They walked to the room and they saw her wrapped in bandages they couldn't see her face at all but Issei knew who it was
Issei: rias.....
Grayfia: we are not sure how she survived but she's in very critical condition the healing process is similar to yours when you first interact with the cursed spirit in Stonehedge and we struggled to heal you
Issei: hmmm
Sirzehcs: what's on your mind?
Issei: do you trust me?
Sirzechs: yes I do but what are you planning to do
Issei: she's currently in an eternal slumber I can bring her back but we need to heal her first
Ravel: go ahead and do what you need to do we can start healing her
Akeno: she's right do what you need to do my love
He nodded and sat on the ground on the bed in front of her
Issei: right no matter what don't disturb my concentration it could complicate things
They all nodded.
Sirzechs: we will leave you be we going to go and finalize the plans for our attack
Issei: be sure to keep me up-to-date with it hopefully this doesn't take too long
He closed his eyes and started to listen to her heart, and he was pulled into a void in the forest
Issei: her mindscape just looked as elegant as her body it was calming but Issei could feel the power of guilt dread and even sadness
He started walking and saw a small girl with red hair and blue eyes walking around the forest he went to her and followed her bit and as were walking to a mother girl that was sitting alone in the forest she had long dark hair and realized it was akeno
Rias: will you give your life to me?
She held her hand out and akeno took it without a second thought and saw how she became rias queen
He tried to go to them but went through them like a ghost
Issei:" I must be seeing her memories"
He continued to walk and on his walk, he saw Kiba get taken in and even koneko get given to her by Sirzechs
He then came to recent memory and saw her looking at him from the club room
Rias: akeno who is that boy?
Akeno: his name is Issei Hyoudou, why?
Rias: oh no just curious is all
The memory changed a bit more and saw him being saved by her and watched everything through her eyes
Rias: hes amazing he is the perfect man, I love you ise, YOU DUMBASS CANT YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT FOR THE LOVE OF SATAN STOP BEING PERVERTED AND USE YOUR DAMN BRAIN, Satan maybe I should have married Riser instead
He looked more at this memory and wanted to see what was going through her head
Rias: don't you love me, why can't you just say my name, please just say my name it's like you're forgetting about me and I don't want you to leave me
He saw her memories change and saw it turn to blind anger
Rias: im questioning it every day maybe it was when he rescued me from Riser I don't know from there anymore but im sticking with what I said, maybe I should have married Riser, look at him now hes such a gentlemen, he's honestly made riser a better option for me...
Issei:" Hmmm I remember this it hurt but I don't think I handled that well at all"
He carried on walking and saw them when they came back that night.
Rias: (crying) I'm such a selfish person I don't deserve the things I have I don't deserve him and he can do so much better than me I think he saved Riser from me I'm such a horrible person
Issei:" Wait what"
He looked at the memory and she was sitting alone in the room crying her heart out.
Rias: (crying) Who do I think I am, I let my spoiled self hurt him because he didn't deserve anything that I put him through I wouldn't hold it against him if he wants to call off the engagement, I don't deserve to stay in this house it's his home, not mine... I hope tomorrow is better *.*
He continued walking in this direction to see where her memories were.
Rias:" Why did this happen? Have his parents always been this hard on him? For as long as we have been here, I don't think any of us have seen his parents being like this... and to top it all off they are on our side and not his..."
He saw Irina run out after him and then saw the memory change to when they first saw him sing
Rias" It's not fair.. we hurt him and he's the only one experiencing the pain is him... we hurt him and we need to make things right "
He watched the memory change and saw her crying her heart out
Rias: (crying) im so sorry, im sorry please come back to me, I'll do anything to have you back *sniff*, I can't keep feeling sorry for myself I need to bring him back and fix things with him"
He watched them put in the effort and courage to get him and watched her heartbreak when he told them that they killed him and how her heart raced when they were given a a second chance to be with him, watching her watch her see him at his first concert and how her heart raced seeing how good he looked and how she linked the thoughts of him to when he got his first car and seeing Irina there and not feeling fully jealous seeing that he was with Irina and how close they were now compared to how he was with her
Issei:" She turned into a complete mess, but It looks like it was her motivation to do better by me even"
He saw how she changed her everything to make it right and saw the progress she saw in the others
He walked again and saw something that confused him.
