A much needed break

After separating with the girls Alex left Asora to discuss his plans with Hajime so that he could spend the next week preparing, though Hajime could've used the training rooms to extend that time if he wanted, he didn't seem to have any interest in being in Asora for now. Alex then started thinking about what he needed to do after that, and for the next week as well; first there was someone he was interested in recruiting in Brooke to train that group, then he planned to spend the next several days alternating between doing guild jobs and doing isolated training again. When he thought of that Alex realized it had been a while since he made progress in his super Saiyan forms, and wanted to use his isolation raining to get closer to achieving super Saiyan 2. He also needed to find an easier way to let residents of Asora travel to the dungeons so that he didn't need to have someone ferry them every time for the labyrinths. With these thoughts in mind, Alex went to his first destination of the day.

***

Lauren sighed in relief as she looked at the results of her current project, just in time for the face of a dragon to appear on her monitor.

<Greetings Lauren, may I assume you finally have good results?>

Ddraig asked her privately, like they tended to do so that they weren't constantly bugging Alex. She nodded, and told Ddraig the results of her investigations on the compatibility of Alex's companions with Ehito's body stealing,

"Yes, first and foremost you know that Alex and Anne are safe thanks to Jennifer and myself-"

CRUNCH

"As well as you own existence inside him. The rest of the girls as well as Hajime were causes for concern however-"

CRUNCH

"As neither of us would be able to protect them. So I spent the last few months trying to analyze them to determine compatibility-"

CRUNCH

"With Ehito and even though I don't have access to their data I was finally able to determine that the girls at least are safe-"

CRUNCH

"DO YOU MIND?!" Lauren finally snapped at the person who was making noise in the background, none other than Jenny herself as she ate potato chips. Jenny awkwardly looked at Lauren, before one last crunch came from her mouth as she finished chewing the chip she just ate as Lauren's glare intensified. The petite pink haired girl had invaded her domain at the same time Alex and Anne met up, and had refused to leave ever since while saying they needed to stay close for 'proper cooperation', which was just Jenny's way of forcing herself onto Lauren. As Lauren was busy glaring Jenny down, a slight chuckle came from behind her as Ddraig watched the exchange,

<Hehehehehehehe>

As he chuckled however Lauren's glare focused on him, causing one of the 'Heavenly Dragons' near the peak of a dragons existence in the dxd world to feel instinctive fear at the look. This was unsurprising as Lauren was a lot more powerful than he was even at his peak, meaning that especially now that he was sealed she wouldn't need to put in much effort to destroy him. After she took a minute to calm herself down, Lauren continued her previous explanation.

"As I was saying, the main reason it took so long for me to verify the results is that even though they have access to the system I'm not connected to the girls the same way I am Alex, and this especially applies to both Ehito and Hajime. As far as the girls are concerned they're all safe as well because they are considered incompatible with Ehito like Alex, so the only one we would need to worry about is Hajime, but I doubt he would try to take him since he's surrounded by several people that could destroy him." Both Ddraig and Jenny let out a sigh of relief at Lauren's words, until the pink haired girl asked,

"What makes the rest of the girls incompatible? According to the data at least Yue would be considered the perfect host for him? That was even the reason she was originally sealed in Orcus." Lauren nodded at Jenny's question, and said,

"You're right but that was then, before she came into contact with Alex. Now however Yue and Shia are both untouchable by Ehito because they're both Devils, while Rias, Kuroka, and Grayfia were to begin with anyways so there was no need to worry about them." Ddraig was surprised, and asked,

<So them being Devils made them incompatible with Ehito?>

"Indeed, I'm sure you've noticed that though different natural laws exist in different worlds there exists some similarities, for example how fire an water oppose each other? The same would apply with divine powers as opposed to demonic powers. Regardless of how he started Ehito is currently for all intents and purposes a god since he created the system where the prayers of his followers powers him, Devils are beings that are opposite of the gods and therefore he cannot take the body of one. Then the only two that aren't Devils in Alex's group are both Anne and Hajime. Since anything goes between fellow competitors we can't do anything if it was one of them, we are allowed to fight back on their behalf however if an outside force tries to take their bodies. This is to prevent outside forces from getting their hands on powers they shouldn't, for example Alex's Saiyan blood, this is also why every competitor turns to ash when they die." Ddraig's image on the monitor nodded as he comprehended Lauren's information, and said,

