Chapter 8
Aleander hummed as he read through a book on Arithmancy in the comfort of his mansion. Getting out of Hogwarts had been easy enough after the feast was over. He'd been led to his room in the Hufflepuff dorms, where his trunk of books had been moved from Dumbledore's office by a House Elf. He'd had to wait a little while for his dorm mates to go to sleep, but after that it was easy. He'd just used the bathroom door in the dorm to open a door to his mansion and left.
The trip, and side trip to Hogwarts, had been entirely worth it! Arthimancy was amazing! Its primary purpose was to mathematically calculate future events. However, its secondary purpose was indeed spell crafting. It was necessary to use Arithmancy to calculate the wand movements of a new spell. It was also how counter spells were created. Arithmancy was used to break down a spell, then create a counter based on the results.
The results he got when combining HP and DxD magic systems, both based on math, were astonishing. Due to the obvious differences in the worlds, they excelled in different areas. DxD magic was absolutely amazing when it came to elemental magic, but a little less well-rounded when it came to other aspects. That's where the HP magic came in. They had a spell for just about everything! Yet they lacked diversity in the elemental department, sticking mostly to fire spells.
It could be said that the combat magic in HP was actually more violent than the spells in DxD. Organ Liquefying? Entrail Expelling? Blood Boiling? That didn't even get into the three unforgivables: torture, mind control, and straight murder. There was some seriously dark shit in the HP world.
But there was a lighter side too! He'd never have to lift a finger to wash anything ever again. Except for his Regalia, that beauty deserved to be hand-washed. He'd never have to clean his room again, or wash his clothes, or put his clothes away! Spells for days to take care of all the menial shit.
His favorite thing, though? Transmutation magic. There was literally nothing like it in the DxD spell system. Yes, DxD had magic that could change the shapes of things, but nothing to change one thing into another. Let alone magic to turn a shirt button into a mouse or some shit. He planned to spend a LOT of time playing around with Transmutation magic to find the limits. Sure, the books said there were specific limits, some he planned to even believe, but the rest? Fuck that! With the combination of magics, he could probably break the majority of the rules.
He wasn't about to turn stones into food and eat the food, though. That did seem stupidly risky.
“Alexander.”
Alexander jerked when his name was called. He'd been deep in the book and excluded the rest of the world, even from his enhanced senses. He looked up and smiled slightly at the sight of Sona standing in his doorway, “Sona, what brings you here?”
She gave him a small, private smile before she turned back to serious, “A pair of exorcists have come to Kuoh looking for Kokabiel. I'm here to let you know, like you wanted.”
Alexander sighed, “You know, I was hoping the church wouldn't be that incompetent, or corrupt, but it looks like I hoped in vain.” He closed the book he was reading with a snap, “Alright, it looks like I'll actually have to put some effort into things this time.”
He stood and stretched with a soft groan. He'd been sitting for days, so it felt pretty good to get up and move. He'd never, EVER, admit that to Lucy, though. She might put him back to work! He set down the book and made his way toward the exit, where Sona was standing. Her purple eyes wandered through the massive library filled to the brim with books.
Yeah, his mansion in the middle of everywhere had a huge ass library filled with books from across the multiverse. He'd barely scratched the surface of it and hadn't looked at all since he'd gotten his HP world books.
Sona was so busy looking at the books that she didn't even notice him getting closer. With a playful smirk, he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. She jumped in surprise, then stared at him agape. She quickly recovered and put on a stern expression, “It's not polite to startle people.”
He chuckled and replied, “It's not polite to ogle someone else's library.”
She blushed but didn't comment. Instead, she turned around and walked out of his library and toward the exit of his mansion. The vast majority of the time, he kept the main door open to his Onsen in Kuoh so he could be reached by the people he cared about. The only other world he'd been to more than once was the Mass Effect world. He made routine trips there for Tali to do some shopping. She was slowly getting her hands on everything she needed to make herself comfortable in the lower-tech world of DxD.
The only thing he refused to let her buy was a spaceship. Though he did let her buy the plans for several older models that no one cared about. He could use Unknown Dictator and the massive amount of resources they were mining in his Pocket Universe to build them. Once he built a few, he could then upgrade them into something even better using his imagination.
Well, that was all for later. He had no reason to rush into space. Although he could think of a few fun universes to run around in space... Yeah, a visit to the Star Wars universe was definitely something he would need to look into.
He came out of his thoughts when they exited the mansion's front door. He looked at Sona and asked, “Would you like a lift back to the school?”
She smiled politely while shaking her head and replied, “No thanks. I'll just teleport back.”
“Mmmm that is a bit faster, but not quite as elegant. I'll keep an eye out and see what I can do if the situation changes.”
Sona nodded in appreciation, “Thank you.”
A moment later, she was gone in a flash of light. He stared at the spot for a moment before thinking, 'Roll that silver gacha ticket.'
[ROLLING!]
[Lesser Undead, Uncommon Trait, Race Change - You are a lesser undead, once you get this trait you have to choose between being a zombie or a skeleton. As an undead, you have no stamina and instead consume energy for everything and get unique bonuses and demerits depending on the undead you end up as. Once a race trait is toggled it is permanent until contested.]
“... Seriously? Why all the race changes, man?! Reroll!”
[ROLLING!]
[Rough Knuckle, Common Ability, Allows you to slightly augment your fists with energy, allowing the average man to shatter bricks with their fists. The more energy you expend, the greater the augmentation, but it is not very efficient.]
Well, he hadn't been expecting anything great from a silver ticket anyway. Still, there was a small possibility of getting a useful rare roll. Oh well, at least he only needed one more ability to be able to equip five. He looked at the four he currently had equipped: Pyrokinesis, Electromagnekinesis, Tinker – Metallurgy, and Tantric Healing.
He then looked at his unequipped abilities and wondered if he should swap Tantric Healing out for one of them. But, honestly? Dangersense was only mildly useful. Dress Break was entirely worthless. Disillusioned didn't do anything for him, with his senses being so sharp. Lesser Hydrokinesis was too weak to be more than a fun way to play in a pool. And obviously, Rough Knuckle was just plain useless. He could already augment his punches with energy, including elemental energies!
It would have been nice to get a fighting skill. He was still using Gooning as his only skill in combat. It worked, but it wasn't great. Maybe it was a good thing he was going full technomage then?
