshita Rentarō. Rather than simply killing him and imploding (and possibly taking half the block with it) the ritual, which he designed by slapping multiple traditions and spells together and hoping (without much evidence to support it) that it would work, used elements of the pirate games he was copying on the side to create this dungeon, based on one particular set of enemies that it chose at random.

And people say that ironic karma doesn't exist.

You can only enter this dungeon four times, and you cannot leave the dungeon without defeating a floor boss. After you defeat one, you are given the chance to leave. If you choose to stay, you cannot leave until you defeat another floor boss.

A fair warning: if you leave the dungeon, all of the enemies inside of it will respawn and go up by one level. This will happen every time you leave. Fortunately for you, there are only four floors in the dungeon, so it shouldn't be too hard to clear it...right?

"Suspicious! This couldn't be any more suspicious if it tried!" Issei declared flatly. "Also, is it just me or was that a bit more conversational than all the other notifications that I've seen?"

Deciding that if things got really tough, he'd switch back to his gladius, the Sekiryūtei advanced to the door and nudged it with one foot, letting it swing open, revealing a corridor that led up to a corner. The entire complex seemed to be lit by glowing stones embedded into the walls at set intervals.

"Well, this is suitable eerie." Issei muttered before slowly advancing down the corridor. He could tell that there were no traps in the corridor, at least none that his necklace could detect, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to be cautious. An ounce of paranoia can save a boatload of effort or something like that.

As soon as he approached the corner, a magic circle flashed into existence and made an enemy appear, one that Issei knew all too well from his forays into RPG's. Standing about the same height as Issei, wearing a purple coat with white gloves and trousers, with a pointed straw hat on its head and only a pair of glowing eyes visible. It was...

Black Mage Type A #567 LV15

[Soulless Doll]

"Damn you Rentarō for trying to pirate Final Fantasy IX!" the Gamer cursed angrily. "Know some shame, you bastard! I take back my pity!"

How dare the stupid bastard try and pirate his favourite Final Fantasy title! Now he was going to be forced to massacre his way through some of his favourite characters, he just knew it!

"KILL!" the cloth automaton rumbled as it raised its hands to cast a spell.

Fortunately, Issei had done quite a bit of grinding in Gizamaluke's Grotto and the Suburbs of Burmecia, so he knew very well the four attacks of Type-A Black Mages; Strike, Fire, Blizzard and Thunder. And he was in no hurry to find out what being on the receiving end of any of those spells would feel like.

Learn them? Yes. Hopefully that would be a reward from the Boss Fight or even a random loot drop.

"[Lesser Barrier Shield]!" Issei shouted, the barrier appearing just as a pair of grapefruit-sized fireballs shot out from the hands of the Black Mage and lanced down the corridor to strike it. Fortunately, his shield was at a level that, while cracked badly from the impacts, it was strong enough to withstand the spell.

Even as the Fire spell slammed into his shield, Issei was already running forward. The worst thing to do when fighting a wizard-type opponent was to let them keep their space. Close in, where they had trouble using their magic without hurting themselves (unless they were a lunatic like Teeksqueak the warped Warlock Engineer) and you'd have every advantage you could need to take them down

Granted, that hadn't been possible in FFIX, but hopefully the logic would prove itself applicable in a real-world situation.

"[Magic Weapon Reinforcement]!" he chanted under his breath, making both his Sword Breaker and [Sapphire Blade] glow red with his magic.

"KILL!" the Black Mage repeated and this time shot a blast of lightning at him. The shield managed to absorb the entire blast before it finally shattered, which gave Issei time enough to dart in and stab both of his weapons into the face of the Black Mage. It jerked a couple of times before the arms fell to its side limply.

You have slain Black Mage Type A! You receive 1002 EXP!

[Lesser Barrier Shield] has levelled up! LV6-LV7!

[Magic Weapon Reinforcement] has levelled up! LV6-LV7!

[Sapphire Blade] has levelled up! LV0-LV1! Skill not generated!

[Sapphire Blade] has levelled up! LV1-LV2! Skill generated!

[Sapphire Blade] has levelled up! LV2-LV3! Skill not generated!

[Sapphire Blade] has levelled up! LV3-LV4! Skill generated!

[Sapphire Blade] has levelled up! LV4-LV5! Skill automatically generated!

[Sapphire Blade] has gained the skill [Heart of the Earth]!

[Sapphire Blade] has gained the skill [Rapid Evolution]!

[Sapphire Blade] has gained the skill [Magic Reinforcement]!

[Heart of the Earth] (Passive) [LVMAX]

The Sapphire Blade now possesses the unyielding strength of the earth, increasing its Durability by ½ per level gained.

[Rapid Evolution] (Passive) [LVMAX]

Due to gaining so many levels at once in its first outing, the Sapphire Blade now absorbs EXP at a far greater rate than before, adding ¼ more EXP to that which it would normally gain.

[Magic Reinforcement] (Passive) [LVMAX]

Exposed to its master's spell of reinforcement during its first outing in combat, the Sapphire Blade will use the ambient magical energy around it to passively increase its own Durability and attack power, +10 and +20 respectively.

"OK, this is gonna kick ass." Issei smirked. Evidently, the skills that were generated upon levelling up the [Sapphire Blade] were influenced by the spells he used and the way he used the blade itself. A literal evolving blade that became stronger and became more useful the more you used it. That little ability was practically a Sacred Gear in and of itself in Issei's humble opinion.

What worried him slightly was the fact his enemies were, essentially, golems. Unthinking beyond orders to attack their enemy, unfeeling, relentless and all but unstoppable in large enough numbers against conventional enemies. Unlike with the ratmen, he couldn't use their sense of pain to distract them or make them flinch, nor would intimidation or other psychological and mental attacks likely work on them.

Just about the only ones that might be affected by any of that were, ironically, the three strongest Black Mages, the Black Waltzes. Specifically tuned to be masters of an element and imbued with power and intelligence far exceeding their lesser brethren, the Black Waltzes had been serious powerhouses in the early game of FFIX, and they were likely the first, second and third floor bosses respectively.

The fourth floor did worry him somewhat, as there were only three Black Waltz units; Black Waltz #3 had been fought twice at different points in the game, so it was an unknown mystery as to what that boss would be, so business as usual there, anyway.

Then a sudden horrifying thought made itself known. 'Please, please don't make me fight Vivi.' He prayed to whoever happened to be listening. 'I don't think I could kill the little guy. He was such an awesome character.'

