Chapter 7 - Part 4 - To Become the Fifth One

Göndul's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

Life is always unpredictable. Has it always gone the way you wanted? Or has it…not? Many of us try to control our lives the best we can, but the world or the universe may have other plans for us. For us, who are part of the supernatural, we can't help but think 'fate' may have a hand in whatever we are going through.

Being married, living my life, having children, then getting grandchildren—even when we're part of the supernatural, many of us still want a relatively normal and peaceful life. That's why many of us train to get stronger so we can make a world like that.

Villains and troublemakers aren't exclusive to just humans, they exist everywhere, even in the animal kingdom. If humans could understand some of the things that animals say…they would be shocked at how advanced some animal societies are, or how complex they think.

…When I went to Valhalla after speaking to Aaron after a certain day, I could not find the warriors and heroes that were in there; this included my husband, although I could never find him in there, but many warriors did assure me that he was there, just that…he avoided me for some reason, so I spoke to our Chief-God, Odin. That was when a certain search was started.

This included Freyja's husband, Óðr. Although he and Freyja had some interesting circumstances, he regularly visits Valhalla and other notable sites like Yggdrasil. One of the many reasons why Freyja left our pantheon was because Óðr disappeared. Although their relationship was strained before he vanished, she still deeply loved him.

Today, right now, we—

[1 [Knight] of [Team Leisure of the Kings] retire!!]

[Player Brynhildr has retired!! The captain of the famous Valkyrie group of Team [DxD] has been knocked out of the game!!]

Looking at the screen, I cheered for my granddaughter. She had defeated three of her fellow valkyries in the Rating Game she was in—those three she looked up to, especially her senior—Brynhildr or Zelma…

"She did it, Göndul~!" Yasaka-dono grabbed my shoulders and cheered; her daughter Princess Kunou also did the same thing.

"...Yes, she did. She's grown a lot in just a year…" I replied. I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride watching my granddaughter win her battles.

I've known little Rose for a long time—I was mostly her caretaker since her parents worked for the Gods of our realm, so I watched her personally grow up and even instilled some teachings and advice into her…although I know that they may not have been the best advice or teachings out there…

Something else happened on the screen as both Aaron and Ravel had used some kind of combination technique.

'Perhaps after this, I'll ask Aaron if he can find my husband. Even though I joked about joining his harem earlier, I wish to see him since seeing Rose and Aaron interact made me want to be with him again…'

[W-w-w-what kind of combination is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!?]

I clapped along and cheered, as everyone else did. Later…these things can be talked about later, but for now, let's enjoy this game.

— ○ ● ○ —

Brynhildr's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

There was a white ceiling above me. I see, so I was knocked out of the game, huh?

"You're awake, captain?" Helmwige's voice asked beside me. When I looked to my left side, I saw her there on her own bed with a smile.

Sitting up, I nodded at her. "Yeah…how long was I asleep for?" I asked.

"Hmm, around three minutes? You were fed those slime pills Aaron made. I mean, you only got punched by Rossweisse a few times. I got pierced, haha~" she said and rubbed the back of her head.

No normal person would say that so casually and laugh in the end. I'll admit that we're the furthest from 'normal', but my point still stands. Schwertleite and Grimgerde were looking at a large flat-screen TV in the corner of the room, and it showed the game that was still ongoing.

It looked like Rossweisse had gone to aid Roygun and Inaie, who were fighting Artemis-sama. Although it looked like they were close to passing out, and Artemis wasn't too damaged, but there were some light scratches on her body.

"So…are we dating him now, or are we engaged to him?" Helmwige suddenly asked, and we turned to look at her.

"…Well, he asked us to have his babies, so…we're engaged, right?" said Grimgerde.

"But couples can still have kids outside of marriage, so we should stay on the safe side and say that we're just dating," said Schwertleite.

"What do you think, Brynhildr-senpai?" Helmwige asked me, and the rest turned their attention to me.

What do I think? …Truthfully, I have no idea. I answered Aaron on the spur of the moment, but I was also close to confessing my attraction to him the night before, so I wouldn't mind either scenario happening to me.

"…Let's assume that we're only dating him for now. We can ask Aaron for details once the match ends," I told them, and they seemed to agree with it.

Helmwige put a finger under her chin and added, "Well, if we are dating him now…will he fulfill the thing I shouted during the match?"

"Uwa…you sound so desperate, Helmwige," said Grimgerde as she laughed at her.

She crossed her arms and grumbled, "I mean what I said, I don't want to die a virgin! A-and…I-I…w-with the help of Akeno-san…h-heard Aaron and someone else doing it once, he-hehehe…"

I along with Schwertleite looked at with some disgust. "You listened to them…doing it? They deserve privacy, Helmwige! Have you no shame?" I asked.

"…Who was it with?" asked Grimgerde.

Excuse me!? Why are you asking!? This makes you as bad as her! We shouldn't ask for details about things like this! Those are private moments between Aaron and whoever—

"Raynare-san. Usually she's quite to-the-point, or even rude, although that's just her personality before she reformed—I like calling it her 'tsundere' personality, but it wasn't too explicit, she was just giving Aaron a blowjob. Anyway, it seems like Raynare-san becomes quite sweet when she's doing lewd things. I thought she'd be a sadist! You know, an S! But it's the…opposite?" explained Helmwige.

"Raynare, huh? I didn't expect that from her," mumbled Schwertleite. Grimgerde nodded along with her.

B-b-blow—?! I…the woman uses her mouth for that, right—? W-w-what am I even thinking about!? I shook my head from those thoughts and sighed tiredly. A headache was coming, I could feel it…

"…Enough," I told them threateningly. "We'll watch the rest of the game quietly…"

"Y-yes ma'am…" they replied.

It didn't occur to me that they thought like this constantly, especially Helmwige. She was energetic, but I never thought she had so many lewd things on her mind…

— ○ ● ○ —

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

Gargantuan-sized divine arrows rained down upon Aoife. Seconds ago, they both heard the three retirements of the three [Pawns] and Valkyries of [Team Leisure of the Kings]. Aoife used her [Fragarach] to slice apart every arrow that was shot at her. In a way, their fight was in a stalemate for quite some time after Apollon lost his arm.

To the few who saw this occur, they were shocked to see a human injure a god in this state. Gods along with dragons and certain other beings, are the pinnacle of power and authority—for a single human to do so much damage…it was unfathomable—or so would be the usual consensus if she weren't recognized to be close to the Middleman.

Apollon was having a hard time breathing. He had already stopped the bleeding on his left arm that was missing. However, the pain was still there, but as he was a god, he could ignore it to a certain extent. Gods had pride to keep. Even if some of them say they don't care, to some extent, they do and will do what they can to protect it.

There are exceptions—Aaron being one of them, as he never had the pride of a dragon or god. Even after his reincarnation, he did not care for it. He was thankful for the powers and abilities, but to him, letting that kind of mindset and ego would just hinder him, even more so now that he's the new ruler.

"…It seems our match is coming to an end," Apollon said to his opponent.

Aoife tilted her head in response, and he continued by raising his hand, and behind him, hundreds of thousands of Greek-style magic circles appeared. Immediately afterward, countless light constructs appeared alongside the magic circles, and they were in the shape of giant weapons such as swords, javelins, spears…even a tank which surprised Aoife.

"A tank?

A smile adorned his face, and he said, "While many gods and goddesses tend to be more…traditional and go by our old ways, we aren't that ignorant of the human world and their advancements—after all, we need to be able to counter what they make. If they find out about us and ever go to war with us."

'Well…I guess that's an issue, although it makes me wonder how they'll respond after we reveal ourselves to them in the coming year…' thought Aoife. "I like gods like you. You're a lot more flexible than others!"

Apollon chuckled and thanked Aoife before he fired his attacks at her.

Earlier, Aoife experimented while fighting Apollon. She usually relied on her physical strength and sword and used her ranged abilities as an afterthought, but after watching Aaron use his Sacred Gears, she thought, 'Why not use my ethereal ability to form armor around me?'

Aoife had mainly used it to create floating blades to attack her enemies, or she jumped on it on occasion and flew around with it. Otherwise, she wouldn't use it unless she really needed to. So, earlier, she used the raw state of her ethereal power to form armor around her arms and legs. After this match, she planned on refining it more with the help of other people, as she wanted to stabilize it as soon as she could.

She swung her sword forward while creating ethereal clones beside her, and they too did the same motions as she did. This resulted in several of Apollon's attacks being sliced apart in quick succession.

She didn't want to give him time to respond, so using her superior speed, the young woman appeared behind him, grabbed her sword's handle with both hands, focused her energy on its tip, and thrust forward.

Apollon, on instinct, created several magic circles behind him, powered by his divine aura. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough, as Aoife pierced through them with her attack, which resulted in piercing him on the back and through his chest.

[Ooooooooooooooooooooh!! What a brutal injury! [Queen] Apollon from Typhon's team has been severely injured!! Will he be forced to retire!?]

The god grinned before turning around and firing divine aura blasts at Aoife, who defended herself by forming her own defensive magic circles. At the same time, she felt something latch onto her ankles, and when she looked at them, they were chains with two large balls on the end, weighing her down significantly.

"Perhaps I can take you down with me with this," said Apollon. Above them, an enormous arrow made of divine aura manifested. It was around a quarter the size of the artificial Yggdrasil.

[Oh my goodness!! What an enormous arrow!! Will this end their battle!? How will Player Aoife respond!?]

