Chapter 99: Beginning

"Issei... You've grown a lot"

Lucias said with a smile on his face while looking at the sharp looking man that was sitting opposite his sofa.

"Lucias-sama... You still haven't changed since we've last met"

Issei said while looking at the young looking man in front of him, wearing a loose bathrobe that barely hid his body.

"... Why are you wearing a bathrobe, Lucias-sama?"

Issei asked out of curiosity causing Lucias to mysteriously smile at his direction.

"I had a little 'exercise' with my fiancées... so I was covered in sweat and needed to take a bath"

He said as the memory from last night flashed inside his mind. It was his first time trying to take them all on, so he was slightly drained from the constant 'exercise' that he did for several days inside the time chamber of his bedroom. 

The only thing that his fiancées find weird is thay he never got sick of doing 'that' with them for several days without rest. Normally, a normal man would've gone insane whem being drained by several women for several days. But thanks to the rune of lust, he can easily solve that problem.

"I-I see"

Issei said with a wry smile on his face before Lucias looked at him as his eyes glew with golden light, causing a slight discomfort to run down Issei's body.

[Hyoudo Issei

Race: Reincarnated Devil

Sacred Gear: Boosted Gear

Title: Diana's Successor

Job: Arcane Sniper

Level: 12,345

Hp: 14,037,000/14,037,000

Mp: 17,890,000/17,890,000

Strength: 12,560

Intelligence: 17,890

Endurance: 14,037

Agility: 17,110

Charm: 10,080

Luck: 6,000

Skills:

Reconstruction (lvl maxed)

Devil's Physique (lvl maxed)

Sniping (lvl maxed)

Supreme Accuracy (lvl maxed)

Presence Detection (lvl maxed)

Supreme Senses (lvl maxed)

Advance Unarmed Combat (lvl 98/100)

Parallel Thought Processing (lvl maxed)

High Speed Calculations (lvl 60/100)

Peak of all weapon mastery (lvl maxed)

All status ailments immunity (lvl 10/100)

Mana Manipulation (lvl maxed)

Sumpreme Mana Sense (lvl maxed)

Stealth (lvl maxed)

No attribute Magic (lvl maxed)

Mental Corruption (lvl 95/100)]

"You have grown strong, Issei"

Lucias praised with a light smile on his face causing Issei to lightly smile before suddenly remaining silent.

"... Lucias-sama... I want to ask you something"

He said causing Lucias to look at his direction, indicating for him to continue his words.

"... How long was I trapped inside the dungeon?"

Issei suddenly asked, causing Lucias to sigh before looking at him with a serious expression 

"Outside... You were just in there for 3-4 weeks, but inside... You've been inside for approximately 5,000 years, Issei"

He said causing Issei to lower his head down, staring at the table with a frown on his face.

"... Does Sandra know about this?"

"No, I couldn't tell her"

Lucias answered causing Issei to look at him in confusion.

"Couldn't tell her?"

"Yep, or else she'll follow you inside the dungeon. I wanted to prevent that since that will only limit your development"

He said before leaning back against the sofa with a neutral expression on his face.

"I wanted to teach you how to become independent and not rely on either your King or anyone else. That's why I let you go inside without much preparation since that will push your body to use its most capacity in order to survive. Be it mentally or physically. If Sandra has gone inside together with you. Then there's a large chance that you'll develop overdependence and reliance on Sandra. That's why I didn't tell her anything about you going in a dungeon"

He explained as Issei suddenly stood up from the ground and ran towards the door of the office.

"I'm going to see, Sandra!"

He shouted as he immediately left the room, leaving Lucias behind who wore a large grin on his face.

"Good luck, Issei"

He said before walking outside of his office and towards his bedroom. 

"I should probably start my work"

He said as he walked towards his room to grab Valerie, so that they could start dealing with the large amount of souls that they collected.

-with Sandra-

*Sigh*

A beautiful red-haired succubus sighed while looking at the list of names of the humans that was going to be assigned to her if nothing bad happened to them. 

"... So they're planning on integrating the humans to the faction, huh? We have excess personells so it doesn't hurt to add 3 billion more... especially after they joined the faction"

She muttered as she leaned back against chair, looking at the ceiling with a daze expression on her face. 

Even though the Forsaken Faction is an extremely large faction, they only have very limited personells since they were all handpicked personally by the higher ups of the faction. They needed to have strength to protect themselves and a certain extent of experience and knowledge in battlefields and tactics. 

