How To Survive In The World DxD With Fragment Memories - Chapter 164

This happened during the time Masaru was inspecting his territory,

Later that night, without anyone realising it. Jamie’s body became transparent as if he was going to disappear at any time. Only Masaru who came coincidentally to investigate this boy who had such powerful mental power was surprised to see what happened. Yet without Masaru realizing it, he too collapsed on the ground when Origin dragged his consciousness through the mysterious gate in Jamie’s mind.

“This time it isn’t a dream” Jamie muttered glancing at the surrounding around him, he was confused why he was suddenly in the middle of nowhere but thanks to his repeated experience in life and death he could keep himself calm.

The reason he believed this was real was due to, not only being able to just see things, he could feel it and smell it too. And it was cold. He rubbed his hands together, the temperature was low and was a bit windy as well. he glanced up towards the skies, his face becoming slightly pale. Wherever he was, it certainly wasn’t the Belial Territory, or anywhere in the underworld.

“Probably” Masaru muttered appearing right behind Jamie, glancing at his surroundings.

The sky here was a strange mixture of colours as if someone had spilt a dozen different pots of paint, but it was predominantly grey and red with dense, writhing clouds and no sign of any sun. The smell of death was incredibly thick, the sensation only war veterans could feel lingered in the air as if an intense battle had just taken place.

“If this was hell, then I would believe it” Jamie muttered but suddenly his mind jolted as he swiftly turned his body around to find Masaru standing looking around nonchalantly, no the least bit perturbed at their situation. “How–?”

“I sensed some mental fluctuations from your room and came to investigate, I just did not expect us to meet a spacetime channel embedded within your mind,” Masaru said while glancing at Jamie with a complicated gaze, if he was not mistaken then he really did sense the same thing from Matthew back at Greater Malling. And Scott, Jamie’s brother.

“But right now it is best we figure out where we are” Masaru muttered as he glanced at the ancient trees, it’s appearance suggested that it could have been carved out of stone rather than wood; the wild, swaying grass; the twisted rock formations with a tint of crimson, blood.

“This is not Belial Territory, but it is indeed earth,” Masaru muttered as he scanned his surroundings, the reason he deduced that this was earth was due to space coordination he had for his home and other locations could still be vaguely sensed, the only difference would be the time axis.

‘Could we have travelled to the past or future?’ he thought silently to himself, he felt the entire surroundings were too polluted, even the breeze was wrong: slow and sluggish and smelling of cinders, wet mud and … something else. ‘Not even earth where we came from was this badly polluted, just what is going on here?’

“Such a terrain would not have escaped the watchful eyes of the news reporters that would do anything to swing mud across people’s faces for the sake of fame and money,” Jamie muttered with a wry smile, his eyes wavered feeling fear creeping into his heart. If it was not for Masaru whom he was acquainted with next to him, then he might have already fallen into despair.

“A great battle took place huh?” Masaru muttered,

“huh!?” Jamie who heard what Masaru said was taken aback, and only when he glanced towards the ground did he realize that he was surrounded by corpses. There were dozens of them, lying broken and twisted as if some unstoppable force had scythed through and killed them all in the same instant.

Masaru crouched down gently picking up a bone, his fingers squeezed lightly as the bone burst into particles dispersing along with the winds. Feeling the familiar magical element, wavelength and intensity. Masaru could not help squint his eyes, becoming solemn. ‘Never thought it would be them…’

Jamie took a few deep breaths to calm his anxiousness while stumbling to keep his posture before walking over to the closest corpse. They were all men, dressed in the same shades of brown and grey. “Are they Soldiers?”

“Most likely” Masaru said, he hid his clenched fist he held tightly to the point that veins were emerging beneath his skin.

From the clothes on the corpses, they did not appear to be modern soldiers, these men were wearing strange clothes which consists of long jackets that came down to their knees and loose-fitting trousers. Some were hooded, the dark material sweeping round their heads and over their shoulders.

Instead of guns, they have been armed with swords and shields, but even these were like nothing Masaru had ever seen before. The designs were both familiar, and unfamiliar. The shields were small and round with a single spike sticking out, a piece of general equipment that could be used either for the defence or to stab anyone who came close.

The swords were different shapes: some straight, some curving, some with multiple blades. Masaru picked up one of the swords inspecting it, his eyes flickering with interest for a moment before placing it back on the ground. “Its form is crude, but the tempering technique is masterful,” Masaru said while sighing.

There were arrows all around them, yet even these were in variety, some made of complete metal, not wood, and with some sort of black leaves taking the place of feathers. It was as if this army made use of any resource that could be used to craft weapons, no different from a mercenary group.

