On The Bench (AOT/DxD)

[TheSwashBuckler]

Canon source it may be but most Fanfic writers can't seem to divert from canon and write a story where some of the main cast actually die and remain that way. It's like DC/Marvel where no one is truly ever dead. Some BS always revives them. This takes away the seriousness of it all. Kinda like FATE servants.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

She wasn't strong enough.

That thought tore its way through Mikasa Ackerman's mind as she carved through the spine of a Colossal Titan before it reached the Crimson Wall.

She hadn't been fast enough to escape the trap.

Mikasa wove in front of another Titan as Eren's fist impacted Great Red in the side. The shockwave sent many of the unprepared attackers stumbling in the air. Mikasa just kept up the attack without pausing.

She hadn't had the ability to escape Dimension Lost, spending who knew how long wandering in that deep mist.

A copy of Purgatorio sliced hamstrings as she dove low, causing a pile-up that she used to carve through four more spines.

And now, finally free of the Longinus, Mikasa laid eyes on Eren for the first time since falling asleep in his arms.

And knew she could not fight him.

Mikasa escaped the cluster of Colossal Titans, putting herself against the Crimson Wall to watch Eren fight again as she cooled off.

Seeing him like this, fighting the strongest being in the world toe to toe... It confronted her with the truth.

Eren was beyond her now.

It was a bitter realization, one that should have been obvious since she learned of his past in this world.

Unlike her, who had everything she needed and chose a peaceful life, who had decades of peace to dull her edge, Eren was fresh from the Rumbling when he arrived and had been trapped in his war the entire time.

Eren had been struggling, fighting, and improving himself since he realized what sort of world he was in.

He'd always been that way, always worked harder than everyone, always sought advice from anyone who could give it. Eren had always given his best effort to improve himself, even when those efforts failed him over and over again.

Eren was never satisfied until he had the strength to accomplish his goals.

Mikasa Ackerman was not like that.

She might not have been born strong, but she had been the strongest ever since she took up that small blade.

She'd dedicated herself to her friends and family, trying to use that strength to keep them safe. And she had trained, tried to improve herself, just like everyone else.

Still, it didn't change the fact that Mikasa Ackerman had been the first-place cadet in the 104th, beating out Titan Shifters, Warriors, and those who had put forth much greater effort than her just because she had been born an Ackerman.

She simply lacked the hunger Eren had.

Even at the end, when the Walls fell and Eren began the Rumbling, excepting the difficulties of reaching him, it had never been a lack of ability that stopped her from fighting Eren.

Merely a lack of willingness.

Now, despite having a willingness to fight Eren, to do it all again and kill her heart a second time, Mikasa Ackerman discovered, for the first time in her life, that she simply did not have the ability.

All her training, powerful weapons, and even the rudimentary grasp of Touki she had achieved wouldn't be able to scratch Eren as he was now.

Trying to interfere in that fight in any way would simply get her killed, accomplishing nothing.

It was bitter.

It was terrifying.

It was so... freeing.

The acrid taste of weakness. The helpless realization that she could only watch. The fact that all Mikasa could do was kill Titans, yet never be the one to end them permanently...

It was all overshadowed by the tide of relief she felt.

Even as she fought with all she had to stymie an unending tide to provide just a little relief for the boy who was now the only Wall protecting her loved ones, Mikasa was forced to confront a truth about herself that she had been burying since Eren had asked her as a simple question.

Mikasa did not want to do it all again.

She could. She would.

Because she had ceased living for Eren alone and now lived for so much more, Mikasa could once more kill her heart if that was what it took.

But Mikasa didn't want to.

Mikasa never wanted to kill Eren.

She never even wanted to fight him.

All of Mikasa's strength had only ever been meant to help those she cared about.

Now, she could do just that.

Every Titan she killed here directly helped those she was trying to defend. One less Colossal smashing down the Wall meant a few more seconds that Issei could hold out.

Seeing the boy alive was another relief Mikasa couldn't put into words.

Not only because she didn't want him to die and didn't want those children to feel the loss of a loved one, but because his survival meant Eren hadn't killed someone he called a friend. Hadn't put himself through that once more.

It meant Eren was trying to avoid repeating the same mistakes and heartaches of the past.

And so was Mikasa.

If nothing else, the proof that Lillith still existed meant he wasn't yet willing to repeat the genocide of the Rumbling.

Mikasa Ackerman barely understood what was happening. She had no idea of the implications, the cause and effect, or even what plans Eren had put in motion.

She didn't know if she'd still be required to be the one to stop Eren once the situation changed.

All Mikasa Ackerman knew was that, for the moment, she didn't have to fight Eren.

She was free of the final duty the man she loved had imposed on her.

********

He couldn't hold on.

"Is there-GAH-any-thing else ghrk-u can urgh!!!?" Issei cried desperately through the pain, his attention pulled in a thousand different directions by the Colossal Titans.

Those were the only words he could get out before he was overwhelmed.

Despite the Ultimate class devils doing their best, the Rumbling had reached the Crimson Wall.

Titanic fists battered against red scales.

Thousands of legs, each larger than most buildings, reared back in simple kicks that could destroy cities.

An omnipresent oppressive heat boiled against Issei's flesh which had become the only barrier between his friends and certain death.

"Can't. I, am weak." Ophis said simply.

She was on top of the impossibly vast Wall, watching Eren's fight with Great Red with unblinking eyes from beyond the atmosphere.

Whenever Eren hurt the Dream, Ophis would throw a tiny fist forward as if she were the one hitting him instead.

Every time Great Red hurt Eren, Ophis would pout as if the monstrous dragon was being unfair.

The entire situation would have been cute if Issei hadn't felt like he was dying.

And he had quite a bit of recent experience with dying to say with absolute certainty he wasn't exaggerating.

Not even the sight of the Female Titans trying to attack him could draw his attention from the simple fact that he was losing.

Ophis was already doing her best, feeding all the power she had left into him as she watched the fight.

Asia's Balance Breaker was also helping, healing him as best as she could.

And it wasn't enough.

Issei was stronger than he'd ever been, stronger than he could ever have hoped to be when he first developed this technique.

Yet he couldn't hold on.

There were just too many attackers.

Thousands of enormous blows rained down on him every second, each powered by Touki stronger than Sairaorg's had been and accompanied by a searing heat.

Issei was Boosting dozens of times a second, every moment multiplying his power to a point he'd never be able to achieve on his own, yet he was forced to expend those Boosts faster than he could pile them up.

The central premise of the Crimson World Wall was just a method to buy time to amass power to transfer it to someone who could deal with the situation, whatever it was.

Issei sacrificed his mobility, attacking power, and initiative for the peak efficiency at growing Ddraig's power. He released small bursts of that power, just enough to perfectly counter an attack, to save more power from trying to endure a full-power attack.

It was a game of efficiency.

So long as Issei accumulated more power than he spent, he could keep Boosting forever.

Wall Fall was just the point where his body couldn't handle any more power, and he had to transfer to someone else.

And he was spending more than he gained.

Issei was battered, bruised, and bleeding within his Wall. Every wound Asia healed was replaced with two more.

Every second, he endured more blows, his body taking the damage as he mitigated them as best as possible. He healed from Asia's gear, keeping him in the fight for longer, only to take more damage.

Issei's head hurt.

His body hurt.

A thousand enormous red gauntlets clashed with a thousand and one white fists.

A dozen more emerged to block the accidental attacks from the devils.

Grafiya's glaciers were shattered before they could crash into the Wall, even as they destroyed a dozen Colossal Titans.

Diehauser Belial used the Wall as a springboard, launching himself at a new target, and Issei had to counter the force of that jump.

Surtr II's flames joined the blasts of steam searing his flesh, and Issei had to pad that part of the Wall lest it be consumed by the giant's fire.

Their attacks were large but occasional water splashes, intermittent compared to the unending downpour of the Titans' fury.

Even tiny drops can carve through rock given enough time, let alone this storm of violence.

Still, the stone could endure the rain.

If not for the thunder and lightning.

The intermittent splash of attacks from the devils and the steady beat of the Titans' fists were accompanied by the swell of a tsunami, relentlessly battering Issei's Wall with the force of Eren's battle with Great Red.

The shock wave of the fist on the Dream's scales that pounded against his body.

The jagged shard of that psychedelic material carved into Issei's side after passing through the flesh of Titan and devil alike.

The tornado of magic, a whirlwind of power and broken space that drove devils to flee as it butchered hundreds of Colossal Titans before stopping against Issei's Wall, grinding into him as it raged.

Issei could last against the Ultimate devils for days.

Issei could endure the battering of the Rumbling for hours.

Issei could weather the intermittent aftereffects of Eren's fight for several minutes.

Against any of them alone, his enhanced Boosting rate would more than compensate for losing power from defending, allowing him to reach his peak and achieve Wall Fall.

Against all three?

All of it, the storm, the rain, the swell battered at the rock that was Issei Hyoudou, threatening to shatter him and pull him under.

And he was desperately fighting to stay whole.

To endure even as he cracked and weakened.

Issei was not a Rook anymore.

His new body, made from Great Red's flesh, might be much greater than a human's and even a devil's, but it lacked the specialization in defence he was so used to.

The pain was only bearable because the soul-rending agony of Samael's poison was fresh in his memory.

Issei floated in a hazy consciousness of blood, pain, and violence.

Ddraig's power worked best by compounding. One Boost to someone stronger was worth a hundred Boosts to someone weak.

So what happened when there was practically nothing left to Boost?

If a Boost turned forty thousand into eighty thousand, it also only turned one into two.

With all his Crimson Wall, Ophis, and Asia's help, Issei could Boost a handful of times a second.

And it didn't matter when all it did was turn one into two thousand. Not when Issei received over that number in kicks in that one second.

Not even the relief of Dawn's Affection could stir Issei from the fugue he fell into.

One more minute.

One more second.

He just needed to hold on for a little longer.

Just a little longer.

...Issei Hyoudou fervently wished the battle would end. That this day, which began with him crashing through his kitchen window, would end.

That he could drop his Wall, return home with his girlfriends, and spend the next century or two not fearing for his life.

He wanted to rest. To sleep. To do ecchi things with women he loved.

But he couldn't.

He needed to hold on.

Issei felt the dip in power every second.

The initial burst he had gained, the well he had dug before the Rumbling reached him, was starting to run out.

If that happened, the Titans would breach his Wall.

He would die.

His friends would die.

He'd fail.

Again.

A third failure could not be allowed. Not under any circumstances.

Not when the second had cost his Senpais' souls.

So Issei held on.

As best as he could, Issei held on.

Even as his power waned, as darkness crept at the side of his eyes, he stopped being able to counterattack.

Drop by drop, Issei's well had run dry.

Yet he held.