Aoife looked up and giggled at the sight, confusing Apollon and everyone else.

"I like swords, more so than I should—even someone like me who usually helps people tends to have strange hobbies," she said and then pointed up.

Moments later, everyone felt an indescribable amount of power being used. Apollon froze on the spot as he felt the surge above them. When he looked up, he saw something he hadn't expected. Something even larger had formed above his divine arrow.

[W-w-w-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!? I-i-i-i-it's a sword! And it's even bigger than Player Apollon's arrow!!!] roared the commentator.

"…Jin-kun's women always do the most unexpected of things…from the valkyries of our team, to now this, I don't hate it though," said Apollon.

Aoife smiled at him before releasing the enormous, ethereal sword. As it fell onto them, it destroyed the divine arrow below it—but Apollon didn't give up, as he made thousands of magic circles to try to slow down or stop the attack. Although it was futile, he still wanted to put up any kind of resistance to the end.

Once the attack struck him—a large explosion rocked the entire game field. Parts of Yggdrasil were destroyed, as were some of its roots, so the tree began to lean to the right a bit.

[1 [Queen] of [Team Leisure of the Kings] retire!!]

[Player Aoife Murphy made the artificial Yggdrasil lean to the riiiight! What a powerful attack! It destroyed parts of the tree, including its base and roots!!]

Above them, the [King] Typhon would have been eliminated too if it weren't for both Aurelia and Ddraig protecting him using their powers, as they wanted to keep on fighting him.

"Fufu, we saved you, Typhon, from being eliminated. How does it feel?" asked Aurelia as she stood on Ddraig's head.

[Hahaha! It doesn't matter, as long as I can keep fighting you two!!] roared Typhon as he began attacking both of them again.

[I'm fine with that response,] said Ddraig. He flew towards Typhon, and the two of them slammed their heads together. [Until Partner beats your [Rook], we won't end this match yet.]

[Then accompany me till then, Ddraig! Aurelia!!] replied Typhon as another fierce fight started between them.

Below them, Aoife sighed as she put her sword away. She looked around at the damage she had done and flew down to the base. She used sticky steel threads to stop the tree from completely falling over, as she didn't plan on using such a move until Apollon had threatened her to use a similar one to hers.

"I didn't deviate from the plan, right? Ravel won't be mad…" she muttered before flying into the interior of the tree.

— ○ ● ○ —

Inaie and Roygun had various bruises and cuts around their bodies. They had fought the goddess Artemis for the last few minutes, and were near collapsing, especially the former second ranker. She had been breathing heavily for the last few minutes, desperately trying to keep up with Artemis' relentless attacks as well as Inaie.

Both of them were above her in terms of power and speed, but she had her experience to help her as the former second-ranked player, as she had many matches before today. Using her ability [Crack] in unique ways, she managed to survive so far, but her demonic power was running low.

Inaie, her ally, wasn't faring too well either. As she was the one who faced Artemis head-on while Roygun provided support. Inaie, apart from the bruises and cuts she had on her body, had a few small holes around her legs and arms, and two near her liver and right breast.

Even though she was taught by various people who were veterans at fighting, Inaie herself was still quite reckless. She wanted 'fun' out of fighting, even during life-and-death type ones. During the war, she was also scolded a few times for treating it like that.

After the war, Inaie did change her way of doing things, albeit slightly. To her, as long as whomever she's fighting isn't some kind of world-ending super villain, then she would treat it the same, but if they were, then she would take it seriously and kill or capture them as soon as she could.

Today was a Rating Game, so lives weren't on the line, so she decided to have fun. Although Artemis had a different mindset, she dominated the battle between them from the beginning, middle, and the soon-to-be end.

Artemis aimed her bow at both of them again and was about to fire her arrows when she was forced to dodge an attack. As she looked at who it was, she noticed that the attack had grazed her cheek, drawing some blood.

"Rosy!" Inaie shouted. The valkyrie continued her assault as she threw a barrage of punches and kicks towards the Goddess.

Artemis frowned as she had to put extra work into avoiding the valkyries' attacks as she was much weaker than her. However, it seemed futile, as she couldn't avoid most of the attacks that were sent to her. Finally, a punch passed through her magic circle and crashed into her face, sending her to the ground.

"Are you two okay?" Rossweisse asked her teammates. She looked them over and saw that they were both near complete exhaustion and added, "You should retire, and leave the rest to me."

Roygun shook her head, as she didn't want to do that. "I am the former second-ranked player in the Underworld. I may be a few hits from retirement, but I won't voluntarily do that—I still have my pride."

"Sure. Hey, I give up!!!" Inaie shouted and put her hand up. A few seconds later, her body began to shine, and as she disappeared, she added, "Good luck, and kick ass!"

[1 [Knight] of [Team Golden Rakshasa] retire!]

Rossweisse glanced at Roygun and said, "If you wish to stay, please support me, but Artemis-sama may target you instead of me."

With a defiant smile on her face, Roygun agreed. Artemis, who was on the ground, shot another round of arrows at the two women. Rossweisse swiped her hand horizontally, creating a powerful shockwave that destroyed the arrows.

When both women looked back at the goddess on the ground, they saw two glowing and transparent wolves who had crossbows on their backs. Roygun and Rossweisse could tell that they were made of divine energy; the same was true with the crossbows.

"…Are you sure about staying?" Rossweisse asked again.

"I'll retire when I retire, Rossweisse. Thank you for your concern, though," replied Roygun.

Again, the valkyrie nodded and flew towards Artemis. The two otherworldly wolves howled before light shone from the crossbows, and they fired large and powerful divine arrows. Rossweisse countered using her magic and created various shields that blocked the attacks and slowed their momentum until she punched them, destroying them.

She arrived in front of the goddess, who had already begun firing her own powerful attack using her arrow. What resulted was a giant stream of blue and green aura shot out of her bow, which slammed into Rossweisse, who was blasted away and slammed into the trees walls.

Roygun threw several demonic balls towards Artemis, but her wolves shot them down easily before she appeared beside her and, with a fist shrouded in divine aura, slammed her fist into Roygun's face. The devil was thrown away as the goddess summoned her bow again and aimed at the devil before firing an arrow imbued with light at her.

Rossweisse had recovered enough that she flew back up and blocked the attack, but to her surprise, it split into four smaller arrows that flew by her, hit Roygun several times, and exploded!

[1 [Bishop] of [Team Golden Rakshasa] retire!!]

[The former second ranker of the Rating Games has been retired!! What a play by Player Artemis-sama!!]

Rossweisse frowned but flew back to the goddess, who had already fired more divine arrows at her. Summoning her wand, she pointed it at the arrows and created several layers of magic circles that formed their own arrows too.

That single arrow was launched towards Artemis, who seemed confused, but also fired another more powerful arrow at it. Once both arrows collided, and Rossweisse destroyed the other divine arrows the goddess shot, Artemis was surprised. Her arrow was being pushed back.

'…What!? I know she's stronger than me, but that looks like a regular magic arrow, while mine is empowered by divine aura! …How—!?' thought the goddess as her arrow shattered, forcing her to avoid the arrow Rossweisse made.

Seconds later, the tree wall behind her was destroyed by a powerful explosion. When she looked back at it, swirling patterns were made around the hole that the explosion and arrow had destroyed.

"Artemis-sama…" Rossweisse muttered. The goddess stared at her before her entire body was covered in a silver aura. "Please play with me for a little bit."

"…[Ultra Instinct], huh? You love that man too much…" she muttered; however, her cheeks became a bit flushed. 'It's not like I don't understand, though…'

Her body and bow were shrouded in more divine aura. "Very well. We've only sparred a few times when in 'that' place, so this is a good opportunity, but let's try not to destroy this tree."

Rossweisse silently agreed before both women charged at each other.

— ○ ● ○ —

Vidar's was met with a jet-black fist that hurled him away. During the second round, Aaron Toole was still winning against him—no, even after Vidar used his Counter Balance, he still stood no chance. He inwardly laughed at himself, but he also knew how his brother Thor felt now.

'Did he even stand a chance back then? Looking at my own situation, I don't think I'll even land a scratch on the bastard!' thought Vidar.

He stopped himself and shrouded his legs with divine aura. He then flew back towards Aaron and began throwing a relentless barrage of kicks at the young man. Aaron avoided all his attacks as if he were seemingly dancing on the spot.

After finding a small opening, Aaron cocked his right arm back and slammed it into Vidar's left thigh, knocking away the god and making him cringe in pain.

"Ow! Fuck me! Do you know how close that was to my most prized possession!?" asked Vidar, a bit angry.

"Don't worry, Vidar. I won't hit you there; I only do that to enemies that annoy me," replied Aaron, making the god shiver.

'So he's not against hitting people there!? Talk about psychotic!' thought the god before rushing back towards Aaron with a bit of reluctance in him.

He sent a powerful kick towards Aaron, and it created a large and powerful blade of divine wind. One of Aaron's jewels turned sapphire blue, and from his armor came—

[Divide! Divide! Divide!]

The attack that the god had sent had seemingly vanished, but had only been halved so much that it became small enough that it wouldn't be seeable with the naked eye. Vidar was stunned by this but wasn't too shocked, as he knew that Aaron had [Divine Dividing].

"You can do that? But that's—"

"It's still part of my abilities. I took a jewel out of [Divine Dividing]'s armor and placed it into my [Boosted Gear], and vice versa, so both can use some basic abilities from both," explained Aaron.

