5

Golden eyes stared back at me from the mirror. And I don't mean a hazel color that looked slightly gold in the right light. My new eyes were literally golden. The face they were attached to was handsome, but not mine. Pitch black hair, when mine used to be light brown. Slimmer features and less blemishes. Apparently the ROBs did some cosmic cosmetic surgery during my kidnapping.

I was taller now, too. It's not the towering height of a Space Marine, but I'll easily be the tallest person in almost any room now. That's another thing. From my dream last night, I knew I had the blood of Big E running through my veins. The Emperor of Mankind, Adam: First of his Name, Humanity personified, and the closest thing to an immortal demigod that I knew of from fiction. With his blood running through my veins, shouldn't I be at least as tall as an Astartes? Great, even this body is short, relatively speaking.

The main thing my bloodline does for me isn't perfecting my physical form though. It's the psychic powers. Or psykic powers, more accurately. The power levels of the 40k universe are ridiculous. Even Sirzechs would have trouble with the God-Emperor in his prime.

Surviving the plot of DxD wouldn't have been easy as a mortal scrub, but now it shouldn't be too difficult if I'm clever with the powers at my disposal. Of course, the problem with that now is that I'll probably end up making changes to canon. And that means unknowns. And unknowns mean death.

My eyes glow gold, as Warpfire dances in the palm of my hand. Accessing the Warp is a heavy feeling. Its energy is uncontrollable yet eagerly submits to me. Its purpose is to cause Chaos. The Emperor's blood makes it possible for me to Order this Chaos, but it doesn't make the process easy. If I'm not careful, I could end up dragging something back into the real world with me. Already, I can feel stirrings from the Warp. Curious to see what its newest conduit will do, and eager to corrupt me to its cause.

With every wave of Warp energy that crashes against my mind, I develop defenses. Forging my mind into an adamantium bastion that will never fall to Chaos. Within my bastion, my spiritual reactor churns out energy. Hopefully, masking and shielding my mind from the currents of the Warp. I don't know if I'll have to deal with Chaos Gods in this universe, but I'm not taking any chances in case I do.

Mastering the Warp will be essential. Its power is unique to this universe, and the Essence of the Mage will let me develop it into my main weapon. Chaos echoes in the Warp, whispering ways it can be of use to me if I would only give in to it. The strength to crush opponents with only my will, reshape life into curious new forms, and dominate the minds of whole cities plays in my mind's eye. Even turning a deaf ear to Chaos' seduction, my Essence is already developing new abilities for me to use. Only with the will of the King is it possible to block out Chaos completely, and even that requires constant effort on my part.

I turn back to the real world, leaving my Essence to keep experimenting with new abilities in the safety of my bastion in the Warp. I complete my morning rituals. I send a quick prayer to the Emperor, even if I'm almost certain he can't hear me here. Rias wants to introduce me to the rest of her peerage before school. She also mentioned talking to Sona about getting me enrolled in their class. School will cut into my training time, but I can't find a reason to deny her this.

Let's see… There's no reason I can't Bind everyone to myself, Sona and her peerage included, but letting Rias do some of the legwork for that will be much easier. Issei needs to be handled in some way, but convincing Rias to reincarnate him into her peerage will be easy enough. She was already planning on doing it, and keeping the protagonist close will allow me to undermine canon more effectively. The next big plot point will be the whole business with Asia. A quick mental exchange with Raynare confirms that she'll be arriving at the end of the week.

Stealing her away from Issei counts as disrupting canon, right? I'll be honest, I want her for myself anyway. She always was my favorite girl in the series, and she'll keep me from throwing away all my morals in the face of power. If only so I don't disappoint her.

In the meantime though, I have training to do, abilities to explore, and power to munchkin. And taking a couple minutes to process everything that's changed in my life during the past day couldn't hurt. Expanding my Binding network is also important. Oh, and contracts to do, I guess. I need to play the role of the dutiful new devil servant, even if Rias wouldn't care either way.