One more second.

One more second.

One more.

One more.

One.

More.

Second.

... Issei couldn't see anything.

Once more, he had returned to that state of nothingness.

Only he felt everything.

All the pain.

...He wanted it to end.

He wanted to go back to school.

He wanted to return to those halcyon days of laughter, perversity, and ignorance.

Where his greatest worry was if Asia would like the next date he planned or what sort of play Xenovia decided was normal to talk about in the middle of class.

Where Senpai was just an otherworldly source of wisdom.

Where friends could laugh on a beach surrounding a bonfire and look out to where the sea met the sky.

Issei Hyoudou wanted to be happy.

...

...To regain that happiness, he needed to endure.

...To reach that beach, he could hold on.

...For that smile, he would live.

And, in the darkness of pain, with only the hazy memories of smiles and laughter to push him forward, Issei Hyoudou endured the violence of a cruel world.

The storm crashed against the Wall...

And broke first.

That empty well's final few drops of power started to swell again.

********

Akeno Himejima wasn't thinking.

She had entered a state of pure reaction, of movement without thought.

There was just the lightning.

Holy lighting's thunderous crash was like music, a beat she could lose herself in.

Black feathered wings carried her along the inside of Crimson World Wall, the golden thunder spears of her power raining down on the white Titans.

There was no sadistic joy in the act. The Titans could not feel pain.

It was just... just fear. And confusion.

A disorienting blur of violence where one moment blended into another yet still was perfectly remembered.

Like someone was taking millions of snapshots and then collating them together in a stuttering slideshow to the beat of thunder and lightning.

A flash of lightning illuminating the sky as she and Rias annihilated a rain of arrows and spears.

A roll of thunder shaking the ground in front of Gasper, directing the mass of eyes and darkness away from the Wall and toward a squad of Armoured Titans.

A waft of burnt flesh rising to her nostrils as she slightly misfired her Holy Lightning in her hurry to destroy two Jaw Titans inches from carving a chunk from Issei's fortification. Asia's healing already at work, erasing the burn on Akeno's arms.

A hiss of steam as she electrified Sona's water, sending an Attack Titan into a spasm.

Little moments that shone with perfect clarity in her memory, yet Akeno had no idea how they happened.

And through it all, the Colossal Titans loomed mere meters from her.

Those within the Crimson World Wall could see out of it, see the thousands of Titans like a white wall beyond their Crimson defence.

They could watch as enormous fists and feet battered against Issei's defence with enough strength to destroy cities.

This close to them, Akeno had to look practically straight up if she wished to see their heads and the battle the Ultimate class devils fighting up there.

If she genuinely paid attention, every few seconds, the tide of Colossal Titans would have an opening.

A window to the battle beyond, where Eren fought Great Red.

Akeno saw none of it.

The Colossal Titans were terrifying. This close and looming they were a stark reminder of the fear she felt when first seeing Eren and felt the sheer helplessness of a bug in the face of a human.

Yet she noted them only as a background. A dangerous one, certainly. Something that would absolutely kill her if they could.

It was like being in an underwater aquarium.

You knew you were inches from enough water to drown you and whales that could kill you by accident, yet you weren't scared because you knew the glass would not break.

Akeno was afraid of the giants on a visceral level that she never thought she could feel.

But she was not scared of them reaching her because Issei wouldn't fail.

It was a baseless, senseless, foundation-less confidence in the boy she had seen grow from a helpless teenager into a young man.

One she had traumatized and hurt yet had never sought revenge on her.

One who had died and miraculously returned.

One who had all the power in the world yet dedicated it to protecting others.

These enormous Titans scared Akeno, but she was certain Issei would hold on.

What truly scared Akeno, what numbed her to all but the thunderous crash of lightning, was the fear of failing to protect someone again.

One attack.

One stab in Issei's back.

One failure that might as well have been a betrayal to the Red Dragon Emperor.

That was all it would take to see this Wall fail, for Akeno to once more watch someone she cared about die before her eyes.

More than one person.

Everyone would die.

Unless her Holy Lightning could help save them.

Rias. Yuuto. Sairaorg. Team Vali. Saji.

These were the backbone of the defence of the Crimson World Wall. Those who could kill Titans quickly and reliably when they drew close to Issei.

A final defence for the Wall that kept them all from the Titans.

And Akeno was one of them only because her Holy Lightning was stronger, more potent, than regular spells. The vast area coverage, the destructive power and its ability to maneuver an attack at the right angle to target the nape.

Akeno knew she wasn't the only one protecting Issei's vulnerability.

Knew that if a Ttitan managed to get through everyone, it wouldn't be solely her fault for missing it.

Yet the thought of being responsible for even one more death of someone she cared about was enough to drown out all other fears she held. That terror drove her to act, to fight.

So she lost herself in the clash of Holy Lightning, in the roll of her power as it tore through Touki and flesh.

It was the only constant in this ever-changing battlefield.

That's why it took her so long to notice.

Akeno was no longer the sole musician playing to the beat of Holy Lighting anymore.

It only struck Akeno as she fried one of the few flying Titans, a hawk-like thing that was small for a Titan but had been close to plowing into an upper part of the Crimson Wall.

Her hands unleashed a tide of lightning, a curtain blocking off the white creature from clawing into Issei. It still tried to plow through, but the power discharge sent its body into a spasm that halted it.

It gave her time to ascend, gaining a bit of height on the... Beast Titan? Jaw Titan? It could be either.

But it didn't matter because Akeno was above it, and a piercing bolt crashed into it from above, right where its skull met its neck.

She couldn't sever the spine, but enough firepower was enough to destroy it, even Touki reinforced as it was.

From her momentary vantage point over the battlefield and without another enemy in the sky, Akeno had a moment of clarity that had been lacking amidst the confusion and hast of the battle on the ground.

She could see it. The white tide of Titans on both sides of the Wall crashed into the crimson line that separated them.

On one side, the battle was below her.

Dozens of individual pieces moving, overlapping, shuffling and scrambling to either reach the Wall or destroy those trying to do so.

On the other, the battle was above her.

Hundreds, thousands of enormous beings that she had to strain to see the tops of and the... insects that flew around them, bringing the giants down.

And Akeno could see the way the battle had been shifting.

It was the colours that gave it away.

The radiant crimson glow of the Wall had dimmed, even with the flicker of purple that permeated it.

It had been washed out by the tide of white, bleached to the point where every second, that beautiful shade of red threatened to vanish under the tide.

They... were losing.

Issei was flickering, weakening.

As Akeno watched, dozens of Colossal Titans were killed by the Ultimate Class devils, yet hundreds more landed blows to tear down the Wall.

Akeno grit her teeth, her wings flexing as she dove.

Even if they lost, it would only be after holding on as long as possible.

That's when she heard it.

Thunder.

She almost didn't realize what it meant.

Akeno wasn't the only person to use that element on this battlefield, even if hers was better than most.

Nor had Eren ceased summoning the occasional Titan within the Wall to supplement those lost. It was less often than before, as he was also supplementing the Colossal Titans outside, but it was still pretty frequent.

So Akeno almost paid it no mind.

Then the flash.

White bolts of electricity with the golden glow of Light.

Feathered wings froze in the air mid-dive as Akeno watched five Colossal Titans fall amidst bolts of Holy Lightning larger than anything she had ever conjured.

He... couldn't see her. They could see out of the Wall, but those outside could not see in.

He didn't know she was there.

But Akeno knew Baraqiel was here.

She could see him up there amidst the clouds, the lightning, and the Light.

The black feathered wings. The mechanical limbs replacing those lost in the battle against Loki.

It was him.

He was here.

More than the army of wounded yet still fighting fallen angels that accompanied him and Azazel.

More than the radiance of the Heavenly Host led by Michael descending on the Colossal Titans like the hammer of a dead God.

More than the Crimson Wall starting to glow with a red light once more.

Baraquiel, her father, was here.

That was how Akeno knew they'd win. They'd live.

It was not the reinforcements that quieted Akeno's fear.

It was the familiar beat of the music of Holy Lighting.

And, even if she still hadn't forgiven herself and had a long, winding path to go, Akeno took one more small step forward.

For the first time in her life, Akeno forgave her father.

The battle was not done yet, so they both continued to fight.

Yet the fear in both their hearts was lessened.

Only one part of that small, broken family could see the other, but both were comforted by the sound of Holy Lightning resounding from the other side of the Crimson World Wall.

********

In the long run, and in the chaos that came before and after, the meeting didn't matter.

It lasted a few moments and had no impact on the world or the battle, and Rias never mentioned it to anyone because there was no need to.

Amidst the battle, less than a minute after the arrival of the angels, and as hope was swelling in her breast, Rias had an insignificant chance encounter.

"Have you seen my sister?!" Riser Phenex asked, eyes scanning the battlefield in a hurry.

Rias barely took a moment to look at the man who had been a figure of her nightmare for years.

The destruction of Agreas and attack on Lillith had only begun less than half an hour ago, despite its twists and turns.

It would make sense that the Underworld would send what they could to help. Sona had probably put out the call as soon as possible. They had been flowing into the battlefield in fits and starts, unable to really change the tide, but now it was becoming apparent.

Those not strong enough to have been on Agreas or fighting the Rumbling, yet still influential figures in their own right, would be flocking to help if they had any sense.

The initial killing field, the area Eren had first attacked where the refugees had arrived, was pincered between Lillith and Issei and still saw the bulk of the fighting on this side.

But the Crimson World Wall stretched for a long distance, and the reinforcements spread along it as a few of the Titans tried to flank the devils.

Rias even thought she had seen her mother and father outside the Wall, helping with the Colossal Titans, though she couldn't be sure as the urgency of battle claimed her attention again.

Riser Phenex was only one of the new arrivals as they steadily trickled in in fits and starts. He and his Peerage would be helpful, if only as more bodies to take up the Titans' attention off Issei.

Looking at the man now, Rias was amazed to realize she felt... nothing.

Riser had never been the reason she'd been so unhappy. Just a target that was easy to understand and hate. Rias still didn't like him, but she didn't hate him either.

He had just been an obstacle to her dream of living as she wished.

In the confusion of the last few hours, the terror of Issei's disappearance, the grief at his death, the terror of the battle, the horrified realization at what Sona had done, and sheer, rapturous joy at seeing Issei alive, on top of the confusing mix of anger, guilt, love, hatred, awe, and fear that the sight of Eren brought her...

Riser Phenex just... didn't matter.

Rias Gremory had moved past him.

Rias' freedom, her way of life, her dream, had a different enemy.

So she didn't mind helping a concerned brother looking for his little sister on a chaotic battlefield like this.

"Check near Irina," Rias nodded toward the sole angel fighting within the Wall. "I saw them together not too long ago."

