Turning Heads

A bloodied brown haired body trudged deeper into the darkness of a forest cave.

The light of the moon was no longer guiding his steps, his blurry vision and loose grip to the cave wall kept him moving in the only direction he now knew; forward. Though being blurred by the sweat running down his face and into his eyes, his mind kept wandering over the events of the last 4 days.

The memories felt like a clawed hand, dividing his heart into pieces.

With every breath, his shirt grew damper with blood making it hug onto his ribs. His knees moaned with complaints every time he stopped for air. But what he could feel the most; feel it like a hug from a loved one, was the scampering of the ink like substance on his left arm; it had made another sprint for it, taking a pit stop above his elbow.

Only the breaking of bark could describe the voice that dragged out of his cracked lips

" How much longer?"

[ 30 seconds, prepare yourself partner ]

Pumping out 3 short exhales, the boy lined up his red dragon clawed hand in front of his chest and balanced it right in the middle. A green glass ball on the other side of palm glowed with a light hue that barely managed to cover the primed claws

[ Now! ]

A deep roar echoed in the boys mind

Taking charge, he stabbed his chest, wriggling his fingers so he can feel the surface of one of the pieces, any piece. Wasting no time as the ink had begun climbing up his arm causing him to feel faint. He grabs one of the pieces and hauls it out of his body.

The piece falls to the ground with a small clink, He collapses on the floor, not being able to hold back the blood that's flooding out his chest, making him cough and crumble onto his back.

[ Partner!..Partner! Hang in there! We are almost there, you can do this, don't give up now ] grave concern could be heard in the voices tone

" Hey Ddraig, do you think...it was because I wasn't man enough…Ddraig…Did I fail at loving them …I should have fought more for them, been more...maybe then…I woul���.Hey Ddraig….be kind to your next host" Catching his breath, he turned to look at the blood stained receding green layer on his gauntlet hand.

An eerie silence filled the cave.

[ What I am about to say, isn't intended to stop you from this desire to seek death, under your hand you stopped the invasions of fallen angels, you sought the freedom of the your friends and those you used to love, great enough on its own, but small compared to what we accomplished after, defeating the descendent of Beelzebub, the hero faction, the son of lucifer, even Tartarus himself! many times you have been stabbed, shot, attacked with any weapon you can think off… all in the sake of others lives, you've charged in head first, no questions…. Yet where was the respect, your welcome home as a hero, the love you rightly earned… so I ask you, you ignorant, naive, foolish and perverted boy … is this the glorious end you envisioned, giving up so easily, to die a dragon on its back...if so,spare me this pitiful sight and die quickly ]

Small whimpers filled the silence.

Wiping the stream of tears from his face, the boy tenderly raised himself up and continue to trudged down the cave.

[ Thats it partner! ] The dragon couldn't hide the smile on his face.

Finally reaching the end of the cave, he found himself looking upwards at a tiny hole that was allowing the moonlight to invade space, creating a tranquil scene before him.

Tugging his neck and feeling the ink creeping to shoulder, he turned to the gauntlet

" Well Ddraig?... Whats the plan?"

[ We need to lay down a conversion, transportation and an absorption circle, we are going to layer them on top of each other... Do not worry, the magic used in this type of magic circle is small but the process is consuming so I'll be sending you power.... It will just take a while to finish, so you'll have to work fast, the corruption has slowed down due to the previous removed pieces but I still worry for you ] Ddraig sent the images of the magic circles into his mind.

The circles laid together showed intricate details, crossing lines, blending into each other. Using the power from Ddraig, He managed to finish the circle just as the ink began spreading to the right of his chest and into his left eye.

" Well Ddraig, I finally finished it, Now will you explain what it does " the boy asked as he leaned against a boulder, struggling to catch his breath.

[ This magic circle combination was designed by a past possessor. A genius within the magic field, Alas he pershied too early, he succumbed to the power of using the Juggernaut Drive] His voice was dyed with lemons

" So a senpai made this! Thats so cool!.. But what does it do?"