Granted Issei, being the pervert that he was even at a young age, had always like characters like Garnet (Bishōjo princess for the win!), Eiko (loli-goodness), Freya (tomboy-beastgirl appeal) and Beatrix (the lovely lady knight), but the tiny magic-caster had still been a cool character.

He refused to acknowledge Quina Quen as female…that thing was no woman, it didn't even have oppai!

Forcing such terrible thoughts away, Issei pushed the loot button only to grimace. The loot wasn't all that spectacular; just a small amount of yen and a [Black Mage Pointed Hat], which Issei decided to keep as a memento.

Still, this was decent Exp grinding, if nothing else. The fact that the Black Mages were basically walking glass cannons would actually make this easier than he had initially thought. Also, the Type-A's, B's and C's were pretty obvious to recognize on sight, as the Black Mages got steadily more ornate in appearance as they became more powerful. This made threat assessment very easy.

Advancing down the corridor, Issei dealt with three more [Black Mage Type-A] enemies and the [Sapphire Blade] levelled up twice more, although no new skills came from it.

Coming across a treasure chest had him suspicious, but when he opened it, it revealed a part of a rolled up scroll, [Fragment of Black Mage Blueprints #1]. There were, apparently, five fragments to find, and once assembled, he would be able to make Black Mages himself once he offered it to his Dungeon Core.

As that was all kinds of awesome, Issei began to look more carefully for hidden compartments and secret areas. Final Fantasy games were very fond of puzzles that needed to be solved to either progress forward or to unlock secret areas full of goodies and, since this whole dungeon was based on a pirated version of FFIX, that should still hold true here.

He found another fragment (#3) in another chest, but mostly had to deal with the occasional attack of [Black Mage Type-A's]. Eventually though, he reached the second-to-last room of the first floor and was confronted with something he'd been expecting: a puzzle.

It was a round room with a single ring around the top, with a pair of orbs mounted on it, as well as a pair of brackets on two particular parts of the wall. In the middle of the room was a dais atop of which was a small control panel with some knobs and levers on it. At the opposite side of the room was a large door that looked very solid and immovable despite it only being made of wood.

"What is this, Uncharted 4 or Final Fantasy IX? Make your mind up." Issei muttered, recognising the room as a downsized import of a particular puzzle from the PS4 game.

Walking up to the dais, he crouched down and saw that the dais was essentially a large pressure plate; once he stood on it, a mechanism would activate, probably one that would give him a hint as to what the answer to the puzzle was, as well as possibly a trap that would activate if he failed or stepped off of the dais before the puzzle was solved. Just lovely.

Stepping onto it, Issei staggered slightly as the dais sunk with a mechanical grinding sound, making two plates on the wall to open up, each above one of the pairs of brackets, which then lit up. One was a bell, while the other was a snowflake...a symbol for ice magic.

"A test of knowledge for Final Fantasy IX fans." the Gamer grinned to himself. "How appropriate."

Moving to the centre of the dais, Issei found that he could see the symbols on each orb. One had a crescent moon-tipped staff, while the other bore a flame symbol.

"The staff is from #3, while the flame is the magic most used by #2, soooo..." Issei mused aloud as he eyed the control panel. There were two knobs at the top, with a third at the bottom. If he was a betting man...

Reaching out, he twisted the top left-hand one, which rotated the staff orb around, revealing a horned pointed hat on the quarter that it turned to. Another twist revealed a blank spot, while a final twist revealed the bell symbol.

Satisfied with that, Issei turned the opposite knob, switching the right-hand orb from fire to lightning, to blank and finally the snowflake symbol that he was looking for. Getting the ring around to slot the two orbs into place over their respective brackets took a bit of finesse, but Issei eventually managed to get them in place.

With a mechanical click, the dais popped back up to its former height, and a small figurine appeared in front of the Gamer, floating in mid-air.

[Black Waltz #1 Statuette]

A small statue of the Winged Black Mage Ruler of the Blizzard.

"Cool." Issei nodded as he grabbed it and placed the knick-knack in his inventory. Another souvenir for his base.

As soon as the statuette vanished, the large door on the far side of the room sunk into the ground, releasing a chill into the room as ice and snow were revealed on the other side of the portal, making Issei shiver.

"Yeah...time to do some shopping." he muttered as he opened the Store. He'd earned enough Yen cutting through the Black Mages to afford a new trinket to deal with this. A few minutes later, he was wearing a belt that maintained his body temperature at a slightly warm one regardless of the temperature around him. He didn't want to risk possibly getting frostbite and gangrene, thank you very much! Granted, it would do exactly jack squat against ice spells or fire spells, but not freezing his privates off was the main goal here!

He still had plans for them, after all!

Now inured to the icy-cold waves of air emanating from the (presumptive) boss room, Issei debated with himself for a moment before deactivating [Sapphire Blade] and drawing out his [Bloodmetal Gladius] in its place. There was a time and a place for training his weaker skills, and staring down a floor boss wasn't one of them.

Advancing into the room, the sheer amount of ice and snow made the Sekiryūtei shiver. If he hadn't thought to buy the [Belt of Temperate Temperature], he'd have either been an ice cube already or at the very least going numb all over, which would have not helped in any kind of fight. Zidane Tribal was earning his respect all over again for fighting with pure willpower in these conditions!

...ding...ding...

Pausing in the middle of the ballroom-sized room, Issei cocked his head to the side at the sound of a bell chiming. Looking around, he narrowed his eyes at the high gallerys of ice that surrounded him. The Black Waltz had appeared from a height in the game, so that wasn't likely to change here...

...ding...ding...

"Why aren't you dead? This cold snap of mine should have frozen you down to your very bones." a chilly voice asked from his front. Issei turned and held himself ready as his enemy finally showed itself atop a large menhir of ice. With a pair of dark purple wings emerged from its hunched back, the Black Waltz was actually shorter than Issei himself was. The pointed hat atop its head was tied near the point and it wore a pair of trousers with a snowflake symbol on each leg. Clasped in its right hand was a golden bell, dangling from a red string. This was its casting device.

Black Waltz #1 LV17

[Winged Black Mage of the Blizzard]

"Yeah sorry, but I'm here to take you down." Issei said, pointing his gladius at the boss.

"You can try..." the Black Waltz replied before ringing its bell again.

...ding...ding...

"[Fireball]!" Issei shouted, firing a spell off immediately. The fiery projectile arced up towards the Black Waltz, who shook his bell at it.

