7

I stepped out of the Gate and into a thicket that I had noticed the day before. Immediately, Issei noticed and ran over. "Sensei! You came!"

I grinned. "Sure did. Now, do you have any ideas on how you plan to troll people?"

He grinned proudly. "Sure do!"

"And?"

He struck a pose. "I'm gonna be the Harem King, and have tons of girls, all with beautiful Oppai!"

I froze, remembering my parting thoughts the previous day. '…I tempted fate, didn't I?'

I tentatively asked, "You are just trolling people with that, right?"

He frowned. "Of course I am… well… mostly. I'd love a harem of pretty girls that I could love. But not because of the number girls…but because I want to make them all feel special, all by myself."

I grinned. It looks like I had managed to combine all the best features of Hyoudou Issei, while eliminating most of the bad. "Now, about your method of trolling… you plan on pretending to be a pervert, correct?"

He nodded seriously. "Hai, Sensei."

I sighed, thinking it over. "Actually… that's not that bad of an idea."

"Really?"

I nodded seriously. "A normal person would look at you with disgust or ignore you completely. A pervert would join you in your quest, or at least express approval. A closet pervert or prude would sputter dramatically, and protest your actions. Someone who doesn't do either is trying to get something from you."

"Plus," I continued, "You can help from the shadows. You can see the girls without their clothes on, and check for bruises and other marks, to make sure they aren't being abused. If they are, drop an anonymous call to the police."

Issei gasped. "Really? Looking at their boobs could help people?"

I nodded. "But remember, the moment that you drop the act, the jig is up. If you ever do it again, people will know you're trolling them. So only tell people who will help you, not hurt you. No, not even your parents."

Issei nodded. "Okay."

Then, I grinned. "But remember, always leave your audience just enough evidence to go on, if they become motivated enough to look. For you, I suggest acting as pervy as possible, hanging out with your 'fellow perverts'… but never buying any porn. That way, anyone who becomes close enough that you'd invite them into your room, would have a decent chance of discovering the ruse."

Issei grinned back at me. "Thanks, Sensei!"

I smirked. "Now, how about that training?"

He gasped. "Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that! Are we going to do that right now?"

I nodded. "Are you ready?"

"Hai, Sensei!"

I grabbed him by the arm, dragged him into the thicket, and cast Gate. We stumbled out into the Tree of Knowledge a moment later. He gasped in amazement. "How did you do that?"

Ruby glanced up from her attempt at a Gate. "Cute kid. Is he going to be part of the Peerage?"

I shook my head. "Nope. He's gotta remain human for now."

Issei looked confused. "What's a 'Peerage'?"

I sighed. "I'm not human, I'm a Devil. Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels all exist, along with pretty much everything in any mythology you care to name."

Issei gasped. "Like in the Bible?"

I nodded. "Yep. The races mentioned in the Bible form the Biblical Faction. There's also the Norse Faction, the Shinto Faction, and the Greek Faction, to name a few. A Peerage is… well… do you know what chess is?"

He nodded. I continued, "Well, High-Class Devils use magical chess pieces called 'Evil Pieces' to reincarnate gifted individuals into Devils, and serve under them. With a total of fifteen unused Pieces, you could have a max of fifteen servants."

He gasped. "I could have a Harem?"

I sighed. "Yes, you could. Being a Devil also allows you to become mostly immortal, which means you can enjoy your girls as young and beautiful as they are for the rest of your life."

{WHAT are you DOING?} Ruby yelled inside my head, rage seeping through.

{I taught him how to troll people, and turned him into a career troll. His method is acting like he's 'obsessed with Oppai and wants to become Harem King'. Trust me, I would never allow anyone that perverted to be anywhere near the two of you.} I sent back, possessiveness lacing my words. I paused. {Holy shit, that 'second Sin' thing is intense. Sorry about that.}

Much to my mortification, and Shirone's amusement, Ruby was most definitely not offended by my possessiveness. She 'meeped' and spent the next few minutes hiding her face under her hood in embarrassment.

I sighed, ignoring her… quirks. 'I swear to the Maou, if that damn Law makes her primary Sin Lust because of this, I'm gonna shoot somebody.'

'Maybe I can track down Freed?'

Murderous inclinations aside, I returned to the conversation at hand. "I'm sorry, Issei, but you're going to have to find a different Devil to turn you. I believe that one troll per Peerage is the upper limit. If you want to join a Peerage, I'd suggest just staying in Kuoh Town until high school. When a Devil visits town, act normal, but allow just enough power out to catch their eye."

He nodded. I finished with, "…Then find one of their Contract fliers, and allow some other Faction, like the Angels or a Fallen Angels, to kill you. If you use the flyer to summon the Devil you baited, they'll show up and revive you with a Piece. Of course, I can give you a Timed Heal gem to save you if the Devil doesn't show up."

He blinked. "I have to die?"

I nodded. "The simplest way to trick a Devil is to make them think that they're getting more than they're giving."

Issei nodded slowly. "…Okay. Good to know."

There was an awkward pause as Issei digested my words.

Ruby sighed, standing up and brushing off her combat skirt. Shirone followed suit with her grey summer dress. "So… where are we training?"

I grinned, relieved at the change in subject. I reached into my waist pouch, pulling out four identical doorknobs. "Here, everyone take one."

My girls both walked over and took theirs, and I handed one to Issei.

'…All right, so I ripped off the spell World Door from Familiar of Zero and stuck it onto a Dimensional Knob from DxD. What's it to ya'?'

I continued my explanation. "There are two halves of the knob, each painted a different color. The groove painted green is full of Nature Chakra, and the groove painted yellow is Modified Gravity. Don't use the yellow one until you can stand at least fifty times earth's gravity, otherwise you'll probably explode or something."

Issei gulped and began to sweat, but my girls, the cheaters, checked the bond to see if I was serious. That was fine, though. Issei was the only one I was really worried about.

"To use them, place them on a vertical surface with one of the sides facing up, and twist. For now, let's go for the Nature one."