Vidar let out an astonished laugh before smacking his head. "You're unbelievable, you know that? Well, whatever, since it's still part of the [Boosted Gears] abilities, then I don't care!"

Vidar rushed back towards Aaron before using duplication magic and then using the same technique again. This time, there were around a hundred divine wind blades hurtling towards him. Aaron grinned under his helmet and brought both hands to his side. He gathered a large amount of flames around his body and released them!

The flames burst forth and consumed everything around them. Vidar had to jump back while defending himself using his divine aura and various magic circles, but he was still struck by the attack, leaving some burns on his body. The attacks he sent towards Aaron were also incinerated, leaving no trace of them.

Aaron had copied his partner's attack, the [Welsh Dragon Flare] that he had seen him use against Ellén Trechend back in Ireland. After he used that attack, a familiar woman came flying to his side.

"Aaron-sama!"

Without turning his head, he said, "Ravel, huh? Have you come here to help me?"

"Y-yes, although it doesn't seem like you need it…" replied Ravel.

He turned around and shook his head. "No, it's fine, come here…I have a little technique I want to try with the girls—will you try it with me right now?" he asked.

Ravel quickly moved closer to him and agreed. "Y-yes! I would love to!"

Aaron nodded and put Ravel in front of him. "Leave the rest to me." Ravel nodded again, and she relaxed in his arms while closing her eyes. A few seconds later, when she opened them…

"Yo. So, what are your thoughts?" he asked.

"…Eh? W-where—am I inside your armor with you…!?" she asked in shock. "How can we both fit in here!?"

"Oh, you know, just the usual Toole Magic," replied Aaron as he laughed. He then looked at her seriously and said, "Will you lend me your flames, Ravel?"

"…My flames? The flames of my clan, the [Hell Fire]?" she repeated, and Aaron nodded.

"Yes, your clan's flames—let's combine our powers to take down a god," he said and winked at her. "We'll make you the first Phenex to take down a god-class being."

As far as Aaron knew, [Team Phoenix] led by Ruval Phenex hadn't fought a God-class team yet, nor had they taken down any god-class beings. Yet he also knew that they would be able to create a technique in the future that could damage God-class beings by a substantial margin—as it would leave Vidar with burn marks that wouldn't heal by conventional means.

"Yes!" Ravel replied enthusiastically.

Ravel and Aurelia's team had faced some power teams in the tournament so far, and they had also faced teams with some God-class people, but they were usually dealt with by Aurelia or other [Electa], and sometimes Rossweisse. The valkyrie had defeated two people who were considered to be God-class or were a god themselves in the tournament so far.

Aaron held Ravel's hand as she gleefully held his too. Just then, Ravel felt something inside her 'burn' and it kept getting hotter, but she didn't panic as she trusted Aaron with her life. Seconds later…something strange happened.

On the outside, Vidar had recovered himself and watched the unmoving body of Aaron. As he was about to charge back at him, an intense heat pulsed through his body, forcing the god to take a step back.

He hadn't felt heat like that before. 'The sun? That's the best comparison I can give…' he thought, watching from a distance.

Then red and blue lines began to appear all around Aaron's armor as they began to pulse!

[W-w-what is going ooooooon!! The Dual Dragon Emperor's armor has begun to change!?]

"Kahaha! Didn't we say you would fight me as the Red Dragon Emperor? …Well, you are still just using that armor, so you haven't exactly gone against your word," muttered Vidar.

A sudden eruption of flames came from Aaron! It swirled around him like a vortex and slowly decreased until the flames of the Phenex clan grew out of his back. Inside his jewels were both the symbols of [Infinity] and the symbol of the Phenex clan. The end of Aaron's tail in his armor was also ignited by [Hell fire].

"Aaron-sama…this is…" Ravel muttered in wonder as she looked at herself from a third-person perspective, which shocked her.

"A combination of the Phenex, [Welsh Dragon] and my powers, with this—let's beat down Vidar, eh?" said Aaron before kissing Ravel on the forehead.

The young woman blushed and said, "Yes! Let's take down a god!"

"Let's go, Vidar! I'm feeling pretty good right now!" shouted Aaron.

"Kahaha! I have no idea what just happened, but let's go!!" replied Vidar. Both men disappeared, and the platform around them began to crack as they clashed at different points with their fists.

Each time their fists collided, a bit of Vidar's hands were burned. He didn't want to attack him with his legs; otherwise, he would risk burning them, but that also left him at a disadvantage, so he decided to do it.

'To hell with it, I'll just ask him to heal me afterward!!' thought Vidar. In their next clash, he used his legs to clash with Aaron's fists. This time he used even more power, but he also felt some of his skin burn up, but he didn't care and kept going.

After they separated again, Vidar jumped back and increased the divine auras around his feet while also using his Artificial Sacred Gears power. He then jumped forward and created a small ball at the tip of his soles, then kicked it towards Aaron and Ravel!

"Take this! Shoot!" shouted Vidar.

[Maximum Charge!] A voice rang inside his armor.

"[Fimbulvetr Shot]!!!" both Vidar and the voice in the armor shouted.

"Let's go, Ravel."

"Yes!"

Aaron put his left arm forward and gathered an intense amount of draconic energy in front of him; it quickly morphed into its own ball. He then mixed it with Ravel's [Hell Fire], and it quickly transformed into a large ball of flames. He then punched it towards Vidar's attack with vigor.

"[Dragon Shot] + [Hell Fire] in this armor—let's call it—"

"[Hell ∞ Shot]!" shouted Ravel. Aaron was a bit surprised, but he laughed it off and agreed with her.

"We'll go with that then! Mine sounds like it sucks!" said Aaron.

The attack was like a mini sun hurtling towards Vidar's [Fimbulvetr Shot], a divine gray ball of mass—the two attacks collided in the middle and created a small but powerful black flaming mass that began to suck everything around it. Both of them were surprised by this reaction, but Vidar was the one who was being pulled towards it.

"H-hey, what the hell!?" Vidar shouted in surprise, and he slammed his legs into the ground to prevent himself from being pulled towards it. "Is that a blackhole?!"

"Aaron-sama, end it! This is our chance!" ordered Ravel.

"Yeah." From his above shoulders and armpits appeared cannons. He quickly charged up his attack while also mixing [Hell Fire] into them.

"[<<D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D D∞D !!!!!!!!>>]"

[[D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]

"W-w-wait, isn't this a bit unfair!?" whined Vidar!

"Nah, it's all fair. Don't complain, Vidar!" replied Aaron. "Go!"

"<<[∞ Blaster !!!!!!]>>"

A bombardment of energies were released from Aaron's cannons, along with flames from the Phenex clan! Vidar created as many defensive magic circles in front of him while also empowering them with his divine aura, but they were quickly destroyed, and the young god was blasted away by the attack!

The walls behind him were also annihilated, and it tore through the sky and space beyond the tree, slamming into the barrier that Aaron made for the field before diminishing.

"God dammit—!" screamed Vidar. "I want a rematch—!"

[1 [Rook] of [Team Leisure of the Kings] retire!!!]

[Player Vidar has been eliminateeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!! The strange combination technique between [Bishop] Ravel Phenex and [Pawn] Jin Skyward blasted him out of the game!!]

[Fufu, Vidar-sama put up a fight, but between the [Bishop] and [Pawn] of Aurelia-san's team, he was no match for them. We've just witnessed the first God-slaying Phenex from the Phenex clan, fufu,] said the other announcer.

After Vidar was knocked out of the game, the mini Midgardsormr slept on the ground. Aaron walked over to him and shook him awake.

[…? Oh…Ddraig, how can I…eh? Where's Vidar?] asked the Dragon King.

"I beat him. You don't want to fight, right? Just say you surrender, so you can sleep more in peace," said Aaron.

He knew that the Dragon King didn't want to fight and would take this opportunity to leave, so he took advantage of that.

Midgardsormr stared at Aaron before he tiredly and happily said, [Mmm…I…surrender…good night…zzzzzzzzzz…]

Moments later, the Dragon King was also retired from the game.

[1 [Knight] of [Team Leisure of the Kings] retire!]

Aaron and Ravel undid their combination technique and began running towards the top, to win the game. As they did, even more powerful tremors reverberated throughout the game field. As they reached the top, they heard another announcement.

[1 [Bishop] of [Team Leisure of the Kings] retire!!]

"Rossweisse-sama won, ah—there, the goal!" Ravel said as they arrived at the top of the artificial Yggdrasil. Ravel pointed at a small flag pole in the middle of the top of the tree. Both of them ran over to it and touched it.

[Goooooooooooooooooooal!! The [Pawn] and [Bishop] of [Team Golden Rakshasa] have touched the goal at the top of the tree, meaning they win!!]

[Dammit Partner we were so close to beating Typhon!] complained Ddraig through the transceiver.

[You shouldn't have played around too much then if you wanted to hog the glory,] replied Aaron, who only received frustrated grumblings from the [Welsh Dragon].

— ○ ● ○ —

Aaron Toole's Soliloquy

— ○ ● ○ —

"Phew…so that's done," I said and turned to Ravel as we slowly teleported out of the game field.

We had walked over to the edge of the tree and looked around it—usually it would be something picturesque or something, right? But what we saw was mostly utter devastation to the surroundings. It seemed like Aoife used a powerful attack on Apollon earlier, and the fight between Rose and Artemis was quite fierce too. I better check on all of them soon.

