DxD: The Truth of the World

CHAPTER 6

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Today, he has done it! Motohama, Matsuda, he shall go forward first in their group to heaven!

He pulled no stops at all.

He actually dressed great for once with his limited wardrobe options; he opened the emergency "Once-Per-Year Porno Greatness" piggy bank of his to splurge for this date, and he even used his Nii's cologne to smell good, even though he hated perfumes!

Hehehe, and the date went perfectly, if he does say so himself!

It started with going to clothing stores and taking a look at decorations for their rooms. For lunch, they ate at the high-class restaurant that Nii always brought the family to. Countless money bills cried as they left his wallet unwillingly, but looking at Yuuma-chan eating her chocolate parfait cutely made all his despair fade away just from looking at her.

Sniff, he felt like he finally understood how other teenagers feel when they actually have girlfriends and spend most of their time on dates instead of watching ecchi stuff. It felt as if he was reborn after all this time.

As evening approached, his heart pounded with the intensity of a rock band drummer. Ooooh, the time for the end of the date has come!

Maybe he'll get a kiss before heading home!? Or maybe they'll go even further as she shyly mutters to not end the date at the park! He got hyped just thinking about that ecchi scene in his head!

As they walked deeper into the park as per his date plan, Yuuma-chan had already let go of his hand and stood before the fountain with a smile.

"It sure was fun today."

The sunset behind her set the perfect mood as Issei couldn't help but swoon at the sight.

Damn, she’s just so cute. It's making his heart bounce funny!

"Hey, Ise-kun."

"What is it, Yuuma-chan?"

He kept a normal look as Yuuma-chan looked around; it looks like she's making sure that no one's nearby.

"There's something I want to do to celebrate our first date. Could you listen to my wish?"

Inside his mind, the soldiers that manned and stationed the brain for this date started celebrating with their yells as the holy words were spoken.

Oh yeah. It’s here! This is it! This must be it!

OK, one final quick check! Breath? Alright, it smells good!

Mentally prepared? Never! Check!

Hnnnn, his heart can't stop beating so fast! With a cough to his fist to cover his nervousness, he asked.

"W-What are you w-wishing for?"

Ah, he stuttered.

Shitttttt!

She'll find out that he must be a stupid idiot that stutters all the time instead of a cool, collected person! Dammit, he made the dumbest fumble in his life, no, in the whole existence of the world, after coming this far—!

But Yuuma-chan just continued to smile at him.

She then said clearly.

"Will you die for me?"

...

...

...

SHIVERS!

This sensation...

It's like when Nii-san's going to do something dangerous to his body during training!

It must be due to the conditioning from all the beatdowns that Nii gave him, but when something bright flashed from Yuuma-chan's arm, his body instinctively dodged out of the way.

BUZZZZZN!

Issei’s shoulder scraped the gravel as he hit the ground hard. A nanosecond later, a spear made of light nearly pierced his head and carved into the tree behind him. With a loud crack, splinters flew everywhere as smoke rose from the charred wound on the tree trunk.

Breathing heavily as he turned to look at the destruction, his eyes widened with horror as she mocked him with a lower pitch.

"What’s wrong, Ise-kun? You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

His mouth opened, but no words came out as black wings appeared from her back. She then started flapping her wings as she floated in the air, loose black feathers rising in the air, and then dropped down to his feet.

Yuuma-chan created another spear of light, letting it hum as she pointed it at him.

"Though I am surprised that you dodged it, this one will not."

S-SHIT! He needed to dodge this; this attack would kill him in one hit! He tried moving his legs, b-but they wouldn't move!

Her cute-looking eyes changed into cold, scary eyes.

"The short time I spent with you was fun. It was like playing house with a little child."

D-Dammit, move, legs! Move! Wait, remember what Nii-san always said: "If you freeze in place, bite your tongue to free your body!"

