Natsu Dragneel In Dxd - Volume 1 Chapter 26 Counteraction Part Ii
The night was dark and the atmosphere is covered with a murky gloom. A dim light was provided in the area due to a barrier put up by the intruders. Despite that light, everyone there could feel darkness radiate from one point in the whole area. The feeling was sickening and the energy was twisted and perverted into one of madness. Casual sparks of light from afar were the luminescence of Magic being emitted and with the intention of destroying their target. For this wasn’t a time of concordance between peoples, but one of archaic nature; the beginning of a war.
The three main factions came together to ignite a peaceful era for generations to come. Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils were finally going to put a progressive foot forward towards the right direction, but just as there are people who want peace, there are definitively ones who desire war. What is happening right now is the result of a rebel Devil- one of the descendants of the original – going about to destroy the ceremony and bring her impending rule of doom across the dimensions.
The leaders of the three factions Michael, Sirzechs, and Serafall, and Azazel who’s currently fighting one of the descendants, Katerea, have banded together to fight against the threat and to take back the upper hand which they lost due to a surprise attack made by Katerea and her Magicians. They have a plan to take down their teleportation gate and cut off the supply of soldiers by using Grayfia’s Magic but she needs protection against possible dangers. That’s what Irina, Xenovia, Kiba and Issei were doing right at this moment. Taking care of the Magicians was easy enough, but their sheer number proved to be difficult to handle. So to compensate, they paired up, Irina with Xenovia and Kiba with Issei. After that, things started to smoothen out with only a few hiccups around. But things somehow got brighter when Natsu came running to them with Rias in his arms and Koneko carrying Gasper.
As Rias dropped herself onto the ground, she lead Gasper away towards Sirzechs in the small protective barrier he and Michael had put up with Grayfia inside. Blasting away any attackers, Rias crouched to Gasper’s height and kissed his forehead.
“It’s all going to be alright Gasper-kun. We’ll keep you safe and take care of all of this nonsense, okay?” Rias uttered softly, patting his head. She stood up straight right after and looked her brother in the eye, “I’ll be back Nii-sama. Keep him safe.”
“Of course. Wouldn’t want him to be taken again.” Sirzechs implied as he watched his sister go into battle. He knew the tide was slowly turning to their side but didn’t know what kind of push to give it.
“LIGHTNING FLAME DRAGON’S BRILLIANT FLAME!” Natsu bellowed, slamming two huge orbs of fire and lightning together as an electrical current was sent through multiple Magicians. Landing hard on the ground from the sky, Natsu engulfed his forearm in lightning and fire and punched toward a horde of minions with hisLightning Flame Dragon Firing Hammer.
Looking across from him, Issei saw Natsu’s frustration with the Magicians around him and called out, “Hey, we just need to do this until the gate closes. And I can’t imagine that being very long from now.”
“Heh, you’re right. I need to calm down and focus. Thanks, Pervert.” Natsu responded with a thumbs-up and turned it into a fist as he punched a Witch in front of him, “So who’s next?”
Gasper watched his friends fight, terrified and shocked at what they were going through all because he couldn’t protect himself. He needed to get stronger for his friends and for himself. He needed to stop hiding behind others and start picking up his own sword and shield. To begin standing up for what he believed in, he needed to take this chance.
‘Your true strength only comes when faced with an obstacle that can potentially end your life. The feeling of adrenaline running through your body gives you the power to fight on against that obstacle. You must fight to protect your life and the ones dearest to you.’
“I’ve got to do it. I’m gonna do it.” Gasper whispered to himself, clenching his chest, “Natsu-senpai! Issei-senpai! Rias-senpai! I wanna be cool like you, Natsu-senpai! And brave like Issei-senpai! And smart like Rias-senpai! I I wanna be a man! So I’m doing this for all of you- my friends!” Gasper rolled up his sleeve and hastily ripped off his limiter ring, scaring Rias at what he was about to do.
