7 Chapter 7: Getting into DxD I

The atmosphere inside Occult Research Club's hall is tense, as it should be. I sip away the tea Akeno had served, unruffled. Her tea really is flavorsome. Everyone involved in the incident was here. Zest and Raynare were tied; they were at the side of the hall, Koneko watched over them. I wonder why Kalawarna, Mittelt, and Dohnaseek didn't appear during the fight? Hold up. I glance towards Zest. Did she…?

Sona and Rias' faces showed that they had thousands of questions. Finally, Rias starts, "Levi-Kun, do you know who are they? Can you tell us?" She gestures at Zest and Raynare.

"The dark one called herself Zest, and she wants to take Mio away somewhere, apparently. As for the other one, she's called Amano Yuuma, though I assume that's an alias, oh, and she's my supposed girlfriend." I reply truthfully; there's no reason to hide.

Rias and Sona raise their eyebrows at my first statement but don't have much reaction during the second, something I didn't fail to notice. I thought only Rias knew about Raynare, but it seems like Sona did too. Despite that, they didn't warn me or try to help me beforehand. Which means they wanted me dead. In their master plan, Rias can use that opportunity to turn me into her minion after I had been killed. Granted a second life, I'd be extremely grateful and would serve her willingly. Good plan, I say. Yeah, fuck them. I'm not joining her peerage until Ophis come here herself and begs me to. I'll probably end up getting dragged into Rating Game bullshit anyway with that sis-con Satan watching her back, but there's no reason for me to make things pleasant for her. Thinking up until this point, I lean back on the couch.

After looking at Zest for some time, seemingly trying to figure out her identity, Sona readjusts her glasses and asks me, "Levi, I must ask… to what degree do you know about supernatural things?"

"Only a little bit. I know that Devils and Angels exist since I had an encounter with them once in the past. But other than that… I'm pretty much a clean slate." I reply with a readymade answer.

"I see. Then you had no idea about us?"

I glance at her and Rias before lifting my upper lips slightly. "For the past week, no. But seeing you tearing through that barrier today made me reconsider things."

"Well, there's no reason to hide. You are right. We aren't normal people either. Most accurately, we are Devils. Everyone in Student Council and Occult Research Club is. Additionally, Rias and I are in charge of this town," Sona reveals slowly, expecting me to barrage her with questions.

Not seeing anything other than slight raise of an eyebrow, she continued with a slowly growing scowl, "This incident shouldn't have happened, but clearly, we were being negligent. Not only fallen angels but even someone from Old Satan Faction snuck in under our noses. This is a failure on our part."

"I have to apologize to you both too." She glanced at Aika and Ikumi apologetically.

The revelation that the people they knew all this time turned out to be Devils made them pause in disbelief. Snapping out of it, Aika sends a perfunctory smile, obviously not pleased that her mistake put me into danger, while Ikumi waves her quickly and says, "No, no. It's alright. I don't even remember what happened from the mid-fight anyway, and everyone is safe, so it's fine."

Sona shows a small smile and turns her attention to me.

"I see… so you guys are Devils." I glimpse around, meeting gazes with everyone from Student Council and Occult Research Club briefly as if coming to terms with their new identity. "Souna, you said something about Fallen Angels…." I trail off towards the end.

"You can call me Sona. My real name is Sona Sitri. The Fallen Angel… it's your girlfriend…." She expects shock from me, but I disappoint her once more. "You aren't surprised?"

"Not really. I knew something was wrong with her from the moment she approached me. I dealt with her that time using a… special method, but I guess she really wanted to kill me that badly." For shits and giggles, I say mysteriously, watching a lot of faces blush slightly. Raynare wasn't one of those people. Koneko glowered. She was the one who got the first seat of the show.

"Very well." She fought back the urge to blush too and then looked at Rias, adding, "Rias, I'll call my sister to take of the captives." Her message was clear: try to invite him into your peerage.