"Ah, right, Ravel." I called out her name, and she looked at me. I leaned down and pecked her on the lips, making the girl blush. "Good job, Miss God-slaying Phenex."

— ○ ● ○ —

Upon arriving in our team's waiting room, everyone began to relax.

"Good job, everyone," I told them, then walked over to the door. "I'll go check up on Inaie and Roygun."

"I'll go with you!" Rose and Aoife said, and I agreed. We left the room to let the rest decompose—Ddraig was still complaining as we left.

Walking down the hallways of the stadium, we encountered various people, from staff to fans. We eventually arrived at the infirmary where those two were being kept at and found Inaie was already up and about. She noticed us and walked over to us.

"I surrendered; I'm sorry!" she said and bowed, almost hitting her head on me in the process.

"It's fine; you did a good job holding Artemis off until Rossweisse joined you guys," I replied.

Looking back up, I saw Roygun still on her bed, staring at the TV in the room. There were various commentators and highlights being shown on it. The face she was making was unreadable, but her emotions were quite easy to understand—she was frustrated.

I put my hand forward and patted Inaie's head. "You've only been in one other game, right? You did well in that, so don't worry too much about it. You faced off against Artemis, who went with us to get stronger, so you losing wasn't unforeseen. Just get stronger next time," I told her.

With a determined smile on her face, she agreed, and we walked further into the room. The other two began talking to Inaie about her fight with Artemis as I made my way to Roygun.

"Hey, former second-ranker. How are you feeling now?" I asked.

She looked at me with a bitter smile and said, "It feels like I'm not progressing as much as I wanted even while on the team. When faced with powerful people like gods, god-class beings, or people that were trained by you…it feels like I'm facing a mountain I can't climb…it's vexing."

This may be the first time Roygun has felt like this in her life—no, probably after she was stripped away from her title and [King] piece. But she still held hope that she could grow stronger by coming over to me. Whether she planned on using me or not…that remains to be seen.

Covering the room with a barrier, I stared at her, and everyone else in the room became confused. I raised my right hand and suddenly thrust it towards her face. It stopped inches away from her as I shrouded my own body in an intense aura.

Roygun became confused and slightly frightened.

"Aaron— …Rossweisse?" Aoife's voice sounded confused, but I knew that Rose stopped her, so I continued with my actions.

"Do you feel frustrated? Like you're weak? Useless in the game? Why is that?" I asked.

From the rumors about her, Roygun was at best a High-class devil in terms of power. Only after gaining her [King] piece did she grow in power by a lot, and then after experiencing hundreds to thousands of games in the Underworld Rating Games, she gained experience and became a Veteran of the games.

"Is that really the Roygun I know? …Even if we had very few interactions, you came across to me as someone who didn't let things like this get in her way of getting the things she wanted. So let me ask you this: do you still plan on sulking and acting like this?" I asked.

Removing the aura around me, I tried to remove my hand, but she grabbed it. She brought it to her cheek and smiled.

"…Hehe, I didn't think someone younger than me would try to comfort me—no, you're older than me." She opened her eyes and looked at me—it seemed like I lit a fire back in her. "You're right, it's not like me to be like this. My losing streak and situation may have contributed to it, but I can't stay like this forever."

She got out of her bed and stood up before she went on her tiptoes and kissed me briefly, then backed away. "I'll take that as advance payment for motivating me, Aaron~" she said, walking past me and out of the room. "I'll make a proper comeback in the future~"

Turning around, I saw Aoife with her hands on her hips. She walked over to me and poked my forehead. "What. Was. That?" she asked.

Undoing the barrier, I replied, "People have different ways of being comforted. Roygun was one of them. So I chose the way to motivate her. I also meant what I said. A woman of her nature won't stay down for too long, so I just gave her a bit of a push."

I patted her head before walking toward the door. "Let's go to the other team. I want to speak to the Valkyries and Artemis."

— ○ ● ○ —

We made our way to the infirmary room of [Team Leisure of the Kings], and once we entered it—

"Kahahaha! I'll get my—Jin! Good timing, let's have a rematch now!" Vidar shouted and came up to me.

"Hold on, can't we do that another time? Or can't you win your way to the exhibition match?" I asked.

"Too long! I want a rematch. That stupid blackhole prevented me from fighting back!" he complained and crossed his arms like a child.

"…Look, I'm probably going to your Pantheon again, so we can do it this time. How about it?" I told him, and he seemed pleased with that answer.

"Haha! Success! Alright, I'll wait for that time then," replied Vidar before he walked out of the room with a wide smile on his face.

Aoife had already walked over to Apollon and was conversing with him.

"Are you okay? Our fight was pretty intense, and I even cut off an arm," she said, looking worriedly at the god. I joined them, put my hand on his shoulder before he could respond, and gave him a new arm.

Apollon chuckled and said, "I was planning on receiving a mechanical arm from Grigori, but it seems like I don't need to do that anymore. Thank you, Jin. Aoife, was it? Do not fret about such things; it was during a game, and I do not hold any ill will towards you."

Aoife sighed in relief and shook his hand. "That's reassuring to hear! I didn't want a god to hold a grudge against me."

Apollon chuckled again, and the two of them spoke for a bit longer, so I made my way to the Valkyries' side. They had been chatting with Rossweisse, but as soon as I arrived, they all stiffened up.

"Hey, you guys did good," I told them as I arrived. The only one who wasn't bedridden was Ortlinde, as she was still fighting Scathach till the end. However, from the looks of things, it seemed like she received the most damage out of all of them since she was still out that long.

Did Scathach torture her for those remaining minutes or something? They're both wielders of the spear, so I assumed Scathach made her spar for as long as she physically could while holding back and never really dealing a finish attack on her.

"Aaron, I'd like to clarify one thing," Helmwige suddenly said, drawing attention to her. Zelma was glaring at her, but she didn't falter under her captain's gaze.

Gesturing with my hand for her to continue, she asked, "Are we…dating you, or are we engaged to you? A-a-a-and if we're any of those, can you have sex with me!?"

What's up with girls asking me to have sex with them recently? First it was Kanami, now Helmwige? They did it quite publicly too…sheesh.

"Well, what would you guys prefer? We can take it slowly and just date for a while, and I'll eventually propose to you individually, or we can be engaged starting from now," I told them. "And…let's take it slowly, Helmwige. Going on a date first before we bump ugly's would be better, right?"

"R-r-r-right! Also, I want to be engaged! Screw dating!" she said, and I agreed with her.

"What about the rest of you?" I asked. The rest slowly and cutely said they wanted to skip the dating portion and be engaged, which I was fine with. The only one left who didn't answer was Brynhildr.

As she thought of her answer, I went to Rossweisse and whispered, "…I have something special for you. So for now, we're not engaged yet; it'll happen in a few days. Can you wait until then?"

She stared at me for a few seconds before nodding.

"Can…I give you an answer tonight instead? I wish to…get a few things in order first," said Zelma.

"Sure thing," I replied. She had her reasons, and I would pry into them, and we left it at that. "By the way, where's Artemis?"

"Ah, she already went back to our realm, Jin-kun. She didn't give us a reason though, so if you want to speak to her, you may need to go there," explained Apollon.

"I see; thank you."

She's already left, huh? I wanted to speak to her and maybe tease her a bit, but I she may have complicated feelings regarding her loss to Rossweisse? Or are they entirely different? …I'll find out another time, but for now, I'll celebrate the win with Aurelia's team and speak with my new fiancés.

— ○ ● ○ —

Later on that day, at night in my home, everything was winding down, and in a few weeks, the preliminary stage matches would conclude and everyone would find out who made it to the main stage of the tournament.

In total, only sixteen teams were going to be chosen for it, so I expect many teams to start being reckless and start challenging stronger teams than they can realistically take on, reducing their points further. The teams that had been steadily fighting and challenging other ones while accumulating points would definitely make it to the main stage.

But for now, they can keep struggling to make it to the main stage, just like everyone else.

As for me, I was in my office, going over documents. Everyone else was downstairs, in their own room, or somewhere else, doing their own thing. I gave my usual 'secretaries' a free day since a lot of things happened today, so I was on my own in my office.

The door to my room opened, and when I looked up, Zelma was there. She was wearing casual attire and looked good. She wore a semi-loose shirt with 'Kill Robots Eat Chickens' on the front and black pants with cute and fluffy rabbit slippers on.

"Oh, Zel—Brynhildr, come in, come in; I've been waiting for you," I said, and she came over to me.

"You…can call me Zelma in private, as I said; I don't mind," she told me, and I agreed. She sat on a chair that I summoned, and then we fell into silence.

Since I still had a lot of work to do, I continued to do so while letting her work up the courage to tell me yes or no to the sudden proposal during the Rating Game. Around two minutes later, I saw that she had started sorting some of my documents for me, and I couldn't help but chuckle at her, confusing her.

"Did you forget why you came here to tell me something? I just worked on these because I waited for you," I told her and stopped. She made a cute 'Ah' sound before grumbling to herself.

After a few seconds, she took a deep breath and said, "I accept your proposal." I nodded and reached out to her, but she grabbed my hand, stopping me. "Earlier…after the Rating Game, I went back to Asgard and spoke to my parents, and apparently they already foresaw this outcome—they told you to take care of me after we visited my home?" she asked.

I chuckled and said, "I guess me saying, 'We were talking about our wedding', wasn't too far off, huh? Your dad Duron and mother Dysis seem to have some kind of precognition ability."

Zelma facepalmed as her face went red. "So…they asked you to…?"