Speaking of. He should do some prep work. He walked through the Onsen to the workshop area and through the ten-foot-wide portal into his Pocket Universe. A quick teleport had him inside the air-conditioned office of his massive storage area filled with all kinds of raw materials. It was only one of a dozen built in the Australian outback.
With Unknown Dictator and the internet telling him where the best deposits of any material could be found, it had been exceptionally easy for him to get his hands on whatever he wanted or needed. He specifically only went for the biggest deposits alone. He didn't want to strip mine the entire planet or anything. He just wanted massive reserves so he could build whatever he wanted. Seeing as how he only had to feed the needs of himself and Tali versus billions of people, it wasn't too hard to keep nature preserved.
He clapped his hands together and rubbed them, “Now, what shall I make first?!”
His cackling was the only human sound on the entire planet as he got to work.
-----Line Break-----
Alexander sighed as he ended the communication spell with Sona. Things had gone downhill fast. Apparently, this Kokabiel jackass wanted to restart the war between the three biblical factions and intended to do so by killing Sona and Rias to piss off their Satan siblings.
Now he had to do something about that because, technically, they were both his fiancées. Say whatever you wanted about him, but he wasn't a coward who would sit back and let the girls fight while he did nothing. Especially not when he was stronger than both of them and had other means at his disposal for dealing with the enemy. He glanced down at the shiny new trinket hanging from his hip while emitting a soft blue glow. He smirked at the sight of it and initiated his teleportation. When the light cleared, he was near Sona, Tsubaki, and the rest of Sona's peerage as they fed magical energy into a barrier surrounding the school.
Sona, sweat already beading on her brow, turned to look at him, “Alexander, you came.”
He snorted playfully, “Of course I came. You said he was threatening to blow up all of Kuoh. I keep some of my stuff here, so I can't let that happen.”
Sona huffed but didn't argue with him. He waved his hand over the softly glowing blue lens of the item hanging on his hip. In a flash of light that almost looked pixelated, a large metal object appeared on the ground. The object almost looked like a car engine with glowing wires and light coming from within it. The center was a window that released a Cherenkov Blue glow that screamed 'power' to anyone with mystical senses.
While Sona and Tsubaki stared at the device, Alexander attached a cable to a port on it, then walked over to Sona while holding the cable's end toward her. At the end of it was a simple handle that could be held. While she looked at it strangely, he explained, “This is a magical generator I created. While holding this handle,” he wiggled said handle, “you can pull magical power out of it and use it instead of your own reserves by channeling it directly into your spells, or this barrier.”
Sona's eyes widened at his explanation, “You made this?”
He smirked, “Unknown Dictator isn't called a Longinus for nothing!”
Seriously, with the right materials, he was one hundred percent certain he could kill a god or destroy the entire world with his Sacred Gear. Since there were no secrets on the internet, he even knew where the largest supplies of fissionable materials could be found. He could easily make massive quantities of nuclear weapons or other devices if he so desired. That didn't even get into the sheer destruction he could cause by adding magic into the mix.
Sona gingerly reached out and gripped the handle. A moment later, her face softened as she let out a sigh of relief, “That's much better. Thank you, Alexander.”
He smiled and shrugged, “What's the point of having a fiancée or two if I don't spoil them?”
Sona's lips twitched at the mention of multiple fiancés. Leave it to Alexander to accidentally engage himself not only to her, but to her best friend as well. Only knowing he did it entirely by accident kept her from being truly upset by it. On the bright side, he wasn't a terrible fiancé to have. Now, if only he weren't a shut-in and took his education seriously, then he would be perfect.
Alexander looked at the barrier, then back to Sona, “So, can I go in?”
Sona nodded, “The barrier is to keep civilians away and keep whatever happens inside contained. It won't prevent you from going inside.”
He nodded and started walking through it, “See you on the other side of this.”
Sona watched him walk away with a small smile. Tsubaki, now no longer needing to channel her own magic into the barrier, watched her king closely with her own little smile. Things might have started a bit rough, but it looked like Sona was actually falling for her fiancé. It was just another case of opposites attracting, as far as Tsubaki was concerned.
The moment he crossed the barrier around the school, the quiet of the night was loudly broken by the sounds of violent combat. Alexander hopped into the air while wings of pure fire roared out of his back and lifted him even further. He flew at a moderate pace and arrived at a scene of carnage. Rias and her people were on the ropes, facing off against three massive Cerberus.
The massive three-headed dogs were beating the hell out of all of them. Though Kiba seemed to be missing, there was a girl he didn't recognize at all fighting next to Koneko.
Rias was battered and bruised with a trickle of blood dribbling from her scalp. Her clothing was in even worse shape as her top was half torn off, leaving one of her large, pale breasts completely exposed. She couldn't even attempt to hide her nudity from sight as she needed both of her hands free to fight.
That was fairly bad, but Akeno was in an even worse situation. The entire upper half of her miko outfit was just gone. Only scraps of her white top remained hanging around her waist, leaving her entire torso on display.
Koneko... well, she actually managed to protect her clothing from being completely destroyed. She still had her bra to protect her modesty. As for the stranger? She was yet another teenage girl, and her clothing looked to be completely intact. It also looked like some sort of skin-tight black leather bondage gear that left nothing to the imagination and was only technically better than being naked. She was also wielding a massive sword that was putting off a heavy holy aura.
He was even further convinced he lived in some sort of ecchi or hentai world.
His arrival caused a pause in the combat, letting the two sides separate and giving the devils, plus one, some time to catch their breath. The last person in the area was the first to speak up, “Ah, finally the anomaly arrives.”
Alexander turned to look at the speaker and paused. Ostensibly, he was looking at a man. Long dark hair, masculine features, a nicely tailored suit, and so on. However, the question became what kind of man. The dude had hideous eyes with red sclera and yellow irises that practically glowed, and long, pointy ears he would expect to see on an elf.
Staring at the weird man, he said the first thing that came to mind, “What the hell are you?”
Kokabiel scowled and glared at Alexander, “I am Kokabiel, a Cadre of the Grigori.”