I walked over to a nearby wall, and demonstrated. Issei had to get some help with his, because he lacked any mana pool at the moment. 'That's okay, though.' I thought with a Devilish grin, 'we'll be fixing that today.'

We walked into a large deciduous forest with a clearing in the center. In the center of the clearing was one enormous oak that dwarfed all the rest, easily topping eighty feet. A small creek encircled the base of the oak, burbling merrily.

I turned to my new students and grinned. "You know, I never formally said this before, but WELCOME TO HELL."

Once I was done with the tortu- er… training… I sat peacefully by the creek, on top of a protruding root. All three of my students lay on the ground, panting.

I had started them out with some basic Senjutsu and mana exercises, before moving on to some physical conditioning, giving my Pieces the appropriate level of Gravity spells. Their work out set was one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten-kilometer run.

I could easily do fifty times that in my sleep, but I had been training for the past four years. Now all I had to do was pass the time until they got back up.

I took a deep breath, and broke into song. "Well, I was stranded on a planet, just me and Spock. We met a nasty Nazi alien, he locked our asses up…"

My girls both groaned. "Not that damn song again, you've sung that thing at least fifty times today." Ruby griped, her eyebrow twitching in irritation. "I'm going to have that damn sea shanty stuck in my head for hours!

I ignored the nonbeliever, continuing to sing Aurelio Voltaire's masterpiece. "And I said…"

Issei joined in, grinning. "Bounce the graviton particle beam, off the main deflector dish. That's the way we do things like, we're makin' shit up as we wish…"

We sang the entire song twice more, waiting for the girls to catch their second wind. Finally, Ruby stumbled to her feet and gave me a murderous glare. "If I had the energy right now," she hissed, "I would kick your ass for that. Where did you even hear that monstrosity?"

I frowned. "What? Never seen 'Star Deck'?*"

She groaned. "Nope. Imprisoned, remember?"

I turned to Shirone. "And you?"

She shook her head. I gave a mock gasp, exchanging a look with Issei, and pushed the relevant memories into their minds. Ten seconds later, they were both 'enlightened'. Shirone decided that the song was, indeed, as funny as Issei and I thought, and broke into giggles. Ruby… much less so.

"What are you, five?" She hissed, "We're supposed to be training seriously, here!"

I blinked. "Six, actually. And yes, we are. Would you like me to sing Robot Hell instead?"

She glared, panting from the exertion of resisting the Gravity pulling her down. "Somehow, I doubt it. Now, can we please get back to training?"

I sighed. 'Heathen'. "All right, but Shirone has to stop laughing, first."

Shirone made a valiant effort to contain her giggles, but collapsed again a moment later. I sighed, eyeing Ruby nervously. Even if she looked adorable when she frowned like that, she was still once the Red Dragon Emp…ress, and could kill most beings in a heartbeat if she so chose. I wasn't worried about myself or Shirone, but Issei was an excellent target.

I grimaced, then brushed against her mind. I quickly learned that she was more tired than angry. {Ruby? Are you all right?}

She sighed. {Fine, it's just… I want to be doing something. I was chained in one place for millennia, and it seems like I'm wasting my second chance.}

I sighed. {I get it. But you don't need to worry about time. We have eternity together, remember?}

She promptly turned bright red and pulled her hood over her eyes. {Stop saying things like that! Honestly…}

I smirked, but mercifully changed the subject. "Now, the next thing you're going to do is learn to use Touki. To do that, you take small amounts of Nature Chakra, and you mix it with the mana in your body."

Shirone, having done this training before, did so without issue. The other two struggled for a bit. Ruby seemed to have no problem, but Issei…

"I don't think your body is strong enough for this." I admitted honestly. "Some people can use Senjutsu, but others have to do things differently."

"Another method to obtaining Touki is by training one's body to the uttermost limits, gaining control on the base of life itself. This method even allows the user to counter magic attacks by striking them. It's the way I learned it, so I can guarantee that it works."

I sighed, glancing at him. "Are you willing to try it?"

He nodded solemnly. "Hai, Sensei."

I grinned. "Great! Now, back to training!"

He groaned.

Over the course of the next six months, we fell into a routine. We would use our Doorknobs to enter our rooms of choice, train until lunch, talk for a while, then continue training until dinner. We advanced quickly, each in our own field. I in my different skills, Issei in his Touki, Shirone in her Senjutsu, and Ruby in her scythe mastery.

One development of note happened about four months in. By now, Issei's brown hair had turned bright blonde in the harsh sunlight of the Nature world, and he could use Touki as easily as breathing. He had also grown more confident, his insecurities only rarely showing through.

Issei and I came to a realization—we needed another male friend. The girls would always disappear after dinner in order to braid each other's hair and gossip with the maids, or attend one of mother's mandatory lessons in politics and etiquette, leaving us boys to awkwardly stare at each other and try to make conversation.

I had scoured my brain for possible candidates, and immediately thought of one.

Riser Phenex.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Who would ever want to be friends with that douchebag? Well, the thing is, he isn't that douchebag yet.

Don't get me wrong, he's still a little playboy, but he hasn't been corrupted by his Pride just yet. And with luck, we could help him avert that future. As it was now, he was just a laid-back kid with too much time on his hands. We would Gate to his house every day after dinner, and read comics or play games, or just talk and laugh. A month later, Riser became increasingly serious, and took to joining us in our daily training trips. I don't know why he became so driven to become stronger, and I didn't ask.

Being either a natural Tank or Battlemage, I came up with a variety of different styles for him to try out. So, for the first week of training, Riser tested out different fighting styles. Unlike Issei, he seemed to favor magic over brute force, which eliminated the Tank style. Since we now knew he was to be a Battlemage, we first focused on increasing his mana pool, then on his hand-to-hand combat. The returns were doubled when I deemed him mentally sound enough to learn Thought Acceleration. At the end of those last two months, all we had to do was pick a style for him.

That brings us to now.

Riser blinked. "You want to teach me to what?"

Issei and I grinned at each other. "Troll people." Issei responded easily.

Riser looked confused. "The heck does that mean?"