"Yes and no. I told them, 'What happens, happens', and I wouldn't force things. I guess you guys joining [DxD] just expedited the whole process, and here we are now," I replied and laughed.

After that, we spoke a bit about her expectations for our new relationship, and many of them were normal. The most notable was her wanting to wait a while before we became physically intimate (sex and the like), which I was fine with. When we were done, she decided to stay and help me sort through a few more documents, speeding up the process, and I finished at a much faster rate.

Cúntóir could have helped me, but I wanted to do things by myself and not to be overly reliant on her. At times, she does complain that I don't use her often, and she'd just manifest herself into reality and sit on my lap. It's both adorable and troublesome at times, but I won't voice my complaints since she's a bit lonely at times.

According to her, she and Rudra mostly play chess, and even then, after that, he'd just go off somewhere else. I've spoken to her about permanently staying out here, but she wants to be as close to me as possible.

I only believe that to a certain extent—to me, it looks like she's avoiding Azathoth, and while Azathoth doesn't voice much…of anything, she's also avoiding Cúntóir. Those two really need to sit down and have a chat…

Finally, Zelma got up and said she'd turn in for the night, and I followed her to the door. Once we got there, I stopped her.

"You said you wanted to wait for a while to do lewd things, but…" I tilted her chin up and stared at her. "Kissing is fine, right?"

Without another word, she closed her eyes, leaned in, and kissed her. We stayed like that for a few seconds before I drew back. Even though it was only a kiss, she seemed a bit dazed after it.

"Are you alright…?" I asked, and she nodded her head before mumbling something unintelligible and leaving the room. "How innocent…I don't mind though; who would have thought she would be like that? Almost reminiscent of Raynare."

Chuckling again, I went back to my desk and created a communication magic circle.

"Hmm? Oh, Jin-boy! How can I help you? Great game today, by the way! You kicked my son's ass, bahahaha!" Odin said boisterously.

"Yeah, it was fun. Anyway, geezer, can you do me a favor?" I asked.

"A favor? That's rare of you to ask, but sure, why not? We owe you a lot, so go ahead!"

"…Thanks. It's nothing too extravagant, but—"

— ○ ● ○ —

A few days have passed since then, and tonight, or at least closer to the end of the day, I'm going to Asgard with Rossweisse. Although I think some of the other valkyries are going to stalk us there too, I'm fine with that since I've got everything planned already, and I hope Rose likes it.

Presently, I'm attending college, which is rare in itself, but I had time and others were working today in my place, so I went here. Right now, I was in the new society that Rias and Akeno founded. The members of it were Rias (President), Akeno (Vice President), Sona, Tsubaki, Ingvild, Kiyome, and I.

It's called the Japanese Culture Research Society. For now, Sona and Tsubaki were part of it until they decided to join a different one, or if they couldn't find one that interested them, they'd stay here. Since we had relatively different schedules, not all of us would be here constantly—one or two at most—and if we met up after lectures, then that would be the only time we could come here.

We've obviously changed the interior via magic, and anytime people come in here, their perception of things has changed a little, so they wouldn't question the sudden change in the room we picked.

In reality, it was quite small, almost a broom closet, but after using magic, it was the combined size of my home's living room and dining room, so it was quite spacious. After that, we (I) created things like furniture and other appliances we needed, and it was basically another home or spot to hang out at for us until we graduated.

College ended around twenty minutes ago, so all of us, minus Tsubaki and Ingvild since they had other work to deal with, were in the club. Just like back in the high school division, Akeno had served us tea, Rias sat at her desk, and the rest of us sat around a table on couches.

"Fufu, I think Rossweisse-san will enjoy your little surprise tonight, Aaron~" Akeno said while rubbing herself against me while sitting on my lap.

Gently rubbing her chin, she purred like a cat (or like Kuroka), and I said, "Well, I had Odin's help on this one, so it went a lot more smoothly for me. I also can't wait to see the real Yggdrasil. Ah, don't worry, I'll take you guys there soon, maybe during our next vacation? All of you are preoccupied with the tournament after all."

"Yggdrasil, huh? Is it anything like the one we saw in the game you recently participated in?" Kiyome asked.

"Yes and no. It was changed for the sake of the tournament, so it would make it easier to run around, fight, and do all sorts of things. While according to him, you can go there and even go up it to the very top, there are a lot more shops and other facilities around it and even a small 'town' where the ones that guard it stay," I explained.

"Hmm…I can't wait to go then," she said and began texting on her phone.

She's probably informing her parents about it and maybe even inviting them when the time comes…

"…I'm a bit jealous though…" mumbled Akeno while poking my cheek.

"Hmm?" I looked at her, and she was puffing her cheeks, looking a bit unhappy.

"My proposal was…perfect, but it happened on the spur of the moment, right?" she asked.

I won't lie, and I will admit that it did. Back then, I had a pretty serious talk with Baraqiel and Shuri, and the fact that Akeno overheard it—it kind of just happened that way. The same goes for Yasaka. If I could, I would redo it, but…can I even do that? It sounds weird and cheap if I re-propose to them, but if they're fine with it, then…

"You can re-propose to me; I don't mind!" Akeno suddenly said rather excitedly.

"…Was I that obvious?" I asked.

She giggled and kissed my cheek. "You weren't that obvious, but I thought you'd want to redo some proposals if you had a chance—call it 'First Girlfriend Intuition'!" she proclaimed proudly.

I chuckled at her and patted her head. Akeno continued on about her 'intuition' and I humored her. However, there was one person who had mostly been silent during our time here—Sona. It was obvious that there was something bothering her. I more or less knew where we were supposed to be in the 'timeline', even after I messed with a lot of events.

…Her dad should be showing signs and symptoms of the Devil's Sleep Disease that Ingvild and Misla had. I should step in and stop him from getting it then.

"Sona, is something wrong?" I asked.

But she didn't hear me and kept staring at the book she was reading. It was obvious that she wasn't 'reading' as she had been staring blankly at the same page since we got here. This caught the rest of the group's attention, although they were vaguely aware of it. I mean, we spend a lot of time with each other, after all.

Rias got up from her seat and walked over to and behind Sona. She then plopped her breasts on top of her head. This obviously caught Sona's attention, and she attempted to look up but found breasts in front of her.

"…What are you doing?" she asked, a little annoyed. In response, Rias giggled and pointed at me.

"I asked if you were okay. You seem out of it since we came here," I told her, and she heaved a deep sigh.

She attempted to shake her head, but Rias' breasts got in the way, and she softly smacked them away, earning an 'Iyaan~' from Rias, who moved away from her and sat beside her while giggling to herself.

"No…it's…" she stopped, looked at me, and sighed. "There's no point in hiding it from you since you probably already knew…my father is showing signs of the devil's sleep disease that Ingvild and Misla Bael had. He's been more tired lately and sleeping longer. It's also harder to wake up from his sleep, according to my mother."

I suddenly stood up while carrying Akeno with me, startling her a bit. "Alright, let's go and cure him then," I told her.

"B-but…"

"We're dating, Sona. I don't need compensation for wanting to help your father. Your family also helped me with starting up my business. This much is nothing." Looking around me, everyone seemed okay with going to the Sitri territory in the Underworld. "Let's go then; it shouldn't take too long."

'Cúntóir, can you inform Rose about this? I doubt it'll take long, but it would be better if she knew if we were to be delayed,' I told her.

Cúntóir: Answer: Roger that, dear.

— ○ ● ○ —

We arrived at the Sitri home with the use of Sona's teleportation circle. We were greeted by the maids and butlers at the front hall entrance of the home. Coincidentally, Sona's mother was there—Isolde Sitri. She was wearing a slightly different outfit from the ones I've seen her wear before.

"Sona? You've brought your friends too. Welcome home," Isolde said while walking over to us. The maids and butlers around us began scurrying around while getting everything in order.

"Hello, mother, I've come here for…" Sona looked at me, wanting me to continue for her.

"I've come here to deal with your husband's recent sickness," I told her.

She seemed surprised and grabbed Sona's hand before they spoke with each other at a distance. As they spoke, Sona's face slowly turned red over time while they spoke. I didn't eavesdrop, but I believe I knew what they were speaking about due to Sona's reaction.

They eventually came back and led us to Cyril's room. Instead of walking there, we were teleported there by Isolde herself, as she wanted this disease gone from her husband as soon as possible. She wouldn't stop thanking me even before I got rid of it.

Pushing the doors open, we entered it, and it was like any ordinary room, albeit a bit more extravagant than normal ones. In the middle of the room was his bed, and the man himself was on it, asleep.

"…He was just reading a book not too long ago. I've been the one dealing with the official business of our clan since it's been putting him like this," explained Isolde.

"I see." I walked over to the sleeping head of the clan and looked him over. While still not as strong as Ingvild's or Misla's, the starting stages of the disease were already in his body, so it's good that I'm getting rid of it now rather than waiting for him to collapse or something.

Originally, I had no idea when this would happen. The only thing I knew about it was that he would fall into a coma by 'True Volume 4', which should be in a few months, give or take, but it's good that we caught it early…

Touching his shoulder, I quickly got rid of it and made it impossible for him to ever get it again. His body gave off a faint purple glow before becoming dull again. Once done, I stepped away from him, and seconds later he opened his eyes.

"Ji…n-kun?" he asked while staring at me. He sat up and saw the rest of us. "…Did I fall asleep? My apologies, I—"

His wife, Isolde, ran over and embraced him, surprising him a little, but he hugged her back. Sona also came over and spoke to him and told him about what I did.

