chapters 161-165

chapters 161-165

–Kyoto, Earth DxD–

"Very good, Isane. You're up to three consecutive boosts!" Yasaka complimented her faction's newest recruit and her current disciple. Isane Hyoudou turned out to be a very diligent girl...Of course, all her training was because of the girl's dream. She was currently training with the girl in her private courtyard. Her daughter was just inside watching some TV.

"Three boosts is just the start! I won't stop until I become the strongest in the world and have a huge harem full of beautiful women!" Isane declared with a large grin on her face! Half of the grin was because she was blatantly staring at Yasaka's large chest as she said that!

{I apologize for my partner of this generation...} The Red Dragon inside of her gauntlet said. He'd had some lustful hosts throughout the centuries, but none even close to this girl. While Draig could admit she had the motivation and determination to become very strong, he was also sure his terrifying reputation, that he'd built up over the centuries, was going to be utterly ruined by his latest host...

"It's fine, Ddraig." Yasaka was more than used to people blatantly staring at her chest. "Hmmm?" Yasaka turned to the side and felt the magical energy in the air shift.

A second later, a purple portal opened up in the middle of Yasaka's courtyard. Such a phenomenon would have typically set the fox woman on high alert. That is, if she didn't recognize the unmistakable magical signature of Layla coming from the portal. Yasaka smiled when Layla stepped through the portal. She was followed by a teenage human girl and a teenage fox girl who looked like... "Kunou?" Yasaka asked in confusion. The fox girl looked just like her daughter, but slightly older.

The fox girl's eyes lit up upon seeing Yasaka! "Mother! You're really alive! Tis a miracle!" She ran right up to Yasaka and gave her a big hug! Yasaka was taken aback, but just shrugged and hugged the girl back. She had accepted that being with Layla meant weirder things than this would probably happen from time to time.

Yasaka could hear the girl sniffling and crying into her bosom. Yasaka looked at Layla in confusion. "What exactly is going on here? And why are you covered in foul smelling blood?"

Layla rubbed the back of her head. She was covered in quite a bit of that deity's blood...He just wouldn't go down without a fight. Enemies that could regenerate were truly a pain to fight! His blood also wouldn't wash away with any of the basic cleaning spells Heather knew. Layla desperately needed a bath.

"So yeah...that's Kunou...from an alternate universe. In that universe, all the Yokai besides her were wiped out by an evil Red Dragon Emperor. He turned out to be naively following an evil deity impersonating my Biblical Father of that world." Layla explained. She was very aware of how convoluted that explanation sounded.

"Was that deity strong?" Yasaka asked in concern. She knew Layla was now an Ultimate Class, but she still worried. Yasaka didn't think she could survive losing another one of her mates. If she didn't have Kunou, she might have followed after her first one. She was eternally grateful she did however, because she ended up meeting Layla only a few years later!

Layla looked to the side awkwardly. Yeah, that guy was pretty strong. "I was only fighting an avatar, but they had quite a bit of fight in them. Thankfully they weren't ready for my new abilities!" Layla smirked. She then started her explanation of what went down on her latest excursion. "Everything happened like this..."

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–A Few Hours Earlier–

'Faith energy?' I wondered what that was?

[It's energy granted to deities from their believers. It can be used for all sorts of things. Get enough of it, and you can even ascend to Godhood!]

That sounded like a whole conversation I'd prefer to have at a later time.

I shrugged and turned back to Heather and Kunou. I raised an eyebrow at the way Kunou was looking at me. I was growing used to people idolizing me, but Kunou was looking at me like I was a Goddess or something.

Oh...

That's where that faith energy was coming from.

"Damn... You slapped him so hard that half his teeth are gone!" Heather exclaimed. She walked over to the unconscious Red Dragon Emperor and gave him a kick for good measure. "Murderous zealot asshole! That's what you get!"

"Thank you for stopping him and healing me," Kunou said to me. "You were able to beat him so easily, are you a goddess?" Kunou asked with fervor in her voice and eyes sparkling towards me.

"Well, actually–" I started to speak but was cut off by Heather!