But thanks to the reinforcements brought back by Rimuru and the two dragons in Lucias' harem. They were able to solve it since majority of the ancient angels had the experience and strength to meet the requirements. Most being only at the Lieutenant Rank, while the strongest ones like Camael, had the rank Major.

The only reason why the requirements are ridiculously high is because they'll hold a lot more soldiers than what they normally should hold, with a minimum of 10,000 soldiers for a lieutenant, the lowest officer ranking that was granted the right to have and lead their own army.

"... It's been a few weeks since I last saw Issei... I wonder what is he doing right now"

Sandra muttered before sighing, remembering the fight that they had in the past when Issei learned about his parents death. Even though she knew that he didn't really meant what he said. His words still affected her that's why she lashed out like that in the past.

It hurts to hear her own loved one mock her like that even though he didn't mean what he said.

"Should I make up with him?"

She muttered before the door to her small office suddenly fell to the ground due to the powerful force applied on to it by the person who kicked it down.

"... Even though this office is small, that doesn't mean you guys can just-"

She tried to reprimanded the person at the door without looking back, thinking that it was just her playful colleagues, but to her surprise the figure suddenly turned her chair around causing her to frown before looking up towards the rude person who barged into her office.

"You..."

Sandra muttered as she immediately recognize the man in front of him. The man had spiky brown hair and eyes, with a mascular and lean body, riddled with scars, but what surprised her the most was the sharp vibe that the man that was giving off, that was a sharp contrast from the teenager that she last met a few weeks ago.

"Issei?"

She said causing the man to tear up as he suddenly hugged her body. 

"What happened to you?"

"... I was just trained by Lucias-sama in the past weeks"

He said, deciding the hide the whole ordeal about him getting trapped inside a dungeon for 5,000 years.

"Sandra... I missed you"

Issei said as he buried his face on her shoulders, causing the scent of lavender to enter his nose. The scent that he missed and longed for 5000 years that he was trapped inside the dungeon.

Normally, he would've gone made from being trapped in such a dangerous and bloody place for thousands of years. But because he remembered the reason why he yearned to grow stronger, he continued and faced everything without complaining.

He wanted to grow stronger to avenge his parents, but he wanted to get out of the dungeon as soon as he can because of Sandra. He made those two his motivation to break out of the dungeon and survive. 

"Issei..."

Sandra muttered as she gently caressed the back of his head to calm him down, causing Issei's tense shoulder to relax.

"It's only been a few weeks. Why do you act like you haven't seen me in years?"

Sandra said as she giggled, causing Issei to smile before burying his head on her neck.

"Yeah... it's only been a few weeks"

He said before noticing the playful expression that she wore while looking at his direction.

"You think that I still haven't forgotten what you said to me before?"

She said causing Issei to look at her in a daze, but remembering the different time ratios between the dungeon and the real world. He put on a light smile on his face before holding her soft hand with his.

"I didn't mean what I said in the past... I know I hurted you because of my words so... I'm sorry... I hope you can give me a chance to make it up to you"

He said with a serious expression on his face, taking Sandra by surprise, but remembering her plan to tease him for a bit for hurting her. She pouted with an angry expression on her face as she stared at Issei.

"Do you really mean that? You sounded pretty serious before"

Sandra asked as she poked his cheeks, causing Issei to helplessly smile before leaning closer to her face.

"Then, what do you want me to do to make you believe me?"

He said as he looked at her directly in the eyes.

[Partner, assert your dominance on this woman]

"Shut up, Ddraig"

He said before suddenly lifting her up from her chair and carrying her in his arms by letting her use his arm like a chair.

"W-What are-"

She said before suddenly getting kissed by Issei, causing her body to freeze.

"Do you forgive me now?"

He asked, causing Sandra to stare at him in bewilderment.

'Where did my cute Issei go?'

-with Lucias-

"... This is quite a sight"

Lucias said while watching the millions of wandering souls that his subordinates and fiancées gathered, while Valerie, who was by his side, covered both of her ears as she couldn't take the amount of noise that they were all producing.

"Why did you want to gather all of this souls?"

Valerie asked as Lucias scattered his mana around the spacious room where the wandering souls where stored. A special type of gigantic room that didn't allow any spiritual body to enter or leave the room.