“To think they have been mutilated” Jamie muttered glancing at some corpses that were almost unrecognizable as human beings.

As the smell of the freshly spilt blood rose in Jamie’s nostrils causing him to turn around and barfed on the ground, even with his experiences so far, he still could not get used to this brutal sight and vomited on the spot.

Masaru glanced at Jamie before shaking his head, he could understand that this boy had yet to undergo the trial of blood by participating in a massacre or war. So it was reasonable that he would vomit at such a sight, but Masaru felt danger from the surroundings. ‘Why can’t I sense Ophis? Drago?’

No one responded.

But Masaru did not panic, despite not sensing his sacred gear. He could still sense the divine grimoire within his soul, although its position appears to be different. It was not using a King’s Mark as it’s a vessel, but Masaru himself was the vessel.

Gently he ċȧrėssed his hair that reached all the way to his ankle, the familiar silver colour. Yet strangely, he did not feel demonic power, nor Dragon Aura. ‘Since when have I become a human? Could I have transmigrated into someone else’s body again?’ He thought while inspecting his body.

“Let’s take a break,” Masaru said to Jamie who nodded, the two of them started moving swiftly yet quietly through the ruins soaked in blood and corpses, heading straight for a ruined building perched on a hill, built out of red bricks and shaped like a towering pillar building. There was a wooden door hanging off its hinges and inside was a spiral staircase leading up from what had once been a circular entrance hall.

“We’ll take a short break here,” Masaru said as the two of them entered the house, the roof was gone, some of the walls crumbled but somehow there was plenty of blindspots to hide around from plain sight. Thus Jamie took a spot to hide, while Masaru went to a spot himself where he could continue to inspect his body’s changes.

Taking in the surrounding walls and other buildings, Masaru realized in what sort of location the two of them had appeared within, from the looks of it they have landed in what people would call a fortress, but it was more of a medieval kind of fortress.

From the looks of the burnt wood, black scorch marks on the walls, it appears that recently this place must have been set on fire. Parts of it were still smouldering and it was obvious that the men within this fortress must have decided to die along with their enemies, burnt to death if not killed during combat.

Glancing down on his body, Masaru noticed that he was wearing a pitch-black hooded cloth folded behind his back while the rest of the cloth was circled around his neck like a scarf, a black robe over his black sleeveless shirt, plated ċhėst guard strapped over his left shoulder and beneath his right arm. Black pants held with a wide brown leather belt slotted with strange daggers with a split edge, a single dagger attached to his hip. Brown leather boots soaked in blood. ‘I’m from the enemy squad?’

Masaru glanced at Jamie, he realized that Jamie was wearing the same uniform as those who died outside. A grey shirt that was buŧŧoned up to the neck without a collar, the leather belt holding his pants were unbuckled and hanged loosely and his feet were bȧrė. ‘I just hope this boy won’t get the wrong idea, but I doubt he would figure out. That we are wearing different items of clothing’

Jamie gritted his teeth, counted to three and slammed his fist into the brickwork. He yelled out loud. “It hurts!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Masaru said while glancing at Jamie with disdain, he knew this boy did not accept reality yet and already done something stupid. “This is our reality, and if you want to survive I suggest you keep quiet. We have no idea where we are, what is going on. So let’s rest first before we make our move”

“Alright” Jamie muttered, he looked down and saw blood on his knuckles. ‘Well, this surely did prove something’ He thought while sighing. He swore quietly to himself and licked the wound. “It really is real, but how did we get here?”

“We were probably summoned,” Masaru said as he was quite experienced with sensing and dealing with world laws that God Ranked Powerhouses would come in touch with, and he certainly did sense law powers dragging both him and Jamie into this strange timeline.

“And from the looks of the bodies around us, I could ȧssume that a war is going on,” Masaru said with a wry smile,

“Why am I wearing the same clothes as then?” Jamie asked while glancing at Masaru’s items of clothing suspiciously,

“That is something I can’t determine,” Masaru said while rubbing his forehead. “I suppose we have to explore this world to get our answers, don’t we?”

“I suppose, but I can’t help but wonder if the people that are wearing the same clothes are me, Are they the winners of the war, or are they the losing side?” Jamie asked

“It’s best to think that it’s the two of us against the world,” Masaru said while dousing Jamie’s hopeful thoughts of joining a human faction with cold water, “We can’t simply trust others. We must tread carefully”

“Yes,” Jamie nodded,

Confirming that they had sufficient rest, Masaru was the first to leave the house followed by Jamie. Ignoring the grotesque sight of the corpses, they swiftly moved across the fortress leaving through the opening left by the two massive bent iron gates.

