13 Aftermath and Fall

Author's Note

School's back and I had to deal with getting ready to move back to dorms, so I couldn't write as much. Have to get used to classes again.

--------------------------------------------------------------"Rias are you alright. Where are you injured?" Sirzechs said, rushing towards Rias and looking her over for injuries.

"I'm fine Sirzechs." Rias said.

Grayfia and the other woman followed Sirzechs over to our group.

"So who are you?" I asked the other woman. I wasn't really sure why she was wearing a magical girl outfit.

"I'm Serafall Leviathan, but you can call me Levia-tan." Serafall said, doing a twirl with her staff.

"Uh, I think I'll pass." I said, kind of confused on how someone like this was a Satan.

"No one ever wants to call me Levia-tan. Why can't I ever get a cute nickname?" Serafall cried out, looking at the ground.

Rubbing the back of my head, I said "I'll call you Sera if you want."

"Yay, Sera it is." Serafall said bouncing up.

"Now where's my Sona, I need to make sure she's alright." Serafall said and turned towards the direction where I could see a group of people dressed in the same uniforms as Rias' peerage coming towards us.

"Oh no" One of them muttered.

"Sona, come here, let big sister check you over for injuries." Serafall said and ran towards who I assumed was Sona, wrapping her in a hug.

'Well that's one eccentric Satan.'

Turning around, I found Sirzechs looking at me along with Grayfia and Rias' peerage.

"Serafall can take some getting used to." Sirzechs said.

"I'm sure I'll manage. She's my favorite Satan so far." I answered.

"Ah yes, I apologize for how our first meeting went. I was too hasty." Sirzechs said.

"I'm sure." I said, not convinced.

"Anyways, I'm glad you were here to help Rias out." Sirzechs said.

"I was happy to help her. Back to my question, what do you mean White Dragon Emperor?" I asked Rias.

"The White Dragon Emperor is someone who has the sacred gear Divine Dividing and can use it's power." Rias answered.

"And what's a sacred gear?" I asked.

"Do they really not have any kind of documentation on them in the wizarding world?" Rias asked.

"Not that I've seen, it seems they're missing out on a lot of subjects."

"Well a Sacred Gear is something created by God to give humans a chance against the rest of the supernatural. The strongest of these sacred gears are known as the 13 Longinus because they are capable of getting through some of a Heretic God or Campione's innate magic resistance." Rias answered.

'So that's why his Divine Dividing could affect me. Interesting, maybe finding a sacred gear worth taking is something to look in to.'

"Do you encounter a lot of these Sacred Gears?" I asked.

"There are some of the more common ones. The Longinus are extremely rare to find though. There was someone here who might have had a Sacred Gear. He's a guy who goes to Kuoh. Some Fallen Angels were hiding on in an abandoned Church, but I found them and killed them when they attacked us. That's where I found Asia. I checked at his house to see if they had already killed him, but he seemed fine so I moved on." Rias explained.

"Alright, that's makes sense. I know you probably have to give a report or something, so when you're done can I talk to you?" I asked Rias.

"Actually, I think we can hold off on a report for now. I think it's time for the three factions to get together and talk about what's happening, so she can give it then. I was wondering if you would like to attend as well Harry." Sirzechs interjected.

'What's his angle here?'

"Sure, I'll attend. Rias can let me know when it is and where." I said.

"Rias can let you know the when, but for the where I was thinking Kuoh Academy." Sirzechs said.

"My school? Why?" Rias asked.

"A lot of factions have taken an interest in this area recently. It seems fitting. Grayfia and I do have to be getting back to the underworld though, to get everything figured out. See you soon." Sirzechs said and gave Rias a hug before forming a portal underneath him and Grayfia, who had stood silently then entire time, and teleported away.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Rias asked.

Rubbing the back of my head I said "Well I left Hogwarts for a little while. They got mad at how I dealt with the first task and constant annoyances were going to get on my nerves."

"Ooh, so are you staying here then. I can get you signed up for Kuoh and you can stay with me." Rias said excitedly.

"As enjoyable as that sounds, I'm not going to enroll. I have some other stuff I need to take care of and I can't really afford to waste time with school. I'll come visit sometimes though and you can come see the new house I picked up if you want." I said.

"Okay, I'll come see it sometime, but make sure to visit a lot." Rias said.

"I will, I'm going to head back for now, I'll come around sometime soon." I said and was about to Apparate away when Xenovia came up to me.

"What are you?" She asked.

"You don't know what a Campione is?" I asked.

"The church never told us about you." Xenovia said.

"The short of it is we're godslayers, people who have killed gods and gain their power."

Xenovia's eyes widened. "So you killed a god and gained their power then? Kokabiel said a Campione killed God."

"Yeah, I'm going to have to look into that." I muttered.

Xenovia looked down and muttered something to herself before nodding as if she came to some realization.