"Blizzard!" the Black Mage replied coolly, sending an equally large ice crystal at the approaching spell, cancelling it out. Taking flight, the boss hovered next to his former pedestal and started to cast a spell.

"Ice Giant, Sealion, come before me!" the Black Waltz chanted. In an explosion of ice, the massive form of his summoned monster appeared in the place of the large ice crystal, an immense giant seal made of ice. With a bone mask resembling a walrus' face, a pair of large wings with razor-sharp icicle-feathers and two tails, Sealion roared proudly as it appeared.

Sealion LV18

[Beast of the Tundra]

"Go, Sealion! Freeze him to death!" Black Waltz #1 ordered.

"Aw hell." Issei grimaced beneath his helmet. This was exactly like in the boss battle. Attacking Sealion first was pointless, because the Black Waltz would just use Blizzard to heal it. That meant that he had to deal with the flying menace first.

"[Burning Bomb]!" Issei pointed both of his weapons at the Black Waltz, firing off a pair of fireballs at his enemy. They detonated when they drew near to the boss, bathing him in flames that made it shriek in pain.

"Curse you! Fire!" the automaton cursed before casting a spell at him while the Sealion launched a Blizzard at him at the same time.

Dodging both the fireball and icicle, the Sekiryūtei started to run forward towards the Black Waltz. Hopefully if he managed to kill the summoner, the summon would vanish. If not, then at least he'd be down to a single threat.

Channelling MP into his legs, Issei leapt up with a shout, closing on the Black Waltz in an instant, making the slitted white eyes of the cloth golem widen in shock.

"Let's take you down to earth!" Issei growled before lashing out with a kick that spun the Black Waltz around so its wings faced him. He then used [Magic Weapon Reinforcement] on his weapons and cut off both wings with a pair of strong downward strokes, sending the spellcaster tumbling to the ground.

Issei used the Boss's tumbling form as a springboard as it fell (and not incidentally launching it into the ground with even more force) to alter direction towards Sealion. Even as the massive construct drew back a wing to slice at him, the soaring boy drew back an arm and shouted, "[Power Strike]!"

The glow around Issei's right-hand weapon redoubled in strength and when he sliced down with his [Bloodmetal Gladius], it left a long crevasse down the front of Sealion. It also had the effect of nullifying a great degree of Issei's momentum, allowing him to flip around the underside of the Sealion's chest and slide down the back of its tail

"Whoo! What a rush!" the Gamer cheered as he leapt away from Sealion's body before he reached the thrashing tails and started running towards where the Black Waltz had crash landed and was currently struggling to its feet, seething with anger.

"You...you...!" it seemed so angry that words failed it.

"Yes?" Issei asked faux-innocently.

"Raaaaaggghhh!" the Black Waltz roared, sending a spell, which looked to be the upgraded version of the basic Fire spell, Fira, at Issei. Rather than a flaming ball, the spell manifested as a raging stream of fire that instantly melted and boiled the ice and snow in and around its path.

Once more using a magically-assisted leap, this time to avoid an attack, the Sekiryūtei flew towards the Black Waltz and stabbed it through the heart with his primary weapon, swiftly followed by the Sword Breaker going into its throat.

"Gah...! S-Sealion, k-kill him for me!" the Black Waltz gurgled before Issei ripped his swords out of him and allowed the boss to collapse to the ground and vanish.

Turning his attention back to Sealion, Issei was pleasantly surprised to see that the orb in its chest, which showed its general level of HP, was at yellow instead of green, which meant it was down to around half of its HP. Evidently, combining [Power Strike] and [Magical Weapon Reinforcement] into a single attack was highly effective when combined with the strength he had gained as he levelled up.

Sealion roared in fury as its master faded away and charged at the Gamer with the intent to squash him flat.

Issei had no intentions of meeting the hulking monster head on, Instead, he tried channelling a steady stream of MP to his legs, which resulted in him moving faster as he ran away from the summoned beast and around the room, leading it on a merry little chase, occasionally turning to launch [Fireballs] at the lumbering Sealion whenever he had an acceptable amount of distance. The large summon had responded by spamming Blizzards at him furiously.

As another [Fireball] slammed into the monster's head, the orb decorating its chest flashed from yellow to red. That was a bad sign for him, since it meant that Sealion now had access to its special magical spell, Tsunami. It was a half-assed version of the Summon Leviathan's own attack, but it was still one that Issei could rightly call an AOE spell. Dodging wouldn't do him any good against it, as it swept the area in front of Sealion with a large wave of ice-cold water. Defending wouldn't do much against it either, as it was doubtful that a single [Lesser Barrier Shield], or even multiples thereof, could entirely stop the tidal wave.

When you can't run or defend, there was only one option: attack.

Quickly changing direction, Issei started leaping up the walls of ice to one side until reaching a height that was about half again as tall as Sealion, whereupon he kicked off the wall and shot at the lumbering brute like a cannon ball.

Sealion was in the middle of skidding to a halt and was thus unprepared for Issei to slam into it, embedding his Sword Breaker into its head like a piton to keep himself steady as he raised his [Bloodmetal Gladius] in a reverse-grip.

"[Power Strike]!" Issei shouted, stabbing the weapon down into the top of the Sealion's skull-like mask, which shattered like glass under the strength of the strike. The ice beast roared, thrashed and, finally, slammed down onto the ground, dissolving into motes of white light.

"Whew...that was a bit more hair-raising than I was expecting." the Gamer muttered as he stood up. "Wait, what the-?!"

As soon as he stood up, a blaring musical piece started to play in the room that anyone who'd played any Final Fantasy game would recognise...the victory jingle, specifically the one composed for FFIX. Issei sweatdropped at the music as a screen popped open in front of him.

Congratulations! You have defeated Black Waltz #1! You receive 1650 EXP!

Congratulations! You have defeated Sealion! You receive 1500 EXP!

For defeating Black Waltz #1, you receive [Lesser Bell of the Blizzard] and [Blizzard] Spell Book!

For defeating Sealion, you receive [Sealion Statuette] and [Sealion Scale Cuirass]!

You have levelled up! LV17-LV18!

You have 5 AP to spend.

For fighting and defeating a boss by the book, you earn 6 SGP out of 6 SGP!

As a result of a specific action, the skill [Power Leap] has been created!

