Chapter 101: Filler Again, Sorry.

While Ray is uncomfortable in his current state and position, his wives, Cheshire, Lancelot Yao, Myui and the group from IS world are either enjoying the show or confused by the scene.

After he returned from Gremory house, he returned home immediately and go to meet his household members but due to the weird ideas Ddraig put into Ophis head, she is insistent on making Ray call her mommy which Ray didn't mind at all actually but just feeling not comfortable to do it.

Right now, he is laying on Ophis lap. By definitely not coerced into that position. He simply found that resisting is futile as Ophis is physically stronger than him and upsetting her will just cause more issues in the long run. Which brings us to the current state.

The mischievous ones like Raynare and Mittelt are making fun of him. Laughing until their stomachs want to burst open and choke on their breath.

The more polite ones like Roseweisse, Ravel and Kalawarna are simply observing. Meanwhile they are trying to figure out something.

Then there is Xenovia that simply didn't care if Ophis suddenly changed her behaviour as long as they are still on the same side.

Meanwhile Cheshire is confused about Ophis' standing right now as previously they consider each other as sisters along with the addition of Myui in their group. But now Ophis is becoming her daddy's mommy. Wouldn't she need to call Ophis as granny right now? Or still regarding her as a sister. The question keeps plaguing her mind that smoke is escaping her ears from brain being overworked.

For the staff of the household, Lancelot and Yao. They simply have no opinion since Ray didn't request any from them. Besides, they share similar ideas with Xenovia. They wouldn't mind it at all as long as Ophis is still on the same side as them.

The group from IS world found it isn't their place to place their opinion since they are self aware that they are an outsider that Ray allowed to live in his house because he felt he owed them for lying to them about his identity and for making them homeless or planet-less if more accurate.

Though Chifuyu didn't share the same opinion of her group as she seems to be agitated that Ophis is able to be that affectionate toward Ray while she has to restrain herself.

She rises from her seat despite Maya keeping her back but fails because of Chifuyu's superior strength.

"Unhand my brother, you witch! Stop trying to bewitch him after you abandoned us." Chifuyu shouting nonsensical words to Ophis before trying to wrestle Ray back from the clutch of the said 'witch'.

Ophis is unaffected by the hurtful words of Chifuyu simply because she didn't care about the words of others. Not even the wives of Ray because she only acknowledges Ray and Cheshire. She acknowledged the others simply because those 'things' are important to the two people important to her which is Ray and Cheshire.

To her, Chifuyu's insult to her is simply the noise an insect makes. She may understand it but wouldn't care about it because it didn't gain her curiosity.

"Chifuyu-san, calm down. Miss Ophis isn't the person you are referring to. You are still confused from the brain damage you suffered." Maya quickly tried to calm down her patient.

Her method works immediately as Chifuyu immediately looks confused and tired to compare Ophis to the image of her supposed mother or more accurately, the scientist that created her.

Chifuyu faltered a little before a headache assaulted her and made her feel even more confused but have enough clarity to understand she made a mistake. She at first felt embarrassed for shouting at the wrong person but the splitting headache made it simply impossible to resist fainting.

"Chifuyu-san, you need to rest and calm down or the pain will just become worse and slow your healing." Maya lied but this is the only possible way to 'fix' the already broken Chifuyu.

Yes, Chifuyu originally already broke beyond repair after knowing Ichika is no longer with her. The hope that she cling on so bitterly was a lie all along. By the time Ray defeats the possessed Chifuyu, she has no will to even take another breath of air.

She simply had no more hope to live and should have died then and there. However, Maya, Laura, Houki and to some extent, Tabane insisted on saving Chifuyu. Ray also thinks he is guilty for playing on Chifuyu's hope. That's why he agrees to help and the help they can provide is by forcefully replacing Ichika Orimura with Raymond D'Angelo from Chifuyu's memories.

For that reason, Chifuyu is experiencing a headache whenever she accesses the memories that have been tampered. Her subconscious mind is aware that the memories are false but multiple precautions are put in place to prevent Chifuyu from discovering the truth until the mental wound from the 'fix' is fully healed. It would take a lot of time because Chifuyu is a person with very strong will.

"Mhm.." Chifuyu hummed and accepted the advice of the person responsible for nursing her.

She embarrassedly returned to her seat and laid her back and head on the comfortably soft sofa. She accepted some painkillers Maya quickly administered to her that alleviated her headache but in reality, it suppressed her mind activity to reduce the resistance of her subconscious mind.

After that calmed down, the atmosphere returned to before. Although the awkwardness is still there. Mainly on the IS group.

Meanwhile Ray is still being forced to lay on Ophis lap while she caresses his head, mimicking the gesture a mother would do, shown by Rias' mother when Ophis asked what a mother would do to her child when trying to show affection.

He vividly remembers when Ophis tried to copy what Rias' mother did using him. Many, including Issei, laughed at his predicament. Especially Ddraig when in the safe confinement of the Boosted Gear.

He is already starting to seek a way he can bring out Ddraig to beat the living shit out of that perverted dragon for giving Ophis weird ideas.