With death clawing at his chest, Issei bit down hard on his tongue. The sharp pain jolted his nerves, and his legs moved. A cry yelled from the top of his lungs; he rolled sideways just as the second spear shot toward him, grazing his shoulder as it sliced through the air.

H-He dodged it—!

DON!

A nasty noise echoed around the park.

The moment he thought he dodged the spear of light, somehow, another one pierced through his stomach.

"Tsk, to think I need three Light Spears to kill a single human."

Dumb. So dumb.

Nii-san would definitely lecture him. “Always assume the enemy has a follow-up strike,” he used to say before hitting him again in the head. How did he fail to remember even that?

When he tried to pull the spear out of me, it disappeared into dots of light. The only thing left was a huge wound through his stomach with blood seeping through the hole like a fountain.

Ah.

His head felt light, and black dots began to appear in his eyesight. A brief gust blew, and before he knew it, he was already lying on the ground.

He couldn't feel his legs.

He couldn't feel anything other than his slowing heartbeat and his senses leaving his body.

Footsteps close in on him while he is on the ground, unmoving.

A small voice reaches his ears. It was Yuuma-chan's.

"Sorry, you were a threat to us, so we decided to get rid of you early on. If you want to hold a grudge, then hate the God who put the God's Artifact, Sacred Gear, inside you."

W... What? Sacred...?

He couldn't even ask her a question as he lay on the ground. Her footsteps get further away from him.

The hole in his stomach is fatal; that has to be the reason why he was losing consciousness. His condition was so bad that it doesn't even hurt anymore; in fact, everything just feels so quiet.

No. If he passes out now, it's as if he's going to sleep, but if that happens, then he'll surely die.

"Kugh..."

His consciousness began to fade. It felt like everything inside him was slipping away.

Would Matsuda and Motohama be shocked? Cry? Nah, not them. He's sure that they'll rejoice at the fact that they'll need to share less of their porn.

Okaa-san, Otou-san, Nii-san... Damn, he hadn’t done anything to make them proud yet.

Worse—if they found the stash of porno mags he hid, that’s not going to be funny.

Wait, why was that the last thing on his mind... as he died?

The thought led him to feel a sensation in his left arm. He touched his stomach and brought the hand in front of him.

It's red.

Crimson red. His whole hand is red. This is his blood... all of it is his blood.

Then she came into my mind. The one he was imagining is that one girl.

Crimson hair the same shade as the blood on his hand. Every time he's seen her, his eyes couldn't help but be drawn to her beautiful crimson hair.

... If he was going to die, he wished it was inside the arms of a beautiful girl like her.

Hnngh, it felt like he was cheating on Yuuma-chan thinking like this. Wait a second, Yuuma-chan was the one who killed him, so this should be an exception for one time.

... But if he were to die, then he'd rather die after groping Yuuma-chan’s breasts. Or anyone's chest. Nice, bouncy chests.

Hah, his perverted delusions don't stop even as he's dying.

... Ah, His eyes have gotten even more blurry.

Damn, he really had lived a boring life... If he were to be reborn, he'd want to be......

...

...

...

...

...

"So you were the one who called me."

Suddenly, someone appeared in front of him as she spoke. His vision was already dark; he couldn't tell who this was.

"Faint traces of Light, but why—So you're one of them, I see. I never would have imagined that you... truly, this is intriguing."

She’s laughing as if she found something interesting.

"If you're dying, then I’ll take it, your life, that is. From now on, you'll live only for me."

And before he passed out, Issei saw the familiar, brilliant crimson hair in front of him.

=

=

=

He couldn't help himself as he laughed bitterly at the sight.

After the meeting ended on the evening of Sunday, he rushed back home by taking the earliest train he could.

The whole ride, he was pacing around, ignoring the looks of the other passengers as he worriedly tried to think of the positives.

Since the start of Sunday, he had this bad feeling in his gut; most people would ignore it, but it was usually a sign that something was wrong.

He tried to shake it off, you know? Kept telling himself he was just being overprotective.