Issei turned to me and gasped melodramatically. "Sensei! He doesn't know what trolling is!"

I sighed. "Then, I suppose it is our duty as trolls to enlighten the heathen."

(Ruby, watching the conversation from my eyes out of boredom, started laughing. My mother was not amused.)

"I can still hear you." Riser deadpanned.

We grinned. "Shall you, or shall I?" I asked Issei.

He smirked. "You certainly did a good enough job with me, didn't you?"

I stretched my grin wider. "Why, thank you. Now, to pull this off, I'm going to teach you how to cast higher-level illusions. Those low-level ones won't cut it."

We walked Teleported into Lilith, the capital city of the Underworld, all wearing adult disguises. See, low-level illusions differ from high-level ones in that they only fool one sense at a time, and are simpler to notice from the excess mana leaking through. High-level illusions, such as the one I taught them, leaked no mana at all, and could fool up to five senses at a time. '...though maybe it was a tad overkill to teach them my Kyōka Suigetsu recreation just to troll people with...'

{Nah. It'll be fine.} Ruby sent from back home, bored out of her skull during my mother's etiquette lesson.

I shrugged. 'Not my problem anymore, I guess. No point in worrying about it.' Instead, I turned to my companions.

Issei's light blonde hair spiked downwards in all directions, and he had dyed his illusionary irises purple at my request. He was listening to a pair of white stereo headphones with black straps and a flame logo on each side, which I had given him for his recent birthday. He wore a dark blue gakuran and kept only one button in place. The rest were unbuttoned to reveal a yellow undershirt beneath the uniform. He also wore pants of the same color as his shirt, and a pair of tennis shoes with black, white and gold tones.

Raiser's now-darkened hair, changed to black at my advice, was worn casually unkempt. He wore a blue uniform jacket (designed by me) and had on white formal-wear gloves on over his hands. He also wore crisp slacks and polished boots, giving the viewer the impression that he was a well-dressed person.

I grinned, smug in my Junichirou Kagami illusion as I walked into town with Roy Mustang and Sakamaki Izayoi. Life was good.

I finally spoke up. "Do you have your fake I.D.s?"

Both 'men' nodded. I took mine out and held it up. "Now, here's what you're doing. Just put the words 'of goldfish' after every sentence I say."

I walked over to a nearby civilian, tapping them him the shoulder and adopting a serious expression. When the man turned, I spoke in a serious tone. "Sir, we're currently conducting an investigation on a possible suspect for murder."

He frowned. "Really? Who was killed?"

"An entire family. It was very traumatic, and the culprit is the leader of a large gang. He's called 'the Devourer'.

'Roy' started cracking up, and had to turn around to hide his laughter, shoulders shaking. I continued, "My friend Roy had a family member killed in front of him by that gang. He's a bit emotional after seeing the brutality."

The civilian nodded, taking 'Roy's' shaking shoulders as tears. "All right, I'll help. What do you need?"

I held up my fake ID. "Can you tell me if you've seen this man?"

Five minutes and a heart-wrenching story of my 'evil twin' (of goldfish) later, I walked back to my partners in crime. Issei, as testament to his own trolling experience, only wore a smirk. Riser was laughing so hard tears streamed down his face, and he couldn't walk in a straight line. "Control your grief, Roy!" Issei said 'sympathetically', "We're in public."

We spent the rest of the night taking turns making up increasingly elaborate murders (of goldfish). We ended the night in the city square, sitting on one of the benches in front of the Pillar of Kings.

The Pillar was a self-updating list of every King to ever get a Peerage. The blue-lit names were those that hadn't completed their Peerage, the green were the ones that had, and the unlit ones were dead. It was a popular tourist attraction, because they found it interesting to find the names of the most popular Kings on the Pillar. And since the Pillar rose more every year to make space for the new names, the surviving Kings were lifted higher every year.

Riser and I had found our names in blue, about six feet up the Pillar. We tried to show Issei, but he declined, deciding that it wasn't worth being flown up by the both of us.

We all sat down, spent. Wracking my brain for good conversation topics, I turned to Raiser and asked, "Hey, how's your family doing? I heard that something big happened last month."

Riser paused, before sighing and nodding. "Well, yes. Something did happen last month. After Rias's monthly visit, I remembered how you told me that girls should always be walked home, so that's what I did."

I mentally cheered. My girls thankfully ignored me. My cheer quickly died as he continued, however. "I got to talking with her parents, and I apparently took too long, because Ravel slipped out to go looking for me. She never came back. We've been looking all over for her ever since."

I froze as Riser kicked the bench in frustration. "If I had just… been there sooner, stopped talking and went home when I was supposed to, Ravel would still be fine!"

The worst part was, he was right. If I hadn't been there to give him advice, the little )Bishop( would still be home safely. "Does she at least have that Guardian configuration I gave you for her?" I asked urgently.

Riser snorted. "The necklace? More like she never takes it off. You'd have to pry it off her corpse. I saw her wear it to the bath, once."

I relaxed. "Hence why you're not scared."

He nodded. "My parents checked it for every kind of threat before giving it to her, but couldn't even sense the magic unless it was being used. They once fastened it to a log and fired every damn spell they knew at it, didn't even chip the bark."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me earlier?" I demanded, "I could've tried to track it!"

"We already tried that. In fact, it's the first thing we tried. Like I said, she never takes it off. Wherever she is, they have all magical signatures blocked."

I frowned. That didn't make any sense. "With all the power going into it, the only thing that could cause the configuration to stop transmitting her location is if it were being overwhelmed by an energy source so large that it's forcing it to use all of its' energy to defend."

Riser raised an eyebrow. "Now that I didn't know. What kind of energy source could do that?"

I shrugged. "Because of our race's inherent weakness, I rigged twice the amount of 'Resist Holy' type spells into the necklace. That would make them suck up twice the power if they were all activated at once. Other than that, you'd need a volcano or the magical equivalent being used constantly in order to drain that much energy at once."

Riser sighed. "Thanks. I'll let my parents know. It isn't much, but every little bit helps, ya know?"