[Power Leap] (Instant) [LV1, 0%]

In a manner of speaking, this is a sister skill to [Power Strike]. As opposed to that skill, however, this skill is exclusively used with the legs. By channelling mana into them and releasing it in a single burst, the user can vastly increase the height and distance that they can jump.

- Costs between 10 and 50 MP to use.

- The distance and/or height that the user jumps is determined by the amount of MP the user adds to it.

As a result of a specific action, the skill [Basic Magic Body Enhancement] has been created!

[Basic Magic Body Enhancement] (Active) [LV1, 0%]

One of the most basic spells of the [Reinforcement Magic] list, this spell increases the user's physical condition and abilities by a small amount while active. One should always learn this spell before any other [Reinforcement] magic.

- Costs 10 MP/Minute to be active

- Increases STR, STA and DEX by 1 point while active.

- Increases the effect of other [Basic Reinforcement] magic spells by +1 while active.

As a result of continuous actions, the skill [Basic Reinforcement Magic] has been created!

[Basic Reinforcement Magic] (Passive) [LV1, 0%]

While most magic users like to stand from a distance and bombard their enemies with spells, others like to get up close and personal. To that end, they use magic to increase the capabilities of their body. That is the basic principle of Reinforcement Magic.

- All Reinforcement Magic Spells are now assigned a tier.

- Access to Tier 0 and Tier 1 spells opened.

[Ambidextrous] has levelled up! LV7-LV8!

[Basic Swordsmanship] has levelled up! LV8-LV9!

[Short Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV8-LV9!

[Fireball] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!

[Burning Bomb] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!

[Power Strike] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!

[Magic Weapon Reinforcement] has levelled up! LV6-LV7!

As a result of acquiring [Lesser Fire Magic], [Basic Reinforcement Magic], [Lesser Earth Magic], [Lifestyle Magic] and [Defensive Magic], you have earned the title of [Apprentice Mage]!

"...that last one was unexpected, but I guess it's because I unlocked five different types of magic?" Issei muttered. It made too much sense to be anything other than that.

[Congratulations!]

You have defeated the Floor 1 Boss!

Do you wish to leave now?

Warning: Should you leave, the monsters you have slain shall respawn and level up by (1) level.

Y/N

"Yeah, I think that's enough for tonight." the Sekiryūtei muttered, hitting the 'Y' key. The room blurred around him and he suddenly found himself on the ground floor of the dilapidated building he'd entered before. Why he wasn't back in the office, he couldn't tell.

"Time to go home...and get some rest." he muttered, heading for the window he'd used to enter the building in the first place. "Maybe take tomorrow off from grinding my levels and work on skill grinding some of my lower-level skills..."

Having skills was all very well, but training those skills was also important. Weak skills aren't any use in combat against serious enemies. Fortunately, his skills gained experience just by being used, not restricted to being used in combat. His parents were going on a trip to a spa that his dad had won in a lottery the next day, which meant that he could spend the day with [Bronze Skin] and [Force Reduction Field] on to train them.

Satisfied with his decision, he headed off home.

Two Days later

Kuō Park

Asia Argento, formerly a Holy Maiden of the Catholic Church, walked down the pavement towards where she had promised to meet her benefactor, Hyōdō Issei-san.

The last day and a half had been...tough, to say the least. Not that every day since being exiled from the Church and Rome hadn't been tough, but...

'Father Freed...he scares me.' the blond girl shivered. The insane (and often inane) ramblings of the Rogue Exorcist unnerved her to the point that she tried to stay on the opposite side of the room from the man.

Additionally, Dohnaseek and Kalawarner, two of the Fallen Angels, were dismissive and cruel towards her. Raynare and Mittelt, while not cruel, were similarly dismissive towards her. They also didn't stop their companions from being cruel to her.

This had meant that the promise of seeing the one person in Japan who had been kind towards her had been something of a lifeline for the poor Italian blonde, something to keep her spirits up over the rough day she'd had.

"Asia!" a familiar voice called from ahead of her. Asia looked up and brightened immediately as she saw Issei standing there waving at her. He was wearing a uniform of some sort...a school uniform, perhaps? Asia had been raised in a Church-sponsored orphanage and had moved from there to the nunnery as soon as she had awoken her Sacred Gear where she'd taken her vows and received a basic education, so she'd never seen a school uniform before.

"Issei-san!" she called back and eagerly moved towards him...only to trip and fall over a small rock on the pavement. Luckily, Issei managed to catch her before she could fall again.

"You OK, Asia?" he asked as he steadied her on her feet.

"O-Oh...y-yes, I'm fine." she stammered, face pinking at his hold on her. She was greatly unused to males, having lived in a nunnery and only encountering males as either priests or patients up until her exile. "I'm just...clumsy."

Issei just chuckled and let her go once she'd gotten her bearings. "As long as you're not hurt, that's fine. So, how has your time at your new church been?"

Asia flinched slightly at that. "I..."

"That bad, huh?" Issei said sympathetically. "Look, let me treat you to something to eat. You look as if you could use a good meal."

The blonde girl flushed. She hadn't actually eaten since breakfast, and it hadn't been much of a breakfast at that. "U-um...if...it isn't a bother to you, Issei-san..."

"It's fine." the boy grinned. "How does a hamburger sound?"

Later

It was fun, being with Issei-san. Asia hadn't enjoyed herself so much since she first started to pray to the Lord and received His blessing. The trip to the fast food shop had been interesting, and the food tasted nice as well.

Then there was the arcade. So many interesting games and gimmicks! Asia hadn't heard of most of them, but thanks to her language comprehension spell being active and Issei-san's explanations, she was able to have fun! Issei-san had even won a small silver necklace for her in a claw game of some sort.

While nuns were supposed to be above the acquisition of worldly items, Asia couldn't help but treasure it as a gift from her first real friend. Everyone who she had known in Rome had turned their backs on her and cast her out, and she was adrift in the world, with only the vague promises of the Fallen to cling to. Having a physical, tangible item from someone who was kind to her meant almost as much to her as the symbol of the Lord that she wore around her neck.

Now they were back in the park, where Issei-san was clearly building up the nerve to ask her about the church. He'd had a bad feeling about it and was concerned for her due to the reaction she'd shown to his question earlier. Asia knew that she couldn't very well tell him about the world of the supernatural, but she also didn't want to lie to him, oh what to do...?

The nun started and let out a squeak as the sky suddenly turned red, with all the sounds of the city and wildlife vanishing in an instant. Issei-san also looked grim.

