61- First meeting

Many things happened after our raid on the vampire faction, and many eyes began to gather in our direction, so I had to call Serafall so she wouldn't reveal our future plans on the Devil's side.

This way, all of our enemies' attention will be focused on the accident, and they won't see the raid on the top of the rating games approaching, which is ideal for us.

Other factions began to spy on us which could be problematic, but thankfully there is no real knowledge of where our base is, only where we appear, and that's pretty much nothing since Shishou runes are enough to deal with most prying eyes trying to find our house.

However, we began to notice a large number of people in our surroundings...

Marius Tepes was an idiot, in my opinion... I was able to deal with him so easily because of the same thing that gave him immortality.

Power has a cost, even more with something as high as immortality, and it's even worse when it comes from something recently stolen and that your soul is still assimilating… the guy's soul was weakened enough for me to tear apart a piece of it without much effort.

But that's not the issue right now; it's the sleeping girl I've been trying to contact for two days.

Valerie Tepes is truly beautiful as a result of her half Vampire blood, not enough to make her look young and doll-like, but enough to give her a top model body that draws everyone's attention, especially her golden hair and red eyes.

A young girl brimming with youth and peculiar beauty.

Healing her mind wasn't difficult; it just took time and some effort on her part, which I helped with by entering there and talking to her for a while.

The only difficult part would be removing all of the grail's influence on her mind, but I simply transformed all of that into [Ink] and then ate it, especially the parts that didn't come from her own mind leaving only the non-corrupted parts so she wont have any scars from this whole thing.

Her soul is a little more problematic but nothing that requires attention, just time living a good life.

It is a miracle that she can still be herself after overdrafting the Sephirot Graal at her age without having defenses placed beforehand in both her mind and soul.

She is mentally strong, she was the one who had to return and I was only there to assist her

Talking about her little childhood friend helped a lot with that; I even gave her a photo of Gasper, to which she responded by admitting that it might have been her fault for dressing him up as a girl when they played as kids.

I guess I'll have to pay him a visit...

Well… I don't want to deal with Rias and all of that, so I'll jump straight to him...

I asked her what she wanted to do from now on because I don't want to bind her to me; it would be easy due to her mental state, but... that's not my thing and concealing her would be easy for me.

I also asked for her Sacred Gear, which she resents due to her bad experiences with it, and in exchange for it, I will help her gain strength so she can defend herself.

The fact that she was aware that she had become a target of a criminal organization made things easier.

She also requested a way to teleport to a safe location if something were to happen to her, but that will have to wait until later because she is too weak for the extraction.

And there she was, as soon as she showed signs of waking up, I was there for her so she wont get scared of waking up in an unfamiliar place.

"... Dusk…? " She was sleepy and confused, still not reacting to the fact that she was finally waking up, for real this time.

"Hello, and welcome back." I congratulated her because it took her a moment to respond.

"...Back? Isn't this a dream?" She jumped out of bed not believing it and then she did everything she could to see if it was real, even pinching her cheeks and hugging me with joy at being back.

A dream… I guess she took our talks as that

Well… At the very least, she isn't broken from overusing the Sephirot Graal... or was it my recovery?

Because part of her memory and personality were corrupted, I had to deal with it, so perhaps she is mentally younger...

For now let's make her see and feel that she is safe...

"So… Do you want something to eat?"

After a brief discussion, she agreed that she would stay with us for the time being until she found a place to live... In the worst-case scenario, I'll send her to the human faction to do something.

Wait... when did my faction become... this?

Why do I have the impression that it is more of a large school or kindergarten than a faction... and all I'm doing is looking for teachers...

Who cares, the kids are happy, and I'm not losing anything.

After eating and talking for a while, I sent her to one of the Faction's rooms so she could sleep

Because we are used to dealing with kids who are dealing with new changes, painted animals and other things like walking teddy bears or pokemon dolls are moving all around and the kids usually take some to sleep with them at night.

Valerie, like many other residents, finds it relaxing to sleep with fluffy, cute and colorful animals or cute dogs and cats...

So that night Valerie did hug a couple rabbits quite tightly while sleeping, and in the meantime, I'd like to give her a surprise...

That's how I ended up here... at Kuoh Academy.

Gasper should be locked up around here… there he is! Is not hard to notice a giant barrier inside a dark room that has a coffin with seals in it...

Walking inside wasn't difficult, and I didn't bother concealing myself for it, opening the sealed coffin in one go and revealing the one sleeping inside.

Vampires are known for their doll-like faces, and this guy is a prime example of it...

Is the same problem I had… for men it made them look handsome but for someone like him…

"Ri- W-who is there? "

Damn, it's almost as bad as when I was younger

"Are you... Gasper? Valerie 's friend?"

Fortunately, I was able to seal his power by manipulating the mana flowing into his Longinus before he could go ZA WARUDO on me.

It'll be interesting to see if it has any effect on me in case I encounter something similar in the future...