"…I see. So I had the disease that befell Misla Bael too. Thank you, Jin-kun," he said and bowed.

Because Sona's father fell ill due to the disease, she was taken off the front lines when all hell was about to break loose because of the inevitable invasion of the Evie faction. However, that's not going to happen now—both him falling asleep and the invasion—you could say, we're going over there when it's time.

"Don't worry about it; I want to repay you for helping me with my business. Also, you're Sona's dad. It would be pretty shitty of me if I didn't do this much," I replied.

He chuckled before we started talking about the things that have been happening in the Underworld. Nothing too serious. A few unknown devils have been roaming around, but they're quickly captured by my shadow soldiers and handed over to the alliance's prisons, where they're interrogated.

Although Ajuka and the rest already knew that they were the work of Hades and the Khaos Order, it also seemed that those devils just died as soon as they tried to look into their memories. Any attempt at resurrection (from them, not me) would end up with nothing.

They did ask me about it, and I've told them that it's been taken care of—at most, they'll only find devils that range from middle-class to high- or ultimate-class. Now they may seem powerful, but the average guard or fighter in various factions is around high-class and up because of my [Hyper Regenerative Chambers] I installed a few months ago, so they don't need to worry too much.

— ○ ● ○ —

Approximately twenty minutes later, we were back in the entrance hallway. Isolde had called over some doctors from the Serafall Memorial Hospital, and the doctors (along with Serafall) came back to the home, looked over Cyril, and said that the disease was gone. However, they said that they would monitor him for two extra weeks just to be sure.

Even though I said that he was definitely fine, they insisted, so we relented. Doctors can be quite pushy if they want to be.

"We'll get going then. If you encounter any problems (I doubt it), but if you do, don't hesitate to contact me," I told them. "I'll make sure to bring some food next time."

"Fufu, we'll make sure to go to your restaurant again, Jin-kun. We only spent a single night there, although it was quite eventful," said Isolde.

"A-ahahaha…"

You don't need to tell me about that…it got way too chaotic as everyone slowly became tipsy…I can only imagine what they're like when they become fully drunk. After saying our goodbyes one more time, and leaving both Sona and Serafall there (with the Satan Leviathan making it as dramatic as possible), we left for our society's room.

— ○ ● ○ —

"I'd like to go to the Underworld more…I haven't been there that much," Kiyome suddenly said as soon as we got back to our room in college.

"You're in luck; something's happening in the Gremory territory; would you like to come with us, Kiyome?" asked Rias. She then looked at Akeno, who had left my side, and stood beside her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Unless you have something else to do now?"

"No, no, I don't. Thank you then, Rias. I'll come with you."

All of them turned to me, and I said, "Yeah, I'll get going home. Rose is probably getting ready already, and I can only imagine the chaos that's happening over there."

They laughed at me for imagining such a scenario, and I kissed them each before they left. Now then…time to go home.

— ○ ● ○ —

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

"Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

"Stooooooooooooooooooooopp!!!"

[You didn't use your powers, right?] Ddraig asked.

'No…no I did not,' I replied.

As soon as I arrived back home, all I heard was screaming. I have no idea why, but all I know is that one of them came from Kuroka. On cue, Kuroka came running out with Kunou on her back while she repeatedly said 'Nya' or 'Nay'.

"Oh! Aaron!" Kunou shouted and jumped off Kuroka before running over to me. I picked her up, and Kuroka came over to us too. "Are you here for Rossweisse-dono?"

"She's still getting ready, nya~ the household has been split on what she should wear. From casual to formal to the obscure, they're really deliberating nya~" explained Kuroka.

"And you're not helping?" I asked.

She laughed, pulled down her obi, showing me her breasts, and said, "You think I care about fashion, nya? Well, maybe if it's our date, but…nya? When are you proposing to me, nya?"

"No pressure, huh? Everyone's proposals will come down the line; please wait a bit," I told her. She covered her breasts again and agreed before Grayfia appeared behind her.

"Kuroka?" asked the maid. She looked quite annoyed.

"Nya?! N-no, wait, Grayfia, I was—nyaaaaaaa!! Aaron heeeeelp!" yowled the Nekomata as she was dragged away from the entrance hallway.

Kunou and I saluted her, which made her scream more. "What was that about?"

Kunou blushed and said, "It may have been my fault. But before you saw us like that, Kuroka said she'd play with me a bit. But…I guess she was gone for too long, ahaha…"

"…She'll be fine," I told her, and I heard another scream. "…Yeah, she'll be fine. Anyway, I should—"

"N-no! Mother and Lav—Nia said not to allow you up there…if you go up there, Suzaku and Azathoth will stop you…"

I blinked at her slowly. Those two will stop me, huh? They're acting like they're protecting the cure for cancer or something…although that's already available to the humans too.

"Fine, let's…I guess wait in my room? I need to change too," I said and began walking up. When we got up there, in front of Rossweisse's room, we saw Suzaku and Azathoth standing in front of the door.

The Himejima clan head waved at me, and I waved back. Azathoth looked confused but seemed to just go along with it. I shrugged and entered my room. However, once I stepped in there, Yasaka was there along with Irene, both in the seiza posture on my bed and bowed to me.

"Welcome home, dear," Yasaka said.

Irene was blushing and shook her head. "I…I am not doing that…"

"M-m-mother!? W-what are you doing!? I thought you were with Grayfia!" Kunou shouted.

"Ufufu, I was, but we felt our husband was coming home, so we came up here. With that said, Kunou, would you like a sister or brother?" asked Yasaka.

"Hmm? …Um, I'd like a sibling and won't mind a sister or brother," replied Kunou. "…Ah! No, he's going on a date, mother! He can't do those lewd things with you right now!"

Yasaka laughed at her daughter before getting up from my bed. The nightgown she was wearing was quite revealing. So, in a way, she was just naked…

"Mother!?" Kunou screamed and jumped towards Yasaka while screaming.

It seemed like there was a lot of screaming after I got home. Irene came over to my side and sighed. "I wanted to mate with you, but Yasaka got in my way."

"Talk about being blunt…so did you mean that by—making new life, or recreationally?" I asked.

"…For now, recreationally, but I would like an offspring in the future. As you know, Ophis and I can't reproduce, but if it's from you…you can do something about that with your powers, can't you?" she asked.

"I didn't think you were the type to want children, Irene," I replied. "But yeah…it can be possible."

"Well…you can blame Yasaka for that, and a few others like your mother, Shuri, Misla, and Venelana. They speak a lot about their daughters, and I can see how happy they are, so I wish to experience it," she explained while we looked at the mother and daughter in front of us.

Instead of a calm waiting period, I got dressed in a chaotic room with an energetic mother-daughter kyuubi duo.

— ○ ● ○ —

Thirty minutes have passed, and I stood waiting in the entrance hallway. The screaming from the girls in Rossweisse's room had stopped completely. Earlier, Suzaku and Azathoth came to me, with Suzaku looking exhausted. But she had to go back to her clan for something important, so the only one left was Azathoth.

"Are you going to talk to Cúntóir? It feels like something needs to be addressed," I asked. She turned and stared at me before disappearing and going inside of me…which sounded weird to say.

Seconds later, I felt someone coming down the stairs. Turning my attention over there, I saw Rossweisse wearing what seemed to be a white tank top, a long blue skirt with watermelon designs, sandals, and a straw hat by her waist being held by her hands. She also had black sunglasses on her shirt.

'…It feels like we're going to the beach…' I thought and smiled at her as she arrived in front of me. "You look great. Is Yggdrasil that hot for you to wear that?" I asked.

She shook her head. "It's usually windy at the top…hmm? Are we going to Y-Yggdrasil?" she asked, a bit surprised.

"Fufu, I guess I just messed up there, but we are. I did say we'd go there eventually, so let's go," I said and offered my hand to her.

"Mmm!"

— ○ ● ○ —

We arrived at the main island of Asgard, and as we did, we were greeted by Odin and a few of the valkyrie guards, who looked at Rossweisse with envy and respect.

"Jin-boy!! So you're finally—" I shut his mouth using a spell, and he nodded before I removed it. "…You're finally going to see our famous Yggdrasil—the World Tree!" he corrected himself.

Rose, who was oblivious to the situation, tilted her head at her God's sudden silence.

"Yeah, we're here to finally go to the famous World Tree. Thanks for booking it for me for today, Odin."

In shock, she turned to stare at me. "B-b-booking it? You…Aaron you didn't…!?" she stuttered out.

"Yeah, it's going to just be us for today—or tonight, Rose. Anyway, we're going to get going," I told her.

As a favor, I asked Odin to limit the people who could go to Yggdrasil today. So just the normal staff could go there, and a few places were open there.

"Yes, yes, good luck and have fun!" he said, patting my shoulder before turning around and leaving.

"Shall we?" I asked and nodded before we left for the realm it was in.

— ○ ● ○ —

"Woah…" I muttered. The place we arrived at was on a random cliff that Odin told me to teleport to since it would give me a good view of the entire realm.

In front of us was the World Tree—Yggdrasil itself. However, below it was a vast green plain with hills, mountains, forests, and clouds. They weren't joking about the artificial Yggdrasil being smaller or being created to accommodate the Rating Game.