'Okay, gonna just ignore whatever that was.'

"See you guys soon" I said and Apparated back to my new house with a crack. I could feel a noticeable drop in my magic reserves, but it wasn't too bad. For a normal wizard, traveling from Japan all the way to Europe would be impossible without dying, but with how big my reserves were it was mild exertion.

I had barely exerted myself in the fight today, so instead of going to sleep I looked through more of Salazar's bookshelves. He had books on all manner of subjects here as well, but the ones I found most interesting were another journal, a book about Campione, and a guide to Portkeys.

It had information about the Campione Slytherin's wife had encountered. There wasn't that many written down, but apparently she had fought quite a few. It also described how a battle between a Campione began. Apparently both would use their Conqueror's Haki to feel each other out, to start a clash between kings.

'I wonder when I'll meet the other 6 Campione.'

I read through the Portkey book as well, in preparation for tomorrow.

Putting the book down, I went to bed for the night.

--------------------------------------------------------------The next day I woke up and got some supplies together in an expanded pouch I had found in Salazar's house. Today was the day I would officially start hunting Heretic Gods. I needed as much power as possible if I was going to fight Azi Dahaka at his best, so I needed to go on the offensive in obtaining that power.

My plan for the moment was to visit places that were historical or spiritual sites. That was the best idea I had for finding Heretic Gods, as I assumed they wanted to go to places that reminded them of their legend.

My first stop was the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. According to [Knowledge], that was the location of the Pillars of Heracles. I needed to kill powerful gods to fight Azi Dahaka, and Heracles was one of the most well known and powerful heroes. If he became a Heretic God, the Pillars were my best bet of finding him.

Activating the portkey, I disappeared and reappeared on the coast of Spain.

'Alright, according to [Knowledge] the Pillars should be on an island a little ways out.'

Summoning Nimbus, I flew over the water into the point between Spain and Morocco. I continued to fly until an Island shimmered into view in front of me.

'Bingo.'

Flying down to the island, I landed and looked around. My eyes were immediately drawn to the giant of a man standing on the island. He was tall, having tanned skin and brown hair. He was clad in a purple purple robes and looked to be built like a wrestler.

'He's a Heretic God! I'm guessing that's Heracles.'

Pushing off the ground, I flew towards him, summoning my staff as I swung and delivered a blow to his side, sending him skidding back but he remained standing.

"What's this, a Campione. You know I'm not supposed to fight Campione by myself, but right now you look like a good way to blow off steam." Heracles said as he ran at me and threw a punch. Swinging my staff to meet his fist, a shockwave formed from the impact that cut the island in half. I was on the losing side of this conversation, getting sent flying back. My arm was a little numb, but I shook it off.

'He's a lot stronger than I am. I need to even the playing field.'

"[Avesta]" I said. I felt my strength increase a lot as I added Heracles' strength to my own.

'No matter who I fight or how many people I fight, with [Avesta] my chance of winning never goes below 50%.'

Heracles began to throw a series of punches, each of which I would meet with my staff. The shockwaves from out clash were destroying the island, the land beginning to fall apart from our clashes.

"You should not be able to match me in strength. I am the God of Strength, no one is stronger than me." Heracles roared. His punches began to speed up as he tried to outpower me, but with [Avesta] I was his equal in strength and even stronger.

When his next punch came towards me, I used [Travel] to slow it down, moving my staff around his fist and delivering a upwards swing that sent Heracles flying into the air. Crouching down, I jumped into the sky, appearing above Heracles and swinging downwards, sending him hurtling into the island. Upon impact, the entire Island collapsed as it sunk into the ocean. I began to fall towards the water, but I summoned [Nimbus] and sped towards the place Heracles had landed, not wanting to give him a chance to recover. Swinging down with my staff, a fist emerged from the water and met my staff as both sides began to push.

'I'm stronger, but he's putting up a good fight.' I thought as I activated [Sun Wukong], increasing my strength further and allowing me to begin pushing Heracles' arm down. Slowly but surely, he began to lose ground until all at once his arm cracked, breaking as I continued my swinging downwards and smashed Heracles over the head with my staff. His head caved in and I pulled back, looking at the corpse of the Heretic God.

'Something's wrong.' I realized. His body wasn't disappearing. Suddenly, his head reformed, but Heracles not longer looked the same as he did before. His skin began to darken, his hair growing out to become more wild. He stood up, looking at me, but there was no sign of intelligence in his eyes. He growled, a menacing noise echoing in the air as he held out his hand, summoning a large stone axe-sword. He pushed off the ground, lunging at me as I met his swing with my staff. He was swinging wildly as I blocked his swings with my staff, moving around his blow and aiming for his head in the same swing I killed him with the first time. When it made contact, instead of killing him again, the swing simply pushed him back.