"V-Valerie? Do you know who she is? What happened to her? Is she all right? I haven't seen her in a long time..."

At the very least, this is enough to divert his attention away from the fact that his Sacred Gear isn't working.

"Yes. With me and… Yes, I rescued her and she wants to meet you, do you want to see her?  "

"Yes! Wh- "

"Get away from him! "

But before the conversation could continue, a ball of destructive energy began to fly toward me, but as it got closer, it became slower and smaller until it dissipated in front of me.

"Wait a minute, Buchou she- "

She?... I should probably stop using the female Dusk form… 

Gasper tried to calm the fiery redhead down, but she didn't even listen to him.

"Don't worry Gasper, leave him to us! "

She was about to cast another spell when a black figure dashed towards her, only to be stopped by a sword slash.

"Don't worry buchou, I will protect you "

The princess was saved by the knightly blonde... Who, after all, isn't at risk...

Shouldn't she be able to tell what I look like? Or, at the very least, know when to ask before attacking someone?

"As I was saying-"

I tried to talk my way out of this mess, but lightning struck from behind me only to disappear without doing anything, absorbed into the painting in my arms.

"Like I wa- " …

"Get away from Gasper! "

Another Destruction-filled attack came my way, and to clarify, I let it hit me while using energy manipulation to take control and learn more about it, which resulted in something interesting...

It's called Destruction, but it's actually… Pride, a Selfish Will transformed into a kind of energy and then passed through blood, one with the sole purpose to overcome, destroy and dominate everything else…

if that's so then all sins play a significant role in the Devil's bloodline ability and it probably can be applied with other things like virtues... Le Fay would be interested in learning more about this.

Focusing again into the… it can't really call this a fight, can I?

I decided to make things a little rougher since they don't want to listen, I dispatched four monsters, and as they focused on them, vines began to emerge from their shadows, entangling them with a firm grip before they could even react

But Rias and Akeno were able to free themselves by using brute force to destroy them, but it was too late; the four monsters were already at their throats, and they were soon captured by them.

But Rias isn't a high-devil for nothing, and she was able to destroy them by using her destructive power.

While this was going on, I noticed another familiar presence teletransport into the school, near here but... she was just observing…

Since she is not interfering... then I'll use Rias for our plans, it's not like she doesn't need a wake-up call... Akeno as well.

This way our fight will be known and they wouldn't focus on what the Satans are doing...

"How disappointing… you are too weak for a High-Devil… you even had the bad luck of choosing a mediocre Queen… "

Akeno and Kiba were desperately attempting to break free from their bindings, but they glued tighter the more they moved, Akeno's lighting was useless, and Kiba's strength wasn't enough while his sword couldn't cut through, well, he does, but it returns to its previous form, just like water.

At the very least, they are loyal; when they heard that I had insulted Rias, they attempted to fight back.

"Mediocre? Akeno is not mediocre! She is worthy of being my Queen "

Rias refuted  as she sought a way out of this knowing well that she can't win agaings me; she currently seems to be attempting to gain time which means that she called her...

I let a chuckle as I played the role of the villain 

"Isn't it disappointing? You didn't want her to be your trump card yet... Just look at her, an idiot who decided to run with only one leg and still hopes of catching those ahead of her..."

Rias tried to stop me but everything she did was useless… Those words struck deep within the two.

Akeno tried to look into Rias's eyes, expecting Rias to return her gaze with those confident eyes she always does, but... Rias avoided her gaze as she bited on her lips...

"Rias… " 

"Foolish… Despite the fact that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters out there capable of destroying a city in minutes, she expected to reach that point and fight them while being handicapped. "

It took a moment of silence, in which none of them moved waiting for her until Rias finally gave her answer

"It makes no difference... I don't mind it… Akeno is my friend, and I will respect her decision."

Rias' words returned to her usual pride, her usual resolve, which she had always carried, sadly for her... Im here.

"But deep inside... you wish she didn't, don't you?"

I don't want to dwell on the trust issues she might have with Kiba if the kid realized that a Devil in need of a powerful fighter being outside the facility where he was trapped waiting for him is not normal... at all...

"Another issue is the blondie, but the biggest one is... you Rias, you are too weak for a High-class devil... The only thing you know is that you can throw your bloodline ability, which you don't even care to train properly around, and wait for your servants to do your job for you."

"You have no idea how hard I worked to gain my freedom "

She surrendered, letting others do it instead of facing Riser by herself because she is afraid and accepted that she will never win against him by herself

"It's your duty, Rias. Duties. They are your responsibilities as the head of a noble family, and you avoid them in this manner, but I won't hold it against you... You're accustomed to your big brother resolving and doing everything for you... It's no surprise you're so spoiled."

I'd like to annoy her even more, but our conversation had come to an end...

As the presence grew closer, I did my part and dashed toward Rias, as if trying to knock her out... only to be stopped by an ice wall in my path and a gray-haired Maid