"She's better than a goddess! Not only that, but Layla is dating multiple Goddesses AND she's sleeping with Lady Death herself!" Heather proclaimed loudly!

"Amazing!" Kunou exclaimed and looked at me with even more fervor!

→ Faith energy +1!

I gaped at Heather's proclamation, and the girl-who-lived just gave me a cheeky wink in response. I couldn't believe that Heather was choosing now, of all times, to try and prank me!

[You're kind of a goddess at this point if you think about what you can do. You're immortal, extremely powerful, can revive the dead, and travel between universes freely.]

I facepalmed. I could already feel that this situation was going to blow out of proportion somehow!

[I believe in you, Host! ...It probably will, though.]

Kunou clapped her hands together. "Truly, you must be an incredibly powerful Goddess! On top of being incredibly beautiful and having 5 pairs of majestic black wings! They look so much better than the white wings of those horrible Angels!" Kunou spat out with hatred in her voice.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I replied. I then pointed at Issei's body. "If you don't mind, Heather and I are just going to take Issei's Sacred Gear and go–"

Kunou wasn't done ranting though! "The Shinto weren't any better either! My mother prayed to them for aid when the church besieged us and they did nothing to help! They are false Gods as well! I see now that we Yokai should have been praying to you all along!" She declared passionately.

'Uh oh...I think I broke her.' I lamented internally.

[I think watching her entire race die is what broke her... Then you showed up and heroically defeated the one who did it with ease.]

I couldn't disagree. This girl was going to need therapy. All of the therapy...

→ Faith energy +1

XXX

I made my way towards the downed Red Dragon Emperor. It was time to extract his Sacred Gear and get out of this weird reality. I reached into my inventory to grab the Sacred Gear Extractor I had purchased earlier.

Except... It wasn't there!

"What the hell?" I said out loud. "Where is it?" I frantically started searching every metaphorical nook and cranny in my inventory! I couldn't find it!

"Something wrong, Layla?" Heather asked from nearby. She was sitting down, on some steps, next to Kunou and was carefully patting the fox girl on the back. Now that the fighting was over, Kunou had started sobbing quietly.

"The Sacred Gear extractor is missing!" I lamented. "I don't know how!" No one since the Ancient One had been able to mess with my inventory. And that was back when I was a low-leveled noob! It should be impossible now!

[I think I know what happened to it. I think your Sacred Gear...ate it. I'm pretty sure you know which one.]

'What!?' I exclaimed in my head. 'Why would it do that!?'

[Who knows... Try using your Gear on Issei though. See what happens.]

I supposed it couldn't hurt to try. I wasn't quite sure what I was trying, though. I reached down and placed my hand over his torso. I called on my Orb of Anywhere. I willed it to help remove Issei's Sacred Gear. To my surprise, a small purple portal opened up directly on top of his chest. I hesitated for a moment upon seeing it.

[Go for it! Stick your hand into the weird tiny portal! I'm sure you'll be fine...]

With the system's 'encouraging' words, I did just that. I shoved my hand inside the small portal above his torso. My arm sunk about halfway through before my fingers brushed up against something. It wasn't very big, about the size of a tennis ball. I grasped onto it and pulled! I felt a bit of resistance, as if the object I was holding didn't want to go with me. I tugged harder, and it yanked free! I pulled my arm all the way out of the small portal. It quickly faded away once my arm was out.

I looked at the object in my hand, and my eyes widened. It was a glowing green orb, giving off the same draconic signature that Issei had earlier.

"The Boosted Gear. I took it out just like that?" I asked out loud. Issei didn't even wake up. Not only that, but he was still alive as well! Did I now have the ability to remove people's Sacred Gears whenever I wanted to? With no repercussions?

"Is that what we came for, Layla?" Heather stepped away from Kunou and walked over. "That's what a Sacred Gear looks like outside of someone?" Heather asked. "I expected it to be more flashy or magical. It's just a boring glowing green rock."

"Life is often full of disappointments," I said sagely while nodding my head.

Heather deadpanned at me. "Uh huh... Says the incredibly beautiful immortal being blessed with her very own harem. You have a real disappointing life don't you?" Heather added sarcastically.