I nodded. Issei sighed. "I've gotta get home soon, so can we take one more walk around town, first?"

Riser and I agreed, happy to have an excuse to change the subject.

Once we were done messing around, we walked back to the edge of the city and quietly disappeared into a Gate.

I walked into my room later that night, just as the sun began to rise. I had gotten lost again, and spent hours trying to find somewhere familiar so I could Gate back. I ignored the sleeping girls, and walked quietly over to my desk.

I had been scrying the Holy Sword Project for a while, now. They hadn't gone too far, yet, and could still be considered moral. However, I had yet to see a single one of the orphans inside the lab, and that was cause for worry. I knew for a fact that they had them, due to some subtle inquiries and a paper trail, but I still hadn't seen a single one.

I had found some amusement in knowing that the 'Excalibur' that they were so desperately trying to use was actually the original Caliburn, the one that Arthur used. 'Honestly,' I thought drily, 'it even says in the myth that Caliburn was broken, and Excalibur was used to replace it. How the hell do they mess up that badly?'

I sighed, contemplating the issue of Ravel. The start date of the Holy Sword Project had been about the same time as Ravel's disappearance. I had wanted to avoid Riser having to worry about his sister while hanging out with us, so I had made her a necklace of priceless gems, each holding either an enormous mana pool or a complex spell configuration. With Merlin's, Medea's, and Mozart's Experience in magic combined, the resulting Guardian configuration was about a C- ranked Noble Phantasm.

My girls had each accepted a customized version of the necklace, but I preferred not to think about that. 'Damn Law…'

I grimaced to myself. 'I don't get it. With how powerful I made the Guardian configuration, nothing short of a Holy Sword could…'

Then it all clicked. The missing orphans, Ravel's necklace, the suspicious lack of activity, all of it. I promptly cranked up Thought Acceleration and activated my perfected Memory Partition.

I had recently discovered how to make my six Partitions synergistic, perfecting the spell. This meant that, rather than having six independent thought processes, I had 46,656. And there was one guy who had eight Partitions. Atlas be OP.

'So, Valper Galilei petitions for custody of a dozen orphans. Around the same time, Ravel was kidnapped by someone with a Holy Sword-level artifact. It's just too convenient. It would be ridiculously simple to smuggle in another child with all the orphans. But why Ravel? There's nothing that she has that they couldn't find in another Devil. In fact, their job would be made harder by having to keep a Holy Sword in contact with her at all times.'

'Unless it really was too convenient, and they took her without a second thought, not realizing who she was, only what. But what could Ravel have that sets her apart from a low-class orphan from the slums?'

One of my thought processes sent me a memory from my first life. I watched as Valper held up the Light Container, its' blue crystal glistening from within like that of Evil Pieces. Exactly like that of Evil Pieces, actually.

'…Light Containers were designed to hold the Light Attribute and give it to someone else. What else do we know that can flawlessly hold and deliver a piece of a soul? An Evil Piece. But they can't just steal an unused one, no, that would draw too much attention. So they have to make an active piece disappear, but keep them alive until they could safely extract the Piece. That rules out Stray Devils.'

'What do we have left? Someone who's young enough to be smuggled with a group of orphans, wouldn't draw too much attention if taken, and is an active Piece. Very few fit that criteria, and Ravel is unlucky enough to be one of them.

'She's the youngest of three boys, and thus not an heir. That means the Phenex can't raise hell over finding her. So taking her wouldn't attract any attention they couldn't deal with. She's six right now, so she could easily be hidden amongst the orphans. And she's currently her mother's )Bishop(, so she's definitely qualified for being an active Piece.'

'But how did they know that the signal could be blocked? …Unless they didn't, and this is yet another coincidence. Maybe they just made her hold the sword because they wanted to destroy her protection against whatever ritual they used.'

'Now, finally, what ritual is capable of extracting part of someone's soul, and is accessible to Valper? The Sacred Gear Extraction ritual from canon. But that one only works on the night of a… full… moon…'

My eyes snapped to the rising sun. In this part of the underworld, we were in London time. The Holy Sword Project takes place in an island in the South Pacific, called Fakaofo. And it just so happened that the time there was exactly twelve hours ahead of ours, so the sun had set for them about an hour ago… on the night of a full moon.

'Oh, FUCK!'

I Gated to the lab, not bothering to scry first, as that would waste precious seconds.

I arrived to see Valper pulling the )Bishop( Piece out of her chest, as she screamed in agony. I didn't even think twice, I just called on my magic and used ))Nightmare(( to slaughter everyone in my path. People barely had any time to scream as I carved through them, managing to catch Ravel's body before it hit the floor. Valper and the rest of the survivors managed to escape with the Piece, but that wasn't my main concern right now.

I shook Ravel gently, waking her up. I knew from my first life that she didn't have long on her own, so I pulled Excalibur, sheathed in Avalon, from my waist pouch. I placed it in her hands and poured mana into it, keeping the girl alive as she struggled awake.

As she opened her blue eyes, she looked confused. "…Mi-kun?"

Amused and relieved, I asked, "Are you sure you should be calling me that?"

She frowned faintly. "This is my last dream, so I should be able to call you what I like, Right?" She paused. "I'm sorry, but I lost that beautiful necklace that you gave me. They made me take it off, otherwise they would've killed Isaiah."

Ah. That explained it. I sighed. "Forget the necklace, we don't have enough time." 'Think! She has a perfectly healthy mind and body, but her soul is mostly gone. What. Can. You. DO?'

My mind working overtime, I finally realized the obvious solution. 'You have an entire Reality Marble full of healthy souls, you idiot! One of them even said that she wants a completely new start! Use her!'

"I can bring you back," I began, "but not as you are. You'll only be part you."

She considered that for a moment. "Does it mean that I can stay by your side?"

I nodded. "Forever."

She smiled happily, the smile lighting up the room with its' brilliance. "Then I agree. As long as I can stay with you forever, I'll…do…any…thing..."

And with that, the light faded from her eyes. I sighed, closing her eyes and sitting back. I shut my eyes and fell into my Marble, opening my eyes on the now-familiar bridge.