He saw a young version of Rias running from a camel and it constantly chased her around the garden and how she was screaming in fear
Issei: what in the world?
He then carried on walking and found a looking rias just looking at the void in her head he sat down next to it
Issei: hey
Rias(sad) hey...
Issei: something wrong?
Rias: I feel weak...
Issei: how come?
Rias: that demon, the real you tried to save us and you couldn't and we couldn't help ourselves, we were in over our heads, and none of us was ready for that I wish we spent the last 3 years training like the real you did
Issei: why do you refer to me as the real me are you saying I'm fake
Rias: I don't know if this is the real you or not you don't look like him but my heart says it is
Issei: so you conflicted?
Rias: I think so but either way I just don't know
Issei: well what do you want most of all
Rias: I want you, I ruined my own life with my actions you didn't deserve anything we did to you even though you took us back I don't feel like I can come back to you I'm not deserving of any love I am the ruin princess, I just ruin everything around me and I don't like it make I want to be happy but I can't make anything work everything is ruined around me, you don't even want to be with me anymore you don't love me anymore
Issei: when did I say that rias?
Rias: your actions say it all
Issei: what actions?
Rias: you didn't come back to us when you got healed we thought you were dead it broke seeing your body broke us entirely we lost the love of our life and when you came back and said you've been busy it made me realize you don't love me anymore I ruined your life and I don't hold It against it you but if you love something you have to let it go I just want things be normal again but I know they cant
Issei: hey remember when I kissed you before I was attacked?
She looked at him and flashed back to when he and she were caring for akeno when she was drugged they shared a kiss which led to a full-on make-out session but they stopped themselves from going further
She nodded at him
Issei: it was a promise to never leave each other, and I keep my promises
Rias: so-
Issei: Yeah but right now you injured I need you to come back to me
Rias: oh yea the demon blasted us how many survivors were there
Issei: you...
Rias: (shocked) that means
Issei: Yeah they didn't make it now wake up I need you with me
Rias: what do you mean I am awake
Issei: no you have the same curse that I saved your aunt from
Rias: the eternal slumber curse...
Issei: that's right
Rias: but
Issei: just take my hand
He held his hand out for her to take she looked at him and then gently took his hand and the world around them broke
Issei opened his eyes and saw the sun starting to rise and the girls sleeping around him rias looked healed but was covered in a lot of scars the biggest one being the scars on her face
He looked around him and saw the girls had a mark on their necks showing they were marked by him
He shrugged his shoulders and went back to sleep with them around him on the ground
1hr later
He opened his eyes and saw the sky was clear he then sat up more and the girls slowly opened their eyes seeing that it was morning already they slowly got up and stood around Rias she was still sleeping but they stood around the bed.
Issei: those are some bad scars
Akeno: hmm she healed but we couldn't do much Asia had that ability but since she's gone it's the best we could have done
Issei: im sure it's alright
He cupped her face and gently traced one of the scares with his hand
Rossweisse: sure she may be alright but why isn't she wake
Issei leaned over to akeno and whispered in her ear, they watched as akeno eyes widened and she covered her smile with her hand
Akeno: (holding back a laugh) Darling that will be far too evil even for you
Ravel: (curious) ise what are you planning?
Irina: hmm it's weird for you to do something evil...
He looked at them and saw them looking a bit confused
Koruka: hmm I'm curious too
Issei: I want to make a rule that I'm the only one to use this power do you agree with me?
They nodded
Issei: All alright you can tase her later about it but right now *clears through* hey girls is that camel coming close to Rias?