Alexander moved forward slightly and vanished from where he was to instantly appear in front of Kokabiel. The fallen angel jerked back in surprise. He knew what he'd just seen was not speed; it was a space technique of some kind. Alexander had somehow moved through space from where he was to where he is without any seeming effort.
For his part, Alexander was thrilled with his modified version of HP's Apparition. Once he'd read about it, he'd modified the transportation method into something far more comfortable. Now, instead of feeling like he was being sucked through a rubber straw while riding an unregulated roller coaster, it was a comfortable transition from point A to point B with the same level of comfort as taking a step. It was a wonderful little trick, but it did have a range limitation. Granted that the limitation was something like a hundred miles, but it still existed.
He studied Kokabiel up close and scoffed, “I didn't ask who. I asked what. You look like some strange combination of elf and demon with those ears and eyes. Are you SURE that your father is who you think he is? Because you look adopted.”
As Alexander spoke, Kokabiels visage transitioned from mildly annoyed to flat-out enraged. He might have fallen, but he still loved his father. He didn't verbally reply to Alexander; instead, he moved faster than the BOY could even seem to comprehend. A dense sword of light flashed into existence in his hand. He lashed out and sliced the BOY in half at the waist. He watched, with deep satisfaction, as the BOY'S eyes widened in shock and incomprehension.
They both looked down and watched as Alexander's legs dropped through the air. Neither paid attention to the female screams coming from the ground. They watched as Alexander's legs tumbled for a few seconds before erupting into flames and instantly turning into ash. At the same time, his lower body erupted into violently roaring flames. When both sets of flames vanished, his legs were no longer falling and were back where they belonged.
“WHAT?!”
While Kokabiel shouted in shock, Alexander's fight or flight instincts kicked in, and he chose flight. He burst into flames and used his Phoenix Flame Traveling ability for the first time on instinct. He didn't go too far, just a hundred or so feet away from Kokabiel. He was breathing heavily and having a mild panic attack over what had just happened. Just a short time ago, Kokabiel's attack likely would have killed him. Without Riser's Phenex clan trait and Fawke's Phoenix genetics, his Perfect Lifeform regeneration wouldn't have been strong enough to survive being bisected.
That fear of death didn't even take into account how much it had actually hurt to be cut in half like that! What he gained from Fawkes might have negated the weakness to light magic of devil genetics, but it didn't stop the attack from causing physical pain.
Alexander realized he'd been cocky and ill-prepared for a fight with someone on Kokabiel's level. Even the things he'd made and stored away seemed useless against someone that fast. He hadn't even seen more than a blur of motion before he'd been sliced in half. He was uncertain if Kokabiel could dodge any of the long-range weapons he'd made, and the idea of getting close to the fallen angel again was horrifying, so his melee weapons were straight out.
Fighting wasn't his thing. He'd barely been in any fights, and going against the vampires didn't count; his cross did the vast majority of the heavy lifting. His whole body was shaking from the flood of adrenaline still flowing through his veins, and it was distracting him greatly, making him even less of a fighter. That had to stop.
His mind kicked into high gear as he quickly calculated an efficient spell for removing excess hormones from his body. In less than a second, he created and cast the new spell on himself, clearing out the excess chemical slurry flooding his body. Instantly, his mind was clearer, and he could think properly without panic-fueled hormones throwing him off.
Obviously, weapons, either melee or ranged, were not going to be of much help against Kokabiel. So what? They weren't his true strength anyway! His lips curled into a wicked grin while his ability to calculate spells kicked into overdrive. Magic was his greatest strength. On top of which, he didn't need to beat Kokabiel; he only needed to stall and distract until much stronger backup arrived.
He flicked his wrist and caught the handle of the wand he'd purchased in the Harry Potter world. It wouldn't make his magic any stronger, but it would help him in channeling it with even more precision than he already could.
Kokabiel quickly overcame his shock at Alexander's survival and noticed the rapid changes in him after he'd taken some distance. The only people still suffering in shock were the girls on the ground staring up at the pair. All of them were shocked to their core over Alexander's survival of being bisected.
Kokabiel raised his sword of light and pointed it at Alexander while grinning wide enough to show off his shark-like teeth, “Interesting! I wonder, how many times can you survive me slicing you into pieces?”
Alexander grinned back, a new spell already compiled in his mind, “Long enough.”
When he finished speaking, hundreds of small white magic circles appeared around Kokabiel. The moment Kokabiel noticed them, all of the circles detonated. They didn't explode with flames and force but rather into fluffy white powder so light it was floating in the air like smoke.
Only, it wasn't smoke.
Every little particle in the stark white cloud was a small piece of glass, smaller than a grain of fine sand. It might not have seemed more than mildly annoying until it was looked at under a microscope. Each and every single tiny grain of glass was nothing but razor-sharp edges. That meant that hundreds, even thousands, of tiny little cutting pieces of glass would get into Kokabiel's eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and lungs. All so small they couldn't be seen individually with the naked eye. Every blink of his eyes would cause hundreds, if not thousands, of microscopic cuts on his eyes. Every breath would cause damage to his lungs. It was even possible that some of the glass shards could be absorbed into his bloodstream through his lungs, causing who knew what kind of internal damage.
Conjuration magic from the Harry Potter world was horrifying when used properly.
Conjured items were not permanent, being just shaped raw magical power, so the glass shards would fade, eventually, but Alexander had put enough power into the spells for the shards to last a full forty-eight hours. More than long enough for them to do some serious internal damage to Kokabiel.
The cloud drifted down to the ground, slowly revealing Kokabiel, who hadn't moved from his spot in the air. The fallen angel had dismissed his light sword and was covering his eyes with his hands while coughs wracked his body. Kokabiel lowered his hands from his eyes, revealing the damage the glass had done. Bloodstained tears dripped from his eyes as his body tried to flush out the glass shards while they continued to cut his eyes with every blink.
Alexander grinned at the success of his spell. He hadn't expected it to be quite that effective, but he wasn't going to complain, especially since Kokabiel's time in the cloud gave him time to work on his next spell.
-----Line Break-----
Kokabiel scowled as he watched the boy raise his hand with the wand in it through his blurry vision. Whatever those clouds had been had made his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and lungs unbelievably itchy. The tears flooding his eyes to remove the irritant had made his vision blurry and were annoying as hell. Did the little bastard hit him with a prank spell of some sort?! The nerve!