“No, stop whatever you’re about to do Gasper! That’s an order!” Rias yelled anxiously, “Gasper, I said stop!” She was too far away to run and stop him herself so she looked desperately towards her brother, “Onii-sama, please, stop whatever reckless thing he’s about to do!” Rias pleaded, her voice becoming hoarse.
Issei and Natsu looked intently in the direction of where Gasper was residing. They knew he needed this, so they didn’t try to stop it. Sirzechs, meanwhile, thought to himself. ‘This is it. The push I was looking for! Gasper’s the key to all of this. I can’t stop him now if whatever he’s planning could drastically turn this around. I just hope he doesn’t hurt himself while doing it.’
As she watched her brother just stare, not doing anything to him, Rias had tears brimming at the corners of her shining eyes, “Gasper!” She yelled in distraught, clutching the air in the direction of Gasper. All she could see next were a couple of flashes of purple light, darkness, then no Gasper. Seconds past and still nothing; no sign of him returning appeared anywhere. Rias almost cried because of it but she knew she had to keep her composure because of the situation they were in. But besides that, on the inside, Rias was hurting more than anyone else there. Natsu and Issei couldn’t even believe at first when he didn’t smell where Gasper was at that moment.
Sirzechs widen his eyes, stunned at what he had done- putting his trust, his hope, his everything in this little boy’s dangerous actions was not worth the cost. Though, all of the people frozen in time were brought back into the present, losing such an innocence was not an equal exchange.
“W-what’s going on!?” Asia yelled as she saw all the destruction around her. If her memory served her right, she should have been in the council room where the summit was taking place. But now, the toxic smell of burning smoke, dead bodies, and a wasted wildlife invaded her nose. She saw that Sona and Tsubaki were just as confused as her, but wondered even more why everyone’s face seemed grave.
“Asia-san” Michael said solemnly with dry relief, “I guess Gasper’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. He stopped his own spell and destroyed their teleportation gate.”
Asia still stood there puzzled at what was going on. Teleportation Gate? Spell? And intruders? What exactly has she missed that she’s this lost in the situation.
“I’ll explain to you later, Asia-san. Right now something dreadful happened.” Grayfia said softly, laying her hand on her shoulder.
Meanwhile, during all this chaos, Azazel was still having a savage brawl of magic in the air with Katerea Leviathan. Ever since she began leaking a sinister magic from her body, her powers increased shockingly to a point where Azazel had to go on the offense to not lose his advantage. Katerea showed new moves as well, having multiple appendages and limbs break apart and grow from various parts of her body, making her movements almost unpredictable.
In truth, though he found this very amusing, Azazel was getting annoyed with having to try so hard with this fight.
“Hey! Why don’t you guys down there take advantage of the little squirt’s effort to please you!” Azazel yelled to the people down below as he reached into his pocket and took out a golden dagger-like weapon with a purple handle.
“Azazel is right! We shouldn’t let Gasper’s sacrifice be in vain!” Natsu shouted angrily, lighting his whole body on fire. Issei felt the anger that Natsu was showing off and joined him in the fight. The next thing that happened couldn’t even be compared to a struggle in a fight, but more of a livid man-slaughter of the Magicians. Nothing could have prepared anyone for this. People were falling from the air like flies sprayed with pesticide. Rias continuously amplified Akeno’s lightning attacks to reach a greater distance and stretch farther between the Witches and Wizards while Kiba littered the ground with swords that stuck up towards the sky. So every time Xenovia and Irina hit anyone towards the ground, it was an immediate painful death.
With everyone so filled with anguish and loathing towards Katerea and her army, Azazel grinned at how quickly the bunch finished off her remaining army.
“I guess it’s my turn, eh?” He turned to Katerea with anxious joy written on his face as gripped the golden object in his hand harder, “Oh, Katerea. How I must thank you for this joyous opportunity you’ve given me to try out my new creation. For I have a much better thing to keep my mind busy instead of war: my hobby.” Azazel smiled menacingly as he slowly raised the dagger in the air.