After Sona went away, I finally focused on Rias. She has been silent all this time, probably because of the guilt. She isn't a bad or heartless girl per se; her desperation to get out of the marriage had simply made her do some questionable things. However, that doesn't mean I'll go easy on her. Her orchestration for borderline trying to control my life won't be forgotten that easily.

"You are quite powerful. By the time we arrived, you'd had actually taken control of the situation by yourself." Rias starts with a compliment. I can feel her carefully forging the words inside her mind.

I fight back the urge to sneer and reveal a humble smile. "Thanks, but I didn't do much. Mio and Maria had it under control, and I just helped them a bit." Maria was smart enough not to deny my words. She went a step ahead and held Mio's hand, stopping right when she was about to interrupt.

"The point still stands. Zest seems really powerful, but you were able to take her down; that's a big achievement for someone who has awakened their Sacred Gear not long ago," She says seriously.

Wait, does she think my powers are somehow related to Sacred Gear? I can roll with that.

"Sacred Gear… is that what that thing is…." I mutter to myself while looking at the side.

Hearing my subtle confirmation, Rias's eyes gleam with excitement. "Can you tell me about it? I might be able to help you to figure out its mysteries."

Yeah, I'm sure you will. I make up some nonsense that I can hear someone's voice inside my mind and whatnot for the past week. I follow its instruction and fight some monsters in 'strange places' that makes me stronger. I keep things mostly vague and insist that I've no real control over when I'm pulled to that 'strange place'. There's no real danger in revealing these things since I'm not the only person with bizarre and somewhat uncanny Sacred Gear in the world. And it gives me insurance that at least Devils won't go out of their way and use unpredictable tactics to pry open my secrets. Heavens is mostly mute, so I don't care about them. And Azazel keeps things in check (mostly) with Grigori. I had a feeling that he's about to visit me though. Just a feeling. Anyway, since I've got a chance to control the amount of my secrets I want leaking out, of course, I'd grab it. It'll buy me time to make myself stronger, the thing I need the most right now.

As expected, when I'm done with my nonsense, the only thing Rias's face reveals is utter confusion.

"Do you have any idea about it?" I ask, 'hope' apparent in my voice.

"…sorry, Levi. Your Sacred Gear is very peculiar. I'm afraid I haven't heard or read about it before," She admits with a slight embarrassment, and I love the look that follows after I sigh disappointingly and mutter, "maybe Sona would know…." I rile her up, and she stiffens. Glorious. Absolutely glorious.

<Trait Added!>

[Schadenfreude]

You take pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.

When I was reading the description of the newly added trait, I felt a hand on my shoulders. I look back to find 'smiling' Akeno behind my couch. I tilt my head in wonder.

"Levi-Kun, I can't help but notice that your cup is empty. How about one more cup of tea?" She gives a 'isn't that enough?' look. During all this, I noticed that she hadn't told Rias about me playing around with them last time.

I shrug. "Why not? Forget about tea; I'll drink whatever liquid you brew. Your tea is just that good."

[+5 Affection with Akeno Himejima for sparing her King some embarrassment and complementing her again]

"Ara~ how flattering." As she says so, she deliberately settles her hefty breasts on my head while she reaches out for the cup on the table. It's a bit far, for she's forced to press it harder, almost making my head trapped between her chest. Finally, after some 'readjustments' which consists of moving left and right almost frantically, she was able to lift my cup away for a refill. Was that her way of saying thank you? I can get used to that.

"Ahem!" Rias coughs, eventually getting rid of her prior embarrassment. "Levi-Kun, what are you going to do next?"

"Do next? What do you mean? Go home and sleep? Come to school as normal?" Raising my brows, I half-question, half-answer.

"Not in that regard. Let me reiterate that. Your powers have been revealed today, and frankly, that's not a piece of good news for you. The three faction Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels are always looking for a human with potential Sacred Gear to turn into their own. And their methods sometimes aren't so peaceful. Your life will continue to get complicated as you grow powerful…."