He prepared himself this time as more spell circles appeared around him, though they were blue this time, making him wonder what the idiot boy had in store for him next. He could dodge, of course, but he refused to do something so demeaning! Imagine, HIM, Kokabiel, being forced to dodge the pathetic prank spells of some punk kid! He'd never live the shame down!
The blue circles flashed brightly, then faded away with nothing having happened. Seeing the baffled look on the boy's face made Kokabiel laugh, “It looks like your spell failed, boy!”
He ignored the persistent itch in his eyes and lungs to conjure up a massive light spear while grinning widely, “I think it's time to put your regeneration ability to the test!”
He launched the spear and watched, gleefully, as it flashed through the air faster than any human bullet could hope to move. The boy only had time to widen his eyes in shock before the spear ripped straight through his body and deleted his entire torso. Kokabiel watched with utter glee as what was left of the boy's arms, legs, and head all fell down through the air in different directions.
The glee faded as all the parts burst into flames and congregated together into a large bonfire that faded to reveal a clearly panicked, but very much alive annoyance. Kokabiel scowled, “Still not enough? So be it!”
He lifted both hands above his head and channeled a large amount of his corrupted holy energy to create a light spear dozens of feet wide and tall, multiple times bigger in every dimension than the boy's body, “Let's see you survive having your entire body obliterated!”
He laughed while launching the massive spear of light at the clearly terrified boy. He watched with glee as the boy turned and tried to run, but there was no way he was going to let him escape. The spear changed directions and hunted down the boy like a heat-seeking missile. Kokabiel laughed while the boy screamed as he was devoured by the attack.
Kokabiel didn't let his guard down. His head remained on a swivel while he observed the area where the boy had been destroyed for any signs of him regenerating from the damage he'd been dealt. He let a full thirty seconds pass before he decided the boy was dead. After all, he'd always regenerated within seconds from the other attacks that had landed.
Confident the anomaly was now dead, the first victim of his plans to restart the war, he turned his gaze toward the ground to find his next target, the Gremory girl. He wanted to revel in her despair and terror, to see her broken and afraid. If he simply wanted to kill her, then all it would have taken would be a flex of his power to end her life once and for all. That wasn't his goal, or at least not entirely, since he did want her dead. He wanted her to suffer before she died, he wanted her wallowing in despair. He wanted all of this so that the moment her brother was close, when she regained a sliver of hope, he could snuff it out by killing her.
As a bonus, it would further enrage Sirzechs Lucifer to know he was just moments away from saving his sister. Kokabiel wanted that rage and fury; he wanted Sirzechs to fly off the handle and go mad in his fury. It. Would. Be. GLORIOUS!
So, one could imagine his immediate frustration when he couldn't spot the Gremory girl. In fact, he couldn't see any of the girls that had arrayed themselves against him in this 'battle'. Did they flee? Why would they run when he'd made it clear he would destroy all of Kuoh using the power Valper was using to fuse the Excalibur fragments together?
He scoffed at her apparent cowardice. Well, it didn't matter. He would hunt her down regardless and show her that there was no escape from his grasp. His lips curled into a disgusting grin that showed off his shark-like teeth. A little game of cat and mouse sounded like a fun way to pass the time waiting for his true enemies.
Kokabiel suddenly stiffened, and a shiver ran down his spine as millennia of experience in combat had fine-tuned his instincts enough to sense deadly danger descending upon him. His body moved without conscious thought, his wings all working together in a single powerful stroke that blasted him to the side.
His immediate unconscious reaction saved his life as a bright red streak of light blasted through the area his chest had previously occupied. A powerful sonic boom rang out right behind it. Kokabiel had no doubt that if he hadn't moved, he would be dead. His gaze moved to the bleeding stump of his left arm, all that remained after the attack had passed by.
Blood flowed freely from the wound, and the pain was excruciating, but he didn't allow his focus to waver even in the slightest. It was far from the first time he'd been badly injured, though it was definitely the first time he'd lost a limb. Still, he knew what to do and wouldn't be stopped. He conjured a light spear and immediately pressed its scorching surface to the stump of his missing arm to cauterize the wound closed. He grimaced at the scent of his own flesh burning, yet stoically powered through it.
Even as he burned his wound closed, his gaze swept the direction the attack had come from, yet he couldn't see anything or anyone that could have been... Illusions! He scowled fiercely and flexed his power violently. With a sound like glass shattering, the second array of spell circles surrounding him shattered, and the world around him wavered like a heat haze.
He growled at the sight of the boy he'd thought to be dead, aiming a rifle of some kind in his direction, the barrel still smoking and glowing from the heat generated by the sheer power it clearly fired with. No normal rifle could even hope to scratch a fallen angel of his strength. Clearly, it was somehow magically enhanced. How didn't matter, but it was clearly deadly.
Not far from the annoyingly alive boy was the Gremory girl, the girls of her peerage, and the annoying exorcist girl with Durandal. He noticed they were all scuffed and mildly injured, while his Cerberus were all dead, and he was missing an arm. That... That could not be allowed to STAND! They all needed to die!
He tossed the small spear he'd used to cauterize his amputated arm to the side and lifted his arm above his head. Rage clouded his mind while power poured out of him into a light spear the size of a building. He reveled in the shock and fear he could see filling the ANTS beneath him. GOOD! LET THEM FEEL FEAR AS THEY DIED!
He threw his arm forward and launched the massive spear down toward them, “DIIIIIE!”
-----Line Break-----
Alexander scowled as he watched Kokabiel barely manage to dodge the shot from his rail cannon. It didn't feel right to call the weapon anything lesser. It had started as an M-98 Widow he'd gotten through Tali and a visit to the Mass Effect Universe. After he'd gotten his hands on it, he'd modified it heavily using Unknown Dictator. The modifications had taken it from an Anti-Material rifle to an Anti-Everything rifle.
Then he'd enchanted it. The weapon now had infinite ammo thanks to a magazine that was enchanted to conjure darts made of Tungsten Carbide. The heatsink was enchanted to cool down faster than it could possibly heat up. Even the barrel was enchanted to cool down rapidly. Even so, the projectile was fired so fast that the barrel superheated instantly just from the friction. The enchantments managed to keep it from melting after the shot was fired, which left the barrel glowing red and hissing.
