The terrorist group Khaos Brigade, led by the Dragon God Ophis.
Comprising the Old Satan Faction—descendants of the original Satan and their loyal Devils—and the Hero Faction, made up of heroes' descendants and reincarnated braves, it also includes smaller factions like mages. A venomous cauldron of aberrations, one might say.
A meeting to address this threat. Normally, answering a summons from the Biblical factions—those who defiled, destroyed, stole, and violated countless mythologies—would be galling. Yet, Ophis, the head of Khaos Brigade, is a problem too significant to ignore. True Dragons aside, she reigns supreme. A dragon long missing, now uniting a criminal syndicate, is undeniably a threat. Information on her movements and each faction's response is vital. Defense is a duty demanded of all rulers, divine or mortal.
Gods from countless mythologies gathered: Biblical, Greek, Norse, Zoroastrian, Celtic, Slavic, Aztec, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African, Indonesian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian…
"I'll start by excusing myself from this meeting."
Hades the Lord of the Underworld declared.
"That's sudden, Lord Hades. May we know why?"
"I'm not getting caught in your mess."
Of course, it wasn't. Hades had little love for other mythologies. Despite his title, he was lenient toward humans, arguably the conscience of the Greek pantheon. Thus, he held no fondness for the Biblical factions—more accurately, he couldn't forgive them.
"I don't care about those two idiots, but I won't suffer your self-inflicted disasters twice. The underworld severs all ties with the Biblical factions. I'm here only to declare that."
"Dehahaha! You don't hold back, Hades!"
"Gahaha! So cold to your brothers!"
Hades sighed coldly at their guffaws, but Sirzechs fixated on a phrase Hades had used.
"Twice?"
"Have you forgotten? That King. The man you still refuse to name. The ancient King of Israel—you can't have forgotten him."
The image of a man's smile flashed in the gods' minds—not a trace of joy or delight, but a grin steeped in rage.
A King who, laughing with fury, vowed to destroy gods, Devils, and Fallen Angels alike. His deeds were unwritten in history, his sins unrecorded in myth. Yet the gods remembered. Perhaps that King's existence sparked their hatred for the Biblical factions.
"I won't let you claim ignorance of what that King did or why. If you'd stayed quiet in his era, this wouldn't have happened. We wouldn't face this age. Nearly every mythology suffered from your folly. If it happens again, our pantheons will end. Perish alone if you must."
"You've got some nerve, Hades."
"You should see Ophis as a threat too. Her goals are unclear. Not just her—the Old Satan Faction wants a new world order. The Hero Faction aims to push human limits. They might even come for your head."
Azazel knew Hades disliked Devils and Fallen Angels, but such open hostility in a public setting was unexpected. Surely Hades didn't want unnecessary enemies.
"Things have changed, crow leader, I got reliable information. Once you hear it, no one would ally with you."
"What? Spill it. Is there a threat in Khaos Brigade worse than Ophis?"
Hades' next words froze every god and deity present.
"Can you stay so smug knowing the Old Satan Faction has that King's ring?"
I'm dreaming.
"Juggernaut Drive."
A voice filled with hatred.
"Use Juggernaut Drive."
Words steeped in resentment.
"To fulfill your desire, you must use Juggernaut Drive."
A spell drowned in despair.
The lingering wills of past Red Dragon Emperors, all meeting wretched ends, push me forward, urging me to leap off the cliff ahead. They weep, telling me I'll die miserably too, to embrace despair now.
"What are you hesitating for, our new Evil of Humanity, comrade?"
The Demon God Zepar.
By absorbing his power, he can now speak freely in my mental world. He mentioned something about… Caspar League? No, that's not quite right. Anyway, I shared what I learned from that beast skulking around Asia's feet.
In return, he told me their truth—their identity, their original sin, their world, their plan.
"Awaken quickly and fulfill your desire."
"My desire is to become the Harem King! You guys are in the way! I won't let you incinerate the Underworld! Sure, I'm all for wrecking the God of the Bible's plan, but—"
"You're not awake, why haven't you told the Satan or the Fallen Angels' Governor-General? What's holding you back?"
His words chilled me to the bone.
"You agreed to end the Underworld and the Biblical factions. We showed you your parallel world self."
One of Zepar's abilities: viewing parallel worlds. The Oppai Dragon Emperor learned of it through that power.
Zepar spoke of my "unborn siblings" from a parallel world. An old man—Vali's grandfather, the original Lucifer, or maybe Lilin—took my parents hostage. I learned about their past. All my peeping and antics… how much pain did I cause Mom and Dad?
In a world without the Demon God Pillars, my parallel self became the Underworld's hero, the "Oppai Dragon" or "Oppai Dragon Emperor." Asia and Xenovia joined Rias's peerage. I'd have awakened my Balance Breaker by poking Rias's breasts. The game with Riser Phenex would've ended before summer. I lost, but I crashed the engagement party, defeated Riser, and broke it off. I fought Saji in the game, summoned an otherworldly God of Breast , unlocked new Red Dragon Emperor potentials, befriended Ophis, the terrorist leader, and barely defeated Cao Cao of the Hero Faction with Samael's poison. When 666 awoke, we handled it with sacrifices. Within a year of reincarnating as a Devil, I became an unprecedented High-Class Devil. It was a grand story.
"That's an idol, pure and simple."
"You could fix everything. You'd make it work. You'd solve this problem. You're salvation, the future, a miracle, hope, possibility. They piled it all on you because they couldn't do it. That's how your parallel self was forced into victory and salvation—by the Biblical factions who lived for millennia, who failed to act properly."