"Wh-what's going on?" Asia asked worriedly, her eyes darting all over the scenery.

"Someone's activated a magic item to put us in a separate dimension." Issei said grimly, voice low. Asia turned to look at him in shock. "I don't know how it activated without us noticing anything, but we're pretty much cut off from reality."

"What do you mean?" the nun asked.

"This space is kinda like a temporary space, copied from reality, but not actually real." the boy explained. "While here, any damage done to the surroundings won't affect their real counterparts back in reality, and once the device runs out of magical power, this world will collapse."

"H-How do you...?" Asia asked softly, dreading the answer. Was he from the devils to tempt her over to them?

"I'm an independent and unaffiliated magic user, so I have some knowledge of these things." Issei explained. "And I can only think of one group who would use this kind of thing...the Purifiers."

One part of Asia was deeply relieved that her first real friend wasn't a part of the devil's temptation, while another part, the part that had listened to the sermons about pagan magic users, was mildly worried.

"Purifiers?" she asked with a blink of her innocent eyes.

"Pro-human supremacists who hate anything and everything that has to do with the supernatural, no matter what side its on." Issei explained. "Not only that, they also despise humans who have supernatural powers, like magicians, half-bloods and Sacred Gear users. The fact that we're the only ones caught like this means that either one or both of us are their targets."

"H-How can they turn their ire on the Lord and His Angels!?" Asia asked in genuine horror.

"I've only met a couple of them, but they've all been completely wrapped up in either anger, hatred, or pure arrogance. They just want to lash out at anything that's different or they can blame for their problems, they don't care about anything else." Issei answered with a frown. "They're also hypocrites; they use magic in a war to exterminate all magic. Talk about contradictory, huh?"

"Y-yes, that doesn't make sense." the girl nodded. "Wh-what can we do? We have to leave this place."

"That might be tough." Issei admitted. "I've only had access to my magic for a short while, so I only have a few spells available. Depending on who they send in...ah, so here they are."

Following the accompanying gesture from him, Asia blinked as she spotted five men walking towards them. They were dressed in what she could see were military uniforms, although they were very generic, with no country flags or regimental flashes anywhere on their person. The only sign of allegiance on them was a single symbol over their hearts: a flame symbol of some sort. The helmets worn by the men were also very different from what she had seen on the few soldiers she'd ever met in her life, seemingly more hi-tech than anything else. Surprisingly, they only seemed to be armed with pistols, all of which were holstered at the moment.

"Boy, piss off." the lead man called. He was a rough-looking man with a nose that had been broken several times and a diagonal scar across his lip. "We only want the girl; leave now and you can escape without a beating."

"Yeah, how about no?" Issei discretely interposed himself between Asia and the men, readying himself to fight. "Like I'm going to let a bunch of suspicious old men in cosplay take a girl away to do who knows what to her!"

"Suspicious?!"

"Old?!"

"Cosplay?!"

Three of them reacted in a consternation and fury at Issei's words, but they quietened down at a quelling gesture from the apparent leader, who glared at Issei.

"Damn brat. We gave you a chance to get lost, now you're gonna get the shit kicked out of you. Ryūji, Tensei, go."

Two of them, two of the ones who Issei had managed to insult, moved towards the boy, cracking their knuckles threateningly.

"I-Issei-san...!" Asia whimpered.

"Leave it to me, Asia." Issei said confidently, before charging at the two men, taking them off guard; who would expect a boy to attack a pair of fully grown men?!

"Why you little...!" the one called Ryūji growled and lashed out with a straight punch that should have rung Issei's bell...except the brown-haired boy dodged to the right and delivered a solid punch to the soldier's solar plexus, driving the breath from the soldier's lungs and making him stagger back and fall to his knees desperately trying to regain his breath.

"So you're stronger than ya look, huh?" Tensei sneered. "I'm a black-belt in karate, you really think that you can beat me without the element of surprise, brat?"

"...did you attend some kind of school for henchmen? Cause that's the only way I can think of that you learned to talk like a brainless goon." Issei asked frankly.

A vein beat a tempo on the man's temple before he shouted and leapt forward to try and deliver a backhand strike. Issei ducked underneath it and smashed a very solid punch between his opponent's legs.

Letting out a sound like a mouse had just been trod upon, Tensei collapsed to the ground, his hands cradling his family jewels and he resisted the urge to cry. Every other male present automatically crossed their legs in an instinctive reflex to protect their manhood.

"You don't fight fair, do ya, kid?" the leader asked casually after taking a moment to survey his two, temporarily out of commission, men.

"Against Purifiers? After a former member of you lot tried to kill me and my parents in a fit of pique because he got kicked out of your organisation? Hell no!" Issei bit out, glaring back at him.

"Ah? Oh, so you're the kid who that weak louse Yoshimura Ryōtarō almost knifed." the man nodded in recognition. "Yeah, I can see you'd not have a good view of us because of that. Lemme guess, you know about the name because he ranted about us?"

"Pretty much." Issei confirmed warily, eyeing the man carefully.

"Looks like you've been training yourself to fight in case someone goes after you again. Sensible, but pointless against us." the man said, drawing out a length of steel from his belt and then snapping it out into full extension, revealing it to be a collapsible baton. "For the Purity of our Species and Souls!"

"For the Purity of our Species and Souls!" the other two echoed. As if it were a vocal command, their helmets clicked and faceplates slid into place on each of them. A burning flame emblem appeared on the faceplate, which was otherwise blank, and the three soldiers started to advance on Issei as well.

Asia watched in horror as her friend put up a valiant fight, but under the attentions of three soldiers, he was beaten unconscious, although not without getting his licks in first. One soldier's faceplate was cracked from when he had taken a hit from one of his compatriots when Issei dodged a strike, while another was muttering uncomfortably from when Issei had dislocated his arm. Only the leader was spared, and even he was breathing hard.

"Little shit." one of the formerly incapacitated men spat. He made to kick at the boy, but the leader punched him in the face. "Wha-...! Leader, why-?!"

"Because he did what he thought was right, you cretin. We can respect that much, at least." the leader growled. "Our objective was the holder of [Twilight Healing] and now we have her. Tensei, Ryūji, you're leading the way back. Ayanokōji, Higashi, take custody of the freak."

"Issei-san!" Asia whimpered worriedly as she was roughly grabbed.

"Worried about your boyfriend?" the leader sneered. "He's just knocked out. He'll wake up a bit sore in an hour or so. You should be more worried about what's going to happen to you."