I can see Aika, Sanju, and Mio, and unexpectedly, even Ikumi turned tense at her words.

I uphold a pensive mask for few moments before questioning sharply, "What you mean to say is that humans who happen to awaken Sacred Gear are nothing but commodities, a prize that is sought after by the Three Factions? And there's no one to regulate them?"

"Levi, it's not like—" Kiba tries to say something but Rias interrupts.

"Kiba, it's alright. Levi-Kun, it might disgust you, but that's the truth." She remarks cleanly. Woah, I didn't expect her to be so honest. If I had my Affection meter, then she'd be getting a +5. Unfortunately, the overall would still be negative.

"That's wonderful," I sneer. I wasn't acting now. I was truly angry because her words held the truth that I didn't want to hear. Although I can deal with most people who would come after me, I don't want my door to be knocked on every other moment. That's a lot of pain in the butt. "So my only option now is to join one of the so-called factions, otherwise prepare for endless troubles?"

"…correct." She nods.

"So, what are my options?" I finally asked what she wanted to hear all this time.

"I don't know Angels or Fallen Angels, but if you want to join Devils, then I can take you into my peerage." She says slowly, appearing broadminded, making it seem like I need her more than she needed me.

"Peerage?"

"Yeah. Some of us high-class Devils have a method to reincarnate a human as a Devil. The downside is that you'll become their servant." Seeing my frown, she adds quickly, "But I treat everyone in my peerage like my family. You can ask everyone here. I won't force them to do anything. Also, the advantages of becoming a Devil far outweigh the downsides. A Devil is much stronger and faster; on top of that, they have a life span of thousands of years."

"Thousand years of willing servitude, I don't see the appeal," I say bluntly, watching almost everyone's face turning unpleasant. Oops. Touchy subject. Touchy subject.

"Wait…" As if remembering something, I peer at her suspiciously before she has even recovered from my rather harsh comment. "When you invited me to join Occult Research Club last time, was this your true intent? You say that everyone wants to recruit a Sacred Gear user, then that was your method? As I can guess, you already knew about me being a Sacred Gear user and knew the danger I could face, but you still didn't find it in yourself to warn me, and neither did Sona, for that matter. I suppose it's fine since we aren't even acquaintances. No, it's completely understandable. I shouldn't expect much from Devils anyway." I laugh coldly. Yeah, I bashed them around a bit. The atmosphere inside the hall instantly turned cold. I love it. Spoiled bitches are finally getting what they deserve. Do they think they can play around with me and escape that easily? No chance. Fuck no.

"No… I…" As she goes to deny it, I frown harder, making her ultimately sigh in defeat. "I… I'm sorry."

"Levi-Kun, calm down, Rias didn't wan—" Akeno walks up to me, trying to appease, but as I stare her down indifferently, her feet stills, she takes a step back involuntarily. After killing so many monsters, my bloodlust has become thick enough that barely any teenagers can stand it, Devil, or not.

Seeing Aika stiffened face, I breath out, realizing I might've lost a bit of my emotion. I released the pressure that I had unknowingly formed and crossed my legs. Sipping the tea, I remark casually, "Thanks Rias, I'll keep your kind invitation in mind."

[+10 Affection with Maria Naruse for making her orgasm]

I still completely before continuing to sip tea as usual. I'll pretend I didn't see that.

The atmosphere inside the hall was still edgy. Still, thankfully, a recourse in terms of an endearing and jovial voice resounded, and a girl dressed in magical costume appeared out of a magic circle. "Magical Girl Sera-tan is here! She's here to beat the baddies into puddles~" Towards the end, the newcomer posed enthusiastically. Her ass protruded, one of her legs bent backward, the V-shape she formed with her index and middle finger hovered around her eyes as she flopped her tongue and winked.