[ What it does is simple, it absorbs whatever type of energy in the environment has directly into the center and changes it to something more useful. You could call it a Power convertor ]

" Then..whats the teleportation circle for?" Asked the boy with a head tilt

[ I was getting to it…. It has many flaws, the teleportation is so you can escape…. While it may be a failed product, I never thought it would be useful until today ] Ddraig said with a sigh

[ Now, stand in the middle of the circles ] Ddraig ordered

" I'm still not understanding, what will we use it for?" He asked his partner while his body into the circle

[ Haaa .. not sure how you can be so sharp sometimes but truly dumb the rest ]

" Hey, If I make it out of here! I will be a new man, spending the rest of my time in the library! I'll have more knowledge than...then we'll see whos dumb" He quickly retored with glee.

[ I'll hold you to that…. As for how it helps you, it should absorb the corruption growing on you, the Boosted gear energy, take it and convert it into a more stable energy that can halt said corruption, then slowly push it back into you, reforming your body, so you can live with the corruption… pretty simple right? ]

Seeing the mouth of his partner about to open, he added [ That energy also includes your lifeforce…. You might be left feeling hollow at one point, so my advice is to always remain conscious during this, no matter what! for I do not know what effects it will bring onto your body, short term or long term, I'm gambling with our lives here ]

" Don't we always do that….so remain conscious, no matter what, Go it!... How long will this take? Give me an approximation, I need to prepare myself?" The tone milked out seriousness

[ Two hours minimum...roughly 30 minutes per Piece ]

Feeling his body recoil from hearing that sentence, he looked at the gauntlet with disbelief " I'd rather experience the Curse of Samael"

[ Good to know you can still make jokes ]

Exhaling a wave of air, the boy gathered his courage and his voice turned deep while clenching his gauntlet hand " Bring it on!"

[ You will not be able to communicate with me as this could be interpreted as moving onto another host due to using the Boosted gear energy. So you will be on your own. Therefore, I will not say goodbye, I will only say, see you soon Issei ]

The magic circle activated, causing the cave to be filled with a dense light caused by a red aura that was surrounding Issei's body, eventually forming an orange hue, coming from the humming circles.

The circles held him in the middle of the air, the 3 circles were moving up and down building up speed, glittering with different colors every second.

The pain began with pulsating cramps that made his skeleton-esc body rattle like a fiddle. His eyes widened as the side dish began to morph and stretch his skin.

His former pale skin turned charcoal grey along with his brown hair. Like having a vacuum pressed against his skin, it started to show weblike cracks, blood-lava poured out of the cracks painting the cave floor.

He wanted to scream but to no avail as his mouth had dried up like a riverbed.

The middle of the chest began to emit a feverish heat, followed by a pricking sensation.

Barely able to roll his eye downwards, he saw a sight that made his brain short-circuit momentarily.

Little by a little, 3 black glowing balls under his skin began to spread around his chest, merging with the ink like corruption and even with parts of the gauntlet, it moved like a wave across his body, swallowing all in its path.

The scales of the gauntlet slowly flowed into the air like petals and dispersed before his eyes.

'No! Ddraig! You can't leave me too!' was only thought to fly into his mind but it was erased, as he felt needles piercing his spine, his tendons rip and hair peel off his skull, leaving only a feverious screeching sound in his mind.

He was folded out like paper, shredded, mashed, and restitched back together more times than he can remember.

To those outside, looking at the scene below using the hauntly bright silver light of the moon; that clung and glistened on the form that once was Issei's body, would pray for a god to remove their eyes.

With no warning, the circles compressed into a ball and like a blowing out a candle, all the light in the cave vanished, the moon looked darker and there was no trace of issei hyoudou in that cave.

At that candle moment, 10 women looked up to the sky, some felt cold, while others teared up for something they could barely remember holding anymore.