I spread my four wings and flew at breakneck speeds to the Throne Room. I burst through the door, looking on to see… a card table set up between the thrones, a game of Monopoly in progress. As I watched, Iskandar cackled as Minato sulkily paid what I assumed was rent.

Ignoring the oddity, I spoke up. "Gilgamesh, King of Heroes, I wish to bargain with you."

She put down her cards, turning and giving me her full attention. "Very well. What do you desire, and what do you offer in return?"

"You said you wanted a new life, yes? What if I gave you a new mind and body, too?" I said, mentally crossing my fingers.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Explain."

"I plan on trying to merge your soul with an Evil Piece. The girl I plan to save has most of her soul missing, but her mind and body are still intact. As such, you'll completely merge with her, magic circuits and all."

Gilgamesh rose from her throne, stretching. "I shall agree, but only if you can fight me in the way that my only friend does. Eagerly, and without restraint."

I raised an eyebrow. "…Okay? But, um, can we go somewhere of my choice?"

She smirked. "Very well. It is only fair."

I sighed, spreading my wings. "Would you like me to carry you?"

She nodded. I picked her up in a princess carry, and flew her to where I planned to fight. Iskandar, Minato, and Arturia followed from afar. Iskandar in Gordius Wheel, Minato with Thanatos, and Arturia by jumping from place to place. I set down lightly, and took a step back.

I had learned (indirectly) from Adonai that all of my World-Class spells had representations here, as well as their locations. I had set down on the edge of the crater holding the Waters of Leviathan—not that she knew what it was. I grinned, cranking up Thought Acceleration and launching my six Memory Partitions. "Let's get started!"

She smirked arrogantly, and summoned her Gates of Babylon. She surrounded me from all sides and called out, "Worry not, I shall make this quick."

I just silently summoned ))Nightmare((. When she began to launch Phantasms at me, I just used the molecule-thin threads to absolutely disintegrate each one. 46,656 trains of thought going at 1000 times the normal speed gave me access to well over 4,665,600 different threads that I could control absolutely.

I made sure to Structurally Grasp all of her weapons. Any Phantasms I couldn't outright destroy were deflected so that she had to waste yet more Phantasms blocking. I knew that she had limitless Phantasms in her Treasury, but I also knew that she had limited mana, especially when I made the Rules of my Marble change to nearly triple the cost of her Gates of Babylon.

I grinned, shouting "I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of breaking weapons!"

My only reply was a scream of frustration as she began throwing more powerful weapons, such as Durandal, Joyeuse, and the like. I just kept destroying and misdirecting them. In irritation at me for destroying her precious treasures, she grabbed Durandal, swinging it at my exposed chest.

Rather than catching it, I blocked with another blade that I Summoned from the Sea of Tranquility. And then we were fighting, moving at speeds too fast for most eyes to track, moving from one end of the crater to the other in an instant. Soon enough, we were both laughing from the thrill of the fight. It was like a dance, one that changed every second it went on. She stabbed with a spear, I blocked with a pair of daggers. I sliced with a katana, she blocked with a battleaxe. We continued in this way for some time, just basking in the experience.

Finally, she stopped in one place, laughing as she placed her halberd back into her treasury. "All right, I shall admit, you are indeed a worthy foe. For that, I shall cease holding back. Wake up, Ea!"

I grinned, beginning the calculations for my newest World-Class spell. Magic circles sprung to life around us in a hemisphere, the number increasing by the moment. Then, when they gained enough power, they vanished.

Gilgamesh, who had been charging this entire time, finally released it. "ENUMA…ELISH!"

I smirked as the wave of death approached, cocked back my fist, wound up, and punched it.

It disintegrated under the force of my Touki-infused blow, leaving a flabbergasted Gilgamesh in its' wake. "How…"

"My turn!" I yelled cheerfully, internally wincing at my now-broken wrist. The circles reappeared, creating seemingly random rings that stretched into the sky.

))FALLEN DOWN((

An enormous pillar of light encircled a six-mile-radius, blasting a second crater for Leviathan to flow into. Gilgamesh stood in the center of the crater, panting. Her golden armor was nearly destroyed, and she looked like she had just fallen down a mountain.

She raised Ea again… and stopped when the waters of Leviathan rose at my command. "Surrender." I commanded. She nodded, panting. I used the waters to deposit us on shore, where we took one look at each other and burst into laughter.

We laughed both at the other's appearance and the glorious feeling of being alive. I don't know what I looked like, but she looked nothing like the King she was. We continued to laugh until Iskandar rode up on Gordius Wheel. I turned, wheezing, to face him. He waved, a huge grin on his face.

Catching her breath, the King of Heroes turned to me and asked, "Now, what was your offer, again?"

"Like I said, you will be starting from scratch with a new mind and an untrained body. Plus..." I grinned. "Devils are immortal."

Gilgamesh considered this, then smiled. "You drive a hard bargain, young King. I approve. I accept you proposition, O King of Dreams. So long as you hold up your side of the bargain, I am yours to do as you will."

A flash signified my Marble's acceptance of our contract. I took out my crystal )Knight(, holding it aloft. Gilgamesh's form broke into golden lights, flowing into the Piece, setting it aglow.

I smiled. Only one more thing to do.

Returning to the real world, I connected to the Dream, opening my mind and prodding my dormant Marble awake.

.