Sona, who appeared along with her, facepalms. "I'm sorry about her behavior. She's my older sister," She introduces her, somewhat embarrassedly.

"It's fine. She seems like a fun character. Hello, Sera-tan." I smile and wave my hand, playing the part of a noob who doesn't know he's facing the end boss.

"Hello! You must be Levi-Kun Sona-tan keep talking about. Hmm, but this is troublesome. You look like quite the charmer." She waves back before scrutinizing me childishly, but I can see the traces of cunningness hidden inside her eyes. She turns to Sona and warns, "Sona-tan, you must be careful. These kinds of boys are ladykillers, don't fall into his traps. If he does something inappropriate, call me! I'll whack him with my magical stick!"

[+10 Affection with Serafall Leviathan under the effect of <Pervert> title]

"Sister, please don't embarrass me any further," Sona smiles stiffly. Quickly pointing at Zest and Raynare, she diverted the attention. "I called you here for them. One of them is Fallen Angel, and I believe the other is from Old Satan Faction."

Hearing that Zest is from Old Satan Faction, Serafall looked at her sharply, her magical girl facade vanishing momentarily. "Is that so? Someone from Old Satan Faction dares to show up uninvited? You bad girl. Sera-tan here will take care of your punishment!"

While she was explaining how she'll spank Zest's butt, I was checking her stats.

…

Target – Serafall Leviathan, Magical Gal

Race – Pure Devil

Level – 2475

HP – 275,000

MP – 600,000

SP – 275,000

STR – 3400

END – 3000

DEX – 3100

INT – 4100

WIS – 4100

CHA – 4000

LCK – 2700

Thoughts about you – Tiniest bit of Interest, Jealousy

…

To be honest, even when prepared, I was still frozen for a full three seconds. Those numbers are no joke. It did make sense though. She's a fucking Satan. One of the four leaders of Underworld who's thousands of years old and survived a fucking war. Shit. Now I suddenly want a Satan Class Magical Girl pet. She's hot, and I've always had a thing for cruel and scheming women. And no, I'm not talking about Rias's level schemes; if anything, those are child games. Figuring it doesn't cost me anything, I used [Lewd Observe] too.

…

Target – Serafall Leviathan

Perversion – High

Lust – Low

Affection – 10

Orientation – Sona Sitri

Fetishes – Incest, Domination, Submission

Sex Count – 0

…

I'll be the first to admit that I was surprised after finding out that she's a virgin. Isn't she over a thousand years old? Even for a lesbian, that's the next level of sexual abstinence. You have my respect, Sera-tan.

I watch calmly as Serafall picks up Zest and Raynare and throws them into a magic circle which disappears along with both of them. She then turns towards me. "Levi-Kun, thank you for not killing them outright. That would've been troublesome to handle."

[+5 Affection with Serafall Leviathan for saving her some work]

"You're welcome," I say easily, making her give me a nod and another inspection.

She then says to Sona with a giggle, "Well then, Sona-tan, since the work is over, I'm going. Don't miss me too much, okay? But if you really miss me, just call, I'll come teleporting!" Before Sona can scold Serafall again, a magical blue circle appears around her feet as she vanishes. All the while, I noticed that Maria's strange behavior around Serafall, which made me raise my eyebrows. Is there a story?

"That was something else," Ikumi says, and many people nod.

"I'm really sorry about her. Though she mightn't look like it, she's one of the Four Leaders of Underworld—a Satan."

"A Satan?!" Ikumi was taken aback.

"Hmm. Anyway, it's quite late. Why don't we wrap things up tonight? I'm sure you guys must be tired too. We can talk further tomorrow." Sona suggests. I'm fairly certain that she just wanted to talk with Rias.

Mio and Maria were the first ones to leave, followed by Sona's peerage. I've no real reason to stay here, so I prepare to depart as well. "Alright, I'll be seeing you guys tomorrow." I give both Rias and Sona a look before leaving.

