Chapter 96
"Now, now. Please calm yourselves." Intervening between anything could happen Michael skillfully defused the situation. Then again, considering that nothing was going to happen in the first place it wasn't quite necessary.
"You're strong Miss Quarta, so slow down." Damian advised, his words hypocritical considering why he had come here. Xenovia was the angel's representative in this war alongside Dulio Gesualdo and was an extremely powerful warrior. And regretfully it was Damian's fault.
"Mhm." Despite grunting in approval it was clear that Xenovia had no intention of actually following his request. And it wasn't like Damian could be angry at her either, he had and would do the same thing in her shoes.
A few months ago, Xenovia Quarta and her partner Irina Shidou had gone on a mission to investigate the existence of a colony of stray devils. In the process, they discovered a human trafficking ring and decided to push forward.
According to the information he was aware of, Damian was confident that the 'flamboyant' and smug man with clearly altered hair was Rizevim Livan Lucifer. Why the man would be running such a place Damian had no idea but it didn't quite matter.
When faced with an opponent such as Rizevim, it was only natural that the two of them were defeated. In an attempt to save her friend and partner, Irina Shidou sacrificed her life to allow Xenovia to escape.
To a normal person, this had nothing to do with Damian at all. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Damian had many changes to the timeline over the years, Asia Argentio serving as a perfect example as she remained a nun to this day.
However, not all of them were positive. Because Kokabiel hadn't stolen the Excalibur Fragments the church had no reason to send people after him which inevitably meant that neither of the Church Duo had met either Rias or Damian himself.
With one of the major events in their path to strength gone, they were weakened drastically and put onto a path of ruination. Worse still, the human trafficking ring was arguably Damian's fault as well.
Multiple years ago at this point, Damian had invaded the Vampire Faction to get Valerie Tepes for his peerage. A few things happened here or there and he, alongside his peerage, ended up killing plenty of them in what was now called the Evil Dragon War.
Rizevim hadn't been present for whatever reason but Marius Tepes had no reservations in unleashing the failsafe given to him by the son of Lucifer. Unfortunately, that meant he and all his close allies had been turned into dragons.
Yet, despite being called a war it was extraordinarily small in scale. There were only a few hundred evil dragons and they were all defeated easily enough by Ordes alone which granted him his title of Emperor.
In the war, Damian had stolen back the snatched Sephiroth Graals, drastically weakened and exposed the faction Rizevim had been sponsoring, and essentially reset the century old devil's progress back to zero.
Maybe it was a bit of fun on the side or it could have been his new opportunity, Damian wasn't sure. All he knew for certain was that his actions caused the death of Irina Shidou and the current state of Xenovia was his fault as well.
"So, how exactly do you plan to fight against Hades?" Michael asked after determining that the two had calmed their fighting spirit. Xenovia was one to fight for as long as she wanted if it meant growing and Damian was one to accept that request so he couldn't lower his guard.
"Right now, my peerage is visiting the lands of the dead for each faction to lower the number of Gods on their side. The Grim Reapers can be ignored since I 'hired' somebody for them and Hades is already on the backfoot at this point. All I need is support." Damian replied confidently.
The forces Hades had were both substantial and powerful however that didn't mean they were invincible. The gods were almost always separated and with Rizevim's information he knew which ones were on the naughty list so he sent his 'elves' to hunt them down.
The Grim Reapers, on the other hand, were an interesting story. They had numbers so large that it would take a lot of manpower just to keep them at bay even if they weren't particularly strong compared to his allies. But, as he said, he found somebody for that.
Hades was and always has been the biggest issue. As the ninth strongest being, he was no weakling, and fighting a god of death in his realm was naturally going to be an issue. Luckily, he had a method that should work fine.
Combining the forces of his, Rias, and Sona's peerage gave them a strong foundation to work on while the Longinus users made up a strong spear. Despite that though, the true offense would be the four battle crazed maniacs under his employ.
"Is that so? Then I'll take it, you'll win?" Despite asking the question confidently, Michael wasn't quite at that level. Hades was strong, overwhelmingly so. Even Michael had little confidence in beating him in combat let alone a gathering of children.
"We will." Damian had no doubts in his mind that they'd win, after all, he trusted them. And even if Hades somehow proved himself stronger than Damian expected by leaps and bounds Damian trusted them to wait for him.
His battle with ExE would be long in all likelihood but Damian trusted himself to come out victorious in time. Either they win or they stall, there is no chance of defeat. Besides, he has a few extra cards up his sleeves.
"Then I shall place my trust in you. Please take care of Xenovia and the rest." Solemnly making a request Michael bowed to Damian in a mix of gratitude and pleading. Michael, despite his status as the leader of the Angels, was a sentimental man who wouldn't wish harm on a bug.
"Of course. If there's even a single major injury I'll give you my heart on a silver platter." It was a serious promise on the part of Damian and he had no intentions of giving away his heart. They would win and they would win easily.
After all, Damian had been preparing for nearly twenty years for this day.
****
Make sure to support me on pa_treon.com/TrapOverlord for 12 extra chapters.
Remove the _ in the url.