By the time Ren stepped off the train, it was already midnight. With a Tarukaja, he boosted his speed and sprinted through the streets at blinding speed straight back home.

Unlocking the door, he opened the door to his home, only to be bombarded with a familiar aura only found on certain individuals that he had come across...

Issei was not one of them.

He choked as he soon felt another presence in Issei's room.

His instincts flared.

"Lullaby."

Glowing music notes began forming out of thin air as they drifted through the hallways into every corner of the house, vibrating with a low, harmonic song that caused everyone other than the user to fall into a deep sleep upon hearing the tunes.

Once he confirmed that the Skill had applied to every signature in the house, he immediately ran up the stairs before throwing Issei's bedroom door open with another ethereal card floating on his palm, ready to unleash Armageddon upon—

...

"Rias Gremory?"

His brain short-circuited.

Crimson hair spread across the bed as her naked form pressed tightly against Issei, arms wrapped around him like a comfortable pillow she refused to let go of. And as for Issei... he has the same dopey grin, most probably dreaming of something lecherous.

But... This pressure that's covering Issei, it's the aura that a Devil exerts.

Careful not to wake them, Ren, as a courtesy, mentally excused himself as he pried the hands of the Gremory heir off his brother for a second before inspecting Issei's body.

Lifting Issei’s shirt, his frown darkened.

On his stomach was a faint outline of a piercing wound. It was mostly healed, but traces of the wound remained. From the looks of it, something had seared into and through his stomach to his back. It was big, about the size of a volleyball.

And the faintest energy of Light surrounded the wound.

The bitter laugh turned into a furious growl as Ren tightened his jaw, now fully understanding the situation.

The Fallen had killed Issei, and Rias Gremory brought him back to life as a Peerage member.

His fingers laced the necklace on Issei's neck. It seemed to be doing its job, helping to boost his regeneration. Though it didn't quite heal him fast enough, or else Rias Gremory wouldn't have needed to use an Evil Piece on him.

This is why he didn't rely on Regenerate 3, even though it was the highest-tier passive healing Skill he could get his hands on. It wasn't on par with the effectiveness of a single Dia, but it had the benefit of being subtle, passively restoring vitality without drawing attention.

But now, staring at the lingering wound on his brother's stomach, he was starting to deem it unsightly.

The Devil’s healing method of direct skin-to-skin contact infused with demonic energy was potent, in most cases, but it was too slow for his tastes.

With a single thought, power pooled through his body once more before Ren pointed his finger at the asleep little brother of his.

"Diarama."

From his fingertip, a beam of emerald shot out and struck Issei as a gentle warmth enveloped him. The light pulsed softly, seeping into his skin as the damaged tissue began to repair itself at a rapid pace. In seconds, the remnants of the wound vanished completely as if nothing had happened in the first place.

As the glow of the Diarama dissipated, Ren thought for a second before allowing Rias to hug Issei. She looked like she was enjoying it, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. At least, he doubted that Issei minded.

Before he cast a Me Patra, however, he took a moment as he sat on Issei's desk chair, leaning as he heaved a sigh. He ran a hand down his face, exhaustion finally catching up to him now that the adrenaline was fading.

"... Don’t ever scare me like this again, you idiot."

He muttered as he let the silence hang. He sat there for a moment longer, letting himself collect his thoughts.

Then, with a slow inhale, he willed the familiar power to erupt inside of him one more time tonight as he used a Skill on every recipient of the Lullaby, removing the long-lasting effect of deep sleep.

"Me Patra."

Four individual bursts of white energy flared silently throughout the house, washing over their bodies as it purged any ailments lingering in their bodies, including the Lullaby he cast earlier.

With all of that over, Ren stood up from the chair and decided to get some shut-eye. This whole week has been a hectic few days of worrying, stressing, and sadness.

As for the Devil business that Issei had been dragged into... That was a problem for tomorrow. He was dead tired.