"Thanks!" Riser said, paying her no more mind as he shot off toward the angel.

Rias' last conscious thought of Riser that day was a bit of wry amusement at how he flinched whenever Akeno unleashed her Holy Lightning.

Then, it was back into the fray, defending Issei from Eren's relentless attacks, fighting to survive.

...And trying to ignore thoughts of what tomorrow would bring if they did survive.

Because Rias couldn't... the world couldn't return to how it was after this.

Amidst the ongoing fighting, Rias felt something change in those few minutes after she exchanged words with her ex-fiance.

Something she couldn't put her finger on, not directly, yet still niggled at the back of her mind as she tore through Titan after Titan, staying around her Peerage as best she could while also covering Issei's back.

It was Koneko who caught on as Rias swopped down to finish off the Sheep Titan the Rook had in hold.

"...Getting brighter," the Nekoshou said as the Titan in her grasp dissolved.

Rias took a second to process what her laconic Rook meant.

That's when it clicked.

Since Eren's battle with Great Red had destroyed the sun, they'd been fighting in the twilight of the Underworld.

More than enough light for devils to see by, but still not anything that one would call bright.

It also heightened the confusion on the battlefield, with the bright lights of fire, lightning, Light and other magics shining all the more for the contrast.

But now, the entire area was as bright as a sunrise, and Rias didn't take long to realize the cause.

The Crimson World Wall was shining, every second glowing brighter and brighter hue of red.

The Boosted Gear took one second to turn one into two. But turning a trillion into two trillion also only took one second.

And, with the reprieve of two new armies killing Colossal Titans faster than Eren could spawn them, ones with more precise forms of attack on top of that, Issei found himself able to defend against the aftershocks of Eren's battle with the power no longer spent on thousands of enormous fists.

The Colossal Titans were still there, attacking him, but they were not the overwhelming tide they once were. Eren was not producing them as fast as they were being destroyed anymore.

And once Issei stopped losing power every moment, he could start building a reserve.

And that snowballed.

The glow had been subtle at first, a ramp up from nothing, but once it reached a certain point, the exponential nature of Ddraig's power took over, and it went from a bright glow to an incandescent light in seconds.

Rias realized what was going to happen before she heard the words.

[Wall Fall]

For a brief moment, Rias wondered who Issei would give the power to. Issei's transferred boosts didn't put any strain on the receivers, so it could be literally anyone.

Yuuto again? Or maybe someone like Grafia... no, they had to be inside the Wall. Sona perhaps? She'd know what was the best play. Or Sairaorg, to stack buffs on their strongest fighter?

At that moment, Rias tried to think of who would be the best recipient. Whoever it was, they would have to do something to make up for the loss of the Wall separating the Colossal Titans from everyone else.

Then Rias felt it.

Power.

More power than she could have ever dreamed.

More power than her brother held.

More than Ddraig had in his life.

Rias didn't know it, but this was the power of the Red Dragon Emperor if his body was made from the flesh of the Dream and bolstered by a fragment of the Infinite.

Issei, with Ophis' help, would have reached Wall Fall much sooner if his new peak wasn't so high. What he'd lost in defensive ability from no longer being a Rook was more than made up for in capacity for growth.

And he'd transferred all that power to Rias Gremory.

For a moment, Rias just... hung there, in the air, unsure.

Eyes were on her. So many eyes.

Not the Titans'.

The loss of the Crimson World Wall had ceased the smaller Titans' frantic charge, and they immediately returned to attacking everyone around them.

The Colossal Titans began to step forward, enormous feet ready to crush and burn all in their path. The heat was already starting to rise.

And right in front of them, right where the Wall once stood, a young man with brown hair grinned up at her from his prone position on the ground while Asia's hands glowed green and gold against his chest.

He was already chanting.

Rias grinned back, joy, pride, and triumph swelling into a crescendo in her soul.

Issei Hyoudou and Asia Argento were made for each other, and Rias decided right then and there. An OTP, if there ever was one.

Together, they had turned a one-time-use technique already strong enough to be the backbone of an entire faction into something repeatable.

Something fantastical.

Issei reaches his limit, passes power to whoever needs it, and passes out. Asia then heals him, and he sets up his Wall again, as the first person with power battles any attackers.

Together, those two could make as many temporary Red Dragon Emperors as they wanted!

Rias Gremory reafirmed that she had the best Peerage as billions of tiny black stars filled the sky with her laughter.

She stretched the control she'd been practicing for the last year, using every ounce of it she had to turn this enormous well of power she had been gifted into those few seconds Issei needed to restore his Wall.

Angel. Fallen. Devil.

They all froze in place as the air was saturated with the Power of Destruction like tiny water droplets.

Rias' grin was wild and free as she let her power flow.

It was a good thing she had such large targets, wasn't it?

She would not miss.

Black rain fell.

And so did the Titans.

Every.

Single.

One.

It was like... an old movie, one without colour or sound. Grainy was perhaps the best way to put it.

Black tears in reality carving lines in the world.

Those effervescent black dots, small bundles of Destruction, carved scars from above and below, right and left, in front and behind.

Enormous white humanoids were suddenly filled with a flickering darkness before they just... ceased.

That wasn't the end of the battle, of course.

For one, Rias only summoned her Black Rain within her eyesight for fear of hitting allies she couldn't see. It was enough to obliterate the army of white Titans, but it was not complete.

For another, the source of the Titans was still present.

No sooner had Rias destroyed the Titans than the lighting beat heralded more of Eren's army.

Rias destroyed those, too.

For a few seconds, it was a race as the King did her best to buy just a little more time. A few seconds for her people, her friends, to breathe and rest.

Then Issei finished his chant.

The Crimson World Wall rose to separate Eren from his would-be victims for the second time.

And Rias...

She didn't know why she did what she did...

No. That would be an excuse.

Rias knew why she did what she did.

It was the fear and stress.

It was petty vengeance for everything Eren had put her and her family through.

It was for the still unprocessed grief of Issei's death.

It was a simple high of power, of joy, and of feeling like she finally had some control over her life.

It was because Rias Gremory still felt like Eren Yeager had stolen something precious from her.

And she wanted to take it back.

Rias made a choice to seize back the freedom to decide how she'd live her life.

All of those reasons were true. There were definitely more.

Reasons. Justifications.

They didn't matter in the end.

What mattered were actions.

What mattered was the coalesced ball of destruction, formed far beyond what Rias' normal range would be, that launched at Eren as he fought with Great Red.

That ball, a tiny black dot on the horizon, left her right before the Wall rose again.

Containing as much power as Rias could pack, it flew toward its target.

There was very little hope of hitting Eren at this range, even at the speeds it was going.

It might hit Great Red instead. Or even pass by harmlessly.

Rias took the attack not because she thought it would win the battle but because she needed to do it. For herself, more than anything else.

All this time, Rias had been reacting, the passive victim, while Eren, the Chaos Brigade, and even Sona dictated her future and that of her family.

Rias needed to seize something of her own will.

A meaningless gesture of defiance that only served to make Rias feel better, even if it accomplished nothing of value.

It didn't.

That tiny black dot flew straight and true, searing across the horizon through debris and torn space.

The battle between dragon and Titan moved, rose and fell in the air, yet that tiny bundle of destruction continued to advance.

Eren grasped Great Red by its neck with one hand, the other raising a thin white blade shaped like his sword.

The world would never know whether it would have been enough to sever the Dream's neck.

A tiny black dot slammed into the back of Eren's hand.

Even with all the power Rias could give it, the attack barely damaged Eren as he was now.

It just blew a few fingers off his hand that were quickly healed, and the dropped blade dissolved.

It seemed to startle Eren, though.

Almost by instinct, the Titan turned to look at the direction of the attack.

Even from this distance, Rias saw green eyes searching, roving the battlefield for his enemy.

But Eren couldn't see her from beyond the Wall.

Rias realized what she had done before it happened.

Saw it the coiling of Great Red's neck.

Understood it in Eren's moment of inattention.

Dreaded it as the Dream twisted its draconic maw to bite into an exposed weakness.

Great Red bit into the back of Eren's neck, tearing the spine from his body in a bloody chunk and swallowing it with a meaty gulp.

Eren's body fell, and the world shook with its collapse.

Great Red roared.

Rias closed her eyes.

Devils, fallen, and angels all began to cheer.

Rias shook with grief yet did not cry.

She had decided to live with whatever the consequences were when she chose this path.

Rias never wanted Eren dead. Never forgot that he still owed her an answer.

Never forgot that Eren was every part of her dream as any of her Peerage.

Yet the path of freedom is paved in corpses.

Determination warred with a sense of loss as devils, fallen, and angels all began to cheer.

"DON'T!!!"

The voice was loud but not loud enough to be heard over the cheering and across the vast battlefield.

"THE TITANS!!!"

A few people heard the words of the woman with the red scarf.

"THEY'RE STILL HERE!!"

Some even prepared to continue the battle with the white giants without her warning, not understanding the implications of their continued presence.

"HE'S NOT DEAD!!"

Only a few people heard her.

But everyone saw the titanic left arm burst from Great Red's roaring maw.

An enormous shower of blood, bone, scales and fangs rained down on the psychedelic ground.

Great Red's body began to bulge and contort as if ready to explode any second.

Those with better eyesight noticed no light in the Dream's massive eyes.

Just the vacant void of an empty body.

Another white arm burst from Great Red's shoulder, where long serpentine neck met bone, showering the area with more gore and red scales with its eruption.

A Titan's hand grasped the opening and rent as if to pull itself free from the corpse.

And that was when a devil appeared with a laugh on that titanic hand.

********

It's always been a point of fascination for me how difficult yet easy Titans are to kill. So long as the correct part of the spine is severed, they drop dead, even if every other part of their body is perfectly intact. On the other hand, if that one-meter-long, ten-centimeter-wide part of their body remains intact, they will regenerate from literally anything, given enough time and sunlight.

Take Rod Reiss, for example. His Titan was absolutely huge, bigger than even a Colossal Titan. Half his body was just gone for the entire time he crawled toward the wall. Then, he had his head and neck exploded by barrels of gunpowder. Yet, he still would have lived and regenerated if Historia hadn't cut the chunk that contained that part of his spine. Whether you believe she knew where to cut because of luck, remnants of her bloodline, or Future Eren pointing her in the right direction, it is still amazing what sort of damage he would have caused if he had regenerated behind enemy lines.

About this chapter: It's a culmination of a lot of threads. I could have made each of these four parts their own chapters, but it would be wrong to draw them out for pacing reasons and because most of the work on these characters was done before this chapter. I don't think any of this is a surprise, but I wanted them to have a sort of closure.