Even the fired round wasn't spared from the heat. Despite it taking a temperature of over six thousand degrees Fahrenheit to melt Tungsten, the round still came out of the barrel glowing red and only got hotter as it flew through the air at hypersonic speeds. Even to his highly enhanced eyes, with his Sharingan active, the shot just looked like a streak of red light, almost like a laser in a movie.
He continued to scowl as the gun turned into blue light particles that looked like pixels and faded from sight. He might've made a pit stop in the Borderlands Universe to get his hands on Digistruct technology. That shit was just lying around all over the place in that universe, so it hadn't taken more than ten minutes. No way in hell was he going back there again anytime soon!
As the gun faded, he watched, in horror, as Kokabiel summoned an unbelievably large light spear above his head. Alexander had no idea what to do in this situation. The modified Widow was his most powerful gun, but it couldn't be fired rapidly, and he only had the one, a mistake in hindsight. He highly doubted that an illusion would work a second time, and he had no other ideas to pull out of his ass.
He could try more magic, but looking at the giant spear, he doubted it would work. Alexander was, unfortunately, limited in how much energy he could output. He might never run out, but outputting a volume of one magic unit to Kokabiels apparent hundred plus meant he would lose in a contest of magical might. It was why he went with annoying and tricking the madman instead of confronting him head-on in the first place!
He swallowed the lump in his throat and fought against his rising fear. He was not a combat junkie, unless Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat counted... They didn't, he was pretty sure, given the absolute pants-wetting terror he felt at the sight of the massive light spear about to obliterate him.
A sound like shattering glass caught his attention just as the wards around the school shattered into pieces to reveal the real world. He caught sight of a white streak of light just before it slammed violently into Kokabiel and drove him into the ground with enough force to cause an explosion and leave a deep crater that Alexander could see inside of.
He caught his first sight of the new arrival and had to admit, the dude looked fucking AWESOME. Pure white armor that looked like something out of a mecha anime, highlighted with large, round blue gems and a pair of crystalline wings emitting a flowing glow that made him think of magic jets. The armored man stood over the unconscious body of Kokabiel for a silent moment, then turned its helmeted head to look directly at Alexander.
There was a moment of silence as the armored figure seemed to be measuring Alexander before it spoke, “Not bad, for a human.”
Rias stepped next to Alexander, along with the other girls, and looked down into the crater. Rias stared down at the white armored figure with caution. Sure, the armored man had helped take down Kokabiel, but that didn't mean he wasn't an enemy as well. She firmed her resolve and asked, "Who are you?"
The armored man's head turned so the blue gems that acted as eyes for his helmet focused on her, "I am the White Dragon Emperor, sent by Azazel to capture Kokabiel."
Rias raised her hands toward her mouth and gasped, "Divine Dividing!"
Alexander tilted his head in mild confusion, “Divine Dividing? White Dragon Emperor?”
Rias nodded, “It's one of two famous Longinus class Sacred Gears, the opposite of the Boosted Gear, the Red Dragon Emperor, eternal rivals that have battled each other since long before they were even sealed into sacred gears.”
The white armored figure nodded, “That's right. Though it seems my fated rival has yet to reveal himself.”
Alexander hummed but kept silent on the fact that, technically, he owned the Boosted Gear, though he hadn't used it on himself yet, so that made the badass in white armor his rival? NO THANKS! No way in hell was he opening his mouth and letting that little secret out.
The White Dragon Emperor bent down and grabbed Kokabiel off the ground and tossed him over his shoulder in a fireman carry. He said nothing else before he shot into the sky and vanished in a streak of white light.
Alexander watched him go. Only when the white light faded did he let out a deep sigh and slouch, “Finally, it's over!” He then perked up, “And I've got a game to complete!”
Rias opened her mouth to say something, but didn't manage to before Alexander vanished in a flash of fire.
-----Line Break-----
[Feat Achieved! Deliver a debilitating blow to Kokabiel! +1 Random Gold Gacha Ticket.]
[Feat Achieved! Survive the battle against Kokabiel! +1 Random Gold Gacha Ticket.]
[Feat Achieved! Keep your trap shut about the BoostedGear! +1 Random Bronze Gacha Ticket.]
Alexander ignored the rewards from his system as he stripped off his clothes and made his way directly toward his bed. He was exhausted; he could deal with the rewards LATER. He crawled under his covers, rested his head on his pillow, and let out a sigh as he began to relax, only for his door to be violently kicked open.
His head popped up, and he scowled at Lucy as she calmly walked into the dark room. He was one hundred percent certain she waited and timed that entrance down to the second just to fuck with him. It was the way she was smiling that gave her away. Her red eyes locked onto his, and her smug smile only grew, “Welcome home. It's a bit late. Did something interesting happen?”
Alexander just scowled at her, causing Lucy to laugh. Once she finished, she smirked, “Silly question, I suppose, since I watched it all.” Her demeanor slowly shifted into something more serious, “You did alright, but if things continue like this, you're going to need to find someone to train you how to properly fight. If Red is going to keep throwing you into situations like this, you're going to need to know how to deal with them instead of floundering around and getting lucky. I'm sure there are skills to help you fight in your gacha, but we can't just sit around and hope you roll one.”
Alexander's scowl grew, but he didn't argue with Lucy, she was right, and he hated that about her. He looked at his rewards and decided to roll them all to see if he got lucky, so he could rub it in her face! He started with the bronze one since it was likely to be trash.
[ROLLING!]
[Sexual Calibration, Uncommon Trait, All of the minor inconveniences sex once had are now gone, forget about STDs, hygiene precautions, or unwanted pregnancies because you can adjust how all of those interact with you. In addition, you are very talented in the tantric arts.]
What the fuck? WHY was his system pumping him full of sex traits? Fucking seriously. Dress Break, Tantric Healing, Healing Fluids, Blessing of Zeus, and now this? Sure, he liked sex, but it was so much work! He grumbled to himself a bit longer while watching the next roll come in.
[Nascent Esper, Rare Trait, You are an Esper who has just started blooming their latent talent. You train and master abilities slightly faster and have a better instinct for how to handle and use them. All ability cooldowns are decreased by 20%.]
Well... that wasn't too terrible, but he didn't have any abilities with cooldowns.