"Hmm, take a good rest," Sona responds, while Rias simply nods, her guilty eyes averting.

-Occult Research Club's Hall-

There were only four individuals left inside the hall. Sona, Tsubaki, Rias, and Akeno. Sona looked at sullen and wronged Rias and said sternly, "Tell me everything that happened in my absence."

Rias sighed and recounted everything, making Sona scowl deeper every passing second. "You are telling me that not only did you fail to convince him but went a step further and estranged him from Devil kind as a whole?! You told me you had things under control. That's why I didn't interfere then how did things come to this?"

"Student Council President, it's not entirely Rias's fault. Levi-Kun… he's too tricky. I don't know if we should even believe what he said," Akeno says.

"I can also tell that he's cunning. And you know what else he is? Full of potential. Just under a week, his magical power has surpassed everyone or is equal, save us four. I do not doubt that his Sacred Gear is Longinus Class. We can't lose someone of his potential to other Factions." Sona snaps back, yet her tone is as composed as always.

Akeno goes to respond, but Rias stops her.

"You're right. I didn't think things thoroughly, and that led us to this situation. I… I'll talk to him again." She bites her lips and responds.

Seeing Rias's state, Sona softens and sighs. "Rias… I know you're anxious to get out of your marriage, and that's why I even let you take the lead. But you didn't grasp it fully. From now on, I'll also be actively recruiting him."

"That's fine. I deserve that. I can only ask so much from you. A Longinus Class Sacred Gear user is a very powerful asset for any family." Rias nods in understanding. Longinus Class Sacred Gear's users were few in numbers, and all of them were insanely powerful. She was already grateful that her friend let her take the lead.

"I'll hope you refrain from talking to him like that. I am pretty sure you can tell that Levi doesn't like it when others treat him like a Chess piece."

"I don't mean it like that, but… I understand."

"Regardless, what are you going to do in the worst case?" Sona asks her friend, looking at her with concern. She fully knows the unpleasantness of being forced into a marriage. She was fortunate that her sister was a Satan; otherwise, she'll probably be bouncing atop some lucky fucker's lap about now.

"The Rating Game date is still undecided, but I know that it's most likely next month. If I couldn't recruit him, then I'll probably end up asking Ikumi. I'll take any help right now, no matter how small it is. Though I don't know if she'll agree considering how close she is to Levi-Kun," Rias paused briefly before replying, her tone slightly desperate.

In her conversation with Sona, she failed to notice the flash of determination passing Akeno's eyes.

-Levi-

The 'confrontation' went as well as I expected. I managed to conceal most of my abilities and misled them, thanks to their glorious misunderstandings. Now, I also had a valid reason not to join Rias's peerage. However, I knew Rias wouldn't give up that easily, even if I thought with my toes. My potential will draw her in, especially after Riser's event has passed and the Rating Game date is shifted. Honestly, I'm working so hard these days that it's unbelievable. And I thought my last life was full of hardship. But it's over… at least for now. I don't know what Maria is going to do, and frankly, I don't care. I just want to go home and take a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately for me, life is a nasty bitch who likes to play pranks.

"How can I help you?" I ask carefully as I find a bespectacled man sitting on my couch like he owned the damn thing. A stoic-faced teenage girl whose dress consists of a navy blue leotard, white skirt and a navy blue cape stands behind him.

I cannot say I've met many powerful people. The strongest people I know are Chisato and Serafall but none of them made my skin crawl like this man did with one look. Even if he's sitting there with just a casual fatherly smile, I can feel my body turning cold.

[Observe]

…

Target – Jin Toujou, War God

Race – Human

Level – 5455

HP – 675,000

MP – 920,000

SP – 625,000

STR – 6300

END – 6100

DEX – 5700

INT – 5900

WIS – 5800

CHA – 3800

LCK – 3000

Thoughts about you – Nothing Particularly

…

Well, fuck.