Within seconds, she started screaming in fear covering herself with the blanket that covered her
Her screaming alerted Sirzechs and Grayfia with her mother and father they saw Issei standing near her with the others so they knew everything was fine but the screaming set them off
Rias:(freaking out) NO NO NO NO NO NO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I DON'T WANT IT NEAR ME SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME ISSEI PLEASE GET THE CAMEL AWAY FROM ME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
They all held back a bit of a laugh seeing her freak out like this
Issei: (holding back a laugh) rias lookup
She removed the blanket from her head and they could see tears in her eyes as she removed it, it took her a few seconds looking so confused but then her face started turning red and she was embarrassed
Rias: not fair, how did you know about that? I didn't tell you
Issei: I mean I saw it in your head when I brought you back.
Rias:(blushing) Huh that wasn't a dream?
Issei: no I brought you back from eternal slumber so what happened was all real
She started blushing more and then covered her face with the blanket again
Sirzechs: im happy she's alive but Issei do you mind getting her up to date then I want all of you to be ready for some training.g
Issei: sure
He nodded and Sirzechs along with his parents and wife left them in rias room
Rias: (blushing) What did he mean get me up to date
Issei: xenovia koneko kiba Arthur are dead... vali biko yaska and kouno are badbly hurt
It took a few seconds for her to process then it hit her and tears started forming in all the girl's eyes, needing to fully accept the outcome was difficult but they needed to
Issei: I think when the demon attacked and I tried to grab some of you so did kiba and Arthur probably tried to do the same and they got killed in the process... you are the only survivor from the attack that was the worst vali and biko were hit away with Sirzechs and the others... yasaka and kouno are after injuries from the aftershock
Rias:(tearing up) but
Issei: there is nothing they are dead I know it's a hard pill to swallow but it needs to be done we can feel sorry for ourselves another day Im already having a hard time but we need to put it aside and focus on the bigger things right now
They knew he was right but it still hurt for all of them not to think about the death of their friends, issei saw this and didn't like how they were crying he didn't want any of them to cry at all, he took a deep breath and spoke
Issei: all right that's enough you have a choice now either be sad about the loss of your friends or come with me right now and help me get payback,
The others nodded
Irina: hes right we can deal with this afterwards *sniff* we first need to deal with the problem at hand
They all nodded and then looked at Rias
Rias: (wiping her tears away) Please take me with you they hurt my family I won't let them live
He held out his hand for her to take and she took it and he helped her out of bed he then left the girls to go and talk to yasaka and kouno
Rias: hey what's the mark on your necks?
They looked at each other and saw the small dragon mark on all their necks
Akeno: I think when we bonded with Issei this is what he meant by being marked by him
Rias: so you've all been marked by him?
They nodded
With Issei he found ophis and Lilith eating sweets and regaining their strength with Milicas he then found Sirzehcs with Azazel Serafall Vali and biko
Vali: huh so you did live
Issei: that's right now then what have you done so far?
Sirzehcs: brought my peerage out of retirement
Serafall: ive done the same
Azazel: ive brought a team I put together I call them Team Slashdog micheal is preparing as well
Issei: and you two
Biko: im ready to go im not letting that thing get the best of me this time
Vali: I can see you planning to go to Kyoto again
Issei: hmm that's right right now I want each of you to work on your power level and output if theres another demon then you can handle it, vali get your head out our ass or get hurt again we losing too many people to live comfortably afterwards
Sirzechs: what does that mean ise
The girls walked behind him but he didn't see them
Issei: right now all of you are liabilities to me as it stands and im going now to kick that demon's ass, but if you want to help at least have ophis say you're ready it shouldn't take too long they read power improvement, any loss you had now put it aside one demon took you out and you had casualties, now then im going to regain one of my bride's homes back
He opened a portal and jumped through
Ravel: hes right we need to get stronger while he was training for the past three years we didn't do much we are liabilities for him and the last fight proved that
Vali: well you heard him let's get to work immediately
They nodded and started to try and raise their power levels
With issei as he fell through the portal he then opened his dragon wings and dived towards the energy hot spot he put his hands together made a large spike and hit the hot spot dead on creating a shift in the tectonic plates
He was pushed back and the demon made itself known and it grinned at him
Issei: (angry) let's see if you keep that smile after round two
They charged each other and each strike from a punch or even a kick shook the earth, he was jumping all around it hitting it with extreme force black lighting followed each hit as he clapped back at it
He pushed the demon back and brought out two scale swords and added his fire and lighting to it with his added cursed energy to hit it in a straight line at its apex
And started cutting the demon down but it blasted him with the same attack he used to kill some of his friends and landed him on the ground.