I had to admit, she got me there.

"Are we leaving now?" Heather asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, we can."

Nearby, Kunou's ears drooped when she heard that. "You're leaving!?" She exclaimed. Her nine tails sagged behind her. "Are you going to leave me behind?"

"The truth is, Kunou, Heather and I aren't from here. We're from another Universe. One that's not quite as messed up as this one. Why don't you come with us?" I offered. "Your mother is still alive in our home universe. There's also an adorable younger version of you."

Kunou's eyes widened, and her tails twitched in excitement when she heard my offer. "A better world where all of my people are still alive and not hunted? Please let me come with you!"

"Of course, you can!" I said before my eyes widened. I quickly stepped in front of both younger girls!

THRUM!

"No one will be going anywhere! I will not let you take my toys from me!" A spiteful voice rang out across the destroyed courtyard.

There was a flash of brilliant golden light from across from us. A familiar figure materialized in front of me. One my memories told me that I hadn't seen in hundreds of years!

My eyes widened...

It was my father. Although...

...Something about him felt off to me. Sure, he looked the same. He was a wise looking older man, with a long white beard and wearing a white toga. But he didn't feel the same. I couldn't sense him at all, actually.

He didn't come alone. There were more golden flashes from all around us. Over a dozen Angels, in their human vessels, appeared nearby as well. The two familiar signatures I was hoping to feel weren't among them. I noticed that Gabriel and Michael weren't here.

My father looked at me with a disturbing smirk on his face. "Look at you! Layla of the Fallen! You're a long way from home, aren't you? I wasn't aware that you had the ability to traverse Universes like I could... It does explain your sudden rise to power, though."

Transverse Universes? I frowned. "And how exactly do you know about me?"

He smiled at me and spread his arms wide. "Why? Because I'm God after all! The Alpha and the Omega! The creator of the universe!" The way he said it left some very sarcastic undertones that all the Angels around us missed.

"That's right!"

"Father is the greatest!"

"She's a Fallen? Let's kill her!"

A few of the Angels circling us started shouting out.

Kunou started trembling when all of the Angel's started shouting at us and letting out bits of their Holy Auras. It wasn't enough to harm me or Heather, but Kunou was feeling it.

I placed my hand gently on her head. Her fox ears were very fluffy and soft. "It'll be ok, Kunou. I bless you with my Light so that you might stand against its twisted counterparts."

Kunou's eyes widened when my Light Energy entered her body. The Angel's around her could no longer affect her with their Aura's. She looked at them all defiantly after that.

"Stop!" Mephisto called out loudly! All the Angels halted in place. They glared hatefully at me, but made no further moves to attack.

"Father?" One of them questioned. They were shocked at how horrible he looked all of a sudden! His skin was melting off of him!

Mephisto laughed. "Yes, I am your father! Tell me, children. Do you all love me?" Mephisto asked.

"Of course we do!"

"We love you, Father!"

"We could never love anyone more!"

All of the Angels stopped to proclaim their love for Mephisto. I was disgusted at their declarations and their sheer stupidity. Mephisto must have gotten rid of all the smarter Angels and just kept around these idiots to entertain himself.

He grinned at me before he spoke again. "Do you all pledge your souls to me?" Mephisto asked all of the Angels.

My eyes widened at his question. I shouted loudly! "Wait you idiots! Don't answer that!"

It was too late, though!

"Of course I do, father!"

"My soul is yours forever!"

"Mine too!" "And Mine!" "Yes. Of course!"

Right after they all pledged their souls, the fake skin over Mephisto's form finally dropped off him completely. Exposed underneath was the avatar of the evil deity. His eyes glowed fiery red, his hair was pitch black, his ears were pointed, and his skin was bright red. He was once again cackling loudly.

"Father?" One of the Angels asked in confusion upon seeing Mephisto's true form. "What has happened to you?"

"I'm not your father you stupid whore! He's been dead for a long time! I've loved having you as my loyal followers though! I'll especially love torturing you all for all eternity now that your souls are mine!"