[Liquor Spring, Common Item, Hunter x Hunter - An ornate spring fountain that flows with water perpetually, any water taken out of the spring turns into a high-quality alcoholic drink of the user's choice. The water will only transform if it has been taken out of the spring for an hour. Returning the transformed alcohol to the spring will return it back to its water state.]
He scowled as the last roll came in. The bronze roll was a higher rarity than the second gold roll! The fuck man? Still... unlimited booze wasn't a horrible consolation prize.
Lucy cut into his thoughts, “You just rolled a couple of tickets. What did you get?”
When he looked at her and wondered how she knew, she scoffed, “I could see it all over your face. What did you get?”
He sighed and explained his three rolls. Lucy hummed, “We'll have to try out sexual calibration together, later.” Her grin grew, “For now, wait to set up the liquor spring until I can get a proper place set up to take full advantage of it! I just found business number seventy-four.”
He stared blandly at her, “You're running seventy-three businesses already?”
Lucy scoffed, “I could be running more, easily, but I'm relaxing and enjoying my freedom in this new world. It's so nice to be lazy for once instead of running hell!”
Alexander couldn't comprehend how running over seventy businesses was 'relaxing' at all. Then again, he supposed anything would be easier and less work than running all of hell. Lucy quickly shook her plans for a new liquor brand off and focused back on the present, “Start thinking about who you can go to to learn how to fight properly. Remember, the whole multiverse is open to you now. You can find the best teacher in all reality to learn from.”
“Later,” he huffed and threw the blanket over his head to hide from her.
Lucy chuckled at his antics, “Fine, but you'd better do it soon, or you'll really end up in trouble if you end up in another fight with someone as powerful as Kokabiel.”
Though he remained silent, Alexander didn't disagree with her. Lucy was right, of course. He briefly considered just leaving the world and never returning. It wasn't like Red could follow him if he left the local universe and made a new home somewhere else. He had an infinity of realities to choose from on top of his pocket universe that only had automated machines in it at the moment.
So why didn't he?
Stubborn pride and spite mostly. He wasn't about to let some overgrown, self-important lizard, even if it was a god, make him run away from his home. It was only a matter of time before the gacha made him stronger than any god, then he'd pay back that red annoyance severalfold!
His thoughts came to a halt when he heard his door close, Lucy having left to get a whole new liquor business set up.
He punched the blanket off his head and stared up at the ceiling. He could think of a lot of combat teachers in different fictional worlds that he might be able to convince to teach him how to fight. His first thought was Master Roshi from the Dragon Ball series. The man was a good teacher, and it would have been easy to bribe him with a crate of nudie magazines. Also, who DIDN'T want to learn the Kamehameha wave technique?!
The problem was that Roshi was a martial artist. While the Kamehameha was a nice ranged technique, he was mostly focused on fighting with his body. Not something Alexander was interested in learning. He didn't like the idea of fighting in melee. If he were forced to learn melee combat, then he'd rather fight with a weapon, like a sword. Why a sword? Because they were the most common weapon and the kind of weapon he was most likely to roll in his gacha.
Also, swords were cool as fuck.
So, Roshi was out. Though he would have to visit the Dragon Ball universe at some point and see about taking Bulma, his first 2D crush, out on a date.
Anyway, melee focus is why he also dismissed a few other people like Maito Gai, Bang, Silvers Rayleigh, and a few others.
On the magical side, the first thought he had was of Dumbledore, given his recent visit to the Harry Potter Universe, but he dismissed it. For as powerful as the man was, he was not a combat instructor. He didn't teach Harry a single thing that could have been used to protect himself. There were others in the world he could learn from, like the real Alistor Moody, but even then their combat was focused on the usage of wands, something he didn't need.
He needed someone versed in both melee and magical combat whom he could easily get to teach him. He paused as a name popped into his head. He thought about it for a bit before he slowly grinned, “That could work.”
He rolled out of his bed and made his way over to his desk, where a small red marble was sitting on a stand, looking innocuous. He picked it up and rolled it between his fingers. It was the current form of the Boosted Gear. He still didn't know exactly what it did, but he knew it could grant him power and possibly a kick-ass suit of armor, like that white dragon guy had. Red wasn't his favorite color... but it also wasn't the worst color.
He set the marble back in its stand and pulled a ticket out of his inventory. It was for the Canto Cyberdeck, another thing he'd not used. He looked at the ticket for a little longer, then stuffed it back into his inventory. There was no way in fuck he was ever using that ticket. He realized that gacha fiat meant the AI would be loyal, but it was still an AI from fucking Cyberpunk, a literal death world. He wasn't super familiar with much more than the video game, and that was enough for him to fear the AI, even a 'loyal' one.
Maybe he'd be willing to give it to a summon that could put it to good use, but until then, it was not going to be used. There was also the fact that a cyberdeck wasn't worth nearly as much in a world that lacked all the technology it was meant to take advantage of. What good were quickhacks that couldn't be used?
He looked back at the marble that contained Boosted Gear, “What the hell.”
He snatched it back up and tossed it into his mouth. A quick swallow, and it dissolved into nothing inside of him.
“It's about time!”
Alexander froze as he heard a deeply disgruntled, grizzled male voice echo in his head, “The fuck?”
“Do you have any idea how bored I was just sitting there?! I couldn't even sleep properly because it was too quiet!”
Alexander's head snapped around looking for the source of the voice, “Who's there?!” He paused as he realized what he was doing. He just swallowed a mostly unknown Sacred Gear, OBVIOUSLY the voice was coming from that. Duh.
“Who are you and why are you in the Boosted Gear?! There was no voice in Unknown Dictator!”
The voice scoffed, “I am Y Ddraig Goch, The Red Dragon Emperor, The Welsh Dragon, The Heavenly Red Dragon of Domination.”
Alexander paused, then, “Huh. Nifty.”
Ddraig's voice was drier than the Sahara Desert, “Yes... nifty. Who the hell are you, and why did GREAT RED of all beings rip me out of my host and give me to you?”
“You can't read my memories or something? Because that would be SUPER convenient.”
Ddraig huffed, “In time, I will be able to see all of your memories, but we have only just fused together; it will take time for the process to finish. Only once it has will I have full access to your memories.”