This isn't the end of the story just yet, and we still have a few more twists and turns on our Path before it concludes, so I will see you all on Sunday on the bench.
PS: Big shoutout to Orangemaster, who wrote a follow-up to their previous Omake, and Netra for their own, now semi-canon, Omake. Both are readable on Spacebattles under the Apocrypha tab, but I would like to publish them on the other websites I post to, with their permission, when OTB is done.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[A.O]

Thanks for the chapter! See you on the bench.

 

[GAMB42]

Well. Looks like Ophis got her wish. The Dream is no more. Damn. What a way to go.

 

[Spearow]

you recreated Eren's first transformation as his last transformation.
cool

 

[Drasizard]

At this point my thoughts are Fuck Eren and all his dreams.

How many are dead just to break the old system and for what?

Kill Big Red because of a promise? Dude did nothing to him or his.

The supernatural world is far weaker after his rampage. Issei is their only hope against what's coming next and that's not a guarantee when the world of ExE attacks. He gift wrapped this world for Regalzeva.

If there's any justice he'd be forced to see just what state he leaves things after he dies. Just how vulnerable he leaves the world and his loved ones to the consequences of his actions. And powerless to save them. Then shown the world he never existed in how much better they're all off.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Fantastic chapter! I really felt for Mikasa, I'm glad that even if it ends up being for only a little while that she got to experience the relief of not having the burden of killing Eren on her shoulders. Rias has such an interesting perspective due to her feelings on Eren, and at the end when she thought about how "the path to freedom is paved in corpses" she sounded just like Eren, she truly has inherited his will even if she doesn't realize it herself. Eren's fight with Great Red has been so awesome, and if that is how the Dream dies, I think it would at least be happy it was a really cool death. See you Sunday on the bench.

 

[ScriptGenius12]

Sin From Genesis Intensifies

 

[zharshoul]

Eren ends up being a perpetual reincarnating Cancer that appears in different worlds to "liberate" them whether they need it/want it or not.

Its 100 burning worlds later and he still can't figure out why he has shitty childhoods everytime or why he is always cursed with foresight.

It must mean hes not trying hard enough and decides to go "Full liberation" on a multiverse/galactic scale ala Thanos.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

Cao Cao stared into his drink, paying no attention to the noise behind him.

His comrades were never quiet, except for Georg, of course, and their new... boss had stirred them up.

Deliberately, Cao Cao could see that now.

He'd provoked them by showing up with a descendent of Lucifer, a holy sword wielder, a witch, Kuroka the Black Cat, and a yokai. A more provocative group Cao Cao couldn't imagine.

Then Eren went and declared himself their new leader and essentially challenged the Hero Faction by himself.

Said Hero Faction was now busy pestering his team of devils and Yokai about what on earth had just happened.

The one with the most information was the three-tailed nekomata, the infamous Kuroka, but she was deliberately coy.

Jeanne was having more success with the small witch, but her brother was hovering around her protectively.

Cao Cao would get any actual pertinent information from Georg or Sieg later.

Right now, he faced a choice.

Should he go along with this... Eren Yeager or pretend to do so while undermining him and searching for a weakness.

Yeager was human but surrounded himself with monsters. Yokai and devils.

He was strong, but how much was... debatable.

If Cao Cao believed the absurd claim that Eren could see the future, he could be a game changer. Just what his budding faction needed to really achieve their goals.

But if he believed that, Cao Cao would have to accept the young teen's words.

Cao Cao couldn't move, trapped in the grasp of the enormous being.

His spear, the True Longinus, was stabbed into its eye, yet it didn't have any effect it would usually have on devils or other inhuman beings.

Around the created battlefield, his comrades lay just as defeated as himself.

Herc was trapped in a sphere of white material, continuous explosions ringing out fruitlessly.

Jeanne was trapped in this giant's other hand, her sword trying to carve through its giant fingers without success.

Sieg was suspended in the air, every one of his eight limbs held in place by more of that white material like a spider trapped in a web.

Only Georg hadn't participated in this battle, though he was the one keeping this battlefield around.

And, right in front of Cao Cao, the giant lowered its head, exposing the back of its neck to the reincarnated hero.

There was a release of steam, and the boy emerged, tendrils of flesh still connecting him to the monster that had crushed the budding Hero Faction.

Eren Yeager reached out a hand, and another white tendril dropped the True Longinus into it.

"I've proved my point." That empty, dead voice. As if nothing he had done truly mattered. As if he had no life. "If I wanted you all dead, I'd kill you now."

Cao Cao's eyes were on his Sacred Gear.

It had no reaction to being held by the boy, his enemy.

Eren twirled the ornate spear casually as if he wasn't holding the strongest Sacred Gear.

Then he grasped it right under its tip and held out its shaft to Cao Cao.

"In every future, without my intervention, you fail to achieve anything significant," Eren said simply, holding out the spear and ignoring the blood dripping from his hand that steamed as it met the air. "You cause an incident. You attack someone important. You sometimes kill them. But that is it. A footnote in history. You aren't remembered as heroes. In most timelines, the Hero Faction is not remembered at all."

Cao Cao grasped the handle.

"With me," Eren said, empty silver eyes boring into Cao Cao's. "Every devil, angel, monster, or mage will remember you. You will carve your name into history. Humanity will know the Hero Faction as-"

"When I was a boy, I wanted to be a hero."

Cao Cao's thoughts were interrupted by their subject.

Eren wandered over casually, empty grey eyes staring out over the horizon.

"You are a boy," Cao Cao responded blandly.

"In my last life. In my last world." Eren stepped up beside Cao Cao, leaning against the railing that came up to his shoulders. "Humanity was beset by monsters. I wanted to kill them all. I did kill them all."

"Yet you are with monsters now."

"What I realized," Eren continued as if uninterrupted. "Is that humanity are the monsters. If I wanted to kill all of them, I'd need to kill every human. This world might have other races, but that has not changed. There is no such thing as a hero, just a well-known killer. People give 'heroes' on their side glory and 'heroes' on the other are monsters. Murderers."

"Humanity needs heroes," Cao Cao disagreed. "We need examples. We need ideals. We need people to point to and say, 'They did that! I can, too!' That's what it means to be a hero."

"Humanity needs nothing," Eren shook his head. "People do not unite behind heroes. People do not unite to fight monsters. A common enemy does not make a common cause. Humanity could face its doom, and they'd still tear each other to pieces. Still pull their comrades down just so they won't die alone. I saw it in my old world. I saw it in this one. Nothing has changed, and nothing will change, whether they have heroes or not."

"If that is what you believe, why are you here? The Hero Faction was created to fight for humanity," Cao Cao glared down at the boy. "To kill monsters. To prove that we won't be pieces in their games."

"I have seen every horror you can imagine," Eren said in that empty voice. "Theft. Betrayal. Rape. Murder. Genocide. By humans and against humans. I have been the victim and aggressor. I've killed more people, more of humanity than any monster you can name. And I did it all while being human myself."

Eren turned and looked at Cao Cao, his empty voice ringing out hollowly.

"I have seen countless ways this world can end. Some by gods. Devils. Things you can't imagine. Or by humans themselves. It doesn't matter what does it in the end," Eren shook his head. "In every one, humanity plays a role in its own doom."

For the first time, looking into those empty eyes, Cao Cao believed the boy could see the future.

That he had lived countless lifetimes in futures that would never be.

"Being a hero for humanity means being a hero for monsters. For devils. For gods. Because they exist here. They will be inspired by you, just as every human," Eren said bluntly. "Forget humanity. It is a meaningless concept. Just focus on being a hero."

"I won't forget it," Cao Cao rejected. "And you didn't tell me why you're here. You can see the future. You should know that is not something I will agree to do."

"You will agree. I am here because I need the Hero Faction, and you need me," Eren met Cao Cao's glare with the eyes of a man looking at a corpse. "You will do what I say when I say it. You will kill who I tell you to. You will die when I tell you to. You will work alongside the monsters you hate so much. You will even save some of them."

"And in return?" Cao Cao demanded. "What can you offer me that is worth selling my soul?"

"I will accomplish your goal. I will ensure this world knows how strong a 'human' can be. Never again will they underestimate our potential. I will turn you from a victim of this cruel world into the aggressor that shapes it, a 'hero.' Every wielder of the True Longinus after you will know 'Cao Cao, the human who killed a god.'"

"A human killing a god?" Cao Cao tasted the words on his lips, hiding the rampant desire in his heart.

He wanted that.

He wanted that so much.

But...

"You are asking us to die for you. I will not sacrifice my comrades for that. I can... We can kill a god without your help."

"No. You can't. No Longinus, not even the first and strongest, has ever killed a god." Eren's empty eyes pinned the older man in place. "You won't just kill a god. With me, you'll kill one of the Top Ten."

Cao Cao's rampant heart froze.

That... that was more than he ever dreamed of being possible in his life.

"I cannot force anyone to follow me except with the threat of violence," Eren continued as if he hadn't just uttered something positively absurd. "But you will anyway. Some people just can't stop themselves from moving forward, from fighting. I'll ask a simple question instead of trying to convince you anymore. How do you want to die?"

When Cao Cao set out to create this gathering of heroes, he knew that he was setting himself up for death. A hero gave everything they had for their dream.

If they were still alive, they still had more to give.

Heroes never live long, happy lives.

Cao Cao looked back toward the horizon.

And made a decision.

"I want to see the peak. I want to die having witnessed humanity's greatest potential. I want to die a hero who will inspire others to chase that peak."

"There is no peak," Eren said simply. "Just another horizon, another mountain. Another wall to tear down or another ocean to cross. That's the bitter truth of the world, of all worlds. There will always be more enemies. You will never be free of them."

It would have been easy for the boy to lie and claim getting Cao Cao in a position to kill one of the Top Ten was the farthest humanity could go. Already, that was well beyond what anyone else in the world thought a human was capable of.

But he didn't.

Eren Yeager simply showed Cao Cao a peak he never even knew existed.

"But I can give you this promise," the Devil promised the Hero. "You will live long enough to see a human kill the Dream."

That was when Cao Cao decided to follow the boy toward the end of whatever Path he was walking.

********

"Was this what you saw in his mind?" Hades asked Indra casually, not taking his eyes off the projected image of the battle.

Even from so far away, they could still feel the vibrations of the earthquakes caused by Eren's struggle with Great Red.

There was also the small matter of the sun going out and the weather shifting every few seconds, but they were gods of such a high order that such things didn't concern them.

"More or less," Indra replied, his tone less casual.

Unlike his viewing partner, who watched without a blink or a twitch, Indra's gaze was not locked on the battle between man and dragon but rather between the hero and devil kings.

Cao Cao should be dead.

It was the simple, unavoidable truth.

The once handsome and heroic figure was now in a pitiable, wretched state.