'It doesn't hurt him anymore! He has to have an authority that let's him come back to life if he's killed, so maybe that authority also makes him immune to whatever killed him the first time, but what part of Heracles' legend let's him come back to life?'

Avoiding another swing, I changed tactics. Trying to think outside the box, I used [Travel] on Heracles' heart, stopping it completely. It was draining to use an authority at full power on a Heretic God, but he didn't have the mental faculties to actively try to resist it, so eventually he died again from his heart stopping.

Watching him carefully, I looked at his corpse as he began breathing again and got right back up to come at me.

'Think, what is Heracles' legend. The most well known part of it is the labors he had to do. Initially it was twelve labors, but two were invalidated so he had to do 12 total. If I work from there, he potentially has either 10 or 12 lives. I need to kill him a different way each time, since he becomes to immune to whatever killed him. Do I even have 12 different ways to kill him?'

Activating [Senjutsu] this time, I could feel the natural energy all around me. At this point I was stronger than Heracles by a lot, so I overpowered him and caved his chest in, killing him with my enhanced strength.

'Three down, 7-9 to go. I don't think my base magic is powerful enough to get through a Heretic God's resistance, but what about magic Azi Dahaka knew?'

Activating [Knowledge], I changed the subject to magic and my mind was filled with an innumerable number of different spells. Sorting through it, I looked only for the most powerful spells, which enhanced with my Campione magic should be able to kill Heracles.

I knew that he became immune to whatever killed him, but I wasn't sure if it was total immunity or immunity to a wound of the same strength as it. To test it out, I killed him with the smallest lightning bolt I could, finding the right amount of magic to put into it by slowly increasing. As soon as he died, I increased the magic somewhat and tried again, finding that it was able to kill him. From there, it was a process of varying the type and strength of magic I used to kill the rest of his lives, finding that he had 12 lives not 10 as I killed his final life, which caused him to stay dead, breaking into motes of light.

By the end of it I was panting from almost magical exhaustion. The amount of magic that I had to put into a spell to actually damage Heracles was insane, so even with my Campione reserves I was drained. Laying down on Nimbus, I took a moment to rest as I thought about the new knowledge of the authority I had received from Heracles.

[God Hand]: Representing the Twelve Labors overcome by Heracles, provides the user with 12 lives. Upon revival, the user becomes immune to whatever killed them. One live is regenerated once per year.

'Well I definetely got an insane authority out of all that work.' I thought, taking an hour to just rest on [Nimbus] and appreciate the view.

"I've come a long way, haven't I. From struggling in Potions to killing Gods and destroying islands." I said aloud to myself. Groaning as I stretched my body out, I had regenerated enough of my magic reserves to feel safe in Apparating home. With a pop, I appeared back in my house. Heading to the shower, I enjoyed the hot water for a while.

Looking in the mirror, I was surprised to find that my skin had become tanned.

'I don't think I was in the sun long enough to actually get a tan. I've always just burned, I guess [God Hand] did it. I don't mind, it doesn't look half bad.'

Walking away from the mirror, I got in bed for the night and went to sleep.

When I woke up the next day it was already afternoon.

'I was more drained than I thought I was.'

Getting out of bed, I decided I would visit Kuoh since I said I would soon. I also needed to find out when the meeting was, so it'd be a good use of time. In a pop, I appeared in an alleyway near Kuoh.

--------------------------------------------------------------POV Third Person

"We're almost ready to start." A man with white hair and dressed regally said. He bore some resemblance to Vali.

"Will Ophis' little group be helping us?" A female voice asked.

"Potentially, I'm sure my grandson will want another chance to fight a Campione." The man replied.

"What about the pretenders, are they going to get in the way?" the woman asked.

"Do not worry Katerea. Sirzechs and Ajuka have realized the threat the Campione pose and are likely to end up helping our side. They want the Campione gone just as much as we do, then we can move on to eliminating the New Satans." the man said.

"I get to deal with Serafall myself Rizevim." Katerea said.

"Yes, but after we have wiped out the Campione." Rizevim said.

--------------------------------------------------------------Elsewhere

"Harry is coming to the meeting Ajuka. Once he's there, we can restrain him." Sirzechs said.

"Yes, but we will need to be prepared. Campione are monsters, their magic resistance will make it difficult to kill him." Ajuka replied.

"It's fine, they can't hold up forever. Campione have gone unchallenged for too long, humans being stronger than Devils goes against the natural order." Sirzechs replied.

"I know, but you still need to be careful. He's powerful, even if he's young and new to being a Campione. It'll be a good test run, but even if we manage to take Harry out of the picture, that old monster Voban will be another issue."

"We'll deal with that when we get to it. The boosted gear user was located in Kuoh town, and he's joined a peerage. With him on our side, that's one more Longinus to get through the Campione resistance. Campione are something the world can do without." Sirzechs said.