"These souls are those who placed within the purgatory. So if we didn't gather them, the True God of Gluttony will use them as a catalyst to increase his strength... They will lose all chances of reincarnation and rebirth once they get devoured by him, so it's better if we took them ourselves and placed them into some kind of use"

He said as a large book suddenly appeared floating above his hand, causing Valerie to look at him in surprise and bewilderment.

"You're not planning on turning all of them into angels, right?"

"You know me too well, Valerie" 

He said with a large grin on his face before showering the millions of souls with his mana. Before a giant magic circle appeared above the ceiling of the entire room.

"[Purify]"

He casted causing the magic circle to illuminate brightly as warm and divine light showered the souls inside the room, causing all of them to halt their movements as the light cleansed all of the resentment and sins of their soul. Leaving a pure white soul.

"[Angel Creation]"

He casted causing the book in his hand to flip its pages as he felt his mana drain at a rapid rate, forcing him to take out a mana potion from his inventory and chug it down his throat.

"I didn't expect that it would drain me this much"

He said with a large grin on his face as he took out another potion from his inventory. Throwing it at the side as soon as he empties it before taking it out another one. Repeating this process until all of the purified soul in the gigantic room were covered by mana.

Slowly, millions of new bodies made from pure mana was constructed, floating below the purified souls while pure white wings sprouted from their backs. Unlike fallen angels, humans needed a new vessel that was closely compatible with their souls. So he was draining more mana than he should be since his own skill was using his mana to create a new vessel for the souls in front of him. 

"Not enough"

He said as he drank the last potion from his inventory before throwing it on the small mountain of empty flask beside him.

As the light and the magic circle dissipated, Lucias grinned as he looked at the incredible sight in front of him. There, millions of angels were looking at each other in a daze with a pure and innocent expression on their faces before they all stared at their own body. They all had only one pair of wings, manly due to the fact that they were all normal humans before they were reincarnated as an angel by Lucias.

[Title: Ruler of Heaven has been activated]

The notification suddenly rang causing all of the angels to look at his direction in confusion, awe, and worship as they felt the energy of their creator seep out of his body.

"I knew I shouldn't have equipped that title"

[Ruler of Heaven - A title given to those who was acknowledged by the Biblical God as his successor to rule over his creations. Grant a significant increase with compatibility and affinity to the angels of heaven. Grant full control over the Holy System of heaven]

He said as he felt the innocent gazes of the naked angels in the room.

"Valerie, call Camael for me"

He said causing Valerie to look at him in confusion.

"I have a little job for her that she will most likely accept"

He said with a mysterious smile on his face, causing Valerie to helplessly smile in response.

"They might be able to reach at most Seraphim Rank before the war so call Camael. She will be the perfect instructor for this angels"

-3 Months later-

"Oy! It's been so long!"

A man dressed in a simple yet sturdy armor shouted as he waved his hand towards his friend that he hasn't need for 2 years. 

"Ethan? Haven't you gone outside yet?"

The friend asked before pointing at the Incredibly long line at the large gate located at the 100th floor of the dungeon, where many players gathered to return back to earth.

"I'm waiting for my girlfriend, I didn't expect to see you here"

He said with a large smile on his face causing the man in front of him to smile before staring at the large gate with a nostalgic smile on his face.

"... So this is how it ends, huh?"

He muttered, remembering the exciting journey that everyone has gone through in the past 12 years inside the dungeon. The new people and comarades that he met, the hundreds of floors that they uncovered, and the life and death situation that he along with his past comrades has been through.

"... It was fun, even though we almost died several times... It was fun experiencing new things"

Ethan said with the same nostalgic smile on his face before giving him a light tap on his back.

"But did you forget?"

"What?"

His friend asked in confusion causing Ethan to show a wide grin before clenching the shield in his hand with an excited smile on his face.

"Our guide said... this is only the beginning"

He said with a smile on his face before seeing his girlfriend arrive with a sweet smile on her face.

"I'll see you in the battlefield, and... don't die on me"

He said as his and his girlfriend's family arrived at the front of the gate, causing him to follow them before dissapearing inside the light of the gate.

"You too"

He said before getting tapped by his mother who arrived at the gate, causing him to smile as they both left the dungeon that they lived at for 12 whole years.

A place where they lost more than 5 billion people, leaving only 3 billion elites that managed to reach the strength of a Low - Ultimate Class. Composed of different races and jobs that created an orderly balance in power. 

At the year 2025, the Project: Gamer ends, and the Great war that will decide the fate of the dimension, now begins.