Hero Faction

After a man called Siegfried joined the fight, the battle against the Hero Faction became disadvantageous for Issei's group.

Siegfried was a member of the Hero Faction. He was also one of the top two swordsmen of the Khaos Brigade, alongside Arthur Pendragon of the Vali Team, and was known as 'The Demonic Sword User' and 'Chaos Edge' Sieg.

With his 'Twice Critical' Sacred Gear Subspecies, which acted as his third arm, and wielding three demonic swords at the same time, he was able to take on Yuuto, Xenovia, and Irina directly.

A few minutes later, a magician intruded into the Dimension Lost's space by tracking Cao Cao's magical energy and his Sacred Gear. Le Fay Pendragon, along with an ancient weapon from the age of Old Gods, Gogmagog.

Gogmagog had the appearance of a giant stone statue that looked similar to a Gargoyle. The Gogmagogs were originally a group of Golems that were created by the Ancient Gods to be used as mass-produced weapons of destruction. The Gogmagogs however, were eventually abandoned by the Ancient Gods, who deactivated all of them and abandoned them in the Dimensional Gap. After once hearing from Ophis about the discovery of a giant that could move inside the Dimensional Gap, Vali and his teammates set out to look for the active Gogmagog. They successfully found it and managed to reactivate their new weapon.

Le Fay arrived not just to help Issei and the rest, but also in order to warn Cao Cao that his activities were crossing the line.

However, Cao Cao only laughed at her and instantly defeated the stone giant with his spear.

It was then that the final member arrived, completely blackout drunk. Rossweisse, who had been drinking her sorrows of being alone away, woke up from her nap after hearing multiple large explosions. Of course, it resulted in a massive headache. So she walked towards the battlefield while condemning everyone for making so much noise, before casting multiple bombardment magics with all her might, stopping all the fighting and falling down unconscious again.

After that, Cao Cao figured that it was already enough and told everyone that they'd find Yasaka at Nijou Castle at midnight, before leaving for good. They weren't able to chase after them as Dimension Lost assisted their escape.

Since they were still on a school trip, they had to continue it until they returned late in the afternoon.

Back at the hotel, Azazel came to Issei, passed him a pink orb, and asked, "Is this yours?".

But before he could answer, Ddraig claimed that it was the thing that escaped from the box which Elsha gave him. Azazel then explained about the thousands of groping incidents that had been plaguing the whole of Kyoto for the past 3 days.

Azazel had finally figured out that the main cause of the groping incidents were Issei's locked desires in the orb. When it entered a normal person, their desire to grope breasts multiplied to uncontrollable levels. A testament to how strong Issei's will was, according to Ddraig.

Of course, Issei became embarrassed at their explanation and didn't expect that his pervertedness could affect others so much. He then asked how he had to use the orb to unlock his potential, but Ddraig said he didn't know and that it would be up to him.

Later in the night, Azazel and Grayfia gathered everyone to discuss what they needed to do to take back Yasaka and along with them was Sona Sitri's peerage, who came to the school trip, too.

Azazel and Grayfia both asked for reinforcement from their respective organizations and asked Heaven to send some of their Angels and Exorcists, too. However, due to being short on time and because the remnants of the Old Satan Faction were still wreaking havoc in various parts of the Underworld and the Human world, they couldn't gather much personnel to safeguard Kyoto.

Since they knew that the Dimension Lost user would just kidnap them, they couldn't reliably put up a defense aside from gathering. Grayfia would be commanding the Alliance Army and would block the reinforcements from the Khaos Brigade, while Azazel would be leaving to fetch someone who could help them against Cao Cao.

Azazel explained that the Hero Faction would be using Yasaka as the core of a massive ritual using the leylines of Kyoto. Although he was still not sure what for, he predicted that it'd gather an enormous amount of energy.

At midnight, everyone that was going to be kidnapped gathered, and a few minutes later, they were once again, engulfed by purple smoke and were transferred throughout Kyoto. Issei was transferred with Kunou and called the others to confirm their positions and agreed to meet at Nijou Castle.

Along the way, Issei met with one of the Hero Faction members whom he had already fought in the past while defending Kuoh Town. Using his dragon flames, Issei easily defeated him and left after his opponent was incapable of fighting any further.

The rest of the group, including Saji, successfully gathered in front of the Nijou Castle. Although Saji's comrades intended to join them, they weren't included when Dimension Lost transferred them. The Hero Faction was only interested in Saji because of his Dragon King form and included him.

After entering the premises of the castle, they saw Cao Cao, Siegfried, and two other new people whom they hadn't met before. Issei didn't care about any of that and immediately asked about Kunou's mother, Yasaka.

Cao Cao snapped his fingers and two of the Hero Faction members appeared behind them. In the middle of them was Yasaka, who was not in her right mind and just stared blankly forward. Kunou tried calling out to her, but Yasaka didn't hear anything.

Cao Cao signaled to someone called Georg to start the ritual. A few seconds later, Yasaka suddenly held her head and shouted in pain, before she transformed into a gigantic legendary nine-tailed fox. As the leader of the Youkai Faction, the nine-tailed fox was known as the strongest Youkai of all.