“What exactly are you talking about?” Katerea twitched her eye in annoyance at Azazel’s vague smugness.
“This, my dear is what I call an artificialDragon Sacred Gear:The DownFall Dragon Spear. I made this myself if you couldn’t guess,” Azazel taunted the miniature spear in her face until he pressed down on the purple orb on the bottom of the handle, “Balance Breaker: DownFall Spear Armor”
For a moment, he was encompassed by a gold sparkling ball of magic that revealed his most experimental invention yet. It was Dragon Armor like Issei’s and Vali’s with minor changes. The ends of the different situated armor plates had spikes jetting out making it similar to a porcupine needles. The main color composite was gold and purple sphere decorating the jointed plates of armor.
Issei felt this new strange power in the air and couldn’t comprehend his findings when he saw anotherDragon Balance Breakerlike his covering Azazel. His gauntlet flashed non-stop at the presence of the anomaly as he heard Ddraig speak, “So that bastard actually did, huh? He said the experiment was still on the testing phase that lying son of a bi-”
“Ddraig! What the hell are you talking about!?” Issei yelled irritably confused.
“Just watch, boy. It’ll get interesting.” Ddraig said amusingly. All Issei could do was heed his word and wait because he had no idea what was going on.
“Let’s end this, shall we.” Azazel said mirthfully. Katerea angrily screeched at how he took this battle so casually. She rushed at him sending waves of tentacle-like arms and blasts of magic towards Azazel. Her blind rage gave Azazel an opening through all the chaos as he formed a gold trident made purely from magic and sliced through everything that was thrown at him, also cutting Katerea’s torso in the process.
“Ah! You Asshole! I’m going to destroy you and this damned city!” Katerea yelled in pain as she quickly made her arms stretch and attached herself to Azazel’s left arm, “If creating a new world means I have to sacrifice myself just to kill you! I’d gladly do it!” Her limbs sunk themselves into Azazel’s arm as if it was mending with him to prevent escape.
“Oh really, gonna self-destruct are we?” Azazel’s voice was all but pitiful as the smile on his face was audible, “Well, you know what? An arm” He cut off his entangled arm with his spear and the next thing in the air was blood.
The blood of his own and Katerea’s split body.
The three body parts fell from the sky as Azazel casually stopped his own blood flow to his arm and applied numbing magic to decrease the pain, “An arm is all you’re worth.”
The people on the ground stood in shock at what just transpired. Though the leaders(and Koneko) were all stoic, the rest had their eyes gauging wide and mouths agape.
“Phew, I guess I really am getting old. I think the last 2000 years really got me,” Azazel smirked as the armor around him disappeared in a flash of light. With the small spear in his hand, he kissed it and put it away in his shirt, “I guess, there’s still some tinkering to be done, huh,Dragon KingFafnir.”
“I am guessing it should all be downhill from here.” Michael stated, disabling the barrier around them.
“Michael thanks so much for helping.” Sirzechs voiced groggily. His head was still hanging low after what he did to Gasper or what he didn’t do.
“Anytime Sirzechs-san. And don’t worry about your Bishop, we will all grieve his death. It wasn’t your fault.” Michael said trying to support Sirzechs after the ordeal.
“Hey, dimwits! If you’re talking about the little vampire kid, he’s not actually dead. He just dispersed himself while taking control of his magic. He should putt himself back together after an hour or so.” Azazel yelled down, giving the people hope for Gasper to be back, “Now let’s go get something to eat- I’m starving! Hahaha-!”
In an instant, Azazel was sent flying towards the ground, creating a man-size crater and uplifted dust in the air. He slowly climbed out with his own arm and chuckled a bit to himself.
“What the hell was that!?” Natsu shouted, startled at the disturbance. He lifted his nose into the air and sniffed around until a deep growl escaped his mouth.
“Vali,” Azazel said rubbing his head, “Really, I must be getting rusty. You know, I heard from one of my governors, Shemhaza, that rebels from multiple factions were banding together. ‘The Chaos Brigade’, am I right?”