The real thing…it looked like there were two trees on top of each other; that's how large it was. Above the tree seemed to be its own 'Aurora Borealis'. Stars and some kind of fake hologram of a planet, all around the ground, and in the middle of the tree were clouds circling it, and there seemed to be rivers flowing down it.

When I turned to look at Rose, she was also looking at it in awe. I believe she said that she had already been here, but I doubt it would be any less breathtaking when seeing it again. It seemed like I chose right, this should be the ideal place to propose to her.

"Well, let's go!" I said before grabbing her, carrying her bridal-style, and flying towards the tree. "Valkyrie-san, do you have anything to say about this tree?" I asked.

As I did, I scanned the entire realm and found a few others that we were familiar with. Jeez, I didn't think they would seriously stalk us here. Your Valkyrie friends and grandmother are strange people, Rose.

"…Apparently, this is where Grandpa proposed to Granny and where Dad proposed to Mom," she muttered. "It would be great if it happened to me too," she said while looking at me and blushing.

[Bahahahaha!!]

{Now that's quite ironic.}

'You're following the tradition, Aaron. Good for you.'

...…No comment. I have no idea how to respond to that. Is the universe fucking with me right now?

"Is something wrong, Aaron?" she asked worriedly.

"No… I wasn't expecting two generations to do that…" I replied, and she just kissed me on the cheek. 'Well…I better make it goddamn spectacular then…'

After a leisurely few minutes of flying and chatting, we arrived at what seemed to be a small settlement at the base of the tree. Earlier, Rose told me that the core of Yggdrasil and where they created the system for Vidar's artificial Sacred Gear were in the bottom half of this realm, meaning they were underground. While the 'tourist' attraction remained above ground.

Usually, this place would have people in it, be they tourists or even the people that live in this realm, but since I booked the entire place for myself and Rose (not including the stalkers), we were alone with a few shops open. With that, we went to one of them.

"Oh, Rossweisse! So you're here with your boyfriend? Then please buy something!" the old man said while gesturing at his supply of various candies and souvenirs.

"H-hello, we're—"

"I'll take them all," I declared. Both of them looked at me in disbelief. "I'm serious."

"R-right away!" yelled the old man as he began to pack everything, but I stopped him. He looked at me confused, and I flicked my hand up before they all vanished.

"In total…It should be—" I paid him the appropriate amount plus a little extra, and he looked like he might have a heart attack before he cried and thanked me while saying something about 'being set for life'.

As we walked away, Rose asked, "…Are you going to do that for everyone here?"

"Who knows~?" I replied while smirking. She squeezed my arm in response and looked a bit upset.

Approaching the other shops, most of them knew what I was going to do and willingly let it happen. A few only accepted me buying half of their things, which was fine. Eventually, we arrived at the very entrance of the tree. Like the artificial Yggdrasil, there was a large staircase that ascended to the top. All around it were shops too, but as most of them were closed, we could only go to the ones that were open—and most of them were near the middle and top.

"Let's do this then," I said, and we began our slow walk upward.

— ○ ● ○ —

Around a quarter of the way up, I said, "It's a lot more illuminated here, isn't it? The artificial Yggdrasil was a bit duller. Was that intentional, or was it because of all the attacks flying around destroying everything?"

All around us were small shops with little floating balls of white light, or just balls of light floating to illuminate the tree inside. Some had unique designs like Odin's weapon, the [Gungnir], mini statues of Yggdrasil, or other unique designs that the shop owners made.

"I believe it was because of both. They needed to change it to fit the Rating Game, and at the same time, both of our teams used powerful and large attacks that would destroy our environment, so it wouldn't be strange for light sources to be destroyed," explained Rose.

"Hmm…by the way, Mímisbrunnr is underneath Yggdrasil too, right? What about Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, and Duraþrór? I can't seem to find anything about them," I asked.

In Norse mythology, the four stags, or harts (male red deer), eat among the branches of the world tree Yggdrasill. The stags crane their necks upward to chomp on the branches. The morning dew gathers in their horns and forms the rivers of the world…is what my previous world had, but I couldn't find them here when I scanned it earlier.

"Yes, Mímisbrunnr is underneath Yggdrasil along with Midgardsormr after being moved, along with our version of the Sacred Gear system…for those stags…" Rossweisse frowned. "They disappeared a few years ago. They regularly flew around the tree and ate the branches here, although they don't make the rivers of the world. I've read that in the human media."

Disappeared, huh? Let's check into it then...

I see. So that's it, huh? I didn't think they'd use them for that, but they really do go the extra mile—Promestein and Black Alice, that is.

"…Did you find out anything about it?" Rose asked and smiled. "You looked into it just now, right?"

"…Yeah. We can get them back, so you don't need to worry about it. Although I didn't expect them to use the stags like that."

"A future attack?" she asked.

I shook my head and said, "No. They ate the branches of Yggdrasil for a long time, right? The branches here hold a lot of power, and they ate it for years and years, so that amount of power accumulated in them is a lot. I'm more surprised that they didn't explode or die—anyway, they're being used to power up their base…so they're like batteries that can last hundreds of thousands of years."

Of course, some of it is used to power their research too, but they want to use them mainly for power, which is both smart and stupid. But if they do run out of power because of overusing them, then kidnapping them would have been useless.

Rose frowned after hearing that. It looks like the denizens of Asgard like those four, huh? I'll contact Daniel about them then, and replace them with fake ones to sabotage them further…infuriate them first, and then ruin their plans. If that's what they did to me for all of last year, I might as well turn the tables on them, right? Kukukuku…

"I'll get them back soon, so don't worry about it. Anyway, let's hurry up; I'm getting a bit hungry; there should be little food shops up there, right?" I asked.

Her face brightened up, and she nodded. "T-there's one that I want to take you too!"

Rose seemed awfully excited about it, and she pulled me along with her. Her grandmother and valkyrie friends had already made it to the top, so they were essentially waiting for us, but it would take us a while to reach them…sorry.

— ○ ● ○ —

We reached the halfway point, and we climbed a bit further before stopping at a certain platform with one restaurant open. Odin had told me, along with Göndul, that she liked this particular restaurant in the tree. It was called 'Solnedgang' which I believe translates to 'Sunset'. A strange name, but I wasn't going to question it.

"Netekke-san!" Rose shouted while running towards the small restaurant. A woman with medium-length brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles on her cheeks. She wore an old dress with a sunflower pattern on it.

"If it isn't little Rosey~ I'm glad that you came," she said, looking at me and winking. "So you brought your boyfriend? So the rumors were true…you've grown up so much in just a year…" she added while pretending to wipe a tear from her eye.

Rose turned red and began softly hitting her, and they began to talk about things while I sat in a nearby chair. They would occasionally glance at me while Netekke giggled at Rose; however, they eventually came over.

"I'll make both of you my best dishes, so wait here! …Actually, why don't I have Rosey help me~? Come, come~" she said and dragged Rossweisse away.

I better make myself comfortable then since I have no idea how long this will take. Closing my eyes, I unintentionally entered my own soul.

— ○ ● ○ —

When I got there, in the distance, I saw Azathoth and Cúntóir talking.

"They've been like that for a while now," said Rudra. He had arrived beside me, and he looked at them blankly.

"Any shouting?"

"No."

"Amicable?"

"Mostly. Cúntóir is a lot more emotional, so she waved her hands a few times in the air, but apart from that, nothing," he explained. "But…I believe it's going well, but I also think we shouldn't interrupt them."

"Hmm. They needed this after all," I replied, and we walked over to the bench and sat on it. A few seconds later, we began playing chess.

"How many does that make them?" he suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" I feigned ignorance and moved a chess piece.

"The number of women you're engaged to—don't lie to me, Toole," he said, flicking my head, and I laughed at him.

"Let's see…" I moved a piece again. "In order, we have: Yasaka, Akeno, Suzaku, Grayfia, Raiko, Lavinia, Kuroka, Shirone, Gabriel, Natsume, Kanami, Rias, Raynare, Penemue, and the newest ones, Irina and Griselda."

He smirked and moved his piece. "Don't forget Irene and the other valkyries, and then tonight will be Rossweisse."

"…Am I engaged to Irene? She only accepted me," I replied.

"She proclaimed you as her one and only mate for life. I believe in dragon language that means you're already married. You should assume the same for Ophis—only time will tell with Velgrynd, but it seems she's softened up to you," he said.

"I guess so…" I mumbled. She has insisted on accompanying me everywhere, like others before in the past. She also began being kinder to other people, not just the ones in my harem, so she is making progress.

"Checkmate," he said after moving his final piece. "I commend you for not using your future sight."

"It was tempting, you know?" I chuckled and looked towards the other two, and they were still talking to each other. "Looks like Rose and Netekke are done. I'll get going then."

"Yeah, good luck," he said, and we fist bumped before I left my soul.

— ○ ● ○ —

Opening my eyes, I was greeted to both women coming back with a few plates of food. They placed it down on the table, and they began telling me what they were. Fårikål (mutton and cabbage), Lapskaus (stew), Kjøttkaker (meatballs), Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes), Vollkornbrot (brown bread) and Apfelstrudel (apple strudel).

"That's…quite the selection," I muttered. They also smelled good, so I was looking forward to eating them.

Netekke proudly pushed out her chest (small) and put her hands on her hips. "I made sure to let Rosey touch all the ingredients!"

…What's that supposed to mean? When I looked at Rose, she looked equally confused and embarrassed. "Okay…? Thank you for the food. I'll pay for it now if you don't mind," I said and handed her around $100,000.