He lay there smoking and the demon looked over him with an even bigger girn
Issei opened his eyes and they turned into dragon slits and they started releasing fire
Issei: (grinning) round 3
He rushed the demon drilling it deeper into the ground and deeper into the ground each time sending enough lighting through it that would vaporise anything
It pushed him back it was seriously hurt and it looked at him
Issei: dragon secret art territory
The area around them started becoming orange with the heat rising and rising further
Issei started turning orange himslef with the power he looked at the confused demon and grinned
Issei: die
As he launched at it it caused a large enough explosion that looked like a nuke went off
The others felt the disturbance in the underworld and the wild range of power leaking and running everywhere
Sirzehcs: it's been a hour since he left you don't think?
Lilith: onni-chan killed the demon it released all the natural power that it had taken
They were shocked they spent nearly a whole day the first time they fought it and then he did it in less than an hour and killed it alone
Rias: we do hold him back....
They then teleported to Kyoto and saw the rubble and the body of the demon lying in the center of the center of what was once the home of yasaka, the heat in the area was intense if they could describe it they walked around and went closer to the demon in search of issei
They met up by the demon's body and found it broken and burnt it was slaughtered in the worst way
Rossweisse: it looks like it was burnt to death or it was part of the beat-down
Rias: hmmm I wonder were Issei is?
The wind blew her hair showing off the massive scars on the side of her face they look bad to others but she seemed fine with them
Vali: heads up
They looked and saw Issei land back down still glowing slightly they could see his skeleton glowing through his skin it didn't even look like a normal skeleton, he was panting he then started glowing more then released all the energy into the sky destroying the vail and opening the clouds he took a deep breath and released all the steam from his body
He powered down and looked at them
Issei: it's dead I made sure of that
Ravel: want a tear or are you okay
He looked down at her and shook his head
Issei: I'll be alright
She nodded and he walked closer to them
Issei: well this place is safe now reconstruction can begin safely
Yaksaka: thank you, my dear
He came closer to her and kouno and healed them abit more using his reversed curse technique and the fur on her tail slowly started coming back
He brought them into a hug and kissed their foreheads
Issei: I want you two to relax while me and the others handle the rest of this ill be back soon
Yasaka: okay be safe
Kouno: please be safe
He nodded then let them go
Issei: now then we need to move on to training and getting the rest of you up to speed things are so bad right now
Azazel: Yeah I agree kid
Issei: (cracks his back) (sadistic grin) run
They looked confused and he started glowing hotter than before so much so they had to take a step back
Sirzechs: (confused) ise what are you doing?