The dawning horror of realization appeared on all of the Angels' faces. I grimaced as I knew that I couldn't save them at this point. Not without going into Mephisto's domain and actually killing him there.

Until then, their souls would belong to him.

Mephisto waved his clawed hands and all of the human vessels surrounding us slumped to the ground unconscious or dead. White orbs of light started floating above the bodies. They all turned and rushed towards Mephisto. He opened his mouth wide, and over a dozen Angelic souls were sucked down into his stomach!

He let out a loud belch as he licked his lips and grinned wickedly at the three witnesses. "That really hit the spot! And it gave me the boost I'm going to need for this!"

A wave of power erupted out of Mephisto and started blanketing the area in a foul miasma. I countered the miasma by releasing my own Light Energy into the surroundings as well to stave it off.

"He feels so much stronger!" Kunou exclaimed.

I used [Observe] on him again. His level had gone up quite a bit!

[Mephisto - Level 62]

"This world might suppress the strength of beings like myself, in higher realms, but there's always ways to get around that! Devouring the souls of the world's inhabitants is the simplest method!" Mephisto bragged as he started walking towards my group. He soon became wreathed in fire, and the ground beneath him started to boil everywhere he stepped.

XXX

"You got this right, Layla?" Heather asked in trepidation. "I've never felt someone so incredibly powerful! It's like standing in front of Voldemort times 100."

I patted Heather on the shoulder reassuringly. "Yeah, I've got this." I started walking towards Mephisto, who was slowly walking towards me as well. I willed my eyes to shift for the first time to the Rinnegan. My vision didn't change, but I immediately felt more powerful. I also instinctively felt multiple new abilities that I knew I could perform.

"Those are some creepy looking eyes you have now. I approve! Do they do anything interesting?" Mephisto asked, curiously. He wondered if those were what I fused to myself earlier.

I smirked and pointed my palm towards Mephisto. He raised an eyebrow at me in response. "They sure do! Almighty Push!" A wave of invisible force erupted from my palm and slammed into Mephisto, who was not expecting such an attack!

"Gaaah!" He grunted in pain as the force ripped him from the ground and sent him crashing through the nearby shrine. The wood and tiles, already damaged from earlier battle, immediately collapsed on top of him and bruised the evil deity.

"Damn, that was awesome!" I cheered as I inspected my palm. It hardly cost me any MP either. Sending Mephisto flying only cost me 50 MP. It was too bad that such a fun ability had a 5-second cooldown, though.

"Bitch!" Mephisto screamed as the rubble exploded off of him in a shower of flames! He levitated in the air and rocketed forward towards me! A sword of Hellfire appeared in his hands.

My Deva Path was on cooldown, but that didn't mean I couldn't try my other abilities out on him. "Susanoo." I stated calmly.

Mephisto quickly arrived at my location and tried to cleave me in two! His flaming sword was blocked! His attack was stopped by a large rib bone.

A large purple rib cage completely surrounded my entire body. I smirked at him from inside of my makeshift shield. I was finding that Susanoo was far stronger and more cost-effective than my Lightshield was. Plus, it could guard me from all sides at once!

"Fine! If I can't hit you, I'll just kill the two little girls!" Mephisto raced around me and immediately tried to go after Heather and Kunou on the sidelines. What a cowardly tactic...

"I don't think so!" I said. My cooldown ended. "Universal Pull!"

Mephisto made it halfway towards the two frightened girls before he was yanked backwards by another invisible force! He screamed in annoyance when he found he couldn't fight the pull! He couldn't even spin around to face me!

A powerful Lightspear formed in my hand, and I rammed it right through Mephisto's back! "And that's why you don't turn your back to me!" I kicked him in the back and sent him crashing into the dirt with my spear still sticking out of him.

I felt like testing another ability and pointed my arm towards Mephisto once again. He was stumbling in pain and trying to pull the burning spear out of his chest! His eyes widened when my arm transformed into a genuine rocket launcher.

"The fuck!?" Was all he could say before a literal missile slammed into his face! Instead of exploding with rocket fuel, it exploded in a shower of Light Energy! He let out another loud anguished scream as his red face was burned black!