Half his scalp had been shorn off by a blast of Destruction dodged too late. What remained of his hair was a matted mess of blood, and the rest of his face wasn't much better.

His left arm was useless, a limp black lump of flesh from the necrosis of frostbite.

All his clothes had been torn, destroyed, burnt, or shattered. Nothing remained to preserve his modesty, allowing any observer to see his countless wounds that wept blood or puss.

All that was damning enough already. Lacking Eren's regeneration ability, Cao Cao would inevitably succumb to his wounds and die unless treated by something equivalent or greater to Twilight Healing.

But it was the fracture, zigzag patterns of white gold that covered the hero's flesh that would be his real doom, healing or not.

Like a broken piece of porcelain, held together by molten gold yet liable to shatter any second, Cao Cao stood against his foes with the aid of his spear.

He should be dead.

Not only was he facing the four Satans, each powerful in their own right and used to working together as a team, but they were not holding back.

Serafall had shed any pretense of the jovial Magical Girl she was once and, in her place, was just the cold killer of the devil Civil War.

Falbium barely moved, yet neither did his Absolute Defence, acting as a bulwark for his allies against a weapon designed to kill them.

Adjuka's Kankura Formula rotated around the devil, a mass of complex mathematical spellwork that allowed him to manipulate magic to a degree never seen before. No spell would ever be able to act against his will.

And then there was the monster.

The Crimson Devil.

Sirzechs Lucifer was an... abomination.

Something this world should not have birthed and should have removed as soon as possible.

He stood there, no longer a man or devil but a void.

A blight on reality.

Sirzechs' true form was nothing more than a mass of destruction, so powerful and overwhelming that even Hades had regarded the devil with apprehension witnessing this form.

Just changing into this... violation had caused an earthquake that equalled any one Eren and Great Red conjured.

Facing and surviving against any one of these four would be an accomplishment for anyone in the world.

Facing all four should have been suicide.

Cao Cao should be dead.

But he wasn't. Not yet.

Because, like his namesake, the hero's greatest weapon was not the one a dead God gifted to him at birth but the strategic mind of a mortal.

He'd set up everything he could to ensure he had every advantage. He didn't use spells, just his spear and body. Both were anathema to devils, meaning they couldn't get close enough to hurt him.

Cao Cao did everything he could throughout the battle to lock down his opponents.

Sirzechs' power was great, yes, but it was also uncontrolled. He was Destruction, but in this form, he lacked the control he had trained centuries to attain.

If he attacked with anything less than the greatest care, if he so much as moved, he risked killing his comrades as much as his enemy.

Yet he had been forced to take this form.

Cao Cao was definitely wretched and pitiful, but he wasn't the only one injured.

Serafall's left leg had been replaced with one of ice. True Longinus had nicked her ankle, and she had to sever the limb before the Light spread to the rest of her body.

Across Ajuka's face was a seared hand print, burned so deeply into his flesh that one could see the swirls of a fingerprint. Cao Cao had grabbed him by the skull, ready to run him through in the moment of surprise following the unveiling of his Balance Breaker.

His touch alone, from a body so sanctified by the Holy Grail, was enough to wound the Super Devil.

Only Sirzechs's quick movement had saved his friend's life.

He'd managed to unleash a bolt of destruction close enough to Cao Cao to carve out that chunk of skull, but it had also left him open to a slash from the True Longinus against his chest.

To stay alive, he'd been forced to convert his flesh into Destruction as Falbium sent the human back.

Ever since that exchange, there was an almost deadlock.

No longer surprised by the esoteric abilities of the True Longinus' unique Balance Breaker, the Satans hadn't allowed Cao Cao to gain another opportunity like that again.

Both had reason to want to break this equilibrium as soon as possible.

Cao Cao because more white gold cracks crawled across his flesh every second that passed. A countdown to his death.

The Satans because they could see their home, their friends, and their family under attack. Just being in proximity to Great Red, or an equivalent being was counted as a death sentence, and every breath spent on this fight was one where someone they loved could die without their protection.

Yet victory remained distant for both sides.

Cao Cao would rush in, either physically or with an ability from his Balance Breaker, only to be fought off by the conjoined effort of the Satans before he could do any damage.

Similarly, the Satans would rain down attacks or lay out a trap, but Cao Cao's greater mobility would allow him to evade.

Something needed to change.

And it was from the battle so far away that the change came from.

"Pigeons and crows," Hades grumbled with the sound of rattling bones at the sight of the angels and fallen coming to aid the devils in defending the Crimson World Wall. "I suppose it doesn't matter. They're just closer to the Titan now. Let them join the bats in making my Underworld their grave."

Indra didn't say anything, didn't even look at the battle that would define an era, and just kept watching Cao Cao.

Hearing the God of the Dead's words, almost all attention had briefly shifted to the image of the battle near Lilith.

Almost.

Adjuka had used the opening to blast a spell from Cao Cao's back.

The hero dodged out of the way with a sidestep, but the spell bounced as if hitting a wall and followed him.

With narrowed eyes, Cao Cao wove out of the way as the spell bounced in jerky, angular motions.

His eyes widened when he realized what was happening, and he touched one of the seven orbs that surrounded him, his Balance Breaker.

Immediately, Cao Cao reappeared a distance away as the bouncing spell formed a magical formula.

Whatever it meant to do, it would have been nasty based on how everything within it seemed to... invert.

Not that the hero was safe. No sooner had he reappeared did a blast of Destruction carve its way toward him faster than he could blink.

Another of his Seven Treasure Orbs put itself between it and himself, sending the attack toward Adjuka.

Falbium appeared beside his friend, his defence up and deflecting the attack away from the battle.

It flew off, destroying a mountain in the distance, as the battle paused again, each side eyeing the other warily.

Then Cao Cao seemed to relax, leaving his stance and leaning against his spear for support.

His smile was one of pride, achievement, and joy.

"I don't suppose you're giving up," Serafall asked with a tight smile. "This battle is pointless. If that bitch Gabriel ends up saving So-tan before I can, I'll join the Brigade myself."

"I'm afraid the Brigade is done," Cao Cao laughed. Blood dribbled from his lips. "After today, the surviving factions will fragment and go their own way. If you want to coral them, go ahead. But you are not Eren Yeager."

"Your blind faith in the man has led you to your death," Adjuka pointed out, his formula spinning. He was undoubtedly using the brief respite to set up some fiendishly complex trap.

It didn't matter to Cao Cao.

Nothing about this battle mattered now.

Not when he'd already won.

The fighting... it had just been trying to get extra, really. The desire to see if a human could face all the Satans at once had been too much for him to resist, and it suited his goal of buying time.

Cao Cao had always known how to end this battle.

"I chose to die here," Cao Cao's head lilted to one side as if listening to something they couldn't hear. "Eren never made us heroes. We chose that. We chose the fight, knowing it would kill us. And we chose to follow Eren. We haven't regretted it once."

"Your loyalty is admirable but futile," Falbium said grimly. "The Dream will kill him. Not even Ophis, at their peak, could best Great Red. He overeached."

"Messed up your little slave state, didn't he?" Cao Cao laughed, coughing more blood.

Another crack of molten gold snaked along his face.

"We were already planning on releasing fewer Evil Pieces," Serafall smirked, twirling her pink wand casually. "It was part of the Peace Treaty. We already had the Brave Saint cards for most high-level angels made before the Kuoh meeting. Rating Games won't even disappear, as we planned to include other races in them now that we have peace. Face it. Eren's Rumbling failed to accomplish anything truly significant."

They all knew the Leviathan was generalizing quite a bit. Even if nothing else, the death toll of so many devils, particularly those from Pillar houses or Ultimate class, would be a massive blow to the devils.

It was good they had a peace treaty now because if this had happened even a few years ago, there was no doubt every other faction would have pilled on the devils. Extinction might have been unlikely, but there was every risk they would have been returned to post-Civil War numbers.

Even with the treaty, there was no certainty that other factions wouldn't pounce on the weakened devils.

Still, there was some truth to the fact that Eren's new Rumbling was nowhere comparable to his first world.

Of course, of the people there, only Serafall knew what the Rumbling was, and everyone else just thought it was a name the Magical Girl gave the assault on the Underworld.

"You don't get it," Cao Cao shook his head, pretending not to notice the icy mist covering the ground as they talked.

Or the magical circle the mist covered.

Or the fact that Falbium was preparing a veritable fortress of defences.

Or that Sirzechs Lucifer had not said a single word.

Instead, the hero leaned on his spear as if holding himself up was too much effort.

Around him, the seven treasured orbs of his Balance Breaker faded with the halo of Light that accompanied them.

Cao Cao was left standing there, naked, bloody, exhausted, and defenceless, as his body destroyed itself from the inside.

Yet, for all the blood on his lips or the gold cracks running through them, Cao Cao's smile was pure happiness.

"Eren."

Hades sat forward, attention riveted on seeing the Crimson Wall falling and the Black Rain.

"He'll deny it."

The mist crystalized, trapping Cao Cao's legs. He could no longer run.

Eren looked ready to finally kill the Dream when a ball of destruction tore through his hand.

"He'll fight it."

Having lost his Balance Breaker, Cao Cao could not teleport away as an enormous binding spell locked space itself in place.

Great Red lunged, tearing into the Titan's neck.

"But Eren's a hero."

Great Red roared.

Falbium finished his defences.

All this effort just to allow their friend the opportunity to fight.

Sirzechs moved through frozen space, his every twitch destroying the spell Adjuka was using to reduce the collateral. The abomination's very presence shook the air, tearing at Falbium's defences.

Indra casually set up a barrier separating himself from the battle, protecting Hades in the process from the twisting and writhing form of Destruction.

With the greatest of care, Sirzechs Lucifer unleashed the attack that won the Civil War.

What Rias' Gremory's Black Rain was based on.

Ruin, the Extinct.

An entire lifetime dedicated to the ultimate concept of 'Elimination' took the form of countless bullets swirling around, encompassing Cao Cao in a hailstorm of Destruction.

"Because a hero always wins."

A white arm erupted from Great Red's maw.

Hades let out a noise of begrudging admiration.

And the world... glitched.

Something happened.

Everyone knew that.

Everyone could tell that something had happened.

But the how?

The why?

The what?

Nobody could understand.

Because miracles could not be understood.

All they knew was that the battle between Satans and Hero was fundamentally changed.

Cao Cao now stood outside the frozen, space-locked area, and the Satans were inside, under attack from countless bullets of Destruction.

The hero's eyes were not on the devil kings scrambling for their lives.

His eyes, like those of the God of the Dead, were glued to the sight of a human killing the Dream.

And he began to chant.

O Spear,

Adjuka hadn't taken more than a moment to dismantle his spell and realize what was happening.

As Sirzechs struggled to reign in his power to not kill his friends, Adjuka threw his into protecting them, even as a bullet of Destruction carved off his arm.