Yet the sight of the battlefield stretched on all the way down to the bottom of the hill and beyond from the fortress, the number of broken swords and shields were numerous giving a clear picture of how massive the battle should have been here. Looking at the corpses around him, Masaru could not help but clench his fist tightly.

‘Why is my body so agitated at this sight? Why do I have an urge to kill… Demons?’ Masaru thought while shaking his head, his will power was something he gained through numerous battles and life-threatening situations so he could suppress his urges with ease. But it still made him vigilant, that he was different. Very Different from his former self.

“It’s best we change the direction of our journey towards the West,” Masaru said glancing at the corpses trying to deduce the direction the victorious army would be heading, it was not that much difficult to see since the footprints were still visible. Or was it even footprints? Forms and sizes did not match anything Masaru knew of.

But he still felt his conjecture was coming closer to the truth the more he picked up clues. he glanced at Jamie, nodding before the two of them head in the opposite direction. Heading away from the direction the army came from and went towards, all to ensure they would not meet them. Or hope to.

It was after a while they came across a forest and did not stop their hasty movements, going pass each tree and bush till they finally managed to exit the other end of the forest where they were alarmed by the sound of footsteps. Masaru glanced towards his left seeing a half-broken down road built in a similar style of the ancient Romans, an old monk holding a walking stick was approaching them.

Unlike Jamie who had a bright smile, Masaru’s frown became more prominent. ‘Enemy or foe?’ Masaru thought, and until he knew which side this person was, he could not kill him yet. Since this monk was their first source of information.

Dressed in a brown robe with a hood folded back over his shoulders. From the speed he was walking it would take a few minutes for him to arrive before them, as he drew closer his appearance became clearer. A bald old man appearing in his late sixties, with sagging skin and weeping, bloodshot eyes.

Jamie who saw the old man suddenly felt a huge sense of relief, his smiling face did not escape Masaru’s eyes but the latter did not stop him from approaching the old man.

The man raised a hand and waved at him, Jamie smiled broadly approaching the old man. Masaru followed after him while maintaining speed to remain behind Jamie, although it was not appropriate ethically, Masaru is determined to use Jamie as his meat shield in case something happened.

In an unfamiliar world, with no knowledge of how to leave from here, Masaru chose to remain safe. He was not a saint, although he saved Jamie by coincidence, he would not unnecessarily endanger himself for others.

When they came close enough to each other, both sides came to a stop two metres apart. Masaru expected Jamie to be the first one to speak, but it was the old man who spoke first, the words he uttered sounded completely gibberish.

Masaru who heard his voice could not help but shiver, although there were not many records of human history left in the underworld kept safely by the devils. There was still one thing that was kept intact despite the long time that had passed, and that was the ancient language. The same language both Masaru and Ajuka used to compile their formulae, their unique ability.

“Good day to you, my friends!” The old man spoke with a jovial tone as if he was a teenager despite being so old,

“Two living children coming from the direction where a massacre took place recently, this is very strange. What is your name? Do you need directions? Food? Water?” The old man asked with a caring voice,

Jamie hesitated a little wondering if he should respond honestly or lie, after considering he chose to speak some lies and some truths “My name is Jamie, he is Scott” Jamie introduced while pointing his thumb at Masaru behind him.

He paused, then went on, “We have no idea what I’m doing here, I have lost my memories and I don’t even know where I am. Can you help me?”

Masaru who heard this felt like he could smack this boy for making up such foolish excuses to lie to an experienced old man, but he kept his facial expression stoic while keeping his eye firmly on the old man. He was not certain why, but he felt this old man gave him a Dejavu feeling, similar to the time he once adventured in The Vatican.

“Of course I can help you. But as to where you are, there is nothing left here so why should it even have a name? And if it did have a name, it would soon be forgotten, like everywhere else. There are no countries now. No cities, no towns. All is but ashes.” He spoke nonchalantly,

Masaru who heard this shivered out of shock, such phrases might not mean much for Jamie but for him, it gave him significant information. And if his conjecture was correct, then it meant he came at the time “they” are ruling the earth, and if that is true. Both he and Jamie was indeed in danger, real danger.

He glanced at Jamie suspiciously before frowning “Where have you come from?”

“I’m American, from Nevada,” Jamie muttered while wondering if the old man would even know where it was, but everyone should know at least where America is right?

“America? Nevada? I don’t know these places. How did you arrive here?” The old man felt even more suspicious, questioning with a glare.