She stared at the amount for around three minutes as Rose and I began to eat our food. Finally, she scooted over to me and began rubbing my shoulders, which confused me. Her face appeared beside mine, and she asked, "Is there space in your harem, Jin-kun~?"

"You can't!!" Rose shouted and pulled me away from Netekke. "Y-y-y-you—! D-don't you have a fiancé!?"

I continued to eat normally since I was used to this kind of thing. Honestly, it's a lot more chaotic when the girls eat because there are so many of us now, but I stopped when I heard that. She already had a fiancé? Then why did she do that and say that? I also turned to her and gave her a questioning look.

Netekke moved away and awkwardly laughed. "W-well, a-ahahaha, we're actually running low on money, and since Jin-kun gave me this much, I wanted to repay him—he's like…the harem king, right? Free women and all that~"

"I'm…fine, thank you for the…offer?" I replied, and she scurried off to the back. "She's an interesting person," I added, looking at Rose.

Rose sighed and put her head on my shoulder. "My first meeting with Netekke-san was when I was thirteen years old. Granny took me here and we met. She's an interesting person, and she was a lot younger back then—"

"I heard that! I'm still young!!" Netekke screamed, and we chuckled at her.

"I also met her fiancé back then, and it seemed like her life could only get better, but I guess they fell on hard times. I believe granny said that he went to work for the gods to pay the bills, so he's out there risking his life every day," explained Rose.

Rose and I talked more about Netekke and her life while having our dinner. Netekke only came back out after we were nearly done, and she appeared to be crying. She apparently told her fiancé about the money they received, and they plan on going through with their marriage.

"Here." I brought out a briefcase and handed it to her. "Since Göndul and Rose like you, this is my gift for your wedding," I told her, sliding it towards her.

When he got it, she opened it while looking confused. In it was $10,000,000. She stared at it for a few seconds before fainting.

"Aaron!!" yelled Rose as she walked over to Netekke.

'…Hmm. Was that too much?'

'You think?' replied Rudra. 'But…is it fine to give out this much? Your employees are making around 89k a year already, and most of them are just college-age or high school kids, you know?'

'It'll be fine, Rudra. It's not like I'm giving out money like this too many times…right?'

'Why do you sound unsure…?'

I smiled wryly at his question and didn't respond. No, I'm sure it'll be fine…destroying the economy…that won't happen…

— ○ ● ○ —

"T-t-take caaare! I'll always support youuuu, Jin-kyuuuun~!" Netekke shouted as Rose and I left her restaurant.

"Thanks…" I mumbled, and we waved back at her. "Alright, let's increase our pace, but before we do, are there shops or places up there you want to stop by? We can do them on the way down, but on the way up…"

"We can do it on the way down then. I told everyone about a few things in Yggdrasil, so they've asked me to get them some things," she explained.

Agreeing with her reasoning, I picked her up again and dashed the rest of the way up there. We passed by many places, and I left a few floating messages telling them that we'd come back down to clear them out, so they should get ready. As we did, we heard some excited yelling, which made us laugh.

Eventually, we arrived at the top, and unlike the one in the Rating Game, it was a lot more spacious. I'm sure Rose felt them too, but Göndul and the Valkyrie Squad were also here, hiding in the southeast corner of the platform.

I let her down, and she began walking towards the edge. As she did, I had a flashback to when Akeno did the same thing on Crann Sióg during our first date in Ireland. Slowly, I trailed behind her. Once she got to the railing, she looked out, and I did the same thing behind her while wrapping my arms around her waist.

The view here was as lovely as the one we had on the cliff. When I looked up, I saw the same night sky and planets here. Even though it was fake, it still felt real, which was pretty amazing. The people here, once it was opened to the public, definitely made quite a lot of money, right? Seeing something like this…and being in a place like Yggdrasil is almost like having a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"Aaron…remember when we spoke on that secluded part of the main island?" she suddenly asked.

I smiled wearily. "Are you talking about when you asked me why I was getting a harem for myself?"

In turn, she laughed and nodded in agreement. "Yes…that. Back then…you gave me a partial truthful answer, right?"

"…I did and still do believe in it. But after regaining my memories, I think I also wanted a large family. Be it with as many lovers as I can and also friends—I think I'm achieving that still. I have a lot of friends now thanks to my job as the Middleman, and it also gave me opportunities to meet several women that I'm in a relationship with now."

Looking up back at the sky, I added, "I still want to give all of you that happy ending. Nothing will stop me from achieving that. So with that said…" I turned her around and looked deeply into her eyes while holding both her hands. "We've been through a lot, and I know you want to be part of them. I can make that a reality if you want."

Her mouth quivered, and her eyes became watery. I bumped our foreheads and the tips of our noses together. "Rossweisse, please marry me, and stay by my side forever."

"Mmm…I will…I will…!" she replied, tears streaming down her cheeks. We finally shared a kiss, but this wholesome moment was interrupted quite abruptly.

"I wanted something like that! Dammit—!" Helmwige's voice yelled in the distance before being silenced.

Rose broke our kiss and turned around to see Helmwige being dragged away and disappearing. "H-Helmwige-san…? W-wait…" she mumbled and dashed towards the spot before dispelling an illusion spell.

"Ah…" all the valkyries mumbled, including her grandmother.

Laughing, I joined them, and Brynhildr looked like she was going to murder Helmwige.

"Why did you have to ruin it, dammit!!" Grimgerde grabbed Helmwige's collar and started violently shaking her.

"Gyaaaa!! I'm sorry!!" Helmwige apologizes while being shaken.

Göndul walked over to Rose before hugging her. "Congratulations, my little Rose. You're finally engaged, fufu. I'm sorry for following you, but since Aaron asked me for help with this, I couldn't help myself."

A bit flustered, she embraced her grandmother back. "Th-thank you, granny…but I would have appreciated it if you didn't stalk us during our date…"

I sighed and looked at the other five valkyries and said, "Since we're here, I might as well re-propose in a slightly more appropriate place. Zelma, Helmwige, Grimgerde, Schwertleite, and Ortlinde, please marry me too. Even though my home's already chaotic, I'd say you guys make it even more lively, haha."

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!" Helmwige roared before lunging towards me. The others joined in, minus Zelma, who stood there sighing. "Asgard, I want to marry you in Asgard!!"

"Bahamas!" shouted Grimgerde.

"J-Japan seems nice," added Ortlinde.

"…Hawaii please," said Schwertleite.

A little bewildered, I just laughed along and agreed to their requests. "We can do that in time. For now, let's go slowly, sheesh!"

For a little bit, we stayed there chatting. Göndul seemed like she wanted to say something to me, but decided not to.

— ○ ● ○ —

Third Person Point of View

— ○ ● ○ —

At the base of the Alliance of the Evil Gods, many sat around a table while reviewing a recent Rating Game. It was between [Team Leisure of the Kings] and [Team Golden Rakshasa]. The other was between [Team Transcendent Time] and [Team Dragon Legacy].

"We'll need countermeasures against them and especially him, you know? His powers defy logic, and we can't get into contact with the Phantasma and Evie faction anymore," said Nyx.

"Promestein and the others are working on that; however, it will take time. But some of the factions in our organization aren't as patient as some of us," replied Erebus.

"[First Dark] has also disappeared. He hasn't made any moves or appearances in months. What do you think has happened to him?" asked another god.

[Whether he is alive or not is irrelevant. If he's out of the picture, it makes moving around easier for us, but it should be better to assume that he's been taken in by that damned dragon,] said a figure. It was a jet-black figure—an Evil god—Angra Mainyu from Zoroastrianism.

<<…Well, we may lose two more factions soon. However, it won't matter, for as long as our own plans proceed forward, their sacrifice won't matter that much,>> said Hades.

"Two? Who are they?" Nyx asked, intrigued by this sudden revelation.

<<The former 'Connected Harmony', now led by a certain Doumon, is going to attack the new Vampire faction while trying to take control of it along with Kecate Tepes, who wishes to gain control too. They may work together,>> explained Hades.

"Ah, Kecate-chan. Fufu, well, she has the power that surpasses some Gods after all; it shouldn't be too difficult. Shall we make use of this as a distraction to try to go over to the other universes?" asked Nyx.

"We can, although it seems useless. We should focus on our plans in this universe for now," said Chernobog.

Their attention turned back to both magic circles as Aaron in both of them defeated gods, making their confidence waver.

Hades squinted his eyes at them and grew even more furious at Aaron. To him, it doesn't matter, as long as they seal the wielders of the Sacred Gears. He'll sacrifice as many things as he can to make it a reality, even his very being and pride.

— ○ ● ○ —

"Mitsuya…we should trust in him; he even—"

"Screw that!!" roared the young man, darkness escaping his body.

Both members of XxX (Cross Times Kiss) were recently shown the memories of the Momiji in their timeline. He was furious, as he felt completely useless. He made a promise to everyone left in his timeline that he'd correct everything with his partner, Kirino.

"…My bad, I'll go cool off. I'll think about it," he said rather sadly and walked away.

As he did, Shizuka Kirino watched his figure disappear. "This timeline is already so strange that no matter what we do, we can't really change it. It seems the Evie won't invade this world because of Jin-kun…so what do we do? He even promised Momiji that he'd restore our world…can't…can't we trust him?" she asked nobody.

She put her hands together and said a small prayer to herself. "I will. I will trust him even if you don't, Mitsuya-kun."

— ○ ● ○ —

Check the chapter comments to see images of certain characters.