The true Holy Spear which pierces God.

Serafall and Falbium joined Adjuka only moments later, also understanding the danger they were in.

If Divine Dividing and Boosted Gear had something like Juggernaught Drive, why wouldn't the greatest Sacred Gear in existence?

Even without a being locked into the Gear, was there any doubt that God would have let the greatest weapon He gifted humanity be surpassed?

Take the ambition sleeping within this Hero's heart.

Truth Idea.

The lingering will of a dead God left behind in his Creation. An imprint. A memory.

A judge.

Pierce through the gap of Blessings and Curses.

If the holder's heart and ambitions were worthy, the Longinus would give the mortal the greatest blessings.

A miracle.

It could come in any form. Absolute power to annihilate their opponent or a blessing that could capture their enemy's hearts.

I shall declare the Will, and with my last breath,

The pinnacle of Sacred Gears and the system left behind by their creator.

And, with a body reinforced by the Holy Grail, Cao Cao used it twice.

Once to change the world to get him in position.

Once to allow a mere human to kill one of the Top Ten.

Blossom into a field of Glory.

...

Indra was the only one who saw it all, from start to end.

The reversal of the situation.

The scrambling of the devils to block an attack they knew they couldn't in the vain hope that at least one of their friends would survive.

The man and the spear. Both glowing with a faint, holy light. Not blinding, but sharp. Deadly.

The smile on the Hero's face was proud and peaceful as he entered the most basic weapon forms a human could learn. One taught even to the most common of unskilled peasants.

Indra saw the spear thrust.

There was so much distance between the spear tip and the target, enough that even the Longinus' extension would not have reached.

It didn't matter.

It wouldn't be a miracle if it made sense.

Cao Cao thrust.

And Hades died.

The God of the Dead never even noticed his own death, too enraptured by the sight of the end of the Dream.

Cao Cao noticed his death, but he greeted it with a smile.

He'd chosen his end and accomplished everything he needed to do.

...

Amidst the battlefield filled with corpses of the divine and draconic, Herc lay prone, staring up at the sky. He smiled as he activated his sub-species Balance Breaker of Variant Detonation. It allowed him to set off an explosion equal to any he'd witnessed.

An explosion equal to those Eren unleased rang through the battlefield between Ahriman and Angra Mainyu.

What was left after that... the mist took back.

...

Jeanne held the Holy Grail high as her blood pooled in its depths, joining that of every other hero she had led today.

When she died upon Mt Olympus, her spirit continued to lead those of her comrades with a smile.

After all, it wasn't like the Reapers would be around to claim them as a mist ferried the Grail and the bodies away.

...

Siegfried stood victorious, only Gram still in his hands as he stood over a swordless Arthur Pendragon. His smile was peaceful. Content. As if a long-held wish had finally been fulfilled.

And, when Arthur struggled to his feet from his injuries to tend to his wounded lover and father, he left the hero standing.

Sieg's victory had been earned at the price of his lifeforce, and Arthur would allow his one-time rival this dignity as the mist claimed one more.

...

Like all his comrades, his friends, Cao Cao died with a smile on his lips.

Never seeing the devil land on the Titan's hand as a familiar mist took the Hero to a place where he could finally rest.

Indra watched it all, a witness to the end of an era.

And the beginning of a new one.

********

Apologies for the lateness of this one and its less-than-usual polish. I still haven't built back my buffer chapter, and some IRL stuff came up.

This is a bit of a tease, but I am structuring this in a way that allows people to understand character motivations and cause and effect. The Hero Faction hasn't gotten a lot of screen time, but what they did, I wanted to be meaningful.

I am sure this one will be divisive like the other chapters in this 'Part 4, Part 2'. For the moment, I can only say that the next ones will be as well.

About the chapter: I don't want to say much, just that Truth Idea is as broken as anything else in DxD. It's basically an 'I win' button left entirely at the author's discretion. Don't want to solve the current issue directly? Just make it not come into effect and blame it on the 'remnant will of God.' Want a plausible reason why Mook 3 could suddenly face off against the armies of Trihexa? 'God willed it so through his magic spear.'

If I didn't know any better, I'd assume Ishibumi self-inserted himself as a dead God. That's not to say I don't like Truth Idea. I, in fact, love it because, as a fanfiction writer, I can also use it on my whim. It also has some really... interesting implications.

That's all for now, I'll see you all on Friday on the bench.

 

[GAMB42]

Damn, but the Satan's gonna be pissed and completely demoralized after this. To say they were schooled is absolutely an understatement. Though I am honestly curious why take down Hades specifically? The dude did not seem that bad in canon relative to what else was on display. He did not seem particularly Anti-human either.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[zharshoul]

Where is the part where a "human" kills a god? I mean I can set up my cat to walk over a button to fire a gun, but he didn't kill people, the people that forged the gun/bullets and the person that made the trap did. God inside the spear killed Hades here, nothing humans did is responsible for killing Hades. Likely any other spear, least of all a human forged one, with human available materials wouldn't have killed him.

If wielding stolen/assimilated power via sacred gears and being a titan counts as human why doesn't every other race count as being a human, are turned devils/vampires whatever still human? Is Rias human? She's basically a rich anime girl.

Eren really used everyone

 

[Gwynx]

Nah, I'd win.

 

[AKrYlIcA]

Where is the part where a "human" kills a god? I mean I can set up my cat to walk over a button to fire a gun, but he didn't kill people, the people that forged the gun/bullets and the person that made the trap did. God inside the spear killed Hades here, nothing humans did is responsible for killing Hades. Likely any other spear, least of all a human forged one, with human available materials wouldn't have killed him.

If wielding stolen/assimilated power via sacred gears and being a titan counts as human why doesn't every other race count as being a human, are turned devils/vampires whatever still human? Is Rias human? She's basically a rich anime girl.

Eren really used everyone

Click to shrink...

Divine blood splattered the ground, and the spear glowed with white light.

Loki did not feel anything as he was bathed in the power of the Sacred Gear.

There was no incredible explosion, final words, or monumental event to mark Loki's death.

He just died.

Like a mortal.

For the first time in history, a god died, not to another god but to a human

Click to shrink...

 

[Vanbers]

If I didn't know any better, I'd assume Ishibumi self-inserted himself as a dead God. That's not to say I don't like Truth Idea. I, in fact, love it because, as a fanfiction writer, I can also use it on my whim. It also has some really... interesting implications.

Click to shrink...

I, too, absolutely fucking LOVE Truth Idea, and frankly the True Longinus entirely as a concept. Not as huge a fan of the asspull orbs, but Truth Idea, I love.

Every Longinus tier Sacred Gear has some kind of special power, some bullshit ability, but True Longinus's special, unique effect is literally staring down absolute, certain, unstoppable and unblockable DEATH and saying "Sorry fam, God said no". It's literally going "Nuh uh!" on the playground in response to everyone's ridiculous OP powers. It's fantastic.

Anyways, in most fics Cao Cao is lame as hell, but he's kind of a baller here, I like it. Kinda gives Floch vibes, which is great.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Awesome chapter! Cao Cao and the rest of the Hero faction all died some real heroic deaths; I can imagine that they will all become quite the legends. Also, great job making Cao Cao a noble and heroic figure that I could honestly cheer for, as I don't believe I have ever seen his character depicted as such. It will be interesting to see how the Satans handle this defeat and what they decide to do next. See you Friday on the bench.

 

[TheTinyGrayDog]

You know, I wonder what Is going through the Satan's heads right now.
I mean, Truth Idea seems like an ability one can only pull out as a last ditch (I am facing death and the embodiment of all that I hate in this world...so I am going to die Destroying It) move.
Facing that and only surviving because your enemy decided to change targets would probably make you rethink your life.
If you lived a life where it led to having to face a move like that then maybe you're not as good of a person you think you are.
Or maybe I am overthinking it. XD Thanks for the chapter ReadingDangerously I'm looking forward to Friday!

 

[ReadingDangerously]

Life was pointless.

Pointless and dull.

There was just... nothing of interest, nothing of worth.

Like a discarded doll, Rizevim Levim Lucifer lounged in a world of grey monotony.

How long had it been since he left his seat? Months? Years? Decades? Maybe even a century.

It didn't matter. Nothing did.

What was there to do, really? There was nothing new. Nothing interesting.

Rizevim hadn't experimented with his mother for a few years and still hadn't been able to create more Super Devils. He could return to that, he supposed.

Not that he had any real plan for them. It was just something to do.

An idle curiosity that soon waned as decades passed with no success.

...Were the servants keeping her alive? They should be. They fed him regularly, so they should still attend his projects.

...Did his last experiment leave her with a mouth?... Eh, it didn't matter. Nothing did.

The world was just too... dull.

His race was focused on rebuilding after their little Civil War, which bored him. Rating Games were just... empty. Not engaging in the least without the threat of death.

Not even the angels and fallen were any fun anymore, content to sit back and mope without their precious 'father.'

When was the last time something had stirred his interest?

...Probably when his servants mentioned something about a big war. But then it turned out to be between humans, so Rizevim ignored it as inconsequential.

He was proven right when they repeated it a few decades later.

Humans were just so... predictable.

That was their greatest failing in Rizevim's eyes. Their short lives meant they kept repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Their weakness could be excused if they weren't so dull.

So, even as the world changed around him, Rizevim Lucifer languished in boredom.

No matter how much those pathetic devils from the 'Old Satan' faction asked, he never left his reclusive mansion.

His servants were non-entities who had learned quickly that trying to 'entertain' their master was a dangerous and fatal endeavour. It was better to let him languish and cash their absurdly high paycheck for the easy work.

The only time he ever did anything was on the few occasions he interacted with his descendants.

The lot of them were worthless, but at least they could alleviate the drudgery. Sometimes.

Rizevim had let out a laugh when his 'grandson,' a half-devil, ended up with the Divine Dividing. He could appreciate some irony there, so the name Vali Lucifer stuck out a bit compared to the rest of his family, even his father... whatever his name was.

Rizevim couldn't be bothered to try and remember. It wasn't like he was the only decedent Rizevim had killed when he got too annoying. His pathetic wretchedness had ceased to be amusing when the brat had run away from home. Had Rizevim killed the human woman as well?... Probably.

What spark of humour was lost again with the loss of his favourite toys.

So, for years, Rizevim lay like an empty husk in a world of gray.

...

The first splash of colour in his life came when a severed head rolled to his feet, splattering the floor with fresh blood.

It wasn't the head itself that was interesting. Rizevim eyed it boredly, uncaring for the gruesome sight. He could tell that the head had not been severed but torn off by great strength.

Hmmm. Silver hair. That was a Lucifuge, right?