With Issei

It took all of Issei's control, not to mention every level of his [Composure] skill, to not leap up and start slicing and dicing the Purifiers where they stood. Fun fact: having to act like an ordinary highschool student every day did wonders for levelling [Composure].

He'd noticed that some people were following him and Asia on their little not-date and had taken steps in case something like this happened. He'd slipped off to the toilet while in the fast food place and sneakily used the Gamer's Store to buy the necklace that Asia wore now and keyed it to him. While she wore it, he could track her location on his [Dungeon Finder] app.

While cutting down the idiots had initially occurred to him when they showed up, he decided to track them to their lair and bust Asia out as he trashed the place. Emotionally, the plan left a bad taste in his mouth, but it was the best plan to excise the Purifiers from Kuō Town once and for all. He'd dogeza to Asia once he'd rescued her.

A useful fact that he'd just found out; even with his eyes closed, he could still see the floating notes above people's heads.

Kasuga Heiichirō LV20

[Purifier Flame Fire-team Leader]

Ayanokōji Hideki LV18

[Purifier Flame]

Higashi Hiroyuki LV18

[Purifier Flame]

Ishida Tensei LV17

[Purifier Flame]

Tatsunoko Ryūji LV17

[Purifier Flame]

Letting himself get beaten up was a pain, but thanks to his [Lesser Resilience] perk, which he still had because he kept getting hit by monsters in the dungeon, he had basically taken no damage from it, and, thanks to his [Lesser HP Regeneration] skill, all of the damage he hadn't ignored was now healed. Now all he had to do was wait for the idiots to leave and disarm this stupid dimensional field thing and he could get to tracking them down.

The proper name for the field they'd set up was a [Dimensional Arena], and he had no clue as to how they'd gotten their hands on it. From what he'd gathered from his research via the [Gamer's Gear], magic to do with time, space and gravity was rare and hard to come by, and even harder to learn and use. The devils used dimensional battlefield in their Rating Games, but most other supernatural factions only had a handful of users who could use that kind of magic with any degree of skill. As for items that could use it? There were only a handful outside of Sacred Gears.

This field had been generated by using a disposable item, which was ludicrous. Just about the only thing Issei could think of that could make something like that was the [Gamer's Gear], and he certainly hadn't used the store to buy these things!

That left one, rather uncomfortable, conclusion for him to make...the [Tartarus Gamer's Gear] holder was selling things from their [Gamer's Store] to the Purifiers. Whether or not they were a member of the Purifiers or not was unknown, but it was the only explanation that made sense to Issei with the limited information he had.

[Dimensional Arena] has been taken down!

Opening his eyes, Issei dismissed the thoughts he had been considering for the moment. He had a damsel in distress to rescue.

Leaving the park at a run, the Gamer ducked into an alley and changed into his battle rattle, including a new cloak, the [Cameleoline Cloak], that he hurriedly bought. It basically let him blend in to his surroundings almost perfectly, but was useless against all magical detection methods, which was why he hadn't bought it before now.

Suitably dressed for the occasion, Issei checked the locator to see that Asia was still moving, so he'd have to start playing catch-up. Activating [Basic Magic Body Enhancement] in haste, he then used [Power Leap] repeatedly to climb to the rooftops before setting out in the direction that Asia was headed.

'She must be in a van or something.' the Sekiryūtei thought as he leapfrogged from rooftop to rooftop. 'Gun control in Japan's crazy strict, so they'd have had to have set up that [Dimensional Arena] ahead of time and then waited in their van for us to trip the trap before entering into the arena directly. Sneaky bastards.'

For acceptable deductive and logical reasoning, you gain +1 WIS!

Issei swore that he would [Power Strike] whatever being infested his [Gaming Gear] if it was his last act on Earth!

Whatever vehicle was carrying Asia was making stops and starts inconsistent with the locations of traffic lights and the flow of traffic, from what Issei could discern; it looked as if they were doing some sort of scheduled meet-ups with other people for some reason.

A horrible thought occurred to him; what if Asia wasn't the only person captured by these lunatics? What if there were more of them? It hadn't occurred to him that they might try a massive grab operation, even as late in the day as it was. He'd have to think about how to deal with that situation if it came up.

Finally, he spotted his quarry. It was a large van, blue in colour, rusty here and there, but otherwise unobtrusive and completely ignorable thanks to the sticker on the side that proclaimed it to belong to a company that performed sewage system repairs, Pure Drains.

Seriously, they weren't even trying to be subtle with that name.

Following them was easy, but with a cloak that made him all but invisible that was to be expected. Plus, it looked as if the Purifiers were finished with their little starts and stops and were in the process of heading back to their base, so they were being pretty sloppy in regards to keeping an eye out for anything or anyone following them.

On the bright side, this whole day was doing wonders for his skills; his [Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery] skill had gone up by three levels to Level 4 from fighting the morons, plus his [Basic Magic Body Enhancement] and [Power Leap] skills were also levelling pretty well, with both almost at Level 3. Every cloud has a silver lining, after all.

"C'mon, where are you going?" Issei muttered impatiently as the van just seemed to drive around aimlessly for about fifteen minutes. "Hurry it up already."

He'd taken the liberty of turning his phone off, just in case his mother or father decided to call him at an inopportune moment. He'd seen enough films and played enough games to know that he wanted no part of that particular trope. He couldn't risk a full-on charge into the facility (once the idiots in the van stopped playing around as if they were on a fetch quest in Grand Theft Auto); for all he knew, they had some sort of self-destruct system like the Project Rat King site had possessed.

Or worse, they could use Asia as a hostage or even kill her if they thought they were losing.

No, stealth would be the name of the game once he got inside...at least until he got Asia and any others out.

After another five minutes of the van playing around, it finally headed towards the northern outer edge of Kuō Town, where there were factories, warehouses and other industrial-type buildings. At the very outermost edge of the town was a single walled factory compound, complete with the same 'Pure Drains' symbol that was on the van.

Having spotted that ahead of time, Issei made sure to get ahead of the van and leap over the wall before clambering up the drainpipe on the side of the building to a ledge before watching his quarry enter the compound and drive up to the loading dock and then watch the driver get out and throw the rear doors open, revealing five people, most of whom Issei knew.