Ray resigned to his fate now and accepted Ophis' affectionate gesture. At the meantime, Ray addresses the matter that he is going to bring up.

He is going to bring people along with him into Hub world. Especially the lower level one like the girls from the IS world group and Yao. Others can come too but Ray has yet to find any higher level enemies that can provide decent EXP.

"So, who is coming? We also didn't need to worry about no one taking care of our mansion because time stopped after we entered the Hub."

Xenovia is the first to raise her hand. In fact, she already lifted her arm before Ray even finished talking. She excitedly demanded Ray to include her. The battle maniac inside her simply couldn't let go of the chance of meeting stronger opponents and fighting them without repercussions like injuring her opponent.

Lancelot and Yao also want to include themselves as the group that swore to be knight or warrior for Ray. In short, everyone excluding Maya joined. The unarguably weakest of the bunch, Myui even insisted that Ray have no excuse to exclude her because having her becoming stronger to protect herself than being protected is better.

Thus, Ray set the time after dinner for them to return to the Hub world again. At the meantime, Ray spends his time bonding with his family and the recent addition of companions from the IS world while Lancelot, Yao and the volunteers, Roseweisse and Kalawarna prepare meals worthy of a feast.

———

While the people responsible for tonight's food are busy preparing in the kitchen, Ray and the others went for a walk outside.

The Underworld, despite being depicted as a house of devils and other evil beings, is very pretty and fantasy-like land with many beautiful scenery to offer.

They left the new capital, Eden and took a walk at the nearby giant artificial lake located next to a forest that can only be described as magical.

The originally purple sky and eternally same weather if not for the Satans ordering the creation of artificial sun and moon to mimic day and night cycle for the reincarnated devils.

However, the sky in Eden isn't covered by the artificial weather system on purpose. The purple light that showers down from the sky gives the magical feel to the forest ahead and the lake at its edge. The light that cascades down the treeline is something never seen by everyone in the group except the Fallen and Devil that inhabited the Underworld.

Including Ray, the people from the DxD world never witnessed such beautiful scenery of nature. Not to mention magical.

"It feels like I entered a magical fairy forest in the story book my late mother always read to be before sleep." Cecilia is the first to break off the collective gasp and wows.

Ophis immediately looked over to Cecilia when the word 'mother' was mentioned. Without realising Cecilia contributed to Ddraig's effort. Though, Ophis should learn how to tell a story before she could attempt storytelling.

"It is." Maya replied with her hand clasped and praising the beauty of Underworld's nature.

They all collectively walk closer to the lake before stopping at its edge. There they are able to observe beautiful marine life of various fishes that aren't afraid of their presence and even swim closer in curiosity while few that are afraid have escaped under the plants and rocks. Even the underwater plants have bioluminescent effects that light up the clear water lake that show an even more impressive view, reminiscent of mystical fairy tales.

This forest and lake that they visited was actually built artificially by the people of Eden. Mainly the group of bored scientists that have nothing better to do and one day decide why not bring their city's name some justice. That lead from the group of 13 scientists previous work under the alliance to improve war effort then converted to improving life quality of the remaining population and now to beautifying the land around the new capital out of boredom.

The new capital, Eden is a city that covers the territory equal to twice the size of Japan but only has less than 5% of the land is the city itself. The remaining 95% of the land is unused and not going to simply because of the small population of races left. Thus the mega projects of turning those lands into a paradise are made to make use of the unused lands surrounding Eden.

The group then spend the rest of their time till late evening in this paradise-like land, playing or just hanging out while experiencing the beautiful handcrafted scenery straight out of a fairytale.

Ray laid on the grass field next to the lake while observing Cheshire and Myui enjoying their time playing on the shallow water of the lake.

Cheshire feels like returning to her natural habitat as a ship girl, gliding over the water with finesse of an expert ballerina. Meanwhile Myui is amazed by the show Cheshire is doing for her. They also previously tried to splash each other with water but stopped before both were fully drenched as none of their outfits are appropriate for such activity.

Cecilia on the other hand, pulled Houki and Laura to explore a little of the place which is safe. That's why Ray isn't worried as long as they didn't enter deep into the forest. Even so, his satellite still can locate them.

For his wives that tagged along, they sit close to Ray in silence while Ray is once again forced on Ophis' lap. At least the environment is peaceful and relaxing so he is enjoying it. His wives also did the same as Ray. They made themselves comfortable while enjoying their moment of peace.

Ray however got a feeling it wouldn't last long for some reason. His hunch is actually true as his existence defied the universal law to cheat death and lived a second life while remembering the first. His life will inevitably be plagued by unending conflict caused by the invisible force trying to correct the error in its system.

A peaceful life is simply unattainable until he transcends beyond the shackles of fate and destiny. Getting too comfortable with the momentary peace will one day cost Ray his dearest.

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😉 I will add an emoji here and refuse to explain the last two paragraphs.

Also this chapter is technically a filler because It has no real development for the fic or anything but to address some stuff I put aside or forgotten like the IS world people and the DxD world.

The following storyline I will put aside going to other worlds first because I wanna give some focus on DxD world, Hub world and Ray's existing companions before we move on to more worlds.