Hadn't seen one of them for a while... well except for that maid the new Lucifer kept as a trophy. If nothing else, that Gremory could appreciate the use of good servants.

The faintest spark of memory stirred in Rizevim as the bloody face, contorted in an expression of agony in death, looked up at him.

Right. This was that maid's... brother? Yeah. Rizevim remembered how funny the look on the Lucifuge's face was when he realized his sister had betrayed the Old Satans during the Civil War.

So he was dead?

Huh.

Rizevim's eyes rose to the person who had thrown the head at his feet and stained his rug.

It was a human. A boy.

The first thing that stuck out to Rizevim wasn't his age, the odd patterns on his face, or that he was accompanied by a three-tailed nekomata, a reincarnated devil.

It was his eyes.

Empty eyes.

Eyes that saw the world for what it was, an empty void of meaning.

Eyes that had ceased to care, that had given up on everything.

Eyes like Rizevim's.

"Are you here to kill me?" Rizevim asked blandly.

It might have been interesting if it was anything other than a human. They had managed to sneak in after all.

But Sacred Gears simply didn't work on him, so Lucifer's son couldn't muster anything but the barest hint of motivation.

"No. I won't kill you. I need your help."

His voice... like his eyes, they were empty.

"Then why the head? Most who want my help usually give me better gifts than an old servant's head."

"You don't care about his death, and it got your attention." The boy wasn't wrong about that, if only for the novelty of the introduction. Then again, how did these two get so close without him noticing? "In most futures, Euclid Lucifuge is an annoyance. I simply got rid of him early since he isn't needed."

Rizevim didn't even bother pretending to acknowledge the name of the dead devil, already forgetting it as the first smear of colour in a long time roused something in him.

"'Futures?'" Rizevim leaned forward. The nekomata shifted uneasily behind the boy as if ready to defend him. "Who are you?"

"My name is Eren Yeager. I am from a world beyond the Dimension Gap. I died there and was reborn in this one."

For the first time in his life, Rizevim's heart skipped a beat.

"Another world?" The devil asked, leaning forward eagerly.

"One without Sacred Gears," the boy, Eren, said.

Then, in a move so fluid it spoke of long familiarity, he raised his hand to his mouth and bit down on the webbing between his thumb and forefinger.

An explosion of steam and force engulfed the room in an instant.

Rizevim didn't move from his seat, just watching the phenomena with interest. The fact that half the room was destroyed was utterly irrelevant to the Super Devil.

The steam dissipated, revealing an enormous skull with numerous sharp, jagged teeth on a too-wide jaw.

Eren stepped out of the giant skull's mouth, flesh steaming as the wound on his hand healed.

That... was not a Sacred Gear. Rizevim could say with absolute certainty that the giant... whatever that was, was not a Sacred Gear.

So, was this boy really from another world?

Was... was there more out there than this dreadful drudgery?

A world, or worlds, that was just beyond the Gap?

Ones less dull than this one?

Ones where Rizevim Levim Lucifer would no longer be subsumed in the endless grey morass?

For the very first time in his life, Rizevim wanted something. Longingly. Desperately.

But he didn't show that on his face.

Instead, he smiled and laughed.

"You're interesting enough to hear out," Rizevim waved his hands casually as if to say 'get on with it.' "What, exactly, do you want my help for? Something about the 'future?'"

"Ever since I've been reborn in this world, I've been able to see the future," Eren nodded sharply. "And I hate it. I need to change it. This world cannot go on like this. I need to use your name to recruit soldiers. I need your knowledge on how to release the seals on Malacoda. And I need your Sacred Gear Canceler."

While the fact the boy knew about the Malabranche was mildly interesting, the real jewel was the tidbit about his clairvoyance.

"If you know the future, you know what I want in exchange."

"I do. I know how to leave this world."

"How?" Rizevim carefully let his voice remain neutral as if it were a mere curiosity. "Or will you keep it a secret until I agree to your deal?"

"I'll tell you," the boy said. "But you'll help me anyway. Because even if you know, you can't get there while it is guarded."

"'Guarded?'"

"The Infinite and the Dream."

Ah. Of course. Other worlds would be beyond the Gap, wouldn't they?

"Then I fail to see what is in it for me if all you are going to give me is useless information."

"Not useless. I will weaken the Infinite and kill the Dream. After that, you won't have any issues getting beyond the Gap. You can take the other eleven Malabranche with you. I only need Malacoda. But to get there, you need to help me."

For the first time, Rizevim felt his eyebrows rise in surprise and was unable to stop them.

This human boy would kill Great Red?

Rizevim couldn't help the laugh of amusement that escaped him then, and he rose to his feet, clapping.

"That sounds like fun. Eren Yeager, right? I haven't heard an ambition like that in centuries. What do you say about becoming a devil? My race has been nothing but a disappointment for so long. I'm sure I can swipe some of those chess pieces."

"No," Eren's face contorted in a grimace. "If I become a devil, I lose my ability to see the future."

Interesting.

"No matter. A devil is a state of mind, not a race." Rizevim said flippantly. "So you want this world? If you kill the Dream, you deserve it. I'll content myself with a bit of a vacation in other worlds."

And if he failed, it would be an interesting diversion from the monotony, if nothing else.

Besides, now that he knew other worlds were out there waiting for him, Rizevim could pursue his own method of reaching them while the brat did whatever he wanted.

Those curious mentions from his father of a Beast from beyond the Gap were at the top of the list.

Supposedly, it had weakened Grandad enough before it was sealed that Pops and the other Satans had been emboldened enough to launch the ambush that killed all five.

Rizevim hadn't pursued that inquiry for the simple fact that he wasn't stupid. Anything that could strip the angel's precious Daddy of his power enough for him to be ambushed wasn't something Rizevim could handle.

But if he had another world to flee to while this one was destroyed... That would be a fitting end to a dull world, wouldn't it?

So the son of the devil shook a human's hand.

It was just a question of which was more devilish than the other.

And whose world would emerge in the end.

********

Rizevim laughed.

It was a laughter of pure, innocent joy.

The laughter of a man whose life, whose very existence had been saved.

It was the laughter of a man trapped in a prison, a cell of grey monotony that had finally been freed.

Eren had really done it. He'd killed Great Red.

A human had killed the Dream.

Magnificent. Wonderful. Stupendous.

Rizevim wasn't going to lie. He'd thought the boy would fail.

It was the Dream!

Killing Great Red...

Even with the ability to see the future, even with Ophis' power, that just shouldn't be possible.

When Eren fell for that little distraction from the Gremory girl, Rizevim had honestly thought that was it. A good showing all together but a bit disappointing.

But when that arm tore out Great Red's throat?

Mwah. Chefs kiss.

Just wonderful. Rizevim hadn't been able to stop himself from applauding the show.

Now, it was just time for the actors to exit the stage and the curtain to fall.

Nobody likes a story that doesn't know when to end after all.

And the finale was just right.

So Rizevim appeared over the corpse of Great Red, on the hand of the Titan that began to pull itself from the bloody remains of the dragon.

As soon as he touched the flesh of the Titan, it was all over.

Rizevim cancelled the one Sacred Gear Eren had used that he could touch.

Rizevim's laughter was just as joyful as before, though the purity was tinted toward a darker joy as the Titan stopped moving.

All Titans stopped moving.

Standing there, atop the body of the Dream and the one who killed it, Rizevim couldn't help the surge of... ecstasy.

This was it. The very climax of this world.

Nothing in this reality would ever be able to top this moment.

Better to destroy it now so the memories would remain pure and find new pleasures in the freedom of other worlds than to waste more time letting the colour bleed from it once more.

There was no hint of grey in this world of red and white.

"You should have a few seconds left before that power tears you apart," Rizevim taunted as the Titan's flesh started to steam, wafts rising to the purple of an Underworld without a sun. "How does it feel? The Grail no longer supporting you? Your own regeneration just prolonging your agony as your body tears itself apart from the power you should have never wielded? I can't imagine it, so you need to tell me."

The Titan was half gone already.

Great Red's corpse, bloating and distending as the Titan wanted to break free, now rested in a pile of blood, bone, and scale, slowly deflating as its titanic contents dissipated.

There was movement, though.

Rizevim's smile widened as a human hand feebly reached for the opening in Great Red's neck, struggling for freedom in a last, desperate attempt to survive.

Rizevim's wings carried him over.

Eren was covered in blood. So much blood.

Not one inch of his skin or hair was any other shade than the deep crimson of Great Red's blood he crawled through as all his power left his body.

His eyes, though...

Rizevim took a deep breath, savouring the moment half a decade in the making.

He couldn't stay long before others came to investigate, but he would enjoy the moment while it lasted.

Then he reached down, grabbed Eren by the hair, and yanked him upward.

The boy tried to resist, to use the strength that had cowed gods and killed the Dream, but all he managed was a helpless flailing as he was held aloft.

His eyes never changed, though.

Eren continued to glare, burning green boring into Rizevim with a hatred and rage that sent a shiver of joy up the devil's spine.

"You know why you lost in our little game?" Rizevim smiled.

Eren spat blood in his face.

Rizevim laughed and started to squeeze, fingers tearing through flesh and bone, digging into Eren's skull.

"Because your clairvoyance? It's a Sacred Gear."

Brain matter squelched as Rizevim continued to squeeze. Eren didn't scream. Didn't utter a sound. Just continued to grit his teeth in rage as he glared at the devil who had bested him.

"You were too careless. Too self-assured in your ability to see the future. You've broadcasted your ability so much that I learned its secrets. Because it's His ability. You have been the first to use it since Him. You have to choose to look into the future. You have to see it with your own eyes. What you don't see, you will never know. What a Sacred Gear can't see you will never know. Me."

Rizevim's other hand reached for the boy's neck, wrapping around it while one hand kept a firm grip on his brain and scalp.

Regeneration was such a curse when you couldn't die, wasn't it?

By now, Eren fully couldn't move.

The blessing of the Grail that had allowed him to handle Ophis' power had long since faded. Without that reinforcement of his flesh, he couldn't move a muscle.

Rizevim could leave him here to die.

Ophis' power was holding him in place, his body unable to handle it. Still, once it ran its course, Eren would die to the Grail's after-effects, his regeneration no longer exceeding the amount of damage the Sephiroth Grail inflicted on him.

Would he start to crack like Cao Cao had been before running off to die to the New Satans? Or would he wither away, helpless to do anything as he remained trapped in an endless cycle of destruction and regeneration?

Rizevim was mildly curious but had long known he wouldn't leave death to chance.

Besides, this was so much more satisfying.

"Your Titans might be from another world, but the ability to see the future? I know it's not. I know who had it last. I know how He died. Weakened. Alone. In a moment of triumph. Because you chose to look for a future where you'd win. Not one where you'd survive."