<I see, even though Anne isn't a devil she's still safe since Jenny would be able to protect her when needed.>

In response to Ddraig's words Jenny showed and angry expression, and said,

"That's right! I just dare that self styled God to even think about laying a single finger on my Anne, I'll wipe out his entire existence!" As Jenny was at the very least as powerful as Lauren, or even more so as seen with the incident with the tattoos, her words were taken very seriously, until she continued,

"Saying that, maybe I'll go visit Anne in a bit once they're done with their current training, it's been a while." As she spoke Jenny pulled up Anne's current image on her own tablet, which showed her attacking an Alex dummy along with Rias, Kuroka, and Yue while Koneko, Shia, and Grayfia watched from the side. It was quite obvious she wasn't too happy after hearing Alex was now expecting yet another child. While Jenny was watching the scene she didn't notice Lauren go pale at her words, until she demanded,

"Wait! Are you saying you've visited Anne before?!" Jenny nodded, and declared,

"You know we're not forbidden from seeing our candidates, as long as we continue doing our jobs right and don't interfere in the competition. Why wouldn't I go to visit her every now and then?" At Jenny's words Lauren went even paler, with the exception of the slight blush in her cheeks when she recalled her previous meeting with Alex, that he didn't even know happened. She then firmly stated,

"Absolutely not! We can't go see them, how would you explain yourself to the rest of the people around her?" Lauren tried to make Jenny see reason, as she absolutely didn't want Alex find out about their previous meeting. Jenny was taken aback at Lauren's behavior, and said,

"Wait don't tell me you haven't visited your guy before?" Then she noticed the slight blush on Lauren's cheeks, and said as if with sudden realization,

"DON'T TELL ME YOU'VE FALLEN FOR HIM!" Jenny shouted as her mind rushed to the wrong conclusion. She then recalled all the things she watched Alex do with his women through Lauren's screen, and knew she had seen a lot more than her. As her imagination started running away Lauren said firmly,

"NO I HAVE NOT!" This shocked Jenny out of her thoughts, and Lauren took another deep breath to steady herself before continuing,

"I tried to visit him once but something happened and I don't want him to see my face, alright?" Jenny nodded but secretly decided to find out what happened between them, after all it wasn't every day something this juicy would happen to her friend, not that Jenny would actually hurt her friend with whatever happened. Having calmed down the situation, Lauren turned back towards the awkwardly waiting Ddraig and asked,

"Is there anything else Ddraig? If not then I think I'm going to take a nap or something, maybe I'll rest in my hot springs." Ddraig then told her a brief summary of Alex's plans for the next week, thinking that since nothing was going to happen Lauren could use the chance to take an apparently much needed rest. When he mentioned the issue regarding moving residents between Asora and Tortus Lauren frowned and said,

"I told him about being able to make portals between Asora and his current world, they'd disappear when he changes worlds but why doesn't he just use one of those?" Ddraig then explained,

<If you recall he dismissed the idea of making portals when you told him because they'd be too easy to exploit, after all Asora is supposed to be a safe haven for his followers and loved ones. It's been a while since then so he probably forgot about being able to, I'll remind him once he finishes his errands.>

Lauren nodded at Ddraig's words, understanding where Alex was coming from with his concerns. Though if placed in the right spot it would be nearly impossible for someone to accidentally find them, it wouldn't be too hard for those who would want to hurt Alex to find out about Asora and look for ways to exploit it. Even if the portal was hidden there's plenty of powers or tools to find the specific location of something. With his possession of the Orcus hideout however this could be avoided, especially since Alex still had the Haulia stationed there after turning them into loyal assassins. After asking Ddraig to relay the information she investigated and to remind him about the portals, Lauren went to take a much needed break in one of her hot springs.