Alexander grunted, annoyed, “Lame. Fine. Red gave you to me because of my Gacha System and wanting to see me grow stronger to learn more about and through it.”
“... What? I didn't understand any of that. I could understand the individual words, but together they make no sense. Also, what the hell is a Gacha?”
[Feat Achieved! Become the Red Dragon Emperor! +1 Random Legendary Gacha Ticket.]
“What is THAT?!”
“That is the Gacha System. In short, I perform feats, and I get tickets. I roll the tickets, and I earn random things like abilities, items, skills, traits, and even beings from throughout the multiverse. Red became interested in it and has been forcing me to do things in order to gain more rolls. It's very annoying. Here, watch. Roll the Legendary Ticket.”
[ROLLING!]
[Uzumaki, Epic Trait, Naruto - You are a member of the Uzumaki clan, granting you increased life force and endurance. In addition, you can heal yourself and others by imbuing your blood with your energy and life force. And with training, you can unlock the ability to create sealing adamantine chains capable of suppressing and sealing energy. (Does not give Chakra.)]
He stared at the result, then huffed, mildly amused at the feeling of his energy reserves increasing from his newest trait, “First Uchiha, now Uzumaki? I just need Senju to complete the set!” He hummed, “I wonder what the odds of getting the Rinnegan to evolve are now?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, right, no access to my memories yet. They're clans from another world that all came from the same ancient ancestor who had a powerful dojutsu that basically made him a god. Gravity control, energy absorption, ripping souls out of bodies and taking their memories, even reviving the dead. There are various stages to it, and I currently only have the lowest level of it, the Sharingan. Though I'm at the two tomoe stage, so it's not the lowest of the lowest at least.”
“I don't know what any of that means.”
“Don't worry about it. Instead, how about you tell me what Boosted Gear does?”
“How could you not know?” Ddraig released a sigh, “Fine. In its most basic form, the Boosted gear allows you to double your powers every ten seconds until you reach your limit. All at the cost of your stamina.”
“Wait, so if I could only lift four hundred pounds, then use the Boosted Gear once, I could lift eight hundred pounds?”
“In essence, yes. Then the next boost would double that to sixteen hundred and so on and so forth.”
“Holy shit, that's broken!” He focused for a moment, just as he did when using Unknown Dictator, but focused on Boosted Gear. In a flash, an armored red gauntlet with golden spikes and a green orb on the back of the hand appeared on his left arm, “Nice.”
[BOOST!]
Alexander gasped as he felt his... everything, double. His Grand Master Math kicked in, and he calculated his new limits rapidly. A slow, wicked grin crawled its way onto his face. While the physical boost was amazing, it was the changes to his magical throughput that really got him excited. He could now expend twice as much magical energy at once. It still paled in comparison to someone like Kokabiel, but it was a start!
[RESET!]
With the call, he felt the energy fade from his body, as well as feeling a little more drained than he already had been. He let out a massive yawn while making his way back toward his bed, though this time he stripped all of his clothing off and got comfortable. He could look into getting a combat teacher later, for now, sleep.
-----Line Break-----
Okay, he might've lied to himself a little bit. He'd managed to procrastinate and play games for a whole two days before Lucy got on his ass by making his massage customers fat old ladies. He got the message. So, here he was, standing in front of a candy store.
It was a small two-story shop with a traditional Japanese look to it and a total of zero customers. The place looked abandoned, if he was being honest. The only thing even hinting that someone might be there was the small white work truck parked next to it.
Even so, he knew that inside the shop was a man who could teach him how to fight. The man also had a problem that Alexander was uniquely qualified to help out with. Granted, the man wasn't the greatest teacher ever, but that was fine. He could at least get some experience and learn the basics, if nothing else.
He casually walked up to the door and slid it open, only to freeze at the sight that greeted him. He'd half expected the main room to be empty like it usually was in the anime, or, at best, that one of the people who lived there would be behind the counter looking bored. What he was NOT expecting was to see four people, two adult men, one little girl, one little boy, and one cat, all staring at him with varying levels of hostility.
The two older men looked cautious as they studied him. The little girl looked afraid, but determined. Meanwhile, the little boy looked like he was ready to leap over the counter to try to throttle him. Given who the boy was, he wasn't actually sure he could win that fight. Mostly because he didn't remember exactly how strong the kid was.
Alexander slowly raised his hand, feeling the tension in the room rise as he did. Once he had it up, he gave a little wave and a lazy-sounding, “Yo.”
The tension shattered, and the little boy's face became almost as red as his crimson hair, “What the hell is that supposed to mean, you bastard?!”
“Mah mah, calm down Jinto.” the older man in the green and white striped bucket had called out.
The man had pale skin, grey eyes that were shadowed by the brim of his hat, and pale blonde hair. This was the man he was here to see. Well, him and the cat that looked amused. The man's gaze never wavered from Alexander, “I'm sure he'll tell us what he wants any moment now.”
Alexander didn't see any point in beating around the bush, “Sure, it's not that big of a deal. I'd like to make a trade with you, Urahara Kisuke-san.” No point in not being polite, “But first, there's something you should know about me.”
Kisuke raised an eyebrow and snapped his fan shut loudly, “Is it about the strange energy you're emitting?”
Alexander blinked at the question, then shrugged his shoulders, “I guess? Not directly anyway. Here, this might help.”
He slowly, very slowly, and clearly, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small book. Kisuke looked at the book and smiled, amused, “A manga is going to explain it?”
Alexander carefully tossed the book to Kisuke, who easily caught it. He looked at the cover, and all amusement fled his face as he turned grim, “Is this some sort of sick joke?”
Alexander shook his head while everyone looked curiously at the manga cover, which showed a very familiar orange-haired kid wearing a shinigami shihakusho and holding a large, by normal standards, Zanpakuto. Scrawled across the top was the name of the manga, Bleach.
After giving them a moment to flip through the book, though he wouldn't be surprised if Kisuke managed to read the whole thing in those few moments, Alexander spoke up, “I'm an out-of-context problem, a traveler from another universe.”
Kisuke's gaze on Alexander was like a laser, “I'd say you're full of shit but...” He looked at the other man, Tessai, then to the cat, Yoruichi, before returning his gaze to Alexander, “With this,” he lifted the manga, “and the way you feel to our senses... I'd say I'm leaning toward believing you.”