The Holy Grail appeared over Rizevim's shoulder, where Eren could see it, floating so as not to touch his skin.

Rizevim grinned as realization dawned on the boy.

Rizevim's Sacred Gear Canceler worked on the Gears he touched. There had been no way for him to interact with whatever Gear gave Yeager his Clairvoyance.

Until the boy chose to consume the power of another Gear, one the Lucifer had handled directly.

"Don't worry," Rizevim said patronizingly. "I'll put it to good use. This little cup and I are going to do what you couldn't. We're going to destroy everything. Your memory will be forgotten with this world as it dies, taking your plans, friends, and pet with it."

With those last words ringing in Eren's ears, Rizevim tore his head from his neck in a shower of blood, bone, and flesh, paying careful attention to making sure the spine was severed.

After all, he'd watched the battle the whole time and learned the Titan's weakness, just like everyone else there.

The moment Eren's head was severed, every Titan in the world disappeared.

One moment, they were there.

The next, they were gone, falling to the ground and dissipating into the air like a dream that had never been.

Leaving only a wreck of a battlefield and survivors haunted by a battle they could never forget.

Rizevim savoured the moment like a fine wine, holding Eren's severed head in one hand and dropping the corpse from the other.

...

It was the cry that saved his life.

A cry of so much anguish, rage, grief and loss that it would have torn through the hearts of anyone with an ounce of empathy as it involuntarily escaped from a heartbroken woman's throat at the sight of the severed head of the man she loved.

Again.

Rizevim only had a moment of confused realization. Just a moment to wonder how anyone else could be there.

He hadn't felt any magic or teleportation, and the spells he kept up didn't detect any other distortion in space except those wounds in reality that still lingered from the battle between the Titan and the Dream.

Which meant whoever had cried out had arrived from beyond the battlefield through physical means, relying on pure speed and ability to dodge the hazards from the apocalyptic clash of man and dragon.

That speed... That distance... Even one of the fastest in the world would have had to have left that Wall before Eren tore out Great Red's throat to get there so soon.

Those thoughts were all Rizevim had time to form as he turned, arms raised to defend himself from the attacker, Eren's head still grasped tightly between his fingers.

Mikasa could have killed Rizevim Lucifer right then and there.

Her speed might still have been enough, even though her cry had ruined the surprise.

Her abilities were not Sacred Gear dependent, just the pure physicality she had trained and a hint of Touki that pushed her into the realm of the Ultimate class.

She could have done it.

But...

Seeing Eren die again...

Seeing that head, the source of her nightmares for the last eighty years...

Mikasa could not bring herself to drive her blade through those sightless eyes. Could not cut into the face she had last seen sleeping in a bed with a content smile.

Mikasa's attack shifted minutely to avoid Eren's severed head.

Two copies of Purgatorio were carved through Rizevim.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Rizevim's scream of agony echoed in the now silent Underworld as the arm holding the head went tumbling to the ground with half his right leg, joining Eren's body on the mountain that was Great Red's corpse.

Purgatorio dissipated from Mikasa's hands, destroyed by Sacred Gear Canceler, alerting her to who she was dealing with.

So she pulled out two of her regular enchanted swords and lunged for the devil who had killed Eren, rage and grief warring in her.

Eren... might have needed to die. She might have prepared herself to kill her heart once more, but this... Mikasa had never wanted Eren to suffer.

Rizevim, in excruciating pain, unleashed a spell intent on destroying whoever this woman was.

The loss of his arm was an annoyance, but he could replace it with some of his mother's flesh.

More important was to kill this bitch who had ruined his moment of triumph.

Mikasa twisted out of the way of the spell, the tears in her eyes not hindering her movement for even a heartbeat, as she lunged once more.

Rizevim managed to get a barrier up to save his life again, but the enchanted weapons did not have the same cutting power as the copies of the Sacred Gear. With the benefit of Touki, they still cut deep into the magic but were stopped before they could reach the devil's neck.

For an instant, Rizevim locked eyes with the woman after his throat.

She looked at him with all the rage, hatred, and grief he had hoped to see in Eren's face.

Yet instead of the satisfaction of triumph, all Rizevim could feel as he looked into those eyes was a terrible, gripping fear that overcame the pain and rage from his wound.

If he fought this woman, he'd surely die.

She was a rabid dog, hell-bent on tearing him to pieces. Missing an arm and without a Sacred Gear to nullify, Rizevim had a very real sense of impending death if he fought her.

In his mind, he created a thread of logic for the feeling.

He had already won. He didn't need to remain here. The angels, fallen, and other devils would reach him soon enough if he stayed. They'd help... whoever this woman was.

He didn't need to stay.

Once he finished destroying all the seals with the Grail, the Beast would destroy this world, this woman included, while Rizevim would be away in another world.

So long as he had Lilith, his severed arm didn't matter, so he hadn't truly lost anything. He could create any number of new devils to act as his army. He didn't need Eren's or Great Red's body to unify the remnants of the Brigade.

...There was a thread of logic in Rizevim's thoughts, but they were a simple mask for the truth.

Rizevim Levan Lucifer had never suffered a day in his long life.

He'd fought. He'd killed. He'd even been injured a time or two.

But as the world's first Super Devil, one only born near the end of the Great War, the simple truth was that his centuries of existence had been ones of luxurious drudgery, his every need taken care of by servants and what foes he did have he simply suppressed with his enormous magical power.

Rizevim wasn't a battle maniac or someone with a grand ambition or a dream. His only conviction was in his own superiority.

There was a simple truth that Rizevim could not, would not acknowledge.

No matter how much he thought of himself as the prime example of devilkind or the disdain he held for everyone else, Rizevim Lucifer was no different than any other petty tyrant given power. Just as human as the worst human. He wasn't special.

He was a leech, a parasite on the world that contributed nothing and only sought to satisfy his own sense of arrogance, sadism, and greed.

Confronted for the first time with the genuine threat of death, that the millennia of life he still hadn't lived would be cut off abruptly by this nobody, Rizevim did what all cowards did and came up with excuses.

He could have won. Could have killed Mikasa. His power, even without Sacred Gear Canceller, was nothing to scoff at, firmly in the Satan class. If he had just unleashed everything he had, Rizevim could have killed Mikasa before reinforcements arrived.

He didn't.

Content his justification, Rizevim detonated his shield, sending the terrifying woman away.

He didn't try to attack her again, just casting a spell to create a magic wall between them to block her sight and slow her down.

By the time Mikasa rounded the wall, the teleportation was already underway.

Mikasa lunged, unwilling to let Eren's murderer escape alive.

Her swords passed through where his throat had been only moments before, the faintest hint of blood the only marker of the shallow cut they managed to make on the Super Devil before Rizevim disappeared.

Mikasa had been too slow.

Always too slow.

And, as her eyes filled with tears, she noticed the familiar mist consuming Great Red's corpse.

Mikasa dove.

Every ounce of speed, every drop of Ki.

She used it all to try and reach for the head with blank eyes that stared up at her as if demanding to know why Mikasa was always too late.

Her hands caught nothing but mist as Dimension Lost claimed its final prize.

Still weeping, Mikasa was still staring at her empty hand when Serafall arrived to pull her friend into her embrace.

She wasn't the only one there. Many others had arrived to try and discover what had happened to the Dream and the Titan it had been fighting.

Already, the other Satans were trying to do damage control, trying to discover everything they could about the situation.

It slowly settled onto everyone around then.

They had endured.

They had survived.

They had won.

Yet, there was no satisfaction in the ruins of a broken world, one that would not, could not continue as it had.

Victory tasted like ashes and blood.

********

Hmm. What to say? The reception to the last chapter was much better than I expected, though the confusion is understandable. Hopefully, it will make more sense by the end. I fully expect this chapter to make up for the lack of divisiveness and then some.

As I mentioned a few times, there were still twists and turns to go. Despite all the crumbs I've left, nobody has yet discovered where this Path yet leads. To avoid speaking on it, I'll just say this: Baring those who were with Mikasa when she explained her past, nobody else in this world is familiar with Titans and their powers.

Eren has made it clear his powers are from another world, but their exact mechanics? He only told Kuroka those, and even then kept major parts of it a secret till meeting on the bench. When confronted with something you can't understand, you rationalize. You compare it to something you do. And if the source of that lack of understanding encourages that mistake? Well, you make more mistakes.

They pile up, one on top of the other, each justifying another mistake. Until you have built a tower of false beliefs and assumptions that seem to conform to reality but are based on a fundamental lie.

I'll meet you all on Sunday on the bench.

 

[Amatsumi]

Good end enough I suppose

Im sure some or most would cry of outrage with Rizevim effectively winning despite almost getting punked by Mikasa.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, though I am very curious as to what the twist is. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Cuban Pete]

Thanks for the chapter!

 

[darknessfalls]

Thank you for the great chapter, though I am very curious as to what the twist is. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

Click to shrink...

The twist is that it's not a Sacred Gear iinm.

 

[GAMB42]

Rizevim is about to have a bad time isn't he? With the current state of the devil race and the fact his mother is no longer in play I don't really see him surviving much longer. Dude is just a overgrown child here and a lot of people are going to want his head...

 

[munchingapple]

Yeah fine keeping my thoughts to myself for the most part til I see where this goes with the Eren stuff, but I got to be honest here, it just feels like Mikasa got a little to glazed this chapter with the fact that she could have killed Rizevim and that she scared him, it just might be a fundamental difference in opinion but the fact that Mikasa is this capable here just breaks my suspension of disbelief.

 

[ScriptGenius12]

I'm confused, Eren's future sight and maybe even Titans as a whole were a Sacred Gear this whole time or Rizzy thinks they were?

 

[Destrark]

I'm confused, Eren's future sight and maybe even Titans as a whole were a Sacred Gear this whole time or Rizzy thinks they were?

Click to shrink...

He thinks they were and Eren encouraged that belief to trick him I think.

 

[munchingapple]

Yeah on the Eren side assuming he's fine, prob pulled the good old fashioned "Transfering your consciousness" trick that was used only like once in the original AOT to save himself or something

 

[Kalstorm22]

Awesome chapter! Rizevim was deliciously evil, very well done on writing him, he truly feels like an irredeemable sociopath who is a just a coward at heart. If I understood correctly then I don't think that was the real Eren that Rizevim killed, as it was said that Eren eyes were burning green, Eren's regular eye color is grey, only as a Titan are they green. I think that the real Eren is still alive in Great Reds corpse and what we saw was another Titan in disguise which is why Dimension Lost grabbed the corpse. I wonder if Eren wants Rizevim to release the Beast for some reason or if this was all so Eren could fake his death to get to the bench unbothered, after killing Rizevim probably. I'm excited to see what happens next. See you Sunday on the bench.