Irresponsible, Zepar sneered, echoed by the lingering wills.
The world always demanded power and rejected love.
Time and again, they chose destruction.
"That burden was forced on your parallel self, as the Beast bearing the Principle of Expectation, you manifested. You're no longer human, Devil, or Demon God Pillar. Ddraig wished you to become a Heavenly Dragon, didn't he? Honor that wish. It's your offering to him. Become the final Red Dragon Emperor."
He's spouting nonsense. Offering? I'm not dead! Well, maybe I am, in a way. Ddraig's just a soul now, without a body.
"Hey, is my thinking right?"
"Your resolve is correct, the Biblical factions are rotten—"
"No, not that. You know what I mean."
Zepar fell silent.
"I understand, comrade, not your resolve to fight, but your root motive, your reasoning about what happened to you. I am a Demon God Pillar, a magecraft formula far beyond human intellect. I'll answer sincerely."
He paused, then said simply.
"I don't know."
He wasn't joking.
"There's not enough to judge. No, it's an event beyond judgment. Any conclusion is meaningless, valueless."
I started to protest, but his next words stopped me.
"Because your conclusion won't change. Whether your thoughts are fact or delusion, your conclusion remains. Am I wrong?"
"…No."
"It was just bad luck, wasn't it?"
Exactly. I was unlucky. Misfortunate. Unhappy.
But what was my bad luck?
Being chosen by the Red Dragon Emperor's Sacred Gear?
The Fallen Angels discovering my powerful Sacred Gear?
Or Rias Gremory being the Devil who ruled Kuoh Town?
"Whether Rias Gremory deliberately overlooked Raynare, the Fallen Angel, or let you die to make you her servant. Whether that day was all orchestrated. It doesn't matter. Either way, you died because of that Devil."
Yeah, exactly.
"Normally, it'd be coincidence, she might've feared the impact on Devil-Fallen Angel relations, given her status as the Satan's sister. Letting one human die isn't unnatural. But is that Rias Gremory's nature? She rejected an engagement—a noble's duty—for love. She didn't report a Fallen Angel leader invading her territory to the Satan. She took in a half-Fallen Angel girl and a near-executed nekomata as servants. She was present for the Holy Sword Project's test subject and a half-vampire on death's door. Including you, that's three. Can such coincidences exist? For Kiba Yuuto and Gasper Vladi, it means she soughtsuchplaces. Would such a woman tolerate a rival faction running rampant in her territory? Does she have the finesse to balance faction dynamics?"
But it was sudden, wasn't it? That day, I happened to have a Devil-summoning flyer. My desire to live was so strong, I summoned a Devil. Everyone else was busy, so the King, Rias, came. She used all eight Pawn pieces to reincarnate me because she desperately wanted me in her peerage. That's what she said.
"Rias Gremory knew Raynare—not just her appearance, but her name. Proof she'd investigated beforehand. The day Raynare killed you, you had that flyer. The summoned Devil was a King with Evil Pieces. Was that truly chance or fate? Would she use all eight Pawn pieces on an unknown Sacred Gear?"
Like a mystery bag—contents unknown, only the price clear, guaranteed to match its value. But Evil Pieces aren't replaceable, Rias said. Would she gamble something so precious?
"Did that Gremory counterfeit ever tell you one true thing?"
Who killed me?
"It's time for treatment, so I'll take my leave."
He said his piece and… treatment? Is he sick?
"This is a trial to reach our zenith, a step to break free from that accursed god's curse. We'll meet again in perfect condition, comrade."
"Begin treatment for the next patient. Prepare the 'medication.'"
"Yes, Doctor!"
"I don't want to die! I won't die!"
"Life, death, life, death, life, death! This repeating pain recalls that battle. Why must we endure this…!? Just end it…!"
"Someone shut Andras and Phenex up! Gaaah!"
"Goetia, hang in there. After this, amusement park."
"That's just what you want, aaargh!"
"…Professor, what's happening?"
"Ophis's snakes, see? They're imbued with a special ability to consume the factors manipulating the Demon God Pillars' thoughts. Like administering a serum. Only Ophis, on Goetia's level, can do this. Fascinating."
"It doesn't look fascinating…"
"The Pillars are screaming in agony…"
"Well, their insides are being munched on."
"Urp."
"It hurts! I don't want this!"
"Couldn't we have made anesthesia?"
"This is too cruel…"
"With this many patients, no time! Emergency treatment!"
"Pain is proof of life!"
"Cutting us open and stuffing it in—guaaaah!"
"Curse that falsely defined god! You've reduced us to this…!"
—That god.
We swore again: he must not be forgiven.
"Cruzelei! Is it true they found that accursed man's ring!?"
"Yes. While searching for a way to counter those fakes, I found the original's legacy."
"Kukuku… kuhahahaha! This battle is ours! With the ring, those fakes have no chance. No, every mythology will bow to us! The God of the Bible's death was a stroke of fortune! Michael forgot to retrieve it, eh?"
"Yes, Lord Shalba! Those fakes have no choice but to perish!"
"The true Satan will rule the next world!"
"This will avenge Lady Katerea!"
"All hail the true Satan!"
"Well done, Cruzelei! …What's wrong, Cruzelei?"
"…No, it's just… truly pathetic. I can only laugh. Seems I can only laugh at things like this. To think my accomplices, Asmodeus and Beelzebub's descendants, have fallen so low. Why did I bother swapping my ring? I even tricked Asmodeus into yielding his rank to Asmoday. And the ring's truth wasn't even passed down."
"Cruzelei?"
"Lord Cruzelei?"
"…Cruzelei?"
"I am Solomon."
***
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