Masaru, however, took note of the old man’s expression, he could tell this old man was not lying. This meant either America was already destroyed and it’s far in the future, or… He did not want to think of it just yet.

“I don’t know. I didn’t mean to come here. It just happened.” Jamie answered,

“As if by magic?” The old man asked with a strange gleam in his eyes, Masaru squinted his eyes at the gleam he just saw and noticed the irregular breathing pattern.

“Well … yes.” Jamie wasn’t sure that the old man was joking, he chose to answer since even he did not understand how he came to be here.

“Perhaps it was magic! Perhaps you were brought here by the Old Ones. They might have wanted you, although I can’t think why.” The old man’s hand tightened on the walking stick while speaking with a crazed voice that was different from his appearance from before, then he glanced at Jamie once more.

“Do you serve the Old Ones?” he asked.

Jamie shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re not a servant of the Old Ones? kukuku, what luck is this? To think I would find such an encounter. It really is fortunate, then, that I came this way. It would seem that I’ve arrived just in time.” The old man said with a trace of happiness, and killing intent.

“To do what?” Jamie asked while taking several steps back, yet the old man did not feel offended by this move, instead, he smiled creepily.

“To kill you.” The old man said with a broad smile, without giving chance for Jamie to retort. The old man began to unpeel his skin and flesh off from himself, the flesh falling away like pieces of discarded clothing.

It was as if another creature, some sort of giant insect, exploded out of him. It has ugly black scales taking the place of skin, with two huge claw pincers snapping open and shut, ripped through his sides and stretched out where his arms had just been. His eyes had turned yellow. His head and legs were still human, but now they were grafted onto the body of a scorpion.

A huge tail rose over its shoulders with a massive stinger pointing down at Jamie from above. The walking stick had changed too it became a spear with the end twisted and bloodstained shaped in the letter “Y” with double sharp edges. The scorpion man roared as he thrust his spear at Jamie.

“Hmph!” Masaru snorted as he appeared before the scorpion, his right hand raised while holy power emerged from the palm of his hands like a faucet that broke, pouring out instantly.

“Screee!!!!” The scorpion man screeched in pain while taking a few steps back, pulling away it’s half-burnt tail that was no longer usable.

{Call me… milord}

Masaru was not certain why, but he felt presences. Familiar presences, yet unfamiliar. With no knowledge, he chose to follow the actions of his instincts as an old grimoire appeared before him. It was different from his divine grimoire, it had a six-pointed star cover and had black chains interlocking over each other to keep the book firmly shut.

“Lemegetton!” Masaru called out as the book burst open when the chains loosen, expanding away from the book while maintaining a sphere formation with just enough space for the book to open itself. “Chapter 1: Ars Goetia… Heed my call and come forth… Duchess Gremory!”

Suddenly the ground in front of Masaru shook as the ground tore apart forming a small fissure, and shortly a door soaked in blood emerges from there. Creaking sounds reverberated through the silent surroundings followed by blinding crimson light as the door opens, shortly the sounds of high heels footsteps came from behind Masaru despite the door being in front of him.

“Fufu, to think milord would call out to me after so long” an enchanting seductress voice came from behind Masaru, with a half complaining yet happy tone she continued to speak, “Could it be my love has finally reached you, milord? I am ready to receive your love anytime—”

“Gremory” Masaru muttered, his actions and words all came out unconsciously. Even now he could not understand how he came to have these powers, but he still analyzed them consciously for future reference. And the name Gremory gave him the answer to why the presence felt familiar.

He had summoned a demon, and it turned out to be a Gremory. Turning his face towards the left to catch a glimpse of crimson hair strands floating in the air, drawing closer revealed a familiar looking face. But he knew it was not her, despite so. She really did look like Rias Gremory.

“Fufu, I feel happy you call me by my family name without my title. But I would prefer you call me Vena, even if I am the first Gremory lineage Duchess” Vena said as she embraced Masaru from behind, her hands tracing over his ċhėst while her eyes looked at him like a predator wanting to have a piece of the prey it laid its eyes on.

“Get rid of this man first,” Masaru said while turning his face away, he did not want to alarm this Gremory that he was not the person whom she thinks he is. And right now he had to rely on her strength while he learnt more of his own abilities. ‘But to think I summoned the Ancestor… This really is….’

‘The past… Many many years ago…’ Masaru concluded while closing his eyes, it was only now he realized why the Divine Grimoire, Origin. Dragged him into this world, in order to learn of the calamity that was approaching his timeline.