Cao Cao then revealed their main goal in sacrificing Yasaka. Georg, the owner of Dimension Lost, managed to devise a spell that imitated the effect of the Dragon Gate. As the main effect of the Dragon Gate was to forcibly summon a Dragon, Cao Cao and the rest of the Hero Faction intended to summon the Great Red.

For now, they intended to capture it, and if they couldn't do that, just gathering data about it was good enough.

Issei tried to argue with them about the giant guy only peacefully swimming through the Dimensional Gap and that there was no reason to bother him. But before they'd finished speaking, Xenovia suddenly took out the sword which was delivered to her earlier from Heaven.

She gathered all of her strength and golden light exploded from the golden greatsword before she slashed towards Cao Cao and the rest, not giving them any chance to dodge. The resulting force from her sword was so enormous, that she destroyed the entirety of Nijou Castle and gouged the earth as if an asteroid hit it.

Xenovia's new sword was the combination of Durandal and Excalibur through Heaven's Alchemy Technology. Thus she called it Ex-Durandal.

Issei was dumbfounded at the ultimate attack on the opening of the round, but Xenovia argued that the opening attack is important in order to take the initiative.

But, although the Hero Faction was within the explosion range, they came out of the ground normally and virtually unscathed.

Without getting flustered, Cao Cao ordered Georg to start the ritual and the nine-tailed fox started rampaging. Since Saji's Dragon King form was a good match for the gigantic fox, Saji took on Yasaka as Vitra.

On the other hand, Cao Cao's comrades started choosing their opponents among Issei's group. Siegfried chose Xenovia and Yuuto, while the woman who claimed to be Jeanne d'Arc's descendant chose Irina as her opponent. Finally, the muscular man who claimed to be Hercules' descendant chose Rossweisse as his opponent.

Obviously, Cao Cao would take on Issei, while Asia and Kunou would be supporting the others from the side.

As Issei's group fought everyone from the Hero Faction, each and every one of them started showing their Balance Breakers and started overpowering everyone. Cao Cao even called it a bargain of supposedly rare Balance Breakers.

Despite this, Issei trusted his comrades and started fighting Cao Cao. But as they started their clashing, Issei found himself being unable to do anything against him as Cao Cao countered each and every one of his moves.

He received oppression which was different from what he felt from Sairaorg. The oppression actually put fear into Issei's mind.

Finally, Issei took a hit from the spear to his stomach. It was as if his armor served no purpose due to how Cao Cao easily pierced through it. Issei immediately used the only Phoenix Tears which they had for this operation to heal his wound. But even with this, the damage from the Holy Spear didn't completely leave Issei, as it still continued to erode his body.

Cao Cao told him that without the Pheonix Tears, Issei could have immediately died from just a stab and Issei knew that he wasn't lying as the strength from his body slowly disappears. If not for Kisuke's training, Issei wouldn't even be able to stand up.

Unbeknownst to Issei, Cao Cao was also shocked that Issei could still stand up despite getting stabbed by his Longinus, which would normally mean an instant death for nearly any Devil, 'How is he still standing? From our data, he should've just been a normal Human before being reincarnated as a Low-Class Devil. Even with Phoenix Tears, he shouldn't have enough stamina to even stand up.'

Issei, however, even when being confronted with the fear of dying, didn't give up, as a Dragon's pride had already influenced him. As the Red Dragon Emperor, he couldn't just let Cao Cao beat him up. After forming a plan in his head, Issei used his Dragon Shot as a distraction and cut off Cao Cao's arm by suddenly materializing Ascalon in his hand.

But Issei's happy moment didn't last long, when Cao Cao calmly caught his severed arm and took out Phoenix Tears of his own to reattach it. And before Issei realized it, his armor had started to break off. Cao Cao had landed some of his attacks before his arm was cut off.

Issei needed to continue attacking if he wanted to win, but a few seconds later, Cao Cao's comrades started coming to their spot while carrying his unconscious comrades and tossing them in front of him.

Issei was angry, but not only towards his enemies, but also at his own weakness. He was afraid to use Kisuke's gift, because Ddraig had already warned him of the consequences that it may bring. Not only to him, but also to those around him. Without properly controlling it, the gift was just a ticking time bomb in his hand.

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Editors:

28th00: Well, this is different from canon, at least in the mentality Ise is showing so far. It's been like a decade since I read this part, and… a few years since I watched the anime adaptation of it? I do remember the broad strokes of this, but I always found this entire scene as… wrong? Yasaka feels far too weak, for example. She's supposed to be what? Peak Ultimate-class? She's a faction leader yo! They're strong! I guess having her child held hostage makes you pretty screwed to the mind control BS that is the Hero Factions literal bread and butter, cause they're evil like that. Aren't they the Nazi's of DxD actually?

Alexander: In some way, they truly are humans. There are many examples, like in the colonisation period, when the oh so civilized countries wanted to bring peace and progress into the world. Kind of ironic, that people like them thought that war and unrestrained violence would be an adequate means to reach that. It makes those heroes even more hateful, because it is a bit like looking into a mirror and not liking what we see. Because it is the unmasked truth.

28th00: We wouldn't be human if we didn't hate ourselves more than anything else, not to mention lie for a flimsy excuse. Like the… Divine right of conquest or something during the colonial period. Honestly, it was the disease that Europeans brought that truly killed the native americans something fierce.