“What!? If Azazel is talking about the people I think he’s talking about then how can they be united in such a way? Someone has to be the ringleader, but I don’t know anyone strong enough to fit that role.” Serafall anxiously thought to herself.
“And the craziest thing he said, was that the one leading you was TheOuroboros Dragonitself: Ophis.”
“A Dragon named Ophis?” Issei asked Rias, “What’s up with that?”
“It’s theDragon of Infinity- a being feared even by otherHeavenly Dragons.” Rias explained quickly, still staring up at the sky.
“Listen, none of us want to destroy the world or anything. Some douche wants to use us for our power or some other shit.” Vali said under his armor sounding slightly annoyed.
“That makes sense. Even though you can hold your own against even the biggest of monsters, you decided to join this group regardless because our side seemed less entertaining. Right? I mean, it makes no sense for two people to join together just because they’re both Satans.” Azazel explained as Vai replied with nothing, signaling he hit bull’s eye.
“What the what!?” Issei yelled in both fear and shock.
“No way Vali is a descendant of one of the Satans?” Sona said to herself in disbelief.
“Yes, my heritage is one of both a the Satan Lucifer and of a human. That’s how I’m able to host aSacred Gear.” Vali explained briefly, showing his ten Devil wings.
“It’s hard to believe you even exist. The whole concept of this is really emphasizing the word ‘Miracle’.” Sirzechs exclaimed, almost seeming dazzled by the fact.
“Without a doubt, this one will be one of the strongest Dragon hosts to have ever lived.” Michael imposed while Issei shivered because of it.
“The strongest” He whispered dreadfully to himself. Meanwhile, Vali began to start talking to him.
“Oh, how I pity you Issei. A weakling like you having to face a deity like myself. It’s just not fair, it is. Fate is just cruel. Without yourSacred Gear, you’re nothing! Just a helpless boy with powerful friends is all,” As Vali continued to taunt him, Issei scowled as rage built within him. Never has he felt a feeling so simple yet so powerful well up inside him, “It’s funny to think that though our Dragons are fated enemies, our abilities are worlds apart!”
“So what are you gonna do, huh!? I’ll gladly fight you right now!” Issei screamed, raging towards Vali.
“Oh, I know what I’m gonna do. I’ll go kill your family and friends so you can devote yourself to revenge. How does that sound? Maybe I should add that blonde girl to the list as well.” Vali couldn’t help but get amused at watching Issei’s face morph into different states of disgust, anger, bewilderment, and turmoil all in a few moments. And at this point, Issei was shaking uncontrollably with his hair shadowing his eyes.
“I’m gonna kill him. I’m going to END your life, SO HARD! I’LL KILL YOU SO MUCH YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO FEEL YOURSELF DYING!” His face wrinkled into one of loathing as a blast of magic hit all of the residences as he screamed with hatred.
“BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! WELSH DRAGON OVERBOOST!” HisSacred Gearglowed bright red as it immediately crawled up and around his body. Then, in a flash of red light, revealed hisBalance Breaker. A new feeling radiated from Issei that seemed to embody the vexation he was experiencing. A strong aura outlined his body that made it very hard to breathe the same air around him as theMagical Pressurekept growing, slowly, pressing down on Kiba, Xenovia, Irina, Asia, Tsubaki, Sona and Rias.
“Look Albion, his power just grew exponentially!” Vali commented gleefully on the situation.
“Of course. ASacred Gear’spower comes from its wielder’s will and feelings. And the most potent emotion to fuel a Dragon’s power is rage, and right now he’s consumed with pure detestation for you.” Albion explained thoroughly, causing Vali the get excited at the fact.
“I’m about to smash your armor in!” Issei yelled with animosity, “Ascalon!” He quickly summoned forth his mighty sword from his gauntlet and flew a beeline straight for vali’s head.
“Mhmm, this is going to get interesting.”