DXD 8

"What's going on here? And who's that guy?" The blonde-haired devil asked, his devilish charm and good looks making me think that Rias would be lucky to have him if only his personality were better. Riser, in his early twenties, was tall, muscular, and had piercing dark blue eyes.

His attire consisted of a burgundy blazer with intricate gold embroidery on the right side, paired with matching pants and black dress shoes. He wore a white dress shirt underneath, left mostly unbuttoned, revealing his well-built chest.

I glanced at him with a hint of curiosity before disregarding him entirely and turning my attention back to the white-haired maid who continued to glare at me.

Resuming our conversation, I flashed her a charming smile and asked, "So, where were we before the insignificant bug interrupted us?" The Grayfia's eyes widened in alarm, and I suspected she understood my underlying intentions. However, before she could respond, the fool took the bait.

"Who the fuck are you calling insignificant bug?!" he shouted, enraged by my comment. His anger was further fueled by my subtle mental manipulation, pushing him towards recklessness. In his blind fury, he shoved Rias aside in an attempt to grab me by the shirt, but he never succeeded. His mental state had clouded his judgment, and he had made a grave error in underestimating me. This one aggressive move proved to be the beginning of his downfall.

With a swift and practiced motion, I seized Riser's wrist and snapped it, eliciting a pained cry from him and sharp gasps from the onlookers. Not wasting a moment, I activated my [Power Absorption], my hand glowing briefly as it absorbed his power, showcasing the overwhelming strength disparity between us. At that moment, I gained four new abilities, sealing Riser's fate.

[Basic Fire Manipulation LVL:1/100]

- Enables the user to manipulate fire, creating flames of varying intensity, size, shapes, and color.

[Basic Wind Manipulation LVL:1/100]

- Enables the user to manipulate the wind, creating powerful gusts or gentle breezes at will.

[Immortality LVL: N/A]

- Grants the user a type of immortality, making them immune to aging, disease, and most forms of physical harm, as long they have enough Demonic Power to fuel the regeneration.

- The skill's regenerative abilities allow the user to heal from almost any wound, as long as the core of their being remains intact.

- The skill's regenerative abilities cannot help against complete erasure or soul damage.

[Kingship LVL: N/A]

- Enhances the user's mana capacity and spell effects by 10%, allowing them to cast more powerful spells and magic with greater ease.

- Increases the user's stats by 5%, allowing them to become stronger and more skilled in combat.

- The user gains the ability to rip a part of their own soul and shape it into a soul piece, which they can then offer to another individual to form a soul bond.

- The user can form up to 10 soul bonds with individuals through their soul pieces, granting them half of this skills bonuses and allowing the user to share a single skill with them.

- The user gains the ability to regenerate 0.1% of their damaged soul, by augmenting the regeneration with their demonic power.

As I stood there, stunned and scanning the descriptions of the new skills, the irritating bug within my grasp continued to pull on my hand and scream incessantly. Annoyed by his actions, without hesitation, I backhanded him across the room. I tried to control my strength, but I knew I had hit him too hard when he crashed through the concrete wall on the other side of the room. The room was now engulfed in an eerie hush, but I disregarded it as my focus was captured by a notification that had just popped up in front of me.

[Pureblooded Devil x1 slain 500 XP Received]

[Quest: [Marriage] Completed 500 WP(x4) Received]

"Fuck." I muttered a curse under my breath, then turned my gaze to the maid who was ready for combat and still intently glaring at me, currently oblivious to the lifeless body on the other side of the room. "Well, it was a pleasure meeting you all," I said as I backed away. "Hopefully, next time we'll meet under better circumstances." I pointed towards Rias with my index finger. "No need to thank me," I added, before turning to Grayfia and pointing towards the body in the wall. "You might want to check on the kid, he doesn't seem to have a pulse. Bye!"

As I was uncertain if the Phenex family possessed any magical artifacts that would alert them if one of their own had been slain, I decided I didn't want to stick around and find out. So, as Grayfia's realized what I was implying and her eyes widened in shock, I quickly warped space around me, disappearing from the scene. It wasn't that I was afraid of her or the Phenex family, but I had no desire to deal with the inevitable repercussions.

Upon my arrival in Kyoto, I eagerly announced my return with a hearty "Honey I'm home!"

However, my excitement soon turned to disappointment as I realized Olivia was not present. She was fulfilling her duties as a trainer of the Youkai faction, leaving me alone and uncertain of how to spend my time. After settling down on the living room sofa, I found myself contemplating the ramifications of my actions on the events of the original series. Also, I couldn't help but wonder how much time remained until the first extradimensional incursion, or if the story would even continue to unfold as it had originally.