̴̞̞̝͕̣̙̒ͩͮ̈̅͒́̽̚͟W͇͓̭͊ͦͫ̓̀H̴̲̬̫̣̻̤̟͙̐͐̏͝Y̴̖̭͙ͯ̐̏̚͝ ̻͔ͥ̉̒͆̄̈̆ͮ͡H̹̪̮̭ͯ̉̉́ͫͯ̎͡A̘̬͖̙̮̓ͥ͢V̧̳̖̩ͧ͝Ȩ͕̠͚̺ͬͮ̂̅̇͐̒͂͠ ̶̗̱͉̤̀͂͗̽ͭ̅̌ͫÝ̛͍̩̉̐ͦ̉ͤ̈́̚Ơ͕͍̱̙̗ͩ̒̓U̩̞͓͓͖̬̦͎̐̉ͫͅ ̯̻͓̯̘͕̜͒̓̈́Ẃ̸̸̷̱ͫͤͫ̃̓͆O̦̖̘̻̳̖̣ͥ̏͌̔̄̈́̅̋̕K̝͍͖͙̗͈͇̲͔͋̐͡Ḙ̶̮͉̰̱͗̚͢N̶̰͓̝̟̄̒̐ͫ͊͋ ̢̰͓̗͆ͮ͐͌ͮͦ̇Ụ̗̣̻̰̖̈͐͛͝ͅSͫ̇̓͏͕̟̟?̪͖̜̭̳̠͇͔̽̆ͦ̍̚͠͡

.

I sent it my memories of the past few minutes.

'I wish to save her.'

My Marble seemed to consider this, eventually picking out several phrases and showing them to me.

"I can bring you back," I began, "but not as you are. You'll only be part you."

"…Then I agree. As long as I can stay with you forever, I'll…do…any…thing."

"…I accept you proposition, O King of Dreams. So long as you hold up your side of the bargain, I am yours to do as you will."

.

.

͎͉̠͎̳͂̂͐̂̑̈́ͤI̻͈͔̭͍̯ͯ̉T͓͎̦̻͍̲̽̏ͨͫ͑ ̺̫̭̑͛ͫC̯͉͈͖̭̼̞̃ͤ̃͆̒A̲̖̯̝̓ͯ̌ͤN̠͙̣ͩ͛̽̽̆͒ͮ͑ͅ ̩̝͙̽̽̿̓̅ͨ͑̌B̺͓̦̝̦̼̃̽̓̋ͩE̳̮̼͔̹̻̮̊̐̿͛͒͑ ͔͔ͧ̆D͎̻͔̰̜͎͇̝ͥ̌̋̔ͩ̒̊̿O̫̱̻̭͔̼͖͒̉̆̿͗̄̑̏ͦN̖͕̜͍͖̔ͯ̍̌̃Ḛ̰͎ͣ͑̆̐ͯ,̭̣̣̮̾̒͐ ̩̯̰͇̞͍̃ͣ͆͒ͬ͊̏Y̻͙̺̭̦̣̰ͮ̍̆ͬ͂̾ͮ̑E̹̘͛̄T̟͚͍̖̼̒ͧ̊ ̥͎̤̠̪̯̗̞͒T͈͙̃̑ͤ̈̂ͬ̓ͅH̬̟͓̹ͬ̂̃E͔̫̪̪̮̗͗ͩͧ̚ ̮̦͓̱̖̤̯̦̝ͤ̓͊͗͋C̰̦̠̭̯͐O̳͚̥̥̰̐͒̅̅̌Š̭̞̞̍̅̿̔͆̂̾Ṱ͔̞̇̍̽ ͇̦̹͙̙̎̐I͇ͭ͆S͉̺̜̙ͨ̈́͆̊ͧ̓ͧ̚ ̼̹͔ͨͭ̌ͮS̱ͩ̎̉̑ͣ̆T̬̭̝̻͍ͭͪ̃̓E̬̲̤̖͙̅ͪE̖̳̱̠̗̗͌̌ͮͪ͗̌̍̀̋P̝̝̞̟ͯͧ͊͆ͩ͒̐.̙̥̺̠̣̥͕͙̇͋

.

.

'What cost?'

"…I'll…do…any…thing."

"…I am yours to do as you will."

"Does it mean that I can stay by your side?" "Forever."

.

.

̟͚͙̹͙̲̈́́̿̿̚T͙̪͕̜̜̼ͪ͛̊ͣͬ̋͂͌ͤH̼̺̯̬̜̥ͣͥ̊E̦̼͕͕̱̻͓̱̺ͬ̊̈ ̥͍̈́͂́ͪ͋ͣ̆̿L̼͕̺̫͇̤ͬ͒͋Í̙̱̒͂͆͊F̥̟̣̠̲͈ͦ̈ͫ̊̓̉̈̃É̲̌ ̝̻̬̠ͣͦ͗̓͌G̻̙͔̥̤ͨͦͫ̀̌̽Ï̳̣͖͍̅̾̌̚V̦̑̑͂͌ͦ͒E͉͖͖͇̰̻͑̏̃̄ͥ͂̐͆Ṉ̻̦̉͛ͣ ̩͓̮̳̣̘̻͂̌Ì͚̩̟̩̝͍̾͆̉S̙̬̗̗̮̹ͮͮ͒ ̱͍͓̱̘̓̓̒Y͎̋ͥ͂̿͊͂ͥO̬͕̹͎̲̙͉̎̈́͌̽Ủ͍̼͔̪͉̻͗R̬̺͕̣̆͋̎͊ͨ͒Ŝ̫ͥ̑̊ͮ ̻̻̯̝͈̍̏͆̀ͨ̉T͖̣̮̽̓̽͋͊͂O̻̖ͤ͗̓͌ͥ ̞̝͕ͧC̯̫ͦ̿̋ͧ̏̿̌̃̓L̦̠͔̗̲̺̜̼͗̍̚Ḁ̯̀ͦ̇̑ͭ̈́ͅI̫̺̣̪̬̲͔̝̬̾̋̃̅ͨM̺͓̖̱͉̰̯̅͂ͮ̓̌ͦ̚ͅ.̩͈̜̅͆ͬ̆̂̂̇ͩ̚

̹̻̤͆̑ͪ̉̈́.

.

'…You want me to Claim her? Why?'

My Marble showed me my memory of placing Ddraig's soul inside the )Queen( Piece. It then showed me pulling the Piece out of my bag in the real world. It showed me how it had tied my life around hers, and how we now both shared the weight of our combined life-force.

.

.