“Very well,” Vena said while smiling happily before adding, “But I want to be rewarded,” She said before flicking her finger, a miniature sphere of demonic energy materialized and was shot straight towards the scorpion man who quivered for some reason.

“Y-you!!!” The scorpion man bellowed “You traitor!!!”

BOOM!

Before the scorpion man could continue his words, the sphere penetrated his ċhėst and exploded his body into a bloody mist, leaving not a trace of his existence behind. Vena who was smiling happily extended her palms as if trying to grab hold onto something before she clenched it into a fist bringing it towards her lips, with a chomp she swallowed the soul of the scorpion man she had just killed.

“Who is that?” Jamie asked glancing at the unfamiliar woman beside Masaru, he did not fear her since he was used to Masaru being surrounded by many competent and powerful women. He ȧssumed that she was one of the many women Masaru had in his royal harem.

“A Servant (His Wife)” Masaru & Vena answered at the same time, Masaru glanced at Vena with his eyebrow arched upwards while Vena pouted looking away from Masaru’s gaze.

SWOOSH!

Masaru became alarmed, his eyes narrowed, the feeling of all the hairs on his body standing straight as if something with intention of killing him was attacking.

He pointed his palm towards the direction of the attack, using the divine grimoire as for the medium, just like how he first used it to cast unfamiliar spells. He unleashed several arrows condensed in wind attribute mana towards the air.

PAK! PAK! PAK!

Three metal arrows flew across the distance were shot downwards by Masaru’s wind arrows. causing them to pierce deeply into the ground about a metre away from him and Jamie.

“What!?” Jamie cried out in surprise while Masaru glanced in the direction where the attack came from, his vigilance was high despite not sensing any further intention to attack coming from the shadow figures that were approaching them

It did not take long for them to see the figure of the people approaching them, and in the lead was a girl on a horse riding up towards them with three men on horseback a short way behind. Far behind them is a massive group of rider troops following after them, all of them were dressed similarly to Jamie, which meant they should be on the same side as the people who died in this fort.

The girl was holding a bow, glancing at the blood streaks left behind by the imploded scorpion man before glancing at Masaru and the woman behind him. As if confirming something, she lowered the bow and returned the arrow to a wooden quiver hanging behind her back.

Appearing to be in the same age as him, with small with dark eyes that were somewhere between brown and green, mixed-race half European, half Chinese. She had a belt with a short sword dangling down to her thɨġh, and a black wristband. There was a tattered red scarf around her neck.

‘She is one of the five’ Masaru thought, he still remembered his talks with Susan. And this girl was the fourth member of the five gatekeepers he came across, although he was not certain if she would look the same in his timeline. At least, he confirmed that one of the five. Was a Girl.

Masaru could not help but wonder why the girl was becoming so erratic when glancing at Jamie, it was as if what the girl saw was simply too difficult to take in.

While gesturing with her hand she signalled the three men to remain vigilant, she climbed off the horse walking over towards Jamie with a gaze of bewilderment and disbelief.

“Sapling,” she said.

Jamie looked at her strangely wondering why she would call him a Sapling, he felt the name was oddly familiar yet he knew that it was not his name.

But why did this name resonate with him?

“You are Sapling!” the girl exclaimed with a happy smiling face

“No. I’m Jamie.” Jamie corrected her with a frown, he had no idea what his current situation was.

“Jamie?” the girl asked feeling confused while the boy would address himself in a different name, could it be that he changed his name?

“Yes.” Jamie nodded

“No, you’re not.” The girl shook her head. “You’re Sapling.”

“I think I know my own name,” Jamie said with annoyance, but he began to wonder if his situation would be similar to that of transmigration and he ended up taking someone’s place.

‘If each living being had a past life… Could our situation be where we are experiencing the lives of our previous lives?’ Masaru thought while glancing at the girl and boy appearing familiar with one another, but he knew Jamie was conflicted with familiar yet unfamiliar feelings. Just like he was.

The girl thought for a moment and decided to give up trying to reason with Jamie, she simply nodded “Names change, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re alive. It really is you! I can’t believe it…”

And before Jamie could stop her, the girl threw her arms around him, kissed him on both cheeks and buried her face against his ċhėst. Then, abruptly, she pushed him away and burst into tears.

“Scar…” One of the three men had climbed down from his horse and come over to her. He was about thirty, “We have to leave”

Masaru who heard her name felt the need to keep it in mind. Perhaps, with this special piece of information, he could make use of it in his timeline, that is if he would get back home.

For now, he will have to find out why he was sent here,

Why Jamie was summoned here.

And what happened in the past, that the Gods refused to speak of.

The Old Ones… It begins from here