I had already severed my mental links to all but one of the Kuoh gang and with the completion of the quest I was no longer invested in their fate. Although I did wonder how Asia was saved, without Issei's Boosted Gear, I ultimately shrugged, as I truly didn't care.

With ample time on my hands, I retrieved the replicator from my inventory and began designing a new trunk design. One that will be a lot more modular than the one we currently owned.

(Rias Gremory's POV)

"You might want to check on the kid, he doesn't seem to have a pulse."

After uttering those words, the mysterious man vanished, leaving us in a state of tense anticipation. Grayfia and I were both prepared for combat and scanned the room meticulously, hoping to spot any irregularities that could help us locate him, but we found nothing.

"Is he truly gone?" I asked fearfully. What scared me the most was the fact that he didn't use any demonic or magical energy to execute whatever he did.

"It appears so, my lady," Grayfia replied with a sigh of relief before approaching Riser and checking his pulse. "He's dead," she announced, shocking everyone in the room.

"How?" I asked in disbelief. As a member of the Phenex Clan with the power of immortality, Riser should have been able to withstand that hit without difficulty.

"I suspect the same way he neutralized your Power of Destruction," the maid commented, causing my eyes to widen in astonishment. I hadn't even had a chance to think about that. I wasn't as adept at wielding my bloodline as my brother, but I had some proficiency. However, the unknown man had dissipated it with a flick of his wrist as if it were nothing, sending shivers down my spine.

"W-Who was he?" I stammered, but Grayfia shook her head disappointingly.

"I'm not sure," she replied, shaking her head.

"Could he have been the source of the strange energy signature that we detected in town a few days ago? I gave a report to brother, and he said half of the planet detected it, but nothing was found." I asked, curious.

"It's a possibility," she responded. "I felt an enormous amount of energy coursing through his body, but I don't remember anyone with the name Andrew Thompson. I'll need to confer with your brother and our intelligence teams. We also need to notify Ajuka immediately. It may only be a mutated sacred gear, but if he genuinely possesses the ability to nullify demonic bloodlines, we must eliminate him before the other biblical factions become aware of his existence. Otherwise, this could spell our doom. I need to go, if anything happens contact me immediately, my Lady." She said with a bow before and in a flash of light, teleported away to the Underworld, taking the body with her.

I stood there, still in shock from the events that had just unfolded. My mind was racing with questions about who the mysterious man, who had accidentally just saved me from my forced engagement to Riser Phenex truly was. I couldn't help but feel grateful for his interference, but at the same time, I was curious about his true motives.

As I glanced around the room at Sona and the rest of my peerage, I realized that I needed to remain composed and keep my emotions in check. I couldn't reveal my true feelings, not even to my closest friends. The small smile that had crept onto my face vanished as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by a neutral expression.

Now that Riser was out of the picture, I knew that my father would be looking for a new match for me. I had to be careful not to give him any reason to suspect that I was anything but devastated by the loss of my former fiancé. It wouldn't be easy, but I was determined to play the role of a heartbroken young woman if it meant buying myself some time.

But I couldn't afford to simply sit back and wait for my father to make his move. I had to take matters into my own hands and train myself and my peerage for any potential challenges that may come our way. I couldn't risk losing a Rating Game due to my lack of preparation.

The image of the mysterious man effortlessly nullifying my Power of Destruction was stuck, endlessly repeating in my mind. It was a sobering reminder that there were those out there who were more powerful than me, and I needed to be ready for anything. I knew that I needed to focus on training, not just my own abilities but my entire peerage's, to ensure that we were ready for anything that might come our way.

After my brief moment of contemplation, I turned my attention back to the room and as I was about to issue orders to my peerage to come with me on a training trip, I noticed Kiba's face. "Kiba? Why is there a drawing of a penis on your face?" I couldn't help but asks.

My knight gave me a quizzical look, tilting his head to the side as if he didn't understand the question, and replied, "Buchou? What do you mean?"

The sight of Kiba with a drawing on his face caused the rest of the room to burst out laughing, completely diffusing the previously tense atmosphere. I couldn't help but facepalm and shake my head in disbelief. "Kiba... Go and wash your face," I said, still trying to hold back my laughter.

Kiba returned from the bathroom after a few minutes of furious scrubbing, his face still clearly showing the outlines of the drawing, which made me struggle to keep my composure, but I powered through and after getting the attention of the room addressed the elephant in the room.