̞͛͊̅̐͑̿ͮ̄Ǐ̦̤̭̘̹̠̬̜ͭ̒T̼̘̥͛̅̐ͧ́ ̠̭ͣͨ̏I̥̪̞͖̙̼ͪ̌̑̔̒͑ͅS̮̖̝͎̟̣̰͓̰̄ ̬͈̗͍̞̰̆̽͊̐̈́ͅT̬̮͙̻̆ͬ͌̅H̩͆̈́̈̓̽ͅĒ̦͎̏̐ͅ ̰̖̬̋ͧC̙̳͇̜͔̲͑̽̈̽͐O͚͎̞̞͔̗̩̤̰̐̄̅̂̉ͫͯͥS͙̪̬̪̦̘̆̐̌ͅT̖̺̱̹̯̲̟͉̽̽ͦ̑͌͆ ͖͉̫͍͓͖͆͒͑̏ͤO͉̯̪̰͚̰͊ͤ́̾͒̑͊F̠̹̤̠̥̦͙̉ ̠̙̬̂ͥ͐̈ͪͪ͋ͩͬC̟̟̦̬͎̈̋ͥ͂̍̎Ḫ͂̅Ẹ̘̼̖̺͇̔̃̈̃̇͗̍ͅA̞̖̙̞ͯ͌̃͒̆̚T͕͖̼̪̯̖̖̘ͨͪ̒̑ͩ̏I̬͕̥̰̹͕ͩ͑̓̅̓̄͌N̰̼͈̪͎̝̋́̿ͬ̾ͫ̈̀G̣͚͉̔ͤ ̹͓ͯ̚ͅḌ͖̻̪͇̌ͅĖ̪̜̳͈̮̺ͬͣ̋Ȁ̩͈̬̖̺̩ͭ̔̚T̗̖͈̓̇ͧ͐̈̆̄͆̽H̯͚̘͒͒ ̝̳̗͓͈̳͋̔ͥ̔͐Ĭ̦̫̰̗̼̦͖͍̹N̞͚̮͖̘̬̻͎ͪ̌ͧ̓ͯͭ͗̚̚ ̘̙̤̘̭̥ͣ̍ͨͪͪ̚T̺̻͍͙͍͙̺͕͚̀͗̈H̖͙̱͙̐̓͑͌ͩI̱̠ͣ̑̊̀ͯ͆̿̈S͇̻̗̥̝̳̼ͤ̀ ͓̠͙̜̭̜̓ͫͭ́͋̔̚Ẃ̟͇̜̳̉͛ͩͪ̂ͅẠ̞̮͎͕̎Y̞̤̟̼̘̓̈̀ͭ.̯͉̖͖̠̐̉ͮͤ́̇

.

.

I grimaced. 'I…really should've seen that one coming.' Then, shaking off my wandering thoughts, I decided to reply to the Marble.

'Will it harm her?'

.

.

͇̫ͫͬ̃̐͑̓͌ͯͫN͇̗̪͉̼̣͚̫̓̔͌̏̍O͈͎̫͍̫ͫ̆ͪͦ.͍̦̖̗͇̩̬̄̈ͅ

͔̉̊͛̍̍̒̊.

.

'Then it's fine with me. May I check with my bond-mates?'

.

.

̤̝͖̜̘͕̗̾ͦT̼̻̱̙͕̐̊̎͗̈̓H͉̝́̅ͦ͑̎̾ͭỈ̹̺͇̳͖̤͕̭͆ͥ̿̃̂S̪͍̠͈͈̪̖̤͊̃̏ ͎̘̘̹̜̲ͮ̄ͅI̲͚͈̣͉͙͚̐̉Ṡ̘͙̫͙̞̰̦ͣ̿ ̫̠̾ͣͥ̑ͨ̓P̟̲͓̾͌ͪ̈́E̦͕̲͊ͯͣͧR̦̬̳̦̣̯̙̍̍̌͌ͬ̍̚M͕͉̻̙̻̺̳̍̂̽ͅI͖͖̹̻̹͋͒ͥ͗ͅS͔̙̤͇̪̙̫̱͔͛͌ͬ̏̓͗S̹̊ͨ̄ͥ̈́A͖͗̀̀͒̀ͤ̉̇̽B̼̖͚̝̮ͩ̏̇ͮͥ̚L̝͉̯͚̤̣̦͕̄͐̈́͋͑̏͐̚Ě͉̙͙̲͈̩̤̃̎͂ͤ.̹̩̩̬͂̿

.

.

I sighed, mentally nudging my girls awake. After sending my memories of the situation, I asked, {Well? What do you think?}

{Go for it.} Ruby responded immediately. {You've more than proven that you can handle two girls, so I doubt a third will be too much more taxing.}

{No more than ten.} Shirone sent.

I snorted. {You'd have to move heaven and earth to get me to take on more than five. Any more than that, and I'd stop being able to give you each the time you deserve.} At my words, both girls sent feelings of approval.

I sighed, returning to the Dream, my Marble awaiting my verdict.

'We agree to the terms.'

.

.

͔͎͇̥̪͍̩͗̃̌̄͌͗ͅV͉̮̹̠̩͖̰̗̑̂͋E͇̮̗͑R͎͖̠̳̖̿̿̇̍̋̈́͑̋͐Y͕̲ͥͩ̇̏ ̞̦̲̮̜̣̪͛̾ͧ̆̿ͦ̊̓̒W̟̩̿̋͋ͭͩͤ͆̑ͅE̜̺̲͚̳̯͕̩̼͋͋ͮͨͩ̌ͦL̳̣̼̺̙̓̏ͧḼ͓͔͙̞̠̦͚ͭ̄͂.̙̼̩̺ͤ̅̌

.

.

And with that, my Marble slept once more. I returned to reality, digging out the now-golden )Knight(. Holding it over the blonde's fallen form, I chanted, "In the name of Millicas Gremory, rise and serve me. I name you Gilgamesh Phenex, until the time comes when you become part of my family."

The Piece sank into her chest, and her entire body glowed. I could see golden lines where King Gilgamesh's Magic Circuits were being formed. I smiled, making sure everything went smoothly with ))Structural Grasp((.

When she opened her new, red, eyes, I leaned down and kissed her.