Issei: you know you hold me back now im getting you up to my speed now run or im going to hurt you more than I should
He made a ball of fire in his hands and it started growing more and more, He smiled and then opened a portal and made them fall through it
They were falling into the void and they screamed
When they saw Issei come after them rias and Sirzehcs sent combind attacks of their power of destruction and issei took it in and sent it back at them akeno and rossweissse sent back lightning attacks and he absorbed it and shocked all of them
Irina then surprised the others and pulled out Durandel and used it to push Issei back, Ravel used her flames to try and push everyone forward but it was useless issei took the fire away and blasted them with a dragon breath
They landed in a new land and it looked dangerous
Natsume: what the hell we just met him
Vali: he wants us to get stronger and we not going to get any stronger the way we have been going
Sirzechs: hes right, alright make a front line it's the fire dragon of hell we up against he can slaughter all of us in seconds
Sirzehcs peerage: hai
Azazel: create a formation behind them all of you
They all stood ready to attack but Issei attacked them from behind launching them forward he used his markings and made the world around them go black then he took them out one by one
They all lay on the ground either burnt or scratched up
Issei: stay on your toes you can't keep thinking a plan is always going to work you make a plan B
Azazel: my bad on that judgement everyone
Ravel: if he doesn't kill us Im going to kill you
Tobio: right team slashdot we have an objective lets handle it
They got up and charged him but Issei basically used boogie woogie and mixed them around and hit them and made them attack each other and they were sent flying again while his shikigami were terrorizing them on top of it
He then opened his territory and it started getting hot again
Sirzechs and serafall both sent attacks but they were vaporized before they reached him
Issei: (gins) secret art purgatory
They all started feeling weaker
Koruka stood up and then attacked him using sage magic to make him start seeing things but it didn't seem to faze him
Tobio pulled out his scythe and tried to attack him from behind but he was pushed by a wave of heat that made them all feel weaker
Rias: what now hes pushing us back
Sirzechs: we need just try
They all pushed and Issei snapped his fingers and a huge explosion went around everyone taking them all out
Issei changed his hand position and they looked confused
Issei: domain expansion Chimera Shadow Garden
Black thick shadows spread all around them
Kouki: fuck....
Time skip
They all woke up a few hours later and saw they were in an infirmary covered in band-aid, looking at each other they felt bad they couldn't stand a chance against Issei and he wiped the floor with them with little to no effort
Akeno: so today happened....
Irina: hmmm where is he?
Lavinia: over there
They looked in the corner and saw him sleeping
Ravel: we need to figure something out we can't be this behind
They nodded in agreement
Sirzechs: I miss this feeling of being injured after so long feels good
Serafall: hmmm I agree with you
Issei:(eyes still closed) Good you awake
He opened his eyes and they still looked like dragon slits
Rias: issei, how is Kyoto?
Issei: back to 80% functionality it mainly land that needs to be fixed everything seems to be back to a relative normal I helped them out after I stabilized you
Sirzechs: good, now what's that?
Issei: a cheat in my opinion
He held a massive crystal In his hands it glowed yellow as he held it
Azazel: why am I seeing such a high concentration of magic
Issei: each demon gets stronger with each release and each crystal can be used to either power a generation of power for people or make a permanent power boost to a wielder ive consumed 8...
They kept quiet
Koruka: so you want to give this one to us to boost us
Issei: that's right one piece can get you to Sirzechs in his prime and the more you take the more power you accumulate but ophis did mention that if a normal person is on the weaker end can die because their power is limited to how much their body can hold high class is where you'll see a benefit honestly mid class could only take maybe two before it starts eating away at their bodies and you'll feel the difference of when you have reached a limit
Irina: but what about you
Issei: im a dragon with limitless potential I can only get stronger even when I do eventually reach my end in the next few million years or so then maybe I'll start getting weaker but you all need this if you want to help
He started putting pressure on the crystal and they watched it shatter into a few shards he handed one to each of them
Rossweisse: but what now how does this work?
Issei: fill it with your magic power then pull it back
They all started charging the crystals with magic power and they started glowing various colours that represented them
The crystals started shattering in their hands and the magic flowed back into them
Issei: now rest up tomorrow you will feel the change
They nodded and got comfy
He left the room and took off into the air and they could feel the magic barrier forming around the area they were in
Serafall: he gave us the cheat now let's use it well yea
They all nodded and they got comfy and went back to sleep the next morning they woke up and they could feel the difference in power they possessed
Akeno: oh wow this feels amazing
She looked at her hands and they started sparking
Rias: Let go get ready
They all got out of bed quickly and got ready for the training ahead of them once done they stood infornt of Issei in the garden
Issei: right weaklings let's see what you improved on
Chapter end