Blinking in shock, Issei spotted not only Asia among the captured people, but Murayama and Katase, as well as a Third Year girl called Abe Kiyome and his perverted female classmate Kiryū Aika. The last was a guy who looked green from the travel, with sienna-coloured hair and pretty casual clothes. He looked as if he had just been snatched off the street, much like the others.

"Great. Now I have to save five more people, plus however many other people are held captive in here." the boy grumbled. "Just wonderful. Oh for...!"

His curse came as a quest screen appeared in front of him.

[Quest Alert!]

A Dragon Gamer to save the Damsels: Asia Argento, Kiryū Aika, Abe Kiyome, Murayama Keiko, Katase Reiko and an unknown boy have been kidnapped by the Purifiers and taken to their last base in the Kuō Town Area for an unknown purpose, but as it is the Purifiers, it cannot be with their best interests in mind. Rescue all whom you can, and put the facility to the sword so that the Purifiers lose their last foothold in Kuō Town.

Quest Objective 1: Rescue Asia Argento

Quest Objective 2: Rescue Murayama Keiko, Katase Reiko, Kiryū Aika, Abe Kiyone and the unknown boy.

Quest Objective 3: Destroy the [Last Redoubt of the Pure] Dungeon.

Warning: there are three Hidden Objectives on this Quest. Search everywhere and act cautiously to discover them all!

Quest Reward 1: ¥10000, Improved Reputation with [Asia Argento].

Quest Reward 2: Improved Reputation with [Murayama Keiko], [Katase Reiko], [Kiryū Aika], [Abe Kiyone] and [?], X1 Rare Skill Book.

Quest Reward 3: [At War] Status with [Purifiers], ¥50000, X3 Random pieces of Rare Equipment, Mystery prize.

This Quest is mandatory and has been auto-accepted. Let's face it, you wouldn't have said no anyway.

"Smug, snarky bastard." Issei muttered. Dismissing the window with a sharp gesture, he looked around for a way in to the building. He was doubtful that he could pull a Bruce Willis from the first Die Hard film and crawl through the air ducts, and entering through the doors at the front or back was out of the question. That left windows, and fortunately, there were several windows on the ledge he stood on. Most were closed, but thankfully, a few people were sloppy enough to leave some open. A few even had the security latches unhooked.

From stories his father had told him about office workers, Issei guessed that these windows were the result of some people having a quiet smoke without their supervisors noticing. Typical people who use cancer sticks. Issei had no desire to befoul his body with them, no way!

As he reached for the window, yet another screen popped up in front of him.

[Warning!]

You are about to enter the enemy fortress-slash-dungeon [Last Redoubt of the Pure] (LV20). Unlike conventional dungeons, this one is fully under the control of your enemies and has active and passive systems designed to track mundane camouflage methods.

Do you wish to continue?

Y/N

Issei quickly equipped the [Cloak of Shadows] and hit 'Y' before sinking into the shadows and speeding into the building, looking for the security room. There had to be one, a place where the Flints watched over a bunch of security screens and sipped coffee while scientists did who-knows-what to innocent people elsewhere.

'ENOUGH! Focus yourself!' Issei jarred himself back into focus. He had to cut off their eyes and ears in the building first, then he could track down any self-destruct systems that the place had and disable them. THEN he would track down Asia and the others, and so help him if a single strand of hair on Asia's head was hurt...!

[Gamer's Mind] activated!

Whew, that was such a useful trick!

Being able to merge with the shadows was by far the coolest part of this cloak's abilities; he was so glad that he'd chosen it when he'd driven off Deathmaster Snikch. It was making getting around the facility a breeze, speeding right past guards, under doors as if they weren't there and...hello there, looks as if he'd just found his first target!

The security room was actually pretty damned big, with an entire wall of screens being watched...or not as the case may be...by a single guard...who was currently snoring like a chainsaw. Very loudly. With his feet up on the desk.

Okay, maybe this wasn't going to be nearly as much of an uphill slog as he'd imagined.

Just to be safe, Issei checked around the area for any hidden booby-traps or hidden guards that he couldn't see. He found none, but he did find a key to the base's self-destruct sequence, along with a simple instruction pamphlet on how the system worked, in a small room that had its way barred by infrared lasers. Not much of a barrier to him. In under the sensors, grab the items, into the inventory, back into shadows and back into the main security room.

There hadn't even been a weight or pressure sensitive plate to sound an alarm if the key was taken. A part of Issei, the part that was fond of puzzle games, was somewhat offended by the Purifiers' lackadaisical security measures, while the majority of him was glad for it; no need to make his job any harder than it already was.

Knocking out the guard wasn't hard, nor was hiding him in the nearby storage closet after binding him up nice and tight with a [Rope Binding Prison] (he'd purchased a large amount of rope from the Store after he'd first gotten it for just such an occasion). Figuring out how to disable the security systems was a tougher one, but buying a spell scroll that rendered all electrical appliances inert within a certain area was easy enough, as was deactivating most of the sensors and alarms, swiftly followed by wrecking the controls so they couldn't be reactivated later.

Taking a look at the pamphlet, it turned out that, while there were three keys for the facility's self-destruct system, only two were actually necessary to initialize it. The Day Security Officer had access to one, the Chief Scientist had one and the Facility Head had one. There were two initialization devices in the facility, in the Facility Head's office and in the Chief Scientist's office. All it took was a moment to insert the keys, turn them in unison and ten minutes later, the facility would implode.

The Facility Head was the obvious target here; isolated in his office, Issei could simply deal with him and take his key before going to the Chief Scientist's office and wrecking the console for the self-destruct there, just in case there was something sneaky there that could bypass the need for keys and trip the self-destruct instantly.

Locking the security room door from the inside (and piling several filing cabinets against it just in case), Issei was about to head out when a ding sounded and a window popped up in front of him.

[Congratulations!]

You have discovered the Hidden Quest Objective: [Blind, Deaf and Dumb]!

Reward deferred until Quest completion.

"Was that really necessary?" Issei muttered with a shake of his head as he dismissed the notification. Then he entered his shadow state, slipped under the door and sped along the corridors looking for the Facility Head's office. He really hoped it wasn't like the one at the Project Rat Poison site; he'd have no chance of ambushing the occupant if everyone and their grandmother could look in through the windows!

"...you heard? There's been five more test subjects brought in!" a voice said from an open door nearby, making Issei pause and slip into the room to lurk in the shadows to listen in.

"Well we are out of the ones that were shipped in from outside of the Kuō area." another man grunted. "That daft quack Tenkūjō goes through them like a fat kid through a bowl of peanuts. And having that nutcase woman Rokka here ain't doing anyone a favour either."