I don't believe in them, but, somewhere, there are gods. Hiding inside of their own heads, using all of their might trying to stop their own eardrums from pounding out the sound of your name.

I saw Gilgamesh as a young girl, learning to fight. She ducked and wove, her hair leaving golden trails in her wake.

You are lightning trying to tame thunder, leaving split second scars against the sky, as if you were breaking the skin of something that won't die.

I watched Ravel training her magic. She wasn't the best at it, but she refused to give in, standing time and time again to try once more.

My first instinct, is the same as my second. I fight my instinct long enough to realize that I won't win. I give in, surrendering to an impulse, somewhat believing that my imprisonment will not involve torture, if I can confess everything I know.

Gilgamesh stared at her kingdom, her treasury full of all the world's riches, yet felt empty.

I know… nothing.

Ravel stared as her brother Ruval effortlessly outpaced her hardest efforts, gaining the praise she so desired, yet lacked.

I bring an emptiness to your need, like a dog laying a skeleton at your feet, bone by bone. I lay stone all around you in a circle, as if any moment you will burst into flame and warm us long enough so that I can tell you my ghost story.

Gilgamesh stood before her people, yet for all their praise, believed none of it. She only wished for one honest voice, an anchor within the bedlam. After her only friend had passed, she had no one.

But part of me still haunts my memory. It throws chairs against my mirrored mind, cracking the reflections in which I once thought I would find answers.

Ravel, even though she was cared for, never felt loved, or safe. Until one day, when her brother brought home the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. "This is for you," he had told her, "Millicas made it himself to keep you safe."

So I sit before flowers hoping they will train me in the art of opening up. I stand on mountain tops believing that avalanches will teach me to let go.

A young King approached her throne, despair tinging his expression. "I wish to bargain," he said. And then, much as her only friend had done, he fought her the point of exhaustion, seeing her at her weakest, yet laughing it off in the thrill of a good fight.

I know nothing, but I am here… to learn.

They wished to know him, and so they would. And perhaps… they would find what they sought.

I gasped, sitting back. She squeaked and turned bright red. "Th-that was my first kiss…"

Ruby laughed and sent {Don't feel too bad, the Fool got mine, too.}

I sighed looking at Ravel… Gilgamesh… her. "Look, can I just call you Gil? I'm tired of differentiating between the two of you when you're the same person, now."

She nodded shyly. "I-if you really want to that is. Consider it a favor from the King."

I blinked, looking slightly into her mind. That… was the most adorable mix of their personalities that I could imagine. In Canon, Ravel is a well-mannered, modest, elegant, and polite young girl who is eager to please, yet she is also impatient, stubborn and childish at times. Gilgamesh, on the other hand, was arrogant to the extreme, refusing to believe anyone could possibly be on her level save for Enkidu and myself, yet she always the time to enjoy herself, mastering every treasure and form of sport.

Mix the two, and you get a little girl who is well-mannered, modest, elegant, and polite and is eager to please those she respects, but looks down upon anyone who she does not. She still held bits of her pride, but would happily throw them away if it meant staying by the side of someone she respected, like Gilgamesh did with Enkidu. And since neither of her personalities had any experience with romance, she was extremely innocent.

I smirked, leaned over, and picked her up in a bridal carry. Sure enough, her face turned a deep red, to match her eyes. Smiling happily, I created a Gate back to my room and sat down on the bed with her on my lap. The other two other girls in the room quickly piled on as well. Poor Gil squeaked in embarrassment and buried her head in my chest.

I grinned as Shirone started to flush slightly from the embarrassment flooding through the link. "W-why am I in your room?" Gil stammered, face still buried in my chest.

I sighed. 'Time to explain what a Claim is, I guess.'

One five-minute explanation later, and Gil was much calmer. "So, for the Soul-Bond to 'set' properly, I have to be in physical contact with you for the next eight to ten hours?"

I nodded. She sighed, nuzzling into my side and yawning. "This isn't too bad, I guess. Be glad, for you are able to share bed-space with one such as I!"

The three of us all reflexively checked the link to see if she was serious. Fortunately, that arrogance was just something from Gilgamesh's personality that she unconsciously picked up. She was apparently just going through the motions at this point, 'old habits die hard' and all that. She was actually thrilled to be sharing a bed, like she had with her brother when she was young.

I lifted Gil off of my lap and yawned, rubbing my eyes. "I don't know about you girls, but I'd like a little sleep before we have to get up for breakfast."

I laid down on the bed. My girls all climbed in with me, with Gil on my left side, Ruby on my right, and Shirone on my chest. I smiled happily, my Greed rumbling in contentment as I snuggled my girls.

Life was good.

A/N: I had this wonderful story line all picked out, and began writing for it, but then I got a 15 on the die roll to get home. Poor Ravel didn't survive the result.

The original story line involved Millicas gathering together his allies and performing a full-on raid of the lab, during which Riser was hit by the Caliburn Fragment and forced himself to use Burning the Old to Make Way For The New to survive. The rest fought off the Fallen Angels of Kokabiel, and Riser exited hours later as a Royal Phoenix and burnt through the remaining forces. That idea was scrapped when I rolled for how long Millicas was lost for.

I did my best to engineer a situation in which Ravel survived, but nothing Millicas had was capable of restoring souls. Then it occurred to me that she didn't have to survive, only live.I didn't even plan on having her in the harem before, instead just keeping it at Shirone, Ruby, and one other, but then I re-visited her character and I decided to give her a chance.

Thus, the fight between Millicas and Gilgamesh was orchestrated.

The only reason Millicas was able to defeat Gilgamesh was because he wished to save Ravel. 'To Protect' is the purpose of his Marble, and so it aided him in his fight. If he didn't have his Marble aiding him, he would be nearly helpless. Plus, if she hadn't agreed to the location of his choice, she could've fired off a larger Enuma Elish, and fried Millicas alive.

*-'Star Deck' is the DxD version of 'Star Trek'. The song that Millicas sang is called 'The USS Make S*** Up', and is a popular parody making fun of the show.