"Holy crap! Are you a cyborg now, Layla!?" Heather exclaimed.

I willed my arm to transform back. That felt really weird. I wasn't sure if I was a fan of that particular Path... It also didn't seem to do that much damage compared to a general Lightspear.

"You fucking, bitch!" Mephisto finally yanked the Lightspear in his chest free and hurled it to the side. The hole in his chest started to close, and his burnt face started to heal as well. "Learn your place!" Mephisto screamed loudly, and then he started to swell up. He went from being around 6 feet tall to 20 in only a few seconds.

"Susanoo!" I called out again. I was glad that I finally had an ability that could counter enemies going supersize on me! I poured in far more MP this time and began to manifest the full skeleton!

"What!?" Mephisto exclaimed as a towering 30-foot-tall purple skeleton manifested in front of him.

My Susannoo's eyes were glowing at him eerily, promising him further pain and embarrassment!

"Do you know who the fuck I am!?" He shouted angrily.

His question was met with a giant skeletal fist smashing him hard in the face. The air around us vibrated from the force of the blow! Mephisto stumbled backward as his head wrangled out like a gong!

I made sure to punch him so he stumbled away from Heather and Kunou. I followed that up with another couple of devastating blows. Oddly enough, I could actually feel what my Susanoo felt, and with each punch it landed, I felt Mephisto's bones break and shatter. His avatar was getting the beating of a lifetime!

"T-this... This is fucking bullshit..." He huffed out as his large form struggled to stand upright. It was pretty hard considering both of his legs were currently broken. His regeneration was being pushed to its limits.

Shapeshifting himself into his larger form also seemed to focus more of his magic on that and less towards healing.

He quickly shrunk himself back down and my new eyes could see that he was about to cast some teleportation magic.

[He's trying to run away!]

'Not happening!'

Before he could, a giant skeletal arm completely wrapped around his entire body with crushing force! I squeezed hard until he screamed and his concentration broke. The teleportation spell he had been building up winked out in failure.

I de-manifested most of my Susanoo and only kept up a partial torso and the giant arm holding Mephisto in place. Susanoo was a powerful ability, but it was also an MP drain at full power. That minute-long fight cost me 2000 MP.

"You weren't planning on running away now? Were you Mephisto?" I asked while grinning up at him. I willed the skeletal hand to squeeze harder, and he let out another scream. I couldn't believe that I was toying with a Level 62 so easily!

...Although I wasn't aware, at the time, that as an Avatar, this Mephisto didn't have full access to most of his greater abilities...

"Fuck you, Fallen Angel! I'll get you back for this! I was so close to wiping out all the supernatural in this tiny world and taking it for myself!"

I shrugged. "So close, yet so far." I then closed my fist as tight as possible! The crushing force ended up bursting the Avatar like a balloon...and soaking me in a downpour of his disgusting blood. Needless to say, he wasn't regenerating from being turned to paste.

"Eeeeewwwwuuu! Gross Layla! You're covered in demon blood!" Heather whined out loud from the sides. "That's disgusting! And it smells..."

"You stink, Lady Layla." Even Kunou was giving me a grossed out look...

I groaned as I smelled myself...Yikes.

[You have leveled up x2!]

...

–Back in Kyoto–

"...And that's what happened." I finished explaining to Yasaka.

"Uh huh..." Yasaka replied. "That was quite a crazy story." She'd heard tales of Mephisto, but never thought him actually real.

"It sure was..."

Yasaka looked to the side and could see the two Kunous sitting together talking happily. That brought a smile to Yasaka's face. Halfway through my story, the older Kunou had stopped crying and let Yasaka go when her own daughter came out to see what all the noise was.

"I could also use a bath. Maybe we could take one together?" I asked Yasaka with a grin.

A grin that would have come off more sexy if I wasn't covered in Mephisto's blood.

Yasaka shook her head. "Not happening...You need to scrub yourself thoroughly." She said and she had no doubts that I was going to require more than one bath... "I'm currently forced to use Senjutsu to block my own sense of smell."

"Awe..."

XXX

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