"Alright everyone, now that we're all here, let's talk about what just happened," I announced to the room. "The man who appeared called himself Andrew Thompson. We don't know anything about his motives, allegiance, or true strength, but one thing is clear - he's an extremely dangerous individual. His ability affected all of us. The most surprising part is that it also affected Grayfia, who's one of the strongest Ultimate-Class Devils in the underworld. If Grayfia hadn't noticed an anomaly while looking at a particular spot on the sofa, none of us would have noticed anything either."

"Damn, does this mean he has some kind of invisibility powers?" asked Issei, the idiot of the bunch, and I couldn't help but sigh, but someone else answered in my steed.

"No, Issei, I don't think he was invisible. He forced your minds to ignore his existence," explained Sona with a shaky voice. Her words made the others widen their eyes in shock, finally understanding the gravity of the situation. Clearly, she was shaken up, and I knew that when Serafall found out about this she would be furious, and probably issue a manhunt for the man.

Sona looked away shyly, unaccustomed to being the center of attention, but after calming herself down, she continued to speak, "I'm not sure what he did to me, but it was only just a moment ago that I was finally able to move my own body and make my own decisions," she said, raising her shaky hand and clasping it with her other one.

The others in the room listened intently, their eyes focused on Sona as she recounted her frightening experience. It was clear that everyone was on edge, realizing just how vulnerable they all were to this mysterious man's powers.

"He entered the school grounds, triggering the wards, and I went out to send him away, as visiting hours weren't for another few hours. I thought he was an ordinary human, so I tried to use my Demonic Power to control his mind and make him turn around and leave the yard, but it had no effect on him. What's more, he turned the tables on me and used his strange ability. Within moments, I was locked in my body and unable to move it. It was so scary. He could have done anything he wanted to me. He had full control over me, and I felt like a puppet on his strings. He ordered me to show him the way to the Occult Research Club, and my body moved on its own. The discussion we had earlier - not a single word came from me."

The room fell into an eerie silence as she finished recounting her story, all trying to comprehend what Sona had just revealed to them. However, Issei, the ever-curious idiot, asked a question that none of us wanted to know the answer to but had all been wondering about.

"How do we know we're not currently under the effect of the same ability?" he inquired, his voice filled with apprehension.

I bit my lip but decided to be honest with my peerage. "We don't know," I admitted, causing chaos to erupt in the room as everyone looked around with frightened expressions.

Taking a deep breath, and raised my voice as I continued, "All we know is that he's gone, as confirmed by Grayfia. Also, from the fact that Sona is no longer under his influence, we can assume that the ability has some kind of range limitation." I tried not to dwell on the possibility that this was exactly what he wanted us to think. However, my words succeeded to alleviate some of their concerns, and the room once again quieted down.

"Buchou, I don't recall having anything on my face before coming to school. Do you think he was responsible for that?" Kiba asked, squinting his eyes.

"Yes, I'm sure he was," I replied with a nod, making him clench his fists in anger, and mumble under his breath.

Looking towards Sona, I brought up a topic that had been weighing on my mind. "This event has made me realize how weak I truly am," I confessed. "If Grayfia hadn't been here, I don't think I would have been able to do anything to him. Is there a chance you and your peerage could train with us?"

Sona gave me a forced smile and replied, "Same. I was already planning to start training tomorrow. You and your peerage are welcome to join us."

My excitement was palpable, and I couldn't resist giving my childhood friend a tight hug. Sona was taken aback at first, but she soon patted me on the back in a shy manner. Despite her stoic and strict façade, I knew the real Sona - a delicate and fragile girl who albeit loved to bake, was really bad at it. She often struggled to express her true feelings and was easily embarrassed, but I cherished our friendship and was grateful for her support.

As I turned back to the room, I felt a sense of pride as my peerage had already started discussing how to improve themselves. However, I needed to refocus their attention and get them on track. Clearing my throat, I spoke up, "Alright people, Akeno and I will take care of the school. We'll make them think we're going on a research trip."

I paused for a moment to let that sink in before continuing, "I'll text you the details about where we're meeting tomorrow, but don't forget to bring your P.E. clothes. We've got a lot of work to do, so let's make the most of our time together." With a sense of finality, I clapped my hands and declared, "Everyone but Akeno, you're free to go. Class has already started, but I'll take care of it with the teachers later on."

As my peerage gathered their belongings and filed out of the room, I couldn't help but feel a sense of determination. We had a lot of work ahead of us, but with their dedication and my leadership, I was confident that we could achieve anything we set our minds to. I hoped that we had enough time before us to accomplish our goals.