Alexander smiled, “That's good, then you should understand that I know how things are supposed to play out if I'd never set foot on this world. It's... not great.”
He could see the curiosity in Kisuke's eyes, but the man held it back and didn't ask about the possible future, smart man. Instead, he asked, “So, why are you here?” He lifted the book, “Little Rukia isn't due to be assigned to Karakura for another three months.”
Alexander didn't even bother asking how Kisuke could know the schedule for patrolling the city. The man was scary smart, “Which brings us to the trade I'd like to make. You know what's due to happen now, and our little conversation won't change it unless you do something to change it. I'm certain you've already been able to guess what your future plan would be just from that little bit of future knowledge.”
Urahara's eyes widened as he instantly put two and two together, “The Hogyoku.”
Alexander nodded, “I can literally take you to any world of your choosing, far beyond the reach of Aizen, where you could drop it off and never see it again. Hell, not just other versions of Earth, but I even know universes with alien species and space travel.”
“Like Trek Wars?!” Jinta shouted.
Alexander blinked, “I've... never heard of that, but if I saw some media about it, then yeah, easily.”
Kisuke, stared silently at Alexander before asking, “How do I know you don't want the Hogyoku for yourself?”
Alexander shrugged, “I can't prove I don't want it, but I already have a lot of power. It might help you to know that in exchange for letting you forever place your Hogyoku out of Aizen's reach, I want you,” His gaze moved to Tessai, “You,” it then moved to Yoruichi, “and you, to help me train to control and use the power I already have effectively in combat.”
Kisuke opened his fan once more and hid his face behind it, “You have some Reiryoku, it's no more than an average human soul would have. Your other unknown power is significantly stronger. What is it?”
“In my world, it's called Magical Power. In short, it's my mana, you could say. It allows me to use magic to cast spells, use special powers, and so on.”
To prove his point, he held both hands out with his palms up. In his right hand, small sparks of electricity began to dance around his fingers and palm, “Electromagnekinesis.” Meanwhile, flames formed into a small ball that shifted into the form of a lounging cat, “Pyrokinesis.” Over his head, a complex white magic circle formed and slowly rotated to show off all its angles, “Magic spells.” His eyes rapidly shifted to show off his Sharingan, “And a dojutsu, is all just the beginning.”
Kisuke let out a low whistle, “That's... quite an array of abilities.”
His eyes were focused on the spell circle floating over Alexander's head, though. Control over elements was old hat to him since such abilities were very common among Zanpakuto. The spell circle, on the other hand... that was completely new. Shinigami spells were completely different as they had incantations to help cast them. Although those with enough experience and power could just cast the spells by calling their name and number, or even just willing it to happen.
The spell circle... he traced every line of it, his mind working at high speed when he noticed it. His eyes widened, and he spoke aloud in surprise, “That 'spell circle' it's mathematically derived, isn't it?”
Alexander disabled all of his abilities with the exception of the spell circle, which he moved to hover between his hands as if he was holding it, “That's right. In my world, humans, specifically Merlin, designed human magic based on the natural power of another species. Using a unique form of math, humans can calculate and create spell circles to, essentially, reprogram reality to do their bidding. Anything from controlling the elements, to more esoteric things like making dishes wash themselves.”
Kisuke's eyes followed the spell circle like it held all the secrets to the universe within its confines. It was a spell designed to make a targeted item hover so it could be moved around. Alexander let Kisuke examine it for a few more moments before he dismissed it. He could see the disappointment on the man's face, so he offered, “I can let you read the primer I did to learn it, later.”
Kisuke's gaze was unnaturally piercing as he stared at Alexander, “I'll hold you to that.” He snapped his fan closed, “Before anything else, you still need to prove that your talk about dimensional travel isn't delusional.”
Alexander chuckled, “Easy enough to do.”
He turned and casually slid the door to the store open to reveal the Presidium of the Citadel in the Mass Effect Universe. Everyone there stared in shock at the sight of the clean station where different alien species calmly walked and talked in a variety of languages they couldn't understand.
Alexander casually cast an area translation spell that he calculated on the spot so they could understand the alien languages. He looked over his shoulder while walking through the door, “Well, come on. We can explore for as long as it takes you to prove to yourself that you're in a completely different reality.”
Jinta was the first to leap over the counter and dash through the doors with a look of pure excitement on his face. The others followed at a more sedate pace, minus Tessai, who was sent to rein in the overenthusiastic Jinta, who was blatantly staring up at an Asari.
Alexander chuckled as he closed the door behind himself to keep anyone from passing through it. The last thing he needed was for a curious Asari Maiden to walk through it into a world unprepared for an alien invasion. Even if it was a hot, blue alien woman invading.
Hopefully, by the time all was said and done, he'd have himself a nice group of combat teachers that could prepare him for the next incident because, with Red, there would always be another incident.
AN
10.4k Words
I apologize for the vanishing act. I think most of you know that I'm a caretaker, and for obvious reasons, that has priority in my life. For those of you who were around for it, you might remember that one of my unscheduled breaks came because Mary, one of the women I take care of, basically lost her mind.
Thankfully, it was only temporary and due to a bad drug interaction.
I bring this up because she had a relapse. None of the doctors were entirely sure why it happened. Theories ranged from another bad drug interaction, not having been a drug interaction in the first place, to brain damage from the first incident. I had to take her to a lot of appointments for things like CAT scans, MRIs, blood tests, and more.
Then she just stopped hallucinating and was perfectly fine once more. All symptoms just went away. So, the doctors are leaning toward brain damage with the possibility of her having more episodes in the future. At least, that's my best understanding of the situation. Frankly, I don't think any of them has a solid idea of what happened.
Thankfully, she's been better for the last two weeks, and it's given me the time and freedom to start writing once more. I immediately wanted to return to this story since it's one of my favorites. The chapter might not be up to snuff, so be sure to let me know what you think about it and the progress Alexander is making.
Also, being able to go "I think I want to play in this fandom today" is a hell of a lot of fun for me as a writer. I've got some plans for this story and some future arcs. Though, for the time being, my publishing speed might not be as crazy as it was before. Still, my goal is to aim for one chapter a week, minimum.
Thanks for reading and sticking around, it means a lot to me.