"Yeah, but orders from Command were to NOT touch the local filth without orders." the first man protested. "We've got a large number of supernats in the city, you know!"

"Ichiba couldn't stop Tenkūjō on his lonesome; what makes you think he stand a chance with that Nia woman here too?" the second man scoffed. "Besides, we've been put into the cold; Command's ready to wash their hands of us, so Ichiba's authority here is basically nil right now."

"I suppose." the first man nodded. "When's Tenkūjō gonna start on the specimens? Has he already started?"

"Nah, he's a sadistic bastard. He'll let them stew in the cells for the night before even talking at them." the second man replied. "By the time he actually starts experimenting on them, they'll be too scared to do anything but obey."

"I hear one's a foreigner with a Gear!" the first man said excitedly. "There's also one with a sleeping Gear as well! Both are girls!"

"Poor bitches. They'll regret being born by the time he gets through with them." the second man snorted. "Tenkūjō hates 'unscientific nonsense' like Sacred Gears more than any other type of Supernatural."

Deciding that he'd heard enough for the moment, Issei slipped off and barely restrained his rage at the unfeeling bastards who infested this building. That genocidal bitch Rokka Nia was here as well, which meant that this became all the more complicated.

Of particular interest in the little gossip session that he'd just overheard was the relative powerlessness of the Facility Head; if that was the actual case, there was a good likelihood that he'd had his key removed as well. That's what he'd do in the case of a successful polite-with-menaces takeover bid, anyway. The chances that Rokka Nia had the third key was high.

Ah well. He'd been meaning to do something about her anyway, so it was very nice of her to place herself in his crosshairs so politely. Oh, and there she was right now, walking down the corridor next to someone. How convenient!

Rokka Nia LV19

[Deputy Head Scientist of Project Damocles]

Tenkūjō Arima LV20

[Head Scientist of Project Damocles]

Huh, so she'd levelled up twice since he'd last seen her. That was quick.

Turning his attention to Tenkūjō, Issei recoiled slightly. Freakily, the guy looked a bit like an older version of Kiba Yūto, albeit with long black hair and a couple of scars across his face. He also had brown eyes and let of a sort of aura that made Issei feel uneasy about being near him.

"Kukuku...with these new test subjects, I can finally figure out how to extract a Sacred Gear without relying on such ridiculous things as 'magic' or 'supernatural powers'." the man crowed. "I think that blonde girl first...she has the only awakened Sacred Gear. I'll use the one in the glasses next."

"Sounds like a plan." Nia replied, her face sly and seductive. "How does dinner in my quarters sound tonight, Arima?"

"Very pleasant, my dear..." the Head Scientist smirked back. "Very pleasant indeed."

Okay, those two gave Issei the shivers. Evidently they were an item, although whether Nia had seduced him to avoid punishment after fleeing Project Rat Poison or if they were a long-standing couple he didn't know. They were both insane bigots, so they were welcome to one another so far as he was concerned.

Speeding along past them, leaping from shadow to shadow, Issei investigated everywhere he could get into, which was most of the building above-ground. There was a basement, which was likely where Asia and the others were being held. Where on earth was the Project Head's office?!

After ten more minutes of frantic searching (and finding only useless stuff to do with the cover business of Pure Drains), the Sekiryūtei was forced to conclude that the office was likely in the lower levels, so that's where he had to go. Finding the elevators was easy; they were 'hidden' under the main stairway, and people used them all the time, to the point that tracks were left in the floor tiles. Why they even bothered hiding the doors was beyond him, but they likely explained it away as a refurbishment issue or something.

Zipping through the doors and down the elevator shaft, Issei kept an eye out for any cracks of light that would indicate doors. It wasn't a very big elevator shaft, maybe as tall as a two-story house, if that, and there was only a single exit at the very bottom.

Exiting there, Issei had to quickly move to the ceiling, as the corridors were barren of any clutter or equipment like the aboveground building was, plus the décor was the same eye-watering shade of white as the Project Rat Poison base had been. Reduced to skipping between the lights, Issei made it to a large room that, thankfully, had a lot of stuff casting shadows for him to hide in. The stuff in question were a bunch of cork-boards that had what looked like the scribblings of a madman, combined with pictures of people in various stages of being dismembered...some of them looking as if they had still been alive and conscious as it was being done.

Manfully restraining the urge to throw up, Issei started to grimly search the underground floor for his quarry. The person in charge of this charnel pit was in for a reckoning.

After a few minutes, Issei finally found his target, locked in a positively palatial office and sipping a thumb of whiskey. He was a fat, balding man dressed in an ill-fitting silk suit, with a weak chin and watery grey eyes. All in all, he practically screamed 'bureaucratic weenie' from every pore of his body, which explained his title.

Ichiba Hirohito LV25

[Puppet Facility Head of Project Damocles]

So he had either been reduced to a puppet by Tenkūjō after being put into the cold by Purifier Command, or he had been a figurehead from the get-go. While amusing, it didn't change the fact that Issei had some questions, and Ichiba was going to answer them.

"...stupid bastards. Why me? Why am I lumped with this shitty position?" the man whinged to himself as he nursed his drink. "What did I ever do to deserve this kind of treatment?"

Appearing out of the shadows at his side, Issei drew his [Bloodmetal Gladius] and placed the edge at the man's neck, making him freeze. Ichiba's eyes bulged out of their sockets as they took Issei's armoured form in.

"Ichiba Hirohito, your Angel of Death had come for you." Issei intoned, the flat, monotone of his disguised voice making the pronouncement all the more intimidating, judging by the cold sweat that the man was now dripping in as his foot started to reach out to press a button under his desk. "Do not bother trying to press that button that would sound an alarm; I have rendered this room quite isolated to the outside."

"Wh-who are you? Wh-what do you want?" the man gibbered in fear, his foot retreating.

"I am going to ask questions. You are going to answer them." the Gamer stated softly. "If an answer is unsatisfactory, I will make you wish you had never been born. Then I will ask again. You don't want to know what will happen if I dislike your answer a second time. Am. I. Clear?"

"Y-Yes...!" Ichiba burbled fearfully.

"Good. Now then..." Issei said with satisfaction at his successful intimidation. "Start talking. I want to know everything about this facility and its secrets."

With a whimper, Ichiba started to talk.

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Next Chapter: The Great Escape And Mecha Battle

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